Loramir Of Gondor's Journal

Just got home a little while ago from Renofest, a bluegrass festival held in Hartsville, SC. I wasn't really expecting to, but I had a blast! We only went to the big closing concert, not the earlier festivities, but I really enjoyed it.

I'm really not a hardcore bluegrass fan; too much mandolin and banjo and it all starts to run together after a while, but there were some very talented performers there tonight! My family went primarily to see Dailey & Vincent, who were phenomenal! They're a pretty new band, but growing rapidly in popularity, and it's easy to see why. The closing act, the Grascals, were also very good.

( Further enthusiasm )

So I met both Dailey and Vincent and the Grascals, and got signed CDs by each. Jamie Dailey told me he'd always been a Statlers fan, and was now close friends with them; how cool would that be?? I especially loved their versions of "Is It Your Place Or Mine?" and "Silver Medals and Sweet Memories." The other acts, Wayne Henderson and Friends and Ronnie Reno and the Reno Tradition, were entertaining and talented, but Dailey & Vincent and the Grascals were the highlight for me. I saw BOTH bands for only $15, and it was an incredible evening!

Right. So I haven't posted since July. However, posting in forgotten blogs is one of my patented Essay Avoidance Techniques. When it's two AM, my paper is due at 11c and I still have 3 or 4 pages to go, I start getting insane urges to do things I normally don't even think about. I start going "Wow, I'd love to clean my room right about now!" and "Hey, let's totally redo my website that hasn't been touched for 5 months!"

Another symptom of essay writing is that my music selections become Decidedly Odd. I can't write and listen to songs with words, so I'm limited to instrumentals. Back in my BitTorrent days I had a large stock of film scores, but I've gone straight as far as music downloading, so now I only have a few tracks still on my computer. So I've turned to Pandora, and I find myself listening to--and quite enjoying--lots of Old Guys With Long Hair And Goatees. I have a vague idea that Floyd Kramer is not cool. Probably Richard Clayderman isn't either. My only station criteria was Phil Coulter, and now they're trying to give me Liberace (skipped that one--too fluttery). It'll be Kenny G and Yanni before I know it. I hereby swear that I will NOT sink that low...

Now Pandora's started playing Jim Brickman. My Dork Factor is skyrocketing.

Ah well. Back to Oscar. You'd think I could write an essay about Oscar Wilde with no problem, but I just can't focus and the fact that I hate the class (or at any rate the professor) with the fire of a thousand suns (my favorite 10 Things I Hate About You quote) and deeply resent this assignment doesn't help.

Professor S drives me NUTS. Just thinking of her makes me mad. She is SO pretentious. She thinks she's this great poet and she's always blathering on about the Arts Institute and poetry slams and chapbooks like we're supposed to care. And she says "idear." She's an ENGLISH professor, for crying out loud! On my end of course evaluation I am going to write "PLEASE, for the sake of the sanity of your future students, STOP saying 'idear!!!!'" She also pronounces "gesture" with a hard G sound. WHO TAUGHT HER TO SPEAK??? She's one of those people who always misuses big words and says the wrong word when reading aloud. Arrrrrgh!

Um, hi. It's been a while. I'm not dead! I've just been a bit distracted. Sadly, I was not distracted by distracted by studying for finals, which are next week. I can't actually remember what exactly I was distracted by. Went out of town for the weekend (and reconfirmed how much better North Carolina is than South Carolina)...played a lot of KoL...went to class (occasionally)...

On the bright side, I made 5 icons tonight for my icons100 challenge. Only 6 more themed and...49 artist's choice ones. Hm.

On the even brighter side, I'm going to see Merle Haggard at the Township Auditorium on the 2nd of May! I've been hugely into classic country lately, having branched from Johnny Cash to Charley Pride, Merle Haggard, Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells, and Faron Young, among others. The main problem with this is that a large majority of the artists are dead. Especially the ones I'd have killed to see live, like Johnny & June, Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, etc. So since Merle was conveniently coming to Columbia and was someone other than Willie Nelson (who is the only classic country person who ever seems to come), I figured I'd see him before he dies or quits touring (like the Statler Brothers, whom I'd also kill to see). My parents are convinced that I will be raped and killed going by myself, but I'm not that worried. I'll take my pepper spray, for heaven's sake. I do, however, anticipate being the only person under 40 there.

