Fishin' Blues

For this week i chose fishin blues for my song. It brought me to my first time fishing with my friend and the first fish I caught. I found that it was a song more of friendship and companionship. For the song man always fish's with some one. Fishing living in the south holds meaning on its own and it was part of the culture. Fishing is an activity that can be a person and sort of meditative act or it can be a something that brings people together and creates bonds with people. For this project i wanted to display the meditative side. I used to fish when i was frustrated because i could sit by the ocean and just have alone time.

Mississippi John hurt

I chose John Hurts song, I Shall Not be Moved and mixed that with the reading by Betsy to form my project for this week. I was influenced most by the section from the reading when John asked Max about what he thought soul meant. 

one time Max was

singing along about

the soul not thinking

of the words at all

but only the throes

and thrum of chords

and John asked him

what he meant by soul

and Max couldn’t say

a single word

and John said

soul meant

the spirit the body

the personality

everything  the entire man

the whole man

that was soul

The lead to me read into the line in the song " just like a tree that's planted by the water, i shall not b moved." I read into that as a metaphor for internal strength that comes from the same soul that Max describes. 

APPALACHIA II-THE BRITISH BALLADS

This weeks song choices were very different and more sensual and flowing. The Appalachian songs of last week was filled with a story, many murder and death stories, that i found minimal morals from. I found it to be more of a told story.
This week I found the songs to have more open ended context and morals you can find in them.

 "Dancing has been corrupted by the social dances of today", said Mr Sharp.  "It has taught people to slouch through dancing instead of putting rhythm, grace and life into it."

I  felt this quotation embodied a lot of how i felt the difference between american and Appalachian song were to me

I focused on down by the sally gardens for this weeks piece and found that have less lyrics made me read into each word and line more. To me it felt real, like he made a more abstract song about a story he truly lived. Then was Sally Gardens the name of of a real place? or the name of the love the writer was speaking about?
the line that i couldn't get a grasp of was 

"little snow white feet", i think it added a great visual to the song and brought the mental imagination alive. Then came my favorite lines, "she bid me take life easy" .... "but I, being young and foolish, with her did not agree"

with this comes a fault i find i do myself sometimes. A sort of 'all or nothing' way about approaching things, and in life that is not always correct. life can be a day by day process and that needs to me taken step by step. 

The second stanza was the aftermath of take love on too quickly and the women places her snow white hands on his shoulder leaving him "full of tears"

Banks of Ohio

This song is indeed very hard to hear and to relate too. It is so hard to hear, not only because of the death in it, but because of why and to whom this man committed murdered. Someone he claims to "love", he then kills her because that same "love" is not reciprocated. While then feeling the guilt of his outrageous reaction. This is a very dark song, which is why I enjoyed Dolly Parton's version the most.  Because she keeps the same somber, dark, un-energetic tone the entire time, even in the beginning she keeps it during the verses when it simply seems that a happy couple is taking a walk by the river about to speak of their love.

I first listened to Banks of Ohio, and then after, listened to Will the Circle be Unbroken. I saw a natural transfer in the story. A man murders a women in the Ohio River, and then the family has the real pain of mourning for her; shown in Will the Circle be un Broken.

I real enjoyed the Circles will be Unbroken more as a song, because I can relate much more. It is about support and letting go while still grieving and hoping for the best for a past friend or lover.
However, I could not stop thinking about how much I hated the fist song, Banks of Ohio, so I did my piece for this week on that. It is the most abstract piece I have done but I did it wile listening to the song, and I wanted to show, "gnarliness" or just something hard to look at, just like the song. So I made a piece that made me feel that way.

Mary Don't you Weep

For this week, the song speaks about moses saving the people of Israel from the Egyptians by parting the sea and allowing them to walk across, while the Egyptians drowned. My first reaction to this was that it was a song celebrating death. In the reading, it talked about a similar story on people were suffering and they were questioning god's will, he came through and helped the suffering people through others death. I went to catholic school, however, did not grow up religious. I never attended church until high school. The thing I have taken from that, is to find the core message to get out of a story. To find something that you can take away with you to become a better person. For this, i wanted to portray through my project how in a dark time, there can always be light,  especially if you stick together.  I used the line,

"Mary wore three links of chain
Every link was freedoms name"'

as the center point of the project. I found that line to be particularly impactful. Chains are tied to holding something down, for this it is holding something together. In my experience, in bad times you need to stick together.