Christmas 2019 with the Coles...

This recording made in 1960 was a revelation in Nat's repertoire. No question of his beliefs or his persuasions. Please take note of the words as the title is A Cradle in Bethlehem. I feel this is the best Christmas song still available. This song has been attributed to Nat's brother Freddie but have not found any such recording of his- only Nat sang this song!

Merry Christmas to All !

Country Drummer Boys

Yee-hah! Listen to this wonderful Christmas tribute which was on CMA's Christmas Special on December third!  Did you see it ? Have a listen...

 Amazing huh ? 

The Inner Voice

The making of a singer

by Renee Fleming

Penguin Books ISBN 01430 3594 0 paperback

a book review

     I have read many books on music and singing in particular through the years and I’d have to say that this is the first time I have found such a book to be entertaining and informative. Written by the U.S.’ own international lyric soprano, The Inner Voice was published in 2004 without a lot of fanfare and a minimum of publicity. It has taken me quite awhile to sit down with this book which has been tempting me all these years and now I certainly wish that I’d have read it when it first came out. It would certainly have made quite a difference to my approach when I and forty other colleagues baptized Denver’s Ellie Caulkins Opera House back in 2005, shortly after my birthday, with a song extravaganza. Perhaps not the height of my career, necessarily but I found out that the years had left me with my voice better than ever. They say age is just a thing that is mind over matter. Well, I’ve discovered that if you don’t mind, then it doesn’t matter! (Little joke there!)

     Even Renee expounded on a phenomenon that I have known about since I was thirteen years of age and had taken on lessons from Denver’s best vocal coach, Sylvia Bagley. She never changed her approach to building my voice. She was the first to discover that I had a two-octave range already but I needed to build the top register’s muscles and she was the person to get it done. Toward the end of her book Renee speaks of this when she said, “muscle memory is a key aspect of singing.” My first concert at fifteen blew everyone in attendance out of the water. I don’t know how many times I heard, “I had no idea she had a voice like that! She belongs in concert halls and the Opera!” The power of my voice in the higher register didn’t happen overnight, mind you! Only now am I hearing the kind of ausstrahlung and still clear and bell-like tones which we spent so many years perfecting. In Renee’s words on page 41 it came out in one sentence.

     “I’ve finally accepted the fact that singing takes ten minutes to explain and ten years to accomplish.”

     The book’s title is summed up shortly thereafter when she wrote, “I always know to listen to my inner voice where my career is concerned. This intuition along with resilience has been a fundamental anchor of my professional life.”  Expounding further on page 55 she says, “In the end, singing isn’t a science but a highly cultivated, almost perverse use of our natural voices and it requires persistence.” With Sylvia it was simply, “If it hurts, stop it! Try again tomorrow after you have done your exercises.” I don’t remember pain but I became acutely aware of my voice as a part of my physicality and eventually learned to make sure I never injured myself or my voice. It’s possible, I have found, to destroy a voice through abuse and not to know for certain until you simply cannot sing. The vocal chords are the most delicate part of our anatomy and must be treated as such. When someone tells you they are not in good voice- take them at their word.

     In this book, which I will again remind you was published in 2004, Ms. Fleming recounted how during her research she uncovered a study with a major observation that the academies and universities were turning out well-trained performers but were ignoring the fact that there were few places for them to perform. I’m sure this was made according to the comparison of the myriad of venues which are more likely to use performers with lots of onstage experience but lack formal training for their genres. Many don’t require it, in all honesty. I believe this is changing because the music world is beginning to find worth in the classical formal training no matter the genre.

    

As a teenager I was quite enamored of popular music and felt that my attitude as a musician and singer was on the right track. I kept an open mind, no matter the caliber of vocal performance, because I saw worth in every genre of music. I fully appreciated and enjoyed everything on the various radio stations, places where I hung out and especially on television.

     A good portion of this book is Ms. Fleming’s account of the progress of her training, her teachers and coaches and her struggle with obstacles to achieving a better voice. Much of it is surprising and enlightening for anyone who might be considering following in her footsteps. This is one of the reasons that I thought about how this book would’ve served me well many years ago as I struggled with professional identities. I’ve never denied my talents but I have to admit that as you advance in life you start to acclimate and prioritize according to your most desired activities.

