fiction, Republic of Letters

At the Stratford Festival: Saturday, Sunday, Monday

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Think about it. Almost all unpleasant things happen on Sundays. We wait all week for that special day, to relax, to live those twenty-four hours blissfully and without commitments. But when it comes, it’s never what we hoped for, we feel so lost doing nothing that we go looking for worries and troubles.

The beginning of Eduardo de Philippo’s Saturday, Sunday, Monday seems to set up an extended Italian family as little more than bickering figures of fun. Matriarch Rosa Priore (Rose Napoli) is already cooking Sunday dinner on the day before, sparing no one in her attention to her famous ragu; her husband, clothing shop owner Peppino (Graham Abbey) looks on frustrated and bemused as his retired father-in-law Antonio (Rod Beattie) eggs on son Rocco (Emilio Vieira) to open his own hat shop and his independent sister Meme (Seana McKenna) encourages daughter Giulianella (Katarina Fiallos) to carve out a life for herself, against the wishes of her fiance Federico (Maher Sinno). Then there are Peppino’s melodramatic brother Raffaele (Geraint Wyn Davies), intent on his weekend foray into commedia dell’arte; Meme’s sickly son and Raffaele’s biggest fan Attilio (Josue Laboucane); and neighbors the Ianniellos – Luigi (Gordon S. Miller) praising Rosa to the skies and showering her with gifts, his wife Elena (Michelle Giroux) patiently bearing with Luigi’s copious enthusiasm. With all these personalities passing through Rosa’s kitchen, colliding as they make contact, sparks fly non-stop throughout Act One – to the point that, when my wife and I compared notes at the first intermission, we thought that, entertaining though the tangled web of tussling might be, more passive-aggressive behavior might be in order!

But like Shakespeare in his “problem plays” – comedies like Measure for Measure and All’s Well that Ends Well that have happy endings, but whose characters and plots may be as disturbing as they are funny – de Filippo is after something deeper than cheap laughs. It’s not just that Peppino feels his authority over his grown children ebbing; distance and estrangement from Rosa combined with jealous imaginings about her and Luigi have taken hold. When his farcical futility early in Act Two gives way to an accusatory outburst at the dinner table, it’s a genuine shock that stops the assembled family in their tracks and utterly derails audience expectations. The crisis that follows casts a shadow over every character – but also reveals the depths of loyalty and sympathy that have bound them all together, whatever their conflicts. Still, on Act Three’s Monday morning, no matter how much warm-hearted support others might give, it’s up to a thoroughly devastated Rosa and a heartbreakingly repentant Peppino to dig deep for the roots of their mutual misunderstanding. Beyond making amends, they face the ordeal of recovering what brought and kept them together, no matter the pain such an uphill climb entails.

Under Antoni Cimolino’s committed, passionate direction, the cast is more than up to the task of bringing diFilippo’s bustling yet intimate morality play to life. Coming off the similar male lead Leontes in last year’s Stratford production of The Winter’s Tale, Abbey thoroughly inhabits and embodies Peppino’s inner turbulence; while Napoli may be a Stratford rookie, her solid background in Canadian theater and television has given her the technical chops and emotional muscle to easily go toe to toe with him and the rest of the cast. The cross-generational character pairings of Beattie & Vieira, McKenna & Fiallos and Davies & Laboucane, as well as the couples Fiallo & Sinno, Miller & Giroux and Jakob Ehman & Celia Aloma (as oldest son Roberto and his wife Maria Carolina) all do stellar supporting work; beyond the lively dialogue (from a translation developed with the cast in the process of rehearsal), you can see richly grounded relationships playing out in facial expressions, body language, pauses to listen. Even the comic characters that pass through the Priore house on various errands – Jenna-Lee Hyde’s longsuffering maid Virginia, Liam Tobin as her tortured brother Michele, David Collins’ exasperated tailor Catiello, Michael Wamara’s doctor Cefercola – bring an open-heartedness to their roles; they know and value this family, and whatever their personal preoccupations or the surprises they encounter in the course of the weekend, they desire the best for them.

A decade beyond his authorship of Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Eduardo di Filippo offered this interpretive key:

At the end of the comedy there is no one who does not understand that only love can hold two beings together.

