Review: Marion's Tape...

Subject: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: InOBU
Date: 30 Sep 04 - 07:55 AM

Wonderful... There are not a lot of folks who can write in the tradition, so to speak, most modern writers write in the post Joanie Mitchel, I'm so into my emotions, style. Marion gives one a glimpse of past by which you can empathise with past events. (I'm not slagging Joanie Mitchel... she's a genus, but she set in motion a juggernaut of folk singers looking deep inside - give me a break!)
But, Marion is a great story teller - fine singer, plays well, and points to the fact we NEED more folk coops to get folks like that on stage, money in the pocket, and recorded for a larger market.
CHeers
Larry
PS I will write more after I have had time to listen to the tape a few times... I may put it on CD so it is easier to play! We need to hear more from you up Marion there in the frozen north....

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: alanabit
Date: 01 Oct 04 - 04:34 AM

That's right. Marion's songs are little potted biographies with, "Just the facts Ma'am". They tell stories and they do it well. It is clear that she is likely to continue going this direction. Some of these songs could get around a lot. They are in the spirit of the folk tradition and they travel well. The universal appeal of a good story will resonate in places which Marin may never get to.
Thanks again for the tape Marion.

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: Marion
Date: 26 Oct 04 - 12:00 PM

Hi gentlemen, and thanks for your kind words. Sorry for not responding earlier.

And for anyone who didn't see the earlier thread: I will send a copy free to anyone who wants one. See this thread for the sales pitch. And lyrics can be found at my website.

Cheers, Marion

PS. "...up there in the frozen north..." Well, it's not frozen yet!

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Oct 04 - 11:26 PM

Personally, they are not worth the postage

You are probably better served PURCHASING - Kat Laughing's parent's recordings...

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: Mudlark
Date: 26 Oct 04 - 11:57 PM

Nonsense...I've heard Marion in person and she is great, as are her songs, as was the tape she left with me. If you've another, newer one, marion, I'll be glad to pay postage and then some!   Nancy

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: harpgirl
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 08:28 AM

Marion's songs and their melodies are wonderful, stupendous, terrific, and very singable as well as emotionally moving. This guest evidently has not heard them and knows nothing about music. Take it from someone who has been collecting and singing folk songs for thirty five years. (I began at 3) Marion has tremendous talent!

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Oct 04 - 12:09 AM

I certainly agree with you harpgirl! I have and am still enjoying Marion's tape, very much. Thanks, again, Marion. It's just as wondrous as yerself!

Comparing a bunch of old cowboy songs on scratchy old 78's to Marion's wonderful ballads is apples and oranges. Plenty of room in the basket for both and no comparison...both great and enjoyable in their own right.

kat

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: greg stephens
Date: 31 Oct 04 - 09:53 AM

I've just had the pleasure of listening to Marion's tape, which I got as a swap when I met her in Toronto. Alas, I havent had the pleasure of hearing her perform in person, so I listened to the tape with particular pleasure.
   It is actually a very wonderful recording. Well, as Marion herself describes it, the production values arent very lavish, so it is unlikely to be a big commercial hit in its current cassette format, complete with hisses, crackles, clicks, verbal fluffs and out of tune bits. Well, more fools the people who judge recordings on these irrelevancies. What we have here is committed and intense performances of some very remarkable songs. Mation's voice is startling in its immediacy, and the songs and themes are wonderful.
"When Nicholas Morey bowed his head
To make his earthly peace
He found the strength to bless himself
And died upon his knees"
(From Newfoundland Sealing Disaster).
Now, what song-writer wouldn't be delighted to have come up with something as good as that?
Or how about (writing about life in the state of Washington):
"We got all the rain that was meant for the nation".
Most songwriters examine the generally uninteresting contents of their own heads: Marion is here tackling the unfamiliar topic of meteorology, and pointing up a fact that people doubtless hear about in geography lessons at school, but rarely sing about!
    Great stuff altogether. I'm intrigued to hear her live. The excellent song "Girl at Pape and Danforth" (exploring the familiar sentiments of "I did but see her passing by" in a very charming manner) refers to the busker as being a fiddler; and there is one track with a bit of fiddling on it. Does Marion work the streets as a fiddler, or singer, or both? I wouldn't have thought these were great busking songs, but maybe with her intensity they work? I'd be intrigued to know.
   The songs are mostly about "the old days", a genre I normally avoid like the plague, and tend to refer to as "fake songs". Not in this case. Marion seems to be walking about with the geography and history of a continent sloshing about in her head in a fine bubbling brew, and what comes out is a delight. There's a breadth of vision here which is quite different from your average recent song about a bit of history, probably because these songs are about people, not events.
   Well, you can get this tape for free from Marion at the moment. I would grab this chance while you can, I imagine it will be an expensive CD soon. I've listened to it three times already, and I can't say more than that.

