English Folk.

Sometimes I get on a kick for sixties and seventies British folk music. I've always loved Donovan, The Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention and Nick Drake among others. But sometimes I want more. Especially on a weekend morning when the fire's going and the dogs are sleeping and I'm on my second cup of coffee. Then I just start trawling around on ebay or Youtube or Allmusic looking for bands that I haven't heard or forgot about. Bands like Agincourt, Tickawinda, Caedmon and Hedgehog Pie. Charming names that make me think of thatch-roofed cottages on the moors where hairy yet clean English hippies in bright sweaters are reconnecting with their history, drinking tea and tuning their fiddles and Uilleann pipes or what not.

Agincourt's "Fly Away". 

Caedmon.

Dando Shaft's second lp.

Donovan's "HMS Donovan" possibly his best and only released in the UK.

Hedgehog Pie

Fairport Convention

Mellow Candle

Mellow Candle

Tickawinda

Tony, Caro and John.

Bowing a Flying V

This is Barn Owl. They play some kind of acid drenched new age solo canoe music that reminds me of Neil Young's Soundtrack to the Jim Jarmusch film "Dead Man" crossed with "Echos," the program of late night new age space music hosted by John Diliberto that i used to listen to when i lived in Ashland and always made me want to take a bath. I saw them in a basement of what felt like a community center in Portland but i can't remember the name of the place. That's the guitarist playing his Flying V guitar with a bow. It sounded really good.

Hi There. This is my first blog posting. It's about a stump. I had other pictures that i wanted to post but they're all on my hard drive at work - what are you going to do? This one's pretty good though. It's a stump at my Mother in Law's house up in the foothills of the cascade range. I grew up in Washington state and live in Oregon. It's a lot wetter in Washington. I tend to forget that. and where you can really tell, i mean really see the difference, is in the woods. moss, lichen, drooping dripping branches, sog, rotting wood, mushrooms and fungi of all imaginable kinds.... it's really stunning. there's a lonely, quiet beauty that i can't say i really noticed as a child. i just thought it was oppressive and depressing. i'll post more pictures from my recent forays back into washington soon. including fungal growths.