"Let the boys have the damn song." How "Over the Rainbow" almost didn't make the cut for "The Wizard of Oz." A look back at a "sacred" song in the American canon, on the occasion of a down-and-dirty music video version by the boys.
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‘Lo and Behold’ these two versions of one ‘godless’ song
Here's a conversation with God about the whole idea of God. Raising the possibility that everywhere you turn can be an occasion for exclamations of 'Lo and behold ...'
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“Bring Sunshine When You Come”
A song for families that have lost someone in this pandemic. And for the many people putting their lives on the line to save our lives, plus the helpers who run to the disaster, instead of away May all see sunshine soon.
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May John Prine Awake in ‘Paradise’
John Prine has passed on. Here's a video homage to one of America's greatest singer-songwriters—a video version of his tune "Paradise." May he awaken in his paradise.
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A West Virginia Medley for Pandemic Days
I don't know whether spending the better part of a day crafting a music video from an old performance is the height of absurdity and uselessness as a tsunami of global suffering bears down upon the human race. But we could do worse, as we hunker down together, than to listen to this Clementines version of Hazel Dickens' great "West Virginia, My Home."
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Winging It for #LiveatHome
A soul-sister Appalachian pal sorta-kinda challenged me to record something straight to smartphone as part of the contagion social media movement afoot of Quarantine Performances. Here's a first take from the John Lennon Memorial Studio of Appalachia.
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The Poet On My Shoulder
I have decided I don’t need a shelf of poets in my life, right now. One, two or three—will do. But who? One’s for certain. I travel with him these days, tucked into a pocket of my rucksack.
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It’s a Cuba Thing
Take a trip to Havana and some Cuba-inspired music in the debut episode of "The Listening Room," featuring troubadour Susan Werner.
