The Roving Musicologist

Travel Post #24: Mekong Boatmen Chaos Chorus (Luang Prabang, Laos)

An example of the boats that the singers live on.

There was nothing to do in Luang Prabang most nights, unless you went to the markets.  But the markets were dead most of the time and so Jacques and I ended up down by the river, for lack of money and ideas. 

At the river, boatmen sat in a circle and moaned in a musical way.  Some would  yell and leave, then sometimes come back and join together.  Various instruments took their turns; first a guitar, then an accordion, and finally a keyboard softly pumping out a generic beat.  But all of them were punctuated by the put-put of riverboat engines, as long craft in the dark made their way to points I would never see - except across the river, where the silhouette of a large boat settled in and let a car off onto the far shore of houses and temples, and maybe other things that were now just lights floating across the water mixed with the heavy haze in the air.

Jacques said the smoke was because the farmers were burning forest, which they always did, but for some reason it was worse today.  The smoke burned my eyes and scratched my throat, but it was too nice to leave here yet.  Lights, fluorescent, were nailed to the trees up on the bank, but they left the grand staircase down to the beach unlit, making the lights from the banana shaped boats seem much stronger. 

Hanging in the boats were pots and pans, the organization of lives shining in the light, radios with digital screens, and maybe a lantern here and there.  So many boats were moored here and yet the river was supposed to be too low for them to go anywhere.

Jacques talked about Egypt…the Mekong reminded him of places by the Red Sea.  It was like this, he said, people living like this. 

Travel Post #23: Party in the USA (Portland, Oregon Again)

Ending where I began the trip, this recording is a sampling of the country I almost left behind. 

On this recording there is a street performer and two different conversations, one of which was just one person.  While I can’t say where exactly they were recorded, the picture below was taken nearby one of them:

The storefront was blank except for soda bottles from bankrupt ventures.

Having recovered from the shock of being swathed once again in the language that not so long ago was reserved for the inside of my head, I have been able to put this together.  More recordings from outside of the US will be posted when they can be identified.

Miley also welcomed me home when I caught a ride in a gleaming SUV.  Photo courtesy of fisherwy.blogspot.com

Goatskin Sack Music was dominant at Alberta St.

And for those of you that came here in error:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M11SvDtPBhA

Travel Post #7: GFF part 2: The Old Man

I’m always trying to find old men playing any kind of instrument.  I don’t like it when people can sing too well, when their voices can handle any note with ease.  Playing traditional music makes some people work…they can’t change the notes around to fit their range.

There were about fifty people onstage when this guy played.  Various people would play together during the set, and sometimes the entire orchestra.  Then there were a few two minute solo songs.  This guy came forward, did his thing, and then rejoined the line, like it was no big deal.

This is probably it for the traditional music posts for awhile…I am currently in Turkey which abounds with interesting street noise.

The lucky charm of an Albanian bus driver.

Travel Post #4: Practicing Musicians In and Out of a Window (Barcelona)

Good Musicians…really there’s too many of them in the world. It’s more fun when you walk down a street and hear something floating out of a window; a tone, a squeak, a gurgle, a roll and crash. Strip music of it’s ritual and you have sound. Listen to sound with an open ear and you have music. Walking around, alone, kind of bored, figuring out where the free bicycle stations are in this city, suddenly I plucked something out of the air. Maybe its good, maybe not, but on one end this is a blog about my travels…future posts of this sort will be labeled to give them some more coherence in case anybody actually uses this site to keep track ofwhere I am.

Something’s up with Tumblr today so no pictures I’m afraid…