I’m finally throwing down the gauntlet: fourteen unaccompanied solo songs in one take, no edits- that’s my next record. If you think I’m bluffing, ante up.
I’m not really looking for a battle, but it would be nice if it was taken as a friendly challenge to people involved in folk and traditional type music to get down to more singing and maybe a little less frantic plucking. The thing it needs is a title, which is where I’d love your help (again).Way down below I’ve included a longish thing with some thoughts about singing and related stuff that might help generate some ideas.
Making the Recording
I read somewhere Bruce Springsteen calling his Pete Seeger tribute record the “least commercial thing I could think of doing.” Really? Wow. It got me wondering what was the most commercial thing I could think of doing, which at the moment was 14 solo unaccompanied songs in one shot- a concept album. Actually, I think I had already made the recording by the time I read that, and it’s something I’ve wanted to do for years but never had the coincidence of technology, place and inspired moment.
They finally coincided last summer at the Jaroslaw early music festival in southeastern Poland. I’ve already written about it some, but to summarize I did an unamplified, candle lit concert, taught a week long Sacred Harp singing school, heard some fabulous music from Iran and 15th century Poland and ate a whole lot of rose petal jam buns from a magical bakery that appeared and disappeared seemingly at will. All of this really made me want to sing.
The old abbey where I was staying contains a number of lovely wooden rooms and a nice sounding chapel, so I figured it would be easy to find a place to record. My two problems were that in my only free hours there were lots of nuns banging around the place, and I didn’t have batteries or an extension cord for my Marantz recorder thingy. Finally, as a last resort and after getting permission from the local priest I got the key to a scary tower on the abbey’s fortified perimeter wall with rickety stairs and big spiders. And bats.
The Turret
After a slow, tentative climb I opened the heavy wooden door and found four things inside: a comfortable chair, a beautiful fireplace, a live bird (had to let that out first) and, hanging on the wall under a photograph of the former Pope, an extension cord. OK, five things. Anyway, I plugged in, checked levels, made a record and was out of there in just over an hour.
this is how you make a record
My next to next solo CD, I might add, I’ve been working on for a year and a half.
ANOTHER NEW CD AND BOOK
Actually I do have another other next solo CD coming out before the unaccompanied one. It’s the live in the Czech Republic recording I’ve mentioned before. I don’t know what it’s called but it’s actually coming out for real very soon, ca. July 20. There will be a CD release celebration in Namest nad Oslavou to which you are invited, followed by a book launch for journalist Jiri Moravcik’s new work that apparently features me in some fashion. I don’t know anything about it, or if it will be in a language that will enable me to ever know anything about it other than what it looks like, but there you go- new stuff, available before long at timeriksenmusic.com
LONGISH THING ABOUT SINGING AND THE FINALLY UPCOMING CD I NEED HELP NAMING
Prognostic style
Unaccompanied singing is a missing link and a “next big thing.” I’ve been watching its slow, upward trajectory since 1980, when, under the influence of George Orwell, Ronald Reagan, William Miller and a slew of movies after the fashion of Planet of the Apes, most Americans assumed that within a matter of years whoever was left would be living in caves without electricity or guitar strings. Should the CD be called The Missing Link? No, there’s a TV show I think and also a Neanderthal vibe. How about the Next Big Thing? That’s worse, and also probably a TV show. Maybe “Big Brother.” That’d be edgy! Wait, I think that’s a TV show too.
To serve man style
Unaccompanied singing, solo or harmony, is underrated to say the least. It’s a challenge, an education, a pleasure, a spiritual discipline and a social networking tool. Instruments are nice too, but they can be kind of like cool looking masks. Imperfections, habits, influences, history and other little betrayals sound so much more clearly in the voice. I never thought about how German I was until I noticed how I sing “tree,” or how African I was and wasn’t until I sang with a Nigerian engineering student in a rock band in Chennai, India.
In American culture there seems to be considerable discomfort around the unadorned, unprocessed voice. Around singing in general actually, but especially when it’s exposed. I may be wrong but I think it’s a localized phenomenon, temporally and spatially, that in the long run will have been short lived.
So, maybe I need a title referring to the excellence and near universality of unaccompanied singing. How about “The Glory of the Human Voice?!” Wait, that’s Florence Foster Jenkins. Rats.
Chip on the shoulder style
In American popular singing these days, at least the Euro-American leaning stuff, you generally have a choice between airy warbling and manly mumbling. Some common beliefs I find unfortunate are two sides of a coin-
1. The belief, or attempt to believe, that you can buy the gimp, as the Irish call it.
2. The belief that singing is just natural, so the less you sound like you’ve actually worked on it the more real it is.
Beyond that, as Connecticut preacher Lorenzo Dow complained about the English ca. 1805 “They’re afraid to make a NOISE!” With regard to the kinds of music I usually sing these days, when the old people sang, they SANG. Forget “old”- whey did I even say that? There are so many young Sacred Harpers and a few ballad singers like Rosie Stewart whose singing will take the top of your head off, the result of careful listening and long work as much as just being around it, as far as I can tell. It’s not just that it’s often loud and certainly not that it’s considered honest, authentic, raw, traditional or any of the other conventional epithets. Maybe I just like hearing people sing without having to worry that if I close my eyes they’ll take my stuff.Well, maybe it does have something to do with honesty, but not in the touchy feely way- more in the “get your hand out of my pocket” way. Maybe my record should be called “Look at Me! I’m so Honest!” And humble too.
OK, that’s more than enough of that- it’s kind of tiring. Probably better to stop talking and get back to singing. In summary I mostly just want to make something useful and/or positive that sounds good to people and will help me “put food on my family” as one old Yankee had it. Oh yeah, and it needs a name.
