In these poems, Budbill clearly owes a great deal to the beat poet generation. It is not too great a stretch to hear Jack Kerouac on the road with Neal Cassady in Budbill's poetry...the poetry of everyday life.  But it is likewise, not too great a stretch to hear Thoreau's observations of nature and life from his 2 years on Waldon Pond here. And yes, while the poetry is excellent without comment or comparison, the true genius in this recording is the word duet with Parker.  Budbill's poetry has an amazing amount of looseness that allows Parker to move in and out, between the words, having a dialogue with the words, commenting on the words, amplifying the words, and in general, providing a musical stage for presenting the words.

This 2-CD set casts David Budbill and William Parker in the role of telling stories of everyday life.  Budbill’s character is Judevine Mountain, a reclusive poet living in the mountains of Vermont, whose poems tell the tale of a man who relishes the serenity of his simple mountain life: he loads his wood stove full, brews a hot cup of tea, reads ancient Chinese poets and writes his own "ridiculous poems."  He lives outside of the world of mainstream America, and for the most part, he is content with his place in the world.  Parker is Iron Fingers, Judevine’s friend from the city, who expresses his own story of a free jazz musician’s city life and his hope for humanity, through music and chants.

Throughout the poems and William's work on this 2-CD set there is a theme of keeping beauty alive in a difficult world.  It is most eloquently expressed in a chant between the two artists.  As Budbill says, "The chant begins in a section of complaint poems, poems complaining about not only money but about this and that.  As I was reading the poems, William was slowly building up behind me with one constant musical idea, repeating it over and over, and as the poems got more intense the music rose to meet them.  William was pairing with the poems and the melody on his bass. ‘Of all, of all, of all, of all, the things in this world, which brings you the most joy?’...It’s a counterpoint," David says. "Here is the poet complaining, complaining, complaining, and then there is this chant... going on... So when it comes back in the end you have been through various changes and moods... it should have a different and deeper meaning by the time you get to the end."

By the end of Zen Mountains Zen Streets, the listener has heard Judevine Mountain and Iron Fingers alternate between confessions of worry and those of inner peace.  Iron Fingers’ question, "Of all the things in this world, what brings you the most joy?" brings a resolution to the ups and downs of the two characters stories, and reminds the listener to ask himself the same question.

"Beauty is your survival," Parker says. "I think that is what art is about; art is supposed to train us or inspire us to see beauty and then when you see beautiful things you soak it up and it’s supposed to uplift you as a human being to another level... so that now you see beauty and begin doing beautiful things. Thus, the world changes, and that is the theory behind it..."