Bill Staines passes

"Folk singer Bill Staines has died at age 74" Luke Taylor

Mary Gauthier's new book "Saved by a Song"

"Book explores the healing power of music  In her book "Saved by a Song," author and musician Mary Gauthier shares why anyone and everyone should look into writing a song!" Joseph Suttner

Digging into "Murder Most Foul"

"What Bob Dylan Does—Or Doesn’t—Know About the Assassination of JFK   Jefferson Morley Revisits the Nobel Laureate’s Recent No. 1, “Murder Most Foul”"

I need to give it another listen but my initial take was the song just petered out.

Fascinating background on John Prine's initial release

 "John Prine: The debut album that introduced a songwriting master   Music journalist Erin Osmon chronicles the creation of Prine's debut album" Steve Gotcher 

Christy Moore with a new release

"Christy Moore: ‘The Valium came about because my poor mother introduced me to it’As his new album is released, the iconic singer recalls his humble beginnings, his darkest days with addiction, and being physically attacked after performances"  Donal Lynch

"Christy Moore: Flying Into Mystery review – a storytelling masterclass" Neil Spencer

Seán Tyrrell passes

"Tributes paid to Irish singer Seán Tyrrell, who has passed away" 

"The Ghost of Billy Mulvihil" is just one of his many gems.

Also, "The Rising of the Moon."

Plus, "Mattie."

Don't forget: "Message of Peace."

Paddy Moloney passes

"Irish musician, composer Paddy Moloney (1938-2021): “Once a Chieftain, always a Chieftain!”" Paul Bond 

Looking back at Stan Rogers

"STAN ROGERS: HAS IT BEEN FORTY-FIVE YEARS?"  Ross Altman 

An Emmylou Harris Interview

"In Conversation: Emmylou Harris"  Robin Murray 

Reviewing John McCutcheon's new release

"Album Review: John McCutcheon, ‘Bucket List’" Henry Carrigan

A song from Dar Williams' latest release

Song Premiere: Dar Williams, “Time, Be My Friend”

A new release from Dar Williams

 "Dar Williams is back with a new album" Scott Simon

"‘A revolutionary posture’: Singer Dar Williams takes a stand for optimism" Stephen Humphries

The Doctor is In Tune

"The singing doctor

CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook introduces us to Dr. Rich Krueger, a neonatologist who, in his spare time, is an acclaimed singer-songwriter."

The video story runs 5:04 minutes.

who, in his spare time, is an acclaimed 

Nanci Griffith has passed

"Nanci Griffith Has Died. The Texas Singer-Songwriter Was 68" Steve Smith & Josie Fischels

"'Folkabilly' singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith dead at 68" Matthew Leimkuehler & Dave Paulson

"Texas legend and Grammy-winning folk singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith dies" Andrew Dansby

"Songwriter and Performer Nanci Griffith Has Died" 

"Nanci Griffith - Other Voices, Other Rooms [Part 1] Live 1993"

An In-Their-Own-Words-Tribute

Inspired by Tim Grimm's riveting song "Dreaming of King Lear" as well as creations from other artists now passed. Thank you, make that bless you, for your musical illuminations

They weren't entertainers, artists of life if you will

all about humanity's truths and universal mysteries

their scriptures often complete stoppers of time

being terms of enrichment to those willing to hear

 

Al Grierson served as fire, fuse and muse

his ashes the flowers of the flames

always for the roses and the bread

and a non-pareil roller away of stones

 

Bill Morrissey being of that kind of mystery

peering into eyes and living forever

publishing reports from music heaven

with so many things in his life being unchosen

 

Dave Carter's borderline of death and resurrection

where a kick-ass Walmart tie wasn't de riguer

his songs the only sacred ground some knew

as we carried burdens in the cradle of his grace

 

It was Jerusalem mañana for David Olney

with eyes that were never blind

to the oak trees blossoming roses

and Barabbas only living for today

 

John Prine never had nothin' to say

let's kiss his ever so wry ass aloha

for offering a plaintive 'hello in there'

even when Daddy's arm had a nasty hole

 

Stan Rogers never booked a Northwest Passage

nor a life as a humble keeper of the lock

those being chains to some, life anchors for others

his work not to be lost to the knowledge of man

 

Terence Martin may or may not have been waterproof

but who knows 'cause that's the way it didn't go

yes, the problem is certainly in the human

it's that damn graffiti in the chambers of the heart

 

Eric Taylor traveled in sacred circles

so when the boatmen stole the Africans

did God ride or row

with the Angelina River always at his back?