     Her personal story is inspiring as well. None of her formidable ambitions stopped her from living a full and normal life. She married quite young and had two daughters during the most crucial portions of her gaining acceptance and professional reputation in the U.S. and international stages. She literally traveled the world very pregnant and went about her professional singing career with integrity and persistence. Divorce did not stop her. Anyone as dedicated, as she became, can take these problems in stride. At the beginning of 2001 she recounts the loss of her greatest professional mentor, Beverley Johnson to disease and the poignant interludes are heart-wrenching and yet still inspirational. This did not surprise me, personally, because I have found that music itself is a kind of balm to life and death which is indomitable.

      Many of her pointers for aspiring singers are priceless:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H6Vk04rLwY

     On page 138 she expounds on the mechanics of sustaining a long tone or note with: As soon as any sort of holding occurs as the result of muscular tension, it reveals itself as a glitch in the sound.  If I have to hold a note for a very long time, I imagine it as moving and spinning, for the note has to have life. In a way, a singer actually refreshes a note with every beat that it’s held. Once the hammer hits the string in a piano, there no way to retrieve the tone. There is absolutely nothing the greatest pianist in the world can do to keep that sound from dying away. That’s the nature of the instrument. Like any wind instrument, however, the voice can sustain a tone as long as the breath stays actively engaged.

     (I have proven the verity of that last sentence not just from singing but also with my flute playing which has the added advantage of harmonics which are much higher tones, many of which are higher than any human can sing. I laugh when writers compare the flute to a human voice because there is no way we can imitate those dynamics without a choir of perhaps a hundred singers or more!)

     On page 143 she gives practical advice such as this:

      “I avoid excessive air-conditioning and cold drafts on my head and ears, refrain from unnecessary speaking on performance days and drink little or no alcohol, which dehydrates, the night before a performance…one concession I do make is in taking care with how I use my voice, whether speaking or singing.”

     “Vocal muscles have to be trained consistently for strength, flexibility and stamina, just as an athlete’s would. Alfred Kraus said that one should be able to sing easily for six hours a day, although for me, two or three hours is usually the limit.”

     One strange bit I discovered on page 145 states that “The danger with sopranos- in fact, mostly American sopranos- is that they tend to sing too thickly in the upper middle [the notes at and around the top line of the staff] , and before you know it, the voice has aged, the top is gone, and a wobble is born.. The weight is too much and the voice can’t bloom in the top. It’s a stone column and not the sapling it should be.” (This is a very complicated way of saying that what you most dislike about listening to opera singing is this very phenomenon.) She added that one “Dr. Slavit said the natural aging of the voice is caused by the membranous tissue of the vocal cords changing and becoming less flexible. However, the same treatments that can rejuvenate the skin of our faces can potentially regenerate and nourish the lining tissue on the cords.” Apparently, these women just need some kind of youth serum injection to stop the inevitable. Hmm.

     However, the truth is that I’ve heard Miss America pageant contestants with the same problem. Nothing is odder than hearing this strange throaty sound coming from a young woman. It is an unacceptable sound and yet it is taught and encouraged by vocal teachers and coaches who have no ethics. My personal feeling about this is that these are false voices and eventually using these irritating techniques will ruin what ever voice is actual and true.

     On the next page (146) Renee’s advice in one sentence really states all that needs to be said. Many people try to sing out of their vocal range which is a recipe for disaster. “Never sing on your principal: Never sing to the extreme and be careful about singing to the outer dynamic reaches of your voice.” I couldn’t agree more with that except to add that without a great vocal teacher or coach it isn’t difficult to strain and permanently damage your voice because you forced it to reach where it cannot possibly go.

    

In actual performance the difference will be what material one can actually sing. Renee wrote that a common complaint from the audience is that there are no great dramatic voices for the Italian and German repertoires. I believe this can change but what is currently available to us will give us a chance to review the baroque period which includes much of Mozart’s music. This is something sorely needed because this period has been largely forgotten and unused. Even classical radio stations rarely play baroque even though there are plenty of great recordings readily available. Mozart poses different challenges. On page 150 Renee relates, “Many Mozart arias present stamina issues because they have few, if any, interludes and therefore require long stretches of uninterrupted singing in the passaggio ..  one of the best ways to ensure stamina is not to sing too heavily. It’s only with a disciplined technique and a great deal of experience that I can get through these roles without problems.” Mozart most likely had some prodigious soprano talent at hand in his day.

