From: owner-jangle-poets-digest@smoe.org (jangle-poets-digest)
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Subject: jangle-poets-digest V9 #88
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jangle-poets-digest     Saturday, August 18 2007     Volume 09 : Number 088



                               Today's Subjects:
                               -----------------
  [JP] Stringbusters 8/15/07 Johnny D's, Somerville MA  [Nieldsforever@aol.c]
  [JP] This Train                                     [Nieldsforever@aol.com]
  [JP] Looking for poster - will trade  ["Frank Hartge" <FrankHartge@wideope]
  [JP] Strangelings Tarot Cards                       [Nieldsforever@aol.com]
  [JP] Loreena McKennitt 8/21 NYC Borders             [Nieldsforever@aol.com]

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:23:20 EDT
From: Nieldsforever@aol.com
Subject: [JP] Stringbusters 8/15/07 Johnny D's, Somerville MA

The Stringbusters are Pete & Maura Kennedy doing old-timey, swing, and  
ukelele tunes.  This was the first Stringbusters show per se, and for this  special 
engagement, P&M enlisted the aid of rock-solid Ray Mason of the Ray  Mason 
Band on bass and mercurial Eric Lee of the Strangelings on fiddle.  

A fourth member of the Strangelings, Chris Thompson, was also present,  and 
though she didn't play with the band this time, she added a lot as  a lively 
member of the audience, cheering on the Stringbusters.
 
There were two opening acts, the Lovell Sisters and Davis Sweet.
 
The Lovell Sisters continue to make their mark with their close 3-part  
harmonies, their tight arrangements, and their instrumental prowess on mandolin,  
fiddle, and dobro.  I had seen them recently at FRFF, but in the intimate  club 
setting at Johnny D's, I was able to get a much better look at them as  well! 
  :-) 
 
Davis Sweet was introduced by Pete Kennedy as the one who'd first put  
ukeleles in the hands of the Kennedys and gotten them to playing those  instruments. 
 Davis was assisted by Pete on every song of his brief  set of pop standards.
 
It was clear that both the Davis Sweet and the Stringbusters sets were  
marked by improvisational spontaneity, without there having been any rehearsal  
beforehand.  Pete listened intently and jammed along with Davis as the two  of 
them played ukelele duos while Davis sang the lead vocals.
 
During the Stringbusters set, what usually happened was that Maura would  
announce the key at the beginning of each song, and when it was time for a  
fiddle solo, Pete would turn to Eric and nod.  That's what I call flying by  the 
seat of your pants!  But both Ray Mason and Eric Lee played beautifully  in 
their supporting roles.  If Ray Mason is a musician's musician, Eric Lee  looks to 
be a rising star in the firmament of the music world!
 
Here's what the Stringbusters played --
 
Let the Good Times Roll
Holiday for Strings
Me Myself & I
Minor Swing
Beethoven's 5th Symphony (just Pete)
Getting Some Fun Out of Life
A Shot in the Dark (just P&M)
My Old Man
Tiptoe Through the Tulips (just Pete)
Rain Kilikilihune
Fire (just Pete)
Purple Haze
8 Miles High
Rhapsody in Blue (just Pete)
Mystery Pacific
 
All songs were played by the foursome of Pete, Maura, Ray, and Eric, except  
where either Pete played solo, or where P&M played as just the two of  them, 
as noted above.  The only exception to this being "Let the Good Times  Roll," 
where Davis Sweet also played, on uke.
 
P&M played uke on all numbers, except on the Django Reinhardt finale  
"Mystery Pacific," the only song where Pete switched to mandoguitar.
 
Pete was excellent as usual in his role of pied piper of all things  strings, 
and Maura was sassy, sweet, and simply right on-target in her role  as vocal 
interpreter of old-timey classics.  Stringbusters are not made,  they are 
born! -- and P&M give every indication of having been born to do  music like this.
 
And Eric on fiddle was just phenomenal whenever he got the chance to  solo!  
On "8 Miles High," he started playing the fiddle literally behind  his back, 
Hendrix-style, with P&M quickly following his lead -- just as at  the Budgie 
Dome set at FRFF on Thursday 7/26/07, when 4 of the Strangelings were  kicking 
out the jams as backwards-playing Hendrix-wannabes on the song "Season  of the 
Witch"!
 
Is it to much to say that with Eric here in the NE folk music scene,  we have 
a new wild man fiddler in our midst?   :-) 
 
The Stringbusters debut at Johnny D's was simply terrific.  I hope  P&M in 
this new incarnation will be able to carve out a new  old-timey niche for 
themselves in the music world for a long, long time to  come.
 
