Frank Hudson

This morning’s Minnesota Star Tribune feature for notables celebrating their birthdays today lists musician Chris Rea who died in 2025.

Saw a small-print goof in this daily feature this morning: Chris Rea died late last year.

Not a big thing, but I don’t recall that error in this kind of feature before.

“Oh put some shoes on will ya. I’ve got work to do!”

There are rumors that members are in a new project with that guy from The National: Turkey & Dressner. Zak Starkey’s name also in the reports, but we still don’t know who’ll get the drumsticks.

Written in March The cock is crowing, The stream is flowing, The small birds twitter, The lake doth glitter, The green field sleeps in the sun; The oldest and youngest Are at work with the strongest; The cattle are grazing, Their heads never raising; There are forty feeding like one! Like an army defeated The snow hath retreated, And now doth fare ill On the top of the bare hill; The Ploughboy is whooping-anon-anon: There's joy in the mountains; There's life in the fountains; Small clouds are sailing, Blue sky prevailing; The rain is over and gone!

It’s March. It’s Monday. The sun’s out & it’s above freezing in Minnesota. Should I sing William Wordsworth’s poem? He’s been to March even if he hasn’t been here. Hey WW, do you mind a little bottleneck slide?

frankhudson.org/2020/03/31/w...

Beans & Nothingness?

YouTube video by The Little Willies - Topic Lou Reed

Needs Norah Jones to sing it, but this’ll have to do. youtu.be/Zc-XCw13LFE?...

Been sick the last few days with a bad cold. Low energy, stuffy nose. Hard to do Parlando Project work or even read. Listening today to midcentury Jazz from @markstryker.bsky.social lists. This stuff isn’t new to everybody, but I’m ready to hear every version of Airegin & Bags Groove from back then.

Lineation Survey This survey is designed to understand writers’ attitudes about and use of lineation. Survey responses are anonymous unless you provide contact information at the end . You are not required to answer a...

Poets and poetry lovers, do you have a few minutes to complete a survey on line breaks? It’s part of a research project led by one of my graduate students. Please feel free to share. Thanks for considering.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Listening to “Oh! Karen” now. Reminds me that I need to listen to more trumpeters that aren’t Miles.

I’m an old (northern) man now, but still my muscles memory feels the snow in this one.

Also 2/3 of Cream: BBM (Baker, Bruce, & Gary Moore)

Claude McKay – Frank Hudson Posts about Claude McKay written by Frank Hudson

I know the world & the country are full of other things this month, but here are 12 poems of Claude McKay performed with a range of differing music I’ve composed for them—including 7 ones newly released this month. frankhudson.org/tag/claude-m...

I can recall back then going to a “head shop” & record store in Des Moines, & seeing there an informal (local store staff made) little display for the 1st LZ LP.

My thought: Gee, it’s surprising to see some attention given to a Yardbirds spin-off band, as the Yardbirds had sort of petered out.

When I play power chords I’m normally using just the bottom 2 to 3 strings, same as most guitarists. Always figured, just easier chord fretting shapes—but it turns out there’s a bonus.

In the other hand, the Rolling Stones method is familiar to me.

The modern kings will throttle you to greet the piping voice of artificial birds Here’s a new Claude McKay poem song setting, “To a Poet,”  completed as part of my concentration on his poetry this February. Somewhat of a “deep cut” in McKay’s poetry, but as sometimes happens wh…

The striking thing about playing & editing a vocalist virtual instrument—after the uncanny valley unease it surely produces—is being in slow, deliberate control of that vocal expression, which this untrained human singer never has been. frankhudson.org/2026/02/26/t...

YouTube video by Rotary Connection - Topic I Must Be There

Not just strings, but all sorts of orchestral colors in Charles Stepney’s arrangements for The Rotary Connection’s Aladdin LP recorded in Chicago in 1967. To pick one cut, here’s “I Must Be There.” youtu.be/AWvsbYyPLkU?...

The modern kings will throttle you to greet the piping voice of artificial birds Here’s a new Claude McKay poem song setting, “To a Poet,”  completed as part of my concentration on his poetry this February. Somewhat of a “deep cut” in McKay’s poetry, but as sometimes happens wh…

I keep trying to realize different kinds of musical expression in my long-running Parlando Project. Today’s piece, a setting of a Claude McKay poem, takes on a type of vocal expression that’s always been out of my reach. frankhudson.org/2026/02/26/t...

Yes! They are magnificent for the company they keep, an honorable, useful role.

Think of all the years you & I have listened to that record—they’ve always been there, reassuring….

BTW, love this entire series so far.

I praised the wondrous rhythm section at yesterday’s post—but you know Van Morrison is such a splendid singer on this. And those string arrangements? Maybe they gild the lily, but I’m used to them being there and they’re now part of the years of listening to Astral Weeks.

Here I am
Talking about the Washington Post again.
But that’s not unusual,
It’s just that my ire is full
And I happened to read this column.

Indeed. Perlstein’s is a great work of modern history. If you want to know this important story in detail, this is the one.

Take my money! Take my money!

But it/I need some plaintive background parlor music in it too.

OMG that record’s rhythm section! That’s the reason no one (even Van) can’t quite duplicate Astral Weeks’ deep environment. I’ve read Davis recounting that it was just another session gig to him—if so, such off-hand brilliance!

Frank O’Hara, the great poet of consciousness, knows my feelings on the matter when I’m asked why I perform & write about poets from other ages, cultures, races, genders, or languages in the Parlando Project.

I often think of this quote attributed to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. about the greatness of Franklin D. Roosevelt: "A second-class intellect, but a first-class temperament".

Interesting the claim there that articles readers hate the most produce “numbers” that are said will help the Strib survive. Yes, I understand clickbait, but doesn’t that sound wrongheaded?

Claude McKay’s “After the Winter” I have no direct information, but I experienced today’s Claude McKay poem as a companion piece to the poem I performed last time, “To Winter.” “ To Winter’s” voice was somber and alone, and the spa…

And in the 2nd, “After the Winter,” McCay dreams of a warm homecoming in an emigrant’s song reminiscent of Yeats “Innisfree”—but unlike Yeats cabin he doesn’t plan to to be there alone. frankhudson.org/2026/02/22/c...

Late February, repairs, and Claude McKay’s “To Winter” My winter has been impacted by things a regime of some coarsely-ground humans brewed up, but it’s been good this February to take a quick dive into the poetry of early 20th century Jamaican-America…

As winter flexes in February, here are 2 songs for the 2nd month with words by Jamaican-American poet Claude McKay.

In the 1st, “To Winter,” a lonely McCay finds cold winter befitting a separation from his beloved: frankhudson.org/2026/02/20/l...

Wednesday my 14-year-old computer screen died in my home office/“Studio B.” Today I got its replacement & got it all set up. New one is high enough resolution I can twist it 90 degrees & use it in portrait mode. I much prefer that for writing.

Koerner, Lipscomb, Kottke, Fahey—that Whole series of shows would have been great to see. And the article reminds me that Rod Stewart of that era was likely a fine show too.