Today, we listen to “Go Tell Aunt Rhody.” It’s a really old song — dating back to the 18th century. And as such, there are a lot of different versions of the lyrics. But the main lyrics are highly anthropomorphic. The gander is weeping. The goslings are mourning. And then there is this whole business of the goose dying in the mill pond standing on her head. I assume this means something, but I don’t know what it is.

The nice part of the song is how it is ultimately about a good economic relationship. Aunt Rhody is caring for the old gray goose and basically charging her in the form of her feathers. At least I think that’s how it works. I’m no farmer. But it’s more pleasant than the idea of fattening a pig to kill it. This, of course, is why smart pigs become sheep herders or befriend clever spiders.

I present the song performed by Jesse Ferguson. He’s one of these guys you’ve probably never heard of who is nonetheless an incredible talent. I will have to check out this music in more depth. He might be worth a week. Anyway, he has a gorgeous voice. Check him out:

Today we are going to listen to the song I most remember from grammar school: “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” It’s by the great songwriter George M Cohan for the musical, George Washington, Jr. That may explain why the song has stayed with me. It is quite a good tune. Just the same, I have long found the lyrics repugnant in its nationalism.

That’s not to say it doesn’t have nice aspects. I especially like the line, “And may never you boast or brag.” Just the same, this is the kind of mythology that exists today. Everywhere in the the USA, people are constantly chanting, “We’re number one!” Yet these same people would claim that we are a very humble country, just looking to lend a helping hand to the rest of the world. Not really.

Here is the Billy Murray version with the original lyric of “You’re a glad old rag”:

Well morning music fans, I have bad news for you! I came up with a theme for this week that is not going to generate a lot of great music. But I still think it is a good idea. What’s more, I’m out of town for five days, so I’m not going to have the amount of time that I normally give to these posts. On good days, I spend more time on this post than anything else. You’re welcome!

I was remembering back to grammar school where once a week we would all sing songs out of these textbooks. I remember the songs being mostly from wars, but it turns out that a lot of them are explicitly religious too. And so I’m going to start with one of those, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” This is a song so well known to young people that it has a standard parody, “My eyes have seen the coming of the burning of the school; we have tortured all the teachers, we have broken all the rules.” Now rather than have you listen to some terrible rendition of the song, I encourage you to click over to This American Life and listen to Sarah Vowell’s history of the song, Teacher Hit Me With A Ruler. I would embed it here, but it isn’t working on my computer.

Since we can’t have Vowell, we might as well have the Mormon Tabernacle Choir perform it. It is surprisingly good. I’m not that into this kind of thing, but there is no doubt that it works.

We get to the end of our week of my boss’ selections. Unlike similar weeks, I think this one has worked really well. The music has been great. It makes we want to check out more of this kind of music. That’s especially true of the music of the Sahara. But we are going to stay in Asia for the last day. In this particular case, we are listening to Yat-Kha from Tuva — pretty much Mongolia.

It does a lot of different music. In general, it is pretty west-friendly. But the vocals are very much throat singing. I think it works pretty well, but it still bugs me. This is “Coming Buddha” from their 2003 album, tuva.rock.

My boss has ripped us out of the American continent and transported us to Asia — specifically to Mongolia. And things change in a big way. I’m not that fond of throat singing, but today’s music really is different. This is Altan Urag — according to Wikipedia, they are a Mongolian folk rock band. What does that mean? Well, you’ll just have to listen because I am in no position to explain.

You might want to check out the song Blue Mark to get more of an idea of the throat singing in a very modern context. But I’ve chosen an instrumental piece, RaaKH II. Both are from their album, Made in Altan Urag. I’m better able to analyze western music. But even when I can’t analyze, I can still tell quality work. Anyway, this one has a beat and you can dance to it.

Fasten your seat belts, because we have to take a quick detour to the United States. I said that my boss was interesting, not consistent. So we are out of the Sahara and into the mid-west with Abigail Washburn. She is a noted banjo player and singer. And Toni sent along the follow link to a live performance by Sparrow Quartet of “Kangding Qingge” (Old-Timey Dance Party) from their 2008 album, Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet. It’s a great song and Washburn is wonderful and all but…

It should be really clear listening to this that Washburn is not the star of this band. The real star in the Sparrow Quartet is Béla Fleck. In fact, he is so great that I really think I’m going to have to do a week of his music sometime soon. But for now, let’s enjoy this beautiful piece of music. It really is lowly.

Today, we move just east of Mali to Niger with the great singer, songwriter, and guitarist Bombino. He’s more in my comfort range regarding artists because he exists in the context that I know of the music profession. He writes pretty much all his own songs. And the songs are very western in their structure. But it still sounds very different from anything I’ve ever heard before.