 

Jack Hardy kindly offered to come by

if he ever passes this way again

to remind all who have gathered

that it's not the singer, it's the song

 

They weren't entertainers, artists of life if you will

all about being, humanity's truths and universal mysteries

their scriptures often complete stoppers of time

being terms of enrichment to those willing to hear

A review of the new Al Grierson CD "The Petals"

"The Petals"

Al Grierson

AlGrierson.bandcamp.com

Al Grierson, whose physical body perished in November 2000, has reached out from the Great Beyond. In a feat of musical prestidigitation, this new release doesn't qualify as a cache-of riches-discovery in the traditional sense of sunken or buried gold and silver but Grierson's release "The Petals" is indeed a treasure and a giddily unanticipated addition to anyone's musical good fortune.

Why so? The entire 7 minutes and 32 seconds of "Old Coyote" serves up the exemplary answer, displaying Grierson at his lyrical zenith: erudite, mystical and literate. 

"I've been reading all about it in the annals of some ancient lore,
How you were smuggled through the garden by the angel at the basement door,
And while the serpent in the branches held the mother of the world beguiled,
You were pissin' on the Tree of Knowledge while the Good Lord smiled.

Old Coyote,
Little brother of necessity, the seeker and the sacred clown,
Old Coyote,
You're the fire in the water and the diamonds in the cold cold ground.

On the mountain with Moses and with Daniel in the lions den,
In the bedroom with Delilah, in the hollow in the hearts of men,
On the hill on Friday Evening when the soldiers rolled them bones,
In the garden Sunday mornin' when they rolled away the stone.

Old Coyote,
On the edges of eternity dancin' through the crack of dawn,
Old Coyote,
With a pearly white Madonna and the devil with the blue dress on.

In the bed between the Travelin' Salesman and the Farmer's Daughter,
At the elbow of the preacher when the wine turned back to water,
In the cabin of a smokin' locomotive on a high speed train,
Between the Tower of Babel and the cities of the plain.

Old Coyote,
You're a 30-carat Buddha in a barrel full of old tin cans,
Old Coyote,
Just a loose screw messin' with the engine of our best laid plans.

Now there's an ancient city hidden deep beneath the waves,
It was founded on the principles of justice and the sweat of slaves,
And I heard a lot about it in a New Age gospel hymn,
But I ain't never gonna wade in any water where the fish won't swim.

Old Coyote,
In a vertical position while the world walks upside down,
Old Coyote,
At the center of the circle while the wheel goes 'round and 'round.

Now there's a big wind blowin' down the cities from the outlaw trail
You can even hear it whistle in the belly of the great white whale,
Hear it howlin' through the desert where Ezekiel saw the wheel,
From the breath upon the water to the breaking of the seventh seal.

Is this the end of history or just a wagon full of roses standin' at the gates of Rome?
The devil's army on the deep blue sea?
Or just the legions of the lonely only lookin' for the long way home?

'Cause there's an angel with a trumpet in the graveyard where the night wind groans,
Hear it echo from the brothel on the bayou where the black snake moans,
From the Playboy mansion from the penthouse to the pool,
From the palace of the kingdom to the alley where the mad dogs rule.

Waitin' for the holocaust
waitin' for the fire that was promised at the end of time,
Waitin' for the Pentecost
Hidin' like a phoenix in the ashes and the ice cold lime.

Old Coyote,
At the center of the chaos, waitin' since the Lord knows when,
Old Coyote,
Gonna wait a little longer 'till it all comes 'round again.

