Folk
RED ROCK RONDO: ZION CANYON SONG CYCLE
Steamboat Mountain Records; www.redrockrondo.com
2009 is the centennial of Zion National Park, an American treasure and wonder of the world in southern Utah. Fittingly, all sorts of commemorative activities are underway to celebrate both the place and the foresight of our great grandparents’ generation to preserve it. The American Composers Forum commissioned songwriter Philip Bimstein
to write songs to, for and about the colorful canyonlands and rock formations, the history of the park, and the lives of the people who inhabit the area. The results are magnificent: Bimstein has found the soul of the place and written about it with a sensitivity and clarity rarely achieved by the poets. He has surrounded the words with beautiful music that creates the images in the mind that are the next best thing to being there. The group that plays this song cycle is exemplary: violinist Kate MacLeod (familiar to Victory readers for her excellent solo CDs) is the main vocalist, and she sounds a lot like Judy Collins. Cowboy poet Hal Cannon, of the Deseret String Band, is on mando, banjo, squeezebox and an assortment of pocket-sized instruments. Lending an appropriate ethereal tone is oboist Charlotte Bell, while Harold Carr takes care of bass duties and provides some spoken-word vocals. Flavia Cervino-Wood provides a second violin. The songs tell many stories and create a full impression; the cycle isn’t necessarily chronological but the CD begins with “Marvelous Flood” about an 1861 calamity but full of creation allusion and allegory, and soon gets to “When President Harding Came to Zion.” This song is for those who know their history, for it’s an honor when POTUS rides in on Hayburner One, but we know that back in D.C. his Cabinet was hatching crooked plots to mine and drill the southern Rockies and high deserts… and with exquisite irony, the rebuilding of the park entrance for Harding’s grand reception forced the little old lady who owned the adjacent farm off her land! The album’s “hit,” for it has that convergence of hummable melody and compelling story that says Play me, Cover me, Sing me at jams, is “The Boy Who Never Saw a Train,” the true story of how Tom Mix, shooting on location, befriended a local lad. This is a perfect record for Zion Park; you’ll want this CD for the trip… and you’ll want this CD if all you can do is stay home and look at photos of the place. (Tom Petersen) |
