SOUNDTRACK: KEM: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert #115 (November 23, 2020).
I have never heard of KEM, so it’s a surprise to see that he’s been recording for almost 20 years.
KEM’s Tiny Desk performance is light, welcoming and beautifully decorated. So is his music. After almost 20 years of recording R&B hits … he still comforts my soul with his sultry voice and simple, yet satisfying melodies.
That summary is really apt. These songs are light and simple.
He plays three songs from his latest album.
The first, “Friend Today,” has KEM accompanied by Michael “Nomad” Ripoll on acoustic guitar. The song
poignantly articulates a love for our fellow humans: “There’s a roll like thunder / They killing our babies, Lord / They headed straight for the border / And we can no longer ignore it.”
About “Not Before You,” KEM says the recording is a demo vocal because he never got around to doing a real vocal so [logic leap here] this song is very special. I assume he means it is special because it is
a classic romantic love song, as a dedication to his wife, Erica.
Kem adds programming and a deep resonating bass to the guitar backdrop.
For the final song, “Lonely” KEM brought out the “heavy artillery,” David McMurray on saxophone. The song ends the set
with an upbeat, hopeful vibe: “There’s a life waiting for you / In your brokenness.” It’s an affirmation that personal struggles can end in true happiness.
I don’t enjoy a lot of contemporary R&B, but I liked the understatedness of this set.
[READ: November 20, 2020] Ireland Through Birds
I saw this book at work and thought I’d bring it home to read it. I wasn’t sure if I’d read the whole thing, but once I started, I couldn’t put it down.
O’Brien is a bird lover (he should hook up with Jonathan Franzen for a joint tour/book). He grew up loving birds and has seen many of them. He decided to look for these twelve bucket-list birds for an Irish birdwatcher.
These dozen birds tend to be shy and wary or highly localized. And unfortunately
Some need very specific conditions in which to flourish, conditions now found in only a few protected pockets across Ireland. Some are endangered–and still declining.
So in addition to talking about the birds, O’Brien is here to talk about nature: what we have done to it and what we can do for it.
For those of us not in Ireland, a map is helpful just to know where he is. So I’ve added one to the bottom of the page.
He starts in Dundalk which in is County Louth (light blue on the east coast) to look for the Merlin. The merlin is also known as the pigeon hawk. Apparently they are in NJ, but I’ve never seen one (or heard of one, actually). They are a small raptor compared to most others. Merlins used to nest in heather, but most of Ireland’s heather has been displaced and the birds are forced to nest in trees. Dundalk has one of the largest natural mudflats in the country. He says when looking for raptors, let the other birds do the work for you. They will become aware of the hunter long before you do and let you in on their location.
The most surprising thing about this book–and it happens a lot–is that O’Brien doesn’t actually see what he is looking for. Sure. that’s a realistic outcome, but who would have ever guessed you could write a book about bird watching without actually seeing them? So Conor does not see a merlin, although he does see a spotted redshank, a rare winter visitor and some would say a better find than a merlin.
From there it’s off to Glendalough in county Wicklow (orange on the east coast) to find the Goosander (we call the merganser here). This time, nature was very nice to him and he spotted a whole bunch of them instantly. But they see him first and head downstream–not panicked, just getting away.
He is realistic about his hobby: Once the excitement is over, the monotony of birdwatching returns. It’s easy to mistake clumps of bubbles for more birds.
He recalls his youth here and how Glendalough opened his appreciation for nature.
He heads to rural County Offaly (lavender center bottom) to Lough Boora and the Grey Partridge. There are birds everywhere–in flight, on the ground, in full song. This is a nature sanctuary of sorts, with special place designed solely for nourishing the partridge–long grasses and plenty of cover to hide in. Their landscape and habitat are in sharp decline since the advent of mechanization.
He sees lapwings and skylarks up in the air, but the partridge is almost flightless. It can fly but it is a last resort for a bird that wild rather scurry and hide. This is why the hen produces such a large clutch of eggs: twenty nine. He expected that he would be tripping over the scurrying creatures but he is not so lucky here.
Next it’s south to the Wicklow Mountains (bottom orange on the east coast). He goes to the Military Road for the red grouse. He imagined that the birds would be waiting for him at the end of his journey, but on this trip, he sees one immediately. But when he gets out his camera it is gone–blended into the background.
He tells about the history of the Wicklow mountains where medieval Gaelic tribes hid. It was also a military location in the 1790s–this military road was carved out for British soldiers. It is now one of the most scenic drives in the county.
