#CornishConcertinaBlues: An Anomaly of the Folk Process
[Thank you for your submission and congratulations! Below find a copy of the (slightly edited for length) text of your letter we’ll be including in the next issue of the DCFDSS quarterly review:]
“Lowen “Side Eye” Keverym was .. [b]orn into abject poverty in the Polbathic region, and by all accounts a sickly child…
https://youtu.be/BDlG9A9Rfsw
#Accordion #Concertina #FolkMusic
1/?
#CornishConcertinaBlues: “Keverym left school at the earliest possible opportunity and thereafter steadfastly followed what appears to have been a predestined path…. As he reached maturity…he…eventually focusing his efforts on…the aged and infirm…for the good citizenry of Polbathic…. [H]owever, the local constabulary were at this time…in their pursuit of…those from the lower social orders…
#HurdyGurdy #Accordion #Concertina #FolkMusic
2/?
#CornishConcertinaBlues:
[This thread seems to have broken and this post got left out. We urge the reader to consult the original sources for accuracy]
“By an anomaly of the folk process however, the story of “Side Eye” Keverym which came to be handed down after his death contained almost [none] of these…details, and…instead…was one of a tortured artist whose creative flame burned bravely in the darkness of a crushing and repressive system.
#HurdyGurdy #Accordion #Concertina #FolkMusic
6/?
#CornishConcertinaBlues: “[It] was not long before Keverym was brought before the notoriously brutal local magistrate (and occasional Morris Man) Sir Cloudsley Bartholomew.
As a result…he was finally given a sentence [to Liskeard Gaol]…. It was during this sojourn…that Keverym developed a degree of proficiency in rudimentary woodwork…lacking any other suitable outlet for his skills…
#HurdyGurdy #Accordion #Concertina #FolkMusic
3/?
#CornishConcertinaBlues: “[He] took on the project of repurposing a #HurdyGurdy he had found abandoned in the prison workshop…. Keverym…taught himself to play…what remained of…the instrument with an improvised bow fashioned from prison cutlery and twisted chicken wire…. As can readily be imagined…the sounds produced on such an instrument in the hands of an untutored recidivist were…tuneful….
#Accordion #Concertina #FolkMusic
4/?
#CornishConcertinaBlues: “Keverym [went] on playing what he called his “gurdy”…living out his declining years in…what was effectively…solitary confinement…. [M]elodies to the…echoing cell walls…into the night. His funeral in the Gaol’s greystone chapel was sparsely attended.
#HurdyGurdy #Accordion #Concertina #FolkMusic
5/?
#CornishConcertinaBlues: “Prisoners, wastrels and vagabonds would tell each other tales of his poetic soul, his steadfast righteousness and the sheer weight of the injustices that finally ground him down. With each retelling, his playing became sweeter and his character became more noble, until it was widely accepted that amongst us had walked a harp-plucking angel whose reward would surely come in the next life.
#HurdyGurdy #Accordion #Concertina #FolkMusic
7/?
#CornishConcertinaBlues: “Furthermore, as is so often the case with such…idols, rough verses came to be written about Keverym’s exploits…and he became the subject of a ballad that was as…sentimental as it was…accurate. The here-presented recording (captured at the Baptist Street Camp in August 1937) is a typical performance of this ballad, although on this occasion the…lyric is to all intents and purposes inaudible.
#HurdyGurdy #Accordion #Concertina #FolkMusic
8/?
https://youtu.be/BDlG9A9Rfsw
#CornishConcertinaBlues: “(Incidentally, the Reverend Ernest Barrington - amateur musicologist, rector of St Edith’s…quickly became one of Lowen Keverym’s loudest advocates, and on the anniversary of the latter’s death contributed a[n] article eulogising “The Enslavèd Hurdy-Gurdyist” to the DCFDSS quarterly review.
My letter to the editors citing the article….
#CornishConcertinaBlues: An Anomaly of the Folk Process
[Let us hope the earlier referenced letter may be found someday and included in further scholarly editions of our research about the great fallen saint of the #HurdyGurdy, Lowen “Side Eye” Keverym.
— The Editors]
@mediocratese
One for every outfit 
#accordion #fashion