A song about a poem about a photograph about playing darts in Newfoundland

All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus #7, Avondale, Conception Bay
Scott Walden (2007)
Artist retains rights.

Like I was saying, Poetry Scores has a live premiere of a new poetry score on Saturday, May 30 at the Schlafly Tap Room in downtown St. Louis.

We are scoring "All the Clubs from Hollyrood to Brigus" by Mary Dalton, a twelve-poem sequence of "fictions, ruminations and riddles," according to its subtitle, about the taverns and social clubs that line a 16-mile stretch of one of the oldest highways in Newfoundland.

We are translating into music poetry that was itself the translation of photographs. Mary Dalton based her poetic sequence on a series of photographs taken on the road between Holyrood and Brigus, Newfoundland, between 2005 and 2007 by Scott Walden.

Only three of the twelve poems in the sequence are subtitled after a specific photograph. "Darts (villanelle)" is subtitled after the photograph "All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus #7, Avondale, Conception Bay," a photograph of a woman throwing a dart behind a man who has just thrown a dart into a separate dart board. Behind them are the shadows of a lounge where chairs and tables have been cleared from the floor and stacked on top of each other. Her poem opens with the most vivid image in a quiet, contemplative photograph: the flash of the woman's throwing hand.

 

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Darts (villanelle)
All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus #7

By Mary Dalton

In a flash the hand soars into flight;
here the scuffed lino’s a stage
The bar chatter’s faint from this height.
           
Banished from thought is the fight
that burrowed its way out of rage;
in a flash, the hand soars in flight

Y’know, the missus and buddy are tight.
That fellow stole his new gauge.
The bar chatter’s faint from this height.

Birds hover or, it might be, a kite:
the plodder’s transformed to a sage.
In a flash the hand soars in flight.
           
The wheel of the dartboard’s a site
where drudgery’s exiled, and age.
The bar chatter’s faint from this height.

The massed shadows now cannot quite
mew up this prey in their cage.
In a flash the hand soars in flight;
the bar chatter’s faint from this height.

                          

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"Darts (villanelle)" includes in its title the traditional poetic form that Mary Dalton employed to write it, as does "Tommy's Lounge (triolet)." The villanelle is a tricky form. The Academy of American Poets summarizes it:

The highly structured villanelle is a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. The form is made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain. The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem’s two concluding lines. Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2 . 

Poetry Scores is setting Mary Dalton's poetic sequence to music anthology-style, with a committee of composers working on the project. Michael Martin - a veteran of many great St. Louis bands, including Three Foot Thick, Kamikaze Cowboy, and Karate Bikini - scored "Darts (villanelle)" as a folk rock song with a loose, fetching feel. Michael is a busy producer in his Broom Factory Studio, and it sounds to me like he had some fun in the studio with this tricky poem about a simple game.

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mp3

"Darts (villanelle)"
(Mary Dalton, Michael Martin)

Performed, produced and recorded by Michael Martin at the Broom Factory

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Another photo from Scott Walden's series also depicts a dart board as part of an impromptu tavern wall formal study, "All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus #28, Holyrood, Conception Bay" (2006).

All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus #28, Holyrood, Conception Bay
Scott Walden (2006)
Artist retains rights.

Video of Mary Dalton reading "Darts (villanelle)" that she recorded for our project.

The original announcement of the May 30 show with more details.

Michael Martin

Mary Dalton

Rock song to a poetic triolet about a formal study photograph of lounge exterior in Newfoundland

                            

"All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus #47, Brigus, Conception Bay"

By Scott Walden (2005)

Artist retains rights 

Like I was saying, Poetry Scores has a live premiere of a new poetry score on Saturday, May 30 at the Schlafly Tap Room in downtown St. Louis.

We are scoring "All the Clubs from Hollyrood to Brigus" by Mary Dalton, a twelve-poem sequence of "fictions, ruminations and riddles," according to its subtitle, about the taverns and social clubs that line a 16-mile stretch of one of the oldest highways in Newfoundland.

It's interesting that we are translating into music poetry that was itself the translation of photographs. Mary Dalton based her poetic sequence on a series of photographs taken on the road between Holyrood and Brigus, Newfoundland, between 2005 and 2007 by Scott Walden.

