Teddy and the Rough Riders / Lonnie Baker Brooks

So last weekend, Saturday to be exact, I went to Trader Joe’s for the  first time in a long while. Since the trip takes about 25 to 30 minute I decided to listen to a couple of new albums on Spotify. On the way there, I listened to Down Home from Teddy and the Rough Riders, While the soundtrack on the way back was Blues in My DNA by Ronnie. Baker Brooks. I had listened to tracks from  both albums earlier in the week on walks with my granddaughter. Anyway, here’s what I thought of the albums Read More

Three-Inch Teeth – C.J.Box (Joe Pickett #24) A Great Addition to the Series!

Three-inch teeth-C.J.Box

Three-Inch Teeth – C.J.Box (Joe Pickett #24)

Book 13 for 2024

Three- Inch Teeth  is the 24th book in the Joe Pickett series from C.J.Box, It is also the 23rd book I have read in the series. The only book in the series I haven’t read is Cold Wind. (Note to self read Cold Wind this year!). As a long-time fan of the series, while Three- Inch Teeth is one of his best books, it is for me one of the most disturbing.  Read More

Livingston Taylor – a Long Time Favorite Revisited

Livingston Taylor album cover

So all this writing about older albums that I don’t have in my library  has made me think about favorite albums I do have and have loved and listened to for years. Well, today I decided to listen to one of those albums I’ve loved for years.  I gave Livingston Taylor’s self-titled debut album. And I still love it after 54 years! Now Liv’s brother James’ Sweet Baby James album came first and was played a lot. I bet Liv’s album has been played more over the years.

About Livingston Taylor – Livingston Taylor

For me there is not a bad song on this album.
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A Minor Goodwill Haul – Four Albums

My Four Album Goodwill Haul

 

So on our last trip to Goodwill last Tuesday (Senior’s Day) I made a minor haul, I picked up four albums. Three from favorite artists and one from an artist who has never made it to my music library. Let’s take a look at the albums I found.

Richie Havens – Mixed Bag

While I always enjoyed the music of Richie Havens, only album that’s is in my library is

The Great Blind Degree. The Great Blind Degree  Read More

Songs That Helped Shaped My American Experience

Yesterday an article appeared in my news feed from American /songwriter magazine 5 Folk Songs That Defined the American Experience.

The folk genre has always been a huge part of political music and patriotic songs alike. These five particular folk songs are beautifully intertwined with the American experience, and they are still so relevant decades after they were first released. Let’s take a look, shall we?….

The five songs were……l

  1. “Blowin’ in the Wind “  – Bob Dylan
  2. “This Land is Your Land”- Woody Guthrie
  3. “Early Morning Rain” – Gordon Lightfoot
  4. “The Circle Game” – Joni Mitchell
  5. “Diamonds and Rust” – Joan Baez

I love each of those songs and agree that they do speak to the American experience.. Additionally they are still relevant. However, I started thinking about some of the songs that were important in shaping my world view and came up with the following playlist.

Anti-War Songs

1.Where Have All The Flowers Gone?”  – Pete Seeger

The first so that popped into my head was “where Have All the Flowers Gone”. The song was written by Pete Seeger. Although, the  version I associate most with the song came from Peter,Paul and Mary.. The song express the  loss  so many felt during the Vietnam War.  And I am sure so many felt in Iraq and Afghanistan. And still feel in Ukraine today.

Where have all the soldiers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the soldiers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards, everyone.
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn Read More

Phil Ochs and the States of Mississippi, Nixon and Trump

I Ain't Marching Anymore - Phil Ochs

After mentioning Phil Ochs in yesterday’s post I was thinking tonight about past posts I have written about Phil. This is the first one I found this evening. And considering today’s political climate it seems appropriate!

Phil Ochs and “Here’s to the State of Mississippi “

As I have watched the unfolding of the events surrounding the President over the last few weeks the similarities to Trump and Nixon get stronger every day. These similarities led me to the songs of Phil Ochs. Well at least to one song “Here’s to the State of Mississippi”

Way back in the mid-60s during the height of the Civil Rights struggle many people were aghast at the actions of the people of Mississippi. Folksinger Phil Ochs responded through song and wrote the classic “Here’s to the State of Mississippi”. In the song Ochs sang….

Here’s to the state of Mississippi,
For underneath her borders, the devil draws no lines,
If you drag her muddy river, nameless bodies you will find.
whoa the fat trees of the forest have hid a thousand crimes,
the calendar  is lyin’ when it reads the present time.
Oh here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of,
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of!….

Complete Lyrics Here

Updating the Song “Here’s to the State of Richard Nixon

Fast forwarding several years and Phil needed to update the song and change Mississippi to Richard Nixon. In updating the song he added a new versus just for Tricky Dick…..

And here’s to the government of Richard Nixon
In the swamp of their bureaucracy
They’re always bogging down
And criminals are posing
As advisors to the crown
And they hope that no one sees the sights
And no one hears the sounds
And the speeches of the president
Are the ravings of a clown

Complete lyrics Here. Here’s Phil performing the song……

Hmm, seem like any government we may know??? Yep! Old Tricky Dick and Donald are like twin sons of different mothers!!

And Now – Here’s to the State of Donald Trump Read More

My Ancestral Roots – Karn and Meyer Families

Herman Meyer in his king’s Guard unuform

So when I started my genealogical research on my family, I really new very little about what countries my ancestors came from. I knew my father’s family came from Dresden, Germany. In addition, I knew my mother’s family came from England. As to where in England I had not a clue. After years of research here’s what I’ve discovered. I’ve divided it up by Maternal and Paternal Lines.