Kudos are unquestionably due to Antoni Cimilino for driving home diFilippo’s unique blend of effervescent humor, penetrating psychological insight and hope for the human condition in this, his final production as Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival, as well as to a superb cast of Festival veterans and newcomers for their collaboration in bringing diFilippo’s vision to life onstage.

— Rick Krueger

Saturday, Sunday, Monday premieres at the Stratford Festival on August 22 and runs through October 24. For information, schedule and ticket links, click here.

Republic of Letters

At the Stratford Festival: Guys and Dolls

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[For maximum effect, read the next paragraph aloud with a New York accent:]

So this gentleman Damon Runyon, a progeny of Kansas grown to manhood in Colorado, comes to the big city of Manhattan to pursue his vocation as a journalist in the early 1900s. His greatest success, though, turns out to be his fictional “fables of Broadway”, where a motley cast of “guys” pursue their vocations: penny ante gambling; recounting their tall tales in verbose orotund sentences couched in the historical present and spiced with a smattering of Yiddish; staying one step ahead of the law, the “big boys” of their chosen profession, and the “dolls” that seem to lurk around every corner to knock them off their desired courses. These fables prove to be so popular that, in 1950, they become a Broadway musical . . .

And what a musical it is! Though Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma pioneered the full integration of tunes with story on Broadway, Guys and Dolls elevated the genre to the sparkling heights of Strauss’ Die Fledermaus or Mozart’s The Magic Flute, while hitting the bullseye of pop culture at the Great American Songbook’s height. Production roadblocks meant that Frank Loesser’s jazzy songs came first, laying out the characters and plot twists of Runyon’s “The Idyll of Miss Sarah Brown” all by themselves; his lyrics teem with wit and warmth, his music stuffs soaring melodic earworms into compellingly clever forms. All book writer Abe Burrows had to do was sharpen the setting and exposition (and set up as many opportunities for ensemble dance numbers as possible) and voila! – an affectionate, rough-edged romp that sets petty crooks, burlesque dancers and revivalist missionaries at odds, then lets romance complicate the whole meshuggah situation.

Over the decades, this kind of big musical has become catnip for the Stratford Festival, sitting comfortably alongside Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde, Beckett, Arthur Miller and world premieres in the current season’s repertory. And mounted on the Festival Theatre’s unique thrust stage for the fourth time, Guys and Dolls plays every bit as spectacularly as when my wife and I saw it on our first trip here back in 2004. Veteran Donna Feore’s direction is ceaselessly vivid and lively, flowing into organic, breathtaking choreography from the “Runyonland” overture and the opening vocal canon “Fugue for Tinhorns” onward, backed by a live 20-piece orchestra. Onstage Manhattan street life feels as bustling and busy as when you’re there in person; the characters populating Nathan Detroit’s “oldest established floating crap game in New York”, Sister Sarah Brown’s Save-A-Soul Mission and Miss Adelaide’s Hot Box all bubble over with anticipation and zest for whatever may come their way. Even wandering roustabout Sky Masterson brings his own atmosphere with him: smitten by Sarah, crashing her mission and (based on a bet with Nathan) sweeping her away to Havana, where neither can find the words to express their feelings without breaking into song . . .

Whatever the overall impression, it’s the principal actors who make or break a show like this, and every one of them delivers here. Best known for screwball comedy, Dan Chameroy delivers a bluff, charismatic male lead in Sky, whether letting down his guard on “My Time of Day” or stepping up for the gamble of his life on “Luck Be A Lady”. Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane proves a top-notch ingenue, a bit strident in her high vocal range, but wonderfully steely on “I’ll Know” and comedically tipsy on “If I Were A Bell” (one of Miles Davis’ standby tunes). When sparks fly between the two on “I’ve Never Been in Love Before”, the effect is genuine and magical. Then there’s Mark Uhre’s Nathan and Jessica Rider Shaw’s Adelaide as a delightfully neurotic second couple, longtime lovers each afraid in their own way of commitment (“Adelaide’s Lament” and the duet “Sue Me” are both smartly, squirmingly hilarious). Meanwhile, sideline observers like Steve Patterson as mission colleague Arvide Abernathy (who nails the fatherly “More I Cannot Wish You”) and Steve Ross as Nathan’s comic colleague Nicely-Nicely Johnson (who steals the show on the title song and the uproarious “Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat”) look on in bemusement, knowing from experience how these crazy kids’ tangles will work themselves out.

