This email includes at the bottom a selection from The Book of Good Deeds 1914-1918. Collected and Edited with a Foreword by Bernhard Diebold. 1938. This book consists of accounts of good deeds during World War I. Most accounts are by Germans.
Anecdotes are usually short humorous stories. Sometimes they are thought-provoking or informative, not amusing.
Signs
• A farmer wanted to protect his chickens from thieves, so he posted this sign by his chicken coop: “Anyone who loafs around my chicken house at night will be found still there the next morning.”
• After tennis champion Martina Navratilova defected from Czechoslovakia to the United States, she acquired the vanity license plate “X-CZECH.”
• Sign on a high school teacher’s bulletin board: “FREE. Every Monday through Friday. Knowledge. Bring your own containers.”
Training and Trainers
• As a world-class women’s gymnastics coach, Bela Karolyi emphasizes hard work. Before the 1996 Olympic Games were held in Atlanta, Mr. Karolyi was training a couple of U.S. team members at his ranch in Texas. A storm knocked out all the electricity to his ranch and gymnasium, but he simply opened the doors to the gym and held practice anyway.
• Lucia Rijker is a European boxing champion whose nickname is “Lady Ali.” After winning a boxing match against a tough opponent, she ran over to her trainer and tried to jump into his arms, but he was a new trainer, and he was much smaller than her old trainer. So, to celebrate her victory, she picked him up and lifted him over her head.
• Some gymnasts do odd exercises. In the late 1970s, to build up the strength in their legs, some of coach Muriel Grossfeld’s young girl gymnasts used to push cars up a slightly slanted driveway. Sometimes, drivers would see them and stop, thinking that the gymnasts needed help because their car was stalled.
Travel
• In the summer of 1987, 16-year-old future soccer superstar Julie Foudy made some major moves in her favorite sport. She had been playing soccer well as a member of a local district team, and she was picked to play on a team that represented California. Within a month, she had played so well that she was picked to play on the West Regional team that competed in west Washington state. She played well there and was one of 18 girls picked to go to Michigan to play, so she called home to ask, “Mom, can you send more money? I don’t know what’s going on, but I have to go to Michigan.” Once again, she played well, and she was picked to go to Blaine, Minnesota, to play on the national 19-and-under team. As you may expect by now, Julie played well and was chosen to play on yet another team. She called home again: “Mom! I need more money! I’m going to China! With the U.S. women’s national team! They just put me on the team!” (In 1996, she won an Olympic gold medal as part of the United States national women’s soccer team.)
• When Julia Chang was a teenager, her relatives smuggled her out of mainland China so she could escape Communism. She took very little of value with her — except a coat with a lining to which $100 was pinned. In the United States, she attended Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, married Henry Lin, became an English professor at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, and gave birth to Maya Lin, who is named after the Hindu goddess who is the mother of Buddha. Her middle name — Ying — is Chinese and means “precious stone.” Like other teenagers, Maya Lin worked at McDonald’s to earn spending money. Later, as an architecture student at Yale University, she designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C.
• One day, Samson Raphael Hirsch, the leader of German Orthodoxy in the 19th century, decided to travel to Switzerland. This surprised his disciples, so he explained, “When I stand shortly before the Almighty, I will be held answerable to many questions, but what will I say when, and I am sure to be asked, ‘Did you see my Alps?’”
• A new museum was being built right on the rim of the Grand Canyon, one of the most majestic sights in the world. A bus dropped off several tourists — who ignored the Grand Canyon and instead watched the cement mixer.
War
• Howard M. Jenkins, a Quaker, was totally opposed to war. After Mr. Jenkins had become editor of a Quaker newspaper, the Friends Intelligencer, a friend told him, “Thee is getting on well, Howard, except that almost all of thy editorials are about peace.” Mr. Jenkins replied, “As long as civilized nations believe in war, I expect to give about 50 editorials a year to the subject. That will leave two weeks for other concerns.”
***
FREE eBook: THE MOST INTERESTING PEOPLE WHO LIVE LIFE, Volume 2
From The Book of Good Deeds 1914-1918: WORLD WAR I GOOD DEEDS:
MOTHER OF ALL
SOME years after the war I was traveling back from England to Germany. As we left London, an English lady entered my compartment, dressed in one of the most extraordinary uniforms I have ever seen. It was of military cut and crowned with an unbecoming cap. She was on her way to Moscow, to give aid and advice to British subjects living there. “It has been thought suitable,” she told me, “that I and my colleagues wear this uniform.”
Then we got talking about the war. She had been a nurse and told me a great deal about her experiences with German prisoners. Finally she told me this story: “One day, along with some other badly wounded Germans, they brought in quite a young chap, a boy of sixteen. His case was hopeless, and he was very restless and kept calling for his mother. One of the Red Cross men came and said to me, ‘Nurse, do come and see whether you can do anything for the poor little chap.’ So I went to his bedside and took one of his hands in both mine. At that he opened his eyes, looked at me very tranquilly and said, ‘Mother, I knew you would come.’ A few minutes later all was over.”
What the Englishwoman told me I promised to myself to pass on at a suitable opportunity. Because, as every mother whose son was missing, thinks of the Unknown Soldier as her boy, so may every mother who gave a sixteen-year-old son think, “It was mine whom the strange woman consoled for me.”
Hart, Bob: “Caitlin Kraus: Making her own kind of music.” The Athens News. 19 December 2023
“It was a song called ‘Garden’ that did it for me. Perhaps only when a musical artist writes deeply personal lyrics do their words become universal, belying the specifics of their own situation and emotions to touch others on an intimate level. That song and many other good ones are on the CD “Gone Beyond,” by Caitlin Kraus. It’s her second recorded collection (following “What Rises”) and is available through many outlets, including caitlinkrausmusic.bandcamp.com, Spotify and Apple Music.”…
Caitlin Kraus: “Make It Clear” (Caitlin Kraus performs “Make It Clear” Aug. 17, 2023, at the Athens (OH) Community Center.) — From the album GONE BEYOND.
It is a very special honor to have completed this music video for “Follow Me,” which was directed by the wonderful Adam Remnant who also recorded the song itself back in 2016. We collaborated on the concepts in the video and spent a chilly, beautiful spring day filming it with his talented students (listed below) at the Nelsonville, OH brick kilns, Hocking River, and surrounding neighborhood. For me, the lyrics and music of this song portray real imagery and memories that have grown dream-like with the passing of time, yet still remain formative and foundational. At its core, it is about transformation and being/becoming, but I hope the ambiguity and symbolism of the song and video also lead to your own interpretation and that you can find something resonant within it. Lyrics and digital/CD format available at caitlinkrausmusic.bandcamp.com. Music website at caitlinkrausmusic.com.
A huge and sincere thank you to Adam Remnant for his direction of the video and to the Hocking College students listed in the following credits: AC – Alex Rhinehart & Najayah Shepard; Grips – Alex Rhinehart, Alexis Pariseau, Najayah Shepard, Nate Ruhl, & Richard Valentine; On-set Photographer – Ivan Reardon
“Follow Me” is featured on the full-length 2020 release WHAT RISES and includes myself on vocals/guitar, Adam Remnant on bass/drums/keyboard, and Hannah Simonetti on violin. The song was recorded and mixed by Adam in Athens, OH while the full album was produced, mixed, and mastered by Bernie Nau at Peachfork Studios in Pomeroy, OH (https://peachforkstudios.com/).
A song for the rights of all: the right to be safe in our bodies, the right to make decisions for our bodies, and the right to be who we are in our bodies. (Lyrics below.) I wrote this song […] out of the need to process my anger at women’s rights being taken away and for what this means for other rights down the line. A never-ending issue it seems, but one we can’t stop fighting for. A big thank you to Tom Riggs for taking footage of my first performance of this song with Mark Hellenberg on drums at The Union in Athens, OH.
Lyrics for “This Body”:
This body is temporary, but while it’s here / It’s not yours to hold captive in fear / This body is mine, it was never yours / So fuck your laws and gods and guns / I get to say what I put inside / I GET TO CHOOSE, IT IS MY RIGHT / This body is sacred, but only safe / When I’m in charge, you have no claim / This body is proud and wears the crown / Makes the decisions and won’t back down / I get to say what I put inside / I GET TO CHOOSE, IT IS MY RIGHT / And don’t tell me who I can love or about my identity / Don’t use your privilege to subject your patriarchy / I get to say what I put inside / I GET TO CHOOSE, IT IS MY RIGHT
Caitlin Kraus: “What Rises” — From the album WHAT RISES
Interview & Article for WOUB Public Media (8/6/2020): Interview about upcoming performance for the Virtual Nelsonville Music Festival, history as a songwriter and musician, and experiences as a performer during the pandemic.
OVRLD Austin Music First (6/13/2016): “On her new single ‘Waiting for the World,’ Caitlin Kraus’ sweetly shimmering voice rises out of an oceanic musical backing, giving the track a melancholic feel, like a reinterpretation of The Awakening’s bitter conclusion. Kraus’ voice is powerful but not in a bombastic sense, it’s instead devastating in its emotional richness. The well-arranged strings that emerge after the beginning of the song aid in this, making ‘Waiting for the World’ an excellent bit of chamber pop that stands out for the frequently unimaginatively produced singer songwriter tracks Austin is oversaturated with.”
Suggested Listening ’23: Caitlin Kraus Suggests Good Music to Listen To
Caitlin Kraus is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and Board-Certified Music Therapist providing services to students at Ohio University in Athens, OH. When she is not counseling, Caitlin is an active musician and songwriter, performing her music both solo and with a band under her name. She has released two full-length albums from Peachfork Studios: “Gone Beyond” (2023) and “What Rises” (2020). She also sings and plays in the band Drift Mouth. She is the proud companion of two wonderful dogs.
Some of the music choices presented here were not actually released in 2023 as I am usually a time traveler when it comes to music. While it was hard to choose only 10 albums/artists and songs, this is some of the music that I happened to listen to often in 2023 and which personally resonated the most. It is presented in no particular order. I hope you can enjoy it along with me!
Drift Mouth opens its Jan. 13, 2024, set at The Union in Athens, OH, with “Starling.” Lou Poster on lead vocals and guitar, Caitlin Kraus guitar, David Murphy drums, Nate Brite bass.
Anecdotes are usually short humorous stories. Sometimes they are thought-provoking or informative, not amusing.
Rabbis
• R’ Meir Leibush, the Malbim, became the rabbi of Bucharest. The first Sabbath he was rabbi, he took a walk and observed many Jewish businesses open and conducting business. He then told the leaders of the community that he must resign because he was afraid that he would not be paid. When the leaders asked how he could think such a thing, he replied, “When you appointed me rabbi of the city, you offered me a fine salary. I therefore said to myself: This is obviously a well-off community, which can afford to pay such a salary. Now I see that your people are so poor that they cannot survive by working only six days a week and are forced to work even on Shabbos, so how can you possibly have the money to pay me?”
• Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach once led a tall man with long, stringy white hair, blue eyes, and an offensive odor to a place at a shul (synagogue) dinner, where the man devoured plate after plate of food. The man was a Christian from Texas who was obviously very hungry. Rabbi Shlomo had seen the man sitting on a bench in Central Park, and he had asked, “Do you need a meal?” The Christian said later, “I really don’t know what I would have done if your Rabbi hadn’t come by. I’ll tell you honestly, this is the first meal I’ve eaten in three days. When he walked right up to me and asked, ‘Brother, do you need a meal?,’ I said to myself, this here man is surely an angel from God.”
• One Friday a group of traveling Jews arrived in a town and began looking for shelter, but none of the townspeople offered them hospitality. Therefore, the Jews sought the town’s rabbi and explained their predicament. The rabbi quickly put on his Sabbath garments and told the traveling Jews to walk with him to the next town, where they would surely find hospitality. When the townspeople saw the rabbi walking out of town, they asked him why he was leaving. The rabbi explained, “Travelers aren’t welcomed here, so I won’t live in this town.” The townspeople then offered hospitality to the travelers.
Religion
• The Roman Empress lost a valuable bracelet just when Rabbi Samuel ben Sosratai visited Rome. The Empress caused a proclamation to be made, saying that if the bracelet was found and returned within 30 days, the person returning the bracelet would receive a reward, but if the bracelet was not returned within 30 days, anyone found possessing the bracelet would be put to death. Rabbi Samuel found the bracelet, but he deliberately waited 31 days before returning it to the Empress. She asked why he had deliberately waited until after the deadline to return the bracelet, and he answered, “So that you should not say that I returned it because I was afraid of you. I returned it because I fear God.” The Empress then said, “Praised be the God of the Jews!”
• During the Jewish holiday of Sukkos, Jews eat in a Sukkah — an outdoor shelter — to remind them of the shelters that their ancestors lived in after fleeing from captivity in Egypt. The shelters are set up only temporarily, then taken down after a few days. Once a government official passing through a town saw the shelters the Jews had set up to celebrate Sukkos and ordered the mayor of the town to have the shelters torn down as they had been built without government permission. Fortunately, the mayor was a friend of the Jews, and so he issued a proclamation that ordered the Jews to tear down the shelters within 10 days — plenty of time to celebrate Sukkos.
• Around the year 1884, Sam W. Moreland attended a revival in the American frontier. During the preacher’s sermon, some men arrived and said that the Indians had been raiding the land and had gotten all of Mr. Moreland’s horses. Mr. Moreland said that he couldn’t believe that, because before riding off to attend the revival, he had prayed to God to take care of his affairs. Still, Mr. Moreland rode off to see about his horses. Later, he rode back to the revival. The preacher knew that everyone was curious about the horses, so he allowed Mr. Moreland to make his report: “Not a horse gone.” Then the sermon continued.
• The maggid (traveling preacher) of Zlotchov was once asked how Abraham had kept all of God’s laws since they had not yet been given to the World. The maggid replied that Abraham had asked himself before performing an action whether it would increase or decrease his love for God. If it would increase his love, then he knew that the action was the right thing to do.
• New pastors should realize that their job is to speak and the job of the congregation is to listen. Furthermore, if the congregation ever finishes its job before the pastor’s job is done, the pastor should catch up as quickly as possible.
***
FREE eBook: THE MOST INTERESTING PEOPLE WHO LIVE LIFE, Volume 2
Smashwords recently made it mandatory to open an account to read or download free eBooks. The reason is this: “The change was […] made to prevent scraping of free books by bots for machine learning training data or similar. It was not a change made lightly — both authors and readers enjoyed the ability to download free books without an account.”
No account is needed to download my FREE eBooks at Freeditorial or any of my blogs:
From The Book of Good Deeds 1914-1918: WORLD WAR I GOOD DEEDS. Collected and Edited with a Foreword by Bernhard Diebold. 1938. This book consists of accounts of good deeds during World War I. Most accounts are by Germans:
JUST A LITTLE STORY
My youngest nephew Karl was eighteen years old, when he marched with his regiment into Forbach in the December of 1916, weighed less than a hundred pounds and was still just a child. On the first of June 1917, he was put into the trenches, and on the thirteenth of June, a shell shattered his right leg; the enemy he never saw. At the end of the year 1917, he came back to Mainz, broken in health and with only one leg. He once told me this story:
“We were seven days in Comines; I was quartered with an elderly married couple, whose only son was at the front. These good people pampered me like a child. When I came back in the evening, dead tired from duty, the woman had prepared a warm footbath, dried my feet with a big bath towel, and then rubbed them with a soothing lotion. Later on, when I lay in bed, she would come in, smooth my coverlet, run her hand through my hair and say, evening after evening, “Mon pauvre petit [My poor little one].” When I took leave of them, I had to promise both faithfully, that after the end of the war I would visit them, and that I shall certainly do as soon as I am well again.”
This promise he was never able to keep. He suffered eight years before death released him.
By Eduard Strauss, Merchant, Mainz.
ATHENS, OHIO (AND ENVIRONS) SINGER-SONGWRITERS ON BANDCAMP AND/OR LIVE FROM HOME
All musical friends of Bruce Dalzell are honorary Athenians no matter where they live and love. And as is well known, Austin, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee are very large suburbs of Athens, Ohio.
Adam Remnant
Albert Rouzie
Albert Rouzie: Live From Home (Includes at end Bruce Dalzell’s “Gifts”)
Peter Mealy and Laurie Rose Griffith: Live From Home (Includes at end Bruce Dalzell’s cover of “My Neighborhood,” previously recorded by Peter Mealy and Laurie Rose Griffith)
Apple iTunes keeps track of how many times I play a song. If you’re like me, you think it’s an incredible value to buy a track for a dollar or so (and sometimes FREE) from Bandcamp and listen to it 100 or more times. Here are the Bandcamp tracks I have listened to 100 or more times (along with YouTube Channel or YouTube Video info when available and if I can find it):
AJ Davila (?): “Dura Como Piedra” [“Hard as Stone”]
This email includes at the bottom a selection from The Book of Good Deeds 1914-1918. Collected and Edited with a Foreword by Bernhard Diebold. 1938. This book consists of accounts of good deeds during World War I. Most accounts are by Germans.
