austin

Hans 2021 Song Draft: Round Nine-Pick Eight-In Sleep-Lissie (2010)

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Lissie Fan Art TV Image One
Image Credit: fanart.tv

Hanspostcard has a song draft challenge. This is my Round Nine pick.

This, and my last pick, will feature two women that are a little less known in the music world. I skipped right over the 2000s (only so many choices) and hopped into the next decade. I happened to catch this song while listening to the University of Texas @ Austin’s radio station (a station involved with SXSW). I was hooked and I went looking for it…and her. Elisabeth Corrin Maurus or Lissie is a singer-songwriter out of Rock Island, Illinois.

“I always sang, since I was little and wrote poems in high school. I sort of taught myself to play guitar lines to the poems and stuff. In high school, it seems like everyone has more drama than any other time in their life, [so] that was the time in my life where I really leaned on music as a way to stay sane…”

Interview With Lissie
Scott the Intern
Pop Culture Madness [Web Archive]
February 11, 2008

In her senior year, she was kicked out of high school (she spit in a teacher’s face) and had to get a GED, elsewhere. Then, she hit the road, troubadour-style. She attended Colorado State in Fort Collins and liked to open for other traveling acts. After a short time in Paris, she moved to Los Angeles, met Betsy Hammer and scored an introduction to Brooks Arthur. Hammer & Arthur took her to talent manager Guy Oseary and he got her to producer Glen Ballard. She can be heard singing in the movie Have Dreams, Will Travel (Dream It Out Loud) and performed at the wedding of Demi Moore & Ashton Kutcher in 2005 (Oseary’s referral). In January 2008, she opened for Lenny Kravitz (via a hook-up on MySpace).

Lissie Zimbio Image Two
Photo Credit: Zimbio

The third track from the album Catching A Tiger, In Sleep was released in April of 2010 and the only chart it showed up on was the UK iTunes Single of the Week. The album did manage to make it to #5 on the Billboard Folk Albums & Top Heatseekers charts and, #34 on the Independent Albums chart. The album’s first release was in the UK and hit the US two months later.

“Not to be mistaken for Lissy Trullie, […] Lissie Maurus deals in sun-kissed pop-blues straight from Laurel Canyon.

Her 12-track debut conjures images of highways and horses, with Lissie’s smoky tones echoing Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks.”

CDs of the Week: Eminem and Lissie
Rick Pearson
London Evening Standard
[Web Archive]
June 18, 2010

Give her a listen. I think she is fantastic and her two band members are outstanding, as well. They are all over YouTube and, in live recordings, her bassist is sitting down, keeping the drum/cymbal beat. Talk about multitasking. I’ve included the studio version of this that has more drum work on it and a possible synthesizer. I’m also including her version of Go Your Own Way. which actually charted in the UK in 2012. The studio version sounds like it has a cello in it and is part of the soundtrack from the movie Safe Haven. She has been very busy.

Happy Halloween, Y’all! ~Vic

Additional:
Interview: Lissie (Stereofox/06-12-2013)
Lissie (CTN Music Interview/12-22-2008/Web Archive)
Lissie and Her Connections (The Uncarved Blog/Ken Chawkin/05-11-2019)
Lissie Catching A Tiger Review (BBC Review/Mike Diver/2010)
Local Q&A: Lissie (Chicago Tribune Metromix/Matt Pais/11-09-2009/Web Archive)
Rock Island Native Lissie Hits Billboard’s Charts (Quad-City Times/David Burke/05-09-2008/Web Archive)

Official Website

Live Recording On ARD

Studio Version

From Discovery of Witches

Song Sunday: Desperate But Not Serious

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Adam Ant Image One
Image Credit: lettiemusic.wordpress.com

“If you don’t stop, you will go blind…”

Rolling down the Samsung playlist for a Sunday evening submission, we come to Adam Ant or, Stuart Leslie Goddard and Desperate But Not Serious. The fourth track from the album Friend or Foe, it was co-written by Goddard and Marco Pirroni and, released November 19, 1982, the third single from his solo debut. This is the album that brought us Goody Two Shoes that went to number #1 in Australia and the UK. Desperate didn’t fare as well peaking at #33 in the UK and #66 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

I bought the album as a cassette and nearly wore it out. This is what I term as eclectic music. It’s different, it’s catchy, Goddard has a crazy voice that he plays to the hilt and the writing is very coy and, tongue-in-cheek. He will be at The Paramount Theatre in Austin, Texas, April 28, 2021. I’ve been to that venue many times. I would love to see him there.

Lyrics

Music Monday: Messe de Nostre Dame 1360s

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Kyrie da Missa Image One
The Kyrie
Image Credit: wikipedia.org &
wikimedia.org
Author: manuscrito sob a
supervisão do autor

I’m still digging around in the old stuff. I found this piece and thought it interesting.

From Wikipedia:

Messe de Nostre Dame (Mass of Our Lady) is a polyphonic mass composed before 1365 by French poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut […]. Widely regarded as one of the masterpieces of medieval music, and of all religious music, it is historically notable as the earliest complete setting of the Ordinary of the Mass attributable to a single composer […].

