Happy Day to All Mothers!

My new Gristle cigar-box "Kat 330" guitar is featured here, whee! With its fret spacing and neck length, there are a limited number of tunes I can cover with any "panache," but this old repertory chestnut is one of them. I recorded the guitar first, continuing it on to the 3:30 mark or so. When I started fitting in the verse sections, I realized I had played six total, but Beddoe's lyrics only stretch to three plus a repeat of the first. I could have cut out two sections, but decided instead to write two new verses myself. 

Now, other than portraying Daisy Mae in a Lake George resort's production of "L'il Abner," I have no experience with moonshiners nor the culture of that era's area; but I know the hills here and of Appalachia are alive with the sounds of music and morel mushrooms. So hopefully I incorporated both in the 'shinin' spirit of A.F.'s lyrical intent.

Layers include harmony (ending in my ™ trio to finish), tambourine (too loud when mastered, but had recorded it along with main vocal and not worth redoing all vocal layers); a banjo pluck and jug blow here and there, a brief entrance and exit of fiddle (recognize the musical allusion?); and effects of crickets, pouring liquid, a frog and a single owl hoot. I certainly had a hoot assembling the parts of this production and hope you have one when listening! xxx <-- for kisses AND the iconic markings of a moonshine jug  ☼:)
[John Laurence remastered this and it can be heard here: https://soundcloud.com/john-poletti/copper-kettle-jl-remaster

Lyrics by Beddoe (+ Martin)

Get you a copper kettle
Get you some copper coil
Cover with new-made corn mash
And never more you'll toil

CHORUS: You just lay there by the juniper
                    While the moon is bright
                    Watch them jugs a-fillin'
                    In the pale moonlight

Build your fires of hickory
Hickory or ash or oak
Don't use no green or rotten wood
It'll choke you by the smoke

My daddy he made whiskey
My granddaddy did too
We ain't paid no whiskey tax
Since seventeen ninety-two

[Next two verses by K.A. Martin]

Our cabin's in a holler
Nestled by wooded hills
Momma can fetch top dollar
For a mess of wild morels  
                                              
Ol' Beaufort bows the fiddle
Bobby Joe blows the jug
I tap my toes and whittle
As June cuts a jitterbug

Copper Kettle

AND SO IT GOES

June 23, 2015: [headphones suggested and, please, no need to ♥ / repost / comment again!] Another in my "remastered for downloading anew" project. You'll also find a few DL-maxed tracks at freemusicarchive.org/music/Kathleen_Martin (excluding my covers of active artists). I tightened up the melodica track a bit and used new master settings to hopefully improve and increase the overall sound. A simple trio of sounds here: my voice, my Korg in harpsichord mode and my melodica (in dark corridor FX). Please read production notes at my initial version posted here: https://soundcloud.com/kat330/la-chanson-des-vieux-amants

La Chanson des Vieux Amants

July 16, 2015: How appropriate that my probable "swan song" over at kat330 was inspired by a bird a couple of weeks ago, a talented wood thrush to be specific! From his 6-note song, I heard a waltz melody in my head and began writing lyrics to fit. It was an unexpected yet joyous journey getting into the guise of a male songbird courting a mate for this narrative.

But this is an instrumental version only, recommended I upload by JT. Would be so lovely if someone choreographed a waltz piece to it or used it for some pastoral video. My Guild provided the simple chords and rhythm, and to that I added keyboard sounds of harpsichord, cello, pan flute and orchestra harp, even some flourishes of kantele near the end. The thrush song you hear interspersed is from a field recording at a Brown County, Indiana, forest on July 1st.

This song might seem like something Maria would teach the Von Trapp children and will be too twee for many to appreciate—as my Major Melon Farmer and Swamp Guinea lyrics are 180-degrees too snarky for many—but all my pieces reflect a full rainbow of sentiments and aspects of my persona, the good, the bad and the ugly.

I'll continue creating new sets now and then while still remastering some of my older tracks to upload for downloading anew here, but the kat330 account is now filled to the gills. Unless and until I remove pieces there for more time, any new composition will be found here or at my Bandcamp and Free Music Archive pages. Thank you, dear listeners and sound friends!  xxxooo

Written, arranged, performed and produced by Kathleen Martin (c) 2015

Waltz to a Wood Thrush (instrumental)

July 16, 2015: How appropriate that my probable "swan song" here at kat330 was inspired by a bird a couple of weeks ago, a talented wood thrush to be specific! From his 6-note song, I heard a waltz melody in my head and began writing lyrics to fit. It was an unexpected yet joyous journey getting into the guise of a male songbird courting a mate for this narrative.

