Say hey to an old friend

Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: 33. 45. 78.

33.

45.

78.

That's RPM to you and me and, to be completely accurate, the 33 is actually 33⅓ -- the speed at which a vinyl LP rotates as the music jumps out of the grooves, onto a phonograph needle and into your hi-fi as it prepares to caress your eardrums.

Compare this to your average MP3 file, which slithers out of a pair of earbuds emanating from some plastic thingy, on its way to mug your brain. And, no, the irony is not lost on us that 3 Chords & the Truth comes to you over the Internets as . . . an MP3 file.

TECHNOLOGY . . . damn . . . you . . . to . . . HELL!

Sigh.

Anyway, the other numbers on the Big Show this week represent the revolutions per minute of your 7-inch 45 single and your extremely obsolete 78 record.

No matter the number, we treasure them all. And that's how we roll on 3 Chords & the Truth. Amen.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Mellowing out

This week on the Big Show, we take a chill pill.

We relax.

Mellow out.

It's going to be great.

And that, in a nutshell, is the whole deal with this week's episode of 3 Chords & the Truth. It's all about relaxation . . . and letting the music wash over you with its warmth and soothing powers.

That's pretty much it.

It's the relaxation edition of the Big Show. Enjoy.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Going to our happy place

MESSAGE AUTHENTICATOR: HATEFULNESS/HATEFULNESS

THIS IS AN EMERGENCY ACTION NOTIFICATION (EAN) DIRECTED BY THE MIGHTY FAVOG. NORMAL BROADCASTING WILL CEASE IMMEDIATELY. ALL STATIONS WILL BROADCAST 3 CHORDS & THE TRUTH MESSAGE ONE PRECEDED BY THE ATTENTION SIGNAL, PER REGULATIONS. ONLY STATIONS HOLDING GOOD MUSIC MAY STAY ON AIR IN ACCORD WITH THEIR STATE CONELRAD PLAN. 

LISTENERS ARE INSTRUCTED TO GO TO THEIR "HAPPY PLACE" SHELTERS IMMEDIATELY AND KEEP ELECTRONIC DEVICES TUNED TO THIS PODCAST.

THIS IS 3 CHORDS & THE TRUTH. STAY TUNED TO THE BIG SHOW UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.

BROADCAST 3C&T MESSAGE ONE. BE THERE. ALOHA. 

THAT KINDA SOUNDED TOO FINAL, DIDN'T IT? 

MESSAGE AUTHENTICATOR: HATEFULNESS/HATEFULNESS

3 Chords & the Truth: The inauguration edition

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor Russian jammers and hackers stays this program from the musical completion of its appointed time slot.

And the Big Show has a special inauguration edition for you this week -- a song-filled celebration of the 45th and last president of these formerly United States. It wasn't easy bringing the music to you.

Malevolent forces tried to make that not occur.

They failed.

OUR NEW administration will be commemorated during this momentous week. Good and hard.

I think you'll enjoy the spectacle.

I think others . . . not so much.

So sit back and relax with a stiff drink for the next 95 minutes, and let the 3 Chords & the Truth music mix surround you like a wall. A big, beautiful wall. The best wall . . . of sound.

Who knows who'll pay for it? Who cares? It won't be you, that's the important thing.

SEE MY beautiful sentences here? They're the best sentences, epic sentences. Believe me, they're great. Almost as great as my music this week. So listen up, and listen good . . . to the Big Show.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Casting our fate

The Big Show is back, and we're casting our fate to the wind.

That's not nothing -- the wind has been pretty damned ill lately. And so has your Mighty Favog.

I call it the Crud, and it seems everybody around Omaha, by God, Nebraska has had it this winter. It would seem that I may have gotten it worse than most -- about a month of varying degrees of sickness, 10 days of antibiotics and the worst laryngitis I've ever encountered.

Even now, my voice probably is only 80 percent, but that's good enough, I reckon, for 3 Chords & the Truth to be back on the Internets. So here it is.

Thank God.

I do believe we're picking up where we left off in the good -- and eclectic -- music department. On the other hand, the proof is in the listening, and the Big Show is ripe for listening after all this time away from the microphone.

Here's hoping that you're as eager to see what 3 Chords & the Truth is up to in the new year as I was eager to be up to something podcast-y in 2017.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: The Voice of Music

The sounds coming off the campaign trail certainly aren't getting any sweeter -- and propriety prevents me from telling you what the presidential election sounds like to me -- so I guess we need to counteract that on this week's 3 Chords & the Truth.

Oh, crap. Reality has Trumped that possibility. (Sorry, couldn't resist the cheap joke.)

I guess, then, we will have to just do our best on the Big Show to replace the voice of discord with our own Voice of Music. We probably can't drown out all the noise from the rubber room, but I'm betting the Voice of Music will take care of most of it, making for a dramatically more pleasant run up to Armageddon Nov. 8.