Bruce

Check out the Kennedys' Official Home Page: http://www.KennedysMusic.com/
Fab photos, the Official tour diary, dashboard Buddha haiku, groovy
merchandise...what more could you ask for?

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 22:20:47 EDT
From: Nieldsforever@aol.com
Subject: [JP] This Train

Dear Jangle-Poets,
 
This forward from TN list, the Nields Nook, has a significant swath of  
Kennedys Content in it.  With a song like "This Train," how could it be  otherwise?
 
Besides.  I promote TK all the time on the Nook -- so why not a wee  bit of a 
peep of fair turnaround about the duo of singing sisters who  gave TK the 
song, "Easy People"?   :-) 
 
Bruce (aka _Nieldsforever@aol.com_ (mailto:Nieldsforever@aol.com) )
 
===============================================================
 
"This Train" from Sister Holler sends a runaway train of free associations  
running midnight rambler shivers up and down my spine!  

First stop!  "This Train" from Peter Paul & Mary's 1962  album.  The credits 
in PP&M's eponymous first album list the  songwriting credits of this song, 
Yarrow/Stookey.  So?  Doesn't this  tend to authenticate the Sister Holler 
motto: "Good Artists Borrow; Great  Artists Steal"?  And if so, were PP&M good 
artists who borrowed, or  were they great artists who stole?
 
An original working subtitle for Sister Holler was Highway Robbery.   At one 
point, there was even thought given to the title, Theft.  My notes  for the 
3/18/06 Kripalu Center N&K show in Lenox MA help me remember that KN  told the 
crowd at that time, "Bruce Palmatier doesn't like "Theft." "  I  had told her 
that earlier that week, when the "Theft" trial balloon was briefly  floated at 
the 3/14/06 Wilbraham Public Library N&K show.
 
The "Theft" trial balloon didn't float my boat.
 
The Sister Holler motto might suggest that it doesn't much matter, or that  
maybe we shouldn't much care at any rate, whether there was borrowing, highway  
robbery, or out-and-out theft involved in Yarrow/Stookey's "This Train" -- or 
in  the case of Nerissa Nields' "This Train" either, for that matter.
 
When I was much younger, in days when I sang in school choruses, I  once took 
part in the singing of a traditional spiritual that began with the  line, 
"This train is bound for glory, this train."  Different melody from  the PP&M 
song "This Train."
 
Lo and behold -- The opening line of NN's "This Train" goes, "This train is  
bound for glory, ride ride ride..."  Still another completely different  
melody too!  Clearly, "This Train" has made many stops before coming into  the 
station!
 
Second stop.  "This Train" on Sister Holler always reminds me of the  Nields 
line on This Town Is Wrong's "When I'm Here" that goes, "Don't have no  need 
for no magicians, fortune tellers or physicians."
 
That line has always reminded me of the line from another "This Train" that  
goes, "This train don't carry no gamblers, no crap shooters, no midnight  
ramblers."
 
Like the Keebler elves slogan -- "Uncommonly good, wherever it comes  from!"
 
And niggling even further back in the back of my mind is the part of Curtis  
Mayfield's "People Get Ready" that goes,
 
"People get ready
There's a train a-comin'
You don't need no baggage
You just get on board
All you need is faith
To hear the diesels hummin'
You don't need no ticket
You just thank the Lord."
 
"People Get Ready" was apparently inspired by the 1963 March on Washington  
that was capped by Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.
 
Quite a train of association that's been roaring down the track!  But  now it 
comes creaking and lurching into its ultimate destination, for the  purposes 
of this pre-midnight ramble.
 
TK's title cut from the album Stand.  The part that goes --
 
"Allah Buddha Yahweh Jesus Brahma
People get ready, there's a train that's coming
Many different legends, just one story
All aboard the train that's bound for glory..."
 
There is just no way I could think of the Sister Holler "This Train"  -- 
"This train is bound for glory, ride ride ride" -- without thinking of  "Stand," 
which might well be TK's signature anthem!
 
At any rate, all of the songs herein mentioned (and many more  besides) are 
ingredients of the rich folk soup of folk music or Americana  -- in a tradition 
where trains figure prominently in the lives of people of all  races and all 
walks of life, very often as symbols or images of going forward,  of getting 
on with our lives, of moving onward and upward, in a world of hopes,  dreams, 
and prayers for peace and justice -- trains of redemption, of  salvation, of 
deliverance from oppression, a passageway to a better world ahead,  all the 
while we revolve and evolve (as Cadence Carroll sings) to a place of  love.
 
