For space is wide and good friends are too few.
There are stories of the Dutchman, the Celeste and Barnham’s Pride
There are stories of the Horseman and the Lady at his side
But the tale that makes my blood run cold, the more because it’s true
Is the tale of Jayme Dawson and his crew
Yes, the tale of Dawson’s Christian and her crewA newer recording of one of my favorite classic filk songs, “Dawson’s Christian,” a space opera ghost story, originally Duane Elms.
Reblogging one of my favorite ghost stories in honor of Halloween 🙂
“Paper Moon” by Seanan McGuire, performed here by Seanan, S.J. Tucker, Vixy & Tony, and Betsy Tinney.
As Seanan explains before performing, “In a dimension very much like our own, Firefly is still on the air and they’ve made spin offs. And I keep writing theme songs for those spin offs.”
Dreams can’t hurt you, that’s what parents used to say
But they changed the world forever in New Mexico that day
No one sleeps and no one wakens, no one’s ever what they seem
And the one you thought you knew was just a dream, just a dream
Yes the one you knew was just a dream
“Just a Dream,” by Vixy and Tony, based on the short story “The Minotaur”, by Bill Kte’pi
So tell me a story, aren’t all stories true?
Tell me a story and I’ll tell it back to you
There’s always someone else there, up the river, up the river
Got to find my own way up the river
“The River,” a song about trying to make art when it feels like there’s someone upstream in the river of creativity (for example, Bob Dylan), catching all the good ideas before they get to you. But in good filk fashion, Vixy and Tony point out the bright side – the fact that there are other people fishing means we can help each other. Idea fish , unlike meat fish, don’t get used up, they grow.
There are stories of the Dutchman, the Celeste and Barnham’s Pride
There are stories of the Horseman and the Lady at his side
But the tale that makes my blood run cold, the more because it’s true
Is the tale of Jayme Dawson and his crew
Yes, the tale of Dawson’s Christian and her crew
A newer recording of one of my favorite classic filk songs, “Dawson’s Christian,” a space opera ghost story, originally Duane Elms.
Burn it down, burn it down, burn it down
Throw your fear upon the fire and burn it down
Throw your voice out to the wind
Feel the heat upon your skin
As you hunger, so begin
Burn it down
“Burn It Down,” a song about drastic creative measures from Vixy and Tony
Sleep, my girl, and dream of home
Of lamps alight and hearth aflame
A china cup, a silver comb
An old grey wolf for you to tame
A rider come who knows your name
“Likho’s Lullabye,” based on a traditional Russian lullabye and the novel Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente, with additional lyrics & melody by Michelle Dockrey, sung by Michelle Dockrey of Vixy & Tony
They raid your liquor cabinet, though they’re not of age to drink
They’re staging tango competitions in the kitchen sink
They’re critiquing your new painting (your perspective’s off, they say)
And they’re analyzing your décor for optimal feng shui
“Eight-Legged Blues,” by special-edition four-member Vixy & Tony (Michelle Dockrey, Tony Fabris, Betsy Tinney, and Sunnie Larsen)
The part of the spiders is credited to Betsy’s cello, Raven.
I usually prefer to get studio recordings when I can, if only to make it more likely that all the words will be intelligible but…this one is special. They set out to create a geek anthem, and boy did they ever.
Michelle Dockrey said this about writing this song:
Background: this was commissioned by Tony, who wanted a geek anthem. I got partway through writing it and found myself blocked. Thinking of all the things still wrong, and things that were going on at the time both in and out of fandom– harrassment, backlash over representation, lack of protections still for so many– I just didn’t see how I could write a song about how much it got better.
I confessed this tearfully to Tony, who said, essentially, “write it the way you see it.”
“We Are Who We Are,” by Vixy & Tony, lead vocals by Michelle Dockrey with Tony Fabris on guitar, Betsy Tinney on cello, Sunnie Larsen on violin, and the attendants of FilkCONtinental 2014…as themselves. Lyrics and more information here
Hey, the new song is up! There are actually several new songs in the pipeline but this is the one that’s finished right now. It’s called “Thirteen,” and it’s a free download, though you can always hit the tip jar if you like it.
I made it for Conflikt, where I was MCing as Toastmuppet this past weekend. It’s a filk convention – geek music goes back a while, this is a geek folk music (“filk”) con – so of course I made them some geek folk metal, a semi-cover of the Vixy & Tony track “Thirteen.”
Their original isn’t about Doctor Who contemplating his own mortality after running out of regenerations, though. That’s just my version. I was all, “What’s the filkiest thing I can do for this con? Oh, I know, take a well-known filk track and make it even geekier by making it about the Doctor.”
Their original is here, if you want a listen. It’s quite different.
More on Conflikt tomorrow. I shot parts of the con with a fisheye-lens film camera. YEAH I SAID FILM IT IS HILARIOUS I HAD TO STEAL IT FROM THE PRESIDENT ORDER IT FROM JAPAN. I also said fisheye, because the camera was a gift and it has a fisheye lens and you can’t turn it off. FULL-THROTTLE FISHINESS BEGINS TOMORROW!
Assuming the film comes out. I don’t even know. I sure hope it does, I’m not joking about it being imported from the home islands. It’s the last place you can buy ISO 1600 colour film as far as I know.
Okay that’s enough words. LESS TALK MORE FILK!Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come check out our music at:
Bandcamp (full album streaming) | Videos | iTunes | Amazon | CD BabyI finally set up a Soundcloud account, and put this on it. 😀 (Also Kaiju Meat. I should probably put all my most fandom-related songs on it.)