     Renee writes about dynamics at length in the previous two pages:

“…singers naturally have to be louder just to be heard. One of the most difficult elements of all is the raising of the basic tuning of the orchestra from the baroque 430 to 435 in the mid-19^th century and then to 440 early in the 20^th and now to 444 in Vienna. This calibration had differed as much a tone and half over time, which challenges singers enormously if a piece is already high, a fact I didn’t fully understand until I sang Mozart and Handel with period instruments.”

     “Another factor working against opera singers is that, over the years, taste in recordings has moved toward warmer, thicker tones for the voice in every repertoire and that type of sound doesn’t cut through orchestral textures as well as a brighter tone. It takes more volume and therefore more breath pressure, to be heard when using a darker sound. The benefit of brightness in the voice is that it’s the center, core or squillo edge in a voice that enables it to project in a large hall over an orchestra. Unless the conductor and the orchestra have disciplined sense of dynamics when accompanying singers, we wind up with the inner ear problem again, believing we’re not meeting expectations…Singers who succumb to this temptation soon lose their vocal sheen and beauty and burn out much more quickly….so that the human voice isn’t expected to vault over this suddenly enormous hurdle.”

     Her personal advice was her own experience but one I feel is extremely important. She said, “The only thing I expect to feel at the end of a long performance is physically tired, but ideally never vocally tired.” Opera singers traditionally don’t use amplification and ideally we never should. Singers who use this crutch for other genres are dooming themselves for its use and will ultimately lose all dynamic power of their natural voice in the end. We don’t try to sing over amplified guitars, percussion and other types of overly loud music. Just this year I heard Diana Ross sing on television and I could barely hear her- that is from an overuse of microphones.

     By page 160 she gets into areas that are a little more subjective but definitely with information that a good part of the listening public is unaware of or simply ignorant. She wrote, “We’re the weightlifters of the vocal arts..” and essentially she’s right. If you listen to opera from any kind of recording you’ll never realize that we can fill a venue or concert hall without amplification except what’s naturally present unless you actually attend a concert. This is what being a diva actually means.

     Renee keeps most of the book very personal to her experience in overcoming obstacles. Even from the beginning she struggled over high notes and for anyone singing classical and opera music but especially a soprano, it would be considered an insurmountable obstacle for a career in this genre. She wrote: Since high notes have always been a bit unsure for me, I have to be extremely vigilant to keep the fear factor from creeping into my singing, even now. Once I become overly aware of a note and the ways in which it might fail me, chances are it will fail. She wrote about using pure head voice which I never use except when I purposely need to sing exceptionally softly. There is no other use for that and I would stress that to all singers no matter the genre. Curiously, she mentions that “sometimes the acoustic is too live, which can cause me to sing in a strangely high resonance position and that’s even worse than an acoustic that’s too dead.”

     The most enjoyable part of her book was reading about how she engages herself to the audience and how it supports her. I do believe that this is more important than any other advice you can give to a novice. Many talented and successful singers need to be reminded of these aspects of performance. She mentions this quite well on page 178 and I was left ruminating some of my own experiences in performing from as far back as the beginning. I would only add that audiences can be stingy or generous with their attention and you must learn to cope with both. Some acting talent helps this tremendously. I only know that I could sing to a cricket if I have to with no change in my performance. Only a few pages later she got into an area which I disagreed with entirely. Her sentence on page 181 states: “The reason that some singers go on to become great artists has very little to do with their voices but rather with the fact that they have used their instruments as tools for detailed communication.” I believe that singers are artists within their own right. If you listen to five different singers on the same song you will get a sense that vocal artistry is the most engaging form of music there is or ever can be. Each performance will have its own uniqueness and further it is almost like fingerprints in identifying such singers on sound alone.

     Roles and Backstage, the two remaining chapters of the book, really brought everything about opera to life in a way I never really have thought about but often have mused. How does one keep a character portrayed time and again, fresh and alive? It is fascinating how she has taken these stories to heart and not only made them her own but also given them more depth or different personalities. It is apparent that she loves her genre and more importantly, she lives her genre. As a result, her performances have captivated audiences in opera houses and recital halls all over the world.

