I came to the realization today that few, if any, of our posts since we arrived here have been about music. This despite the fact that both of us have a healthy appreciation for it, and one of us (that would be Laura) can actually play it. So, from the guy who once created an all-time top 250 song list, this post is going to be about music.
I've been thinking about what kind of music Edie is going to listen to when she gets older. Each generation tends to stray from the musical leanings of the one prior. That's how we go from The Beatles, to Led Zeppelin, to Guns n' Roses, to Pearl Jam, and so on. Each set of parents sneers at their children's music (as well as their haircuts). I must admit, I don't enjoy the current crop of bands that are popular with teens (Linkin Park comes to mind), but no doubt they resonate the same way G n' R did for us. Normally children will slowly learn to appreciate their parent's music as they get older. That is, if their parents have any taste in music! So, assuming that Laura and I have taste in music (and remember I define taste here simply as a preference of one type of music over another; I have always argued that I'll take bad taste over no taste any day), we might expect Edie to one day listen to Ryan Adams, Bright Eyes, the McGarrigles, and, I daresay, even Bruce Springsteen. Here's to hoping. For now, she's getting a healthy dose of Dan Zanes, Greg Brown, and (gulp) Charlie Pride.
One of the things we enjoyed a lot pre-Edie (we'll call this prEdie for short) was going to folk shows in Fredericton and other northeast destinations such as Portland and Portsmouth. Recently we made a vow to try and re-discover that fun, so I purchased tickets for Laura and our neighbour Nikki to go see Martha Wainwright when she is in town next month. Derek (Nikki's husband) and I will be on child-care duty that night. Also, we just got word that Leonard Cohen has added an Australian leg to his world tour that kicked off in Fredericton in the spring. Since we just missed out on that show, it'll be sweet retribution when we see him here in Brisbane in February. The bonus is that a great Australian artist, Paul Kelly, will be opening for him.
Another good Aussie act that we've discovered here is Angus and Julia Stone. They're a good singer-songwriter pair, and are starting to gain popularity here and in England. But the best find for me so far has been Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, a blind Aboriginal artist from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Gurrumul grew up in a landscape that is very similar to the places where I work when I go in the field, and his connection to country comes through strongly in his songs. Normally I don't enjoy songs that are sung in other languages, because I like to know the lyrics, but this is certainly an exception. You can really feel the 40,000 years of oral tradition being channeled through his music. Think about how strongly we identify with our own hometowns. Why is that? It comes from forming memories there, having family and friends there, and carrying on the legacy that our parents, grandparents, and in some cases great-grandparents forged in that town. Now imagine that your family history stretched back thousands of generations in that same part of the world. Add the fact that your life depended on that land; whether the rains were good, and fish and game were plentiful. Then throw in the passing of stories about that land from mother to daughter, and father to son, and you have this Aboriginal culture that is more tied to the land (with the exception of Africans) than any other in the world. Imagining the land getting taken from them simply breaks your heart.
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