I love Dave Carter

[pameladean]

"so strap me in, I'm going clear -- burnin' circles round the sun
the fisher king is here, but he is not the only one
perceval and valentino ridin winged palaminos
willie in his el camino, on the run.

"here in the shining city, here in the endless summer
here in the cave of wonder, number ninety-two
the gods will lounge around until the show is through,
and it's all right, it's all right with me, if it's all right with you."

-- happytown (all right with me)

I'm only cleaning my office, mostly to avoid the enormous tangle that correcting the continuity error in Chapter 3 has become; but every single time I get to "the fisher king is here, but he is not the only one," I burst out laughing in delight. I don't know what my number is, but Dave Carter has got it.

P.

Comments

[sovay]

I don't know what my number is, but Dave Carter has got it.

236-6132.

[pameladean]

*splort*

Of course.

*snrch*

*chortle*

*wanders off giggling*

P.

[coffeeem.livejournal.com]

Jeez. I think I need that.

[pameladean]

The album is called "Tanglewood Tree." It's Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer. They're somewhere in the gray area between folk and country. I think.

I also highly recommend "Drum Hat Buddha," which hasn't got the Fisher King, but has similarly juicy stuff in it.

P.

[sovay]

: )

(I love Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer.)

[enegim.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. Dave Carter got my number the first time I heard him, with "When I Go." (And I have to say, I still like that album better than "Drum Hat Buddha," though "Tanglewood Tree" is best of all.)

Dave called their music "postmodern mythic Americana."

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

"Seven is the Number", which is much of the material Dave and Tracy were doing in concert just prior to Dave's death, just came out. I also highly recommend their debut album, "When I Go". Sadly, there are only the four, and Tracy's solo album, "Flower of Avalon", which is also Dave's material.

[pameladean]

Thank you!

P.

[pameladean]

That'd cover it, if spread thinly. I haven't quite cottoned to "When I Go" yet.

P.

[queenbookwench.livejournal.com]

My introduction to Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer was through the songs "Ordinary Town" and "Grand Prairie, TX" on a sampler; those are great songs but they don't really reveal the vein of mythic freakiness that runs through a lot of the rest of their work. Although both of those songs do have the "tied-to-the-landscape" element which is also a big part of their writing.

[caprine.livejournal.com]

A friend gave me Tanglewood Tree several years ago; I now own everything that Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer have ever released. They rock my world!

[pameladean]

Hmmmm; it might partly depend on what what one includes under "mythic," but I do see that the freakiness level, or the sheer volume of different references (I love Casey and Sleeping Beauty in the same line) is not so noticeable. I was strongly tempted to play the "Ordinary Town" and "Tilman County" over and over when I first heard "Drum Hat Buddha," and that gives a similar impression, of not everything there is. "Tilman County" also has that tied-to-the-landscape element, which is one of the main reasons I like it.

P.

[pameladean]

I really wanted them to be part of the sound track for the book I'm writing, but that book is stuck in 1987, so they are anachronisms. Some day, though.

I'm getting almost as fond of "Tanglewood Tree" as I was of "Drum Hat Buddha."

P.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Thank you guys for mentioning Grammer and Carter. Drum Hat Buddha showed up yesterday and I have Tanglewood Tree on its way. Just the kind of music I like!

[sovay]

I haven't quite cottoned to "When I Go" yet.

I am more ambivalent about that album than either of their later two, but I love "Kate and the Ghost of Lost Love," "The River, Where She Sleeps" and "Lancelot."

[sovay]

"Tilman County" also has that tied-to-the-landscape element, which is one of the main reasons I like it.

I first heard the song (and Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer) on the radio, driving somewhere with my mother; they were performing live on the folk station in Boston. Halfway through the first chorus of "Tillman County," my mother said suddenly, "He grew up in Oklahoma." It was the line blood run thicker than bottomland mud that made her think so, the red earth the state is named for. And she was right.