Best Frigate Podcasts (2024)

1
There is no Frigate like a Book 2:01

20d ago2:01

2:01

We continue our National Poetry Month feature examination of a pair of century-old children's poetry anthologies with this famous invocation of book-fed imagination. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've done over 700 of these things, and you can listen to them and find …

1
Pippa Passes 1:58

5h ago1:58

1:58

A short Spring poem with a famous ending couplet that seems to be about contentment -- and after all, I found it inside a 1922 book of verse for children I'm looking at for National Poetry Month. In the context of the longer work Browning placed it in, it may not be that simple, but I perform it today as if it was. The Parlando Project combines var…

1
The Wind 2:03

23h ago2:03

2:03

For National Poetry Month this year I've been looking at poems from a pair of 1920s books of verse for children. Today's selection is a charming poem by Robert Louis Stevenson performed with an electric folk-rock band. The Parlando Project does this, takes words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them with original music. We've done over 750 of …

1
Hills: Children's poetry, but written by a child 2:34

6d ago2:34

2:34

To observe this National Poetry Month I've been diving into a pair of poetry anthologies for children published in the 1922/1923. One poet included in them was an unusual case: Hilda Conkling, a child herself. That this grade-schooler was composing poems that often seemed to share Imagism's approaches intrigued some Modernists. Here's one of her po…

1
The Coromandel Fishers 2:40

8d ago2:40

2:40

Sarojini Naidu's poem of stalwart Bengali fishermen asked to be sung, so I sang it. The author may have had a melody in mind, as she published this in a section of her poetry she called "Folk Songs." Naidu began as a promising poet ("The Nightengale of India") but left verse to for work for women's suffrage and Indian independence. The Parlando Pro…

1
The World Is Too Much With Us 2:04

10d ago2:04

2:04

William Wordsworth's well-known sonnet performed, as the word sonnet means, as a little song. Within the next 24 hour or so, I hope to have more to say about what you may have overlooked in this short poem on the Parlando Project's blog (see below). We've got a lot at the blog celebrating poetry and National Poetry Month. The Parlando Project combi…

1
The Minstrel Boy 2:14

14d ago2:14

2:14

For National Poetry Month this year I'm looking at and performing poems found in a pair of 1920s anthologies of verse for children. The Girls of Verse and The Boys Book of Verse. Though "The Minstrel Boy" was included within books of poetry, this poem by Irish poet Thomas Moore was quicky adapted as a song and is best known as such today. Which sav…

1
Each in His Own Tongue 2:29

16d ago2:29

2:29

Today I read a summary of poet Mary Oliver's approach by poet and critic A. M. Juster. He concluded: "I also think her spirit wanted to write religious poetry, but her mind wouldn't let her." Lo & behold I was working this week on a singable version of this 1906 poem that I found in a collection of verse for children published in the 1920s that I'm…

1
Sea Fever 2:14

18d ago2:14

2:14

We're celebrating National Poetry Month with musical presentations of poems taken from a gendered pair of 100-year-old anthologies published as The Girls and The Boys Book of Verse. Today's is John Masefield's famous poem of seafaring. The Parlando Project takes words (usually literary poetry) and combines them with original music we write and perf…

1
Piping Down the Valleys Wild 2:33

22d ago2:33

2:33

My feature this National Poetry Month is going to be examination of two 1920's poetry anthologies, one for girls and one for boys. This William Blake poem invoking childhood visions bringing joy was in the opening section of the girl's volume and it seems like an apt poem to set to music and lead off our celebration this month. The Parlando Project…

1
Singing at Dusk 2:33

26d ago2:33

2:33

Emmy Hemmings is a forgotten Dada artist, launching the famous Cabaret Voltaire during WWI as am organizer, performer and poet -- yet no one translated her poetry from German until this century. I just got done doing a somewhat free translation of one of her poems, and since Hennings was a performer, it seems fitting to present her work here in the…

1
Whispering Often 1:58

29d ago1:58

1:58

Here's a poem for March, for Spring, and for Easter now turned into a song, The words were written about a hundred years ago by a largely forgotten Midwestern American poet Edwin Ford Piper. This month I wrote music for Piper's words, and today's piece is taken from a demo session where I recorded the freshly made song. The Parlando Project does st…

1
Cool Tombs 1:56

1M ago1:56

1:56

Poet Carl Sandburg goes gothic-graveyard for this poem about Love & Death. I decided to accompany my performance of it with some new music in my "punk orchestral" style, which means it's short, not-to-fancy, and uses whatever virtual orchestral instruments I can figure out something for them play. The Parlando Project takes various words (usually l…

