Vincent Van Gogh, Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat, 1887
Vincent Van Gogh, Wheatfield with Cypresses, 1889.
everything was alive
in your absinthe-green eyes
when only deep shades of blues
could still sooth your black moods
and red vineyards cloaked you
from the darkness
of the ever-encroaching winter
some say it was glaucoma or lead
poisoning that caused you to see
halos around everything
but maybe you were
just closer to heaven
than that drab bunch of potato
eaters who lived next door
everything you witnessed
breathed electricity
the shape of the wind
and clouds spinning in turbulent skies
as gray clouds like dark birds rose
from your pipe and sunflowers danced
with delight in the vase on your table
all the colors we knew
turned a different hue
when you painted them
and the wheat waved back in gratitude
so drop that pistol vincent,
the paintbrush will always love you better
nobody saw the world through your eyes
for another hundred years or so
and by that time, you were long gone
never knowing your paintings
— John Kruth, 2022
La Berceuse (Woman Rocking a Cradle); A Portrait of Augustine-Alix Pellicot Roulin, 1851–1930) 1889Vincent Van Gogh, Nursery on Schenkweg April–May 1882
From the new album Dropout Boogie, out later this month.
By PAUL ZOLLO
A brand-new classic by the Black Keys – Dan Auerbach & Patrick Carney – arrived on March 10, of this year (2022) – “Wild Child,” from their new album, Dropout Boogie, which will emerge on May 13.
The Black Keys are Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach, two old tuneful pals from from Akron who teamed up in 2001. Similar to the way the duo of Becker & Fagen were Steely Dan, around which other satellites spun and which signified songwriting and record-making greatness always, Dan & Pat have united in a musical mission that has deeply enriched these times. Their songs and records shine always with the warm purity of two seriously singular songwriters in harmonic and spiritual sync with each other, and in love with the unbound power and potential of song.
And like Steely Dan – not stylistically, mind you, but in terms of their aim – their work is always reflects the ambition and diligence to make real-time, timeless, rocking records out of these songs. Classic, soulful, rock and roll, analog and digital both, dimensional, and expansive. Built to last,
They will embark on a new 12-show tour this year (see below). Like their legions of fans, I am thankful for each successive brand-new classis they’ve created over these past years. Somehow they remain plugged into the source, and connect with the real-time rock, roll, soul, whimsy, wisdom, irony, passion and fire. Few other bands, for this writer, consistently create new music that I genuinely want to keep listening to over and over. That’s what it’s all about. Their music makes me feel good. It feeds a hunger that very few new records ever feed. And they keep doing it.
And it is needed – and appreciated – now more than ever, as the foundational ideas which guide this kind of work have been dismissed, abandoned, forgotten and/or lost by so many.
And, like Tom Petty and others who kept doing it, they make it look easy. Also fun.
They also make compelling, unexpected and great videos like this one below, the official music video, starring Dan & Pat, of “Wild Child.”
The Black Keys, Patrick Carney & Dan Auerbach, “Wild Child”
“Black Keys forever, bitch.”
So ends this video with these words. We agree.
Forever. That’s what it’s all about.
On behalf of rock & roll and those who live in its forever realm, allow us to say to Dan & Pat: Thank you! This world would suck even more without you.
The new album, Dropout Boogie, Out May 13
“Wild Child” By Daniel Auerbach & Patrick Carney
I’m just a stranger With a twisted smile and I’m wondering, ah Your heart is in danger Come close now, let me tell you a lie
Wild child You got me running through the turnstile Baby, come with and I’ll make it worthwhile You’re gonna get my love today, yeah
You are a sweet dream With a tender heart and beautiful smile But things aren’t what they seem So I’ll let you go and dream for a while
Wild child You got me coming outta exile Baby girl, you know I’m liking your style You’re gonna get my love today, yeah
I just wanna hold you at the end of every day Girl, I wanna please you, oh, I’m needing you to stay The sun is gonna shine if you would just come out and play Baby, won’t you show me your wild child ways
Wild child You got me running through the turnstile Baby, come with and I’ll make it worthwhile You’re gonna get my love today, yeah
Wild child You got me coming outta exile Baby girl, you know I’m liking your style You’re gonna get my love today, yeah
The Black Keys have officially announced their 32-date Dropout Boogie North American Tour. Dropout Boogie Tour begins July 9 in Las Vegas with special guests Band Of Horses. Ceramic Animal, Early James, & The Velveteers for select dates.
Presale codes can be found once signed up and logged into your Lonely Boys & Girls club profile starting Tuesday, Feb. 1 at 10 am ET.
A limited number of VIP packages will also be available starting Tuesday, Feb. 1 at 10 AM local time. VIP packages include premium seats, sound check visit, an autographed lithograph and more!
A brand-new timeless soul classic by Chris Seefried, Derrick Thomas, Sam Plecker & Trombone Shorty
By PAUL ZOLLO
It’s one of the most infectiously uplifting soul singles to emerge in a long time. If Marvin Gaye, Sly Stone, Isaac Hayes, all of Earth, Wind & Fire, and the Tower of Power horns were to team up to make one record, it might sound something like this. But maybe not as great.
From his first album in five years, Lifted, which arrives on April 29, this is Trombone Shorty with “Come Back.”
Trombone Shorty
The song and album were produced by Chris Seefried, who has written and produced great music for many bands and artists (including Andra Day, Lady Blackbird, Joseph Arthur, Counting Crows, Fitz & The Tantrums, Vintage Trouble). He co-wrote “Come Back” with Derrick Thomas, Sam Plecker & Trombone Shorty. Chris has been steadily establishing himself as one of the most soulful and savvy songwriter-producers making music now; like Mark Ronson, he ‘s got a gift for easily merging the real-time, soul magic of the analog past with the new sonics and grooves of our digital age. Usually a little more hip-hop than rock, these grooves propel timeless melodies that never fail to touch the heart, even while you are dancing.
Both romantically tender and anthemic, “Come Back” is built around an undeniably killer hook. It ‘s one of those which makes you feel happy the first time you hear it, and happier with each listening, as all its facets coalesce. It’s brand new and timeless at the same time, all about now but without abandoning those ancient elements which combine to make songs soar forever .
