Friday, December 23, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: Merry C-c-c-christmas!

The ground is white
The chill is up
We've got some ice
Fell on my duff

Simply having a frostbitten Christmastime
Simply having a
frostbitten Christmastime

Big Show's still on
The music's here
That only comes
This time of year

Simply having a frostbitten Christmastime
Simply having a
frostbitten Christmastime

A stack of records do their thing
Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding
B-brrr brrr brrr brrr brrrrrrrrrr
C . . . c . . . c . . . c . . . c . . . cold
Sh-shiv-shiv-shiv-shiv-er

SIMPLY having a frostbitten Christmastime
We're simply having a frostbitten Christmastime
Simply having a frostbitten Christmastime

The wool hat's out
Inside the house
Layers won't let
My arms go down

Simply having a frostbitten Christmastime
Simply having a
frostbitten Christmastime

But the stack of records do their thing
I've been waiting all year long
Ding dong, doo wop
Ding dong, doo wop
Ding dong, doo wop
Ding dong, doo wop

The ground is white
The chill is up
We've got some ice
Fell on my duff

We're simply having a frostbitten Christmastime
Simply having a frostbitten Christmastime
Simply having a frostbitten Christmastime
Simply having a frostbitten Christmastime
Simply having a frostbitten Christmastime

Ho-ho, ho-ho
Ho-ho-ho wonderful Christmastime

IT'S 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. The extra-large, family-size Christmas edition of 3 Chords & the Truth. Be there. Alo-ho-ho-ho-ha.

Friday, December 16, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: It's zaptastic

'Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even the BZZZZZZZZAP!

Note to self: The headphones do not connect to the electrical outlet. They plug into the mixing console. 

No, not the mixer in the kitchen, the thing in the studio with the knobs and faders.

I'll bet the above has cleared up a lot of things for you about 3 Chords & the Truth. Unsurprisingly, they're not much clearer for me. But I'll keep on . . . BZZZZZZZZAP! . . . trying.

I DON'T really know where I'm going with this. All I know is it's the week before Christmas, and there's so much to do and so little sleep. I also know there's another fresh episode of the Big Show this week -- right here, in fact -- and it's a real gas.

Because I don't trust myself with the electric.

What? No, I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, either. Perhaps listening to the show will clear things up. Perhaps not.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Alo-ho-ho-ho-ha.

Friday, December 09, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: Rock on, man

What?

Hairy fist mush? What the hell is fist mush?

Hang on.

OK,  I turned down my almost brand-new, 48-year-old bitchin' studio headphones. What's this about fist mush?

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh. Merry CHRISTMAS! I thought the wall of sound had turned my brain to mush there for a second.

I see that look on your face. Don't say it, or it's no 3 Chords & the Truth for you. And you do not want to miss this edition of the Big Show.

Yes, it's that good.

Now, if you don't mind, I shall resume rockin' out. Man. Just listen to the show and don't try to talk to me when I have these things on.

Go. Get. Listen.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, December 03, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: Tempus fugits at Christmastime

It's Christmas season once again, and another year that has slipped through our grasping fingers.

Because it's the holidays, we do the festive thing. Because it's another year that has passed by, leaving us -- yet again -- wondering where time has gone while our attention was elsewhere, we also think of all that was, yet is no more.

On 3 Chords & the Truth this week, we're doing a bit of the ho-ho-holidays. Behind the musical scenes, I'm wondering how six-plus decades could pass so quickly. So much I thought would be forever when I was young isn't anymore.

TAKE THE Dalton Theater in North Baton Rouge. It was a little neighborhood movie house we'd always drive by whenever we went to see my Uncle August. A middling landmark of my Louisiana youth, it was, standing there at Dalton Street and North Acadian Thruway.

First it closed sometime in the1970s, then it decayed. Then the city condemned it. Then, in 2000, the city tore it down. The progression of Uncle August -- who died, age 65, of cancer in 1982 -- was not dissimilar.

I think of that stuff at Christmastime. My parents' generation of the family is all gone. So are a lot of the things and places I grew up with. We shall not go there this week on the Big Show. I suspect you, if you're of a certain age, don't need my help in that regard this time of year.

It's there, lurking, in the corners of our minds. It stares back at you in the bathroom mirror every morning. C'est la vie.

Street View, Google Maps
No, this week, 3 Chords & the Truth, as always, is about the music -- pop, rock, big band, jazz, soul, standards, easy listening, country and all the rest. It's all mashed up in the food-for-the-soul processor of the mind and spit back out onto the Internet in sets that make musical sense. Well, I think they make musical sense; such is freeform radio, even when it's in cyberspace.

