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[miko2]

Today's Song: The Dewey Dells of Yarrow by Mad Pudding

While creating my list of folk-rock acts for miertam, I discovered that, wonder of wonders, one of my favorite obscure Celtic folk-rock songs is available on iTunes. Mad Pudding hail from British Columbia, and I discovered them at Seattle's Folklife Festival, where I heard them live and bought three of their cds. (Warning to all friends of geojlc, this year's festival is on the horizon!)

Anyway this is not a band with a lot of national recognition, to say nothing of international. They're on a very small label. So I would never have even considered looking them up on iTunes, but there they are. This is a band that doesn't appear to even have their own web site. I found some articles on them though... one from Dirty Linen and a review of Dirt & Stone from Ramblers magazine

They don't do many traditional cover tunes but The Dewey Dells of Yarrow is just that, an old ballad with a very sad ending. You can't tell by the iTunes clip but the song does contain a full band with drums, but it's not a hard rocker by any means. It's very beautiful. I love the vocals on this.

An original tune of theirs from the same cd (the title of the cd even) is Dirt & Stone, which I also like quite a bit. Both are worth checking out.

I don't know who Shona Le Motte is, but a search on Mad Pudding brought up her myspace page. And... after reading up on her, she's a former fiddle player for The Paperboys (excellent Canadian Celtic folk-rock band) and her current band includes the rhythm section from Mad Pudding. Now it makes sense! Anyway her stuff sounds good, check it out.