Mia wrote: >I also like that crazy sound on "Nathan LaFraneer". Inside the album cover, >under the musicians credits, it mentions Lee Keefer and Joni Mitchell on >banshee. Now I've never seen a banshee instrument, nor do I know how one is >played, but I would bet this is the instrument that we hear on Nathan >LaFraneer. In Irish folklore, a banshee is a female spirit that delivers her >eerie kind of wailing noise to warn a family of an approaching death of a >member.
When we were recording the second Tinker CD "Bending The Banshee's Ear" we needed to get a "Nathan LaFraneer" type Banshee wail. We had to get one of the Tinkers (who shall remain nameless) to fake a near-death experience (my memory is fuzzy, but I think large amounts of alcohol were involved) in order to get the Banshee (or Bean Sidhe in Irish) to show up. THEN we had to keep her talking - just like in the song - until daylight, so she wouldn't carry our friend off. As the morning sun rose, we rolled the tape and caught her wail. I'm glad we didn't have to get her back for a second take. I imagine Joni used a similar technique. -- ######################################################## Steve Dulson Costa Mesa CA [EMAIL PROTECTED] "The Tinker's Own" http://www.tinkersown.com "The Living Tradition Concert Series" http://www.thelivingtradition.org/
