folk – Page 4

Lorde | The Man with the Axe

“Well, I thought I was going to make this big acid record but I don’t think it was an acid album,” New Zealand singer/songwriter Lorde said upon the release of her 2021 album Solar Power. “I had one bad acid experience in this album and was like meh, it’s a weed album. It’s one of my great weed albums.” The record, which represents a departure from Lorde’s typical synth-dominated style in favor of more acoustic, folk-oriented arrangements, reached #1 in Australia and New Zealand, and charted in the top 10 in thirteen other countries.

“The Man With The Axe” is autobiographical, a love song about a person who affects the singer in a way no one else can. “I wrote this track almost as a poem,” Lorde said. “I was very hungover and I think that fragile, vulnerable quality made it in here. It’s funny because it’s kind of melancholy, but I also think of it as very cozy.

“I’m expressing a huge amount of love and affection for someone. To me, it sounds very private — I sort of don’t even like thinking about people listening to it because it’s just for me…I really didn’t change the poem, apart from maybe taking one line out. That was one of the biggest accomplishments of the album.”

The song modulates from E to F# at 3:14.

Eva Cassidy | Time Is a Healer

“Time Is A Healer” was featured on American singer Eva Cassidy’s first studio album, Eva By Heart, released one year after Cassidy’s death from melanoma at age 33. The track, with music by Diane Scanlon and Greg Smith and lyrics by Cassidy, is characteristic of Cassidy’s style — a full-throated soprano infused with bluesy soul and passion. Her work has been met with posthumous success, charting in the top 10 across Europe.

The tune starts in E major and modulates up to F# for the final chorus at 3:22.

Toussaint McCall | If I Had a Hammer

Toussaint McCall, born in 1934 in Monroe, Louisiana, is an American R&B singer and organist. “At times a stirring soul balladeer, organist, and vocalist, Toussaint McCall doesn’t have a lengthy string of hits,” AllMusic reports. “But his 1967 version of ‘Nothing Takes the Place of You’ was among that year’s finest performances. It gave McCall his lone R&B hit, reaching number five … He continued performing and recording for Southern independent labels, and made a cameo in the 1988 John Waters film Hairspray.”

The seminal folk song “If I Had a Hammer” was written by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays. According to the site Hymn Wiki, the tune “was written in 1949 in support of the progressive movement, and was first recorded by The Weavers, a folk music quartet composed of Seeger, Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman, and then by Peter, Paul and Mary.”

McCall’s cover of the tune (date unknown, likely the 1960s) adds an mid-tempo R&B feel to the classic, featuring what is likely his B3 organ playing as well. Half-step modulations hit at 0:44, 1:14, and 1:45. Thanks to our champion guest poster JB for this find!

TinWhistler | Down By The Sally Gardens

“Down By The Sally Gardens” is a traditional Irish folk song based on a poem by W.B Yeats, performed here by the duo TinWhistler. “We’re PJ and JJ, two brothers from the Mediterranean island of Mallorca,” they say in the description of their group on YouTube. “We mostly play traditional Irish music but also other kinds of “Celtic music”: Scottish, Breton, Galician, Asturian… Mostly on Irish tin whistles/low whistles (PJ) and guitar (JJ).” You can learn more and order their album on their Bandcamp page. Key change at 2:12.

The Subdudes | Next to Me

“Next to Me” is featured on the 2006 album Behind the Levee by American roots/rock group The Subdudes (and produced by Grammy-winning blues artist Keb’Mo’). Based in New Orleans, the group synthesizes folk, cajun, blues, and country influences, and substitutes a tambourine player for a drummer.

The tune subtly modulates from A to B at 3:00. Thanks to Carol Cashion for this submission!

Cat Stevens | Morning Has Broken

A Christian hymn first published in 1931, “Morning Has Broken” was made popular by Cat Stevens, who recorded the song for his 1971 album Teaser and the Firecat. It has since been performed by an array of artists, from Neil Diamond to Judy Collins to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and is frequently programed at wedding and funeral services.

Stevens’ arrangement fluctuates between C major and D major throughout: the first, second, and fourth verses are in C, with the introduction, third verse, and outro in D.

Fourth Moon feat. Ainsley Hamill | The Vale

According to its website, Fourth Moon “were born in 2014 from the meeting between two French musicians (Jean-Christophe Morel, violin; Jean Damei on guitar), an Austrian (Geza Frank, bagpipes and flutes) and a Scot (Mohsen Amini, concertina) … In 2016 the line up changed, introducing David Lombardi from Italy on violin and more recently Andrew Waite from Scotland on accordion.”

