Banned in Sparta

Photo by Brook Batteau

Hey Gang!

Now! Totally Simonized! I've been working all year on this project begun the full Covid summer of 2021, a suite of songs based on Ancient Greek Lyric Poets.  They were singer/songwriters, they played the lyre (hence "Lyric") and danced around the stage like Tom Paxton.  All we have left of almost all of them is fragments and myth, so I've mosaic-ed songs to reflect their expressions and intentions- who they were and are, to me.  I've roped Tom and other singers I first heard in the 1960's, our own Golden Age of singer/songwriting, to voice them.  Eric Andersen, Robin Lane, Kate Taylor, Carolyn Hester and more, like David's Brown teammate, 2-time Tony Best Actor James Naughton, and up-and-comer Matt Nakoa.  It's my term paper for my last semester returning to Harvard to get my degree.  Mark Dann and Neale Eckstein and Chuck Morse helped me whip this together for posting (on the Buskin and Batteau website) just before midnight 12/31/22.  And on 1/19/23 we updated the MP3 files and added WAV files for all of the songs!  Happy New Year to all of you, and to the Ancient Greek Lyric Poets who have seen the page for thousands of years but were waiting for their microphone.  Here you go!  It's free for now!

Banned in Sparta

And more good news!  I have some new shows on the schedule!

On March 31 (April Fools Eve!) David & I will begin the first ever, Buskin & Batteau and Friends: April Fools' Tour.  We will be joined by our very funny friends, Christine Lavin, John Forster and Shanna in a Dress (on 4/1, Julie Gold will be filling in for Shanna).  The shows will honor comedy music icon Tom Lehrer (who just made all his songs Public Domain) and the wonderful Cheryl Wheeler, presently on hiatus, who makes us laugh just thinking about her.  We will all be on stage at once, taking turns accompanying one another on piano, electric-acoustic violin, guitars, harmonies, and the occasional uncalled-for counterpoints, singing songs from Tom and Cheryl along with our own bags of tricks.  The shows currently on the schedule are:

• March 31, 2023 - The 8th Step, Schenectady, NY - 7:30 PM
• April 1, 2023 - BOMBYX Center for Arts & Equity, Northamton, MA - 7:00 PM
• April 9, 2023 - Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA - 7:30 PM
• April 15, 2023 - The City Winery, New York, NY - 2:00 PM
• April 21, 2023 - The Bull Run, Shirley, MA - 8:00 PM
• April 26, 2023 - The City Winery, Boston, MA - 7:30 PM

 You can find more info about all of these shows on the Concerts page.

xoxoxoxoxo!

R