Only two of the twelve poems in the sequence are subtitled after a specific photograph. "Tommy's Lounge" is subtitled after the photograph "All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus #47, Brigus, Conception Bay," a formal study of the lounge's exterior.

A handsome, Western-themed sign features the lounge name framed by a Stetson tented over a pair of cowboy boots, with two big stars like lawmen badges. The lounge sign does not line up quite right with the smaller side window it butts up against. Siding that looks like it's seen a few hard winters buckles here and there throughout, forming a background pattern that is slightly warped.

Mary Dalton's poem picks up on the Western imagery, the things not lining up quite right, and the slightly warped atmosphere of the photograph.


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Tommy’s Lounge (triolet)
All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus #47

By Mary Dalton


There’s Western gear on Tommy’s sign;
cartoon Stetson, boots and star.

Here’s no tang of kelp or brine,
but big bucks earned fast, by gar.

And, caught in a pane, a stave of lines,
and the sky that scatters us far.

Western gear on Tommy’s sign:
cartoon Stetson, boots and star.


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I don't understand that bit about gar fishing in Newfoundland, but I know something about tough commercial fishing port towns, which seems to be what's evoked here.

The "triolet" in the poem title is the name for the poetic form that Mary Dalton uses here. Though "triolet" has "trio" in it, it's got nothing to do with threes, but is rather a short poem of eight lines with only two rhymes used throughout. It makes perfect sense that the poet would use a traditional poetic form to write a poem about a photograph that is a formal study.

Mark Buckheit scored "Tommy's Lounge" for us. Mark made that triolet rock.

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mp3

"Tommy's Lounge"
(Mary Dalton, Mark Buckheit)

Demo performed and recorded by Mark Buckheit.

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Video of Mary Dalton reading "Tommy's Lounge," recorded just for our show.

The original announcement of the May 30 show with more details.

Mary Dalton
 

Mark Buckheit

A song about a poem about a photograph of a girl at a bar in Newfoundland

"All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus #24, Colliers, Conception Bay"
By Scott Walden (2006)
Artist retains rights 

Like I was saying, Poetry Scores has a live premiere of a new poetry score on Saturday, May 30 at the Schlafly Tap Room in downtown St. Louis.

We are scoring "All the Clubs from Hollyrood to Brigus" by Mary Dalton, a twelve-poem sequence of "fictions, ruminations and riddles," according to its subtitle, about the taverns and social clubs that line a 16-mile stretch of one of the oldest highways in Newfoundland.

It's interesting that we are translating into music poetry that was itself the translation of photographs. Mary Dalton based her poetic sequence on a series of photographs taken on the road between Holyrood and Brigus, Newfoundland, between 2005 and 2007 by Scott Walden.

Only two of the twelve poems in the sequence are subtitled after a specific photograph. "Girl at the Bar" is subtitled after the 24th numbered poem in Scott Walden's series, "All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus #24, Colliers, Conception Bay" (2006). The poem even mentions the photographer and places his portrait of this young woman in the history of art alongside Vermeer and Botticelli.

The poem is self-consciously ekphrastic: it's deliberately a poem about a work of art.

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Girl at the Bar
All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus #24

By Mary Dalton

I spend most of my time not dying.
That’s what living is for.
—Frederick Seidel, “Fog”

She is looking into the distance.
The light touches her forehead, her neck,
hovers about her eyes and chin,
gold strands of her hair,
gold of the beer glass.
Fiery light glances off her
hair, upswept at the back.
The busy iconography of the bar,
its framed memories and plaques,
the phone talker nearby—
against their blurry clutter
a stillness, a space at once inner
and knowing, a pool of solitude
in the whirl of the carnival.

Here, in the commotion, the crowd,
the photographer’s found
a Botticelli angel,
a Vermeer beauty,
T-shirted,
yet his gaze travels further:
one senses that soon
the moment will vanish;
she will slide off the bar stool,
toss off a wise-crack,
grin at the comeback,
sashay out with buddy,
out into the lava shift of the strobes,
out into the roiling
spree of the dance floor.

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We are scoring "All the Clubs" compilation-style with a committee of songwriters, and Ann Hirschfeld called for "Girl at the Bar." Here is her demo.





