Amy Denio - Tongues

Amy Denio is a multi-instrumentalist and polyglot based in Seattle, Washington. This CD represents the songs she would perform live at her solo concerts in the early 1990s. She began touring Europe with her band Tone Dogs in 1988, and discovered that she had a good capacity to learn languages other than English. With the discovery that each language has it's own musicality, she began to write songs in foreign tongues, often using phrase books to construct the lyrics. The Russian song is about a man whose wife has disappeared, & asks for someone to show where she is on a map; the Czech song asks the waiter to put more appetizers in the train station baggage room, the Greek song is about eating slugs for breakfast (slugs meaning both the slimy creatures, and also bullet casings, since the song was written during the war in ex-Jugoslavia). These songs were recorded on her TASCAM MIDI Studio, attached to an Atari computer, uniquely blending cassette culture with digital media. Denio sings, and plays guitars, bass, accordion, alto saxophone, and does all the programming. Guest artists are Charley Rowan (accordion on Slugs), and Marjorie de Muynck (saxophone on Jig). This recording was originally released in 1993 by Steve Rubin (R.I.P.) on his label FOT Records in Normal, Illinois. Artwork by the inimitable Dennis Palmer, of the Shaking Ray Levi Society. Contact: amy at amydenio dot com.