Since you've been away
I've been hurting
Since you've been away
Come back baby
Since you've been away
I've been hurting
Since you've been away
Come back and stay
Does it get better? This is new, true and it’s 2022.
“Come Back” ℗ Blue Note Records; ℗ 2022 UMG Recordings, Inc. Released on 18 February 2022
Producer, Arranger, Composer, Lyricist: Chris Seefried Mixer, Mastering Engineer: Mikael “Count” Eldridge Background Vocalist, Trombone, Trumpet, Vocals: Trombone Shorty Drums: Alvin Ford Bass Guitar: Mike Bass-Bailey Guitar: Pete Murano Hammond Organ, Rhodes: Brandon Butler Tenor Saxophone: BK Jackson Baritone Saxophone: Dan Oestreicher Background Vocals: Chris Pierce, Derek Thomas, Trombone Shorty Recording Engineer: Charles Smith Engineer: Seth Atkins Horan Mastering Engineer: Bernie Grundman
From his new album The Boy Named If, which burst forth in January, 2022 (it didn’t simply drop).
It comprises a song cycle which, according to Elvis, spans from “the last days of a bewildered boyhood to that mortifying moment when you are told to stop acting like a child—which for most men (and perhaps a few gals too) can be any time in the next 50 years.”
This is the single, and is perfect for this series in which we celebrate great songs which are brand new. This is a brand-new brand-new classic, written by Elvis, produced by him with Sebastian Krys, and recorded during lockdown with The Imposters (AKA The Attractions).
This is new, this is timeless, also charged, passionate, fun, mysterious, visceral, danceable, delicious, in funkified, unbridled B minor, and delightfully delightful.
“Magnificent Hurt” Words & Music by Elvis Costello
After talking in tongues, I began to preach What falls from the branch is an apple or peach Hold on to me, there’s a red alert It’s the way you make me feel, magnificent hurt
I took a little walk, I took another stimulant I shed a single tear for my predicament Don’t act surprised or insolent It’s the way you make me feel, magnificent hurt
When we first met, I knew you were beautiful You fit like the seat of a blue mohair suit And the pain that I felt let me know I’m alive And I opened my heart To the way you make me feel, magnificent hurt
I speak low and intimate Like a cardboard sophisticate What if this is true love? Not some town hall certificate It’s the way you make me feel, magnificent hurt
I stood at the door, and I almost went through with it Tight as the angle of my amen And I swore, there and then, as I feign and I flirt I unbuttoned my shirt To the way you make me feel, magnificent hurt To the way you make me feel, magnificent hurt
When it came to writing a song about your father, even John Prine knew that nobody ever did it better than his pal, the late Steve Goodman. Prine had already written a great song about his own father, “Paradise.” It was a song that moved his father more than any he ever wrote. But that was about more than his dad. It was about coal-mining in America, and the little town of Paradise where it happened. It was about America, and how swiftly it has changed.
But this one. “My Old Man” by Steve Goodman. It’s a song long beloved as among the greatest ever written from a son to his dad. For so many reasons. But more than anything, because it’s genuine. From the heart. The son, the father, the love, the regret, the tune. All of it. When Stevie wrote a song, he wrote a song to be remembered. More than forty years since it first emerged, it still is pure and perfect.
Steve Goodman at Wrigley Field
It’s also a perfect example of the songwriting wisdom that the more specific a song is, the more universal. Although this is as specific as it gets, with the true details of the life of his dad, known as Bud Goodman, a used car salesman in Chicago, it’s a song about all dads, and all children of parents who have dealt with the grief of losing their own dads.
“He wrote it for his father, Bud,” said John Prine, who has performed this song more than any other by Steve Goodman, his best pal, “It was after Bud died of a sudden heart-attack. Took about six months for it all to sink in, He kept telling me he was wondering when it would soak in, but he didn’t know it would turn into a song.”
Prine heard this one long-distance, and in the middle of the night.
“Usually when he finished a song he’d get on a pay-phone, wherever he was, and call me, and wake me up, and say, `Prine, I got one.’ That’s how I heard this one the first time. I always thought it was a really pretty one.”
Steve Goodman’s dad didn’t work in a coal mine. He was a used car dealer. But as Steve sings in the song, never was there a more charming guy on this planet. Even when he’d look you in the eye and sell you a used car. And never was there a more sweet and poignant song about a father than this one. Written in 1977, it was on Steve’s album Say It In Private, produced by Joel Dorn.
It’s got his dad’s real character – the corny jokes, the cheap cigar, his greatness at selling used cars. But also the history – time in the war, marrying mom, and then, becoming a dad. Then the fights with Stevey and his brother. The guy was human, not a saint. And Stevey also was human, and hardly a perfect son – admitting to tuning out his father – and the regret:
“And I’d give all I own to hear what he said when I wasn’t listening.”
Plus the sad and ironic humanity of father and son reflected:
“He was always trying to watch his weight/but his heart only made it to 58…”
And then the key line, which is about the songwriter, and about all humans having to somehow accept a loss so deep that it’s hard to fathom. Yet it’s a necessary acceptance, though heartbreaking, before singing the inevitable song of grief, the one which never really ends. But it begins.
“And for the first time since he died/late last night I cried/I wondered when I was gonna do that for my old man…”
In concert he introduced it with a smile, saying, “This song is for Joseph Bayer Goodman, my father. I asked my grandmother why she named him Bayer, cause there were no Bayers in the family. Anywhere. She said she had her reasons.”
He then shrugged to the audience, as if to say, “Who knows what that is all about?”
In 2006, Steve’s daughter Rosanna Goodman produced a tribute album for her dad called My Old Man, featuring many artists doing songs by Steve, and not the usual ones. But the highlight is her own beautiful version of the song.
ROSANNA GOODMAN, “MY OLD MAN” Written by her old man, Steve Goodman
Like many songwriters, when I first heard Steve’s song about his dad, I abandoned any idea of ever writing one of my own for my father. Because he’d done it so well. It’s simple, funny, poignant and beautiful. It doesn’t get better really. After knowing this, what could I write? It’s a dilemma never resolved.
John Prine felt the same way. Usually it was Steve Goodman who sang John Prine’s songs, as he sang Prine’s praises to everyone and anyone who would listen. It was Goodman, and those in the know already know well, insisted Kris Kristofferson hear him, which led to Prine getting signed but Atlantic.
