Good day gentlefolk! Hoping you are well. Sliding into autumn, work and play conspired yet again to delay the posting here at RKBS Industries, as ever, but behind the scenes we roll on. The long game involves some new RKBS originals but more proximately you'll have seen the last of Woodpile 2, and will have enjoyed some more classic rock from the Stackpole-Keating axis, somewhat less classic rock from Harpswell Hootenanny '12, and long-delayed tunes from the mystery man known only as Beez.... But meanwhile, back at the Woodpile....
Every once in a very long while, the workshop churns out something with a Celtic undertone, and that's the case with "Sally Colgan". It started off as an exercise in writing a typical story song, which in this case was a barely cautionary tale of a young girl heading off to the city. Soon enough, I'd stuck in the quick double-break leading into the chorus, realized that I was treading on middle to late-era Van Morrison turf ("Veedon Fleece" and "Pay the Devil" were on heavy rotation), and went with that, plus a dose of Steve Earle (listening to lots of "The Mountain" back then). For years I'd heard some accordion and bouzouki or tenor banjo on this and was happy to get them in there, even if I did end up laying off the tin whistle.
"TransAmerican" started with a similarly Celtic bent, but was inspired by the other side of the Atlantic. The lyrics came out of the Maine/ New Brunswick border crossings that the Keating-Wacks were doing fairly frequently at the time, and it's about that small, warm, safe feeling you can't help but get in your bones when you get back on home soil, even after being someplace as non-foreign and easy going as Canadia. I have to say that I still hate crossing borders, or at least coming back stateside, 'cause those US Customs and Border Protection folk are serious bad M-ers who scare my pants off, even under the most benign of circumstances. I'm happy to report, though, that St. John, NB has come a way in my estimation since I wrote the song, even if I left the last verse kiss-off just for fun. Musically I was aiming something of a Maritime Province feel and in the re-recording, I really played up the influence of St. Johns, Newfoundland's wonderful roots-rock sing-alongers Great Big Sea, whose stuff (the kitchen party, non-cheesy stuff, that is) is well worth a spin.
Folk it up!
JK
Sally Colgan: https://www.box.com/s/9k5kocpt26cb3er1488g
TransAmerican: https://www.box.com/s/epnkqkks80agmsz23x4a
No comments:
Post a Comment