If you're organizing a local event, and you've always wanted a Bard around the place, why not bid on Cedric? He's half of the Bedlam Bards, filkers extraordinaire and creators of such Browncoat hits as "The Ballad of Joss," "Big Damn Trilogy," and the "on the Drift" CD of verse-inspired music. Or, as he puts it:

A multi-instrumentalist, James "Cedric" Hazlerig, of the legendary renfaire/filk group the Bedlam Bards, comes to performances armed with two fiddles, a mandola, and a strong, manly voice. His philosophy of music stresses passion before perfection, death before dishonor, and whiskey before breakfast. For over ten years, Cedric has been performing at renaissance festivals and science-fiction conventions from coast-to-coast, including the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival, Dragon*Con, and the Browncoat Backup Bash. His music has elicited compliments from Nathan Fillion, Ben Edlund, Greg Edmonson, and Sonny Rhodes, in addition to causing Joss Whedon to grin from ear-to-ear. After releasing their third album, entitled On the Drift: Music Inspired by Firefly and Serenity, the Bedlam Bards have become the premier bards of the Browncoat movement. Several of Cedric's songs were featured in the documentary Done the Impossible. Besides appearing at the Browncoat Ball and the Browncoat Cruise, Cedric led fans in song as they picketed in support of the Writers Guild of America strike in front of Fox Studios in Los Angeles.

Win the auction and Cedric will come perform at your Can't Stop the Serenity event. Also, you'll win a heap of amazing stuff, such as Browncoat flags, patches,  a "Tragic Space Dementia" T-shirt, a Companion fan, some prop replicas, a QMx money pack, a
Kaylee Maquette, the "Done the Impossible" DVD,  an autographed photo of Felicia Day (not versy but cool), a Jayne Hat (of course),  "something shiny autographed by Joss Whedon", and more.

Well worth the bidding, and proceeds go toward the CSTS screening of your choice. Bid him high, people!

The Bedlam Bards, in point of fact, or at least Cedric. To help raise money for the cause he's auctioning himself off – along with a passel of tasty Serenity items -  an eBay auction going on right now. Here's what he had to say about it:

In order to raise both funds and awareness for Equality Now, I am auctioning myself on eBay. Well, technically, I'm auctioning a performance at the Can't Stop the Serenity screening of your choice. Even better, the profits from the auction go to the CSTS screening of your choice, so it's a double whammy, but in a good way!

  

But wait, that's not all! You also get steak knives. Steak knives? To heck with the gorram steak knives, you get something a lot shinier than that.

  

A number of Browncoat artisans and celebrities have come forward to donate these prizes which the auction winner GETS TO KEEP:

  

-Autographed Poster {from Quantum Mechanix} It's signed by Fillion, Tudyk, Minear, Fairman, Edmonson, Woodward, Sonny Rhodes, Nectar Rose, Adam Levermore-Rich (who did the art for the poster), and the Bedlam Bards.  A similar poster fetched over $150 at auction.  

 

-Autographed Bedlam Bards CDs 

-Autographed Done The Impossible DVD and Soundtrack CD {from Brian Wiser} 

-Autographed Browncoat Cruise Souvenir Book {from Brian Wiser} 

-Independent Flag {from Firefly Cargo Bay} 

-Jayne Hat {from Ma Cobb's Hat Shoppe www.geocities.com/fadingendlessly} 

-Mal's Holster and Ammo Belt {from www.browncoatfashions.com} The "standard" gun belt size will fit people with hips in the range of 40 to 50 inches.  The winner should specify their actual hip measurement if they need a gun belt larger or smaller in size.  The holster and gun belt come with an ammo pouch suitable for carrying an extra set of clips, a cell phone, or an iPod.  It's like the one Mal wore in Serenity.  This item typically sells for $160 + S&H. 

 

-Plus  a built-up Mal Pistol, Jayne Pistol, grenade, PAL Communicator and a Zoe 'Mare's Leg' Winchester {from Wilco models} The Wilco Models replica of Mal's Pistol fits in the Browncoat Fashions holster.