So...I think I'll go watch a movie now. Maybe I'll re-re-screencap WTL. I *wanted* to watch Skylark, the sequel to Sarah, Plain & Tall, which I love and watched last night, but unfortunately we only have it on video (a thoroughly useless format) and the VCR ate it. So now I can't watch any videos since Skylark is stuck the VCR. *sigh* Outdated technology.

Johnny & June's version of "The Far Side Banks of Jordan" is awesome. Not really for the performance, but because of how...fitting it is. June even sings the "if I am first to go" verse, which she was.

The lyrics are awesome. It's sort of a gospel slash love song.

( my one regret is leaving you behind )

OMG, I was just at JohnnyCash.com because I'd never been there, and they had videos of him on the Muppet Show. My dad now thinks I'm nuts because I've been laughing my head off. "Egg Suckin' Hound" is hilarious, but I love him doing "Jackson" with Miss Piggy!!

He's such an interesting man. Tough, mysterious rebel sort of person one minute, joking with Kermit the Frog the next. Odd.

Incidentally, "Where Did We Go Right?" is one of my favorite songs EVER. Johnn & June have such awesome love songs! I also love how even on June's solo songs, you can always hear Johnny in the background. Oh, now "Darlin' Companion" has come on. I love that song too.

Also incidentally, June's singing grows on you. I used to really not like (used to being a month or so ago when I first got into JC) her voice and preferred Reese, but I've gotten used it. It's rather different from Reese's, but she has a very distinctive, throaty kind of voice (with a twang, too) that you kind of have to get used to. Now I prefer her to Reese...well, not really. I like them about equally; same for Joaquin & Johnny. I like Joaquin's style better on some parts of songs - he puts more expression into "Get Rhythm," but I love how Johnny says "You're a mighty little boy to be a-workin' that way." And, though it appears to heresy for Cash fans, I prefer "Ring of Fire" without the horns. They distract me from the singing and the words and make it seem too upbeat and happy.

Well, enough rambling. Must be able to stay awake in church tomorrow (not that I'll be able to anyhow).

I bought The Legend of Johnny Cash CD from Walmart! It's the first CD I've bought since...last June. Wow. But I have to go do the online bit of my grammar midterm now, so more enthusiasm tomorrow. Oh, I love how he says "you're a mighty little boy to be a-workin' that way' in "Get Rhythm." And I like the bridge on that song. OK, I'm going now.

And I have 7 done of my icons100 challenge! I'll post a batch when I have 15 or 20.

bohemea just posted this YouTube video of John & June singing "Darlin' Companion" here at joaquintheline. It is SO sweet!! Neither of them IRL is as good-looking as Joaquin & Reese, but this 2.5 minute video shows the romance between them just as well as Walk the Line ever does.

I LOVE that song (for the whole 3 days since I first heard it...), and that video made it even sweeter. I've never seen them together much, only a few pictures. They're so cute together! I love how June wiggles her hips and hangs onto his shoulder, and the way he turns and looks over his shoulder at her on the "little saucy mare" lines...*squee* It makes me love WTL even more; it's like it really brings home the happy ending of the movie. That just made my night!!

If you look through the related videos, there's a lot of other stuff too. John performing "Ring of Fire" and "Big River" and stuff earlyish in his career, a lot of later stuff, his appearance on Sesame Street...

So I've been listening to different versions of 'Wildwood Flower.' And the lyrics have been driving me insane. Because they make no sense.

( confusion )

BUT I just found this which cleared things up a lot. It has the lyrics from an 1860 version which make remarkably more sense. I suppose being performed for so many years by mountain country artists (many of whom would have been less than literate) has corrupted the lyrics, with people singing what they think they heard their mothers sung. So for the record, here's the original lyrics:

( I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets (1860) )

BTW, "If I Were A Carpenter" is such a sweet song. I read somewhere that it was during that song that he proposed, not "Jackson" like in the movie. A bit more romantic, since "Jackson" doesn't really meet 'love song' standards. I prefer to see the movie as a separate story, since comparing it to the real story usually disappoints me, but in this case it adds an extra degree of romance to know it really happened. I read that Johnny proposed to June over 30 times before she agreed.

