One of our favorite albums of 2011 was The Holy Coming of the Storm, by Cahalen Morrison & Eli West. We were proud to help run publicity on it because we believe then (and now) that their music was a game changer. Cahalen and Eli's songs were so tight, so perfectly written, and their arrangements so angular and powerful. We just loved the album. And so did lots of other people. We've been hoping for a chance to get Cahalen to talk about some of his songwriting process and to go over a few of the more beautiful songs from the album to add background. Now here we are! Here's what Cahalen had to say about three of the key songs from his album with Eli West.

Inside the Songs with Cahalen Morrison

"My Lover, Adorned" (written w/and sung by Eli West)

"For me, few novels have such strong imagery like any of those by Cormac McCarthy. The sparse quality of McCarthy's writing allows the reader to do much of the work themselves. The kind of writing I enjoy most, and the kind that comes across in the most powerful way, is the style that McCarthy uses. Four lines of sparse (maybe even dry) prose, followed by a line of poetry that knocks you out of your rhythm. So, you stop, and read it again, letting the subtlety sink in. The whole book [McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses] flows in this way, to me. I was struck by so many one-liners in the book, that I wound up with a sheet of paper, stuck in the back cover, covered in lines and page numbers. A few months after I had finished the book, I went back through, and reread the lines that had stuck out to me before. One passage had especially beautiful imagery, so I decided to expand on it, using one line. 'John Grady stood his saddle upright to the fire and walked out on the prairie and stood listening. He could see the Pumpville watertank against the purple sky. And beside it the horned moon. He could hear the horses cropping grass a hundred yards away. The prairie otherwise lay blue and silent all about.' (p. 42) I used the line in a slightly different context, but still in line with the story, the song ends up being more of a parallel, than being completely true to the story, being that I was also drawing from personal experiences, and weaving the two together."
 

"Jealous Sea"

"I spent a month in Boston, visiting a friend a few years ago, and ended up with a woman on my mind that was out west. This being my first time enduring an east coast, maritime winter, I was quite taken by the complete and utter dreadfulness of the sleet, snow, and wind. And, as it would seem, the combination of longing for love and terrible weather make a good mindset for songwriting. The song ended up being situated upon mother nature keeping this woman away from me, at any expense. This is another song that I borrowed one of my favorite lines for. But, this line came from one of my favorite Tom Waits songs, 'All The World Was Green,' which I used as a whole, unashamedly. I hope he won't mind."
 

"On God's Rocky Shore"

"For this song, I stuck with the fairly basic model using imagery, song structure and harmonic devices that run deep and common in Old-Time music. There is not necessarily too much glue that holds the verses together, and not really a storyline that the song follows, as each verse is stand-alone, and only ties in subtly to the rest. The title of the record, The Holy Coming of the Storm, comes from the last line of this song. I grew up in Northern New Mexico, and am always in awe of the severity and intensity of what nature does in the desert. This line, 'The creek is rising, on up to the shower, the holy coming of the storm,' is referring to flash floods in the summer, when there is not a cloud in the sky, but all of a sudden, there is a wall of velvety, brown water tearing down the arroyos, wiping out anything in its path. And the storm may or may not show its face in whatever particular canyon you are in. It all seems so counter-intuitive, and definitely speaks to something that is part of the bigger picture. "
 

NW Friends: Cahalen Morrison will be sharing the stage with Kelly Joe Phelps (another favorite songwriter of ours) this Sunday, March 25, at the Tractor Tavern. Dang! Don't miss it! He's playing Bellingham on Saturday, and Portland next Thursday. WWW.CAHALEN.COM

I grew up in Grass Valley and Nevada City, two conjoined towns in the foothills of Northern California's Sierra Nevada mountains. This was the heart of Gold Rush country, and Nevada City is home to a historic gold mine (the oldest and the largest, in fact), Empire Mine. I grew up far out in the woods, and could hike to a small stream near our home and an abandoned mine, where I used to play as a kid (real safe, right?). Besides old bottles and cans littered around the mine, there was a line of miner's boots tied to a tree outside the shaft and an old rusted mine car across the stream in the bushes. So even though mining was pretty much done out there, Grass Valley and Nevada City still have a lot of roots in mining culture, and one of these main roots was Cornish. Brought to the region in the 1870s for their mining expertise, Cornish immigrants brought a distinct culture to Northern California. Today you can still buy Cornish pasties (delicious pastries that are kind of a cross between a calzone and a pot pie) at Marshall's Pasties downtown, and every year Grass Valley hosts a Cornish Christmas celebration. Musically, though, there isn't too much left.

