Colorado

Listen while you read:  Railroad Earth

On the rise through new elevations
New day's begun
Fuel the ride with anticipation
And sweet summer sun

Down the rocks run the cool rushing waters
Movin' along
Memories of some sweet days
And some new ones comin' on
Colorado
Summertime

Fill the heart with new animation
Be here again
Fill the high with sweet celebration
Rememberin' when

Down the rocks run the cool rushing waters
Singin' a song
Memories of some sweet days
And some new ones comin' on
Colorado
Summertime

Colorado 
Summertime

~  Andy Goessling & Todd Sheaffer (Railroad Earth)

If you're guessing that I am in Colorado, you're right. I flew out this morning to spend a week with my son, his girl, and his dog. And if you watch the video, you'll see where I will be tonight . . . at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, outside of Denver! While I'll be seeing Jason Isbell tonight, not Railroad Earth, the video will give you a sense of this amazing venue if you've never been there. And if you have, you'll remember why you loved it! The video is a mix of three Railroad Earth songs. The first one is "Colorado," the second is the eponymous "Railroad Earth," and the third is "Mighty River." The first two songs appear on Railroad Earth's debut album, The Black Bear Sessions, released in 2001.

Railroad Earth, whose name is borrowed from Jack Kerouac's short story, "October in the Railroad Earth," hails from my neck of the woods. Filled with amazingly talented musicians, the band is labeled as an "Americana-based newgrass jam band," and I think that gets it right. Todd Sheaffer, songwriter and lead singer, still lives in the county; in fact, my daughter used to babysit for his little guy. Sheaffer and other members of the band often appear in various incarnations at local venues. And for years, they performed at the Sherman Theater in nearby Stroudsburg PA over the Thanksgiving weekend, gathering food donations for the needy.

"Colorado" sums up beautifully my expectations of my visit with these people I love. Other than the concert at Red Rocks, I have been promised a canoe trip, a softball game, and at least a couple of hikes. I am ready for some quaking aspens, mountain views, and local craft breweries. And I get to spend the week with a dog! Having been petless for three years, I need a furry fix! In terms of sweet memories, I feel some new ones comin' on.

Colorado. Summertime. Singin' a song.

Sam and me and some quaking aspens, October 2016

Reelin' in the Years

Listen while you read:  RIP Walter Becker

Your everlasting summer, you can see it fading fast
So you grab a piece of something that you think is gonna last
But you wouldn't know a diamond if you held it in your hand
The things you think are precious, I can't understand

Are you reelin' in the years?
Stowin' away the time
Are you gathering up the tears?
Have you had enough of mine?

You been tellin' me you're a genius since you were seventeen
In all the time I've known you, I still don't know what you mean
The weekend at the college didn't turn out like you planned
The things that pass for knowledge, I can't understand

Are you reelin' in the years . . . 

I spend a lot of money ad I spend a lot of time
The trip we made in Hollywood is etched upon my mind
After all the things we've done and seen, you find another man
The things you think are useless, I can't understand

Are you reelin' in the years . . . 

~ Donald Fagan and Walter Becker (Steely Dan)

This may have been the first Steely Dan song I ever heard. It's part of their 1972 release, Can't Buy a Thrill. I remember it mostly because a man that I'd dated a couple of times during a New Jersey summer came to visit me in the fall of 1971 at my college. It didn't go well. But even a year later, when this song came out, I equated the line The weekend at the college didn't turn out like you planned with that visit. Yeah, so maybe I hang on to things too long.

Nonetheless, it's probably one of Steely Dan's more known songs. Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that Walter Becker, one-half of Steely Dan, died a couple of days ago.  Unfortunately, this is not one of their favorite songs. "It's dumb, but effective," said Fagan. "It's no fun," said Becker. Oh, well. I looked into a lot of other Steely Dan songs to consider for this post, but kept coming up with the same reaction: I love those songs, but I don't "get" the lyrics. And so I came to the unsatisfying conclusion that what I like about Steely Dan is their seamless compositions and perfect execution, not necessarily their lyrics. (It's the same with Steve Winwood. I have no idea what the hell he is singing, but I love listening to him.)

