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: The Stereo Theatre!

Here! Now! The new 3 Chords & the Truth Stereo Theatre!

Actually, it's a lot like the old 3 Chords & the Truth Stereo Theatre, only Here! Now! and New!

And again, with million-dollar stereophonic sound at a price within everyone's reach -- free -- you are there without ever leaving the comforts of home. Or wherever.

That's the magic of the Big Show.

So, this week on the program -- er, the Stereo Theatre -- we were wondering whether you were wondering what the deal is with America's only homegrown genre of popular music. That would be jazz, in case you were drawing a blank there.

WELL, you're going to learn all about the deal with jazz . . . and about the special sauce that gave us the Great American Songbook, especially the sounds that made Gershwin masterpieces Gershwin masterpieces and distinguished them from the Dixieland jazz that made its way from New Orleans to Chicago, and then to New York.

You'll also hear why that's important today. Especially today.

Yeah, you'll want to stay tuned for that.

So, I guess that's all there is to say about that. At least without giving away the whole show -- the Big Show.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Favog's Country Bunker

It's almost Election Day, and we're here in the 3 Chords & the Truth Country Bunker waiting for the end of the world.

If it doesn't actually happen Tuesday -- Wednesday at the latest -- one way or the other, it's gonna be close.

So this week on the Big Show, our time will be well spent listening to some favorites, getting close to Jesus and standing in the light. Well . . . as much light as there is here in the bunker.

If you find all this to be a great mystery, listen to the program and all will be revealed to thee. Here, In the bunker.

Don't mind the chicken wire in front of the stage.

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 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: 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: The Big (Christmas) Show!

I understand you've been kinda stressed out this Christmas, Cap.

Hear tell that you've been the Target of lots of hype by desperate retailers -- it Sears your brain, really -- to Shopko till you dropko, because you're somehow less of a great American (Nay! Less of a human being!) until you make that Best Buy this holiday season.

Over and over again.

Why don't you just buy the wife a new Beemer? Yeah, that's the big ticket!

And then there's the lights. And the tree. And getting the house perfect. And the kids to the Christmas parties. And you to your Christmas party. Where the magnifying glass is upon you as you lift a glass or three. Where that scrutiny would never impact your career, noooooo sir, nuh uh.

THEN THERE'S the bell ringers, and the Christmas Eve wingding you're throwing, and the kids wanting new cell phones -- and laptops and iPads -- and appearances that have to be kept up. Despite your mortgage that's under water.

Merry Christmas, all!

Now . . . just stop. Why are we doing all this, again? Is there something we might be missing here, something buried beneath all the desperate consumerism and corporatism and overextendedism and general "festive" mayhem?

Could it be . . . Christmas?

Stop. Look. Listen to 3 Chords & the Truth, and the sounds of the season.

This Christmas, we at the Big Show give you a break. We give you the chance to just stop, grab a hot cup of something, take a load off and relax for 90 minutes. No commercials, no urgent calls to consumeristic action.

It's Christmas. Don't forget the joy, or the opportunity to just be. Don't forget to just stop for a while and appreciate the things that really matter this time of the year.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Ho! Ho! Ho!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

In the festive, yuletide sense of the term, as opposed to the festive, misogynistic sense.

It's the week before Christmas, and 3 Chords & the Truth is giving the gift of music this year! Of course, that's exactly what we gave last year, too.

And the year before.

As a matter of fact, the Big Show gives the gift of music every single episode, and we don't need a special excuse -- like Christmas, for example -- to do it. That is truth.

Public relations, however, dictates that we make it sound like giving the gift of music is a special Christmas thing. You need a good peg for proper public relations, and the promiscuous consumption and self-indulgence of the holiday season fills the bill for pimpin' the Big Ho . . . er, Show.

SO CONSIDER yourself sold. And remember to tell your mom that you absolutely, positively have to have a whole bunch of 3 Chords & the Truth this Christmas, or you'll just die! I mean, all the other kids are getting the Big Show this Christmas, and she just can't let you be some kind of freak.

What will everybody say about you on Facebook, after all?

