Gord’s Gold 1: Welcome my Gentle Listener. There’s no artist that I’m more excited about that Muireann Bradley. You’ve heard of an actor who you’d pay to read the phone book? That’s how I feel about Muireann, I’ll even play her singing a Jackson Browne song, These Days. My dislike of Jackson Brown sometimes makes me prejudiced against Joe Jackson, I have always confounded the names. Pay extra attention to the guitar intro. You’ll be hearing something similar in the next song.
Muireann Bradley – These Days
Christine Lavin – Good Thing He can’t Read My Mind
Max Gomez – Too Afraid to Fall in Love
John Prine feat. Alison Krauss – Falling in Love Again
Gord’s Gold 2: After Muireann Bradley’s These Days we heard Christine Lavin’s Good Thing He Can’t Read My Mind. Did you hear how similar the guitar intros were? That’s no coincidence, The Reverend Gary Davis is a big influence on Muireann. Dave Van Ronk was a big influence on Christine, and Dave learned at the feet of Reverend Gary. Then we heard Too Afraid to Fall in Love by Max Gomez. He’s from Taos New Mexico. We concluded with Falling in Love by John Pine with the help of Alison Krauss.
Now Let’s move north to Quebec to hear La Nuit dans les Auberges, which is Québecois for Night in the Inns, by Le Vent du Nord, which translates to The North Wind.
Le Vent du Nord – La Nuit dans les Auberges
Eloise & Co. (Becky Tracy and Rachel Bell, with Rachel Aucoin) – Avent-deux de Vitteaux / Queen’s Bath
Maygen & The Birdwatcher – Feel Good
Cuddle Magic – Not Anyone
Gord’s Gold 3. After Quebec’s Le Vent du Nord we headed a little south to Vermont, but with a French Title, ah-Vahn-duh duh vee-TOE by Eloise & Co. They play in a style called “Bal folk” from France, Belgium, and the Netherlands. I want to go to a Bal folk dance. Then came Feel Good by Maygen and The Birdwatcher; we just heard music from Quebec, Vermont, and Minnesota. Are you cold? We finished with Not Anyone by Cuddle Magic. They formed in Boston, another place that gets chilly.
I have not seen her with her new band but last time I saw Molly Tuttle she gave one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been to thousands. Molly Tuttle has Alopecia, a condition that leaves her hairless. Most of the time she wears a wig. That’s the background for this next song, Old Me New Wig. That was followed by one of my favorite segues. I wrote to Molly and suggested she cover it.
Molly Tuttle – Old Me New Wig
Neil Patrick Harris – Wig in a Box
Erin Ruth – Paddy’s Lament (w. David Brewer)
The Diamond Spur Rodeo – Magpie
Gord’s Gold 4: After Molly Tuttle’s Old Me New Wig we heard Wig in a Box, by Neil Patrick Harris from the original Broadway production of Hedwig. Then we went to the west coast to hear Paddy’s Lament by Erin Ruth with the help off David Brewer. A musician friend recommended Diamond Spur Rodeo a quartet of women from Brooklyn. One of the members is Selena Tibert, whose solo music I’ve played here. We heard Magpie.
Molly Tuttle is not the only folk superstar to recently release a new album that goes off in a new direction, Dar Williams did too. Put the Coins on His Eyes opens a set of songs that I’d have played on Labor Day if that wasn’t always on a Monday.
Dar Williams – Put the Coins on His Eyes
River Drivers – Union Man
Paul Robeson – Joe Hill
Woody Guthrie – Dig a Hole
Gord’s Gold 5: Good thing Folk Music Notebook is totally independent or that set might get me Kimmelled. After Dar’s Put the Coins on His Eyes, We heard the Northeast Pennsylvania band River Drivers sing Union Man. Then came Paul Robeson’s version of the classic labor song Joe Hill. We finished with Woody Guthries’s anti-fascist warning to Hitler, a variation of the traditional folk song Dig a Hole. Robeson and Guthrie were both blacklisted during the McCarthy Era. As Thoreau said
“… heroes, patriots, martyrs, reformers in the great sense, and men — serve the state with their consciences also, and so necessarily resist it for the most part; and they are commonly treated as enemies by it.”
I will leave you with that thought. Till next week, go out to hear live music and support the artists you love.
Wise Madness 