From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V6 #274 Reply-To: shindell-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk shindell-list-digest Tuesday, November 23 2004 Volume 06 : Number 274 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] Eliza, other artists ["greg z" ] Re: [RS] And it burns, burns, burns... [rfoxwell@wso.williams.edu] Re: [RS] Vuelta Cover Photo [Vanessa Wills ] Re: [RS] Pi songs [Vanessa Wills ] Re: [RS] there goes mavis [adam plunkett ] Re: [RS] there goes mavis [Chris Foxwell ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 09:03:55 -0500 From: "greg z" Subject: [RS] Eliza, other artists Thanks for all the reviews and tips on Eliza folks, time to look up some of her material. One other peformer that Richard has mentioned, David Massengill, I have found to be very good. In fact here's a link to the Kerrville, TX Folk Festival where you can find a whole hour of him and many others: http://www.kerrville-music.com/kerrvertmusic/ He's in the 2002 lineup; in fact I just noticed Eliza is, as well; quite a website. I think David mentions he's from Brisol, TN. Having been through there some years ago, it's interesting that one side of Main St. in Bristol is in Tennessee, and the other side is in Virginia. :-) So we know which side of town he's from. ;-) I recently also saw Richard's former band mate, Mr. Gorka, #10 on the WUMB list. He told a funny story about the Razzy Dazzy Spasm band - nobody had a car, so their tours were limited to as far as they could carry the equipment; Bethlehem, in other words. Lucy Kaplansky played "Ring Of Fire" at one of the co-bills with Richard, kind of cool. Duke Levine made it sound great with his guitar work. A gentleman who co-wrote "Ring Of Fire," Merle Kilgore, used to tour with Hank Williams, Jr. years ago. He always seemed to play it and say "and I dedicate this song to the wonderful manufacturers of Preparation H." No kidding here. Enough attempted comedy for today. Enjoy the music everybody! Greg Z - -- _______________________________________________ Find what you are looking for with the Lycos Yellow Pages http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 10:03:35 -0500 From: rfoxwell@wso.williams.edu Subject: Re: [RS] And it burns, burns, burns... Quoting greg z : > Lucy Kaplansky played "Ring Of Fire" at one of the co-bills with > Richard, kind of cool. Duke Levine made it sound great with his guitar work. I agree, I like Lucy plus Duke on that cover. My absolute favorite version, though, is Greg Brown's. > A gentleman who co-wrote "Ring Of Fire," Merle Kilgore, used to tour with > Hank Williams, Jr. years ago. He always seemed to play it and say "and I > dedicate this song to the wonderful manufacturers of Preparation H." No > kidding here. Wow. That's awesome. - --Chris ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 19:45:58 -0500 From: Vanessa Wills Subject: Re: [RS] Vuelta Cover Photo Ron, I love that you just happened to have your copy of SP on you for reference's sake. :) My friend Jay, upon seeing Richard in concert this weekend, was frankly startled to notice that Richard does not appear to have aged a day since he was photographed for Sparrows Point. I hadn't given it much thought before, but it's true. I'll have what he's having. The photography in the Vuelta liner notes is stunning: so much so that I plan to find out more about the photographer and check out some of his other work. That back cover image, for instance, that Pat noted, is perfectly eerily compelling, like so much of Richard's music. - --V, who knows that there is a word for replying to three-month-old posts, and that that word is "procrastinate." On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 13:00:24 -0400, rongrittz@aol.com wrote: > >> Anyone notice how very similar the image of Richard is on the cover of "Vuelta" to the back cover image of "Sparrow[no apostrophe]s Point"? << > > Interestingly (well, it's interesting to me), a few years ago I was at a photo shoot for a print ad for my job here at Sony, and I was having a cup of coffee with the photographer. We got to talking about music, and I took out my copy of "Sparrows Point" and asked him if he was familiar with Richard Shindell. Indeed he was; it turns out that he was the guy who shot the SP photos! > > RG ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 19:51:22 -0500 From: Vanessa Wills Subject: Re: [RS] Pi songs This is hysterical! I'm teaching an intro to philosophy course in the spring. Maybe *I* can slip some RS songs into the syllabus! - --V On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 22:03:51 -0500, Norman Johnson wrote: > Kristen wrote: > > >> but I did find the authors website. Seems he focuses on using music to teach math. > http://www.math.utep.edu/Faculty/lesser/Mathemusician.html << > > Oh, and he has a pi song. I wonder whether he knows Lucy's dad. > > http://www.math.utep.edu/Faculty/lesser/americanpi.html > > Norman ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 16:48:45 -0800 (PST) From: adam plunkett Subject: Re: [RS] there goes mavis Good post Christy! I cannot speak for others, but I have always thought of "There Goes Mavis" as political or an allegory about recent events since the first tiem I heard it. My feelings were, in my mind, were verified when I saw Richard this past September in New Hampshire. When introducing the song, he said he was working with the image of a castle crumbling on itself and got stuck from