You Go to Your Church and I'll Go to Mine

As usual on Sunday mornings I was listening to Stained Glass Bluegrass over on WAMU-2 while reading the Sunday paper.  I'm sure I'd heard this song many times over the years, but this morning was the first time I'd ever really paid attention to the lyrics.  Why is it that in today's society of multiple cultures living together in the world that the answers to most of our problems can be found by looking back a bit into history.

This is a performance of the song I found on YouTube.  Give it a listen and possibly read the lyrics below; or, just sing along.

JD, feeling good here in the Big Town of Savage on a Sunday morning.

Happy Mother's Day - Iris Dement - Mama's Opry

This is appropriate for any time, but especially for Mother's Day.



JD, here in the BToS once more thinking of Mama who ended life at 52 back in 1967 when I was only 26.

PS - As I age, I notice that I seem to spend more time pondering what life was like for my parents and their parents back in the early 1900s while being raised during the depression and making do with what they had.  No one's left that I can query about those times and most of what I have left are photos of family from that period.

Red Hot Christmas Blues in Summer

Who listens to Christmas music in July?  I do.  I'm not completely sure when I got into the habit, but I think it was sometime in the late 1990's.  On Sunday mornings, I found it relaxing to have some music playing while I read the huge Sunday edition of the Washington Post with all the ads.  It would take a good album to get me through the whole paper.

Primarily I listened to rock and roll of my youth from the 50s and early 60s and some old, down home country and bluegrass. 

I had also discovered the Red Hot and Blue Memphis Pit Barbeque restaurant over in Laurel.  While there for our office Christmas luncheon, I noticed that Red Hot and Blue was selling their own version of a CD called the "Red Hot Christmas Blues".  The following Sunday morning I put it on while I read the Sunday paper.

I found myself turning up the volume, as it was just some really fine music.  I looked at the date on the CD jacket when I scanned it this morning and it says 1998.  I think that the Red Hot Christmas Blues was the album that got me listening to Christmas music year round. 

I was, and still am, a fan of the Ally McBeal TV show.  They released a Christmas CD too; "Ally McBeal: A Very Ally Christmas" featuring Vonda Shepard and some members of the cast.  Over the years I've managed to keep both albums available and play them when I want some Christmas music to brighten the day.

JD, listening to Red Hot Christmas Blues and Ally Christmas here in the BToS

PS - here are other images from the Red Hot Christmas Blues CD.  Click for larger images.

 

Listening to WHVR AM on the back road to PA

About a week ago I visited my daughter's home in Pennsylvania to tailor her computer to her preferences. They just upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7. That's not a smooth transition for most computer users, I know it wasn't for me.

Most of us find a subset of system tools/capabilities that we use for our every day activities and seldom stray far from our preferred user paradigm. A change from Win XP to Win 7 is quite a jump considering it skips the intermediate generation operating system, Windows Vista.

The adjustments were relatively simple and included setting up backups, which we all need but seldom perform. Today's available external drives make life a lot simpler for temporary storage compared to 5 years ago.

The straight shot route to daughter's house from here in the Big Town of Savage is up I95, around the west side of the Baltimore Beltway and up I83 to the York, PA area. That route is around 80 miles and can be quite hectic depending on traffic in the Baltimore region, which generally is no fun.

A much more enjoyable trip for me is to take a more rural route via Rt 32 to Westminster, MD, on up to Glen Rock, PA and over to the York area. It's just a nice scenic drive and although it's a bit longer and takes an additional 35-40 minutes it's quite relaxing and offers a view of some beautiful farms, hilly open country and neat towns. Being retired with no set schedule, the added travel time is an enjoyable escape.

I also find it relaxing to listen to Real Country WHVR AM 1280, a local Hanover, PA radio station. Typically they seem to play a lot of traditional country, which I tend to enjoy much more than the more modern formulaic country music of today.

This day they played one I hadn't heard in a long, long time and it reminded me of just how much I used to enjoy the music of John Denver. The song was "Thank God I'm A Country Boy". That evening I looked for a youtube video and found this one. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did when going through Lineboro, MD, which is right on the Mason-Dixon Line.

Not in the BToS this time, but from on the road,
JD

Goodnight Irene - I won't miss Hurricane Irene

Didja ever spend a Sunday without any electric power? Hurricane Irene dropped around 5" of rain on her visit to the Big Town of Savage over the weekend. She also brought some relatively strong winds to the area.

The combination of rain water soaking the ground and the winds caused quite a few trees in the area to crash down from the roots and limbs to break from others; in many cases doing damage to buildings and electrical and communications infrastructure cables.

