More Americana/roots/folk music, this time from a trio of ladies you may not know. Sara Watkins is new to me but Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O'Donovan are familiar faces (and voices) from their appearances on the BBC series Transatlantic Sessions.
https://www.transatlanticsessions.com
Collectively they record as "I'm With Her."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I%27m_with_Her_(band)
....comment on the first video - "I heard that they had to put them in different rooms in the studio, not because of sound but because if you put so much talent and perfect pitch in one room, the studio spontaneously combusts." .... now ain't that the truth. three very talented musicians as individuals become almost perfect in harmony!
*** FUTURE POSTS WILL ALSO APPEAR AT 'NOW AND NEXT' : https://rolfnorfolk.substack.com
Keyboard worrier
Friday, March 06, 2020
Thursday, March 05, 2020
Salisbury poisonings (Skripal case) and Operation Toxic Dagger
Two years after the kerfuffle over the alleged attempted novichok poison assassination by two Russian agents of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter - a story full of curious anomalies https://www.theblogmire.com/the-salisbury-poisonings-two-years-on-a-riddle-wrapped-in-a-cover-up-inside-a-hoax/ - a detail comes up that could connect the dots in a different way.
The Off-Guardian https://off-guardian.org/2020/03/04/the-skripal-case-two-years-on/ says that while the two Russian suspects were crashing around seemingly trying hard to draw attention to themselves, there was a major multi-agency military training exercise ongoing, focused on our preparedness for chemical warfare:
Were the Skripals somehow part of the exercise, and of a more complex play?
I prefer spooks and their games to be confined to the covers of John Le Carré books.
(For more on Toxic Dagger, see also https://www.gov.uk/government/news/exercise-toxic-dagger-the-sharp-end-of-chemical-warfare)
The Off-Guardian https://off-guardian.org/2020/03/04/the-skripal-case-two-years-on/ says that while the two Russian suspects were crashing around seemingly trying hard to draw attention to themselves, there was a major multi-agency military training exercise ongoing, focused on our preparedness for chemical warfare:
- The person who found them was the most senior nurse in the British Army (likely in the area as part of Toxic Dagger, the British Military’s landmark chemical weapons training exercise which began Feb 20th and ran on until March 12th).
- The nurse and her family administer “emergency aid” to the two alleged poisoning victims. Neither she nor anyone else on the scene, nor any of the first responders, ever experience any symptoms of nerve agent poisoning. Neither do any of the other people the Skripal’s came into contact with that day.
Were the Skripals somehow part of the exercise, and of a more complex play?
I prefer spooks and their games to be confined to the covers of John Le Carré books.
(For more on Toxic Dagger, see also https://www.gov.uk/government/news/exercise-toxic-dagger-the-sharp-end-of-chemical-warfare)
Wednesday, March 04, 2020
Covid-19: Getting A Grip
As cases of Covid-19 approach six
figures globally and have passed the half-century in the UK, our government has
released its Action Plan https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-action-plan
(3 March). Before we look at it, let’s consider some other points.
We’ve been relatively lucky here
and in the US. The virus reached us towards the end of the winter flu season
and thanks to a reasonably cleanly populace and alert medics ready to jump on
new cases and take the more serious to specialist facilities, the situation has
the appearance of being so well under control that wiseacres are telling us
we’ve been over-reacting https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/03/coronavirus_stay_calm_and_avoid_the_hype.html
and pass the port, old boy.
However, we could be in a Phoney
War period. It seems that although Covid-19 is fatal to a small percentage, the
potential scale of deaths relates more to the number of possible infections and
nobody has an immunity. It’s not just a Chinese illness: early on, a Chinese
study was released saying that East Asians might be more liable to contract the
disease because of a genetic difference in their lung cells; yet as of 4 March
16:27 GMT https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
, in Iran 92/2,922 have died, in Italy 75/2,502 – a death-to-case ratio of
three per cent in each case.
