What are you listening to right now?

[Jeff]

[Jeff]

[Jeff]

[MacCruiskeen]

"The song of heart's desire" - Mary's Black's version is the most beautiful I could find on YouTube:







An extraordinary old-style (sean nós) rendition by the legendary travelling singer MB:



And like a love-sick leannan sídhe,
She hath my heart in thrall.
Nor life I own, nor liberty,
For love is lord of all.

[MacCruiskeen]

Two amazing singers performing the second-most-beautiful Irish love song:

She was notoriously wild at this time and there are many stories, from this period, about her antics, such as pushing Johnny Moynihan and Andy Irvine out of a hay loft and, on another occasion, jumping into the sea at Malin Head, Donegal, to chase seals. In an episode of Folk Britannia (a documentary history of UK folk music) aired in 2006 Richard Thompson recalled that he only ever encountered Anne Briggs twice; and on both occasions she was drunk and unconscious. Her attendance at bookings was so erratic that it was said she turned up only 5 times between mid-1963 and early 1965.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Briggs

Usually I think these songs just have to be sung a cappella, but Odetta's strange, minimal, sepulchral Spanish guitar accompaniment is really haunting here. (Can't embed ithe video, you have to watch it on YouTube):



My young love said to me,
My mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you
For your lack of kind.
And she laid her hand on me
And this she did say:
It will not be long, love,
Till our wedding day.

She stepped away from me
And she moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her
Move here and move there.
And then she turned homeward
With one star awake
As the swan in the evening
Moves over the lake.

The people were saying
No two e'er were wed
But one had a sorrow
That never was said.
And I smiled as she passed
With her goods and her gear,
And that was the last
That I saw of my dear.

Last night she came to me,
My dead love came in.
So softly she came
That her feet made no din.
And she laid her hand on me
And this she did say:
It will not be long, love,
'Til our wedding day.

[Hammer of Los]

I've always loved Richard Thompson.

[IanEye]

.

Macca Ho-Tep



please lock me away - and don't allow the day - here inside - where i hide



my so-called friends stopped being friendly - oh but you can't keep a good man down



i've been waiting - here for you - wondering - what we're gonna do



any day now - when your restless eyes - meet someone new



some day when we're dreaming - deep in love - not a lot to say



now they've finally brought you - brought you home to me



martin luther - phil & don - uncle ernie - antigen



i had conquered the world - ah, but what then - did eye have?
without love - i had nothing - at all



lovers in a dream - warmer than the Son

.

[Cosmic Cowbell]

[Jeff]

RIP...

You Say Party! We Say Die! drummer Clifford died of brain hemorrhage: family

Sun Apr 18, 8:07 PM
By Nick Patch, The Canadian Press

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - Drummer Devon Clifford of You Say Party! We Say Die! died of a massive brain hemorrhage, his family said Sunday in a statement.

The Abbotsford, B.C., band was playing a show on Friday night at Vancouver's Rickshaw Theatre when Clifford suddenly collapsed.

The statement said the hemorrhage was the result of "congenital defects" and that Clifford fell into a coma and doctors performed surgery but were unable to save him. He was just 30 years old.

"Devon Clifford was an extremely gifted drummer and determined character," said the statement, released by the band's publicist, Darryl Weeks.

"He loved his family, loved his band, loved travelling, loved being on stage and loved meeting people around the world. He was smart, witty, passionate, and music meant everything to him. He was also incredibly generous with his love and respected everybody he came into contact with."

The family went on to "remind young people to have the courage to follow their dreams like Devon did." They also praised his involvement with the Portland Hotel Society, a group that helps provide shelter for Vancouver's homeless population.

The dance-punk band released their third full-length album, "XXXX," in September and was due to embark on a European tour later this month.

The band commented on Clifford's situation Saturday night on their Twitter account, prior to his death.

"There aren't a lot of words right now," the band wrote. "Let the doctors do their job."

