Hamilton Camp, Mardi's Bard (Camptown, 1998)
Robert Greig, Platypus Dreaming (Weevil Music, 1999)
John Harbison, Under the Sun (Adelphi, 2000) One of the primary reasons for making music is to express passion, whether that passion is for another person, humankind in general, the environment, God, or what have you. I respect those musicians who express heartfelt emotion, even if I don't always like their music. In this omnibus I look at music that is made with a definite purpose in mind. Hamilton Camp, also known as Hamid, has been on the music scene since 1960, most notably teamed with Bob Gibson in the 1960s. Camp released several albums, including one containing covers of Dylan tunes, and wrote songs covered by Quicksilver Messenger Service and Simon and Garfunkel. Before Mardi's Bard Camp hadn't released a disc in years, and in fact felt that he had nothing more to offer the world through his music. Then his friend Mardi Arquette, mother of actors David and Patricia Arquette, became ill with breast cancer. Mardi Arquette was well known as a poet and political activist, and she was a follower of Subud, a spiritual path introduced to the world in Java in the early twentieth century, in which a person receives the Great Life Force and eventually learns to communicate with her own divine nature. She and Camp had lived in a Subud community in Virginia in their younger days, and, though the community had splintered, Camp and Arquette remained friends. After Mardi became ill Hamilton visited her in the hospital to sing to her. One day she called him her "bard," and after she died in 1997 he released this collection in her honor. | |
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