But of all the songs by Steve Goodman, this was one Prine performed more than any other. He knew Bud, Steve’s dad, so he could see into the song as if he wrote it himself. He also knew and loved Steve Goodman, who died at only 36 years old in 1984. John outlived his best pal by 26 years, and kept Goodman’s spirit alive always. Prine’s performance of this song was always poignant and great, paying tribute to his absent pal with this song Steve wrote about the death of his dad. He wrote as a way of making sense of his own grief, and poured into it the loving, gentle whimsy that was his essence.
STEVE GOODMAN. “THIS IS A SONG FOR MY FATHER, JOSEPH BAYER GOODMAN.”
“My Old Man” By Steve Goodman
I miss my old man tonight And I wish he was here with me With his corny jokes and his cheap cigars He could look you in the eye and sell you a car That’s not an easy thing to do But no one ever knew a more charming creature On this earth than my old man
He was a pilot in the big war in the U.S. Army Air Corps In a C-47 with a heavy load Full of combat cargo for the Burma Road And after they dropped the bomb He came home and married mom |And not long after that He was my old man
And oh the fights we had When my brother and I got him mad He’d get all boiled up and he’d start to shout And I knew what was coming so I tuned him out And now the old man’s gone, and I’d give all I own To hear what he said when I wasn’t listening To my old man
I miss the old man tonight And I can almost see his face He was always trying to watch his weight And his heart only made it to fifty-eight For the first time since he died Late last night I cried I wondered when I was gonna do that For my old man
For more on the timeless greatness of Steve Goodman, look no farther than Clay Eals’ tremendous book Steve Goodman: Facing the Music. It’s one of the best books ever on a songwriter. It’s a book as great as Steve was great, and as loving. It’s the comprehensive, untold story of a young man whose hilarious, touching and heartening music — “City of New Orleans,” “You Never Even Call Me by My Name,” “Banana Republics,” “A Dying Cub Fan’s Last Request”, “Go, Cubs, Go” and many more stellar songs — uplifted millions.
All books ordered from this site will come with a special postcard, autographed by the author, and a CD (or CD-R) of 18 songs written after Steve’s death that pay tribute to him, and one track of interview clips with Steve himself.
Featuring Stevie’s own remembrances of writing the beloved Beach Boys’ song “Little Bird” with Dennis Wilson
By PAUL ZOLLO Photos by Paul Zollo/Tremolo Ghost
Happy Stevie Day! Today, remarkably, is the 80th birthday of the great songwriter-poet-painter-pacifist-visionary-mensch Stephen Kalinich. AKA “Stevie” to his friends, of which there are multitudes. I am proud to be a lifetime member of the FOS (Friends of Stevie), which is an expansive coalition of artists, musicians, poets, actors, writers and also civilians: those who love artists, musicians, poets, actors, writers and all they bring to our world
Happy Stevie Day! Today, remarkably, is the 80th birthday of the great songwriter-poet-painter-pacifist-visionary-mensch Stephen Kalinich. AKA “Stevie” to his friends, of which there are multitudes. I am proud to be a lifetime member of the FOS (Friends of Stevie), which is an expansive coalition of artists, musicians, poets, actors, writers and also civilians: those who love artists, musicians, poets, actors, writers and all they bring to our world
He was the closest and most trusted friend of the late great songwriter P.F. Sloan, known as Phil to his friends, of which I was one. It was Phil who first introduced me to Stevie, and let me know – without words – that Stevie could be trusted. That he was one of the good ones. Real good.
But it was at Phil’s funeral at the South Pasadena library that Stevie and I bonded. I gave the eulogy and Stevie read his beautiful poem, “If You Knew.” And I knew. This is a man of real-time heart and soul. A man of peace, as was Phil, in a world of war. A man of poetry and song in a world of dissonance and fury. A man of love in this sorrowful war-torn world. A man of hope and light always, even through these long seasons of darkness and despair.
He’s the rare poet who has always reflected the joy of life and art. He loves words, and he knows all the traditional structures and frames. He also knows truth. But what matters most, as we learn from his art, is the human connection. His message is to feel the joy. Don’t worry about life. Love the journey. And remind others just how finite and fleeting it is, so don’t get too distracted by the shiny things, or the darkness. Better to light your own light, and with it to illuminate the pathways for others hoping to make it through.
He is, as one friend said, someone “who will always show up.” Whether physically or with spirit, Stevie is well-known for letting others feel his love, and know they are not alone.
Stevie Kalinich at Book Soup, 2020. Photo by Zollo.
Often he does beautiful, magical things for his friends. He does these usually in semi-secret, so as to deliver the joy without any hint of self-glory. No doubt most of these remain unknown, but one recent one surfaced, and stands as a great symbol of Stevie’s tender heart and gentle benevolence:
When our friend Zak Nilsson, the son of Harry, was fighting a long and devastating battle with the cancer that took his life in March, 2021, Stevie reached out to a famous friend to let him know what Zak was going through, and maybe inspire a few words from him. That friend was Paul McCartney. (Paul sang on the beautiful “A Friend Like You,” which Stevie wrote with Brian Wilson.)
McCartney immediately sent off a letter of love to Zak. Zak, in turn, moved by McCartney’s expression and also his identification of the man who triggered it, posted a message about it online:
“I got this letter from Paul McCartney the other day,” wrote Zak. “He heard I had cancer and sent me this note. I was very touched that Harry’s friendship meant this much to Paul.”
In the letter, Paul wrote this:
“Paul McCartney here. Steven Kalinich wrote to me to let me know that you are about to have chemo, so I am sending you this note to encourage you to be strong and positive.I was privileged to know your Dad whom I knew as a lovely guy and a great talent. I wish you the very best of luck with the treatment. My wife, Nancy, went through it years ago and stuck with it even though she hated it. She is now better and well, except for the fact she is married to me!!
Sending the very best vibrations to you. Be well. Love Paul.”
Paul McCartney’s letter to Zak Nilsson, requested by Stevie, February 4, 2019.
Stevie has long embodied the beautiful symbol in his most beloved song, “Little Bird,” which he co-wrote with Dennis Wilson. It’s on the Beach Boys’ 1968 album Friends, and was produced by Brian Wilson. Brian also wrote the music for the bridge section, though chose to be uncredited for it, perhaps to shine more light on his brother Dennis, and also Stevie.