It’s a tribute to this cast’s talent and commitment that most of them – including Uhre, Chameroy and Sinclair-Brisbane in principal roles – are also in Feore’s remount of the nutty Shakespeare send-up Something Rotten (sometimes playing both productions on the same day). But the Stratford Festival is consistently good at theatrical miracles like this. And in its warmly humanist view of life out of the mainstream, Guys and Dolls itself is kind of miraculous: underneath its postwar, American-as-apple- pie optimism, this is a schmaltzy, mischievously naughty yet emotionally true take on how the love of your life can ambush you on any corner as you wait for something to happen – whether you’re singing your song, dancing your dance, pounding your big bass drum or just hanging out.

Guys and Dolls plays at the Stratford Festival Theatre until November 1st. For information, more sneak previews, schedules and ticket sales, click here.

— Rick Krueger

Music, Republic of Letters

In Concert: Listening In on Bruce Hornsby

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Most artists wouldn’t start their live set with an obscure song from an now-obscure 20-year-old album (arguably a major label’s desperate attempt to justify their investment by breaking said artist back into the mainstream, via celebrity duets with Sting and Eric Clapton). Most artists definitely wouldn’t follow that up with another obscure song from his follow-up collaboration with a generational bluegrass talent.

But then, this is Bruce Hornsby we’re talking about. Seated at the grand piano stage left, facing his Noisemakers – J.T. Thomas on keyboards, Gibb Droll on guitar, J.V. Collier on bass, John Mailander on mandolin and fiddle, and Chad Wright on drums – grouped in a half circle, Hornsby launched into an extended, exploratory take on Halcyon Days’ “Circus on the Moon“, followed by “Gulf of Mexico Fishing Blues” from his duet album with Ricky Skaggs.

While a familiar track from Hornsby’s Top 40 years, “Look Out Any Window“, was up next, only the chords and the lyrics recalled the original recording. Instead of facing the audience, intent on making maximum impact, Hornsby and the Noisemakers seemed to invite us into a space where, though grateful for our company, their focus would be on the music. And the near-capacity crowd went there, leaning in to listen as Hornsby worried at the melody and the band took the tune’s structure new places, scaling heights of delicate interplay and spanning depths of ensemble groove.

The next stretch of songs, from the new album Indigo Park, confirmed that impression; “Ecstatic”, “Memory Palace”, and the title track continually blazed unexpected trails, individual Noisemakers stepping forward and pulling back, Hornsby choreographing with eye contact and hand gestures. And the hits were forthcoming – but only on Hornsby‘s terms. A wildly atonal piano prelude spanning the length and breadth of the keyboard gave away to a decorous, romantic waltz, eventually teasing Hornsby’s breakthrough song “The Way It Is”. At which point he turned to the audience and said, “You want the pretty version or the jammin’ version?“ The whoop of recognition and the crowd’s spontaneous rise to its feet decided the question in favor of a jam; and with Hornsby again scatting around the melody and extending the jazz piano breaks, the result bore only faint resemblance to that long-ago hit single.

By that point, Hornsby was in his comfort zone and ready to take multiple chances. The minor hit “Across the River”, his first recorded collaboration with the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, drew a warm ovation from the crowd. They also ooh’d and ah’d when the band unplugged and came forward, Hornsby picked up a dulcimer, and Wright donned a washboard vest for two more deep tracks, followed by an appealing, muted take on “Mandolin Rain”.

Appropriately, the high point of the night was the climax of the set: “Rainbow’s Cadillac“, jazzed up and stretched out; “The Show Goes On”, where a passionate piano/vocal solo morphed into a full on, full-band power ballad; and a tribute to Hornsby‘s Grand Rapids debut 40 years ago, Bruce strapping on his accordion to rock out the first track from his debut album, “On the Western Skyline “.

