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Parlando - Where Music and Words Meet

Poetry has been defined as “words that want to break into song.” Musicians who make music seek to “say something”. Parlando will put spoken words (often, but not always, poetry) and music (different kinds, limited only by the abilities of the performing participants) together. The resulting performances will be short, 2 to 10 minutes in length. The podcast will present them un-adorned. How much variety can we find in this combination? Listen to a few episodes and see. Hear the sound and sense convey other people's stories here at Parlando - Where Music and Words Meet At least at first, the two readers will be a pair of Minnesota poets and musicians: Frank Hudson and Dave Moore who have performed as The LYL Band since the late 70s. Influences include: Patti Smith, Jack Kerouac (and many other “beat poets”), Frank Zappa, Carl Sandburg, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart), William Blake, Alan Moore, The Fugs (Ed Sanders, Tuli Kupferberg), Leo Kottke, Ken Nordine (Word Jazz), Bob Dylan, Steve Reich, and most of the Velvet Underground (Lou Reed, John Cale, Nico).
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Parlando - Where Music and Words Meet
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Archives
Now displaying: February, 2023
Feb 26, 2023

Here's an outwardly simple yet mysterious poem by Langston Hughes, published among other young Afro-American poets in the 1926 issue of Fire!! For more about this and more than 650 other examples of various words (mostly poetry, combined with original music, see our archives at frankhudson.org

Feb 24, 2023

Another Waring Cuney lyric used on the Josh White record of the state of the Black American nation in 1941. I recently performed it with my own music as part of our February observance of US Black History Month.

For more about this and over 650 other combinations of various words with original music check out our archives at frankhudson.org

Feb 20, 2023

Waring Cuney was one of the lesser-known young contributors to the 1926 Fire!! magazine. Later he contributed lyrics to an anti-Jim Crow Josh White recording. I used one of them again with my own musical setting today. 

For more than 650 other examples of various words (mostly poetry) combined with original music, visit our archives at frankhudson.org

Feb 18, 2023

Resuming our encounter with the 1926 Harlem Renaissance publication Fire!!  I present my performance of Waring Cuney's poem "The Death Bed."  This musical setting uses a sample from the poem's contemporary, Blues/Gospel guitarist Willie Johnson.

Feb 16, 2023

Here's another performance of my poem about old love. For more than 650 other combinations of various words (mostly poetry) with original music visit our archives at frankhudson.org

Feb 12, 2023

A rambunctious country-blues ditty celebrating geezer-age love and desire. If you can't laugh on Valentine's Day, you aren't in love. 

For more about this and more than 650 other combinations of various words (mostly poetry) with original music try our archives at frankhudson.org

Feb 6, 2023

Harlem Renaissance figure Helene Johnson wrote this cold pastoral more than a decade before the more famous song lyric "Strange Fruit." I've set it to music and performed Johnson's poem for today's piece.

Feb 2, 2023

This sonnet by Countee Cullen begins our observance of Black History Month this year. Within my folk music setting I tried to sing this poem air of mournful hope.

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