My Guild provided the simple chords and rhythm, and to that I added keyboard sounds of harpsichord, cello, pan flute and orchestra harp, even some flourishes of kantele near the end. The thrush song you hear interspersed is from a field recording at a Brown County, Indiana, forest on July 1st and an instrumental only version is here: https://soundcloud.com/kat330repost/waltz-to-a-wood-thrush

This song might seem like something Maria would teach the Von Trapp children and will be too twee for many to appreciate—as my Major Melon Farmer and Swamp Guinea lyrics are 180-degrees too snarky for many—but all my pieces reflect a full rainbow of sentiments and aspects of my persona, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Beyond this last upload, I'll continue creating new sets now and then while still remastering some of my older tracks to upload for downloading anew at my kat330repost site, but this account is now filled to the gills. Unless and until I remove pieces for more time, any new composition will be found at my repost, Bandcamp and Free Music Archive pages. Thank you, dear listeners and sound friends!  xxxooo

Written, arranged, performed and produced by Kathleen Martin (c) 2015

(Owed to a Wood Thrush)

On a bough above her,
Calling out I love her!

Catching the ear of my May meadow queen,
Clear as a bell I am heard yet unseen
Cloaked in the green of this forest ravine.

Will she come and follow
My song from the hollow?

I can see her, but she cannot see me
Camouflaged up in the tree canopy
Winging her way on my sweet melody.

{Interlude: I sing to thee, wing to me! / Come to me, run to me! / Fly to me, hie to me!}

Here I am, please reach me
On this branch of beech tree!

Silken as thistledown my song is sent.
As true as a whistle now my testament's
A sonic epistle vowing my intent!

As she neared she spied me.
Soon appeared beside me.

Dear lady thrush see the nest that I built for us!
Cozy and lush, it's the best in the forest!
But there's no rush, hear the rest of my chorus:

True words love together!
Two birds of a feather!

Waltz to a Wood Thrush

October 7, 2015 [Lyrics below and headphones strongly recommended]

'Tis the creepy season of Halloween chills and, to mark the centennial of its publication, here is my sonic version of Franz Kafka's notorious tale of hapless Gregor Samsa in "Metamorphosis," greatly abbreviated here in my words and music. The narrator (guess who?!:) describes only the earliest moments of Samsa's transformation, and then I spin it in the end with an upbeat twist. Maybe it will pique your curiosity to read the original story, and I encourage you to do so.

I'm fairly pleased with how it turned out all in all but, my-oh-my, did this piece ever have a long start-and-stall journey once I set lyrics down all the way back in January. It passed from collab to collab until it became clear the only way it was going to sprout wings and fly (ahem) was as a DIY project. I recently wrote in reply to a track comment, but I'll reiterate: Collabs at SC are great for revealing the true character (or lack thereof) of people; an eye-opening wake-up call that is indeed the single silver lining otherwise to a good deal of wasted time with a couple of folks. OTOH, it has also been the greatest source of joy collabing with people whose heads and hearts are both in the right place. (Won't name names either way, but all you good souls know how much I respect and ♥ you!)

Written, arranged, produced by Kathleen Martin, performing on all vocals, Epiphone electric rhythm and Yamaha keyboard for bassoon, clarinet, organ and percussion/effects. Insect sounds found online.

Artwork by Kazuhiko Nakamura (aka Almacan) here: http://www.deviantart.com/browse/all/?section=&global=1&q=almacan
and please also see the original artwork by JT Lindroos at https://kat330.bandcamp.com/track/gregorian-chance  
GREGORIAN CHANCE

Mother, is that you?
Sis, you out there, too?
Voice so weird within my head.
So very hard to lift up out of bed.

My body feels so strange.
I think there's been some change,
Yet it can't be as it seems.
It all must be a dream 

My boss yells from the hall:
"You're late and didn't call!"
I crawl across the floor
To open up my door.

I glimpse my image mirrored.
It's just as I had feared
Overnight I'd turned in
To wretched insect vermin. 

