Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell

Subject: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 22 Mar 13 - 12:31 AM

From Folk Alley and NPR:

Anais Mitchell And Jefferson Hamer: Tackling 'Tam Lin'

March 19, 2013. Mitchell recorded one of our favorite folk albums of 2012, Young Man in America. Now she's teamed up with Hamer, another young singer, to explore folk's ancient ancestry. Watch the duo perform the legendary "Tam Lin" at the Folk Alliance International Conference.

I wasn't sure if I would, at the start, but I enjoyed this.

~ Becky in Long Beach

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Allan Conn
Date: 22 Mar 13 - 03:35 AM

It was really nice. Though I have to admit I had to have a second listen to it after abandoning the first listen near the beginning. For someone born and partly raised in Selkirk the use of CarterHALL was a bit too grating for me. I gave myself a bit of a talking to and went back to it :-)

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 22 Mar 13 - 07:51 AM

Two links;

BBC session

Anaïs Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer: Child Ballads

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 22 Mar 13 - 07:52 AM

Seven days left to listen!

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: TopcatBanjo
Date: 22 Mar 13 - 08:15 AM

I heard them sing this as part of the BBC session which Henry has linked to above. I thought it was really lovely, and was quite surprised that I liked it, as I had found Anais' voice not quite to my taste when I saw her playing live in Glasgow (in her Hadestown concert) a couple of years ago. Delightful harmonies.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 22 Mar 13 - 04:01 PM

Yes, it was worth the listen. I hadn't been impressed with what I'd seen on youtube of Anais Mitchell, till this piece. I thought she murdered Richard Thompson's Beeswing. But I like what they do here. Just goes to show that you shouldn't just write someone off.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 23 Mar 13 - 04:06 PM

Always good to see the ballads continue to be explored.

~ Becky in Long Beach

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: open mike
Date: 24 Mar 13 - 12:08 AM

loved this! I was looking for a version of this song or tune for my Irish music radio show today...i did some fairy stories about horses. This one is actually Scottish....here is this tune called Tam Lin ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaoml9_Ue1g&noredirect=1

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Lighter
Date: 20 Apr 14 - 04:52 PM

The vocals and pace don't appeal to me at all. It's like they recorded at 33 and play back at 45. (OK, maybe 40.) Each to his own, however. I'm just happy more people are recording this stuff.

The reel called "Tam Lin" was composed by Davey Arthur - in the '60s or '70s, if I recall correctly.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 20 Apr 14 - 09:18 PM

I've disliked Anais Mitchell's singing -- from what I've heard on the local folk shows, at least. But last week at The Press Room, she came over to the session and sang "Lord Franklin" and I was impressed. A friend went upstairs after the session and was even more impressed by the way she worked the room.

I have to reassess how I've been perceiving her.

I haven't yet listened to the above links.

Linn

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Tim Chesterton
Date: 20 Apr 14 - 11:40 PM

I really like their CD 'Child Ballads', and it's great to see two young Americans taking the ballads an doing what folk singers have always done - making them their own.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Brakn
Date: 21 Apr 14 - 04:44 AM

Saw her in Manchester(uk) a couple of months ago and thought she was wonderful. She started with Willie o Winsbury - beautiful.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Johnny J
Date: 21 Apr 14 - 05:24 AM

I'm one of those who just doesn't "get" Anais Mitchell but I seem to be in the minority.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Brian Peters
Date: 21 Apr 14 - 06:01 AM

"it's great to see two young Americans taking the ballads an doing what folk singers have always done - making them their own."

Maybe, but it would have been more interesting if they'd done their own research, rather than rehashing ballads already worked over by the UK folk revival. Judging by their interviews, they seem to be unaware of the wealth of fantastic North American ballads based on the old British sources.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: GUEST,BigDaddy
Date: 21 Apr 14 - 12:59 PM

Alan Conn: I'm a Yank and I have a hard time with "Carter Hall" vs. Carterhaugh. It's not just mispronouncing a word; it's a matter of altering an essential detail about the song's story. Where the hell is Carter Hall? If she changed it intentionally, why, for heaven's sake? And if she didn't hear it correctly, then she's just singing a song with no interest in, or respect for the son's meaning, origins, etc. Aargh!

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Apr 14 - 02:22 PM

Be glad you're not studying one of the Gaelic languages: it's hard to pick between Scots gaelic, where half the consonants never get to pronunciation, or Welsh, where you roll dice before spelling them. (OK, not quite, pedants, but the gist is it's unbelieveably complicated and sometimes creates words which have no spelling at all other before the end of second syllable in common with the root.)

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Apr 14 - 02:39 PM

Carterhaugh is pronounced with more emphasis on the "haw" than Carter Ha', which has a short a at the end. A haugh is bottom-land.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Lighter
Date: 21 Apr 14 - 02:44 PM

> If she changed it intentionally, why, for heaven's sake?

"Folk process," my friend. If Tam is sighted at a baronial manor, who are we to object?

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 21 Apr 14 - 04:01 PM

Interested to hear all the thoughts and reactions to this--I like it, but has been 're-imagined" as a millennial pop ballad, which is a bit challenging for some here. Given that, if you listen carefully (or look at her lyrics) you will realize that she actually is singing "Carterhaugh".

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Lighter
Date: 21 Apr 14 - 04:46 PM

Whatever the lyrics may say, what I hear on the album could be either "-haugh" or "Hall."

So what, you ask? Just that all but the most erudite listeners will hear "Hall" in any case.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Apr 14 - 04:59 PM

Carterhaugh is a valley near Etterick, in the Debateable Lands. There might be those around who take umbridge at the wilful distortion of the real song...