“`Little Bird’ blew my mind,” said Brian Wilson, “because it was so full of spiritualness.”
It is a magical, wonderful song. It’s not as famous as the big hits, which seems right, as the subject is delicate and small, yet makes a timeless impact, because it is genuine. Stevie always wrote from his heart, informed by his unbound love of language and poetry and song, and sweetened by love itself: for life, for Dennis , for art, music and beauty.
“It’s something people don’t talk about much, or even ask about,” Stevie said, “but I was in love when I wrote that song. Love shaped “Little Bird” more than anything.,
In honor of Stevie’s 80th birthday – and the fact that Stevie at 80 remains one of the youngest, most exultant, sweet , brilliant and funny people there is – we are happy to celebrate him here with this journey into the origins of “Little Bird.” I
t began, as he told us, with a poem he wrote inspired by seeing a little robin outside of Dennis Wilson’s home.
Stephen Kalinich, “Dennis” A Poem for Dennis Wilson Video by Paul Zollo
STEPHEN KALINICH: There was a little bird who gave me the poem, these words. The bird gave me the poem. It was a little bird, a robin with kind of a rough breast. And that bird, for me, was God’s messenger. His messenger of life for me. That is what I believe.
“Little Bird”was a miracle song for me. I felt so good about it. And my truth is I never thought of it becoming a hit. I never thought of money. I wanted to pour this kind of feeling into the world.
Remember Jay Ward who did “Bullwinkle”? In 1966 I met a guy that worked with him at the Hollywood YMCA and he loved my poems.
Stevie with his Art Photo by Paul Zollo
He said, “I’m good friends with Jay Ward and I’m friends with Brian Wilson.” So I would go down to Jay’s studio on Sunset there and I would sing him my folk chants that are now on the World of Peace album. I got to be friends with them and he set up meetings to go and see Brian Wilson.
Brian was playing at the Smothers Brothers Theater on Sunset in Hollywood. The first time I met him., The Beach Boys were rehearsing there.
Brian and I hit it off. He loved me and we just hit it off. Then the next thing I know, I had a contract with the Beach Boys as a writer and as a performer. The name of my group was Zarasthustra & Thelebeus. It was with Mark Lindsey Buckingham, who is not the one from Fleetwood Mac. He was a singer/songwriter and 12-string guitar player. He and I got signed, both of us, to Brother Records as publishers and performers.
Brian Wilson & Stevie Kalinich
Brian drew up the contracts. Nick Grillo was the one who actually had us sign the contract. I had no attorneys so it was not the fairest deal.
So then they introduced me to Dennis, and we got together to write a song. The first song we wrote was “Little Bird.” I went to his house at 14400 Sunset Boulevard. He was renting Will Rodgers’ old house.
“Little Bird” was done in that house. Dennis had a tree hut in the front of his property; a little house about 30 feet up. He and I would go up there. And that was the “Little Bird” time.
I was sitting at his piano, looking out the window, and I saw a bird up in the tree. And it’s almost like God or grace: The sun was shining. It was mid-afternoon. It was still light in the day and there was a little sunshine.
I wrote the words to “Little Bird.” I left it on his piano. He was upstairs doing something. He called me that night at midnight and had the melody done. He didn’t like one word: “stripe.” So he went right off my lyric. In fact, all my early songs with him, I did the words first. Like “Be Still.” I did the words first and then he did the music. I never wrote off a track with him.
Brian did have a hand in this but never claimed credit. He wrote the bridge part of the music: “Where’s my pretty bird? He must have flown away.”
I wrote the poem, the lyric, when I was sitting at the piano. Brian was not there, only me and Dennis. I wrote the lyric first and then in less than an hour, Dennis found it and was inspired with music. It was as if the words and melody were in him. Brian added his part in the studio.
The Beach Boys, “Little Bird” By Stephen Kalinich & Dennis Wilson. Produced by Brian Wilson. From the Beach Boys’ album Friends, 1968.
That was our first song and six weeks later it was out all over the world.
When I said, “the little bird up in a tree looked down and sang a song to me of how it began,” I wanted to repeat the words “how it began.” It was a lesson that the bird was giving me of life.
The little bird’s phrase was about all the secrets of all the universe, and of every song that’s ever been written, and every possible creative act. Because it all comes from the sea of divine love, or energy, if you want to call it that, if you’re a physicist. Or you can call it God, the universal music. The Sufi’s call it the one vibration where all music emanates in the stillness.
It’s also in the Bible, “Be still and know that I am God.”
All this was in “Little Bird.” Later, “Be Still” became a song of its own, but it was already in “Little Bird.” That’s why you can see out of that, the first one, how it began. And then he says, “How it began.” Which meant how all matter began.
Donovan and Stevie. Photo by Zollo.
It’s about what Einstein wrote about: the all-encompassing universe. “Little Bird” was a microcosm of matter and energy; the creation of the solar system. And I thought all that then when I wrote it. That’s why on the next refrain, the trout in the shiny brook gave a warm and loving look. To say that you don’t need to worry about us. That’s what he said.
So I’m saying by that reflection to you out there listening: “Don’t worry about your life. Here’s all the answers. It’s in the trout. It’s in the little bird. It’s in the flowers in the meadow. ” That theme is running through a lot of my work then. Little bird might drop me a seed for a tree to grow…
It’s so magical, like a Zen moment.
A lot of people misheard the lyric, and got it wrong – and it is even printed wrong often. The real lyric is “the trout in a shiny brook gave a warm and loving look.” But often people think the trout “gave the worm another hook.”
If people sing it that way, fine. But the original thing is that instead of the hook, he gave a warm and loving look and said, “Don’t worry about your life.”
Stevie with Quincy Jones Photo by Paul Zollo
Other writers borrowed words from other people. I tried to do it from the pure Zen of the experience with simple words that everyone could understand. It was the fashion then to be abstract. But instead of being abstract, I tried to put it in plain words. I wanted to be an effective communicator, and I hope I have become that in some areas.
`Little Bird’ was one of the greatest experiences in my life. The grace of the universe was involved and it has blessed me my whole life.”