If my thoughts turn melancholy when the bitter wind sweeps across the Plains and the mercury digs a hole for itself, the Big Show does what it always does. It entertains and, one hopes, enlightens a bit. That doesn't change, even though everything else does.

Even though everybody else does . . . and you, too.

That's where we are as Christmas 2022 draws nigh after two previous, warped COVID Christmases removed so many things -- and people -- from the here and now and tossed them unceremoniously into the once was.

There's so much that, in Louisiana-speak, ain't dere no more. But the thing is this; the music always will be. Dance while you can, because the tempus is fugiting, and its run at the Dalton has been extended indefinitely.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, November 19, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: What the cluck?

Ask any random podcast listener what is this thing we call 3 Chords & the Truth, and chances are they won’t know, eggsactly . . . er . . . exactly.

But if you weren’t shunned, punched or had the cops called on you when you asked, you could deduce that you were dealing with a good egg.

So, what is this thing we also call the Big Show? It’s . . . uhhhhhhhh . . . it’s . . . uhhhhhhh . . . ummmmmmm . . . it’s eggsactly that. Whatever that is.

I CALL IT postmodern freeform radio on the Internets. I call it that because I just made that label up. Yay, me.

But, really, what the program is, is good. It’s diverse. It’s full of surprises. Eggsactly that. Er . . . exactly that.

This week on 3 Chords & the Truth, we’re gonna get you moving. We’ll have the best in soul, and the best in. . . . Well, why would I spoil the surprise?

Maybe you need to listen and find out what the rest of the good stuff is. In other words, do yourself a favor and be a good egg.

Eggsactly.

Here in the 3C&T studio, your Mighty Favog works hard so as not to have egg on his face. That means your ears will be happy. Eggsactly that.

Do your ears a favor for Thanksgiving. And you’re welcome.

It’s 3 Chords & the Truth, y’all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, November 12, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: Now and then . . . mostly then

Submitted for your approval, the curious story of Betty, who, unknown to her, now resides somewhere between past and present, between 1954 and 2022.

Between suburban Omaha sometime during the Happy Days and . . . the Twilight Zone.

Ostensibly, this is an ordinary day. Betty thinks she is having an ordinary phone chat with her best friend, Marge. But this is no ordinary telephone call, and hers is no ordinary telephone.

Unbeknownst to her, Betty’s is a special telephone. And she has called not to Happy Hollow just across town. She has dialed 68 years into the past . . . and Marge, unfortunately, still resides firmly in 1954.


LET'S LISTEN IN on Betty’s unwitting long-distance call, a long-distance call like no other.

“Hello, Marge? You won’t believe what I just heard! It’s this freeform music podcast called 3 Chords & the Truth, and it’s fabulous!

What’s that, Marge? Yes, a freeform music podcast. FREE . . . form. That means freewheeling, I think. Without a set format. Format. You know, like the structure and content of something.

“Yes, Marge. What? What’s a podcast?

“It’s an online program you can download and listen to anytime. Download. Off the Internet and onto your smartphone . . . or computer or tablet.

No, Marge. No, I haven’t had a stroke or a nervous breakdown.

“No, dear. I assure you I’m making perfect sense. No, the Internet is not some kind of a communist organization. Yes, I’m here at home. Why do you ask?

“Surely there must be some reason you wanted to make sure that I’m at home right now.

“No. No, I don’t need help. Why on earth do you think I need help?

What? Who exactly do you need to get off the line to call?

“No, I am telling you that I am fine. I do NOT need help. I happen to be making perfect sense, dear.

“I am telling you, Marge, that I am NOT a communist and that I am NOT having a stro . . . hello? HELLO??? Marge?”

BETTY DOES NOT know that in 25 minutes — or, perhaps, 68 years and 25 minutes ago — two white-clad men will arrive at her tidy, tastefully appointed home. They will come to take her to . . . the Electroshock-Therapy Zone.

They will not notice the futuristic little device plugged into her new hi-fi console. The device is the size of a Big Chief tablet, but it contains no ruled paper. It’s an iPad, and it belongs not to the world of 1954, but instead to ours.

It is the world of tomorrow — the world of the Big Show. We know it as . . . today.


It’s 3 Chords & the Truth, y’all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, November 05, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: Come as you are

Have you seen those old ads for console hi-fis and televisions, where everybody is dressed to the nines just to stare at the screen or gaze fondly at . . . the speaker cloth, or maybe a spinning record?

