Play me my song, 27 Juni 2026

Moonchild!
Hear the

Silence

Moonchild!
Open the

Blurp blip - static - silence 

Moonchild

Me: Goddammit! 

A few months ago the headphone jack on my phone started to act wonky. The merest twist of the cord or slightest shift of the device would cause my headphones to fall silent. Since I could still call my mother, text people, and MFA for work, I decided to just buy a cheap MP3 player instead of replacing my phone which hopefully has a couple to a few more years of life left in it.

Sadly SanDisk doesn't make them anymore which is a shame because I'd bought their MP3 players in the past and they were solid, if no frills, devices. So I get my new one and load it up with music, audio dramas, and podcasts. It was nice to be able to listen to something and not be tempted to look at texts or check my email or just find something online to distract me from giving my ears a good time. I know too many people who stare at screens for way too long, who can sometimes barely concentrate on what is before them without looking at their phone.

For these people, the briefest downtime must be spent looking at social media, conversations must come to a grinding halt so that the status of an Amazon order can be checked, the people next to them must be briefly ignored so that the texts of someone not there can be addressed, and so on.

I soon relearned the eternal verity "You get what you pay for." First I noticed that the thing doesn't read the Title metadata and instead uses the file name which meant I had a lot of "Track #"'s.

Then one day I put on Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. "Moonchild" played and I rocked out as one does to Iron Maiden. Expecting the wash of synth, melodic guitar, and gentle rim shots of "Infinite Dreams" next I instead got "Capital Letters (In Surgical Spirit Land)" by IQ. I had discovered that it only parses the first three characters of the album title. And so the songs from Seventh Son of a Seventh Son were intermingled with those of Seven Stories Into Eight. Trying to find songs from albums that begin with "The" was nigh impossible.

Navigating by artist proved to be a bit better but that list was clogged as I had the Intrigue compilation on there which meant 4 CDs worth of artist names who had but one song apiece on the album.

Despite the poorly designed menu navigation system, I got my fix of tunes and whatnot. Then it occurred to me one day that I have all these albums on there along with multiple audio dramas and I usually couldn't listen to an entire album nor finish an audio drama because I was always finding something else to listen to with such a large array of choices.

I was reminded of the days of yore when I had access to Netflix and a couple other streaming services. I'd become trapped in the indecision of all those menus consisting of seemingly endless lists of movies and programs. It was almost like being paralyzed by the enormous number of choices laid before me. Most of the time I'd scroll and scroll and just turn the TV off after a while because I didn't want to spend anymore time parsing potential viewing options. A waste of the time I have left on this planet.

It makes me sad that I have such difficulty listening to an entire album from start to finish since I used to do so effortlessly and frequently; that I am usually seeking something else even before whatever it is that has my what I thought was rapt attention is complete. I'd jump to another album even though I'd only gotten 2 songs in on the one I was listening to. Days would go by between listening sessions of an audio drama and, when I'd return to it, I'd find that I couldn't quite recall everything that had transpired up until that point.

As Thoreau implored, "Simplify! Simplify!" and so I have put a stop to it.

I deleted 18+ GB from my MP3 player just a day or 2 ago. I have but one audio drama on it that I shall listen to until completion before starting another. There are several podcasts on there and just a few albums of music. I thought that it would be fun to write about the Jon Davison era of Yes and so the 4 albums the band has made with him are on there and just another song or 2.

So far I can say that I definitely look at my phone less and often leave it in another room when unneeded. This means more time playing with Willow and giving my attention to more important things such as the people sitting right next to me. We'll see how the MP3 player saga pans out. Hopefully with a lengthy, erudite look at latter day Yes. Ha!

*******

Some new music of note. Some old stuff too. 

Rhiannon Giddens has a new album out in September called Hope Is the Thing with Feathers and the first single, "Carolina Rain" is out now. A lovely tune. Sadly her tour plans don't call for her to get any closer than Minneapolis at this point.

The Hu also have a new album out soon - in July - called Hun. "Grey Hun" is on the Youtubes. Unfortunately their tour plans are on mega bills with a few other artists. Hopefully they'll come this way for a solo show soon.

