I kind of just want to rip off the songs:illinois riff on Dan Blakeslee. It’s concise, has very nice comparisons to musicians I was thinking of too (Jeff Buckley, in particular) and, well, it’s already written. I penalize my students for plagiarism, though, and doing the same here would just make me a jerk. Dan Blakeslee seems like no jerk; in fact, one of his albums is a recording of a live set performed at New Hampshire’s Laconia State Prison. He’s described as a “folk god” in local New England press, and after reading about him for awhile, you get the impression that he’s like a Homeric minstrel poet for the Robert Frost set. And he can fiddle. So, thanks for the borrow, songs:illinois.
Sharing the sharing.