John Terlazzo, Hand Of Mercy (self-released, 2001)

"Beneath all the lies and sadness there's this honey on the tongue.
There's an ecstasy that grows like madness and it won't be undone."
---"Walking On Hallowed Ground"

John Terlazzo is a poet from York, Pennsylvania. In addition to publishing his verses, he sets them to music and hence onto compact disc. Hand Of Mercy is a series of word paintings portraying the strength of truth, aesthetics,and life behind the mundanity, misfortune and cruelty that some would believe the world to be. "Lift up your voice and bless the ether, bound as you are to the great Wheel," speaks "Rejoice."

In approximation, a few lyrical ghosts of Dylan and Cohen walk the lifelines of Hand Of Mercy. Many of Terlazzo's images are religious, apparently from the Catholic church, but you can find chieftains and princesses and Tolstoy, Avalon and Babylon (this, he notes, was his first chance to rhyme the last two) in his poem/songs as well. As a Quaker geologist, I find the Church and the literary references a mystery, a beautiful one, as perhaps an English professor might look down upon a Hawaiian valley without worrying how the terraces came to be! For me, the rich sharpness of his words create lush landscapes in a strange land. The depths of interpretation must rest with other listeners.

The arrangements are within someone's span of "folk" and are at their best rockish or gypsy-like. The fret-accordion gypsy arrangement of "Singing A Romany Tune" make this my favorite track, but the opulent and indecipherable quasi-spoke lyrics verify the choice. The song is about Dichotomy.

"First I held the axe aloft that seven brothers might see it and be raised up from their beds beneath the sod, beneath the Secret. Then I struck the strings and the lute bellowed and shards of glass, beams of shattered ice moved forward out of the sultry smooth mouths of orchids and praise was made over the silent hands of the Secret."

Like me, you may have no clue as to what any of this means. But, wow, what more in the way of voluptuous intricacy of images would you want to convince you to move that dial off of Gerry and the Pacemakers and to plug in the CD adapter instead! The lyrics continue like this, and the accordion is an added bonus; the tune is reminiscent of those great tunes, "Ukrainia" and "Who Stole The Kishka." Terlazzo's half speech verifies a poetry reading, so the delivery is a little different, especially on the exciting parts, than in most contemporary folk.

A slower, more contemplative song is "Dream Of Santa Rosalia," which mixes hand drums, church organ,and a contemporary tune. Rosalia, in the Old Days, appeared to a shoemaker in a vision. The man dug up her bones, and by touching these bones, plague victims were cured. In modern analogy perhaps, the author begs

"O Rosa Mystica, liberate these souls gathered here in this Plague of Sorrows...O remember me, if you will,wondrous and strong, speaking in whispers on the midnite lawn, gazing through the haze on the white and the luminous moon, the white body of the moon."

British Isles fans will enjoy "The Chieftain Folds His Hands Upon His Chest," a Celtic metered song about contemporary power, much of which is backed by simple guitar and accordion.

"On the table a white lamb delicately dances-I rise to sing but the song snags on my tooth.
Where once these songs wailed furious and bold, a small lamb hangs, disemboweled, from a tree."

One of the difficulties with this type of project is that sometimes reading the words, letting the words echo in solitude inside one's head in that all-perfect voice, sounds better than listening to the ordinary voice of the author reading or singing them. I pointed this out in a review of Alaska's Fiddling Poet, and in fact I feel that way about my own voice and what I write. For those who have problems like this, the poems are all printed out in the booklet. The booklet is also display of Terlazzo's other talents. On the over is an original acrylic demi-satanic portrait with pears and on some pages there are photos, including a nice one of sheep, and one of a mafia-like hand dangling above an orchard.

A few of the musical settings truly don't work, including the gospel backing of "Let Me Say Yes," "Hindu-Buddhist gospel music" as he calls it, but it and the succeeding "Hand Of Mercy" both sound silly. It's like listening to a Cafe Tacuba album and rolling the eyes when the boys go over the edge. However, most of the album is pleasant listening and even if it weren't Hand Of Mercy would be a great source of covers. At the end of the album, on the same theme but of a different construction, is a song about the life of Matisse called "King Of the Beast." This should be a special favorite with artists!