Anecdotes are usually short humorous stories. Sometimes they are thought-provoking or informative, not amusing.
Problem-Solving
• In the days when American schools were being desegregated, a black schoolchild had a problem. He had to walk two miles to go to a white school, but when he arrived, the white teacher wouldn’t let him into the classroom because his shoes were dirty! The schoolchild’s mother took away the teacher’s excuse for banning her son from class by giving her son a bottle of shoe polish to carry with him so that he could polish his shoes before entering the school.
• Early in his career, James W. Morrissey worked as a treasurer for railroad baron James Fisk, Jr. Late one night, he was summoned to see Mr. Fisk at the theater, and he had to step over approximately 50 burly men to see him. He later learned that the 50 burly men were present to make sure that no process-servers or deputy sheriffs were able to serve Mr. Fisk with papers requiring him to appear in court to answer questions concerning the Erie Railroad.
• Mulla Nasrudin once walked by a lake into which a miser had fallen. Although some people were reaching for the miser and yelling, “Give me your hand,” the miser kept treading water and shouting for help. Fortunately, Nasrudin quickly rescued the miser. When the other people asked how he had done it, he replied, “I knew that this miser refuses to give anything to anybody, so instead of saying ‘Give me your hand,’ I told him, ‘Take my hand.’”
• Jockey Julie Krone was four-feet-eleven and weighed 100 pounds, and she worried that horse trainers would think that she wasn’t strong enough to handle their horses. To solve that problem, she developed a very strong handshake. One horse trainer remembered, “This cute little girl … comes up to me and squeaks, ‘Hi! I’m Julie Krone! I’m a jockey!’ and takes my hand and brings me to my knees. Well, we let her ride, and she rides like a god.”
• A dervish possessed no other clothing than a ragged pair of pants. Seeing a rich man, he asked, “If I were to die today, what would you do for me?” The rich man replied, “I would have your body wrapped in a shroud, and then I would have your body buried.” The dervish said, “Let me have a shirt now, while I can use it. When I die, let my body be buried naked.”
• Tip O’Neill drove his kids out of town to buy a puppy: a beagle they named Pokey. A problem arose on the way home: Which of the kids would be the one who would sit by the new puppy? Mr. O’Neill solved the problem by stopping the car every 15 minutes so the children could change seats and everybody would have a turn sitting by Pokey.
• Immediately after beginning his pontificate, Pope John XXIII sometimes would wake up in the middle of the night, worrying about some problem, and decide that he would talk about it with the Pope, only to remember that he was the Pope. Whenever that happened, he would say to himself, “In that case, I’ll talk it over with Our Lord!”
• When race car driver Janet Guthrie was 16 years old, she wanted to take up parachute jumping. Her parents weren’t sure that she should do that, so she demonstrated that she could handle the landing roll by jumping off the roof of their one-house story. This convinced her parents to allow her to learn to parachute jump.
• During her close-ups in movies, Marlene Dietrich wanted her mouth muscles to be taut, so before each close-up shot, she sucked on lemons.
Rabbis
• A case appeared before the Noda B’Yehudah in which an elegantly dressed man and a roughly dressed man pleaded. The roughly dressed man claimed that he was a rich man traveling far from home and friends and that the elegantly dressed man was his wagon driver, but that his wagon driver had robbed him and exchanged clothes with him. The elegantly dressed man denied ever having been a wagon driver. The Noda B’Yehudah said that he would think about the case, and then he would give them his judgment the next morning. The next morning, the two men arrived at the Noda B’Yehudah’s house and sat outside as they waited for him, but they were ignored as the Noda B’Yehudah went about his business. Suddenly, the Noda B’Yehudah opened his door and ordered, “Wagon driver, come here!” The elegantly dressed man immediately stood up.
***
FREE eBook: THE MOST INTERESTING PEOPLE WHO LIVE LIFE, Volume 2
Smashwords recently made it mandatory to open an account to read or download free eBooks. The reason is this: “The change was […] made to prevent scraping of free books by bots for machine learning training data or similar. It was not a change made lightly — both authors and readers enjoyed the ability to download free books without an account.”
No account is needed to download my FREE eBooks at Freeditorial or any of my blogs:
From The Book of Good Deeds 1914-1918: WORLD WAR I GOOD DEEDS:
THE MIDWIFE
IN the summer of 1919 we were the prisoners of the English in Charleroi, a town in Belgium, where we had to clean the streets, etc., ourselves. One day a little girl of about nine came up to us, and [and] she asked us to come with her to her parents. We asked permission of the Belgian civilian who was on guard over us, and he let us go. After a very hearty reception, the mother of the little girl offered us some coffee and her father gave us cigarettes. Then the woman told us the following story, which was translated for us by the little girl, who spoke German.
“After the German troops entered Charleroi in 1914, it was occupied by Landsturm men, one of whom was to be billeted in our house. He came the very day I was expecting my little boy. I was alone with my little daughter when at noon the Landsturm man arrived. When we two saw him, we hid ourselves in the farthest corner of the room because we both had the greatest fear of Germans. And he was, too, a big strong man with a beard reaching down over his chest, so we were more afraid than ever. However, he came laughing over to us and greeted me and the little one. I mastered my fear, approached him hesitantly, and gave him my hand, whereupon he took off his pack, sat down, took the little girl on his knee and fed her chocolate, bread, and sausage. He gave me some, too, and during the meal he noticed my condition, saw that I was about to give birth to a child. He would not let me work any more, took off his coat and set the place in order. Towards evening my hour came. In my fear I did not know what to do, for I had no one to help me. The Landsturm man put me to bed and my little girl, too, and went out. After an hour he came back bringing a soldier with him. He too greeted me in a friendly manner and told me, in French, not to be afraid, the Germans were not cannibals, and that he was a doctor and would help me. This he did and around midnight our boy was born. The Landsturm man tended me as my own father would have done until I could do my own work again.”
At the height of her joy she had taken a vow to do a good turn to every German who came her way. So the little one frequently brought us smokes while we were working near them.
By Emil Carl, Chauffeur, Frankfort on the Main.
ANGIE HEIMANN
Angie Heimann writes earthy Americana folk songs, belting stirring sagas of damsels in their bliss and distress in a clarion vibrato. The San Francisco Free Folk Festival called her songs “stripped down, sexy little jewel boxes stuffed with ancient mountain magic.” With her 2020 release EDGE OF EAST, Heimann ushers in the most recent era of her ever-evolving sound—the well-worn patina of Americana present in the last decade of songs with her band The Blushin’ Roulettes, with the added polish of a more modern layered musical approach.
For decades Angie Heimann has graced the underground of American folk — touring colleges and folk clubs in her twenties, spending her thirties in the insular Americana scene of the Mendocino coast, and relocating to the mountains of western North Carolina, where she currently plays with the Appalucians and with the Blushin’ Roulettes.
Heimann’s latest solo album EDGE OF EAST tells the story of wildness and domestication, of deepening the well within while rooting into family life. The album, recorded at Farmstead Studios features Heimann on guitar and engineer/co-producer Cas Sochacki on dobro and bass, with guitar/vocals of Jay Brown and Aditi Sethi interspersed with light touches of piano, banjo, and dreamlike stacked harmonies of Heimann’s own voice.
Angie has won songwriting awards in KZFR/Sierra Nevada’s Celebration of the Song, Woody Guthrie Songwriting Contest, Artists for Literacy SIBL Songwriting Contest, and South Florida Folk Festival.
The Appalucians play music from the mountains of Western North Carolina, featuring spirited songwriting, tight harmonies, and a lovely layered interplay between dobro, guitars, harp, bass, and banjo. The band is the musical union of two couples Jay Brown and Aditi Sethi (Shantaavani, Aditi and Jay) and Angie Heimann and Cas Sochacki (The Blushin’ Roulettes) who met at their childrens’ preschool and gradually realized their seemingly cosmic musical alignment, and decided they better start a band. Their upcoming debut album “Bright Hills,” slated for release in spring 2018, has flavors mountain folk and barroom twang.
Peter Mealy and Laurie Rose Griffith: Live From Home (Includes at end Bruce Dalzell’s cover of “My Neighborhood,” previously recorded by Peter Mealy and Laurie Rose Griffith)
Apple iTunes keeps track of how many times I play a song. If you’re like me, you think it’s an incredible value to buy a track for a dollar or so (and sometimes FREE) from Bandcamp and listen to it 100 or more times. Here are the Bandcamp tracks I have listened to 100 or more times (along with YouTube Channel or YouTube Video info when available and if I can find it):
AJ Davila (?): “Dura Como Piedra” [“Hard as Stone”]
Peter Mealy and Laurie Rose Griffith: Live From Home (Includes at end Bruce Dalzell’s cover of “My Neighborhood,” previously recorded by Peter Mealy and Laurie Rose Griffith)
Anecdotes are usually short humorous stories. Sometimes they are thought-provoking or informative, not amusing.
Problem-Solving
• Esther Nichols Wilbur, a Quaker, was fervently anti-slavery, and her house was a station on the Underground Railroad. One day, the local meetinghouse was to be the site of an anti-slavery meeting in the afternoon, but the caretaker was pro-slavery, and he decided to lock the abolitionists out of the meetinghouse after the Quaker worship in the morning. However, following morning worship, Ms. Wilbur remained seated, and she refused to leave despite the threats of the caretaker. Instead, she told him, “I am not preventing thee from locking the doors if thee wants to. I expect to stay for the afternoon meeting.” The caretaker locked the doors and left her, and when it was time for the anti-slavery afternoon meeting, Ms. Wilbur simply unlocked the doors and let everybody else in.
• As preachers’ children, Cecil and Hugh Porter had to be polite to all of their neighbors, even the ones they didn’t like. One day their father, Rev. Edwin Porter, who preached in Texas during the first half of the 20thcentury, discovered that Cecil and Hugh hadn’t ever invited the Smith girls, Lucy and Jenny, to play tennis with them. Therefore, he gave his sons an ultimatum: Either invite the Smith girls to play tennis, or don’t play tennis at all. Cecil and Hugh disliked the Smith girls, but they found a way out of their dilemma. They invited the Smith girls to play tennis in the afternoon of a sweltering Texas summer day. After a few games, the Smith girls decided that they didn’t want to play tennis ever again and so regretfully declined all future invitations.
• Tsukahara Bokuden founded a school of martial arts known as the Way of Winning Without Trying. In the practice of this martial art, the adept wins by figuring out how not to lose. One day Bokuden was traveling in a small boat with a few other people when a warrior on the boat challenged him to a duel. Bokuden suggested that they duel on a near-by small island. When they reached the island, the warrior stepped off the boat, walked onto the island, and unsheathed his sword. However, Bokuden, still standing in the boat, used a pole to shove the boat off the island and into the water, leaving the warrior stranded on the island.
• In the 1850s, several students at Earlham College requested permission to go to the circus, but the Governor of the college said that they could go only as far as the front gate of the campus; therefore, the students removed the front gate and carried it in front of them as they walked to the circus. Once there, they explained the situation to the circus ticket man, who ordered a flap of the tent lifted up so they could bring the front gate inside the tent with them. After seeing the circus, they returned back to the campus and hung the gate where it belonged.
• Taking care of Alzheimer’s patients can be difficult. One Alzheimer’s patient stood near an elevator, far from the place she was supposed to be. Her caretaker asked why she was there, and she replied, “I’m waiting for the bus.” Her caretaker tried without success to get her to return to the place where she was supposed to be, but she resisted. Finally, the caretaker said, “I think the bus company is on strike.” Only then did the Alzheimer’s patient return to where she was supposed to be.
• For many years, golf courses were sexist. At Sandwich, England, the Royal St. George’s golf club did not allow women to become members; in fact, it did not even recognize the existence of women. However, it ran into a “problem” one year when Fiona MacDonald became a member of the Cambridge University golf team, which plays Royal St. George’s each year. After taking thought, the members of Royal St. George’s decided to make Ms. MacDonald an honorary man for the duration of the match.
• Even as a child in Vermont, downhill mountain bike racer Missy Glover was resourceful. Often, she went on long bike rides with neighborhood boys. One evening, a snowstorm blew up suddenly and she and the boys didn’t come home all night. Their parents were frantic, but the next day the children returned home. The boys were shaken, but young Missy was calm and collected as she explained what she had done in the emergency: “I built a shelter, and we sat it out — it was incredible.”
***
FREE eBook: THE MOST INTERESTING PEOPLE WHO LIVE LIFE, Volume 2
Smashwords recently made it mandatory to open an account to read or download free eBooks. The reason is this: “The change was […] made to prevent scraping of free books by bots for machine learning training data or similar. It was not a change made lightly — both authors and readers enjoyed the ability to download free books without an account.”
No account is needed to download my FREE eBooks at Freeditorial or any of my blogs:
From The Book of Good Deeds 1914-1918: WORLD WAR I GOOD DEEDS:
“MOTHERS REMAIN MOTHERS”
I AM not saying anything against my mother: she was a kind woman—and anyway she died two years ago. But she was still alive at the time that I, eighteen years of age, had to go to the war. And so there I stood in the living-room while mother admonished me in something like these words:
“There’s no charm against death and fate, so I can not ask you to be quite sure and come home again; but I must ask you not to confuse strict fulfillment of duty with foolish recklessness. Also I advise you not to accept anything from the people in these foreign countries: enemies are enemies, they poison the water and are forever lying in ambush to shoot at you. If you should ever be suffering from thirst, you must at once ask the Frenchman who gives you water, to drink first himself. Safety first!”
The thought that enemy peasants or townspeople might secretly try to poison me, filled me with such wrath, that I passed on the word to all my gray-clad comrades: “Let them drink first, always let them drink first.”
Well, one day we marched into Neuvilly, which lies about fifty kilometers southeast of Cambrai. And these fifty kilometers we poor Jerries had to march in the scorching sun, with only two short rests; and even then no one was allowed to lie down. You could just rest your pack on the end of your gun, your back was raw like burned flesh, your feet covered with blisters; and thirst, thirst, thirst. Our flasks were long ago dry, for sweating infantrymen are bad managers. I personally, when I had to blow my nose once, found the handkerchief covered with blood.
Finally Neuvilly was reached; we fairly stormed the houses: Water, water! Gasping with thirst we besieged pumps and wells, there were terrible fights with bare fists, and violent blows: and who remembered “Let them drink first”? I would not join my comrades in their gory struggle, so I approached the farmhouse where I was to be quartered, and right there on the doorstep stood a withered old woman with pitcher and cup. She smirked suspiciously, but I was so thirsty I let her pour it out, then shouted at the old mummy “Drink first: boire d’abord.”
The old woman understood at once, her smile changed to bitter contempt. She drank from the cup, however, so I could take the small enamel mug and I emptied it greedily. My room was clean, the bed smelled of lawn-bleached linen. It was the one and only time as a soldier that I had a real bed (not counting the weeks in hospital—but a man riddled with bullets does not think any more, he just endures the agony, internal as well as external) . For the rest, I found myself in a country laborer’s house in which the old woman alone remained. On the wall hung a cheap crucifix and under it Chamfort’s soldierly motto:
Guerre aux chateaux! Paix aux chaumieres!
War to the castles! Peace to the cottages!
Peace to the cottages! Let them drink first? Someone was inconsistent: either I myself or the warty old dame. Suddenly someone knocked, the old woman was once more in the room: she had forgotten something. What followed? … She placed a framed photograph of a French recruit on my bedside-table. It was a silly, cheap portrait, of the kind that our businesslike garrison photographers also were turning out in heaps. And what was the old thing muttering? “Here, camarade … la guerre, my son!” At that she disappeared, grunting reproaches and with an offended air. What was I to do with a picture of an enemy soldier on my bedside-table?
We remained in Neuvilly a whole week. Grave events were impending; hell was loose on the Somme; by day we performed elaborate field maneuvers, at night airplanes dropped bombs on the villages. Every evening I would return dead-tired to my quarters; the old woman avoided making any more scenes. Until one day—it was an unforgettable Sunday morning—the French local parson came to the house, and when he went away after an hour, the old lady came and knocked at my door, trembling and streaming tears. Had I called?
Yes, I had called, I wanted some water, this summer thirst was really unbearable … At once the woman brought what I had asked for, but as she stood holding the pitcher and cup she sobbed terribly and pointed to the picture of her son “Oh camarade, dead, la guerre, la guerre!”
What I did at this moment, anyone will understand who has been able to keep his heart pure and simple— in spite of all the wild events of war. I cried aloud as though someone had reported to me the death of my own brother. The old woman tried again dutifully to “drink first,” but I tore the cup and pitcher from her hands in shame. “Nix boire d’abord, ma mère!”
“My mother” had I said? How did I come to it? No, this woman would no longer drink first; and as I took the old creature tenderly in my arms, and laid my hand on her trembling head, I paid secret tribute by that gesture to the grave of the unknown soldier, whose mother wished to be the mother of every son.
