Urban Ghosts by Willow Springs.

I have cheered myself up on this dull rainy afternoon by listening to an album by Willow Springs. It is called Urban Ghosts and I must say that I have enjoyed listening to it just as much as their other album Night-Time Radio which I wrote about a couple of months ago. Basically, Mark Crockard is Willow Springs. He writes all the songs, sings, and plays a plethora of instruments, acoustic and electric guitars, upright and electric bass, keyboards, mandolin, and harmonica. He is ably assisted by other musicians including Mandy Bingham and Lisa Brady on vocals, Marcus McCauley on acoustic guitar and mandolin, Keith Ward on piano and keyboards, Rik Gay on drums and percussion and Chris Haigh on fiddle. The album is produced by Mark and Vic Bronzini Fulton. Mark duets with Mandy on the haunting opening track I’m All Over You which features excellent acoustic guitar by Marcus. There is a strong country flavour to A Room For Two. I particularly like the dobro playing of Colin Henry on this song. The likes of Johnny Cash or Waylon Jennings would have enjoyed The End Of The Pier Show with its driving beat, great harmonica playing and acoustic guitar by Rueben Agnew. By contrast It Still Hurts is a much sadder song with a nice piano introduction. I love the fiddle playing of Chris Haigh on Gone Southbound. Tender Lovin’ Feelin’ is a great ballad sung by Mark and shows the talents of Keith Ward to full effect. Heart And Soul has Rik Gay’s percussion to the fore and the guitar playing is wonderful.

It will be Valentine’s Day soon, so you could do worse than buy this album for a loved one because there is a nice ballad called On Valentine’s Night on this album. A New Blue Horizon is another nice slow ballad, and Autumn Blues has Lisa helping out on vocals. The fiddle playing gives the song an eerie ghost like quality. Maybe that’s why the album is called Urban Ghosts, it’s a great title anyway. You Saved A Drowning Man is one of my favourite tracks. It gets quite funky in places and where they sing ‘whoo whoo, whoo whoo’ reminds me slightly of Sympathy For The Devil by The Stones. The album ends with Together We’ll Walk In Beauty another great number which makes you click your fingers and clap your hands.

I have really enjoyed listening to this album today. Musicians have been hit really hard during this pandemic and lock down, so they need our support. Let’s hope it isn’t too long until the likes of Mark Crockard and all the other musicians around the world can start playing live again and bringing the music to the people.

 

 

Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

I finished reading Where The Crawdads Sing last night. I must say that it is one of the most enjoyable books I have read for ages. I can see why it is a best seller and I am sure when it is filmed it will be a huge box office success as well. I am grateful to the Facebook friend who recommended it. It is an addictive read. You must keep going to see what happens next, right up to the sad conclusion and when you think the story is over, there is one final discovery, when the truth is revealed. Having said all that, I do have one or two reservations about this book. I had never heard of the author Delia Owens before, so I looked her up on Wikipedia. She is an American zoologist who worked in the African countries of Botswana and Zambia with her former husband Mark Owens on conservation projects. Their time there was very controversial, and they were criticised for their methods of dealing with poachers and their archaic view of Africans, which she denies. This is her first novel, published at the age of seventy, although she previously published memoirs of their time in Africa.

The plot of the story is very clever because it is a murder mystery story as well as a romantic coming of age tale and an observation on the beauty of nature, so it will appeal to followers of many genres of writing. It begins in 1969 with the discovery of the body of a local football hero Chase Andrews. Then it goes back to 1952 when the protagonist Kya aged six is abandoned by her mother, then her brothers and sisters, and finally by her drunken abusive father. The story travels forward in time as the feral Kya grows up alone in a shack in the swamplands on the coast of North Carolina. She is shunned by the people of nearby Barkley Cove who refer to her as The marsh girl. The book shows the snobbery and hypocrisy of a small town which has lots of churches, but no real Christianity. Kya’s only friends are a black couple Jumpin’ and Mabel. Although you can’t help liking these characters, I think their portrayal is quite patronising, like racial stereotypes. especially big fat Mabel with her ample bosom. Black people are always being portrayed like this.  It is almost as if the author is trying too hard to show that she is not racist. ‘Methinks she doth protest too much’, as Shakespeare once said.

Kya has two love affairs, firstly with Tate Walker who teaches her to read. He goes off to college and doesn’t return as promised. Secondly, with Chase Andrews who proves to be a complete scoundrel. Kya gives up on romance and finds inspiration in the flora and fauna of the coastline. She studies the mating habits of such creatures as the damselfly and the Praying Mantis and how the female treats the male. To reach conclusions about human behaviour from insects seems a bit far fetched to me. I think we are a bit more complicated than that. I found this book quite educational though. As well as learning a bit about nature, for instance I found out what palmettos are. It is a type of swamp cabbage, also grits, and I learned about writers such as Galway Kinnell and Aldo Leopold and singers like Miliza Korjus.

The two threads of the story finally converge in 1970 at the local courthouse. I will not tell you anymore in case you read it yourself. I think you should because you will enjoy it immensely. We are not talking Charles Dickens here, I do not think it is a classic novel, but it is a gripping read which builds to a very emotional conclusion. Also, it deals with subjects relevant to the world today, such as the importance of caring for the planet. One thing that encourages me is the fact that Delia Owens brought out a best-selling novel at the age of 70 which shows that it is never too late for anyone to achieve their ambitions in life.

