eleneariel | Entries tagged with music

Does anyone have the song Tell My Ma (aka I'll Tell My Ma or I'll Tell Me Ma) that they'd send me, specifically the version sung by The Rankin Family? I'd take any version at this point, but it's the Rankins that have stolen my heart. It was on their 1992 album Fare Thee Well Love and the 1995 album North Country, and I want that song SO MUCH but it's not available as am mp3 download on Amazon. Woe is me.

Seriously, listen. I want to teach it to all my friends and family and have a big kitchen party with everyone standing around in a huge circle and singing loudly, clapping our hands and stomping our feet and oh yes, I'm sure there'll be a bodhran or two in there somewhere.

First of all I must note that it seems that if you are male and attending a Blitzen Trapper show, in order to fit in you must sport either a messy overgrown mop of hair a la Neil Gaiman, an impressive set of sideburns, a mustache of some type, or a very healthy beard. Or all of the above.

Ya'll, I have never seen so much facial hair in one place in my life.

Also I saw a dead ringer for

patrick___ and also a lovable-teddy-bear version of David Duchovny, who I covertly watched throughout the evening (he was with a woman he obviously ADORED and therefore it was adorable d'aaw).

And ... And ... oh my gosh you guys I have never been to a show before where you just pack the house (or dimly lit and slightly smokey music hall, whatever) full of people who stand shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the (small, crowded) stage for 2 1/2 hours and listen to music so heart-stoppingly loud you walk out with aching eardrums also I got a purple lip-print stamped on the back of my hand that proved I was over 21. This seems important to note for some reason.

Also now that I have seen them, I like Venture Brothers and Batman Begins (Christian Bale FTW).

ALSO we went to a huge and rambling (and ramshackle) antique mall which was apparently the hangout for local teens. I find this an interesting social commentary on the town.

Oh and hey I took these pictures of, well, in Missouri apparently people have Mergencies. Also low-budget movies for kids don't seem to spend money on proofreaders.

( MERGENCY! MERGENCY! )

Also here have a link, it made me laugh and laugh.

The End. :)

( Pictures here. )

So I went up to MSSU in Joplin last night to see Great Big Sea in concert.

Nobody WARNED me what a Newfoundland kitchen party is like. You GUYS. I wouldn't have worn heels if I'd known I was going to be jumping up and down all night!

But backing up: I was worried about arriving in time because I had checked the GBS message boards and found people who were driving THREE HUNDRED MILES to come to the show, and were talking about showing up to get in line three and four hours before the doors opened. I showed up an hour before they opened to find ... a handful of these fanatic groupies waiting, but other than that, no crowd. (Altogether I estimate there were probably about a thousand people there, maybe a little more. Not too shabby, Joplin.)

So I stood in line for an hour reading The Joy of Drinking by Barbara Holland and alternately eavesdropping on the conversations of the people in front of me, chatting it up with and receiving free music from a random celtic rock band member, and talking to a middle-aged accountant about World War Z: An oral history of the zombie war and her experiences seeing GBS in a hundred-year-old club in downtown Austen where she feared the floor would cave in from all the people dancing on it.

Also there were quite a few portly old gentlemen with large beards who stood around smoking pipes. I'm assuming this was the official authentic Newfoundland contingent, quite possibly with small flasks of whiskey hidden somewhere about their person.

So then the doors opened and I rushed in and sat down three rows from the front. At first I wondered if that might be a wee bit too close, but it turned out to be perfect as all the hard-core fans sat in about the first ten rows, and these were the rows which stood and clapped, danced, and sang along very loudly the entire concert. I felt just the tiniest bit sorry for all the casual fans and students who were just there for the credits sitting behind us, but not bad enough to sit down. It was awesome to be surrounded by the people who were really, really into the music.

While waiting for the show to start I pretended to read and eavesdropped on my neighbors, two of whom looked alarmingly like Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, and listened to them compared distances traveled, shows attended ... and critique the venue, the other fans, the programs, etc. It was amusing. Also I saw a vague smokish substances wafting across the stage and through a bit of texting discovered that this likely meant there was going to be LASERS which was .... interesting. Wrong on several levels, and yet in the end amazingly right?