It’s Structure:

The Messe de Nostre Dame consists of 5 movements: the Kyrie (Eleison…”Lord, have mercy”), Gloria (in Excelsis Deo…”Glory to God in the highest”), Credo (Nicene Creed), Sanctus (“Holy”) and Agnus Dei (“Lamb of God”), followed by the dismissal Ite, missa est (Mass Response: Deo Gratias or “Thanks be to God”). The tenor of the Kyrie is based on Vatican Kyrie IV, the Sanctus and Agnus correspond to Vatican Mass XVII and the Ite is on Sanctus VIII. The Gloria and Credo have no apparent chant basis, although they are stylistically related to one another. Machaut’s Messe de Nostre Dame is for four voices rather than the more common three. Machaut added a contratenor voice that moved in the same low range as the tenor, sometimes replacing it as the lowest voice.

The information is rather wonky and, not only have I never studied music theory, my education on Catholic Mass is limited to a short stint as a member in an Anglican church in Austin, TX, a decade ago. That being said, what I find fascinating about this composition is that Machaut combined each part into an artistic whole, the earliest known example of it unified. Previously, the items were performed non-consecutively and, separated by prayers and chants.

[Instrumental Version of The Kyrie by Guillaume de Machaut]

[Modern Take on Kyrie by Patrick Lenk]

And, just because I could, I’m ending with Mr. Mister.

Shutterbug Saturday: Tribute Pictures 2.0

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Pennybacker Bridge Image One
Photo Credit: Ryan Barron on Unsplash
The Percy V. Pennybacker, Jr., Bridge on Loop 360, Capital of Texas Highway, Austin

In my previous post from November 24, I spoke of my former supervisor, W. H. Patton, whom I worked for, and with, from September of 2002 until he retired in May of 2007. This is Part Two of a five-part series. Below are more of his photography works.

Bobcats Image Two
Photo Credit: W. H. Patton
From his ranch in 2007, a pair of Bobcats
Bobcat Image Three
Photo Credit: W. H. Patton
From his driveway, 09-16-2008
Bobcat Image Four
Photo Credit: W. H. Patton
From his driveway, 09-16-2008
Bobcat Image Five
Photo Credit: W. H. Patton
From his backyard, 09-16-2008
Mockingbirds Image Six
Photo Credit: W. H. Patton
From his back patio, The Quartet 08-10-2008
Mockingbirds Image Seven
Photo Credit: W. H. Patton
From his back patio, The Texas State Bird Chorus & a couple of wasps 08-10-2008
Cardinal Image Eight
Photo Credit: W. H. Patton
From his back patio, 07-23-2007
Rabbit Image Nine
Photo Credit: W. H. Patton
From his backyard, 07-23-2007

Shutterbug Saturday: Tribute Pictures

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Congress Avenue Image One
Photo Credit: Ryan Wallace on Unsplash
Texas State Capitol Building

I lived and worked in Texas for nearly a decade. I was fortunate enough to snag a Texas State job for the majority of the time I was there. The gentleman that interviewed and hired me was, as it turns out, my immediate Supervisor. He was one of the best bosses I ever had (his replacement after retirement was just as terrific). He did his job and he let me do mine. We sometimes rode the bus together, to and from work (downtown Austin).

I grew to love this man. He was a lanky 6′ 6″ and spoke fluent Spanish with a Texan accent. He had to have heart valve surgery a decade before I met him and, when you got close to him, he ticked like a clock. He owned a ranch just outside of Abilene in a small town called Clyde. He was a cattleman, a businessman, a photographer, a writer, an artist, a musician, a pilot, interviewed two U.S. Presidents and, was good friends with Mac Davis, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. He graduated Texas Tech with a Journalism degree, loved the Red Raiders and served in the U.S. Army Reserves:

“I protected Fort Leonard Wood, MO, from all enemies, foreign and domestic, during the Cuban missile crisis” ~ W. H. Patton

He lived all over the U.S. and Mexico. He moved to the Austin area in 1997 and I met him in 2002. He always had a story to tell and had a wicked sense of humor. He was one hell of a cook and drank like a fish. I am thankful that I met him and am a better person for it. He passed away in 2012, five days after his 73rd birthday. I’d like to share some of his work, as he shared it with me.

Azaleas Image Two
Photo Credit: W. H. Patton
From the 1960s, his son fishing.
Barn Owl Image Three
Photo Credit: W. H. Patton
From the 1960s, he managed to capture the image of a Barn Owl in an abandoned house.
Geese Image Four
Photo Credit: W. H. Patton
From the 1960s, local geese.
Kodiak Bear Image Five
Photo Credit: W. H. Patton
From the 1960s, Kodiak bear.
Wood Duck Image Six
Photo Credit: W. H. Patton
From the 1960s, a wood duck.
Hummingbird Image Seven
Photo Credit: W. H. Patton
From his backyard, 04-08-2008
Dove Art Image Eight
W. H. Patton pencil rendering…1977
Eagle Image Nine
W. H. Patton pencil rendering…1977