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This month marks the > 12th year anniversary of the Battle Of The Bands blogfest, and this is my 220th BOTB installment. After I post the voting results on July 8th, I will be taking a break from BOTB for awhile, so I can focus on some other things. How long is "awhile"? I don't know; I guess we'll discover that together. However, during my hiatus, I will still be a regular voter at your Battles.
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I wanted to do something special to commemorate this historic anniversary and decided to present two songs by an ultra-obscure & somewhat mysterious singer-songwriter whom you have never heard of (unless I previously made you aware of her).
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Her name is Pat Berrington and she recorded only one album which was titled 'Allen Street Rose'. The 10 songs on the 1996 album address mysterious characters who may or may not have lived in Tombstone, Arizona, in the 1880s and regularly performed at the infamous Bird Cage Theatre on Allen Street. (You likely remember the Bird Cage Theatre from the movie 'Tombstone'.)
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The person at Insanely Rare Music wrote this: "Here is a VERY rare country western cd, from Pat Berrington ... The cd tells the story of Rose Callahan and why her spirit returns to Tombstone and The Bird Cage. Almost anyone who has heard her music, HAS TO have this cd. It was sold exclusively at The Bird Cage, and you can no longer find it anywhere."
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Others have said:
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"I love it!!"
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"...that thing is definitely special. Magical."
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"...she has a much higher voice than I normally like but, oddly, it seems absolutely perfect for these atmospheric, haunted graveyard-like songs. ...there's a very ethereal sound to her songs."
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| 1992: A |
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Because the album's first song, 'At The Old Bird Cage', mentions "whiskey", I originally intended to use this in a Battle Of The Booze installment. However, knowing that this will be my last BOTB post for "awhile", I decided to really put Pat in the spotlight by using the album's first song against the album's last song, 'Lonely, Alone'. The shared themes in these songs are Tombstone ("The Town Too Tough To Die"), The Bird Cage Theatre, and disembodied spirits.
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The Bird Cage has a reputation for being heavily "haunted" by a number of "ghosts".
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If you're interested in learning how I discovered this album and my personal history with it, and also about a spooky experience that occurred in the Bird Cage Theatre the first time I visited it, click > HERE, where the entire album can also be accessed for your listening pleasure.
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In the documentary 'No Direction Home', Joan Baez said this regarding Bob Dylan's music:
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"There are some people who'd say...you know, 'Not interested'. But IF you're interested, he goes way, way deep".
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I suspect the same applies to Pat Berrington's album 'Allen Street Rose'. Some folks would undoubtedly complain that all of the songs have VERY sparse arrangements. It's all acoustic; no drums, no bass. It's primarily just vocals, piano, fiddle, and acoustic guitar. Most of the songs are ballads, with just a couple of mid-tempo songs mixed in. However, it seems that those who do like the album really dig it to a great degree!
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* Special thanks to Bryan "Julio" Pedas for creating these videos from my compact disc!
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Alright, let's get on it.
Let's get ON this thing!
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Please vote in the comment section for the song you like best, and then visit the other BOTBers who are BOTBing.
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Note: 'Allen Street Rose' is a concept album and this first song begins with a brief narrative outline of the story which unfolds through the 10 songs. If this is an outrageous "bridge too far" for you, you can skip to the 1:53 mark in the video & begin there. (But I hope you won't.)
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AT THE OLD BIRD CAGE
by Pat Berrington
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LONELY, ALONE
by Pat Berrington
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Psst! Remember, click HERE if you want to read some interesting stuffs about my times in Tombstone and to hear the entire Pat Berrington album, including my very favorite song, the title track, 'Allen Street Rose'.
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
(...the "dirty dog")
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