The River is Rising: Tough Book but One of 2025's Best

 

 

 

 

The River is Waiting (2025)

By Wally Lamb

Simon and Schuster, 480 pages.

★★★★★

 

Some of the reviews I’ve read of The River is Waiting, the newest novel from Wally Lamb, raised my hackles. Lamb is a wonderful writer, but some readers trashed it for being too sad and using bad language. Sheesh! Just because a book covers a tough subject, doesn’t make it a lousy book. Like Lamb’s anti-hero, sometimes people make dumb choices, especially when under great stress. Horrible things can and do happen in life. Plus, it’s pretty hard to avoid unpleasantness and swears in a novel whose major setting is prison. So here’s some advice: If you are overly sensitive, something awful happens near the beginning of the book. If you can’t handle it, stop immediately and stay off the review forums! All you’ll miss is one of best books of 2025, even if it is one of saddest.

 

Corby Ledbetter seemingly had it all: a nice home, a good-paying job, a loving wife named Emily, and two-year-old twins Maisie and Niko. Then he lost his job, stood to lose his house, and was under so much stress that he began drinking and mixing drugs with booze. Under the influence of alcohol he had an accident in which a death occurred. In Connecticut law, a DUI resulting in a death is a second-degree murder charge. Although Corby got sober, went to AA, and underwent counseling with Dr. Patel, who documented his progress at sentencing, the usual verdict is six years in prison. A semi-sympathetic judge gave him three. In most states, anything over two years means incarceration in a state penitentiary, not a county lockup. Corby was cuffed and taken to the Yates Correctional Institution along the banks of the Wequonnoc River. (Both are fictional.)

 

This is a novel about what can be forgiven, what can’t be, guilt, reconciliation, survival, small kindnesses, violence, injustice, and tragedy. Lamb is known for his attention to detail, and interior character-centered books that probe thoughts and emotions. Corby is wrecked by grief, but wishes to be a better husband and father. In the beginning of the book he is an egoistic and unreliable narrator. It is to Lamb’s credit that he makes Corby into a believable reliable narrator, yet one who retains edges and anger. He’s a liberal who is forced to put his belief in racial equality into concrete action. He learns early on that no one in the prison is impressed by his intellect or his middle-class status; survival means floating above white and black gangs without dissing either of them. He also lucks out in that a gay cellmate named Manny shows him how things work on the inside, but respects Corby’s heterosexuality.

 

Lamb does another delicate balancing act by not sugarcoating prison violence, but allowing the possibility of being a decent person. Corby is deeply depressed. How not?  Negativity and acting out are as rife in prison as the food is disgusting. When Corby gets into trouble, it’s usually because he can’t shut off his injustice sensors, though it would be in his self-interest to do so. When an obviously psychologically damaged young man named Solomon is sent to Yates instead of a psychiatric unit, Corby tries to get sadistic guards Piccardy and Anselmo to lay off the “kid.” He even reports them. Bad move! Now they hate Corby even more than they enjoy picking on Solomon. Corby learns the hard way that prisoners have no rights and that he can’t trust the Yates psychologist.

 

The Wequonnoc River is a character in its own right. Inmates can hear it from their cells and, when on outside work detail, can catch glimpses of it. Corby even manages to walk down to it when the guards aren’t looking and secures a white “lucky stone” that he occasionally shares when another inmate needs comfort. The river represents the continuous flow of history, lives, and emotions. Corby adjusts to prison, but never allows himself to give up his yearning to be free or to repair his marriage. His best moments come when he gets to work in the library with Mrs. Millman, and when his art work attracts notice and he gets to paint a mural that wins accolades from both inmates and state officials.  But don’t wait for a happy ending. Lamb settles for a tragically ironic one that stings because it seems so utterly real.

 

 

Rob Weir

 

 

Sarlat-la-Canéda

Duck Dinner in Sarlat. Wine not pictured!

