Category: Music

You were born, and so you’re free.

So happy birthday.

Thus says the lyrics to the song "Born, Never Asked" by Laurie Anderson (left), who was born today–July 5–in 1947 (in the midst of the Roswell Incident, which might explain a good number of things about her).

Anderson is a performance artist and musician who was born in Illinois but these days hangs out in NYC (from what I can tell).

I first became aware of her back in the early 1980s when her album Big Science made it big–or as big as an avant garde album can make it, I suppose.

I recently discovered that several of Laurie’s albums could be downloaded from iTunes, and so I’ve been revisiting and enjoying the stuff she did back in the ’80s.

Here music is . . . hard to describe. You know what they say: "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."

Basically, her music alternates between several different styles. Some of it is just strange and atmospheric. Then there are toe-tapping numbers, alternately instrumental or vocal, that incorporate elements of Rock and Pop.

The most unusual aspect of her music isn’t the sound, though. It’s the lyrics. Laurie has realized something that many Rock and Roll artists have: The lyrics of a song don’t really have to mean anything. They can just evoke an image, a mood, or a feeling. She also has realized something that many Rock and Roll artists have not: It’s okay to sing your lyrics intelligibly.

As a result, her music reminds me of a line that Woody Allen delivers in Zelig, describing baseball: "You know it doesn’t have to mean anything, it’s just beautiful to watch."

That’s exactly the way I feel about Laurie Anderson’s music: It doesn’t have to mean anything. It’s just pretty to listen to.

What she’s trying to do (so far as I can tell) is not get at any Deep Meanings but simply evoke certain moods and feelings that have qualities of mystery and beauty and humor and even warmth.

At times Laurie piles up interesting poetic images, as in this passage from her song "Let X=X" (flashback to math class!) in which she describes getting a postcard from a person who has betrayed one and is now twisting the knife and who then (apparently) gets his comeuppance. Notice the way the individual lines build up these impressions, even though nobody would really write a postcard like this in real life:

I got this postcard, and it read. . . . It said . . .

"Dear Amigo, Dear Partner,

"Listen, uh, I just wanna say thanks, so . . . thanks.
Thanks for all the presents.
Thanks for introducing me to the chief.
Thanks for putting on the feedbag.
Thanks for going all out.
Thanks for showing me your Swiss army knife.
Oh, and uh, thanks for letting me autograph your cast.

"Hug and kisses, XXXX OOOO

"Oh, yeah. P.S.: I feel like I’m in a burning building . . . and I gotta go."

This is a poetic abstraction of a phenomena we are all acquainted with. In our lives virtually everyone has the experience of being kind to someone ("thanks for all the presents, thanks for introducing me to the chief"), only to have that person take advantage of our kindness ("thanks for putting on the feedbag. thanks for going all out") and betray and even injure us ("thanks for letting me autograph your cast").

When that happens, we don’t want to see the person simply get away with it. We want to see them find out that the sweet things they stole have turned sour, and Laurie covers that as well ("I feel like I’m in a burning building"). Laurie thus evokes in poetic form an aspect of human experience that will resonate with the audience (or at least those who have lived long enough to experience betrayal).

Not all of Laurie’s lyrics have this serious dimension to them. Some are aimed at getting a laugh, as in this passage from the song "Talk Normal":

I came home today, and both our cars were gone.
And there were all these new pink flamingoes arranged in star patterns, all over the lawn.
And then I went into the kitchen. . . . And it looked like a tornado had hit.
And then I realized . . . I was in the wrong house.

Laurie occasionally comes up with a sentence that she is probably the first person in the history of the human race ever to utter. My favorite is this:

I dreamed I had to take a test in a Dairy Queen on another planet.

There can even be an apologetic dimension to her lyrics. Recently I was writing an article on heaven for This Rock and was tempted to quote one of her lines (from the song "Language Is A Virus"):

Paradise is exactly like where you are right now, only much . . . much . . . better.

If you’d like to check out some of her material, I’d recommend her albums Home Of The Brave and Mr. Heartbreak as good, accessible starting points. The music on these is more up-tempo and has a feel-good aspect to it. It still doesn’t mean much, but then it doesn’t have to. It’s just pretty to listen to.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LAURIE!