That evening I wrote to my mother in Cologne “… and you can say what you like: mothers remain mothers, in France as well as in Germany and you can’t ask them to drink first. If you had any idea how ashamed I was when, six days ago, I scorned the smile of a mother who was only going to quench my thirst because she was thinking of her own son …”
By Heinz Steguweit, Author, Cologne-Klettenberg.
ADAM REMNANT
“Adam Remnant is a songwriter, producer, and photographer living in Athens, Ohio. Remnant got his start in music fronting the folk-rock band Southeast Engine. As the principal singer and songwriter of the band, Remnant and his bandmates garnered critical acclaim from publications such as Paste Magazine, Pitchfork, NPR, American Songwriter, Magnet, Stereogum, PopMatters, AV Club, and many more. They established a substantial following over the years, releasing five albums and touring across the United States and Canada.
“As Southeast Engine wound down, Remnant began plotting his way forward as a solo artist. He assembled a little studio in his basement and earnestly began writing & recording the songs that comprise the 2016 EP, When I Was a Boy, as well as the 2018 LP, Sourwood. Remnant’s signature baritone voice and literary songwriting act as the focal point in the productions spanning between folk, rock, and indie sounds mined from a Midwest basement.
“In the summer of 2019, Remnant took up film photography as a new means of artistic expression. Remnant’s photography explores many of the same themes of his music, including place, memory, history, and identity. Remnant typically shoots landscape/documentary style color photos of his surroundings as well as neighboring towns and cities.
“Remnant continues to work on new music, including a recently completed full length album, entitled Big Doors. An EP tentatively titled Rainy Day Savings is also in the works. The new recordings are performed by Adam Remnant and his working band, consisting of brother, Jesse Remnant, on bass and harmony vocals; Ryan Stolte-Sawa on violin and harmony vocals, and Jon Helm on drums.”
“Basement Tapes is a series of videos with live performances recorded to an analog tape machine here in my basement home studio. Inspired by the spirit of Bob Dylan & the Band’s Basement Tape sessions, this series serves as a sort of sandbox for alternative takes, demos, covers, and more experimentation.”
Adam Remnant: “Run of the Mill” (George Harrison cover on 4-track cassette)
“A huge and sincere thank you to Adam Remnant for his direction of the video and to the Hocking College students listed in the following credits: AC – Alex Rhinehart & Najayah Shepard; Grips – Alex Rhinehart, Alexis Pariseau, Najayah Shepard, Nate Ruhl, & Richard Valentine; On-set Photographer – Ivan Reardon.” — Caitlin Kraus
Supernobody: “Sheep”
“Lead track from Supernobody album YOU CAN’T GO BACK. This video was made by Adam Remnant and his video production team at Hocking College in Nelsonville, OH 2019.”
davekillcountysmith, a fan, wrote, “There is joyousness unrestrained by inhibition in the songwriting of Southeast Engine. [Canary] is my favourite album of theirs. Wonderful! Favorite track: ‘Red Lake Shore.’”
davekillcountysmith, a fan, wrote about CANAANVILLE, “This was the last recording released by Southeast Engine. It’s only four songs, but they are four songs of such magnificence that we wonder what this band could have become. Favorite track: ‘Great Awakening.’”
davekillcountysmith, a fan, wrote about FROM THE FOREST TO THE SEA, “A very well put-together album. Each song flows into the next. A proper album. Favorite track: ‘Preparing for the Flood.’”
davekillcountysmith, a fan, wrote about A WHEEL WITHIN A WHEEL, “There’s a real retro feel to this album. Like with The Jayhawks, you get a real sense that these tunes could have originated from the 60s or 70s. Favorite track: ‘Oh God, Let Me Back In.’”
davekillcountysmith, a fan, wrote about COMING TO TERMS WITH GRAVITY, “I love this band’s sound. There’s a bit of Americana, a bit of indie, a bit of folk and even a bit of psych. They are probably what Dr Dog would sound like if they weren’t so mad. Favorite track: ‘Undergrad.’”
ADAM REMNANT ALBUMS
SUNRISE AT THE SUNSET MOTEL (EP)
SOURWOOD
WHEN I WAS A BOY
ADRIANNA ALBANESE
Adriana Albanese on YouTube
“On this channel, I will be posting covers of songs I enjoy, or are popular at the moment. I also will post some original songs that I’ve written! Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section, so I can always be improving, and having something to post! I hope you enjoy what you see and decide to stay! I will be playing guitar and singing songs pretty much 😉 I also play ukulele, so some songs will be played with that. Anyway, welcome to my channel, and most importantly, have fun while you’re here!”
ATHENS, OHIO (AND ENVIRONS) SINGER-SONGWRITERS ON BANDCAMP AND/OR LIVE FROM HOME
All musical friends of Bruce Dalzell are honorary Athenians no matter where they live and love. And as is well known, Austin, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee are very large suburbs of Athens, Ohio.
Adam Remnant
Albert Rouzie
Albert Rouzie: Live From Home (Includes at end Bruce Dalzell’s “Gifts”)
Peter Mealy and Laurie Rose Griffith: Live From Home (Includes at end Bruce Dalzell’s cover of “My Neighborhood,” previously recorded by Peter Mealy and Laurie Rose Griffith)
Hart, Bob: “Caitlin Kraus: Making her own kind of music.” The Athens News. 19 December 2023
“It was a song called ‘Garden’ that did it for me. Perhaps only when a musical artist writes deeply personal lyrics do their words become universal, belying the specifics of their own situation and emotions to touch others on an intimate level. That song and many other good ones are on the CD “Gone Beyond,” by Caitlin Kraus. It’s her second recorded collection (following “What Rises”) and is available through many outlets, including caitlinkrausmusic.bandcamp.com, Spotify and Apple Music.”…
Caitlin Kraus: “Make It Clear” (Caitlin Kraus performs “Make It Clear” Aug. 17, 2023, at the Athens (OH) Community Center.) — From the album GONE BEYOND.
It is a very special honor to have completed this music video for “Follow Me,” which was directed by the wonderful Adam Remnant who also recorded the song itself back in 2016. We collaborated on the concepts in the video and spent a chilly, beautiful spring day filming it with his talented students (listed below) at the Nelsonville, OH brick kilns, Hocking River, and surrounding neighborhood. For me, the lyrics and music of this song portray real imagery and memories that have grown dream-like with the passing of time, yet still remain formative and foundational. At its core, it is about transformation and being/becoming, but I hope the ambiguity and symbolism of the song and video also lead to your own interpretation and that you can find something resonant within it. Lyrics and digital/CD format available at caitlinkrausmusic.bandcamp.com. Music website at caitlinkrausmusic.com.
A huge and sincere thank you to Adam Remnant for his direction of the video and to the Hocking College students listed in the following credits: AC – Alex Rhinehart & Najayah Shepard; Grips – Alex Rhinehart, Alexis Pariseau, Najayah Shepard, Nate Ruhl, & Richard Valentine; On-set Photographer – Ivan Reardon
“Follow Me” is featured on the full-length 2020 release WHAT RISES and includes myself on vocals/guitar, Adam Remnant on bass/drums/keyboard, and Hannah Simonetti on violin. The song was recorded and mixed by Adam in Athens, OH while the full album was produced, mixed, and mastered by Bernie Nau at Peachfork Studios in Pomeroy, OH (https://peachforkstudios.com/).
A song for the rights of all: the right to be safe in our bodies, the right to make decisions for our bodies, and the right to be who we are in our bodies. (Lyrics below.) I wrote this song […] out of the need to process my anger at women’s rights being taken away and for what this means for other rights down the line. A never-ending issue it seems, but one we can’t stop fighting for. A big thank you to Tom Riggs for taking footage of my first performance of this song with Mark Hellenberg on drums at The Union in Athens, OH.
Lyrics for “This Body”:
This body is temporary, but while it’s here / It’s not yours to hold captive in fear / This body is mine, it was never yours / So fuck your laws and gods and guns / I get to say what I put inside / I GET TO CHOOSE, IT IS MY RIGHT / This body is sacred, but only safe / When I’m in charge, you have no claim / This body is proud and wears the crown / Makes the decisions and won’t back down / I get to say what I put inside / I GET TO CHOOSE, IT IS MY RIGHT / And don’t tell me who I can love or about my identity / Don’t use your privilege to subject your patriarchy / I get to say what I put inside / I GET TO CHOOSE, IT IS MY RIGHT
Caitlin Kraus: “What Rises” — From the album WHAT RISES
Interview & Article for WOUB Public Media (8/6/2020): Interview about upcoming performance for the Virtual Nelsonville Music Festival, history as a songwriter and musician, and experiences as a performer during the pandemic.
OVRLD Austin Music First (6/13/2016): “On her new single ‘Waiting for the World,’ Caitlin Kraus’ sweetly shimmering voice rises out of an oceanic musical backing, giving the track a melancholic feel, like a reinterpretation of The Awakening’s bitter conclusion. Kraus’ voice is powerful but not in a bombastic sense, it’s instead devastating in its emotional richness. The well-arranged strings that emerge after the beginning of the song aid in this, making ‘Waiting for the World’ an excellent bit of chamber pop that stands out for the frequently unimaginatively produced singer songwriter tracks Austin is oversaturated with.”
Suggested Listening ’23: Caitlin Kraus Suggests Good Music to Listen To
Caitlin Kraus is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and Board-Certified Music Therapist providing services to students at Ohio University in Athens, OH. When she is not counseling, Caitlin is an active musician and songwriter, performing her music both solo and with a band under her name. She has released two full-length albums from Peachfork Studios: “Gone Beyond” (2023) and “What Rises” (2020). She also sings and plays in the band Drift Mouth. She is the proud companion of two wonderful dogs.
Some of the music choices presented here were not actually released in 2023 as I am usually a time traveler when it comes to music. While it was hard to choose only 10 albums/artists and songs, this is some of the music that I happened to listen to often in 2023 and which personally resonated the most. It is presented in no particular order. I hope you can enjoy it along with me!
Drift Mouth opens its Jan. 13, 2024, set at The Union in Athens, OH, with “Starling.” Lou Poster on lead vocals and guitar, Caitlin Kraus guitar, David Murphy drums, Nate Brite bass.
Anecdotes are usually short humorous stories. Sometimes they are thought-provoking or informative, not amusing.
Preachers
• A preacher in a small-town church was offered a job at twice the salary preaching in a big-city church. A member of the congregation, wondering whether the preacher would accept the job, stopped by the preacher’s house and knocked on the door. The preacher’s daughter answered the door, and he asked her where the preacher was. She replied, “He’s on his knees praying for divine guidance about whether to accept the job offer.” He then asked, “Where’s your mother?” The preacher’s daughter replied, “She’s upstairs packing.”
• Mr. Betterton, an actor, believed that the theaters would soon be empty if actors spoke like preachers. Conversely, if preachers spoke like actors, the churches would soon be full. When asked why this was so, since preachers speak about real things, and actors speak about imaginary things, Mr. Betterton replied, “My lord, I can assign but one reason — we players speak of things imaginary as though they were real, and too many of the clergy speak of things real as though they were imaginary.”
• Alvin K. Klotz used to speak before many Protestant churches, and the churches used variations of the Lord’s Prayer. Some churches used, “Forgive us our debts,” others used, “Forgive us our trespasses,” and still others used, “Forgive us our sins.” Therefore, before reciting the Lord’s Prayer, Mr. Klotz used to say, “It would help me greatly to know if you are debtors, trespassers, or sinners.”
• Marshall Keeble was a black Church of Christ preacher who stood up for his beliefs. A white man once told him in Tennessee, “You preach like this anymore, you’ll leave town or we’ll kill you.” Preacher Keeble replied, “I kissed my wife before I left Nashville, Tennessee. My Lord died for me. I’d just as soon die for him in Lexington, Tennessee, as anywhere else.” Mr. Keeble continued to preach.
• While preaching at a church in Bentley Creek, Pennsylvania, Wesleyan pastor William Woughter had the misfortune of being bothered by a fly that buzzed around him, then flew straight into his mouth, causing him to gag until he was finally forced to swallow the fly. Pastor William then looked at the congregation and said, “That reminds me of the scripture, ‘I was a stranger and you took me in.’”
• June Cerza Kolf tells this story: At her family reunion held in California, an earthquake struck as the family members attended church. Afterwards, one of the family members, who was new to California, told the pastor, “I’ve been to a lot of church services in my life, but I can honestly say this was the most moving one I’ve ever attended.”
• After Rev. Ronald J. Mohnickey celebrated Mass on a very hot summer day at a church in Steubenville, Ohio, a smiling woman said to him after the liturgy, “I am so happy when you celebrate Mass here! When you come here, they always turn on the air conditioning because you sweat so much!”
Priests and Popes
• Papal Nuncio Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, who was later to be Pope John XXIII, once met the Chief Rabbi of Paris at a reception. They talked together for a long time, and when they were summoned to dinner, they were confronted with the dilemma of who would walk through the door to the dining room first. Nuncio Roncalli motioned for the Rabbi to go first, saying, “The Old Testament before the New.”
• Father Bob Perella was known as the priest to the stars. Frequently, he hung around with Perry Como. One day Father Bob and Mr. Como met Vic Damone, who was also with a priest. When Father Bob asked Mr. Damone what was up, he replied, “If you can make Perry such a big star, you must have a pretty good connection. I figured I’d use somebody from the same agency.”
• Pope John XXIII (1881-1963) addressed several prisoners in the Regina Coeli prison. After the Pope had spoken, a murderer was allowed to approach him, and asked, “Are those words of hope you have given us meant for such a great sinner as me?” The Pope embraced the murderer.
Problem-Solving
• Boston Celtic Bill Russell’s grandfather was a proud man who knew how to stick up for himself. Once, he worked a year for a white farmer, doing such things as plowing a field and planting seeds in return for a share of the sales of the crops. However, the white farmer did not pay him fairly when the crops were sold. Mr. Russell’s grandfather let the white farmer know what he thought, and the white farmer threatened him. Mr. Russell’s grandfather ended up pulling a gun on the white farmer, who threatened, “We’ll get you for this! Tonight!” Mr. Russell’s grandfather knew who would be coming that night: the Night Riders, aka the Ku Klux Klan. He first moved his family to safety, then he returned to his house with a gun and a dog. That night, as expected, the Night Raiders came, and they ordered Mr. Russell’s grandfather to come out of the house and take a beating. He told them that they would have to come in the house after him. One of the Klansman fired a shot at the house, and Mr. Russell’s grandfather fired his shotgun into the darkness. The Night Riders ran away.
***
FREE eBook: THE MOST INTERESTING PEOPLE WHO LIVE LIFE, Volume 2
From The Book of Good Deeds 1914-1918: WORLD WAR I GOOD DEEDS. Collected and Edited with a Foreword by Bernhard Diebold. 1938. This book consists of accounts of good deeds during World War I. Most accounts are by Germans.
LEAVE
TAKEN prisoner at Mons, after being seriously wounded four times, Captain Campbell of the East Surrey Regiment learned, in captivity, that his mother was dangerously ill. The mother adored her son and was worrying about his fate. The son, interned in a sanatorium, could think of nothing but his mother, and lived through endless days and nights of anxiety and longing to get to her sickbed.
Would the German authorities grant him leave to visit her? Perhaps her life could be saved by this. He wrote his petition although he knew it must be refused. It was refused.
In desperation he then sent a letter directly to the Emperor. To his great joy he received news that the Emperor had granted the petition, three weeks leave on parole.
Sent in by an English correspondent. Retold from the “Daily Herald,” May 7, 1931. (From Field marshal Sir John French’s Memoirs.)
VINCENT TROCCHIA
Vincent Trocchia: Live From Home (Includes at end Bruce Dalzell’s “A Song of Flying”)
“I write my own acoustic content and love to cover artists from all kinds of genres. I enjoy playing at local venues as well as busking. When I’m not writing music, you can find me either studying for my journalism and environmental studies degrees, backpacking across the U.S. or adventuring abroad!”
Tim O’Brien and Zeke Hutchison: “Sleepy Eyed Joe”:
Traditional arrangement Zeke Hutchison and Tim O’Brien / No Bad Ham Music / ASCAP
Credits:
Recorded April 16th 2015 at the Butcher Shoppe Engineered by David Ferguson Zeke Hutchison – mandolin Tim O’Brien – guitar
Song Notes:
Zeke Hutchison, from Belmont County Ohio, is one of the very best unsung mandolin players in the world. He comes by the music naturally, having grown up hearing his father Robert and uncle J.D. play banjo and guitar. As the Hutchison Brothers they recorded two bluegrass albums for Vetco records in the mid 1970’s. J.D. and Robert learned music from their father J.W. Hutchison who was a fine fiddler. I have a tape of J.W. playing this tune with J.D. on guitar, probably recorded in their Barnesville living room.
The Hutchison Brothers were some of the best bluegrass players in the Wheeling area. I often sat in with them on guitar and fiddle, and I recorded a few tracks with them on their second LP. Hot Rize eventually recorded three of J.D. songs – Ain’t I Been Good To You, My Little Darlin’, and Money To Burn. If you’re persistent, you can find recordings by J.D. and Realbilly Jive or hear him live near his Athens OH home.