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 31 Oct 04 - 12:15 PM

Well I got a copy of Marions tape and I thoroughly agree with you greg and at the moment I am working on getting rid of some of the hisses and crackles to put it on CD for Marion as payment for the tape, I hope when I have finished it will have improved the quality somewhat so that it will be on CD but NOT expensive.

The sealing disaster is a brilliant song which I have to say moved me to tears, but then I am an old softy really, but that is one powerful story, even to an old cynic like me.

Keep 'em coming Marion.


whb

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: Rex
Date: 01 Nov 04 - 01:44 PM

I was fortunate to receive this tape from Marion. After listening to it several times I am struck with how she can see into the hearts of regular folks in their extraordinary lives. Quite a wide swath of people and places. I do go for the historic songs and viewpoints so naturally there is much for me to enjoy here. But I was in stiches with "St. Anne's Reel (With an E)". "Daughter You Must Never Say" contains a philosophy that we can all stand to take a good look at. Besides being a song I will be playing myself. As well as the "Newfoundland Sealing Disaster" a masterful work. And "Cecelia Delory". The "Home Waltz" touched me. May have to work on that one too. It's impressive how Marion can show these varied points of view of different lives. Well done. And, thanks,

Rex

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: Marion
Date: 02 Nov 04 - 04:00 PM

Hello again everyone and thank you for all the posts! This thread really made my day, on a day that really needed making.

Alanabit said, The universal appeal of a good story will resonate in places which Marion may never get to. I was very pleased to get an email from a Mudcat Guest in Italy about swapping recordings.

Gargoyle, send me an email - I've made a copy for you, but I don't have your mailing address.

Mudlark, I got your PM, and will write soon.

Harpgirl, I wish I'd started when I was 3. Have you given Catnip Blues or Daughter You Must Never Say a try?

Katlaughing, what's this about your parents' recordings?

Greg, in answer to your questions: when I busk, I just play tunes on my fiddle, and on the song that my friend sings that's me playing fiddle and cello. Having said that, although I borrowed some details from my real life for Girl at Pape and Danforth, it's not a true story; there is no girl at Pape and Danforth. The only truly autobiographical song I've done is the Vermicomposting Song (on website, not on this tape). Oh, and I stole that line "We got all the rain that God meant for the nation" straight from Bertha Allison's memoirs; I've sung it to a couple of Washingtonians (catters Deckman and Bride Judy) and they enjoyed that bit.

Thanks a lot for the work you're doing, Wilbyhillbilly. But are you an old softy or an old cynic? I'm not sure that you can be both. Anyway, you might be interested in reading this thread about the sealing disaster: Songs about Newfoundland disaster 1914. Since then I've heard the Bill Gallaher song that Jeri mentioned, and it's an excellent song.

Rex, I would love for you to sing some of my material! That's my real secret agenda here; I like the feedback, and I like the recordings people have given me as a trade, but what I hope most of all is that some of these songs will get into circulation with other singers...

General thoughts: I especially appreciate it when people make comments on specific songs that stand out to them, as this will help me decide which songs to perform, put on my expensive CD, etc. And I'm finding that they're not always the ones I expect to be most successful. I was expecting American Pilgrim and What He Could Give to have the broadest appeal; and while my friends love St. Anne's Reel (With an E), I wasn't sure how well it would travel out of Canada (or possibly Japan).

So I'm surprised and pleased that three of you have mentioned the Newfoundland Sealing Disaster. I spent a long time researching and writing that one, much more than anything else on the tape, and I was more emotionally affected by it than the others. But since finishing it, I only sang it to three people then sort of retired it; I don't feel very confident of its "performability", since it's so long and depressing. But after hearing Bill Gallaher's killer of a song on the same disaster, I realized I wasn't through with it, and the song I'm working on now is on the same story. Except this one will be a first person account, shorter, and with a chorus.:)

One more thing that I should mention here: most of the tapes I've given out to date have the wrong phone number on them (416-826-2099 is out of service now). But the email and website address are still good, so you can write me for the new number if you want.

