“I’ve gone through three changes– I thought I was a Christian… then I was the devil… then the third one, where I know who I am… you know… I feel like I’m an alien.”
–Roky Erickson
The beautiful, gifted, misunderstood and mysterious Roky Erickson will forever be lumped with Syd Barrett and other so-called mad, musical geniuses– but unlike some of the others, thankfully Roky came back to us. Better late than never. We love you, Roky.
Photo by Scott Newton
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Photo by Scott Newton
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“You know when Robert Johnson said ‘you gotta move’ — I figured that out. It’s like, you’re happily floating through nothing– you know, nothingness. All of a sudden, a big giant fish, they way I picture it… grabs you and… puts you in a form, and slams you on the face of this veil of tears, and says– You’ve gotta move! “
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If you’re a fan of Tom Waits and not familiar with this album– pick it up now. John Hammond covers Tom Waits’ originals (except for one song), with Waits himself on backup and producing the album. They’ve been friends and played together for years. I’ve had Wicked Grin in heavy rotation since it came out in 2001, and whenever anyone hears it, right they are blown away by John Hammond’s boozy, barrelhouse blues chops.
Wicked Grin is utterly timeless, still worth raving over. In fact, I’m listening to it right now– and all of a sudden I need a beer.
Having lived through some of the most significant historic movements and events of the Twentieth-Century –the Great Depression, the Great Dust Storm, World War II, the social and the political upheavals resulting from Unionism, the Communist Party and the Cold War– Woody absorbed it all to become a prolific writer whose songs, ballads, prose and poetry captured the plight of everyman. While traveling throughout the American landscape during the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, Woody’s observations of what he saw and experienced has left for us a lasting and sometimes haunting legacy of images, sounds, and voices of the marginalized, disenfranchised, and oppressed people with whom he struggled to survive despite all odds. Although the corpus of original Woody Guthrie songs, or as Woody preferred “people’s songs” are, perhaps, his most recognized contribution to American culture, the stinging honesty, humor, and wit found even in his most vernacular prose writings exhibit Woody’s fervent belief in social, political, and spiritual justice.
“There’s a feeling in music and it carries you back down the road you have traveled and makes you travel it again. Sometimes when I hear music I think back over my days – and a feeling that is fifty-fifty joy and pain swells like clouds taking all kinds of shapes in my mind.”
“Music is in all the sounds of nature and there never was a sound that was not music – the splash of an alligator, the rain dripping on dry leaves, the whistle of a train, a long and lonesome train whistling down, a truck horn blowing at a street corner speaker – kids squawling along the streets – the silent wail of wind and sky caressing the breasts of the desert. Life is this sound, and since creation has been a song. And there is no real trick of creating words to set to music, once you realize that the word is the music and the people are the song.”
“Woody is just Woody. Thousands of people do not know he has any other name. He is just a voice and a guitar. He sings the songs of a people and I suspect that he is, in a way, that people. Harsh voiced and nasal, his guitar hanging like a tire iron on a rusty rim, there is nothing sweet about Woody, and there is nothing sweet about the songs he sings. But there is something more important for those who still listen. There is the will of a people to endure and fight against oppression. I think we call this the American spirit.”
-John Steinbeck
WOODY SEZ…
“The note of hope is the only note that can help us or save us from falling to the bottom of the heap of evolution, because, largely, about all a human being is, anyway, is just a hoping machine.”
In his lifetime, Woody Guthrie wrote nearly 3,000 song lyrics, published two novels, created artworks, authored numerous published and unpublished manuscripts, poems, prose, and plays and hundreds of letters and news article which are housed in the Woody Guthrie Archives in New York City. Musicians from a variety of backgrounds such as Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bragg, Wilco, Ani DiFranco, The Klezmatics, Hans-Eckhardt Wenzel, and countless others, continue to draw inspiration from Woody Guthrie, re-interpreting and re-invigorating his songs for new audiences. His influence is felt throughout the world, from Native American musicians such as Keith Secola and Blackfire to Chinese Punk rockers PK14 and Danish musician Esben.
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There are only two kinds of music… if you know anything about Townes, you can finish that sentence. You either get Townes and love him, or you don’t. There is no in between. And if you don’t get him, well then you probably like that other kind of music that Townes talked about. I still remember the day that this guy Spencer told me I had to check this out, and he hands me the Townes Van Zandt Discography. Thank you, brother. I could go on and on now, telling you all about Townes’ life, times and tribulations and the incredible music it produced, but I’m not going to. Because if you don’t know him, well then this is a present that you need to unwrap yourself. But I will give you a little taste-
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Johnny Cash is as real as they come, brother. I feel sorry for poor lil’ Juaqiem Phoenix – trying to fill those big (white) shoes on screen. The hard livin’, honky tonkin’, God lovin’ man in black. God rest his soul.
C.F. Martin & Co. have been making top quality guitars since 1796, and are still family owned and operated out of Nazareth, PA. Martin is truly a guitar with few rivals in terms of quality, tone and boom- played by the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Guy Clark and many other music legends. Martin is probably best known for their D-45 Dreadnought model (a little wider body and more squared shoulder), first crafted for Gene Autry in 1933. In my book, both Johnny and Martin are true American Icons.
The Selvedge Yard 