Zeke was visiting Nashville for a few days in April and dropped by a studio mix session. He had his mandolin so we played a few tunes and Ferg recorded this one. You can look Zeke up at www.zekesfancy.com, or www.facebook.com/zekesfancy, and you can take a lesson from him at Blue Eagle Music in Athens OH.
The Minnie Foster Clog and Banks Hornpipe I learned from a recording of the venerable B/C button accordion player Joe Burke. Dad and I were playing in the yard one day when an old man named Clessent Carpenter from Temperanceville pulled in. He got out and started performing a helluva clog dance. We finished the tune, Clessent said The Minnie Foster, damnedest little stepping tune! After that day we called the tune the Clessent Carpenter Clog! This performance is from 1993.
The Hutchisons were Zeke and Zeke Hutchison on banjo/lead vocals and mandolin respectively, along with Buddy G. Van Kirk on guitar and tenor vocal. Rest in peace, Bud. Unreleased track from recording “Sleepy Hollow,” session in 1995, Athens, Ohio. This was bluegrass from southeastern Ohio. Dad remains unique among banjo players, a powerful player heavily influenced by Don Stover.
“The Hutchisons were Zeke and Zeke Hutchison on banjo and mandolin respectively, along with Buddy G. VanKirk on guitar and tenor vocal. Rest in peace, Bud. Unreleased track from recording ‘Sleepy Hollow,’ session in 1998, Athens, Ohio. This was bluegrass from southeastern Ohio. Dad remains unique among banjo players, a powerful player heavily influenced by Don Stover.”
“Dad shared a birthday with the Daddy of Bluegrass, September 13th. Dad was a true blue Bluegrass musician. The second banjo break here is transcendent.”
Swing Big is a duo that features Dave Borowski on vocals and guitar, and Zeke Hutchison on mandolin. Their music relies heavily on influences drawn from jazz, swing, Western swing, blues, bluegrass, and music from the British Isles.
Dave Borowski has performed in public since 1972. In addition to studio and freelance work, he has been a member of Athens-based bands Close Enough for Jazz, Aces and Eights, the Kings of Hollywood, Deltoid, Common Ground, the Billycats, Zeke’s Fancy, and the Wingnuts. He also currently plays with J.D. Hutchison and Realbilly Jive.
Zeke Hutchison grew up around music, his father and uncle being the core of the nationally-known Hutchison Brothers. Zeke took to the mandolin at an early age. He has recorded with (Grammy-award-winning artist) Tim O’Brien on his Short Order Sessions. O’Brien writes of Zeke as “one of the best unsung mandolin players in the world.”
Together, Swing Big performs jazz standards from the American Songbook, swing songs from the Django Reinhardt-Charlie Christian Era, country and western swing from the likes of Bob Wills, and just about anything else that might catch their ears.
Words can’t describe the loss of J.D. Hutchison. He has influenced both of our lives in so many ways. Zeke lost his uncle (the Funcle, we called him), with whom he shared years and years of great times, musical and otherwise. Dave was the bassist in JD’s band, Realbilly Jive, for its entire run. However, this description only scratches the surface…
He left us the same way he lived his life … on his own terms. Many of the people he’d known throughout his life had the chance to tell him how much he meant to them, and they got to say their goodbyes. That’s a good thing.
“J.D.’s original songs have been recorded by numerous artists, including Tim O’Brien, Robert Earl Keen, K.T. Oslin, Jan Howard, Ginny Hawker, Suzanne Thomas and the bands Hot Rize and Stella. […]
“‘These are tough and tender things. We can only have confidence that the Natural Order of Things prevails–and that a wondrous life well-lived has moved on accordingly. Pain in my heart where better words should be ….’”—John Dale Hutchison (2018)
J.D. HUTCHISON: ROOTS MUSIC MASTER — THE REAL DEAL
By David Bruce
J.D. Hutchison is better than just better. In Athens County, Ohio, He is sometimes called “Lost John,” which is an odd name for such an obviously all-together guy. Maybe he got that nickname because of his self-derogatory humor (“I counted all the way up to ten once and learned all my ABCs up to M and N”). A better nickname for him would be “The Real Deal.”
This album — YOU AND THE WORLD OUTSIDE — opens strongly with his blues song “Little Legs Moan”: “‘Don’t want to hurt you’ / That’s what she said / She did not hurt me, boys / She killed me stone dead / With the little legs moan.”
These lines from “Another Fool’s Café” shows his way of poetry-izing lyrics: “There’s always an empty table or two / It’s a hill jack twilight zone / The door is always open / And the lights are always on / Ain’t no bottom to the bottle, boys / No difference in the night and day / There ain’t no hands on the clock / In another fool’s café.”
Another standout song is his “Since My Bird has Flied Away,” which has been covered by Ingrid Lucia & The Flying Neutrinos, John Kirkpatrick and Chris Parkinson, and The Local Girls. Any singer-songwriter will probably tell you that the ultimate compliment is other people covering your songs. A few lyrics: “I need to change my head around / Maybe trip out to the zoo / Take a walk downtown / Hell, I don’t know what to do / But nothing seems to matter / Since my bird has flied away.” The bird, of course, is a woman.
Readers of this review should make heavy use of Amazon’s preview snippets of J.D. Hutchison’s songs on this page. Fans of roots music (defined as various combinations of blues, folk, country, bluegrass, and whatever else the singer-songwriter knows will make the song better) will find much to like. J.D. Hutchison is a regionally famous singer-songwriter who in my humble opinion ought to be at least nationally famous — and a whole lot richer. Better late than later.
I love this album, all songs of which are by J.D. Hutchison.
Support local music, and be aware that in the age of the Internet and the WWW, Athens County is local worldwide.
***
Little Legs Moan
The woman I’m lovin’ Do me all she can She does not want me Wants some other man Got the little legs moan (3)
Gonna go to China Maybe Afri-cay Gotta leave my little legs Got to get away From the little legs moan (3)
“Don’t want to hurt you” That’s what she said She did not hurt me boys She killed me stone dead With the little legs moan (3)
Of all the things The devil has made To bust up a man’s heart And lay him in the Shade It’s the little legs moan (3)
Since My Bird Has Flied Away
Pour some more coffee in my coffee cup I don’t know why, I don’t even like the stuff But nothing seems to matter Since my bird has flied away
I need to change my head around Maybe trip out to the zoo Take a walk downtown Hell, I don’t know what to do But nothing seems to matter Since my bird has flied away
I remember the night – stars shining bright Underneath the apple tree It was then that she said – I was severely misled That she would never leave me
But now she’s gone off with some other dude to stay And I’m so all alone since she went away And nothing seems to matter Since my bird has flied away
I remember the night – stars shining bright Underneath the apple tree It was then that she said – I was severely misled That she would never leave me
But now she’s gone off with some other dude to stay And I’m so all alone since she went away And nothing seems to matter Since my bird has flied away
Ooby Doobly
You are the sweetest Ooby That I ever did see I really love ya, Doobly ‘Cause you’re so good to me
Ooby Doobly Ooby Doobly all the time Ooby Doobly I can’t get you out of my mind
My mama is my mama And she don’t like you Your daddy thinks I’m just A cocka-doodly-do
Ooby Doobly Ooby Doobly all the time Ooby Doobly I can’t get you out of my mind
Why don’t we do like the birdies do And fly on outta here We’ll build ourselves a little old nest In the upper atmosphere We’ll be so happy all the time In our little home up above We’ll live together forever and ever In love, love, love
Why don’t we do like the birdies do And fly on outta here We’ll build ourselves a little old nest In the upper atmosphere We’ll be so happy all the time In our little home up above We’ll live together forever and ever In love, love, love
Ooby Doobly Ooby Doobly all the time Ooby Doobly I can’t get you out of my mind
Ooby Doobly Ooby Doobly all the time Ooby Doobly I can’t get you out of my mind
Love at a Distance
You write me such pretty letters But words on paper is as cold as stone You call me up to say you love me But I don’t want to hear it on the telephone
It makes me sad – thinking about all the Things we coulda had I’m in bad need of assistance Can’t take no more of this love at a distance
My mind lines up against me I reckon it a gain – I reckon it a loss So many lonesome highways So many lonesome rivers to cross
It breaks my heart For us to have to be so far apart I’m in bad need of assistance Can’t take no more of this love at a distance
It breaks my heart For us to have to be so far apart I’m in bad need of assistance Can’t take no more of this love at a distance Oh no
The Song Around Your Life
I spend a lot of time thinkin’ ‘boutch lately, lady Just thinkin’ ‘bout me and you Thinkin’ ‘bout the way that we used to live together And the things that we used to do Through the bedroom window, the whip-poor-will And the barking of the fox I know I couldn’t bring back a minute of it Not even for a million bucks
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you, little lady Just murderin’ the time away Hear you laughin’ at the things you know ain’t even funny And the silly things that people say On your hands and knees through the counterfeit Through the sham and through the shuck You know you couldn’t change not a minute of it Not even for a million bucks
But it’s oh, no You’ll find nobody cares Well it’s oh, no You’ll find no mercy here At the song around your life It will cut you like a knife And if you don’t know just what it is you’re doing Then you better be a-going home
Sad song makin’ me feel so lonely Just magnifies my sighs I’d like to tell you that I love you, mama But you know it only makes me cry I’d like to pick you up again with a brand new plan But I know there can’t be no such luck I know you’d never, never, ever come back again Not even for a million bucks
But it’s oh, no You’ll find nobody cares Well it’s oh, no You’ll find no mercy here At the song around your life It will cut you like a knife And if you don’t know just what it is you’re doing Then you better be a-going home
Ivory Bones and Ebony Dots
Ivory bones and ebony dots Sometimes gonna lead you to the graveyard plot The game tonight brought on a fight That ended up in pistol shots
Now, I been a gambler most all of my life Lost everything I had to the cards and the dice And I ain’t no stranger to the gun and the knife But I ain’t doin’ that shit no more, because
Ivory bones and ebony dots Sometimes gonna lead you to the graveyard plot The game tonight brought on a fight That ended up in pistol shots
There was six-finger Bob layin’ dead on the floor Some other dude a-floppin’ in the grime and the gore When somebody through the transom said, “Wunna you sports better stay with the dead And tell them coppers when they arrive Why these here brothers ain’t alive
Ivory bones and ebony dots Sometimes gonna lead you to the graveyard plot The game tonight brought on a fight That ended up in pistol shots
Now, I was the furthest away from the door The others got there a long time before And while I ain’t scared, I am rather fleet And I am in possession of two excellent feet And before I be dealin’ with them po-leece I’m gonna be down that road a piece
Ivory bones and ebony dots Sometimes gonna lead you to the graveyard plot The game tonight brought on a fight That ended up in pistol shots
Ivory bones and ebony dots Sometimes gonna lead you to the graveyard plot The game tonight brought on a fight That ended up in pistol shots
Another Fool’s Café
Well if you ain’t never been in here You better hang around close to the door Have a drink or two and then move it on out If you’ve never been here before You may not care to stick it out – no – But then again you may You just make yourself at home In another fool’s café
Well there’s a Hank Williams freak With a guitar sittin’ on a barstool Everybody buys him drinks To crank him up and make him play He’s a regular jukebox of heartache and sorrow But they all laugh anyway People like to laugh in another fool’s café
See that silky lookin’ dude admiring himself in the mirror With the pretty long hair and extremely hip array He lays cocaine and reefer on the ‘billy boys Without a trace of parano-I-A But they couldn’t do without him in another fool’s café
Got the ladies of the day and the ladies of the night All lookin’ for a hell of a time Gentlemen lightin’ their cigarettes In relentless pantomime Everybody’s talking while the guitar sings But they never have a thing to say They’re all laughing but they’re lonesome In another fool’s café
See that mountain of muscle, He’s the bull of the woods in the county It’s advisable boys, not to never, never get in his way Because he’s liable to knuckle you about the head If you look at him crossways And he’s always hangin’ out here In another foo’s café
There’s always an empty table or two It’s a hill jack twilight zone The door is always open And the lights are always on Ain’t no bottom to the bottle, boys No difference in the night and day There ain’t no hands on the clock In another fool’s café
I Pity the Son and the Daughter
I pity the son and the daughter Born in this world today Of strife and bitter confusion That leads them all astray
I pity the mother and father Who watch in sad dismay As all that they cherish and treasure Is lost along the way
I pity the greatest captain Out in the blood-dark sea Who cannot rest his vigil And, weary, never sleeps
I pity the son and the daughter Who crumble like clay I pity the son and the daughter Born in this world today
Approximately Love
The other night I felt like I might take a ramble To the café coffee café ‘way down town Put the spit and polish on the old preamble Warm up a stool and toss a couple down
The band was all tuned up and set to start in The dancers were all gathered on the floor When my eyes clapped on a sight that did my heart in A total vision standing at the door
The expression on her face surpassing winsome Her hair hung down in ringlets tight and loose She wore a pleated dress of stunning crimson And on her feet two tiny scarlet dancing shoes
Then came a flash like lightning Like a sign from up above The muscles in my throat began to tighten The feeling was approximately love
Just then the barkeep tapped me on the shoulder Said, “Here’s some advice for you, sport – and it’s free That redbird there that’s got you all a-smoldering Ain’t got no use for the likes of you or me
No man upon this earth has ever kissed her Though many have been taken by her charms There’s not a chance for you if you’re a ‘mister’ To be encircled by those sleek and muscled arms
It ain’t no use to try to rearrange her She’s just the way she’s always gonna be It constitutes a clear and present danger To be hangin’ out in her proximity.”
Red shoes on the dance floor Red dress that sways and swirls She don’t care much ‘bout what a man’s for She’s not exactly like the other girls
Don’t Talk About Love
Nothing ain’t nothing – everything is gone Ever since they put a man on the moon You can talk about man – you can talk about woman But don’t talk about love
Everyone’s talking – but they ain’t said a thing From the lowliest station right up to the king They can talk anout their own self They can talk about one another But they can’t talk about love
Don’t talk about god – things you don’t understand Poor old god’s doing the best that he can You can talk about women but don’t talk about love
Nothing ain’t nothing – everything is gone Ever since they put a man on the moon You can talk about man – you can talk about woman But don’t talk about love
My Little Darlin’
I felt all the time we lived together That she only kept me for a plaything How she seemed so like a little child Who stays a while then laughs and runs away
I heard all the talk a-going down She just had to sleep around Though I still cared for my little darlin’ I know she no longer cares for me
When I’m dead and laying in my coffin And my friends all stand around me weeping Then perhaps I will forget about her When I’m in that deep and dreamless sleep
Now I know just what a fool I’ve been It’s so easy now to see Though my heart breaks for my little darlin’ I know she no longer cares for me
Devil Getcha Baby
Devil gonna getcha, baby Come and love me one more time Devil gonna getcha, baby Woncha come and love me one more time Ain’t nothin’ we do be wrong, babe Every little thing we do gonna turn out right
Go and tell your mama We’re just gonna take a walk out in the park Tell your old mama We just take a little walk in the park Gonna treat you real good, baby Have you to come back home, babe, before it gets dark
Tell your old daddy We’re just gonna take a drive around Go tell your big old daddy We’ll just take a little bitty-bitty drive around I’ll stick my big feet out the window Getcher little ol’ head t’ go down down down
I’ll stick my big feet out the window Getcher little ol’ head t’ go down down down
You and the World Outside
If words alone could break a heart Mine never would be broken But just one look from my darlin’s eye And not a word need never be spoken Not a word need ever be spoken A little feathered bird in flight Up in the sky all alone Ever so swiftly is brought down to the earth By some child’s sling and stone By some child’s sling and stone
A tender heart so like a bird Once broken it can’t never be mended You must go your way as I go mine And that’s how true love’s ended And that’s how true love’s ended
The time has come for us to part I know that I will survive I hope that you may find your way You and the world outside You and the world outside
That Ain’t All of Me
You can check me out Walkin’ down the street Maybe not the kinda guy That you’d wanna meet But that shufflin’ duffer That you seem to see Well, that ain’t all of me
Back in 1 – 9 – 7 – OH I’m lookin’ good A respectable figure In the neighborhood Now the years have fled So precipitously But that ain’t all of me
There’s people think they own you Bone, hide, and hair They tell you that they love you But they don’t care First they want yer money Then it’s yer clothes Aw, but that’s the way it goes
You can have it all, people I don’t mind Take anything of value That you think you can find You can add my kingdom of the street To yer kingdom of thin air
I’m broke even I’m up on my dues Just another good ol’ billy boy Lost in the blues The leaves are all scattered Underneath the tree But that ain’t all of me
Anecdotes are usually short humorous stories. Sometimes they are thought-provoking or informative, not amusing.
Names
• Andrew Jackson was as tough as hickory, a fact that gave him his nickname. Old Hickory was known for having things done his way — or no way at all. As President, he vetoed more bills than all of the Presidents before him put together had vetoed. When he died, a dignitary asked a field man who had worked for Mr. Jackson whether Old Hickory would go to Heaven. The field hand replied, “He will, sir, if he wants to.”
