I have been working on the annual Christmas Sampler CD I send out to clients, so have immersed myself in Christmas just a bit earlier than usual!

Anyway, just a short howdy to say ……..well, howdy! Write us!

Today, not so much.   I realize that 20 years ago, George Herbert Walker Bush was President.   2 of my kids were teenagers.   Desert Storm was 2 years away.   Not so long ago and not so ancient.  

But for all intents and purposes, to probably 50% of Americans, D Day is nothing more than a colloquialism meaning “kick off”.   If that.   How shortsighted we have become.  How historically challenged.   That scares me.   A wise guy said once if you don’t know your history, you are bound to repeat it.

I think about that these days.   About Hitlers brown shirts and the Hitler youth and the cult of the personality.  About Mussolini and the fascisti in Italy who thought it best to govern with the central banks, transportation, and all the powerful institutions as a tidy consortium of power concentrated in the hands of a power elite.  

I think about the millions of lives that it cost to break free of totalitarianism only because it was allowed to take root.   And how quickly it spread…….and how horrific the consequences.    I didn’t think about that when I was 8 years old.   I just watched some old ancient newsreels on television and wondered what all the fuss was about.   

Now I know.    God don’t let us go down that road again.    Please.

So here we are.   Priorities are what they are, and this weekend I at least wanted to have on my priority list to think a bit about why this is a three day weekend at all.   We have a tendency in our culture to bandy words about without really thinking about their meaning.   Catastrophe, crisis and cataclysm have been the “C” words d’jour for politicians and a news media eager for money and ratings respectively.  

Sacrifice is another such word.   What truly does that word mean?   Entertainers use a phrase “give it up” for so and so, meaning show some appreciation and applaud, or cheer.    I am reminded that on this weekend, we are to remember those who truly “gave it up”.   I sit and write this on a Sunday afternoon in the freedom of my personal world because a lot of folks sacrificed it all for me to have that freedom.   To say what I want, to do what I want (within reason of course) and to make choices for my life and not have choices made for me.   Freedom is not free, as the saying goes.   But I didn’t pay that price.  Someone else did.   Think about the opportunities for evil in this world over the centuries.   In my parents lifetimes, two great foreign evils were vanquished, Naziism and Communism.   In the generations before, other evils like slavery were also ended.   But these breakthroughs of Freedom cost dearly.    Whatever we think about the world today, we have the freedom to express those thoughts because of what someone else did for us in the generations that preceded us.    

Evil will always be lurking the shadows waiting for us to forget……for us to become complacent and fat and fool ourselves into believing that we are entitled to blessing, instead of the real truth, which is that there are no entitlements.    We were given a gift.     We did not have it coming.   Today, and tomorrow on Memorial Day, I thank God and those who came before me that “gave it up” ……who gave it ALL up.    Think about it for a bit sometime this weekend between beers or songs on the AZ MUSIC CAFE show, and make it a point to tell someone else where freedom comes from.    

Have a safe and blessed Memorial Day!

The 3 singers and songwriters at the top of the pyramid for me for years were Gordon Lightfoot, Tom Rush and John Stewart.   I was fixated on their music and to this day, I own every piece of vinyl any of them have ever released, and in some cases, extra copies because I wore them out.   Mark Knopfler has joined this elite club in my later years.     John Stewart died last January and Gordon’s prime has passed.   These were sad events for me.   Used to be I would look forward to each of their next albums with baited breath.  In Tom’s case, I would have joined Tut inside the pyramid if I held my breath that long.   

After Merrimac County in 1972, there was Ladies Love Outlaws in 1974, which was, I think, a stab at a Nashville commercial chart hitter…..but I always felt it was over produced and Tom’s excellence got lost in it.   ”No Regrets“, one of his signature songs, was much better when it was first released on the Circle Game album juxtaposed with “Rockport Sunday“, his eloquent solo guitar companion piece.   (Footnote, it seems to me that when it was released on Classic Rush on Elektra, they reversed the order…..Rockport was first, No Regrets second, and on the Classic Rush album, the opposite occurred.  Tom, no doubt tinkering?)

Anyway, after his last Columbia release, there were a couple of recordings in the early 80’s that I unearthed in the Folk section of now defunct Tower Records and Ebay.   Also, a New Years special I taped off of PBS in 1980, but nothing else until the Very Best of Tom Rush  which is quite a nice compilation of the Prestige, Elektra and Columbia years.  A new one, “River Song“, appeared at the very end and knocked my socks clean off.    (It has become my wife’s and my courtin’ song)    It was like an old friend coming home.   But that was all she (or he, in this case) wrote.