Cornwall is a Celtic region in Britain, with a language similar to Welsh or French Breton, but the music of the Cornish miners in the States was primarily vocal music, performed in large men's choirs. They also loved brass bands as well, and some still survive in the surrounding area.

I'd always wondered about the musical roots of the region, so I was very excited when I heard recently that renowned California songwriter Rita Hosking actually came from Cornish family roots and had been looking into the music. So in honor of her upcoming visit to the Northwest, I decided to go "inside the songs" with her.
 

Rita's Background: 
"Only my grandparents/great-grandparents lived in Grass Valley--My great-grandpa, Tom Hosking, worked at Empire Mines. He and his wife Ida (my nana) grew up in Cornwall in mining families, were married there, then emigrated to the U.S. Before Grass Valley, they had lived in northern Michigan and then Butte, Montana, like many Cornish miners did. In Grass Valley they lived on 123 Empire Street (a short walk down from the mine.) Tom was one of the last to emerge from the mine when it closed in 1956, because he was turning off the pumps. (He had become chief mine mechanic.) He understood the history that was being flooded and grabbed a few items like level signs, etc., some of which we still have.
 

The Cornish have a strong singing tradition, and Tom sang in the Cornish Carol Choir, the Grass Valley Carol Choir, Cornish Glee Club, The California Cornish Gold Mining Singers, and any sort of singing club he and his peers came up with (as did their sons.) Cornish miners have a reputation for singing underground, though I've read that it subsided with the introduction of different ethnic groups into the mines--they become self-conscious around others. However, I think it was still pretty strong in Grass Valley, and at Christmas in 1940 he and many other miners were broadcast singing live from underground in the Idaho/Maryland Mine [in Grass Valley] on NBC. Pretty amazing. They say the response from around the country was huge--people were very moved by hearing these miners singing from underground and their special Cornish carols. I've also read that NBC might have arranged this because the govt. was keen to find broadcasts to help spread awareness and comradery with the English, who were of course targets of the Nazis at that time.

We heard stories of the miners from my grandfathers, recordings of the singing, and photographs. When Christmas came around, my sister and I were told to shut up and sit down, and my father would put on the old records. He and his father would stand and sing or hum to the music, tears in their eyes. As I say in one of my bios, I grew up with a strong respect for the power of the voice--this is what I'm talking about. I could pick out my great grandfather's voice too, even though I'd never heard him sing in real life--I knew his voice. It was a soaring tenor. If you are interested in reading about these folks, there's a fabulous book called When Miners Sang, the Grass Valley Carol Choir, by Gage McKinney. It can be ordered with CD's too, which I must say are easier to play than my parents old 78's. There are several pictures with my great grandpa in them, and a little paragraph about him, too. I named a song on my most recent record, Burn, after the book, whose title I love--When Miners Sang, with the author's permission.

Rita Hosking: When Miners Sang


"My heart is stirring with a noble song" [Psalms 45]
Of a young girl who loved plants and the sky
Of her father who mined in the dark all day long
She gave to him gifts to remember her by

Daddy please take this dandelion
You can take it below, hold up and blow
Watch all the seeds scatter and fly
You say they can't grow, but maybe they'll try

She placed in his pail a lilac flower
He found it at noon, its fragrance so true
All the men marveled at the beauty and power
In the light of the lamps, little lilac flower

Oh Daddy please take this pretty love song
You can sing it below, then I will know
When you are lonely, or need to feel strong
He began with it softly, the men sang along