     I would recommend this book for the novice or student of opera or singing to get an insight into artistic development- keeping in mind that it will differ with each person, of course. There is much content in the book that a person can take as gospel truth while other parts are merely for insight. Renee did a wonderful job of exemplifying the world of opera as a way of life not only for its luminaries and human constituents but for those who sit in the audience and drink in its richness and musicality.

     The most piquant advice in the book was administered to Renee by an early vocal teacher Jan DeGaitani who told her, “Having perfection as your goal will only set you up for failure.”

Excellently,

The Castle Lady

Kokomo

Recorded very late in their careers, the Beach Boys made a brief but big comeback with this song in 1988 and included collaborations that were well-known but had never been associated with them prior to it. The songwriters included Michael Edward Love, Terry Melcher (Doris Day’s son), Scott McKenzie and John Phillips. Their late smash hit was a heady finish to careers that spanned decades since the 50s and was timeless in their special genre. There were several other Beach bands but none were quite so unique-sounding or prolific. Have a listen to an amazing cover band and enjoy what’s left of summer. –The Castle Lady

 

Beginning refrain:

Aruba, Jamaica, oh I want to take ya

Bermuda, Bahamas, come on pretty mama

Key Largo, Montego, baby why don’t we go,

Jamaica

Off the Florida Keys, there’s a place called Kokomo

That’s where you want to go to get away from it all.

Bodies in the sand, tropical drink melting in your hand

We’ll be falling in love to the rhythm of a steel drum band.

Down in Kokomo.

Full refrain:

Aruba, Jamaica, oh I want to take you to

Bermuda, Bahamas, come on pretty mama

Key Largo, Montego, baby why don’t we go

Oh I want to take you down to Kokomo

We’ll get there fast and then we’ll take it slow

That’s where we want to go, way down in Kokomo.

Martinique, that Montserrat mystique

We’ll put out to sea and we’ll perfect our chemistry

And by and by we’ll defy a little bit of gravity

Afternoon delight, cocktails and moonlit nights

That dreamy look in your eye, give me a tropical contact high

Way down in Kokomo  (to refrain)

Port-au-Prince, I want to catch a glimpse

Everybody knows a little place like Kokomo

Now if you want to go and get away from it all

Go down to Kokomo.

The Castle Lady

Triskaidekaphobia? Not I !

    I happened to catch a new morning talk show at the end of last week with a new early morning host by the name of Tamron Hall. First off, I noticed she is chic to the bone and when she mentioned her upcoming birthday (16^th) I kept thinking that it was also someone else’s birthday that very day (13^th) who was once very famous. Last Friday the 13^th happened to be the actual birthday- albeit 97 years ago- of a beautiful Peruvian-born operatic singer by the stage name of Yma Sumac. She passed away on November first almost 11 years ago but she was so sensational in talent, appearance and showmanship that she should be listed among the most outstanding professional sopranos in the world’s entertainment history. Unfortunately, if I mentioned her name to most people now, they wouldn’t know who I’m talking about- even the most musically inclined or otherwise. She is known among select members of the Rock establishment because of a cult following sparked during the New Wave/Punk era in the 80s. I was among those who assumed that she had died during a time in her life when circumstances got in the way of her career of more than 30 years by then. But I was told about Yma by my parents who spoke of her other-worldly voice way before then. I have never seen or heard a live performance of her, personally.

She was most popular in the 1950s- before my time, actually. A concert she gave at the Hollywood Bowl that first year was the breakout performance which finally sparked sudden worldwide fame becoming internationally famous overnight. Only weeks later her first Capitol recording Voice of the Xtabay was released and took the recording industry by storm with a million copies sold before the year was over. (Moreover, it has never stopped selling!) This woman wowed audiences with her double-voiced trills and amazing vocal range, South American (regional) folk music and her stunningly flamboyant and authentic outfits which were often studded with gold and silver jewelry, many of which were copied from Incan Royal costumes. In fact, she claimed to be a descendant of the Incan emperor Atahualpa and was backed by her country on this issue. Her birth name was Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo and the internet sources (such as Wikipedia) will give her birth date as September 10^th but those sources are in error. Birthdates aside, that isn’t the only misinformation about her on the internet, even by her own admission or from her camp but one thing is for certain, she was called The Nightingale of the Andes and also as a Peruvian Songbird and she was very definitely that and more.