See, I love this kind of music, but most of my experience with it is in recorded form, or possibly informal renfaire gigs, where people wander in and out and half-pay attention. Most of the proper concerts I've gone to are the sit-quietly-and-clap-sedately-between-pieces (but never between movements), and so when the lights went dark and then BOOM, there was an explosion of sound and light and the backdrop lit up with artwork from Fortune's Favor (I find the anatomy on that woman very interesting) and suddenly there they were, and the crowd rose as one (or at least everyone surrounding me) and started stomping and clapping and singing along to a rousing rendition of Donkey Riding, albeit a less bawdy version than I am used to, seeing as I learned it from pirates and all ... it was a very different experience than what I have experienced before. And we, the hardcore fans, stayed standing until the end of the evening.

I'm also used to concerts where cell phones are banned and you are instructed under no circumstances to record or photograph the event - I brought my camera just in case, but fully expected not to get a single picture. What a thrill to find performers who don't just tolerate cameras, but HAM IT UP for them. And they clearly fed off of audience participation and interaction - we up there in the front were fairly rowdy (there was quite a bit of spontaneous step-dancing going on and a fair amount of vertical movement; enthusiastic hand-clapping, food-stomping, and singing along which lasted throughout the entire show), but I think Alan would have been even happier if there had been bona fide dancing in the aisles.

During the first set Alan went over a coaxed a little one-year-old to join him on stage (holding him up high above his head so all could see - SO cute! the kid looked a little shell-shocked, but quite brave), but the sweetest bit was later on in the second set, when the guys started to notice the kid standing right up by the stage on the far left. He stood there during the entire concert, solemnly and intently watching the drummer, and imitating his every movement. At some point during the second set I saw Murray nodding his head to Kris, the drummer, making sure he'd noticed the boy, and a few minutes later Kris ran across the stage between songs to hand the boy his drumsticks. And for the rest of the show the boy played air-drums with real sticks. :)

Needless to say, the energy in that building was amazing. Even if the guy just down the row from me couldn't clap on the beat.

I have been at a bit of a loss as to how to describe the music, but I think they label themselves folk-rock, and so shall I. The evening was a nice mix of piratey/sea-faring shanties (the harmonies they have are superb, and Sean can play a mean bodhran) to real folk-rock, to a song or two of more full-on rock. Music ranging from 13th century English ballads to songs composed on the spot (a hilarious riff on some Janis Joplin songs).

Joplin, btw, is a city I am growing quite fond of. They have a Chick-fil-A, for one thing.

Their showmanship was awesome, but combined with their superior musicianship, well, it made them a band really worth seeing. They were coming off of a string of twelve shows in thirteen days, and you could tell they were really comfortable with the lineup and each other - everything was polished, but you could tell they were really having fun with it.

Sean truly has a celtic voice. Alan is such a rockstar at heart. Heehee.

I heard later than an older couple left after the first song, muttering about "this isn't what I thought it was going to be!" I'm sure they heard "folk music" and expected something mellow and homespun, and instead they got drums, lasers, and a lot of loud lyrics. lol.

What I can remember of the playlist:

Donkey Riding
Captain Kidd
Love Me Tonight
The Night that Paddy Murphy Died (oh ho ho ho, what a great sing-along)
When I'm Up
England
HelmutHead
Gideon Brown
Run Run Away
When I Am King
General Taylor
Scolding Wife
I'm A Rover
John Barbour
Consequence Free
Mari Mac (hahaha, love singing along to this one!)
Excursion Around the Bay
Fortune Set
Straight to Hell
Old Black Rum

Also at one point somebody brought out a disco ball. I'm not kidding.

For behold, after an absence of ten years, give or take, she has once again found a radio station that carries Thistle and Shamrock.

Now you know where she'll be every Saturday night at seven.

- I am happy to report -- and you will all be overjoyed to hear, I am sure -- that my new shoes pass the 8-hour test.* In fact, I wore them 10 hours plus a grocery shopping trip and nary a sprained ankle or torn ligament to show for it. And it is great fun viewing the world from a five-foot-eight-and-a-half-inch height once in a while.