The Two Steves, Hackett and Rothery - the progressive rock dream team - have done an album together called The Roaring Waves which comes out in August. Our first taste is "The Black Sea".

Deep Purple are not only still around, but they're still creating new music instead of resting on their laurels and simply playing "Smoke On the Water" over and over for aging boomers. The new album, Splat!, comes out next week. It's their second with guitarist Simon McBride who joined a couple years or so back. He seems to have given the venerable band an injection of energy as the singles that have been released thus far are just plain good hard rock. The songs are kinetic and don't betray that most of the band are in their 70s or 80s.

Another band of old codgers that won't put their instruments down are The Rolling Stones. Their latest, Foreign Tongues, is to be released in a couple weeks. I chatted with a pal of mine about newer Stones just a week or so ago when he and I went to see the Gregg Allman documentary. His experience with them ends with Steel Wheels and so I talked up Voodoo Lounge. It's a great album and the b-sides are wonderful and it's just a really fun rock album with catchy riffs and Mick Jagger being Mick Jagger.

They put out Hackney Diamonds in 2023 and I enjoyed the singles from that album and the ones from the new LP are a blast too. While these guys may not be breaking any new ground, they keep doing their thing and it sounds great still.

Jethro Tull release J-Tull Dot Com: Another Cast Of The Net in August. The box set features a remixed version of the 1999 album along with some outtakes and live tracks. "Spiral" has been remixed and it sounds very nice. I think the drums are up a bit in the mix and that there's more stereo separation - it sounds "wider".

Speaking of Tull, I've been listening to the alternate mixes of RökFlöte lately and really enjoying them. Everything is more up front in the mix it seems and there is more room between the instruments. The guitar and keyboards are no longer this mushy, soft rock amalgamate; the electric guitar is grittier, ballsier and the keyboards are allowed to step up and lead the charge too. I mean, these are songs about gods like Thor who brings down the thunder with his hammer, not Ratatosk, the messenger squirrel.

Thick as a Brick 2 and Homo Erraticus both deserve this treatment. Their restrained mixing aesthetic works fine for The Secret Language of Birds where the whole affair is turned down and acoustic instruments need to be at the fore. However, these later IA efforts deserve to be let loose.

I heard this fine stoner-doom-sludge-Sabbathy tune just today on All Songs Considered. Great riffing with some fine complementary synth work. Old school analogue Moog? Sure sounds like it.

Although released 20 years ago, I just heard music from this album yesterday. Accordion rulez!

Originally destined for Smile, "Cabinessence" eventually emerged on 20/20 with some overdubs, apparently. What a fantastic song. Late 60s/early 70s Beach Boys is great stuff. This was another subject of conversation with my music movie pal on the drive to see that Gregg Allman doc.

Son Volt has a new song out called "If I Could". It's Jay Farrar in Woody Guthrie mode.

A friend who is also a big SV fan poked at it by saying that the lyrics are too on the nose instead of having a more oblique critique of our times. The young man of the 90s in me has some sympathy for that position but I don't feel Woody Guthrie should lose points because his lyrics directly reference the Great Depression. Being open and direct has its virtues.

I wonder if there's something odd about my generation in that we enjoy direct, unopaque lyrics of the past but not of our own time. Does "Ohio" suffer today from directly referencing the Kent State Shootings? Did it in 1970?

Steve Hackett gets two mentions here because A) he's Steve Hackett and B) Mike and Tom from Tabletop Genesis just did a show about his third solo album, Spectral Mornings, which makes me want to listen to it.

This tune was apparently left off Dominion. Will it be on the next IQ album? Will they play new material when I see them later this summer?

Song of the day, 28 August '25

New tunes

Thanks for the new tunes, MadCity Music. Also thanks to Rhiannon Giddens, Justin Robinson, and Valerie June.

"Going to Raleigh"

Another new tune from Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson. I am really looking forward to their album What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow which is to be released on 18 April.