    

  Yma’s recordings, which number impressively, are testament to her four-octave range and the exotic language she sang from originally. Her music can still be purchased from an official web site which was set up by her personal assistant Damon Devine. I happen to be a proud owner of one of her LPs which covers songs from two of her early recordings, The Voice of the Xtabay and Inca Taqui- Chants of the Incans. The sounds are so exotic and enigmatic that much of it is hypnotic and makes one feel they are being enchanted by the singer! You won’t understand very much with the language barrier but I can explain that many of the songs imitate the sounds of the wildlife and nature coming from the forests of the upper Amazon and the Andean Mountains. Xtabay actually refers to a young Incan virgin who fell in love with an Aztec prince and the alliance was forbidden because the maiden was a simple peasant. A New York teenager was quoted as saying, “When I listen to her I feel like I’m dreaming, like I’m in another world.” Other qualified commentary came from popular opera singers and authoritative music industry professionals and tycoons. Eventually, she became close friends with Maria Callas.

    

Before she made her splash in Hollywood, her origins were that of singing in religious pageants and services in her native Ichocan village and after becoming well-known for her talent regionally, word got around until it reached the Peruvian capital, Lima. She was placed in catholic school by 1935 after government officials scouted to find her. Among those delegates, Moises Vivanco, a young composer and authority on Incan music, became quite interested in her and married her (in 1942) becoming in the process her manager, conductor and arranger and in the beginning was an essential element in the process of developing her vocal talent. A scholarship to attend the University of Lima followed in 1941, after she sang for an audience of 25,000, which gave her the opportunity to study psychology alongside music study! Both Walt Disney and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.offered Yma promotion in the U.S when they traveled through South America.

     She traveled with Vivanco throughout South America and eventually the world. Inexplicably, the U.S. was much more resistant to her talent in the beginning though both she and Vivanco worked very hard trying to get noticed, not just with the public but also with booking agents who viewed her, more or less, as a novelty act. An appearance on television shows did not produce much interest either but singing at the Hollywood Bowl with Arthur Fiedler’s orchestra got her the type of attention that went around the world and back. After that she began a series of concert tours that moved through several continents and to hundreds of thousands of people per concert. One reporter, Glenn Gunn of the Washington Times-Herald reported, “There is no voice like it in the world of music today…a greater range than any female voice of concert or opera. It soars into the acoustic stratosphere or plumbs sub-contralto depths with equal ease. Such a voice happens only once in a generation.”

    What eventually became worldwide appeal as a whole started with an appearance at Carnegie Hall in 1948 and then the Blue Angel Supper Club in 1949. Capitol Records saw the potential audience and signed her to a record deal. They added Cuban musicians to her trio, ran the whole package off to Hollywood and shortly thereafter they landed right back where the breakthrough started. She made many recordings over the years and had quite a long career which included an appearance in a film with Edith Piaf, Cuban dates, stints at the Royal Albert Hall in London and on the Frank Sinatra Show in the U.S. As a matter of fact, after that she became the darling of celebrity variety T.V. shows in the States.

https://www.yma-sumac.com/music

    

During the fifties she returned often to her native Peru and was welcomed and very much celebrated. By the time that decade came to a close, however, I’m sure the pace and schedule began to wear a little on her and when her star appeared on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960 she had gotten a divorce from Vivanco (after many trials with him and his liaisons) and prepared to tour Russia with a child under her arm and a trio which still included her ex-husband! She performed in 40 cities within Russia with the Bolshoi Symphony and the Tchaikovsky Opera House as a highlight in the tour. She took Russia by storm and received adulation above and beyond expectations, of course. By numbers these tours were an enormous success with 186 concerts for nearly 60 million people which included an additional 130 concerts in Romania, Poland, and Germany .The fact that she also sang in Russian may have been a factor and she toured for more than a year there which eventually included Czechoslovakia. There she gave a total of ten consecutive performances to an audience of 300,000.