This coronavirus has now hit Africa,
South America and the Middle East, where health screening and treatment systems
are not universally well-developed. A coronavirus simulation exercise conducted
a few months before the real outbreak concluded that on average, the world’s
nations were only forty per cent prepared to deal with a pandemic https://hub.jhu.edu/2019/11/06/event-201-health-security/?fbclid=IwAR36gEPN_cBanQvewvO19pWHifTMP-aZ5PWea8B2GpjygFe2LVc1YTANuMY
. ‘WuFlu’ could go on to brew away among the billions in the southern
hemisphere, where autumn is on its way. There is also the Islamic community,
for whom pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the Five Pillars of religious duty,
incurring a ‘super-spreader’ risk as noted by Shahul H Ebrahim and Ziad A
Memish in the Lancet https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30466-9/fulltext
(27 February). Moreover, there are many other holy sites visited by millions of
pilgrims, including internally within Iran, so flight restrictions do not
completely solve the problem.
A great global reservoir could be
building up, and we shall know what we’re facing when Britain comes again to
seasonal flu time. Paradoxically, the fact that for many the illness will be
mild, even unnoticed, makes the situation worse because those people will
likely go about as normal and stand to infect others. We should use our Phoney
War period to plan and rearm.
So we shall. Tony Blair was fond
of the phrase ‘joined-up government’, although in practice, joined-up writing
looked like a bit of a stretch, except where systemic socio-economic and
constitutional vandalism were concerned. Johnson’s first big test has turned
out to be, not Brexit but disease. I don’t know whether it’s quite fair to
suggest that Etonians generally have a penchant for delegation to ‘little men
who do that sort of thing’ but BoJo’s appointee Dominic Cummings has arrived
just in time to try out his own theories in respect of the effective management
of public affairs, and I assume this ‘Coronavirus: action plan’ document has
his fingerprints on it.
The challenge is to strike a
balance between showing the government is prepared, and scaring us. It’s not so
much a death-puppet that waggles at us, but the prospect of overburdened
hospitals and health services, and significant disruption to daily life.
At present, for every person who
dies in hospital (thankfully, nobody in Britain, yet) there are several more in
intensive care, plus further numbers within hospitals and even more at home.
The team has thought of this (point 2.7) and estimates that at its peak the
disease may cause up to a fifth of workers to be absent from duty. This has
been repeated in the news media and BoJo has undertaken to allow Statutory Sick
Pay to be paid from the first day of illness. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/coronavirus-news-boris-johnson-statutory-sick-pay-self-isolation-a9374696.html
The general treatment strategy
(2.9) is fourfold: Self isolation, managing symptoms, support for patients with
complications, but most people to manage at home.
The wider strategy (3.7) is to
Contain, Delay (to allow time for more clement weather, for research and the
development of a vaccine – but paragraph 4.25 notes the need to weigh the
‘social costs’ of implementing actions), Mitigate the consequences, and
continue with Research. À propos the last, the document notes (4.32) King’s
College London’s work on ‘Emergency Preparedness and Response’ and (4.33)
Imperial College’s unit developing Modelling Methodology.
The plan also reminds us of the
complexities of devolved government, so HMG is taking that into consideration.
Let’s hope that TV interviewers think twice before macho, pen-twiddling ragging
of central government ministers about matters for which regional government is
responsible https://conservativewoman.co.uk/narky-newman-plumbs-new-depths/
.
A point that is both reassuring and
worrying is in (4.8): ‘new powers for medical professionals, public health
professionals and the police to allow them to detain and direct individuals in
quarantined areas at risk or suspected of having the virus.’ Let us hope the
Opposition will keep a beady eye on the potential for abuse of such powers, and
insist on periodic reviews and sunset clauses.
