Barrett Martin's book "The Singing Earth" Includes CD w/ Mad Season's Ascension
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https://www.facebook.com/barrettmartinofficial/photos/a.635335406480372.1073741828.635072843173295/1950076181672948/?type=3&theater
Here's another excerpt from my book, THE SINGING EARTH. Pre-orders for a signed 1st edition of the book and CD soundtrack can be made at www.BarrettMartin.com
VERSE 12 - THE DELTA: EVEN THE DEVIL GETS THE BLUES
It’s now the summer of 2014 and I find myself recording with the great man again, but this time he is 88 years old and we are now in Water Valley, Mississippi, deep in the Mississippi Delta. In fact, we are very near the mystical place where the blues first began to form in the early 1900s, near the Dockery Plantation and the town of Clarksdale, where legend has it that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the famous crossroads of Highways 49 and 61. This is of course an old folkloric myth, more closely aligned with the African story of Ellegua, the trickster Orisha who hangs out around the crossroads. But old myths about the devil are hard to shake down here.
The studio where we are recording is Dial Back Sound, and it was designed and built by the same Bruce Watson who previously reinvigorated CeDell’s career. He’s helping us do that once again and the atmosphere is wonderful—the walls are hung with old guitars and vintage amps line the room recalling the golden age of recording. The studio is built inside the parsonage of an old Methodist church that still stands next door, listing slightly to its side, its whitewashed walls showing their age. But the church has its own haunting story that must be told, because the South is full of dark secrets.
Back at the turn of the century, when the reverberations of Reconstruction were still echoing through the post-Civil War South, the workers at the local steel mill in Water Valley began organizing to form a union. The preacher of the Methodist church, an enlightened man in his own right, allowed the workers to use his church for their union meetings. That is, until the day when a strikebreaker thug from the steel mill walked into the church mid-sermon and bludgeoned the preacher with a piece of lumber, killing him where he stood in his pulpit. Like so many other murders in Mississippi, this one went unpunished and the killer walked away free, probably to kill again as his kind are prone to do. But the spirit of the good preacher is still with us, and he guides us in these sessions, and we know he is pleased with our work from the subtle knocks and claps we hear late at night.
Here we are, about to play the very music that CeDell’s mother scorned, right next to a church that she would have welcomed. The sacred and the profane exist side by side here in Mississippi, as they always have—as they always will. And that’s because Mississippi is a paradox; it’s one of the most beautiful and otherworldly places you will ever see, but it is also a place of unsolved murders, bodies buried in swamps, and disturbing tales told in hushed whispers. Anyone who has ever visited here will attest to its haunting beauty and the magical spell that bewitches you as soon as you cross the state line.
At night, I sleep on the floor of the studio’s modest accommodations and I dream that I’m hearing music coming from the trees, beautiful music that seems ancient and in a strange tongue. I ponder this in the morning as I sip coffee on the front porch, because indeed, the blood of my ancestors is in this very land, it’s in the roots of the trees that soak it up into their branches. The branches sing a haunting melody that is only audible in the liminal hours at dusk and dawn, when the fireflies dance and the cicadas chirp in harmonic unison. And sometimes, when the sunlight is just right and your spirit is in tune with that great, winding river, you can hear the music dancing on the small waves that rhythmically lap along the muddy banks.
As we wait for CeDell to arrive at the studio for our first day of recording, an absolutely torrential rain pours down upon us, making the metal roof of the studio groan under the weight. Lighting and a huge thunderclap follow, louder than any I’ve ever heard in my life— louder than that one with Ramiro Musotto in Brazil—and it rattles our very bones. I am in shock from the volume of it and then, two minutes later, CeDell arrives. He comes down the driveway like a rolling, black Buddha and he utters the sacred mantra: “Let’s make a record.” And so it begins.
The producer on this particular album is Jimbo Mathus, a born- and-raised Mississippian who declined an acceptance to the U.S. Naval Academy to pursue a career in music instead. I reckon he chose the harder path, and Robert Frost would have been proud of the road less traveled that he chose. Jimbo earned a solid reputation as the founder of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, who still play to this day, and as a knowledgeable bluesman and scholar of the form. He’s made numerous solo albums and was the musical director for one of the all time greatest bluesmen, Buddy Guy, when they made the Sweet Tea album, in which Buddy does a cover of CeDell’s greatest song, “She’s Got the Devil in Her.” Jimbo has also played with CeDell on and off over the years, so he knows CeDell’s temperament well. Jimbo plays lead guitar on these sessions, and he laughs and jokes easily as he coaxes us through a series of delta classics. The rest of us—myself on drums, Stu Cole on bass, and Greg and Zakk Binns on guitars—follow along as we develop our musical chemistry.
We are intuitive and spacious, leaving plenty of room in the music for CeDell’s words and Jimbo’s guitar flourishes. I play simple, hypnotic grooves that complement Stu Cole’s foundational bass lines and we all laugh frequently—we’re having a great time. As Jimbo said to us at the outset, “You gotta have humor in your blues,” and on these sessions, it is in abundance. Everything is perfect and in balance, and it’s all marvelously recorded by engineer Bronson Tew. He uses vintage microphones and compressors, many of which were shiny and new in the 1950s and ’60s, when the blues was at its zenith. Now the equipment is showing its age, but inside the tubes and wires there’s a humming, analogue electricity that is warm and embracing. The sacred and the profane, the ancient and the modern, acoustic and electric, all of it exists here in Water Valley, Mississippi.
