Letters from Yurtville

Hello dear readers (those who haven't given up entirely on my continuing this blog),

I'm not dead, as you can see. Far from it! I'm alive and well, and excited by the coming of spring.

It's quite a bit longer than I'd expected to be away from the blog, though the time has done me well. But you know, it's remarkable: when I posted the last post, I thought I'd be leaving the next day. But what do the gods do for fun? Watch us try to plan! Low and behold, the weather changed suddenly. The roads froze over and travel was basically impossible. There were accidents all over the country, the counties had run out of salt/sand to put on the roads, and run out of money to get more. Crops died left and right. Water pipes froze, and cracked open. It was the coldest winter in recorded Irish history. And it lasted like that for a month. When the pipes thawed, water leaked out of the cracks and there were water shortages all over the country. And huge floods to accompany them. Irony!

What had happened? The gulf stream left Ireland and headed for Greenland. I believe it's called a 'negative arctic draw' or something like that. Is it a result of human-caused Climate Change? Maybe, maybe not. But it showed one thing for certain: we live in transition times. And we are hugely unequipped to deal with unforeseen challenges. Supermarkets almost completely ran out of food. Most houses nowadays have very little food and water stored. And many (including the one I was living in) are very poorly designed and difficult to heat without excessive quantities of fuel. After a month I did finally move out to the yurt, and I was kept very busy gathering wood and insulating the yurt with whatever old blankets and curtains and rugs I could gather. There were some frosty mornings, let me tell you. But I kept moving, and that kept me warm. And the nights were long and allowed me to get reacquainted with the old guitar.

Well spring has finally arrived (actually, if one follows the Celtic lunar calendar it came right on time, on the first quarter of the month of Willow; it only seems late because last year was a Blackthorn year. But then, only lunatics would believe in anything other than the Gregorian system...). Well we've got our gulf stream back now and most people are probably beginning to forget all about the winter as they enjoy the warming weather. But it taught us something very important. Whether that particular incident of the gulf stream shifting was indicative of patterns to come or not, Climate Change is real, and even seemingly small shifts in the geo-system can cause huge upheavals for us humans. We are a very fragile species, no matter what we tell ourselves. Islands are being swallowed, rivers and lakes are drying up, glaciers are melting; other areas are being flooded and hurricaned and typhooned.

It also taught me something else very important. Community, community, community. I mean, I already was kind of onto the notion, but really. We can't get through these times on our own, and even if we could, it would not be so worthwhile without community. And I know in the age of the internet there's lots of talk about global community and the like, and that's important too, but we really need to refocus on our local communities. If there was suddenly an oil shortage, what would you do? If you couldn't drive your car out of the suburbs, or if all the food that's flown half-way round the world suddenly wasn't available, or if all the fertilizers and plastics and other petroleum products we now take for granted could no longer be made, what would you do? Where would you find yourself, and how would you provide for your needs and those of your family? And the question is not really IF the oil runs out, but WHEN and how quickly it does. There's a limited quantity of the stuff, and we're doing our best to burn through it like there's no tomorrow. And no one knows just how much is left, because countries are allowed to lie about how much they have. And the less there is, the harder it's going to be to get out of the ground. Do yourself a favor and educate yourself about Peak Oil. And then watch the film "The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" to see that yes, the world as you know it can change overnight, and yes, you can live a happier, healthier, freer life without a dependency on oil, but it takes time to make the shift and it can only happen with a strong community.

So those two things: Climate Change and Peak Oil, plus the fact that the economy is falling down around us - all of them show us that we are living in transition times, and the system we have come to know and rely upon is in fact a very fragile one. But really, it's for the better that we change. The old fragile system is deprecated, unsustainable, smelly, and based on exploitation (of people, animals, plants, ecosystems). We can respond to the challenges by creating a new, more healthy and vital and fun way of living, more people-friendly, planet-friendly, and balanced. For one idea on how our response could look more like a party than a protest march, take a look at TransitionCulture.