Video of Mary Dalton reading "Girl at the Bar," recorded just for our show.

The original announcement of the May 30 show with more details.

Mary Dalton

A song to a poem about a bar named for a fool in Newfoundland

"All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus #21, Conception Harbour, Conception Bay"
Scott Walden (2006)
Artist retains rights

Like I was saying, Poetry Scores has a live premiere of a new poetry score on Saturday, May 30 at the Schlafly Tap Room in downtown St. Louis.

We are scoring "All the Clubs from Hollyrood to Brigus," a twelve-poem sequence of "fictions, ruminations and riddles," according to its subtitle, about the taverns and social clubs that line a 16-mile stretch of one of the oldest highways in Newfoundland.

The poet Mary Dalton - like any self-respecting tavern-goer - relishes the names of pubs and social clubs. Throughout the sequence, she names taverns -- and then renames them for what their real names would be if they truly described what happens to people in there.

In "The Twilick," a prose poem, she savors a few actual tavern names -- and then invents the name of a fictional lounge and imagines a typical scene inside it.

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The Twillick
By Mary Dalton


The Blue Moon. The Velvet Hat. The Newfoundland Lounge. They should have a bar called The Twillick. Go in there now and what you’ll see is those fellows—and the women, too—home from Alberta, the SUVs and the monster trucks gleaming in the parking lots, and them huddled over the flash and dash, the blips and beeps of the VLTs, feeding in the dollars they left their place and young ones for, feeding in the big money they got on the planes for. The big money they sold their backs and lungs for, often as not. Or crowded round a pool-table like worshippers at one of those new-fangled centre altars, praying at the shrine of Texas Hold ’Em.

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According to The Dictionary of Newfoundland English, a "twillick" is a long-legged sea shore bird -- and a fool.

St. Louis songster Mike Stuvland, who is no fool, set "The Twillick" to a wistful acoustic tune that includes my favorite-ever intonation of the phrase "monster trucks" in a song.






Video of Mary Dalton reading "The Twilick" just for our show.

The series of photographs by Scott Walden, also titled "All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus," that inspired Mary Dalton's poem.

The original announcement of the May 30 show with more details.

Mike Stuvland

Mary Dalton

"Riddling" by Mary Dalton and Eric Rose

"All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus #31, Avondale, Conception Bay"
By Scott Walden (2006)
Artist retains rights

Like I was saying, Poetry Scores has a live premiere of a new poetry score on Saturday, May 30 at the Schlafly Tap Room in downtown St. Louis.

We scored "All the Clubs from Hollyrood to Brigus," a twelve-poem sequence of "fictions, ruminations and riddles," according to its subtitle, about the taverns and social clubs that line a 16-mile stretch of one of the oldest highways in Newfoundland.

Close to the end of the sequence - poem ten of twelve - the poet Mary Dalton poses a riddle and even titles the poem "Ridding."


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Riddling
By Mary Dalton


How is a club like a story?

One may beget the other;
atmosphere is all;
the light is a transforming one;
in the shadows are symbols and myths;
the characters are gathered against the storm;
time stops or expands or shrinks;
epiphanies abound—or fail to occur
the narrator is unreliable.


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With twelve separate poems to work with, we offered them to different songwriters for a compilation-style score. Eric Rose volunteered for "Riddling."






Eric is based out of San Francisco, where he runs a company called Right Brain Consultants. He played in the Washington University campus band scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s with the guys who would eventually found Poetry Scores: Matt Fuller, Chris King and Elijah "Lij" Shaw. Eric and Matt formed half of the legendary Wash U campus band Butt of Jokes that first pulled Chris into the campus music scene as a fan and inspired him to start the band with Matt and Elijah (Enormous Richard) that eventually evolved into Poetry Scores.

"Riddling," after all of these years, is Eric Rose's first contribution to Poetry Scores, though we hope it will be far from his last.

Eric Rose (stretching) with Butt of Jokes, ca. 1989.
Future Poetry Scores cofounder Matt Fuller is on drums.
Stomping on his bass pedal is Ben Herzon, soon of The Bishops.