- If all goes according to plan, I'll be watching Braveheart this weekend. I saw the first bit while on the treadmill at the gym last week, oddly enough. To combat the serious and bloody nature of the film, I'm looking for another, much lighter, flick to revive myself with afterwards. I am as yet undecided as to the nature of this second pick -- I'll gladly take suggestions, although I will probably end up renting something entirely different.

- A song by The Decemberists suddenly gave me the perfect idea for a new LJ theme. It's time for a change, I say! And this one, contrary to popular opinion, will suit my deepest self perfectly. Alas, I haven't time to work on it yet -- watch for it, though. Someday.

- I'm sort of mildly obsessed with The Decemberists at the moment, by the way. What I like about them is that they always sound like they are right there. And they have facinating lyrics. I sort of forgot about their music for some months, and I am so glad to have rediscovered it.

* Being comfortable enough to wear while being off and on one's feet for an 8-hour work day

I must get my hands on a copy of Sting's Songs from the Labyrinth. This is amazing stuff. Amazing. 16th century songs for the lute. In.credi.ble.

Today R.E.M.'s "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" and "Crush With Eyeliner" got me through the day.

I listened to some Alicia Keys but I wasn't really in the mood.

My new musical love is Cake's 1994 song "Rock 'N' Roll Lifestyle."

(Also, I had no idea that "Stickshifts and Safetybelts" was a Cake song. Wha...?)

How much did you pay
For the chunk of his guitar,
The one he ruthlessly smashed
At the end of the show?
And how much will he pay
For a brand-new guitar,
One which he'll ruthlessly smash,
At the end of another show?

The day had a dream-like quality.

I cried today for a man I didn't know and never met. He died three years ago.

I think I played the Roguetrip cd through seven times today.

(For just five days I felt like Keats.)

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: When Diana Fell, The Rogues

I have a twenty-second clip of EMF's "Unbelievable" stuck in my head. On repeat. Over. And Over. And Over.

Cool song, but you know, seriously.

I drove home at 10:00 tonight with the windows down and hair blowing everywhere. It was 71 degrees.

Aaaand I have tomorrow off.

I thanked a veteran today.

Having so loudly and publicly maligned it, it is only right that I equally loudly and publicly make this announcement:

Ladies and gentlemen, I, Marie, do hereby declare that I no longer hate jazz.

That is all.

-I only know my bank account numbers backwards.

-

crystallia wins Gold Stars and whatever other virtual accolades I can heap upon her, for behold, I have in my possession a Cranberries CD and it is Good. I knew nothing about the band when I first listened to it, and I kept thinking, "gosh, what a classic Celtic-sounding voice encased in such non-Celtic music," and lo and behold, it turns out the lead (only?) vocalist is from Ireland. She has the sound of the music I used to listen to on Thistle and Shamrock... I miss that program. Celtic music has the power to move me so deeply.

- I like dark wash jeans very much.

- I went for a spin in the new Mercedes. *geeky grin* I still haven't gotten a decent picture of it, but one will come along one of these days.

-

patrick___ asked me which was my favorite of the books I've read so far this year. I take this reading stuff Seriously, so I've taken some time to ponder and I believe I have come upon the answer: Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. I've read a whole bunch of good books, fiction and non, and it's so hard to pick favorites, but wow, that one kept me riveted. Go read it.

- Part of me wishes I was doing NaNo again this year, and the other part says "Been there, wrote that, got the novel to prove it."

[Poll #855439]

patrick___ , I have done as you said and listened to The Wedding Present's Always the Quiet One. I like! It reminds me of some of the stuff

lost_romanov put on the really great mix CD she made for me, only now of course I can't remember the names of the ones it reminds me of. Ah well.

I've got Elizabethtown rented to watch with mom tomorrow. I swiped copies of both of the soundtracks last week and I've had them playing almost constantly since - some good, good stuff there, and it made me want to see the movie again NOW. So therefore the noble cause of Introducing My Mother To It. Well, hey, she also likes the music.

Mmm. Some bedtime books are calling to me.

