Music: no confessions… a ring of fire

recently i went into the studio with my good friend anna huckabee. we recorded a cover of the cash family’s ring of fire. the song is by the lovely june and popularized by the cranky bastard johnny. and it really is the only song by the man i have ever had any affinity for. i suspect it’s the mariachi horn arrangements and the way that june’s stellar vocals come in at the end of the track. it’s enough to raise the hackles listening to that woman sing.

anna and i travelled through korea and japan last year as part of the p.a.n. dance theater company. the impressario of the group, dk pan, asked us to perform the song as part of the floor show. i was antagonistic at first, but after anna and i had rehearsed it a few times i began to fall madly in love with her strange r-n-b through a country filter vocals. not to mention that the little sprite just threw herself into it so much that i was basically dragged along. and, of course, ‘je ne regrette riene…’

here’s the track:

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 Ring of Fire.mp3

anna sings. i percuss. a really nice cat named chris recorded it and did the cleanup. and it was so much fun.

and yes, i did make a film. it debuted at the northwest film forum a month ago. it was exciting. while i will not be putting the film up on youtube or vimeo or whatever i am planning to write about the experience still at some point. i’ve rreceived a lot of favorable responses to the piece and so i want to shop it out to festivals. if you know of any film fests that would be interested in the work of a black film maker who focused on queer projections of performance and desire let me know. sundance?

anna singing in the studio
anna singing in the studio
me at the dead science video shoot for the new record with etosha and nick tambura in the background
me at the dead science video shoot for the new record with etosha and nick tambura in the background
osama bin laden whom we now know had nothing to do with 911 or sarah palin's stolen email
osama bin laden whom we now know had nothing to do with 911 or sarah palin

Published by Pol Rosenthal

Pol Rosenthal has been working in Seattle's theater and music scenes for over 20 years. He used to publish a cultural arts journal then moved to Seattle to be in a rock band, TCHKUNG. This lead to him working with DK Pan's senses altering Butoh company, the P.A.N. In the late 90s he worked for sonic conspiracy company Muzak and while walking out the door helped found radical street art/action group the Infernal Noise Brigade. There he befriended and became a member of multi-disciplinary effort The Degenerate Art Ensemble. Eventually, he moved in next door to Seattle theater company Implied Violence (now St. Genet) and has enjoyed a multi-year, unhealthy relationship to their demanding work and philosophies. Last year he was in Curtis Taylor's 'The White Days' as an "actor". Presently he's wrapped up dancing in Paige Barnes' modern dance piece 'Lead Bunny' (Oct 2012) and is working on Dayna Hanson's rock musical 'Gloria's Cause'. In October he collaborated with Real Change editor Rosette Royale on a wonderful installation, 'JungleBox', for City Arts Fest.

4 replies on “Music: no confessions… a ring of fire”

  1. dude. he is real. we caught him ages ago and left him for dead in your 2nd basement. that’s why the gubbernmint is so lost in their attempts to nab him. who would have thought that a boy and his wolf-dog could catch the most desperate atrocitier in amurric’n history.

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