Soon after, they posted: "We are devastated and trying to keep hope. He needs (a) miracle. Thank you."

The band posted a final message this morning: ""DEVON CLIFFORD 1979-2010 R.I.P."

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/1004 ... sd_drummer

[Laodicean]

[Nordic]

So, Mac, if "She Moved Through the Fair" is the second- most lovely Irish folk song, what is the first?

[MacCruiskeen]

So, Mac, if "She Moved Through the Fair" is the second- most lovely Irish folk song, what is the first?

My Lagan Love, Nordic. (I only posted four different versions of it in the previous post!) But it's daft to make these comparisons anyway, so I take it back. They are both great songs.

Here's one of the most phenomenal instrumental performances I have ever seen in any genre:



The first two minutes show the four of them doing some very quiet and pretty and delicate ensemble work. It's like water over rocks, but nothing really special; although it's beautiful contrapuntal playing in itself, it essentially functions as an intro. Then there's a dynamic bridging passage on bouzouki and mandolin that changes the colour of the music while also giving the piper time to switch instruments and crank up the full set of uilllean pipes. (You can hear the bass drone emerging from deep space while he does so). And then the thing takes off.

Well, they say that instrument has a "speaking" quality, like the human voice, and so it does. But O'Flynn's playing in the last 60 seconds of that performance gives it something transcendental. On the high notes it's like an elf on magic mushrooms going mad with joy, if I can put it that way, and surely I can't. He's as great a musician as Ravi Shankar, but here he reminds me more of Hendrix, seriously: those howling blue notes, and the rhythmic drive, and the sheer bloody speed of it, and the way he lives in the music and just listens to it while it passes, although he does look like a civil servant. In fact he used to be a civil servant. Liam Óg O'Flynn, The Electric Civil Servant.

Jaysus. I'll shut up now.

[barracuda]

[Nordic]

So, Mac, if "She Moved Through the Fair" is the second- most lovely Irish folk song, what is the first?

My Lagan Love, Nordic. (I only posted four different versions of it in the previous post!) But it's daft to make these comparisons anyway, so I take it back. They are both great songs.

Here's one of the most phenomenal instrumental performances I have ever seen in any genre:



The first two minutes show the four of them doing some very quiet and pretty and delicate ensemble work. It's like water over rocks, but nothing really special; although it's beautiful contrapuntal playing in itself, it essentially functions as an intro. Then there's a dynamic bridging passage on bouzouki and mandolin that changes the colour of the music while also giving the piper time to switch instruments and crank up the full set of uilllean pipes. (You can hear the bass drone emerging from deep space while he does so). And then the thing takes off.

Well, they say that instrument has a "speaking" quality, like the human voice, and so it does. But O'Flynn's playing in the last 60 seconds of that performance gives it something transcendental. On the high notes it's like an elf on magic mushrooms going mad with joy, if I can put it that way, and surely I can't. He's as great a musician as Ravi Shankar, but here he reminds me more of Hendrix, seriously: those howling blue notes, and the rhythmic drive, and the sheer bloody speed of it, and the way he lives in the music and just listens to it while it passes, although he does look like a civil servant. In fact he used to be a civil servant. Liam Óg O'Flynn, The Electric Civil Servant.

Jaysus. I'll shut up now.

Thanks. Funny I was just scrolling through this thread and saw all the stuff of "Lagan Love" and wondered if that was it. Yup.

I'll have to check it out. I have limited time when I can turn up the volume and watch and listen to these sorts of things.

Cool to find a lover of this kind of music here. This music breaks my heart. It pushes some button very deep and primal within me, always has. Then, my best friend, who got me interested in this kind of music long long ago, died on Memorial Day back in 1989, so it reminds me of him so much that it makes me even more sad.

I first heard "She moved through the fair" in the Van Morrison with the Chieftains album. Driving through Big Sur, California. Holy shit what a great way to hear that.

[barracuda]