• The doctrine of papal infallibility was promulgated in 1870, and the press was much interested in this doctrine, regularly asking bishops about it. After James Gibbons (1834-1921) became a bishop, and on returning home from a trip to Rome where he had met the Pope, he was asked about papal infallibility. He replied, “All I know is that he kept referring to me as Jibbons.” (Italians often pronounce the letter G as the letter J.)
• When Jackie Joyner-Kersee was born, her grandmother said that when she grew up, she would be the first lady of something. That’s why she was named after then-First Lady Jackie Kennedy.
• At the 1984 Olympic Games, Kathy Johnson’s teammates called her “Grandma” because at age 24, she was the oldest member of the United States women’s gymnastics team.
• Michelle Kwan’s father, Danny, is a fan of music by the Beatles. In fact, he liked the Beatles’ song “Michelle” so much that he named his second daughter after it.
• Sportswriter Franz Lidz, in collaboration with his wife, Maggie, named their daughters “Gogo” and “Daisy Daisy.”
Olympics
• The night before playing in the championship game as a goaltender on the United States women’s hockey team at the 1998 Nagano Olympic Games, Sarah Tueting found it difficult to get to sleep. Seeing a bowl of apples in her room, she picked up an apple and hurled it at the middle of a wall, creating a big splat! She kept on hurling apples until she ran out, although her roommate told her, “Get away from me!” The apple-throwing incident must have had a therapeutic effect — she and her team won the championship game and the gold medal the following day.
• Before gymnastics practices, two of Olga Korbut’s teammates sometimes used to hold on to her hands and feet and swing her like a jump rope. Before the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Olga was motivated to succeed. In fact, a 1970 entry in her diary stated, “1972, Munich, Olympic Games — 1st place.”
People with Handicaps
• Often, the first thing two deaf people do when they go to a nice restaurant is to remove the centerpiece so they have an unobstructed view of each other’s hands. (In addition, they make certain that the restaurants they go to are well lit.)
• A blind singer received the first of many standing ovations in his career. After he had been told that he had received a standing ovation, he asked, “What is a standing ovation?”
Practical Jokes
• Among filmmaker John Waters’ many collectables are three two-foot-high dolls with hair that you can style. Mr. Waters has named the dolls “Tiny,” “Kim,” and “Kathy.” Although he takes good care of the dolls, occasionally he would return home and find that some of his friends had used makeup to simulate bruises and black eyes on the dolls so that they looked like they had been abused.
• As a part of his work as a master of special effects in the movies and on TV, Wah Ming Chang created a gorilla suit. At a party, he once scared a guest, who discovered what seemed to be a gorilla sitting on a toilet.
Preachers
• An old minister wanted a new church annex to be built. He listened as his 12 deacons argued about the advantages and disadvantages of the new annex, then said, “You have heard all the good reasons why the new annex should be built, and all the unreasonable things said against the new annex. Now it is time for a vote. All those in favor of building the new annex will so signify by saying ‘aye.” Six deacons said, “Aye.” The old preacher continued, “All those against building the new annex will so signify by saying ‘I resign.’”
***
FREE eBook: THE MOST INTERESTING PEOPLE WHO LIVE LIFE, Volume 2
Smashwords recently made it mandatory to open an account to read or download free eBooks. The reason is this: “The change was […] made to prevent scraping of free books by bots for machine learning training data or similar. It was not a change made lightly — both authors and readers enjoyed the ability to download free books without an account.”
No account is needed to download my FREE eBooks at Freeditorial or any of my blogs:
From The Book of Good Deeds 1914-1918: WORLD WAR I GOOD DEEDS:
THE NECKERCHIEF
DURING the retreat out of Macedonia in the fall of 1918, I and several of my comrades got parted from our company and all we knew was that Jagodine (in Serbia) had been mentioned as the gathering place. The Serbians were astonishingly amicably disposed towards the Germans and in almost every village I found quarters. Yet I always barricaded my door from within as a precaution and also my gun lay loaded by my bedside. In Nisch, the chief center of the Balkan army, it so happened, however, that I was turned away at every door. I persisted nonetheless in my search for quarters, knocked at the door of one medium-sized house and presented my case to an elderly lady who had cautiously opened the door to me. I told her that I merely wanted a bed, and that I had been “deloused” only yesterday. To my astonishment, she laughed at my unintentional joke and asked me whether I should be satisfied with a room in the attic. I thanked her, beaming with joy.
The next morning I saw through the window that a wash-basin with soap and towel were already laid out beside the pump. I had hardly crossed the courtyard and hung my coat on the pumphandle when my hostess rushed up to me, fell on my neck and broke into loud sobbing. At the same time she covered the woolen scarf which I wore round my neck at night as a protection against colds, with kisses stammering the whole time, “My son—my poor son.” It turned out that she had given her own son just such a neckerchief, and such a hand-knitted scarf was always the work of a mother. Did I not get it from my mother?
I admitted it in astonishment. I told her that my mother was a widow and I, her only son, had had to go to the war when only eighteen. In the severe winter of 1916-17, I contracted inflammation of the lungs in France and my mother absolutely insisted that when I went back I was to take along her woolen kerchief, so that on cold nights at least my neck would be protected. Since that day this scarf was my talisman and I thought I would never be able to fall asleep if I didn’t have it on.
My story worked miracles. The woman held my hand in hers and told me that she too was a widow and that her only son had been killed during the Bulgarian offensive in the fall of 1915. She too had knitted a woolen scarf and on seeing mine, she had realized immediately that I could have got it only from my mother. In that moment all her past suffering had been revived and she begged me urgently to allow her to treat me as a son. She immediately brought all my things down from the attic and I had to camp in her best room. I also had to share all her meals from now on.
When after four days I took leave of her, I could not utter a word: but she kissed me on the brow and faltered out that she was going to pray that my mother might once again hold me safely in her arms.
By Albert Vieth, Actor, Magdeburg.
SUPERNOBODY
“Undefinable, Rock and Roll that no one will hate.”
Swing Big is a duo that features Dave Borowski on vocals and guitar, and Zeke Hutchison on mandolin. Their music relies heavily on influences drawn from jazz, swing, Western swing, blues, bluegrass, and music from the British Isles.
Dave Borowski has performed in public since 1972. In addition to studio and freelance work, he has been a member of Athens-based bands Close Enough for Jazz, Aces and Eights, the Kings of Hollywood, Deltoid, Common Ground, the Billycats, Zeke’s Fancy, and the Wingnuts. He also currently plays with J.D. Hutchison and Realbilly Jive.
Zeke Hutchison grew up around music, his father and uncle being the core of the nationally-known Hutchison Brothers. Zeke took to the mandolin at an early age. He recently recorded with (Grammy-award-winning artist) Tim O’Brien on his Short Order Sessions. O’Brien writes of Zeke as “one of the best unsung mandolin players in the world.”
Together, Swing Big performs jazz standards from the American Songbook, swing songs from the Django Reinhardt-Charlie Christian Era, country and western swing from the likes of Bob Wills, and just about anything else that might catch their ears.
Words can’t describe the loss of J.D. Hutchison. He has influenced both of our lives in so many ways. Zeke lost his uncle (the Funcle, we called him), with whom he shared years and years of great times, musical and otherwise. Dave was the bassist in JD’s band, Realbilly Jive, for its entire run. However, this description only scratches the surface…
He left us the same way he lived his life … on his own terms. Many of the people he’d known throughout his life had the chance to tell him how much he meant to them, and they got to say their goodbyes. That’s a good thing.
Many, many people have posted photos, videos, recordings, and memories on social media. The number is astounding and speaks to the love people will always feel for JD, and the length and breadth of the mark he made on so many lives.
Formed on a summer’s night in Athens, Ohio in 1988, the three singers—Brenda Catania, Gay Dalzell, and Mimi Hart—had all been touring and recording for years and were ready to pour their energies into some music that was, well, local. Although their musical experiences were varied, all three shared an enthusiasm for close harmony, for the ineffable thrill of creating a smooth or jumping song, chord by chord. Each woman remains stylistically distinctive, but together they create a vibrant, balanced blend—and they have contagious fun doing it.
Although much of their material focuses on the hot and vampy swing tunes of the 30s and 40s (The Boswells, The Jimmy Lunsford Trio, and The Rhythm Boys), they also pursue their eclectic musical interests by performing their own arrangements of jazz, cowpoke, bebop, blues, standards and an occasional psychedelic hit. Their repertoire spins through a century of moving American song.
Before returning to Athens to raise her family, Brenda had worked primarily in Boston and San Francisco, doing cabaret, musical theater, rock and roll and with the performance art groups, Nuclear Beauty Parlor and the Monster Girls. Gay toured extensively, singing a range from bluegrass to blues. A featured member of The Appalachian Green Parks Project, she continues her popular folk/jazz duo work with her husband, the singer/songwriter Bruce Dalzell. Mimi began performing with her sisters at six; later, she worked out of Athens, New York City, and Cleveland, heading up and down the East coast and across the country with Hotcakes, the Bopcats, David Bromberg, the Allman Brothers and others.
The Local Girls’ gifted accompanists have deep resumes as well. Mike McGannon, a creative Ohio mainstay on guitars and banjo, was the musical director of The Angels, and has toured with The Drifters and The Coasters, as well as playing on countless recordings. Terry Douds, a sought-after clinician and engineer/producer, is an outstanding bass player, having toured the U.S., Europe and Asia with The Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Woody Herman Orchestra, the Ink Spots, The Columbus Symphony and more.
The Local Girls have opened for the Platters, Lonestar, and Chubby Checker, and entertained the troops surrounding Air Force One. They’ve sung for two award-winning PBS documentary series. With The Lark Quartet, The Local Girls premiered a new birthday song, “Your Trip Around the Sun”, at Hillary Clinton’s fiftieth birthday gala in Washington D.C. They toured Europe with Ohio University singers, performed in The East Room at The White House for candlelight festivities and were guests on The Prairie Home Companion at Town Hall in NYC.
This is a very listenable album with covers of notable songs by such music luminaries as Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, JD Hutchison, and Bruce Dalzell. I especially like “Where the Girls Are” and “I Feel Free.”
Three singers — Brenda Catania, Gay Dalzell, and Mimi Hart — formed The Local Girls in the summer of 1988 in Athens County, Ohio. They have performed at Town Hall in New York City as guests of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, toured Europe, and sang for Hillary Clinton’s 50th birthday party. In addition, they have recorded two albums: Let Yourself Go (2000) and Three Little Words (2011). How to best describe them? Swing singers, yes. Vocal jazz, yes. Certainly, they perform precision, three-part harmony as they cover older and newer songs. The chronology of their repertoire ranges from 1854 (Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times Come Again No More” — no, not on this album) to the 1990s (T. Bone Burnett’s “It’s Not Too Late” — yes, on this album).
These are the songs on Let Yourself Go:
“Shout Sister Shout.” Recorded in the 1930s by the Boswell Sisters, a close harmony group. Very jazzy and tuneful. Some lyrics: “Just tell old Satan how you feel / Get that old Devil right off your heel / Shout sister, shout sister, shout!”
“Centerpiece.” Recorded by Lambert, Hendricks and Ross in 1960 on the album titled Lambert, Hendricks and Ross! The Hottest New Group in Jazz. This title is an example of proper (earned) pride. Notably covered by Van Morrison. Some lyrics: “The more I’m with you, pretty baby / The more I feel my love increase / I’m building all my dreams around you / My happiness will never cease / But nothing’s any good without you / ’Cause, baby, you’re my centerpiece.”
“Stay A Little Longer.” Some lyrics: “Stay a little longer / A little bit longer / You know you ain’t got nothing better to do / We’ll blindfold the cat / Put out the dog / Pull the shades and lock the door.” Written by Paula Lockhart with additional lyrics by David Lister. One of my favorites on this album.
“I’ll Never Say ‘Never Again’ Again.” Notably recorded by the Nat King Cole Trio, the Three Ambassadors, Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra, and many more. Some lyrics: “I’ll never say ‘never again’ again / ’Cause here I am in love again / Head over heels in love again with you / I’ll never say, ‘never kiss you’ again / ’Cause here I am kissing you again / That’s just the thing I said I’d never do.”
“I Feel Free.” The Cream song, written by Pete Brown and Jack Bruce. The Local Girls’ version is much less rock and much more harmonic. Some lyrics: “I can walk down the street, there’s no one there / Though the pavements are one huge crowd. / I can drive down the road, my eyes don’t see, / Though my mind wants to cry out loud.”
“Since My Bird Has Flied Away.” The composer, J.D. Hutchison, sings lead, backed up by The Local Girls. A different version of “Since My Bird Has Flied Away” appears on J.D. Hutchison’s album You and the World Outside. Some lyrics: “Pour some more coffee in my coffee cup / I don’t know why, I don’t even like the stuff / But nothing seems to matter / Since my bird has flied away.” The bird, of course, is a woman. Another of my favorites.
“Let Yourself Go.” The Irving Berlin song. Ginger Rogers sang this song, and — of course — danced to it with Fred Astaire. Some lyrics: “Come / Get together / Let the dance floor feel your leather / Step as lightly as a feather / Let yourself go / Come / Hit the timber / Loosen up and start to limber / Can’t you hear that hot marimba? / Let yourself go.”
“Where The Boys Are.” Written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield for the 1960 movie of the same title, starring Connie Francis, Yvette Mimieux, Paula Prentiss, and Dolores Hart. My personal favorite on this Local Girls album. Some lyrics: “Where the boys are / Someone waits for me, / A smiling face, a warm embrace, / Two arms to hold me tenderly. / Where the boys are / My true love will be, / He’s walking down some street in town / And I know he’s looking there for me.”
“Ready On The Firing Line.” Another great song by JD Hutchison. Some lyrics: “In this world / You’ve got to be ready / Got to have everything just so / You’ve got to be ready just to hang around / Or you’ve got to be ready to go / You’ve got to be ready just to hear the word / You must be ready to read the sign / You must be ready on the left / Ready on the right / Ready on the firing line.”
“The Bozo Blues.” A song by Bruce Dalzell, Gay Dalzell’s husband. Bruce and Gay have made a lot of excellent music in Athens County, Ohio, for decades. This is a bluesy, humorous song about going to Chicago to be on The Bozo Show. Some lyrics: “I’m going to Chicago / Be on that Bozo Show / Yeah, I’m going to Chicago / Be on that B-B-Bozo Show / Yeah, I don’t know where Chicago is / But, mama, I got to go.”
“It’s Not Too Late.” The T-Bone Burnett song. Some lyrics: “The wind turns like a dagger, / the rain falls like a hammer / The sky has grown dark but it’s not too late / The weather crashes down, what’s lost cannot be found / The night is closing but it’s not too late.”
“I Want To Be A Cowboy’s Sweetheart.” A hit for Patsy Montana & The Prairie Ramblers. Some lyrics: “I want to be a cowboy’s sweetheart / I want to learn to rope and to ride / I want to ride o’er the plains and the desert / Out west of the great divide / I want to hear the coyotes howlin’ / While the sun sets in the West / I want to be a cowboy’s sweetheart / That’s the life that I love best.” Lots of yodeling on this one.
“The Blue Shadows On The Trail.” A Roy Rogers song. Some lyrics: “Blue shadows on the trail / Blue moon shinin’ through the trees / And a plain tiff wail from the distance / Comes a driftin’ on the evening breeze.”
“Caravan.” The Duke Ellington song. Some lyrics: “Night and stars above that shine so bright / The mystery of their fading light / That shines upon our Caravan / Sleep upon my shoulder as we creep / Across the sands so I may keep / The memory of our Caravan.”
“Mothra vs. Godzilla.” The main title of the 1964 Japanese monster movie of the same name. On Rotten Tomatoes, 90 percent of the critics like the movie. If nothing else, this song proves that The Local Girls are eclectic. Do you speak Monster? I don’t. Look for lyrics elsewhere.
Readers of this review should make heavy use of Amazon’s preview snippets of The Local Girls’ songs on this page.
The Local Girls ought to be famous, but one problem with Athens County is that it’s such a good place to live that excellent music-makers often stay here rather than moving to Nashville, NYC, or LA to seek fame and fortune. Lots of musicians choose to raise their kids in Athens County.
Support local music, and be aware that in the age of the Internet and the WWW, Athens County is local worldwide.
Smashwords has made it mandatory to open an account to read or download free eBooks. The reason is this: “The change was […] made to prevent scraping of free books by bots for machine learning training data or similar. It was not a change made lightly — both authors and readers enjoyed the ability to download free books without an account.”
No account is needed to download my FREE eBooks at Freeditorial.
This email includes at the bottom a selection from The Book of Good Deeds 1914-1918. Collected and Edited with a Foreword by Bernhard Diebold. 1938. This book consists of accounts of good deeds during World War I. Most accounts are by Germans.
Anecdotes are usually short humorous stories. Sometimes they are thought-provoking or informative, not amusing.
