Natalie Merchant

“I kept on positing that [folk music] is any music that serves the people and describes the culture” Natalie Merchant on NPR’s American Routes, November 7, 2003

Introduction

I wrote in the previous post on “Crazy Man Michael” that there seem to be two prevalent ways of interpreting the song as a listener and as a performer. The first starts from a certain kind of psychological realism–that anything in the story that doesn’t seem logical or realistic is a function of Michael’s madness. The other reading I’ve found approaches the song by taking it on its own terms, and viewing the magical transformation of the bird into Michael’s lover as as real as anything else in the story. Performances tapping into this latter theme send signals akin to the “swords and sorcery” dynamic discussed by Jon Langford a few weeks ago.

I also wrote about how this song was difficult for Fairport to pick up in the years following Sandy Denny’s departure from the band, and that Richard Thompson, for his own part, found the song emotionally and musically challenging to sing. It seems that, too a certain extent, despite Nigel Schofield’s claims about the ubiquity of other recordings of “Crazy Man Michael,” there are actually a fairly limited number of internationally prominent recording artists who have taken it on–or at least artists of renown in the United States. Schofield’s liner notes from 2005 list covers by Dave Burland, The Albion Band, Silver Birch, Vikki Clayton, Sandy Denny, Fiona Joyce, Sundown, Shanachie, New St. George, Dave Swarbrick (inst.), Natalie Merchant, The Buskers, Ceilidh’s Muse, and Betsey McGorvern. Thompson’s own informal online discography of cover versions of his songs adds no more names to this list, although it is less complete and certainly out of date.

All this is to say that my informal survey of the “keepers of the garden,” tending the legacy of “Crazy Man Michael” moves fairly quickly into somewhat obscure acts. These tend to fall into one of two categories: those who take a fairly straightforward approach to their presentation of the song, and those who seem focused on developing performances of it suited well to your local Renaissance Faire. Also, I don’t intend any disrespect to the artists listed above (or to Renaissance Faires), but several of the acts listed are direct descendants of Fairport, and one artist, Burland, has explicitly focused much of his recording output on covers of Thompson’s songs. Natalie Merchant is the only standout, and for good reasons.

Today’s post will focus mainly on the better performances of the song by those outside the direct Fairport lineage and some that may have been recorded since Schofield assembled his list. Along the way, we’ll touch lightly on what makes this song a “folk” song, how a few artists have begun the folk process on it in some small way, and whether the song can be scooped out of its traditionalist setting and made more rock than folk (or folk rock).

The House Carpenter’s Daughter

“Crazy Man Michael” appeared in 2003 on Natalie Merchant‘s The House Carpenter’s Daughter. We’ve discussed her performances before on “The Diver Boy,” and even a surprisingly effective duet performance (with Tracy Chapman) of the Mac Davis song “In the Ghetto,” made famous by Elvis Presley. 

For some reason, though, I skipped over her performance of “House Carpenter” in the week I explored that ballad. That might be because whether I dig Merchant’s distinctive vocal timbre seems to fluctuate seasonally for me. That’s not intended to be a criticism, really–sort of like saying sometimes I’m into oboe music and sometimes not. (I’m sometimes challenged by her diction, but that’s another matter.) I find Merchant to be an immensely talented, thoughtful, and serious artist, with good taste when it comes to selecting and arranging songs to suit her.

Her version of “Crazy Man Michael” is no exception. [Update 3/5/17: A full, streamable version of her performance is difficult to come by at the moment, but you can listen to an extended excerpt on her website.]

Merchant’s studio performance is terrific here, I think. With at least four instruments in the arrangement, the singing and the story are not overwhelmed. The song keeps the mood of the original, but waxes and wanes in intensity in keeping with the action. She tells the story with the words and in how she sings the song.

Somewhat aptly, I suppose, The House Carpenter’s Daughter is similar to Liege and Lief in including “Crazy Man Michael” as one of only two songs on the album written within 50 years of its recording. The quote at the top of this post is Natalie Merchant’s reflections on the definition of “folk music.” She took a class at Bard College on folk music and dance where contesting the definition of “folk music” was a key part of the conversation. Using her proposed definition, Merchant’s performance and several others testify to the fact that Thompson’s song does an able job of blending with the traditional and, perhaps, “serves the people.”