The Edinburgh TradFest noted: “The result feels fresh and often exhilarating … showing how traditional musicianship and instruments can be used to produce a truly original sound, Fourth Moon take a mixture of tunes, many of them self penned, and put together sets that play around with styles and tempos and deliver the unexpected.”

The Herald of Scotland reviewed the Glasgow-based band as giving “thought to texture, tone and tempo that can call to mind a chamber music group in terms of sound quality and tonal range.” The ensemble’s seamless handling of tempo changes is clear on 2018’s “The Vale,” where the band is joined by vocalist Ainsley Hamill, a Scottish singer and songwriter who performs in English, Scots, and Gaelic. There are key changes at 0:54, 1:12, 1:30, 1:49, and 3:17.

Many thanks to our regular contributor JB for this tune!

Hubert Giraud | Sous le Ciel de Paris (Joao Palma, accordion)

Expatica.com notes that the French composer and lyricist Hubert Giraud, whose works were recorded by vocalists from Edith Piaf to Tom Jones, “started out as a musician playing with the likes of Django Reinhardt’s jazz group the Quintette du Hot Club de France in the 1930s and on Ray Ventura’s big-band tour of South America.” He also wrote the theme for the 1951 film Sous le Ciel de Paris (Under the Sky of Paris); the song was later recorded by Edith Piaf, Yves Montand, Juliette Greco, and more. Giraud died in 2016 at the age of 95.

The tune was beautifully showcased at the 66th CMA Trophée Mondial accordion competition, held in Portimao, Portugal in 2016. The competition welcomed contestants from more than 20 countries; Joao Palma achieved only ninth place in his junior division, giving some idea of the level of artistry represented at the competition. Palma, a Portuguese national, went on to win the World Accordion Cup, a competition protected by UNESCO’s International Music Council, in 2018.

Starting in E minor, the waltz progresses to E major at 1:03, reverting back to the original key at 1:49. Utilizing rubato as more of a rule than an occasional flourish, Palma throws in a last-minute whole-step modulation at 2:20 — quickly leading to an unexpected ending.

Many thanks to our frequent contributor JB for this submission!

Neil Young | Winterlong

To quote novelist Anne Lamott: “If you don’t die of thirst, there are blessings in the desert. You can be pulled into limitlessness, which we all yearn for, or you can do the beauty of minutiae, the scrimshaw of tiny and precise. The sky is your ocean, and the crystal silence will uplift you like great gospel music, or Neil Young.”

Young, the longtime folk/rock sage and a resident of LA’s storied Laurel Canyon during its heyday as a music nexus, has penned a dozen or more well-known hits. But “Winterlong” was a concert-only rarity for the Canadian-born artist — until the track inexplicably showed up on a compilation album. Songfacts reports: “One of Neil Young’s rarities, ‘Winterlong’ finds him yearning and waiting, possibly for a woman, but that’s no sure thing. All we know is, he’s looking to find his way, and not sure how to get there. The song contains one of the more evocative lines in Young’s catalog: ‘It’s all illusion anyway.’ Fans recall hearing Young perform this song as early as 1970. It’s likely he recorded it in 1974 during the session for his album On The Beach, but ‘Winterlong’ wasn’t released until 1977, which it appeared on the Decade collection.”

Starting in C major, the chorus starts squarely in C but ends in D major at 1:18. At 1:38, C major returns. 2:21 – 2:40 brings another D major patch before the tune ends in C major.

Dar Williams | Write This Number Down

Acoustic/folk singer/songwriter Dar Williams “fits short stories into song,” reports Seattle’s The Stranger, “assesses the moral magnetic compass of the Xer generation, at least, and stays so catchy that you barely realize you’re being tested. Until you get the CD home and check out the lyrics.”

A review in The New Yorker praised Williams: ” … her songs are beautiful. Some are like finely crafted short stories. They are, variously, devastatingly moving, tenderly funny, subtle without being in any way inaccessible, and utterly fresh—not a cliché or a clunker in her entire songbook, which now numbers around a hundred recorded original compositions.”

Williams’ 2012 release “Write This Number Down,” submitted by frequent contributor JB, begins in Eb major. After several short and deliberate verses, the tune finds a more open vista during a brighter, fuller bridge (1:45) as it climbs up to F major. A step back down to Eb accompanies another verse at 2:10. But the musicality of the tune aside, JB calls particular attention to the civics-centered lyrics, a commonplace in Williams’ work:

A vote for one, a vote for all
A right to silence, one free call
You’ll need a warrant for that
No, she won’t sit in the back,
And yes, we’re still abolishing all slavery
Every kind of slavery