The other songwriters on "All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus: Nick Barbieri, Mark Buckheit, Robert Goetz, Ann Hirschfeld, Michael Martin, Joe Thebeau, Three Fried Men, The Lettuce Heads and Mike Stuvland.

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The original announcement of the May 30 show with more details.

The series of photographs by Scott Walden, also titled "All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus," that inspired Mary Dalton's poem.

Mary Dalton

Mary Dalton has published five volumes of poetry, most recently "Hooking" (2013), "Merrybegot" (2003) and "Red Ledger" (2006). Her work has been widely anthologized in Canada and abroad and won many awards.

"The Swallowing" by Mary Dalton and Nick Barbieri

"All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus #6, Avondale, Conception Bay"
By Scott Walden (2007)
Artist retains rights. 

Like I was saying, Poetry Scores has a live premiere of a new poetry score on Saturday, May 30 at the Schlafly Tap Room in downtown St. Louis.

We scored "All the Clubs from Hollyrood to Brigus" by Mary Dalton, a poet of Newfoundland. "All the Clubs" is a twelve-poem sequence of "fictions, ruminations and riddles," as its subtitle says. Poetry Scores assigned the separate poems to different songwriters for an anthology-style score by committee: Nick Barbieri, Mark Buckheit, Robert Goetz, Ann Hirschfeld, Michael Martin, Eric Rose, Joe Thebeau, Three Fried Men, The Lettuce Heads and Mike Stuvland all scored Mary Dalton poems.

The poet has worked very closely with Nick Barbieri, who is producing the score for Poetry Scores. She advised the songwriters about pronunciations of local place names that her Newfoundland neighbors would recognize, recorded new videos of her poems for inclusion in our live show, and generally is cheering the project along.

As Nick pointed out, it makes sense that Mary Dalton would embrace our musical adaptation of her poems, because her sequence was itself the poetic translation of a series of photographs taken on the road between Holyrood and Brigus, Newfoundland, between 2005 and 2007 by Scott Walden.

"This series takes as its subject matter the bars and social clubs that line a 16-mile stretch of one of the oldest highways in Newfoundland," Scott Walden writes of his series of photographs, also titled "All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus."

"As social centres in their communities, the architecture and demographics of the clubs reveal a contemporary rural Newfoundland that is a mixture of young and old, corporate and mom-and-pop, threadbare and shiny new."

Mary Dalton's poems dive deeper down than architecture or demographics. She dives into the eyes of the club regulars Scott Walden captured with his camera. She sinks to the center and bottom of the human predicament on the social circuit between Holyrood and Brigus. Taverns and clubs are places where people gather together to drink alcohol, play games of skill and chance, and tell each other stories, and Mary Dalton's poems have much to say about why people seek each other's company, the games we play, the dreams and lies of alcohol, how the ritual of story both records experience and transfigures it.

In addition to producer of the poetry score and director of the big band that will perform it on May 30, Nick Barbieri is also one of the composers for "All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus." Nick scored the seventh poem in the twelve-poem sequence, "The Swallowing," as a four-song suite. In "The Swallowing," the poet dives to the bottom of the glass and of the person swallowing from it. Here are parts three and four of the suite.

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"The Swallowing"
(Mary Dalton, Nick Barbieri)

Performed by Nick Barbieri and friends
Produced by Nick Barbieri

 

Mixed by Meghan Gohil of Hollywood Recording Studio, Los Angeles

Mastered by Lij of The Toy Box Studio, East Nashville

"The Swallowing, Part 3"

Nick Barbieri: acoustic guitars, bass, drums, keyboard, timpani & vocals
Brian Henneman (courtesy Bloodshot Records): electric guitars

Recorded by Nick Barbieri, except vocals recorded by Adam Long

The Swallowing, Part 4"

Nick Barbieri: drums, bass, piano & vocals
Frank Catalano (courtesy Ropeadope Records): tenor sax
Nathan Pence: upright bass.

Recorded by Nick Barbieri, except tenor sax recorded by Daniel Steinman, vocals by Adam Long

"The Swallowing" is available everywhere music is downloaded or streamed on Nick Barbier's solo record "Poetry Scored" (Hollywood Recording Studio) - for example, on iTunes.

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The original announcement of the May 30 show with more details.

