Mary Kelley’s song “John Donne’s Song” was released on November 4, and is now available on all the usual outlets for digital music, including iTunes, Amazon and Spotify. We had some fine contributions on this recording: from regular collaborator, Dave Lebolt on harmonium, tiple and dulcimer; Factrix guitar ace Bond Bergland on mandolin; vintage instrument aficionado Edmond Badoux on hurdy gurdy; and from harmony vocalist Katherine Wethington. I played my acoustic guitar, and produced the track.
As I was poking around the internet gathering links for this post from iTunes and so on, I found some fascinating links to other artists who have weighed in on this very same poem by John Donne. I recommend listening to our version of the song, and then following up by visiting these links. It’s fascinating to see what different people take away from the same poem. Here’s four examples:
Live version of 1960s folk-rock group Pentangle’s version of “Song.”
Actor Richard Burton reads the poem.
A reading of the poem by Fred Proud.
An academic analysis of the poem, by Shahriar Bolour.
To hear more of Mary Kelley’s music, visit her web site.