BUY LAURIE MUSIC

Or download Laurie music:

Like most folks, I s’ppose, I listen to albums (yes, I still call them "albums") over and over again, learning every note of the songs (if not every line of the lyrics).

Every so often, tho, I start hankering for a new album to inject into my mental, musical universe.

Unfortunately, I’m kinder picky. Not everything tickles my fancy. Even in genres I know and love, I don’t like a lot of what I hear. I imagine that’s the same for everybody.

But every so often I encounter a "breakout" album–something that, after hearing it a few times (or even just once) I totally get into.

On my recent trip to Kentucky, I encountered such a breakout album, titled Unbroken!–Live by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

I’ve been a fan of the Dirt Band for some time, but I’d never heard the side of them that’s presented on this album before. Up to now, I’ve been listening to their own studio albums (like Symphonion Dream) or their multi-way collaborations (like the different volumes of Will the Circle Be Unbroken), but I’d never heard a recording of one of their live shows.

Unbroken!–Live gave me that chance. The album is a 2-CD recording of a performance they gave at Doc Severinsen’s Showplace in OKC way back in 1984 (despite the fact the album was only released in 2003).

WHAT A TREAT!

The Dirt Band’s stage presence is amazing. These guys Know What They’re Doing. There is a huge amount of technical skill that they put into the performance, a wonderful selection of tunes, a great deal of showmanship, and a surprising amount of humor (a.k.a., "humour" for our friends over The Pond).

Now, any time a buncha technically-proficient guys get together with electric guitars, banjos, fiddles, and harmonicas to deliver hard-drivin’, toe-tappin’, foot-stompin’ upbeat music, I’m all up for that, but this performance was something really special.

The genre selection includes classics from Rock, Surf Music, Rockabilly, Bluegrass, Country, and Cajun, as well as intriguing, little-known tunes that you probably haven’t encountered before.

I was impressed by the way the band handled the introductions to some of these. To introduce certain songs they’d play an altered version of the melody that wasn’t immediately recognizable until, in a moment of recognition, it suddenly clicked into place what they were playing.

This was done particularly effectively in the build up to the Cajun classic "Diggy Diggy Lo," in which an unrecognizable version is played while the artists gave a patter introduction to the song, explaining that it is the song of two bayou lovers who fell in love for life. You have no idea what they’re building to until the speaker announces that these two lovers are known by "two mystical names." As soon as he identifies the first mystical name as "Diggy Diggy La" you immediately know what the song is going to be (assuming that you know "Diggy Diggy Lo"), the crowd cheers, and they kick right into it.

This kind of slow-reveal ain’t the only expression of showmanship that the band displays. As noted, there’s a lot of humor. This includes both comments they make to the audience and even some of the songs themselves. For example, they have a filk of "Help Me Make It Through The Night" re-written as "Help Me Make It Through The Yard" (the story of a guy crawling home after an all-night bender).

The guys in the band are clearly having fun on stage, and their personalities are much more in evidence than on a studio album. You get a much clearer sense of bandmembers as individuals as they make comments to each other during the songs and call each other by name as they throw different solos to each other ("Look out, Johnny! Play the fiddle!"), mix up who sings what verses ("Talk to me, Jimmy!"), make notes on what they’re about to sing ("I like this part!"), and report problems ("I don’t know how to get out of this!"–though they manage to do so flawlessly anyway).

The band is joined on stage by a couple of guest stars from a group called Doc’s Outlaws (connected to the place they were playing), and one of the guests (Rusty Allen) displays particular showmanship, using his role as lead singer on a couple of songs (notably the Bluegrass standard "Way Downtown") to set-up solos ("Toot that harp!"), ask for more ("Take two, they’re small!"), and speak of the amazing technical prowess we’ve just heard as if it were the product of a child prodigy ("Only thirty-five years old!").

The album also features a number of medleys (I wish they’d put CD track breaks between songs on these!) that are very successful. One starts with crowd-pleasing Rock classic "Runaway," moves to an awesome version of Rockabilly classic "Rave On," then into Rock standard "The Weight" ("Pulled into Nazareth…"), and finally into the band’s signature song, Country classic "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?"–a pro-faith song about wanting your whole family to go to
heaven. This time the song is delivered with a more upbeat tone than
I’ve heard them do it before, though it’s more raw and has less polish
than on a studio album.

