Folk on ESPN
Bob Beepo: If you've just joined us, I'm Bob Beepo here in the Folk-On-ESPN booth for your song-by-song, and with me is Gene Greens, the Old Folk Cellist, providing color commentary. We're at something of a yellow flag here, while Myrna Mplpaplpr changes a string that broke during the Wisconsin Goldrush chantey, Panning the Mouth of the Rat.
Gene Greens: What a break it was, Bob. The string BONKS her Kwik Trip shades and somebody finds 'em in their yarn tote. They seem undamaged. She's been with the Kwik Trip team for six years now. Boy, that B string of hers packs a real wallop when it snaps. Let's go to our tech table and have Geeker explain what makes a string break.
Geeker: Gene, D'Addario being a sponsor, Myrna uses the D'Addario Acoustic Phosphor Bronze Environmental Heavies, the B-string having an oh-eighteen diameter and a tension of almost thirty pounds. Strong tone, but can be hard on a lesser instrument and the fingers, and when it breaks, I've seen it go right through a folkie's cheek. It's unusual for a new heavy B to break from fingerpicking, particularly with the flat-striking Dunlop Zookie M-20 thumbpick for which Myrna is spokesperson, unless it has been strung wrong. One of the most common stringing faults is, in wrapping the string around the shank, it kinks by being wrapped over itself. If I had to guess I would say that was the issue here, as it did snap up at the Grover Super Rotomatic -- another Mplpaplpr team partner -- though there is always the remote possibility of the string being defective.
Bob: Don't let D'Addario hear you say that. And the special edition Myrna Mplpaplpr Cudahy Cutaway Archtop Guitar has no problem with heavy strings, as you have heard Myrna explain on those Cudahy radio spots. She has now brought the new string into tune, using a Sabine AX-3000 Magnapad Contact Autotuner on her pickguard, being under contract with Sabine since Tuesday. You can see the Sabine patch above the Faygo logo on her Wranglers.
Gene: Yakking all the while, Myrna makes it look easy to change a string. I think a woman has an advantage here, if there's anything to the multitasking stats. About her string, I wouldn't say it's impossible that it was on correctly but her hard style wore it through. She is no PDM; she is a robust picker. 'Course the string could have been hit by a tiny meteor, too. You never know.Bob: PDM? What's a PDM, Gene?
Gene: PDM: Pale Drooping Maiden. Stephen Foster. It's from Hard Times: "There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away..." There are Pale Drooping Dudes on the circuit too but it's not such a common folk style for guys. Maybe in punk. But she's no PDM, not with her confident style passed on from her parents. Her mother is a farrier for the horse loggers up by Pembine and raised Myrna on logging hollers. Myrna's father owns a tropical fish and small engine outfit, but he's known in the folk arena for his killer mouth-bow improvisation.
Bob: Mplpaplpr is away on her next piece. We're going through a few instrumental measures here... and off into the first verse of Ball and Pin, the trad Oconomowoc bowling rework of the old standard, Peg and Awl. Myrna's stentorian delivery is made for this song.
Gene: Did you know bowling balls are made of polyester? That's why they don't wrinkle. By the way, notice the footwork here. She's wearing Frye boots, being a rep for Frye. I always loved that sound, Frye on plywood. Or I guess that's beaverboard. Home Depot is affiliated with the Mplpaplpr organization so she can take her pick. Those risers are like resonators. I know that some venues like to carpet the riser but I like the timbre of the stomping on wood. Gives that same BOOMP you get from a washtub bass, but being more pitch-neutral, it works in every key.
Bob: The timbre of the timber. Here we are at the end of the second verse... oh my, a modulation! Mplpaplpr modulates down a half step into D. Now that is a spine tingler. Often you hear rising modulations, but that gets obvious. This could add a thousand hits on YouTube.
Gene: It loses bass on the tonic in D because you can't play the low E, but the stomping makes up for that. And the key of D, when it goes to the subdominant, can have you thumbing down to the low E, which is a sixth of the G chord, but that fits in the run. Now, something I wanted to say about the last song. The Rat River opens into the mouth of the Wolf up by Orihula, right before the Wolf dumps into Poygan. I don't know if anyone pans up there, but my wife's family pontoons the mouth of the Rat. I understand Myrna's father has part interest in a bait shop up there; not sure how that fits with the tropical fish biz.
Bob: One of Wisconsin's treasures, the Rat. And we're looking at another Wisconsin treasure, as Myrna Mplpaplpr takes it back up into E for verse four. She overlays the modulation with a blip of falsetto on the word "gutterball". Some would call that a miscalculation.
Gene: Well, it works for me philosophically. Brings the focus from the melody back to the words, and underlines the Oops factor in bowling.
Bob: And here's an instrumental, similar to the intro vamp but with that extra parallel harmony on the G. Here are the stats on that modulation by the way: This is only the fourth time a descending modulation has been used in an acoustic bowling song since the '92 season when this statistic was first kept, and only the second time in the Great Lakes Region. Hey! Myrna is standing up off her stool for the last verse! I assume it's the last verse, though that would mean she's not going for a bridge.
Gene: An instrumental that strong can serve as a bridge. But one problem of standing is it's harder to keep the boot pounding. For any length of time anyway, unless you're like Natalie McMaster or John Hartford and can clog while frying an egg no doubt. But Myrna is keeping it thumping with her heel now instead of her toe which can be more effective anyway.
Bob: And there we have the classic abrupt finish, and Myrna's trademark beaming smile and backhand wave, a nod to Kaukauna Tooth and Nail, the coloration people whose contract with Myrna runs until next summer. We'll be back with a post-set interview with Myrna after these words from Milk Duds, the folkster chew underwriting this spectacular 2008 Area Code 920 Mplpaplpr Tour.