"There'll be trains of blossoms
There'll be trains of music
There'll be trains of trust..."
("Stoned Soul Picnic," Laura Nyro)
 
"Please don't miss this train at the station
'Cause if you miss it, I feel sorry, sorry for you
People all over the world, join hands
Start a love train, love train..."
("Love Train," O'Jays)
 
There's just no way I couldn't think of that either!   :-) 
 
There are certainly degrees and degrees in the matter of what different  
artists and their agents consider borrowing, highway robbery, and theft.   The 
PP&M way and the N&K Nields way is one way, though it may not be the  only way.
 
Since Bob Marley incorporated part of "People Get Ready" in the song "One  
Love," Curtis Mayfield has been given part of the credit.
 
And TK credit Curtis Mayfield too, for their own incorporation of the  lines, 
"People get ready, there's a train that's coming" in "Stand," which they  
deemed sufficiently close to "People Get Ready."
 
Whoo!  Whoo!   All aboard!  Train of association now  leaving the station.  
Boy that was a fun ride for me.  Wherever it  takes me (and wherever it may 
take you), N&K's "This Train" is a fun ride  too!   :-) 
 
Bruce

Check out the Kennedys' Official Home Page: http://www.KennedysMusic.com/
Fab photos, the Official tour diary, dashboard Buddha haiku, groovy
merchandise...what more could you ask for?

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 20:19:44 -0400
From: "Frank Hartge" <FrankHartge@wideopenwest.com>
Subject: [JP] Looking for poster - will trade

I am hoping to locate the promotional poster for "River of Fallen Stars" to
complete my collection of Kennedys album posters. 

I have some rare promo CDs, CD copies of all of Pete's early solo LPs, as
well as some live concerts and radio appearances that are available for a
trade. 

Feel free to contact me directly at my e-mail address. 

Thanks!

Frank

Check out the Kennedys' Official Home Page: http://www.KennedysMusic.com/
Fab photos, the Official tour diary, dashboard Buddha haiku, groovy
merchandise...what more could you ask for?

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:08:07 EDT
From: Nieldsforever@aol.com
Subject: [JP] Strangelings Tarot Cards

What a random ramble here!
 
Apparently the Eric Lee / Hanged Man tarot card is not going to be  
available, except for the hardcore enthusiast who is able to download the image  from 
the Strangelings' website.
 
Tarot cards of the previous six Strangelings were available only at  FRFF.
 
Maura Kennedy / High Priestess
Pete Kennedy / Magician
Chris Thompson / Empress
Rebecca Hall / Queen of Pentacles
Ken Anderson / Fool
Cheryl Prashker / World
 
Valentin Tomberg's magnum opus _Meditations on the Tarot_ begins with the  
Magician, the High Priestess, and the Empress as the beginning of all wisdom,  
and ends with the Fool and the World as the end of all wisdom.  All of  these 5 
are among the Major Arcana of the tarot, also referred to as the Greater  
Trumps, as in the fantasy novel of that name by Charles  Williams.
 
Rebecca's card, alone among all of the Strangelings, is from the Lesser  
Arcana, the Queen of Pentacles being approximately equivalent or historically  
antecedent to today's Queen of Diamonds in the deck of 52 cards that are  
commonly used today.
 
The tarot deck design used by the Strangelings is that of the Rider-Waite  
tarot deck, perhaps the best-known tarot in use.
 
It's at least somewhat unfortunate that Rebecca's card as Queen of  Pentacles 
is cut off so that not all of it can be seen on the front cover of the  
Strangelings CD Season of the Witch, nor on the CD itself, which has the same  
design.  You can see the whole Rebecca / Queen of Pentacles card however,  on the 
gatefold inner side of the front cover.
 
On the CD itself, Maura's head is also cut off, due to the location of the  
central CD hole.
 
Neither Cheryl nor Eric appear on the CD, and so neither of their cards  
appear in the design for Season of the Witch.
 
I wanted to briefly mention other album designs and album concepts roughly  
comparable to that of the Strangelings, very roughly in some cases, insofar as 
I  have these other albums and am thus aware of those areas of comparison.
 
Renaissance, Turn of the Cards, 1974.  The front cover shows a hand  holding 
five tarot cards of an original and fantastical design, the design being  a 
lot like fantasy posters I used to have on my wall, I think they were called  
"black light posters," from the late 60's or early 70's.  On the back cover  of 
the album, with a "turn of the cards," photos of the 5 principle members of  
the band Renaisssance were revealed, presumably being the flipsides of the 5  
fantasy images on the front cover.
 