Of course, on any live concert recording, there are imperfections. The mics aren’t positioned in the best way to catch crowd reaction (so you can’t really hear it when the audience is invited to sing along–an engaging asset to showmanship in a live performance but hard to pull off on an album). There are also a couple of mild bad words in one song ("Bowlegs") and another word in a second song ("The Battle of New Orleans") that counts as bad if you live in England, but in the digital era, you can easily make sure that your iPod never plays these songs for you if you don’t want.

There are also songs that contribute positive moral content, such as "Dance, Little Jean," which is a strong statement of the value of marriage, despite the difficulties it involves.

A special tune is the song "The House on Pooh Corner"–a celebration of childhood portrayed through the lens of Winnie the Pooh.

Another pro-morality song is "Face on the Cutting-Room Floor," which is about a talented young actress who goes to Hollywood to make it big. But when she discovers the moral price that must be paid for such success, it’s

Goodbye, Hol-ly-wood!
She’s leaving tonight, on a 2:30 ‘Hound–
sunrise on Sunset, she won’t be around.

(I like that part!)

All in all, it was a real treat to discover this album. Listening to it makes we wish three things: (1) I wish I could play like these guys! (2) I wish I could have seen them in concert night (or any night), and (3) I WANT the Song-Longer!

GET THE ALBUM!

Like most folks, I s’ppose, I listen to albums (yes, I still call them "albums") over and over again, learning every note of the songs (if not every line of the lyrics).

Every so often, tho, I start hankering for a new album to inject into my mental, musical universe.

Unfortunately, I’m kinder picky. Not everything tickles my fancy. Even in genres I know and love, I don’t like a lot of what I hear. I imagine that’s the same for everybody.

But every so often I encounter a "breakout" album–something that, after hearing it a few times (or even just once) I totally get into.

On my recent trip to Kentucky, I encountered such a breakout album, titled Unbroken!–Live by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.

I’ve been a fan of the Dirt Band for some time, but I’d never heard the side of them that’s presented on this album before. Up to now, I’ve been listening to their own studio albums (like Symphonion Dream) or their multi-way collaborations (like the different volumes of Will the Circle Be Unbroken), but I’d never heard a recording of one of their live shows.

Unbroken!–Live gave me that chance. The album is a 2-CD recording of a performance they gave at Doc Severinsen’s Showplace in OKC way back in 1984 (despite the fact the album was only released in 2003).

WHAT A TREAT!

The Dirt Band’s stage presence is amazing. These guys Know What They’re Doing. There is a huge amount of technical skill that they put into the performance, a wonderful selection of tunes, a great deal of showmanship, and a surprising amount of humor (a.k.a., "humour" for our friends over The Pond).

Now, any time a buncha technically-proficient guys get together with electric guitars, banjos, fiddles, and harmonicas to deliver hard-drivin’, toe-tappin’, foot-stompin’ upbeat music, I’m all up for that, but this performance was something really special.

The genre selection includes classics from Rock, Surf Music, Rockabilly, Bluegrass, Country, and Cajun, as well as intriguing, little-known tunes that you probably haven’t encountered before.

I was impressed by the way the band handled the introductions to some of these. To introduce certain songs they’d play an altered version of the melody that wasn’t immediately recognizable until, in a moment of recognition, it suddenly clicked into place what they were playing.

This was done particularly effectively in the build up to the Cajun classic "Diggy Diggy Lo," in which an unrecognizable version is played while the artists gave a patter introduction to the song, explaining that it is the song of two bayou lovers who fell in love for life. You have no idea what they’re building to until the speaker announces that these two lovers are known by "two mystical names." As soon as he identifies the first mystical name as "Diggy Diggy La" you immediately know what the song is going to be (assuming that you know "Diggy Diggy Lo"), the crowd cheers, and they kick right into it.

This kind of slow-reveal ain’t the only expression of showmanship that the band displays. As noted, there’s a lot of humor. This includes both comments they make to the audience and even some of the songs themselves. For example, they have a filk of "Help Me Make It Through The Night" re-written as "Help Me Make It Through The Yard" (the story of a guy crawling home after an all-night bender).