The vast majority of the album is recorded live, with everyone playing together and CeDell singing along in real time. Only the keyboards and some hand percussion are overdubbed after we pick the final, keeper takes. We work like the steel workers who tried to unionize here a century earlier, playing for many hours straight, eating bologna sandwiches and salt peanuts from the local country store. We wash it all back with iced Cokes and beer, but on Sunday the beer runs out and we’re in Yalobusha County, a dry county. For the first time in my life, I have to make a run across a county line to buy beer on a Sunday afternoon. It is a mission, indeed a holy mission, because CeDell can only sing with an ice-cold beer in his weathered hand. It’s exciting to break this religious law, because some laws are just made to be broken, and this is certainly one of them.
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Because these are live, human recordings, the songs do not always start cleanly and perfectly like a sterilized pop song. Indeed, they start and sometimes stumble into existence, but eventually they kick in with that distinct and heavy delta swing and the music, like the smell of a lover, ignites a feeling in CeDell. It is perhaps a long-forgotten memory, maybe about a girl he once loved, a man who crossed a moral line, or a funny anecdote that time has almost forgotten. CeDell starts singing when he is sufficiently inspired by the music, and that’s because these songs are like life itself—it does not start or end cleanly. A great song, like a great life, happens in spontaneous moments of volume, strength, vulnerability, rage, and fiery passion. These songs are about CeDell’s life, with all the beauty, grace, and messiness of it all.
The standard 12-bar blues that we’ve all come to recognize as “the blues” is really the codified Chicago version of electrified blues. But we’re not in Chicago, and we are not following any rules. Down here in the delta there is only intuition and magic, so we “jump bars” and skip to new sections when CeDell decides to take us there. And that’s because 12 rigid bars do not allow for the emotion to hold sway, and so we follow CeDell, intuitively, respectfully, and we change quickly, like a prizefighter in the ring. Delta blues is a tough musical form, tough as the men and women who invented it, who lived it. It is a hard-swinging form, like a scythe that cuts across the tall grass in big, arcing swaths, or a chain gang breaking stones with hammers in rhythmic unison. You can feel it in this place; it is in the soil, and it’s in the music.
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If you haven't watched it yet, here's the video we made for my book, The Singing Earth. It has shots from around the world, as well as footage of us in the studio with people like Kim Thayil, Mike McCready, CeDell Davis, Ayron Jones, Nando Reis, and live footage of my various bands. I hope you enjoy it, and the book and CD soundtrack will start shipping around mid August. Pre-orders for a signed 1st edition of the book can be made at www.BarrettMartin.com
Thank you! Barrett
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I'm excited to announce the singers Jeff Angell, Ayron Jones, and Annie Jantzer will be joining me and the Barrett Martin Group as we play songs from the soundtrack to my book, The Singing Earth. This is a free show, so please join me for a discussion with KEXP DJ Kevin Cole about my book, and the music from 14 musical zones around the world. We'll conclude with a live performance of songs from the soundtrack, and its happening on Thursday August 24th at the KEXP Gathering Space in Seattle. Thank you! Barrett
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barrettmartinofficial
Here's an excerpt from the last verse of my book, THE SINGING EARTH. Photo caption: Raw Power, left to right: Duff McKagan, Mike McCready, Mark Arm, Barrett Martin.
VERSE 13 - NORTH AMERICA: THE INDIAN IS IN THE COWBOY “When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.” —Henry David Thoreau
As a rock musician, I’ve always felt a connection to the Native American worldview, because rock & roll is all about standing up to abusive power structures that hold people down. I know that many of my musical friends feel the same way, whether they are rock, blues, jazz, or hip hop artists. Even if we don’t have the blood quantum to be official tribal members, the spirit of the Native American is in many American musicians, artists, and writers. And that is because we listen to the Earth, we channel that truth, and we know in our hearts that this is more powerful than anything we ever learned in a classroom.
I’m saying all this at the outset of this final Verse because it’s important to remember that if you’re born in North America, you probably feel this ancient wildness in your heart. This is where the Wild West was born, where Crazy Horse and his Lakota warriors beat the US Cavalry in every single engagement; where Custer and his mercenaries got their karmic return; and where indigenous warriors still stand up to the Big Oil bullies on the Dakota pipeline and elsewhere. They might be fighting for their land and their sovereignty, but in spirit, they are fighting for you too. Honor them, because they are the original warriors of this continent.
Between the years 2014-16, I spent extensive amounts of time traveling, doing research, and completing the final verses for this book. During those three years, I also traveled through some of the most important ecological zones in Australia, North America, South America, and Southeast Asia. These included the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Brazilian Amazon, the Peruvian Andes, the Mississippi Delta, and Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
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Thanks for all these updates Demetrios!
