Rills of the Nile - Beat Cops

Rusty's waltz wednesday presents: Rills of the Nile, by Beat Cops

We're back! Today, rock and roll. This album was released YESTERDAY (16/06/2015) so we are like riding the crest of the current-music wave here.

Beat Cops:

Beat Cops are these four guys:

I know Pat, bottom-left, of Trigger Effect fame, but not the other three fine musicians. What can I say, I'm slightly - 1/4 - alternative, but not 4/4.

The point is, these guys all have fine rock/punk/metal/other? pedigrees, and can play the heck out of their instruments. Their songs are aslo catchy, rockin', melodic and fun to listen to. God bless 'em!

In fact, I saw them at their album release last night at a fine venue - Turbo Haus - run by guitarist Pat and some other members of the montreal music/bar/restaurant scene. The show was sweet, and their performance of this tune really caught me.

On to today's song.

The song:

The singer introduced this song last night as the story of someone injuring themselves in the arctic, and falling into their ultimate sleep dreaming of a warm slumber on the banks of the river Nile.

The song begins with only the singer and his guitar, which makes a sweet transition when the electric guitar/drums/bass comes in at 1:20. Something about the muscular tone of the drums and electric guitar gives it a rockin' zeppelin sort of feel. As the song progresses, you start hearing some sweet double-guitar harmonies, and vocal harmonies.

The singer has a great range, and the song is chorded by a lot of suspended seventh chords which gives it a sort of breeze - dreamy - feel.

I think this is the first straight rock selection for RWW! press "play" on the embedded link below and enjoy. You can also check out the rest of the album and/or purchase it through the bandcamp landing page as well.

Until next time, signing off, saying bye, check you later,
rusty.

Cher Bassette - Balfa Brothers

Rusty's waltz wednesday presents: Cher Bassette, by the Balfa Brothers

Wellsir, I didn't waltzwendesday last week, but fear not, I am returned.

In this early stage, I feel as if this blog and its loyal readership is a little fragile, like Rome in the whhhhhhhisper speech by Marcus Aurelius in the Gladiator (Richard Harris co-starring Rusty Crowe's best role ever).

But fear not, for if I ever abandon this project - due to lack of interest, or lack of waltzes - I will surely let you know.
On to today's waltz:

Balfa Brothers:

The Balfa Brothers were a traditional Cajun band headed by Dewey Balfa playing fiddle and singing, along with his brothers Will, Rodney, and Harry on fiddles, guitars, and triangle and Hadley Fonetnot on accordion. They brought their "chanky-chank" to the attention of the greater American - and world - public during the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, best described here:

It's a rare thing to be able to point to one event as changing the course of a culture's history, but in the case of Cajun culture, Dewey Balfa's participation in the 1964 Newport Folk Festival was pivotal. That year, in the midst of a revival of American public interest in folk and regional culture, folklorist and traditional music promoter Ralph Rinzler (who later went on to found the Smithsonian Folklife Festival) invited a Cajun group to perform at the prestigious Newport Folk Festival. Dewey actually went to the Rhode Island festival as a guitarist—a last minute replacement in an ensemble that included the great Cajun accordionists Gladius Thibodeaux and Louis "Venesse" Lejeune. To their amazement, rather than laughing at them, the largely urban audience of 17, 000 went wild. As Dewey recalled many years later:
"I had played in house dances, family gatherings, maybe a dance hall where you might have seen as many as 200 people at once. In fact, I doubt I had ever seen 200 people at once. And in Newport, there were 17,000. Seventeen thousand people who wouldn't let us get off stage."

The song:

Alright well Mardi Gras passed us by last month, and with it the beginning of Tim Horton's the Roll Up the Rim to Win season ^{(this post is sponsored by Tim Horton's family restaurants)}, and I didn't get to post any cajun tunes. Which reminds me, my friend Collin has a project making beautiful old-timey Mardi Gras costumes. I think they'll be an esthetic reminder - if less creepy - of HBO's recent miniseries True Detective.

The cajun triangle lays down the 1-2-3 in this song clear as day (reminder: what's a waltz). Dewey Balfa comes into the song in his yell-singing voice, all full of remorse for his lost Bassette. The melody sections are played by two fiddles, which is typical for cajun tunes. There might be an accordion in there, but I can't hear it well if so.

Before listening to Dewey Balfa sing, I'd never heard Cajun French. I suppose I didn't know what to expect, but was surprised to hear similarity to french spoken over here in Quebec. I'll put the lyrics below the song for your consideration. Enjoy!

Lyrics

Chère Bassette, ayoù toi t'es?
Moi j'peux pu de te r' trouver
Quoi moi j'fais, tu t'en r' viens pas à la maison, bébé

Chère Bassette, quoi c'est t'as fait?
T'as cassé, ouais, not' ménage
Pour t'en aller si loin d'moi avec ein autre

Tu connais moi j'ai du r'gret
J'ai du r'gret pour tout ça moi j't'ai fait
Pardonne-moi, viens-t'en donc à la maison, chère

REM - Everybody Hurts

Rusty's waltz wednesday presents: Everybody Hurts, by REM

Wellsir, it's the week after valentine's day. I was having a movie night with myself last friday when I decided to watch The Dictator. It was pretty hilarious, especially the bit in the helicopter when they're yelling at each other in arabic (that's actually hebrew), I literally died from laughter, and am writing from beyond the grave.

