Dorchester: plan for new covered market at Charles Street site

From Dorset Echo:

Dorchester's £2m plan for new covered market and car park at Charles Street site, Dorset Echo

23 new parking spaces at the cost of £40.5k each

Calls for archaeological dig on site of church (before its demolition)

Jim's Blues ("Just One More Time"); Vintage Down-Home Blues

Four recent postings, in case you missed the videos on YouTube!


Fixin' to Die Blues

Mississippi Juke-Joint Blues, Clarksdale

Hillbilly Blues

"When you get to thirty-one"

Lament from Epirus, Christopher King: Greek edition planned, Ηπειρώτικο μοιρολόι , DOMA Books, Athens, ΔΩΜΑ

See DOMA Books, Athens, website

https://www.domabooks.gr/lament-from-epirus/

Ηπειρώτικο μοιρολόι 

Στην παράδοση του Πάτρικ Λι Φέρμορ και του Τζεφ Ντάιερ, ένας βραβευμένος με Γκράμι μουσικός παραγωγός ανακαλύπτει μια παμπάλαιη δημώδη μουσική παράδοση εξαιρετικής δύναμης.

Σ’ ένα δισκοπωλείο στην Κωνσταντινούπολη, ο συλλέκτης δίσκων Κρίστοφερ Κινγκ εντοπίζει μερικούς απ’ τους πιο παράξενους ―και υπνωτιστικούς― ήχους που άκουσε ποτέ στη ζωή του. Οι δίσκοι 78 στροφών που φέρνει στο φως είναι βαθύτατα συγκινητικοί. Μοιάζει να αντλούν από μια αρχόγενη πηγή συναισθήματος, στην οποία η σύγχρονη μουσική δεν παρέχει πρόσβαση. Τα τραγούδια είναι απ’ την Ήπειρο, μια περιοχή της οποίας η μουσική παράδοση εκτείνεται μέχρι την προοημερική εποχή. Ακούγοντας αυτή τη μουσική ακούς το παρελθόν. 

Το Ηπειρώτικο μοιρολόι είναι ένα αλησμόνητο ταξίδι σε μια μουσική εμμονή. Μέσα απ’ αυτό το ταξίδι, ο συγγραφέας αναζητά τις καταβολές ενός μοναδικού μουσικού είδους, τις οποίες τελικά εντοπίζει στις ρίζες του ίδιου του τραγουδιού. Αναζητώντας δύο προ πολλού πεθαμένους δεξιοτέχνες της ηπειρωτικής μουσικής―ο ένας εκ των οποίων ίσως να διέπραξε φόνο― ο Κινγκ αφηγείται την ιστορία των Ρομά, οι οποίοι υπήρξαν πρωτοπόροι της ηπειρώτικης δημοτικής μουσικής, αλλά και των απογόνων τους που συνεχίζουν την παράδοση σήμερα. 

Ο Κινγκ εντοπίζει στοιχεία που φωτίζουν τα βαθύτερα προσωπικά του ερωτήματα σχετικά με τη λειτουργία της μουσικής στην ιστορία του ανθρώπου: Ποια είναι η σχέση μεταξύ μουσικής και γλώσσας; Γιατί οργανώνουμε τον ήχο ως μουσική; Η μουσική είναι κάτι περιττό, μια απλή μορφή ψυχαγωγίας, ή μήπως πρόκειται ενδεχομένως για ένα εργαλείο επιβίωσης; Το ταξίδι του Κινγκ μετατρέπεται σε μια έρευνα για το ρόλο του τραγουδιού και του χορού ως μέσου πνευματικής ίασης ― και για το τι αυτό μπορεί να αποκαλύπτει όσον αφορά τις εξελικτικές ρίζες της μουσικής. 

«Enjoy the hypnotic clarity of the landscape—physical, human and musical—that [King] paints. … [Epirus’s] depth and freshness are undeniable, and I thank Mr. King for giving me a sip».