But I also mentioned the notion that our culture is ailing spiritually. Let me explain. All spiritual traditions are based upon the notion of harmony. Now, just what they want you to be in harmony with varies from tradition to tradition. Most of the old traditions, the 'native' ones all over the world were rooted in harmony with nature. They had to be in order to survive. Other traditions are based upon harmony with the self or soul, or with community, or with some chap called God somewhere up in the sky. These traditions all served a very specific purpose in the cultures that birthed them. They kept the order, they prevented misconduct, and gave people a sense of meaning and rhythm in their lives. But in our modern culture we've mostly thrown all that out of the window. And in a sense it was right to throw it out of the window, because so much of it no longer is relevant to the times we're living in. But we kinda threw the baby out with the bathwater, and in our effort to establish the Scientific Model of reality as the only valid one, we've ignored and repressed a huge amount of valuable knowledge and perspectives that could help us. And so now, where do people turn to for a sense of meaning and rhythm in their lives? Well television, magazines, really media of all sorts are all more than happy to fill the void. We no longer worship a god in the sky or the gods of nature, we now worship wealth and fame and sex and the cult of personality. The fashion and advertising industries are built upon selling a hollow image to people who are searching for something that they will never find outside themselves. Trade has become the single most important facet of society, the central point around which everything else revolves. Don't believe me? Just look at our temples. What are the tallest, most expensive and spectacular buildings in our society devoted to? Trade. Everything else comes second.

But some people are still filling the void by turning to music and art, which have traditionally stood as bastions for the soul, holding a repository of truth that can't be philosophized or idealized or rationalized. In fact people need art and music and poetry as much or more now than they ever did. And the reason for this is simple. We have mostly convinced ourselves that the conscious, rational mind is the only mind that exists, and repressed all the rest (including the unconscious mind, emotions, soul, and the wisdom of the body). And because good art, like the old myths, bypasses the rational mind and speaks directly to the other aspects of one's being, it feeds a very malnourished creature. And because of this, there is great importance in the arts, and great potential. Because if a people are to change, they have to change on the unconscious level too; otherwise they'll just be fighting themselves and nothing will be accomplished.

And a change IS needed, because the story we've been telling ourselves for the last 5000 years isn't working anymore. Or rather, it worked too well and if we continue the way we've been going, we will exterminate ourselves. I'm not kidding. We're now presiding over the 3rd great extinction of species in the planet's history. And a few of those species, like the honeybees that are disappearing, are absolutely vital to our survival. And the oxygen in the atmosphere is being depleted quicker than it is replenished. Water is becoming scarce in many places, toxic in others. Even if all the humans disappeared from the planet tomorrow, Climate Change would still be happening, because we've cut down too many trees for the balance to be kept.

So I'm not talking about the sort of change where you buy new lightbulbs or resolve to recycle more. I mean change on a massive scale and at a fundamental level. 10 billion trees should be planted (this is the number that have been cut down since the dawn of the Colonial era in 1495). Pant them on every spare corner of land - in cities, lawns, roadsides, farms, mountains, swamps, wasteland - there's a tree suited to every environmental condition. In addition to providing oxygen and absorbing carbon dioxide, trees stabilize the land and local climate, preventing many natural disasters. They filter pollution and noise, making cities healthier and more pleasant. They are a sustainable, renewable, low-maintenance source of food and medicine. Woodlands are among the most awesome, vital, inspirational places one could go, making them valuable community resources as well. In fact, when one considers all the gifts of trees, then tree-planting begins to seem less like charity and more like a sound economic investment - much more so than investing in one of these banks which collapse overnight. In fact, when considering effects on climate, every $1 invested in tree-planting is the equivalent of $7 invested in renewable energies. Forests precede civilizations. They are the ecosystem which gave birth to humanity, and they continue to sustain us. It's time we wake up and realize that we need to sustain them too. And they're so friendly! Spend some time with a tree. Get to know it. You'll see!

We as a people have enormous potential. The world we have created is a testament to our ingenuity, vision, power, and beauty. If we can refocus ourselves, if we can shed the skin of the story that is laying waste to our world and dream a new dream, we can achieve untold success. If we can bring the world of science and the world of the subtle, experiential, subjective world together; if we can unite the local community and global community; if we can take all the needs of humanity and all the needs of the planet and hold them together; if we can honorthe paradox of a union of opposites, then we can create a world like never before.

