Gail of Erstwhile Luddite called me up a while back. Her questions took me places I don’t often go. You can read excerpts from our conversations here.
Home of Michael Perry – Author, Humorist, Singer/Songwriter, Amateur Pig Farmer
Posts Tagged ‘music’
Behold the Glowing Dome
My second appearance on The Morning Blend is now online. I am most fascinated by the way the light rolls around on my head.
It was fun. They surprised me with those band photos!
When She Was a Baby
Unexpectedly heard “Brotherhood of Man” by Innocence Mission today and – as always – it broke me up with its beauty and its ties to the day I held our newborn daughter on my lap (Coop, page 181).
Miscellaneous Grumpy Note Written in a Coffee Shop
Seriously, bud? Your taste in jazz is so exquisite that you have to turn your computer speakers up and set them in tinny competition with the coffee shop sound system, currently playing Blind Boys of Alabama? Sometimes I wish I wasn’t such a polite Midwestern boy. (Delightfully, he was caught out when – apparently forgetting that his player was set to “mix” – the jazz song came to a close and was followed heels-on by the opening riff of AC/DC’s “Hell’s Bells.” Dude nearly broke his wrist fast-forwarding to a free-form sitar piece.)
Homeboy Harmonies
After I put up this post, a few folks asked about the harmonies on the title song from the Tiny Pilot album. Most were supplied by Long Beds guitarist, keyboardist, and resident crooner extraordinaire Chris Ramey, who does not always croon. As for the haunting vocals heard just behind the lines, “Tell me little mother’s son” and “Oh, this short, sharp life,” they were provided by friend, neighbor, and Long Beds guitarist emeritus Justin Vernon, who these days works on some side projects.
Listen: Tiny Pilot – Tiny Pilot
Between the Books and the Music
Sometimes people ask me if the books and the music are connected. Sometimes, yep. Amble Down Records compiled the following summary describing the connections from the Tiny Pilot album:
- The opening verse of “Edge of Town” is set on the highway overpasses described on pages 99-104 of Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time (HarperPerennial).
- The album’s title song, “Tiny Pilot,” was written in memory of Perry’s nephew Jake, as described in Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting (released in paperback as Coop: A Family, A Farm, and the Pursuit of One Good Egg).
- “If They Give You Wings” is a song drawn directly from scenes in “Branding God,” the essay found on page 256 of Perry’s book, Off Main Street (HarperPerennial). The song lyrics also include a Dylan Thomas sample.
- “Harry Was Right” (bonus song available on physical CD version of album only as track #14) is a song set in a real-life bar called The Joynt. Perry’s readers will recognize the bar and its denizens from Chapter 13 of Truck: A Love Story (HarperPerennial) and may especially enjoy singing along with the bridge, which is a direct quote from the book: No…light…beer!
- Perry wrote the first verse of “Indiana” while driving from Michigan to Illinois on his Coop hardcover tour. The song makes specific reference to “Seven A.M.,” the Edward Hopper painting that anchors Chapter 8 (beginning on p. 138) of Truck: A Love Story (HarperPerennial).
- The lyrics of “Cissy Moan” invoke Oxford, Mississippi (home of Square Books) and the writers Larry Brown, Barry Hannah, and William Faulkner. The main character of the song is caught stealing books at “Lemuria” in reference to the actual bookstore in Jackson, Mississippi.
Tiny Pilot Songwriting Scrap
Came across a notebook page containing early notes toward the song “Tiny Pilot” from the album of the same name.
The lyrics as they were first scribbled out and marked up:
Tell me Tiny Pilot
about your short short stay
thousand days
threads of thinning clouds flyin' around
thinnest thread of cloud
somewhere beneath the [thunder] of the diesel
& the smoke
is
sound of the plow
rollin' the loam
oh this sharp short life
oh this thousand days
shiny
oh that yellow airplane
fading over the curve
disappearing over the curve
of the earth
The final recorded lyrics after the jump (plus an explanation of the math):
Mike on Renegade Farmer Radio
Another interview for the Coop paperback tour, although we got delightfully off-track and managed to discuss Truck and Population 485 and the music as well. I like this blog radio business. I can yap all around the country while staring at my actual (as opposed to virtual) chickens.
Listen to internet radio with Renegade Farmer on Blog Talk Radio
Eggs, Marriage, Music, Bon Iver, Etc.
Prior to a reading in Plymouth, Minnesota, I sat for an enjoyable interview with Aaron Landry of the Heavy Table. Poor guy, I rambled like sixty. I hope he didn’t try to transcribe the whole thing. The excerpted interview has now been posted: you can read it here.
Coop Music
Over on Facebook, someone asked if I could list all the songs I mention in my books. That seems like fun, and perhaps one day I’ll do it. Right now, however, I’m deer hunting. So I hope this will tide you over.
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After we played a benefit show in Mike’s hometown of New Auburn, a sweet lady told us we sounded, “Just like Gordon Lightfoot…only zippier!” We figured that was about perfect.