MARK WAISTELL, QUAKER SINGER/SONGWRITER FROM DEVON - A CREATIVE VOICE

 A couple of weeks ago, I attended a concert given by Mark Waistell, a Devon Quaker, at the Penzance YMCA which is where the Penzance Quaker Meeting is held. There were around 30 Quakers in the audience. My new hearing aids found it difficult to cope with the acoustics of the room and the sound system seemed too loud but heh that sounds a grumble and what Mark was able to communicate through his playing and voice was poetic and thought-provoking. He took as his theme the wisdom to be found in the Quaker Advices and Queries, linking these with his own songs. I was inspired enough to buy a couple of his CDs at the interval and the all-important collection of his lyrics: Without Music (2020).  

Mark Waistell - the image from the CD cover of 'Latecomer'.

I am a writer and I was already realizing that Mark has the feeling and skill to shine as a word magician. Here's a taste of what we experienced - this song is called 'My England of Long Ago' and Tom Carroll

in 'Folk Words' commented: '[It] is stunning - hold on to this one, it will become a classic':

This track - 'My England of Long Ago' - is taken from his debut CD, 'Latecomer' (2012), the title referencing his return to singing and playing and writing after a working lifetime of some thirty years running a specialist English language school, catering for executives and professionals from around the world. Here is the bio from Mark's  website:

Mark does write well - he understands that we are citizens of a former imperial power that has not come to terms with its past:

'Empire's had its day - when across the world you governed millions,/Safe upon your three-legged stool of Home and God and cups of tea./When the map was pink, you prospered on the dubious billions, building wealth and influence and graveyards and the BBC.'

So much history and judgement is conveyed in these few words. The rhythm and rhyme are shaped by the melody; the structure of the song imposes its own discipline. Mark, as the word magician rises to the challenge. He writes in Without Music:

'Strangely, since most people mention my words, it is almost always the music that comes first for me. After the melody and the guitar part, words gradually emerge in snatches, to fit the melody, rhythm or mood.'  

Mark Waistell's latest CD (2023)

His latest CD is called 'For a sonnet or a shilling' (2023). The second track is called: 'The Hurting Time' - here are some lines whose words can take us to memories of times so many of us have experienced:

'Turn back, turn round. Your wounded heart/Injustices re-found, wide miles apart./Don't give an inch, don't bend, or try to make and mend./But seek to rip and rend./The hurting time.

We've been here before in the course of our lives,/Deep silences roar with the force of long knives/We're just too close not to collide.

Hold on, hold tight. Your silver sighs,/Your thoughts deep in the night. Your saddened eyes/Won't look at me, won't speak of all you hold inside,/Until your tears have dried./The hurting time.' 

I admire Mark's poetic turn - he takes the listener to the essence of the connection that for a while has splintered leaving two people hurting. 

The third track on this new CD is titled 'Where Roads Begin'. In this enigmatic song the listener is taken through four stages in a 24-hour period. In the last of these four stanzas, we hear this:

'In the broken, blackened night,/I follow streets which lead from sleep,/Where my thoughts lie out of sight,/Crumpled corners of the deep./All of England is in flames,/Feel the scorching reaching for my skin,/You, softly whispering my name,/Where roads begin.'

Again, for me this poetic turn fully works . We are left following the emotion, sensing the direction and the allusions, feeling the pain yet knowing there is resolution in the arms of a lover. The first stanza concludes:

'You make my footsore soul uncoil,/Where roads begin.' 

Here, in conclusion, is another song: 'Go To Sleep My Child' from that 2012 debut CD:

Such a beautiful evocation of a father's feeling towards his daughter. We don't have children, but I can still understand through these words and this music.

Thank you, Mark Waistell.

Mark's website address is www.markwaistell.com.