A strong, resilient community is a diverse community. Diverse in needs, in skills, in thoughts and perspectives. Homogeneity is fragile. Especially in transition times. Not everyone needs to run off to live in a yurt in the woods in the middle of winter. Not everyone needs to be a farmer, or a hunter/gatherer or whatever. But everyone does need to stop for a moment, and take a look at what's actually going on in the world around them, and begin to examine the story that's been told for the last 5,000 years, and take stock of the resources of their community, and figure out what their role will be in adapting to and prospering in the changing times to come. And whatever we do, we all need to plant trees. Really. If you are a lawyer or a banker or an accountant, plant trees. If you are a construction worker or craftsman or artist, plant trees. If you are a musician, plant trees. If you work a crap 9-5 job behind some desk, plant trees. Research what type is best suited to your area and your own needs. Look after it for it's first couple years until it gets established. It is just about the best gift you can give to the future - an investment for yourself, your children, and all life on the planet. In all the economic turmoil that's going on, it can be hard to find the energy and resources to actually invest in a gift like a tree, but know this: trees are a source of real, tangible wealth and abundance, rather than the abstract paper kind which could be worthless tomorrow.

When we have abundance we can have specialization and thus diversity. And this abundance and diversity is what allows progress on every level. We don't all need to be doing the same thing, working on the same project or have the same values and ideas. In fact, it's often the odd fellow, who lives on the margins on society and doesn't fit in, who's the one who brings something new to it and prompts it to evolve (see, for example, Harry Partch for a musical example). The diversity we have produced as a race is truly incredible; the ideas and cultures we have birthed - the anthrosphere if you will - is perhaps our greatest accomplishment. But recently we have begun to live in such a way that it destroys diversity - we are destroying ecosystems left and right, spreading them over with an endless sea of pavement, and we are also destroying cultures through the homogenizing effects of the mass media and advertising. Regionalism is disappearing at the same time that pockets of interest groups of every imaginable description are coming together via the internet (this very blog is an example of a collection of obscurities and marginalized forms of expression and curious people). And by destroying diversity we rob ourselves of our strength, resilience, and abundance.

Now, traditionally, we humans have understood abundance on a material level, and we have sought energy in a material form. And thus we dig and cut and burn in order to get all the energy we need for our lives. But we are beginning to realize that what seemed like a limitless bounty is actually running out, and we don't know where to turn. But realize that abundance and energy is all around us, all the time. The sun shines down upon us every day, and the winds blow and the water climbs to the sky and returns to us in its graceful dance. And every night 6 billion people dream, and rediscover themselves and have a chance at glimpsing something new. And every time I hear some fantastic beautiful piece of music or see some original work of idiosyncratic art, I remember just what we can do. And the deeper I go into that artwork, the more I see the true nature of the universe reflected back at me. You may not be able to live on art & music alone (I for one have tried), but you can't really live without it either. Or rather, you can't live without beauty, and without the sort of communion that beauty offers. Mostly we get it from the arts, but you can get it from nature too (as my month away from technology/culture has taught me). In fact, nature is the origin of all the arts, all the culture, not to mention all the economy. Nature is abundance, nature is inspiration, nature is mystery. And we are a part of nature, so the more we probe the depths of our own being, the more we discover reflected in the world around us, and vice versa. And the greatest instrument of perception, the greatest weaver of community, and the greatest instigator for growth and change is love. So whatever you do, do it with love: love for yourself, love for others, love for the planet. If you can do that, your every action will bring about good.

So, with all that having said, I guess it's back to the business of unearthing and enjoying musical treasures. I am still living in the yurt, but there is a computer nearby and I will hopefully be able to resume posting again, as time allows. But don't forget: we are living in transition times, and we are at the ships helm, deciding where the future of humanity will go. Go forth and love!

As you dream, so you create.