What the hell is the deal with that anyway? Personally, I just think that means we've been demented for decades, and it's not just a recent phenomenon.

Let me be clear. We're not like that at 3 Chords & the Truth. You can sit on the couch in your underwear and stare at the speaker, for all we care.

WE MAY CHUCKLE at the thought of that but, fundamentally, we don't care. You do you.

Likewise, the Big Show will do the Big Show.

I'm glad we could clear that up straightaway.

Now to the business at hand. This week, there's yet another exemplary program cued up for you, with lots and lots of great music . . . and a reasonably competent host to carefully place it out here on the Internets.

And, really, what more do you need as you sit there in your chair or on your couch, drinking an adult beverage and eating nachos. In your underwear.

We chuckle at the thought. But again, you do you. No judgment, just a discreet chuckle here and there.

That's really all there is to say. Great music, thoughtfully ordered. Nachos. A sofa. You and your Fruit of the Looms. The end.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, October 29, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: No tricks, just treats

Trick or treat, smell my feet. . . .

No, I couldn't do that to you. I don't even want to smell my feet.

Let me tell you what I will do for this Halloween-ish edition of 3 Chords & the Truth, though. I will forgo the tricks . . . and give you nothing but treats of the musical variety.

This will not be your average ghoulcast. The Big Show is waaaaaaay better than that.

Don't believe me, just listen for yourself. And I promise, no one will suck your blood.

Unless, of course, your significant other is a mosquito. In that case, I can't really help you.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, October 22, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: Ball of confusion

The ball of confusion in which we dwell is not the reason I'm just a wee bit tardy posting this edition of the Big Show.

The reason is because the LSU-Ole Miss football game was on TV this afternoon. To wit, "GO TO HELL, OLE MISS!"

And the hated Rebels did, 45-20. That was gratifying.

Now we return you to your regularly scheduled episode of 3 Chords & the Truth. About which, I gather I am supposed to say something that will get you to listen.

WELL, Sparky, this week we acknowledge the confusion and mayhem now engulfing us in these Disunited States. That's one thing . . . which, actually, is pretty entertaining despite the subject matter. Not as entertaining as watching my alma mater beat down Ole Miss for homecoming but, then again, what is?

Also, we feature the usual musically mysterious twists and turns that are the trademark of the Big Show . . . but that's a given. It's not like I have to point that out.

On the other hand, I have to write something. To get you to listen.

On the other other hand . . . you know, I bet the prong of this here fork will fit in that electrical outlet. I'm sure o . . . lqwFGHLU;;/CF ;odij  ;oiJFWp0;92rp0    9 'p;FK''KPp;'f '[OD['i2rkjpdW'Kd'dk

blart

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

(thud)

Saturday, October 15, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: MAGA Goddam

The name of this episode is MAGA Goddam,
and I mean every word of it.


Tuberville's gotten me so upset,
Don Bacon made me lose my rest,
And everybody knows about that MAGA Goddam.

Nebraska's gotten me so upset,
Pete Ricketts made me lose my rest,
And everybody knows about that MAGA Goddam.

Can't you see it?
Can't you feel it?

It's all in the air.
I can't stand the pressure much longer.
Somebody say a prayer.

The GOP's gotten me so upset,
Traitor Trump made me lose my rest,
And everybody knows about that MAGA Goddam.

That's it! With apologies to the late, great Nina Simone.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, October 01, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: You've still got the Big Show

 
When you can't find a friend You've still got the radio When you can't find a friend You've still got the radio Radio, listen to the radio Radio, listen to the radio

-- Nanci Griffith

 

True dat.

Well, the radio is totally a hit-or-miss proposition these days, but in these times of war, political strife and catastrophic hurricanes, we still have the Internet.

Such as it is.

AND IN A NICE, non-fouled corner of the Internet, we have 3 Chords & the Truth. Amid everything, there's still this.

That's not nothing. Think of the Big Show as your personal pick-me-up, one that will bring a smile to your face and a tap to your toes.

Really, that's not nothin'. That's one of the things that will get you through.

And we're doing our best to help you do that. Us, too, to tell you the truth.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, September 24, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: The Think System

Here's the thing about 3 Chords & the Truth: It takes time to put together. 

You've got to pick the music. You've got to prepare the music -- clean up the clicks and pops on the vinyl, equalize the audio levels, yadda yadda yadda. Then you have to order the music so it all fits together in a pleasant manner. It's got to flow, you know? 