there until his daughter wante to buy a canary which gave him the idea of throwing the canary into the song. If he started out with the crumbling castle image, I would suspect he agrees with the political analysis. Funny, it never occured to me to think about what happens to the bird after. I guess I always read the song as Mavis representing freedom/love, etc flying free from the castle that is crumbling under its own laws and restraints. On another note, on my way home tonight WUMB in Boston played a "new track from Tracy Grammer". Now, I know very little about her and her late husband bgut in this song, there is a line referring to "richard says we turn into the whipporell"...would this be a reference to the Shindell song? The song also had references to Dace Carter songs as well I think but again, I could be wrong as I know very little about his music. (I mean no disrespect just never was a huge fan....it's funny Richard is my favorite songwriter and many of the people associated with him I dislike, from Lucy Kaplansky to John Gorka, though I like his ballads, to David Massingill....everyone has different tastes!) Christy Thomas wrote: i recently saw richard in chicago (11/12/04) and it was a fabulous show as many here have reported...rad was...well...rad. richard's voice, however, is simply bliss to me...i mean that - BLISS...there is no other way to describe it. ok...to the point of my posting (rather than lurking as is my way)...i'm not a big fan of Mavis, either...but it was just breathtaking live...he does such lovely things with his voice that...well, it was quite enjoyable... someone, however, mentioned that the song was "too sweet" for them...i beg to differ (rather respectfully, if i may)...i believe mavis is flying off to her death...and i hope that if that isn't what richard intended that he won't be terribly insulted by my rather macabre interpretation... mother says, "she'll never survive on her own"...and comes running after the girl and the bird with a cage...but the girl...in her innocence and ignorance encourages the bird to fly away...to be free...because FREEDOM is the key, right?...at ANY cost... i'll not get all "political" on ya'll...but, i feel a political message from this song...freedom's on the march - whatever the cost...YOU WILL BE FREE...whether that means you die or not...because in "seven year old" kind of logic (the girl "can't be more than seven") granting freedom is what MUST happen... it doesn't seem to hurt that it distracts all of the rest of us from the fact that the castle is in danger... my two cents...your mileage may vary... PEACE, c __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! - Get yours free! http://my.yahoo.com The all-new My Yahoo!  Get yours free! ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 20:30:18 -0500 (EST) From: Chris Foxwell Subject: Re: [RS] there goes mavis On Tue, 23 Nov 2004, adam plunkett wrote: > I cannot speak for others, but I have always thought of "There Goes > Mavis" as political or an allegory about recent events since the first > tiem I heard it. My feelings were, in my mind, were verified when I saw > Richard this past September in New Hampshire. When introducing the > song, he said he was working with the image of a castle crumbling on > itself and got stuck from there until his daughter wante to buy a canary > which gave him the idea of throwing the canary into the song. If he > started out with the crumbling castle image, I would suspect he agrees > with the political analysis. I too enjoyed Christy's post. Very nice ideas. Regarding Richard's comment about the song: I actually came away with the opposite impression, after Richard gave a near-identical description of the song. In a show in Boston not too long ago--can't remember which it was, there are three possibilities, two Passim shows or the most recent Somerville Theater show--Richard said that he was trying for some grand crumbling-castle song, but that it wasn't going anywhere. Then when his daughter was talking about a canary, he decided to go with a whim and try putting the canary into the song, and wham, it changed everything, and he wound up with a nice little children's tale. I came away from that thinking that the *original* intent of the song was to make a big symbolic construction, something about youth and time and shifting priorities, but that it just wasn't working for him, and he leapt at the opportunity to finish it off with something whimsical and light, almost random. Now, we all know Richard's music. *Nothing* he puts into his song is random or meaningless. I'm not saying that nothing has any meaning in the song...indeed, the very concept is alien to my brand of song interpretation and enjoyment. ("What do you MEAN it doesn't mean anything?? What kind of music is that??") I just felt like the grand ideas he had for the song wound up...well, crumbling, and the song morphed into a light, airy tune about children on a beach, witnessing a strange event. (That was exactly how he introduced the song at another performance, months and months ago.) In any case, what deep and meaningful interpretations I did/do have of Mavis focus more on the above-mentioned issues--time, growing up, shifting tides and crumbling castles and the eroding of one's youth--then they do on politics. I do really like Christy's thoughts, though, them's good stuff. - --Chris ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V6 #274 ***********************************