I saw Steely Dan just last summer (oddly enough, on the same bill with Steve Winwood). They were perfect, despite the fact that they've been reelin' in the years. I've seen Donald Fagan several times in the last few years, as he lives in Woodstock, NY, close to Levon Helm's barn, where I've been to many concerts. (In fact, Donald Fagan's wife, mother of Amy Helm, is Levon's ex-wife.) Fagan would often sit in with the Levon Helm Band at those concerts. Walter Becker was not as accessible.

Steely Dan takes its place on the soundtrack of my life, and I thank Walter Becker for his part in that. Godspeed, Walter.

Up on the hill, they think I'm okay
Or so they say
Chinese music always sets me free
Angular banjoes sound good to me
Aja, when all my dime dancin' is through
I run to you

Song for Katrina

Listen while you read:  Steve Forbert

You sure looked good, bound for Shilburn Town
Tryin' to drive that car while the rain came down
And you sure looked fine
Oh, yeah, you're readin' highway signs

And you sure looked good up on Crystal Beach
Reelin' in them fish, with your hair all bleached
And you sure looked fine
Hey, yeah, with your hook and lines

La da di dum da, la da di dum day
Every move you make, everything you say
Well, you sure are fine
Oh, yes, and you blow my mind

And you sure looked good out at Rainbow Falls
Past the parking lots and all the crowded malls
Yeah, and you sure looked fine
Um, hum, underneath them pines

La da di dum da . . . 

You sure look good back in ol' Canton
With your new blue dress and with your lipstick on
And you sure look fine
Yeah, drinkin' cheap red wine

And you sure look good back in Meisha Shay
With your reindeer eyes on Christmas Day
And you sure looked fine
Um hum, like a Valentine

La da di dum da . . . 

~ Steve Forbert

"Song for Katrina" is the title of this song from Forbert's third album, 1980's Little Stevie Orbit, but this is also a song for my daughter, Katrina, who turns 32 years old today. Happy Birthday, Katrina!

Steve Forbert is one of those highly under-rated singer/songwriters. His story is pure Americana. Still a young man, he left his home in Meridian, Mississippi, for the folk music scene of New York City in the late 70s. In 1980, he had his one big hit, "Romeo's Tune." (You know this song: Meet me in the middle of the day / Let me hear you say everything's okay / Bring me southern kisses from your room . . . ) He was referred to as "the new Bob Dylan." And then, despite his continuing skills as a songwriter and performer, he never reached that level of fame, and in fact, seemed to disappear into some little niche of under-appreciated artists. And he's still there. Last year, he released his eighteenth album, Flying at Night, and still, when I mention his name to a music-lover who does not live in the Northeast, there's just a blank stare. I have seen Forbert perform in small, intimate venues, and he seems content to be a kind of troubadour, happy to make enough to pay the rent. Forbert brings a joy and a charm to his performances. He has one of those voices that sounds like he is smiling while singing. Yes, he can still deliver.

And I delivered my Katrina 32 years ago today. I will spare you the details. But she's been blowing my mind ever since.

While I think "Shilburn Town" and "Meisha Shay" are fictional places, it appears that the Katrina of song has traveled or lived in many locations. The same can be said of my Katrina. From Annapolis to West Falls Church to Takoma Park to Silver Spring to Boca Raton to Delray Beach to Coral Springs to Durham NC, I have helped that girl move way too many times. Having just begun a teaching career in Durham, she may finally be settled somewhere. That's right, my first-born is now a high school English teacher, despite having watched her mother spend countless weekends drowning in thesis paper hell. (Can you drown in hell?) But she has that passion, that compassion, that will make her third career choice the one that sticks. And if she is truly like her mother, there will be no regrets.

So Happy Birthday, Katrina! I think this will be your year, one of joy and accomplishment and new beginnings. Bring your heart to your work, and don't forget to bring it to your personal relationships, as well. Your heart is big; it can live in both worlds.

And keep on blowing my mind. I love you!

Summer Skin

Listen while you read: The song mentions Labor Day!

