BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver

Subject: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 07:10 AM

I hadn't known much about Blandiver until he said something that I was sure was a line in the sand.

"Religion is to Spirituality and Pornography is to Sexuality" I think it was.

But it wasn't a line in the sand. I now think it was a bold expression of a deep poetic darkness. A tip of an iceberg of cold thoughts about the world we live in? A magnificent primal pessimism?

I may be a little overblown in my language here but I think that blandiver's artistry demands that I try to be bold in my descriptions to try to portray a deeper truth. IMHO Blandiver writes from his gut more than his mind and he cares much more about communicating feelings than ideas. Expressing words come easy to feelings not so much. In fact I have written a song about werewolves and one about a desolate winter, neither quite worked for me but here in Blandiver's song about Winter Werewolves I see what was lacking in my songs.

Thank you sir. Thank you Blandiver. I have learned a valuable lesson about writing from you.

http://thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/stream-tracks-from-werewolf-songs_music-inspired-by-swedish-folklore

BTW I love the graphic at the top of the page.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 07:33 AM

Shucks, my very own thread! Another one I wrote was our Porcupine song, whose lyrics are more obviously 'In the Tradition'. You can hear a version with assorted wildfowl here:

https://soundcloud.com/rapunzel-and-sedayne/porcupine-in-october-sycamore

Did I hear some sea-chanty crew were thinking of covering this? That I'd like to hear...

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 07:37 AM

You are Sedayne I take it?

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 08:00 AM

I am.

On Mudcat I used to be Suibhne O'Piobaireachd until one day a couple of years ago we were on pilgrimage to Wells Cathedral watching Jack Blandiver doing his stuff and I thought it was a far better Mudcat handle for all sorts of reasons but my request for an official change of name was flatly - ignored! Hence my status Guest: Blandiver, though on Facebook I'm Sedayne Blandiver because my 'real name' is already taken...

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 08:11 AM

I changed my handle once but that was when we could edit our personal data.


It looks like now you have to send a request to [e-mail] to get that done. Maybe if you combined the request with the offer of a donation?

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 08:54 AM

Sedayne's was some of the first trad-based music/song I'd heard, and it was entirely different to anything I'd been used to. Great stuff. Entirely his own style and very evocative. Him and his missus Rapunzel do some really nice work together. I've always enjoyed his posts on MC too, lots of big words and fancy ideas! I enjoy the fact that he sometimes annoys the hell out of lots of other people here too. But that's just the badness in me talking.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 09:06 AM

" I enjoy the fact that he sometimes annoys the hell out of lots of other people here too. "

He is not purposely annoying people. I can disagree with him but respect that.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 09:31 AM

Maybe, I wouldn't know! But either way, he should probably contribute something to my thread asking for favourite sources for tales and lore concerning the fey, here: Nudge

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: Will Fly
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 09:46 AM

"Sedayne and Rapunzel" make original, atmospheric, arresting music - I've loved it for ages and ages. I'm a filthy old jazzer myself, but I fnd their folk-styled compositions, arrangements and use of different instruments absolutely tremendous.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 09:47 AM

He is not purposely annoying people.

Damn right I'm not. This is all about impersonal discussion, but it's got a bit weird in the past on several occasions. If we were all sitting in the pub it would all be very civil I'm sure. I'm a civil sort of guy though I once met a chap & we got on famously until he found out who I was on Mudcat and decided he didn't like me after all! Folk is a funny old world, but I'm cool with that. The people, Lord - thy people...

CS - The Fey, eh? I'll have look just now...

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 09:58 AM

I've been listening to Rapunzel and Sedayne samples at folkpolicerecordings.com and all I can say is very well done, Blandiver. You all really bring that old warhorse House Carpenter to life. I love that arrangement and I especially dig the fiddle and banjo together.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: GUEST,Blandiver
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 04:45 PM

Cheers, Will & Gillymor - much appreciated!

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: gnu
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 05:09 PM

"much appreciated". As are you and your music. I am glad this thread has opened more avenues to listen to it and hopefully brought same to more people. Great thread, JtS.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Apr 13 - 12:30 AM

He sent an e-mail asking to change his name to Blandiver?
I wonder who he sent it to.

-Joe, Mudcat Registrar-
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: GUEST,Larry Saidman
Date: 26 Apr 13 - 02:14 AM

I always enjoy Blandiver's posts. Yes, sometimes people do seem to get irritated....but that's their stuff, not his.   I've never seen him strike back!   Which I think makes him a class act.

I'm at his soundcloud page now, listening to he and his partner play and sing some great traditional and traditional sounding songs.....and the page looks great and the music is a pleasure to listen to. I like the pictures before each song...and the descriptions of the 'style'.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 26 Apr 13 - 08:46 AM

Yay! Official name-change, so hopefully no more GUEST,Blandiver posts, although I'm aware of the proliferation of Jacks around here...

Thanks for the kind words, Larry - we think of what we do as Mom 'n' Pop Folk 'n' Fun leaning a little on the Dark Side at times; one reviewer called us Gothic & Northern which I rather like. Anyway, for all you wanted to know about Rapuzel & Sedayne (with some great pics to boot) here's an interview with Amelia from a couple of years back:

http://www.ameliasmagazine.com/music/an-interview-with-rapunzel-and-sedayne-on-the-release-of-new-album-songs-from-the-barley-temple/2011/10/05/

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 26 Apr 13 - 08:53 AM

Nice profile JB.    The art is entertaining.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 26 Apr 13 - 09:06 AM

What the hell is 'folk'n'fun' it sounds too frightening - dark and gothic indeed. I'm also a little dubious that your missus really thinks it's the ideal description for what you do.. I did a search and there were so many hits I didn't know where to begin.

Seriously though, I haven't heard the old spooky ballads done better than your stuff. You might as well post some more links, as it is your thread.

Woo, the sky just went black here all of a sudden! More rain.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 26 Apr 13 - 09:14 AM

This is definitely a musical thread and might be overlooked by folks who don't venture into B.S.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 26 Apr 13 - 09:18 AM

This thread is intended to be a "Getting to Know" another Mudcatter thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: Joe Offer
Date: 26 Apr 13 - 07:38 PM

I gotta say, Blandiver, you have the most interesting choice of user names....
I was just getting used to the idea that Suibhne was pronounced "Sweeney" (that's right, isn't it?), and then Suibhne disappeared and Blandiver took over the slot (is Blandiver pronounced "Sweeney, too?).

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Getting to Know: Blandiver
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 27 Apr 13 - 06:42 AM

Suibhne comes from the cursed Bird-King of ancient Irish literature. You can read the whole thing here:

http://www.ucc.ie/celt/online/T302018/

Seamus Heaney's translation is Sweeney Astray, but there's a Preston band lately taken the name so I dropped it to avoid confusion. Suibhne / Sweeney also makes a memorable appearance in Flann O'Brien's first novel At Swim Two Birds, which is one of the finest things ever written IMHO.

Jack Blandiver, OTOH, is a medieval wooden mannequin resident in Wells Cathedral who marks the quarter hours by kicking bells with his heels, and the hour by hitting one with a stick. No one's quite sure how or why he acquired the name, but he's been a favourite of mine for several years now, and I was growing weary of telling people how to pronounce Suibhne O'Piobaireachd.