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Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well

03 Nov 09 - 11:22 AM (#2758685)
Subject: Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well
From: Jack Blandiver

In the spirit of The Virtual Singaround & in celebration of the imminence of Old Hollantide & Martinmass might I offer this performance of Child Ballad #79, The Wife of Usher's Well which came about whilst trying to learn fiddle under the influence of Jim Eldon and Snock (Michael Hurley) and a merry pig of a flu virus. Did you know you can sing Usher's Well to Hog of the Forsaken? This isn't that exactly, but the tune isn't too far off...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5IckGzFIzU


04 Nov 09 - 04:42 AM (#2759209)
Subject: RE: Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well
From: GUEST,globalcoooolio

yo sedanye - that is pure fcking wicked wierdness maaan but i doubt any1 hear is listening!! ante-folmk i like!it goes back to when it was what people sung and played rather than what they consumed. ooops.bit serious there.where you at on thursdaty night?not somersert???snock rules!

hector powe on behalf of the global coolijng.gilly sez get a life(giggles)


04 Nov 09 - 07:19 AM (#2759285)
Subject: RE: Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well
From: Jack Blandiver

Cheers, Hector. Thursday night is Lancashire - Fleetwood - Dark Tales for Dark Nights - stories mostly but I'll be featuring a few ballads along the way (including Usher's Well) so it should be a hoot. It's fine to be serious - its a serious business. Much of the Ante-Folk thing is about getting back to basics away from the various MOR orthodoxies of the revival which aren't too inspiring really. Like Gilly said years ago - shame Folk Rock wasn't more like Kraut Rock!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3YA_jR6qn0

Joy. Pure musical joy!


04 Nov 09 - 07:50 AM (#2759299)
Subject: RE: Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well
From: GUEST,Ed

Want 'Kraut Rock'? (though I'm not sure that 'rock is the right word... folk, maybe)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mWSlq2wwvY

Listen loud!


04 Nov 09 - 07:51 AM (#2759300)
Subject: RE: Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well
From: GUEST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mWSlq2wwvY

Link done proper, like.


04 Nov 09 - 08:35 AM (#2759326)
Subject: RE: Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well
From: Jack Blandiver

Cheers, Ed - I know what you mean. Did you see the BBC4 Krautrock documentary the other week? Pretty amazing stuff; I'm heartened that Faust are still making amazing music with drums and cement mixers! And the early Kraftwerk footage was a revelation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca96MBPk5mg

And my all time favourite, natch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeyloPWyB3I


04 Nov 09 - 11:07 AM (#2759411)
Subject: RE: Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well
From: GUEST

Intriguing thread drift!
Liked the explanation of your coughing fit SOP...

Any more seasonally appropriate musical offerings from folk here?


04 Nov 09 - 11:08 AM (#2759413)
Subject: RE: Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well
From: GUEST,crowsis

bums, me above


04 Nov 09 - 11:19 AM (#2759424)
Subject: RE: Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well
From: GUEST,CS

You aught to link that "Fire Dance" piece too, very seasonally fitting for Bonfire Night! I loved it. Made me think of a ceremonial dancing procession of fire sprites.


04 Nov 09 - 12:11 PM (#2759467)
Subject: RE: Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well
From: Paul Davenport

And back to the origin posting…yesss! Loved it!


04 Nov 09 - 03:20 PM (#2759612)
Subject: RE: Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well
From: Spleen Cringe

Great stuff, S. Keep at it!


05 Nov 09 - 06:24 AM (#2759986)
Subject: RE: Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well
From: Jack Blandiver

Thanks all! Much appreciated.

The Teanlowe Fire Dance can be heard HERE. Meanwhile just uploaded Snock Mandala; I recorded this on Monday using frame-drum / accordion / pocket trumpet & violin thus bringing together the inspirations of Michael Hurley, Don Cherry & the Third Ear Band into one delightful wee package. Rapunzel reckons it's a bit Penguin Cafe too - that must be the penguin flu...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5VQWvuDiA4


07 Nov 09 - 02:19 PM (#2761644)
Subject: RE: Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well
From: Ross Campbell

Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany

How a radical generation of 1960s and 70s musicians created a new German musical identity. Contains some strong language [S]

BBC Four TV Sun Nov 7 00:30-01:30


07 Nov 09 - 02:31 PM (#2761649)
Subject: RE: Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well
From: Jack Blandiver

Not to be missed, Ross - and anyone else. Just bought the first NEU! album today in Preston (Action Records, natch) - still damn near perfect after all these years. For those who don't know:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbAWBElA6dA


08 Nov 09 - 12:33 AM (#2761894)
Subject: RE: Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well
From: Ross Campbell

In case anybody's looking for that Krautrock link on iPlayer, the broadcast time was 00:30-01:30, Sunday 8th November 2009. (I think the "7" came from the BBC's Freeview schedule). And I did miss it (not concentrating at the time).


10 Nov 09 - 11:37 AM (#2763488)
Subject: RE: Child #79 : Wife of Usher's Well
From: Jack Blandiver

As a sequel to the above...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2hMd5B83Zc

Not being given to writing poems or songs, this is something I came to me circa 1983 and represents something of a primal rap concerning the condition of storytelling in which the storyteller is forever astray in the joyful wilderness - a shaman journeying forth into a realm of wonders from which to weave their craft. This particular recounting occurs around Old Hollantide, Martinmass (when the nights are long and murk) a reflection, therefore, of the dark heart of the turning year, ceremonial to the ancient cause of such an invocation, recounted from memory to a freely-improvised violin accompaniment with diverse filters, delays and distortions by way of spectral leakage which ties in nicely with the Krautrock themes of this thread. I did this on Thursday night by way of a prelude to Usher's Well and it worked rather well...

Aye, listen close & it shall be told
aye told in the telling between the setting of the sun
& the rising of the moon
take of no food nor drink & stir not from yr places
& open not yr eyes & let yr ears hear whatever it is that they hear
& yr mind think whatever it is that it thinks

aye listen, for is that not the hare that passes by this place?
I have seen it ye hopper of ditches, a cropper of corn,
a wee brown cow with a pair of leather horns
milk that dark withy yr shuddering run / beast of no claiming
aye shatter the year by your turning shadow /
rested / unseen / unseeing

for in this place one eye shall become open
& that eye that leap from out of the head
& go as a fish in the silver stream /
and my tongue shall fly out of my head
& go as bird from tree to tree /

I am the fish / I am the bird
I am both the fish & the silver stream
I am both the bird & the trees
& let them go from this place & let them return hither

& the fish shall once more become an eye
& the stream will be tears of joy & sadness
& the bird shall once more become my tongue
& the trees become words chosen one to the other

is not my story the forest?
is not the stream the waters of life that wash over this forest giving it the dance of living?
Aye listen, for is that not the stag that passes by this place?
I have seen it
stir not / for in stirring we shatter the silence.