Till clay-cauld death sall blin' my e'e

photo by mutewitness

Joanna Newsom has been touring with her own band recently, and I'm very sad I didn't get to catch one of her recent shows. Luckily, a guy called Shlack (shlack.googlepages.com) made a fantastic video of her Philly show on the 16th, so I got to watch, enchanted, as she and the group played her new album in its entirety, in between two little sets of solo songs. I haven't quite had the time to digest Ys yet, but it is undeniably one of the best albums to come out in a long time.

The highlight of the show, other than encore (and huge fan-favorite, judging by the cheers when she launched into it) "Sadie," was Joanna's rendition of a beautiful Scottish folk tune called "Ca' The Yowes To The Knowes." Here's the audio I ripped from Shlack's video:

MP3: Joanna Newsom - Ca' The Yowes To The Knowes

I found the lyrics to this tune online, but had to adjust them to match what she sings in her version (the one I found had more verses and was ordered differently).

Ca' The Yowes To The Knowes

Ca' the yowes to the knowes,
Ca' them where the heather grows,
Ca' them where the burnie rowes,
My bonnie dearie!

When I went down the water-side,
To see the fishes sweetly glide
Beneath the hazels spreading wide,
And the moon that shines so clearly.

When I went down the water-side,
'Twas there I met my shepherd lad
He row'd me sweetly in his plaid,
And he called me aye his dearie.

If you will but stand to what you've said,
I'll come with you my bonnie lad
And you may row me in your plaid,
And I will be your dearie.

You will get gowns and ribbons meet,
And leather shoes upon your feet,
And in my arms you'll lie and sleep,
My bonnie dearie

As waters wimple to the sea,
While day blinks in the sky so high
Till clay-cold death shall blind my eye,
I shall be thy dearie.
Till clay-cold death shall blind my eye,
I shall be thy dearie.

there'll be beauty in its sinking...

An excellent new Frog Eyes track (from their upcoming album Tears of the Valedictorian, out early 2007) has been making the rounds recently, thanks to a Force Field PR sampler. Though I love the production on their first two albums, "Idle Songs" is the best sounding Frog Eyes recording yet, and it sounds super good played super loud. It's nice to hear Carey Mercer's voice up front in the mix again, with only a little bit of the echo that liberally drenched his vocals on the Swan Lake album and Frog Eyes' The Future is Inter-disciplinary or Not at All EP. The song boasts a wonderful melody, but the real highlight is Melanie Campbell's increasingly amazing drumming.

MP3: Frog Eyes - Idle Songs

go here for more Frog Eyes stuff, plus a nice forum:
http://www.the-collective.net/~sashwap/frog_eyes/