BRIDGE
I scream, but what comes out
Is not a human shout.
My angry boss still knocks.
How will I work the locks?

I try to use my mouth
To turn the latches south.
It's not an easy job,
But now I've turned the knob.
 
Shocked in sheer revulsion
And recoiling in repulsion,
My callers quickly flee
From the very sight of me. 
                                      
BRIDGE
I fold my wings within my shell
To shield me from my nightmare hell.
This newest transformation
Guarantees me more isolation.

And I cannot fall to ruin
If cushioned in cocoon.
Shall I settle in to rest
Safe inside my insect nest?
 
But we're none as we appear,
And change is what we fear;
And fear that stunts our growth,
So I'll bid goodbye to both!      
Auf wiedersehen!  (c) October 2015  Kathleen Martin

CODA: [from "I'll Fly Away" punctuated by sounds of "La Cucaracha"]
Just a few more weary days and then,
I'll fly away.
To that land where joy will never end,
I'll fly away.  I'll fly away.  I'll fly away. 

Gregorian Chance

Leap Day 2016

I always "Relish"ed this song the most from Joan Osborne's breakthrough album. It's the music that pulled me in since I can't resist a waltz tempo, especially in a minor key. The lyrics, just vague and mysterious enough to be out of easy reach, were secondary to my enjoyment. I picked up on obvious drug references, but I needed to create a different back story in order to cover the song with any personal meaning. And while most of the lyrical content describes a shabby urban backdrop, the music itself suggested to me a rural Appalachian setting, so that's where my mind goes when singing the piece. I'm pretty certain what I see in my head when singing "way down in the hollow" is not what Joan had in mind which is, perhaps, more closely suggested in the accompanying track art.

I recorded first an open minor-chord drone strummed on my JT-made "kat330" cigar-box guitar for the length of the piece. Then, for accent strings, I added some Finnish harp (kantele), which JT commissioned to be handmade for me several years ago. So this track's sound (and visual) is truly courtesy of and owes much to my wonderful husband *—kiitos, Sweetos! The tambourine and a few Epiphone bottom sliding bits are the only other handheld instruments I played. The drumbeat, organ, bass and mandolin tracks are played on a Yamaha synth keyboard.  Arranged, performed, recorded and produced by Kathleen Martin.
* Please, spare a minute to read this new interview with JT (hard to believe English is his 2nd language! :)
http://badcitizencorporation.com/2016/02/29/interrogation-j-t-lindroos

St. Teresa

March 30, 2016: (headphones please :)
A remaster of LR was in the works for a while, but it seems now is the right time to post this given recent world events. A birthday wish of mine is for everyone on the planet to have a "rocky shore experience" ultimately allowing love to reign over all hate. The original release of this—my first fully realized singer-songwriter original—was in July 2013, just prior to JT's gift of a Yamaha keyboard synth. So the instruments performed here include 2 intertwining vibraphone parts on Korg keyboard, a bongo beat throughout, Epiphone drones for the "bass" end, 2 intertwining melodica parts, touches of harmonica, and an ending of metal kitchen trays struck with a cloth-covered meat tenderizer for those "gong" sounds. It opens with a marimba loop and, along the way, picks up conga and hi-hat loops I D/Led from online to painstakingly copy/paste into track layers.

Somewhere in answering original track comments, I noted my lead vocal here was merely a draft run-through done sitting down, desktop miked while a ceiling fan whirled above just to see how my lyrics matched up with marimba the way through. I got a bit verklempt when singing of the very personal mystical experience at the rocky shore and, otherwise as well, the main vocal is not my strongest. I considered rerecording it back then and also for this remaster, but decided the vulnerability heard in my draft vocal actually helps convey the power of personal experience. A big thank-you to JT's Audacity for boosting bass and volume in this final version and shout-outs to Ion Bodi and Marty Lucas for providing their ears and valuable input along the way!  xxxooo

LOVE REIGNED © 2013 Kathleen A. Martin

I had settled in the City of Angels,
But a lucifer whisked me away
To a Second City, so windy, no pity.
Soon he left me one fall day.
        That was a time past passed through.
        Such a dark and a hard time on my way to you.

All alone and on edge in Evanston,
Edge of winter and of the Lake;
As the nights grew longer, my hurt grew stronger.
My heartbeat kept me awake.
        That was a time past passed through.
        Such a dark and a hard time on my way to you.

