Checking out releases in music and literature Graphic: Sculpture, "Organ" by Robert E. Kuhn, Blue Ridge Mountains, VA Door to the Soul CD Review by Don Silvius Virginia's own Pat McGee Band breaks into the big time with "Shine" on Giant/Warner. It's hardly common to compare catching a cold to listening to music, but in this case the comparison is warranted because of the infectious tunes. Give it one listen and you'll want to spread it around to your friends. For most people, "Shine" will be their first exposure to the Pat McGee Band. The rest of the world will now get to find out what PMB's fans, or Identities, already know. The "high gloss" sound of "Shine" has to be heard to believed - catchy, upbeat tunes that are sure to appeal to a large audience of all ages. Produced by Jerry Harrison, formerly of the Talking Heads, "Shine" makes you want to listen again and again - and then again! It is one of those rare CD's that treats the listener to something new with every play. If the eyes are the windows to the soul, music is the door, and "Shine" is the door to the soul of the Pat McGee Band. The emotion is evident on every song. The tunes just have a way of pulling you into them, as they are full of passion and soul. "Runaway", the first single, is gaining in popularity on radio stations across the country, while "Shine" was in Billboard's Top 200 in its initial week of release. If you like what you hear, the band will be headlining in July at Wolf Trap's Filene Center near Vienna, VA. Two years ago, the Pat McGee Band sold out this 7,000 seat venue as an independent co-headliner. Now that the world is being exposed to this extremely talented group of musicians, what is next? To be sure, the future is very bright for the Pat McGee Band. Find out more about the Pat McGee Band by visiting their website at http://www.patmcgeeband.com. Music Books Enter keywords... Find this CD and others, or a book using AMAZON.COM's search engine or CDNOW graphic: "Black & White #5," watercolor by Vera A. Jones ALL THE RELATIVES Words & Music by Christine Kane, from her third CD: Live! Second Avenue, yellow VW She's behind the wheel The busy people are crossing the street In their wingtips and their heels She sings a tune from a broadway musical She got no radio She waves her hand to the man in the Rolls As the stoplight turns to Go And all the relatives They say she's always been crazy with her radical ways They say she's ornery, smells sort of garlic-y They think she might be gay (Yes,this is the chorus:)... Do do di do Do do do di do Do do di do do do do She decided she don't really like it Workin' at a desk And so she's packin' up and she's movin' to Oregon Tuesday after next And all her things but her journals and paintings And jazz CD's of course She'll give away to her good friend Renee Who was recently divorced And all the relatives... They say she's always been an overly emotional girl They'll tell you what, you've got to toughen up To make it in this world CHORUS Bridge: She sings at night, a lulluby There's not a note in tune She flies a kite, she rides a bike She got a rose tattoo And all the love that ever was It never was so true She says the best days are when there is Nothing much to do She found a puppy alone in an alley One rainy Christmas Eve And even though she was practically broke She took it home and gave it the last of her crackers and cheese Yesterday she said, I think I'd lose my faith, Except for the fact there are miracles practically every single day And all the relatives Say she hasn't been in a church in a matter of years And add to that her weird little hats and the pierces in her ears And all the relatives they say she's always been crazy with her radical ways well, you know, that might be so But she guesses she's okay Movie Title Actor or Actress Search for a MOVIE using CDNOW's FastFind Check out all the CDNOW MOVIES available As Precious as Tears A Review of Lamb in His Bosom (c.) by Gary Carden Gary Carden is a writer of diverse talents and achievement living and travelling from Sylva NC. His most recent book, Mason Jars in the Flood, has just been released. Check his website for details of where to purchase that and previous work and/or for book-signing and elderhostel schedules. graphic: "Corpus," sculpture by Robert E. Kuhn, Blue Ridge Mountains, VA Lamb in His Bosom by Caroline Miller Atlanta: Peachtree Publishers, 1933 $14.95 (paperback) 355 pages One for the cutworm, one for the crow; One to rot, and one to grow. -Corn-planting song in Lamb in His Bosom All book lovers have an impressive list of books that they intend to read… eventually. Usually, this procrastination is due to some real or imagined challenge or difficulty that makes "literature" intimidating. Either the work is lengthy and/or intellectual, or worst of all, it has been dubbed "a classic." My list has always included War and Peace, Don Quixote and The Divine