Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: creative
  • Music: Talis Kimberley, "One Big Sea."

The soundtracks of our lives.

I listen to music constantly. Like, constantly. If I'm not playing MP3s on my computer or listening to my iPod, I'm listening to the music in my head. I listen to classic rock and modern rock, folk music of all kinds, filk music, soundtracks, heavy metal, country, indie rock, and goth. I listen to damn near everything I can get my hands on. And with all of that, it's reasonably rare for an album to crawl so far under my skin that it becomes a part of me.

Talis Kimberley's Archetype Cafe is one of those albums.

Many of you have bought Wicked Girls, for which I am hugely appreciative (and not just because it gets them out of my house). Well, that album would not exist without Talis. She inspires and drives my songwriting in a way that very little else does; every lyric I write is put together using lessons I've learned from her. The title track of her album, "Archetype Cafe," posits a gathering place for history's women that would be a perfect fit for my own wild and wicked girls. See for yourself:

"Lady MacBeth said to Helen of Troy
When they finished the wine they'd been drinking,
'I'm all for regicide once in a while, but
Helen, dear, what were you thinking?"
Helen smiled back enigmatically, for she'd
Never much cared what her friends say,
And the Ladies' Historic Society meets
Down at Archetype Cafe on Wednesday..."

Vixy and I sing "Archetype Cafe" together sometimes, when we do concerts in the same place, and it breaks my heart and heals my heart a little bit every single time.

I'll be honest: even if every other song on this CD were bad, terrible, no good, and wrong, I would recommend it just for "Archetype Cafe" and "Small Mended Corners." But none of the songs are bad, or terrible, or no good, or wrong. They're all different flavors of amazing. If you enjoyed "Wicked Girls," or Vixy and Tony's "Thirteen," this is really an album that you need to hear.

Archetype Cafe is available through CD Baby.

I love Talis madly, but that's not why I'm posting this. I'm posting this because this album is amazing, and you need to know that it's out there. To close this entry, and illustrate my point, have a verse from "Small Mended Corners":

"There are women I've been who you haven't seen yet
There are women I shall be who you've never met
As to who I am now if you're prompted to ask
I'm the ghost of my future and the sum of my past..."

Love.
Tags: filk, good things, people make things
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  • 109 comments
...go 2 levels up... Expand

inaurolillium

September 10 2011, 19:51:18 UTC 5 years ago

EEEE!
I had a whole plan to, actually. When I finally had the money and stuff, I was going to email you and tell you all about it and tell you that any time you were in Seattle, please, please come sing, and we'd put a little brass plaque on a table for you: "RESERVED: Talis Kimberly, on Wednesdays" so you'd always have a seat.

See, my first restaurant, The Night Kitchen, just recently closed. It wasn't supposed to. It was supposed to be just the first, and then I was going to open Archetype once it was running well.

The very first musicians who played at Night Kitchen were Vixy and Tony, and they played Archetype Cafe, and afterwards, another friend said to me, "You totally need to open a restaurant called Archetype Cafe!" And I said, "I think I do." And one day, I still hope to. And to have a mural on the wall of all the women in the song, having their meeting.

talis_kimberley

September 13 2011, 12:55:09 UTC 5 years ago

...ohhh. Sadness and pride mingled. It's just lovely that Vixy and Tony sang my song there... I hope your fortunes improve and that you get a chance to open Archetype Cafe for real. And if I make it to the Seattle area then I hope I'll get to sing for you, whether it's at the eponymous cafe or over a sandwich and cup of tea!

I really must dig out that sequel one of these days...