Little brother of necessity, the seeker and the sacred clown,
You're the fire in the water and the diamonds in the cold, cold ground,
A 30-carat Buddha in a barrel full of old tin cans,
Just a loose screw messin' with the engine of our best laid plans,

Old Coyote,
In a vertical position while the world walks upside down,
Old Coyote,
At the center of the circle while the wheel goes 'round and 'round.
Old Coyote,
At the center of the circle while the wheel goes 'round and 'round"

Whew! Check your pulse if that doesn't mainline a jolt of exhilaration into your being.

Need more? Equally beguiling is the eight-minute long title track "The Petals" featuring national and international historical events amidst figures sacred and profane in a song of devotion. The second verse is artistry divine:

"...And it'll be you and me, honey, at the dawn of all creation

watching God set down the needle in the groove

and we'll both just sit and gaze into the empty face of darkness

till we notice something move

Where the necessity of sin has yet to blossom or begin

though you can feel the heavy purpose in the air

as in the beauty of His grace He comes to look upon your face

and kiss the petals on the flowers in your hair..."

"Dreamboat to Paradise" is yet another gem as is "Where In The World Does The Whole World Come From?"

Grierson at his best features insightful presentations surrounding life's big questions minus any imposition of answers. He plumbs history, brings to life events and their participants, and presents serious subjects in a simultaneously serious and charming manner.

Thus spoiled if never satiated, now if we only knew of the timing of the next arrival of enriching Grierson compositions. Surely he will send more but what will be the signs of its impending arrival?

Track List

• 1. The Illumination of Judge Roy Bean (3:29)
• 2. Where In The World Does The Whole World Come From? (4:02)
• 3. Old Coyote (7:32)
• 4. Barney Rubble Meets Mack The Knife (3:20)
• 5. Dreamboat To Paradise (4:38)
• 6. If I Don't Get My Way (3:16)
• 7. Lightning Never Takes A Long Time (5:29)
• 8. I'm Going Over (4:39)
• 9. Man Of Steel (3.12)
• 10. The Old Paul Jones (5:08)
• 11. Somebody's Been Calling (3:50)
• 12. Daddy's Gone To Texas (3:20)
• 13. The Petals (8:01)

Additionally, here is a 1999 review of Grierson's earlier CDs "Things That Never Added Up To Me" and "A Candle For Durruti" now also available for purchase. Each release is just as intoxicating as "The Petals." Your mind, body and spirit will thank you.

Grace Griffith has passed

Grace Griffith, another wonderful voice, has departed.  

Here's a sampling of her music offerings.

More

Birthday Bob

Bob Dylan At 80" Mike Regenstreif

More Dylan

The Poets That Helped a Young Bob Dylan Find His Voice" Clinton Heylin

Tim Grimm's song "Gone"

Tim Grimm writing and singing about our times, including a tip o' the hat to John Prine.

 

Tim Grimm's marvelous "Dreaming of King Lear"

What a touching tribute to three craftsman!

Rooting around "Blowing In The Wind"

"Behind The Song: “Blowing In The Wind” by Bob Dylan, Part I"

and

"Behind The Song: “Blowing in the Wind” by Bob Dylan, Part II"

Both of these articles are written by Paul Zollo.

Background on "The Songs of Leonard Cohen"

"Behind the Album: Leonard Cohen, ‘Songs of Leonard Cohen’" Paul Zollo

Robert Frost works set to music

 "Front Range couple’s folk album awakens the poetry of Robert Frost" Kalene McCort

Guy Clark Documentary (and so much more)

"SXSW film review: Guy Clark documentary tells story through his wife’s eyes  The unusual perspective brings vitality to a compelling look at the rise of Americana music" Charles Ealy

Remembering Jack Hardy

Jack Hardy passed on March 11 back in 2011. 

Here is some Hardy history.

More

Some Hardy music:

Peter Ostroushko passes

 Peter Ostroushko, virtuoso musician with everyone from Bob Dylan to Minnesota Orchestra, dies" Jon Bream

"Heart of the Heartland"

"The Whalebone Feathers"

A Gordon Bok sighting

 Maine folk musician returns for FisherPoets Gathering" Sarah Doyle

A few of his best:

"Farewell to Nova Scotia"

"Turning Towards the Morning"

"A Most Unpleasant Way Sir"

John Fogerty is back

 John Fogerty with a new single.