Money
• In the early days, professional marathon swimmers made little money competing in their sport. Professional marathon swimmer Diana Nyad once complained, “I once swam a 10-mile race and won $35.” Even worse, Ms. Nyad and other professional marathon swimmers went to a competition in Buenos Aires, Argentina. They had heard that the winner would receive $3,000, but when they arrived, they discovered that they were mistaken. The winner would receive 3,000 pesos, which at the time were worth about 12 cents.
• Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach once bought a soda to go that cost 50 cents, handed the cashier $2, and told her to keep the change. A friend told him that when you order to go, you don’t need to tip, and you certainly don’t tip $1.50 for a 50-cent soda. Rabbi Shlomo smiled and said, ‘I know, I know. But I’m trying to make up for unzer tierla yiddalach [our sweet Jews] who don’t give tips, and consequently make a chilul hashem [defame God’s name].”
• Long-distance telephone bills used to be much higher than they are now. In the 1970s, young American gymnast Leslie Russo was competing in South Africa. She got homesick, so she called home — and her family paid $92 for the first three minutes. After that experience, her mother told her, “Don’t call — write!”
• A man gained admittance to the very wealthy Rothschild by saying he could save him 500,000 rubles. When Rothschild asked him how he could do this, the man replied, “I have heard that you are giving your daughter a dowry of 1,000,000 rubles. I am here to tell you that I am willing to marry her for only 500,000 rubles.”
Motivation
• Gymnast Dominique Dawes believes in staying motivated. During the trials for the 1996 Olympic Games, she kept inspirational quotations scattered throughout her hotel room. The quotations included these: “Don’t make excuses. Make good.” “Who dares nothing need hope for nothing.” “Great visions often start with small dreams.”
• Shannon Miller’s mother helped motivate her to learn new gymnastics skills. For example, her mother would promise that if Shannon learned a new skill, she would get a Cabbage Patch doll or she could choose the menu for dinner.
Music
• Comedian Steve Martin is a master of the clawhammer style of playing the banjo. A serious musician, he has played with many bluegrass greats, including Earl Scruggs. Mr. Scruggs’ wife, Louise, once happened to mention that each Gibson banjo that the Scruggs owned was worth $200,000. Mr. Martin, who has a collection of vintage banjos — among them, two Depression-era Gibson Florentines and a Gibson Granada — immediately thought that he perhaps he should get them insured. He called George Gruhn, who is a vintage instrument dealer in Nashville, and said, “George, I hear these Florentines are worth some money.” Indeed, they are; for example, the Florentines owned by Mr. Scruggs are worth the $200,000 Louise mentioned — or more — because they are associated with Mr. Scruggs. Mr. Martin then asked about his own vintage banjos. Mr. Gruhn said, “With your name attached? About $8,000.”
• All too often, people want to hear old hits, not the new music that a band has created. The Fixx creatively solved this problem when their album Elemental was new. Band members went on tour and played most or all of their new album before playing their old hits. Fixx lead singer Cy Curnin thinks that is fair. The band members get to play their new music, and the fans get to hear the old hits. And, with luck, the new album will have a few songs that eventually become old hits because of their exposure in live concerts. Mr. Curnin said, “You’ve just got to be ballsy these days; otherwise, you don’t get anywhere.”
• Jazz singer Billie Holiday wore a gardenia in her hair while she performed. Early in her career, she had been ironing her hair in preparation for a performance, and she burned it, leaving a bare spot on her scalp that she covered with a gardenia. She liked the look of the gardenia in her hair, so she continued to wear one even after her hair grew back to normal again.
Names
• Major-league pitcher Christy Mathewson became known as “Big 6” because of his height. He stood 6-foot-2 at a time when that height was not as common as it is now. Someone said, “That’s the biggest six-footer you ever saw,” and Mr. Mathewson got a nickname. Someone once mailed a letter whose envelope simply had pasted on it a big number 6 that had been cut out of a newspaper headline. The letter was delivered to Mr. Mathewson.
***
FREE eBook: THE MOST INTERESTING PEOPLE WHO LIVE LIFE, Volume 2
Smashwords recently made it mandatory to open an account to read or download free eBooks. The reason is this: “The change was […] made to prevent scraping of free books by bots for machine learning training data or similar. It was not a change made lightly — both authors and readers enjoyed the ability to download free books without an account.”
No account is needed to download my FREE eBooks at Freeditorial or any of my blogs:
From The Book of Good Deeds 1914-1918: WORLD WAR I GOOD DEEDS:
SINGING
IN the fall of 1917 we were entrenched opposite the English. The distance between the front lines was from seventy to eighty yards and the ground in between was covered with shell holes. These were quiet days, no bombardments, nothing; only an occasional firing indicated that both lines were occupied. I was with my platoon, on the left wing of the sector held by the regiment. Next to us was a Landwehr regiment.
One night I was notified that a patrol would be sent out early in the morning from the adjacent company of the Landwehr regiment. I therefore gave orders not to fire because it was possible that the men might by some chance turn up in front of our sector. The enemy, however, noticed the party and at once a furious bombardment began. The machine guns trained on our trenches rapped away relentlessly over our heads and rained over the whole area before the trenches. Rifle fire crackled and soon the deep rumble of artillery set in, so that what with this firing and the constant shooting up of Very lights there was no chance for the patrol to get back into the trenches.
The artillery fire ceased after half an hour, but the tapping of the machine guns went on, so that there was only a slight chance of the men, who had crept into shell holes, getting back. We felt sorry for the poor devils lying out there in between the trenches in compliance with a scarcely justifiable order. Soon day began to break, and soon we could faintly distinguish the landscape. A return seemed all the more impossible, for the enemy still held the sector under fire.
Suddenly amid the machine gun fire, I heard someone singing. I could not believe my ears. Two comrades standing beside me looked at me in speechless astonishment.
Singing here? In the very front line? Who could it be? That was madness. And sure enough the singing came from the ground in front of us. What song was it? I don’t know, but it was a heart-stirring moment.
And the result? The firing suddenly diminished and then ceased altogether. Not another shot fell and soon the four men were back in their trench unscathed, all well except for one slight casualty.
Singer-songwriter Megan Bee writes with an unquenchable wanderlust and a raw love for the land. Her fourth studio album COTTONWOOD releases February 2022. It follows WAITING (2020), which was named album of the year by The Ark of Music. Bee has won The Ohio Music Awards Best Americana and Best Singer-Songwriter Albums along with a finalist spot in the USA Songwriting Competition.
Her music is a blend of distinctly homespun vocals, acoustic simplicity, yearning soulfulness, and winsome storytelling. Her background as an environmental educator, traveling farmhand, and vagabond once took her into a desert wilderness where she found her voice around a campfire. She bases out of the rolling hills of Athens, Ohio and frequently roams the country playing festivals, coffeehouses, brewpubs, house concerts, and around campfires.
“She seems to have nothing to prove and no agenda, just to write her heart and then sing it. (…) The album is beautifully produced, and Megan’s voice cuts like a warbling bird through the music, like a line on a map.” Hold the Note Magazine
“WAITING is wonderfully uncomplicated, genuinely soulful, and as storied as its creator — a true masterpiece that showcases stellar Bee’s songwriting skills phenomenally.” The Ark of Music
“… warm and inviting … incredibly organic sounding. It sounds pure and human throughout.” Divide and Conquer (about WAITING)
LIKE A CANYON is a collection of songs inspired by canyons, birds, lovers, and old cars. Ohio Music Award 2017 Best Singer-Songwriter and Best Americana Album. Featuring ‘Late 70s Ford,’ a finalist in the USA Songwriting Competition.
MEGAN BEE: “ECSTASY” (at Farm: Folk Alliance region Midwest)
Apple iTunes keeps track of how many times I play a song. If you’re like me, you think it’s an incredible value to buy a track for a dollar or so (and sometimes FREE) from Bandcamp and listen to it 100 or more times. Here are the Bandcamp tracks I have listened to 100 or more times (along with YouTube Channel or YouTube Video info when available and if I can find it):
AJ Davila (?): “Dura Como Piedra” [“Hard as Stone”]
Smashwords has made it mandatory to open an account to read or download free eBooks. The reason is this: “The change was […] made to prevent scraping of free books by bots for machine learning training data or similar. It was not a change made lightly — both authors and readers enjoyed the ability to download free books without an account.”
No account is needed to download my FREE eBooks at Freeditorial.
Anecdotes are usually short humorous stories. Sometimes they are thought-provoking or informative, not amusing.
Mishaps
• After some transsexuals were beaten up, gay author Joel Perry joined a protest against such violence. As part of the protest, the activists wore old shirts so that slogans could be painted on them. Mr. Perry requested that “Stop the Hate” be printed on his T-shirt. Unfortunately, after the protest march, he discovered that written on his T-shirt was the slogan “Stop the Hat.”
• At her all-female college, Katherine Hepburn played men’s roles in the plays the theater department put on. During one play, she put a hand in her pants pocket, sat down, and couldn’t get her hand out again.
Money
• Old-time newspapers used copyboys to run articles (copy) from the reporters to an editor. At the Chicago Sun-Times, one of the copyboys was known as Milton the Copyboy. Just one of his many jobs was to run errands for the reporters. For example, they would send him out to buy a drink. Of course, drinking was not permitted at the newspaper, but Milton would camouflage the drink by putting it in a paper coffee cup and by also bringing sugar and cream. One day, a mystery was discovered. Several hundred empty envelopes were found in the trash near Milton the Copyboy’s home. All of the envelopes were addressed to Ann Landers. A post office employee brought up this matter to Sun-Times editor James Hoge, who then brought the matter up to Milton the Copyboy. It turned out that Milton had been stealing the quarters that people were sending in as payment for Ann Landers’ pamphlet “Petting: When Does It Go Too Far?” Milton the Copyboy was fired, even though he believed that he had done a good deed in the world: “Hundreds of kids can thank me that they were conceived.”
• On 2 December 1975, a Carson City, Nevada, business man named Harold Hess was given a parking ticket even though he told the police officer that he had tried to put a coin in the parking meter but could not because the parking meter was frozen. He even used a dime to demonstrate to the police officer that the parking meter would not work because it was frozen. However, the police officer merely shrugged, said, “That’s not my problem,” and walked away. Mr. Hess decided to pay the parking ticket, and he walked into the courthouse the next day carrying a lump of ice in which was frozen both the parking ticket and the money to pay the parking ticket. The justice asked, “How am I supposed to get that out of there?” Mr. Hess shrugged, said, “That’s not my problem,” and walked away.
• When Susan Butcher started to enter sled dog racing contests, such as the 1,049-mile-long Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska, she wanted a sponsor to help cover some of the costs. Long-time musher John Redington, aka the Father of the Iditarod, helped by arranging a publicity stunt for her. He convinced a couple of radio stations to film her as she chopped a hole in the ice, then jumped in while wearing a bathing suit. Supposedly, this stunt — which worked — was to show how mushers stay clean. This is not to say that Ms. Butcher never had trouble with sponsors. Once, she expected to sign with a sponsor, so she charged $6,000 of dog food. Unfortunately, the sponsor decided not to make the deal, so she had to pay back the loan $10 and $25 at a time.
• The Zen master Mokusen Hiki visited a rich man, who was very miserly. He held out a closed hand to the miser, and asked, “If my hand were always like this, what would you call it?” The miser answered, “Deformed.” Mokusen Hiki then held out a hand that was opened wide and asked, “If my hand were always like this, what would you call it?” The miser again answered, “Deformed.” Mokusen Hiki then said to the rich man, “If you understand this, you are a happy rich man.” The miser thought for a long time, then changed his ways. When there was a reason to be thrifty, he was thrifty. When there was a reason to be generous, he was generous.
• Izel Harif (died 1873) was the rabbi of Slonim. Once he went to a rich man to collect money for the building of a school, but the rich man refused to donate any money. This did not surprise Rabbi Harif, who knew that the rich often donate money out of fear. Thus, a rich man who fears becoming poor will donate money to help the poor, and a rich man who fears becoming ill will donate money to help the ill. Since this particular rich man was stupid and unlikely ever to suffer from a thirst for learning, the good rabbi knew that he was unlikely to donate to the building of a school.
***
FREE eBook: THE MOST INTERESTING PEOPLE WHO LIVE LIFE, Volume 2
Smashwords recently made it mandatory to open an account to read or download free eBooks. The reason is this: “The change was […] made to prevent scraping of free books by bots for machine learning training data or similar. It was not a change made lightly — both authors and readers enjoyed the ability to download free books without an account.”
No account is needed to download my FREE eBooks at Freeditorial or any of my blogs:
From The Book of Good Deeds 1914-1918: WORLD WAR I GOOD DEEDS:
TEARS
IT was late in the fall of 1917. Since two in the morning the heaviest artillery fire had been drumming down on the concrete dugouts of the Italians, along the Isonzo front near Tolmein. During the bombardment, under cover of night we advanced to our storming position. Towards seven in the morning, after a lull in the shooting, a devastating fire from all sides was trained on the Italian infantry trenches. We attacked, broke through, routed the front lines, and advanced.
I drew near Woltschach, the first temporary dressing station, with my Bavarian machine-gun platoon. Italians led by Germans, Germans carried by Italians with bleeding bandages round their heads, arms hanging limp, legs dangling; these we encountered retreating back. My machine-gun platoon was scattered over the shell-torn ground. Mules laden with carriers had here and there fallen in while they were crossing the trenches, and I rode round striving to collect them together again.
Apart, crouching on a rock, I found an Italian, who clasped his belly with both hands, while the blood from his entrails gushed through his fingers. Before him knelt a sergeant of my own regiment, supporting his head, stroking the damp hair, and weeping, as the groans and stammered prayers of the dying Italian died gradually away into a monotonous murmur.
There was no heroism, no courage displayed by the German: but his stroking hands and his falling tears will hereafter ensure him a place in Heaven.
Acoustic Rock Pop Punk band from Athens, Ohio, Sneakthief is Daniel Palmer and Joe Fradette. An anagram for faith knees (unrelated), Sneakthief has been described as “fearless” and “a lot of [expletive] fun.”
Peter Mealy and Laurie Rose Griffith: Live From Home (Includes at end Bruce Dalzell’s cover of “My Neighborhood,” previously recorded by Peter Mealy and Laurie Rose Griffith)
Smashwords has made it mandatory to open an account to read or download free eBooks. The reason is this: “The change was […] made to prevent scraping of free books by bots for machine learning training data or similar. It was not a change made lightly — both authors and readers enjoyed the ability to download free books without an account.”
No account is needed to download my FREE eBooks at Freeditorial.
Anecdotes are usually short humorous stories. Sometimes they are thought-provoking or informative, not amusing.
Media
• Many males did not accept celebrated female jockey Julianne Krone early in her career. One sportswriter followed her winning career for an entire year before deciding that she was as good as — or better than — the male jockeys. The headline for his article about her read, “Too Damn Bad She’s a Girl.”
Mishaps
• In 1975, Jim White borrowed a skateboard from a friend while preparing for a surfing competition in Hawaii and then badly injured his leg in a fall while skating. For a few weeks, he could not walk — not even with crutches. For two months, he was in a full-leg cast. Of course, he was bored, and he watched a lot of television. He also borrowed a guitar and “started trying to learn guitar for two hours each afternoon, during that period when there were no game shows or reruns of Star Trek or Dark Shadows on.” This worked out for him, as he has written many, many songs and has become a recording artist. What would have happened to him if he had not broken his leg? He asks, “I likely would have gone to Hawaii and been blown out in my first heat (the Hawaiians’ skills were far superior to mine), come home and spent the next few decades taking odd jobs and trying to figure out how to make a living as a professional surfer. So my question is this, which was a better borrowed object for me: the skateboard, or the guitar?” His debut album is titled Wrong-Eyed Jesus: The Mysterious Tale of How I Shouted.
• As a teenager, Dorothy Hamill sometimes got upset at important competitions, but fortunately her father was present to help her calm down. At the 1974 World Championships, young Dorothy skated onto the ice to perform her free skating program, but she heard the crowd booing, so she burst into tears and skated off the ice to her father. He pointed out that the boos weren’t for her — the fans were booing the low scores the judges had given the previous skater. Dorothy recovered enough to win the silver medal. At the 1976 Olympic Games, young Dorothy again became upset and started crying, this time when she saw a sign that said, “Dorothy, Wicked Witch of the West.” Fortunately, her father explained that the sign was a complimentary reference to The Wizard of Oz, in which Dorothy shows great courage in combating the Wicked Witch of the West. This time, young Dorothy won the gold medal.
• One of filmmaker John Waters’ friends used to work at a movie theater, which meant that he constantly had to pick up the telephone and answer the question, “What’s playing today?” The friend reports that the most embarrassing title he ever had to say on the telephone was Eu te Amo, which is Brazilian Portuguese for “I love you.” When he told them the title of the movie, some people were shocked and asked, “I beg your pardon?” Other people cursed him, and one person told him, “I hate you,” before hanging up the telephone.