Not that Tom wasn’t busy doing this or that, but musically, I lost him.   Until the Internet.   (Thanks Al?) 

One fine day, I found him and his website (circa 2000 and loose change?)    I was sitting around playing www dot fill in name here dot com and there he was.   On a lark, I emailed him and asked him the equivalent of “whassup” and when might he be coming to Phoenix.    Amazingly, he emailed back.   And said, he didn’t know.   But if someone was interested, let them know to contact him.   Cool, I thought.   Who do I know?   Big fat hairy nobody.  

But I was on his mailing list and over the ensuing years, found his humorous live collection Trolling for Owls and I got hold of a 6 song cassette “work in progress” that he released in limited supply and I then wore out.  (One day it unraveled and became ‘one’ with my previous car’s cassette player for eternity.)     But that is where I first heard “All A Man Can Do” .     Which now makes its appearance on the brand new , What I Know, Tom’s first major studio album in all those intervening years, and which was just released this week. 

Tom doesn’t write much.   When he does, he gives birth to monster songs…..like “No Regrets” or the “River Song“.    He is a very literate fellow and usually goes deep when he writes.   The cheerful exceptions to the rule are found here in What I Know …….his latest songs are far less introspective and far more joyful.   And unself-conscious.   Listen to ”Silly Little Diddle” and “What I Know”, and the concert opener “Hot Tonight” and ”One Good Man“   “River Song” makes a reprise appearance here with a different arrangement……(and again, like “No Regrets” back in 1974, he got “River Song” right the first time in 1999.  But its such a great song, it lives well here.  I just like the crescendo bridge in the first version and the way he delivers the hook line towards the end of the song.  But what do I know? 

Tom’s amazing ear and talent for interpretation of other artists’ material is legendary.  For the uninitiated, Tom recorded James Taylor, Jackson Browne, and Joni Mitchell, long before the world knew anything about them.   And his song selections over his career have been delightful.   This album is no exception.    It sneaks up on you.    You hear it the first two times and are pleased.   You hear it again, and something gets in underneath you, and then you start to hear the whole thing.   Not with your ears so much as your spirit.   The phrasing, both guitar and vocal are classic Tom Rush.   (Which is why he is so good as a solo act, he communicates intricate things with voice and strings).    He makes ”Drift Away”, the Dobie Gray standard sound like a Tom Rush song.  As familiar as it is, you hear it differently.   The more you listen to it, the more distinctive it becomes.   And its the sparest arrangement on the album (just guitar and cello).   

The fine accompaniment on this album manages to avoid overproduction.   I was tickled to find Rush veterans Trevor Veitch and Robin Batteau making appearances on the album, and the other assembled musicians are all top notch.  He jokes about the sax and steel together on “What An Old Lover Knows but the instruments work just fine.   “Lonely”  the Mishka Frith reggae classic is amazing…..I didn’t know I knew the song until several listenings.   Tom’s interpretations are that distinctive and this is a truly wonderful rendition.   When I hear “You’re Not Here With Me”, I feel the same things in my spirit that I felt when I heard “Wind on the Water” from his Merrimac County album.   On this album, Tom found me.   Got right through the crust and right in my spirit.   That’s what he always did, with his songs or those he interprets, and its quite amazing that he can still do it.   Because we have all changed.   Or have we?   

You are in for a treat if you are a longtime fan like me, because this is an outstanding album.   If you are new to Tom Rush…I envy you.   You have years of music to discover.    But listen to this a dozen times or so first…..don’t miss any of the nuances.    Its worth sipping slowly.       In this season of being confronted with life’s impermanence and the inevitable fading of hopes and dreams, it is quite extraordinary to have this gift appear, as though no time has passed at all.   In ”Too Many Memories” (with Emmylou Harris doing harmony vocals), the writer defines growing old as replacing hope with regret.   

What I Know …..is that we can thank Tom Rush for putting that notion on hold for awhile.

