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New Orleans

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Songs About America Week

Last song of the week. This one is called New Orleans, or I was born in New Orleans. Either way, it’s a pretty close approximation of the song Portland Town, which I first heard done by Derroll Adams on the record The Ramblin’ Boys, which he recorded with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott.

Map of New Orleans

New Orleans was written and recorded way back in 2006. I was really into imitating Ramblin’ Jack as close as I could back then. But Ramblin’ Jack is still alive and there’s not many people that could imitate him exactly. Bob Dylan tried and couldn’t. I tried too and couldn’t. I don’t talk that much.

So I changed the words of that Derroll Adams song because Portland just ain’t what it used to be when that song was first recorded and New Orleans ain’t what it used to be when I recorded this song.

I’m pretty sure I only ever played this out live one time. Probably at the Grafton open mic that I was frequenting back then. When I was still figuring out how to sing and how to play and how to make sense up on stage. I’m slowly getting back to that point now. Went to Gallery Cabaret again on Thursday night to try out 3 more new songs: Lawd Almighty, Mister Mayor Says, and Pray to your Lord. Went pretty well. Lawd Almighty I’d never played out before and it went a lot better than I ever thought it could’ve. But I was in a religious way that night.

Anyway…on to next week. I got a song to write for Monday and a theme to come up with. See ya…

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The Mortgage Blues

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Songs About America Week

Here’s a song I’ve never recorded: The Mortgage Blues. I’ve played it out probably only 2 times. And those two times were completely improvised. I didn’t even write down any official lyrics for this until about a month ago when I started getting some news songs together for to play in the jugband and to record.

My song is a complete rip-off of the Carter Family song the Coal Miner’s Blues. Check out the similarities here. I don’t care if it’s the same. It’s folk music. And, besides, both songs are just as relevant today…coal mining disasters are just as likely as foreclosures. It’s just that foreclosures affect more people now, not just coal miners and such.

I hope I don’t have to explain why this is an American song. It’s in the form of a traditional American blues and/or early country style. The lyrics were written in approximately the middle of 2008.

Here’s what a mortgage looks like:

Don't you just love your mortgage?!

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Shock & Awe

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Songs About America Week

This is one of the very first songs I wrote. (At least, in the past 4 years or so.) I wrote it sometime back in 2006, maybe even late 2005. This recording is from early 2008, though. I played this one out occasionally when I was first gettin going. It’s a relic now. It’s in the past. The title is Shock & Awe.

I got the idea for this song from the great old tune “Peg and Awl.” If you have the Harry Smith Anthology of Folk Music you’re probably familiar with that song. Here’s a link to that tune. I always loved it, but couldn’t sing it. It ain’t my life. Peggin’ shoes and then a machine comes along and does it for me. That sounds like science fiction to me.

Anyway. Shock and Awe is all about America. It’s about American war. American politics. American people. American fireworks. American money. American grub. It’s about as American as you could get. Mainly because the song could keep going on into infinity, adding a new verse about every new year. Eventually it would become a big circle again. That’s how every day is in America. You wake up and the sun is a-shinin and the birds is a-singin and by the end of the night you just lay down dead as a rat.

See ya, here’s some shock and awe for ya.

Nothing like some good hard shock & awe to whet an appetite.

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Brown-skinned Woman

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Songs About America Week

Here’s the song I was gonna post yesterday. It’s called Brown-skinned Woman. It’s a song I patterned after the Cater Family song Hello Stranger. Check out the Carter lyrics here.

I wrote this song back in early May of this year. I wrote it about the Great State of Arizona, which is part of the United States of America. That’s why I included it this week. I think it’s a good representation of what America and Americans hold most important. At least in certain places and at least about certain types of people.

The many different shades of color depicting the state of Arizona. Note, no brown-skinned colors allowed to depict the state.Anyway. That’s all I have to say about that.

Here’s one last note. This recording is probably the final version that will end up on the full-length album that I’m working on. It’s now all recorded and mixed. It’ll be sent off in a package to be duplicated by next week (or whenever I get the artwork done). So this is a sneak peek for you.

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Only in America

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Songs About America Week

Since it was the Fourth of July on Sunday, this week is going to be songs all about the country the United States of America. The U.S.A. was established on July 4, I think. They don’t really teach those kind of things in school anymore, so I’m not sure.

Anyway. This week’s new song is called Only in America. I just wrote it tonight, about 30 minutes ago. I had no ideas this whole week. No songs written. I’ve been ferociously working on getting my 2 albums recorded and mixed. That’s my excuse. What’s yours.

Okay, so the song popped out in about 5 minutes or so because I was on deadline, I looked at the clock and it was about 10:15pm and I hadn’t picked up a guitar all weekend other than to play through a mistake-filled and drunken version of God Bless the USA and to install an under-saddle pickup in a guitar I’ll start using in Barehand Jugband shows. (On a side note, did you know that Woody Guthrie wrote This Land is Your Land in answer to God Bless the USA and that the original title and chrous was God Bless the USA for Me. I guess Woody didn’t like songs like God Bless the USA.)

So, I hadn’t played all weekend. Not since performing at the Gallery Cabaret open mike on Thursday. I played these songs: Brown-skinned Woman, I can’t help it, and I have no idea. I needed to try out some of my new songs (and still need to) because I’ve got some solo shows coming up in August. And I haven’t played a solo show in a real long time.

Okay. I wrote this song quick and got it done. I didn’t really know what I was going for. It kinda came out like a talkin’ blues song, which I used to write a lot of but don’t so much anymore. I was even just telling a close friend that I kinda worked my way through em and can’t write em anymore. Oh well. This song, though, is more of a talkin’ blues in the vein of Hank Williams, rather than Woody or, say, Bob Dylan. I’ll have to be honest that when a Hank Williams talkin’ blues song comes up on my radio I usually skip it. They’re really long and they’re usually about sitting by his dying mother’s bedside or about holdin his best gal close. But when I do listen to them I always really like them. He had a funny way of phrasing the lines and, regardless if he wrote them or not, a dry delivery that really emphasized the twist at the end of each verse.

That’s enough talkin’ though. Here’s the song. Hope ya like it. There’ll be more American songs, honoring America throughout the week. Here’s what America looks like on a map.

America, land of people who live there until someone bigger and badder comes along.