Throughout the night, Hornsby and his Noisemakers welcomed you into their world – but very much on their terms. If the instrumental jamming went on a bit too long, you could focus on how each person on stage was listening hard, adding their bit or laying out as required. Or you could focus on how Hornsby – whose voice now lacks the power of his youthful salad days, but brings to bear all kinds of canny tricks as he sings – constantly played with the tunes, twisting and turning them, familiar words perceived from fresh melodic angles. And whether any given moment moved toward stasis, languor or excitement, you could tell that, flashing and flickering, Music was there on this serene summer evening, leaning over, taking Hornsby, the Noisemakers, and all of us into its confidence.

— Rick Krueger

  • Circus on the Moon
  • Gulf of Mexico Fishing Blues
  • Look Out Any Window
  • Ecstatic
  • Memory Palace
  • Indigo Park
  • Piano Solo/The Way It Is
  • Across the River
  • M.I.A. in M.I.A.M.I
  • North Dakota Slate Roof
  • Mandolin Rain
  • Rainbow’s Cadillac
  • The Show Goes On
  • On the Western Skyline

LITERATURE

A Good Biography of Charles Dickens

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As readers of this blog probably know, Charles Dickens is my favorite author. His writing is certainly flawed in many ways, but his novels are consistently entertaining, and they reward repeat readings. Back in 2002, Penguin publishers commissioned the American novelist Jane Smiley to write a biography of Dickens for its Penguin Lives series. I recently picked up a copy, and it is very good.

Smiley does not go into great detail in regards to Dickens personal life, instead describing significant milestones in it while referring to contemporaneous novels of his. I like this approach very much, as it gives me a greater appreciation of how his personal situations were reflected in his writing. As Smiley explains,

Biographies of Dickens, long and short, abound. A lifelong friend of his, John Forster, published the first authoritative one shortly after Dickens died. The most recent, by Peter Ackroyd, published in 1990, is more than a thousand pages long. It is, therefore, not the intention of this volume to lay out chronologically everything that we have come to know of Charles Dickens’s life as a result of some 130 years of industrious digging on the part of aficionados and scholars from all parts of the world (though admittedly mostly from England). The Charles Dickens we know is decidedly different from the man his contemporaries knew.

… In addition, I will offer interpretations of almost all of Dickens’s major works. One of the most interesting things about Charles Dickens is the way in which his style and his interest in social themes remained remarkably consistent throughout his career, while his vision shifted and evolved.

Thus, this relatively brief (207 pages) and readable biography is an excellent companion to someone who loves Dickens and would like to know the context in which he wrote his works. 

To continue reading my review, click here.

Republic of Letters

Feast of Cecilia Rose

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Dear Spirit of Cecilia readers,

I presume every once in a while you wonder where we got our name.

Well, two sources. First, St. Cecilia is the traditional patron saint of music and art. She’s often depicted playing a keyboard with angels dropping roses on her.

Second, though, and much more personally, I (Brad) had a daughter, Cecilia Rose, who passed away today, 19 year ago.

If you’re interested in learning more about my daughter, please go here.

https://bradleyjbirzer.substack.com/p/remembering-my-cecilia-rose-august

Blessings to you all, Brad

LITERATURE

Werewolf Cop: Law Enforcement Meets The Supernatural

Andrew Klavan has become one of my favorite living authors, and his current Cameron Winter series is excellent. His standalone novel, Werewolf Cop, came out in 2015. When first heard that Klavan considers it one of his finest works, I thought, “Maybe so, but what a silly title”. Well, despite the cheesy title, it is a terrific mix of horror, suspense, and straightforward murder mystery.

It begins with a crime scene involving several bodies that have been gruesomely cut to pieces in the NYC apartment of a small-time fencer of stolen goods. Zach “Cowboy” Adams and his partner, Martin “Broadway Joe” Goulart, are part of a special investigative unit: The Task Force for Extraordinary Crimes. All signs from this carnage point to a shadowy German gangster, Dominic Abend, who has been on international law enforcement’s radar for years, but he has kept a low profile. Such a low profile that there are barely any photographs of him. However, he seems to be involved in every kind of criminal enterprise imaginable, and it appears he is moving in to take over NYC.

