Post Independence (Summa of Love)

"We're all still here, no one has gone away" (true of everyone currently reading this, aint it so) croons Robin Williamson on "Job's Tears", the opening track from The Incredible String Band's tres incroyable "Wee Tam" album--and did you know Rowan Williams, the current Archbishop of Canterbury, is a (big) huge self-avowed String Band fan? Might be due to the onomatopoeia factor/congruence of his very own (Christian) name to the aforementioned Scottish bard RW--

Yes the ISB has consistently made several of my Best Album/Desert Island Disc lists over the years, particularly their "5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion" album (folkdom's "Sgt. Pepper") which usually merits my #1 selection--"Rise up Lazarus, sweet and salty"...saw Robin Williamson 9 years ago this spring at Symphony Space in a basically trad. folk duo with my friend John Renbourn, and sad to say he a) stuck to his growling lower register throughout, voice never once ascending lark-like into the blue empyrean--or at the very least the rafters of Symphony Space--with his spooky melismatic patented crafty wail (even the birds when they sing, it's not everything/to them), and b) made a scathing self-deprecatory reference upon (finally) pulling a String Band song out of his wee tam at the end ("The Circle Is Unbroken"--nope, not the American country gospel tune "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?"--though maybe an answer song to that half-remarkable question--nor from the "5000 Spirits" superb followup album "The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter"--originally titled/announced in Elektra press releases that year--1968--as "The Hangman's Lovely Daughter"--much better title--I remember these things--w'happen, Danny? Nope, this was from "Wee Tam", one disc of a UK twofer in here it is 1969, sold as 2 separate albums in the US) on the order of "Now I shall sing a song you may remember, featuring lyrics that kept me permanently obscure for years"(!)--I actually wrote "for yeats" by mistake first... but I mean how the heck can the guy be embarrassed about his trailblazing incandescent genius output "through the past brightly" (funny story about the Stones inviting Heron and Williamson to hear a test pressing of "Their Satanic Majesties Request", which contains lots of attempted faux String Band moves/cops, particularly "Sing This Song All Together" and "Gomper"--apparently the Scotsmen didn't quite approve)... Anyway check 'em out--still incredible, still miraculously great (up till around "U", then the Scientology rot set in), most of their music hasn't aged one whit in my estimation, which is alot more than can be said for much of the class of '67 in the current nostalgic creepy-crawl backwards trawl into summer 'o love territory (Steve Holtje has a real good rundown up on CultureCatch.com here)...

Two great local live gigs I'm still buzzing from: Mike Edison, former High Times, Heeb, and Screw editor (how's that for a resume?) at KGB Bar last Tuesday, reading from his upcoming memoirs for Faber "I Have Fun Everywhere I Go", shpritzing the crowd wildly with adrenalized rants over the upstairs room's tinny soundsystem (c'mon, guys, time to upgrade already!), while pummeling a Nord keyboard (same model I gifted Jerry Harrison with before we went to play in Russia last year--good taste is timeless!), coaxing random shrieks and barbaric yawps out of a theremin and boogie-ing to funk and acid jazz grooves courtesy of his Rocket Train Delta Science Arkestra--yeah!! Catch him every Tuesday this month if you're in town...

also Roswell Rudd and his Malicool project at the Jazz Standard last Friday night as part of the JVC Jazzfest, one of the world's greatest living jazzmen and a hell of a stick man improvising his heart out with the creme de la creme of African and Latin American musicians, the kora player lost his passport in Europe and didn't make the plane over (sounds familiar) but really they didn't miss him one whit, swirling and skirling hypnotic deep groove lines abounded, Ros sang a great opening tune too (he should sing more often, he sounds like his trombone) and later summoned up a swinging "All Through the Night"...byootiful!!

Meanwhile my new Wild Rumpus project with Collen "DJ Cosmo" Murphy got another boost this week from the editors at iTunes UK, who picked our new single "Musical Blaze-Up" as one of their Best of the Week featured downloads, alongside the likes of Prince, Gwen Stefani, Crowded House, Happy Mondays--check it out (better yet, download it!) here.

That's all folks, gotta plane to catch, destination Bruxelles for a midnight rendezvous with Cosmo on Saturday as we pump Wild Rumpus live at the Klinkende Munt Festival...

Hope to see summa ya there!

xxLove

Gary