Sitting in front of the TV watching the race from Bristol Saturday nite, I thot sure the power would go off before the race finished. However, I made it thru the excellent Bristol Night Race with no problems and celebrated Kez's win in the Blue Deuce. Then I unwound a bit on the computer before heading to bed.

All the excitement started around 1:45 AM when I was awakened by the beeping of my battery backup systems on the computer and TiVo. All I could do was disable the alarm and hope the power wasn't off too long; then I headed back to bed.

To make a really long powerless day short, I'll tell you that power came back on after I went to bed for the evening around 11:45 PM. My only suffering was making my way thru the day without my best friends, computer, internet & TiVo/TV.

I did not open the freezer and only opened the fridge one quick time all day. I ate a lot of junk food, but didn't succumb to the temptation to visit a restaurant (I'm sure some were open for business altho a lot were closed). I even made a pot of coffee by heating the water on the stove and pouring it down thru the filter on the ol' 'lectric coffee maker (must be redneck creativity).

I did get bored late in the day and jumped in the truck for a ride around the area. Sun was bright and temps had cooled so I enjoyed the ride with the windows down. I wasn't singing "Goodnight Irene" when I went to bed, but the song occurred to me while listening to Bluegrass Country on WAMU-2 this morning.

I say "Goodnight Irene" and I can assure you I won't miss her.

JD here in rain-soaked BToS.

PS - Neighbor Lady's battery-powered backup for the sump pump failed allowing the basement to flood and possibly requiring new furnace and water heater. Wonder if she can sue the backup installer.

PPS - When power came on last nite, the pump fired up and cleared the water out of Neighbor Lady's basement. Ain't it wonderful having POWER, and I ain't talking about Obama Power either.

I sell the morning paper, Sir - Bluegrass

Didja ever get a song lyric in your head and it won't go away? I drove on a few errands this nice morning with the windows open in the ol' truck and I didn't have the radio playing. After a while, I found myself singing this ol' lyric "I sell the morning paper sir". That was all I could remember, so I kept repeating it until I finally had to turn on the CD player and listen to my current CD of The Secret Sisters.

I knew it was a bluegrass song, so when I got home a few minutes ago, I cranked up the ol' Google-meister and plugged in the lyric along with the term 'bluegrass'. Sure enough, up popped the title of the song, "Jimmy Brown The Newsboy", and a link to a YouTube video featuring Flatt and Scruggs performing.

In case I've piqued your curiosity, take a listen.

JD

PS - Lotta folks and noise in the Big Town of Savage today, something about a Savage Fest. Might be a good day for me to stay here on the place and not venture out too far.

I just discovered a secret, The Secret Sisters

I was scanning the Dec 2010/Jan 2011 issue of Garden and Gun magazine and ran across an article on The Secret Sisters. I was captured by the image included and truly enamored after I heard their sound.
I tend to like what I consider older music and these gals (a term from my youth) first album sure hit home with me. See what you think of them in this video.

JD

Jubilation Day - Make the best of your breakup

Breakups are seldom happy affairs. Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers provide an uplifting perspective in this "Jubilation Day" performance.



Ponder it if you're going thru, went thru or might go thru a breakup; or better yet, just enjoy the music and relax,
JD

Steep Canyon Rangers

ELVIS Blue Christmas

May your Blue Christmas be also a Merry Christmas.
JD

Atheists Don't Have No Songs - Steve Martin

I'm a fan of stained glass bluegrass; Sunday morning gospel on WAMU-2 (Bluegrass Country). I received a link to this in an email this morning...being the Steve Martin fan that I am, the gospel music fan that I am and being raised as a Southern Baptist who's no longer a religious kinda guy, all this kind of hit home.

Have some fun gospel music,
JD

Jalapenos - The Bellamy Brothers

A link to this video popped up in my inbox this morning. As usual, life was casual here in the Big Town of Savage with some rain falling. So, what better to do than listen to some music on youtube.

Being a fan of 'old country' and 'old bluegrass' I kind of enjoyed the music and more so enjoyed the message relayed by the lyrics. If it's raining over your way, take a couple of minutes and give a listen.

JD

Our Town -- Iris DeMent w/Emmylou Harris - Revisit

I ran into this blog post from March 2009 and it got me thinking about what The Big Town of Savage was like when I was a kid in the mid-40s, It was a Savage Mill-centric town; folks lived, worked and bought groceries here.

