SOUNDTRACK: THE CIVIL WARS-“Kingdom Come” (Field Recordings, November 8, 2012).
I discovered The Civil Wars after they had broken up. Which is such a shame as they make such beautiful music.
They were Joy Williams and John Paul White and
the two [had] built a gentle, harmony-rich folk-pop sound in which warm chemistry more than counteracts the tension under the music’s surface. Though not a couple themselves — each is married, and Williams just had a baby — they convey many hallmarks of a loving union, particularly in the way she stares at him sweetly as they sing.
That staring is really uncanny–she seems so happy with him. So it is amazing that at the time of this airing
Williams and White announced that they’ve canceled all of their tour dates in response to “internal discord and irreconcilable differences of ambition.” This, naturally, has fueled talk of a breakup — the assurance that “our sincere hope is to have new music for you in 2013” doesn’t specify whether that music would be made together or separately — which is a pretty crummy development
This Field Recording [The Civil Wars: A Song Of Loyalty, Before It’s Tested] was done in (presumably) happier times — during the Sasquatch! Music Festival in George, Wash.
The pair sing in a field of grapevines. Just as John Paul arrives, the wind picks up incredibly, almost comically.
Amazingly, given the setting, this song sounds fantastic. I love that you can hear whistling wind faintly (it might even be cooler if the wind was a bit louder). But you can see the grapevines (and their hair) blow as the wind picks up. But their voices and guitar sound perfect.
This song, like every song from The Civil Wars is wonderful. Their voices are just magical together. Even if there’s not a lot going on musically (it’s a single guitar although the melody is great), it’s the way they loop their voices together that is just out of this world.
I love them on record, and they sound even better here–White just lets his voice soar at one point and it’s fantastic.
[READ: January 12, 2017] “Back the Way You Went”
I was really puzzled by this story. I couldn’t tell if it was one story with three parts or three separate stories. I hoped it was three separate stories because the three pieces don’t seem to go together at all. But at the same time, the internal parts of each story isn’t entirely coherent either.
Garland
D and F take a woman with them on a weekend getaway. The woman’s mother recently died. They go to a honeycomb. Bees stream through the streets and the night. D and F are bees too.
But they aren’t, of course. Because the next day they ride bikes (the woman never learned and is quite bad at it).
Years later she wonders “what it was like for D and F to be thugging her around.” Thugging?
The next paragraph is a flashback and is a good one. But each paragraph seems to be separated from each other. The title appears in the body.
Mexico
In this part “they” go to visit Dad in a home. He is in a room with a man whose eyelids don’t close–doctors don’t want to touch them in case they stayed permanently closed.
One Sunday they were coming home from visiting Dad–it was no different from any other visit. but her insides had gone bleak and dangerous. She sat in the back of the taxi thinking about an art work she saw in Mexico
The title of this piece appears in this section as well. And, again, I enjoyed the part about the art piece and I enjoyed the way her dad tells her this bon mot, but I don’t see how they connect
Trouble in Paradise
Her mother in law Verna is four feet nine. She feels big and bestial hugging Verna. Her own mother was also short, but otherwise unalike. She is unlike her own mother except that they both think she needs to shop for clothes because they don’t like the way she dresses.
Vera is telling stories about her best friend Mildred who died.
But the narrator is thinking back to drying dishes with her own mother.
And then the narrator snaps out of it and asks Verna a question about Mildred which she finds quite surprising. The ending in which she mentions the filmmaker Lubitsch, is just as puzzling as all the rest f the story(ies).
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I loved the first Tenacious D record and enjoyed the goofy film The Pick of Destiny. It amuses me to no end that kid-favorite Jack Black is in one of the most vulgar comedy-metal bands ever. I could barely find 30 seconds of curse-free material to show my kids.
I Just Read About That... 