Anne Feeney has passed

"Anne Feeney, folk singer and political activist, dies at 69" Scott Mervis

Selections from Jeff Emery's Sunday, January 17, 2021 KZSC "Backroads" show

 Selections from Jeff Emery's Sunday, January 17, 2021 KZSC "Backroads" show

For the so many who simply want/wanted to be treated fairly and with respect.

"Beautiful Fool" Don Henry

"Martin Luther who did you think that you were?
Appointed by some higher up
Merely mortal, your plans were unaffordable
No one wants to pay for love

Oh you beautiful fool
Swimmin up stream, kickin’ up waves
Dreams weren’t meant to come true
That’s why they call ’em dreams
Oh you beautiful fool

Walter Cronkite pre-empted Disney one night
And all us kids were so upset
We thought that you were a trouble instigator
Marchin’ through our T.V. set

Oh you beautiful fool
Swimmin up stream, kickin’ up waves
Dreams weren’t meant to come true
That’s why they call ’em dreams
Oh you beautiful fool

To fight a fight without a fist all human instinct puzzles this
How dare you threaten our existence
Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus Christ, history repeats itself so nice
Consistently we are resistant to love

I saw you on the black and white
With Blacks and White’s applauding you
I saw you on another time
Without a sign of life in you

Oh you beautiful fool
Swimmin up stream, kickin’ up waves
Dreams weren’t meant to come true
That’s why they call ’em dreams
Oh you beautiful fool"

and

"Still Small Voice" Bob Franke

"In a still small voice in the middle of the night,

Brother Martin heard the simple truth
And he followed its pleading, though it led to a crossroads,
Parting in the days of my youth.
From the heart of my city came a single scream
And I heard it through all the white noise.
And the papers told us that they'd killed The Dream,
But they never killed the still small voice.

All the lies come at you in a million ways
Some you hear and some you tell yourself
And they say that virtue is a pile of gold
And that weapons are a nations wealth
But when kings stand naked in their ugly schemes
Will the poor of this world rejoice
Will they sell their children down a bloody stream
Or will they listen to a still small voice

Now the one-eyed bandit in your living room
Will convince you that you have no time
And it will swear to take you on your one free ride
While it's looking for your one last dime
But the light of heaven is a simple gift
And you can see it when you make that choice
It will shine like riches in your inmost heart
But it will speak in a still small voice

Oh the skies will open when the trumpet sounds
and its echo will shake these halls
And these stones so silent as they ring us round
they will shatter when they hear that call
And our chains will clatter when they hit the ground
and the people make a joyful noise
But when My Lover comes to call me home
it will be in a still, small voice"

and

"Crazy in Alabama" Kate Campbell

"I heard Odessa's mind was sick

That she was crazier than hell
The police caught her turning tricks
Down at the Blue and Gray motel
Odessa was the neighbor's maid
She had ten mouths at home to feed

They bussed her kids to Birmingham
And put her in the county jail
Nobody seemed to give a damn
They say a white man posted bail
My dad said not to breathe a word
I told my brother all I heard

And the train of change
Was coming fast to my hometown
We had the choice to climb on board
Or get run down

It was crazy, grown men fights
Over segregation and civil rights
Martin Luther King, KKK
George C. Wallace and LBJ
When the National Guard came in
I thought the world was gonna end
It was crazy in Alabama

Down at the corner Dairy Dip
They sold soft ice cream for a dime
White people ordered from the front
The side was for the colored line
And we all were told they had their place
Because they were a different race

We spent hot summer afternoons
At the public swimming pool
Where the privileged and the few
Played on their island of cool blue
And brown children watched outside the fence
It never made one lick of sense

But the train of change
Was coming fast to my hometown
We had the choice to climb on board
Or get run down

It was crazy, there were grown men fights
Over segregation and civil rights
Martin Luther King and the KKK
George C. Wallace and LBJ
When the National Guard came in
I thought the world was gonna end
It was crazy in Alabama

