Vol. 1, No. 2
Vol. 1, No. 2
Adrienne Jones, "Seven Wishes"
lyrics / bio
Richard Meyer, "Tony the Greaseball"
lyrics / bio
Edward J. Smith, "Take Me Home" lyrics / bio
Hugh Blumenfeld, "Talking Hypothetical American Pastime Blues"
lyrics / bio
Seven Wishes
words & music © 1999 Adrienne Jones (ASCAP/BMI)
from her independent release, Talking River.
I dream of seven days, a clockless host
of hours
Those bright, resilient ways of juvenescent powers
I dream of seven seas, a countless surge
of fishes
And on the fins of these I dream of seven wishes
(Chorus):
One is for a piece of the sky
One is for peace on earth
Two are the twin drums of your heartbeat
Two are forever and ever
One is for what it's worth
I dream of seven stars, light enough
to guide
Some 'boldened, brigand ship to harbors far and wide
I dream of seven birds that dive and
swim for fishes
And on the wings of these I dream of seven wishes
(Chorus)
I dream of seven looms, and robes of
golden stitches
And through the weave of these I cast my seven wishes
I cast my seven wishes
(Chorus)
credits:
Tony the Greaseball
words & music © 1999
Richard Meyer
Let me tell you 'bout my friend Tony
Tony likes to sing Bony Moroni
Used to hit school kids on the shoulder
Now he kills guys cause he's older
Tony the Greaseball went to the police
ball
with a penny wise pound foolish street doll
So he passed on his friend Louie
To stir a fur up for 'is filly
Next he thought he'd up the ante
Bought his best girl skinny panties
Found her in skin deep with Louie
The last thing Louie heard was Kablooie
And his wife says...
Tony Tony Tony Tony Tony
Yeah - what do you want this time?
Tony Tony Tony Tony Tony
I got something on my mind
Tony went to Louie's funeral
packing heat and a pound of tootsie rolls
to pay respect to Lou's remains
Which of course did not include his brains
And he fell in love with Veronica
After she blew his harmonica
But she's high status and she's high maintenance
Tony ain't have the patience
And his wife says....
[break]
Veronica gave him his marching orders
Tony put a knife to her aorta
Do you love Tony, well kinda sorta...
I do! I do! she said, I adore ya
And his wife says.....
[a little domestic squabble]
credits: recorded live
Take Me Home
words & music © 1996
Edward J. Smith
The glow of morning on a mountainside
Something calls away the geese to fly
Shadows forming, frost will fall beneath the autumn sky
Rusted leaves falling
Music echoes from a canyon tall
Drifting upward as the water falls
Moving eastward, floating on a wave
I hear it call - music of the pan flute
Sailing long and lost into the night
And I found you by firelight
And woman can you show me all the ways of love
Can you see it in the eyes
Of a man who holds onto a dream and soon it flies
In the arms of one who knows
It's time to let go...
Lift me up higher
Let me soar upon the wind
What's the use of looking back if you
know it to begin
Take me someplace like I've never been before
Take me home
credits: Ed Smith, guitar & vocal & recording engineer. Mastered by Jim Romanow
Lacrimae Laramie
(for Matthew Shepard)
words & music © 1998
Hugh Blumenfeld (ASCAP)
underneath God's own big sky
a man stands bound
on stony ground
cut and beaten, left to die
arms lashed wide
crucified
and the mercury falls like an angel
and the wind cries all night through the fence:
o laramie
lacrimae laramie
all across the pastures of plenty
where the cowboys embrace in their tents
Whose shepherd was he then?
You cursed his wounds
and the young men he knew
his crime was loving them
but the fire he drew
was for loving you
and the mercury falls, falls like an
angel
and the wind cries all night through the fence:
o laramie
lacrimae laramie
across the pastures of plenty
where the cowboys embrace in their tents
credits: Hugh Blumenfeld vocals & guitars. Recorded on Tascam Portastudio. CDR by Dave Palmeter, WUMB.