Thursdays we're open til nine, so I took my supper hour late and at seven rushed to a church a few blocks away. I have always thought it was an ugly, crumbling place (so depressing), but once inside I found it is singularly beautiful, with floor to ceiling stained glass, and a high, arched wooden ceiling with massive wooden beams. (Do not judge a building by it's outward appearance!)

I slipped into a back pew (it creaked delightfully in that old-pew way) just as the program began. (I was likely the only person in the room under the age of 65, barring the performer.) He came out in a cream linen suit (and a grey bow tie) and before I could breath, the vintage 1922 organ was producing a level of music that it had probably never encountered before. The two hands and the two feet flying around, the bass so low that the window panes rattled and the very pew I sat in vibrated and the wood joined harmony with the pipes.

For an hour I let my soul rest.

I have a question for those who are more knowledgable than I. All I know about most modern music acts (pop/rock) are what I hear on the radio. I'm thinking about getting some CDs off of half.com (anyone have experience buying used CDs from them? Good? Bad?). I like bands like Maroon 5, Matchbox 20, Train...anybody care to comment on these and others like them, in regards to what are their best CDs, etc?

ransomedsea, I'm thinking you could help me. =)

Am I a traitor for thinking that the remake of I'm a Believer is every bit as good as the orginal?

Now that thanksgiving is over, Things I Do Not Like And Am Not Thankful For:

-hoodies
-those bags covered in huge sequins
-not having enough time to do all the fun stuff in life

I am not getting a sore throat. I am NOT.

I have heard from various sources that today is supposed to be the most depressing day of the year. Not so, say I. I am most wonderfully deliriously happy. I do believe my feet are floating several inches off the ground. I saw someone that Made. My. Day., had a conversation with said person that was fantastic, ate two yogurts, am driving a new car, listened to the best Celtic Music Ever on the great sound system of said car (courtesy of

equuschick), and got a random compliment on my hair from someone that I never would have suspected of complimenting young women. (Okay, so it slightly freaked me out, but it was still nice.)

And I feel beautiful and feminine and my hair is behaving just perfectly.

There were several random happenings at the library today. The strangest was that a photographer and a male model came and asked permission to do some shoots in the library, because the photographer was building a portfolio to show to a perspective client. That I can understand. But...to impress someone you come take pictures in THIS LIBRARY? We are not aesthetically pleasing. At all. It's a relic from the '60s, typical library 1960s architecture. (ie, ugly.) But we said yes, and there he was, posing in the stacks with his long blond hair and typical model-type clothes. It was hilarious.

The cutest little girl was standing next to her mother at the checkout desk, trying to hold onto her jacket and her books. Finally she gave up and yelled in frustration, "Mommy, I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH HANDS!" I sympathise entirely.

All of James Taylor's songs sound the same. Every. Single. One. Of. Them.

However, this is not the reason to celebrate. Instead it is this: after a year and two months, I've finally finished reading the Odyssey. This means: time for the Iliad!

( this is what happens when I'm bored and have access to a scanner )

I got my books from the college library today. *joy* Off home, then, to begin reading them.

I had a marvelous, glorious weekend, which I won't actually describe because describing it wouldn't convey just how marvelous and glorious it was. But I was in the presence--close presence--of greatness, and it filled my heart with dreams. Saturday I was one face in a crowd of 20,000; I listened to the Truth spoken, and Beauty sung, while lying on a blanket on a hillside under the stars. Sunday I sat within three yards of the five talented people who every September give me the best evening of my year. I know their stories and their faces and the very inflections in their voices, and each one becomes a dream that I carry with me. I go home with the beat in my head and it lasts until the next year, making me better and higher. All day I've been singing and dreaming.

Dreaming. I seem to dream a lot. Sometimes I wonder if I'll wake up at the end of my life and realize I've never really lived, only drempt, but these are such beautiful things that I can't give them up. In my heart I'm confident I'm really living. And part of my living is dreaming.

And the one who actually knows what I did this weekend probably will be confused at how I described this, but emotions don't always correspond with the actual event. Or something.

"He's the oldest new member of the group, and if anyone can figure out what I mean, let me know."