While going over the apartment, Zach discovers a secret storage space in which a terrified little boy is hiding. He is taken to the station and during questioning he says he overheard somebody demanding to know where the “stoomp bassard” was. The social worker talking to him assumes he heard “stupid bastard”, but Zach decides to do a little research on his own.

After digging into the internet, he finds a reference to “Stumpf’s Baselard” in a paper written by a German university Professor Gretchen Dankl. It explores the mystery of a missing 15th century dagger called the Baselard. The paper has disappeared from the internet, but Zach is able to contact Dankl via email. She sends him a copy of her paper, but she will not communicate anything useful electronically, so Zach convinces his supervisor to sign off on him flying to Germany to meet with Dankl face to face.

His trip to Germany is an almost surreal experience, where Zach is so jet lagged he thinks he’s hallucinating things. There are all kinds of riots happening across Europe, and the political order there seems to be collapsing. Professor Dankl is a wizened old woman who appears to be crazy. She tells Zach that Stumpf’s Baselard is a dagger that is imbued with the power to prolong life and cure any wound. It was used to execute a notorious murderer who was suspected of being a werewolf in the 15th century, and after reappearing a few times in European history, seems to have disappeared. Dankl then shows Zach a photograph of a group of Nazi officers from WWII, and one of them bears a remarkable resemblance to Dominic Abend.

To continue reading, click here.

Music

Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit In Concert: Fateful Attractions

Visibly excited to kick off his latest US tour leg in Grand Rapids (especially after persistent rain dogged his 2025 show in the same location), Jason Isbell laid out his cards right from the downbeat of anthemic rocker “Hope the High Road”:

I heard enough of the white man’s blues
I’ve sang enough about myself
So if you’re looking for some bad news
You can find it somewhere else

Last year was a son of a bitch
For nearly everyone we know
But I ain’t fighting with you down in a ditch
I’ll meet you up here on the road

I know you’re tired
And you ain’t sleeping well
Uninspired
And likely mad as hell
But wherever you are
I hope the high road leads you home again
To a world you want to live in

It’s Isbell’s subject matter in a nutshell: Everyman up against the wall, battling his demons and straining to make contact. Whether caught up in the daily struggle for sobriety (“It Gets Easier”), a generation-spanning family feud (the Drive-By Truckers classic “Decoration Day”), the stifling conformity of big city (“Last of My Kind”) and Southern home town (“Crimson and Clay”), or the hell of war (“Dress Blues”), his protagonists constantly stare down inevitable fate. And typically, fate wins: the singer of “Gravelweed” laments the wounds inflicted on a former partner (though not without a tremulous assertion of his own growth); the folky ballad “Live Oak” shifts imperceptibly from haunting sentiment to quiet, understated horror; the elegy of “Elephant” proves unsparing in both its depiction of cancer and its devastating punchline (“There’s one thing that’s real clear to me/No one dies with dignity/We just try to ignore the elephant somehow.”) In his own voice or inhabiting a character, Isbell knows that, in the end, we all run out of road in this world.

So what hope is there, given Isbell’s grim, wry vision of God as distant at best (“Last of My Kind”), actively uncaring at worst (the exhilarating, chilling rocker “24 Frames”)? His consolations turn out to be the simple, small attractions that move, leverage and sustain connection; familial bonds unpacked in fatherly advice (his Truckers breakthrough song “Outfit”); beauty recalled in the depths of barrenness (“Alabama Pines”); pride taken in meaningless, backbreaking work (“Something More Than Free”); art and music’s power to conjure up space, freedom, little victories (“Ride to Robert’s”). And, evanescent as it can be, a love as strong as death, fiercely yet tenderly rendered in the tough country ballads “Cover Me Up” and “If We Were Vampires”.

