Two modern guitarists said some interesting things about the electric guitar in a recent interview, so I decided to perform quotes from each of them yesterday. To read the full interview https://www.premierguitar.com/artists/guitarists/squid-band
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A short meditation on what stands outside of silent poetry performed with acoustic guitar. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music, visit frankhudson.org
For our second American Labor Day piece, two labor marching songs performed by a rock band, one using words by Lola Ridge, and the other words by Dave Moore. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
For American Labor Day I adapted the end of Carl Sandburg's hymn to workers "Smoke and Steel" and turned it into this song. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
The LYL Band loudly romp through a Dave Moore song about a resonant note at the core of the world. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
Songs and poems often sing about poets who died young. This isn't one of those. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
Performance of another sonnet in my sequence telling the story of a daughter caring for her mother with Alzheimer's. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music visit frankhudson.org
A performance of another sonnet in our series about dealing with a family member with Alzheimer's. For more about his and other combinations of various words with original music go to frankhudson.org
Victorian poetry's secret? Algernon Charles Swinburne was considered pretty hot stuff back then. Let's do our best to reheat the leftovers. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
Here's a song whose lyrics I adapted from Rabindranath Tagore. What do you think are the silent steps of the title? For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
A poem about grief performed with a rock band. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music, visit frankhudson.org
A poem about August written by Emily Dickinson's childhood classmate is performed with acoustic guitar and bass. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
I perform, from Walt Whitman's Specimen Days, this roving meditation on summer. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music, visit frankhudson.org
Emily Dickinson performed with sitar and electric guitars. I'm sure that's what she'd want for this song-debate between nature's seasons and her soul. For more about this and other combinations of various word and original music visit frankhudson.org
Alfred Tennyson's tiny poem about a small insect's transformation performed with original music by The LYL Band. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
A somewhat imperfect performance, but I have to share this song that begins near the end of a basketball game and moves on to statements about life, dying, and death like this one:
“You can make this up. It makes up itself. You can’t make it be more than anything else.”
This musical piece uses as its text Heidi Randen's short response to Louise Glück's poem "The Wild Iris" which speaks of suffering and its aftermath with possible rebirth. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.com
A break from our sometimes intense presentations of poetry with music, here's a bluesy little ditty about the worship of dead rock stars. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music visit frankhudson.org
A short piece about an aging farm woman with Alzheimer's performed by The LYL Band. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music visit frankhudson.org
Langston Hughes answered Whitman's "I Hear America Singing" with his addition. I have in turn performed it with a folk acoustic guitar setting you can sing along to, adding my own short coda to Hughes' thoughts. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
Walt Whitman's hymn to American work and workers performed. It's a good choice for Independence Day - July 4th, or any other day. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music visit frankhudson.org
A strange, yet evocative summer song written and sung by Dave Moore. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music visit frankhudson.org
Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem of love, night, a ferry ride, and the world remembered performed. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music visit frankhudson.org
William Blake's mystic lullaby sung with acoustic guitar. For more about this and other combinations of various words with original music, visit frankhudson.org
Performing Canadian poet Bliss Carman's reimagined ancient Greek poet Sappho. For more about this and other combinations of various words and original music, visit frankhudson.org