The paper reminds us that Dad can’t
do it all for us, and the advice is worth quoting in full:
4.34 Everyone can help
support the UK’s response by:
• following public health
authorities’ advice, for example on hand washing
• reducing the impact and
spread of misinformation by relying on information from trusted sources, such
as that on www.nhs.uk/ , www.nhsinform.scot, www.publichealth.hscni.net , https://gov.wales/coronavirus-covid-19
and www.gov.uk/
• checking and following
the latest FCO travel advice when travelling and planning to travel
• ensuring you and your
family’s vaccinations are up to date as this will help reduce the pressure on
the NHS/HSCNI through reducing vaccine-preventable diseases
• checking on elderly or
vulnerable family, friends and neighbours
• using NHS 111 (or NHS 24
in Scotland or NHS Direct Wales) (including online, where possible), pharmacies
and GPs responsibly, and go to the hospital only when you really need to. This
is further explained on the NHS website - www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/nhs-services/urgent-and-emergencycare/when-to-go-to-ae/
and http://www.choosewellwales.org.uk/home
• being understanding of
the pressures the health and social care systems may be under, and receptive to
changes that may be needed to the provision of care to you and your family.
• accepting that the
advice for managing COVID-19 for most people will be self-isolation at home and
simple over the counter medicines
• checking for new advice
as the situation changes.
So far, so good – it feels as
though intelligent management is in charge. ‘Keep calm, and carry on.’
Tuesday, March 03, 2020
Filthy: the treatment of Julian Assange
‘To this day,’ wrote the
journalist and humourist Patrick Campbell in 1967 https://www.abebooks.co.uk/9781851453160/Life-Easy-Times-Patrick-Campbell-1851453164/plp
, ‘I remain pretty well unmoved by politics... But when something happens
today, as it often does, that has the flavour of Berlin, in 1933, I’m very
liable to describe it as ‘filthy’. It’s the nearest I can get to making a
protest on behalf of humanity.’
The way that Julian Assange has
been and is being treated, is filthy. With what anger and shame must we read of
the extradition proceedings that make British justice stink like an unburied
corpse – see the account Craig Murray, former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan and
himself a whistleblower, gave last
October https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/10/assange-in-court/
:
‘The charge against Julian is very specific;
conspiring with Chelsea Manning to publish the Iraq War logs, the Afghanistan
war logs and the State Department cables. The charges are nothing to do with
Sweden, nothing to do with sex, and nothing to do with the 2016 US election; a
simple clarification the mainstream media appears incapable of understanding.’
Even the Swedish authorities
wanted to drop the rape allegations, only for the UK’s Crown Prosecution
Service to email them with ‘Don’t you dare get cold feet!!!’ (The triple
exclamation marks, sic. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/feb/11/sweden-tried-to-drop-assange-extradition-in-2013-cps-emails-show
)
The Australian Embassy refused to
assist their citizen https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18546082
, so Assange went to the Ecuadorian Embassy, disguised as a courier, and had to
stay there on the first floor overlooking Harrods, for seven years, effectively
in solitary confinement, while our Government, playing Pussy, waited for him
outside his hole, blowing £11 million in police costs in the first three years https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3131882/Arrogant-Julian-Assange-condemned-refusing-leave-Ecuador-s-embassy-face-justice-rape-allegations-Met-Police-reveal-cost-11million.html
.
When Ecuador’s President, the
anti-globalist Rafael Correa, ended his third term of office he continued to
support the cause of the ‘Maus’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maus
but last April the new incumbent, Correa’s former deputy Lenín Moreno invited Scotland
Yard into his diplomatically immune territory to take Assange by force. Correa
tweeted: ‘Moreno is a corrupt man, but what he has done is a crime that
humanity will never forget.’ https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/apr/11/rafael-correa-ex-ecuadorian-president-slams-succes/
Some may think I have failed under
Godwin’s Law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law
by drawing a comparison with the totalitarianism of the Thirties and after; but
my mother was there at the time, in high school. She loved to read in the
school’s library but one day she went in and the shelves were full of big gaps:
the socialist and Jewish writers and philosophers had been removed. All the
teachers had joined the Party; and her classmates, too, but Opa (our granddad)
wouldn’t let her – a gentleman farmer, he considered the movement full of scum.
Mum had to fight boys in the playground but being sporty and thickset, won her
battles. For the rest of her life she opposed all forms of what she called
‘fanatism.’