Comedy. Then, there is Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and Caroline Miller's Pulitzer Prize winner Lamb in His Bosom. Well, being snow-bound in January gave me courage, and I took on the latter. The first surprise (pleasant!) - Miller's language sent me back sixty years to my childhood, and I found myself back in my grandparents' home in Rhodes Cove with a shoe last under the bed, a metal spider in the fireplace and talk of "painters" and fire-balls (both of which were rumored to come down chimneys). It was a world that was closely bound to the heavens with crops planted by the signs and where an overly active child sometimes "cut a dido" when he/she saw a coach-whip snake in the woods or a green "measuring worm" (which measured unsuspecting folks for their coffin) on his/her sleeve. Bone-set tea brewed in the fire-place, guineas roosted in the trees and my grandmother caught May rainwater from the eaves of the house to ease the colic or clean a "gaumed up" stain from a dress. It is a world that either no longer exists or has retreated to isolated coves in rural Georgia, western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. That is both a blessing and a loss. Lamb in His Bosom is an encyclopedia of Appalachian customs, dialect and folklore that captures with a near-painful accuracy a way of living that was both harsh and beautiful. Consider the names: Sean, Lias, Bridget and Eliza-beth; Jasper, Lovedy, Fairby, Margot and Derimid - names that bespeak the streets of Dublin, potato famines, brutal poverty and desperate migrations. Miller's characters remember their origins. Despite the setting in south Georgia, the old folks still talk of cobbled streets in Galway and Limerick, and Sean's parents speak wistfully of "Old Carolina" where they lived briefly and which they came to perceive as a blissful Eden before they followed the rumors (during the 1830's) of cheap, rich land in Georgia. It was a move they came to see as a tragic mistake. Sean's mother continued to talk of "goin' back to Caroliny" for the rest of her life. The way of life lived (or endured) by Miller's characters is brutal, tragic and short-lived. Women are considered old at 40, broken by child-bearing and a sort of self-imposed slavery. Indeed, some of the most dolorous passages in the novel are given to describing the debilitated flesh of the dead or dying: adults, who prior to death have been rendered mindless invalids, crippled by the hardships of farming. They slowly succumb while raving of hell or dreaming of a mother's face and the voices of long-dead children. The planting rhyme at the beginning of this review could apply equally to the survival ratio of offspring - the ones who survive the rigors of life on a south Georgia farm in the 1840's. Many die at birth and others are struck down by the vagaries of farm life: pneumonia, fire and an amazing number of accidents/injuries that go untended except for the tenuous benefits of folk medicine. Among the awesome catalogue of suffering, this reviewer will never forget the description of two children who catch fire at an outdoor hog butchering, and become two human torches, running through the winter wind. Then, there are the vital young men, that most prized of all family members, the seed-bearers and strong backs - the fair sons who survive only to perish at Fredricksburg or Appomatox in a war they never understood. However, the most enthralling aspect of this novel is Miller's talent for capturing the mind and soul of her characters. The narrative slides effortlessly from objective to subjective description as the author slides into the minds of her characters, like a hand into a glove. She becomes Lias, the prodigal son, vain and arrogant; Bridget the exotic "woman from the coast" who becomes a mainstay in the lives of the Carver family; plodding Lonzo, tongue-tied and awkward behind his oxen, dreaming of thoroughbred horses; and Sean, the shy and obedient wife who sometimes sulls behind her spinning wheel, dwelling on God's harshness. Miller is concerned with the souls of these people who are in turn, frail, shy, stubborn and willful. How do they perceive the world? God? Sexuality? The purpose of their lives? I find Miller's conclusions compatible with those of my own grandparents in Rhodes Cove. Life is harsh and the only response to it is forbearance and stoic acceptance. Death is the "dark doorway" that is always near, perhaps in the next room. Mankind is frail, weak and carnal and probably deserves all of the attending suffering that God sends. We are here to fulfill a purpose for the Almighty, but we usually fail. We must try again. Both men and women are helpless in the grasp of sexuality and love sometimes comes like a fatal sickness or a sudden storm that wrecks families, alienates friends and blights lives. That can't be helped. Let us get up and go on. Miller's protagonist, Sean, perceives