I swear to God, everybody is downloading the thing -- this 3 Chords & the Truth -- and if she doesn't get it for you . . . YOU . . . WILL . . . JUST . . . DIE.

You'll hold your breath until you turn blue.

You'll throw a tantrum.

You'll cry forever.

You swear to God.

OF COURSE, this is one case where getting what you want will actually be good for you. Unlike all that Easter candy last spring.

3 Chords & the Truth actually will expand your mind and, as an extra added bonus at no additional cost, feed your soul.

Some have even reported developing good musical taste. Your mileage, however, may vary.

So ask your mom for lots of the Big Show this Christmas. You -- and she -- will be glad you did.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Post-Thanksgiving whatever

The Thanksgiving turkey has been eaten. So have the leftovers.

All traces of the fowl doings have been erased.

The Christmas cookies are only just now starting to appear, and we're somehow supposed to resume some semblance of normality until the next wild tryptophan-fueled blowout in a few weeks.

Well, OK. You got any damn ideas on how to get back to "normal"? Me neither.

Oh, yeah. This post is about 3 Chords . . . burrrrrrrp . . . & the Truth. Whatever.

I HAVE a vague recollection of music being involved in this week's edition of the Big Show, but don't hold me to that. I also understand it's pretty good, considering.

But don't hold me to that, either.

Listen, I'm going to go get another cup of hot tea. Why don't you do the same, then meet me back here, and we'll give it a listen and see what the hell the deal is. Who knows, maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Maybe you will, too.

But don't hold me to that. I'm not quite back to "normal" yet. Whatever the hell that is.

Yadda yadda yadda. Etcetera and so on. And now for the hoary old closing line. . . .

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Sultry, swanky, sweet

If you've spent any time lately listening to commercial radio -- for instance, you've just been released from a CIA torture chamber or, perhaps, Mexican drug lords wanted to find out where you hid their stash, man -- boy, are you going to need this.

"This," of course, is 3 Chords & the Truth, otherwise known as the Big Show.

And that, of course, is the mark of quality music on the Internet.

Here's a quick example of the sumptuousness of today edition of 3 Chords & the Truth: Right out of the box, we're going to be hitting the rarer side of the British Invasion, and then you're going to listen to that set of music segue into . . . well, you're going to just have to listen to find out, won't you?

OK, OK, OK. Another quick example for you, Skipper.

A LITTLE LATER in the show, we're going to launch from a little 1965 disc by Mimi and Richard Fariña, and then you get to sit in utter amazement as their electric folk stylings morph, with the succeeding tracks, into . . . naw, you're going to have to listen to find out what happens there, too.

Hang on. OK, how about this. I can let you in on this little bit of proprietary information.

See, closer to the end of the show, we're going to kick off a sultry, swanky and sometimes sweet spate of songs with a great, great number by a singer's singer -- and native Nebraskan -- Jeri Southern. You can read all about her here.

Anyway, we're going to start there and tell you a little bit about this underappreciated song stylist who's nearly been lost to the ages, and then we're going to go right into some stuff by . . . no, just can't spill the beans.

That would be wrong. Sorry to have been such a tease.

BUT IF YOU just go click on the player up yonder at the top of the page, or just click here, all will be revealed to you. I guarantee.

Really, I do.

As always, it's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Wintry mix

Don't let the name of this week's episode fool you.

That, for the most part, was no wintry mix out there. For the most part all evening, it's been a flat-out snowstorm in Omaha, by God, Nebraska. And suddenly the forecast for a "wintry mix" became one for "3- to 6 inches."

You know what kind of weather that is, don't you?

It's stay inside, grab a cup of something hot, grab something warm to curl up in . . . and put on 3 Chords & the Truth. Because while it's snowing like the dickens outside, the Big Show -- safely inside -- is offering up a "wintry mix" today.

And one set in particular is downright toasty. Really toasty. If you know what I mean.

WELL, that's about all I have to say about this week's edition of Everybody's Favorite Podcast.

Cold outside.

Warm inside.

Wintry mix.

Good music.

Some of it . . . very unwinterlike.

If you know what I mean.

DID I mention it snowed today? Did I mention the music's fine, so come on in?