My momma yelled child get inside
Drew the drapes and locked the doors
We watched the marchers passing by
Felt the rumble heard the roar
And they all held hands they sang and wept
And freedom rang in every step

'Cause the train of change
Was marching through my hometown
We had the choice to climb on board
Or get run down

It was crazy, there were grown men fights
Over segregation and civil rights
Martin Luther King and the KKK
George C. Wallace and LBJ
When the National Guard came in
I thought the world was gonna end
It was crazy in Alabama

And I heard Odessa's mind was sick
That she was crazier than hell"

and

"Number One in America" David Massengill

"In Nineteen hundred and sixty-three

In my hometown, Bristol Tennessee
I was sitting on my mother's knee
Watching "Amos 'n' Andy" on TV

Amos was Santa Claus on Christmas Eve
A little girl was tugging at his sleeve
Saying, "Can I have a doll my own color please?"
He Said, "Honey, you can make believe..."

Just then came a call on the telephone
It was the mayor, he asked if my daddy was home
This was for his ears alone
Mom and me listened on the second phone

Mayor said, "The freedom Riders are on their way
And they'll be here by Christmas day
Our laws they vow to disobey
'Cause our school is as white as the milky way

Well, now we're really in a fix
We can't let 'em show us up like country hicks
But once the races mix
It's good-bye Jim Crow politics

First it's forty acres and a mule
Then they want to swim in our swimming pool
Pretty soon they'll be wanting to go to school
Where we were taught the golden rule"

Imagine them telling us how to live
Imagine them telling us how to live

We're number one in America
Number one in America
Beat the drum for Uncle Sam
Overcome in Birmingham
Dynamite in a Baptist church
Four teenaged girls lost in the lurch
Fire hoses and the billy clubs
Police dogs and the racist thugs
Nightriders and the lynching mobs
Lawmen say they're only doing their jobs
To stay number one in America.

Ax-handles vs. the right to vote
All white jury, that's all she wrote
Back of the bus, don't rock the boat
Separate but equal by the throat

That was twenty-odd years ago
Where's the change in the status quo?
The freedom land is lying low
It's shackled down on rotten row

The black skinned man still gets the snub
When he applies to the country club
But he still gets hired to trim the shrubs
Get down on the floor and scrub

There's a businessman out on his yacht
He's a rain or sunshine patriot
He says it's all a commie plot
To be Number One in America...

The Ku Klux Klan is still around
With a permit to march in my home town
But only on Virginia's ground
The Tennesse side turned them down

The sheriff stood there with his deputies
Ostensibly to keep the peace
But he made us this guarantee
"By God, They'll not march into Tennessee!"

The network cameras were triple tiered
We laughed and cried, we hooted and jeered
But mostly we stood there unfeared
'Til the Ku Klux Klan dissappeared

In some far off distant dawn
When a Black is president and not a pawn
Will they burn crosses on the white house lawn
And talk of all the days bygone

Imagine them telling us how lo live
Imagine them telling us how to live

We're number one in America...

Last Christmas Eve at the K-Mart store
A white family there, they was dirt poor
Father said, "Kids, pick one toy - no more
Even though we can ill afford..."

I watched his son choose a basketball
The oldest girl a creole shawl
The littlest girl chose a black skinned doll
And she held it to her chest and all

I watched to see how they'd react
Since they were white and the doll was black
But the mom and dad were matter-of-fact
They checked to see if the doll was cracked

So may you make a rebel stand
Where black and white go hand in hand
Until they reach the freedom land
Where the lion lies down with the lamb

O Number one in America
Number one in America
Beat the drum for Uncle Sam
Overcome in Birmingham
Dynamite in a Baptist church
Four teenaged girls lost in the lurch
Firehoses and the billy clubs
Police dogs and the racist thugs
Turn back the clock to Little Rock
Bought and sold on the auction block
Nightriders and the lynching mobs
Lawmen say they're only doing their job
To stay number one in America

We shall overcome someday"

and

"Ready For Memphis" Neal & Leandra

and

"The Colours of Dreams" Eric Bogle