     In 1962 Yma returned to Los Angeles in triumph but with her Capitol Records deal expired. The U.S. had cooled a bit to her talent but as she remained in top form it didn’t stop her international success. In 1963 she traveled to Tokyo and had a 10 week run at the Mikado Room. In November of that same year she traveled to Germany to perform again and connected with another celebrity fan in Marlene Dietrich! I must imagine that Marlene was in awe of her voice and the exotic songs which were Vivanco’s work on musical composition and the written lyrics which were solidly based on Incan legends.

     A couple of years later she returned to the Hollywood Bowl for only the second time, fifteen years later for a South American Fiesta Gala. It inspired her to make a return to Peru to give a few concerts and visit her family with a disappointing reception from her fellow Peruvians. She had become an American citizen many years previous and this act offended them enough to accuse her of trying to change Peruvian music and the newspapers canned her modified style as inauthentic. Her divorce from Vivanco may have also been a factor as well although she was perfectly justified for doing so. In 1966 she was welcomed to Brazil for another festival and was well received and well attended by singers, musicians and composers the world over including Amalia Rodriguez, Les Baxter, Maurice Chevalier and, of course, the general public.

     Yma completely ended all association with Vivanco in 1968 after they did a last stint at the Mikado Room with a series of successful performances and she received the Golden Disk of Hollywood Award for Best Latin American singer in America. With the complete break-up, he moved to Spain and she headed for Australia and performed at Chequers in Sydney. Even though she had some great moments in the seventies it was a cooling off period for her most likely because of the music scene at that time. One such appearance was again at the Hollywood Bowl for a 20^th anniversary appearance which included people like Frank Sinatra, Tony Martin, Ricardo Montalban and Dionne Warwick. This was a turning point for her which helped her feel accepted and comfortable in the music world. It added longevity to her career which has kept her in the public eye for many years past her lifespan.

     An attempt in reigniting her career came in 1971 with a new album after a 12 year recording lapse. Titled, Miracles it was released by London Records and funded by three fans. The presence of Les Baxter as the producer should have been a help but the packaging of it ignited Yma’s anger instead. She didn’t agree with any of the credits Les Baxter received or the way it was packaged. This also kindled a big fat lawsuit. The album was withdrawn at some point but not before Yma’s cult following managed to snag copies. It is now a favorite with vinyl record collectors. This set the tone for the 70s when her mother took ill, prompting Yma to visit her several times, even with the negative receptions she was getting in her native land. When her mother, Emilia, passed away in 1974 it was over and she was not to return for 32 years!

     After giving two concerts in New York City in 1975, at the Town Hall and at Chateau Madrid she faded out of the public eye out of a dire need for solitude and to deal with a delinquent son, a dying fellow trio artist by the name of Cholita and other weighty matters but did not return to Peru after her mother’s passing. Throughout the 80s she did small stints within U.S. borders, gave out interviews for quite a few publications here and abroad and was quietly building up a following based on her recordings and some few attempts by others at imitation. The cult following happened after a 1987 appearance on The David Letterman Show and a play date at New York’s Ballroom. An interesting documentary appeared in 1992 on German T.V. which brought some interest in her but perhaps the wrong kind for the times.

    

Even though she may be more misunderstood for her sound in the present day, Yma continued to receive interest from record buyers in 1996 when her entire Capitol Records catalog was transferred to CDs and she did a personal signing at Tower Records on Sunset Strip with a second largest crowd in the store’s history assembled for the event. This spurred some concerts (at age 74!) in California including a House of Blues engagement! In 1997 she performed her last concert at the Montréal Jazz Festival after a signing at the Virgin Megastore. She also received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Los Angeles that year at the Wilshire Ebell.

     Her ex-husband, Vivanco passed away in 1998 without much publicity or attention but more telling is that in 2006, two years before she left this world, Yma was reordained into Peruvian hearts with a letter sent to the government by a young fan who asked the authorities to finally recognize her as a national treasure as they should have much earlier. They all agreed and sent for her to return to receive many awards among which the Orden del Sol, only given to the most prominent, was granted. During that time she also visited Machu Picchu wanting to take in the awesome atmosphere in peace. Instead it became another photo extravaganza with much publicity. Her parting words before she went back home to Los Angeles as the American she had become were simply, “I miss my home.”

