Mr. Wendell Berry of Kentucky

Wendell Berry poem covered on bluegrass album

Perhaps the most ambitious song is The Peace Of Wild Things/Dayblind, where they take Wendell Berry's moving poem ('When despair for the world grows in me') and present a mournful talking version, which then develops into a life-affirming bluegrass instrumental.

via www.telegraph.co.uk

More on Wendell Berry poem in choral work

In choosing a theme for the commission, Mr. Scribner says, "We never seriously contemplated anything other than something that celebrates our Earthly home. It's a subject that's absolutely universal and unifying. There are many political views about the Earth, but no one disputes the fact that in some way, shape, or form we have to take care of our home."

The concert is a work in seven movements. Symphonic choruses are based on texts, and four of the movements are poems by the poet Wendell Berry, who was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2010. According Mr. Scribner, the poetry of Mr. Berry "forms the heart and soul of the piece."

via www.theatlantic.com

Also see Washingtonian

And The Washington Post

Wendell Berry poem contributes to choral work, "Seven Songs for Planet Earth"

"A few years ago, while searching for a text for a piece commissioned by the Syracuse Vocal Ensemble, I came across some of Berry's poems," Kortekangas said. "Didn't know his work, had never heard of him, so it was 'love at first sight.' I think he's a great poet, a great thinker and somebody who lives the way he preaches, which is rare."

via washingtonexaminer.com

Richard Carlson spins Wendell Berry & others into blues

“Is it not possible that by calling to our aid the musical relation of
dissonance we may meanwhile have made the difficult problem of the
tragic effect much easier? For we now understand what it means to
wish to see tragedy and at the same time to long to get beyond all
seeing” -Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy XXIV

To try to make sense of a world in which fragile bodies collide with primal forces and inevitably fall is to do philosophy. To give voice to the many small truths of the world by allowing its suffering to speak out is to aspire to poetry. If the work of tragedy is to aestheticize suffering the blues was there at the birth of tragedy. While blues music fits within a world tradition of folk music it also shares a history with great literature, philosophy, poetry. Our project here is to begin to explore this shared history. r

credits

released 24 November 2010
Richard Carlson - Vocals, Guitar, Slide Guitar, Throat Singing 
Buddy Mohmed - Contrabass, Guitar

via richardcarlson.bandcamp.com

Mr. Carlson has set "Desolation" and "The Wheel" to music well worth hearing. His lyrics to the WB pieces and all the others as well can be found HERE.

Reading WB inspires songful response

Dalglish setting of WB poem performed in Nashville

The Choir of First Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville performs a setting of Mr. Berry's poem, composed by Malcolm Dalglish who plays the dulcimer here.

For more video from this occasion, go HERE.

Band reads 'Jayber Crow'

The Sidelines - Paper Route plays with surreal, dark pop.

Rather than try to copy other musicians, Paper Route looks to other art forms when in a musical rut.

In addition to the entire band reading “Jayber Crow,” a TV was set up in the recording area as an inspirational outlet when trying to come up with ideas.

“Blade Runner” and Wendell Berry apparently equal moody, synthesized melodia brought down to earth by very humanistic, if tired, themes of friendship and love.

Comparisons could be drawn closely to Coldplay, because the sound is stylistically refined, but lyrically meandering and colorful. READ MORE ...

Jayber Crow's "Two Short Stories"

Jayber Crow is a good novel about a good man by Wendell Berry.

And Jayber Crow is a good indie-folk duo whose first full-length album "Two Short Stories" carries enough lyrical weight to bear much listening ... and enough music to get you dancey all over.

Jayber Crow is Pete Nelson and Zach Hawkins ... and with guitar, mandolin, harmonica, banjo, tambourine ... and voices ... these two make a lot of good noise.

Given the concerns of their lyrics, their choice of the name "Jayber Crow" is quite apt ... and not at all accidental. They touch on matters of human, animal, plant, and mineral life ... life on the ground ... in all of our frequently problematic relationships. "Freeze and Throw," for instance, celebrates the geophysical processes by which the world and its cities break open ... a creative crumbling of sorts. This is good stuff.

The songs speak of ... or speak as ... a varied cast: as Warren and his heart attack or a germinating seed or John Deere or a prairie fire or Jesus and the Devil in the desert, or a young guy weary of city life.

The lines are sharp, touching, and even inspiring ...

"If you want riches, boy, just say the word." ("Devil and the Desert")

"Some things you give you cannot get back again." ("Panic of 1837")

"Open up your beak,
Open up your beak,
Open up your beak,
And be not quieted by other birds."
("The Limited Voice of the American Crow")

I am grateful ... and I think we are blessed ... that Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Nelson have taken that crow's advice ... and taken to the road. Fans of Mr. Berry and of Jayber Crow himself should find much to like in this wonderful confabulation of songs.

Choral Performance of "Peace of Wild Things"

Rev. Nate Walker’s PodCasts » The Peace of Wild Things.

The choir of the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia sings “The Peace of Wild Things” music by Joan Szymko and text by Wendell Berry. Music Director, Jennifer Hayman. Click Here to Hear ...

Laurie Lewis sings Burley Coulter's Song

The rugs were rolled back to the wall,

The band in place, the lamps all lit.

We talked and laughed a little bit

And then obeyed the caller's call—

Light-footed, happy, half-entranced—

To balance, swing, and promenade.

Do you remember how we danced

And how the fiddler played?

(from "Burley Coulter's Song for Kate Helen Branch" in Given, 2005)