Here’s a clip of Merchant serving up a performance of “Crazy Man Michael” to the attendees of the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2010. Unfortunately, her memory lapses late in the song and the words aren’t as clear in this YouTube recording as they are in the studio version, but it remains a moving performance.

Following Fairport

Silver Birch’s 1974 recording represents a continuation of the song’s legacy within the British Folk movement. I would say “folk rock,” but it doesn’t seem appropriate to Silver Birch’s very spare treatment of the ballad here. They are one of the first bands whose recording gets the opening lyric wrong. Several others follow them, however, in taking Michael’s walk out of the fire and into the forest. Perhaps this was just an attempt to put their own stamp on it, or Thompson’s fire and sea combination didn’t make sense to them. I’m not sure how “forest” and “sea” are a more logical combination, but it appears to be catchy.

There are a number of other British and North American acts that take up the song, but the performances I find most interesting for the purposes of our discussion here come from Germany and Eastern Europe. These performers still present the song in English, but I’m led to wonder what contributes to the song’s salience for artists in these areas (I have no way of gauging if it is truly popular). Does it some how fit their idea of English or Celtic folk traditions more ably than other songs?

Going back to the early 70’s, German-English artist, Klaus Weiland, offers a fine solo acoustic performance of “Crazy Man Michael.” Weiland estimates that the YouTube performance below for German television is from 1973. His spoken introduction is in German, but the song is sung in English.

In his spoke introduction, Weiland explains the plot to the German speaking audience:

“One of the recurring themes in folk music is that of young men in love going crazy after being deceived by a bird or animal that can talk and that after being killed is revealed to be his beloved. The story of Crazy Man Michael is such a story. He goes out walking and on the cliffs he meets a raven who tells him that he will kill his beloved. He goes crazy and kills the bird and when it’s lying on the ground he looks closer [at this point Weiland laughs and looks down at the dog which must be doing something] and, to come back to the song, sees that it is not the bird, but his beloved.”*

Weiland also released a studio recording with a more involved instrumental arrangement. If you’ve been reading our blog for a while, you’ll not be surprised to learn that I prefer the solo acoustic one above.

I’ll conclude this post with three more recent performances, all taken from bands exploring English and Celtic material from points east and south of Germany. Again, it’s fascinating to me that this song should gain such traction in this part of the world, although I find that the performances are not uniformly successful in capturing the tone of the song–at least to my taste.

First, the Czech band Teagrass provides an effective and authentic sounding version, blended in with the broader array of European roots music on their album Vecírek

Generally speaking, I’ve been less successful in finding versions of “Crazy Man Michael” that make it rock harder than the other, folkier versions–regardless of their country of origin. I’m not sure why, but hard rock or goth attempts seem to descend into some kind of Spinal Tap-like caricature–“Stonehenge“-like. The version provided by the Hungarian Irish band Firkin may be one of the least offending in this category, but it still doesn’t escape this association to my ear.

This clip paints the picture still more vividly.

Finally, one of my favorite performances of the song comes from Moldova, with the Celtic group Ann’Sannat, headed by the harp player Alizbar. Truth be told, I can’t discern whether Ann’Sannat is meant to be the group name or the album name (or both). According to the band, it is a word out of J.R.R. Tolkien’s elvish, meaning “fairy tales of the elves.” Despite all the “swords and sorcery,” Renaissance Faire elements seemingly present, their patient, gentle take on the song, building in intensity is one of the more satisfying overall–ranking up there with Merchant’s and Thompson’s in my book.

Here is a YouTube version, with a music video interpretation of the story. I don’t include it on the strength of its video storytelling, but mainly to provide access to the recording for our readers without access to Spotify. You’re better off with your eyes closed watching the “movie” they make with their music alone.

Conclusion

That wraps up my lightly curated survey of “Crazy Man Michael.” Spotify contains a number of other covers of the song as well as several excellent live concert performances by Fairport. At just over forty years old, the song is only in its folk music infancy. It has taken some interesting directions so far, and appears to have an emotional resonance, a folkloric quality, and a staying power that will keep it evolving in the decades ahead.

*Thanks to Sem Sutter for rendering Klaus Weiland’s statement into English.