A Lark Ascending

Enjoyed it but found it a bit hagiographic/sentimental. If I'd been in charge I'd have skipped the assassination (which felt a bit bolted on) and maybe panned forward to a Reconstruction scene of how the 13th A and it's successors worked out in practice. Not the feel good intention of the film, I realise. We do similar things here with our national myths - big fuss about how wonderful we were ending the slave trade, rather less on how we sustained and got rich on it over a couple of centuries.

Read one of Loades books when I was a student in the mid-70s. Amazing he's still writing. Was looking for a non-fluffy book on Henry VIII - this seems to be doing the job.

Might be of interest to some: 1. How To Be A World Music Star 2. The A-Z Of World Music 3. Flamenco: Gypsy Soul 4. Youssou N’Dour – Voice Of Africa http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/world-music-season.html Focus seems to be on impact in the western world in the last few decades. Nice to see some new programmes - they've been recycling for some time.

Finally got round to:

Don't recall seeing them at Sidmouth! Think they did Cropredy that year........ So that's where Richard Thompson got that beret.

Don't recall seeing them at Sidmouth!

The era of 'virtually everything available' is quite recent. Back in the 70s even music that might be considered 'core repertoire' could be OOP for long periods of time - that was certainly the case in the UK (those living in London could access imports). So if you were a young, new listener and had read about how wonderful these old records were the Prestige/Blue Note etc twofers were a welcome way to explore. And it didn't mean you were not also buying new records. I suspect most of us were doing both. As for their cheapness, well listening to older music can actually be quite difficult at first - it does sound 'old fashioned' if you have not been brought up around it; I doubt if I would have taken the chances on a lot of the older music I did if it had sold at the same price as new releases. My pattern of buying in the 70s/80s each week was to buy a new full price record plus a cheap jazz or classical title to experiment. Like classical music, blues, folk (and increasingly rock). jazz has always put a high premium on being aware of the music's history. I recall the confused messages coming through - some voices asking why were we listening to X, Y or Z in contemporary music when it had been done so much better by A, B or C in 1928, 1941 or 1960; others asking why we were buying all this old music when we had a duty to support the new (normally from older listeners who already had that music from when it was originally released). In the end we all navigated our own paths through that.

'The Trees They Do Grow High' One of a zillion wonderful folk songs. Recorded by loads of people - the Pentangle version is very well known - but also used as the basis of a big orchestral piece by Patrick Hadley. I've always liked 'Shenandoah' too. Paul Bley's 'Ida Lupino' was mentioned earlier. Another very simple Bley tune that I like is 'Mr. Joy'. A very bright, optimistic main tune, a more distant bridge section and then a lovely return to the main tune.

Because I mainly download but still like to make a CD-R with a sleeve including album cover and tracks/musicians I use this a lot. AMG seems to have gone to pieces.

My introduction to a lot of jazz in the late 70s - Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Bill Evans, Gil Evans, Thelonious Monk etc. You could get a lot of music quite inexpensively - but because they were made up of entire LPs you could get a picture of the discography of the player, unlike more scattered 'best ofs' (which I also like).

We get that over here too, though not with the same cultural charge. People spend weekends dressing up as Roman legions, Napoleonic forces and, most famously, as English Civil War soldiers, fighting mock battles.

I'd be interested in reading a £7.99 account. But £45 (I know that's tied in with pictures)! "The story of Verve Records is the story of jazz." Hmm - one of the many parts of the story, perhaps. Marketing hype gone mad.

Clearly I should re-read it. Well worth it. Just got to The Wilderness. Fascinating how this war seemed to change from one of movement to one that starts to resemble the First World War. The only problem with the edition I have is the maps are very dark. My geography of the USA is very general so it can get a bit confusing knowing who is going where. I'm away from home so can't use my usual map sources. One day soon I must do one of those holidays visiting some of the sites in the Virginia area. I've always found visiting the WWI sites very powerful.

Some of that criticism of particular music can be vicious (try the weekly I Hate Keith Jarrett threads). It's the thing most likely to bring on my acidity. Of course everyone has a right to criticise music they dislike - but if they do so with venom they can hardly complain if they get a sour response. There are also some posters who seem to define themselves by what they dislike.

10 musicians, 6 of them squeeze boxes - a nightmare to some! Ending with a short solo set from John Kirkpatrick who is as wonderful as when I first saw him 40 years back. Quick fire wit too - the Alan Barnes of folk. Earlier in the day two beautiful solo performances - New England old timely music from Tim Erykson; and Olivia Chaney, one of those completely original performers who seem to appear from nowhere. Songs where the Guitar//keyboard seem to follow the irregularities of the words rather than the words being squashed into a regular rhythmic pattern. Lovely, clear voice with English diction (none of mid-Atlanticism that can spoil some contemporary UK folk).

I have brought neither my washing machine nor my deep freeze on vaca....holiday.

And those are some of my favorites. It's a broad church even if we might have doctrinal differences.

I like any thread where people talk about the music they like, especially if the explain why (aside from the classical dead maestro threads!)

I read about that somewhere too. Had assumed that the Emanem/PSI archive would always be there. It's the sort of catalogue it's good to dip into every now and then. Be sad to see many of these discs vanish. Though its a miracle most ever got released. But good to see the music reverting to the performers

I like his photos.

Lovely post.

More folky things ending with an evening of sea shanties. But the utterly electric (in the acoustic sense) was a low key mid-afternoon concert. Started with a completely original guitar/banjo player called Jason Steel who I stumbled on a few years back. Seems to have grown fully formed out of American mountain music (original songs though) although coming from Doncaster (must be something in the water - McLaughlin was from there too). Then Wizz Jones - until a few years ago just a name to me associated with the Graham's and Jansch's in the 60s. Came to love a recent live recording. In person he was wonderful - must be in his late 60s if not older but still plays amazing, percussive blues- influenced guitar. A mixture of blues songs and some beautiful originals (or little known songs by others). Great story-teller too - the road life of someone who never gained major fame. What a rich and varied musical world we live in.

Various folky things at the Sidmouth Folk Festival. Most interesting was a pairing of Peter Robinson (Author of the DCI Banks crime novels) with Martin Carthy. Robinson read a short story based around Little Musgrave/Matty Groves with Carthy singing and playing at appropriate moments. Ended with a Q&A session where Carthy offered to sing another song. Someone asked for Long Lankin which he said he'd not sung for 20 years - then proceeded to sing it from memory stumbling only a couple of times. Amazing man - regarded as the great man of English Folk, yet as down to earth and unpretentious as you could hope for.

Read that many years ago - the sort of book that makes you realise how lucky you are to be living in a largely stable country. I finished a long history of modern China a couple of weeks back and the same thoughts came to me - wave after wave of natural and political disaster. How do you stay sane with such uncertainty?