• Bette Midler learned how to sew early in life, which meant that as an eighth grader, she was able to wear a copy of Satin Surrender (original by Frederick’s of Hollywood) to her school in Honolulu. By the way, poi is a common food on the Hawaiian Islands, and it is eaten by dipping your fingers into it. One of raised-on-Hawaii Bette Midler’s more egregious social errors overseas came during a party when she mistook a bowl of haggis for poi.
• Even preachers sometimes make mistakes. Church of Christ preacher W.A. Bradfield was closing a sermon with a call to the altar and was doing his best to call the unrepentant to come to the altar and repent: “Oh, why don’t you come? You daddies, for your children’s sake, why don’t you come? Oh, why don’t you come, you husbands, for your wives’ sake? Oh, for heaven’s sake, why don’t you come? Oh, why in the h*ll don’t you come?”
• Art Bray once performed the funeral of a woman who died during the wintertime. The next summer, during a heat wave, he ran into the woman’s daughter and without thinking, asked, “How is your mother standing the heat?” Shocked, the woman’s daughter asked, “Oh, Pastor, is that where you think she went?”
***
FREE eBook: THE MOST INTERESTING PEOPLE WHO LIVE LIFE, Volume 2
Smashwords recently made it mandatory to open an account to read or download free eBooks. The reason is this: “The change was […] made to prevent scraping of free books by bots for machine learning training data or similar. It was not a change made lightly — both authors and readers enjoyed the ability to download free books without an account.”
No account is needed to download my FREE eBooks at Freeditorial or any of my blogs:
From The Book of Good Deeds 1914-1918: WORLD WAR I GOOD DEEDS:
LETTERS FROM THE FRONT
I.
HERE is an extract from a letter from my son, September 1914. Henri writes: “A German Base Hospital with its complete personnel was captured by our troops. The German Surgeon-Major was given the choice of handing over the wounded to us and going free himself, or of giving himself up as a prisoner and so being able to take further care of the wounded. He chose the latter, and as a matter of convenience, the German and French hospitals were united. The surgeons undertook the care of the injured while the two ambulance corps went together to the battlefield to collect the wounded. Since the oldest ambulancier was a German, he was put in charge, and under an unceasing shrapnel-fire, he marched at the head of the corps.”
LETTERS FROM THE FRONT
II.
My neighbor had just received a letter from her son on the northern extremity of the front. He wrote: His company had been fighting for several days, and since they were quite exhausted, they had been withdrawn from the front lines. There were altogether about a hundred men, more or less exhausted, limping, wretched, dirty, insufficiently nourished for the last few weeks. They had to pass through a wood where they advanced cautiously. In the middle of the wood they saw, by the last rays of the setting sun, a shapeless heap. They approached, and there lay about fifty slain German soldiers.
Despite their fatigue they wanted to get the helmets for trophies and so drew nearer. Suddenly they noticed a slight movement in the heap and heard groaning. Fearing an ambuscade, they thrust their bayonets forward, but the dying men had only strength enough to raise themselves, and without a word stretched their hands towards them, weeping. “Then,” continued my little soldier, “we took the hands stretched out to us, and at the sight we too began to weep.” And by way of conclusion he added, “In a flash we realized the utter wretchedness of war, and we had no more desire to carry off the helmets of the dying.”
By Mme. Dispan de Pleran, Hay des Roses, Seine.
“WHY, THERE’S STILL ONE ALIVE”
DURING the war I met, on a street car, a countryman of mine from Borssum near Emden, whom I recognized by his dialect; he was a simple unskilled laborer. Among other things, he told me the following experience that he had had, shortly before he was seriously wounded.
“We had just blown an enemy dugout to pieces and were about to go back to our trenches, when we suddenly heard beseeching cries for help from the wrecked dugout.
‘Why, there’s still one alive. We’ll have to have another shot at it,’ said one of us.
‘No, just for that reason we don’t,’ said I.
‘Perhaps he also has someone who’ll be glad to see him again. Let’s get him.’
Thus we did, and brought him to our dugout. And the man was so happy that he would see his wife and children again after all!”
Scott Minar is a musician, poet, and Professor Emeritus of English at Ohio University. He is married to Roberta Milliken, a noted medievalist, iconologist, and currently Dean of the Campus at Ohio University Chillicothe.
He has won a few teaching awards, taught internationally at Memorial University (St. John’s, Newfoundland), and collaborated with scholars and writers in the U.S., Sweden, Syria, Israel, England, Norway, and elsewhere. His essays, books, and poems have been published in English, Arabic, Swedish, and Hebrew. His books include Arctic Accordion: Selected Poems, Gilgamesh and Other Poems (English version), Cymbalism, and The Palace of Reasons (all by Mammoth Books/Dubois, PA). Cymbalism and Gilgamesh and Other Poems were translated into Arabic by Dr. Saleh Razzouk of the University of Aleppo and published by Linda Books (Al Sweida, Syria).
His textbooks/exercise books include Exercises for Poets: Double Bloom (with Edward Dougherty), published by Pearson; The Working Poet, published by Autumn House (Pittsburgh); and The Working Poet II, by Mammoth Books. Scott’s first book of essays—Lunch at Mark Twain’s Grave—will be published by Mammoth Books in 2022.
He is most proud of his work in helping—along with Professor Göran Malmqvist of The Swedish Academy—to introduce American readers to the poetry of Ingela Strandberg: Sweden’s Bellman Prize-winning poet, a celebrated writer in her own country and elsewhere. Minar also assisted Dr. Saleh Razzouk of The University of Aleppo and Professor Philip Terman of Clarion University (Pennsylvania) in introducing the poetry of Syrian writers Riad Saleh Hussein, Linda Abdel Baki, and Iman Chahin Sharba to American readers. He continues this work and collaborates in translating Dr. Razzouk’s short stories and publishing these in the United States and elsewhere.
A few writers have offered kind remarks about Minar’s writing. Former Poet Laureate Mark Strand said of Minar’s essay about his book Man and Camel, “This is one of the best things written about me.” In a letter nominating him for a Pushcart Prize, Joyce Carol Oates said of Minar’s poetry, “His work is a remarkable find.”
Scott’s musical friends and collaborators include Athens-based songwriter and teacher Bruce Dalzell; the impeccable Jack Sowers, the amazing Nevada Hart, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Kim Richey, the 1980’s band The Kings of Hollywood (of which Scott was a founding member, along with Dalzell and T. Craig Goodwin), the fabulous Barry Hunn, producer/impresario Keith Newman, the hilarious Adam Simon; and many more. He has shared stages with Richard Thompson, Jonathon Edwards, Elmira New York’s John Manfredi, and a host of others over the last five decades. He continues to write songs today and occasionally teaches songwriting with his partner, Bruce Dalzell.
This page is set up to celebrate the music of the Athens-based original music band The Kings of Hollywood, featuring Bruce Dalzell, T. Craig Goodwin, Scott Minar, David Borowsky, Mark Hellenberg, and Bernie Nau. The Kings were regionally successful, celebrated performers and recording artists in Athens, Ohio during the 1980s.
Ohio University singer/songwriters get together every week to share songs they’re working on, give each other feedback and sometimes collaborate and write together. Bruce Dalzell hosts the circle.
ATHENS, OHIO (AND ENVIRONS) SINGER-SONGWRITERS ON BANDCAMP AND/OR LIVE FROM HOME
All musical friends of Bruce Dalzell are honorary Athenians no matter where they live and love. And as is well known, Austin, Texas and Nashville, Tennessee are very large suburbs of Athens, Ohio.
Adam Remnant
Albert Rouzie
Albert Rouzie: Live From Home (Includes at end Bruce Dalzell’s “Gifts”)
Peter Mealy and Laurie Rose Griffith: Live From Home (Includes at end Bruce Dalzell’s cover of “My Neighborhood,” previously recorded by Peter Mealy and Laurie Rose Griffith)
Hart, Bob: “Caitlin Kraus: Making her own kind of music.” The Athens News. 19 December 2023
“It was a song called ‘Garden’ that did it for me. Perhaps only when a musical artist writes deeply personal lyrics do their words become universal, belying the specifics of their own situation and emotions to touch others on an intimate level. That song and many other good ones are on the CD “Gone Beyond,” by Caitlin Kraus. It’s her second recorded collection (following “What Rises”) and is available through many outlets, including caitlinkrausmusic.bandcamp.com, Spotify and Apple Music.”…
Caitlin Kraus: “Make It Clear” (Caitlin Kraus performs “Make It Clear” Aug. 17, 2023, at the Athens (OH) Community Center.) — From the album GONE BEYOND.
It is a very special honor to have completed this music video for “Follow Me,” which was directed by the wonderful Adam Remnant who also recorded the song itself back in 2016. We collaborated on the concepts in the video and spent a chilly, beautiful spring day filming it with his talented students (listed below) at the Nelsonville, OH brick kilns, Hocking River, and surrounding neighborhood. For me, the lyrics and music of this song portray real imagery and memories that have grown dream-like with the passing of time, yet still remain formative and foundational. At its core, it is about transformation and being/becoming, but I hope the ambiguity and symbolism of the song and video also lead to your own interpretation and that you can find something resonant within it. Lyrics and digital/CD format available at caitlinkrausmusic.bandcamp.com. Music website at caitlinkrausmusic.com.
A huge and sincere thank you to Adam Remnant for his direction of the video and to the Hocking College students listed in the following credits: AC – Alex Rhinehart & Najayah Shepard; Grips – Alex Rhinehart, Alexis Pariseau, Najayah Shepard, Nate Ruhl, & Richard Valentine; On-set Photographer – Ivan Reardon
“Follow Me” is featured on the full-length 2020 release WHAT RISES and includes myself on vocals/guitar, Adam Remnant on bass/drums/keyboard, and Hannah Simonetti on violin. The song was recorded and mixed by Adam in Athens, OH while the full album was produced, mixed, and mastered by Bernie Nau at Peachfork Studios in Pomeroy, OH (https://peachforkstudios.com/).
A song for the rights of all: the right to be safe in our bodies, the right to make decisions for our bodies, and the right to be who we are in our bodies. (Lyrics below.) I wrote this song […] out of the need to process my anger at women’s rights being taken away and for what this means for other rights down the line. A never-ending issue it seems, but one we can’t stop fighting for. A big thank you to Tom Riggs for taking footage of my first performance of this song with Mark Hellenberg on drums at The Union in Athens, OH.
Lyrics for “This Body”:
This body is temporary, but while it’s here / It’s not yours to hold captive in fear / This body is mine, it was never yours / So fuck your laws and gods and guns / I get to say what I put inside / I GET TO CHOOSE, IT IS MY RIGHT / This body is sacred, but only safe / When I’m in charge, you have no claim / This body is proud and wears the crown / Makes the decisions and won’t back down / I get to say what I put inside / I GET TO CHOOSE, IT IS MY RIGHT / And don’t tell me who I can love or about my identity / Don’t use your privilege to subject your patriarchy / I get to say what I put inside / I GET TO CHOOSE, IT IS MY RIGHT
Caitlin Kraus: “What Rises” — From the album WHAT RISES
Interview & Article for WOUB Public Media (8/6/2020): Interview about upcoming performance for the Virtual Nelsonville Music Festival, history as a songwriter and musician, and experiences as a performer during the pandemic.
OVRLD Austin Music First (6/13/2016): “On her new single ‘Waiting for the World,’ Caitlin Kraus’ sweetly shimmering voice rises out of an oceanic musical backing, giving the track a melancholic feel, like a reinterpretation of The Awakening’s bitter conclusion. Kraus’ voice is powerful but not in a bombastic sense, it’s instead devastating in its emotional richness. The well-arranged strings that emerge after the beginning of the song aid in this, making ‘Waiting for the World’ an excellent bit of chamber pop that stands out for the frequently unimaginatively produced singer songwriter tracks Austin is oversaturated with.”
Suggested Listening ’23: Caitlin Kraus Suggests Good Music to Listen To
Caitlin Kraus is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and Board-Certified Music Therapist providing services to students at Ohio University in Athens, OH. When she is not counseling, Caitlin is an active musician and songwriter, performing her music both solo and with a band under her name. She has released two full-length albums from Peachfork Studios: “Gone Beyond” (2023) and “What Rises” (2020). She also sings and plays in the band Drift Mouth. She is the proud companion of two wonderful dogs.
Some of the music choices presented here were not actually released in 2023 as I am usually a time traveler when it comes to music. While it was hard to choose only 10 albums/artists and songs, this is some of the music that I happened to listen to often in 2023 and which personally resonated the most. It is presented in no particular order. I hope you can enjoy it along with me!
Drift Mouth opens its Jan. 13, 2024, set at The Union in Athens, OH, with “Starling.” Lou Poster on lead vocals and guitar, Caitlin Kraus guitar, David Murphy drums, Nate Brite bass.
Smashwords has made it mandatory to open an account to read or download free eBooks. The reason is this: “The change was […] made to prevent scraping of free books by bots for machine learning training data or similar. It was not a change made lightly — both authors and readers enjoyed the ability to download free books without an account.”
No account is needed to download my FREE eBooks at Freeditorial.
Formed on a summer’s night in Athens, Ohio in 1988, the three singers—Brenda Catania, Gay Dalzell, and Mimi Hart—had all been touring and recording for years and were ready to pour their energies into some music that was, well, local. Although their musical experiences were varied, all three shared an enthusiasm for close harmony, for the ineffable thrill of creating a smooth or jumping song, chord by chord. Each woman remains stylistically distinctive, but together they create a vibrant, balanced blend—and they have contagious fun doing it.
Although much of their material focuses on the hot and vampy swing tunes of the 30s and 40s (The Boswells, The Jimmy Lunsford Trio, and The Rhythm Boys), they also pursue their eclectic musical interests by performing their own arrangements of jazz, cowpoke, bebop, blues, standards and an occasional psychedelic hit. Their repertoire spins through a century of moving American song.
Before returning to Athens to raise her family, Brenda had worked primarily in Boston and San Francisco, doing cabaret, musical theater, rock and roll and with the performance art groups, Nuclear Beauty Parlor and the Monster Girls. Gay toured extensively, singing a range from bluegrass to blues. A featured member of The Appalachian Green Parks Project, she continues her popular folk/jazz duo work with her husband, the singer/songwriter Bruce Dalzell. Mimi began performing with her sisters at six; later, she worked out of Athens, New York City, and Cleveland, heading up and down the East coast and across the country with Hotcakes, the Bopcats, David Bromberg, the Allman Brothers and others.
The Local Girls’ gifted accompanists have deep resumes as well. Mike McGannon, a creative Ohio mainstay on guitars and banjo, was the musical director of The Angels, and has toured with The Drifters and The Coasters, as well as playing on countless recordings. Terry Douds, a sought-after clinician and engineer/producer, is an outstanding bass player, having toured the U.S., Europe and Asia with The Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Woody Herman Orchestra, the Ink Spots, The Columbus Symphony and more.
The Local Girls have opened for the Platters, Lonestar, and Chubby Checker, and entertained the troops surrounding Air Force One. They’ve sung for two award-winning PBS documentary series. With The Lark Quartet, The Local Girls premiered a new birthday song, “Your Trip Around the Sun”, at Hillary Clinton’s fiftieth birthday gala in Washington D.C. They toured Europe with Ohio University singers, performed in The East Room at The White House for candlelight festivities and were guests on The Prairie Home Companion at Town Hall in NYC.
This is a very listenable album with covers of notable songs by such music luminaries as Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield, JD Hutchison, and Bruce Dalzell. I especially like “Where the Girls Are” and “I Feel Free.”
Three singers — Brenda Catania, Gay Dalzell, and Mimi Hart — formed The Local Girls in the summer of 1988 in Athens County, Ohio. They have performed at Town Hall in New York City as guests of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, toured Europe, and sang for Hillary Clinton’s 50th birthday party. In addition, they have recorded two albums: Let Yourself Go (2000) and Three Little Words (2011). How to best describe them? Swing singers, yes. Vocal jazz, yes. Certainly, they perform precision, three-part harmony as they cover older and newer songs. The chronology of their repertoire ranges from 1854 (Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times Come Again No More” — no, not on this album) to the 1990s (T. Bone Burnett’s “It’s Not Too Late” — yes, on this album).
These are the songs on Let Yourself Go:
“Shout Sister Shout.” Recorded in the 1930s by the Boswell Sisters, a close harmony group. Very jazzy and tuneful. Some lyrics: “Just tell old Satan how you feel / Get that old Devil right off your heel / Shout sister, shout sister, shout!”
“Centerpiece.” Recorded by Lambert, Hendricks and Ross in 1960 on the album titled Lambert, Hendricks and Ross! The Hottest New Group in Jazz. This title is an example of proper (earned) pride. Notably covered by Van Morrison. Some lyrics: “The more I’m with you, pretty baby / The more I feel my love increase / I’m building all my dreams around you / My happiness will never cease / But nothing’s any good without you / ’Cause, baby, you’re my centerpiece.”