In sum, Jason Isbell is one genuinely mighty songwriter. And while he did toss out a semi-serious apology for so many “sad-ass songs”, he knows it and revels in it. Throughout the night, he sang with conviction and gusto, his finely detailed vocals shading the dark corners or lighting up fleeting moments of triumph. And while Isbell’s songs are more than good enough to stand on their own, his 400 Unit puts bone, muscle and skin on the heart and soul at their core; like Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, they serve the music with grit and grace. Isbell considers his guitar playing “a hobby”, but he’s perfectly fine on both rhythm and lead – fluent, stylish, down-home or bluesy as the tune requires. Guitarist Sadler Vaden and keyboardist Derrick DeBorja proved both sympathetic duet partners with Isbell and down-and-dirty ensemble players; bassist Anna Butterss (the heartbeat of jazz guitarist Jeff Parker’s ETA IVTet – talk about versatility!) and drummer Chad Gamble rocked hard and grooved with flair; utility player Will Johnson amped up the power chords, held down the acoustic strumming, or joined Gamble to toughen the backbeat as the songs required.

So as the sun went down, Isbell and the 400s rolled into a pile-driving set close and encore. With Gamble slowing the beat ever so slightly and the now-vivid lighting hitting dramatic heights, “King of Oklahoma”, “Cover Me Up” and “If We Were Vampires” got the crowd on their feet; the Truckers’ melancholy, transcendent ode to The Band “Danko/Manuel” (“Can you hear that singing sounds like gold/Maybe I can only hear it in my head/Fifteen years ago they owned that road/Now it’s rolling over us instead/Richard Manuel is dead”) and fiery getaway rocker “This Ain’t It” (culminating in a Isbell/Vaden duet that reached peak Allman Brothers territory) left them hungry for more.

Jason Isbell is the real thing, one of the leading voices in today’s American music, fearlessly digging deep into the human condition, the pull of fate and the push of attraction. The 400 Unit fit his songs like a glove; as a collective, they make a powerful, compelling noise that straddles rock and country, yielding maximum emotional impact. On record, this music is impressive; live, this band is even more so, well worth hearing and seeing when they head in your direction.

Jason Isbell tours, with and without The 400 Unit, through November 2026; show dates are here. Setlist at Meijer Gardens Amphitheater, July 23, 2026:

  • Hope the High Road
  • It Gets Easier
  • Outfit
  • Traveling Alone
  • Last of My Kind
  • Gravelweed
  • Decoration Day
  • Live Oak
  • Alabama Pines
  • Elephant
  • Crimson and Clay
  • Ride to Robert’s
  • Dress Blues
  • Overseas
  • King of Oklahoma
  • Something More Than Free
  • 24 Frames
  • Cover Me Up
  • If We Were Vampires
  • Danko/Manuel
  • This Ain’t It

LITERATURE

Ultimate Prizes: The Third Book of Starbridge

I’m rereading Susan Howatch’s Starbridge Series, and I am noticing all kinds of details and themes I missed the first time around. The series chronicles three Church of England clerics: Charles Ashworth, the traditionalist theologian with a privileged background; Jonathan Darrow, the pious monk with incredible psychic gifts but potentially dangerous pride; and Neville Aysgarth, the Starbridge Archdeacon from Yorkshire who is a Modernist that dislikes any whiff of “Popery”.

The first book, Glittering Images, was narrated by Ashworth, and we soon learn that he is not the perfect man he appears to be. He suffers a breakdown, and through the effective counseling of Darrow, is able to emerge whole. Book two, Glamorous Powers, is narrated by Darrow, and he is shown to be extremely complicated. He also suffers a breakdown, and is healed by the empathetic counseling of his college rival, Francis Ingram. Near the end, Darrow butts heads with Neville Aysgarth, and it’s clear there is an immediate antipathy between them.

In the third book, Ultimate Prizes, Aysgarth is the narrator, and we see Jon Darrow from his perspective. But before Darrow enters the scene, we learn how Aysgarth is a young, ambitious Archdeacon with a gift for administration. It is set in 1942, and he is married to the perfect wife, Grace. They have five children – four sons and a daughter. The fifth child, Alexander, was a surprise, and Grace is exhausted taking care of him and their toddlers. She is unable to attend the social functions Aysgarth needs to “get on” in his career.

