A recent read that gives insight into before and after the folk explosion of the 1960s, referred to here as The Great Folk Scare. Great stories with a personal perspective on an era considered so important because of its connection to songwriters like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. Van Ronk’s relationship with and stories about Mississippi John Hurt led me to the book below.
Hurt is one of my favorite musicians and I was excited to read this since the Hurt family had okayed Ratcliffe’s book. This is the only biography I’m aware of, though there are many books about his guitar style. It was good, but very dry in spots–like reading census reports dry. In spite of that, Ratcliffe is chained to fact unlike so many other music biographies that are more than happy to mythologize their subjects. There is room for another book that explores his life, times, and blues in a different way.
I love stop-motion animation. A while back I got to go on Sleep In Cinema and talk about Harryhausen’s The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad and the Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema exhibit at the National Galleries of Scotland. Mad God has been discussed by fans for decades. Tippett is one of the few relatively well-known names in stop-motion because of his work on mainstream releases like Star Wars and Robocop. I can’t wait to see the movie again. It felt like the Quay Brothers adapting Dante’s Inferno with death metal record covers as reference art.
This is one I’ve listened to for years, but I think I like it more every time I hear it.
I’ve only been able to listen to a bit of Elias Rahbani’s work, but I’m hoping to dive into it more. Some of it reminds me of Morricone’s film music and some is like musicians performing Perrey and Kingsley. Sometimes it reminds me of Omar Khorshid tracks I’ve heard.
Stephen McClurg 