moon traveller herald

The Bold Stump reunion brought together John Ruetz, Mike Brusha, Jim Haas, Jeff DeMark, Paul DeMark, Syd Matterrer and myself, and here I provide some background thoughts on preparation of the presentation. In my imagination, it was a little journey on music toward the "castle of heaven." Mars Cheese Castle Hwy I-94 My boy-0’s and I put a lot of effort into the undertaking. It being our 3rd appearance as The Bold Stumps at George’s Tavern on Main St in Racine Wis., more than a few twists and turns had occurred. That's since our 2018 outing at George's . A change in the band this year, as Bob Stepien retired from the grind, and Syd Matterrer took up the bass on this. Twists, turns and Stumbles - not the least of which was the global COVID pandemic. Cue the Blues: “That’s life”. Several of our players are pros - I am not one of them. For me it was a learning experience in collaboration, negotiation and expression. I felt I could deliver the songs if I could inhabit the...

The Sweet Triangle On one level, John Eliot Gardiner's "Bach" is a biography of the most sublime composer J.S. Bach. But it is so much more than a parade of facts. It is endlessly informative and illuminative.  Most of Bach's music was done as part of his work for the Lutheran Church, and according to its liturgical cycle. It is not surprising then that Gardiner deeply explores Bach's spiritualistic bearing. The works are directed to or from heaven, as indicated in the book's subtitle: "Music in the Castle of Heaven." Worth noting it is that Gardiner is penetratingly aware of the abyss between the trusting cantata writer Bach and today's world, mistrustful of such. We may never see another so strong in "imaginative gift, cratsmanship and human empathy." Gardiner is a leader of the original instrument movement that arose in the 1970s He was a driver of a movement that sought a path to re-inhabit music that was becoming something of a lif...

 

Jack Vaughan 3 · City Hospital Blues This "Talk Song" goes back about 10 or 15 years at least. The story is that my Uncle Charles was on Intravenous Feeding for 30 days in Boston City Hospital during the 1919 Influenza Pandemic. I had been listening to an LP of Cecelia's - the "Arhoolie Bad Luck N' Trouble" release, which included the haunting Essie Jenkins' "Influenza Blues"-- and came to re-imagine my uncle's illness, through the spectre of Essie's poetic rumination. So, it is her Influenza blues through the lens of a family history. I was reluctant to trot this out, though it came to mind as we are in our own COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020. But I am glad to post it now along with some explaination. As we know it, the IV feed was new and experimental technology at the time. My uncle was obviously in very difficult straits. As we know it, my grandmother spent most all of the 30 days at Charles's bedside praying, and for us his rec...

It's rainin' inside a big brown moon How does that mess you baby up, leg Eatin' a Reuben sandwich with sauerkraut Don't stop now, baby, let it all hang out. Billy Cunningham was in the Memphis band The Hombres when he wrote those lines. Ooops, no. Billy Cunningham was in the Memphis BoxTopss. But his brother B.B. was in the Hombres. To me, there could hardly be any bit of writing more in synch with the tenor of the Basement Tapes of Dylan and the Band. Slipshot, off-the-hip, Boccaccioan. In tune with some eternal slapstick mode. Dylan and the Band were down in the basement in 1967 putting out similar. [Last time you said Rabelisian; what is with you?] Sometimes I have wondered if Dylan didnt hear Let it all Hang it out when he was composing the Basement oevre. Griel Marcus focuses on 1967's Ode to Billie Joe by Bobby Gentry as the magnet that attacted Bob and the Band to revisit off-beat country talk songs [I am a Teenage Prayer, The AllAmerican BOy, Teen Angel .. ...

Some tremendous old geezers are on tour in the North at present. Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and Ray Price. Merle and Willie separately toured with Bob Dylan in the last few years [on the last go-round Bob called on lesser but quite distinguished Texas mortals Jimmie Vaughan and Jr. Brown to open] and it is nice they got idea to tour together and to the inimitable Price, who forged I’d say the Countrypalitan sound, is Texan, like the other boys seeped in Bob Wills, and who now bears a strange resemblance to Walter Cronkite [in a Countrypalitan suit with those odd arrow vector accoutrements.] Asleep at the Wheel did backup! Bob Wills is still the King, the thread, fountain and the source here. To read Ben Ratliff’s NYT music review [A Half-Century of Honky-tonk with a Trove of Hits] of show at Radio City Musci Hall is tob awed by the show one missed and by the great portrayal by Ratcliff. From NYC the show [called Last of the Breed” – let’s hope not] went to the Riverside Theature in ...