An unnamed political operative in a major political party recently was quoted as having said “you never want a good crisis to go to waste”.    A pox on his mansion!    That mentality is precisely what should give us all pause to question what we are being spoon fed.   The media and politicians are like Chicken Little, except I note, they are Chicken Little with a Big Agenda.   Lets face facts.    The Great Depression was a crisis.   The Tsunami that killed an estimated 250,000 after Christmas in 2004 was a catastrophe.    Michael Jackson’s life is a disaster.   (Ok, not a disaster, just painful to watch)   But the point is, we need some perspective.   To run around ascribing our present difficulties as catastrophic does great disservice to those of us who are trying to get through life as best they can in difficult times.     Some parts of the country are having severe unemployment, while others are wondering what the fuss is about.     Many of us in the middle have seen our incomes decline, our houses lose value, and we are having to do with a bit less, or a lot less.   

Unemployment is at 7.6% and climbing, but lets remember that most economists consider “full employment” (those that want to work) at about 4% unemployment or 96% employed.   Today in our “crisis”….92.4% of Americans are working.    Huh?   Where’s that in the headlines?     That fact does not make it easier for those unemployed, but it does put the problem in a different perspective.     More perspective?   Unemployment during the Depression was at 25% and more.   When Mr Carter was President in 1980, unemployment was over 14%, interest rates and inflation were racing for 20%.   Since then we have weathered two more recessions and an S&L collapse, not to mention the 1987 Stock market crash, and a couple of wars.      Here’s some more perspective.    Hurrican Katrina displaced a city and killed 1,100 people.     The Tsunami of 2004 killed 250,000 and displaced half a continent.   Does anyone really want to make that comparison?   

In our personal lives, some of us got divorces, some got sick and recovered, some lost family members.    Life comes with adversity.   It is not advertised to be different, and our expectations should not be falsely encumbered with visions of sugarplums dancing on our 401K’s.   In the words of a wise philosopher, $#%@ happens.

And now, we are warned that we are facing an imminent economic catastrophe.   Are we really?    Aren’t Americans capable of reaching out to one another in hard times?    Isn’t that what we do?     Doesn’t history teach us that we can recover from whatever life throws at us?    That, in the words of Dr King, we shall overcome?    Do you realize that we endured a Civil War that killed 2% of our population, the Great Depression and 2 World Wars (and countless bad Presidents) in the span of one lifetime?    Do any of our present troubles come even CLOSE?     And if they did, how does panic help?

When did we become so susceptible to fear…..when did we lose our confidence in ourselves and in a power greater than ourselves?   

Life has hardships and ups and downs.   We have all been caught in troubles, whether financial, emotional, or physical.    And we will again.    Whom does it profit to display us at our worst?  To portray us as though we are incapable of rising above our circumstances?      If we can be convinced that we are powerless and that we should fear the future instead of looking forward with hope and faith, then we are ripe for tyranny.

Be careful whom you believe.   Evaluate what you are being told you must give up in order to persevere.    We will get through this together, and sometimes separately, because that is what we have always done.   Encourage one another and tell them not to believe the words they hear coming out of the mouths of those who believe you don’t have what it takes.    Who would bully you with fear tactics and crisis mongering.  Don’t drink that Koolaid and don’t let the government or the media tell you otherwise and fleece you in the name of “not letting a good crisis go to waste”.

And the next time you see Chicken Little, introduce him to the Colonel.

I ended up looking forward to seeing him when I found out (courtesy of lovely wife Sandi) that he was coming to town.   We got floor tickets which were GA and required us to stand outside for about an hour before being seated, but then we were just a few rows back and center stage, so I knew at least we were going to be able to discern him from the rest of the band by more than just altitude.    After some pretty good “openers” (three as I recall), Crowder’s band came out.   And lit the whole place up!   Big time!   From the opening to the encore, from some pretty fine drumwork from Bwack and electric violin from Mike Hogan, and the rest of the players giving it all up for about 90 minutes, it was outstanding.   Lots of creativity, rock and even some bluegrass.  Memorable was the bandmember who made a contraption from the Guitar from Guitar Hero and put it in Crowder’s hands for a rollicking and fun treatment of one song.   What a riot!   He knows how to shake the house and the spirit was as sweet as it was superb.   I have the Remedy CD which includes the DVD and I highly recommend it if you are looking for an amazing collection of live and recorded gospel music.

But don’t miss him when he comes back to town!    Great stuff!   G’head….try and keep your feets from moving!