I pre-ordered this when it first went up for that special offer he had on, and Barrett said we should start receiving these early-mid August. Guessing that date fluctuates a bit for UK? 0 -
No problemo!RideTheWave93 said:Thanks for all these updates Demetrios! I pre-ordered this when it first went up for that special offer he had on, and Barrett said we should start receiving these early-mid August. Guessing that date fluctuates a bit for UK?
On August 11th on Facebook he said .. "Those of you who pre-ordered the book and bonus CDs - we'll be shipping those out next week!".
https://www.facebook.com/barrettmartinofficial/photos/a.635335406480372.1073741828.635072843173295/1968222049858361/?type=3So this is the week. I'm guessing the end of August or early September we'll be seeing our copies in the mail @RideTheWave93
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demetrios said:
No problemo!RideTheWave93 said:Thanks for all these updates Demetrios! I pre-ordered this when it first went up for that special offer he had on, and Barrett said we should start receiving these early-mid August. Guessing that date fluctuates a bit for UK?
On August 11th on Facebook he said .. "Those of you who pre-ordered the book and bonus CDs - we'll be shipping those out next week!".
https://www.facebook.com/barrettmartinofficial/photos/a.635335406480372.1073741828.635072843173295/1968222049858361/?type=3So this is the week. I'm guessing the end of August or early September we'll be seeing our copies in the mail @RideTheWave93
Ah right thanks for that, would never have known, can't wait though should be a great read, and listen! 0 -
Received shipping confirmation from PayPal last night. No tracking # included.
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I also received a shipping notification. With my OLD address. I emailed Barrett a month ago about my move and received a reply the same day. Hopefully the USPS forwards it...0
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Hmm ...
Received this email when I asked for the tracking number ..We have not sent the orders yet. They will all likely go out by the end of next week.Best,Lisette A. GarciaGeneral Manager0 -
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@ Barrett Martin ..
Hello everyone! My new book, The Singing Earth, is now available worldwide at www.BarrettMartin.comI'd like to invite everyone who loves this Earth and our amazing diversity of people to the book release, this Thursday August 24th at 6pm in the KEXP Gathering Space here in Seattle - and its free to everyone! I will do a talk and Q & A with KEXP DJ Kevin Cole, I'll show some photos from my musical adventures across 6 continents, and then the Barrett Martin Group will play songs from the book soundtrack. We will have guest singers like Ayron Jones, Jeff Angell, African Drum Master Thione Diop, Screaming Trees bassist Van Conner, Annie Jantzer, Brad Laina, Tayler Lynn, and a backing band of the best players in Seattle. And here's a great preview of my book in the Seattle Times (thank you Nicole Brodeur!) Love, Barrett0 -
Barrett is amazing!!! If you didn't hear this SiriusXM The Singing Earth special, you just have too. Seriously so good!0
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barrettmartinofficial As many of you know, this is Layne Staley's birthday week, he would have been 50 (I just turned 50 myself). Its also the release of my book, The Singing Earth, and the Pearl Jam guys have been kind enough to give me a 2.5 hour radio special on the Pearl Jam Sirius XM Radio Channel 22. I basically play about 25 songs from my career and I tell stories about each song, which includes 3 world premier songs from Mad Season, the Walking Papers, and the Levee Walkers featuring Ayron Jones. Please tune in at any of the times below. And if you are in Seattle this Thursday the 24th, I'll be doing a free talk and show starting at 6 pm in the KEXP Gathering Space in Seattle. It will feature the Barrett Martin Group backing up Van Conner of the Screaming Trees, a Senegalese drum master, Ayron Jones, Annie Jantzer, and Jeff Angell and Ben Anderson of the Walking Papers (debuting 2 new Walking Papers songs from our new album). Please come down and celebrate with us!
Love, Barrett- BARRETT MARTIN GUEST DJ @ PEARL JAM SIRIUS XM 22
Thursday 8/24 @ 8am ET
Friday 8/25 @ 5pm ET
Saturday 8/26 @ Noon ET
Sunday 8/27 @ 6pm ET
0 - BARRETT MARTIN GUEST DJ @ PEARL JAM SIRIUS XM 22
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I missed the first few minutes of the broadcast on KEXP. Captured 84:25 minutes worth.
Barrett Martin on KEXP with Kevin Cole August 23rd 2017 (incomplete) MP3 - https://we.tl/jnt844p6rm
Post edited by demetrios on0 -
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I'd like to thank everyone who pre-ordered The Singing Earth book and CD soundtrack, it was way more than we anticipated! Our manufacturer was late delivering the book to us, but if you ordered in the United States, you should be receiving your books and CDs this week. If you ordered from a foreign territory, those books and CDs are being shipped over the course of the next two weeks. The book will be available at retail stores on September 8th, but if you buy directly from our company, Sunyata Records & Books, we have 2 buying options - 1. the signed book, CD soundtrack, and all 5 of my solo CDs, or 2. just the signed book and CD soundtrack. Again,we thank you for your support of our little indie label, which is also now a book publisher! Orders can be places at www.BarrettMartin.com Thank you! Barrett
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mine showed up today. looking forward to reading.0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejR6EWaiAco
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