Who'll Take the Garbage Away?

Naomi Klein makes the observation that people don't get too worked up over garbage as long as it's "away." Now we have created this continent of garbage out in the Pacific and I imagine air pollution as being akin to pouring sewage into the rivers and the ocean.
"Who'll Take the Garbage Away" is set to the tune of "Rosin the Beau" also known to many as "Acres of Clams." What a great Celtic melody this is and a fine song structure to work in. I hope you'll consider singing it. It's Public Domain.
I used a capo up two frets, so I'm singing in D.

Who’ll Take the Garbage Away?

C                                                     F 

Our house is all filled with garbage

       C                                  Am

We make more trash every day

       C                                     F

But Daddy takes it out to the can

              C             G7        C

And the trash man hauls it away

                                           F

And the trash man hauls it away

              C                            Am

And the trash man hauls it away

C                                     F

Daddy takes it out to the can

              C              G7        C

And the trash man hauls it away

My town is all trashed with litter

With plastic that will not decay

But every spring it gets windy

And the wind blows the litter away

And the wind blows the litter away

And the wind blows the litter away

Every spring it gets windy

And the wind blows the litter away

My grandma loves indoor plumbing

She didn’t have it back in her day

The swill is dumped in the river

And the river floats it away

And the river floats it away

And the river floats it away

The swill is dumped in the river

And the river floats it away

God made the land and the oceans

Seven continents of land so they say

But humans, too, are creators

And we’ve made the eighth in our way

And we’ve made the eighth in our way

And we’ve made the eighth in our way

Humans, too, are creators

And we’ve made the eighth in our way

Our continent is pollution and garbage

Our swill swirls around as it may

The ocean is huge in it’s power

But it can’t go on this a’way

But it can’t go on this a’way

But it can’t go on this a’way

The ocean is huge in it’s power

But it can’t go on this a’way

I heard Pete Seeger tell a story

About people with spoonfuls of sand

They managed to reach the tipping point

With millions of spoonfuls of sand

With millions of spoonfuls of sand

With millions of spoonfuls of sand

They managed to reach the tipping point

With millions of spoonfuls of sand

Corporations act like they’re above it

Like they can live this way

But those super-rich folks have children

And all children will have hell to pay

And all children will have hell to pay

And all children will have hell to pay

Those super-rich folks have children

And all children will have hell to pay

Do you have a child or a grandchild?

Did you have a ma and a pa?

Then you can’t turn your back on this effort

All for one and one for all!

All for one and one for all!

All for one and one for all!

You can’t turn your back on this effort

All for one and one for all!

I’ll clean my room, my house, and my town

And my river in Pete Seeger’s way

But we need a world full of leaders

Who care for more than today

Who care for more than today

Who care for more than today

But we need a world full of leaders

Who care for more than today

Where do college students, heroin, Osama Bin Laden, and the Taliban all make sense together?

In an essay by Thom Hartmann. Thom Hartmann is just so amazing. You've got to read this. Here is the link to his website and a fantastic essay. Thom's efforts are like those of a teacher at the university level. With a title like "How George W. Bush Screwed This Generation of College Students" he'd be going too far, if his audience were middle school students, to take the lesson into the realm of heroin, Osama Bin Laden, and aid to the Taliban (!). Thom takes information we've never heard and weaves it into a masterful and concise presentation. You won't get this kind of enlightenment just any-old-where.

Draw a line in the sand ...

I’m Gonna Shine You On

(to the tune of This Little Light of Mine)

 C

Republicans and Democrats

                             C7

Are hard to tell apart

     F

Republicans and Democrats

                             C

Are hard to tell apart

One believes whole-heartedly

                      E7          Am

The other believes in part

                   C                    F

Shine ‘em on, shine ‘em on,

                   C                     F

Shine ‘em on, shine ‘em on

C            G7            C

I gonna shine 'em on.

