Angels Laid Him Away...

By now you're used to my gigging and ligging, dodging and dancing, teeter-tottering like one born-anew in the Sea of Notes, beset by crotchets and quavers, following musicians across the country like a demon...

Not as often as I'd wish, bien sur.

But I do adore music, and listening to it always makes me think and wonder, ponder and sing.

So, so badly! I drive rats from the sewers, I sing like a banshee!

So, I had the pleasure of seeing Ray Lamontagne last year, seated in the front row of the City Hall in Newcastle.

For some reason, sometimes I get very lucky with seats. Perhaps I'm being rewarded for all those years of 'Being A Good Girl?'

Yah right!

And so I saw this young man, Josh Ritter, newly-wed and full of absolute joy, supporting Ray. He really beamed throughout his set with life and love, bless him!

And this song of his made me cry.

If you're feeling a little maudlin. ...Or perhaps you believe that we do need to flush our systems out regularly with tears.

Have A Good Cry.

Sorry, mes sweethearts...

Louis Collins took a trip out west
And when he returned little Delia'd gone to rest
The angels laid her away
Louis said to Delia, "That's the sad thing with life"
"People always leaving just as other folks arrive"
The angels laid her away
When the people heard that Delia was dead
All them gentlemen they dressed in red
The angels laid her away


More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/j/josh_ritter/#share

Angels laid him away...

Josh Ritter was performing with some very talented musicians, including the amazingly talented and charismatic, Zack Hickman, whose beautiful moustachioed presence graces my page aujourd'hui...

I hope you can lurve him, too!

Cheers, m'dears.

Ray LaMontagne

Raymond Charles "Ray" LaMontagne (pronounced /lɑːmɒnˈteɪːn/) (born June 18, 1973) is an American singer-songwriter who lives on a farm in Maine with his wife and two sons. Reportedly, one morning at 4 a.m, when he heard a Stephen Stills song, "Treetop Flyer" LaMontagne decided to quit his job at the shoe factory, where he worked 65 hours a week, to pursue a career in music. He has since released three albums, Trouble, Till the Sun Turns Black and Gossip in the Grain.

I saw Mr LaMontagne last Wednesday - Do you see my heavy eye-lids? Fhina's never out on a weeknight! Not only did I mislay/never receive my ticket, I also had to blag my way in past the Box Office Gals showing my online confirmation and my Driver's License! It worked...

Except the long queue of folks trying to enter the concert hall thought I was trying to skip the queue. If it'd been a Motorhead concert I could've been lynched!

Fhina likes to cut it up rough, to live dangerously to the depths of her Wild Heart...

In reality, I'm pretty reserved and English-polite, so I was very red in the face at that point...

What is there to say? As ever, Ray was entertaining and life-enchanting, enigmatic and generous to others and his fans... He even thanked us all for paying to come to see him in such difficult economic times...

He was supported by Ethan Johns, his producer and son of the legendary producer, (of The Eagles, The Beatles, among others...), Glyn Johns. Ethan was very cool and talented, but he was playing to about a dozen of us in the audience. Why do people do that - Not turning up to see, often very wonderful, support artistes?

Josh Ritter followed, performing to around half of the audience as it turned out, and I was blown away by him and his band... I bought his latest album in the interval, and I've been listening to it ever since.

In conclusion, what better than to listen, while Ray sings to you of Trouble and being saved by a woman, with his heart and his soul?

Six Word Saturday - Ritter "The Curse..."

He opens his eyes
Falls in love at first sight
With the girl in the doorway
What beautiful lines
How full of life
After thousands of years
What a face to wake up to
He holds back a sigh
As she touches his arm
She dusts off the bed
Where ‘til now he’s been sleeping
Under miles of stone
The dry fig of his heart
Under scarab and bones
Starts back to its beating

She carries him home
In a beautiful boat
He watches the sea
From a porthole in stowage
He can hear all she says
As she sits by his bed
And one day his lips answer her
In her own language
The days quickly pass
He loves making her laugh
The first time he moves
It’s her hair that he touches
She asks, “Are you cursed?”
He says, “I think that I’m cured.”
Then he talks of the Nile
And the girls in bulrushes

In New York he is laid
In a glass-covered case
He pretends he is dead
People crowd ‘round to see him
But each night she comes ‘round
And the two wander down
The halls of the tomb
That she calls a museum
Often he stops to rest
And then less and less
Then it’s her that looks tired
Stayin’ up asking questions
He learns how to read
From the papers that she
Is writing about him
And he makes corrections
It’s his face on her book
More and more come to look
There’s families from Iowa
Upper-West-Siders
Then one day it’s too much
He decides to get up
And as chaos ensues
He walks outside to find her
She’s using a cane
And her face looks too pale
But she’s happy to see him
As they walk he supports her
She asks, “Are you cursed?”
But his answer’s obscured
In a sandstorm of flashbulbs,
Rowdy reporters

Such re-animation
The two tour the nation
He gets out of limos
He meets other women
He speaks of her fondly
Their nights in the museum
But she’s just one more rag
Now he’s dragging behind him
She stops going out
She just lies there in bed
In hotels in whatever
Towns they are speaking
Then her face starts to set
And her hands start to fold
And one day the dry fig
Of her heart stops its beating

Long ago on the ship
She asked, “Why pyramids?”
He said, “Think of them as
An immense invitation.”
She asked, “Are you cursed?”
He says, “I think that I’m cured.”
Then he kissed her then hoped
That she’d forget that question.

I was blown away by this song of Josh Ritter, whom I saw supporting the wondrous Ray La Montagne last week... I adored the song's pure beauty and poignancy...

I hope you do too.

Oh, and please go and check out the glamorous Cate, who's responsible for managing the love-fest that is Six Word Saturday?

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