At one significant social event, a dinner with the bishop, Aysgarth meets a young socialite, Dido Tallent, and he is swept off his feet. He knows that to commit adultery is career suicide for a clergyman, so he resists his desire, but poor Grace soon realizes that something is wrong. Meanwhile, another character from Glittering Images shows up, the wily old Alex Jardine, who resigned his bishopric suddenly. He has mentored Aysgarth and assisted in his swift rise through the Church hierarchy, and he warns him to avoid all contact with Dido. Aysgarth takes strong offense to this advice and agrees to her request that he be her spiritual advisor.

To continue reading this review, click here.

Music

The Bardic Depths: Some Things Are Worth Remembering

Some Things Are Worth Remembering  is the fourth album from The Bardic Depths. Dave Bandana once again takes the reins, with lead vocals, bass, keyboards, and overall production, while Gareth Cole returns on acoustic and electric guitar, Tim Gehrt handles drums and percussion, and Peter Jones sings and plays sax and keyboards. The ever-clever and polyhistoric Brad Birzer supplies most of the lyrics, which, as the album’s title suggests, are full of reminiscences, longing, and nostalgia.

I’ve listened to Some Things Are Worth Remembering several times now, and my overall impression of the album is one of mellowness. There is a gentle vibe to most of the songs that wouldn’t be out of place on a early-to-mid-70s rock album. Given that I pretty much came of age in the 70s, I find Some Things Are Worth Remembering a most pleasant and entertaining listening experience.

The opening track, “Islands”, is, according to the notes provided by Mr. Bandana, Brad Birzer’s tribute to the classic Big Big Train song, “The Underfall Yard”. In that track, BBT expressed their admiration for the Victorian engineers who surveyed and constructed the railways that crisscrossed the UK. BBT sang how those engineers “using available light, they could see far”.  Birzer’s lyrics are a worthy tribute to the spirit of “The Underfall Yard”, as he writes, 

The song that longs to linger in our souls

Long after we’ve heard the last notes

A memory so pure so delicate

The song that cries to the skies

The song that hovers over that moment

Away from eternity

The music of “Islands” has a nice jazzy feel, thanks to the excellent saxophone work of Peter Jones. 

Next up is the very melodic “Fallen Leaves”, featuring beautiful wordless vocal harmonies that conjure memories of CSNY and The Beach Boys. 

Things get a little funky on the third track, “Arribabok”. Birzer’s lyrics explore how language is like a living thing, always evolving and mutating. I really like Bandana’s bassline on this song, and Cole’s sinuous electric guitar solo. The arrangement reminds me a bit of classic Peter Gabriel – shades of “Secret World”.

Side One closes with my favorite track, “October Sun”, which is Birzer’s ode to Michigan autumns. Maybe because autumn is my favorite season, this song really speaks to me with its evocation of “greens and reds and yellows and browns”. There is more to the song than mere colors, however:

The veil between this world and the next

Is ever so thin

It’s always twilight here

October holds its breath

In the dusk of it all

And on the verge of death

October sun shines through

I may be reading too much into these lyrics, but they remind me of Ray Bradbury’s memoir of small town America, Dandelion Wine, where natural beauty coexists uneasily with darker undercurrents. The music for “October Sun” is outstanding as well, with the final half consisting of an instrumental workout. Peter Jones’ sax and Gareth Cole’s guitar play a game of tag in the October sun!

Side Two opens with Peter Jones’ composition, “From Empty Trees”. He plays keyboards on this one, and it brings to minds Barleycorn-era Traffic. It’s a very fun track with a lot of drive.

The next song, “A View”, is, according to Bandana,  “about a man in space who awakes after his craft has been attacked and after finding out he is the only one left on board sees the Earth below in a totally different light.” Appropriately enough, the melody captures the longing and homesickness of that astronaut perfectly. 

“Harder to See” is the portrait of a man who is not the most likeable person. Bandana wrote the lyrics on this one, and he describes someone who is trying to find himself:

You make it I’ll break it you bake it I’ll take it

You grow it I’ll blow it you know it I’ll throw it

It’s not easy to please me it’s harder to see me

I like you can’t find me no ties to confine me

I need to get me a plan find out if I really can

I need to see where I am… see where I am as a man

Some Things Are Worth Remembering  closes with “Rewind”, which is Bandana’s recounting of attending a 1975 Genesis concert in London. Once again, there is a sense of longing for something that can never be recaptured.