Squeaky swings and tall grass
The longest shadows ever cast
The water's warn and children swim
And we frolicked about in our summer skin

I don't recall a single care
Just greenery and humid air
Then Labor Day came and went
And we shed what was left of our summer skin

On the night you left, I came over
And we peeled the freckles from our shoulders
Our brand new coats so flushed and pink
And I knew your heart I couldn't win
'Cause the season's change was a conduit
And we left our love in our summer skin

~ Death Cab for Cutie

So there may be several songs about working or not working, but can you name another song that actually mentions "Labor Day" in the lyrics? I didn't think so. "Summer Skin" is part of Death Cab's 2005 release, Plans.

And a simple little love-and-loss song it is. Perhaps shedding a summer romance is akin to shedding summer skin? ("Shedding summer skin" . . . say that three times fast. Go on, I dare you.) Actually, the song puts me in mind of heading back to college after summer vacation, a bittersweet experience. Somewhat unsettling about the song is the insistent drumming, like a march. I suppose the seasons do march in and out, keeping time, ever onward. And our hearts, despite sometimes breaking, continue to keep the beat.

But, despite morning temps here in the low 40s, summer is not over! There are another eighteen days until the autumnal equinox! For those of us who have left the work force, there may still be a beach day or two before we pull out the sweaters. And for my friends and family for whom Labor Day marks a return to the work force, here's to a good year of teaching and learning and making a difference.

Over Everything

Listen while you read:  Kurt (not Cobain) and Courtney (not Love)

When I'm all alone on my own by my lonesome
And there ain't a single 'nother soul around
I wanna dig into my guitar, bend a blues riff that hangs
Over everything

When I'm by myself and it's daytime (?) Down Under
Or wherever it is I live when it's evening
You know I speed-read the morning news
And come up with my own little song also
Too

When I step outside to a beautiful morning
Where the trees are all wagging, my hair-flag waving
The scenery raging, my life/love cascading, and the smoke hangs
Over everything

When I'm outside in a real good mood
You could almost forget about all the other things
Like a big old ominous cloud in my periphery

Don't wanna talk about it
Simultaneous, I shout it

When I was young, I liked to hear music blarin'
And I wasn't carin' to neuter my jams with earplugs
But these days, I inhabitate a high-pitched ring over things
So these days, I plug 'em up

When I'm strugglin' with my songs, I do the same thing, too
And then I crunch 'em up in headphones, 'cause why wouldn't you?
You could say I hear you on several levels at high decibels
Over everything

When I'm all alone on my own by myself
And there ain't another single one around
I wanna dig into my guitar, bend a blues riff that hangs
Over everything

~  Kurt Vile & Courtney Barnett

I can't say I know why I chose this song today, other than it's new. Lotta Sea Lice, a collaborative effort by Vile and Barnett, is due to be released on October 13, but this song was issued a couple of days ago. While I am a fan of Courtney Barnett, I'm not so sure about Kurt Vile. Maybe he isn't, either, and that's why he's pairing up with more talented female artists, as he did with Hope Sandoval on the icky-sexy "Let Me Get There" last year. While Vile has his own cred as a founding member of The War on Drugs, he strikes me as more "guitar pop" than anything else. And while Courtney Barnett so often finds meaning in the mundane, Vile seems to rely on redundancy and rambling. And he makes up words. "Inhabitate"? Really?

Okay, reading over what I just wrote, I realize that I should not have picked this song. Too late now; I've already invested time and typing. If nothing else, you can enjoy the video. It is clever in that Vile lip-syncs Barnett and Barnett lip-syncs Vile, but more compelling is the black and white background photography. Hey, local peeps . . . some of the scenes were filmed in New Jersey! Maybe you can make guesses as to which ones? (Here's a hint: I think the cold-weather scenes were filmed in Melbourne, Australia, so you can eliminate those.)

Okay, that's all. I'm over everything, including this song.

Down by the Water

Listen while you read:  PJ HARVEY!