«Απολαύστε την υπνωτιστική καθαρότητα του τοπίου ― φυσικού, ανθρώπινου και μουσικού― που φιλοτεχνεί [ο Κινγκ]. Το βάθος και η φρεσκάδα [της Ηπείρου] είναι αδιαμφισβήτητα, και ευχαριστώ τον κ. Κινγκ που μου πρόσφερε μια γουλιά».

Wall Street Journal

«A must-read volume for those interested in music, even if your village is about as far from Epirus as can be… King explores music as a powerful form of communication, a tool for healing and even survival, as a shared experience for the community».

«Ένα βιβλίο που πρέπει να διαβαστεί απ’ όλους όσοι ενδιαφέρονται για τη μουσική, ακόμη κι αν το δικό τους χωριό το χωρίζει απέραντη απόσταση από την Ήπειρο… Ο Κινγκ μελετά τη μουσική ως μια πανίσχυρη μορφή επικοινωνίας, ως ένα εργαλείο με σκοπό τη γιατρειά ή ακόμη και την επιβίωση, ως ένα κοινό βίωμα της κοινότητας».

The National Herald

Μέχρι την κυκλοφορία της ελληνικής έκδοσης, που θα είναι έτοιμη σε λίγους μήνες, το ΔΩΜΑ διαθέτει στην Ελλάδα την πρωτότυπη έκδοση του βιβλίου από τη W.W. Norton


See also:

Greek Book Market: Dawn of a New Age, Windy City Greek


An old article from 2014: The Wild, Healing Music of Epiros, National Herald

From To Zagori Mas, July-August 2018:

South Street Bluesman and Skeleton Drummer: Rob Berry; Dorchester, Dorset

Two things seen in Dorchester today:

The first beat the blues (and would put many guitar-picking buskers and most of the competition to shame): Rob Berry and his skeleton drummer.

Rob Berry CD album samples (Soundcloud)

A YouTube video (Rob Berry, not filmed in Dorchester)

Rob Berry's website

"After starting classical piano at the age of 7 and progressing to the guitar Rob began a career in the 80’s as a recording engineer at Bermuda Sound Studios. This led to him engineering on Keith Richards album 'Talk is Cheap' produced by Steve Jordan as well as getting some blues guitar education from Keith himself. In '90 Rob moved on to work in some of London top studios, including Metropolis Studios and Swanyard Studios, from there he worked alongside some of the best artists, producers and engineers in London, including, Gary Langan (Queen, Yes), Alan Moulder (Nine Inch Nails, Arctic Monkeys), Manu Dibango, Bernie Sumner(New Order), Johnny Marr(Smiths) and Andy Farris ( INXS) just to name a few.

After some time, the manic long hours took their toll and Rob really wanted to be a blues player not a tech. With his contacts in the studio business he began to do session work on guitar for the likes of Tom Robinson, Chris White from Dire Straits, and many other artists.

In 1994 Rob worked at Earls Court as a guitar demonstrator for JHS, the distributors for Hughes & Kettner amps, Jackson and Encore Guitars. He went on to develop a busy schedule of regular gigs in London and the South East. Soon after this he headed back out to Bermuda for a summer gig in the tourist resorts and Pubs, this was fun, he got to jam with some of New Yorks finest blues players, Poppa Chubby and also Big Ed & the Side Pockets at the Oasis Club. With frequent trips to Florida & Manhattan, this was just too much fun and the holiday gig turned into a 13 year stay.

For family reasons Rob eventually returned to the UK in 2007. Since returning he has put his studio experiences to good use and has completed seven albums".


The second thing:

What was really depressing (a shocking sight) was the sorry state of the King's Arms Hotel. That really gave me the blues. Roll over Thomas Hardy and William Barnes!

