Apparent Dip Music Club #6 - Stan Rogers

When I first started blogging, I had a regular feature I called the Apparent Dip music club. I'd find video clips on YouTube, embed them within a post, and boo-yah, instant entertainment. I haven't done this for a while; primarily because I've wanted to focus on geologic posts, but truth be told, there were many other reasons I felt a little unconformable posting videos. I found this video today, and decided to link because it absolutely made my afternoon. Let me explain.

I've been a big Stan Rogers fan since my sophomore year in college. I'd never heard of him growing up, but my undergraduate adviser had a tape of a Stan Rogers album he played once on a field trip. For some reason I became hooked. This was 1995, and after fruitlessly searching the record stores in Madison AND Berkeley (the two hippest places I visited that year), eventually found and bought my first Stan Rogers album (Between the Breaks, Live!) using some early online version of a music store. I forget the name, but I remember printing off an order form, mailing off a check, and then 3 weeks later getting two copies in the mail (one as a present for my brother.) I played and replayed this album hundreds of times; on field trips, in my dorm room, on the plane flights back to California to visit family, everywhere. After college, I found a few more Stan Rogers albums at Amoeba Music (Home in Halifax and From Fresh Water), and then later in grad school got a hold of Northwest Passage. Stan died long before I was aware of his music, when I was 7 actually, but I am still catching up with his catalog. Part of this has been the relative difficulty of finding his albums in the U.S., and always being on a budget entirely incompatible with buying import CD's. I've slowly accumulated albums, and a biography, but have never had a chance to see the CBC documentary about his life. Most of the facts in the documentary are things I knew, but what really fired me up was the live footage of him singing, especially the chorus to Northwest Passage. My two favorite albums of his are live albums (Between the Breaks, Live and Home in Halifax), but I'd never seen him perform.

I like all kinds of music, but I can rarely explain why. Stan Rogers is no exception. I have no experience with the activities he sings about (sailing, fishing, farming, etc...), and I am not Canadian (although I have a definite wanna-be Canadian streak). For whatever reason though, his songs truly resonate with me. That actually makes sense, because Stan wasn't any of those things either, well, except Canadian. But somehow he was able to embody peoples lives in his songs, and the ideas and emotions he sings about are pretty universal. Truth is when the weather turns a little foul, there is nothing better than his music.

My favorite parts of this movie are:

1. Stan and friends sitting around a kitchen table stomping and singing his most famous and song, Barret's Privateers. Incidentally, this is perhaps my favorite song in the world to sing when I've had a few beers, although my baritone is slightly less impressive than Stan's. His description of the song starts at 29:46.
2. Footage of Stan singing the chorus to Northwest Passage. I had never heard this song until graduate school, when a Canadian friend played it for me. Now it is one of my favorites. I probably listened to it 30 times on the drive east from grad school. This is right at the beginning of the film.
3. And the best part, the last 5 minutes or so, with the concert footage of Stan singing The Mary Ellen Carter interlaced with footage of Bob Custick describing the wreck of the Marine Electric and how the refrain from the song helped him live through a freezing night in a lifeboat. Seriously, you can't make that up. It is itself the perfect story for a Stan Rogers song. The refrain from this song, and the last lyrics ("smiling bastards lying to you every where you go") has always been one of my favorites. This part starts at the 38:08 mark.
4. How striking bald men with beards are, truly a great look.

Enjoy.



via videosift.com

PS - Stan died of smoke inhalation in 1983, when the plane he was on (Air Canada 797) caught fire. It was this air disaster that led to the mandatory installment of floor lighting and other guides to help guide passengers in smoke-filled planes to exits. So, every time you fly and the staff are going over the safety features of the plane you are on, think of Stan.

All lights burning bright: Apparent Dip Music Club Concert Review #1

This post has nothing to do with earth science, geology, thermochronology, or Brian Urlacher. It does have to do with an excellent singer/song writer, so if that floats your boat, read on.

Today I attended my first concert since moving out east, David Francey playing at the Earlville Opera House in nearby Earlville, NY. Here goes the review.