1
The Wind Didn't Come from the Orchard Today 3:54

1M ago3:54

3:54

Here's a playful and mysterious Emily Dickinson poem for World Poetry Day. The Parlando Project enlists The LYL Band in this one to create a full-band folk-rock song out of Dickinson's poem. The Parlando Project has done that sort of thing for several years, taking words (usually literary poetry) and combining them with music in different styles. W…

1
The Drunken Singer 4:11

2M ago4:11

4:11

I remind myself today that I sometimes write lyrics, so here's a piece that features my own words and music. What the Parlando Project usually does is combine other people's words (usually literary poetry) with the variety of original music we compose and make. You can hear over 700 examples of that at our blog and archives located at frankhudson.o…

1
The Late Singer 2:06

2M ago2:06

2:06

William Carlos Williams' Spring poem reminds us that it's never too late to sing. I had to cancel a more pristine time in a recording space this week but produced this quick & dirty version of this song using Williams' words instead. Spring itself, has a way of being quick & dirty -- and I'll remind you of the musicians' and composers' prayer: "May…

1
The Last Antelope 4:23

2M ago4:23

4:23

Edwin Ford Piper is an early 20th century Midwestern American poet who's largely been forgotten. I've only started to read him this week, but this poem captured me immediately and I had to perform it with music, Parlando style. The Parlando Project combines various words (usually literary poetry) with original music in different styles. We've done …

1
When the Dream Outruns the Real 4:09

2M ago4:09

4:09

Poet Dave Moore's song about when "Follow your dream" or "Do what you love..." meets up with reality. Here's the cool thing about this piece: it's not a put-down. I play on it with The LYL Band, and I think the song applies to me. One of the Parlando Project's mottos is "All Artists Fail." You have to accept that and do what you choose to do anyway…

1
Ain't I A Woman? by Sojourner Truth with Frederique Irwin of the National Women's History Museum 39:06

2M ago39:06

39:06

Listen in as we visit with Frederique Irwin of the National Women’s History Museum and take a trip back in time to explore the ideas of Sojourner Truth in celebration of Women’s History Month. Our book selection, Ain’t I A Woman? (from the Penguin Great Ideas Series) provides a short and powerful text for your next book club meeting. A photo of Tru…

1
Two Aunties by Fenton Johnson 3:37

2M ago3:37

3:37

Black Chicago poet Fenton Johnson published these two free-verse poetic portraits in Others magazine in 1919, gaining him some notice as an Afro-American who was working in the avant-garde forms of Modernism. I performed his two poems with a rock band accompaniment for today's example of what the Parlando Project does: combining various words (most…

1
The Prodigal Son 3:58

2M ago3:58

3:58

Pioneering Black Chicago Poet Fenton Johnson termed this poem a literary spiritual in his 1915 collection Visions of the Dark. I read it as predecessor to later Gospel songwriting, and so set it to music for this spare solo performance with just acoustic guitar and voice. This is one example of what the Parlando Project does. We explore various wor…

1
Bonus Track: Mistah Witch as a simulated worn 78 RPM record 2:06

2M ago2:06

2:06

BONUS TRACK Black Chicago poet Fenton Johnson was using Blues Language as early as his 1913 poetry collection "A Little Dreaming." That could make this poem an early example of a literary page poet using Blues Language. Just for fun I decided to create one of our rare Parlando Bonus Tracks. This version has been made to sound like an old, somewhat …

1
Mistah Witch 2:03

2M ago2:03

2:03

Even in 1913, Black Chicago poet Fenton Johnson was already using Blues-language in his literary poetry. In this poem he printed in dialect from his first book-length poetry collection "A Little Dreaming" Johnson may be encoding a message not every listener will understand. There will be a discussion of that and more than 700 other combinations of …

1
The Wraithie's Message 3:22

3M ago3:22

3:22

Early 20th Century Afro-American poet Fenton Johnson again shows his range with this Celtic dark fantasy poem that I've turned into a song. That "turned into a song" is something the Parlando Project does. We've created over 700 combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in various styles. You can find them at our bl…

1
Waters of Forgetfulness 3:14

3M ago3:14

3:14

Early 20th Century Black Chicago poet Fenton Johnson's dream poem references Virgil's "The Aeneid." I've turned it into a song as part of my month-long celebration of this lesser-known Midwestern poet who preceded the Harlem Renaissance. That's what the Parlando Project does: it takes other peoples words (mostly literary poetry) and combines them w…