Came a day in May at the waterside:
The tears spilling down my face
Turned from pain to joy on that rocky shore
Within a flow of a glorious grace.
        That was a time past passed through.
        Such a right and a light time on my way to you.
   
I felt love washing all around me
Deep connection to every thing.
To each grain of sand, to the family of man
And every atom in between.
        That was a time past passed through.
        Such a right and a light time—I' m coming to you.

I floated home to my carriage house
With a great grin for all I greet
That's returned in kind, and now forgiven behind
Me is that devil in his defeat.
        That was a time past passed through.
        Such a right and a light time—I'm on my way to you.
[On my way to you/ On my way to you / On my way to you
I'm on my way to you / I'm coming to you / Coming to you]

kat330 LOVE REIGNED remaster

Don't Throw Your Love Away from Janis Ian.

Don't Throw Your Love Away

[Mar. 30 update: JT's surprise b'day gift for me here: https://youtu.be/tDDGKSTzBxk  check it out!!  xxxooo]

President's Day for US (2.20.17): Seemed most appropriate to post this freedom anthem on this particular bank holiday. My acoustic Guild is featured here in a performance of the '63 Madara & White melody, strumming aggressively through the piece twice, with one take from the R and the other from the L speaker. I also played some synth piano and the choral "Ahh" parts on my Yamaha keyboard. [You can D/L an instrumental-only and other versions in my sets: .mp3's at Free Music Archive freemusicarchive.org/music/Kathleen_Martin and .wav's at Bandcamp kat330.bandcamp.com ]

My title, by the way, is very much directed also to the toadies in Congress allowing our Democracy's checks and balances to bounce on a daily basis. These lyrics below aimed at 45 were posted in an earlier version at my Under a Bushel blog back in January. Given the pace of crazy antics from our part-time resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, I could revise them with new additions weekly, but had to put down my red pencil finally to get this recorded. I may update them periodically at kat330.tumblr.com

JT's visual uses my high school senior class photo from the tail end of the same decade Lesley Gore's "You Don't Own Me" was released. Gore's grrrrl anthem had quite an impact as an early proclamation of female emancipation for me as a preteen, so please check out her performance somewhere on YouTube if you're unfamiliar with it. A few months after this senior photo was taken, I was marching in D.C. against the actions of another White House mad man and criminal, whose ultimate fate foreshadows that of 45's. What goes around comes around.  March on, good people of the planet!! xoxoxo
 
I DISOWN YOU [lyrics by Kathleen Martin © 2017]

I disown you!  You are completely beyond belief!
I disown you!  You'll never be my Commander-in-Chief!

We're going to make you stop trying to turn back the clock;
Expose all your lies and such liars as your climate change deniers!

You litter with Twitter pollution!  You spit on our Constitution!
There's already ample reason to put you on trial for treason!

I disown you, along with your "so-called" presidency!
I disown you!  Impeachment will be such an "easy D"!                                                

'Cuz Vlad tells you what to say, and Vlad tells you what to do!
You'd mortgage our Fourth Estate to repay your Russian IOU!

You can't build a tower to heaven, 'cuz your soul is in Chapter 11!
A Faustian bargain with Bannon, and Comey's your homey loose cannon!

I disown you!  No need to change US, we're already great!
I disown you!  You're a disgrace as our Head-of-State!

We're sick of your sycophants, and so tired of your toadies *
Toting your huge ego baggage like glorified, overpaid roadies!  

McConnell's your miserable Muppet, but the truth is you're Putin's puppet!
And trying to muzzle the media is like biting the hand that feeds ya!

I disown you, shamefully shilling sham product offers!
I disown you for famously filling your family coffers!

Among your "alternative facts" is "no one cares" about your taxes,
But you lost the vote by millions who wonder whither your "billion$"?!

In your bridge game to nowhere, you think that it's US the chump;
But the voting majority's well aware our best bid now's won "NO TRUMP"...

To be free from all your "bigly"otry, and US women free of misogyny,
And stopped before you even start grabbing control of our private parts!

I disown you!   (a mantra repeated as needed :)

* i.e., McConnell and Ryan and their clueless Congressional crews, plus Spicer and Conway and the "alternative facts" news

I Disown You

"Happy Peasant" by David Renfro (Instrumental)

AND SO IT GOES

PlanBMan