I THINK this will work.

Please, God, this has to work.

OK, let's remain positive. Yes, this will work. The Voice of Music will remedy all.

We should all be feeling much better 30 minutes into this edition of 3 Chords & the Truth. You know, power to soothe the savage breast and all of that.

What do we got to lose?

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

3 Chords & the Truth: I dub thee Krystal burger

I . . . well . . . um . . . you see . . . here's the thing. . . .

Er . . . I can't explain this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth. You're just going to have to dive into the thing and figure it out for yourself.

It's the only thing to be done when you face the prospect of . . . I'm not sure. You see, it's like . . . no, that's not it.

Something about Nobel hamburgers or Krystal Whataburgers or something.

Just listen, OK. I'm sure the Big Show will make some sort of sense eventually.

I think.

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

Hey! That has something to do with the program, too! Sort of.

3 Chords & the Truth: It's chilly at the top

See what happens when you come back from a restorative break from the weekly grind?

The Big Show hits new heights, that's what. So now your Mighty Favog has to figure out how to program a program from the pinnacle of podcasting prodigiousness.

Trouble is, it's cold up here. Much nippier than the relatively balmy autumnal mean down below in Omaha, by God, Nebraska.

Fortunately, I've got some wonderful music to keep me warm this week on 3 Chords & the Truth. I trust it also will keep you well entertained for, as usual, we cover just about all the bases on this eclectic artistic enterprise.

FOR INSTANCE,  you're going to hear from the composer who started as an arranger for Paul Whiteman . . . and was inspired to finish his own masterpiece by shaping another for orchestral performance. And we'll hear a little something from Paul Whiteman and his concert orchestra, too, via the 78 RPM Wayback Machine.

And, for an encore, we'll show you a bit of commonality between classical and country . . . music, that is. You won't hear that on your local FM station, that's for certain.

We can do this because here at 3 Chords & the Truth, all things are fresh and new . . . and we don't have no stinkin' rules. Come to think of it, we have damn few preconceptions, as well. But if you regularly listen to the program, you already know that, don't you?

I DON'T KNOW why I'm going on about this, being that it's common knowledge. I suppose it's the need to fill space with words so this entry doesn't look funny. Headline, picture, podcast player would just look . . .  incomplete.

So consider this post for the newest edition of the program complete.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: The echo chamber

It's such an echo chamber in here, you'd think 3 Chords & the Truth had gone all talk radio on you.

But no.

It's still the same good music -- the same highly eclectic Big Show mix -- just with 89 percent more echo. Sam Phillips would be so proud.

Special acknowledgment goes to TEAC A-4010S. Thank you and God bless.

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

No, really. That's all I have to say. Just go and listen to the show. Shoo!

3 Chords & the Truth: Trying to wash us away

The rains tried to wash south Louisiana away.

Then the national media and America's cognoscenti tried to wish south Louisiana's waterlogged ruin and its waterlogged suffering away.

Both are still here, not that you'd notice if you weren't already looking hard for evidence of either.

This edition of 3 Chords & the Truth is a protest against Americans' desire to ignore -- to condescend to -- their brothers and sisters at the soggy bottom of Flyover Country. This go around of the podcast is other things, too -- sunnier things -- but the protest, our musical protest, is the heart of the thing.

Louisiana lives matter.

AND YOU -- we -- don't get to ignore that, because all Americans matter, being that no American is more American than any other American.

That's a point this episode of the Big Show hopes to makes as entertainingly as possible. While you're listening, check out the Baton Rouge Area Foundation and the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank and lend a financial hand, if you can.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Psychedelic or psychotropic?

Who cares?

Whichever, this episode of the Big Show does seem to take the edge off.

Ain't that all that's important in the summer of our discontent?

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

Maaaan.

3 Chords & the Truth: Upping our meds

Political news? Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-far better to . . . run run run run run run run away.

Or listen to this episode of 3 Chords & the Truth. One or the other.

Personally, I'd recommend listening to this episode of the Big Show, which went quite smoothly, actually, after I upped my meds. Before Inauguration Day, I think we all are going to be upping

 

OUR MEDS.

Thank you! I'm fine. How are you?

Hello.

Who?

Swimmingly. Good show. Righto.

Political news? Qu'est-ce que c'est?

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Don't worry, get happy

It's probably the end of the world as we know it, so pour yourself a stiff drink and let's us listen to some comfort music.

If this stuff was good enough to get the "greatest generation" through the 1960s . . . and the Baby Boomers' teenage years . . . it no doubt is good enough for this edition of 3 Chords & the Truth, one where we seek to self-medicate through happy, soothing sounds.

I mean, if the world's going to hell in a handbasket, find another handbasket.

TO TELL YOU the truth, I have no idea what that means. But it sounded good. Rather like this episode of the Big Show, the swingingest podcast on the Internets.