Aw, and "And His Name Is John" is cute! "But it's a dog!" "Yeah, but it's his friend." OK, that probably made no sense to anyone who is not currently suffering from a Johnny Cash obsession like me. It's not really a classic sort of song, but it's cute because it's about their son and it's affectionate and...cute. They sound like proud parents (which I suppose they were). I keep saying "Aww" in a rather pathetic way. But it's (I will not say 'cute' again)...(tries to think of a synonym)...sweet? awwww-inducing?

Ha! Aww-inspiring! OK, kick me now. I should not be rambling on at 1:30 in the morning about cute songs. It appears to cause me to make dreadful puns.

So. That was like the most pointless post known to man. I bet no one else in the world was so bothered by the lyrics to 'Wildwood Flower' that they spent ages googling it. Therefore no one cares and I am filling my journal with boring stuff no one cares about. But hey, it's my journal, so there.

Sorry to people who friended me for icons/caps (ha! What, 2 people?) and get their friends page spammed with my babbling, but oh well. I promise I'll get a separate journal for babbling in once I get 50 or so people who actually come here for icons & stuff.

Right. I'm going now, really. I just hardly listen to music much anymore, mostly just in the car, and it's been a long time since I found a new artist I liked. So I'm going through this big discovery phase and gushing over everything. I'll get over in it a week or two, probably.

And one reason I really like Johnny Cash - I can sing ALL his songs! They're all in my range! This is unusual as I have a very low voice and not much range - most men can sing higher than me - but Johnny's stuff I've been able to sing all of so far! And the earlier stuff anyhow, the stuff from the movie, is nice and simple and I've learned all the words and it's great to sing at the top of my lungs in the car. I miss my trips to Charlotte, LOL. I don't have nearly as much chance to sing anymore.

OK, this is my last edit. I keep editing to say more stuff. GoodBYE now.

I've always kind of liked the Circle album. You can hear the artists chatting between songs, deciding what to do next and reminiscing. And it has a great variety of the biggest country favorites. "Keep On the Sunny Side," "Wildwood Flower," and "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" are my favorites, along with "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." They're all nice singable songs that I grew up listening to.

I lost interest in country for a long time, and went through oldies, classic rock, modern rock, modern country, and now I seem to have returned to my roots, LOL. I love the new classic country station in Columbia, although they only play 60s-80s and I really wish they'd play at least 50s too, if not 40s.

My dad's always listened to more bluegrass-ish, traditional country like on the Circle album. My mom grew up listening to "cowboy songs:" Eddie Arnold, Jim Reeves, the Kingston Trio, Marty Robbins, and Sons of the Pioneers. I always preferred my mom's growing up and I still love it, I'm starting to get into more of my dad's style too. Maybe that's part of why Walk the Line made such a big impression: it just hit me at the right time - I've been exploring Johnny Cash and through him June and the other Carters, so it's really reinforcing and widening my tastes.

...perhaps I will buy the Circle album for him on CD for Father's Day. Then I can burn it!

Oh dear. I was listening to samples of June Carter Cash's and The Carter Family's versions of 'Wildwood Flower' on Napster and this reminded my dad that he owns a Carter Family record. So we've just listened to the whole thing. Now I love classic country, but I'm not sure if the Carters are my absolute favorites. Although the accent is amusing. Flars to chair heeyim threw laff's drurry hars...

It isn't really *that* bad, I suppose. I'd rather listen to the Carters than a lot of other stuff. Though I'm not sure I really understand why they were so hugely popular. But then, so was Merle Haggard and he can't sing either.

Oh, and being insane, I claimed the character of Johnny in Walk the Line at icons100. So that should be interesting.

Ah, and now he's found the Circle album. Will the Circle Be Unbroken with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (whose name I love, LOL), Mother Maybelle, Flatt & Scruggs, and a bunch of others. Including some violinist named Vassar Clements who is/was? apparently famous (never heard of him myself) but he autographed my dad's record. It's more or less a big jam session, but I must say Maybelle improved significantly with age.