Sunday, September 6, 2009

The Darwin Song Project

I have to confess that there is not much folk music in my iTunes library, but last week my copy of the Darwin Song Project CD arrived. And I am impressed!

The Darwin Song Project is the fruit of a frenetic collaboration between eight of the world's top folk artists, who composed the 17 songs of the album during a week-long retreat in a Shropshire farmhouse and then performed them in the new Theatre Severn in Darwin's home town Shrewsbury in March this year.

Even though it incorporates the Annie hypothesis, my favourite song on the album is the Dylanesque "Kingdom Come", which investigates how differences in religious belief divided Charles from his wife Emma. It opens with what must be a unique first line--an account of the life cycle of ichneumonid wasps, parasitic wasps that lay their eggs in the flesh of living caterpillars and which troubled Darwin!

Another delight is this mock-Country number, "We'll him down". I dedicate this YouTube link to all my friends from Dover, Pennsylvania (Lauri, Cyndi, Tammy and Nick)! Let's hope their Creationist compatriots realise that the song is ironic!



Videos for three other songs from the project are also available on YouTube. You can find out more about the project from its website and from this BBC Radio 4 show. And you can place your order for the CD here.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

the video was cool..and they did a very nice collaboration..
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