Another new song from Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson

Another tune from Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson has been released: "Marching Jaybird". I am really looking forward to their What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow album which comes out next month.

Rhiannon Giddens gets together with Justin Robinson once more

Rhiannon Giddens has reunited with former Carolina Chocolate Drops bandmate Justin Robinson for a new album called What Did the Blackbird Say to the Crow that comes out in April. Giddens' website describes it as "an album of North Carolina fiddle and banjo music" and one of the album's songs, "Hook and Line" is out now.

Sounds mighty fine to my ears.

Rhiannon Giddens channels Nina Simone on The Daily Show

Rhiannon Giddens was recently on The Daily Show and she performed "Another Wasted Life" from her new solo album, You're the One. The song is about Kalief Browder, who spent a few years in prison without ever having been given a trial and much of that was spent in solitary confinement. He would, sadly, kill himself in 2015.

As someone remarked to me, this is Giddens channeling Nina Simone. Powerful stuff here.

New Rhiannon Giddens tune

Rhiannon Giddens has a new album due next month called You're the One and she released another song from it just yesterday. It's called "Yet To Be" and it features Jason Isbell.

Roots & Routes

 

The 3-part radio documentary Black Roots that Rhiannon Giddens did for BBC Radio 4 is now available for download at their podcast, The Documentary. Previously, one had to stream it.

Episode 1 looks at black fiddlers, the second at African American influences on bluegrass, and the final one on African American influences on country music.

Some great stuff here.

Giddens also has another show called "Musical Routes" on Apple Music that she did with her significant other and musical partner, Francesco Turrisi. The program looks at the influences on American folks music from outside our borders.

I do not have a subscription to Apple Music and so, sadly, haven't heard it.

We'll all be together

 

(Photo by Laura Sheeran.)

I'll bet that there's a PhD candidate somewhere writing a paper on how Covid and the lockdowns affected music and musicians. Touring ground to a halt and many musos were forced to turn to virtual busking. Others posted brief clips of themselves performing and chatting for free usually, I think, in the spirit of we're-all-in-this-together. I fully expect books to be published in the near future that document albums written and recorded during the pandemic and for them to note common themes such as death, fear, and dislocation just as skeletons and memento mori became common in medieval art and illumination in the wake of the Great Plague. One such album these texts will surely explore is They're Calling Me Home by Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi.

Giddens and Turrisi live in Ireland, although they hail from the United States and Italy, respectively. When the pandemic hit and lockdowns began in the spring of 2020, the pair found themselves not only unable to tour, but also unable to visit their friends and families in their homelands. They're Calling Me Home was recorded that autumn as they and people around the globe struggled with the lack of social contact and the specter of death that never seemed far away as hundreds of thousands succumbed to Covid every month.

The album is mainly traditional songs and has a sombre tone overall with tunes such as "Calling Me Home" and "O Death" giving off particularly mournful vibes. But there is a new song here amidst the ones handed down, the Giddens-penned "Avalon".

It too is concerned with the end of our mortal coils but it's not doleful. Turrisi's drum and the acoustic guitar of Niwel Tsumbu begin the song and are soon joined by Giddens' sprightly viola. Her spectral, wordless harmonies enter and weave their way through the rhythm. They are a prelude, of sorts, as when they fade away, the viola takes up the main melody that will be echoed by Giddens' lyrical singing. But rather than lament the loss of loved ones, she invokes the idyllic isle of Avalon from Arthurian legend as a meeting spot in the hereafter - "We'll all be together in Avalon".

This song is a thing of sheer beauty. Listening to it, I feel as if I was being carried off on a summer breeze. Turrisi's drum keeps things moving while Tsumbu picks out a lovely rhythm that complements it perfectly. Giddens' voice is angelic and the vocal melody, echoed by the viola, has that alluring Pied Piper catchiness to it, a beatific guide leading the listener to the next world.

While "Avalon" isn't a million miles away from Giddens' work in the Carolina Chocolate Drops, it replaces their cornpone approach with something more ethereal. I will never foreswear the Chocolate Drops but it's great to hear Giddens' folky M.O. expand and take on new shades.