Rambling Beauty/The Wise Maid

Month 13: November 25 - December 23

Letter: R

Tree: Elder (Ruis)

Analogue: Dissolution

A waterside tree that keeps its fruit into December, the elder was previously associated with wise women (witches). It was thought that cradles should not be made of elder, but of birch, the tree of inception. Graves writes that the elder was thought to be the crucifixion tree, and that various cultural artefacts and practices indicate a long association of the tree with death.

Celtic Tree Calendar Month 13: 'Winter Woman' by Anne-Marie Kennedy

Logan Braes

Thank you, David Dunham, for mastering my piano tracks. I appreciate this help very much.
Listen to David's beautiful music here: @david-dunhamuser589535203

Reverence

The Scots song "Ae fond kiss" by the Scottish poet Robert Burns was written in 1791 in a letter to Mrs Agnes Maclehose (aka Clarinda) as a farewell, and to commemorate her and Burns' unconsummated love affair.

Burns' original setting of three verses in eight lines was set to the tune of "Rory Dall's Port". The musical score was published in the collection of Scottish folks songs known as the Scots Musical Museum. 

Piano played by Helen Roberts.

We hope you'll enjoy it!

-

to my dearest Clarinda

Ae Fond Kiss (Robert Burns - With Helen Roberts)

A new composition.......

Lyrics:

In the garden of dissonance
The truth wears a mask
With sirens of chaos
Dancing like puppets on strings


The towers of greed rise 
As the rich sip their wine
With a smile so deceitful
The truth is lost in the air.


What a pitiful world
A charade of confusion
Pawns on a chessboard an unending game
The dark show is ready to begin, and the hypocrite bends.


Fury and anger are raging
Is this all really serious?
The nightmare that haunts us
Feelings stuck in this circus, just trying to feel.


The fools and the kings try to rule the world
In the quiet of the storm, the truth is silent
Amidst all the madness we must resist
Before this land is forever broken

Music and Lyrics by Len Bennati FM Folk 2025
Mastering and Production by Tom Hanson

Dissonance (Remaster)

I wrote this piece last year, shortly after I had come to my 75th birthday, and as my 76th is fast approaching, I thought to share with you this piece now......
I hope you will like it...


Les 75 Ans

A nod to the great Tom Paxton, one of his best songs among many. 

McSpadden  dulcimer, 1928 Gibson mandolin, 2005 Mid Mo Mandolin, Washburn R305 parlor guitar open G tuning

Last thing on my mind. written by the great Tom Paxton.

My Queen

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)

Last thing on my mind. written by the great Tom Paxton.

Don Jennings