I am so reluctant to admit, but July is coming to a close. I am not a winter person, so I spend all summer in denial that it will ever end. Sadly, it is foolish to do so. Today is the last day of July and there is no use in denying it. So I am posting a July playlist to mark the passing of this wonderful summer month. Alas, we hardly knew ye!
As usual, this playlist is composed of songs that are in current rotation on my iPhone. They are what comes up when I play it on shuffle. That doesn’t mean they are new songs. Many are quite the opposite. The only exceptions to the rule are that I only included the first song that popped up by each artist, and it had to be something that is available on Rhapsody. Otherwise it couldn’t be in the playlist. Click on the button and you can listen to the whole thing.
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Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood – Bettye LaVette From a new album, Interpretations: the British Rock Songbook, this is a version of this classic by one of the most uncompromising and important pioneers of Detroit Soul.
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Category Archives: Recommendations
Praise and Blame. Well, Pretty Much All Praise.
The video below is a recording of “Did Trouble Me,” a Gospel song by Susan Werner, as sung by Tom Jones on his new album Praise and Blame. To most people Tom Jones is probably best know for songs like “What’s New Pussycat?,” “Green, Green Grass of Home,” “It’s Not Unusual,” and his cover of Prince’s “Kiss.” Praise and Blame is his second release on Lost Highway Records, better known for releasing music that might be labeled “Roots Music” or “Americana.” It turns out the fit between Jones and the label is not at all a forced one.
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Help Support the Life is Good Foundation
I’m in the midst of fundraising for the Life is Good Kids Foundation. I must admit that my reasons for embarking on this venture were selfish. I’m going to the Life is Good Festival down the road a bit in Canton, and you get some special privileges if you raise a certain amounts. But having started on the project, I did some research into the foundation, and I’ve realized what a good cause it is. My enthusiasm is great, independent of the concert.
The Life is good Kids Foundation is an action-oriented nonprofit, committed to helping young children overcome life-threatening challenges such as extreme poverty, violence, illness and natural disasters. Our Playmakers Initiative provides training, resources and support to the adults dedicated to caring for these children so that all involved lead healthier, more joyful lives.
Thematic playlist: Whiskey and Moonshine
A while back, I got a lot of peoples help to create lists of train songs that I posted in this blog. That was a fun project, and I’ve been eager to start another. I subsequently indicated that my next list would be Protest Songs and Corporate Greed. It seemed relevant given the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, the banking crisis, and so many other current issues. I haven’t gotten far on that, but am still working on it. It’s just that it’s such a heavy topic.
So I’m going to lighten it up a bit and start another project at the same time, this one on one one of my favorite things: Whiskey. Just to keep it interesting, lets not limit ourselves to whiskey, but also moonshine or, the name I like, “White Lightening.”
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A Tale of Three Bands
Over and over for about three decades folks have proclaimed the death of Rock and Roll, but I’m thoroughly convinced that good old-fashioned, guitar dominated rock and roll is in the midst of a golden age. I just watched the Bruce Springsteen, Live at Hyde Park DVD and it is amazing. I was at the actual concert in Hyde Park last year. At the age of 60 this man rocks! I’ve seen him play a few times over the decades and the show on that DVD is every bit as high energy, loud and exciting as those he did in the 90’s, 80’s and even the 70’s. You get wrapped up in a Springsteen concert like you might in a religious revival, and there are not at lot of artists who have been able to keep the intensity of a show at your favorite rock club, even as they began to play at bigger and bigger venues, right up stadiums and open air concerts in Hyde Park.
Not only are his live shows legendary, but each show is new and different. There is always a significant element of spontaneity and he never sticks to a preplanned setlist. He can keep it fresh because he’s constantly releasing new material. Indeed, in recent years he’s been releasing albums even more frequently, nearly every year since 2002. It’s surprising to notice the age range at his concerts, fans ranging from their 20s to their 60s! As long as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are playing three hour plus concerts and Bruce keeps that new material coming, we don’t need to worry about the death of Rock and Roll.
