Peggi and I came across a cicada coming out of its shell while walking in the woods years ago. I took some photos and a short movie and I was waiting for the perfect song to attach the visuals to. I found it in Margaret Explosion’s “Sleepwalk,” one of 17 songs on our new cd “Field Recordings.”
I put the video online yesterday and texted a link to Bob Martin because Chicago had an invasion of cicadas last summer. Bob replied” “In the first couple days they were fascinating to look at. I’d actually move them out of the way when mowing. 4 weeks later, they were deafening, at one time registering nearly 100dB on my Apple Watch dB meter, and a brief trip outside would have you brushing them off your clothes and hair before coming back in. After six weeks, as they were dying off, we were raking them into piles as big as leaf piles in the fall. And just when we thought we were done, itch-mites began multiplying, feeding on the eggs that the cicadas had laced into the tree branches (thus killing the branches) and then said itch-mites began feeding on us, leaving scars we still see. And then there was the smell of rotting carcasses. We didn’t have any concept of how crazy it was going to get despite the warnings. Ours had red eyes and grey wings, though there was the occasional blue-eyed ones, which we referred to as “Sinatras.”
The song was recorded live at the Little Theatre Café (naturally.) Peggi Fournier plays soprano sax, Jack Schaefer plays bass clarinet, Phil Marshall plays guitar, Melissa Davies plays cello, Ken Frank plays the double bass and I play the drums. Arpad Sekeres mastered the audio.
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