Come Along for the Ride

Song 353: Seven weeks after my last post by a personal friend, and after walkin’ last week, this week the playlist takes a different track via California Rail by my friend Jeff Larson, who also wrote the song. Back around the time he wrote this one, Jeff rode that California Rail a few times on his way to meet up with the woman who he would soon marry, so she provided the main inspiration for him writing this piece, but I believe I can still take a small portion of the credit, because I had already written my own bunch of train ramblings which I shared with him on our get-togethers, plus I had spoken with him about my fondness for trains (and train songs, such as the Hank Williams record Lonesome Whistle from 2 weeks ago), so I think I might have influenced him to also take a musical journey along a railroad line. Mixed in with his trademark tasty acoustic guitar sound, Jeff stirs some lively harmonica and banjo into the locomotion, and while he cautions that the trip might include maybe sun, maybe rain, maybe hail, I would bet that you’ll enjoy the ride, and after all, it’s California, so how bad could it be?

Footwear That Fits

Song 352: This week on the playlist you can find These Boots Are Made for Walkin' by Nancy Sinatra, written by Lee Hazlewood. Frank's daughter took this cut to the top of the charts 51 years ago, in the winter of 1966, and no matter how many times I've heard it, the track always makes me smile. Reviewers in that long-ago era criticized Nancy for not exhibiting the vocal ability that her father conveyed, but what she communicates on this single grabs me in a way that none of Frank's records ever did, and I feel it even stronger when I watch her saucy lip-syncing performance in the song video. Fast-forwarding to the present day, the words here can take on an even stronger punch when pointed at a certain prominent political figure who keeps lyin' when he oughta be truthin', keeps losin' when he oughta not bet, and so on, because what's right is right and he ain’t been right yet. I probably don’t have to name the obvious source of the current glut of trumpery, but he sure has made lots of people feel like it’s time to Start walkin’!

Soothing Sounds

Song 351: This week on the playlist you’ll find (I Heard That) Lonesome Whistle by Hank Williams, written by Hank Williams and Jimmie Davis. Before the Beatles rocked my world, I knew nothing about RnR, but I heard plenty of country music on the family summer visits to Ohio relatives, so I got to know Hank Williams quite well. On those hot summer nights when we could hear the B & O railroad crews switching freight cars just a couple of blocks away, this cut seemed to fit the moment better than any other, and I soon learned it well enough to sing along. After only 2 or 3 nights of hearing the local freight car switching moves, I quickly realized that no matter how loud they became, they rarely if ever interrupted my sleep or kept me awake, but rather, I found those sounds relaxing enough to put me to sleep, just as the sound of lonesome whistles on the train line that ran nearby the family home would do. Even though at the time, I too was Just a kid acting smart, I didn’t have a darlin’s heart to break, and I guess I was too young to know how that might feel, but Hank’s song seemed to echo in my soul, as if I had always known it, probably because I had been hearing that lonesome whistle since before I could even walk or talk.

Believe in The Supernatural

Song 350: This week on the playlist you can hear Magic Be by Captain Beefheart, written by Don Van Vliet, Jan Van Vliet and Andy DiMartino. Walking outside without needing a jacket on a sunny early April day less than 4 weeks after a record-setting blizzard can certainly make a walker feel that magic be in sunshine. Ironically, the musicians who made the magic on this cut did not feel very enchanted by it, or any of the other tracks on Unconditionally Guaranteed, and even the Captain disavowed the LP less than a year after its release. Despite what Don Van Vliet and his crew felt about the record, I always liked it, I have listened to it a lot, and this marks the 3rd UG song to make the list, following Sugar Bowl (Song 148) and Upon the My-O-My (Song 265). While the music makers in this case did not believe in their own sorcery, to me, the disk easily lives up to the claim on the jacket of being 100% Pure and Good, and it provides ample proof that magic be. Give it a listen and maybe you too will find it spellbinding.

Not Welcoming the April Showers

Song 349: This week on the playlist you can listen to Don’t Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man) by The Serendipity Singers. The large amounts of snow that fell a few weeks ago are now almost gone, thanks to warmer temperatures and rain, though a few scattered patches of white stuff remain, so now time has come for those April showers. Just as Beatlemania arrived in the winter of 1964, opening the door for the rest of the British Invasion, this traditional song by a large American folk group also popped up on the airwaves and got my attention just as much as the English RnR. I never tired of the way the 9 singers delivered the understated humor of the lyrics, and while a crooked cat and a crooked mouse might live together in a crooked house, I wouldn’t recommend buying crooked nails and a crooked little bat to try to fix a roof with a rat-tat-tat-tat-tat, especially with April showers on the way.