Thinking on the recently passed revelry of New Orleans and Mardi Gras, it dawns on me in a quick, aching kind of way how little of the time we spend in our daily lives is devoted to fun things. You may wonder what “we” I’m on about here, and if so, I’m happy for you. But as this particular week of striving and goal-driven thoughts whirls by, I’m caught by an eddy of different energy, the energy of people who have enough time to have fun. Reminds me of Mali, where one of the teachers I was studying with said, “Why do toubabs always think time is gold? In Mali, time is aluminium!” I love that. And at the same time, the less stressed you are, the less time things take, it seems… Case in point: the by-now-classic Round Mountain tune, “Venus in the Tower”, recorded here in its infancy, was part of a Christmas album for our families that took less than an hour to bust out! Char was then the father or a newborn, and I was just back from Paris. There was really nothing to lose! We just both found ourselves with an hour, some instruments, and the ganas to have some fun. We tried a lot of things later on, but this version just captured something innate and magic that the others didn’t. Incidentally, this is probably our closest shout to a New Orleans tribute. So in a bit of a belated salute to the spirit of Mardi Gras, here you have Venus in the Tower (in < 1 hour).
-R