City of Legends

The terminally hip site, blip.fm , where music lovers can mini-blog links to a seemingly endless database of music, has been kind enough a few of my works, with the high likelihood more will follow.

The two to first be made available to the thousands of mini-internet-DJs are "Strange, but beautiful" and "Darfur (Jesus Wept)", which I think are excellent choices.  And yes, even some legendary songs I shared with some of my muses get their fair shakes.

So swing by www.blip.fm or click on HERE to hook up with my tastes in music, from the Pixies to Van Morrison, at blip.fm (where I go by the name DJ Sobriquet)

and, no, I’m not explaining it or the context…yet…

No, I am NOT working on a new CD, but a single track that I think you will find amusing and quite a departure from what I’ve given you so far.  And the "Bo Diddley" that I have been talking about in various spots around the web for the last few days?  It’s the guitar riff, the "Bo Diddley" riff that has been used by so many recording artists over the years.  I had a friend who was supposed to record it for me to abuse in Garage Band, but as usual I am finding myself the most reliable person I know.

I built it myself, synthetically.  And it is solid, so I am playing with it.

By the way, to those who know or care, it is February 16th.  Four days to go.

"What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, if he loses himself" - Luke 9:25

Yes, but the nightmare keeps changing. Had a dream last night that I was booked for a reading in a club and when I got there they were expecting a musical act, based on my CDs. I think it evolved from my noticing the number of people who come to my sites looking for information on my protest poem/song/whatever "Darfur (Jesus Wept)". It is kinda cool to have listeners, but also I am aware of the dangers of being pigeon-holed (was trapped in that aeons ago when I first started writing).

We shall see.

I am getting both praise and raspberries over the announcement regarding Mariya Andriychuk (Note I keep messing with the spelling of her last name, oh the joys of alphabet shifting) as my primary model and photographer for the williamfdevault.com site. I have to make clear that she was chosen for many reasons, the most prominent are that her works speak to me, she has a large portfolio to pull from and she lives in the same chaos zone between the spiritual and the carnal that I seem to wander. If I was a young, beautiful Ukrainian photographer and model instead of a decaying old American poet, I’d be her. As it is, would I, on a moment’s notice, run away and live in a cave with her? Thank goodness the US Constitution has the 5th Amendment for just these occasions. You will start seeing her presence manifest in the next day or two.

Don’t think this means I will be jettisoning the other contributors like Jazz and Liza. Au contraire. I just now have a canvas to work upon, a frame to build into, an attitude to help focus the vision.

An old fan asked why I had chosen the twenty seven tracks I currently have posted to the Listening Room at williamfdevault.com.

The simple truth is, they’re the ones I have gotten to so far. But, not wanting to let me squirm out of the corner, she asked what my opinion was of the pieces I have placed. That’s tougher, but it is a good deconstructive and self-critical exercise, so I will make a brief comment on each of the tracks, and that will be the end of it.

from out of the city: Nice, brief, to the point. Engineered to have an alien, distant radio engineered sound quality. I find it interesting.

Eros V: Romantic, erotic, tender. I always listen for The Selke’s vocalized backgrounds. It’s decent, pretty solid.

Kisses for Karma: Maybe I went too far with this piece, over-producing it (okay, the horns and harmonicas…). But it has a nice energy to it.

Bragi to Freya, on his deathbed: I like this. Yes, you can challenge the tribal drums on a piece about Norse deities. So?

Wordslinger: Almost twenty minutes of building energy. One of my favourite projects.

Beasts of Legend: If you stick it through, you’ll find I included "glass roses" on the end. A very articulate endeavor, employing many of my more soulfully romantic works.

glass roses: The simple, direct faith in romance.

The Gods of Love, Live at Kyrienar: Stan Freberg would be proud. And the music and performance are solid.

Damascus 3: Quick, direct, to the point and accelerating. I would have liked to do more with my voice, but I played it safe.

NQ: Also known as "the Nosferatu’s Quandry". A little bit of the dance devil got in there and we have some funk. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it came out.

Right Set of Lips: Very well received. Sweetly romantic, to the point and the music does not drown out the vocals. I like the earnest appeal.

Falling and Fallen Angels: Ambitious, maybe too ambitious, musically. I give it points for stretching, though.

Brisant Revelations: A nice bit of chaotic rock there. Too rough to be a complete success, but it has a swagger and my vocals are something I’d not imagined. I blame the drums.

Joining the Machine: Grim but perhaps a bit over-produced. Apocalyptically over the top?

Texture of Your Tongue: Not sure how I feel about this one. It has some nice experimentation to it, though.

Strange but Beautiful: I like the simplicity of the partnership between my voice and the piano in this romantic ode with a twist.

Thunder Out of Valhalla: The poem "We Owe Debt to Memory" was put in the music grinder and came out as a bit of jazz-tempered rock strutting. I am ambivalent…in the accurate use of the word.

Love Gods (Multivox): My favourite sonic experiment to date. Yes, all six voices are me I still have the original tracks.

Darfur (Jesus Wept): I have been very humbled by the response to this piece about the humanitarian crisis in the Sudan. We even got some pick up overseas for radio airplay. Booyah!