Current Mood: dreamy

Last night I was bold enough to don a pair of black, ankle high zip-up boots with four inch heels, which I Would Never Have Bought Myself, Honest, and went to a concert. Probably everyone will laugh when I say that hearing good, real bluegrass music live in a crowded church is almost a religious experience. I went to see the Franz Family. It was an experience only topped by seeing Doyal Lawson and Quicksilver in the same circumstances--they are The Best, trumpped only occasionally by Red Wine, who sometimes win out just because they're Italian.

The father was slightly too jovial and fake-hickish (since when is being from Arkansas something to exploit? And they're orginally from Nebraska, so that doesn't even count!) But the mother was an EmmyLou Harris lookalike, and the children incredibly talented. The oldest is only 22, and plays guitar, banjo, mandolin, and violin, with a fine tenor voice to boot. The 20 year old with the strange name of Hadley plays whatever his older brother isn't at the moment. Audra, who is my age, plays mandolin wonderfully, writes songs, and then sings them in her beautiful, soulful, almost Alicia Keys-type voice. And she can hold a note longer then anyone I've heard except Michael Crawford, but while his are merely painful to hear, her's are beautiful. The Beatles-haired 17 year old plays dobro better then a lot of adults I've heard. As a trivia fact, he also has metal plates and screws in his leg and jaw, which is why he rattles when he walks. So they say. (And thus was born my favorite song that they sang: "Blessed Is The Man That Does Not Hurt Himself While Sledding." Olivia is the youngest, 15, and sings while looking older then her oldest brother.

As always after an experience like this, I get the Longing to go Do Something Like That. Not that I'd particularly enjoy spending 200 days out of the year on the road. But I know the joy and exhilaration of being on a stage doing something you love, and being good at it. And it's adictive. So maybe it's a good thing I wasn't born into such a family. I'd probably turn into a insufferable brat.

My second poll:
[Poll #247842]

3/12
My dad just said something sweet enough to make me feel like crying. Yeah, we don't agree on everything. And yeah, he could be a heck of a lot more emotionally open. ; ) But all the same, I'm really glad my mom picked that handsome cowboy to marry.....even if he IS old. (61)

I'm still planning on going to live in Goshen, Indiana to do a year or two...or three... of Voluntary Service work with the Gosple Echos prison ministry. It's the absolute perfect thing for me: my mom was a big part of the singing group that started Gospel Echos when she was my age, so I've grown up knowing the "head man" and the other long-time workers there. Not only that, but a whole slew of my mom's family live there, including dear cousin David (who will, I'm sure, take me to the Electric Brew frequently. =D) AND my very long-time friend Sarah the Monkey. And, uh...I guess it's kind of closer to Idaho then I am now. The main drawback is that it's WAY farther away from Tennesee! =\

Back to my orginal point. I'd told dad that even if I felt ready to go now, emotionally or whatever, that I really didn't feel like it'd be fair for me to leave here right now. With the grandparents next door and all, I do an awful lot to keep things going. But dad told me that, "When you feel ready, and you'll know, then don't worry about how we'll manage. Don't put off your life for us."

Awww, that's so nice. I'm not ready now, though. Being able to handle the responsibilites and the separation isn't the same as being ready for them. When I do go, the hardest thing is...ok, ONE of the hardest things is going to be being separated from my stuff. **sniff** I know there's no way I can take all my books with me. Or my gourmet magazines. **gasp** Oh my! I'll probably hardly be able to COOK there?! Oh no! WhatamIgonnado? Go cook at David's, I guess. ; )

Still, it's frightening...HOW am I going to "know"? Gar. And I admit that I'm a little worried that I'll go and find the perfect guy and get married and never come home. I want to get married. But not yet!

Enough worrying about the future. It'll happen when it happens.

3/14 Because I like statistics....
I finally finished the cataloging of all my books. Which means that now I can do spiffy stuff with my database like calculate percentages and so on. Heh heh. Here goes:

TOTAL BOOKS: 180 (although rapidly growing)
They are:
71% Fiction
17.7% Non-fiction
And apparently 11.9% undecided...can't quite figure out how *that* happened.

In smaller catagories,the most interesting are:

21.6% are children's books

1.1% were published at the Oxford University Press. Lol.

