Bonnets & Sonnets: Reviews for June 25th

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Music Review

Bardcore: Where have you been all my life?

Sara Krasne

There’s a new genre of music evolving on YouTube these days. It’s called Bardcore (or Medieval Style), and I am HERE for it! Bardcore is the soundtrack I didn’t know I needed as a historian and genealogist, I spend many days and nights steeped in the past, lost amongst the long (and sometimes not so long) dead trying to piece together their lives and connect them through the ages to the now.

Connected to both the present and the past as I am, hearing Progressive Rock (an occasional Hard Rock), Grunge, and modern Popular songs played out on harpsichord, lute-guitar, the bass notes thudding on hand drums and sometimes accompanied by the hammered dulcimer, melodies singing out on tin whistles makes perfect sense to me. Listening to this music, my inner band geek squeals in excitement and my nerdy heart soars.

The user names of the talented individuals who have pioneered this new and exciting genre may be lost in favor of their ‘real’ names one day, but for now I salute them. Graywyk, Cornelius Link, Algal the Bard, Constantine, Hildegard von Blingin’, Samus Ordicus and a host of others are joining the genre it seems daily now. Some of my favorites are those who have adapted the lyrics to a medieval (ish) style as well. Hildegard von Blingin’ has a cover of “Pumped up Kicks” by Foster the People that retains the catchy tune of the original song, but beseeches the “bully-rooks with your buskin boots” to “outrun my bow” of yew. And councils the rooks further to run “faster than mine arrow.” If you love music and are unapologetically nerdy, head over to YouTube, search “Bardcore” and fall into the past with a bit of anachronistic good humor. You won’t be sorry that you did! I’m off to the 1800s now, but I’m taking System of a Down’s “Toxicity” (Medieval version by Algal the Bard) with me!

YouTube Review

Townsends 

Ramin Ganeshram

If you are a fan of re-enactment sites and living history museums like Sturbridge Village or Colonial Williamsburg Foundation then you have likely seen the goods produced by Townsends (formerly Jas Townsend & Son) a manufacturer and retailer of reproduction 18th and early 19th Century clothing, cookware, and accessories. Not only do Townsend’s proprietors provide material for re-enactors, they walk the walk and are re-enactors themselves producing YouTube videos on everything from era-specific carpentry, camping and, my personal favorite, cooking. Billed as “a channel dedicated to exploring the 18th century lifestyle”, Townsends features proprietor Jonathan Townsend cooking recipes from both American and European cookbooks. Cooking both in a reproduction kitchen as well as campfire-side, Townsend prepares both long-gone recipes like Swanky & Gruit, Bison Soup and Corn & Eel Succotash along with those that are still familiar today like chocolate cream pie, fried chicken and pancakes. Clearly a skilled cook who enjoys the history of the dishes he prepares, the videos are both entertaining and educational. Lovers of the foodways of the Colonies and the Early Republic will enjoy this channel with can be found below.

https://www.youtube.com/user/jastownsendandson

Petticoats and Puritans: Reviews for April 6th

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A YouTube channel featuring historic dress creation and a behind-the-scenes book about Pilgrim life.

If you’re a history buff, fashionista or just plain in the mood for some calming afternoon content, the YouTube channel of one Bernadette Banner might be the place for you. Ms. Banner, an “independent online content creator,” showcases historical dress prior to the electric sewing machine with the intent of understanding their construction, function and place within the historical record. Banner creates her own garments and models them for viewers. Her videos contain helpful sewing tips, relaxing commentary and opportunities to see how clothing of the past was created. Whether you are a sewer or simply a history connoisseur Ms. Banner’s channel will make you appreciate fashion’s past and will transport you to a different time. 

You can watch this delightful channel here. 
YouTube Review: Bernadette Banner Nicole Carpenter
What better time than this, the 400th anniversary of the 1620 Pilgrim landing in Plymouth, Massachusetts to read a comprehensive and entertaining history of the Plymouth Bay Colony. In The Mayflower: The Families, the Voyage, and the Founding of America, author Rebecca Frazer tells a great story from the colony’s creation into the mid 18th century. Following the Pilgrims as they flee England for Holland seeking religious freedom and then being driven from that land onto to America, Frazer’s book paints a detailed picture of the ambition, fervor, and politics behind the oft-told and beloved legend of the founding of America. The author also explores the human foresight of the Pilgrims beginning with the Mayflower Compact, which bound these people into “a civil body politic” — “the first experiment in consensual government in Western History between individuals with one another, and not with a monarch” as well as their failures and foibles.  Not only does Frazer explore the hardship of weather and scarcity that killed half the colonists in the first year alone, but also offers a realistic view of the next 80 years during which two unnecessary wars were fought, first with Pequots Natives and then King Philip’s War with Wampanoag peoples and how Puritans and their Congregational churches both helped and hindered the creation of a new nation. History buffs will appreciate being more intimately introduced to many historical figures—among them, Edward Winslow and William Bradford (key figures of the early colony), and Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson and Thomas Hooker. Readers will come away with a greater understanding—and not a little awe—that despite all their tribulations, their Puritans’ civil body politic somehow endured.
Community Book Review: The Mayflower: The Families, the Voyage, and the Founding of AmericaBill Chase