A recent finalist in the Rose Garden's Songwriters Competition in Mansfield, Mass., Adrienne is a self-taught fingerstyle guitarist and fan of intricate harmonies who has also composed for multiple voices. She is also a professional actress and award-winning playwright.
Adrienne began performing in New York City in 1984, where the eclectic band, Idle Rumors, was forged with other members Margo Hennebach and Fairport Convention documentarist Paul Kovit. The trio performed a combination of original and Celtic music in the New York area, out to New Jersey and the South Shore of Boston. A later trio, Madwoman in the Attic (with Hennebach and Diane Chodkowski), quickly became popular among Northeastern audiences with dissonant harmonies that earned them the moniker "guerrilla band of angels." The group won Best Acoustic Band in the Hartford Advocate Reader's Poll (CT) two years in a row. Adrienne's song, "Down to the Sea in Ships," can be heard on one recording of New York's Fast Folk Music Magazine, and her a capella "Oconee," appears on the Hoot! Folk Next Door III compilation from WWUH radio in Hartford.
Her first solo album, All My Days
and Nights, a compilation of ten original tunes and one traditional,
was called "folk poetry" by Dirty Linen. Her
second release, Talking River, recorded at Signature Sounds
studio in Palmer, Mass., has just become available, and features
bassist Richard Gates (of the Paula Cole band), and uillean piper
Jerry O'Sullivan (of the Eileen Ivers band), as well as piano,
cello and other acoustic and traditional instruments.
For booking & info., contact: Adrienne Jones
Website: http://www./adriennejones.com
I met Richard at a recording session for Fast Folk back in 1983, in the attic studio of Mark Dann's home in Brooklyn. He breezed through "Jive Town," a smart, funky take on city night life, but since then he's been one of the most consistently serious writers I know. For many years, the editor of Fast Folk Musical Magazine, Richard was responsible for the successful transfer of all masters to the Smithsonian/Folkways archive in 1999.
Richard has made several albums including his first independently produced LP, Laughing/Scared- soon to be released on CD - and two CDs on Shenachie - The Good Life! & A Letter From the Open Sky. He also has recorded First Aid for the Choking Victim, a 2 CD set of acoustic demos from 1990, a1981 electric Demo and is currently recording another pair of CDs of new material. His song "Century's End" is in the Holocaust Library of memorial music; "Jive Town" was recently used in a TV mini series about basketball. Clearly, though, his other side has been there all along. "Tony the Greaseball" is from a bootlegged CDR of First Aid for the Choking Victim.
Richard is also a respected set designer with two decades
of professional credits.
website: www.rmeyerhere.com
For booking, recordings
& info. contact: rmeyerhere@aol.com
Ed Smith grew up in New Britain, and
had a remarkably varied musical career. He played keyboards in
jazz-funk fusion groups like the Joe Salens Project and accompanied
folk artists ono guitar and percussion. On rare occasions, he
performed his own quiet songs and guitar compositions. He kept
a low profile but was well known to many musicians; he was one
of the rare geniuses who transformed everything he touched, but
mainly leant his gifts to the work of others. He hated the spotlight,
, striving to create an more understated, purer music that did
not crave attention. When he took his own life in April, 1997,
he left a collection of some 20 DATs of his own work, recorded
in his home studio and only a handful of songs from live performances.
"Take Me Home," which most of us never heard until his
memorial service, is easy to interpret as the brighter side of
his final decision. Information on the privately produced CD of
11 of his songs can be found at:
Website: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~h2jukebox/edworld.html
For more info. contact: mail@hughblumenfeld.com
Editor and folk music guide.
This song was written in October 1998. I was inspired by Debra
Walsh, a friend and co-worker who teaches theater and social action
at the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts. She refused to let
the event go by without taking it to the students. The trials
continue.
Website: http:/www.hughblumenfeld.com
For booking & info. contact: mail@hughblumenfeld.com
For other editions of Fenario, check the Fenario Index
Fenario: Folk Music E-zine
©2000 Hugh Blumenfeld
ISSN: 1528-378X