Then you have to talk about the music . . . and whatever else strikes one's fancy. Then it all has to be turned into a computer file to be uploaded to this spot right here. 

That's a lot of work to put on the Big Show

And there has to be an easier way. 

And that's what I've been searching for here in the 3 Chords & the Truth apocalypse bunker in Omaha, by God, Nebraska. Well, I think I've come up with something. 

This week, let's see how that works out, shall we? 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, September 17, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: Chill, being

Ever feel the need to dial it back? To tone it down some? To mellow out, man?

To just chill?

Yeah, me, too. So the Big Show will this week. Yes, it will.

That's not to say it'll be moribund (stick that in your Funk and Wagnall's, pally). It's just going to be outstanding in a non-frenetic manner.

I guess I could say more, but how chill would that be? It wouldn't. It would be stretching . . . straining . . . trying too hard.

Nope. This week, we just let the show come to us. I'd recommend you do the same.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, September 10, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: In memoriam

The queen is dead. Long live the king.

The vast majority of her subjects have never known another monarch -- another head of state -- than Queen Elizabeth II. For that matter, neither has this American small-R republican.

It seems to me, even as someone steeped in our particular Yank brand of civic egalitarianism (such as it is at present), that there are advantages today to having a head of state removed from the realm of electoral politics.

THINK OF IT -- a head of state who is a true symbol of national unity, not fated to be loathed by a significant chunk of the population from the get-go. Because politics. A head of state whose entire job description is service to her -- now his -- subjects seems to be something of a miracle today.

I envy the British people, and the people of the Commonwealth, that. Especially during these fractious times.

So, today's episode of 3 Chords & the Truth is different from our usual fare. This program is a memorial to the departed queen, who for 70 years conducted herself not as just a light and an example for her nation, but for all nations.

Godspeed, ma'am. And thank you.

It's the Big Show. And it's all about the queen we all were blessed to have for so long . . . and who now belongs to the ages.

Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, September 03, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: College rock

I remember skinny ties, legal beer at 18, doing the Pogo . . . and college radio.

I remember when college radio was a force of nature. Driving the musical narrative. Making commercial radio look ever so lame.

I remember a time before commercial radio started making itself look lame. 

I REMEMBER college radio with real DJs behind real microphones, all through the night. Playing real records, before CDs -- much less computer automation -- was a thing.

I remember. 

And so does this edition of 3 Chords & the Truth

This week, we're going back to the 1980s . . . and the 1970s, with a couple of side trips to the '60s and '50s. College radio was a little freewheeling back then. 

What we do on the Big Show owes almost everything to the glory days of college radio . . . and what we learned in high-school radio, too. We just kick it up a notch for the online age. 

So join your Mighty Favog as he relives a bit of those days when he was young . . . and pogoing. It's gonna be quite the journey. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, August 27, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: Over the moon

You'll be over the moon about this edition of 3 Chords & the Truth. Whether you want to be or not.

By George, you will.

NASA is sending up the first, unmanned, Artemis mission to the moon this coming week, but you're going to get there first. Your space-age Mighty Favog is going to make sure of that, and the Big Show is your rocket ship.

Bang! Zoom! You're goin' to the moon!

And all you have to do is sit back and listen.

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, August 13, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: Psssst!


Listen.

Do you want to know a secret?

Do you promise not to tell?

Closer.

Let me whisper in your ear . . . about the show you want to hear. 

The Big Show.

It's all you need to know. And that's a plain and natural fact. 

Telling you that, at least, is no violation of the Espionage Act. And no search warrants are needed to hear that for yourself. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Friday, August 05, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: How it's done

Alrighty then, I'm going to tell you how to make the magic that is 3 Chords & the Truth.

First, you gather up a bunch of records, CDs and tapes. Then you mix in some digital files. Place the preceding into the 3 Chords & the Truth machine. 

Put the power switch in the "on" position, then depress the "engage" button.

In a few hours, you will see the finished product in the output bin. A copy automatically will be uploaded to the Internet. 

Then, sit back and enjoy the Big Show.

These are the basics, but if I went into granular detail about how the audio magic is performed . . . well, I'd have to kill you. 

That would be bad. 

So don't ask too many questions, OK? 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all.  Be there.  Aloha.

Saturday, July 30, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: Uhhhh . . . OK

There will come a time during this program that you will have a serious thought pop into your overloaded brain. 

It will be a simple thought, yet profound. 