The point is that "Everybody Hurts" - in Arabic - was on the soundtrack, and as soon as it started I jotted this song down on my notepad.

REM:

REM is one of those bands that I know I'll like when I get around to listening to them, but just haven't yet. They're credited with pioneering alt-rock, and its members were singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Bill Berry. They've sold upwards of 85 million records worldwide, which is just staggering.

I hope to find another waltz by them when I start listening to their albums.

The song:

I'm going to talk about REM's own version of this song, even though I really like the arabic version.

Like last week's selection, this is another song that I had - perhaps again like you, dear reader? - only ever heard on TV, movies(, starbucks?). The song was first released in 1993, and made it pretty high on the charts, though not to number one.

I'm pretty sure the timing is in 6/8 here: each beat is tapped on the snare drum, and the fourth (of six!) beat always has a louder high-pitched "tock" sound.

The melody is really nice, Stipe's voice is set in a pretty high register, and he sings gently as the verse alternates between two chords (D and G). My favorite part of this song is when the piano steps down to the E-minor of the chorus and Stipes sings "don't let yourself go" for the first time. He kicks up the power behind his voice, and adds a waver to it that's more subtle than an overwrought vibrato.

As the song progresses, I confirmed that it was the first time I'd listened to this song, because I had no idea there was a bridge (2:23). Here, I find that his singing borrows from soul music, as he modulates his voice - like when he sings "don't throw your haa-ayyaa-aaaa-aand" (where he modulates on "hand").

The song ends with increased layering, and a pretty nice string arrangement - which Wikipedia tells me was written by Led Zepplin's John Paul Jones. All in all, it's a nice way to finish a pretty darn good song.

Don't forget to check out the Arabic version, and share this blog with your friends. If you're going to email it to anyone, I'd ask of you to please only type in allcaps with no punctuation, e.g. "CHECK OUT THIS BLOG ITS ABOUT WALTZES AN OFT NEGLECTED MUSICAL FORM TODAY LOVE GRANDAD"

I Aladeen this song...

Wilco - Side with the Seeds

Rusty's waltz wednesday presents: Side with the seeds, by Wilco

Wilco:

side with the seeds comes off of one of my favorite Wilco albums. Briefly the band is from Chicago, headed by jeff tweedy. To my ear their songs are roots/Americana, but they do wonderful things with the sound space to create weird, exciting, eery, or all of the above sounds to - in their words - not have every track sound like a folk song.

A great addition to the band when they recorded sky blue sky was jazz guitarist Nels Cline. I didn't know much about Nels, but his playing on this album is mind blowing if only for the breadth of styles that he can play. I'm not one to kvell over an electric guitarist, but Cline plays a style that's at once messy, but so refined.

I saw them play in Montreal when they were touring this album; it was probably the best concert I'd ever been to.

The song:

This song might be in 6/8, but either way - like I said in my selection criteria post: if I can count some threes in there, it's a waltz goddamnit.

I haven't given the words a close listen and probably won't. All's I care about is that they don't get in the way of me enjoying the song as a whole. Typically, Tweedy's voice has this raspy-yet-vulnerable tone that immediately hooked me on to wilco some years ago.

The melody rounds out into a bridge part at the two minute mark, where Nels takes the first of his two solos, but shows restraint. We then get another verse, and then it's Nels' turn again, and he brings out the slaymaker.

This recording is live, but sounds as good or better than the studio version. I don't want to turn this into a morality play, but <preaching> there's a lot to be said for the organic process of making music that's lost when much of the performance comes from canned sounds </preaching>. ENJOY!

What's a waltz anyways?

Well friends, I thought I should clarify my waltz selection criteria.

It's informal, and here it goes. I'm going to try to keep it simple, and keep it moving.

1. Find the beat.
2. Find the beginning of a measure - its usually right on a beat, and at the beginning of a melody part. It     usually stands out. I try not to over think it.
3. Start counting 1-2-3-1-2-3 in time with the beat.
4. Does the counting match the song? That is, does each "1" start on the beginning of a "phrase"?
5. If the answer to 4 is "yes", wellsir, according to Rusty's waltz Wednesday criteria you've got yourself a waltz.

Let's try with an old post: Beach House's On the Sea

To my ear, I the first phrase begins as the piano comes in around the 12 second mark.

The piano does a nice job of sounding out the "1-2-3". The melody phrase consists of three LOUD-soft note combinations.

Once you start counting your "1-2-3"s, you'll find that the "2" always lands on the middle - which is usually the highest accented note in each 1-2-3 phrase.

Got any questions or comments? I'm all eyes, so comment below! Bye now.