Oh sweetheart what have I to give to you?
With pain in his heart and love in his eyes
I am a poor miner, what worth have I?
You deserve all the riches money can buy

Oh Daddy, you pay for our food on our table
And you play with me when you are able
I know what you and the others are makin'
It's gold for the ladies and sad, sad singin'
It's gold for the ladies and sad, pretty singin'

"My father remembers the performances they did outside the mine, in halls and such. He remembers one performance at the state fair when he was a child. His grandpa and friends were dressed in their work clothes, even with the helmets, lunch pails, some tools and such. They sang to the rhythm of a hammer hitting steel -- we have a photo of his grandpa holding such a hammer on a stage, dressed out as my dad describes them. I've got a quote and photo inside my Silver Stream album. I don't perform any distinctly Cornish music, however the song I wrote called When Miners Sang was intentionally influenced by Celtic sounds, which I think you'll hear. I wrote it special for the underground recording, but liked it a lot so took it to the studio album as well."



[Rita's speaking here about the fascinating EP she recorded in 2010, Live in the 16 to 1 Mine. Joined by her daughter and husband, and gathered around a single microphone, the trio of musicians recorded a handful of songs about mining, some sourced from Utah Philips, some from Rita's pen, and some traditional, in the depths of an actual working gold mine.] Here's a track from that album:

Rita Hosking: Bright Morning Stars


"I've had the great honor of touring in the UK twice now, and plan to go back in a year's time. Both times I made sure to visit Cornwall (or Kernow, as the locals say) and already have some lovely friends there, in addition to many folks I've met simply because Hosking is such a commonly Cornish name, and they are curious. I'd love to return sometime when I'm not in a rush/tour. Brought our kids on the first trip, and properly indoctrinated them in the pleasures of Cornish pumps, steam engines, etc..."

Rita's newest album, Burn, is a wonderful pastiche of Northern California life, drawing both from her family's roots in Grass Valley's Cornish culture, and from her own childhood growing up outside of Mount Shasta, about three and a half hours Northwest of Grass Valley, into the middle of the state. The larger-than-life country characters she grew up around peek into her songs and inform her hard-scrabble, earthy songwriting. Sometimes these influences are subtle, only to be understood by those who come from the region. I loved her song "My Demolition Man," having grown up around Demolition Derby drivers in California, where the sport is quite popular in rural areas. Her music is clearly rooted in Northern California, but her songwriting touches something much deeper than the simple culture of home. She's writing about the deeper parts that fuel us and help us drive our lives.

Rita Hosking: My Demolition Man


 

PURCHASE RITA'S MUSIC:

Irish guitarist, singer, and songwriter John Doyle is one of the foremost traditional musicians of his generation. He first made his name as the guitarist for the much-loved ensemble Solas, where his particularly percussive style of guitar became one of the prime inspirations for other Irish guitarists, and gave rise to many imitators. He's also known for his work with Chicago fiddler Liz Carroll; their duo album, Double Play, was justly nominated for a Grammy in 2010. Recently he's been showing himself as a deft interpreter of Irish songs and a soloist of great note. With his new album, Shadow and Light, Doyle is also proving himself as a songwriter. He's usually been content to plumb the depths of the Irish tradition for material, but most of the songs on Shadow and Light are ones he's written. And these songs reach into his life and history for their inspiration. "Little Sparrow" is a crowd favorite song he wrote to his daughter, and it's great to have it recorded finally. It's a softly sweet ode to childhood that should lend itself well to being covered (*hint to folk singers looking for new material).

What I found most interesting about Doyle's album were the songs about the Irish experience in America. Of course, emigration to America (or Canada for that matter) has always been one of the main topics in Irish traditional song, and Doyle includes some fascinating variations on these songs. In fact, I found his liner notes about these songs to be compelling enough that I got permission to share them online in this edition of Inside the Songs. The first song (co-written with his wife Cathy), "Liberty's Sweet Shore," deals with the most-known Irish emigration, that of the Great Famine, but from the lesser known perspective of Irish immigration to Québec, the second-most important port after New York for Irish fleeing starvation and depredation in the mid-19th century. The second song, "The Arabic," shines a light on Doyle's own history and the later (attempted) emigration of his grandfather during WWI.