If you won’t fight global warming

I’m gonna shine you on 

If you won’t fight global warming

I’m gonna shine you on

If you won’t fight global warming

I’m gonna shine you on

Shine you on, shine you on,

Shine you on, shine you on

I’m gonna shine you on.

If you don’t help solar power

I’m gonna shine you on (3x)

Shine you on, shine you on,

Shine you on, shine you on

I’m gonna shine you on.

If you believe in fracking

I’m gonna shine you on…

Shine you on, shine you on,

Shine you on, shine you on

I’m gonna shine you on.

If you support the Keystone Pipeline

I’m gonna shine you on…

Shine you on, shine you on,

Shine you on, shine you on

I’m gonna shine you on.

If you think governments can’t help

I’m gonna shine you on…

Shine you on, shine you on,

Shine you on, shine you on

I’m gonna shine you on.

I used a capo up two frets, so I'm singing in D.

Public Domain, pass it on, pass it on, pass it on, pass it on

You can pass it on.

Old Joe Clark's a fine old man, tell you the reason why

He keeps good liquor 'round his house,
Good old rock and rye.
I'd never sung Old Joe Clark until the week I recorded it and it felt like a revelation. That has been the beauty of my life with Pete Seeger's book American Favorite Ballads. I've lived with it for fifty years. It's taught me chords that go together in a song - chords I hadn't known would work in that key. It's taught me how raucous one can get with only two chords, and much more. And singing this brought out a singing style I didn't know I had. What fun! Thanks, Pete.

We live down in the Cumberland Gap

Cumberland Gap is a song I sing differently from Pete Seeger. I'm not sure where I first heard the song. I can't name someone whom I am sure recorded it besides Pete. So I don't know how it entered my repertoire. I'm sure I heard it as a youth and I'm sure I picked out the melody from American Favorite Ballads and I imagine I then went on my merry way. Much like the settlers who followed Daniel Boone through this famous gap in the Appalachian Mountains. We Americans remember the pioneers, their fights with 'Indians,' their indomitable spirit, but how many remember that the Wilderness Road through the gap was a taxpayer-funded project! You didn't build that, Daniel, the US government did! Oh dear, early evidence that the individual achieves within the system of society and that government is a mighty engine for the generation of wealth. Socialism.

Frankie and Johnny

Frankie and Johnny is one of the great songs in Pete Seeger's American Favorite Ballads. It's one that can be really jazzed up, blues-ed up. I used what I think of as the 'Jimmie Rodgers Bump' for the intro and in between verses. You'll hear that rhythm a lot in Yodelin' Jimmie Rodgers songs. I changed lyrics substantially within the existing framework of the verses. My changes were made intuitively over the years I've sung this one. Pete said in the introduction to his Oak Publication "you can make it your own by singing it."

More from "Pete Seeger Lives Here"

Clementine, as in 'Oh, my darling,' is the first song from Pete Seeger's book that I changed some. He has it in 3/4 time; I do it as a blues/rockish 2/4 song. I use the same two chords, E and B7 and the same lyrics as Pete in his American Favorite Ballads book.
The last verse reminds me of Barbara Allen and other songs in which two plants/flowers grow up from a gravesite. Except in Clementine there is no 'true lover's knot,' no romantic allusions. No, the singer in Clementine, I think, is not heart-broken to lose his large lover.

What gun would Jesus choose?

