Mick Mercer has entered the room…

Mick Mercer granted me the honor of reviewing both The Amber Sessions and The Last Drive In~ And in his inimitable writing style, he graced my work with a very complimentary testimonial indeed~

I am feeling very grateful these days for the incredible praise that both these albums are attracting from various people who I greatly respect. A thousand kisses and sunflowers cast their way!

Mick tells that a review of Fools and Orphans is immanent…

I think I’ll go buy myself an ice cream now.

Here are his reviews of Amber and Drive In:

http://mickmercer.livejournal.com/836856.html

http://mickmercer.livejournal.com/835071.html

Rather than answer Mick’s query’s directly since he’s most likely busy writing some fantastic review for some particular artist~ I thought i’d post a little explanation for a few of the things he mentioned amidst his covering both The Amber Sessions and The Last Drive In~ first he wondered if goats dance and if I had some knowledge of that! Well yes they do, and I did! In fact my publishing company Dancing Goat Music, is named after these magically lyrical creatures who inadvertently discovered that lovely nectar of the gods Coffee! Here is the link and the legend as it goes: http://www.dancinggoats.com/Home_C277.cfm?CFID=6926294&CFTOKEN=79250333 The Legend of the Dancing Goats® Coffee was first discovered in what is now called Ethiopia. According to legend, the area’s remote highlands were home to a goatherd named Kaldi. One day he noticed his goats dancing and prancing after eating the small, red fruit of a nearby shrub. Not wishing to be left out of the fun, Kaldi ate the coffee cherries and soon he was dancing with his goats! Now concerning the following pondering: “in the bump of night”, which is a lovely phrase I haven’t heard before. I have no idea how this ties in with the cover imagery; perhaps not at all, perhaps with blistering clarity for those who understood. My love of horror films and the lost art of the genre is getting to be pretty well known amongst my fans~and how I long for that past time that once gloriously showcased some of the more off the beaten path style films, the cult, the b movie, etc~ The Last Drive In is my homage to that nostalgic time when we piled into our cars, dressed in our pajamas and watched all things gruesome and unreal jump off the big screen at us while we cowered in the back seat of dad’s chevy! I liked the idea of saying The Bump of Night instead of a bump in the night! And I am so thrilled Mick liked it too! ‘There’s A Crack In The Wall’ is giddy and light-headed, with the spectre of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds circling, which I accept must be accidental. A scrawny beauty, this is like an eerie breeze commanding the piano with its lid left open” Yes, the essence of that Lucy effect came quite naturally to the piece as the entire album felt channeled to me~ It struck me the same once it was done, but i really liked it’s attitude and felt that it should remain as is~ Again, I am thrilled that Mick sensed it’s spontaneous appearance in the song~ and i love his term Scrawny beauty! he does know how to turn a phrase~ thank you again Mick~ i hope this clears up a few of the scratching one’s head moments~ Cheers all~ Joey Posted by Jo Gabriel on Saturday, May 03, 2008 at 8:20 PM

Advertisement