That, my friends, is a hell of a list. Come to think of it, you shouldn't bid on this. Nope, not at all. In fact, go away. I need to go get my bid in…

They'll be holding raffles at each stop, with proceeds going to various charities including Equality Now. Anyone interested in contributing awards, please contact Cedric at fithelere @ aol.com and more details on the tour are available here.

The Bards have been having a good year. Their Firefly-inspired CD "On the Drift" received Best Renfaire Album of 2006 (from the Renaissance Festival Music Podcast), Best Folk Recording of 2006 (according to Celtic MP3 Magazine), #1 Album on the CDBaby Celtic Chart, and a spot on CDBaby's Top Seller's Sampler. If you've somehow managed to avoid hearing any of it, you can get some samples here and buy it here.

The Bards are Rick "Hawke" Morrow (on the left) and James "Cedric" Hazlerig (on the right), along with vocalists Lilly and Laura, and musicians Tree and Scott. They've released several albums including "Furious Fancies" (their serious work… or, rather, more serious work) and "Take Out the Trash," the stuff they play when the kids are all asleep.

The Bards are also Firefly fans, and it took over their lives last year after they released "Ballad of Joss" to the delight of Browncoats everywhere. "Ballad," along with Michelle Dockrey's "Mal's Song," quickly became a rousing anthem sung in conventions and movie lines as often as the Firefly theme. The Bards came back with "Big Damn Trilogy," their music was featured on the Browncoat documentary Done the Impossible, and the Bards finally released an entire CD of Firefly-inspired music, "On the Drift" which turned out to be somewhat popular. I talked to Hawke and Cedric about the entire ordeal.

So what are Bedlam Bards, anyway? Raucous musicians, or Mercedes Lackey fans?

Hawke: Mercedes who?

Cedric: We’re definitely raucous. And thanks for calling us musicians. We don’t get that a lot.

No slight to the genius of Mercedes Lackey, but the similarity between our name and the title of her “Bedlam’s Bard” series (about a renfaire musician, no less) is purely coincidental. We took our name from the song “Bedlam Boys,” the first song we worked up as a duo. Since we were hoping that Lilly would join us at least some of the time, we wanted a gender neutral name. Having spent twelve years as a bard in the SCA, and being an admirer of the Minstrels of Mayhem, I suggested “Bedlam Bards” as our name.

It was only after Hawke registered http://www.bedlambards.com that we found out about the Mercedes Lackey connection. Hawke did a search to see if our website would show up, and there were twelve pages of response, all Mercedes Lackey sites. I think we were buried somewhere on page twelve. Now if you do a search, I think references to us outnumber references to the character from Lackey’s books. Of course, he is fictional, whereas we’re just highly improbable.

What sort of music do you usually play?

Cedric: The kind that doesn’t have a category on websites that ask that question.

Nah, really, I call our genre “renfolk.” It’s the brand of folk music played at Renaissance festivals. I mean, you’d think that renfaire music would all be actual music played in the Renaissance. But it’s not. It’s really a blend of early music, Celtic dance tunes, folksongs from all over Europe, and whatever else we can get away with. For convenience, I just check the box that says “Celtic.”

No matter what we’re playing, we try to play it with lots of oomph. Playing live has taught us a lot about what audiences respond to, so we play for real people, not critics. Someone once said, “It’s nice to hear Celtic music played with some testosterone!” That’s us. We believe in power before precision, passion before perfection, death before dishonor, and nothing before breakfast.

How did the Firefly stuff begin?

Cedric: I blame it all on Alyson Hannigan.

See, years before Firefly hit the Cortex, I was flipping channels and caught an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I have to admit, for the first several moments, I was just mesmerized by Alyson Hannigan. (I love smart women!) And Charisma Carpenter. (On mute, Cordelia sounds smart!) And that blonde chick, Sarah something…

But, much as I admit this is a character flaw, I just can’t watch a show that sucks, no matter how beautiful the women are. (I’ve tried to watch Charmed. I really have.) So before long, I was more in love with Marti Noxon, Jane Espenson, Joss Whedon, Tim Minear, Dave Fury, and all the other writers at Mutant Enemy than with any of the actresses on the screen. (Ben Edlund came along later, but I can’t have that list without mentioning him. *hums the self-esteem song from “Smile Time”*) I mean with dialog and plot twists like that, how could I not love BtVS?

