Music
Press
From The Noise
April 2008
Trepanning
Folksonomy
Ed Morneau is a simple, angry man, dealing with complex issues. He’s a former teacher concerned with real learning and lifelong lessons. With his newest project, Folksonomy, he has created a passionate album of concern and critique. These are phenomenal, and plaintive tunes of love and war that press a thumb (or middle finger!) into the eye of the current administration and other dissolute modern media swine. And more often than not he lets his sarcasm and cynicism belie a gentle and gracious persona. Song after song (but not all) chooses a panorama of predicaments and drops it center stage for reflection and comment. No breezy lite-weight stuff here, although many of the arrangements are acoustic-pop-jazzy with fine harmonies and textures. Several of the demanding songs (i.e. - “To America,” “Radio Shills,” “Yes, Yes,” “Collateral,” “Dafur, Oh Dafur”) drip with political fervor while several (i.e.: “Albatross,” “Like Boo Radley Did,” “When the Birds Stopped Singing,” “Happy New Year”) speak most eloquently from the heart. Great musicianship from his collective adds further sensitivity to his impeccable guitar playing. Think lyrical John Lennon, Ray Davies, or Nick Drake channeling the musicality of Brian Wilson or Leo Kottke with an acerbic-but-muted Andy Partridge. Yeah, reach inside and let it all out! This is a magnificent album of deep reflection and purpose! (By the way, to trepan is to "trap, trick, or ensnare.")
--Harry C. Tuniese - The Noise
Discography
"Shoe Shine by Stavin' Chain
"Amidst a Fiery Stand by Rane
"Fill Spectre" by The Flying Fan Modules
"Trepanning" by Folksonomy
"The Sails" (FFM) streamed on Boston-Beats;
"Read to Me" (Rane) "Godfather's Christmas Song," Raccoon's Christmas Song" (FFM) streamed on Youtube
Photos
Bio
We used to have a jukebox in our high school cafeteria and I'd always spend my lunch money playing the B-sides of singles. This used to drive other kids crazy, so much so that there was this race to the lunch room to see who'd get there before me so they could hear the hits and the hits only. Yet, more and more, I'd hear someone else play a B-side and it felt like some knd of small triumph. I was always looking for something a bit different in my life and in my music.
I was brought up on all kinds of music--gypsy folk, classical waltz, Elvis, surf guitar, bluegrass yodeling, space rock, Beach Boys, Beatles, Zappa--stuff in and out of the mainstream. And it had a big effect on me as a writer.
I remember the day we landed on the moon, my band launched into my very first original song--an instrumental called "Nylon Argosy." The crowd at Cambridge Universalist Church went crazy. The song was part Pink Floyd, part Zappa, part surf, part Them. It was a psychedelic stew of what music was back then and I've never stopped writing since.
In and out of rock, folk, blues, surf bands and solo ventures, a few writing gigs, and a long career in teaching literature and film, I have continued to write songs as a private and sometimes public passion.
I was a founding member and principle songwriter for Moon Unit, Desperate Fidel, the Cleaner Brothers, Stavin' Chain, Rane, and the Flying Fan Modules.
People who really know my music say I've absorbed my influences well, and that my songs ache and inspire with melody, and that my words reveal the teacher in me. My songs embrace folk, rock, progressive pop, blues, jazz, instrumental, surf, experimental and montage. I try to make melody the king of what I embrace; and I pray the words illustrate something about being human.
My influences range from Duane Eddy, the Ventures & Al Caiola to Ricky Nelson, Prez Prado, Beatles, Beach Boys, Roy Wood, XTC, Kinks, Zappa, Eno, Varese, John Cage, Gustav Mahler, Leonard Bernstein, Oscar Peterson, Stephen Soundheim, Randy Newman, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Tom Waits, Aimee Mann, Joni Mitchell & Johnny A.
Primarily a guitarist, I also write using keyboards, percussion and found sound. I'm interested in solo and multiple vocal textures and welcome collaboration in my music.
I believe that next to gravity, water and oxygen, music is a natural force in the universe. Within the kingdom of that force, melody rules. In the last fifty years in contemporary music, Brian Wilson has been the court composer, the Beatles the house band, and Bob Dylan has been trading turns with Randy Newman as the court's jesters. My ability to honor my influences and go my own way lyrically and melodically sets me apart from my heroes. My background in literature gives my composing architecture and history.
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