P.S. Now while I will be posting this for everybody, this post has been primarily for my children and grandchildren. But I hope others may find it interesting.

According to the latest information from Ancestry my DNA comes from 6 ancestral regions. My DNA composition is  as follows:

Paternal Ancestry Regions

Germanic Europe – 27%
Sweden & DEnmark 22%
Baltics 1%

Maternal Ancestry Regions Read More

Si Khan Home & The 30 Day Vinyl Challenge

Si Khan - Home album cover

So the other day I was  watching an Instagram post from a young woman. She was listening to songs from her father’s album collection. He had see gently passed away.. Now whether or not that’s true or how long ago that was, I don’t know.Anyway.  it started me thinking about all the new albums I’ve found at Goodwill and the Princeton Record Exchange over the last year and how I haven’t been listening to them!Then I read a post somewhere about collectors who rotate through their albums on a regular basis.

As a result, I’ve created a 30 day challenge for me to randomly listen to at least one album a day for my newest purchases. I have most of those albums in crates grouped by genre, with the albums in alphabetical order. So I picked a crate and then used a random number generator to pick the album. The number was 26 and the album was Home from Si Khan.

I must admit I don’t know mush about Si Khan. I always heard his music on The Gene Shay show in Philly. I liked what I heard but never sought out his music. The probably may be that the majority of his music was release after 1980. Which means it coincided with my parenting years!  However,, from what I read about Si at AllMusic I should have….

The political balladry of Woody Guthrie, Tom Paxton, and Phil Ochs is reflected in the songs of North Carolina-based singer/songwriter Si Kahn. Although his love songs are nearly as effective, Kahn’s greatest strides have come with his lyrical looks at the unemployed, the racially abused, the sexually harassed, and the working-class oppressed. Kahn’s songs, including “Go to Work on Monday” and “Aragon Mill,” have become labor union anthems

Si Kahn (born April 23, 1944) and has released 21 albums over the course of his career.

Si Khan is about more than just music….

Kahn’s prolific output includes more than music and songs. He has written three plays including, Mother Jones, based on the life of the early union organizer, which featured Ronnie Gilbert of the Weavers in the title role when produced in the early ’90s.  Kahn has also authored two books on political organizing: How People Get Power and Organizing.

Recorded during a 1993 concert, “In My Heart: Live in Holland” celebrated the 20th anniversary of Kahn’s first album and featured several of his best-known tunes. Profits from Kahn’s concerts continue to be donated to Grassroots Leadership, a political organization he founded in the mid-’70s.

About Grassroots Leadership

Grassroots Leadership founder Si Kahn gothis start as a young activist and organizer in the Southern Civil Rights Movement as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Si founded Grassroots Leadership in 1980 as a resource and training center for social justice organization building. Initially based in North Carolina, Grassroots Leadership worked throughout the South to help build progressive, multi-racial organizations to build power and create just organizations. Grassroots Leadership was one of the few organizations in the 1980s and 1990s to articulate in the board bylaws that no less than half of the board would be women and no less than half would be People of Color.  Read More

My Bottom Line

The bottom line is I need to listen to the other Si Khan albums I bought and seek out more albums! So check out his music and his grassroots activism!

 

Links for the Further Exploration of the Music and More of Si Khan Read More

Emma and her Nap time Rocking Music…..

So  I’m really trying to figure out ways to get more enthused about writing and doing such in a more timely manner, You see I started to do better over the summer but now with school opening my wife and I are back to being full-time babysitters for our granddaughter Emma. Emma is our fourth grandchild, She is the daughter of our daughter Elizabeth and her husband Marcus, Elizabeth is a school psychologist in a school district about 45 minutes north of her home. Consequently, we babysit from 7:00 in the morning to around 4:30, which is a long day for us! Anyway when we get home and I’m finished with dinner I’m pretty wiped out and don’t feel like writing. Anywa,y I’m going to try and write more posts wrapped around my day. Hopefully, this is the first of many.

How I Rock Emma to Sleep

On a typical day Emma takes a two hour nap anywhere from 11:00 am to 12 noon. Before then I usually take her for a walk around her neighborhood. We go anywhere from one to two miles. We hope that she stays awake during the walk and then goes to sleep shortly thereafter. The other day she did fall asleep on the walk. So today I kept an eye on her head and every time it  started to go down, like she was going to go to sleep, I spoke to her. and her head would pop up! We actually did make the full mile luckily, And she is now asleep!

Now to go to sleep I rock her. Mostly standing up but then transition to a rocking chair. I also sing to her (I think she falls asleep so I’ll stop!)  First up is on of my all-time favorite songs Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles”. I start by swaying back and forth going “boom.boom, boom” to get the beat going. At a young age she would say “boom.boom” when she was tired! . After “Mr. Bojangles” if she’s still awake I transition to some Aztec-Two Step and their song “Baking” and finally if she’s STILL awake(like she was today!). I sing Harry Chapin’s “Taxi”

Anyway, on Monday it took all there way to “Taxi” before she gave up and went to sleep!

Here’s A playlist of her songs! I guess someday I’ll tell her I rocked he’d to a song about a New Orleabns street dancer in a drunk tank! LOL!

Since I can’t take a picture of Emma while I’m rocking her. Here is one Grammie took of Emma after a nap when Granddad is ready for one!

Emma after a nap with Granddad

 

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