[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Top thru Author” _builder_version=”4.9.2″ background_enable_image=”off” min_height=”400px” custom_margin=”0px||-40px||false|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||true|false” hover_enabled=”0″ saved_tabs=”all” sticky_enabled=”0″][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_4,3_4″ _builder_version=”3.26.7″][et_pb_column type=”1_4″ _builder_version=”3.26.6″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_4″ _builder_version=”3.26.6″][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/societyforritualarts.com\/coreopsis\/spring-2021-issue\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/coreopsis-winter-2019-header.png” admin_label=”Coreopsis logo” _builder_version=”3.26.6″][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_5,3_5,1_5″ _builder_version=”3.26.7″][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”3.26.6″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”3.26.6″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”3.26.6″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_5,3_5,1_5″ _builder_version=”3.26.7″][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”3.26.6″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”3.26.6″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Title & Author” module_id=”author” module_class=”noindent” _builder_version=”4.9.1″]<\/p>\n
Dr. Steve Blomerth<\/span>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”3.26.6″][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ admin_label=”Content Block” _builder_version=”4.9.1″ background_enable_image=”off” custom_margin=”0px||0px||true|false” custom_padding=”0px||0px||true|false” saved_tabs=”all”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_5,3_5,1_5″ _builder_version=”3.26.7″][et_pb_column type=”1_5″ _builder_version=”3.26.6″][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”3.26.6″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.9.1″ custom_margin=”||||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px|||”]<\/p>\n 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<\/i>.\u00a0 \u201cCabin fever\u201d 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?<\/p>\n Here is what John McCutcheon\u2019s website has to say about the Cabin Fever<\/i> album:<\/p>\n 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.<\/i><\/p>\n The musical roots aspect of Cabin Fever<\/i> go back to John McCutcheon\u2019s 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.\u00a0 In between the speeches, on that day, John McCutcheon saw Folk musicians sing about problems in American society as social commentary. Cabin Fever<\/i> is in that Folk music tradition of mixing social consciousness, personal experience, and occasional humor in a simple and accessible musical style.<\/p>\n How do you sustain a listener\u2019s 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\u2019s rich baritone voice, which sings like the strings of YoYo Ma\u2019s cello. And it helps if you have John McCutcheon\u2019s 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\u00a0 musical and sonic variety to Cabin Fever<\/i>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The songs on Cabin Fever<\/i> 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\u2019s voice and music. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=h2FjBokBAQo<\/a><\/p>\n The first song on Cabin Fever<\/i> is \u201cFront Line.\u201d 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 \u201ccabin fever.\u201d But if you choose that dramatic point of view, you must deliver stronger lyrics for the\u00a0chorus than:<\/p>\n On the front line there’s no place to go, facing the foe where it’s found. On the front line there\u2019s no time to be scared. Pray you’re prepared, just stand your ground.<\/i><\/p>\n 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:\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/i><\/p>\n It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=0SGrwKrQKg<\/a><\/p>\n John McCutcheon does capture some of the frustration as well as the humor of our enforced social distancing in a waltz called \u201cSix Feet Away.\u201d https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uBw5xiyVVBw<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n Here the melody, lyrics, and waltz rhythm capture the awkwardness we negotiate as we communicate, commiserate, and laugh at ourselves during the Pandemic.<\/p>\n