Reynardine – Old Fox New Trick

CD Review by Tony Smith

 

This 2004 album is but one of Bill Bostle’s musical endeavours.

It reveals a man of warmth and wit as well as considerable song writing skills and musical talent.

Bostle’s quirky sense of humour is based on a keen perception of exactly which human attributes need defending and which need offending.

Reynardine is a ‘were-fox’.

Bostle thanks supporters of the Underfox.

The CD is distributed by Canberra’s Vulpine Music, one track is about his dog and another about wolves.

The band includes Bill Bostle (rhythm, lead and bass guitars and percussion), Nicole Canham (clarinet), Ross Edie (keyboards) and Miguel Heatwole (vocals).

The quartet takes nicely to Bostle’s compositions and gives them deep expression.

Barking is by Ursa.

‘Force Nine’ is about Caithness and the North Sea easterlies that have such an effect on the people, the past, the passing of time and ageing.

‘Never Saw Green’ until I saw your eyes, nor other colours till I saw them with you.

Love opens our eyes, gives us new perspectives and appreciations.

This was written for Teresa on their tenth wedding anniversary.

Bostle, ever the romantic, explains that Teresa’s eyes are delft blue but it is difficult to find words that rhyme with ‘delft’.

A very strong song ‘Land of the Fair Bloody Go’ has perhaps the most pointed lyrics: welcome to Australia as long as you’re white and vote to the right.

It exposes our decency as a sham when razor wire is the welcome for those others who are not like us.

‘Ursa’s Song’ is a fair tribute to a friend who, like all her species, gives so much.

Ursa the elkhound is training Bill to her satisfaction.

He says that his last hair fell as her last tooth grew.

Ursa (bearess in Latin) was born as the wattle blooms, a lovely way to remember the birth of someone special – a lovely Australian way.

The siege of Masada took place during a controversial Jewish rebellion against the Roman Empire.

‘Masada Again’ says that despite the passage of 1930 years, mention of the name still gets people stuck in ‘moral quicksand’.

On ‘August1st, 1866’ Bostle’s great great grandparents Sarah and Eliazer wed in London’s great synagogue.

We should all celebrate our ancestral heritage.

The album, recorded at Infidel Studios Queanbeyan, is dedicated to Bill Bostle’s late father Charles.

Bostle dedicates ‘Wolves in Winter’ to Willy and Michael and encourages them not to ‘let the bastards grind you down’.

The ‘Kings and Queens of Lost Causes’ meet once a week waiting for some sort of revolution.

They could be socialists but are clearly some sort of idealists.

‘The Creek Don’t Rise’ is a boogy woogy blues tune with walking bass: if the Gods are kind and the creek don’t rise, well, the possibilities are boundless.

Banks love droughts and foreclosures.

Bostle says that ‘Glaury Bairns’ is based on memories from the feral fringe of his first childhood and that the second awaits.

He should not worry.

The attitudes revealed in these songs are refreshingly young.