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.
For me there is not a bad song on this album.
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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.
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
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
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.
1.Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” – Pete SeegerThe 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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
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
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!
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Ok yesterday I was browsing on Spotify when spotted a recommendation for me. The recommendation was for “Rager” a single release from Robert Jon & the Wreck. The single also included “Hate to See You Go” . After listening to the songs and liking them a lot I checked out their Spotify home page and saw they released a full album Red Moon Rising back in June of this year. So I decided to check it out! I liked it also and this morning it became the soundtrack for my granddaughter Emma’s walk! Here’s what I discovered about the band.
