Posts Tagged ‘music’ | Next Page ⇒  

Because a couple of folks have asked, the kidney stone story I often perform live is included in this book:

"Off Main Street" Paperback Cover

Also included: stories about truckers, truckin’, truckin’ music, Elvis, Steve Earle, manure, baldness, small-town funerals, tricky book tour moments, veterans, Aaron Tippin, giant musky statues, hot summer days, and existentialist cowboys.

P.S. The title my editor came up with for the kidney stone story was, “Rock Slide!”  I still get a little pale when I think about it.

A lot of solo road time lately.  Got a special deal on satellite radio so have that for a while.  I punch around a lot.  Satellite radio is almost as bewildering as the Worldwide Web, what with the rabbit holes available.  I like Bloomberg Business News just because I find it interesting to view current events through the filter of finance, never mind that I don’t understand half of what they’re talking about.  I listen to it as a form of word jazz.  I listen to some foam-at-the-mouth sports talk if they’re discussing NFL football, but after 15 minutes I’m all full.  Then maybe some NPR.  But music mostly.  I cycle through channels 7 (’70s), 8 (80′s), 21 (Alt Nation), 22 (1st Wave), 23 (Hair Nation), 29 (The Loft), 30 (The Coffeehouse), 62 (The Roadhouse), 63 (Outlaw Country), 64 (Willie’s Place) and 147 (Road Dog Trucking).

Today I heard Echo and the Bunnymen, Gary Numan, Mel Tillis, and Cinderella all on the same trip.

But the tune that really got me was “Little Lion Man” by Mumford and Sons.  Apparently I am the last person on the globe who hadn’t heard it, as it’s pretty much an international monster hit.  It is catchy and all, but I am taken above all by the grim edge of the song, which captures mercilessly the sick in your guts when you must face the fact that you have gravely failed another.  The language in one particular line is not for children or the churchly, but I can tell you I own moments in my past for which that profane phrase was the only adequate take.

You can watch and listen here, but again, out of respect to those of you who’d rather not hear coarse language, be advised it’s there.

After me and them Long Beds finished up at Phoenix Park the other night, we set up and played loud at the Mousetrap.  Mike O’Brien shot some photos and now they’re viewable over on the Volume One site.

Man, it was hot in there.  Thank goodness I brought not one but two New Auburn Area Fire Department sleeveless t-shirts!

As the photo below reveals, I am a singer of great sensitivity:

Over on The Moose, my old longtime friend Jay Moore just played Merle Haggard’s “Silver Wings” and Ed Bruce’s “You’re the Best Break This Old Heart Ever Had.”  Both Merle and Bruce demonstrating one need not push for power.  Sometimes I require reminding in that respect.

During the intro of “Best Break” that steel note rising to the sky and disappearing always reminds me of an empty stretch of road baking under the sun somewhere Out West and dusty.

Driving around listening to the new John Prine tribute album including Justin Townes Earle’s version of “Far From Me” and thinking it might be the most perfect breakup song ever.  Something about the combination of specific details and understatement that nails that quiet, deadly, sinking feeling you get when you know it’s over.  Just a taste:

Well, ya know, she still laughs with me
But she waits just a second too long.

Complete lyrics here.