A Passion, Unrelenting: Banjos? Did someone call for banjos? Actually, I started out with mandolins, but this evolved into a bluegrass-flavoured melange that owes a lot to the West Virginia band The Weedhawks.

The Taste: This poem and recording probably wraps closer around my soul than anything else I have ever done. I love it, unabashedly. Special, special thanks to the great Alan MacDonald for his tutelage in music theory.

Centaur: The glide of this well-oiled synthesizer romp, a romantic flirt of a wisp of a thought on the way down the road.

32fps2: Can you tell we had fun laying this one down? We did. A little raw, but everything comes together. Just stick around,t he vocals don’t cut in until the 2 and a half minute mark.

Evangelist: The vocals are off-key and strained as I struggled to find myself and my soul. I literally bled during the sessions for this CD. Perhaps too intimate for some. There is art and beauty in the truth.

Love is an Howling Beast: We played a bit to keep this from turning into self-mocking parody of the integrity of the words. Painful for me to listen to, as it chronicles the failure of my second marriage. Startlingly archival instrumentation

They’re Shooting Monks in Burma: Another protest song poem, this one about Myanmar massacres. A bit naked and folksy for me, but it gets the job done.

The Panther on the Beach: An early reading, very well articulated. I am proud of the villanelle and glad I could express it so well.

So there you have it, there it is. I’d suggest you haul it over to the Listening Room at williamfdevault.com and at least check out a few tracks.

Out of the goodness of my heart.  And to silence the people griping.  I have modified the free CD track page at www.williamfdevault.com to include a player.

(sound of crickets)

Hey. 

Maybe I need to explain more fully.  When you go to the page (linked above, for the truly lazy amongst you) with the free tracks, you will find the old, gold table for downloads, with the tracks delineated by CD.

But you will also find, at the top of the page (just below and to the left of banner model Christina Banderas, had to get in a plug for her again) a javascript player, pre-loaded with 27 tracks totaling well over two hours of readings and interpretations, most with music, ranging in genre from folk to rock, electric synthesizers to pastoral cithara.  I like to play, what can I say?

So you can click the play button and sit back and not have to click new tracks (unless you want to replay or skip a track or just keep listening to The Gods of Love, Live at Kyrienar until your head explodes.

Just a sample of the soundfiles available at www.williamfdevault.com, I give you my rendition of "I rained poetry".

And the words are as true today as they were when I wrote them in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, lifetimes ago.

Just checked…the current armada of tracks available at the free CD download page at williamfdevault.com now comes to about 3 hours, with many more to come…sheesh.

I do want to thank the marvelously exotic Christina Banderas for providing the banner image for the redesigned download page.  It is nice to have people you can count on (you who are late on your assignments and permissions know who you are…)

Much, much more to do, but it is nice to wade in, and smite them, hip and thigh.  No, I am not speaking of the disturbingly attractive Ms. Banderas.  Although, that would not be a bad idea…(now, I am going to be in trouble with somebody for saying that out loud).

Okay, back to work.  Go listen to "glass roses" or "Love Gods (Multivox)" or the aural illusion of "The Gods of Love, Live at Kyrienar" or even "Love is an Howling Beast".

change is inevitable.  just think about that the next time you carefully fold a few dollars into your wallet.

I am considering possible "theme" changes for this blog, to be enacted on upgrade over the weekend.  no final decision yet.  I even let my son, Dante, express his opinion on some choices.  he’s more interested in why I would want to change than the esthetic of the change.

we shall see.  I am brain loading on music.  the cats are cowering in the corner.  cowards.

okay, so I was a little effusive during James Brown’s "Get Up Offa That Thing".  and Neil Young’s "Rockin in the Free World" somewhat eclipsed my earlier performance to Warren "God" Zevon’s "Lawyers, Guns and Money".

why is the wallpaper melting? 

The Unbitter Suite.

It’s a name, a play on words (my son, Dante, loves plays on words), and it is true. That dangly piece of music I have been working on for the last few weeks? I dreamt it the other night, and it fell into place as the musical spine of a set piece, akin to my early works Wordslinger, Eros V and Beasts of Legend off of my CD The Last Romantic Verb.

It’s big. and grand (note, without the "e") and majestic. It petrifies me, to be honest, as I am wondering if my words and voice can do it justice. But, being prone to leaping from parapets at the slightest provocation, I have to try.

If my obit reads I was found, eyes glazed, headphones on, the sound of synthesized bells and orchestra and a chaotic blast of emotion…then I failed. Or succeeded beyond my wildest dreams (Okay, maybe not my wildest dreams, as those generally involve an exotic beauty with an accent and a large pool of dark chocolate…but close).

I have been building on the musical theme, making it more complete and complex, a suitable compost for the words I must now plant into it. I am going to mostly harvest existing works that work with the mood (unrepentant romanticism) and the rhythmic structure.

It will be big. It will be true. It will be fun to do.

Love to all, I am off to see if I can make the world hear what I hear, feel what I feel when the right word or voice or touch or kiss is upon me and I yet believe that what I am told is more than just the faux fur finery of a pretense.

I am so glad to be alive, and to know what love is, at least in my own sphere.