This one’s been echoing in my skull all the day. I have to say it’s just the sort of song you need to get you out of bed in the morning.
This is “Give Us Room to Roar” by Ruth MacKenzie, from her album Kalevala: Dream of the Salmon Maiden. I can’t seem to find out much about MacKenzie, which is odd for someone who recorded an album as recently as 1998, but so far as I can tell she’s a singer raised in the Celtic tradition who went to Finland and was gobsmacked by their poetic tradition, and who then recorded an album inspired by Finland’s national epic. Songs on the album are either traditional or by Mackenzie, with lyrics inspired by the Finnish folk tradition. (Most are in English, if that matters to you.)
The artwork seems to feature Elvis and his loyal crew of Vikings being beset by a winged monster. It’s not on the album. I have no idea.
The album was recorded in Minnesota, because where else?
