Audience participation

[sophia_sol]

It seems clear of late that I am capable of enjoying music that I wouldn't have expected of myself. Which means there is a whole wide world of music out there that I could be enjoying but am not (yet). SO. This is where you come in!

I am sure that you, Dear Readers, listen to music, and have opinions about the music you listen to. I am sure you have musicians or singers or bands that you particularly like. And it is entirely possible you enjoy proselytizing on behalf of these music groups. If that is you, then, well! I have a request!

Please tell me the name of a musician/band that you think I should listen to (no matter how well-known or not)*, what CD of theirs I should start with, and, for in case it's a style of music I'm not very experienced at listening to yet, which one song from that CD I should listen to several times on repeat so I can learn how to like it before tackling the whole CD.

Please don't load up a comment with tons of recs, because then I will just get overwhelmed! Stick to one a person (mmmmmaaaaaybe two), and we'll all be happy.

And do not hesitate even if you are a lurker or don't talk to me very often or whatever. My journal is always open!

And then, over the course of however long it takes me, I WILL give a good honest try to the things I get recced in this post, even if it's something I'm skeptical about, because if you like it then it must have something about it worth liking. And then it is entirely possible (nay, probable, given my tendency towards verbosity WHICH YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED *COUGH*) that I will write up posts on my opinions.

Okay? Okay!


*And make no assumptions about what I must already know. I mean, yes, I'm familiar with the Beatles, but ANYTHING ELSE is fair game. My friends are always laughing at me for how utterly clueless I am about popular stuff.

Comments

[neekabe]

THAT IS EXACTLY WHY I HAD TO SEE THEM! Then I bought 3 of their CDs because really! How awesome!

I was behind the stage at a folk festival when Nathan Rogers started singing "Hold the Line" and I hot chills because there was no doubt at all who's son he was. Most of his stuff is his own style and it's not quite so obvious, but that song...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHyTxGwAdnk <- Night Drive by Garnet Rogers

And relatedly: Stan's Tune by Bruce Guthro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPzH0w2n51g
(see, this is the problem when I start talking about music. It becomes a giant game of word association, except with music.)

[sophia_sol]

DAMN YOU GARNET ROGERS YOU MADE ME CRY.

And Stan's Tune is amazing too.

(giant music-association games: AWESOME.)

And since we're talking about Stan Rogers, I'm curious -- what would you say are your favourite songs of his?

[neekabe]

I know! That song would inevitably come up when I was up late at night writing papers and it'd make me go wibbly :(

Ooo favourite Stan Rogers song... Mary Ellen Carter is up there. It embodies the stubborn perseverance that is characteristic to a lot of the east coast music ("To you to whom adversity has dealt the final blow..."). There's a lot of music on the theme of "Farm/boat/mine/factory/job market has disappeared but fuck you" and it got me through a lot of teenage angst.

But I also like the sentiment of 45 Years, and tone of The Giant and how you can hear the waves in White Squall, and the "Pounds his fist white on the dock in the night and cries I'm gonna win!" of Blue Dolphin, and the combination of the joy and the loss in Bluenose, and the way "Last Watch makes me cry when he sings "When men with torches come for her, let angels come for me" and the first Christmas I don't go home I know I'm going to sit there and listen to "First Christmas".

Plus I live on the East Coast so Barrett's Privateers is just a given :)
(I had a friend who was a counciller at a Christian kids camp where they sang that song aroudn the campfire, except being a Christian camp "God damn them all" isn't entirely appropriate. They changed the lyrics to "Have a nice day." I just... can't imagine getting through that with a straight face)

eta: (because I would have sworn I typed it) what about you?

[sophia_sol]

It is hard to pick favourite Stan Rogers songs -- there's just so many good ones! But here would be some of the ones that are near the top for me:

-Mary Ellen Carter, I am totally with you on that one, and also Barrett's Privateers and 45 years
-White Squall (MAKES ME CRY)
-First Christmas (...look, I love this one enough that I wrote FIXIT FIC for it, because it ALSO MAKES ME CRY)
-Macdonnell on the Heights (idek why, I just love this story of a dude who did what he had to and saved the day and nobody made him famous for it but he was awesome anyways)
-Northwest Passage (it is just so BEAUTIFUL)
-Harris and the Mare (MAKES ME CRY, also makes me think. Because I'm pacifist, right, so the argument that there are times you have to fight sits uneasily with me, and yet THIS SONG)
-Lies ("And laughs at how her mirror tells her lies" <3333)
-Maid on the Shore (because it is HARD TO ARGUE with a song about an awesome lady outsmarting people)

And um I could totally keep going and list like ALL of his songs because dude I love them all so much.

[neekabe]

Have you read Stan Rogers biography? There's a story in it about a man who'd been washed overboard? boat sunk? not sure exactly what but he was in the ocean, waiting and hoping to be rescued and he spent his time singing Mary Ellen Carter to himself in order to keep his spirits up. 'Cause if there was ever a song for that situation, that one's it.

MacDonall on the Heights! I don't know how I forgot that one. Yay for learning obscure Canadian history via folk songs (see also: Northwest Passage, though that's less obscure). Also yes to that exact line in Lies. Look

My parents and I were driving out East when I was going to University, all a little bit mopey because Daughter Moving Away From Home! So we put on music. It went like this: Rawdon Hills, First Christmas, Last Watch, and then we decided that that Ashley McIsaac was a much better plan.

