Tag Archives: song

You Gonna Reap What You Sow

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.

You Gonna Reap What You SowWhat you reap and what you sow. That’s from the Bible. Straight out of Galatians 6. Now, I’m no Bible scholar or even much of a Bible reader, but when you pick and choose there’s plenty the good book can tell you.

Anyway, I recorded a version of “Sowing On the Mountain” after the big stinking American election. It’s a tune I picked up from listening to old Carter Family and Woody Guthrie and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot records. I kind o mashed all their versions together to make mine. Give it a try, won’t you? Might help in the days ahead.

And here’s the full text of that Bible verse, by the way. Go ahead and read it all:

Galatians 6

Doing Good to All

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spiritshould restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, for each one should carry their own load. Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

Not Circumcision but the New Creation

11 See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!

12 Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecutedfor the cross of Christ. 13 Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. 14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God.

17 From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.

18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

(Original source here to read some more.)

Get Up & Shout (Version 2)

I’ve gone and rewritten another of my old songs. This time Get Up & Shout form all the way back in 2012. After you’ve had a chance to listen to the new tune, go ahead and click on over to revisit the original.

Pretty big difference, huh?

It’s that Carter Family again

Just like the tune from a couple week’s ago, Trump is Working on a Building, for the updated version of Get Up & Shout I used an old Carter Family melody. This time I went for an old favorite of mine The Cannonball (or Cannonball Blues).

Didn’t really have any reason for using it other than I thought it would be easy for the words from my original tune to be squashed into that melody. Of course that didn’t work out as smoothly as I figured it would.

Made me get up and shout

Lyric work for Get Up & Shout (Version 2)For whatever reason I really got bogged down in what the new version of the song was about. What the meaning behind it would become. With these rewrites I really try not to do that because then as I force old words I’ve rewritten, that were about something completely different (usually that I’ve forgotten), into some kind of new meaning the song gets harder and harder to write. And I get frustrated. So this version had many multiples of rewrites. But I think I finally got it where I want it this morning.

From revival to protest

It’s now a little bit Cannonball Blues and a little bit Woody Guthrie’s Baltimore to Washington and a little bit protest song against Donald Trump. Now, he’s not specifically named, but I think I threw in some key words and phrases that alert you to the Orange One’s presence. So the tune went from being a tent-revival-church-happening-type song in the original recording to something that’s a little more contemporary in subject.

Not sure Get Up & Shout is completely done. Might even need a new title now too. Something like the Donaldbald Blues or the Orange Express Blues or the Trump Hump. But at some point you just have to shrug your shoulders and move on to the next thing. Not sure if this version is an improvement or not on the original, but it’s at least some kind of movement on the original and that’s really all I was going for.

Oily Limp Picks: The Talkin’ Headline Blues #180

The Talkin’ Headline Blues is a weekly series of recordings using unedited headlines from CNN.com written as a song. This week’s topic: Oily Limp Picks.

Oily Limp Picks: The Talkin' Headline Blues #180
An old oily limp picks up a medal that he didn’t earn and claims it as his own.

Unarmed poignant outrage.
Conservatives at shark duel.
Blast upset sexist American Olympics.
Virginity means never dead.

Do you have Olympic Fever?! Boy howdy, everyone in my house sure does. My kids like to root for:

  • Whoever is in the lead of a race.
  • Whoever is about to or has just won.
  • Whoever has the outfit that has the colors that they like the best or is most sparkly.
  • Whoever is giving it their best attempt.

Basically they root for everyone. EVEN THE RUSSIANS. Who taught them like that? Don’t they know they’re only supposed to root for AMERICA and only as long as the Americans win a gold medal. Anything but gold is a FAIL.

Anyway, read some headlines is you need to lower your blood pressure form all those second, third and fourth place finishes. Here they are for this week:

Trump Nuts: The Talkin’ Headline Blues #179

The Talkin’ Headline Blues is a weekly series of recordings using unedited headlines from CNN.com written as a song. This week’s topic: Trump Nuts.

Trump Nuts: The Talkin' Headline Blues #179
Will plastic bag of dog droppings Donald Trump be able to make America’s truck nuts great again?

Dragon devastation during debates.
In new parents hot bumps found.
Trump nuts.
Unearthing human who flips.

You know all about Truck Nuts, right? So, my question is, how long are we, as Americans, going to have to wait until we can get some amazing, classy Trump Nuts? Are we going to have to wait ALL THE WAY until January 21, 2017? Because I need my Trump Nuts now! That’s how America will be great again. It’s the ONLY WAY.

Trump Nuts or BUST!

And, of course, here are the CNN headlines I used for this week’s talkin’ blues song. Use them to get your mind off of Trump’s shiny golden testicles. IF YOU CAN.

Trump Is Working On A Building

Super-Classy Un-buh-leev-able Amazing Failure

Donald Trump's hair is just so super-great.
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.

Remember when Google set up search results for “miserable failure” to link to George W. Bush? Apparently that was called a “Google Bomb” and miserable failure isn’t linked to Bush any more. But don’t you think there’s another miserable failure lurking around these days? Or maybe an amazing failure? Or super-classy failure? Or unbelievable failure? Yes? Me too. So I wrote a song about lumpy bag of moldy clementines Donald Trump. Have a listen:

Woody and the Carter Family

Now, you may notice, if you’re familiar with old folk tunes, that this new song I wrote about Trump is very similar to the Carter Family song I’m Working on a Building. There’s a few very good reasons for that.

First is, it’s one of my favorite tunes. I play it often and, so, it pops up in my head a lot at random times during the day.

Second, it has some good phrases that I figured I could update to be relevant about today. That’s the best thing to do when writing a folk song. Find an old one that you like, that has a catchy melody and an interesting message and then replace a few words to make it relatable to something currently in the news or your life. I barely even had to change the repeating chorus because Trump does work on buildings. Only thing different is that instead of building a house of good and a structure of hope and faith, he bankrupts everyone and everything he comes in contact with.

Like Father Like Son

Trump and his father Fred
Two severely balding orange men standing close together.

Now, the last reason, and maybe the reason that got me writing this new song is closely linked to the idea of creating new songs by rewriting old ones. Last week I was thinking a lot about Donald Trump because of the Republican National Convention and I remembered a news article I read about how Woody Guthrie had written a song about Trump’s crooked landlord father Fred Trump (read all about him here). So I went in search of that article to listen to the song because I thought maybe I could update it to be about Donald.

Only problem is, when I found the article, it turns out Woody didn’t so much write a song about Fred Trump, he just maybe reworked a verse of his tune I Ain’t Got No Home. His “song” about Fred Trump amounts to little more than a few scribbled ideas in his notebook. Not much for me to use. Plus, Woody’s song I Ain’t Got No Home was already a rewrite of the Carter Family song Can’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore. Do you see where this is headed?

Woody took a lot of ideas from Carter Family tunes (and from a lot of other people) and that’s something I picked up on really fast when I started writing my own songs. I didn’t have to try and come up with something completely new and different. I could just update old songs to fit my times and the troubles and triumphs I saw around me. So that’s what I did with I’m Working on a Building.

But that’s STEALING

Yeah, it probably is. I admit that. Although, folk music (and maybe most music) is all stolen. Every new song rests on the shoulders of something that came before it. You might go as far to say that everything rests on the shoulders of what went before it. As we move into the future the past is what we have to stand on. Forgetting that, you fall into a pit of nothing and may never take another step in any direction. I guess it’s only really stealing if you take complete credit for all the words in a song and say all the ideas were yours alone and no one  ever did anything like you ever before. No one does that, though, right?