Liberty's Sweet Shore

"Gross Île, a way station close to Québec, has a mass grave of over thirty thousand victims of the famine and the brutal voyage over from Ireland. In the height of the Famine in 1847/48 certain landlords paid for their tenants to emigrate as it was the most financially expedient thing to do. Their tenants were starving to death and could not work nor pay their rents. Buying the cheapest passage for two pounds a head, men women and children, most in dire condition clothed in rags, no money nor food found their way on board. Some were luck and had a quick voyage over, a good captain and a ship's surgeon, but others had rancid meat, meager hard tack, if any, and a lack of drinking water. Many were infected with typhus or Cholera and were either thrown overboard or kept in Gross Île until their ultimate demise. Still, the overall outlook was hope as they were going to a different country and perhaps a life free from starvation, privation and domination."

John Doyle: Liberty's Sweet Shore

 

The Arabic

"In August of 1916 Martin Lohan, my great-grandfather on my mother's side, decided to join his brother and immigrate to the United States. He walked from Baile na Hamhna, close to Creggs, Lisduff in Co. Roscommon, to Cobh in County Cork, which was then called Queenstown, and embarked on the S.S. Arabic to New York. They were 50 miles south of Kinsale when U24, a German U-boat on maneuvers, discovered the ship and fired two torpedoes into The Arabic. The ship went down in ten minutes killing 44 people. Martin was one of the lucky ones who survived. He jumped into the sea shortly before the ship sunk and swam to a life raft, but was beaten away with oars by the men on board as they were afraid he would topple the small raft. Luckily for him (and for my grandfather, Mother and I) the hand of providence came in the form of a woman who grabbed him before he sank and hauled him into the life raft. He spent a few months in an infirmary on Spike Island and eventually walked back to Roscommon. Apparently the only words he mentioned of the event for many years was 'Ah sure, I wasn't meant to go to America.'"
 
John Doyle: The Arabic

Other songs on the album also deal with Irish and Irish-American history through the poetic lens of Doyle's songwriting. "Farewell to That" examines the bitter disappointment of Irish fighting for England in WWI, torn between the home hatred of the British and their hopes that their service would help gain Home Rule (it didn't). "Bound for Botany Bay" looks at an Irishman bound for the Australian penal colony following the 1798 Rebellion. "Clear the Way" documents the Irish Volunteers, a regiment in the American Civil War. It's a fascinating journey through Doyle's clear love of Irish history, and through the mind of a songwriter who recognizes the impact history has on us today. Buy the album and discover Doyle's songwriting for yourself!

PS: If you need more convincing, check out the lineup of guest musicians on the album: Tim O'Brien (vocals, mandolin), Alison Brown (banjo), Kenny Malone (percussion), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Todd Phillips (bass), John Williams (accordion), Pete Grant (lap steel) and Michael McGoldrick (uillean pipes and flute).
 
Thanks to John Doyle and Compass Records for permission to stream his songs and post the liner notes!

The 'nets have been buzzing about Seattle's own Bryan John Appleby ever since his newest album, Fire on the Vine, dropped this year. After finally sitting down to explore this album, I was floored to hear one of the best voices in indie roots music today. And it's not just the singing and the beautiful, complex instrumental arrangements on the albums; really the meat of what makes Bryan's music so appetizing is the lyrics. At turns heart-wrenching and transcendent, the album moves between our fragile lives and our endless capacity for faith. It's not religious per se, but it does tap into old epics and Biblical characters.

Driven by my own curiosity, I asked Bryan John Appleby for more information about how faith works into the lyrics. "To be specific, the album relates to the faith that I knew in my formative years, up until the last few years, and the irreconcilable aspects of that former faith and my current position," he said. "It should be clear through the lyrics that I've made a departure. It is more ambiguous than it may seem though."