     She passed quietly on Halloween in 2008 at her home in Silverlake, east Hollywood digs, after battling stage 4 colon cancer for eight months. I never saw any announcements although it has been reported on the internet that it was made known worldwide. My father, who was also in his 80s when she passed, brought me a newspaper clipping because I’d been her fan since I was in my young twenties. He said he remembered her and gave me the clipping. She had turned eighty-six only a few months before.

     I will close this with a recommendation of one of the most touching songs of her repertoire titled, Ripui, which means farewell. The closing lines ring out, “When I go, my words will be your tears.” 

 The Castle Lady

An Old Song Poem

In a book titled simply The Poems of Goethe which was translated from German in the original meter (!) you'll find this little gem which apparently has never been set to actual music. It is amazing what you can find sometimes- in English, no less- which has yet to have seen the light of day or the vocal chords of a soprano.

Somebody roll up their sleeves! ; )    The Castle Lady

Late resounds the early strain;

Weal and woe in song remain.

Sound, sweet song…

sound, sweet song from far off lands,

Sighing softly close at hand,

Now of joy and now of woe!

Stars are wont to glimmer so.

Sooner thus will good unfold;

Children young and children old

Gladly hear thy numbers flow.

(written in 1820)

Live each day as if your life had just begun. 
J.W. Goethe

Wave of the Future?

Is it just me or do these guys remind you of Julian Lennon...?

Just wondering,  

America the Beautiful

It seems appropriate to me to do the musical part of our beloved Independance Day this year so I'm submitting the most talented and best of the best for the day! Enjoy Renee Fleming's version of this classic...

Not bad for approaching the sixth decade of life, eh? She's five months younger than me and I'm blown away by this but I try to keep myself humble. She doesn't have to but she's not...

 The Castle Lady

Summer's Come and We're All on the Run...

Here's a few tid bits of summer fun to get us  started: 

This one reminds me of an aleatory I came up with when I was attending MSU...
     I love listening to intricate drumming. This is Matt Pretty- pretty good drumming!

Then there's always the tried and true...

 The year I graduated from High School. By WAR

American Idols Newest Contenders

Even though I’m not a huge fan of the show, I can honestly say that American Idol is becoming one of those star-making venues that has a finger on the pulse of music trends, stylistic aberrations and even some unique songwriting talent. It is worthwhile to sit in on both the auditions and the actual weekly contests of potential winners-to-be. Just last night I watched the final 20 round and I definitely had a few favorites that just may make it even if they drop out of the competition by next week. One singer/guitarist who normally writes his own songs is Alejandro Aranda who looks like and has been a street musician. His outside the lines songwriting and song choices are exercises in breaking all the rules of music and getting away with it on an almost genius level. His version of I Fall Apart by Post Malone was reminiscent of his own writing style and showed the world what his potential will be in the long run. 

     Ashley Hess did a version of John Mayer’s Dreaming With a Broken Heart that literally does that. It is a song that makes you think about the human state of longing for love and learning to live without it that makes you choke up inside. Her version sounded a little dreamy and when I ran it over again I realized she took the song to the level it should have been at- a half awake and still dreaming rendition I’ll not soon forget.

     

 Another contestant that I’m extremely impressed with is Kate Barnette, a 23 year old nanny from Georgia. Even though her song didn’t match her Rickie Lee Jones look- of whom she could be a twin- she sang Maroon 5’s Sunday Morning like it was written by Rickie. This girl not only has an extremely versatile and unique voice but she channeled Rickie like a Hollywood star and most likely will make movies- musical or non-musical, with the aplomb of Streisand, Midler and McClaine.

     In closing, I would like to do a shout out to Alejandro. I have some lyrics for a song I think you might like to add music to when you find the time. The name of the song lyrics are Someone Stepped on Her Heart. Sound interesting? Let me know.

The Castle Lady

with a song in my heart !

A little traditional musical fare...

For the day!   ST PATTY'S DAY ! Enjoy the castle called 

The Rock of Cashel !

The Castle Lady 

Remember Helen Reddy?

This was her most enigmatic song and a favorite of mine. There'll be more on this versatile and multi-facited 70s singer soon. For now enjoy the song and check her out on You Tube.

The Castle Lady

New Year's with Bing and Frank !

I've listened to this every year for decades and it always brings me a smile for a new year- resolutions or no. Check this out ! - The Castle Lady

 I had a

 How about you ?