“Black is the Color” – bringing a very old melody to life

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I was rummaging through my archives and found a tape transfer of my singing variations of “Black Is the Color”. One vocal variation in particular inspired me to make a mix, with synths and my accordion of course, because, as I say often, accordions go with everything.

This love song has been around a very long time. Though its origins are not known for sure, it most likely made its way from Scotland to the Appalachia region in the US, the lyrics and melody evolving along the way.

I remember learning the melody when I was a wee lass by picking out notes on a spinet piano. The melody has stuck with me ever since. This is how I hear it, a bit different perhaps than others but isn’t that just what happens to folk tunes as they pass through time? ☺

I just found out that “folktronic” is a genre. Who knew? 🙂

Happy Halloween & Two New Tunes

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I wish you all a ghoulorius Pagan New Year / Halloween / El Día de Los Muertos! 🎃 🎃 🎃

Calm On is my most recent video. It features the beauty of Lake Okanagan, Penticton, BC and its current autumnal, avian denizens. The music is ambient electronica with accordion. Yes, accordions go with every kind of music!

Watch and enjoy a few moments of calm.

All the Rage is a spoken word YouTube “Short” — 60 seconds. Yes, there is some accordion.

I describe the piece like so:

“Something wonderful happens to a woman when she lives long enough, don’t ya think?”

Be sure and follow on BandCamp and subscribe to the Mad Ms YouTube channel.

New tune: “flow like so” – mesmerizing accordion & electronica

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We’re busy preparing for our shows in August so I gave the band a break from recording this month. I still wanted to publish a video so I put the finishing touches on a tune I composed in 2022. “flow like so” is a synth-soaked ambient piece with accordion. I built the mesmerizing, relaxing, chill video with footage from the Penticton, BC dam and channel.

Accordions belong anywhere in any genre, even flow. No musical borders. That’s my contention and I’m sticking with it. 🙂

For music nerds, the time signature is 7/4. The accordion is my musette tuned Weltmeister Achat. The synths sounds are all in GarageBand (the free Apple app) which just goes to show that possibilities are endless if you have a creative streak and like to play with sonic landscapes.

For a hi-fi audio file of “flow like so” visit our BandCamp: https://themadmaggies.bandcamp.com/track/flow-like-so