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Culture Jamming Anti-Ads
These are spoof ads from Adbusters Magazine,
a not-for-profit, reader-supported, 120,000-circulation magazine concerned about the erosion of our physical and cultural environments by commercial forces.
I think they are amazing. Funny, yet tragic. They point out the absurdity of advertising that promises to fulfill all our desires and yet only creates and enlarges desires that can never be filled.
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My Next Playlist Topic
Smithsonian Folkways Collection
I’ve got it! Lately I’ve really enjoyed listening to artist who can help give voice to my anger over the kind of corporate greed and irresponsibility, coupled with irresponsible government collusion that led to the crisis we now face in the Gulf of Mexico. So that’s my next playlist: Protest Songs and Corporate Greed. There are LOTS of these, so my playlist will include two criteria. Either the song is just great or it is particularly relevant to what is going on right now. I’m excluding anti-war songs, unless the song is about both topics. So, ideas anyone? Workers songs from the 30’s to the most popular songs of today! Let’s hear them.
Here’s two, just to get us started.
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This One, At Least, Is Short. Another Train Song List
"Long Black Train, by cindy47452
A while back I posted a couple lists of train songs. Then I stumbled across one of those songs about train songs. Finally, only about a week ago, taking into consideration suggestions that had continued to come in, I posted a new revised list. I thought for sure that would be it. Of course not. Here, dear reader, is yet another list.
Share More train songsThe vast majority of train songs I’ve found are Country and Blues songs. But all of the lists include songs from many different genres, and that is true here, too. The first song is Barry Manilow‘s Border Train, and it is a typical Manilow ballad. That’s followed by Sarah McLachlan‘s Train Wreck, again typical McLachlan’s. Neither of those tunes is exactly crossover material, at least not as recorded here, and they are not country.
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Shaking up Poetry
Give your iPhone a shake and explore the vagaries of love: its joys, passions, doubts, disappointments, insecurities, and finally the grief it too often brings. Or maybe when you have to spend just a little too much time home for the holidays, you’ll want to deliberately line up “boredom” and “family,” and read what comes up, both to kill time and to remind yourself that you are not the only one bored by your family. You can combine subjects and emotions deliberately, or you can “spin” the wheels and see what comes up. There are so many combinations to explore, it seems like you’ll never run out.
I’m talking about a new iPhone app from the Poetry Foundation called, quite simply, “Poetry”. It makes exploring poetry fun. What I’ve been talking about above is a feature that lines up emotions and topics such as love, nature, family, work and play to give you a list of poems relevant to the combination. I am pamelaannschoolofdance.com order cialis online a School Nurse at a Middle School in a suburb of a large city. This is said to be the best medication for you. cialis purchase Some cosmetic corrections may be required after 6 months to one year, after bariatric surgery, in some patients to get better contouring of the body. best price vardenafil cialis generic order Fallopian tubes: leading from the ovaries to the womb. The poems are from different eras, but all are fairly short and accessible. And even if you don’t like poetry, I bet you are at least a little curious to read what well regarded, “serious” poets have to say about disappointment or blame and family or, even better, disappointment and love. That’s the stuff of standup comedy, not poetry, right?
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More Train Songs
Almost exactly a month ago I posted a list of Train Songs, but I did so too early. I had asked the help of friends in Lost HighwayRecords Fancorps. They reminded me of lots of songs I had forgotten and even more that I didn’t yet know. They also introduced me to Jimmie Rodgers, The Singin’ Brakeman. A few suggests came in from other places, too.
Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who contributed. This was fun. I may just take SlowMovinOutlaw up on his suggestion and do another list on another theme. He suggested trucking songs. Maybe, though I don’t know how much that crosses genres. I found train songs that were Country, Rock, Jazz, Blues, Folk, Soul… They’re all here.
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