I rented Ghost Town, a comedy with Rick Gervais.   I have to say, this movie is FUNNY.  We really enjoyed it.  The only thing bad I have to say about it was that it could have been done without some of the language.  I didn’t expect some of the blue words and wouldn’t ordinarily have had my kids see a movie with them.

However, much to my chagrin, my kids are getting older, and probably won’t wilt.  Although I hope NOT to hear that my son has used any of these questionable phrases at school!

The main character was brilliantly and hilariously portrayed - he had us all laughing out loud for several scenes.

I have to give this one 4 of 5 stars, but don’t show it in front of little kids, because of the unfortunate slight use of bad language (including the F-bomb).

Then computers came to save us from paper.   HA!   Email, text messaging, Twitter, cellphone, homephone, extra email addresses, Facebook, MySpace, My GOD!   Suddenly the excrement has hit the oscillator!   I don’t know what happened, but my desk regularly looks like a bomb hit it.   There are sticky notes with phone numbers I don’t recognize and encrypted notes that the CIA would not be able to disentangle.   Flyers, folders, business cards, receipts, notes.   I am looking at a scrap of paper at this writing that has a phone number, the words 3 kids, and the number 246.   Can someone help?  

I didn’t used to be like this.   But the problem is too much incoming.   Too many sources to review, catalog, disseminate, order and it changes constantly.   Email alone is a source of endless distraction.   I get up in the morning and I sit down to “check email”……next thing I know I am heading off in three different directions at once, responding, making notes, thinking and I find that an hour has passed and I am still sitting in my………well…….you get the idea (don’t bother with the picture).    And my desk gets worse.   Fortunately, its all ‘contained’…….I don’t delete email unless its spam and I know that everything that I need is “somewhere”………either on my desk, or in my email.   That is some small comfort.   It is the only thing that keeps me from complete madness.   I know that I can lasso the thing if I spend about 26 uninterrupted hours putting everything in order, deleting the unneeded emails so that I can find more easily what I need, and making another promise to myself that nothing gets written down on a scrap of paper without leaving clues to decode it later.   I know I can do this, because every 2-3 weeks, I do it and return my world back to some kind of order.    Then sigh.  And begin again.

But I miss my legal pad.

We all enjoyed this movie.   It was definitely kid-friendly but pleasant to watch for adults as well.  (Keri Russell has to be the epitome of wholesome looking.)  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not an awesome movie, but offers a nice distraction.   The kids in the movie were super cute, and the plot was pretty clever.  Although I’m not a huge Adam Sandler fan, I thought he did a good job, as did his co-star Keri Russell.  There were a lot of other familiar faces in various roles and the music took me back to high school with Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing heavily featured.  (I’d forgotten how clear and crisp he could sing.)  The sound and lyrics was well-suited to the movie.

If you’ve got kids and are looking for something pleasant and benign to take them to, go see this light-hearted and fun movie. 3 1/2 stars.

The show was like a two hour whirlwind.   Any one of our guests could easily have done an hour or more on their own.   But to concentrate all 5 of them and squeeze them into 2 hours…..is sort of like trying to cram a lightning bolt into a test tube.  (No burlap sack allusions)

The recipe for a potent Christmas brew?  First we have Mary Hoffman’s effervescence in her songwriting and vocal offerings, and the sheer positive flow of eager energy juxtaposed against Darin Mahoney’s absolutely bottomless pit of depth conveyed through the unique fingerings and stylings of his instrumental creations.   Then add Chris Frazer’s sheer reach (he is like a multi armed Doc Ock with his AZ OPEN MIC chores, his Songwriter Challenges, his weekly hosting gig, his own considerable songwriting talents (and then he teaches music to kids?), he is exhausting to just think about.    Add in Chava Cannon’s amazing story(ies) and her gift of lassoing heart tugging emotions and wrapping us up in them, which she does regularly.   And finally the flying fingers of flamenco (a)ficionado Chris Burton Jácome, were barely contained in the final segment as he 12/8 timed his way through Little Drummer Boy and played Jacob’s Ladder with his guitar bass strings in order to simulate the drum.   Man! 

Maybe it was the sugar and eggnog high.   But I don’t think so.   The room was positively electric.   I am ready for a nap.  

Hope you enjoyed the show and if you missed it, do yourself a favor and grab it on the podcast when it comes up midweek.   You will have something to treasure.   You won’t be tired afterwards, you didn’t have to channel and direct all that wonderful talent and energy. 

You just get to enjoy it!