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: greg stephens
Date: 03 Nov 04 - 02:02 AM

I had my suspicions that one or more of the lines I quoted might not be totally original, but that doesnt matter in the least. All good writers borrow from all over the place, you've got your antennae out in all the the right directions, as all good folk poets should. Never forget that Bizet didnt write the famous Habanera from Bizet's Carmen!

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 03 Nov 04 - 03:47 AM

Beth (my BETTER half) sung your Catnip song last week and it went down a storm at our local weekly singaround, accompanied by a variety of instruments, accordions, flute, box bass,guitars,snare drum with brushes (me), concertinas, clarinet, and even a tuba!, we obviously gave quite a bit of info concerning the origin and a lot of interest was generated in your writings, so much so that she had to do "Daughter You Must Never Say" which is her current favourite.

No doubt she will be doing some more over the coming sessions, so just like to say thanks for putting these songs up for us, and at least a little part of Suffolk (UK), is getting to hear your songs.

THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT.

whb

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: Marion
Date: 04 Nov 04 - 01:45 PM

Well, that's the best review yet, Wilbyhillbilly! Made my day again. Now I've got to find Suffolk on the map; I hope it's near Bristol. And odds are that that was the world premiere performance of Daughter You Must Never Say, as I've never sung it to anybody. I'm always reticent about singing the long ones.

And you said a lot of interest was generated in your writings; that brings me to one more general thought. This will no doubt change once I've made my expensive CD, but since this is just a demo intended to spread my seed around, I don't mind if you copy it for your friends. If you do, though, please include a photocopy of my liner notes so they have the background info, my website address etc.

Cheers, Marion

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: Red and White Rabbit
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 01:53 AM

Marion
listened to your tape once - the ones that stood out to me were Daughter you must never say and Frederick Shortts Lament - I love the Hawks tune anyway and so I they will be sung in Yorkshire and Lancashire before too long.

thanks again

sue

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 04:17 AM

Marion,

Its good of you to allow copies and I'm sure there will be several takers around here, BUT, the sound levels on the tape needed a little work on them, also the balance between both channels on some of them, as one channel was just hiss from the tape, SO, I have taken the liberty of tweaking them a bit and transferring them to CD, a couple of which are winging their way to you as I post this.

Hope this is OK. When you have heard it perhaps you can let me know if its OK to give out copies of the CD (complete with liner notes) instead of the original tape, naturally if you would prefer to have the tape copied instead thats fine, whatever suits you, we just appreciate the fact that you have given us this opportunity.

THE FUTURE IS BRIGHTER!!

whb

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: Marion
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 06:31 PM

Hi Sue! Sorry for the delay and I'm glad they got to you. I notice that you like the two that are half set in England...:)

Thanks Wilbyhillbilly, I'm looking forward to that. Of course it's fine - preferable, really - to give someone a CD version if you want to pass it on. I wish I could give everybody CD versions.

Marion

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: wilbyhillbilly
Date: 11 Nov 04 - 03:20 AM

Thanks Marion,

Listen and see what you think of the CD, and if it gets the ok, if there are any mudcatters who would rather have a CD version I would be prepared to send them one on your behalf.

Once it gets up to thousands though I might have to charge postage *big grin*.

Keep up the good work.


whb

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: emjay
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 01:28 AM

So far just one time through the tape, but I will definitely listen to it many times. I like all the songs, but the one I am most eager to share right now is Anne with an E, and when the expensive cd is ready I am more than ready to buy one.
Marion writes so well in the traditional style and I have always loved the songs that tell a story. It seems to me she puts those words together in much the same way Stan Rogers did. The words and music fit perfectly and she has a real gift for imagery.
This is a really generous offer. Thank you, Marion, for sharing this treasure.
MJ

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 12:35 PM

I've only had time to listen to the first side of the tape, but I'm enjoying it immensely. "Daughter You Must Never Say" is on my list of "To-Learn" songs and another high point was "St. Anne's Reel (with an E)".

Good stuff. Okay, it's not trad, but the songs are nicely in the tradition. I should have the tape on right now but it's upstairs. I'll fix that soon and listen to side B -- and then turn it over for another listen!