It's now the afternoon of the April 23, 2014. Remember where you were when you heard the news that, as expected Georgia's governor signed the 'guns everywhere' bill. Here is a link to an Atlanta paper. Some changes were made. Churches would have to "opt in" to allow congregants to carry guns into their so-called "House of God." Humm, what gun would Jesus choose? And not even Georgia will allow guns on college campuses, at least the students. 'Better not be late to my lecture, a-hole!' However, thank God, parents can attend Parent-Teacher conferences in elementary schools armed to the teeth ('little lady, we're here because you flunked Johnny). Graduation rates in Georgia will soar.
A provision of the law forbids entities within the state from banning guns anywhere - bars (yeah, that's smart) and, get this, government buildings that do not pony up to provide building security (have fun getting that drivers license - what you gotta get a license?).
A most distressing aspect of this situation is that it's not just Republican Governor Nathan Deal who is wrong-headed here. His Democratic opponent supported Georgia House Bill 60. Jason Carter, former President Jimmy Carter's grandson supported the bill! Add this to Texas' Wendy Davis as the second prominent Democrat running for the governor's office who does not draw a line to differentiate themselves from the National Rifle Association's (NRA) insane anti-life political agenda. The other wing of this plane is the "Christian" right. Remember what George Carlin said, "Pre-born, you're precious. Pre-school, you're fucked." That sums up the Christian Right's anti-life agenda to me.
The Democratic Party is either too timid or too wrong-headed to see the dangers and the anti-life parties are flying us into the afterlife. Well, la te da, let's just all join hands and see if there is a heaven!
Add this to the great Cliven Bundy's "range war" standoff in Nevada where I have some land. Yeah, the Bureau of Land Management run it in my interest. Me and my other taxpayers. So, this rancher who hasn't even paid his tax-supported low rate on grazing rights runs his cattle in defiance of my federal agents (on land protected for desert tortoises 'and yeah, I'm for the tortoises'), now including various potential law-enforcement agencies. So in my law-abiding nation the government gives in. Am I missing the Democratic leaders declaim and act, or is the lawful governing power of the United States of America AWOL? People are not motivated to vote for you Democrats, no matter how far to the right you go! So buck up! Obama's elections demonstrated our power;  you can get the votes, too. 
I am unable to find how many "Oath Keeper" county sheriffs and other "law enforcement" personnel there are in Georgia. It's safe to assume there are many. The oath keepers pledge to refuse to enforce a wide range of laws relating to gun ownership, arsenals, survivalists predicting societal breakdown, etc. They openly state that they are going to "protect the Constitution" regardless of any order given by the federal government or, indeed, their own state's leaders. Absolutely no consequences are facing them from any level of governance within the US at this time. There are oath keepers within our military and National Guards as well. No effort to weed them out is under way.
A perfect storm is brewing within my country. Imagine a large armed group approaching the state offices of Georgia. It would be legal so no one would stop them. They could then seize the government while a potential battle erupts among law enforcement. If a right wing nut is in the White House, say Jeb Bush, perhaps the federal troops would not be called in on behalf of the people. An armed mob could stage a coup in the state. The coups could spread to other states with the propaganda arms of the religious right and Amerika's corporate media. The "Supreme Court," hell, I could easily see five of the nine making some kind of monarchical decree of legitimacy.
Far fetched? Are you willing to bet your life on it? Then be sure to include Georgia in your travel plans.
I have not traveled in Mexico for over a year now. I dearly love going there, the deeper into the country I go the more I love it. But I've read too many stories of violence and I don't risk it for now. A couple of years ago while driving around Austin, Texas I began to notice things that reminded me of Mexico - large numbers of beggars, people dressed in cheap clothes, a huge police presence, among other things. Now, I see these things everywhere I travel. My country is becoming poor and angry and armed. The political party called "the left" (ha!) is weak, disorganized, and is merely a group of people who believe that they, as individuals, are indispensable so they focus on whatever it takes to get elected - including attempts to accommodate anti-ObamaCare folks, gun nuts, and religious nuts.
I almost finished by saying there is no end in sight, but there is an end in sight. The United States is a derailed freight train and you and I, the entire world are in the way of the collision.
Today, April 23, '14, I am updating this blog to include a link to a most powerful essay. I found it on truthdig. Chris Hedges is the author and "The Rhetoric of Violence" needs no further introduction from me. Please, read it here.

Jesse James had a hand and a heart and a brain.

