William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience
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A Poison Tree
2:27
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The Tyger
2:24
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The Sick Rose
1:13
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Laughing Song
1:45
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General Info
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Genre: Acoustic / Lyrical / Other
Location Stroud, Southwest, UK
Profile Views: 9295
Last Login: 6/29/2011
Member Since 12/27/2007
Record Label J & E Records
Type of Label Indie
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Bio
Jeff Gillett writes: I first began setting Blake's 'Songs of Innocence and Experience' to music as a way of making them easier for my sixth-form English students to remember in a closed-book examination. At that time, I had no intention of writing a tune for every poem in the collection, but the more I worked on it, the more enthusiastic I became, both for the project and for the poems themselves. The aim was to write tunes which would be memorable in their own right, but which would enable the poems to speak for themselves. The music had to enhance the mood of the song and ensure that the accentuation demanded by the irregularity of Blake's metre could always be accommodated. I have performed many of the songs solo, with and without accompaniment, at folk clubs and festivals. For a fuller presentation, I wanted more instrumentation, coupled with projections of Blake's original illustrations. For the first performance, I enlisted the help of Elaine Gillett, Alison Gregory and Cathy Brown. This provided us with three voices and accompaniment on guitar, violin, cello, keyboard, whistle and mandolin. Martin Fry did the projections, supplementing Blake's images with his own photography. The first performance, consisting of 33 of the 45 poems, took place in The Space, Lansdown Road, as part of the Stroud Arts Festival. The first performance of the entire collection took place at Marling School Sixth-Form and Stroud High School Sixth-Form Lecture Theatre in Autumn 2009. The Complete collection is available on double CD. Visit www.blakesongsettings.co.uk for further details. -
Members
Jeff Gillett (guitar, mandolin, dulcimer, concertina, bass, ladder, vocals); Elaine Gillett (vocals); Alison Gregory (cello, keyboard, whistle, vocals); Cathy Brown (violin, mandolin); Alex West (flute, vocals); Colin Sillence (guitar, mandolin, vocals). -
Influences
William Blake, traditional folk, Martin Simpson, June Tabor, Nick Drake, Bert Jansch, Richard Thompson, King Crimson, The Incredible String Band, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Paul Kossoff, Martin Hayes and Dennis Cahill; others too numerous to mention. -
Sounds Like
The tunes that Blake's poems have been waiting for for 200 years.
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10 Songs | Sep 21, 2008












Megan J. Salomon
2 years ago
Megan J. Salomon
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Megan J. Salomon
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Sasha Eleyce 
2 years ago
David Franks: Walkabout… 2 years ago
Giles Winterton

3 years ago
David Franks: Walkabout… 3 years ago
Nabeel Issa
And His name shall be called

3 years ago
Zimbalam Zimbalam 3 years ago
Nabeel Issa, Accordioni…
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10 of 25MoreHey!
Hello,How are you ?
Hello,thanks add!
Hope you have a few minutes to come on in and listen to my music.
I t's great to have you as a friend. I hope you enjoy my music.
Reach Out and love somebody.
Much love, Sasha
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this poem sung on MySpace...
Poem cum song 5 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse (see my Blog for details):
STATE TO STATE
(TUNE:
C F G F
C F G F
C F G F
C F G F
F G F C
F G F C
F G F C
C F F F)
From Sydney Town,
In uni. break,
I drove out west
To earnings make
Onion picking,
On the fields
Of Echuca,
That year’s yields.
After day’s work,
From Y.H.A.,
A group of us
Would not delay
To walk on down
To the dirt rim
Of the Murray,
For a cool swim.
On one such day,
I do declare,
Some three of us
Had a big dare
To swim across,
From state to state,
The wide Murray -
I took the bait.
Yes, foolishly,
I took the bait -
A choice that I
Would come to hate,
For I almost
Did drown that date,
Making the swim
From state to state.
(C) David Franks 2003
Hi William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience, thanks for being a friend.
After you've finished here, you may like to hear this poem, & some songs, on myspace...
Poem 187 of 230, WalkaboutsVerse
(see my blog for details): A SOUTH SHIELDS WALKABOUT - AUTUMN 2001
Out of the museum-and-gallery
(Wiser on Cookson and the local way),
Down Ocean Road with, to the right of me,
Its eateries and, left, neat places to stay;
Before, on either side, Marine Parks -
The southern-one a most beautiful place,
Teeming with moorhens, swans, grebes and mallards
In a small lake at a scenic-hill’s base.
Then (holding chips from the parade’s cafe
And, thus, a flock of gulls squawking above)
Onto the South Pier I made my way:
Seeing seaweed over rocks - like a glove -
And high-and-dry sands held from transgression
By growth of grass and the weaving of wood,
Plus, in the dim light of a sleepy sun,
Fishing boats returning to Tynemouth’s hood.
(C) David Franks 2003
Wonderful,
Counsellor,
The Mighty God,
The everlasting Father,
The Prince of Peace
(Isaiah 9:6)
Pixages
May peace, joy and blessings of Christmas
Bring a message of hope and good cheer
And be a happy reminder that Jesus
Is with you throughout the new year.
Nabeel
Zimbalam is the leading distributor of unsigned and new music worldwide.
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Marhaba is an Arabic word used in the Middle East as a greeting (in English Hello).
The origin of the word comes from Aramaic, the old Syrian language of Jesus Christ.
It is a combination of two words: MAR + HABA
MAR, meaning God, Lord or Master.
HABA, meaning Love.
So, Marhaba means "God is Love".
The following is the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic, recited by Majida El-Roumi:
Marhaba my friends
May you celebrate the love of God deep within your heart as Jesus brings new meaning to life... Joy, Hope, Peace... because His love is eternal.
May His eternal love shine upon you always!
Nabeel