“Stay A Little Longer.” Some lyrics: “Stay a little longer / A little bit longer / You know you ain’t got nothing better to do / We’ll blindfold the cat / Put out the dog / Pull the shades and lock the door.” Written by Paula Lockhart with additional lyrics by David Lister. One of my favorites on this album.
“I’ll Never Say ‘Never Again’ Again.” Notably recorded by the Nat King Cole Trio, the Three Ambassadors, Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra, and many more. Some lyrics: “I’ll never say ‘never again’ again / ’Cause here I am in love again / Head over heels in love again with you / I’ll never say, ‘never kiss you’ again / ’Cause here I am kissing you again / That’s just the thing I said I’d never do.”
“I Feel Free.” The Cream song, written by Pete Brown and Jack Bruce. The Local Girls’ version is much less rock and much more harmonic. Some lyrics: “I can walk down the street, there’s no one there / Though the pavements are one huge crowd. / I can drive down the road, my eyes don’t see, / Though my mind wants to cry out loud.”
“Since My Bird Has Flied Away.” The composer, J.D. Hutchison, sings lead, backed up by The Local Girls. A different version of “Since My Bird Has Flied Away” appears on J.D. Hutchison’s album You and the World Outside. Some lyrics: “Pour some more coffee in my coffee cup / I don’t know why, I don’t even like the stuff / But nothing seems to matter / Since my bird has flied away.” The bird, of course, is a woman. Another of my favorites.
“Let Yourself Go.” The Irving Berlin song. Ginger Rogers sang this song, and — of course — danced to it with Fred Astaire. Some lyrics: “Come / Get together / Let the dance floor feel your leather / Step as lightly as a feather / Let yourself go / Come / Hit the timber / Loosen up and start to limber / Can’t you hear that hot marimba? / Let yourself go.”
“Where The Boys Are.” Written by Neil Sedaka and Howard Greenfield for the 1960 movie of the same title, starring Connie Francis, Yvette Mimieux, Paula Prentiss, and Dolores Hart. My personal favorite on this Local Girls album. Some lyrics: “Where the boys are / Someone waits for me, / A smiling face, a warm embrace, / Two arms to hold me tenderly. / Where the boys are / My true love will be, / He’s walking down some street in town / And I know he’s looking there for me.”
“Ready On The Firing Line.” Another great song by JD Hutchison. Some lyrics: “In this world / You’ve got to be ready / Got to have everything just so / You’ve got to be ready just to hang around / Or you’ve got to be ready to go / You’ve got to be ready just to hear the word / You must be ready to read the sign / You must be ready on the left / Ready on the right / Ready on the firing line.”
“The Bozo Blues.” A song by Bruce Dalzell, Gay Dalzell’s husband. Bruce and Gay have made a lot of excellent music in Athens County, Ohio, for decades. This is a bluesy, humorous song about going to Chicago to be on The Bozo Show. Some lyrics: “I’m going to Chicago / Be on that Bozo Show / Yeah, I’m going to Chicago / Be on that B-B-Bozo Show / Yeah, I don’t know where Chicago is / But, mama, I got to go.”
“It’s Not Too Late.” The T-Bone Burnett song. Some lyrics: “The wind turns like a dagger, / the rain falls like a hammer / The sky has grown dark but it’s not too late / The weather crashes down, what’s lost cannot be found / The night is closing but it’s not too late.”
“I Want To Be A Cowboy’s Sweetheart.” A hit for Patsy Montana & The Prairie Ramblers. Some lyrics: “I want to be a cowboy’s sweetheart / I want to learn to rope and to ride / I want to ride o’er the plains and the desert / Out west of the great divide / I want to hear the coyotes howlin’ / While the sun sets in the West / I want to be a cowboy’s sweetheart / That’s the life that I love best.” Lots of yodeling on this one.
“The Blue Shadows On The Trail.” A Roy Rogers song. Some lyrics: “Blue shadows on the trail / Blue moon shinin’ through the trees / And a plain tiff wail from the distance / Comes a driftin’ on the evening breeze.”
“Caravan.” The Duke Ellington song. Some lyrics: “Night and stars above that shine so bright / The mystery of their fading light / That shines upon our Caravan / Sleep upon my shoulder as we creep / Across the sands so I may keep / The memory of our Caravan.”
“Mothra vs. Godzilla.” The main title of the 1964 Japanese monster movie of the same name. On Rotten Tomatoes, 90 percent of the critics like the movie. If nothing else, this song proves that The Local Girls are eclectic. Do you speak Monster? I don’t. Look for lyrics elsewhere.
Readers of this review should make heavy use of Amazon’s preview snippets of The Local Girls’ songs on this page.
The Local Girls ought to be famous, but one problem with Athens County is that it’s such a good place to live that excellent music-makers often stay here rather than moving to Nashville, NYC, or LA to seek fame and fortune. Lots of musicians choose to raise their kids in Athens County.
Support local music, and be aware that in the age of the Internet and the WWW, Athens County is local worldwide.
Anecdotes are usually short humorous stories. Sometimes they are thought-provoking or informative, not amusing.
Language
• The parents of a student at Sidcot School, an independent English school founded on Quaker values, became upset and complained, saying that a teacher had cursed at their son when he had lost a wallet. The Head of the school investigated the matter and discovered that lost property was turned over to a teacher named Helen Hunt. When the boy reported losing his wallet, he had been told, “Go to Helen Hunt for it.”
• The language old-time muledrivers used was something awesome to behold. One muledriver stopped to invite his frontier preacher to climb aboard for a ride. Unfortunately, the muledriver was quickly forced to disinvite the preacher — as long as the preacher was around, the mules didn’t understand a word the muledriver said.
• In one game, the Seattle Supersonics were trailing Vancouver by nine points at halftime. Later, Supersonic player Vin Baker was asked what coach George Karl had told the team in his halftime talk. Mr. Baker replied, “I’m a minister’s son. I don’t repeat those kinds of things.”
Medals
• Cathy Rigby was lucky to have good coaches when she began to study gymnastics in the early 1960s, because there weren’t that many around. In fact, Muriel Grossfeld, one of the top American gymnasts of the 1950s and 1960s, said, “When I was competing, none of the best girls had coaches. We all trained ourselves.” Fortunately for Ms. Rigby, Bob Marquette, a 1930s gymnastics champion, had started a girls gymnastics club in Long Beach, California, near her home. Why did he do this when they were so rare? He explained, “I started a girls’ gymnastic club because they’re always being put down. Boys have so much going for them in sports — football, basketball, baseball.” Ms. Rigby’s training paid off when she became the first American woman to win a medal in international competition: a silver medal on balance beam at the 1970 Worlds Games held in Yugoslavia.
• Svetlana Boginskaya has a lot of pride. At her very first gymnastics competition, she won a second-place medal. She was so angry that she had not won first place that as soon as she was home, she threw the medal away.
Media
• At the Chicago Herald-Examiner, John J. “Jack” McPhaul once worked with a female reporter who was dedicated to meeting deadlines. Once, they were working together on a murder case. They waited for a coroner to finish his work on the murder victim so they could report on the findings. Their deadline for the first edition was fast approaching, and growing impatient she walked into the coroner’s office. A moment later, the coroner appeared and beckoned to Mr. McPhaul. Two bodies were lying down. One was the murder victim; the other was the female reporter. Mr. McPhaul asked what had happened, and the coroner replied, “She tapped me on the shoulder, and when I turned it was just in time to catch her. Out like a light. Guess the job was a little messier than she had expected.” The female reporter regained consciousness, looked at Mr. McPhaul, and said, “Jack McPhaul, if you ever tell a soul, I’ll kill you.”
• Reporters for the tabloids play dirty tricks on each other, such as calling an opposing newspaper with a bogus news tip. For example, a reporter will be sent out to investigate a place where a major celebrity is supposed to be recuperating from a life of excess. The reporter will drive for hours, only to find out that the address given by the tipster is that of a desert shack no celebrity would ever live in. In addition, reporters for the tabloids have to deal with a lot of crazy people. At the height of the excitement generated by the O.J. Simpson trial, a wacko called the Star and demanded $300,000 for an exclusive psychic interview with a dog named Kato.
• As an employee at the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert was one of the reporters who spent a lot of time at Billy Goat’s and at Riccardo’s. Reporters from the Chicago Daily News spent much time at both places, too. Billy Goat’s was a bar, and Riccardo’s was an Italian restaurant. When Riccardo’s was sold, a Chicago Sun-Timesreporter interviewed the seller, who said that he had enjoyed being the owner of the restaurant, with one exception: “On Friday nights, they let the animals out of the zoo.” John McHugh, a Daily News reporter, read the article, and then told Roger, “Ebert, he means us.”
***
FREE eBook: THE MOST INTERESTING PEOPLE WHO LIVE LIFE, Volume 2
Smashwords recently made it mandatory to open an account to read or download free eBooks. The reason is this: “The change was […] made to prevent scraping of free books by bots for machine learning training data or similar. It was not a change made lightly — both authors and readers enjoyed the ability to download free books without an account.”
No account is needed to download my FREE eBooks at Freeditorial or any of my blogs:
From The Book of Good Deeds 1914-1918: WORLD WAR I GOOD DEEDS:
A KICK IN THE PANTS
IT was December 1916, during the Battle of the Somme, that well remembered time when there was a frightful rainy spell on the Somme. Man and beast alike foundered in the mud. Shells became almost ineffectual, having no impact, so the enemies bombarded each other with mines. There were as good as no trenches at all, just an unending level of water and mud. We could locate our position only with the aid of a compass. I was stationed near Bapaume as an ambulance man of the 33rd Division of Infantry. Every morning we used to advance about 15 kilometers towards the lines from where we brought back the sick and wounded.
One morning I slipped into the mud up to the arm pits, right in the front lines. The daily exchange of mines was just in progress and my comrades ran back past me, leaving me stuck in the mud. The last one to pass was Vizefeldwebel Fleury, from Lothringen; he tried to pull me out but only began to sink in himself. Another mine exploded, so he left me, otherwise he himself would have been caught. I gave myself up for dead. All of a sudden, a huge English sergeant-major stood in front of me with a plank of wood. He stepped on the plank and, swearing the while (I could only recognize the word “Boche” [German soldier]), pulled me out. I wanted to express my thanks to him, but he gave me a kick in the pants and ran back to his dugout, throwing himself down in the dirt repeatedly on his way back to avoid his own mines. I owe him my life.
“Multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Mark Sims writes songs about the ups and downs of life in the midwest and draws on elements of blues, country, folk, jazz and rock music.”
Peter Mealy and Laurie Rose Griffith: Live From Home (Includes at end Bruce Dalzell’s cover of “My Neighborhood,” previously recorded by Peter Mealy and Laurie Rose Griffith)
Smashwords has made it mandatory to open an account to read or download free eBooks. The reason is this: “The change was […] made to prevent scraping of free books by bots for machine learning training data or similar. It was not a change made lightly — both authors and readers enjoyed the ability to download free books without an account.”
No account is needed to download my FREE eBooks at Freeditorial.
Hart, Bob: “Caitlin Kraus: Making her own kind of music.” The Athens News. 19 December 2023
“It was a song called ‘Garden’ that did it for me. Perhaps only when a musical artist writes deeply personal lyrics do their words become universal, belying the specifics of their own situation and emotions to touch others on an intimate level. That song and many other good ones are on the CD “Gone Beyond,” by Caitlin Kraus. It’s her second recorded collection (following “What Rises”) and is available through many outlets, including caitlinkrausmusic.bandcamp.com, Spotify and Apple Music.”…
Caitlin Kraus: “Make It Clear” (Caitlin Kraus performs “Make It Clear” Aug. 17, 2023, at the Athens (OH) Community Center.) — From the album GONE BEYOND.
It is a very special honor to have completed this music video for “Follow Me,” which was directed by the wonderful Adam Remnant who also recorded the song itself back in 2016. We collaborated on the concepts in the video and spent a chilly, beautiful spring day filming it with his talented students (listed below) at the Nelsonville, OH brick kilns, Hocking River, and surrounding neighborhood. For me, the lyrics and music of this song portray real imagery and memories that have grown dream-like with the passing of time, yet still remain formative and foundational. At its core, it is about transformation and being/becoming, but I hope the ambiguity and symbolism of the song and video also lead to your own interpretation and that you can find something resonant within it. Lyrics and digital/CD format available at caitlinkrausmusic.bandcamp.com. Music website at caitlinkrausmusic.com.
A huge and sincere thank you to Adam Remnant for his direction of the video and to the Hocking College students listed in the following credits: AC – Alex Rhinehart & Najayah Shepard; Grips – Alex Rhinehart, Alexis Pariseau, Najayah Shepard, Nate Ruhl, & Richard Valentine; On-set Photographer – Ivan Reardon
“Follow Me” is featured on the full-length 2020 release WHAT RISES and includes myself on vocals/guitar, Adam Remnant on bass/drums/keyboard, and Hannah Simonetti on violin. The song was recorded and mixed by Adam in Athens, OH while the full album was produced, mixed, and mastered by Bernie Nau at Peachfork Studios in Pomeroy, OH(https://peachforkstudios.com/).
A song for the rights of all: the right to be safe in our bodies, the right to make decisions for our bodies, and the right to be who we are in our bodies. (Lyrics below.) I wrote this song […] out of the need to process my anger at women’s rights being taken away and for what this means for other rights down the line. A never-ending issue it seems, but one we can’t stop fighting for. A big thank you to Tom Riggs for taking footage of my first performance of this song with Mark Hellenberg on drums at The Union in Athens, OH.
Lyrics for “This Body”:
This body is temporary, but while it’s here / It’s not yours to hold captive in fear / This body is mine, it was never yours / So fuck your laws and gods and guns / I get to say what I put inside / I GET TO CHOOSE, IT IS MY RIGHT / This body is sacred, but only safe / When I’m in charge, you have no claim / This body is proud and wears the crown / Makes the decisions and won’t back down / I get to say what I put inside / I GET TO CHOOSE, IT IS MY RIGHT / And don’t tell me who I can love or about my identity / Don’t use your privilege to subject your patriarchy / I get to say what I put inside / I GET TO CHOOSE, IT IS MY RIGHT
Caitlin Kraus: “What Rises” — From the album WHAT RISES
Interview & Article for WOUBPublic Media(8/6/2020): Interview about upcoming performance for the Virtual Nelsonville Music Festival, history as a songwriter and musician, and experiences as a performer during the pandemic.
OVRLD Austin Music First(6/13/2016): “On her new single ‘Waiting for the World,’ Caitlin Kraus’ sweetly shimmering voice rises out of an oceanic musical backing, giving the track a melancholic feel, like a reinterpretation of The Awakening’s bitter conclusion. Kraus’ voice is powerful but not in a bombastic sense, it’s instead devastating in its emotional richness. The well-arranged strings that emerge after the beginning of the song aid in this, making ‘Waiting for the World’ an excellent bit of chamber pop that stands out for the frequently unimaginatively produced singer songwriter tracks Austin is oversaturated with.”
Suggested Listening ’23: Caitlin Kraus Suggests Good Music to Listen To
Caitlin Kraus is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and Board-Certified Music Therapist providing services to students at Ohio University in Athens, OH. When she is not counseling, Caitlin is an active musician and songwriter, performing her music both solo and with a band under her name. She has released two full-length albums from Peachfork Studios: “Gone Beyond” (2023) and “What Rises” (2020). She also sings and plays in the band Drift Mouth. She is the proud companion of two wonderful dogs.
Some of the music choices presented here were not actually released in 2023 as I am usually a time traveler when it comes to music. While it was hard to choose only 10 albums/artists and songs, this is some of the music that I happened to listen to often in 2023 and which personally resonated the most. It is presented in no particular order. I hope you can enjoy it along with me!
Drift Mouth opens its Jan. 13, 2024, set at The Union in Athens, OH, with “Starling.” Lou Poster on lead vocals and guitar, Caitlin Kraus guitar, David Murphy drums, Nate Brite bass.
A song for the rights of all: the right to be safe in our bodies, the right to make decisions for our bodies, and the right to be who we are in our bodies. (Lyrics below.) I wrote this song […] out of the need to process my anger at women’s rights being taken away and for what this means for other rights down the line. A never-ending issue it seems, but one we can’t stop fighting for. A big thank you to Tom Riggs for taking footage of my first performance of this song with Mark Hellenberg on drums at The Union in Athens, OH.
Lyrics for “This Body”:
This body is temporary, but while it’s here / It’s not yours to hold captive in fear / This body is mine, it was never yours / So fuck your laws and gods and guns / I get to say what I put inside / I GET TO CHOOSE, IT IS MY RIGHT / This body is sacred, but only safe / When I’m in charge, you have no claim / This body is proud and wears the crown / Makes the decisions and won’t back down / I get to say what I put inside / I GET TO CHOOSE, IT IS MY RIGHT / And don’t tell me who I can love or about my identity / Don’t use your privilege to subject your patriarchy / I get to say what I put inside / I GET TO CHOOSE, IT IS MY RIGHT
davidbruceblog #4 