I lost my heart under the bridge
To that little girl, so much to me
And now I'm old, and now I holler
She'll never know just what I found
That blue-eyed girl, she said, "No more"
That blue-eyed girl became blue-eyed whore
Down by the water, I took her hand
Just like my daughter, won't see her again
Oh, help me, Jesus, come through this storm
I had to lose her to do her harm
I heard her holler, I heard her moan
My lovely daughter, I took her home

Little fish, big fish, swimming in the water
Come back here, man, gimme my daughter

~  PJ Harvey

So when all of the news is about a hurricane named "Harvey," and there's a song about drowning by a woman whose last name is "Harvey," how could I not select this song? Not to mention that I find this song haunting in a very other-worldly way. It dates back to 1995 and To Bring You My Love. The video is beyond haunting; Harvey critiques her performance in it as "Joan Crawford on acid."

And here's a word for you, which was new to me: filicide. It refers to the killing of one's son or daughter. For most of us, this is just something we could never contemplate or imagine. And I guess that idea is responsible for the haunting mood of the song. (Reminds me of The Band's "Long Black Veil" or really, any song about the taking of a life.) PJ Harvey wants it to be known that her song is not autobiographical; she did not give birth to and then kill a daughter! I don't know what her motivation for writing the song was, but the refrain comes directly from Lead Belly's rendition of the traditional American folk song, "Salty Dog Blues."

I have a real fear of deep water, mostly because I never learned to swim. (Please, spare me the taunts.) But I also believe that I drowned in a past life. Seriously. I love the ocean, I love the beach, I love boats . . . but don't throw me in! Despite this fear, and thanks to an amazing crew member on the boat, I snorkeled on the Great Barrier Reef a few years ago! If you're going to be in Australia, how could you possibly miss that opportunity?

There's a very good chance that I would have drowned in the rising waters of Hurricane Harvey. And so I say a little "there but for fortune go I" prayer when I read the stories from Houston. The latest news says the waters have receded, and now, of course, the hard work of recovery begins. There but for fortune . . .

September Grass

Listen while you read:  Sweet video

Well, the sun's not so hot in the sky today
And you know I can see summertime slipping on away
A few more geese are gone, a few more leaves turning red
But the grass is as soft as a feather in a featherbed
So I'll be king and you'll be queen
Our kingdom's gonna be this little patch of green
Won't you lie down with me now, September grass

Oh, the memory is like the sweetest pain
Yeah, I kissed the girl at a football game
I can still smell the sweat and the grass stains
We walked home together, I was never the same
But that was a long time ago, and where is she now? I don't know
Won't you lie down here right now in this September grass?
Won't you lie down with me now, September grass

Oh, September grass is the sweetest kind
It goes down easy, like apple wine
Hope you don't mind if I pour you some
Made that much sweeter by the winter to come

Do you see those ants dancing on a blade of grass?
Do you know what I know? That's you and me, baby
We're so small and the world's so vast
We found each other down in the grass
Won't you lie here right now in this September grass?
Won't you lie down with me now, September grass

Lie down, lie down, lie down, lie down

~ James Taylor

Despite James Taylor's invitation, I will not be lying down in September grass. Hay fever, remember? Nonetheless, it's a very sweet song. It's part of 2002's October Road.

I spent part of this afternoon outside doing things I should have done in May or June. Yep. Just a little behind here. Although the weeding and landscaping seemed kind of anticlimactic (never mind, a waste of time), I found myself buoyed by the fact that I was getting things done! There's a thing here in the Northeast . . . you must prepare for winter. That's what autumn is for. After pouring ammonia under the sheds (to keep the groundhogs away) and then filling in the excavations they'd enacted months ago, I turned my attention to garden crops that were spent. Gone was the moth-eaten kale, the broccoli and cauliflower that refused to come to fruition, and the squash plants that had become victim to some kind of underground borer. Snow peas? Done and uprooted. Cucumbers? Ditto. I harvested peppers and green beans and edamame and tomatoes. There's not much left out there, and I am eager to put it all to bed, be done with it. It's time. It's September.

I have tried very hard to be mindful. I want to enjoy September, not see it as an end to something. But I think I have to shut down summer in order to do so. And that (as you know if you live in the Northeast) is hard to do. Long pants, socks, sweaters, blankets, early morning heat to take the chill off. Apple cider instead of iced tea. Soup instead of salad. The days get shorter, the nights longer. Am I ready for this?

Oh, the memory is like the sweetest pain.