Why I'm moving into a yurt in the woods in the middle of winter - a Manifesto

Hello Friends, Devoted Readers and Fellow Journeyers,

I started this post because I wanted to share something with you - a brilliant manifesto I found and photographed whilst doing my business in a bathroom in Ireland. But I wanted to give some sort of introduction, or hello, or something personal. And that something turned into a manifesto of itself. So catch this rare glimpse into my life and thoughts beyond the world of music, and you will see why I won't be posting again for a while. I hope you mull the thoughts over for a while and leave some comments to add to the discussion. Happy Solstice!

Tomorrow I'll to be moving to the edge of a woodland and into a yurt which will be my dwelling-place for the next 6 months. I’m going to be working on the land: clearing rhododendrons and brambles, chopping wood, creating low-impact buildings (a tree-bog compost toilet for starters!). The first few weeks, I will be fully over my head just trying to attend to basic things like keeping myself warm, dry, and fed. But ultimately the work I will be doing will lead towards something much greater than myself. I am planting the seeds of a dream that's been brewing for over a decade, which I've recently been drawn into. As I begin this work, I will be plunging into a prolonged disconnection from computers, amplified music, etc. for 40 days or so, in order to aid my reconnecting process with the quiet and luminous world of the winter forest.

The funny thing is, I don't know anything about what I'm doing. And yet, I'm doing it.

And, speaking of planting, a month ago at Samhain time, I planted some rice, and put my dreams and desires for the coming year into them. This is scary. I've never planted anything in my whole life. Sure, I've watered plants that had already sprouted, pulled thousands of ‘weeds’, spread compost and diligently plucked the yellowing leaves from my room's resident spider-plant. But they all came into being through someone else's aid. Now, for the first time in my life, I take responsibility for the life of another being. With these few dozen kernels, I commit to ushering a life into the world, and providing it with the environment it needs to flourish.

And as I nourish these seeds, I nourish myself. I am these seeds just as I am the compost in which they are planted, just as I am the water that courses over them. Their desire to grow tall is my desire to become myself. If they flower, with them will flower my dreams. According to all available information, rice cannot grow in Ireland. It's too cold here. Not enough sun. No one has ever done it before. Likewise, the tackling the challenges of climate change, the economy, the huge degree of inequity among the world's peoples, a spiritually ailing society mired in the dredges of an unfulfilled post-consumerist malaise, and finding a meaningful and personally fulfilling role to play in transforming the aforementioned headache-inducing mess, seems rather impossible too. But so many things that we now take for granted - flight, instant communication, moving pictures, etc. - were once deemed impossible. What brought them into being was a dream, diligently nourished and acted upon. If we can create dream into being such complex and multifaceted problems for ourselves (every element of which came about as a solution to some other problem, mind you), then we can dream into being a more sane, fulfilling, and sustainable way to approach our stay on this planet.

And if there is to be a change, a real (r)evolution in the way we operate as individuals, as a culture and a species, it will not come as a result of government-directed actions. We have seen the failure in Copenhagen, and though distressing, I know it could not have been any other way. It is as much a failure for our current political system as it is for the ailing environment. It would be easy to criticize Obama for his obvious posturing and unwillingness to do anything of value, and his covert loyalty to the military-industrial complex, but once again I know it could not have been any other way. Ultimately, our politicians are a reflection of ourselves. The only power they have is the power we have given them; they are corrupted by the corporations which was continue to fund. How can we expect them to reform when we are unwilling to reform our own lifestyles? They will only change when we take back our power and initiate the changes ourselves. But how? The mounting crises are so vast! How will we change in time?

It just occurred to me that the whole drama of the banking collapse is a reflection of our relationship with nature. We have been borrowing, and borrowing, and borrowing her resources, and continually putting off the payback. In the olde dayes, if a people cut down their forest, polluted their water, or over-hunted the animals, inevitably the floods and droughts and poisonings and scarcities that followed would wipe them out or drove them away. Natural consequence. Nature foreclosed on their property. Then, since the land couldn’t support people, no one would settle there for a while and the land would have a chance to rejuvenate, and build up its resources again.