If you visit the southern section of the Dordogne–aka/ the Périgord or southern Aquitaine–chances are good you will end up staying at Sarlat-la-Canéda, not because it’s the most beautiful village–though it is very lovely–or the largest, but simply because it is an excellent base for exploring nearby sites of interest to tourists foreign and French. As such, it has more places to stay, numerous restaurants, and shops to cater to visitors. The town of Périgueux has nearly 30,000 residents but it takes 50 minutes to get to Lascaux from there, but less than a half hour from Sarlat. As realtors would put it, it's all about location, location, location.

 

A word on French jurisdictions. France is divided into regions, départments with an administrative prefecture, and communes (municipalities). The Dordogne is located in the Nouvelle Aquitaine region whose capitol is Bordeaux, is comparable to a U.S. state.  Périgueux départment prefecture (sort of like a county seat ) is one of five in the region, and greater Sarlat is the commune town for Périgord Nord (north). You’ll find Canéda on maps, but that small village has pretty much been absorbed by Sarlat.

 

Sarlat is relatively small–around 8,800 people–but its history dates back to at least the 9^th century when a Benedictine abbey was built there. Like many places in the area its golden stone construction has its roots in the Middle Ages. For such a small place it has 77 protected monuments, the latter term with a broader meaning than a single statue or memorial. Buildings, gardens, bridges, and entire sections of a town can be designated as a protected monument, as indeed can anything else deemed of historical value or important to French heritage and culture. Sarlat’s level of preservation has made it attractive to film directors such as Luc Besson, Peter Hyams, and Ridley Scott.

 

Sarlat is also visited because of its production of foie gras, pâté, duck confit, walnut concoctions, wine, cheese, and truffles. I’m not a fan of duck liver (or any other kind), but I can recommend all things walnut, the cheese, the wine, and the atmosphere. Market days are a big deal in Sarlat with its main square ( Place la Liberté) crowded with stalls, umbrellas, and people. Other protected monuments of note include the home of poet/humanist Étienne de La Boétie, Gisson mansion, the Place du Peyru, the cathedral, the bishop’s palace, and the Lantern of the Dead. Overall, Sarlat is a great place to hang out and soak up the atmosphere: cobblestone streets, unique facades, food, and great wine.

 

Note: My Facebook page will have more pictures of Sarlat tomorrow.

 

Rob Weir

 

 

 

 

Old and New Music for Fall 2025 Iona Fyfe; Carpenter, Fowlis & Polwart; Skye Consort; Debra Cowan; John Roberts; Windborne

 

The holiday season is just about upon us again, so why not give the gift of music? Some of these releases are a tad older, but they are new to me.

 

 

 

Iona Fyfe is a perfect name for a lass from Aberdeenshire. I  caught her show at Northampton’s Parlor Room in early October and enjoyed it immensely. Her newest release is titled Away From My Window (2018). It came home with me along with an EP East which she did with the Iona Fyfe Band. A “solo album seldom means a one-person recording project these days; the band’s fiddler, Charlie Grey, and piper/whistle player Ross Miller are on both recordings. Fyfe now lives in Glasgow, but she is the “Pride of Aberdeen,” which happens to be a track off her band album. For a lively treatment of a Child murder ballad listen to “Earl Richmond.” (That’s Child as in Francis James Child (1825-96), a ballad collector.) Fyfe’s solo record is also quite fine. “Guise of Tough” is a bothy ballad about a place with an unusual name in which her voice simulates a fiddle tune. (A bothy is a farm building and these songs were sung by laborers.) There’s a lovely version of “Glenlogie,” another Child ballad, which is sung akin to another old song, “Annachie Gordon.” It’s often the case that Aberdeenshire songs have slightly different tunes from other parts of Scotland, another reminder that “folk” songs were often regional in nature. Fyfe stays within tradition most of the time–like “Banks of Inverurie”–but she occasionally writes. The solo album has a stunner, “Banks of the Tigris,” which she wrote as a teen during the war in Syria. If some of her words sound unfamiliar, it’s not just her accent; Fyfe spearheaded an effort to have “Scots,” an English variant recognized as an official language. Yep–Scotland now has three “official” tongues: English, Scots, and Gaelic.