The background - I stumbled upon David Francey about a year ago, when I was in the middle of trying to write my thesis, and before I had heard any positive responses to job applications. Needless to say I had a few million things in my brain that would start swirling around the moment I woke up and would reach hurricane force by noon. I found David Francey's album The Waking Hour on iTunes, downloaded it, and didn't stop listening to it for at least a few months. It seemed to fit my situation perfectly, Francey's songs are incredibly well written and heartfelt, his voice suits the songs perfectly, and The Waking Hour, as an album, just does not have a weak point. The Waking Hour got me through the first draft and re-writes of all of my thesis chapters, drives and flights between Seattle, Sacramento, and BWRU, and many a anxiety filled late night bout of insomnia. The Waking Hour has since joined Trace, No Code, Between the Breaks Live, and El Corazon as albums I credit with getting me through various challenges in my life. As much as I loved the album I then hit a wall; although Francey released his first album in 1999, only one was available in the U.S., and my budget at the time did not include extra for import discs. Fortunately, over the past decade I have formed an extensive and international network of like minded music aficionados, some of whom I turned on to David Francey, and are now living in Canada (Professor Van Halen). By the fall I had Francey's complete catalog, which of course did not disappoint. As I told the guy sitting behind me today, I recommend them all.

The artist - Francey is a singer/songwriter (and occasional guitar player) who was born in Scotland and moved to Toronto when he was twelve. This means he has an excellent accent, primarily Scottish but with distinctive Canadian features. His songs are drawn primarily from his personal experiences, which is the flavor of folk music I like the most. I compared him in an earlier post to Stan Rogers, not so much in sound or voice or even style, but in the feeling of his songs. Very influenced by place, experience, and probably most importantly, people. This is of course very different from crappy coffehouse poetry "folk music", a lilting and opaque brand of "music" that poor undergrads at tiny liberal arts colleges are subjected to on a regular basis. Sorry, flashback; I've seen a ton of folk singers in concert, and the degree to which newage (which as THM reminds us rhymes with "sewage") and whiny reject poets have infiltrated folk music is alarming. I believe I can ward off these evil spirits by loud regular doses of Francey, Stan Rogers, Townes Van Zandt, Jerree Small, Greg Brown, Gillian Welch, Todd Snider, and The Be Good Tanyas........anti-newage voodoo (see my music links sidebar for suggestions).

The venue - The Earlville Opera House is a nice small venue in a tiny town just south of Colgate University in New York. It was built in 1892, fell into ruin, and is now being restored. Getting there meant an excellent drive through New York on a perfect sunny day. Very nice. Their upcoming folk lineup at the Opera House is pretty solid, if you live in the area check it out.

The concert - David was accompanied by guitarist Craig Werth. He played two sets with a good mix of older songs and some from his newest album, Right of Passage. Even though he apologized for his voice (he had a cold or flu), he sounded excellent, as did Werth, even when singing the a capella "Torn Screen Door". Concerts have a way of changing how you feel about the artist and/or specific songs, depending on the performance; folk singers in small venues especially. Francey introduced each one of his songs with a story about how or why he wrote it, or maybe something about his life that was relevant to the song. I tend to like a song more when I know what it is about, well, as long as the story isn't lame. This is a common folk singer technique, and is one of the main reasons I enjoy small concerts so much. Today I came away really liking "All lights burning bright", "The Waking Hour", "Kansas", and "Under the Portland weather." I liked all 4 of these already, but now that I know the story behind them I put them up with some of my Francey favorites. I don't want to spoil the stories. He has a live album (the one I don't have, and today I was broke and therefore couldn't augment my collection, it'll have to wait), but if you like his studio work (you can preview two of his albums on iTunes), you will like his concerts. In addition, he seemed genuinely nice and appreciative of the folks who came out to see him. This is crucial for me, there isn't much more annoying than discovering a musician you like is actually an immature stuck up retread (we can call this Ryan Adams Syndrome).