I wish I could easily rewind my brain

All of the sights and the smells of old London Town

Sit and wait for the lights to die down

Music and drama and spells before our eyes

Stories of strange folk behind a disguise

I was there but I can’t remember now

Cole’s acoustic guitar work is outstanding, cleverly bringing to mind Steve Hackett from A Trick of the Tail-era Genesis. Cole also provides a muscular electric guitar solo that provides an intro to a beautiful vocal interlude. And when you think the song is over, we are given a wonderful pastoral coda that lasts almost five minutes. 

All in all, Some Things Are Worth Remembering is a fine addition to The Bardic Depths’ discography. I especially enjoyed Peter Jones’ saxophone work throughout, and Tim Gehrt’s work on drums and percussion is excellent. As I stated at the beginning of this review, this album is mellow – it’s a genuinely pleasurable listening experience that is perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon (in October!). Even though there isn’t an explicit concept – such as the Inklings in their previous album, What We Really Like In Stories – a common thread of nostalgia and longing runs throughout all the songs. 

Finally, I noticed that the back cover has a disclaimer stating that, “No AI was used in the making of this album”. It’s a shame artists have to make that clear, but these are the time we live in. I hope Bandana, Cole, Jones, Gehrt, and Birzer continue to produce authentic music far into the future.

You can preorder Some Things Are Worth Remembering here.

 

 

Republic of Letters

Onsegen Ensemble: Sheer Northern Beauty

I’m sure like many of us who love progressive rock, we’re always looking for music that actually progresses.  Of course, we love and adore The Yes Album and Trick of the Tail and Songs from the Wood, but we also want something rooted in that music that goes beyond it as well.

Well, my search, at least for 2026, has ended.  It ended when I discovered the Finnish band, Onsegen Ensemble.  I knew absolutely nothing about them until the great Karisma Records sent Spirit of Cecilia a review copy.

Here’s what the band says about itself:

“ONSÉGEN ENSEMBLE IS A GROUP OF MUSICIANS FROM NORTHERN FINLAND. BEING FAITHFUL TO ITS OWN PURPOSE, THE SPIRITUAL HOME OF ONSÉGEN KEEPS ITS DOORS OPEN FOR EVERYONE TO ENTER. THE MUSIC TAKES YOU TO A MYSTICAL TRIP WITH EXCURSIONS INTO WONDERFULLY CINEMATIC AND FLAMBOYANT LANDSCAPES.”

From the very opening few seconds of the latest album, A Tale, I was hooked.  I’ve remained hooked for all 42 minutes of A Tale now too many times to count.  For what it’s worth, I always buy a personal copy of an album sent to me for review if I love it.  That is, I very much want to support the artists, especially when they trust me with a review copy.  It’s an honor to be on the receiving end of such beauty, and I never want to break that trust.  Just so you know, I bought three copies of A Tale—one for me, and two to give to friends.  That’s how much I love this band and album.

As to specifics. . . the instruments, the vocals, the lyrics are all astounding.  The production is outstanding, a true aural delight.  Truly, I felt like I was being drawn into the musical equivalent of Tolkien’s profound essay “On Fairy Stories.”  Yes, I was entering fairy by listening to this band.

The lyrics are pretty minimal, but they’re excellent nonetheless.  I’m especially taken by the lyrics of track no. three, “A thought”:

“Peace is a thought

Followed by the word. . . . 

Peace is a flame

Lit by devastation

Dependent on shelter

Never meant to fade.”

I have no idea if the word is a Word in the Stoic or Christian or just hippie sense, but I like it nonetheless.  It’s evocative of truth, beauty, and goodness.

As to the music?  Well, it’s original, to be sure.  I hear bits of Traffic, bits of Jethro Tull, bits of Talk Talk, bits of Kate Bush (especially side 2 of Hounds of Love), and bits of David Gilmour.  But, in the end, this is original music. Something straight from the northern most parts of the world.

If you’re looking for something beautiful and original, look no further.  You have reached your destination.

If you’re in the U.S., make sure to patronize our best prog rock store, Band Wagon USA. Elsewhere in the world, get it from Bandcamp.

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