howdy y'all -

This week's Kicksville release isn't pretty.... This song is built around a poem written by John Beecher in 1964 about the things he saw firsthand during the Civil Rights protests. This is not the place to get into the politics of his work, but John Beecher is one of the most important poets in American literature. Period. Even Pete Seeger called him "the greatest protest poet America ever produced."

This is a good example of why Pete would say that. Stream and/or download the song for free here: http://kicksville.bandcamp.com/track/georgia-scene-1964

And yeah, as with all the stuff coming up in The Singles - Season 5, the song was mixed in Sonar X2.... IIRC, I think all the tracking for this tune was done in Sonar 8.3.1. Anyhoo, enjoy!

Year I was born. :) I like this. The vocal tone is perfect imo. Cadence is right on. Love the bass. Outstanding. Thanks for sharing it.

Thanks a lot, Shad - I really appreciate it!

What a story! Music sounds good. This is different for sure and those lyrics, well, I've said enough.

Peace and blessings, John

This is really thought provoking.  You did an outstanding job and left me wanting more.

Thanks, John & Lynn!

Lynn, if you want more, we've done a number of John Beecher poems. Some of 'em are actually in his voice, since I have access to a bunch of recordings he made in the 50s and 60s. He was my grandfather, but I don't try to play that up much - I don't want people to think I'm singing his praises just because I'm related to him. He was an awesome poet and deserves a little recognition, all family connections aside. Anyway, here are a few more examples of Beecher poetry in our music:

Old Man John http://kicksville.bandcamp.com/track/old-man-john


Undesirables http://kicksville.bandcamp.com/track/undesirables

Bestride the Narrow World http://kicksville.bandcamp.com/track/bestride-the-narrow-world

Thanks again, y'all!

That would explain the tone and cadence hehehe. You have one heck of a cool GP. You will probably be a cool one yourself.

Thanks again, Shad! No kids for me, but my nephews think I'm pretty cool Little do they know I'm not really as cool as they think.....

Actually, the tone and cadence are all Tone Deaf (one of the Kicksville mainstays), not John Beecher. We didn't have a recording of this poem, so Tone read it. We did the basic structure on the fly, too - I played the synth-y bit and followed along with Tone as he read.

And Ever the Pyres of the Dead Burn Thick is another Beecher piece we did with Tone (it's really 3 poems, but we squished 'em together). Tone is doing the 1st and 3rd section, I'm doing the 2nd bit and the reprise at the very end.

BTW, I took a few minutes to listen through some of your stuff on the Composers Forum.... Good work!

Thanks, and keep an eye out for another Beecher piece coming out in a few weeks!

I should clarify that I meant this talent was in your DNA. "Pyre" is one heck of a good piece. The driving energy of the music lends credence to the lyrics. The casual tone of the second verse was particularly powerful in recreating the surreal experience of a combat report. I have been getting into videography intensely lately and can think of half a dozen ideas immediately for a video. Thanks for listening to my stuff. Its pretty bad, I have no illusions about that. I am a videographer first and got into music for video project needs. I should take that link down, but I leave it up as my own form of limited credibility at least.

The music is very well done - I guess I'm not a fan of Beecher though. Interesting - and the playing is spot on - the mix is really good.