“Little Bird” By STEPHEN KALINICH & DENNIS WILSON
Little bird up in a tree Looked down and sang a song to me Of how it began
Na na na na na na Na na na na na na Na na na na na na
The trout in the shiny brook Gave a warm and loving look And told me not to worry About my life
Na na na na na na Na na na na na na Na na na na na na
Tree in my own backyard Stands all alone Bears fruit for me And it tastes so good
Where’s my pretty bird? He must have flown away If I keep singing He’ll come back someday
Dawn, bird’s still gone Guess I’ll go mow the lawn
What a day, what a day Oooo, what a beautiful day this is Ooooooooo
Little bird up in a tree Looked down a sang a song to me The trout in a shiny brook Gave a warm and loving look And told me not to worry about my life
Little bird looked down And sang a song to me Little bird looked down And sang a song to me Little bird looked down And sang a song to me
This new set also features beautifully poetic liner notes by our friend and fellow-author-songwriter, John Kruth
It is the ideal moment for this album to arrive. It’s a new year again, the newest one yet. There is the joy of liberation in America and beyond as the long season of lockdown gloom and doom is slowly fading out. Again we can rejoice at being in the sunshine again, no longer on house arrest but free to take in nature again. Trees, flowers, birds, squirrels and other assorted wildlife on the outside of our windows are all in the happy sway of June, and this album – Trees of the Ages – arrives like a celebration for our endurance.
As devout Laura Nyro fans around the world (a club to which this writer proudly belongs) already knows, every record she made in her 49 years contains a miracle of beauty, inspiration, wisdom of the streets and of the ages, beautiful artistry, melodic splendor and dimensional love for a life spent inside songs. When she died in 1997, she’d already created enough truly great music for a lifetime. Unlike other great songwriting careers cut short, her’s did not seem incomplete. It seems likely that with a spirit so luminously enlightened, realizing her entire opus during her earthly life span was never an issue.
Her live shows, as those who were there know well, were unlike most other concerts in that she wasn’t performing the songs. This was entertainment, but much more. She inhabited each song fully, and gave it voice. Onstage she beamed with a beautifully zen state of calm, as the music – replete with her warm, jazz-fed chords, streetwise lyricism and her soul singing – shone like moonglow.
Laura Nyro got older, but she never got old. Her songs never have aged at all. They are truly timeless. That writers often wax poetic when she is the subject to that enduring magic in the songs, and in her performances of them. Prose alone for Laura Nyro just doesn’t suffice. John Kruth’s great liner notes, which he kindly allowed us to reprint here, serve as an appropriately exultant and inspired epic adjunct to this journey. His words resonate with the luminous joy that radiate in her songs and spirit. Kruth, a songwriter, musician and music scholar, reached with real-time reverence to that realm from which her songs came, and brought back this poem.
Black hair shrouds her pale face like the night sky swallowing the moon.
Her lips are stained with bittersweet grapevine poems that beckon and seduce, as her moonbeam fingers, long and silvery, do a slow float over ivory piano keys, finding, fondling warm chords that resonate in heart chambers from Osaka to the Bronx.
A melancholy architect who, since the age of five, built a world of music that she laid stone by stone, a yellow brick sidewalk that zigzagged to her own private Oz, where Judy Garland and Claude Debussy shared a picnic in the eternal poppy fields, below a “Broken Rainbow.” Laura, the Earth Mother, tossed her sonic summer salad of gospel and jazz, with croutons of doo wop, and a zesty dressing of giddy Broadway musical motifs.
Brown earth tones that gently cradled words that can’t be expressed, no matter how playful and graceful, without the embrace of melody. Eyes distant gazing, lost in thought, listening to something nobody else can hear, like having a conversation with the divine.
A woman of the “Wild World,” Laura was never one to color between the lines. Known to drive her sidemen to the brink with tempos that shifted with her every mood. Each song, a prayer. Brief and fleeting meditations, as time hangs suspended in the moments between the last fading notes and the applause that falls like snowflakes on a hot cast iron stove. The Japanese audience so careful and polite, hoping not to break the gossamer spell she wove with the sharp clapping of hands.
Harmonies pour from the three Dianes (only Laura Nyro could have a choir of Dianas) echo her every word and emotion. “Diana,” a name traditionally associated with the Roman goddess of fertility, hunting and childbirth, that translates to “luminous,” “divine,” “fertile,” and “perfect.” As her piano pulses, she namechecks the lyre strumming poetess, Sappho, the “Tenth Muse,” who lived and died on the island of Lesbos. Louise’s Church” is dedicated to the chic Russian sculptor Louise Nevelson, the tragic jazz diva Billie Holiday, and Frida Kahlo, who painted her autobiography in brilliant hues.
You can learn a lot from just one of Nyro’s songs. Which led me to do a bit more research beyond the usual stuff like her baby boomer birthdate: the 18th of October, 1947 (just barely two years after the war finally ended) and what her papa Louis Nigro (yes, she changed her name) did for a living: blowing jazz trumpet and tuning pianos. According to my Wicca sister Conleth, from St. Paul, Minnesota, “the moon, on February 22, 1994, (the date of this recording) was in Cancer, at 17°, in the phase known as Waxing Gibbous – a time for manifesting deep emotion, and a sense of belonging in the world. But being in Cancer, the stomach, lymph system and sexual/reproductive organs were particularly more sensitive and needed extra care.”
We human beings are constantly faced with forces both unknown and beyond our control, often feeling like the star of a movie we didn’t write, and are clearly not directing, yet always wondering when and how it will end. Laura’s gentle reading of “And When I Die” takes on a deeper significance here, knowing, as we do now, that she would soon be gone and “one child [will be] born and the world will carry on…” Like her mother, Gilda, the bookkeeper, Laura too was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. With the spring of 1997, she was gone at forty-nine, the same age at which her mom died. Her ashes were then scattered beneath “The Tree of Ages,” at her home in Danbury, Connecticut.
Everything about Laura Nyro spelled drama, from the way she tossed her head back as she belt out her lonely moon siren songs that poured from her throat, sculpting the air in Van Gogh curves that swirled and continue to undulate like waves of wind, as beads of sweat sparkled on her forehead, and ran down her neck like tears of moonlight, bursting and flowing down the cheeks of those who need her (still), think they know her, bought a piece of her soul for $6.95 at Sam Goody’s, and listen repeatedly to her voice igniting joy and beckoning them through the dark night of the soul.
