Harry's Music

Help Kelly Willis on Kickstarter! (Updated – THEY MADE IT!)

Don Bashline — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:35:40 +0000

Kelly Willis and her husband, singer-songwriter Bruce Robison, are finally making a record together, and they’ve decided to self-finance it by way of Kickstarter.

They’ve recorded three songs already and are doing the rest a couple of songs at a time. Brad Jones is producing and what they’ve done so far sounds great.

I hope you’ll head right over to their Kickstarter project page and help out in any way you can. You don’t have to be Bill Gates or Warren Buffett to make a real contribution and get a real reward. One (that’s 1) lone dollar gets you a song download and newsletter – get a signed copy of the album when it comes out for only $25. There are contribution categories from $1 to $10,000 (a house concert!) with a bunch of options in between. They need about $11,000 with 10 days to go, and truly, every little bit helps.

Kelly and Bruce have made beautiful music together (and apart, for that matter) for many years, but have never done an album together. This project is probably their (and our) best hope of getting it done.

Here’s one you’ll hear on the new album, from a recent show – it’s Waterfall, and it’s beautiful…please enjoy, and give till it hurts!

Update: The project is now fully funded! Great news for Bruce and Kelly, and for us!

Half Past Dead

Don Bashline — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 02:45:07 +0000

That’s what this blog has been lately, while I more or less abandoned it to lead a study group on the Southern Diaspora. The course is over and I’m hoping to ease back into a semi-regular posting schedule over here. what better way to begin than with this video of Wilco, Mavis Staples and Nick Lowe – they’re in a dressing room at the Civic Opera House in Chicago and they’re having fun with The Weight. Please enjoy, and happy new year to all!

“I Never Died,” Says He…

Don Bashline — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 02:20:24 +0000

I’ve been waiting a long time for something like Occupy Wall Street to come along, something that would show the 1% just what the rest of us think of the world they’ve built with their billions. It’s bringing generations of activists together in a way I never expected to see. A few Saturdays ago, I spent the afternoon down at Zuccotti Park with my daughter and my 5-year-old granddaughter – who could ask for anything more?

How about Joan Baez singing at the park? Here she is with Joe Hill. Please enjoy!

It’s Veteran’s Day

Don Bashline — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:56:29 +0000

Veteran’s Day is a complicated holiday for me. I was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam era – I know I did the right thing, but have always been haunted by the knowledge that someone fought in my place. Is his name on that big wall of names? I went and looked for it once.

War is too big a topic for this blog post. I’m thinking today about the individuals who decided to put on a uniform and fight. One of them was Ira Hayes, a Pima Indian who helped raise the flag on Iwo Jima Hill in 1944. Hailed then as a hero, he found when he returned home that life for him and his tribe hadn’t changed very much. Peter LaFarge wrote a song about him that was most famously sung by Johnny Cash, but I first heard it sung by Patrick Sky, and Sky’s version is still my favorite. Here it is – audio only, but still powerful. Happy Veteran’s Day.

Talking About Work

Don Bashline — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:28:34 +0000

It’s Labor Day, and I’ve been thinking about who I could put up here as a representative of the working woman and man in what we still call the United States of America. Unions have been left for dead by people like the Koch brothers and their employees (we call some of them by the collective noun “Congress”). The songwriters, except for a lonely few like Tom Russell, aren’t inspiring anyone to turn things around, either.

So for my Labor Day video I had to go way back to Woody Guthrie. As long as people have voices they’ll be singing Woody’s songs: Beethoven and maybe even Chuck Berry will have rolled over, but Woody’s songs will still bring the news to new generations from one side of this world to the other and back.

This is Talkin’ Hard Work, and it speaks for itself. Please enjoy!

Waiting for Irene

Don Bashline — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 22:32:07 +0000

Great song, great live performance: Bob Seger in Largo, Maryland, 1980. They don’t write them like this anymore, people!

Please enjoy!

It’s Mother’s Day Again!

Don Bashline — Sat, 07 May 2011 14:11:59 +0000

And time for a shout-out to mothers everywhere – happy Mother’s Day to all of you!

