At my house, the fox wins. In this song, Bold Reynard the Fox loses!

Two dawns ago, Ezra's dog Julius starting making a very weird, loud, agitated crooning shrieking noise. Ez ran out to see a fox loping away from the coop with a chicken in its mouth. Turns out it (with or without friends) got four chickens that morning, this one was the last. It's the last straw, I've lost too many chickens to predators in these recent years. I'm giving up, and I really, really love keeping chickens so the decision was a terrible one. Anyway, in vicarious vengeance I post this wonderful song about a rather dreadful custom and I don't want to hear any guff about it. Learned from the singing of the wonderful Bob Fox a long, long time ago, and recorded with pianist Jacqueline Schwab and bassist Robbie Link.

The Ploughboy (aka The Lark in the Morning)

It occurred to me: now that I know how to make music videos without any concert footage (ie bogus quasi-animated video), I can revisit some earlier projects. I started with one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite albums of all time, Sedgefield Fair: More or less traditional songs from England & Scotland, "The Plowboy."



The song exists with many Irish, Scottish, and American variants, of course. I don't even remember where I first found this melody. Working it up (and all the others on the album) with pianist Jacqueline Schwab was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life. She thinks in pictures, in scenes, each song was like a little play, we talked about color and movement and her magnificent improvisation was beyond inspiring. We later brought in the wonderful bassist Robbie Link and the resulting innocent, emotional, gentle, passionate arrangements can still bring me to tears.

You can get this track or the whole cd from Skylark2.com or: Sedgefield Fair at Amazon.com.