Ethiopia requests emperor's lock of hair; Emperor Tewodros

From The Guardian


See previous posting: Ethiopia - The Battle of Magdala at the Victoria and Albert Museum

Hydra, Greece: Brenda Chamberlain, A Rope of Vines, Journal from a Greek Island

I am currently reading "A Rope of Vines". I knew little about Brenda Chamberlain, the Welsh poet, painter and writer.

"This is an uneasy island, ghost-ridden, and with black danger in the air. It is advisable to keep the well covers closed at night..."

"With a cable of vine tendrils, I anchor the ship of my heart to this comfortless island, like the small Ydriot seamen who were accustomed to moor their boats with twisted vine-stems, before they learned the use of steel cables".

"For this is an island of terror, where no gentleness is, no cool glades in which to hide oneself away while wounds grow shining new skin".


I look forward to Paul Genoni's paper on Brenda Chamberlain's Hydra: "an iron-bound savage island", to be presented at "Writers, Dreamers, Drifters and the Aegean", Hydra, 25-26 September.

Here is a short video clip

Some of her paintings

From BBC Wales Art

"In 1963 Chamberlain moved to the Greek island of Ydra, where she stayed sporadically for a few years before returning to Bangor in 1967. During this time spent in Greece Chamberlain wrote her only novel The Water Castle (1964) and A Rope of Vines (1965), a journal of her time spent on the island.

Towards the end of her life Chamberlain suffered with bouts of loneliness and depression, which led to a mental breakdown after the publication of Poems with Drawings (1969). In July 1971 she took a number of sleeping tablets and although was rushed to hospital, died two days afterwards".

A review of "A Rope of Vine", from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council:

"An invaluable addition to the Library of Wales series, A Rope of Vines is a haunting and compelling account of the six years Brenda Chamberlain spent on the Greek island of Ydra. From the opening lines it is clear that behind the exuberance of the light, colours and smells of the island, there is a continual, lurking sense of violence: ‘I have returned to the good mothers of Efpraxia while my friend Leonidas serves sentence for manslaughter of an English tourist in the port of Ydra.’ 

Later on she writes, ‘This is what life is, too, violent encounters, inexplicable withdrawals.’ She experiences her own anguish after the imprisonment of Leonidas as an inner violence, ‘How much further can I bend before I break, how much salt water covers my head before I drown?’ It is a violence mirrored in the threat of an earthquake, the build-up to a taverna brawl, and the policemen looming with guns during the elections and voting.

Chamberlain retreats to the mountain monastery after Leonidas’s imprisonment to pray for him. Her retreat is also a necessity for her – to withdraw from the world – something that island life, both on Ynys Enlli (the subject of Tide Race) and Ydra, can provide. She needs solitude ‘to hear the earth breathing’. We have a sense that she never dwells happily for too long either in the ‘non-world’ of retreat or in the noisy human world of the market place, but must oscillate between the two.

The journal is accompanied by black-and-white line drawings of the buildings, people and creatures on the island – drawings with bold lines and vast space within them which seem to conduct the heat and the light of the island and draw the reader in. There is a hypnotic, meditative quality to the drawings and the text – an elusive moving backwards and forwards between belonging to the world and retreating from it. What is certain is that Chamberlain seeks to explore and express all that points the ‘way to life’. She rejects what she describes as ‘almost-living’: ‘On this island . . . one can forget the souls who wander in the miserable gulf of almost-living, those who are unable to work out the difference between monotony and rhythm. They act under compulsion, at the dictates of a machine-driven existence, when they could know a meaningful pattern of behaviour ordered by the nature of their surroundings.’

The ‘way to life’ may bring with it suffering, but suffering, she concludes, is a source of greater wisdom and clarity of vision: ‘And disaster when it overtakes causes clarity of vision as if one were lifted high above the earth to see life in its perspective in a moment. The problem is to remember the revelation, and not to be lost in the complicated cities of the plain. It is imperative to transform the dismal world and to turn the vision into a kind of sacrament.’ "

Jane MacNamee