Winter Into Spring
January 19, 2018 11:13 PM Subscribe
Need a 45 minute break? Like, from anything? Here's piano artist (painter? poet? priest? alchemist?) George Winston's 1982 album Winter Into Spring [44m]: Side A: January Stars, February Sea, Ocean Waves (O Mar), Refletion
Side B: Rain/Dance, Blossom/Meadow, The Venice Dreamer, Part One The Introduction) -> Part Two
Like, if you're want to dip your toe in anywhere at all, start with Rain/Dance.
Side B: Rain/Dance, Blossom/Meadow, The Venice Dreamer, Part One The Introduction) -> Part Two
Like, if you're want to dip your toe in anywhere at all, start with Rain/Dance.
I've discovered Winston through an online second-hand records outlet. I had never heard his name here (France). He's a pianist, guitarist, harp (harmonica) player, and while he draws on a very wide range of material to compose his records, it's funny to notice how consistent his style is. He's a producer too, his Dancing Cat records label focus on Hawaiian guitar.
Thanks for the links !
posted by nicolin at 4:22 AM on January 20, 2018
Thanks for the links !
posted by nicolin at 4:22 AM on January 20, 2018
I've actually hadhis other album December since college; it makes a nice companion. It has some Christmas songs on it, but it's not in-your-face "Christmas" - the first song is even called Thanksgiving. By far I loved the three-part piece "Night" from it (Part 1- Snow, Part 2 - Midnight, Part 3 - Minstrels).
I'd seen that this was out there, but didn't get it at the time - this may have actually convinced me to pick this up.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:08 AM on January 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
I'd seen that this was out there, but didn't get it at the time - this may have actually convinced me to pick this up.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:08 AM on January 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
Autumn is good too. I've been on a bit of a solo piano bender lately - in particular, Philip Glass' Solo Piano and William Albright's The Complete Rags of Scott Joplin.
posted by davebush at 7:01 AM on January 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by davebush at 7:01 AM on January 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
I had forgotten about George Winston. Thank you!
During the mid-80s I was spending a lot of time camping alone in an unusual, remote non-geodesic dome deep in a forest. It was partly underground, had lots of windows and when warmed was quite cozy. One memorable trip I hauled an enormous boom box up to the camp (moving in required a two-mile uphill hike with a heavy backpack) so I could spend an afternoon listening to Winter Into Spring by the woodstove while snow fell gently outside.
posted by kinnakeet at 7:25 AM on January 20, 2018 [7 favorites]
During the mid-80s I was spending a lot of time camping alone in an unusual, remote non-geodesic dome deep in a forest. It was partly underground, had lots of windows and when warmed was quite cozy. One memorable trip I hauled an enormous boom box up to the camp (moving in required a two-mile uphill hike with a heavy backpack) so I could spend an afternoon listening to Winter Into Spring by the woodstove while snow fell gently outside.
posted by kinnakeet at 7:25 AM on January 20, 2018 [7 favorites]
This album was one of the first CDs I ever bought, back when they first came out, along with the Blues Brothers soundtrack. I still have both disks, and (contrary to the dire warnings about CD lifespan) they are still playable.
posted by briank at 9:40 AM on January 20, 2018
posted by briank at 9:40 AM on January 20, 2018
> contrary to the dire warnings about CD lifespan
My CDs from the 80s are generally in better condition than the ones from the 90s, and CDs from Japan and Germany in better shape than CDs made in the US. My guess is that by the early 90s manufacturers in the US were trying to cut corners everywhere they could while Japanese and German companies continued doing as they do.
I'm skeptical that any of my CDs will have a shelf life as long as a well-kept vinyl record, but I have a good idea of which of my CDs stand the best chance of outlasting me.
posted by ardgedee at 9:58 AM on January 20, 2018
My CDs from the 80s are generally in better condition than the ones from the 90s, and CDs from Japan and Germany in better shape than CDs made in the US. My guess is that by the early 90s manufacturers in the US were trying to cut corners everywhere they could while Japanese and German companies continued doing as they do.
I'm skeptical that any of my CDs will have a shelf life as long as a well-kept vinyl record, but I have a good idea of which of my CDs stand the best chance of outlasting me.
posted by ardgedee at 9:58 AM on January 20, 2018
Wow, thanks by hippybear. I used to love George Winston but had somehow forgotten about him for a long time.
I don't think he was a CCM artist, but it seems like everyone I knew who was familiar with him was also into CCM, which seems especially odd because at the time he was labeled "New Age" music and also Evangelicals were all paranoid about the "New Age Movement" of wearing crystals, liking rainbows, and listening to music with no drums in it.
But now you've got me wondering if there was some connection after all.
posted by straight at 9:59 AM on January 20, 2018
I don't think he was a CCM artist, but it seems like everyone I knew who was familiar with him was also into CCM, which seems especially odd because at the time he was labeled "New Age" music and also Evangelicals were all paranoid about the "New Age Movement" of wearing crystals, liking rainbows, and listening to music with no drums in it.