But we’ve created such a hall of mirrors now. What happens in one part of the world affects another part, so that with advanced technology and abundant oil, we’ve been able to delay the natural consequences. And they’ve been snowballing behind us as we run, and they’re catching up in the form of ‘natural’ disasters and unprecedented changes in the elements. We bailed out the banks because we weren’t ready to wake up yet. At Copenhagen we bailed out the polluters, for the same reason. No one has asked “Why are we giving money to the banks in the hope that they’ll lend to us again?” or “Why are we still supporting an economic system which is vastly unjust, unsustainable, disempowering, and if left to its own devices will destroy us in the name of never-ending exploitative ‘growth’?” Or, rather, no one is listening to those questions and finding the courage to answer them. Is this denial rooted in the fabric of our cultural world-view and spirituality? Do we favor denial by nature or does it come because we are unwilling to face our own shadows, because we are afraid to see death as a natural part of the rhythm of life?

I do not believe humans are inherently destructive or bad for the environment. There have been cultures who maintained the ecosystem which housed them so well, and kept it in such perfect balance, that when these people were moved out or killed, the landscape fell to ruin as well. And the power of human creativity and love can surmount any obstacle. It must be stressed that the situation we're in came about not from some evil person's ill-intentions, but from a great many life-styles that were conducted without a sense of the greater picture. The current situation we have is not wrong, it's just out-of-balance. Vastly out-of-balance. We can re-balance it. But we have been conditioned to believe that we are powerless. We have complicitly given away our power away in exchange for a kind of comfort and stability. We have sacrificed our freedom without even knowing it. And in exchange we have been given a god named Convenience, to whom we sacrifice many more things. But we have made the situation from which we now suffer, and complicated as it is, we can unmake it. Because you and I can change, this community and civilization can change. But how?

Change begins in the hearts and minds of people; healing and growth come from within. Change begins with one person deciding to take responsibility for their own life, deciding to live neither as a victim nor as an agent of violence. Change begins when one person overcomes the barrier of social awkwardness and starts a conversation with someone they don't know about things that matter to them. Change begins when one person decides to love themselves, and proceeds to spread that love to those around them. Change begins when one person decides to leap into the frigid and bottomless waters of the unknown and pursue a dream which by any reasonable estimation is absurdly, outrageously impossible. Change begins when one person remembers how immensely beautiful, powerful and great they are, and decides to embody and radiate that greatness. Change begins when one person picks up a spade and turns their green pointless grassy lawn (or better yet - roof!) into a budding vegetable garden. Change begins when one person gives thanks for the rain that falls, the food that grows, and the billion rats and ants and plants and people who clean up our messes. Change begins when one person, who has been academically educated to the point of paralysis gets up off their arse and actually does something! Change begins when we let a child be a child and discover for their self who they are in this world. Change begins when we allow that same magnificent freedom to our own starry-eyed and beaming inner being. Change is the most natural process of life. It will happen whether we want it or not. But right now, we still have the power to choose how it will come.

One the few social or environmental movements I think is actually on the right path is the Transition movement. It is community-powered, viral, and dynamic. It tackles a number of challenges (peak-oil, climate-change, turbulent economy...) with a multifaceted and evolving solution based on building local resilience and taking advantage of everyone’s unique and different skills. It essentially takes a permaculture approach to creating community, and a ‘be the change’ approach to the global crises. It is a brilliant initiative and spreading like wildfire. But it is a social and material solution to a social and material problem, and our culture is also ailing spiritually.

The system which has fostered the climate crisis is the same system which has bankrupted the social and spiritual health of our society. It is founded on a materialistic worldview, and has fostered a cult of the individual ego. Our whole educational system is founded on this materialistic worldview and ego-worship. It has systematically stripped the mystery and greatness of ourselves as it has stripped the Earth of the diamonds in her shadows. In its glorification of rationality and the 5 gross senses it has denied the magical and powerful world of the soul and the subtle senses. This has in turn produced a gaping hole in people’s psyches, which is most often filled by over-consumption of goods, over-dependence on words, and sensory overstimulation (I’m not sure which among the 3 is the most damaging). Community was sacrificed to the cult of the personality, and the personality was glorified through goods, words, and sensory artifacts. We have made gods of ourselves, but only on the outside. Still, we are parched for the healing waters of the soul. Poetry is the healing of words. Art and music the healing of the eyes and ears. Exercise and gentle touch the healing of the body. But the greatest and most neglected healer of all is Nature. She is here, waiting, always willing to give, but we hardly take notice. We search so far and wide for happiness and healing, but so often we search in vain.