This thought, arguably, could sum up 14 years of 3 Chords & the Truth

YOU MAY question your sanity. 

You may question my sanity. 

But first, there will be the thought

At the time in question. 

It will be this, I assure you: 

"This is some f***ed up s***, but it could be brilliant." 

Welcome to the Big Show

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, July 23, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: Out there

way back there then,

it was a hell of a thing

to see the poetry of e.e. cummings

who wrote

but did not capitalize.

bt thn smbdy invntd txting.

this week on 3 Chords & the Truth, we're exploring musical innovation, thinking outside the clichéd and metaphorical box, and how that just -- eventually -- became . . . music.

by the way, my shift key is feeling unappreciated right now. it's just going to have to take two Theramin and call me in the morning. but speaking of the Theramin, that's where electronic music started, and we've been coloring outside the conventional lines ever since.

kind of. well, at least the innovators have, and all innovation eventually becomes conventional, and then somebody else has to get farther out, man.

and still farther out, man.

f*** me, this is freeing, this typing with no caps. or few caps. whatever, man. watch out punctuation you're next

lol

i think you're getting an idea of the thrust of this week's edition of the Big Show. it's gonna be out there. maaaaaaaan.

it's also gonna be a hell of a ride and a hell of a lot of fun. which is kinda what we do here.

so, let's hear it for the innovators and the musical freethinkers. better yet, let's just hear them.

right here.

on this here program.

it's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all.  be there. aloha.

Saturday, July 16, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: This + That = Awesome

You take some of this, add a little of that, stir well, and you end up with some kind of wonderful.

That's the genius of 3 Chords & the Truth.

This edition of said program is as good an example of that simple recipe as anything. And it's something that hasn't sounded so good since a long-haired DJ let the spirit move him -- or her -- on the FM radio before the Gods of Homogeneity killed everything with their moneygrubbing wrath.

IF YOU'RE HERE, and if you're of a certain age, you know what I mean. If you're not of a certain age, welcome to freeform radio.

Now, this week's Big Show is all about the some of this and a little of that, including a 78 RPM rarity, one of the last performances of Maj. Glenn Miller's Army Air Forces Overseas Orchestra, which just might be the most astoundingly good big band ever assembled. At 50 pieces, it was a regular swing symphony.

The original 78, circa February 1946, was pretty scratchy and noisy, but the magic of modern computer technology here in the studio cleaned it up as best as possible without scrubbing it so much that it just sounded lifeless. 

There are also a lot of other gems in the lineup this go 'round, and you'd be quite edified if you stuck around to hear them all. He says humbly. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, July 09, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: Bad tidings, good tunes

Methinks I have come to be the bearer of bad tidings and good music. 

It's a hell of a thing to live in America today and be constitutionally unable to avert one's gaze from the sh*tshow, where crazy is the new normal. Welcome to my life. 

Welcome to 3 Chords & the Truth. Fortunately, you get some really good tunes along with the failure to avert one's gaze. 

COULD IT be that we're a clandestine voice of the resistance, broadcasting from deep in occupied, red-state territory? Yeah, it could. Go figure. Some days here in Omaha, by God, Nebraska, it feels like the führer is running things, and the only active resistance is from the nutters who think Herr Ricketts is being soft on humanity. 

And the anti-sh*tshow people are waiting for the American invasion to come. 

What? Well, hell.

We interrupt this program for an urgent message for Amtrak Joe: The red fox chases the blue bunny. The red fox chases the blue bunny. 

And now on with the music on the Big Show. It's extra good to counteract the extra bad times. 

Which is exactly what you'd expect from the rebel radio. 

It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

Saturday, July 02, 2022

3 Chords & the Truth: Truth from Your Radio Friend

Well, this edition of 3 Chords & the Truth certainly lives up to its name.

We have a minimum of three chords, and we also have some cold, hard truth . . . from Your Radio Friend. It should be quite a ride.

The truth covers what has been going on in these Disunited States of America and where that's likely to lead us. That will not be a good place -- at all. 

Can you say fascist hellhole? I knew that you could.

And we also have a lot of great music, some of which might touch your heart and make you think. Some of it will be good fun. Some of it will be all of the above. 

That said . . . that's about all that's to be said about this go-round of the Big Show

So, sit back, turn on your favorite streaming device -- one preferably hooked up to a nice stereo system -- and get in touch with all kinds of stuff on 3 Chords & the Truth

It's hip, it's happening, and it's now, y'all. Be there. Aloha.