So when ads for Firefly ran during Buffy, I marked my calendar and caught every episode I could. When I first heard about it, I was a little leary. But it didn’t take long to win me over.

Was this a total Bard decision, or did one of you go all obsessy and strong-arm the others?

Cedric: It was a total Bard decision. I’m sure Hawke will agree. *twists Hawke’s arm*

Hawke: Yes, and yes!

Cedric: Truth is, Hawke came to love Firefly when I got the DVD, and he was totally behind my obsession with it. He even graciously delayed his solo album so that we could bring On the Drift to fruition quickly. And even though I got a bit more spotlight on this album than he did, his ideas and contributions pushed it from being okay to being excellent. He named the album and “Leaf on the Wind,” plus he suggested the fiddle tag at the very end–which I think is our most Fireflyesque moment in the album. I can’t think of anyone I would have rather made this album with. (Hmm, unless Jewel Staite can sing harmony and play guitar…)

Have you had any response from anyone connected with the show? Have you gotten the chance to play for any of the BDHs?

Cedric: Alas, no. We’ve had no response from anyone involved. I handed recordings of “The Ballad of Joss” to Adam Baldwin, Ron Glass, Morena Baccarin, and Jewel Staite at Dragon*Con, but I suspect they probably threw them in the section of their luggage labeled “Stupid Things I Smiled While Receiving from Fanboys Who Really Wanted to Give Me Stuff.” Seriously, I think they’re all so busy with their careers that they probably haven’t even noticed, and that’s how it should be. Artists of that caliber should have more work than they can handle.

Still, it would make my century. I’ve joked that I’m going to fight my way to the microphone at a panel, so I can say, “Um, Adam Baldwin, do you really play guitar, and if so, would you like to jam with my band sometime? We know ‘Hero of Canton.’”

When I went to the advance screening in Tampa last summer people were passing out copies of "Ballad of Joss" to get a singalong going. What's the largest group of Browncoats you've had singing along?

Cedric: Wow, I’ve never counted. We had a pretty big crowd at the opening night Shindig in Houston. Those Houston Browncoats really know how to party!

You followed up with"Big Damn Trilogy" in time for the movie. Were you disappointed the movie soundtrack mostly moved away from the folksy sound of the show?

Hawke: A little, yes.

Cedric: That’s a tough question, because I think Greg Edmonson is a Big Damn Hero.

When my wife went to the Lone Star Shindig last summer, she brought home a freebie CD with several tracks from the movie, so I had already come to terms with it when I saw the film.

Still, my first thought when I heard the promo was “Horns? In the Serenity theme? There are no horns on our boat, because our boat is not the ruttin’ Enterprise!” I mean, Greg Edmonson made that clear during interviews. Not having his guitar and fiddle music was a little bit like missing a character.

That said, I liked the Celtic sound that some parts of the movie had. I even considered covering some of those themes. The music when you first see Serenity–it’s perfect. And the funeral/repair of the ship. Wow.

So yeah, I have the movie soundtrack, and I like it. But I listen to Greg Edmonson’s Firefly music about ten times as much.

Why an entire CD? Not that we're not grateful, mind you…

Cedric: We’re gluttons for punishment. Really, my muse decided that she likes Firefly, and she kept giving me songs about it. So what could we do? We couldn’t sing them on stage at the renaissance festivals. We had to find an audience, or my muse wouldn’t let me sleep at night. Whenever we did find an audience for those songs, people would say, “You could make a whole album devoted to Firefly!”

That, and I decided that if I couldn’t match Michelle Dockrey for quality, I’d outdo her with quantity. I mean, have you heard “Mal’s Song?” No one should have that much talent.

(That last answer was 98% fact free. Competing with Dockrey wasn’t really a factor. But it is true that no one should have that much talent.)