1
Fenton Johnson's "Dunbar" 2:20

3M ago2:20

2:20

In 1906, Paul Laurence Dunbar, the first Afro-American poet to receive substantial notice, died, only 33 years old. Only a few years later in 1913, a 24 year old Black poet from Chicago, Fenton Johnson, publishes his first poetry collection which in which he pays tribute to Dunbar as he tries to pick up the standard from the fallen Dunbar. I've mad…

1
Robert Frost's Stars 2:03

3M ago2:03

2:03

American poet Robert Frost assiduously read the book of nature even when the pages were blank. Here's a beautiful short poem that looks out on a wintery night and sees a blank whiteness. I've made the poem into a song accompanied by acoustic guitar. The Parlando Project takes words, usually other people's words, usually literary page poetry, and co…

1
If all the griefs I am to have 2:42

3M ago2:42

2:42

At least on the face of it, this short Emily Dickinson poem asks for a lifetime of experience all at once, all its grief and joy. As I understood it while creating this performance with original music, she weighs grief and joy as Taoist components. My music today for this has a touch of a slowcore approach. but I was also thinking of John Lee Hooke…

1
Wanderers Nightsong II 1:41

3M ago1:41

1:41

Goethe's short lyric poem in German wanders into this short folksong arrangement via an English translation by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow that I slightly modified for this song performance with my music for 12-string guitar, bass, and piano.By Frank Hudson for the Parlando Project

1
The Sparrow 2:06

4M ago2:06

2:06

Here's song version of a Paul Lawrence Dunbar's poem. Dunbar is often reckoned the first successful Afro-American poet, and this poem, now song, shows how Dunbar wrote both of the Afro-American experience and universal themes within his poetry.By Frank Hudson for the Parlando Project

1
To not be scared of death that doesn't understand us 2:34

4M ago2:34

2:34

This is a winter sonnet I wrote portraying my thoughts of the mortal illness of another poet Robert Okaji while I, an old man, am bike riding though some winter crows. For the first Parlando piece of this year, I declaimed this with a rock band behind my reading. For more than 700 other examples of various words (usually someone else's', usually li…

1
01 The Soul Selects Her Own Society 0:59

4M ago0:59

0:59

More great books at LoyalBooks.comBy Emily Dickinson

1
02 After Great Pain 1:02

4M ago1:02

1:02

More great books at LoyalBooks.comBy Emily Dickinson

1
Storm Fear 2:17

4M ago2:17

2:17

Robert Frost included this rural winter poem in his first collection A Boy's Will. Concise it may be, and it works by tiny increments, but I think it's as harrowing as Dylan's "Hollis Brown" or Springsteen's Nebraska. So, I set it to original music and performed it. That's an example of what the Parlando Project does: we take other people's words, …

1
03 Hope is the Thing with Feathers 0:50

4M ago0:50

0:50

More great books at LoyalBooks.comBy Emily Dickinson

1
04 I Never Hear the Word Escape 0:35

4M ago0:35

0:35

More great books at LoyalBooks.comBy Emily Dickinson

1
Since There Is No Escape 2:31

4M ago2:31

2:31

Sara Teasdale praises life while facing death in her poem I've now performed with music. For more than 700 other combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in various styles, visit our blog and archives at frankhudson.orgBy Frank Hudson for the Parlando Project

1
05 There is No Frigate Like a Book 0:37

4M ago0:37

0:37

More great books at LoyalBooks.comBy Emily Dickinson

1
06 Because I Could Not Stop for Death 1:13

4M ago1:13

1:13

More great books at LoyalBooks.comBy Emily Dickinson

1
07 Of All The Sounds Dispatched Abroad 1:13

4M ago1:13

1:13

More great books at LoyalBooks.comBy Emily Dickinson

1
08 Success is Counted Sweetest 0:42

4M ago0:42

0:42

More great books at LoyalBooks.comBy Emily Dickinson

1
09 If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking 0:34

4M ago0:34

0:34

More great books at LoyalBooks.comBy Emily Dickinson

1
10 To Fight Aloud 0:46

4M ago0:46

0:46

More great books at LoyalBooks.comBy Emily Dickinson

1
The Oxen 2:17

4M ago2:17

2:17

Here's a musical performance of my setting of Thomas Hardy's deft poem about Christmas miracles. For more about this and more than 700 other combinations of various words (mostly literary poetry) with original music in various styles visit our blog and archives at frankhudson.orgBy Frank Hudson for the Parlando Project