And although unpredictable, she was never acting! The dark-eyed gypsy Madonna lights another cigarette in her candle-lit womb. The rituals she regularly performed to keep herself from drowning in an undertow of emotion became a lifesaver tossed to thousands of others around the world in quiet distress. Although they might not show it waiting in line to get in to see her, below the surface of their anticipating faces, down in the flat fish territory of their souls, lies a suitcase of sorrow, that freight of destiny we all lug around until it finally, effortlessly, slips off our back, one hallelujah morning.
In these (and those) sad/mad times, there remains the eternal hope that a song might still rescue us. “Save the Country!” “It’s Gonna Take A Miracle” … yes, indeed. Concerned about the fate of our planet, our environment, humanity, and animals, Laura Nyro became a vegetarian and animal rights activist, joined the peace movement, the women’s movement, and the movement of the soul, stirred by rock’n’roll, and R&B. She knew music was the healing force of the universe, generously offering “an invitation across the nation” and a chance to dance in the street. She smiled in the face of adversity, while flagging down “The Poverty Train,” tackling problems of racism and sexism that we already confronted (and foolishly thought we solved) with the struggles and protests of the 50s, 60s and 70s.
It’s late now. The windows are opaque with night. The moon is distant and high in the sky, its pale face shrouded by another storm of raven-black hair, as Laura sings her “Luna Rosé” songs that reverberate through the walls of time, back to when she sat alive at the piano in Osaka, clad in a silky kimono and tabi (split-toed) boots, punctuating the end of each offering with a gentle “arigato” (thank you). Time keeps spinning and flashing by like the carnival rides she once took, while laughing boys back in her broody teenage Bronx days, stood like awkward flowers, watching, joking, smoking, flicking cigarette butts onto oily, rain-puddled streets, as she sang, “It can never be the way we want it to be…”
There is a faith in loving fiercely
the one who is rightfully yours,
especially if you have
waited years and especially
if part of you never believed
you could deserve this
loved and beckoning hand
held out to you this way.
I am thinking of faith now
and the testaments of loneliness
and what we feel we are
worthy of in this world.
Years ago in the Hebrides
I remember an old man
who walked every morning
on the grey stones
to the shore of the baying seals,
who would press his hat
to his chest in the blustering
salt wind and say his prayer
to the turbulent Jesus
hidden in the water,
and I think of the story
of the storm and everyone
waking and seeing
the distant
yet familiar figure
far across the water
calling to them,
and how we are all
preparing for that
abrupt waking,
and that calling,
and that moment
we have to say yes,
except it will
not come so grandly,
so Biblically,
but more subtly
and intimately in the face
of the one you know
you have to love,
so that when we finally step out of the boat
toward them, we find
everything holds
us, and confirms
our courage, and if you wanted
to drown you could,
but you don’t
because finally
after all the struggle
and all the years,
you don’t want to any more,
you’ve simply had enough
of drowning
and you want to live and you
want to love and you will
walk across any territory
and any darkness,
however fluid and however
dangerous, to take the
one hand you know
belongs in yours.
Aussie Photographer at Day of the Dead, Hollywood Forever, 2017. Photo by Paul Zollo/Tremolo GhostNoho Barbershop, 2017. Photo by Paul Zollo/Tremolo Ghost
ELLEN FOLEY & PAUL FOGLINO OCTOBER 29, 2021 at the Bowery Electric in NYC. Photo by @LaMinda .
Ellen Foley’s Fighting Words, written & produced by Paul Foglino, wins multiple awards, including Best Rock Album, 2021, also Song of the Year, 2021, for “Are You Good Enough?” and more
Ellen Foley, Fighting Words The Bluerailroad Best Rock Album of the Year, 2021. Written & Produced by Paul Foglino
By PAUL ZOLLO
The recipients of the 2021 Bluerailroad Awards, for excellence in music and music-writing, were announced today. The biggest winners are Ellen Foley and her producer-songwriter Paul Foglino. Together and separately they won several Bluerailroad awards, including Best Rock Album, 2021 for Fighting Words; Song of the Year and Best Rock Song for “Are You Good Enough?” and Best Folk Song for “Fill Your Cup.”
In addition, Ellen Foley was individually awarded as the Artist of the Year, 2021, and Paul Foglino, individually, was awarded with the Songwriter of the Year, 2021 award.
The legendary and beloved Ross Altman was awarded with the Pete & Woody Lifetime Achievement in Songwriting Award, as well as the Best Folk Album award for If Not Now, When?
The phenomenal Lady Blackbird and her co-writer/producer Chris Seefried are also multiple winners, for her debut album, Black Acid Soul, named Best Jazz Album, 2021. And also for Best Jazz Song, 2021, for “Fix It,” performed by Lady Blackbird, and written by Seefried and Bill Evans,.
St. Vincent won her fourth Bluerailroad award this year for Best Art Rock album for Daddy’s Home.
We are happy to announce all the recipients for the 2021 Bluerailroad Awards for Excellence in Music:
The BLUERAILROAD MUSIC AWARDS, 2021
BLUERAILROAD ARTIST OF THE YEAR, 2021 Ellen Foley
BLUERAILROAD SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR, 2021: Paul Foglino
SONG OF THE YEAR, 2021 “Are You Good Enough?” Paul Foglino, songwriter; Ellen Foley, artist.
SONG of the YEAR, 2021: Ellen Foley, “Are You Good Enough” By Paul Foglino
BEST FOLK SONG “Fill Your Cup,” written by Paul Foglino; performed by Ellen Foley on Fighting Words
Paul Foglino performs his own version of “Fill Your Cup,” the Bluerailroad Best Folk Song of the Year, as recorded by Ellen Foley on Fighting Words.
THE BLUERAILROAD PETE & WOODY LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD in SONGWRITING Ross Altman PhD
Ross Altman
BEST FOLK ALBUM, 2021 Ross Altman, If Not Now, When?
BEST JAZZ ALBUM, 2021 Lady Blackbird, Black Acid Soul. Chris Seefried, producer.