Happiness is not an ends to be achieved, but a means to be chosen. It comes from within. And, like Love, it is a choice always present. And Love is the most powerful currency for transformation that exists. By loving myself, my wounds will heal. By loving the people around me, community will be born. By loving the great Mother that gives and sustains life, by whose fruits we are nourished and upon whom we rest at night, the rift that has grown between us will close and we will find the way back into balance with her. With Love, balanced by Wisdom and Power, anything is possible.

I am not talking about hope. I don’t believe in hope.

In the hope for salvation, suffering is perpetuated. Hope is the band-aid over the festering wound of the future that will come if we don’t attend to the present. When we hope for anything outside us to solve our problems, we give ourselves the paralyzing excuse to sit back and do nothing. When we expect politicians, gurus, international humanitarian organizations, etc. to provide the answers and changes we need, we give away our power, agency and will, and become passive spectators to a match that we will lose for never having acted in. We need warriors; we need people who refuse to sit idly by while the things they love are laid to waste around them. The comfort zones we dwell within are being stripped away and reality is knocking at the door. It is as though we are on a ship, and half the people are running around, trading suits and dusting shelves and putting on makeup and the other half are trying to get everyone on the ship to be counted as equals in the eyes of the captain, or trying to turn the stirring wheel by a democratic process, or just criticizing everything, and meanwhile the whole ship is sinking. The time for denial and procrastination is over. A choice is before us: act or perish.

But one must not rush into action too soon. There is a great abundance of action right now, working at cross-purposes. Activists bumping heads.

It must be remembered that the whole situation of the planet right now, our great collection of crises and catastrophes, is the result of our well-intentioned actions, most of them seen to be solutions at the time. Short-sighted, perhaps, and human-centric certainly. But solutions nonetheless. Actions alone are not enough. We need vision: long-seeing, deep-reaching visions. We need dreams.

When action is not guided by the orchestrating vision of a true dream, the result is cacophony - a dissonance of wasted energy - and the solutions are short-sighted and shallow. When action is motivated by a sense of obligation or guilt, it creates a resentment which slowly and silently unravels all that the worker has sewn. But when action is motivated by inspiration and an authentic desire to give service, in whatever way we are called to and suited for - , then, then it will create an unstoppable, divinely-guided change in the world. The most efficient and effective person is the person who is following their heart’s calling. And the most intelligent person is the one who can hear not only their own mind, but also the intelligence of their soul, and those at work in nature. The heart is an organ of perception, a center of intuition and a powerhouse of inspiration. But so many people have denied their hearts for so long, that they can no longer hear the call.

And that, dear friends, is why I’m moving into a yurt at the edge of the woods. I’m not running away from society and community, I’m running towards a more ancient form of community. I’m following the call of my heart. I’m going to plunge into the silence and stillness of the winter woods, and perhaps I’ll discover something that I couldn’t hear before. I’m very excited about the growth that may take place, the wildness that may sprout in me. The paintings that will come, and the music without source. I know there may be times when I’m wet or cold or lonely or exhausted, but I know that since I won’t be able to run away from myself, these experiences will make me stronger.

But I’m not just doing this for my own personal growth. I’m doing it because I feel that I have a part to play in the unfoldment of a dream. I want to build a place that inspires people, opens them up to the magic of life and nature all around them, and educates in the true sense of the word - to 'draw out from within'. And I’m following the advice ancient Chinese words of proverb “If you are thinking a year ahead, sow seed. If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree. If you are thinking one hundred years ahead, educate the people. By sowing a seed, you will harvest once. By planting a tree, you will harvest tenfold. By educating the people, you will harvest hundredfold.” And I’m also acting on the notion that trees are at the heart the solution to climate change, and that forests provide the best economy, and that forest farming is the most efficient known form of land management. And of course because trees are some of the wisest, friendliest people I’ve ever met, and I have a lot to learn from them.