If you are looking for a last-minute musical gift for any of the mothers in your own life, you could do worse than either of these:

First, take a look at Every Mother Counts: Songs Inspired by the Documentary “No Woman, No Cry.” You can see the film tonight on the Oprah Winfrey Network (really!) – check your local listings. The music includes songs by Rosanne Cash, Sheryl Crow, Madonna, the Dixie Chicks, and a host (hostess?) of others.

Next comes the latest from the folks at Dust-to-Digital: The incredible Never A Pal Like Mother. The package includes a beatifully illustrated 96-page book and two CDs with 40 songs recorded from 1927-1956. Some artists (the Louvin Brothers, The Carter Family) are more famous than others (Mr. & Mrs. Harmon E. Helmick were new to me) but every cut is worth a listen. Head over there now and listen to some samples.

The video today is not one the the happiest possible Mother’s Day songs – it’s about saying goodbye to Mother, but it’s an affirmative and beautiful song, superbly performed here by Michelle Wright, Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh, and the incomparable Iris Dement. The song, of course, is Will the Circle Be Unbroken. Do something good for your mother tomorrow, eh?

Hazel Dickens, R. I. P.

Don Bashline — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 14:09:13 +0000

There was no better friend of the working woman and man than Hazel Dickens, who has died at the age of 75. I will leave the biographical details to the excellent New York Times obituary, which is largely accurate, but gets one thing very wrong. One sentence of the obituary claims: “No immediate family members survive.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone who carries a lunch pail, anyone who works way too long for way too little, anyone whose job is threatened by the new wave of anti-labor legislation sweeping the country: every one of us is an immediate family member of Hazel Dickens.

No one ever had to ask Hazel Dickens: “Which side are you on?” Every day of her life was a tribute to her choice of sides. We owe her a lot, and no better way to pay than to continue her fight. I don’t know if there’s an angel’s union in heaven, but my guess is there might be one soon. Look out, God, here comes Hazel!

Here’s a clip from the great documentary Hazel Dickens: It’s Hard to Tell the Singer From the Song, an Appalshop documentary. You can buy the DVD at Appalshop, too. Please visit their site, a great resource for Appalachian arts and artists. They’ve got a front page story up this morning about Hazel’s passing, well worth reading.

On The Wings Of A Snow White Dove

Don Bashline — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 15:42:12 +0000

Ferlin Husky died this week at the age of 85. One of his biggest hits was Wings of a Dove. The song figures in the most moving (for me) scene of one of my all-time favorite movies, Tender Mercies. Robert Duvall is Mac Sledge, former country singing star recovering from alcoholism with his new family, running a motel in an obscure corner of nowhere. Mac’s ex-wife (and former singing partner) is passing through, and their daughter, beautifully played by Ellen Barkin, pays him an unexpected and heartbreakingly poignant visit. All Sue Ann knows of Mac is what her mother has told her, and Dixie still hates Mac with all her heart. Sue Anne tries to connect with Mac by reaching back to her childhood: “There was a song you used to sing to me when I was little, I think…it was something about a dove…I think it went something like ‘on the wings of a snow white dove…’”. Mac tells her he doesn’t remember the song, and Sue Ann leaves. Once she’s gone, Mac looks out the window and sings the song, as beautifully as it has ever been sung.

Tender Mercies streams on Netflix and Amazon (free for Amazon Prime customers) – the scene in question starts at about the 56 minute mark, but watch the whole thing. Unfortunately, I can’t post the Duvall movie version (there is a Duvall version on YouTube, but it doesn’t compare to the one in the film), so we end this post with one from the late Mr. Husky himself, with some great backing guitar fills. I have a feeling I should know who the host of this old TV show is, but I don’t. If any of you know please tell, but even if you don’t please enjoy!

Update: 3/19 – The host was, of course, Tex Ritter, and the show, Tex Ritter’s Ranch Party. Don’t know how I coud’ve missed that one, since the Johhny Cash clip from a couple of weeks ago was from a Ranch Party show, too.

Wake Up! It’s Daylight Savings Time!

Don Bashline — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 14:02:08 +0000

Be careful out there today! And listen to Grandpa Jones’s rant on Daylight Savings Time.