 

 

Let’s stay in Scotland (please!). There’s some moaning on Facebook. That’s not news, but this one is about an album titled Looking For the Thread, which is clearly marked as album by Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis, and Karine Polwart. Some people who apparently never learned that “and” is a conjunction have whined they didn’t know it wasn’t a Mary Chapin Carpenter album; a few have complained about the “Celtic crap” on the recording. News Flash, oh ye of such narrow taste and ethnocentric attitudes: That “Celtic crap” has long been an interest of MCC–she began as a folk singer–and she is friends with Fowlis and Polwart, the first one of the finest Gaelic singers on the planet and the latter a singer who is as famous in Scotland as MCC is in America. Note the title. The three join forces both to do their own thing and find commonality. The album opens with Fowlis taking to lead on “Gràdh Geal Mo Chridhe.” There’s no hope for anyone who can’t hear the stunning beauty of this song. Mary follows with the wonderful “A Heart That Never Closes.” Note that it too has a gentle feel. So too does Polwart’s “Rebecca,” a tribute to a tree with that name carved upon it. MCC wrote the title track and it says volumes about the spirit of this project. You pick up their synchronicity in the studio on “Hold Everything,” their first UK single. You can almost feel Carpenter breathing away from the limelight on this treasure house of gentle songs. Enjoy MCC but don’t overlook gems like Fowlis’ “Silver in the Blue.”  The ”thread?” Three friends making music, nature, and MCC’s closing track, “Send Love.” Added bonus: I’ve not heard harmonies this beautiful since Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, and Gillian Welch in Oh Brother, Where Art Thou.”

 

 

 

Skye Consort is a terrific quartet that I caught live in Holyoke. I was intrigued when I saw that Emma Björling was its lead vocalist. As her surname suggests, she’s Swedish and I knew of her from work with Scandinavian bands. The other three members of Skye Consort live in Montreal, though Alex Kehler was playing fiddle and nyckelharpa that night and he was actually born in the U.S. though he has been in Canada for quite some time now. In an unusual arrangement, Skye Consort also employs Simon Alexandre who takes Kehler’s place when Kehler is busy playing dances or when Alexandre isn’t gigging with La Traverse, the Ximenez String Quartet, or Ochestre Philharmonique de Québec. Skye Consort bill their style as “trans-Atlantic chamber folk.” I’m suspicious of such labels, but this one is apt. Cellist Amanda Keesmaat and bouzouki/banjo/singer artist Seán Dagher round out the quartet. Their latest album Ode & Ballade is a bit of everything. First a word on the nyckelharpa, which might be unfamiliar. It looks a bit like a hurdy gurdy without the crank, but is actually a keyed violin with a unique sound. You’ll hear traditional music from Sweden, the Shetlands, England, Denmark, France, Québec, and Scotland–sometimes several of them in the same set. You can be excused for thinking “She’s the Swedish” is from Björling’s home country; it’s actually Scottish, melded with a Québecois tune. Just to confuse you more, “En annan polska” should not be confused with a Polish polka, though both are dance tunes. A polka (which is actually Czech originally) is in 2/4 time but a polska is associated with Scandinavia and is in ¾ time and tends to be slower than a waltz. I loved Keesmaat’s switches between percussive and straight cello.  Got all that? The best way to figure it out is to listen. Note how “Jungfrun” is like a pastiche of pastoral and classical compositions. Check out this live clip of the Quebec/Irish “Foxhunter’s Jig” set to get a sense of how voices and instruments blend. For a French flavor there is “Les Triste Noces,” complete with a bit of foot percussion. Highly recommended.