You can hear this ambiguity in a song like The Words of the Revelator. Bryan said he wasn't specifically referencing John the Revelator, but it's hard not to hear the connection in the lyrics. "You turn away/I am left alone/Then came the sign/Then came the revelation," is a great lyric that touches on the ambiguity of signs, while "You will find what you did not seek/A road less narrow/A way not steep," sure sounds to me like the sigh of relief that comes from moving out from under the weight of religion. Talking further with my friend April at the blog Common Folk Music, Bryan said "In the song 'Words of the Revelator,' I created a conversation between an old craggy hermit scholar type and a young man. This relationship is analogous to the inner struggle that a thinking, reasoning person encounters when she or he is confronted by irreconcilable ways of thinking." [read that Q&A here]

Bryan John Appleby: The Words of the Revelator

"Glory" is another powerful song from Bryan's new album. At turns it's a soaring ode to the human emotions of glory and accomplishment, an uplifting song, but there's a biting edge underneath, a feeling of something lost. As if the glory he's singing about, the kind of glory you'd get from growing up with epic Biblical stories, has slipped away as he's passed into a later phase of his life. I asked Bryan about this song in particular: "Glory is the one song that sounds like its about God but really it means something different than that. No, not sex. It's a salve for me. The album is sad most of the time so the song Glory is a nod to the beauty in our existence. It is subtle and wonderful." I love the thought of this song as a salve, a healing intended to move us along on a new path.

Bryan John Appleby: Glory

 

Moving on from religion, I really wanted to ask Bryan more about how his music fits into the Pacific Northwest. It certainly seems so connected to our dark, rainy environment; it's the kind of album that can only come out of an endless Seattle winter. I asked him what places in the Northwest inspired him. "My bedroom in the Beacon Hill house [note: check out this great video of Appleby composing at home]. My underground apartment after that," he said. "It was all pretty spectacular when I first got up here. The Puget Sound and the islands. I've only been out there a few times but it's a pretty overwhelming place. Georgetown has always felt good to be down in. Specific spaces, Acme Rubber Stamp Co, used to be in Ballard. The hand painted signage in the I.D..." Bryan's been putting together some amazing videos recently, featuring different landscapes of the Pacific Northwest. And the venerable Doe Bay Fest just release an exceptional video of him out on the Puget Sound's Orcas Island, so you can see him performing in the environment that first inspired his music out in the NW.

Bryan John Appleby: The Doe Bay Sessions

The 2011 Doe Bay Sessions - Bryan John Appleby from Sound on the Sound on Vimeo.

Bryan John Appleby w/Mychal of Campfire OK 

Cliffs Along The Sea from Christian Sorensen Hansen on Vimeo.

BUY THE ALBUM (it's only out on Bandcamp)

Bryan John Appleby is performing at the 2011 Seattle Folk Festival. You can check out the full lineup at www.seattlefolkfestival.com. Bryan's performing as part of the Columbia City Celebration, all-day Saturday, December 10, along with Sons of Warren Oates, Youth Rescue Mission, Brother Bear, Kevin Murphy of the Moondoggies, Pharis & Jason Romero, and more!

Seattle Folk Festival Website
Seattle Folk Fest on Facebook

Saturday Columbia City Celebration

I found myself thinking about the tenth anniversary of 9/11 yesterday, and found unexpected solace in a beautiful song that I'd oft overlooked. While Facebook filled up with remembrances from all sides of the political spectrum (memorials for fallen soldiers, calls to remember the million killed in the pointless war post-9/11), this song brought it all full circle for me.



"Now Is The Cool of the Day" was written by Kentucky singer and folk songwriter Jean Ritchie in the early 1970s. It draws its inspiration from the rather strange biblical verse Genesis 3:8... "Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden." Of course referring to Adam and Eve's reaction to God after eating the apple, I love the thought of the "cool of the day" being a key part of this passage. Is this the time of day that God usually goes walking in the garden? Is this a blessed time of day? It seems that way sometimes, and Ritchie tapped into this feeling when writing the song.

NOW IS THE COOL OF THE DAY
(Jean Ritchie)

My Lord, he said unto me,
Do you like my garden so fair?
You may live in this garden if you keep the grasses green,
And I'll return in the cool of the day.

