the village band of grassano

the village band of grassano was returning from nearby sant’arcangelo when the bus skidded and went off the cliff - the local shepherds still avoid the area at the base of the cliff claiming they can hear brass instruments playing. sant’arcangelo itself has the horns of the local dragon in the church - killed by a nearby feudal lord for the grazing rights to the meadows alongside the nearby river. to do this he required the assistance of the virgin mary. ‘the village is built of the bones of the dead’ says the town crier/ grave digger of gagliano - in his youth he was a wolf tamer. (this much and more we learn in carlo levi’s christ stopped at eboli, carlo levi the exile in lucania an area even more remote and fucked up than grassano - a region that  that not even christianity had properly reached. gagliano is (like akenfield) a fictionalised version of a real place).


there is a photo of late era (cleaned up) fahey on his way to a gig (from the front cover of womblife) - or is it? it looks suspiciously like he is moving, he looks suspiciously like the fahey of santa anna days. horsemouth has continued his fahey week celebrations by listening to death chants, breakdowns and military waltzes, and the dance of death and other plantation favourites (volumes 2 and 3 respectively). the downfall of the adelphi rolling grist mill was a live recording with flautist nancy mclean (she plays on lewisdale blues off voice of the turtle also) - allegedly recorded in march (so perhaps an anniversary) but horsemouth cannot yet discover the date.