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From my 5th CD, Apple Pentacle. Released 2005 on French fairy-world label Prikosnovenie, it celebrates the 5 seeds within an apple that form a pentacle star when you cut it along the equatorial line.

'Poppet Plum' is a tribute to José Géal, who was, at the time of my songwriting, puppet master of Théâtre Royal de Toone in Bruxelles, Belgium. It is now in the hands of Nicolas Géal, having been with the same family for at least eight generations, tracing back to the birth of Bruxelles itself. This antique venue is quirky and haunting; home of some of Europe’s leading puppeteers, it is also a museum of puppetry.

Frederic Cotton took me there with Francesco Banchini in 2003. I wrote ‘Poppet Plum’ in Bruxelles after witnessing the Toone's spooky, witty puppet show of 'Macbeth' in an old Flemish dialect while marionettes from earlier eras hung from rafters, watching the play with us.

I recorded it in Australia and released it in my 5th album Apple Pentacle on French label, Prikosnovénie 2005.

The puppet master José Géal wrote to thank me in 2009 when I sang this song in Mons at Trolls et Legendes, organised by Frederic Cotton, who delivered that printed message to me on the night of that performance.

How could I resist the pun on Toone / Tune?

I chose this for my Faerieworlds Live From Home 2020 set, not only because puppets joined me on stage at Faerieworlds a decade earlier in Oregon, but also as a nod to UK puppeteers who were honoured guests then and now: Wendy, Brian & Toby Froud.

'Wassaile the trees that they may beare
You many a Plum and many a Peare:
For more or lesse fruits they will bring,
As you do give them Wassailing'
- Herrick

lyrics

'Poppet Plum'

He is on the stair, he knows you:
Take your seats inside the tune.
The marionettes are there, listening through you,
Human dreams hang in this room.
Believe their faces, they know you,
Their souls are waiting by their feet
To hold your graces, and your failures,
Not so far above the street.

Poppet Plum, stamp and run
Bobbing thumb, swing your drum
Hand to hand, son to son
Till the Human Tale is done.

Old as this town, old as this man,
With a bagpipe and a bell
Tin-tap, lights go down:
Time for dancing hands!
They can show what we can’t tell.

credits

from Wisp and Sentinel - compilation for Faerieworlds, released August 23, 2020
Lyrics, Melodies: Louisa John-Krol, 2003
Vocals, acoustic Guitar, Puppet Clay Feet Bells: Louisa John-Krol
Acoustic/Classical Guitar embellishments: Harry Williamson
Charango, Tiple: Harry Williamson

[Closing lines of 'Robin Hood' sung a cappella at the end are traditional folklore that my father sang with stories in our childhood, bouncing me on his knee. A Welsh immigrant, he was steeped in tales of Camelot and assorted woodland rebels.]

Engineered & mixed by Harry Williamson at Spring Studio, Australia

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Louisa John-Krol Australia

Louisa is an Australian singer, composer, writer & faery storyteller who has released many albums of ethereal music on indie labels, primarily in France. She's completing a fantasy series, The Elderbrook Chronicles, with a soundtrack.

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