He travels to Tory Island in search of the Corncrake. The island is a remote outpost northwest of Donegal (yellow top left). There are virtually no trees here–it is harsh and windy. Fewer than 200 people live here and, as such, there are many birds: oystercatchers, wheatears, pipits, and the corncrake. The corncrake was once a huge part of Irish summer it is sadly reduced to a few rocky outposts.
There is bird song–quite a lot of it. And then he hears the corncrake call: like someone crudely raking a stick against a guiro, (not the most attractive sound). The birds hide and then call–making it almost impossible to pinpoint them. Especially if two call at the same time. fighting for females. Thankfully he is finally able to see one–only ten meters away, seemingly indifferent to him.
Back to the mainland and County Galway (orange on the West Coast) and off to Connemara and the cuckoo. It has the most familiar call, but the most unusual breeding habits.
Its as if the cuckoo, acknowledging their underhanded nature and pitiful inadequacy as parents, are happy to surrender that most basic of duties to other birds…the female cuckoo zeroes in on a nest of smaller species (pipits usually). When the nest is unoccupied…she scrambles on top of the fragile nest structure, swallows one of the eggs for good measure and deposits her own as fast as she can in its place.
The chick is larger than the rest of the nest and immediately begins using its featherless wings to push the other eggs out of the nest. Somehow the host parents don’t notice and dote on their surviving baby,
He talks about Connemara and the town of Spiddal, one of the mainstays of Irish culture in the country. The land is also hard to farm and so has remained largely unchanged over hundred sofa years. It is also home to Connemara donkeys. of which he sees many. Sadly he does not see a cuckoo.
He absolutely does see a Great Skua when he heads to Inishturk an island west of Galway and Mayo. He followed a well worn path looking at the marvels of nature when the Great Skuas saw him. He tries to flee, but the terrain is rough and awkward and within seconds they are much closer. The Great Skua has webbed feet a giant hooked bill and their wingspan is nearly six feet wide. They do not get him, but he does have to run to get out of their area.
The skua is often treated like the bad guy in nature documentaries, but everything has to eat, right?
It’s back to the mainland and down South to the Gap of Dunloe in county Kerry (pink bottom left). The Gap of Dunloe is a huge tourist destination and is remarkably scenic. Conor is here for the Ring Ouzel, a bird that prefers rocky outcrops. It travels to Ireland to breed and is only in the county from April to September. Although he is there in late July and feels it tis possibly too late already.
It’s finally back to the city, more or less, to Maynooth in Dublin (east coast middle pink) for the barn owl. There are three owls in Ireland. The short-eared hunts by day, the long-eared hunts by night. The barn owl is ghostly white–like a specter haunting the countryside. Its numbers have decreased dramatically over the years, despite its absolute benefit to farmers in terms of pest removal. It has become the face of preservation in the county
He stays in Dublin, going to Phoenix Park to find the Jay, a kind of crow. Most crows are black, but the jay is tan with electric blue on its wings and a white forehead. Crows are very intelligent birds. They learned to put stones into a tube filled with water to push a parcel of food higher. The jay hoards acorns–it prepares for winter by securing a bounty (and keeping it hidden form others). This also helps to propagate the oak tree.
This sneakiness make them hard to observe, even in a park. But he is lucky. They have deemed him no threat and are soon out in abundance grabbing and stashing acorns for the winter.
He travels south again to Country Wexford (bottom right, blue) to find the Hen Harrier. The Hen Harrier is one of Ireland’s other raptors, (there is also the Red Kite, three falcons and two eagles. The hen harrier, though is fabled for his sky dance. He rises and falls, flicks and swoops–he is agile and graceful. This agility makes it deadly–it harries a bird into flight where it snatches them easily.
Then its back to Dublin to North Bull Island to find the Jack Snipe. It is a quiet area near Raheny (hi Lar) in the city and offers respite to Jack Snipes. No one looks forward to an Irish winter and yet here he was in Dublin Bay in December looking for a bird. It is a wading bird with short legs, long wings an a long beak. It jackhammers the mud for food while its bodies bounces up and down.
He is able to end the book on a high note, spotting the Jack Snipe amid the rushes and weeds of the bay.
There are lots of ways to learn about a country. This is an unusual and rewarding one. He is able to talk about he history as well as the landscape while he takes in all of the sites in hopes of spotting one special creature.
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