It's the Happy Beat.

It's also 3 Chords & the Truth. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: The vast wasteland at 75

A country can't become awash in television -- and TV commercials -- all of a sudden. You have to start somewhere.

Broadcasting, July 14, 1941

Somewhere was New York City exactly 75 years ago. On July 1, 1941, Newton Minow's "vast wasteland" of commercial television consisted of Channel 1, Channel 2 and Channel 4. But Channel 4 was still "experimental" and couldn't run ads, so that leaves us with Channels 1 and 2 -- WNBT (NBC) and WCBW (CBS) -- on that august prewar day in July.

Yes, Virginia, there was a Channel 1 until 1946.

On that July day three-quarters of a century ago, the National Broadcasting Company was the first to "go to commercial." Before the start of a Brooklyn Dodgers baseball game, a WNBT camera focused on a test pattern, and in that test pattern was a clock -- a Bulova clock. And that was the first television ad.

The things have been with us since . . . annoying us, amusing us and giving us time to make a trip down the hall. I guess that's well worth taking note of on this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth.

IN OTHER WORDS, get yourself ready for an entire set of songs devoted to the boob tube. With a little luck, video won't kill the Internet radio star.

Also get yourself ready for a jazz set, a sweet set and a hot one, too. Variety, as they say, is the spice of life.

Or so we've been told. I guess that's why this little program from Omaha, by God, Nebraska is so dad-blasted eclectic.

You are listening to 3C&T, Omaha. Bulova watch time is . . . time to turn on the Big Show and listen to the music.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: It's gonna be so great

This edition of 3 Chords & the Truth is brought to you by Erase-O, the modern miracle that ensures that it's really not your fault.

Because s*** be gettin' weird, and you got nothin' to do with it.

Likewise, if this edition of the Big Show isn't up to snuff (which is impossible, because it will be excellent and awesome) your Mighty Favog is not responsible for that. It's somebody else's fault. Everything is chill here, Boo.

The music is chill. Your host is chill. So why don't you chill out for the long weekend . . . and beyond. Let 3 Chords & the Truth  transport you beyond the weird. Beyond blame. Beyond all your cares.

MUSIC HAS power, and it's being brought to you commercial-free by Erase-O. Not only does Erase-O eradicate all blame . . . it also deleted all its sponsorship announcements during the show. Well, it would have, if that were its fault.

Which it isn't. It's Chinexico's fault. Yeah, that's the ticket. Blame crooked Chinexico, the rotten product that fouls everything up.

Anyway, listen to the program. It's gonna be so great, I can't tell you.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Don't leave the seat up

I don't know how we got here.

I think we've all gone nuts.

I don't really want to say anything, because we already have enough excuses to fight, demonize, yell and scream.

In light of all this, your Mighty Favog has elected to take 3 Chords & the Truth, for the most part, back to 1972 -- mainly because 1972 is the last time he understood what the hell was going on. And the music was pretty damn good that year.

That is all.

WELL, not quite. If you have to hit the head during the Big Show, don't stare and mind your manners.

And don't forget to flush.

That really is all.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Making America hate again

We have to deal with the comb-over in the punch bowl.

Trouble is, the last thing I want to talk about this week on 3 Chords & the Truth is the vulgarian with fascist tendencies hiding in the woodpile . . . otherwise known as one of America's two major political parties. So, how do you say GOP in the original German?

OK, I don't want to talk about Donald Trump on the Big Show. You probably don't want to talk about Donald Trump. So let's not talk about the plague on American democracy.

Let's let the MUSIC for the Age of Trump do the talking for the both of us.

OK? All right.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Boogity boogity shoop

This week's edition of the Big Show is all about the stomp.

And the waltz.

And the mope-itty mope, mope-itty mope mope mope.

Well, yeah, we also have some boom boom-ba-booms and some sha-na-nas on 3 Chords & the Truth as well this go around, but you probably already figured that was coming. It's a diverse and eclectic cornucopia, I tells ya!

So pull up a chair. Take your shoes off. And enjoy what's about to caress your eardrums.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Never fear, the King is here

"And that's the evening news for tonight. I'll see you again Monday on. . . ."

Click.

Wall. Head. Thwack!

Thwack!

Thwack!

Thwack!

Click. Thunk. Crackle crackle.

Muss i denn, muss i denn
Zum Stadtele hinaus
Stadtele hinaus
Und du, mein schat, bleibst hier?

There's no strings upon this love of mine
It was always you from the start
Sei mir gut
Sei mir gut
Sei mir wie du wirklich sollst
Wie du wirklich sollst
'Cause I don't have a wooden heart

Thank you, Elvis. Thank you, 3 Chords & the Truth.
Save yourself. Listen to the Big Show.

A big smile's just a click away. Be there. Auf Wiedersehen.