Kaleidoscope

[shewhomust]

Having completely earwormed myself writing the previous post, I append a middle-of-the-night afterthought: one of the things I love about Nancy Kerr's songwriting is her obliqueness, and Santa Georgia demonstrates this perfectly. A song written on a rainy Saint George's day, joyfully greeting a multicultural England, surely that has to be worthy but pedestrian, doesn't it? But no, there's not a pious generalisation in sight, but Sheffield and rain and a kaleidoscope of images, like the stained glass of Winchester cathedral that is referenced in the song, smashed and remade and beautiful again. The result is as cryptic and haunting as any traditional ballad, grown mysterious not as it passes through the generations of singers but in the mind of its maker: she is a one-woman folk process.

Or that's what I thought in the small hours, anyway.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Nancy is a stunning songwriter and talking of such things, see mt latest!

[shewhomust]

Indeed!

[teenybuffalo]

I adore "Santa Georgia" and have been singing it a lot lately, with friends as well as alone. You just summed up what I love most about it. Thank you!

I didn't get that the Winchester Cathedral reference was specific, but since they're the Melrose Quartet, I remembered Melrose Abbey, which I spent a couple of hours exploring once. The huge elaborate windows that (I think) were bashed in with Cromwell's men's halberds, or else left to drop all their glass over centuries of neglect.

The song, for me, is partly about living in an imperfect world and making do, and also finding wonder and transcendence in ordinary things. Banks of burdocks are about the most ordinary thing I can think of, and I've heard bystanders remark on how non-fantastical that sounds. That's what makes it great. It's in the same vein as "Ring the bells that still can ring/ forget your perfect offering/ there is a crack in everything,/ that's how the light gets in."

[shewhomust]

I can't remember where I found the gloss about Winchester, but it's solid, I think. And (to my disappointment) they have nothing to do with Melrose - it's a street in Sheffield (Melrose Avenue, possibly?) where they all live (or did).