Info

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).
RSS Feed
Parlando - Where Music and Words Meet
2026
May
April
March
February
January


2025
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2024
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2023
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2022
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2021
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2020
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2019
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2018
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2017
December
November
October
September
August
July
June
May
April
March
February
January


2016
December
November
October
September
August


All Episodes
Archives
Now displaying: July, 2025
Jul 24, 2025

As part of this month's atypical series recounting long past live performances from my youth, this is an original song from a lo-fi tape of the LYL Band performing at the University of Minnesota's Wiley Hall in 1981. "China Mouth" is a Surrealistic discontented Summer song, somewhat of a contrast to the LYL Band's usual early Eighties repertoire that focused on satire and comment on current events and social issues.  

The Parlando Project combines various words (usually others' literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them or read more about the 1981 concert that this song was performed at by going to our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Jul 24, 2025

From a lo-fi tape of the LYL Band's 1981 concert at the University of Minnesota, the LYL Band's live performance of Dave Moore's song adaptation of Kevin FitzPatrick's poem about who faces the guns for minimum wage. 

The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them and read about or encounters with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Jul 18, 2025

A topical song the LYL Band sang in 1980 about privilege and the attempted assassination of President Reagan. This is part of an atypical series I'm running this summer about some performances I've been a part of over the years.

What the Parlando Project normally does is combine various other people's words (usually literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of those combinations, and you can hear any of them and read about our encounter with the words at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Jul 15, 2025

My first live performance, a public spoken word reading from Leonard Cohen's novel Beautiful Losers I did back in The Sixties. I had just turned 19 years old.

No music this time, but usually the Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. You can hear any of the more than 800 of such combinations we've done at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

Jul 10, 2025

This Emily Dickinson poem about our fixation on losses seems to me informed by early 19th c. popular ballads, so I sang it as one.

The Parlando Project combines various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in differing styles. We've done over 800 of these combinations, and you can hear any of them and read about our experience of working with the poems at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.org

1