 

 

 

 

When I was a young whelp deep in my rock n’ roll phase of life, I saw a concert at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, that changed my life. On the bill were two musical partners from England, Tony Barrand and John Roberts. It was a holiday concert with Christmas carols as I never heard them before. Call it the beginning of a love affair with folk music that is now more than 50 years old. I got to know both Tony and John, with John the funnier and most approachable of the two. The duo was perhaps best known for their holiday mummers show Nowell Sing We Clear, but John also loved sea songs, recitations, and music hall material, the more offbeat the better. Tony passed away in 2022 and John in February of this year at age 80. One of his final recordings was A Shellback Songster (2024), so named because of a song by Ewan MacColl for a BBC film about sailing. John composed songs and tunes but he was most comfortable with traditional material and songs that sounded as if they were sprung from the mists of time. Shellback Songster is a baker’s dozen of trads and songs from people such as MacColl, Gordon Bok, Cyril Tawney, and Rudyard Kipling. This is sea music stripped to its basics, John’s distinct voice backed by concertina, banjo, or button accordion. It's hard to find John singing most of them, so forgive me if I offer a few with Tony and John that are solo of the record. One is “The Flying Dutchman,” the famed ghost ship. (John’s is the low voice.) He sand many Kipling songs. Here’s “Oak and Ash and Thorn.” (The record has Kipling’s poem “The Last Chantey.”) You can hear how John involved an audience. There’s also one called “Derelict” that you might know better as “Yo, Ho, Ho (And a Bottle of Rum).” Sorry I don’t have more to post, but if you’ve ever been to a sea songs festival, you’ve probably seen John and heard most of them.

 

 

 

 

You can purchase some of John Roberts’ material from his friend Debra Cowan, who is a mainstay on the folk circuit. Women and the Sea is her look at the seafaring life from the distaff side of things. Her website https://debracowan.com/category/product/ has two of John’s solo records and one that he and Debra did together. It also contains Cowan’s most recent EP, Greening the Dark. Cowan has a strong voice and sings what she likes. In that regard, Greening the Dark is a single traditional and five covers. The trad selection is “Hills of Greenmore,” which she plucked from a Steeleye Span album for a treatment that sounds Irish with a semi-nautical flair. My favorite covers are of Richard Thompson’s “The Old Changing Way” and Lester Simpson’s “Polly on the Shore.” The latter is a tough song, but has a sort of comeuppance ending. The EP is produced by Dave Mattacks, a legend in the music community since his early days with Fairport Convention.

 

 

 

Another musical highlight of 2025 was seeing the quartet Windborne at the Iron Horse. I mentioned Nowell Sing We Clear (NSWC) in the previous review; Windborne is heir to their throne, right down to the fact that one of the members is Lauren Breuning, the daughter of NSWC’s Fred Beuning. Brattleboro, Vermont, has been a folk music breeding ground ever since Margaret MacArthur (1935-2006) located to nearby Marlboro in 1951. Tony Barrand and John Roberts moved there in the early 1970s to teach at Marlboro College. Windborne’s Will and Lynn Rowan graduated from Marlboro and later taught there in a music program they started. The fourth member, Jeremy Carter-Gordon, also cut his musical teeth in southern Vermont. Windborne sing quite a few songs from NSWC’s Christmas mummer’s material. You can hear NSWC holiday standbys such as “The Boar’s Head Carol,” “The Cherry Tree Carol,” “The Darby Ram” and others on their To Warm the Winter Hearth album (2024). As for the rest of the year, they borrow from John and Tony’s old repertoire, but overall they are much more political and diverse. For example, Windborne’s Midwinter Meeting contains offerings from Basque country, Bulgaria, Corsica, the nation of Georgia, Québec, and the U.S. Appalachians. They are big supporters of unions and also include labor songs in their shows. As music scholars you learn a lot from their stage chat and Winter Hearth CDs come with a 44-page perfect-bound booklet. Windborne voices and harmonies are powerful instruments in their own right hence they usually sing a capella unless it’s some sort of special show. The two recordings have a total of 32 songs, so here are just a few to tantalize you.

 

Check their Website to see when they are playing somewhere near you. https://www.windbornesingers.com/concerts/

 

Sabodisho (Georgian)

Bentatik Nattor (Basque)

Boar’s Head Carol (England)

Come and I Will Sing You (English variant of 12 Days of Christmas; Lynn clogging):

Song of Hard Times (USA, from a forthcoming album):

 

Rob Weir