braxtothon vol. 2... explanatory preamble

 ...and here i am again, again... this time facing a large-scale vista both somewhat foreboding, and filled with the promise of tantalising detail, much of which is as yet vague and undefined... 

when i completed volume one of the braxtothon last august, i (very over-optimistically) announced that volume two would commence the following month. given my track record over the last few years, this was never hugely likely - but then i had already carried out the first listening session, just before i finished typing up that long piece. at the time, it didn't seem that unrealistic... and technically, i did make good on my promise when i first laid out some plans for volume two; and then it just didn't materialise. by november, i sort of tried to force myself into getting my finger out by putting this up; but weeks became months and although i did start writing up the session, i never got very far with it and gradually pushed it further and further down the "to-do" list. so far this year, i've found other things to concentrate on and, as regards this blog at least, even those didn't all get done (yet). in the words of barry adamson... it's business as usual.

looking at all this now, i realise that braxtothon phase five just wasn't ready, however excited i got during that listening session; my thinking on the subject was far from fully clarified. as previously established, the mitchell duets album is first up in the next phase and that presents a particular problem as far as analysis is concerned; it's only much more recently that i've begun to see which way i want to approach this.

so: before the actual album itself gets covered, i will post on the subject of the supposed rivalry between these two master musician-composers (already briefly mentioned once before). it would be impossible for me to discuss the album in any depth without touching on this, but i don't want it getting in the way, as it were (and who knows?, the two musicians themselves may have felt the same way on occasion..!). hence, i will try and get it all out of the way beforehand, so that we can all just get on with the music.

 - and with that finally worked out... perhaps i can get my arse in gear ;-)  it's been such a long time coming now, the whole thing has begun to look like another one of my notorious intimidating peaks...