Pepper Spray

A new song, set to our arrangement (slightly modified) of “Pallet on Your Floor”. You are probably familiar with the incident which inspired it.      Put down that can of pepper spray     Holster your taser, put the paint ball gun away     Don’t sell them your soul, no matter what they pay     Put down that [...]

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Satan’s Jeweled Crown

Here’s a song we just learned, from the Louvin Brothers. It’s well known, and I don’t know why we didn’t add it to the repertoire before now.     Satan’s jewel crown I’ve worn it so long     But God for my soul has reached down     His love set me free He made me his own     And [...]

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Corporate overlords

I used to joke about “corporate overlords,” but it’s not much of a joke anymore. Here’s a photo of a Tampa police vehicle.   And a closeup of the back corner.

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The Old Ridge Ramblers, Japan

Just stumbled across these guys tonight. Heartfelt stuff. And their song choice shows that they have dug deep into the music and love it for what it is.

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Going on cultural strike

I think Matt Taibbi is right when he says this about the Occupy movement: This is a visceral, impassioned, deep-seated rejection of the entire direction of our society, a refusal to take even one more step forward into the shallow commercial abyss of phoniness, short-term calculation, withered idealism and intellectual bankruptcy that American mass society [...]

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Provoking unguarded responses

I stand in awe of the Occupy movement’s knack for provoking unguarded responses from folks who in theory dismiss them but in practice find points at which to empathize with them. Here’s a perfect example from Will Wilkinson. In it he largely adopts a “quit your whining” position, by pointing out that he accepted the [...]

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Recordings of new songs

We were at the Kentucky Coffeetree yesterday, and got decent takes of five recent songs. A couple are still rough, since we’ve only played through them a few times. (Lyrics can be found in recent posts.) Where’d the Money Go I Might Just Strike it Rich So Many Things Could Go Wrong How About Never [...]

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So Many Things Could Go Wrong

Last night Chris and I finally had time to sit down and work out melodies for some new songs, but we haven’t recorded them yet. Still, I kind of like posting these lyrics without the music, so here’s another. It needs a bit more work, particularly the final chorus. But it says what I want [...]

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How About Never

Here’s a lyric I haven’t yet set to music. I have an idea for a melody, but Chris and I haven’t had a chance to try it out. Still, I think the words are pretty close to set. It was inspired by an old New Yorker cartoon showing a businessman talking into a phone, saying [...]

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Where’d the Money Go?

Earlier I posted new words to the song “Which Side Are You On?” That song already used a traditional melody (“Lay the Lily Down” or “Jack-a-roe”), and just about the only thing I had kept was the chorus, which didn’t really fit the message of my song. So I changed the chorus, and now I [...]

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