I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: WALTER MARTIN-Tiny Desk Concert #679 (December 1, 2017).

Walter Martin’s name didn’t sound familiar.  So this blurb helped:

Best known as a singer and multi-instrumentalist with the band The Walkmen, Martin has spent his solo career making unabashedly joyful, sweetly innocent and playful music perfectly suited for quirky four-part harmonies.

I sort of know The Walkmen; I know them more as an outlet for Hamilton Leithauser.  But after watching this, I find Martin to be a more satisfying performer.

I really enjoy his easy singing style and the every loose way he has with his guitar and with the songs in general.

Only Walter Martin would bring a barbershop quartet to the Tiny Desk.   The barbershop quartet is known as The Glen Echoes, a group of singers he found online and met for rehearsals the day before coming to NPR. It works particularly well on the song with which he opens this performance, “I Went Alone On A Solo Australian Tour,” a brilliant and comical call-and-response story-song about, well, going alone on a solo Australian tour.

“I Went Alone On A Solo Australian Tour,” is indeed really enjoyable.  Martin is casual and I love how the quartet starts out singing with him, then questioning him and then just acting like casual acquaintances–he asks them questions, too and they sing the responses.  All without losing the pacing.

It’s funny but also thoughtful.

The second song, the equally charming if slightly more wistful “Me And McAlevey,” is about a dear friend who lives in Maine.  It’s about friendship and loyalty and life as a middle-aged father.

The song is relatively simple and straightforward, but the guitar picking is delightfully complex and pretty.  I really like his vocal delivery and the way he ends his verses.

Martin closes with “Sing To Me,” his best-known song, thanks in no small part to its appearance in an Apple ad.

He describes it as the romantic centerpiece of his children’s album.  It is a pretty song once again, with lovely sentiments.  The pianist switches to electric guitar for a rather different sound.

The whole Tiny Desk Concert is delightful and makes me want to check out more of his stuff.  There’s no mention of who play what, but the mudsicians were:  Josh Kaufman; Jamie Krents; Brian Kantor; Richard Cook; Ken Sleeman; Mike Holmes and  Al Blount.

[READ: March 28, 2017] Becca and the Prisoner’s Cross

This is the second (and final) novella in the series.  It comes between books 2 and 3.  And, as the title suggests it is all about Becca.

The end of book 2 had Becca “materialize” on a boat in the past–right next to Nicolaus Copernicus.  It was a weird ending for a book that while sometimes magical, seemed to follow some kind of reality.  But this was different.  What could it mean?

Well, this novella explains it all (sort of).  We suspect that Becca’s proximity to the Kronos device when it went off triggered something.  (I keep wondering if it has something to do with her hurt arm which, frankly, shouldn’t hurt anymore, it has been two weeks, right?).

Anyhow, what we determine is that Becca is sort of passing out at home and her mind is travelling to Copernicus.  No time passes at home, but she is able to spend time with the scientist.  The best reveal comes early in the book when Copernicus senses that someone is there as well.

Copernicus has used his time-travelling machine twice and he fears that he has upset nature–that he has caused some truly horrible things (not directly one assumes).  He also knows that he can’t tell Becca answers to clues–it’s essential that she go through the process of discovering them.  For this time, they are seeking the third relic, the Crux.  (We are in technically the fourth book and we have found only three relics. And there are two books left.  Something has to change in the pace).

This book takes place in and around London.  Becca and Lily’s parents are flying in from Texas in the morning (how will they impact the story?).  So the family has very limited time to figure things out.  And Copernicus’ clues are as cryptic as ever.

That’s why the gang has to head over to Bletchley Park (I love that the caretaker comments that the BBC are making a show there now and they will be mad that things have been tampered with).

They must also travel to a church and its vaults to find a clue (or two).

This book is a bit more violent than the other ones–two people die and at least two others are wounded pretty badly.  But that does ramp up the excitement.  And the fact that in a previous book the kids worked really hard to find a relic only to have it snatched away after they discovered it makes the tension really good.

As the book ends, Becca’s mind travel/time travel takes a turn–she is able to interact a bit more directly with the past.  And it is quite possible that she can change history.  But what would be the effects of her tampering?  Will it at least help them find the next clue?

This book was very exciting–I feel like the compact size of the novella allows for more compact storytelling.

I’m still puzzled why these stories were told in these separate books.  Especially in this one because unlike the previous novella where the shorter story didn’t have a huge impact on the overall narrative, this one definitely does.  I wonder how he’s going to deal with the results in book 3.