Last One?

This marks the end of my “required” blogs for class.  I have not decided, but I may still keep this thing going.  I like expressing my thoughts and having others appreciate the knowledge (some useful, but most is not) that I have acquired in my 27 years. 

I got an email from one of my favorite bands of the time, the Decembrists.  They have a new album coming out in January.  I can hardly wait.  If you have never heard of them, their music is a breath of fresh air. The strange part of the context of their songs is that most of it is in an older dialect. Men are referred to as “rakes”.  Each song tells a different story, but all are married to the sea.  The band is from Portland, or so it makes sense that the ocean would permeate.  The band’s sound is hard to describe.  They use a variety of instruments including the bouzouki, accordion, fiddle, steel guitar, and the hurdy gurdy to name a few.  Each song is like a sea shanty.  One of my favorites is about a boy whose mother is given consumption by a fiendish rake.  With her dying breathe the mother tells the boy to avenge this wicked deed.  It takes the boy most of his life to find the rake, but he does and they end up in the belly of a ship that had eaten their respective ships. I will tell no more, the song is called the mariner’s revenge song. If this sounds appealing to you, check out the Decembrists.