Spur pics, the few I kept out of 25 or so; band (Bartender 4 Mayor),who played a lot of good stuff including Steve Earle's Guitar Town and Copperhead Road (may link later; funny how he made better songs back when he was a legendary bad actor than now, when he resembles a Marxist history prof in politics and pomposity); Lee Henderson, who bought Gorbatov his "Mexicanski Vodka" and received a print of quail on his ranch, dancing with Cat Aragon and bowing after; our sometime mushrooming colleague and half of the team that saved our roof, Della Armijo, and Linda Middleton, who works at Alamo Navajo and who is married to longtime resident filmmaker Matt Middleton (Google "Way Out There"-- link LATER dammit); "born in the bar" Q Foreign correspondent, temporarily employed teaching writing HERE, Phil Grayson; his grandfather, the legendary Johnny Foard, whose band played here when the present ones were in diapers...
Early Steve Earle is quite good.
ReplyDeleteTom Ames' Prayer is probably my favorite of his. It has the best line in it:
"If prayin' is the same as beggin' Lord
I don't take no charity."
I don't get as worked up about Steve Earle's politics. I remember a few years ago that Tim McGraw put out a song that essentially defended abortion, and we haven't heard from Tim McGraw in a few years. The anti-intellectual right-- as opposed to the thinking right (a huge difference)-- has taken over country music.
This is the kind of political country music that's come out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3Au6W5PY1U
One verse says that they want a politician who adheres to the constitution and the final one says they want one who realizes America was founded upon faith in God.
Sorry, but those two sentiments are mutually exclusive!
I wish I had a solution for the right in this country. Maybe give Penn Jillette a call.
I worry that my side of the political spectrum is going to be taken over by animal rights fanatics.
They are just playing with them the way that the Republican Party played with the religious right, but they are no less dangerous or fanatical.
But the AR issues are where all the the third rate politicians on the Democratic side go. Gavin Newsom's little tantrum over the president of the Fiss and Game Commission legal harvest of a cougar in Idaho really proved what a loser he is. If he ever runs for national office, he will not have my vote.
At least with Obama being from Illinois-- a big farm and rural hunting state-- he has had the wisdom not to play this game, at least so far.
Scottie said: "Early Steve Earle is quite good... Tom Ames' Prayer is probably my favorite of his. It has the best line in it:"If prayin' is the same as beggin' Lord/ I don't take no charity."... I don't get as worked up about Steve Earle's politics... Maybe give Penn Jillette a call."
ReplyDeleteI am pretty much in agreement with that, have bought almost all of Steve, and within reason will not boycott performers because I don't agree with them. I just think he has become rather a bore, living in the village, smoking a pipe, decrying the south as a place to raise kids-- naah. I joke about "commie" but am serious about "POMPOUS". I prefer the youth who once addressed a comfortable Toronto audience while dressed in camo and carrying a cammo guitar: "I don't know how well I can play this thang but maybe I kin kill a deer with it..."
And I like Penn Gillette (and Teller) even in village atheist mood-- Dawkins with a sense of humor.
I came late to Steve Earle (it was 1997's "Telephone Road" that first caught my attention), but if one of the roles of art is to have us see things anew, then please, let's have musicians who're willing to question. I don't know whether Earle has become dogmatic or otherwise stupid in ideology and politics, but there are few songwriters working in Country who can (or will) craft lyrics like those in, say, "Ashes to Ashes."
ReplyDeleteAgree Richard-- I have four albums, one double, within reach, plus his collaborations with the Del McCoury band and his Texas album with Guy Clark and van Zandt. I reserve the right to be snarky about one of my favorite popular musicians-- and it is artistic slippage, not the politics he has actually always had, that I am criticizing today.
ReplyDelete(And before someone brings THAT up, I do NOT think it would be better for him to be still a junkie and write good songs. If he must be a bit pompous to stay sober, all I can say is good luck, and may the muse visit again)
Besides, memories count. Guitar Town was my soundtrack driving back east after Betsy died in 86-- the cold drive in the beginning of Q the book. Can't take that away.
Finally he is a perpetual favorite at the Spur where all appreciate his art & (only a) few share his politics!
Looked quite a Party! ( as you would expect at the Spur)- wish I had been there!( Where's the amazing Deputy Sheriff who checked my Hunting Permit!?)
ReplyDeleteJohnnyUK
I don't know, John-- Larry Cearley (pronounced "curly") with a big blonde mustache and hat, now Marshall himself?
ReplyDeleteJumped on Steve Earle's trail in 1986 with Guitar Town. He's one of my Mt. Rushmore songwriters and I play a bunch of his songs.
ReplyDeleteYep, he can be pompous, even insufferable at times. Comes from being an immoderate personality. Now, I am NOT one of those shrill shut-up-and-sing folks AT ALL. That's just political bullshit. I do think, though, that overtly politicizing your music or stage presentation is a sketchy artistic choice. Ideology is the death of ambiguity, and ambiguity is a key ingredient in good storytelling.
Steve Earle is a master storyteller — but his storytelling suffers when the goal is to make a point rather than tell a story.
To quote another favorite songwriter: "I ain't got no politics/Don't lay that rap on me/Right wing, left wing, up wing down — I see strip malls from sea to shining sea."
OK, so sometimes it works.
BTW, were having Tom Russell back in Sisters on March 20 for our Winter Concert Series.
Sixth time he's been here, I believe — twice to the Sisters Folk Festival, twice for winter concerts, once for a private event and once at a club down the road in Bend.
Jim Cornelius
www.frontierpartisans.com