So for today’s morning music I was going to use the Jefferson Airplane’s cover of Fred Neil’s “The Other Side of this Life” but after my half sun salutations and a nice quiet yoga set on the 21 Day Yoga Challenge I thought it didn’t feel quite right! If you want, you can watch it here
Here’s a post I did a while back about the role of Batdorf and Rodney in my musical journey…..
As I was working along last night at Target, my thoughts drifted back to Andrew, Meaghan and little Oliver and the perilous journey that they are embarking on. We took that trip four times, well maybe we’re still on the journey, and it seems that the results so far, have been very successful! But it’s a tough trip and there are many obstacles along the way. many wrong words to say, many wrong actions to take and all you can do is try to keep them safe, try to help them develop a strong moral character. Often as my children were growing I told them, you know what’s right and what’s wrong so do the right thing! Finally love them unconditionally, that doesn’t mean that they can’t be wrong, or do things that you don’t like and at that point in time, you may not like then very much but you never stop loving them!! And beyond those things you just hope for the best! And I think we got it right so far!!
Yesterday, after I posted my blog article about Aztec Two-Step, I received a Tweet from The Nutopians thanking me for the Tweet and saying that they forwarded the post to Rex and Neil. They then asked if I had heard The Nutopians. I didn’t get a chance to respond, but if I had I would have said, no. Later in the afternoon I went to Spotify and found their album,Lennon Re-Imagined, which is a salute to the music of John Lennon. I listened to a little of the album and thought it sounded pretty good. Duh, the album won the Independent Music Awards Vox Pop “2010 Tribute Album of the Year” for interpretations of John Lennon’s Beatles and solo compositions! You can check it out at CDBaby!
So today I spent time listening to two artists whose albums are currently on the Folk DJ Chart for January. The first was Wyatt Easterling whose album Goodbye –Hello is #33 and the second Steep Ravine and their album Trampin’ On which sits a little higher on the chart at #20. Neither of the artists names were familiar to me.
So I want to go and see the Coen Brothers new movie: “Inside Llewyn Davis” and surprisingly my wife does, too. I really don’t think she knows that the story is based on Dave Van Ronk’s memoirs because I don’t think she’s a fan of Van Ronk’s music! Anyway, until we get to go I thought that I’d like to read the book The Mayor of MacDougal Street first.So I used some of the money from a Barnes & Noble gift card that my daughter-in-law;law’s parents gave me for Christmas and bought it the other night. I’m not that far into it yet but I’m loving it already. Van Ronk always has had a flair for telling stories and he puts it to good work in his memoirs!! I’ll tell you more about it as I work my way through it. But tonight though my first thoughts were how about I go look up some videos from some of the musicians that populated MacDougal Street back in the day.One of the first names to pop into my head wasn’t Dylan, but Fred Neil and then I thought, hell, why not Van Ronk. The first music from Dave that came to mind was a piece that I heard every Sunday night back in the 60s and 70s and that would be the “St. Louis Tickle”. I heard it as the Gene Shay Folk Radio Show came in and out of commercial breaks. The song is an old piano rag that Van Ronk transcribed to make it a guitar piece. Here’s a good over of the song.
So when I turned on my Runmeter app this afternoon, the first thing I saw was my last run – November 18, 2013 and I cringed! I knew it had been a long time since my last run, but I thought that the last one was closer to the end of the month!! It was about the time that the clocks got set back and it started getting dark at 5 o’clock! And then the weather turned nasty and cold and Christmas came along and before I knew it December was gone!! But then I also admit that I am a fair weather runner, when it gets dark and cold, this old body doesn’t really want to go out and run!! But today was nice the high temperature was in the upper 50s and it was sunny with hardly any wind!! I was also off, due to lack of work, (ugh!) and the gave me the opportunity to run in the sun!! I certainly told myself that all I wanted to do was get a 30 minute run in. I didn’t have to set any world speed records and I did a good job throughout the run of slowing down. I often use that trick that if you can talk comfortably you are running comfortably, and I often ask myself (out load) how I am doing and I respond back! If folks are watching they may think I’m crazy,but then again they probably just think I’m on the phone!! Don’t you love that when you are walking along and people come up from behind you and you here their voice and turn to respond only to find that they are talking on the phone!! Happens to me all the time at Target I hear a voice and turn and oh yeah!! But I digress, back to the subject at hand running, or at this point jogging!! So after many thoughts of cutting the run short and mentally figuring where I should turn around I made it to the second mile at between 21-22 minutes and I knew I could make it to the 3o minute mark!! The final distance for the 30:14 minute run was 2.8 miles for an average pace of 10:44 min/mile and I am satisfied with that now I just have to keep going!! The soundtrack for the run was a Prog Rock Album Clessidra from an Italian Prog Band Laviantica. You can read about it at FreeWheelin’ Music Safari 
When I signed on to Facebook this morning I saw that it was the birthday of one of my favorite Americana musicians, Greg Trooper! Greg was born on this date in 1956 in was born in Neptune Township, New Jersey, and raised in nearby Little Silver. I first listened to Greg’s music sometime around 1999 when his release Straight Down Rain,found its way into my library. That album was quickly followed by his prior release Popular Demons which had been released in 1998, on Koch Records and produced by Buddy Miller. His current release Incident on Willow Street is currently number 2 on the Roots Music Report’s Roots Rock chart! 
Here’s Greg performing “All the Way to Amsterdam” one of my favorites from Incident on Willow Street! Happy Birthday, Greg!!
So tonight I was thinking, I would post a song from one of my favorite folksinger songwriters. The first one that popped into my head was John Gorka, thoughts of John were quickly replaced by thoughts of Mark Erelli. I listened to Mark’ most recent release Little Vigils the other night and was reminded of what a great songwriter he is. .So I thought that I’d post a video, maybe of one of my early favorites songs “They do it every day” but there was no Youtube video,for the song. Then I thought “Compass and Companion”,but then I spotted this video for his song “Volunteer” on Don Was’ My Damn Channel and I listened once again to this powerful song and again was blown away! Here’s what Don Was writes:
The other night when I was reviewing the East Coast Music Association 2013 Awards, several of the nominees were familiar. One of the familiar artists was Dave Gunning. I don’t remember when I came across his name, but I remember listening to his 2009 release We’re All Leaving. I remember I enjoyed it, but evidently it was one of those albums that I may have listened to all too briefly, and as I listen to it now, I can’t figure out why?? Because what I hear is great. Anyway Dave was nominated in several categories and “These Hands” a song he co-wrote with George Canyon was awarded Song of the Year at the 2013 East Coast Music Awards! Here’ some awards that he’s won…..