Another motivation was this: If people have an album of Firefly-tributes, they’ll play it in their cars, and at work. Other people will overhear it. Folks who’ve never heard of Firefly or Serenity will spot it on our website and get curious. Radio stations will be more likely to play tracks from it. I mean, I’m thrilled that a lot of people want On the Drift, but I would trade it all for another season of Firefly.

What inspired the different songs on "On the Drift"?

Cedric: Boy, you pack a lot of question into a few words, don’t you?

I have to, I'm a lousy typist.

Cedric: “The Ballad of Joss” just seemed like an obvious filk. I’m still surprised that no one else came up with that before I did. Same thing on the “Theme Song Parody,” though many other fans have written great parodies of that as well. Hopefully no one takes ours too seriously.

I read on Fireflyfans.net that Nathan Fillion had shouted, “Trilogy!” at a convention in California. That inspired me to write “Big Damn Trilogy” as a rallying song. And it’s going to come true, gorramit! I will own that boxed set someday.

At that point, I realized I needed some more songs, and my muse was kind enough to oblige. “Out of Gas” barely edges out the other episodes as my all-time favorite, so I wanted to capture it in the song “On the Drift.” I was really proud of how I managed to make a lot of references not just to that episode but to other details of the show, even a line that was in a deleted scene from the pilot. (Zoe says that once you’ve been in Serenity Valley, you never leave; you just learn to live there. Gods, what a great line. Excuse me while I go watch my home set of the DVDs again.) In fact, when I rewatched “Out of Gas,” I noticed a line that I had referenced in the song, but forgotten about, when Mal says about the shuttles, “They’ve both got heat, and they’ve both got air.”

A few mornings after we saw Serenity, I woke up in our hotel room at Dragon*Con thinking about Wash and Book. I was still a bit in shock, and I thought I should write a song, maybe about Wash, maybe about the funeral scene. Hawke suggested “Leaf on the Wind” as a title, and he was thinking it would be a sad song, more like “On the Drift.” But as I thought about Wash’s death, I thought about his life, and I realized that no song about Wash could be all sad. So I thought the contrast of repeating his final words between a fairly joyous celebration of his life would be more poignant than just weeping over him.

There are two other things I want to say about that song. First, I’ve taken some flak over the second verse, which speculates on Wash’s participation in the war. That verse is based on Alan Tudyk’s own speculation in the commentary to “War Stories.” Okay, so it ain’t canon; shoot me. Second, yes, I felt like that big pole had gone right through my chest, too–but Whedon made the right choice. The end of the movie meant so much more because we didn’t know who else would fall. A lesser writer might have given us the big death scene that we wanted, or even a miraculous recovery, but Joss Whedon has titanium balls. And finally, even though I loved the character, he was fictional, gorramit! I had a terminally ill friend who was really looking forward to September 30th, 2005, but he didn’t make it. I prefer to cry for him.

Okay, stepping off my soapbox now.

I would tell you what inspired me to write “Sail the Sky,” except I’ve already told everyone who really wrote it (Brandon Klassen), and it’s too late to try to steal credit for it. Brandon sent us his recording of the song, and I told him we would try to do his writing credit. He went for a very simple, moving arrangement, but of course, we didn’t want to just try to copy him. After all, people can download his recording, so there’s no reason to offer a cut of us trying to sound like Brandon. Instead, we went for a bigger sound, and I focussed a bit more on the hopeful aspects of the song than the grieving aspects. We added some fiddle to make it sound more Firefly, and a female harmony to balance it out. Still, I love Brandon’s recording of it; I hope lots of people check that out.

Our cover of “Hero of Canton” was inspired by the genius that is Ben Edlund. It’s a great song, and we wanted to give it kind of a Marty Robbins feel.

