Grammy-, Emmy-, and Clio-winning songwriter, violinist, and jingle craftsman Robin Batteau will release Banned in Sparta this Friday, July 11. The ten-song collection recasts the verse of Classical Greek poets through the voices of folk-music luminaries Tom Paxton, Eric Andersen, Carolyn Hester, Livingston and Kate Taylor, Matt Nakoa, Robin Lane, and two-time Tony winner James Naughton with his children Keira and Greg.
The project was sparked when Batteau returned to Harvard during the pandemic to finish the degree he began in 1969, setting a world record for the longest gap between enrollment and graduation (1970–2021). A survey course in Ancient Greek history introduced him to poets whose sharp wit and raw emotion felt strikingly modern. “The Greek lyric poets were the singer-songwriters of their day,” Batteau says. “They played the lyre—hence lyric—and performed live, dancing across the stage like Tom Paxton or Taylor Swift.”
Drawing largely on writers from 700–400 BC, Batteau mosaicked fragmentary texts into complete songs that honor the originals while speaking to contemporary ears. The album’s title nods to Archilochus, the irreverent warrior-poet “banned in Sparta,” whose defiant spirit courses through James Naughton’s commanding rendition of “Archilochus Re-Deemed (I Am a Servant of the Lord God of War).” Kate Taylor lifts Telesilla’s rallying cry in “Telesilla’s on the Wall,” while Carolyn Hester brings tenderness to Corinna’s “In Her Loving Arms.”
Elsewhere, Eric Andersen inhabits Catullus’s conflicted “Odi et Amo” in the haunting “Cross,” Tom Paxton unleashes a playful roar on Anacreon’s “Shake Your Hair (You Thracian Filly),” and Matt Nakoa gives Simonides of Ceos a shimmering, piano-driven setting in “Man of Gold (Theatre of Memory).” Livingston Taylor, Robin Lane, Keira Naughton, and Batteau himself round out a track list that dances between reverence and revelry while foregrounding the voices of ancient female poets such as Sappho, Praxilla, and Corinna.
Batteau’s own résumé stretches from Buskin & Batteau’s “acoustic heaven” (The Boston Globe) to advertising hooks for McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Chevrolet. He has bowed his 1898 Scarampella violin beside Yo-Yo Ma, Benny Goodman, and Bruce Springsteen, while his melodies have been sung by Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, and Judy Collins. With Banned in Sparta, he brings that eclectic craft to bear on voices nearly three millennia old, revealing their timeless humor, longing, and bite.
Banned in Sparta will be available on all major streaming services July 11. Fans can pre-save the album at https://bit.ly/43G285N.
Banned in Sparta — Track Listing
“Stolen in Love” (Gorgias) – Greg Naughton
“In Her Loving Arms” (Corinna) – Carolyn Hester
“Archilochus Re-Deemed (I Am a Servant of the Lord God of War)” – James Naughton
“Telesilla’s on the Wall” – Kate Taylor
“My Sappho, Sweetly Smiling” (Alcaeus) – Livingston Taylor
“Terra Cotta Heart” (Sappho) – Robin Lane
“Shake Your Hair (You Thracian Filly)” (Anacreon) – Tom Paxton
“Man of Gold (Theatre of Memory)” (Simonides) – Matt Nakoa
“How Can You Love Me” (Stesichorus) – Robin Batteau
“The Most Beautiful Thing in the World” (Praxilla) – Keira Naughton
“Cross” (Catullus) – Eric Andersen