Here's another song from Pete Seeger's American Favorite Ballads, a wonderful songbook still in print (see my post Pete Seeger Lives Here). I sure had fun with this one. Jesse James is that kind of iconic folk hero who goes down in ballads as a hero regardless of the facts. He robs the rich and gives to the poor, we sing. I changed a line to "He took from the 1 and gave to the 99." We need a lot more of that, only in the form of taxation -) The song portrays Jesse as a Robin Hood character. In reality he was something else - a Confederate sympathizer and a killer, but in the song he lives on as a hero. Damn that Robert Ford! Thank you, Billy Gashade!

er

ps. I have updated the blog a few below this one - The US is heading for it's own Ukraine-like crisis to provide a link to the most stunning essay I have read in recent memory. It's about violence in America; it's by Chris Hedges and it resonates especially in the light of the US state of Geogia and it's apalling gun law and the anti-government actions of Nevada ranchers to which our government caved in.

The top two blogs on my site are being left as the latest blogs because I've linked them to a Pandora submission of "Pete Seeger Lives Here."

Blue-Tail Fly is an American murder ballad (I mean it...give my version a listen)

As I was preparing my album "Pete Seeger Lives Here" I recognized a great many songs from Pete's book American Favorite Ballads as having been sung by Burl Ives. As I sang them I thought of it as 'bringing out my inner Burl.' However, as I reread Pete's wonderful testimony before Congress' House Committee on Un-American Activities and then went on to research Burl Ives' testimony, I decided to stick with the example of Pete. Pete Seeger told Congress, politely but firmly, that his politics and religion were private matters and none of their business. He refused to name names, but offered to sing any song he had ever performed. Burl sang - like a canary. For sure, Burl named John Jacob Niles whose career was trashed. Perhaps he named Will Geer (Grandpa Walton on TV) and many others, including Pete and Woody Guthrie. I know of no transcript of Burl Ives' testimony, but you can find Pete's online. Pete was restrained, polite, and adamant - a real example of bravery and true Americanism.
Once when I was in the Folklife Center at the Library of Congress a wonderful librarian said, "We have Burl Ives' guitar, would you like to play it?" What a fine instrument. I suspect the strings were cat gut. They were not steel and they were more resonant and taut than any nylon strings I've played.
In my memory no non-Christmas song is more reminiscent of Burl than Blue-Tail Fly. I never really got it until I was singing it over and over. Here's my interpretation:
In the days of American slavery, house servants were, owners assumed, more trustworthy than field hands. They didn't have overseers watching their every move. They often were expected to exercise some authority over field hands - for sure they kept them out of the house and the master's liquor! So when Jimmy cracked corn - hell, that must have been bourbon! Why didn't the singer care? Because he had murdered the master! He sent him away forever by being a bit negligent in swatting the dreaded Blue-Tail Fly! And the jury did not convict him. Celebration time for sure!

Pete Seeger Lives Here!

Pete Seeger recorded a series of records beginning in, I believe, the 1950s called American Favorite Ballads. Then in 1961 Oak Publications published a songbook by the same name. I recently recorded 18 of the songs at Elephonics Recording Studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jesse Korman is the owner and engineer of this fine studio and he found Jared Putnam, a superb upright acoustic bass player to accompany me. I will be sharing some of these songs here and telling stories about them as I go.
American Favorite Ballads now available from Oak Archives, Music Sales America, distributed by Hal Leonard Corporation. I'm quite sure one could easily find a copy. ISBN 978-0-8256-0094-4
This wonderful book has been an instructor to me - some songs have chord structures I would never have guessed at, others are wonderfully simple learning songs with two chords. It has been a reminder of my childhood - I used to sing these songs in school. And it has been a comfort to me, something I've returned to over and over through the years.
We play it uptempo. I added some scat singing and repeats for fun.

The US is heading towards its own Ukraine/Russia-like crisis, only an all-American crisis!

