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Yutaka Ohno of Eunheui.cocolog-nifty.com who writes a Japanese blog that deals at least in part (or perhaps in whole, I can’t read Japanese) with world music wrote me a form of blog chain letter recently. He explained that blog chain letters are common in Japan. The way it works is that you write a blog post on a certain topic answering questions involving your own tastes & then pass the baton on to other bloggers asking them to write a post on the same subject answering the same questions you did. And so on. He describes his “chain” as the passing of the musical baton. And he wrote me asking if he could pass it to me.
I’ve got to say that I’m usually not a joiner and chain letters of any sort leave me cold. But this blog chain concept, at least as practiced by Yutaka, has none of the usual veiled threats of impending doom contained in conventional chain letters. So I decided to participate (though in the case of my blog the chain ends here since I won’t inflict a chain on anyone else).
Yutaka appears to love world music as much or more than I do. And the world music choices in his blog are really compelling. So I thought I’d jump in:
1. Total volume of music on my computer: 1,300 files (almost all of it world or traditional music)
2. Last CD I bought: Ry Cooder’s Chavez Ravine
3. Song Playing Right Now: Carolan’s Ramble to Cashel
4. Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me: man, how do you answer that question?? I couldn’t possibly limit it to five…but since those are the rules I’ll try to stick to ‘em (and remember these are only the five which are my current favorites–ask me again next week and the list would be different):
Jorma Kaukonen, Embryonic Journey (Surrealistic Pillow)
Pete Seeger, Livin’ in the Country (hear it and read my post about it)
Tabu Ley Rochereau, C’est Comme Ca la Vie (hear it and read my post about it)
Mikis Theodorakis (vocal-Maria Fantantouri), Asma Asmaton (hear it and read my post about it), Ballad of Mauthausen
Dem Milner’s Trern (“The Miller’s Tears”–hear it and read my post), Zupfgeigenhansel
5. Five people to whom I’m passing the baton: —————–
Thanks for playing along, Richard. Your list will definitely help me explore new kinds of music. Thanks!
First apologies for my previous comment… for my ignorance thinking asama amaton was a person. I’ve now realized, after further googling, that it is a song.
Now, as I am pursuing your list, I am wondering if the Carolan’s ranbke to Cashal is from Carolan’s Receipt with David Bell or if it is the Celtic Fingertip Guitar cd?? ..or some other cd???
Sadly, for some reason I don’t understand, when I’ve clicked on all the links to hear music (except for Hear the Ballad of Methausen) I get text only… lots of computer code like stuff.
And … I forgot to say… thank you. I love finding new music, and since you love world music, this is great that you’ve posted your favorites (of the moment). In fact, it was music that caused me to come across your blog for the first time, and now I’m back again, and this time I’ve bookmarked your blog and will come back regularly.
Jill: I’m so pleased & honored to hear that you’ve bookmarked my blog.
It is hard, but not impossible to find a copy of Ballad of Mauthausen, which contains the song you like so much. You should start with the “Ballad of Mauthausen” link here in this post which should enable you to buy a good quality used copy through the Amazon Marketplace.
I’ve cleaned up the problem with the Pete Seeger song file. The others worked fine for me using either Quicktime or Windows Media Player. If other listeners have similar problems playing the files, pls. let me know.
I was looking for your previous post (the one mentined at the bottom) regarding the Miller’s tears (Dem Milners Trehren), but it seems it had been gone!
Do you have a copy of it?
I’m trying to find more information about this song, and I like to see what you wrote about it.
Hagay
Hagay: Sorry about that. I used to have a Typepad blog & changed my permalink structure when I moved to WordPress. This is the correct link. The post is more about the record than the specific song. But it’s a song about exile and just so full of pathos and longing. The music exquisitely conveys the emotions.