Here he is performing for NPR in what looks like a tiny radio station somewhere. The people playing with him seem to change in each performance I see. But they are all very good. I think it is always easy for people to think this kind of relaxed, assured music is easy to play, but it isn’t; it is absolutely the hardest thing in the world. And they really let Bombino fly off with some exceptional guitar solos. Here we have three songs off his 2013 album, Nomad. They are “Tamiditine” (My Darling), “Her Tenere” (In the Desert), and “Imuhar” (Freeman).

Afterword

If you like this music, check out this entire performance, Live From Breakglass.

Back to Mali with us! Today, we listen to Amadou & Mariam. My boss wrote to me, “My first thought about them was that they must be the coolest people on earth — black glasses and just bobbing their head’s around and singing like they can’t see anything. Then I later read that they are blind. Makes sense!” In fact, the two did meet at Mali’s Institute for the Young Blind. They married when they were in the 20s, and are known as “The blind couple from Mali.”

Today, we are going to listen to a stripped down version of their song “Wily Kataso” off their album, Folila. I have to say, that I much prefer the album track. But I like to feature live performances if at all possible. What I don’t like here is Bagayoko’s guitar work, although he’s great at the end. Regardless, it’s the vocals that really carry it. (But I recommend clicking over the album track.)

Since I wrote my last post, my boss has flooded me with more music. She moved out of Africa and into Asia. But we are going to stay in Africa for now. (She also said that I make her sound much more interesting than she is. But then, she would, wouldn’t she?)

Today we have Mariem Hassan. She was born in what was then Spanish Sahara — part of Morocco now. She just died a couple months ago. She had bone cancer. It’s very sad. She was only 57. Regardless, her music is very beautiful. In addition to being a singer, she was a lyricist. And she was also quite political and wrote a lot about female empowerment. Or so I’m told. She generally sang in Arabic, and when she didn’t, she was singing in another language I don’t know.

The following is “Haiyu” off her 2010 album, Shouka. It is gourgeous and upbeat — I’ve been led to believe that the lyrics are similarly sunny. I believe it is an old folk song that she updated.

In my regular work, I have two bosses. One is the owner, but I don’t deal with him directly all that often. So I think of my boss as Toni. She’s a really interesting person. Really. Interesting. She’s a mother of three, but wilder than I’ve ever been. She picks up homeless people and lets them sleep on the couch. She’s a juggler who busks on the street. Whereas I close the drapes and hide inside, she rushes to meet the world head on. In fact, she has recently had run-ins with black bears and a cougar. She terrifies me, but I enjoy living in a small way through her.

She’s very interested in what she refers to as “African blues.” It is mostly music of the Sahara — most especially Mali. You may remember that I featured some musicians from the region some time ago, Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté. But I don’t know much about it. And so I thought it would be interesting to do a week of my boss’ favorite music. She sent me a collection that is focused in Africa, but isn’t exclusively so.

We start with what I believe is her favorite band, Tinariwen. They are definitely influenced by Touré — but I doubt there are many musicians from the region who haven’t been. You can definitely hear why she calls them African blues. It’s incredibly compelling music. Sometimes, when people listen to foreign music, they don’t get much out of it. For example, when Ravi Shankar performed at the Concert for Bangladesh, the audience applauded after his group tuned up. He famously said, “If you like our tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing even more.” But this music is distinctly western, so the listener can appreciate what is different about it.

Here is “Islegh Taghram Tifhamam” off their most recent album, Emmaar. It’s very laid back, but they can rock. I might come back to them later in the week with another tune. They deserve it.

At last, we reach the end of our Tiny Tim week. And we go out with a bang. If I have only one song to introduce someone to him with, I go right to the big guns — the one song that shows everything that is great about him. And that song is his cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” It’s a perfect song.

Let’s start with the music. It is a light jazz version of the song with a relentless walking bass and a wonderfully syncopated drum. On top of this, is this wonderful 1940s style male vocal quartet, which allows Tiny Tim to play around a bit. The main thing is that the song is done completely seriously. But the critical thing about it is that no one doing it thinks the song is serious. It is about as serious as Mickey the Monkey.

This is our second day on with Tiny Tim’s last studio album, Girl. As stated before, the title refers to The Beatles song. But he did another of their songs, “Hey Jude.” But unlike the original version, which is over-serious and grand, Tiny Tim’s version is pure Latin fun — “Cha cha cha!” I think that’s a critical element to his work. He loves the songs. He respects the songs. And he’s not afraid to play around with them.

Of course, now I expect to get someone coming on here explaining to me that I am an awful person for not holding the original version of the song in high enough esteem. Indeed, I see that Weekend Edition highlighted the song in, Annoying Music: Beatles Cover Songs. But really, is there anything more annoying than Paul McCartney taking a one minute ditty and pushing it past seven? Tiny Tim’s version makes me want to get up and dance. Cha cha cha!