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Mary Dalton
 

Nick Barbieri
recording Stefene Russell for Poetry Scores
Photo by Chris King

Poetry Scores premieres musical settings of Newfoundland pub crawl poems

All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus #58, Brigus, Conception Bay (2007)
By Scott Walden
(Artist retains rights)

Poetry Scores will premiere the musical score of a pub crawl poem from Newfoundland at The Schlafly Tap Room on Saturday, May 30, along with a CD release by Nick Barbieri and a set of Old Time music by Dugout Canoe.

This free show starts at 9 p.m. with Nick’s set, followed by the Poetry Scores premiere at 10 p.m. and Dugout Canoe at 11 p.m. The Tap Room is located at 2100 Locust St. in downtown St. Louis and is a full-service restaurant and bar specializing in homemade beer. Poetry Scores is a St. Louis-based artist collective that translates poetry into other media.

A band of Poetry Scores veterans, with some newcomers, will perform new musical scores of “All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus,” a poetic sequence about Newfoundland pubs and the people who pass through them by Mary Dalton.

Mary Dalton's poem is itself a poetic score of a series of photographs of the same name (2005-2007) by Scott Walden.

"This series takes as its subject matter the bars and social clubs that line a 16-mile stretch of one of the oldest highways in Newfoundland, one whose communities have been buffeted by many of the major post-confederation changes: the new industries, the construction of the Trans-Canada Highway, the elimination of the Newfoundland Railway, the ‘70s-era emigration for high-steel jobs in the United States, the moratorium on the fishery, and the ‘90s-era emigration of youth to Alberta," Walden writes.

"As social centres in their communities, the architecture and demographics of the clubs reveal a contemporary rural Newfoundland that is a mixture of young and old, corporate and mom-and-pop, threadbare and shiny new."

The twelve poems in the sequence have been scored by local songsters Joe Thebeau, Michael Martin, Three Fried Men, The Lettuce Heads, Mike Stuvland, Ann Hirschfeld, Nick Barbieri, Mark Buckheit and Robert Goetz, plus a score by Eric Rose of San Francisco (co-frontman in the seminal 1980s Wash U campus band Butt of Jokes).

The Poetry Scores house big band performing the scores will include Perry Anselman, Nick Barbieri, Mark Buckheit, Steve Carosello, Heidi Dean, Eileen Gannon, Robert Goetz, Meghan Gohil, Ann Hirschfeld, Adam Long, Michael Martin, David Melson, Brian Messina, Mark Overton, Jon Parsons and Geoffrey Seitz.

The Lettuce Heads’ two scores will feature Fred Friction and Stefene Russell, respectively, performing Mary Dalton’s poetry over recordings of Lettuce Heads garage jams.

Mary Dalton
 

Before each of the scores, Mary Dalton will perform the poem being set to music, on video from Newfoundland produced specially for this event.

Mary Dalton has published five volumes of poetry, most recently "Hooking" (2013), "Merrybegot" (2003) and "Red Ledger" (2006). Her work has been widely anthologized in Canada and abroad and won many awards.

As the opening act at 9 p.m., Nick Barbieri will celebrate the release of his debut album “Poetry Scored.” The same augmented Poetry Scores all stars will back Nick performing his scores of poems by Andreas Embirikos (translated by Nikos Stabakis), Chris King, Josephine Miles and Albert Saijo, as well as a cover of “Midget’s” by St. Louis songster Chuck Reinhart and several songs with Nick’s own lyrics.

Nick Barbieri leading the Poetry Scores all stars
in their 2014 score of "Ten Dreamers in a Motel" by Josephine Miles

“Poetry Scored” has already been released by Hollywood Recording Studio and is available wherever music is downloaded or streamed - for example, on iTunes.

The night concludes at 11 p.m. with Dugout Canoe, arguably the greatest Old Time music band on the planet. Geoff Seitz, Dave Landreth, Marc Rennard and Andy Gribble are all legends in their own rights (and minds). Taken together, they are that much more legendary (and mental).

Dugout Canoe

Questions? Nick Barbieri, nickbedrock@gmail.com, or Chris King, brodog@hotmail.com.

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Download a PDF of “All the Clubs from Holyrood to Brigus” by Mary Dalton