Today, April 23, '14, I am updating this blog to include a link to a most powerful essay. I found it on truthdig. Chris Hedges is the author and "The Rhetoric of Violence" needs no further introduction from me. Please, read it here.
The state of Georgia in the United States has passed a "guns everywhere" law and the governor is expected to sign it into law any day. A provision of the law forbids entities within the state from banning guns anywhere - schools, churches, bars ...
I am unable to find how many "Oath Keeper" county sheriffs and other "law enforcement" personnel there are in the state. It's safe to assume there are many. The oath keepers pledge to refuse to enforce a wide range of laws relating to gun ownership, arsenals, survivalists predicting societal breakdown, etc. They openly state that they are going to "protect the Constitution" regardless of any order given by the federal government or, indeed, their own state's leaders. Absolutely no consequences are facing them from any level of governance within the US at this time. There are oath keepers within our military and National Guards as well. No effort to weed them out is under way.
A perfect storm is brewing within my country. Imagine a large armed group approaching the state offices of Georgia. It would be legal so no one would stop them. They could then seize the government while a potential battle erupts among law enforcement. If a right wing nut is in the White House, say Jeb Bush, perhaps the federal troops would not be called in on behalf of the people. An armed mob could stage a coup in the state. The coups could spread to other states with the propaganda arms of the religious right and Amerika's corporate media. The "Supreme Court," hell, I could easily see five of the nine making some kind of monarchical decree of legitimacy.
Far fetched? Are you willing to bet your life on it? Then be sure to include Georgia in your travel plans.
I have not traveled in Mexico for over a year now. I dearly love going there, the deeper into the country I go the more I love it. But I've read too many stories of violence and I don't risk it for now. A couple of years ago while driving around Austin, Texas I began to notice things that reminded me of Mexico - large numbers of beggars, people dressed in cheap clothes, a huge police presence, among other things. Now, I see these things everywhere I travel. My country is becoming poor and angry and armed. The political party called "the left" (ha!) is weak, disorganized, and is merely a group of people who believe that they, as individuals, are indispensable so they focus on whatever it takes to get elected - including attempts to accommodate anti-ObamaCare folks, gun nuts, and religious nuts.
I almost finished by saying there is no end in sight, but there is an end in sight. The United States is a derailed freight train and you and I, the entire world are in the way of the collision.

Sanctions, imprisonment, and the monster of Empire

It's interesting that the sanctions against Russia are selective while in the rest of the world sanctions are geared to punish entire populations! In America and all over the world, Americans are wrongfully punishing people while the majority of her citizens either don't care or think these innocents are guilty - if only guilty of negative feelings about the US.
I wonder when or if the tide will turn against the common American - the tourist no longer welcomed, people no longer saying, "I love Americans, but I hate their government." Because it is we, the common American, who sit on our asses while our government runs amok through the agencies of the CIA, the NSA, and all the other spying agencies, now shown to include the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The website homepage of the USAID reads -

WHAT WE DO

USAID is the lead U.S. Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies to realize their potential.

Ask Cuba, eh?
The Empire is corrupt. The world gave President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize as a downpayment, not as a reward and he did not earn the prize, but who knows what he has done? Maybe he stopped an invasion of Iran, maybe he stopped WWIII -  for now. I still believe Obama is a tragic figure and living proof that no president can turn things around until Americans rise up en masse and elect a Congress worth their honorific jobs. The entire Republican Party is one of two things - insane or crazed manipulators. This has been obvious for so long that it's the shame of the Democratic Party not to have prevented the right wing takeover, but then it is the shame of us all that, at the end of WWII, we believed that we faced an even larger threat than that we had just defeated - and the buildup of the Military/Industrial/Secrecy Complex began in ernest through the agency of the true "Daddy  Bush" - Prescott Bush, the insane Howard Hughes, and other American fascists and crazies.
Now that Military/Industrial/Secrecy Complex has a strangle hold on us all and it has added another branch -  the Prison Complex. When will it end? How will it end? All I think is that it cannot end well. Too many turning points missed - Eisenhower, who was the only leader who had the cache to stop the Military/Industrial/Secrecy Complex but who chose only to name it and play golf, LBJ, the tragic figure who did not lead a withdrawal from Viet Nam, the election of Nixon, the failure of the Democratic Party to support Jimmy Carter leading to the election of Reagan, the kowtowing of Clinton to the Republican agenda, including the consolidation of a formerly vibrant American media into the disgusting corporate arm of  empire, Al Gore's refusal to call for the supremacy of democracy over the power of a monarchical "Supreme" Court, and ... the beat goes on.