But now you've got me wondering if there was some connection after all.
posted by straight at 9:59 AM on January 20, 2018
I think Winston's version of The Holly and the Ivy is my favorite version of that carol.
posted by straight at 10:55 AM on January 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by straight at 10:55 AM on January 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
Count me as another who had forgotten about him, and is very happy to be reminded. Thanks, hippybear!
posted by rtha at 11:41 AM on January 20, 2018
posted by rtha at 11:41 AM on January 20, 2018
Jesus, why would you re-inflict this on me. I've spent all these decades trying to erase it from my memory. In a funny way, Windham Hill made me the musician and music lover that I am today.
posted by humboldt32 at 12:08 PM on January 20, 2018
posted by humboldt32 at 12:08 PM on January 20, 2018
Winston also turns a pretty nice version of "Linus and Lucy", where you can see how bebop and boogie-woogie have left their marks on him.
posted by ardgedee at 12:08 PM on January 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by ardgedee at 12:08 PM on January 20, 2018 [1 favorite]
In a funny way, Windham Hill made me the musician and music lover that I am today.
I read an interview with the guitarist Alex De Grassi. He said that he knew he had to move on when he played a concert, and the announcer introduced him: "And now, ladies and gentleman, Windham Hiil!"
posted by thelonius at 12:26 PM on January 20, 2018
I read an interview with the guitarist Alex De Grassi. He said that he knew he had to move on when he played a concert, and the announcer introduced him: "And now, ladies and gentleman, Windham Hiil!"
posted by thelonius at 12:26 PM on January 20, 2018
I'm skeptical that any of my CDs will have a shelf life as long as a well-kept vinyl record, but I have a good idea of which of my CDs stand the best chance of outlasting me.
Layered digital media will become unreadable (either through degradation or obsolescence) way faster than a pressed physical analog object that could even be "heard" by hand-holding a needle in its groove.
posted by hippybear at 2:22 PM on January 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
Layered digital media will become unreadable (either through degradation or obsolescence) way faster than a pressed physical analog object that could even be "heard" by hand-holding a needle in its groove.
posted by hippybear at 2:22 PM on January 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
I listened a lot to quite a few of the Windham Hill artists back in the day. I eventually gravitating toward other things, but I still pull out one of their albums every so often.
In the mid or late 80's I went to a Scott Cossu show in a cozy little restaurant. There was an interesting diversion at one point when an extremely drunk man tried to come in, was refused, and proceeded to get mostly undressed and lie down on a bench directly in front of the restaurant's floor-to-ceiling glass windows. This was in the winter, and the temperature was in the 40's; someone got worried about him and called the police, who wrapped him in a blanket and took him away to sober up. This all happened in the middle of the concert so the entire audience was splitting their attention between the music and this little drama.
Cut to a year later...Scott was playing again at the same venue. Before the show started I went up to him and joked that we tried to get the drunk guy again but he was already booked elsewhere. Scott got so excited:"You were there??" He turned to the other band members: "Hey guys, this guy was here last year! I told you the drunk guy was real!!" To me: "They didn't believe me!" I guess I made his night by being able to corroborate his anecdote.
Both shows were very good, by the way.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:29 PM on January 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
In the mid or late 80's I went to a Scott Cossu show in a cozy little restaurant. There was an interesting diversion at one point when an extremely drunk man tried to come in, was refused, and proceeded to get mostly undressed and lie down on a bench directly in front of the restaurant's floor-to-ceiling glass windows. This was in the winter, and the temperature was in the 40's; someone got worried about him and called the police, who wrapped him in a blanket and took him away to sober up. This all happened in the middle of the concert so the entire audience was splitting their attention between the music and this little drama.
Cut to a year later...Scott was playing again at the same venue. Before the show started I went up to him and joked that we tried to get the drunk guy again but he was already booked elsewhere. Scott got so excited:"You were there??" He turned to the other band members: "Hey guys, this guy was here last year! I told you the drunk guy was real!!" To me: "They didn't believe me!" I guess I made his night by being able to corroborate his anecdote.
Both shows were very good, by the way.
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:29 PM on January 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
Thanks for the soundtrack to this time of year in the upper latitudes.
posted by mightshould at 3:16 PM on January 20, 2018
posted by mightshould at 3:16 PM on January 20, 2018
Back in the late 80's I spent a high school year at a Jesuit high school and my kind-hearted math teacher used to play George Winston during our quarterly exams. I was so shy and introverted it took several exams before I asked him the name of the pianist ( ... huh, I haven't thought about this in over 30 years.)
posted by Auden at 6:42 PM on January 20, 2018
posted by Auden at 6:42 PM on January 20, 2018
Holy shit I was literally just about to make a George Winston post. This was the soundtrack of my childhood home during winter, and I just recently got old enough not to care if it's lame as heck. My Youtube shuffled to Winter Solstice a while back, after I watched some PBS link to Ludovico Einaudi's Elegy for the Arctic, and I nearly burst into tears, hearing it for the first time in at least 25 years. (I may have been slightly more emotionally fragile this Christmas than usual.)