The days are short now, and the nights are long. The sharp cold of winter draws us inside. The trees stand naked before us, and the mountains go to sleep. Now is the time for dreaming. Now is the time for clearing the fields of your heart and mind, allowing the untold stories to surface and the expired stories to find completion. In the great silence of the warm and infinite darkness within you, the murmurs of your heart can be heard. In this, the darkest time of the year, may you find a home in the ancient darkness within you, the domain of infinite unborn potential, and plant therein your seed of light.

Reality is created by dreams put into action. Go forth, you blessed warriors of tomorrow, dream your dreams and create!

You are all mighty beings, do not forget.

And, without further ado, here’s the manifesto that started this fantastic rant:

The Gaia Enlightenment: A Manifesto

continuing the discussion

Continuing the discussion I opened in the introduction to Jody Stecher (on great singer-instrumentalists, Matt said:
i've been pondering this 'great singer-instrumentalists' question a lot lately and then i read your post. just wanted to pitch in a few thoughts and a couple additions to the list:
-aretha franklin is an underrated piano player.
-odetta
-charley patton
-yes on nina simone
-memphis minnie; some find her voice annoying, i love it. it is also worth appreciating the level to which she could outplay many of her male contemporaries.
-jelly roll morton had a fantastic voice. i'm sure you are familiar with alan lomax's informal recordings of morton singing, accompanied by only his own piano playing. there is even a very moving a capella track, 'tricks ain't walking no more' included. the four volume set is one of my favorite things to listen to of all time.
-i can never decide which i appreciate more: the incomparable banjo and twelve-string guitar playing or the incomparable singing, of karen dalton. if you haven't yet heard the recently issued recordings of her 1962 live performance taped in a denver bar (effectively doubling the amount of karen dalton material available), i highly recommend it. it's just her, no band, and it is unreal.
-gary davis could be a very effective singer at times.
-it is easy to forget that jack bruce is a phenomenal bassist because his playing is so upstaged by clapton's guitar and by his own singing, though he did need the support of a band.
-dave van ronk, as you mentioned, is a shining example of a great stand alone singer-instrumentalist.
-big mama thornton was a surprisingly virtuoso harmonica player. you can see it on youtube.
-little richard? i'd say he accomplished most in his singing and style innovations, but he's a terrific piano player if you listen for it.
-on the flip side, ray charles' abilities on the piano are clear, but is he a good enough singer to qualify? i do remember van ronk, in his autobiography, praised charles for his phrasing.

now, the question i've arrived at next is whether there are any great singer-instrumentalist-

songwriters. with the term songwriter i am talking about the talent for writing lyrics more than for the ability to arrange a composition, make a melody, AND integrate one's own words altogether because good singer-instrumentalists end up doing those other things within the process of interpreting any material. if that makes any sense. maybe i should change it to singer-instrumentalist-lyricist.

anyway, most of the folks on my list and did not write much original material, with the exception of morton, charles, little richard, and some of the blues players.

it is tough to measure the originality of the blues lyric because so much of it is sort of picked and chosen from an existing blues vernacular. i think there is a difference between elaborating on a standard and writing your own new song. after all, the idea of the songwriter is a fairly modern concept. also, in blues many of the lines are throwaway, some totally indiscernible. in my opinion the expressive power and artistry of the blues lies within the sound of the music more than its lyrical content.
morton's words pretty much follow blues and minstrel show formats, but i'd say he is pretty original. many of his songs even start to have topical references (i.e. 'i heard buddy bolden say').
ray charles wrote some good songs, but i hesitate to call them great. for me, he lapses in and out of an overwrought sentimentality and/or preachiness.
we all know that little richard's words are hardly poetic masterpieces. although, considering it, 'a-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom' is a pretty awesome construction.

back to blues.. i was saying that the lyrics are sometimes rather indistinct from one artist to the next and fail to match the music in expressiveness. however, there are certain songs where the words alone do send a chill to your toes-- geeshie wiley's 'last kind word blues' come to mind. son house and skip james were both extremely adept with imagery. charley patton stands out to me as someone who did awesomely strange and interesting things with words, which taken with his crazy ass singing, creates one of the most unique marriages of form and content around. so it's a tricky question.

