#4390, Music About Birds
Hear music by folks where birds serve as omens, usually harbingers of death or destruction for this New Sounds. Black birds seem especially symbolic - the ravens and crows, along with magpies. In an unusually broad and sweeping generalization: it seems to be ravens on the British side of the Atlantic, and crows on the American. The lone exception seems to be the wren. But as some stories go, the wren was a trickster, who flew higher than an eagle.
There’s a woeful tale about Three Ravens – a folksong about a dead knight, whose loyal hounds prevent the ravens from dining on his flesh. Listen to the “pastoral psychedlia meets traditional song" from the mostly Irish band called United Bible Studies, in a song about ravens from their record, The Ale’s What Cures Ye. Take a break from black birds with Irish drone folk quartet Lankum’s song, “Hunting the Wren.” The song has old and deep roots: “the wren is the subject of many legends (most of them unflattering) in European folk tales, and in the British Isles especially the birds have traditionally been hunted on St. Stephen’s Day (December 26).” (-Schaefer.)
Then, it’s a song involving crows, from New York-based singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Hite (aka Julia Easterlin) with roots in southern Appalachian folk music. Plus, music about a murder of crows by DC quartet Fern Knight, led by cellist/guitarist/vocalist Margaret Ayre. There’s a song titled “Crow” by Phil Elverum, who is Mount Eerie, which comes from the record that poured out of him after the ground opened up and swallowed his wife, Geneviève. (She passed due to stage 4 pancreatic cancer.) It comes from one of the most tragic and sad records that may have recently crossed the New Sounds desk, A Crow Looked at Me (2017.)
Then, hear “The Magpie Song” by Galway-raised troubadour Adrian Crowley, along with a song, “Magpie,” from the Unthanks, a folk-rooted band co-fronted by the two sisters, Rachel and Becky Unthank. Also, listen to music a song about a blackbird from Vermont-born country balladeer and shape-note singer Sam Amidon. And more.
Program #4390, Music About Birds (First aired 7/20/2020)
ARTIST: Mount Eerie
WORK: Ravens [1:00]
RECORDING: A Crow Looked at Me
SOURCE: Elverum & Sun
INFO: pwelverumandsun.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: John Harle & Sarah Leonard
WORK: Harle: The Three Ravens (pt. 2) [5:33]
RECORDING: Terror and Magnificence
SOURCE: Argo #452 605
INFO: Out of print, but try auction sites or Amazon.com
ARTIST: United Bible Studies
WORK: Twa Corbies [4:42]
RECORDING: The Ale’s What Cures Ye
SOURCE: united-bible-studies.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Hite (Julia Easterlin)
WORK: Old Crow [3:51]
RECORDING: Light Of A Strange Day
SOURCE: Six Degrees Records
INFO: heyhite.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Fern Knight
WORK: Murder of Crows [3:19]
RECORDING: Music for Witches and Alchemists
SOURCE: VHF Records
INFO: fernknight.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Mount Eerie
WORK: Crow [2:22]
RECORDING: A Crow Looked at Me
SOURCE: Elverum & Sun
INFO: pwelverumandsun.bandcamp.com
ARTIST: Adrian Crowley
WORK: The Magpie Song [4:57]
RECORDING: Some Blue Morning
SOURCE: Chemikal Underground CHEM 212
INFO: chemikal.co.uk
ARTIST: The Unthanks
WORK: Magpie [10:52]
RECORDING: Mount the Air
SOURCE/INFO: the-unthanks.com
ARTIST: Sam Amidon
WORK: Blackbird [2:46]
RECORDING: The Following Mountain
SOURCE: Nonesuch 559648
INFO: nonesuch.com
ARTIST: Susanna & Giovanna Pessi, Frode Haltli and Cheyenne Mize
WORK: Three Ravens [4:32]
RECORDING: Live, from Big Ears 2018, 3/23/18 at the Bijou Theatre
SOURCE: This performance not commercially available.
INFO: bigearsfestival.org | susannamagical.com
ARTIST: Lankum
WORK: Hunting the Wren [7:12]
RECORDING: The Livelong Day
SOURCE: Rough Trade
INFO: lankum.bandcamp.com