I am shocked, absolutely shocked to find that Democracy in America is for sale to the highest bidder!

The US Supreme Court continues it's ongoing campaign to undermine true free speech in America. It undermined democracy itself when it elected George W. Bush in 2000 with Bush v. Gore. Now we have an extension of the money-as-speech doctrine in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission. There are no limits for the hits of the Supremes. Nothing they do will surprise me.
I don't think there is a grand conspiracy with the Republican Party. I picked up on the trends - the refusal to approve Democratic Presidents' nomination for federal judgeships, the stacking of federal attorneys with incompetent hacks, the in-your-face Clarence Thomas nomination. The signs were all there and Democrats as a group ignored them. I will never give the Democratic Party another dollar. There is no amount of money the 99% can afford to give that will overcome the amount the 1% can afford to piss away.
How many German fascists does it take to overthrow America?
There aren't enough, can't be done.
How many American fascists does it take to overthrow Democracy in America?
Five.

Confession - Contrary

Confession is the first song on my album Contrary. I wrote it on the beach of Padre Island, Texas in 2012, a time of intense creativity for me. I think of the album as a 30 minute movie-in-you-head, telling the story of a man who goes from seeking revenge to seeking an escape from society - and he makes it.

And here is a link to pictures from the recording session.
Here's the song:

Confession is a song easily misunderstood. My point is most certainly that when innocent people are wrongfully imprisoned one can't expect them all to emerge with anything except revenge or mental illness in their beings. And yet, in America and all over the world, Americans are wrongfully punishing people while the majority of her citizens either don't care or think these innocents are guilty - if only guilty of negative feelings about the US.
I wonder when or if the tide will turn against the common American - the tourist no longer welcomed, people no longer saying, "I love Americans, but I hate their government." Because it is we, the common American, who sit on our asses while our government runs amok through the agencies of the CIA, the NSA, and all the other spying agencies, now shown to include the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The website homepage of the USAID reads -

WHAT WE DO

USAID is the lead U.S. Government agency that works to end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies to realize their potential.

Ask Cuba, eh?
The Empire is corrupt. The world gave President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize as a downpayment, not as a reward and he did not earn the prize, but who knows what he has done? Maybe he stopped an invasion of Iran, maybe he stopped WWIII -  for now. I still believe Obama is a tragic figure and living proof that no president can turn things around until Americans rise up en masse and elect a Congress worth their honorific jobs. The entire Republican Party is one of two things - insane or crazed manipulators. This has been obvious for so long that it's the shame of the Democratic Party not to have prevented the right wing takeover, but then it is the shame of us all that, at the end of WWII, we believed that we faced an even larger threat than that we had just defeated - and the buildup of the Military/Industrial/Secrecy Complex began in ernest through the agency of the true "Daddy  Bush" - Prescott Bush, the insane Howard Hughes, and other American fascists and crazies.
Now that Military/Industrial/Secrecy Complex has a strangle hold on us all and it has added another branch -  the Prison Complex. When will it end? How will it end? All I think is that it cannot end well. Too many turning points missed - Eisenhower, who was the only leader who had the cache to stop the Military/Industrial/Secrecy Complex but who chose only to name it and play golf, LBJ, the tragic figure who did not lead a withdrawal from Viet Nam, the election of Nixon, the failure of the Democratic Party to support Jimmy Carter leading to the election of Reagan, the kowtowing of Clinton to the Republican agenda, including the consolidation of a formerly vibrant American media into the disgusting corporate arm of  empire, Al Gore's refusal to call for the supremacy of democracy over the power of a monarchical "Supreme" Court, and ... the beat goes on.