The conduct of the proceedings has
to be read to be believed – Murray is reporting regularly https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/03/the-armoured-glass-box-is-an-instrument-of-torture/
. They are now taking place in Woolwich Crown Court, almost a granny annexe for
the top-security Belmarsh Prison that was designed to hold the country’s most
dangerous terrorists. Bearing in mind the fact that Assange attends court in a
bulletproof glass cubicle where he finds it hard to follow what is said and
cannot communicate freely with his lawyers, the prison management’s behaviour
is also scarcely credible https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/feb/25/julian-assange-handcuffed-stripped-naked-claim-lawyers
:
‘Julian Assange was handcuffed 11 times, stripped
naked twice and had his case files confiscated after the first day of his
extradition hearing, according to his lawyers, who complained of interference
in his ability to take part.’
When did you last hear of counsel
for the prosecution having to support the defence https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/02/your-man-in-the-public-gallery-assange-hearing-day-2/
in their attempts to persuade the magistrate that ‘it was common practice for
magistrates and judges to pass on comments and requests to the prison service
where the conduct of the trial was affected, and that jails normally listened
to magistrates sympathetically’?
The Guardian is something of a
repentant sinner: having made liberal use of Assange’s outfit’s information,
they published a crucial password https://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/sep/01/wikileaks-prepares-unredacted-us-cables
in their book on Wikileaks that could be used to crack open the encrypted
documents that have so embarrassed the United States and some of its allies.
In 2010 the Guardian wanted him to
go back to Sweden to face charges (with the risk of being seized and taken to
the US) https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/dec/19/julian-assange-wikileaks-sex-offences
; they said his fight against authoritarianism was ‘simplistic, hypocritical, as
much an authoritarian conspiracy as the United States government is; we should
disavow Assange's perspective entirely; the ends do not justify the means’ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/dec/05/wikileaks-julian-assange
.
Well, as William Randolph Hearst
said, ‘News is something somebody doesn't want printed; all else is
advertising.’ https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/77244-news-is-something-somebody-doesn-t-want-printed-all-else-is
The Guardian’s staff have finally realised comment is not free: that if they
support what is beginning to seem like a show trial of a fellow journalist, the
cats may come for them too, one day. So their line is now, ‘Don’t do it.’ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/20/the-guardian-view-on-extraditing-julian-assange-dont-do-it
Assange does not have to be Simon-pure
for us to support him (the terms ‘journalist’ and ‘ascetic’ are rarely found
together). In fact, it’s not him alone we are or should be championing: it is
justice, the unbiased independence of the judiciary – independence even against
a powerful foreign ally - and our blood-bought, centuries-old culture of
freedom. Welcome back, prodigal sons of the Manchester Guardian: we shall
fatten the calf for you.
USA: Central bank intervention reinflates stock markets
'On Monday, all three major stock indices skyrocketed higher on news that global central banks would aggressively lower interest rates in response to the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic. The benchmark Dow Jones Industrials were up more than 5% or 1,293 points, the biggest point gain in history.'
https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/dead-cat-bounce-central-bank-easing-sends-stocks-into-the-stratosphere/
Saturday, February 29, 2020
Covid-19: keep calm and make a plan
While some of the Press produce
shouty headlines for fun and profit and others affect armchair insouciance, the
truth lies somewhere in between: no, it’s not going to kill us all; no, it’s
not just flu; no, it’s not going away.
This week’s Spectator adopts the
postprandially relaxed position. Martin Vander Weyer reassures us https://www.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/coronavirus-is-a-chance-to-buy-cheaper-but-it-comes-with-a-health-warning/
that the recent stockmarket reverses (btw, in percentage terms nothing remotely
like the Dow’s one-day drop in 1987 https://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/31/us/dow-jones-industrial-average-fast-facts/index.html ) may offer buying opportunities, particularly
in pharma firms seeking a vaccine for Covid-19, though (chuckle) investors
should ‘wash hands and don a face mask’ before placing their bets. Well yes, I
think the frail, twisted state of the world’s financial system is currently
much more of a real and present danger to shareholders and pensioners; but
we’ll come back to vaccines in a moment.
