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Utopian Turtletop. Monsieur Croche's Bête Noire. Contact: turtletop [at] hotmail [dot] com

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

blues and roots


My band is playing a house concert Saturday night at 7:00 pm. Kids welcome. We'll save the R-rated songs (violence, sex) till the end and give concerned parents a chance to exit. (I have songs I won't sing in front of my kid.) My friend composer/pianist/singer Gretta Harley will be playing as well.

If you're interested and live in the Seattle area, email me and I'll send you details.

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Does anybody know whether Woody Guthrie ever recorded his song East Texas Red? The only version I know is Arlo’s, which is terrific, on the tribute album to his father and Leadbelly, A Vision Shared. I think of this song whenever anybody tries to pigeonhole Woody as a writer of 2-dimensional protest and constant social uplift. This is stoicism in the face of mean hard human nature. Nothing uplifting about it. (I thought of it today, re-reading parts of Dylan’s Chronicles, and coming across a passage where he stereotypes Woody as a writer of protest and topical songs.)
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