Arts
The Arts section of Orient Lodge
Heat
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 07/20/2015 - 19:24It is still early in the morning,
but the air is think
with heat and humidity.
Beside the road
the chicory,
purple loosestrife
and Queen Anne’s Lace
stand motionless.
Even wild flowers
can’t provide inspiration
in this heat.
#FRFF Preview, Part 2
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 07/19/2015 - 20:57Last week, I posted #FRFF Preview, Part 1, providing links and some initial reactions to various Emerging Artists that will be performing at Falcon Ridge Folk Festival this year. This week, I return with the second half.
Camela Widad (Mechanicsburg, PA)
Webpage
Facebook
Camela is one of the performers I’m most excited about hearing at Falcon Ridge this year. I’ve referenced her song, “My Turn” in a previous blog post. Other songs that I really like by her include “Raging Water” and “Candle”. She sings powerful stories to help make this world a better place.
Dan Weber (Vancouver, WA)
Dan is another perform I’m really looking forward to. His song, “Sarah Ann” was one of the first ones I listened to when I set up my Spotify playlist of Emerging Artists. I listened to the song at the dining room table with my wife and youngest daughter. They laughed at the line “Can’t you see that you’re too young for me” and missed much of the poignancy of the song.
Another song, in a similar spirit is “Goodbye to Dad”. Maybe it says something that three of the first songs I mention are about death.
Jay Hitt (Butler, PA)
A song that includes a more complete view of life and death is “Love is…” I captures why Jay Hitt is another one of the performers I’m most excited to see this year at Falcon Ridge.
Neptune’s Car (Sutton, MA)
Songs that I really like are ones that tell stories, and Neptune’s Car has some great songs like this. At the top of the list, for me, is “The 43 (U.S.S. Tappahannock). A couple other songs that I’ve enjoyed of theirs include “One More Glass of Wine” and “Drinking to Distraction”.
Mare Wakefield & Nomad (Nashville, TN)
I’ve been listing to Mare’s album “Poet On The Moon”. It is a great title and some of her songs really caught my attention, particularly, Clementine and Rattlesnake. I also like the song she shared on Facebook “Take Down Your Flag”.
Liz and the Family Tree (New York, NY)
It took me a while to find that Liz and the Family Tree is Liz Queler, Seth Farber and Joey Farber. I’ve listened a little bit to “The Edna Project” and haven’t yet found a favorite.
Gina Forsyth (New Orleans, LA),
Gina’s songs that I like best are the ones that she plays fiddle on. In particular, “Sparrow” and “11 Days” often shows up in the Spotify shuffle of songs and they always catch my attention.
Bernice Lewis (Williamstown, MA)
I grew up in Williamstown, so Bernice jumped out at me. Probably the song that most catches my attention of hers is “Checks and Love Letters”.
Matt Harlan (Houston, TX)
“Old Spanish Moss” is the song that has jumped out to me most.
I’ve been listening to the remaining performers, a little bit while writing this post, and at other times shuffling through my Spotify playlist. I haven’t, yet, found songs to highlight for each of them, so I’ll just list their webpages, and where they have them, Facebook or Twitter pages. Perhaps, if I get more time, I’ll add some updates later on.
Teresa Storch (Longmont, CO)
Katrin (Brookline, MA)
Mason Porter (Honey Brook, PA)
Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers (Fayetteville, NY)
Skout (New York, NY)
Jessy Tomsko (Astoria, NY)
Scott Wolfson & Other Heroes (Jersey City, NJ)
The Funeral
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 14:06The young girl
wistfully sniffed
the red carnation
before
placing the flower
gently
on the waiting casket
as her sister
wept quietly
in the corner.
#FRFF Preview, Part 1
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 07/12/2015 - 20:04For the past couple weeks, I’ve been listening to a Spotify Playlist of the 2015 Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Emerging Artists. Here are some of my notes about the performers.
I’ve also set up a Facebook Interests Page and a Twitter list of social media accounts of the emerging artists, as I find their accounts.
I also want to highlight a blog post, with links to some of the emerging artists webpages.
With that, let me highlight some of the performers I’ve been listening to.
Meg Braun (Nashville, TN)
Meg’s bio includes: “Meg came to New York to pursue a career in community organizing” She is friends with a bunch Falcon Ridge Friends, politics friends, and old NYC friends. She has the plaintive voice of a community organizer influenced by Joni Mitchell, and sings songs that tell compelling stories.
Gypsy Moon keeps grabbing my attention as it pops up on the Spotify Playlist
Josh Brooks (Vergennes, VT)
Webpage
His bio says, “Plain and simple, Josh Brooks knows how to write a song… Brooks has evolved into a craftsman and poet-philosopher in the spirit of his idols Guy Clark, Steve Earle, Johnny Cash and John Prine.”
It is the sort of music I really like and he writes, and sings it well. “Queen for a Day” catches my attention as it comes around on the playlist.
Katie Dahl (Baileys Harbor, WI)
There are quite a few songs of hers that jump out at me. Good storytelling songs: Pier 33, The World As I Found It, Ghosts of Sheboygan Town.
Meghan Cary with Analog Gypsies (Erdenheim, PA)
Webpage
Facebook Page
Twitter
Reverb Nation Page
Probably the song of hers that jumps out most at me is “Building This House”. Perhaps some of this is because it makes me think ofMiranda’s BIG Art; Tiny House project.
Mya Byrne (New York, NY)
I like her music, but have yet to find a favorite song by her.
Chasing June (Rockaway, NJ)
Any band that record Wayfaring Stranger starts off on a good foot with me. Their song, The Magician catches my attention when it pops up on my playlist.
Annika (Blauvelt, NY)
Webpage
Facebook Page
Twitter
For my local friends, it is worth noting that she is Playing at The Space in Hamden on July 25th. She has a sweet voice, and often wins song writing competitions, but I haven’t yet been grabbed by any of her songs, yet.
Mark Allen Berube (Brooklyn, NY)
Humorous songs about Vampire Women of Jersey City, Bride of Frankenstein Hair, and The Higgs Bosong.
These are my notes so far. There are several other emerging artists that I’m really looking forward to that I hope to write about in coming posts.
#BabyAaden
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 07/08/2015 - 20:25Last night, they found the body of the seven month old baby thrown from a bridge by his father when his father attempted suicide. How do you make sense of this? I’m not sure you can.
In the evening, I stopped at the vigil.
Perhaps art can help us as well. I’ve been listening to the playlist of 2015 Falcon Ridge Emerging Artists. One of the songs that jumped out at me was Camela WIdad’s My Turn. It reminds me of another moving song, David Silva’s It Will All Be Perfect.
