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Diane-a very lovely mux! I especially enjoyed the Mary Black and Ray LaMontagne. I realized that I didn't answer a couple of your questions. The Yeats poem was from a work by someone named Joseph Sabol who obtained permission from Yeats children and set some of his works to Irish music for a show entitled Kiltartan Road. I heard one of the singers perform with the Madison Symphony and she sang, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree." I immediately bought the cd, but I'm afraid that it is out of print. The Nanci Griffith song is a cover of John Stewart's "Lost Her In The Sun."

I have updated my muxtape also. http://www.badgerpepe.muxtape.com

I started with Gordon Lightfoot's "Spanish Moss" as Anne & I just returned from a trip to Charleston, SC and Savannah, Georgia. I also want to highlight Planxty's "O'Donaghue's" where we hoisted pints with Liverpoolken and Kieron and Helena Stout a couple of years ago.

Joe

I have just been listening to your latest, Joe. I like it! All except Tom Waits, who always sounds to me as if he is gargling underwater. Eva Cassidy's Fields of Gold was played at the funeral of my cousin and best friend two years ago, so it is a highly poignant song for me. Eva Cassidy has the most remarkable pitch-perfect voice doesn't she. Sad that she too died young. Even if I didn't already know it, I might have guessed from your tape that, like me, you have some Irish ancestry. I hope Anne isn't ignoring you today. Whenever you mention her, I remember the pride in her face when you were playing for us in that hotel in Berlin. Thanks for letting me listen to your music. I have tinkered with my tape. Next one might have to be a loud one.

Love,

Diane

Hi Diane,
Your lastest mux is great! You may lose me if you go loud-but then again, I'm always open to change.

I changed my latest leading off with Shel Silverstein's "A Front Row Seat to Hear Ole Johnny Sing." I think we could re-title it "A Front Row Seat to Hear Ole Lenny Sing." Hopefully none of us will get shot or end up in prison as a result of our dedication.

I was really touched when you mentioned how Eva Cassidy's song, "Fields of Gold" was used at your cousin and best friend's funeral-I remember the wonderful poem that you wrote and can appreciate how appropriate that song was to her life. Isn't music wonderful, in that in can invoke memories and hopes all at the same time? It seems to operate on a level that transcends our conscious thoughts and allows our emotions to place us in new realms. Keep on invoking her memory as she was certainly a lovely person and you are so good at capturing those aspects of her that would impact us-as Leonard says-"Until we are spoken for."

I added an Eva Cassidy song (it was actually my only other one) but I didn't know that she had died. This song was written by Archie Fisher whose songs I have posted here a couple of times.

I would also like to highlight the Bryn Terfel song (words by Robert Louis Stevenson and music by Vaughn Williams)-a gift from Kush! I love this song.

One last note-my dearest Annie only ignores me when I truly deserve it (which is most of the time). I, too, remember her in Berlin-we have the best times when we travel-our latest trip to Charleston and Savannah was wonderful. We are really looking forward to traveling to Kitchener and Hamilton in June.

Love,

Joe

Dear Joe,

Thank you for the comments you made about my cousin. She was one of a kind.

The Shel Silverstein on your mux was funny. I had not heard Carrickfergus sung before by Joan Baez! Enjoyed that much. Living in Wales I hear Bryn Terfel every now and then, but he is not so much my cup of tea, although I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to see him live if it fell into my lap. I also enjoyed The Long Road.

I have three Eva Cassidy cds, but I hadn't heard her Dark Eyed Molly - very lovely thanks.

Isn't music wonderful, in that in can invoke memories and hopes all at the same time? It seems to operate on a level that transcends our conscious thoughts and allows our emotions to place us in new realms.

I completely agree. I am reading a book by Peter Wilberg at the moment, in which he talks a lot about that. He says:

As individuals our whole lives are nothing more or less than a journey in qualitative space in which we search for points of resonance . . . Music reminds us that the pre-verbal dimension of meaning is far from being undifferentiated. Art is received by the soul as meaningful speech quite independently of verbal knowledge. Music is composed by a process of inward listening from which the music itself arises.

So when we listen to music, what we "hear", in the deepest sense, is the subtle voice of the deepest part of the composer of that music. And when we listen to someone else's favourite music, we are 'tuning in' to the wordless aspects of them that resonate in us.

That is connected to what you said about Leonard's "until I am spoken for". We seem to have a longing to be 'spoken for'; to search for these points of resonance until we find (some of) them in someone or something else. It is as if they are only fully expressed when someone else can give voice to us, for us. Leonard surely speaks for all of us on this site, and in the rest of LC world, in this way.

Hopefully none of us will get shot or end up in prison as a result of our dedication.

Yes. May we all survive the year intact. I wish you both the best times in Kitchener and Hamilton.

Each time I finish my muxtape, I want to change it again. I have just made a couple of small changes. I am preoccupied with other things for a few weeks, so will leave it as it is for now.

Always a pleasure to talk.

Love,

Diane