The Speccie’s Ross Clark https://www.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/the-most-dangerous-thing-about-coronavirus-is-the-hysteria/
also seeks to allay our ‘hysteria’ about coronavirus, but his downplaying
doesn’t quite work for me. Like so many, he makes the comparison with influenza
in the winter of 2017-18, quoting the Office for National Statistics’ figure of
50,000 fatalities, but must have missed the British Medical Journal’s comment (referencing
Public Health England’s study): ‘the ONS seem to have exaggerated the risk to
the public by in the region of 150 times.’ https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k2795/rr-6
. The fatality rate from seasonal flu is something like one in a thousand; The
Guardian (28 February) says Covid-19 is ‘ten times more deadly.’ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/28/coronavirus-truth-myths-flu-covid-19-face-masks
. Clark tells us that SARS (9.6% fatalities https://www.businessinsider.com/china-wuhan-coronavirus-compared-to-sars-2020-1?r=US&IR=T
) and H5N1 (60% death rate https://www.who.int/influenza/human_animal_interface/avian_influenza/h5n1_research/faqs/en/
) ‘hardly justify’ being called epidemics, let alone pandemics; and ‘If China
had not taken such dramatic steps to stop the [Covid-19] disease, we wouldn’t
be half as worried.’ Au contraire, the Chinese should have acted earlier
and faster and they are certainly not overreacting now; the dropped match that
might have been doused quickly at the start has become a blaze requiring all
available appliances.
Covid-19 is much less fatal than
SARS, but has a similarly high level of transmission from person to person. The
threshold contagion rate for an epidemic is R1, i.e. on average each person
passes the disease on to one more; MERS https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/middle-east-respiratory-syndrome-coronavirus-(mers-cov)
and the highly deadly H5N1 https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/h5n1-people.htm
were below this rate, but SARS was in the region of R2-R3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4558759/
and Covid-19 is now thought to be similarly infective https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/01/how-fast-and-far-will-new-coronavirus-spread/605632/
, though earlier estimated at R4 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.01.27.20018952v1.
What makes the latest coronavirus
more dangerous is that it seems to have a longer incubation period https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/as-coronavirus-spreads-many-questions-and-some-answers-2020022719004#q2
than SARS’ 2-7 days https://www.cdc.gov/sars/about/faq.html
, so there is a greater chance that it will slip through basic screening
measures at airports etc. It also vastly expands the network of possible
contacts before and after a case of infection, so containment becomes
exponentially more difficult. The UK’s twentieth case, appearing in Surrey on
Friday, is the first to have occurred here through secondary or tertiary
transmission but given a prolonged pre-symptom period the trail can easily go
cold. https://news.sky.com/story/first-case-of-coronavirus-confirmed-in-wales-and-two-more-in-england-11945201
Paradoxically, a quick and deadly
disease is less of a threat, since it can be spotted early and eliminates its
host fast before it can find many new ones; Covid-19 may go on to claim lots
more victims overall because it kills a small percentage of a much larger
number. Interviewed by The Atlantic magazine, Harvard epidemiology professor
Marc Lipsitch opines, ‘I think the likely outcome is that it will ultimately
not be containable,’ so rather than an epidemic or pandemic it will be endemic:
a new regular seasonal illness like colds and flu, but one for which – as with
other coronaviruses - there may be no long-lasting immunity, and which is more
fatal than flu. https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/02/covid-vaccine/607000
In the same Atlantic article, the
CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness points out that even though a
vaccine may be developed by Spring or summer this year, testing for safety and
effectiveness may mean it is not publicly available until 12 – 18 months from
now.
Meanwhile, we can begin to analyse
and quantify the risk factors of Covid-19, based on cases identified so far.
Worldometer https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/
combines information from two authoritative sources to estimate the likelihood
of dying if infected, according to age, sex and pre-existing medical
conditions. The initial indications are:
1. Below age
50, the risk of death is 0.4% or less; after that, it goes from 1.3% to above
10% at age 80
2. Men are significantly more vulnerable than women,
BUT most cases so far are Chinese and in China, men are much more likely to be
smokers (as this study confirms https://jech.bmj.com/content/71/2/154
)
3. In descending order, the following conditions
significantly increase mortality risk: cardiovascular disease; diabetes;
chronic respiratory disease; hypertension; cancer.
