Skip to main content

The Night I Dreamt of Joanna Newsom

Joanna Newsom with Kermit the Frog
Last night I dreamt that I found Walnut Whales, Joanna Newsom's self-released debut EP in a second hand record shop.  I was so overwhelmed by the find that I felt my hand shaking as I took it to the counter.  Fans of Newsom will testify that this is the most sought-after album in her catalogue, pre-dating The Milk-Eyed Mender - her official debut - by two years.  When I woke, I felt the pang of disappointment to find that it was only a dream.    
  

I've seen Joanna Newsom perform both indoor and out.  The first occasion was in 2008 when I saw her perform in the truly spectacular neo-classical setting of Somerset House.  She didn't play Ys - her second full-length album - from start to finish as she had done as part of the Ys tour, but we were treated to some highlights from The Milk-Eyed Mender, Ys, as well as Colleen (from her 2008 EP, Joanna Newsom & the Ys Street Band) and some early versions of songs such as In California and Baby Birch that would go on to appear on her third album, Have One on Me.  

Two years later, I saw Newsom perform at Birmingham Symphony Hall, another majestic arena for Newsom's richly poetic verse.  A certain online auction site ensured I secured front row centre tickets.  This time, Newsom was accompanied by a four-piece band, including the impossibly talented multi-instrumentalist Ryan Fransesconi, who was fundamental in the arrangements found on Have One on Me.  Newsom's performance was breathtaking, as she weaved tales from her harp, from the poignancy of Baby Birch's gathering crescendo to the full-backing of the band in Have One on Me's eponymous song as it brought the story of Lola Montez to life.  I'd fallen in love with Newsom all over again.  

And yet Walnut Whales still alludes me in my waking day.  In spite of this, one fact remains: this dream makes me unquestionably indie.  
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Monologue #1: Rob

This town used to be rough.   You only have to go back thirty years or so.   If you came for a night out from a neighbouring village, you’d get your head kicked in for the pleasure of a few pints.   You were better off pretending you were visiting from Devon.   Somewhere far enough away that a territorial local found you too boring to waste any energy on.   These things happened because there was nothing else to do.   And the youth were angry.   Now all those hellraisers are old and the rage has burnt out and their sons haven’t got the same need to fight.   But where does that rage go?   Does it just dissipate into the atmosphere?   Does it skip generations?         This town has changed.   For the better some would say.   No one fights in public anymore.   Not really.   Not like they used to.   Two-faced battles are fought online and so much of everything else happens behind closed doo...
Post a Comment
Read more

G-Dog Advises Me to Go Big on the Blackberries - a Tommy & Moon Story

It was a few weeks into autumn and I hadn’t had a hair cut since before the summer solstice.  My beard, long and straggly and in desperate need of trimming, was a week away from having birds nest in it.  I unpolished my boots and wore some old jeans that were ripped at the knees and dirty from digging a deep hole on a particularly wet day in Highgate Cemetery.  Hanging loosely over the top of those was a baggy grey jumper I spilt half a bottle of bleach over about three years ago.  I looked a bit of a state, but there was a method to my madness.  Today was the day I was going to ask Moon for a pay rise and I wanted to look as if I’d been trod on. On the morning I was due to ask him, my bike got a puncture not twenty yards down the road from my house. It wasn’t a polite slow puncture so that I might finish my journey on a squidgy but rideable front tyre; the thorn tore through that poor inner tube like a javelin through jelly and it had me riding on a stee...
5 comments
Read more

My Letter Carving Workshop is Now Open for Business!

Life-living letter carver, carve me a letter crisp on my headstone and fill it with wonder I'd like to carve it, but you would do better, for you stand above this earth and I am laid under. - Tom Wiggins My new letter carving workshop is now open for business.  Taking bespoke commissions such as memorials (including headstones and cremation tablets), opening plaques and heraldry.  If you're looking for fine hand-carved lettering designed and carved by a fully trained stonemason and letter carver, please get in touch.   I'd be very happy to talk you through the process from design stage right through to installation.  Telephone: 07791969667 E-mail: tomwiggins86@gmail.com Website: www.tomwiggins.co.uk A bit about me:  Born and raised in Gloucester, I now live and work as a letter carver in the beautiful market town of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire.  My journey in stone began in 2013 with a three-year Diploma in Stonemasonry at The City of Bath College. Th...
1 comment
Read more