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Let's just be

There. I've just poured myself another cup of minty tea, and that makes it the last of the pot.

It has been that kind of a day. A chilly day here in Omaha, by God, Nebraska, as well as a laid-back kind of day. I say it's been a fine day just to be.

As in, "Just be."

As in "Let the day come to you. No need to expend any excess energy on it."

THAT'S THE kind of day it's been here around the 3 Chords & the Truth studios, and that's the kind of show you're going to get this week. It's a fine show all about sitting back, enjoying the tunes, and just letting it be.

The Beatles, 1970.

IT'S A laid-back affair on the Big Show but, to tell you the truth, I think those are some of the best ones. And this week's episode of 3 Chords & the Truth is a fine one, indeed.

So click on a link, or click on the player at the top of this page. I don't care. Just click on something, sit back, listen to the music . . . and be. Just be.

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

Mr. Rock and Mr. Roll . . . together again

Go grab youself a cold one, Cap, then get back here.

You good?

OK, now sit youself down and watch this story from WWL-TV in New Orleans. After a bunch of years, Channel 4's Eric Paulsen brought Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew back together to remember the days when they were helping to birth rock 'n' roll . . . and to play some of the old songs, too.

This is as close as you're ever going to get to seeing -- alive and still kickin' and in the flesh -- the origins of the music that changed the world.

Look at this. These are the men of a time, of the glory days, of the most musical place on earth.

IF YOU WANT to see inside the soul of Louisianians of a certain age -- black and white, rich and poor -- if you want to see what makes up a goodly portion of my soul . . . formed in my parents' back bedroom in Baton Rouge, playing Fats Domino 78s on a 1949 Silvertone console, you're looking at it right here.

The Times-Picayune's Keith Spera describes the scene:

Dave Bartholomew straightens up and pulls on his gray suit jacket. He enters the home, the residence of an old friend he hasn’t seen in years.

Fats Domino.

Together, Bartholomew and Domino authored the richest chapter in New Orleans music, making rock ’n’ roll history along the way. Bartholomew “discovered” Domino, co-wrote his hits and produced the recordings that sold millions of copies in the 1950s and early ’60s.

Next week, Bartholomew and Domino are the subject of the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame’s 15th American Music Masters series. A week of lectures, interviews and film screenings at the museum and a day-long conference at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland culminate with a Nov. 13 tribute concert featuring Toots & the Maytals, Lloyd Price, Dr. John, Irma Thomas, Theresa Andersson, the Dixie Cups and many more. Bartholomew, 89, plans to travel to Cleveland for the concert; Domino, 82, is not making the trip.

In 1999, Bartholomew and Domino sat down with me for a joint interview prior to their separate performances at that year’s New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Since then, they’ve had little contact.

In advance of the Hall of Fame festivities — only the third time the prestigious American Music Masters series has honored living musicians — WWL-TV news anchor Eric Paulsen conspired to reunite Bartholomew and Domino. Paulsen and Domino are buddies; it was Paulsen who spirited Domino to the Fair Grounds in an unsuccessful gambit to get him to perform as scheduled at the 2006 Jazz Fest.

Paulsen arranged for Bartholomew to visit Domino’s post-Hurricane Katrina home in Harvey for the first time on Oct. 5. The result of that effort airs on Thursday, Nov. 4 during WWL-TV’s 10 p.m. newscast.

(snip)

Domino’s infamous performance anxiety stems in part from doubts about his own abilities. He’ll tinker on a piano at home with family and friends, but his days of performing publicly are likely over.

With a camera rolling, he is reluctant even to play at home. But grudgingly, he takes a seat at a black baby grand. A Lifetime Achievement Grammy and a commemoration of his 1986 induction into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame rest atop the piano. Gold records hang above a couch fashioned from a classic pink Cadillac’s tail section. The couch was salvaged from his flooded Lower 9th Ward home, and restored.

Bartholomew hoists his trumpet to his lips. Domino touches the piano keys. Instinctively, his right hand reels off triplets as his left struts to a distinctly New Orleans rhythm.

Bartholomew encourages him: “Antoine, you still got it, man!”

“You still got it, too!”