Also, have you managed to figure out Lock-keeper? I keep losing track of who's who in it and I can't track the story (still makes me wibble though, because it's Stan Rogers)

[sophia_sol]

No, I haven't read the biography! Clearly I need to get on that. And yeah, Mary Ellen Carter is the perfect song for that situation -- but the poor dude, that musta SUCKED.

Learning obscure history via folk songs is the best! Are you familiar with Tanglefoot? They're a fantastic Canadian folk group that occasionally does songs about Canadian history -- for instance, there's a great one about Laura Secord (although that's not exactly obscure...).

Lock-Keeper -- yyyyeah, gorgeous and wibbly and impossible to keep track of the characters. *sigh* Proof that Stan Rogers wasn't perfect, I guess?

[neekabe]

I did two years worth of music projects on Stan Rogers when I was in High School. Good times :)
I'm glad it's not just me. I think there's too many 'you's. Dialogue is hard in song form (I've tried to piece it together from the written lyrics and still couldn't get it).

oh yes! Tanglefoot! Buxton gives me chills. And "watch your footsteps, don't fall in the forest, keep your head down and don't make a sound." Fire and Guns I think?

This isn't a rec not yet at least, it's just a question: Ian Tamblyn?

[sophia_sol]

An EXCELLENT choice of thing to do music projects on. :D

I (alas) don't have all the Tanglefoot albums yet, so I'm not familiar with Buxton. But YES, Fire and Guns is fantastic. I saw Tanglefoot perform live once, and it was pretty much the highlight of my year. It makes me so sad that they're no longer together as a band.

Ian Tamblyn I have not heard of!

[neekabe]

I will give you Buxton when I can stay up late enough to upload (i was in bed 30 minutes ago, just in case anyone asks, and totally not digging up packed boxes for my Ian Tamblyn CDs...). I saw them live, they are fantastic! I hadn't realized they were no longer together :( Moxy Fruvous is another one that I'm sad they're no longer together...

Ian Tamblyn is more Canadian folk, I can pretty confidently say that you'll love him ('Voice in the wilderness' lived in my CD player for weeks).

(I have realized all the artists I've mentioned have been male. I have lots of awesome women singers to! I'm just trying hard to be good... :P)

[neekabe]

Buxton

[sophia_sol]

♥♥♥ THAT SONG. *shivers* Amazing.

I am not familiar with Moxy Fruvous. What are they?

And you know what, SCREW being good while talking about folk music -- because folk music is not about stretching my boundaries at all, it is about HAVING A GOOD TIME. So feel free to talk to me about awesome folk musicians all you want! I shall definitely check out Ian Tamblyn.

And in terms of female Canadian folk singers, are you familiar with Eileen McGann? She's one of my favourites; I could happily listen to her foreverrrrrr. And how about Marie Lynn Hammond? Both her solo stuff and back when she was with the group Stringband?

[neekabe]

I know! That song! It nails it in so many ways.
Folk music is so much about having a good time! It's frequently about having a good time just to spite everyone else :D

Moxy Fruvous are another Canadian group, folk-pop. If you listen to CBC, the person who does Q was the drummer.
They did King of Spain, you might have heard that one?

Recs for Fruvous! Bargainville is a good start. River Valley, maybe as the one I had to pick. Though King of Spain is much more fun :)
Other songs that I love:
The drinking song
Gulf War Song
Down from Above (creepy!)
Fly

Awesome women recs:
Fruit: http://www.fruit.on.net/home1.php though the website doesn't work for me. I have their album Burn, it's fantastic (I haven't heard the others, I'm sure they're fantastic too!)

Dala: http://dalagirls.com/music/ I've only heard "This moment in a flash" Listened to "Count to Ten" endlessly when I worked at the Folk Festival office

(And I just remembered Hevia, who is not female, but who is a spanish bagpiper, With not scottish pipes so there's no drone, but its very cool.)


No, I haven't heard of either of those! I'll look them up!

[sophia_sol]

Oh, yeah, I have heard King of Spain! It's a fun song! Cool, I'll add Moxy Fruvous to a list of things to look up, um, sometime. (SO MUCH MUSIC)

Ditto with adding your awesome women recs! And ooh, I think Essie listens to Dala, actually! I shall have to ask her what she recommends too.

Okay, in terms of recs and sources, then, here goes:

-Eileen McGann: here on her website you can listen to seven of her songs. I particularly recommend Kassandra -- I listened to that song on repeat a RIDICULOUS amount. Requiem For The Giants, and Wisdom Guide Me, are also particularly awesome. Of her cds, I only have two (Journeys and Beyond the Storm), but both are amazing and I assume her other cds would be too.

-Marie-Lynn Hammond (solo): on her website you can click on each of the cds and find short sound clips for a few songs from each. I only have two of her cds as well (Pegasus and Vignettes) -- I like both a great deal, but Vignettes is my favourite of the two. And probably my favourite songs on it are Flying/Spring of '44, and La jeune mariee, which handily enough both have a sound-clip.

-Stringband: Their website is pretty sparse, alas. I only have Stringband Live! and National Melodies, but both are fantastic.