herself, her family, her animals and all mankind as fertilizer. We will enrich the soil and create new life. For Sean, this is our earthly immortality. The earth will go on serenely indifferent to these temporal life forms that struggle, sing briefly, lament loudly and sink into the soil to make the Magnolia trees and new corn flourish. For Sean, she and all of her kin are like a shout in a great darkness, gone before the echo fades. In the great scheme of things, we are of little consequence. The sun shall rise and not see us again. Like most people in this region, I knew that Caroline Miller lived in Waynesville until her death in 1992. I did not know that she was born in Waycross, Georgia (1904) and lived for over thirty years in Baxley, where she did meticulous research for her novel. Frequently pretending to be looking for eggs and butter, she interviewed numerous farm families living in isolation. Perhaps, her greatest gift is for language - the ability to capture the nuances of dialect that retain the music of Ireland: the love of stories filled with travail, heartbreak and grandeur. Yes, inspite of it all, running through this chronicle of Sean Smith Carver O'Conner, there is a dark joy. The language is frequently poetic and I am tempted to quote passages that ring with hope and rueful laughter. Perhaps one paragraph! This is the death of Lias, the prodigal son, in California. He has just mailed a letter assuring his mother and sister that he is on his way home. Like the ill-advised letters in a Thomas Hardy novel, this one causes untold misery. Lias knows he is dying, but he sends the letter anyway. "I want them to always think that I am coming," he says. Sundown was not far off; in the smooth bulging distance the sun eased himself into the ocean to quench the boiling flame that studs his breast. Shaking water crumpled the gold pavement of the sunset. Lias ceased his praying for suddenly the compelling hunger in his breast no longer tortured him. Above his head, he heard the sound of a woman's soft weeping, and the sound was like the sound of an outgoing tide's little waves that caress the sand monotonously, sibilant, and as precious as tears. Dear reader, read this book. If possible, read it slowly. Books Music Enter keywords... Find Lamb in His Bosom by Carolyn Miller, and other reviews, books and CDs, with AMAZON.COM's search engine Prospective Immigrants Please Note by Adrienne Rich, Collected Early Poems: 1950-1970 Either you will go through this door or you will not go through. If you go through there is always the risk of remembering your name. Things look at you doubly and you must look back and let them happen. If you do not go through it is possible to live worthily to maintain your attitudes to hold your position to die bravely but much will blind you, much will evade you, at what cost who knows? The door itself makes no promises. It is only a door. graphic: "Parasol," ink rendering by Gail Rohrer, from the Oak Hill School Teachers Resource Guide, ETSU Press, 1999 "Gail Rohrer is a multi-media artist whose main focus is to invite the interest of viewers into her work. Combining a keen artistic vigilence with her own particular understanding of the human psyche, she explores the world of the familiar while allowing the viewer to find his own reflections somewhere in the work. Sometimes historical innuendos are obvious as her love of the past shows through subjects or details. A graduate of Towson University and Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, the artist also studied with well-known watercolorists Alice Webb and Morris Green before moving to Jonesborough in 1997. Her illustrations have been published in Baltimore and in Washington County, TN. Her work has been shown at the Jonesborough East Gallery, Princeton Arts Gallery in Johnson City, and the Jonesborough Visitor Center. She strives for growth by exploring various media to capture moods and ideas while reflecting the ways light changes the character of everyday, commonplace forms." Books Music Enter keywords... Find Collected Poems: 1950-1970 by Adrienne Rich, and other reviews, books and CDs, with AMAZON.COM's search engine Search for a CD using FastFind by Artist Album Title Song Title Go to the CDNow section on Rock/Pop ~ Jazz/Blues ~ World/New Age Urban/Electronic ~ Country/Folk ~ Classical Both CDNOW and AMAZON.COM maintain immense inventories, reviews, and popular selections with prices, including shipping and handling, frequently below area stores. Purchases are delivered in most cases within a few days either to yourself or as gifts for friends and family. If you buy through Rural Review, a commission percentage of your order returns to A Country Rag. "Door to the Soul" © Don Silvius, Inwood WV, May 2000. "As Precious as Tears" © Gary Carden, Sylva NC, April 2000. Original material © A Country Rag, Jonesborough TN, April, 1996, 2000. All rights reserved.