BEST JAZZ SONG, 2021: “Fix It,” By Lady Blackbird, artist, Chris Seefried, Bill Evans; songwriters
Lady Blackbird, “Fix It”
BEST ART ROCK ALBUM St. Vincent, Daddy’s Home
St. Vincent, “Daddy’s Home“
The BLUERAILROAD JULES SHEAR SONGWRITING ARTISTRY AWARD for BEST ALBUM OF BRAND NEW MIRACLE SONGS Jules Shear, Slower
Jules Shear, “Feels Like Fall” from Slower
PRODUCER OF THE YEAR Shooter Jennings, We Are Chaos, Marilyn Manson (artist).
BEST ROCK COLLABORATION Marilyn Manson & Shooter Jennings, We Are Chaos
BEST ROCK & ROLL ALBUM: Jimmy Angel & The Jason Gutierrez 3, Love Fever. Produced by Jason Gutierrez.
Jimmy Angel with the Jason Gutierrez 3 [L-R Jason Gutierrez, Jimmy Angel, Jon Biggs and Sal Guitarez
Jimmy Angel with the Jason Gutierrez 3, “Elvis & Marilyn,” from Love Fever
GREATEST RADIO SINGLE OF 2021: EELS, “Good Night On Earth.” Written by E; produced by John Parish.
EELS, “Good Night on Earth” Produced by John Parish
BEST NEW CLASSIC ROCK SONG Barry Keenan & Invisible Poet Kings, “North Country”
BEST HIP POP ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Finneas, Optimist
FINNEAS, “Only A Lifetime” from Optimist
MOST HAUNTINGLY MELODIC SONG, 2021 Ryan Levine, “I Miss The War”
Ryan Levine, “I Miss The War” Winner for Most Haunting Melody, 2021
MOST BELOVED ANGELENO ARTIST OF THE YEAR Tom Freund
“Homer Simpson’s Clouds (Day Of The Locust)” by Tom Freund From “East Of Lincoln” 2018 on Surf Road Records.
MOST BELOVED ANGELENO BAND OF THE YEAR Los Lobos
Los Lobos, “Mas Y Mas,” Live
BEST SOLO INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM Ben Harper, Winter is for Lovers Released in November, 2020
Ben Harper, “Winter is for Lovers“
BEST L.A. RADIO STATION KCSN, the Independent 88.5 FM | Southern California Radio
BEST NEW BEATLES MOVIE Get Back PETER JACKSON, Director JOHN LENNON, PAUL McCARTNEY, GEORGE HARRISON & RINGO STARR, Beatles Also starring BILLY PRESTON, GEORGE MARTIN, YOKO ONO, LINDA McCARTNEY and MAL EVANS
THE BLUERAILROAD EDEN AHBEZ SONG-DREAMER AWARD Marvin Etzioni
Thee Holy Brothers (Marvin Etzioni & Willie Aron), “Elvis in Jerusalem” by Marvin Etzioni
BESTSONG WRITTEN FOR A MOVIE: “No Time To Die,” by Billie Eilish and Finneas
The DR. JOHN MYSTIC PIANO MAN AWARD, 2021: Bob Malone
BEST JAZZ/BLUES/R&B/FUNK/PIANO MAN ALBUM OF THE YEAR, 2021: Bob Malone, Good People
Bob Malone, “Tangled Up In Blue,” by Bob Dylan
THE WARREN ZEVON GENIUS AWARD, 2021: Neil Rosengarden
Neil Rosengarden, “Everybody Likes The Rain” by Neil Rosengarden & Stephen Kalinich
MOST BEAUTIFUL, EXPANSIVE and LOVINGLY DESIGNED WOODY GUTHRIE BOOK, 2021 Nora Guthrie, Robert Santelli, Woody Guthrie, Songs and Art – Words and Wisdom: Voice of the People
Rickie Lee At the Vista. Hollywood, 2010. Photo by Paul Zollo
Never has a songwriter written a memoir as beautiful and powerful as this one. But there’s never been another artist like Rickie Lee. It’s among the most poignant, funny, genuine, tragic, romantic, poetic, harrowing, ambitious, generous , soulful, brilliantly rendered, immaculately remembered, luminously musical and exultant memoirs ever written.
GREATEST SONGWRITER MEMOIR EVER: Rickie Lee Jones, Last Chance Texaco, Chronicles of an American Troubadour
BEST MUSIC BIOGRAPHY, 2021 Ben Sidran, The Ballad of Tommy LiPuma
GREATEST AND MOST MAGICAL LEONARD COHEN ON HYDRA MEMOIR Leonard, Marianne and Me Magical Summers on Hydra By Judy Scott
BEST AND MOST INSIGHTFUL BOOK ON JOHN & YOKO JOHN KRUTH, Hold On World: The Lasting Impact of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono Band, Fifty Years On
BEST MUSIC PHOTO BOOK, 2021 Eye of the Music. The Photography of Sherry Rayn Barnett; New York to LA 1969-1989 Foreword by Holly Gleason
BEST MEMOIR FEATURING BOB DYLAN , LEONARD COHEN, THE DALAI LAMA and more Nomad Girl, My Adventures with Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, John Lee Hooker, the Dalai Lama and more. By Niema Ash
BEST LINER NOTES John Kruth, Trees of the Ages; Laura Nyro Live in Japan
THE BEST JOHN PRINE SONG BY SONG CELEBRATION BOOK John Prine, One Song At A Time By Bruce Rits Gilbert
Ross Altman is also the winner this year for Best Folk Album, 2021 for If Not Now, When?
“All songwriters are links in a chain.” – Pete Seeger
“Everybody might be just one big soul Well, it looks that a way to me… Wherever little children are hungry and cry, Wherever people ain’t free That’s where I’m gonna be…”
-Woody Guthrie
‘
Bluerailroad is happy to announce that Ross Altman has won not one but two awards this year (our first double winner ever):
He is the first recipient of the 2021 Bluerailroad Pete & Woody Lifetime Achievement Award in Songwriting for his entire lifetime of writing and performing his own songs, informed and empowered by his work as a scholar, historian, journalist and activist.
Ross is also the recipient of the Best Folk Album of the Year 2021 award for his latest album If Not Now, When? We will bring you more about this album in coming days.