On the basis of the above, we can
begin thinking about public and individual strategies to cope with the
challenge of Covid-19.
First, timing: we need a plan to
get through the next 18 months to two years, by which time a vaccine may become
available. During this time, we all need to be extra-cautious, not only to
evade the virus personally but to avoid spreading it to others. Perhaps all
public places – e.g. schools, shops, offices, places of worship and mass
entertainment – should have wall-mounted hand sanitisers as is standard in
hospital wards. We need to wash hands frequently. Masks, says the government’s
advice to transport workers https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-staff-in-the-transport-sector/covid-19-guidance-for-staff-in-the-transport-sector
, ‘do not provide protection from respiratory viruses [but should] be worn by
symptomatic passengers to reduce the risk of transmitting the infection to
other people.’ One reader suggested shopping off-peak if possible; others may
have more ideas to offer.
Then, focus: the elderly and infirm
are clearly much more at risk. Maybe the NHS Secretary could authorise doctors
and pharmacies to allow the old and weak to stockpile essential medicines so
that if there is a local outbreak they can self-isolate in order to avoid
contracting the disease; and their carers and visitors need to be much more
scrupulous in hygiene precautions (think of sheltered accommodation and nursing
homes.) There may need to be safer arrangements for them to access GP and
hospital services. Those who still work may be permitted to do more at home.
Health advice and initiatives may increase their stress on reducing smoking,
excess body weight (dieting can beat diabetes in some cases), blood pressure
etc. How about preparing varied food packs and menus to make it simpler for the
vulnerable to have adequate and appropriate nutrition to endure a viral siege?
(We need a new Lord Woolton and Marguerite Patten!)
Any more ideas?
Friday, February 28, 2020
FRIDAY MUSIC: Mandolin Orange, by JD
Mandolin Orange is an Americana/folk duo based out of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The group was formed in 2009 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and consists of the group's songwriter Andrew Marlin (vocals, mandolin, guitar, banjo) and Emily Frantz (vocals, violin, guitar).
"Mandolin Orange’s music radiates a mysterious warmth —their songs feel like whispered secrets, one hand cupped to your ear. The North Carolina duo have built a steady and growing fanbase with this kind of intimacy, and on Tides of A Teardrop, due out February 1, it is more potent than ever. By all accounts, it is the duo’s fullest, richest, and most personal effort. You can hear the air between them—the taut space of shared understanding, as palpable as a magnetic field, that makes their music sound like two halves of an endlessly completing thought. Singer-songwriter Andrew Marlin and multi-instrumentalist Emily Frantz have honed this lamp glow intimacy for years."
http://www.mandolinorange.com
There was a comment beneath one of their videos which compared them to Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris and that is high praise indeed: Listen to Parsons/Harris singing 'Love Hurts' to understand why.
... Tim O'Brien's was the first version of Pretty Maid that I heard and its origin is 17th century and has changed over the years, as ancient folk songs often do -
https://terreceltiche.altervista.org/fair-maid-in-the-garden-the-ballad-of-john-riley/
"Mandolin Orange’s music radiates a mysterious warmth —their songs feel like whispered secrets, one hand cupped to your ear. The North Carolina duo have built a steady and growing fanbase with this kind of intimacy, and on Tides of A Teardrop, due out February 1, it is more potent than ever. By all accounts, it is the duo’s fullest, richest, and most personal effort. You can hear the air between them—the taut space of shared understanding, as palpable as a magnetic field, that makes their music sound like two halves of an endlessly completing thought. Singer-songwriter Andrew Marlin and multi-instrumentalist Emily Frantz have honed this lamp glow intimacy for years."
http://www.mandolinorange.com
There was a comment beneath one of their videos which compared them to Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris and that is high praise indeed: Listen to Parsons/Harris singing 'Love Hurts' to understand why.
... Tim O'Brien's was the first version of Pretty Maid that I heard and its origin is 17th century and has changed over the years, as ancient folk songs often do -
https://terreceltiche.altervista.org/fair-maid-in-the-garden-the-ballad-of-john-riley/
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