Then WW II ended, the demand for the cotton products of the Savage Mill dropped precipitously. Savage has since become one of those common bedroom communities here in central Maryland. Folks live here and work someplace else. Today's Savage is just another little dot on the map.

From my perspective, OUR TOWN of Savage no longer exists; and I lament the change in my town as Iris does another town in this wonderful song.

JD

Original Post
Our Town -- Iris DeMent w/Emmylou Harris

She wrote these lyrics about an old town and sings it wonderfully. If a fella ever moved from the BToS might he have similar remembrances?

JD

Fun Video -- John Prine and Iris DeMent - Revisit 2

PS - Listen to Bluegrass Country.

PPS - I posted this in March '09 and thot it worth a revisit.

Holes in The Floor of Heaven - Steve Wariner

My momma died when I was 26 years old and she was only 52. I still miss her to this day. I bought a Steve Wariner CD "Burnin' The Roadhouse Down" maybe 10 years or so ago. I don't remember why I bought it, but it was likely for the title song which I'd heard and liked very much.

After listening to the CD several times, the song "Holes in The Floor of Heaven" really touched my feelings. I was a momma's boy and grew up with her in the local Baptist Church in the Big Town of Savage with Rev Neimiller, which was probably her second home. The more I heard that song, the more I felt sure that the expressed sentiments were definitely true.

She died 43 years ago and although I'm not a religious person today, I do still have sincere feelings for the thought that my mom is still looking down on me from time to time through the "Holes in The Floor of Heaven."

Hopefully, this video will enhance the Steve Wariner song and maybe you will appreciate my sentimental attachment.

JD

18 Wheels and A Dozen Roses - Kathy Mattea

Long time since I heard Kathy Mattea, but she surfaced on WAMU-2 this morning as I was fixing my bagel and mug of iced tea just before 7. So, as I was finishing off the bagel, finished reading political and BS emails and NASCAR happenings and perused the Frederick News-Post online edition; I fired up Mr. Tony's Google Machine and it found some youtube Kathy Mattea music. This was always one of my favorites.

Hope you enjoy it too,
JD

The Cat Came Back

When I was just a kid here in the Big Town of Savage, all we had was a tube-type AM radio. There were a few AM stations around the country that had very high power transmitters and after sunset when the local stations had to reduce power or stopped transmitting, those powerful AM stations came right into our AM radio.

I recall listening to a station in Wheeling, West Virginia. I believe it was WWVA (probably stood for Wheeling West Virginia). Late at night there was a guy on there named Lee Moore that played country music, which was the only kind I listened to back then.

My recollection is that he called himself the ol' "Coffee Drinking Night Hawk, Lee Moore." One song I always recall him singing was something called "The Cat Came Back". The only portion of the lyrics I could remember almost 60 years later was "thought he was a goner, but the cat came back."

For some strange reason that old lyric came into my head today and fortunately I was sitting here at my "Google Machine" (as Tony Kornheiser calls it on his WTEM radio show). So I googled ol' Lee Moore and The Cat Came Back and this video was one of the items to surface. I also ran across a neat website that chronicles the "WWVA Jamboree" which aired on Saturday nights.

Here's Lee Moore's version of "The Cat Came Back".

Enjoy,
JD

Iris Dement - At The Birchmere Tonite - May 13, 2010

Iris is at the Birchmere tonite. Unfortunately, the Birchmere is inside the Washington Beltway. I'm not a beltway or inside the beltway kinda guy; that holds true for both Baltimore and Washington beltways.

I've been to the Birchmere many times in the past, but that was before the traffic became abominable and I laid down the beltway rule.

If you're an Iris fan and live locally you may still be able to find some tickets. If not, catch Iris singing 'Our Town' on YouTube.

Enjoy,
JD

Fun Video -- John Prine and Iris DeMent - Revisit

PS - Listen to Bluegrass Country.

PPS - I posted this in March '09 and thot it worth a revisit.

Some old music that I'd forgotten about

I had forgotten about Teddy Pendergrass until I heard on the news this morning that he died yesterday. I'd never heard of him until I was introduced to his music by a co-worker in the late '70s or so. After that I managed to take note when his music played. I was always amazed at the resonance that his persona and performances had with folks, and especially with women. That seems evident in this video I found on youtube.

JD




PS - Teddy Pendergrass Obituary

Blue Moon - 31 December 2009 - Nanci Griffith

The second full moon in a calendar month is known as a Blue Moon. This video features Nanci Griffith singing a timely tune at The Anderson Fair.

Enjoy and remember tomorrow nite's Blue Moon,
JD