Tolkien and Victoria Holt are tied for second place in "most books by the same author." Uh, wow. Sort of an odd pairing, whot?

6.6% are biographies

50.5% are hardback, and 49.4% paperback. I have no clue where the other 1% is.

I've bought 21% of my books in the last three months. Ooo, that's scary...

6.6% of the titles began with the word "A", but 34.5% began with "The".

2/16 Just have a few minutes before I go to choir practice...

Had an interesting time this morning convincing my newly-turned five year old Sunday school charge Heidi that paper money is still good even if it gets a little torn...she was having histerics because she'd accidentally ripped her offering dollar. ; ) Cute child. She's even cute crying.

Leah finally had those twins--Brook and Blake, both right around 6 pounds. Mom and I are going to take over supper Wednesday night for them. Hopefully that'll give me an opportunity to stop in at the library and post this, we'll see.

Um, what else. Oh. Friday I bought my first Andrea Bocelli CD. I've hungered after one for a looong time but I'm reticent about treating myself to such non-essential stuff. =) But I saw it at a place a bit cheaper then I'd seen it elsewhere...ah well, haven't made a real impulse purchace in a while. It was Romanza that I got, mostly because I really, really, really like Il Mare Calmo Della Sera. I'm listening to it now. =D (I'm afraid it would have been better if they hadn't bothered to translate the lyrics into English, though--they sound MUCH BETTER in Italian.)

Haha, I just realized that the last CD I bought was Italian too. It's Red Wine's Italian Cats--Italian bluegrass. (Don't laugh. It's really good.) They're from Genoa, they have wonderful accents, and the guitar player is one of the most drop-dead gorgeous people I've ever met. ....Yes, I said met. I even got all their autographs. ;) And he bowed marvelously in my direction each time I clapped especially for his guitar breaks.

I just remembered that The Emperor's New Groove is on TV tonight. SOMEday I'm going to be able to quote from that movie as well as _haydee_ and savetheolives. (Sorry, I haven't figured out how to link these kinds of things. =P)

3/17
It's a BEAUTIFUL morning. (It's also a BIG morning in history, methinks. Hurray.) ...Ooo, it's also an Irish morning. Oops.

For the first time this year I slept with my windows open. That made it a very happy waking-up. Then I got dressed in clothes I like, took the time to apply more then the average makeup, making me feel marginally more beautiful, and picked several vases full of sunny daffodils.

One random thing I feel like saying: I'm suddenly terribly glad that I'm 18 and I have laugh lines. Bwaha.

I'm very sad about the Dixie Chicks, and if you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm not gonna tell you. Suffice it to say, I liked their music a lot (if not their fashion sense!) and I'm sad that they've acted this way and I'm afraid that their career may have now reached it's peak and will be going downhill. This can be tolerated by pop divas and rock stars (ie, Bono), but country people are just not supposed to act this way, and I don't believe the majority of their fans will stand for it. I was faintly thinking of getting their new CD, but I dooon't believe I shall now.

3/19
It rained last night and "outside the open window/The morning air is all awash with angels."

I don't think I've had weather effect me more then it has last year. I am mostly very, very happy now that it is spring-like. I even saw two trees across the road that have a fine mist of green hovering around their brown branches.

God just worked out something I was worried about. I'm so thankful. It does mean I still have to go on the choir trip (love the singing, rather dislike the people), but when I have HANNAH to look forward to seeing when I get home! **cracks knuckles** I can handle anything. ; ) Thank God for His faithfulness in arranging my life. =D

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Joie de vivre

i thank you God for most this amazing day

Entries tagged with music

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Post of Epicnes (or not)

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In which Mari is Pleased

and the side walk bagatelles it's like a dream

The musical journey continues:

So I'm a little behind the times

I declare this a D-F zone. You figure it out.

I feel so much better than I did this morning

An Apology, with Embarressment

The Saturday night Random

Addendum

(a post with a many parenthesis)

Modern music question

<----what I wish to be doing this Wednesday

Depressing? I think not.

Cause for celebration!

I haven't enough words

This was supposed to be posted Monday, but was unavoidablly and stupidly delayed

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July 2011

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