The guys in the band are clearly having fun on stage, and their personalities are much more in evidence than on a studio album. You get a much clearer sense of bandmembers as individuals as they make comments to each other during the songs and call each other by name as they throw different solos to each other ("Look out, Johnny! Play the fiddle!"), mix up who sings what verses ("Talk to me, Jimmy!"), make notes on what they’re about to sing ("I like this part!"), and report problems ("I don’t know how to get out of this!"–though they manage to do so flawlessly anyway).

The band is joined on stage by a couple of guest stars from a group called Doc’s Outlaws (connected to the place they were playing), and one of the guests (Rusty Allen) displays particular showmanship, using his role as lead singer on a couple of songs (notably the Bluegrass standard "Way Downtown") to set-up solos ("Toot that harp!"), ask for more ("Take two, they’re small!"), and speak of the amazing technical prowess we’ve just heard as if it were the product of a child prodigy ("Only thirty-five years old!").

The album also features a number of medleys (I wish they’d put CD track breaks between songs on these!) that are very successful. One starts with crowd-pleasing Rock classic "Runaway," moves to an awesome version of Rockabilly classic "Rave On," then into Rock standard "The Weight" ("Pulled into Nazareth…"), and finally into the band’s signature song, Country classic "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?"–a pro-faith song about wanting your whole family to go to

heaven. This time the song is delivered with a more upbeat tone than

I’ve heard them do it before, though it’s more raw and has less polish

than on a studio album.

Of course, on any live concert recording, there are imperfections. The mics aren’t positioned in the best way to catch crowd reaction (so you can’t really hear it when the audience is invited to sing along–an engaging asset to showmanship in a live performance but hard to pull off on an album). There are also a couple of mild bad words in one song ("Bowlegs") and another word in a second song ("The Battle of New Orleans") that counts as bad if you live in England, but in the digital era, you can easily make sure that your iPod never plays these songs for you if you don’t want.

There are also songs that contribute positive moral content, such as "Dance, Little Jean," which is a strong statement of the value of marriage, despite the difficulties it involves.

A special tune is the song "The House on Pooh Corner"–a celebration of childhood portrayed through the lens of Winnie the Pooh.

Another pro-morality song is "Face on the Cutting-Room Floor," which is about a talented young actress who goes to Hollywood to make it big. But when she discovers the moral price that must be paid for such success, it’s

Goodbye, Hol-ly-wood!
She’s leaving tonight, on a 2:30 ‘Hound–
sunrise on Sunset, she won’t be around.

(I like that part!)

All in all, it was a real treat to discover this album. Listening to it makes we wish three things: (1) I wish I could play like these guys! (2) I wish I could have seen them in concert night (or any night), and (3) I WANT the Song-Longer!

GET THE ALBUM!

Okay, I had already thought of my post title for this story before I read it in the article, so I’m going to use it anyway.

"Singer Willie Nelson’s name is off the road again.

"A state legislator had proposed naming a 49-mile stretch of Texas Highway 130 being built around Austin in Nelson’s honor.

"But two Republican senators, Steve Odgen of Bryan and Jeff Wentworth of San Antonio, said they didn’t want Nelson’s name on the road that crosses their districts, citing the musician’s fondness for drinking and smoking, and active campaigning for Democratic candidates."

GET THE STORY.

Call me cynical, but I doubt Willie Nelson’s personal habits would have mattered enough to State Senators Ogden and Wentworth to go to the trouble of blocking the proposal if Nelson had had a record of "active campaigning" for Republican candidates.  Of course, it’s also true that State Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos (D-Austin) might not have introduced the bill in the first place if it weren’t for that "active campaigning" for Democratic candidates.

Like I said, call me cynical.

I have not been blogging for the last couple of days because I have been busy teaching a painting workshop. It went well and I think everyone left having learned something they could use. But I’m really wiped out.

I truly appreciate the kind words and good wishes (or prayers) from everyone concerning my art. The regional show I entered recently accepted both of the pieces I submitted and recognized one with a plaque and a cash award, which was cool. Remember this: No matter what we say, artists like it when other people respond well to their work. Period.

But cash is also good.

I often listen to NPR in my gallery, because it is my only source of classical music, aside from my own small collection of CDs. As much as I love Andre Segovia or whoever, once you’ve played the same CD every day for weeks you just have to give it a rest.

So, I was listening to "Morning Edition" on Saturday and heard an interviw with Daniel Schorr, wherein he made the observation (which I think true) that JPII helped change the religious dynamic in the U.S., from a split between "Protestant and Catholic" to a split between "observant and non-observant" of many faiths.

