The Greg Brownderville Dimension

In this episode I talk with renowned British historian Ronald Hutton about May Eve and May Day. Ronald offers tips as to how we might celebrate this wondrous holiday and weave it into our lives.

In this episode I tell about my recent experience celebrating a West Wales holiday called Hen Galan ("the Old New Year"). The centerpiece of the episode is my conversation with a young man named Carwyn, for whom Hen Galan and the historic pub where it is celebrated are of deep emotional and cultural importance. Bessie Davies, the woman and pub owner who did so much to keep Hen Galen alive, had passed away only a month before I arrived. The nighttime festivities still took place at her pub, but this was the first time in over seventy years that Hen Galan had been celebrated without Bessie. This meant that a certain sadness was mixed into the joy of the night, all of which I discuss with Carwyn in this episode. If you'd like to see the visuals, check out the YouTube version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRZBFd9oWGc

For this special Christmas edition of GBD, I set up in my dad's shop in Pumpkin Bend, Arkansas, and talked with him about what Christmas has meant to him through the different stages of his life. 

In this episode I discuss the personalities of professional fighters Alexander Volkanovski and Tyson Fury in connection with three songs by Robert Johnson, Merle Haggard, and Bob Dylan.

Purchase Beekeeper Spaceman here:
https://shop.bandwear.com/products/be...

"Workin’ Man Blues" by Merle Haggard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EwK0...

"Workingman's Blues #2" by Bob Dylan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGT7X...

"They're Red Hot" by Robert Johnson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ehtc...

In this episode I describe the forgotten fall holiday called Michaelmas, give my thoughts on its meaning, and offer some ideas about how to celebrate it.

The scorching triple-digit heat in Texas (where I live) certainly isn't giving anyone a fall feeling, so I'm turning to autumnal poetry to change the emotional weather. In this episode I read and discuss seven poems that convey the enchantment of autumn.

I recorded the video for this episode with my phone in a hotel room; forgive the less-than-amazing video quality.

Links to the poems I read in this video:

"Autumn" by T. E. Hulme
https://poets.org/poem/autumn-3

"First Fall" by Maggie Smith
https://apoemaday.tumblr.com/post/699315826656952320/first-fall

"Beyond the Red River" by Thomas McGrath
https://www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/poems-week-2021-2022/poem-week/beyond-red-river-thomas-mcgrath

"Plums" by Gillian Clarke
https://www.best-poems.net/gillian-clarke/plums.html

"Beginning" by James Wright
https://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/beginning/

"Theme in Yellow" by Carl Sandburg
https://poets.org/poem/theme-yellow

"Neighbors in October" by David Baker
https://www.americanlifeinpoetry.org/columns/detail/5

This episode kicks off a special series on poetics, built around the idea of “wordhood.” I discuss a Dakota myth called "The Killing of Bead-Spitter" and why it matters to me.

On March 12, 2015, I gave this interview and lecture on Welsh poet Dylan Thomas at the Allen Public Library (TX) for its Celtic Month.

In this episode I speak with Professor Ronald Hutton in his office at the University of Bristol, discussing the value of participatory, experiential folklore scholarship: living the lore rather than studying it aloofly. Afterward, by way of example, I tell how my own direct experience of the May this year has deepened my understanding of the holiday and my sense of its enchantment. I also answer questions from "the mailbag"—that is, from my listeners and viewers.

Irish American Heritage Museum's discussion of May Eve traditions and beliefs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaNlXSSGm3Q

May carol from Bedfordshire (utilizing minor chords):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4lSY8fXeLY

NPR article about May baskets:
https://www.npr.org/sections/npr-history-dept/2015/04/30/402817821/a-forgotten-tradition-may-basket-day

May carol (a composite carol I put together, with a few words I added here and there):

I have been wandering all this night
And most part of this day,
So now I have come for to sing you a song
And to bring you a branch of May.

A branch of May I have brought you,
And at your door it stands.
It’s only a sprout, but it’s all budded out
By the work of our Lord’s own hand.

Such flowers shone there in the strange night air
And all in the early dew.
I felt some fright, but I made it through the night
To bring this May to you.

Wake up, wake up, you pretty fair maid,
Wake from your drowsy dream
And step into your dairy house
For to pour us a cup of cream.

A man’s but a man. His life’s but a span.
He is much like a flower,
For he’s here today and gone tomorrow,
And he’s all gone down in an hour.

My song is done. I must be gone.
I can no longer stay.
God bless us all both great and small
And grant us a gladsome May.

Three poems:

Herrick
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...

Eliot
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...

cummings
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem...

my website:
https://gregbrownderville.com

Greg Brownderville is the author of three books of poetry, the lead singer of Beekeeper Spaceman, the creator of Fire Bones, Editor-in-Chief at Southwest Review, and Professor of English at SMU in Dallas.

In this episode I talk about a largely forgotten holiday called the May: May Eve (30 April) and May Day (1 May). I also discuss the mysterious May carols, which were traditionally sung this time of year.