We named the Lifetime Achievement award in honor of Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie because individually, and together as friends, they both exemplified the better and even best angels of songwriting. Woody knew, as Bob Dylan told us, that “the airwaves are sacred. Though these airwaves are now considered ‘terrestrial,’ they’re hardly earthbound; he recognized that this was more than a vehicle for musical confection, contrived and sugared for mass appeal. To him this was a miraculously powerful tool by which one could reach the masses directly and constantly, inspiring and uniting people.
He also recognized that It also could be used to lull, distract, misinform, fool, frighten and divide. To Woody it was self-evident that given its unbound power and scope it should be used in positive ways, to bring hope, love, unity and trust to the people. To bring songs about social injustice – about the deportees and dispossessed, those made to feel that this land is not their land. He knew the power of song – combined with that of radio – could change the world for the good. Here was a way to deliver musical messages of hope and solace to all people, even those cut off from life. He wrote songs to bring people together, to lift their hearts, and to connect souls.
Always the message came across:
Yes, this is a crazy world. Brutal, in fact. But you are not alone. We’re doing this together.
“The worst thing you can do,” wrote Woody, “is to cut yourself loose from the people. And the best thing is to vaccinate yourself right into the big streams and blood of the people.”
Ross Altman’s allegiance to this principle has been positively heroic over the years. As an activist and performer. he’s closer to Pete than Woody. Whereas Woody might turn to a jug of wine, as he did to fuel the epic “Tom Joad,” falling asleep over Pete’s old acoustic typewriter, Pete nourished his spirit with activism and scholarship both. He also became a serious folk music archivist, by discovering and performing folk songs from the very roots, as well as all the branches. Ross is a serious scholar who knows this history, and also that of Pete & Woody. As he said in a performance of Pete’s controversial “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” when he was a kid, people didn’t talk about Pete Seeger much because he was blacklisted. His music was considered dangerous – and kept off the sacred airwaves. But Ross kept talking about him, and singing his praises, and his songs.
As a performing artist, he’s also closer to Pete than Woody. As Steinbeck wrote, Woody was just “a voice and a guitar.” He wasn’t a polished performer at all, nor an entertainer. Pete Seeger – on his own and with his group The Weavers – was a powerful, charismatic performer with a beautiful and powerful singing voice. Ross, in addition to his other multitiudes, has one of the most commanding, resonant singing voices of any folksinger. He can project a melody with vigor and easy grace, and can deliver a lyric so that it is received fully. Had he never written any of his own songs, he would still be one of the great folksingers of our time.
Ross Altman, “This Land Was Made For You and Me” by Woody Guthrie
Like Woody, Ross has a rarefied songwriting gift which is almost extinct in these post-modern modern times: the ability to translate the timely cultural events and characters of today into timeless and sturdy songs. Woody was a genius at this, as we have come to learn. Daily he’d land on items in the newspaper which would trigger songs, which he would usually write and complete immediately. As songwriters know, it’s not an easy thing to do. To create a lasting song, something that matters long after the subject has come and gone, and in this age of digital news flashing as fast as lightning and then disappearing, is harder than ever. He does it, as did Woody, with a great mixture of wisdom, compassion and humor.
Ross Altman is probably the most prolific, literate, experienced, politically active, and excellent topical singer/songwriter in Los Angeles today.”
-Sarah Cooper
Woody did it countless times, as has Ross. His newest album, If Not Now, When? our favorite Folk album of 2021, does this over and over, and with as much joy and flair as ever. Because in addition to that knack with the timely, newsy details of daily life, it also requires a savvy craftsman. Because a song is more than words. It is more than poetry. It is born as a creature of both words and music, which inherently unites the timely and the timeless, and the specific with the universal. To accomplish this requires a real mastery of all aspects of song craft – those ancient elements which even poetry has mostly abandoned but which we find in songs always – rhyme, meter, symbology, myth. Those are all contained within the lyrics. Add to that the abstract unseen but undeniable force of music itself – of melody, harmony, rhythm – all wed precisely to the contours of the human voice, so that the song sings naturally.
The opening song of the new album is a remarkable crystallization of his brilliance with the topical song. “Terry Schiavo RIP ” not only rips right to the center of this horror, which many have probably long forgotten, of a husband keeping his wife alive in the hospital against the wishes of her family. How one would translate that into a song is hard to fathom. He took a Phil Ochs/Tom Lehrer way in – the use of dark whimsy mixed in with great song craft and virtuoso rhyming, This is a man who knows what he is doing.
Part of that stems from the fact that, like Pete Seeger – and also his father Charles Seeger -= Ross is a scholar. Not only one of our greatest historians of folk music in America, he’s got a PhD in Modern Literature. It’s why he can write an elegiac song for the poet W.H. Auden as beautifully as he writes about the tragic death of Robin Williams. In a world where so many songwriters presume wrongly that there’s no song content left for them, as “everything’s been done,” he has shown in every album the real-time truth: that the potential content of a song is limitless.
Ross AltmanPhD, “If Not Now, When?”
This is not the first time Ross has been awarded for his songwriting and activism. In 2016 Folkworks magazine, where Ross was a columnist since 2003, writing his How Can I Keep From Talking column, awarded him with the first-ever Folkworks Standing Ovation award “to honor individuals who have contributed to our folk community.” Their words fit our sentiment exactly; this wasn’t a hard choice:
“For our first award, the selection was so easy and obvious. The person who came to mind immediately was our own esteemed FolkWorks writer, and Los Angeles institution, Ross Altman.
Ross cares about people and about ethics… not just in his singing and writing…but in his everyday caregiving. He is motivated by the likes of Pete Seeger, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, Buffy Ste. Marie, Joan Baez and of course Bob Dylan. In fact, through his writings in FolkWorks, Ross has garnered attention as an authority on Bob Dylan.“
We will bring you more about Ross and the new album, but first some great holiday gifts. Here are some performances by the man of some great originals, and also songs by Pete & Woody.
And on behalf of all those whose journeys have been enriched by the songs, spirit and soul of this artist, we say: For all the things you are, thank you Ross Altman forever. We love you.
Ross Altman, “When Pete Refused To Sing.” A song by Ross about our hero.
Ross Altman, “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy” by Pete Seeger
Ross Altman tells the essential folksinger story, about Utah Phillips
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