Charlie Robison is celebrating one of those big birthday years today, September 1st! He is turning 50 years young today!! Charlie is one of the Texas
Country music artists that I discovered through the Texas Country Music list on Yahoo in the late 1990s. Among that group were Charlie’s brother Bruce, Jack Ingram and Pat Green…. Some background about Charlie from Wikipedia…..
Last night after I came home from a run, I sat down at the computer and was trying to get back to normal, when my wife asked if I had watched the new parody video from Weird Al “Word Crimes”yet. I said that I hadn’t, she made me come out and watch the video. The video is very funny and probably funnier if you know the Robin Thicke song, which I don’t and never will, because I can not stand Robin Thicke. Shortly after that, my wife said, she now had the song stuck in her head. That set my mind to wondering about songs that get stuck in my head. The one that popped up was Gale Garnett’s “We’ll Sing in the Sunshine”. So I went to Youtube to find a video of the song, which I did, from the 1964 Grammy Awards, but I didn’t like the video so I didn’t post it. But if you want you can watch it here.
So tonight I did something that I rarely do and that is turn on the television and watch something other than sports. Well, I have to say that the reason that the TV was on in the first place was that the Phillies were playing this afternoon and after they lost and moved to like nine games under .500, I needed a laugh so I put on The Daily Show and watched Jon Stewart tear into Oliver North. After the show was over, I kept the TV on and started doing something, oh yeah, I was looking for funny stuff and I watched Monty Python's Upper Class Twit of the Year skit, which always cracks me up!! When the Python skit ended, in its usual blaze of glory, I turned my attention to the Comedy Central Special that was on TV, some very funny fat dude, or should I say "Fluffy Dude" was the headliner Gabriel Iglesias
So today is Willie Nelson’s 81st birthday, Happy Birthday Willie! From Wikipedia; Willie Hugh Nelson…
….was born in Abbott, Texas on April 29, 1933,[1] during the Great Depression, to Myrle Marie (née Greenhaw) and Ira Doyle Nelson.[2] He was born on April 29, 1933, but his birth was recorded by doctor F. D. Sims on April 30.[1] He was named Willie by his cousin Mildred, who also chose Hugh as his middle name, in honor of her recently deceased younger brother.[1] Nelson’s ancestry includes English, Irish, and Cherokee.[3] His parents moved from Arkansas in 1929, to look for work. Nelson’s grandfather, William, worked as a blacksmith, while his father worked as a mechanic.[4] His mother left soon after he was born,[5] and his father remarried and also moved away, leaving Willie and his sister Bobbie to be raised by their grandparents. Read More
Yesterday I saw that Glen Campbell, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s three years ago, was in his best interest, moved to a Care Facility. According to the family, it Campbell’s care became too much for them. You can read about it here. Today Glen celebrates his 78th birthday! Glen was born on April 22, 1936 in Billstown, a tiny community near Delight in Pike County, Arkansas. He was the seventh son of 12 children. Way back when, in the late 60s, along with all the rock, and folk music that I was listening to, Glen Campbell’s albums found their way into my music library! He was a great singer, an equally talented guitarist and a seemingly all around good guy. Four wives and the drug and alcohol abuse tell a different story for many years of his life, but bout 25 years or so ago he was able to put that all behind him for the most part. Here is a good article about Glen from The Telegraph. For those of you who don’t know Glen, or those who need some reminding – from Wikipedia…..
Over the last few weeks, I’ve made reference to listening to David Wilcox’s new album blaze, today I listened to it again and I think it’s time i write something about the album! For me David Wilcox has the whole package, he is an intelligent and thought songwriter, a great singer and a terrific guitar player. What more could one ask for? I’ve been listening to David since the late 80s when I heard him on the radio singing and discussing the titled track of his first album “The Nightshift Watchman” Which is a song about those people, who sit in underground bunkers watching the skies for a missile attack knowing full well that if they do their job, their job and the world as we know it may be over!! You can read the lyrics here. Many of David’s eighteen releases can be found in my music library and I feel that blaze is one of his best albums.
So the other night, when I was reading Light of the World by James Lee Burke (which by the way I finished yesterday so I will be writing about it shortly) I started thinking about the character of Clete Purcel and specifically a song that would fit the character. Now, if you read Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series you know that Clete is Dave’s best friend and right hand man. They were partner in the Homicide Division of the New Orleans Police Department until their self-destructive tendencies got them kicked off the force. Through twenty books by Burke – Clete and Dave have fought the bad guys that live on the underside of New Orleans, New Iberia and in the case of “Light of the World” Montana. Throughout those books, if there is a wrong decision to be made Clete made it, if Clete knew he was going too far with a suspect or a bad guy that he was beating the crap out of and he knew he should stop Clete kept gong! So for me the song that best fits Cletus Is- “It Ain’t Easy Being Me” by Chris Knight!!
So tonight I’m in the mood for a little poetry and that means Phil Ochs’ version of “The Highwayman”!! Here’s a short post from about a year ago!
Here are two Phil Ochs’ songs. The first is “The Highwayman” based on the poem by Alfred Noyes, from the program “Come, Read to Me a Poem” which appeared on April 12, 1967. This sad and beautiful poem has always been a favorite, Phil did a great job putting the music to the poem and creating a captivating and sad song!
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…..