The verdict - Excellent, well worth everything. My live music batteries were entirely drained this morning, but are now nice and full. Francey makes excellent albums and puts on excellent shows.

Apparent Dip Music Club Update - David Francey Concert

I took advantage today of a repetitive lab procedure to reserve a ticket for my first concert in a long time, and the first since I made it to the northeast. This Sunday David Francey is playing in a nearby town (not much of a drive at all), and Thermochronic has a ticket! I blogged about David Francey when I first started Apparent Dip, I even embedded some YouTube videos of him performing. Unfortunately the videos are no longer available on YouTube, but for just $15.00 I'll be able to see him live. This will of course lead to the first Apparent Dip concert review, but that's it for now. I post this mainly because I am excited, but also to point out that David Francey has a pretty extensive tour he is in the middle of, so if he is coming to a little opera house a short drive from you, my bet is that it will be well worth the travel.

Apparent Dip Music Club #5 - Townes Van Zandt

This song became famous thanks to a cover by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard, but I think the original Townes version, or the one found on this amazing posthumously released album, really capture the sadness of the song. Townes is one of those artists I never knew I liked until long after he had died. Like Stevie Ray Vaughan, his death came a t a time when he had turned his life around. Those of you interested, I highly recommend the documentary Be Here to Love Me, it chronicles Townes's life and music, complete with live performances and interviews.

Apparent Dip Music Club #4 - Stompin' Tom Connors

Today's music club offering might be new to those of you from south of the border. I first came across Stompin' Tom Connors, and this song, while I was in the field checking out what I thought would be my thesis field area (project never worked out, but that story is for another post; its a good one, I almost killed us). My office mate (we will call her Dr. Swartpuntia) and I had spent a great week and a half in southern British Columbia, near the beautiful town of Revelstoke, and were on our way back south listening to the CBC. They were announcing the results of this contest, where they had asked the listeners to call in with "the best trucking song ever written". Dr. Swartpuntia and I threw out our guesses, mainly "Truckin'" and a few others she knew of. The DJ came on and said, "while we received many good candidates, far and away the winner is Bud the Spud, by Stompin Tom Connors." What?!? This blew us away; as music snobs we both thought we would have at least heard of the song, if not already spent hours discussing the true meaning of the lyrics (hello "Tangled up in Blue" and "Last Trip to Tulsa"). Anyways, when we got back to school I was able to collect some Stompin' Tom, and now love a lot of his songs. This is perhaps his most famous, but please check out the rest of his catalog. Incidentally, I was also given a great gift related to this song, something that has a place of pride on my bookshelf. Youtube has some fantastic Stompin' Tom videos, mostly concert film, but one excellent video for Margo's Cargo that almost made me understand what the song was about (a cow-dung clock?).

Apparent Dip Music Club #3 - Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, and the Old Crow Medicine Show

Here is music club offering #3, a bunch of people I like singing a song I like, a song that if I could play an instrument and/or sing I would totally cover, especially when I opened for more popular acts like Reach of Imagination.

Apparent Dip Music Club #2 - David Francey Again!

I decided to do another David Francey concert clip for a couple of reasons. First, I am really excited that I received a positive comment on the first post, from his wife no less! That made my week. Second though, the weather here in the snowy northeast has finally turned wintery and cold, and I have been listening to David Francey nonstop. It just seems to fit perfectly. In addition he is someone everyone should know about, and what better place to find out about good music than a geology blog. There, three good reasons, more than enough. Enjoy.

Apparent Dip Music Club #1 - David Francey

Song 1 on my music club (shamelessly ripped off from the good people at crooks and liars), this is David Francey, a Canadian folk singer I ran into about a year ago. Only one of his albums is available in the US right now, but I fortunately have a Canadian geologist friend who supplied me with the rest. Now just to get him to tour in the states. If you listen to enough David Francey you definitely hear hints of Stan Rogers, more the spirit of Rogers, not some kind of rip off, because who could duplicate Stan, more the sensibility of Rogers. One hell of a lyricist.