If you’ve read this far, please to be rewarded with this indigo bunting.
Nice indigo bunting.
You could call your new album “syrinx”–thinking of hermit thrushes and things, which have two, I think? And can accompany themselves, yet be singing with just their voices (like when you do throat singing).`
four limbs with nothing to do
empty hands
pie with no filling
filling with no pie
fine tuning
melodies
14 songs, no waiting
why not call it The Turret? since that’s where it was recorded. When I was reading the email that led me here, I thought that was the title (turned out to be the placeholder for the picture).
Tim,
You are overthinking the title of the CD; just use something like “Sparse” or “Naked”. One word, that’s all you need.
Keep up the good work on the music and esp. the videos.
I like “The Turret” as a name. If I have a child, I might name it The Turret, if it’s a boy, if you haven’t already used it for your CD.
Title for your new work: Heart, Throat & Hand
I can’t resist suggesting “Tim Eriksen Unstrung”. Hey, if nothing else, this breaks the ice for more suggestions.
My recommendation for the title of your new CD is “Tim Eriksen – Unvarnished.” I’m looking forward to its release.
Why not name it Candlemas?
at first i thought the name was going to be attached to the concert recording you linked to writing about – in which case, the title “Dear People, BEWARE!” seemed obvious.
i’d like to encourage you to steer away from “Un-” names – Unplugged, Unvarnished, Unwashed, ect. I don’t like em, not too articulate about why, but, yeah.
Do you ever listen to / know of M. Gira? He has an album titled simply “I am singing to you from my room” (http://younggodrecords.com/Releases/Detail.asp?C=285). As a title, it’s poetic and evocative but also incredibly direct and literal. Also see Leonard Cohen’s “Songs from a room”. I get the sense that is about what you are going for here. Good luck with it.
I second Andy’s suggestion of “Naked”
or what about “Live Bird”?
I love the real life image and metaphor of you climbing up rickety stairs to a forified tower to release a live bird. Also, birds sing unashamed and unaccompanied.
How about something really simple? I thought of “Tim Eriksen: Unadorned.” Or some other one-or-two-word simple title.
I suggest thinking about it for a while and then dropping it, and let your subconscious work on it. One day when you’re buying paper towels at the grocery store (or doing something else entirely unrelated), an answer might just pop into your mind.
And by the way, thank you for the lovely indigo bunting.
‘Rose petal jam buns from a magical bakery’ – isn’t it a perfect title for a folk album?
There’s a word that I’ve always thought would be a great album name.
“Doxology”
I first came across it in Steinbeck’s “East of Eden”, where it’s Sam Hamilton’s mule name….
But incidentally, The Common Doxology is “originally the final verse of….
“Awake, My Soul, and With the Sun.”
How about “One Man Choir”
or “One Voice Choir”
“Voice”
“Breath”
Vox Humana?
As for my original suggestion of “Naked”, I was too late: Maura O’Connell just released an a cappella CD called “Naked with Friends”, oh well!
Damn her anyways! It was MY idea! Maybe “Naked without friends” would work.
“Honest Air”
is that too far off? i kinda like it
air can refer to the human voice… as honest is how pure and human this music is. i dunno… i may be being silly, but heyyy… Honest Air
buen suerte
ZYB
Hey Tim,
Your request reminds me of a Booker White quote he said during one of his sky songs, he said, “As long as I’m still alive, I’ll keep singing, and as long as I can still sing, I’m going to do it slow.” Not sure if any combination of those words helps, but it seems to capture, in part, the sentiment, anyway.
Whatever you call it, I’m looking forward to hearing it. Loved your version of Tom Dooley with the banjo and frog accompaniment.
Cheers,
Aaron
I like Zoe’s suggestion!! Honest Air, very simple and pure, yet also elegant. I don’t have a clue how, but perhaps that mask concept should be worked into the title somehow…
Although, come to think of it, I like “Singing With My Eyes Closed” as a title, as well. Your call, sir!
I left a comment before, but here’s another idea: How about just “Tim Eriksen”? Just that, with a nice photo. Maybe a photo of you, or maybe a minimalist photo of trees in winter, or stones in a river, or something like that. Conveying the idea of simplicity and the-thing-in-itself. Plus, it’s all you, so the title would be also descriptive.
On the back of the album, or as a subtitle, you could have “14 songs in one voice.” Or something like that.
You could also call the album “One Voice.” (Did someone suggest that already?”
How about From the Turret?
Overground Dungeon?
I’m sure you’ll hit on something appropriate!
How about ‘Tim Eriksen’s Big Band.”
vocality
“if my voice would rise up like a turret”
“building my voice as my turret”
“the released bird from the turret”
“bare voice and five things”
something like that i’d suggest. i’m not english speaker, so i apologize for my mistakes. but that’s the path i would walk into -plenty of trees, of course- to find a name…
Grace Notes
Another Christmas Song for You, New Website and a West Coast Tour // Dec 23, 2009 at 8:00 pm
[...] CD: Finally, it looks like my unaccompanied solo singing CD will be coming out soon- more news on that in coming [...]
“Oh yeah, and it needs a name.”
OLD VOICE
(in pea shellin’, tea sippin’, baby nursin’, hush child it’s only thunder… time.)
New CD Out May 4th! // Mar 31, 2010 at 2:23 pm
[...] of the January Hills, in case you’re new to the email list, features 14 songs for solo voice recorded in a single take in a tower on the perimeter wall of a Benedictine abbey in southeastern Po…. It’s really a different experience to listen to the songs done this way. I’d almost say it [...]