Thanks, Marion -- Curmudgeon's CD is on its way.

Linn

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: black walnut
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 08:43 PM

Marion brought me a tape on Friday night, and then gave it to somebody else before she saw me. OUCH! It's okay, Marion, we'll get it together one of these times.

She did, however, sing one of her songs to us at song circle. Everybody thought it was traditional, and all the while she sang, she had us hooked.

~b.w.

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: Marion
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 03:58 PM

Wilbyhillbilly, sshh, or everybody's going to want one.

Re:It seems to me she puts those words together in much the same way Stan Rogers did. Emjay, I think I'm a little in love with you. Stan is one of my two big heroes/role models in the songwriting business.

Thanks, Linn, I look forward to that CD. And I'm pretty fond of the Anne of Green Gables song too; in fact I'm thinking of doing another literary spoof next, and am accepting book nominations. Most likely something else in the "chick lit" field... maybe a Bronte novel, or Little Women. No Shakespeare (I'll leave that to Adam McNaugton, who inspired my Anne song with his Macbeth song), no Tolkien (too trendy now with those frigging movies), and no Steinbeck (too sacred to me). But possibly something that's not chick lit, like Moby Dick or Crime and Punishment.

Black Walnut, what I didn't tell you is that I also brought you a tape that night at the Flying Cloud... and then I saw O.B. before I saw you. Foiled again. Tell you what, if you're not at the next song circle I attend, I'll give one to R.S. to give you, since he seems to be there almost every week. Did you really think my song was traditional? (I sang Cecelia Delory because of its tie-in to the 1918 armistice.)

Love, Marion

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: mg
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 09:12 PM

who is your other musical hero?

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: GUEST,Marion
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 02:14 PM

Hi Mary! The other is Jed Marum, who I met through Mudcat. Besides being a very fine player, singer, and melody-writer, he has a great talent for writing historical ballads. It was hearing him and getting one of his CDs (Streets of Fall River) that inspired me to start writing in earnest, and I've made a conscious attempt to learn from and emulate his style.

Marion

PS to Mary: I still think your line "their eyes are on the highway instead of on the sea" is brilliant - I'd like to hear that song again sometime. What CD is it on?

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: emjay
Date: 19 Nov 04 - 02:18 AM

Some of those songs keep going through me head. Tonight it's "...Hug your own damn' tree..." I've got to learn all of it.
And the Catnip Blues. This morning it was another one. The more I listen to the tape, the better I like it.
Thank you, Marion! I am eager to share it with someone who will actually be performing these songs in public. Thanksgiving I'll have a chance.
MJ

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: mg
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 12:25 AM

Thanks...it is on the Gordon Bok Herrings in the Bay..darling little boys there. One asked me, Miss, can I get the best job in Canada..and I said..probably, what would that be..I thought he would say prime minister or hockey star or something..he said transport driver...I have his picture but it is very fuzzy. mg

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 Nov 04 - 03:53 AM

HeyaMarion, sorry, I missed your question. You can find out more in this thread: Found Musical Treasures. I'd be happy to send you a set if you'd like.

kat

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: jaze
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 08:25 PM

Thanks Marion for your great tape! I've sent you a PM.

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: Marion
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 01:54 PM

Hello again Emjay. You might be interested in this thread: Pilgrimage sites in US. I started it when I was collecting ideas for the American Pilgrim song, and used some Mudcatters' suggestions.

Hello again Mary. It's interesting that "the highway" means trucking. I assumed that it meant moving to Toronto.

Hello again Katlaughing. Thanks, I'll take a look at that.

I just got your PM, Jaze, thanks.

Marion

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: harpgirl
Date: 11 Dec 04 - 02:02 PM

Hi Marion,
I recorded an acapulco version of "Daughter You Must Never Say" and posted it to you this morning. (The CD cover is a picture of an oil painting which hangs in my home done by Julie Bowland, my landscape painter friend.) There is only the one song on your CD. As I record more I will gather them and send. Thank you for this lovely body of work. I hope you can tolerate my version.

Subject: RE: Review: Marion's Tape...
From: Marion
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 07:36 PM

That sounds wonderful, Harpgirl, I can't wait to hear it.

Hmm... Dec. 11... maybe it's in my mailbox right now. But a few letters to write before I go home.

Cheers, Marion