Unfortunately, National PUBLIC Radio is very PRIVATE about their transcripts and also appreciates cash.

But you can LISTEN for free here.

A character in one of my wife, Martha’s, favorite books makes the observation that one proof of the divine life of the Catholic church is that it has survived so much bad art and music. Bad hymns have always been with us, but I find many of the new "praise chorus" type of songs to be especially mind-numbing.

The other day I was trying to figure out why this was so and, among other things, I realized that there is no harmony to the current songs we use in our local church. None. Melody lines only.

Now, I am an adult convert, so I don’t know if maybe some of you cradle Catholics might remember harmonizing at Mass. When I was a li’l Baptist, singing in harmony just happened naturally. Men took up the bass or baritone, usually, with women and kids grabbing the tenor or soprano parts. Not that we sounded great or anything, but it was kind of neat.

Along with the fact that many of these new songs’ lyrics and melodies sound like they came from a Barney episode, the lack of harmony helps to make them really, well, boring.

There is also another aspect I’ve just recently noted that I will tell you about in the form of the following Song Parody, sung to the tune of "One Bread, One Body"…

One note, for each word,

One syllable,

One melody that’s sung by all.

And we, though many, here in this church,

We all are singing just this one note.

A character in one of my wife, Martha’s, favorite books makes the observation that one proof of the divine life of the Catholic church is that it has survived so much bad art and music. Bad hymns have always been with us, but I find many of the new "praise chorus" type of songs to be especially mind-numbing.

The other day I was trying to figure out why this was so and, among other things, I realized that there is no harmony to the current songs we use in our local church. None. Melody lines only.

Now, I am an adult convert, so I don’t know if maybe some of you cradle Catholics might remember harmonizing at Mass. When I was a li’l Baptist, singing in harmony just happened naturally. Men took up the bass or baritone, usually, with women and kids grabbing the tenor or soprano parts. Not that we sounded great or anything, but it was kind of neat.

Along with the fact that many of these new songs’ lyrics and melodies sound like they came from a Barney episode, the lack of harmony helps to make them really, well, boring.

There is also another aspect I’ve just recently noted that I will tell you about in the form of the following Song Parody, sung to the tune of "One Bread, One Body"…

One note, for each word,

One syllable,

One melody that’s sung by all.

And we, though many, here in this church,

We all are singing just this one note.

The dictionary defines "badger" as a burrowing, carnivorous, nocturnal mammal related to weasels and skunks…

It also says "to nag with requests". But the folks at www.badgerbadgerbadger.com don’t request a thing from you! They just want you to hear the song they made up. It’s so catchy, I can’t get it out of my head!

The dictionary defines "badger" as a burrowing, carnivorous, nocturnal mammal related to weasels and skunks…

It also says "to nag with requests". But the folks at www.badgerbadgerbadger.com don’t request a thing from you! They just want you to hear the song they made up. It’s so catchy, I can’t get it out of my head!

I recently got the following e-mail under the subject heading "could you please post this?"

Live to serve, so: <Rule 15 Suspension>Stephen Tefft</Rule 15 Suspension> writes:

Mr, Akin,

I am a Catholic singer/songwriter whose praise and worship band, Cor Sanctum (www.corsanctum.com), has been invited to perform at World Youth Day in Germany this Summer. My bandmates and I took a chance, sent a couple of our CD’s in to the organizers and were informed that we made the final cut, beating out almost 600 other bands world-wide. Now we have to, somehow, find the "sufficient funding" to be able to go.

We are not asking for donations, although they would be greatly appreciated. We are asking for prayers first and foremost. We are also asking that people visit our website (www.corsanctum.com), check out our musical offerings, and perhaps purchase a CD or two.

When one thinks about how much money one typically spends on entertainment… movies, CD’s, etc… I don’t think it too much to ask to use a small portion to help out a small Catholic praise band trying to use their talents for God’s greater glory. And get a wonderful CD of good Catholic praise and worship music to enjoy.

Could you, please, take a little time to check out our website? All our recorded music is available to listen to on-line.

Being accepted to World Youth Day is a HUGE opportunity for us. Please help us get the word out about our band…

Thank you and God bless.

Stephen M. Tefft
www.corsanctum.com

GET THE MUSIC.