- The Farm Couple
Songs From the Kitchen Table
Independent
By Bonny Holder
- Senior Reporter
 I have three distinct
personal memories of the Farm Couple, and none of them involve
seeing them sing.
1) November, 2001. Went to a Kevin
Welch show at the Blue Door in OKC. Was sitting on a folding
chair, when two people and a picnic basket made their way into
the row in which I sat. Their basket maybe it was a cooler
was full of goodies. The young woman engaged me in pleasant
conversation, and somehow (honest, I don't know how) I knew she
was part of the duo called the Farm Couple. Her name was Monica
Taylor, and her partner possibly husband, I don't know
Patrick Williams was equally friendly, knowledgeable
about Oklahoma folk musicians, and generous with their snacks.
This turned out to be a very emotional evening for me, and
later, I regarded the Farm Couple as those people who watched
over and nourished me throughout the evening in several different
ways. I'm delighted to report to you that, through this CD, they
still do.
2) July, 2002. Woody
Guthrie Free Folk Festival, Okemah OK. I didn't realize until
I spotted Monica across the floor of the Brickstreet Café
that I had memorized exactly what she and Patrick looked like,
but I didn't remember her as being so so very luminous,
so exuding physical and spiritual beauty. "The Madonna,"
I thought. I reintroduced myself, and got hugs, but unfortunately
I had already missed their set at the Brick, which had been the
previous afternoon.
3) Same weekend, an antique shop just next to the Crystal
Theater. My bud Julia & I are pacing the aisles, me looking
for Homer Laughlin plates in the Bluebird pattern. There is music
playing on the store speakers, and to my amazement, it's by recording
artists I don't know, which means it must be a CD, and not the
radio.
"Listen," I whisper to Julia. "It's "River
of Jordan," but who's singing it? The Whites?" Very
cool!, I want it. It speaks to me. Rushing to the cashier, I
make my inquiry.
"It's a local couple, they're called the Farm Couple,"
the cashier said. "They come in here all the time."
I bought Songs From the Kitchen Table that same day,
and since then find that I turn to it not only when I want soul
sustenance, but also when I want what might be described as a
palate cleanser for my ears. When I want to hear something so
simple, so flowing, so sweet that I feel like a river stone while
I hear it, or like I'm in a smooth, clear snowfall in some mountainous
place this is the CD I choose.
Every time I play it, and that's been maybe 30 times in the
past month, I hear a new aural jewel in the Couple's presentation.
Talk about understatement, or the whole being the sum of its
parts!
You'll notice Monica first. She sometimes hits a high trill like
Dolly Parton, but lacks the breathy sugar of Ms. Parton's vocals.
It could be a difference between the Tennessee dialect and the
pure Oklahoma phrasing of Ms. Taylor, whose singing on the brink
of shadow makes each song, even her cover of "Coat of Many
Colors," hers alone.
According to liner notes, this CD was recorded one take per
song in "a beautiful studio and home overlooking Beaver
Lake near Eureka Springs, AR...what you hear is Patrick, Don
Morris (bass) and I just playing song after song...a bunch of
coffee and tuning breaks...there's no better way to spend an
evening," Monica writes.
Patrick Williams' smooth, rooted tenor compliments Monica's
so well that he is easily overlooked for the first several listens.
He manages to provide a network of branches upon which she can
perch. And he's a fine, fine guitarist, as is evidenced by his
version of Elizabeth Cotton's "Freight Train."
"Freight Train" bridges the two most important,
compelling songs on the CD, both credited to Monica. The first
one is called "Kansas City Southern." It is a joyful
sounding sound of longing (for whom, a lover, a friend, someone
worth spending energy to see?). The lyrics are not printed inside
the CD info, so I tried to transcribe as I listened:
I took a ramblin' hobo's life, a guitar in a sack,
I long to hear you coming and rattlin 'down the track
when I hear your lonesome call, I run & grab my pay
I pick up my [coleman?] satchel, many thanks, but the work can
stay.
I work beside the families, who have lost their homes &
farms
we even sleep together, beneath the trestle, safe from harm
as we sit around the campfire, our stories are shared around
and I pull out my guitar and I can sing the kids right down
Oh that Kansas City Southern...won't you pull that whistle
down?
That Kansas City Southern..here comes my horse, guess I'll be
leavin' now.
The third song in the triad recalls the Civil War and aftermath,
and is called "Ocoee Love Song."
The bluecoats weren't kind like I told you,
and it was sister & me & buckshot that they found
And cold ain't the word for winter in the mountains...
Monica sings this to a returning love, with purity leaning
against a very real acknowledgment of the changes he will find,
and a realistic, if not entirely romantic, reason to return:
Better shot, right to console, when you're so far away,
it don't do no good to be told.
Just a girl, when you left me, but a woman is now what you'll
see.
Little sisters & mamas & sweethearts all awaiting
for the war to send our men back home to our needs.
If there's anything to bring you back to the mountains,
it's the river, my love, and the springtime.
So flow my Ocoee, flow down thru the blue ridge
Nanatahala and my Hiawassee
Just a girl when you left me, but a woman is now what you see
Tracking down and listening to this CD would be completely worthwhile
if it were only for that three-song novel. But each song, even
the laughable "Goobersville" (their rival high school
team was from Hooterville) has something unique, melodious and
joyful to offer.
I'll make a point I'll go out of my way -- to catch
their music live the very next time I can. In the meantime, this
will have to do. The little info I can find on the Farm Couple
online mentions that they are enrolled members of the Cherokee
Nation, and that they actually do live on an Oklahoma farm.
The Farm Couple's snailmail address is Rt. 4 Box 460, Afton,
OK, 74331. Monica's e-mail is mtaylorok-at-yahoo.com. She writes
a delightful newsletter!
You can contact Bonny Holder at bonny-at-rockzilla.net
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