THE BOB DYLAN OF HARP: JOANNA NEWSOM

Having a drink (of water, haha) with some folks last night, I was reminded how it was I started singing with the harp.

It was the summer of 2005.  I was at home wallowing in my usual remorse and morbid depression when someone I kinda knew, a “friend of a friend,” called me… She had cancer.  She had begun a healing process.  She had gone  to some kind of a temple and prayed.  She had a vision!  and it included me!  (which was odd, since I barely knew her)….  and in the vision, she was told or felt or learned that she needed to ask me to write a song for her on the harp.  And that it would be just as good for her, as it was for me.

I sat down immediately, and wrote “Night Song,” a song about the fear of the unknown.  Basically, a song about death.  Right after, I wrote “Day Song,” a song of hope. 

Then I set about to record them.  This is where the brain-hurting part came in.  I had never sung with the harp before, and it really and truly hurt my head to try to do it.  Now it is a lot easier, but my head hurts for other reasons (I am a PhD student). 

Anyway, I managed to do it, my friend got better, and so did I.   She is a singer in a women’s choir (Calliope Women’s Chorus of Athens, directed by Nancy Pearce), and we performed the songs on several occasions, as well as at the Womyn’s Survivor Art Show.

What is survivor art? you might ask.

Survivor art is “Art that speaks about recovery from challenges to mental, emotional, and physical well being. It is powerful, intimate, and raw. Both medium and subject often separate it from fine art. It is usually created to express an experience in the process of recovery rather than drawing on that experience to inform the art.”  (from the Womyn’s Survivor Art show website).

On to Joanna Newsom.

To me, she is the Bob Dylan of harp, not only because she is an innovator, being one of the very first people I’ve ever heard to sing “art/pop” songs on the harp, but because I had the same initial reaction to her voice as I did to Bob Dylan’s.  Sort of like a needle scratching a record, or a cat clawing a chalkboard.  I couldn’t believe how scratchy and unpleasant Bob Dylan sounded to me at first, and the same with Joanna.  But now I really like each of their voices.  They are unique.  And powerful in the emotional imagery they convey.

Also, Joanna had some kind of surgery or development with her voice, that changed it.  I do like her new voice very much, although the old one had so much character it was hard to deny its odd beauty.

I realy love Joanna’s playing.  She is a bona fide harpist who engages polyrhythmic accompaniments to intricate, lyrical and mystical art songs.  I have no idea what she is talking about in her songs.  I just know they are artful and truly creative, unique works that form a landmark in the harp world.

Recently, I discovered “81.”  Far and above, this is my favorite Joanna song ever.  I listened to it about two weeks in a row, dozens of times a day, and never got sick of the intricacies.  Singing this song is a challenge because it makes me cross from my comfortable alto range, into falsetto.  Even though my version can’t compare to Joanna’s, I do my own little version anyway, since the only other person who can do it is Joanna and she doesn’t happen to be in my room every night. 

“… as naked as a trout…”  hehe

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