Tom Paxton, Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer
All New
Community Music
2022
There was a point during the pandemic where writing music was the only thing that made sense, so Tom Paxton and Cathy Fink began writing songs together during weekly ZOOM Sessions. Each week the result would be a new song, and now, 28 of them make up All New by the three GRAMMY winners, Tom Paxton, Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer.
Covering a wide range of styles, live and in the studio, the album is a joy to hear, three masters still at the top of their game even as they live through their seventh (Fink and Marxer) and ninth decades (Paxton). For those in the states, the shortest song on the album at just 18 seconds says so much as Paxton sings, “One great truth beneath the sun/ Trump lost and Biden won.” Just in case there was any doubt about that.
But when it comes to essential songs, perhaps one of the most important may be “Me Too,” a song sung by Fink and Marxer that makes it clear that, despite setbacks in court, progress cannot be held back, “Me too means it doesn’t have a power over me/ Me too means the sisterhood is strong and it’s free/ Me too means we’re taking our place in this world”…even if there are forces that would prefer that women just knew their place and stayed there.
Confronting being at the end of the great dance of life, “We’re Still Here” suggests that despite everything, moving on and moving ahead is all that matters at the end of the day. “Your love, your love has left us stronger/ Your smile was like a beacon in the night/ There is peace, peace beyond the grief and hardship/ There is peace in holding close to your love/ We’re still here with work to do with love to give and life to live/ And your memory will not be left behind” We move on because there is no other choice.
Multi-instrumentalist Marcy Marxer displays a fantastic array of musical gifts, playing everything from acoustic and resonator guitars, mandolin, cittern, cello and ukulele banjos, not to mention washboard. Yet one of the most inspiring moments is when the three sing “Now, Not Then” acapella. Turning the song into a round, you can hear the beautiful harmony created by these master singers and multiple Grammy winners.
Pete Seeger once talked about Paxton’s music, “Tom’s songs have a way of sneaking up on you. You find yourself humming them, whistling them, and singing a verse to a friend. Like the songs of Woody Guthrie, they’re becoming part of America. In a small village near Calcutta, in 1998, a villager who could not speak English sang me What Did You Learn In School Today? in Bengali!”
Paxton, Fink and Marxer return the favour on “Pete’s Shoulders”, where they make it clear, “Like Aunt Molly Jackson, like Woody and Joe Hill/ Your songs have fueled our truth to power, and they always will/ There’s a banjo ringing somewhere and a yodel in the air/ And they tell us we’ve got work to do with the power we all share.”
These three singers demonstrate that singing and inspiring have never had an age limit. The gift of All New is we still have the opportunity to marvel at what Tom Paxton, Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer can create!
Tom Paxton: https://www.tompaxton.com/
Cathy and Marcy: https://www.cathymarcy.com/