The instrumentals were all inspired in one way or another, by the Firefly soundtrack. “Saffron’s Wedding Dance” is of course a melody from “Our Mrs. Reynolds.” It got stuck in my head and I had to learn it. “River’s Jig” is similar to the music River dances to in “Safe,” but it’s got so many of my own variations that I can’t really claim to be playing the same tune. (BTW, the increasingly loud percussion in that song represents more and more folks dancing. Hawke heard it in his head so prominently that he insisted on recording it.) “Paquin Rendezvous” was inspired by the belly dance music in the opening scene of “The Train Job,” plus all the times that the fiddle in the soundtrack uses the “sul ponticello” technique–that kind of whispery sound. “Eavesdown Docks” came about the same way parts of the original show music did; we had some strange instruments sitting around and we wanted to use them. Finally, “The Rock Garden” came about as an afterthought. Hawke was sitting by the fire-pit outside Tree’s studio, running through the chords to “Hero of Canton,” when he started finger-picking them. Remembering the closing notes of “Jaynestown,” I joined in with an abbreviated version of the melody. It sounded so sweet we decided to record it. Plus we needed some breathing space between “Leaf on the Wind” and “Sail the Sky.”

Why isn't "The Rock Garden" longer, dammit?

Cedric: Have you ever tried to finger-pick on a guitar that’s set up for strumming? It hurts! Hawke’s hands were damn near bleeding by the end of that session. My mandola part was less painful, but still very nerve-racking. Remember what I said earlier about power before precision? Well, it didn’t apply to that song.

So press Repeat if you want it to be longer.

Hawke: I heard, somewhere, that you were supposed to leave them wanting more.

The first run of CDs sold out within an hour, and the next load wasn't enough to cover the rush of preorders. Did you expect this kind of response?

Cedric: Apparently not, or we would have shipped a lot more CDs to start with.

Hawke: We thought there was a possibility, but wasn't expecting it.

Cedric: I mean, we hoped that it would sell well. We told our investors that it was a sure thing. But it’s always been our business model that an album will take about a year or two to pay for itself and even longer to show an appreciable profit. This album is making us revise our model.

It’s one thing to know that there are thousands of people out there eagerly anticipating the album’s release. It’s another thing to actually see it happen. It’s a paradigm shift.

And that’s really because of the Browncoats. They share our love for all things Firefly, and this is one more way they can experience it, and share it. Also, Browncoats take care of each other. So many people have helped spread the word about this album that I just can’t list them all.

By the way, if sci-fi filk albums sell really well, do they go latinum?

Will you be touring?

Cedric: Several science fiction conventions have approached us about appearing as guests. I can't mention all of them because we're still in negotiation, but we are confirmed for ConDFW and FenCon. We were invited to the first Big Damned Flanvention but we just couldn’t go–still kicking ourselves over that one. Anyway, we’re hoping that Browncoats will contact their favorite conventions to request us as guests. Besides spicing up a Shindig, it’s one more way to draw attention to our cause (that being a sequel in our lifetimes).

And of course, we’ll be playing our regular renaissance festival gigs. In the next three months, we’ll hit Excalibur Fantasy Faire, the North Carolina Renaissance Festival, and the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival.

And, most importantly: will there be more?

Cedric: There will definitely be more from the Bedlam Bards. Hawke’s solo album is close to completion, and we have two more albums in the works, including another one of bawdy songs.

We probably won’t do another album totally dedicated to Firefly, but we may slip some more Firefly songs onto our upcoming albums, depending largely on whether my muse comes through with a good song about Kaylee, preferably one that won’t result in stalking charges. Kaylee, Book, Zoe, and Inara all got very little “face time” in the album, and I don’t think we made even a passing reference to Simon, who is really the most heroic character on the whole show.

There will very likely be more science-fiction songs coming down the pike. (I’m working on one right now, titled “Honey, you’re what matters in my antimatter drives.”) My wife has forbidden me to make an album dedicated to Battlestar Galactica, despite my protests that Apollo rhymes with “hollow,” Cylon rhymes with “nylon,” and Starbuck rhymes with “frak.” So I’m trying to talk Scott Boswell (who played guitar on “Ballad of Joss”) into making one.

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Buy “On the Drift” at CDBaby, and check out the Bedlam Bards website for lyics, music downloads, and more. You can also see my review of the CD here.

Read more about it here. In the meantime, the Bards would like you to enjoy an absolutely free MP3-postcard of "Sail the Sky," a Browncoat anthem they used to conclude the album.