Song of the Day 11/26: Poi Dog Pondering, “Thanksgiving”
This song has nothing to do with the holiday, but I don’t care, I just like the tune. For me it’s the standout song on “Wishing Like a Maountain and Thinking Like the Sea,” the 1990 breakthrough album for what was then a world-music collective based in Austin, before leader Frank Orrall moved to Chicago and into more electronic music with an almost entirely different lineup (Orrall had done the same thing earlier in his career, starting out as a street musician in Hawaii, where “poi dog” was local slang for a mutt, before moving to Austin). It was written by the band’s Austin-period guitarist Adam Sultan, who stayed in Texas after Orrall moved on.
Poi Dog’s violin player, Susan Voelz, was in Alejandro Escovedo’s acoustic trio, along with guitarist David Pulkingham, when I brought them to Arden many moons ago.