| Norman Ball’s work
spans the poetic/lyrical spectrum from classic sonnets to
country to pure rock to Triptych, a
remarkable collection of poetry, music and covers of the likes of
Jim Morrison and The Rolling Stones.
Ball's mid-2001 release of Return to One: A Sonnet Odyssey,
contains forty-eight sonnets exquisitely read by Edward Gero,
of The Shakespeare Theater in Washington, D.C. (whose voice you
have heard on many Discovery Channel documentaries) and
accompanied by the film score 1989's "Camille Claudel."
Of Ball’s work, Prof. Patrick Quinn, of The Robert Graves
Society, has said:
The price we have paid for being over-intellectualised by the
Modernist movement is somewhat allayed by these sonnet
sequences; thank goodness there are poets like Mr. Ball using
rigid poetical forms to help bring back the magical in the most
important art form humankind has striven to perfect...The
freshness of the verse (while at the same time steeped in the
finest romantic tradition) offers hope that the essential
elements of life are still celebrated.
In the article, “The Circuitous
Journey,” Ball says:
the sonnets on this CD wrestle with no less overwrestled a
pantheon (and in no particular order of imputed deific powers)
as: Robert Graves’ White Goddess, Gnosticism's Sophia,
Prometheus, Leviathan, Lucifer, Yahweh, Dylan Thomas, Aleister
Crowley, Samuel Beckett, Harold Bloom, Shakespeare, the
Minotaur, Dionysus, Apollo and most frightening of all, the
dreaded Significant Other (of whom I feel Edith Hamilton could
have done more to prepare us.)
Ball sums up his thoughts with:
As a start, we must relinquish the Project, remove the wax from
our ears, and listen to the Sirens' beautiful, haunting sound as
it reverberates through poetry's homage to the Earth. By the
mere act of listening, we will detain ourselves from further
mischief. More fortunate listeners might find themselves
transformed.
The full text of
Balls' article on sonnets can be found
here.
For a dramatic
turn to country-folk-soul-blues, consider Blue Train
released in early 2003, which brings us to a common
table with Ball, who dedicates the country album, "From a fellow traveler, God bless you Johnny
Cash." Ball has recounted going to see the blue trains as
a young boy, with his grandfather in Scotland. He speaks
of the melancholy of sounds, the Doppler effect. Ball
likens the direction of American music to that of a "conductor
demanding tickets when everyone is headed in the same
direction." Perhaps this accounts for his blend of country
folk soul blues non-specific-genre work - his intellectual escape from
the restrictions of a modicum range of taste within may of us.
Ball says:
Comfort is the
plight of weary souls succumbing to the hammocks of the world,
and mistaking lumbar support for having a spine. God frowns on
idle schemers and His tribulations stubbornly resist the New Age
sages.
Our reward, if it comes at all, is meted out in proportion to
the courage we display battling our earthly travails. And no one
has yet found a way to summon courage during a nap. If you are
not beleaguered, my friend, then you've probably slipped between
the cushions of your sleeper car. So Johnny [Cash], may the serenity
that eluded you here take its eternal root in the Hereafter.
Serenity's proper place is Heaven anyway. Though it beckons
meekly, like the Holy Spirit, to the earthbound and to those,
like yourself, with the courage to listen.
In late 2003 Ball
released Triptych, which with his sonnet work will be a
great t reat
for readers of this site. The poetry and music contained in
Triptych are worth checking out, and I'm
certainly proud to have the complete version in my personal
collection. The collection begins with the
simplicity
and emotion of a babies cry and progresses threw poetry and a
mix of music including covers of The Doors and Rolling Stones
tunes that are sure to enrapture your senses.
Ball explains the
libretto behind the work beginning:
Poor little Moses. Sent down the river by his mommy to start a
religion. A stout-hearted, cunning woman, she succeeds in
protecting him from the daddy-god's appetite for uppity new
world orderists. But the howling baby Moses is no Zeus.
Abandoned without a fresh diaper, he is at the mercy of the
world's delectable vices. Discovering him in the reeds, a
hitchhiker attempts to soothe Moses with promises of locating
his mommy. But the stranger, a disgraced pharmacist, totes weird
medicinals in his trench coat. In short order, Moses is
introduced to a flurry of habit-forming surrogates for which he
demonstrates a fearsome aptitude.
In 2005 Ball
released
both
Razorwire 'n Voodoo and
Beggarman's Ball
with Paul Millington and Lonnie Glass respectively.
These CDs contain an amazing stretch of styles for the
poet/lyricist Ball.
I'm
happy to know Norman Ball, who was kind enough to send me a care
package weeks ago and to whom I've listened innumerable times -
as I'm sure our readers will as well.
Essays
and Articles by Norman Ball
Merchandise
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