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 21 Apr 14 - 07:58 PM

I would offer that, as an American, her way of singing that particular name might be considerably different than the way that you might expect to hear it.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 06 Sep 14 - 05:47 AM

The lyrics she performs are written as "Carterhaugh." Pronunciations and our interpretations of sounds vary all over.

My first and several subsequent hearings of Fairport Convention version of Tam Lin, I assumed the word was Carterhall. It was not until I read the lyrics could I actually hear the distinction in pronunciation.

Having lived in UK for over a decade, I still have trouble hearing distinctions. My husband's English pronunciation of the shwa "a" sound (ah) in many words, still sounds like "ar" to me.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Musket
Date: 06 Sep 14 - 06:05 AM

My only criticism of her is that Child Ballads was too short! I would have loved them to tackle a few more on the album.

The BBC recording of Clyde Waters is for me, slightly better than the album as they had less chance to mess around with it post recording. It seems better for it.

I love playing the album, and this year with the honourable exception of Richard Thompson's Acoustic Classics is the album I play more than once in the same day.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 Sep 14 - 10:04 AM

The song in question can be seen on YouTube. Search for 'Anais Mitchell Tam Lin', and it will come right up.

I applaud Anais M for her excellent diction. However, I can't stand to listen to that high, childish, adenoidal tone for very long.

She's definitely singing 'Carter Hall.' Think of the hall as a picturesque ruin robed in ghost stories, and it becomes a good place to encounter a knight bewitched.
=======
Speaking as an audience member and a former promoter, I ask myself why the heck she hasn't combed her hair. To me, her hair is saying, "You? You are of no importance. Why should I look clean for YOU?"

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Musket
Date: 06 Sep 14 - 10:31 AM

My audience must wonder why I don't hold my beer gut in for them...

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 06 Sep 14 - 01:56 PM

leeneia

1. I agree her immature vocal presentation can only be taken in small doses.

2. I think you are reading more into her pronunciation than is actually there. The ruined hall imagery is a bit sentimental.   

3. You take issue with her hairstyle? Really? What has that to do with her musical skill and value as a story teller and entertainer?

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 06 Sep 14 - 02:14 PM

Sorry leenneia

The above reads a bit harsh. I actually quite like the shaggy unkempt look. Another thing, I bet she works at creating it.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 06 Sep 14 - 02:37 PM

Perhaps so.

There actually is a Carter Hall, VTam. It is in a trackless glen, the haunt of hind and hart and hardy hiker. 'Tis there the McPhetridges slew the Magillicuddys, and it's been feared and avoided by the locals since.

When the wind sighs in the crumbling crennels, we almost hear a sob. And when the gorse scrapes against the donjon, it seems to be the tapping of a faery minstrel, playing the spoons down below.

That's Carter Hall.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Lighter
Date: 06 Sep 14 - 03:08 PM

"Hall" seems more likely on the YouTube clip than on my mp3.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: GUEST,arlene
Date: 01 Nov 21 - 01:12 PM

Does anybody know where her version comes from?

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 16 Jan 22 - 05:54 PM

Anais

The Observer; The singer-songwriter is back with a new album after a decade spent nurturing her award-winning musical. She reflects on white privilege, finding a musical community – and moving back to rural Vermont.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Howard Jones
Date: 17 Jan 22 - 08:25 AM

It's performed well enough, but I'm afraid that for me that it lacked any emotional involvement and they just seemed to be running through a song without any sense that they were telling a story. They didn't succeed in engaging my interest, let alone want me to keep listening for 6 minutes. But then I'm familiar with Frankie Armstrong's version:

Frankie Armstrong Tam Lin

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 19 Jan 22 - 06:02 AM

Wednesday 26 January 9:00pm BBC Radio 2 The Folk Show

Vermont singer and writer Anaïs Mitchell talks about her new self-titled album. The record is Anaïs' first solo release since the enormous success of her Grammy and Tony Award-winning musical, Hadestown.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 19 Jan 22 - 06:57 AM

Of course, she's a huge Nic Jones fan which is no bad thing.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Brian Peters
Date: 19 Jan 22 - 07:23 AM

'They didn't succeed in engaging my interest, let alone want me to keep listening for 6 minutes. But then I'm familiar with Frankie Armstrong's version...'

Frankie's rendition - which I've witnessed live more than once - is the most powerful I've ever heard, full of passion and engagement with the story.

Like several others, including Anne Briggs and Mike Waterson, Frankie uses the version put together so ingeniously by Bert Lloyd, who on this occasion used an authentic Scottish tune heard on a fragmentary recording of the ballad. Dave & Toni Arthur came up with their own take on the ballad around the same time and, according to Dave, Fairport got the idea from them but used a text and tune put together by a singer called Marion Grey.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 19 Jan 22 - 09:54 AM

Archie Fisher's version is great.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: GUEST,Roderick A. Warner
Date: 19 Jan 22 - 10:49 AM

Thanks to this thread for alerting me to Anais’s work. Enjoyed her songs and musicianship. Liked her version of Tam Lin, a fresh twist. My favourite version was Pete Morton’s when he brought it to life and managed to hold his audience throughout its length. Don’t think he does it anymore as his repertoire frequently changes.

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Brian Peters
Date: 19 Jan 22 - 12:09 PM

Yes, Pete's version was quite a roller-coaster ride as well. Another triumph for the Bert Lloyd version! Archie's is interesting - he's set it to the tune usually used for 'Willie O' Winsbury', but originally belonging to 'False Foodrage'!

Subject: RE: Tackling Tam Lin: Anais Mitchell
From: Howard Jones
Date: 20 Jan 22 - 03:45 PM

I must listen to Pete's version again, thanks for the reminder.