They knock off the first verse of “The Fat Man,” Domino’s first single, recorded in December 1949 on North Rampart Street. Bartholomew reminisces about their initial encounter at the Hideaway Lounge in the 9th Ward.

Meanwhile, Domino picks up steam at the piano.

“Just get him started and he’ll never stop,” Bartholomew says. “Yeah! Yeah you right!”

Paulsen notes that the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame considers “The Fat Man” one of, if not the, first rock ’n’ roll songs.

“I’m glad they said that,” Bartholomew says. “Because Fats had been playing the blues for a long, long time. It was good that somebody actually recognized what we were doing.”

They slip into their old roles of producer and artist, with Bartholomew directing and coaching. “Why don’t we play ‘The Fat Man’ all the way?”

Domino plunges in. Bartholomew cheers him on: “That’s you! That’s you!” But Domino loses steam, and they don’t make it all the way.

Bartholomew spins tales set in Philadelphia and London, two stops for the barnstorming Domino band back in the day.

Paulsen wants them to do “I’m Walkin’”: “How’s that song go, Fats? I can’t remember.”

“How I start it, Dave?”

“A-flat,” Bartholomew says, humming the melody as a guide. Domino launches, then abandons “I’m Walkin’” in favor of “Blue Monday,” a favorite of his. He turns to the WWL cameraman and grins, a sign that he’s having fun.

“The city of New Orleans has been so good to us, spread our music all over the world,” Bartholomew says. “We’ve been blessed by God. At this age I still can play the trumpet. And you can still play the piano. Two blessings together.”

“I’m still hanging in there,” Domino agrees.

FROM THEIR lips to God's ear. And may we always be walkin' to New Orleans.

3 Chords & the Truth: You can call me Boris

You can call me Favog, or you can call me Mighty, or you can call me DJ . . . or you can call me Boris.

It's Halloween. Its 3 Chords & the Truth. It's . . . well . . . you know.

I mean, when it gets Spooky like this, you find You're a Whole Different Person When You're Scared. And if the Werewolves of London show up, you may well end up in the Monster Hospital.

THAT'S IF you're lucky.

You could, if one thing or another goes badly, end up in the City of the Dead. A Little Ghost, as it were.

Then again, maybe you'd just end up undead. Then the whole neighborhood would be running around in a COMPLETE panic.

Men and women -- children and dogs -- would be out in the streets screaming. Screaming things like "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!!"

You don't want that to happen. Trust me.

So tie a few heads of garlic around your neck, settle in with the Big Show and experience Halloween vicariously. Or you can go out there on your own and roll the dice with the Real Thing.

And don't be telling people that I Put A Spell on You. That would be untrue.

Unless you're talking musical spells. That would be true.

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

Listen my friends . . . to the Moby Grapes

Guten Morgen! This is your daily Omaha or, in this case, your daily "Omaha," with Moby Grape on the Mike Douglas Show in 1968.

Perhaps, though, I ought to just call the seminal psychedelic group "the Moby Grapes," so as to not publicly embarrass the ghost of Mike Douglas. Moby Grape, and the whole counterculture thing, confused Mike*. A lot.

(I had forgotten to add the asterisk to Mike Douglas*, which is a major faux pas for anyone who lived through 1960s and '70s television. Mike Douglas* always gets an *. It may have been somewhere in federal law, actually.)

But, yeah, Moby Grape confused the hell out of Mike* in 1968.


OF COURSE, things had not gotten any better by 1976, when Tom Waits first appeared on The Mike Douglas Show*. Tom Waits may have confused Mike Douglas* even more than "the Moby Grapes" did.

Mainstream America doesn't do eccentricity well. It does "eccentric genius" even less well.

And by the time you're done watching Mike Douglas* and Marvin Hamlisch -- and let's face it, Mike* wasn't musically fit to hold Waits' ashtray -- awkwardly condescend to the young eccentric genius, you have this intense desire to travel back in time, flick your Bic and hold it really close to their polyester duds.

Don't miss the end of the show. Young people's lack of exposure to really, really dumb, really, really awkward spectacles such as that has left them wholly unequipped to deal with a lot of crap life can throw at a person.

Is what I'm saying.