If anyone made bloody, dramatic Welsh westerns, her instrumentals
would be the natural soundtrack.— The Guardian on Gwenifer Raymond
Lady Marilyn scouted up powerful, evocative guitar work of Welsh musician Gwenifer Raymond and now I’m deep down a trail into a strange landscape inspired by John Fahey’s “American Primitive” and taken into spooky Old Country terrain. In other words, I like it.
Raymond says:
In my opinion, landscape does a lot to shape a community’s folk music; from my childhood I recall tall, spooky trees, black against the grey sky, breath misting in cold air, and I have tried to take something of Welsh folk horror to make my own “Welsh Primitive.”
There’s something ominous and menacing in her playing that strikes a weird chord…
*
Which brings me around to Robert E. Howard, who struck a weird chord that has echoed down the ages. I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the Texas pulpster who had such an outsized influence on me and so many others. Mostly that’s because the next Frontier Partisans Podcast will trace the intersecting trails of REH and Texas Ranger Big Foot Wallace.
But REH crops up on frontiers everywhere.
As I ventured back to the Af/Pak border listening to Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars, I thought of my first exposure to that region — in a Hyborian Age version in People of the Black Circle, and in the tales of Francis X. Gordon, El Borak.
Art by Gary Gianni.
Francis X. Gordon by Tim Bradstreet.
Most folks think of Howard as a fantasy writer, for obvious reasons, but I have long considered him a writer of frontiers — from the Pictish Wilderness to Africa, to Arabia, to Afghanistan, to the deep piney woods and swamps of Louisiana and Arkansas, and back to his native Texas. Those who are only familiar with Conan often don’t know that REH wrote Westerns.
At the end of his career — and life — REH was turning decisively toward the frontiers of his home country. He was explicit about it in his correspondence:
“I’m seriously contemplating devoting all my time and efforts to western writing, abandoning all other forms of work entirely; the older I get the more my thoughts and interests are drawn back over the trails of the past; so much has been written; but there is so much that should be written.” (Letter to August Derleth, November 28, 1934)
“I find it more and more difficult to write anything but western yarns… I have become so wrapped up in western themes that I have not, as yet, written a follow-up yarn for the last Oriental adventure novelet bought by Street & Smith…[E]ven my interest in things Oriental is waning in comparison to my interest in the drama of early America… I have always felt that if I ever accomplished anything worthwhile in the literary field, it would be with stories dealing of the central and western frontier.”(Letter to H.P. Lovecraft, May 13, 1936)
Ah, what might have been…
*
Noticed something in the Horizon trailer: The front kick seems to be a go-to move in this story. Suits me. Always liked to load up a good front kick — and when you’re 6-feet-4-inches, you can really load it up… Heh! I know. Such a nerd…
All due respect to Costner & Co. — Bond did it best:
Matthew says
I listened to Raymond. Very evocative.
When I think Welsh and Westerns I actually thought of an old issue of Green Arrow by Mike Grell where the title character (who is never called by his superhero name in Grell’s run) ends up in Wales. The plot of the is basically that of Shane for some reason.
Grell is the most Frontier Partisans comic creator out there and one of the best creators as well. His comic book series Jon Sable Freelance may actually become a TV series.
https://mikegrell.com/news/?p=2536
I wonder how they will do this since a big part of the character was his past in the Rhodesian Bush War.
(There had been a tv series in the 80s, but from what I have gathered wasn’t real good.)
I told you this before but I read REH’s El Borak stories after 911 during the height of the War on Terror. Reading about a Texas gunslinger in Afghanistan at the time was really something. They are among my favorite works by Howard.
David Wrolson says
Matthew-Thanks for mentioning the John Sable Freelance series-I am not a comic guy-but the Rhodesian Bush War connection is an unavoidable siren song.
JimC says
Same. David — you tracking the mayhem in Kenya?
David Wrolson says
No, I have missed the Kenya stuff. I have had a lot of tractor time the last couple of months and I just don’t listen to a lot of news in it. I have Sirius so I will try BBC tomorrow. Plus, obviously an internet search tonight.
Oddly enough, I have gotten into listening to the Golf Channel (of all things).
Thanks for mentioning it.
Matthew says
It’s part of the Sable’s backstory. It’s where he learns the skills of a mercenary. He has a very extensive backstory: Vietnam Vet, Olympic Athlete, big game hunter, and mercenary in Rhodesia. He’s the Most Interesting Man in the World! In the hands of lesser creator than Grell he’d be a Marty Stu. This is because, for example, he was desk jockey in Saigon. (Which by the way Grell was.) He came in fourth in the Olympics. He did not really become a badass until his family was killed by poachers.
His jobs as mercenary take him all over the world, but Africa is pretty prominent.
deuce says
I happen to own Grell’s Sable NOVEL. In it, the backstory is changed/updated to Jon being an Olympian and THEN a safari guide in South Africa until poachers kill his family.
Matthew says
I knew Grell wrote a novel version of Sable, but I had not known he changed the back story.
patrulje says
Before Sable, Grell wrote about LTC Travis Morgan, the Warlord. Morgan was a SR-71 pilot that got hit by a SAM over the Soviet Union and tried to escape over the pole. He went thru a hole into a hollow earth. It was essentially an Edgar Rice Burroughs mash up of Warlord of Mars and Peculiar, full “sword & planet” stuff. He carried a .44 Automag, not my 1st choice for a survival weapon, but it seemed to work for both the man and beast he faced. Grell had a thing for iconic pistols, I bought my 1st copy of Sable due to the Mauser Broomhandle of the cover.
Matthew says
Yes, Warlord was very good. I was very lucky to find a copy of Showcase Presents Warlord at a used book store.
Quixotic Mainer says
Love that guitar! Solomon Kane might have a moonlit chase across the moors to that, running down some highwaymen or Spanish agents. I’m switching between Kane stories and the Joe Pickett books on audible right now. Heady combo!
I taught the front kick in a DT class a few weeks ago, as it applies to both live foes and locked doors one takes a hankering to open promptly. A lot of the non martial arts crowd called it “The 300 kick”.
JimC says
Ah, yes, 300 — that’s a pretty epic moment.
ugly hombre says
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9KBOhPXhds
Front kick goes back a long way even Butch Cassidy learned it. lol
https://i0.wp.com/ensomartialarts.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/WCranetech3.jpg?fit=234%2C251&ssl=1
CMA sometimes call ‘the 300’ “Through Heart Heel”.
This is Canton!!
🙂
Travis Slusser says
Non sequitur, but this looks promising:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PR4rJOx1bXI&pp=ygULVGhlIGNvbnZlcnQ%3D
patrulje says
The illustration of Borak by Bradstreet looks like Thomas Jane to me. Given his taste in parts, he would not be a bad choice.
JimC says
Tom Jane was the model. He and Bradstreet are buds.
Mike C. Tuggle says
Ah, yes. What might have been. Thanks for the great insights on REH.