in my opinion, in general, it wasn't the early blues masters who did the best writing, but the later 'new negro' and harlem renaissance poets who used the form to arrive at some truly great works. then, somebody like taj mahal comes along and sets a langston houghes poem to music, bringing it back full circle.

back to the question at hand.. is there anybody who can equal, say, leonard cohen in lyrical content, match the imagination and mastery of the instrument achieved by gary davis, and sing as evocatively as billie holiday? i can't think of anyone, but who knows what the future holds?
i guess it's unrealistic to have an everything-man. afterall, culture is a shared thing.

i'm no scholar, just a young and an enthusiastic listener, and this is my personal take on things. i didn't set out to write such a long and sprawling comment, so excuse my somewhat scatterbrained notes..

-M.T.

also, i just want to say that i really, really like your journal. the actual download links definitely take a backseat to the extensive content and photos you share. keep it up.

Well, first of all, thanks for your well-thought thoughts, Matt!
I agree with pretty much everything you say. Some of them had even entered my list a year ago when I started thinking about the subject, but I forgot about them at the time of writing the article. Karen Dalton was stunning; Memphis Minnie was top-knotch; Charley Patton was insane, and his greatness was obscured by the overwhelming amount of surface noise on the recordings; you're right about Little Richard, and Ray Charles was part of my original list. I hadn't really considered Aretha's piano playing, nor Big Mama Thornton's harmonicizing, but I trust your judgement. Odetta was a fantastic singer who could definitely hold her own on guitar, but though distinctive, I never thought it was something to write home about. Likewise with Jelly Roll's singing. Gary Davis could be effective, that's a good word - not great, I'd say, but could be quite moving. Contrawise, Bob Brozman gets an 'A' for effort, but he always sings with affectation, and it just isn't natural. On the other hand, while Robbie Basho's singing didn't sound natural, it was actually quite amazing - even more so than his guitar work, in the opinion of John Fahey, who had great taste in singers even though he sang like crap. Jack Bruce was indeed a great bassist - a jazz bass player I know has nothing but respect for the man. That same player pointed out what a great bass player Paul McCartney is, and I'd have to concede that he's a great singer as well, even if he lapsed into oversentimentality when not balanced by Lennon.

Which brings us back to the subject of singer-instrumentalist-songwriters. McCartney was a great songwriter in tandem with Lennon, like Fats Waller was great in tandem with Andy Razaf. Dave Van Ronk wrote a couple of great songs like 'Sunday Street', but a couple does not a great songwriter make. Son House could turn the simplest, most clichéed lyrics and drive them into the center of your heart (or gut), but that still doesn't really enter into the songwriter category. Peter Rowan has written some absolutely timeless songs (Land of the Navajo would probably be enough to secure his place in immortality), and he's a one-of-a-kind singer, and he's at least a very good guitarist, if not a great one. Of course, he's usually surrounded by other, even better instrumentalists (Clarence White, Tony Rice, Bill Monroe...), so his playing usually serves as 'great rhythm guitar'. Check out the Muleskinner posts in the archives if you're interested.

But now that I'm thinking about this subject again, it strikes me why these people are so rare. You see, the concept of singer/songwriter/instrumentalist is mostly a 20th Century invention. Most of the traditional musics of the world are divided into two broad categories: ballads and dance music (with a few others, such as devotional music, trance music, and classical music). Music for dancing generally didn't have singing, and the ballads, while sometimes instrumentally accompanied, was rarely of great musical value or danceability. Original songwriters or composers of distinction were quite rare; and it was not necessary that they be great at singing or playing, since it would be mostly others who played their works. It was really the early blues musicians who brought the separate disciplines of singing/playing/composing/songwriting together with great skill for the first time in western music. And as it happened, this coincided with the birth of recording, and so the age of the virtuoso was born. It wasn't until the Weavers, the Beatles, Kweskin Jug Band, Planxty, etc, that you started seeing groups who wrote & arranged their own material, played with great skill, and sang really well.

Anywho, those are my thoughts at the moment. I invite you all to add to the discussion!