CHORUS
Now is the cool of the day,
Now is the cool of the day;
O this earth is a garden, the garden of my Lord,
And he walks in his garden
In the cool of the day.

Then my Lord, he said unto me,
Do you like my pastures of green?
You may live in this garden if you will feed my lambs,
And I'll return in the cool of the day.
CHORUS

Then my Lord, he said unto me,
Do you like my garden so free?
You may live in this garden if you keep the people free,
And I'll return in the cool of the day.
CHORUS

[Thanks to MudCat for the lyrics]

Ritchie's song stunningly expands on the original Genesis verse. With a nod to the original, she speaks of God's return to his garden to see how man has been keeping it, but NOW is the cool of the day, she says, bringing us to the present time. This Earth we live on NOW is the Garden of our lord, and we shall be judged on how we keep the garden and how we keep ourselves. She brings in just enough of the Old Testament to lend an edge to the song, especially in the verses. But the chorus is the real heart.

Now is the cool of the day;
O this earth is a garden, the garden of my Lord,
And he walks in his garden
In the cool of the day.

Poets over the centuries have worked to describe God's love of the world and mankind. They've used countless euphemisms, but I've fallen for Ritchie's simple line of God walking in his garden in the cool of the day. There's a real comfort in a thoughtful, reflective God, walking the paths of his creation and enjoying a cool evening breeze. And there's comfort in our responsibility to care for his garden, by caring for each other and caring for the Earth. It's a wonderful message, and especially timely as we look back on the past ten years in a post-9/11 world.



In the Cool of the Day: Daniel Martin Moore


Inspired by Jean Ritchie's work in Kentucky roots music (and her activism for protecting Kentucky's natural environment from rapacious mining companies), Sub Pop folk singer Daniel Martin Moore named his new solo album In the Cool of the Day. And he provides the best cover of Ritchie's song that I've heard. He taps into the gentle lyrics and message, and draws forth a deep beauty. Moore's album is just gorgeous, a loving selection of old and new gospel songs recorded by hand originally as a gift for family. Now it's a gift we all can enjoy.

A poet of the American West, Hal Cannon's spent years studying, performing, producing and promoting Western music. Founding director of the Western Folklife Center and the Cowboy Poetry Gathering, and frequent contributor to NPR's Weekend Edition, Hal Cannon is also known for his ground-breaking work documenting Utah's folk traditions with the Deseret String Band. We're proud to be able to help promote his brand-new album, Hal Cannon, and we've fallen in love with his story-rich songs and Western poetry.

Here's a closer look at a few songs from Hal's self-titled debut. Hal's got a thoroughly insightful way with language, so we're reprinting some of the liner notes to get a better idea of the stories behind the songs on his new album.

Hal Cannon: Hittin' the Trail Tonight

 

"I based this song on a poem by the legendary poet Bruce Kiskaddon who retired from cowboying in 1926 to drive chariots in the original Ben-Hur Movie. He stuck around L.A., turned his cowboy hat and boots in for a bellhop's monkey suit, and spent the next couple of decades toting bags for sequined cowboys. There is no darker place than the edge of the spotlight. I figured he always meant this poem to be a song, and it makes the mouth feel good singing it."

Hal Cannon: That's How It Is On the Range


"Have you ever wanted to sleep in a shallow cave where the ancients camped and look out at a flashing desert rainstorm? The spirits still reside in windswept expanses where little but the elements pass by. I've been there."

Hal spent years studying the poetry and songs of Western cowboys, and has been a seminal figure in the renowned Cowboy Poetry Gathering. Each year, this gathering brings together cowboy poets and musicians from all over the West Coast, but also brings cowboys from other parts of the world, like Creole Cowboy Geno Delafose from Louisiana, or the cowboys of France's Camargue region, or even Basque shepherds from Idaho and Eastern Washington. It's an amazing festival, and a bold experiment in bringing cultures together.

 
Video from the Cowboy Poetry Gathering

BUY Hal Cannon's Album from Amazon