When the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic swept across the U.S., it changed the way people lived, worked, and socialized. For Folk singer John McCutcheon, it brought a title to mind for his 41st album– Cabin Fever. “Cabin fever” was once a term applied to those who must endure long winters in a small shelter. It has become an expression to describe the restless and helpless claustrophobia of a circumstance beyond our control. And what better title for a Folk musician to deal with social commentary, personal observation, and anything else that may come to mind while cut off from normal circumstance?
Here is what John McCutcheon’s website has to say about the Cabin Fever album:
John returned from his Australian tour on March 16th and immediately went into a self-imposed quarantine. Hermited away at his north Georgia cabin, he spent his days reading, writing, and trying to use his time creatively. One of the results of that time is a collection of songs written during and about the Quarantine and the times around it. From the funny to the heartfelt, John ruminates on love at a distance, the national mood, those on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19, those forgotten, what happens after all this, and even the surprising resurgence of the bean. With his keen eye for the great within the small, his captivating storytelling, and his ability to go for the funny bone and the heart at once, it is vintage McCutcheon.
The musical roots aspect of Cabin Fever go back to John McCutcheon’s earliest exposure to Folk music. When he was just eleven years old, his mother sat him down in front of the family TV to watch Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the March for Jobs and Freedom, on August 28, 1963 in Washington DC. In between the speeches, on that day, John McCutcheon saw Folk musicians sing about problems in American society as social commentary. Cabin Fever is in that Folk music tradition of mixing social consciousness, personal experience, and occasional humor in a simple and accessible musical style.
How do you sustain a listener’s interest over the course of 17 songs with just the sound of one voice, accompanied by a single instrument? It helps a lot if you have John McCutcheon’s rich baritone voice, which sings like the strings of YoYo Ma’s cello. And it helps if you have John McCutcheon’s skill at self-accompaniment. John McCutcheon uses different guitar-playing styles; flat picking and finger picking. He uses different instruments; guitar, piano, and National Steel guitar. And he uses different time signatures; 4/4, 2/4, and 3/4 time signatures. This brings musical and sonic variety to Cabin Fever.
The songs on Cabin Fever are personal, historical, humorous, and socially conscious by turns, and if you have heard the voice and work of Stan Rogers you will have a fair idea of John McCutcheon’s voice and music. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2FjBokBAQo
The first song on Cabin Fever is “Front Line.” The lyrics express the viewpoint of an infectious disease doctor during the Covid -19 pandemic. The song has an eighth-note, up-tempo, soft rock feel to it, with a catchy and rhythmic melody. It is a great idea for a first tune to introduce the reason why so many people would be experiencing “cabin fever.” But if you choose that dramatic point of view, you must deliver stronger lyrics for the chorus than:
On the front line there’s no place to go, facing the foe where it’s found. On the front line there’s no time to be scared. Pray you’re prepared, just stand your ground.
An infectious disease doctor would be experiencing the most emotional vantage point you could have–other than as a patient–and the word choice requires more visceral impact. John McCutcheon could have said something like this:
On the front line, gasping for air, with lonely despair, the last place so many will know. On the front line, between life and last breath, there’s fear and regret, I give them a hand they can hold.
It’s good to have the opening tune of an album have a catchy and rhythmic melody to catch the ear, but in this case a little fine tuning on the lyrics would have made it stronger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SGrwKrQKg
John McCutcheon does capture some of the frustration as well as the humor of our enforced social distancing in a waltz called “Six Feet Away.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBw5xiyVVBw
Here the melody, lyrics, and waltz rhythm capture the awkwardness we negotiate as we communicate, commiserate, and laugh at ourselves during the Pandemic.
But my personal favorite for its melody, poetry, and depth is “Monet Refuses The Operation.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL2s4ECtFrg&list=OLAK5uy_nyXLQqjKSZC23o5_ltndS3T8xw1J9u9zc&index=15
The persona of this song is Claude Monet, facing cataract surgery due to failing eyesight. Monet actually did have cataract surgery, but deeply regretted it and felt it helped end his career, but in this telling of the tale he refuses to have the operation because he has attained a unique perspective on the world where “gaslights are angels” and “the Rouen cathedral is built on two mighty shafts of sun.” Perhaps the “cabin fever” time allowed John McCutcheon to read about Claude Monet’s last days, or perhaps it gave him time to consider what role perception may have in spirituality. The net effect is that “Monet Refuses The Operation” achieves a haunting melody and an ethereal poetry unlike the rest of the album.
I admire the workman-like attitude, in Folk music, of being willing to write a song for any and all occasions. Folk songwriters like Woody Guthrie were able to write many songs about social injustice, and other themes that acted as catalysts for political action for people working to change the world. For some of his songs, Woody Guthrie simply borrowed a pre-existing melody from another Folk song and used that tune to carry his words. That is a great time-saver when you only have to invent the words, and not the melody and harmonies of a song. As a songwriter, a large part of my work is spent trying to compose an interesting melody and chord changes that will intrigue the listener enough to make them pay attention or want to sing along. Listening to several of the tunes on Cabin Fever, there is a similarity in melody or chord progression enough to wonder if John McCutcheon simply used a previous idea to carry a new lyric. The great advantage that John McCutcheon has over many less-gifted songwriters lies in the strength and tone of his voice. If he sang the dictionary I am sure it would be moving.
Cabin Fever
Track List:
Front Line
The Night That John Prine Died
Sheltered in Place
In Bristol Bay
Control
One Hundred Years
Six Feet Away
That’s All
Hallelujah Morning
Vespers
My Dog Talking Blues
When All of This Is Over
The Donkey
The Bean
Monet Refuses the Operation
Earth
Traveler’s Rest