Music
Music Monday
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 04/11/2011 - 20:46It has been a long weekend, and I’m finally sitting down to write a little. I don’t have the energy to do this justice, but here goes.
Forty years ago tomorrow, the song ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ was released. I thought of it a little bit as I drove through West Virginia on Saturday and Sunday. I looked at the Blue Ridge mountains in the distance and references to the Shenandoah river along the way.
Further south in Virginia than I this last road trip took me is the Blue Ridge Medical Center in Arrington, VA. On Thursday, they are having a Campaign for a Healthy Community Kick Off. There will be music there with Liza Bance, a local singer/song writer who composed a beautiful folk/bluegrass song inspired by the services of BRMC and RHOP. (You can download the song off of CDBaby.
And So, It Begins A New
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 04/03/2011 - 16:54Saturday morning, I sat up front at the Beecher Road School South Auditorium to see a production of The Wizard of Oz. Fiona, my youngest daughter, was a narrator in the rainbow chorus. The floor was mostly filled with young kids with the parents in seats behind us. A few other parents joined me on the floor so they could take better pictures of their young stars and sitting next to me was Mairead, my eldest daughter.
Mairead commented about how it seemed strange to be on this side of the fourth wall as she watched her youngest sister perform. She compared the experience to her childhood performances. It was a good production, with more effort put into scenery and props than many children productions have.
Afterward, we talked about going down to Virginia, where Miranda, my middle daughter is finishing up her senior year of college. Her senior exhibition in painting was last month. Opening on Tuesday will be her senior exhibition in ceramics and next Sunday will be her senior piano recital.
What role will arts and performances take in the life of Fiona? Will it lead her in a direction similar to her sister Miranda? Will Fiona find other paths? As I reflect on the day, the words of William Carlos Williams comes to mind. About a red wheel barrow he once said, “So much depends...”
Perhaps the prop of a cow carried across the stage during the cyclone is a lot like that red wheel barrow. And so, it begins a new...
Music Monday - @kevinmasch
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 02/21/2011 - 07:32I've probably been reading the news too much recently, and I am weary. I followed the pro-democracy demonstrations in the Middle East, mourned the martyrs, rejoiced at victories and shared with everyone the uncertainty of the days to come.
I've read about the battles in Washinton over the budget and the continuing resolution, the reckless cuts being proposed and the threat of shutting down the government if the cuts do not pass the Senate and get signed by the President. I've read about the battle in Wisconsin about whether or not public employees should have the same rights of collective bargaining as everyone else. All of the unrest leaves me weary.
So, as I thumbed through the SonicBids submissions to the Orient Lodge Music Review, I tried to find sometime matching the times.
Kevin Masch's describes himself as "a classic, American Roots musician in a proud tradition that goes back to before Woody Guthrie"
Seems like we need a little Woody Guthrie now, and Steve Earle's words echo in my ears:
So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow
I don't suspect Kevin has "This Machine Kills Fascists" inscribed on his guitar. Kevin has a different sort of sound. Yet Kevin, like many of the great roots musicians get back to the basics of life, love, death, traveling, trying to find home.
The commentary about one of his songs on YouTube starts:
Kevin's music is perfect for the music lover or the background music lover. Just try this, play this video, open up another tag (no music or audio needed to go to other site), and surf the internet... before you know it you will feel as if you are in your own movie with a sound track playing while you blog or are reading about everyday life
Yeah. I've got that song playing as I write this blog post, it does take me back to everyday life. The life of people struggling to get by, to find their way home.
Unfortunately, Youtube says that the embedding the video has been disabled at the user's request, so I can't share it here. Instead, go to Kevin's website, poke around, and see what you can find.
Instead, I'll end off with Christmas Time in Washington:
Music Monday - Jeanne Kuhns and Lost Mothra
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 02/14/2011 - 06:23A week ago, I didn’t write a Music Monday post. I had stayed up to watch some of the Super Bowl and didn’t have the energy to put together a reasonable Music Monday post afterward. If I had of really been on my game, I would have used it as an opportunity to highlight a musician from Wisconsin. Oh well, I’ll just have to do it today.
As part of the Orient Lodge Music review, I receive submissions from musicians across the country via Sonicbids and one that has jumped out at me is Jeanne Kuhns and Lost Mothra.
Besides being a singer/songwriter, she is also a painter. I don’t know if she is a football fan. However, she appears to be a key player in a growing musical arts community in Wisconsin, organizing the Woodwalk Concert Series. Her bio says she is influenced by “Joni Mitchell, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Eric Clapton, Arethra Franklin” as well as emerging indie artists. It is a great list of musicians to be influenced by, and you can hear some of the influence in her music.
There is something sad, yet empowering about her music; a beautiful melancholiness. It echoes the hard parts of life where hope still manages to sneak in.
As always, let me end it with a video of her performing. This video is from a performance at The Attic Books and Coffee, a “ a safe, welcoming, socially aware environment with exquisitely prepared espresso and tea beverages, high quality used books, and unique music.” It seems like a great venue for some great music.
Music Monday - Godel, Escher, Swift
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 01/31/2011 - 06:51Where do stars come from? It is the sort of question I would hear from my daughters when they were young and looking through a telescope with me. Years later, they would ask the same question as they watched American Idol or some awards show. In both cases, the answer might be something similar, you take a lot of hot air and wait for something cosmic to happen.
I would love to hear Jon Swift’s response to those questions. Jon Swift is an astrophysicist. He describes his research this way:
While I find all topics of astronomy fascinating, my professional research has focused on Galactic star formation. Following the discovery of a pre-stellar core located in an evolved and isolated molecular cloud (Swift et al. 2005, 2006), I spent the last part of my graduate career designing and completing a comprehensive observational program aimed at understanding the L1551 dark cloud in which that core exists (Swift 2006, Swift & Welch 2008).
Jon Swift is also an amazing musician. His bio page ways:
As Jon derives much of his inspiration from nature, it is not surprising that his music has been featured in snowboard and ski videos, yoga DVD's, fly fishing movies, and surf films such as Shelter, The Drifter, and Melali: The Drifter Sessions. Jon's song Run River has also fueled Corona Australia's highly successful From Where You'd Rather Be television ad campaign which was expanded to South America this year.
Jon Swift, however, can probably give much better explanations to how stars are formed. In the realm of astrophysics, he might talk about “a dynamic and inflowing envelope” around “the evolved molecular cloud L1551“. When it comes to music, he might shrug off the stardom that is generated by hot air. Instead, he notes that astrophysics and songwriting are complimentary. He mentions Kurt Godel’s work.
I grew up on Godel, Escher and Bach, and have always been fascinated by music that transcends incompleteness. There is a transcendent nature to Swift’s music, yet he goes further. He talks about the importance of discipline and detachment as essential components to any constructive activity, including songwriting.
The detachment comes through masterfully, most likely because of his discipline.
So, when you want some engrossing music, something more than the hot air that makes up so much of contemporary music, when you have some time to be still, to be detached and listen to music that goes beyond thought, spend some time listening to Jon Swift’s music.
A brief digression; I like to end my Music Monday posts with a video. As I searched for a good music video of Jon Swift, I found some really impressive covers of Swift’s music. That says something. Anyway, without further ado, let me end this blog post with this video:
