John Gorka's latest reviewed by Mike Regenstreif

"John Gorka – Before Beginning: The Unreleased ‘I Know,’ Nashville 1985"

Book review by Mike Regenstreif

"Garnet Rogers – Night Drive: Travels with My Brother"

Garnet Rogers has a book out on his musical travels with his brother.

Notes from Dave Carter's final songwriting class

"Dave Carter’s Final Class" -- Paul Zollo

Anyone who created such lines as...

"Well twenty years later he's headed south
the close-range victim of her sawed-off mouth"

"shootin fools and starry gazers, wizard hip and button-down
i walk the occam's razor way through priests and circus clowns
am i a visioner of faith or grace or vision or
another grinning prisoner in happytown

"as the sun is to the city
in the endless weeping winter
so is joy to me, and pity
when he leaves me, falsely tender"

"as a woman of heart and lenience
i make liberal with my pardons
i am generous with kindness
he, with smiles and exultations
though he binds his wounds in silence"

"This is an ordinary town and the prophet stands apart
This is an ordinary town and we brook no wayward heart
And every highway leads you prodigal back home
To the ordinary sidewalks you were born to roam"

...should have been immortal but, alas, he wasn't. Gladly, his music is.


"come, lonely hunter, chieftain and king, i will fly like the falcon when i go
bear me my brother under your wing, i will strike fell like lightnin when i go

i will bellow like the thunder drum, invoke the storm of war
a twistin pillar spun of dust and blood up from the prairie floor
i will sweep the foe before me like a gale out on the snow
and the wind will long recount the story, reverence and glory, when i go

spring, spirit dancer, nimble and thin, i will leap like coyote when i go
tireless entrancer, lend me your skin, i will run like the gray wolf when i go

i will climb the rise at daybreak, i will kiss the sky at noon
raise my yearnin voice at midnight to my mother in the moon
i will make the lay of long defeat and draw the chorus slow
i'll send this message down the wire and hope that someone wise is listenin when i go

and when the sun comes trumpets from his red house in the east
he will find a standin stone where long i chanted my release
he will send his mornin messenger to strike the hammer blow
and i will crumble down uncountable in showers of crimson rubies when i go

sigh, mournful sister, whisper and turn, i will rattle like dry leaves when i go
stand in the mist where my fire used to burn, i will camp on the night breeze when i go

and should you glimpse my wand'rin form out on the borderline
between death and resurrection and the council of the pines
do not worry for my comfort, do not sorrow for me so
all your diamond tears will rise up and adorn the sky beside me when i go"

"Hadestown" -- the album and now play

 "A LIVE CAST ALBUM FOR “HADESTOWN”
Recording a performance of the folk-opera reinvention of Orpheus and Eurydice -- Sarah Larson/The New Yorker

"Review: ‘Hadestown’ Reanimates a Well-Known Myth" -- Charles Isherwood/The New York Times

The original release, Anais Mitchell's fourth release:

Our ordinary lives are enriched by those willing to create despite so-called obstacles

"THE OL’ BANJO SOUNDS GOOD" -- Patrick Flanary

The history of Caffè Lena

"THE CLUBHOUSE THAT FOLK BUILT
By Jocelyn Arem, in Collaboration with Caffè Lena"

Can folk history repeat itself? Is the genre strong enough to do so?

Rod MacDonald on 4th of July weekend

"Sacrifice"   

© 2003 rod macdonald (blue flute/ascap)

From "Tale of Two Americas" release

Here's MacDonald performing "Sacrifice" (song 11)

I'm just as patriotic as the next guy
I love my country, want to look after my family
and I understand that freedom isn't always free
no you sometimes have to sacrifice
to fight for what you believe in
and I believe in freedom, toleration, peace and liberty

ah but those who say you have to go and fight
never send their own to battle, it's always someone else's sacrifice
that makes the system go
as long as there's enough poverty
there'll be volunteers for the military
while the ones who run the show sit back and watch their millions grow

and sacrifice the young to feed the old
sacrifice the hot to serve the cold
sacrifice the patriotic for the gold
sacrifice the truth for the story being told
i'm all right, i'm just looking through the eyes
of my patriotic heart

I'm just as angry as the next guy
I don't want to see suicide bombers over me
or breathe toxic microfibers in the hall
so they tell you to strike first
before the other guy can hurt you
what if the other guy was never going to strike you at all

ah but then it all gets marketed like a movie
some great adventure across the world, some documentary
and compared to wars in history fought for real causes
against slavery, tyranny, 
extermination camps
how could there ever be enough oil wells to justify the losses?

iIm just as likely as the next guy
to drive the kids to school or heat the house with fuel
but it makes for strange relations with the world
to suck up to the countries
that sell it to us cheap
while their people hate us and want to kill us in our sleep

and now no one is afraid to bomb civilians
from so high above the soil you can't even see the oil
or alone in marketplaces with bombs strapped on their chests 
one side kills the other in return for killing them
til you look on the down the road, time and time again
all you do is is sacrifice the future for the past