A Mad, Mad World

In honor of “International Talk Like a Pirate Day” please enjoy this free mp3 download of our tune “Rough Music“. It refers to how when sailors were mistreated by their officers and were unhappy with conditions aboard ship they would wait until nightfall and then start to roll shot – cannon balls – on the decks and bang other metal objects. These discordant sounds are called rough music and often prefaced a mutiny.

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ROUGH MUSIC ©M. Martin

I’m a roving man, I ply the waves
from Bristol to Benin
from Boston Harbour to Barbados
and back again

Side by side I sail and fight with
brave and brazen men
Our bond is born of circumstance and the
quest for rich fortune

I owe the scratches on my back
to a captain drunk with power
His wrath bled all of loyalty
and set the crew to sour

We bade our time with firm resolve
to carry out the plot
Then one dark night every hand
took to rolling shot

Ay O Ay O Heed these sounds of righteous discontent
Ay O Ay O We shall have proper recompense

Of all the women I have known
I’m true to only one
To her I’ll bring these silver coins
and silks of dark crimson

I’m a roving man, I ply the waves
from Bristol to Benin
from Boston Harbour to Barbados
and back again

—–

FYI there are more free downloads on our fanfare page.

We are now working on the follow up CD to “Skull and Magpies“. More adventures on the high seas!

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To be honest it takes much to pull me away when I’m writing music. I don’t want to hear other sounds. But inspiration and admiration struck when GDub brought home “San Patricio” a wonderful compilation put together by Paddy Moloney/The Chieftains with Ry Cooder which pays tribute to the deep affection between Mexico and Ireland. (About the San Patricios)

One song particularly pulled me in — “Luz de Luna” sung by Chavela Vargas. Her singing literally makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.

She is fascinating. Besides her intense, dramatic vocal skill she has lived a life! She was a very successful touring singer in the 50s, was most likely a lover of Frida Kahlo‘s, is a close friend of film director Pedro Almodóvar, came out as a lesbian at 81, made her debut at Carnegie Hall when she was 83. Definitely the stuff of legends. But it’s the voice …

• National Geographic feature

• A pop magazine write up about Chavela

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At the Blackthorn Tavern gig last Saturday night someone sat and drew our tubist, Johny Blood in good detail and then, without a word, left the cocktail napkin line drawing on the table for him to find afterwards.

Oh those crazy artistic types …

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Connecting the Polka Dots

“Polkaholics”, the new documentary by filmmaker Wes Hranchak premieres this Friday at the Chicago International Movies and Music Festival. This loving tribute and celebration of polka tells the story of L’il Wally Jagiello and his coming together for a show with the Polkaholics at Zakopane Lounge in Chicago.

I have had the pleasure of sharing the stage with the Polkaholics. They dish up high octane rock polka. Leader Dandy Don Hedeker, besides being a shredding rock/polka guitarist and professor of biostatistics, is a super knowledgeable polka fanatic historian.

The Polkaholics most recent CD is “Wally!” – an original Polka-Rock Opera that tells the story of Li’l Wally’s Chicago polka glory and Florida sunset.

Read the cool Chicago TimeOut article.

I highly recommend catching this band in the act!

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GDub and I met Stefan Hiss and his band “Hiss” back in 1997 when we were in Germany visiting my sister who is a friend and fan. In fact, Stefan played her wedding 2 years later in 1999. They dished up a rousing night of music and I danced like a wild woman.

We’ve stayed in touch since and whenever we travel to my sister’s home outside of Stuttgart we usually get a visit in with Stefan to talk “music” and swap our current CDs.

Stefan’s latest band is “Los Santos” and he just mailed me their new CD entitled “Blue in Hawaii”. It’s a Western/ Tex-Mex celebration performed by stellar musicians. Instrumentation includes pedal steel, ukulele, dobro, banjo, and of course, accordion – Stefan Hiss is an amazing accordionist!

The fifteen tracks include, “My Wife Thinks Your Dead”, “Rag Mop” and “Deja Que Salga La Luna” plus three Hiss originals, “Blue Hawaii”, “Twisting in the Taiga” and “El Mezquite”.

One of my personal favs on the album is “Johnny Guitar” (a great tune written by Peggy Lee and Victor Young for the 1954 movie). They’ve capture just the right amount of “Out West” surrealism.

And their version of “Rag Mop” swings!

So LISTEN to THIS: “Blue in Hawaii” by Los Santos.
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Los Santos play “Rag Mop”:

Stefan Hiss playing one of his original tunes: “Tanz aus meinem Grab” (Dance on My Grave):

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We’d love to hear from you on the subject. And we’re making it easy for ya. Our pal, Sean Pete of It’s Not Art has set up a survey to take a look at what motivates, encourages, drives and/or deters music fans to attend live music events.

All answers are confidential. We absolutely will not use your info for any other reason but to help us discover what gets a music lover out of the house and into a club, festival, concert or other venue.

Please take the Live Music Survey and share your thoughts on what makes a show worth attending.

Live Concerts. Better than staying at home.

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The Mad Maggies’ mascots are a tiding of magpies and “Death” – our memento mori beanie baby.

As you can imagine, Death especially enjoys this time of year. He suggested I post these fascinating celebrations of things skeletal.

• The oldest instrument discovered is a flute made from the wing bone of a griffon vulture some 40,000 years ago!

• 7 Wonders of the (Un)Dead World: Global Ossuaries — very large assemblages of bones. Part kitsch, part morbid, part profound commentary on the mysteries of existence.

• The offical website of the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic. Don’t miss the chandelier made from all the bones of the human body!

This is a short tourist’s youtube of the Sedlec Ossuary:

• Bonfire is a translation of the Irish “tine cnámh” (CHIN-e kuh-NAW*V) meaning bone fire. The farmers slaughtered at this time of year in preparation for the long Winter. On Oiche Shamhna (EE-HUH HOW-NA), October 31st, each village built a large ritual fire on which the animal bones were thrown. All household fires were extinguished and then each household took from the village bonfire to restart their hearths. We’d call it a community building exercise

• Death is always on stage with us, sometimes sitting downstage by the tip basket, sometimes up high on a speaker. Check him out next time you come to one of our shows.

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For anyone who’s been in a band.
For anyone who has had a dream and a passion.
For anyone who has grown older.
For anyone curious about what it takes to stay true to one’s artistry.

movie website

official trailer on youtube

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Sebastien Soldevila et Emilie Bonnavaud du collectif de cirque Les 7 doigts de la main ont remporté la médaille d’or lors du Festival Mondial du Cirque de demain à Paris 2007. Sur une mise en scène de Shana Carroll. Musique : Robert Skoro.

Wow!

(Thanks to Derek Sivers for Twittering about this.)

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What can I say? I love to dance and I love watching good dancers.

James Brown was one of the very best! He was in his body completely.

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