An excerpt from John Brown's Body by Stephen Vincent Benét, set to original music by Marla Fibish & Bruce Victor

Sally Dupre

A not-so-innocent start kicks off an implausible series of events, when else but on a moonlit night?  A young couple tries to take their romance indoors, as it were, into the young maiden’s home, where her unsuspecting father and suspicious mother sleep downstairs.  Oddly, our heroine knows that her suitor will need a 33-foot ladder to access her bed via the chimney.  We toss The Sweetheart Reel in the middle of the whole debacle. The Creel is a version of Ballad #281 from the 305 ballads collected and published in the late 19th century by Francis James Child.  Marla learned it from the singing of the great Paul Brady.

A Sweetish Tune

The Creel / The Sweetheart Reel

A set of three tunes - the first is a slip jig written by Marla Fibish, followed by a traditional silde and reel. This track is from Marla's album The Bright Hollow Fog, releasing January 30, 2020, and features Keith Murphy on mandola.

The First Rain - An Choisir - Tommy Peoples

And finally, after our multifarious forays into the night, we are transported safely home with Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poem, “Recuerdo,” appropriately translated as ‘memory’ or ‘souvenir.’  We hope you enjoyed the journey!  As our stalwart friends sing a fond farewell, we also wish to thank you for joining us on these noctambulations...

Marla:  vocals, mandola
Bruce: 6 string guitar tuned DADGAD, harmony vocals
Farewell chorus: Corinne West, Sylvia Herold, Tom Neylan, Susan Spurlock

From Travel in the Shadows (2013)

Recuerdo

We return to the Rue de Montparnasse where Bruce now ascends the barstool to give voice to the reverie.

Bruce: vocals, 6 string guitar, tuned CGDGAD
Marla: vocals, mandolin

From Travel in the Shadows (2013)

The Bohemian Dreams (les Reves Continuent)

Poetry: W.H. Auden;  Music: ©Fibish & Victor	
Marla: tenor guitar, vocals
Bruce: high strung guitar, vocals
Nuala Kennedy: bamboo flute

We so enjoyed the whimsy of Auden’s musings, and his portrayal of Time as knowing, but (seemingly, to us) provocatively secretive, withholding of its wisdom -- until it says, “I told you so” once all is revealed...or not.

From The Waking (2015)

If I Could Tell You

Composed by Marla 
"Driving home across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge during the Camp Fire of November 2018, which claimed 86 lives and displaced thousands, I was more than 150 miles from the devastation raging in Paradise, California, yet eerily surrounded by ash. I was struck with the visceral feeling that I was literally driving through the ashes of Paradise. "

Marla - mandolin, mandola
Bruce - guitar

From The Bright Hollow Fog (2020)

Ashes Of Paradise

A speeding train changes the relationship of the traveler to what he encounters - scenes arise suddenly, then disappear in an instant.  Theodore Roethke’s classic poem, Night Journey, wonderfully evokes the visceral embodiment of the raw power of the train, as well as a sense of wonder at being hurled through magically morphing landscapes...

Music by Marla & Bruce
Marla: vocal, tenor guitar tuned ADAE
Bruce: 6 string guitar tuned CGDGAD, harmony vocal
Sylvia Herold & Susan Spurlock: harmony vocals
Jeri Jones: slide guitar

From Travel in the Shadows (2013)

A Suddenness Of Trees

Full disclosure - we play this beautiful waltz by John Whelan with the parts reversed.  It wasn’t intentional at first, but it seems to have gotten stuck that way. Sorry John! The Good Doctor (written by Marla) started off as an exploration of connecting key changes between parts.  It wormed its way into a tune.  Named for the doctor in the house.
Marla: Mandolin, mandola 
Bruce: 12-string guitar

From A Sweetish Tune (2017)

Trip To Skye - The Good Doctor

We depart from the realm of poetry and the rhapsodizing of solitary romantic or existential quests, into the realm of inelegant, lustful cruising -- no less a ‘night journey’ in its delicious upbeat, uptempo baseness.  A traditional song popularized by Dublin singer Frank Harte, the irrepressible spirit of the song and its protagonist has inspired many creative interpretations over the years...

Bruce:        vocal, 6-string guitar tuned DADGAD, octave strings on A and D strings 
Marla:        mandola, harmony vocals

From Travel in the Shadows (2013)

Madam I'm A Darlin'

We travel to Robert Service’s Paris, where we find a broke Bohemian slouched with a wine glass in a dark and smoky bistro.  Affixed to his chair, he conjures up visions of whirling motion; though his own journey seems stalled, he hurtles forward in the realm of imagination.

Marla took her inspiration for the music from a Quebecois waltz clog, which, when slowed way down, endeavors to evoke the more languid Parisian pace... 

Marla: vocal, Greek bouzouki
Bruce:    6-string guitar tuned CGDGAD, octave strings on A and D strings, harmony vocal

From Travel in the Shadows (2013)

The Bohemian Dreams

Noctambule is the duo of Marla Fibish & Bruce Victor. We play original and traditional music on many stringed instruments - guitars in many tunings, mandolin, mandola, cittern, and more...

Noctambule

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