Been streaming Winter Solstice and Winter into Spring as my work soundtrack for a solid month now.
+1 for that Holly and the Ivy version. That version of Carol of the Bells is also the only version I can abide.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:37 PM on January 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
Been streaming Winter Solstice and Winter into Spring as my work soundtrack for a solid month now.
+1 for that Holly and the Ivy version. That version of Carol of the Bells is also the only version I can abide.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 7:37 PM on January 20, 2018 [2 favorites]
I don't think he was a CCM artist... at the time he was labeled ‘New Age’ music ... But now you've got me wondering if there was some connection after all.
I doubt there is any CCM connection, but Winston’s 1980 album Autumn, the 12th release by Windham Hill, went platinum and definitely was a major factor in ‘New Age’ music becoming a big deal at the time, and even getting its own section in record stores.
Years ago, when I went to Windham Hill founder Will Ackerman’s house to interview him for a magazine article, he told me that a) the first time he saw Winston in concert, George was playing the guitar, b) that Winston first contacted him to try and convince Will that Windham Hill should do an album by the Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete, and c), most remarkably, that after the two met at Will’s house and had talked about guitars – including the possibility that Windham Hill might do a Hawaiian slack key album or two – Ackerman said he was going upstairs to go to sleep. Winston asked if Will would mind if he played the piano for awhile and, after Ackerman lay upstairs listening, he came down the next morning and told Winston they could talk more about guitars later, but at the moment he wanted George to record a piano album – which became Autumn.
p.s. Ackerman’s house and recording studio complex, which he built himself, mostly from wood cut and milled on the property, is on a hill in Windham County, Vermont.
posted by LeLiLo at 12:07 AM on January 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
I doubt there is any CCM connection, but Winston’s 1980 album Autumn, the 12th release by Windham Hill, went platinum and definitely was a major factor in ‘New Age’ music becoming a big deal at the time, and even getting its own section in record stores.
Years ago, when I went to Windham Hill founder Will Ackerman’s house to interview him for a magazine article, he told me that a) the first time he saw Winston in concert, George was playing the guitar, b) that Winston first contacted him to try and convince Will that Windham Hill should do an album by the Brazilian guitarist Bola Sete, and c), most remarkably, that after the two met at Will’s house and had talked about guitars – including the possibility that Windham Hill might do a Hawaiian slack key album or two – Ackerman said he was going upstairs to go to sleep. Winston asked if Will would mind if he played the piano for awhile and, after Ackerman lay upstairs listening, he came down the next morning and told Winston they could talk more about guitars later, but at the moment he wanted George to record a piano album – which became Autumn.
p.s. Ackerman’s house and recording studio complex, which he built himself, mostly from wood cut and milled on the property, is on a hill in Windham County, Vermont.
posted by LeLiLo at 12:07 AM on January 21, 2018 [2 favorites]
I've been slowly going through and digitizing the CDs I have; after seeing this post, I went and found the George Winston albums.
December is the one I've heard the most, followed by Summer and Forest. I started listening to a lot of "new age" music when I was a kid -- it was one more genre in addition to all the others I heard at home. My brother had George Winston cassettes, but I'm not sure how he got into the music.
Growing up, I don't think I ever met anyone IRL (outside of my family) who was familiar with Winston or a lot of other new agey artists, so it was yet another thing I didn't have in common with other folks at school. For a while I did my homework listening to a local "new age" radio station that was more of what I'd call instrumental/acoustic/folkish/sometimes jazzy/world music; it introduced me to a lot of artists on Windham Hill and other labels -- I even subscribed to the station newsletter (by snail mail -- no email back then) to learn about new releases. At some point the station programming changed to a different format and I stopped listening to it, which then ended the peak era of my new age music knowledge.
Aside from Windham Hill releases, I also have a bunch of albums from the Narada label -- mostly their thematic compilations, some of which I listened to repeatedly (still do, occasionally).
Thanks for the post!
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 2:47 AM on January 21, 2018
December is the one I've heard the most, followed by Summer and Forest. I started listening to a lot of "new age" music when I was a kid -- it was one more genre in addition to all the others I heard at home. My brother had George Winston cassettes, but I'm not sure how he got into the music.
Growing up, I don't think I ever met anyone IRL (outside of my family) who was familiar with Winston or a lot of other new agey artists, so it was yet another thing I didn't have in common with other folks at school. For a while I did my homework listening to a local "new age" radio station that was more of what I'd call instrumental/acoustic/folkish/sometimes jazzy/world music; it introduced me to a lot of artists on Windham Hill and other labels -- I even subscribed to the station newsletter (by snail mail -- no email back then) to learn about new releases. At some point the station programming changed to a different format and I stopped listening to it, which then ended the peak era of my new age music knowledge.
Aside from Windham Hill releases, I also have a bunch of albums from the Narada label -- mostly their thematic compilations, some of which I listened to repeatedly (still do, occasionally).
Thanks for the post!
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 2:47 AM on January 21, 2018
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