Alan Parsons Project, The Turn of a Friendly Card, 1980.  This is  nothing at 
all like the Strangelings design, I only mention it in passing.   The album 
design features a King of Diamonds, and there is one song called "The  Ace of 
Swords," one of the Minor Arcana of the tarot in some versions of  the deck.
 
Steve Hackett, Voyage of the Acolyte, 1975.  This is nothing at all  like the 
Strangelings design either, but it is more on-target compared to The  Turn of 
a Friendly Card, WRT theme.  Every song on the album is based on a  tarot 
card -- "Ace of Wands," "Hands of the Priestess Part I," "A Tower Struck  Down," 
"Hands of the Priestess Part II," "The Hermit," "Star of Sirius," "The  
Lovers," "Shadow of the Hierophant."  It's really lovely stuff, with a lot  of 
acoustic guitar and flute music from the Genesis guitarist -- of course flute  and 
electric sitar is what the Strangelings mostly use, by comparison.  The  album 
design consists of original fantasy artwork by Hackett's wife Kim  Poor, that 
is dreamlike, strange, and otherworldly.  One of my all  time favorite 
obscure albums!
 
I couldn't end this without mentioning a song from P&M's very first  album -- 
"Fortune Teller Road."
 
Years ago, I mentioned to TK how the image of "holy altars" as found in  
"Fortune Teller Road" was strikingly similar -- strangely reminiscent -- or  
eerily prescient -- of Dave Carter's "The Mountain" where it goes, "Some build  
temples and some find altars."
 
I think, in conclusion, that both Dave Carter and TK have always been onto  a 
spiritual plane and tapping into a source of real magic, and that it was this 
 spiritual dimension / real magic element that inevitably drew me to both 
Dave  Carter and to TK -- just as, I believe, this same mysterious attraction  
inevitably brought Dave Carter and TK together -- resulting, as we now know, in  
the birth of the Strangelings.
 
For the Strangelings have been quite explicit from the very beginning, and  
have repeated this at their shows, that Dave Carter is sort of the genial 
spirit  or patron saint if you will who has inspired them and helped all of this to 
come  about.
 
The "genius" of the Roman Emperor was thought to be a tutelary spirit, a  
supernatural source of real power.  Dave Carter is the tutelary spirit  behind 
the Strangelings, you might say the "genius" of the Strangelings.
 
Chris & Meredith were already doing "Tanglewood Tree" and "The  Mountain," 
and of course that was a major attraction for me about them too --  that C&M 
were tapping into some of the same magic as TK and Dave  Carter.
 
There's real magic in music, in love, and in nature, and Dave Carter, TK,  
and C&M all embodied that and expressed those 3 aspects of real magic in  their 
art -- love of music, love of life, and love of nature, like 3  different 
faces of one spiritual reality.
 
Just like the ELO song -- "Strange Magic"!  Or in the words of the  lyrics 
from Donovan's "Season of the Witch," the title cut of the Strangelings  CD -- 
"It's strange!  Sure it's strange!"
 
What a mysterious attraction!  Strangelings magic just keeps on  getting 
stranger and stranger.
 
Bruce

Check out the Kennedys' Official Home Page: http://www.KennedysMusic.com/
Fab photos, the Official tour diary, dashboard Buddha haiku, groovy
merchandise...what more could you ask for?

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 21:54:37 EDT
From: Nieldsforever@aol.com
Subject: [JP] Loreena McKennitt 8/21 NYC Borders

In case anyone in NYC can benefit from this.  My favorite artist,  
Loreena McKennitt is mentioned as an influence or at least as a point 
of  departure in Strangelings write-ups.  This free appearance is very  
rare, and she'll be with longtime collaborator / stringed instrument  
guru Brian Hughes. 
==================================
Loreena McKennitt will sign copies of the three-disc DVD/CD set 
Loreena  McKennitt: Nights from the Alhambra at Borders' Columbus 
Circle store in New  York City on the day of its release, Tuesday 
August 21st. 
Borders' Columbus Circle store will play host to Loreena, starting at 
7pm  on the 21st. This free event will include a three-song performance 
by  Loreena, accompanied by multi-instrumentalist Brian Hughes. 
Borders Columbus Circle is located at 10 Columbus Circle, New York 
City,  NY 10019. For further information or directions, phone 
212.823.9775 or visit  Borders' website. 

Check out the Kennedys' Official Home Page: http://www.KennedysMusic.com/
Fab photos, the Official tour diary, dashboard Buddha haiku, groovy
merchandise...what more could you ask for?

------------------------------

End of jangle-poets-digest V9 #88
*********************************