The Man Who Haunted Himself.

Another rainy day, never mind, at least it is slightly warmer. If it stops raining this afternoon I might go outside and take the hanging baskets and pots off the wall in preparation for painting it. I was up late again last night. On the Talking Pictures channel, I watched Roger Moore in the film The Man Who Haunted himself. It is psychological thriller made in 1970. It is one of Roger Moore’s least known films, but one of his best in my opinion. In most of his films he doesn’t act, he is just Roger Moore, raising an eyebrow occasionally to show emotion. In this film he plays a man in complete meltdown. It is brilliant. Watch it if you get the chance. After that I carried on reading my book. I am up to page 244 now and really enjoying it. I have learned a lot as well. For instance, grits are mentioned quite a lot. I had heard of grits because it is mentioned in Sloop John B by The Beach Boys and I had heard Grits Ain’t Groceries by Little Milton. I knew it was food but didn’t know what exactly. I looked it up and it is a type of porridge made from cornmeal. The settlers in America learned about it from the Natives.

Grits.

Also, a poet called Galway Kinnell is quoted, so I had to look him up as well. In Wikipedia it said, ‘Galway Mills Kinnell (February 1, 1927 – October 28, 2014) was an American poet. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his 1982 collection, Selected Poems and split the National Book Award for Poetry with Charles Wright. From 1989 to 1993 he was poet laureate for the state of Vermont’. It is very educational reading Where The Crawdads Sing. I also saw that he died of leukaemia which is what Kya’s mother died of in the book. I should get to the end tonight or tomorrow.

Galway Kinnell.

By the way, I did find a petition online protesting about the pesticide that kills bees. It is organised by Change.org, so I signed that as well. I doubt if it will change anything but that is all you can do. Anyway, I can’t sit around here all day. It is already gone 2.00 in the afternoon and I haven’t done my Tai Chi yet or fed my birds and fishes. See you tomorrow.

 

Save The Bees!

Monday morning arrives dull and cloudy. It is a couple of degrees warmer than yesterday, but as so often happens in this country, a slight increase in temperature means rain. It is drizzling outside. I was planning to start my wall project this week, but not to worry. It is only January, there will be plenty of opportunities before Spring and things start growing again. I just ordered another book on eBay called A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. I had never heard of Aldo Leopold until a couple of days ago. In the book I am reading now, Tate Walker is teaching Kya to read from Aldo Leopold’s book. I looked him up on Wikipedia. It said, ‘Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was an American author, philosopher, naturalist, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac (1949), which has sold more than two million copies. Leopold was influential in the development of modern environmental ethics and in the movement for wilderness conservation. His ethics of nature and wildlife preservation had a profound impact on the environmental movement, with his ecocentric or holistic ethics regarding land. He emphasized biodiversity and ecology and was a founder of the science of wildlife management.

That is why I ordered the book. I’ll read it when I have finished Where The Crawdads Sing. The planet has never been more threatened than it is now. Climate change is a bigger problem even than Covid. I read yesterday that Britain has approved a pesticide that kills bees. How can they do that and claim to have green policies? This pesticide is banned in the EU. The negative effects of Brexit are already becoming apparent. I will have to see if there is a petition or some way of protesting about this. Another thing I do not like about Brexit is that if Britain is now free to do a trade deal with the USA, I don’t want the NHS to be sold off and I don’t want the country swamped with genetically modified food. I better stop now.

 

 

Poor Old Horse.

The Old Grey Mare.

 It was a nice sunny Sunday morning, so as soon as I had eaten my muesli, I put a Mars bar in my pocket and set off for the White Horse. It was cold, but because it is uphill all the way I soon warmed up. By the time I got up there I was sweating. It is about 740 feet above sea level. The poor old horse is in a terrible condition. It is so faded you can hardly see it from a distance. They are not planning to clean it until 2022. Having said that, it is still a nice place to visit. We are lucky to be so close to the countryside to get some exercise. During this lockdown it must be terrible for people who are stuck in high-rise flats in large cities with nowhere nice nearby to go for a walk. The rules are that you must stay in your local area, so we are extremely fortunate to live in a rural area. I think I was out for about two hours and must have walked about four or five miles.

Yesterday, I watched Arsenal v Newcastle in the F.A. Cup. It wasn’t much of a game. Arsenal won in the end after extra time. I watched a film as well Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy from a book by John Le Carre. It was ok, but you have to concentrate to follow the twists and turns in the complicated plot. I also got up to about page 85 in my book. A character called Scupper Walker mentions an opera singer called Miliza Korjus who I had never heard of, so I looked her up and ended up listening to her on Youtube. She isn’t really my sort of thing, but it is quite educational to find out about these people.

Finally last night, I ended up watching The Pretenders in concert at Austin City Limits. I like The Pretenders, especially Chrissie Hynde. I met the guitarist James Walbourne a few years ago when his other band The Rails supported Richard Thompson in Bath. Anyway, that will do for today. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.