Showing posts with label country music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label country music. Show all posts

Friday, December 22, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: Have yourself a merry little Christmas

The older I get, the more the lyrics to "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" speak to me -- get to me.

And, in a not-always-visible-from space manner, they guide your Mighty Favog in putting together A 3 Chords & the Truth Christmas each year. Don't make me count up how many Christmases that's been now.

Given all this country's recent travails, the line "Next year all our troubles will be out of sight" seems, to me, grossly overly optimistic. On the other hand, they could be. But still . . . you never know.

SO, AT THIS TIME of the year, one holds onto hope. It's a terrible thing to live without hope.

I won't belabor the point. It's time to listen to the music, and give in to the hope that "Next year all our troubles, will be out of sight." Merry Christmas from the Big Show.

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

Have yourself a merry little ChristmasLet your heart be lightNext year all our troubles will be out of sight
 
Have yourself a merry little ChristmasMake the Yuletide gayNext year all our troubles will be miles away
 
Once again, as in olden daysHappy golden days of yoreFaithful friends who are dear to usWill be near to us once more
 
Someday soon we all will be togetherIf the fates allowUntil then, we'll have to muddle through somehowSo have yourself a merry little Christmas now
 

Friday, November 10, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: Whatever

You’re in tune with 3 Chords & the Truth. Welcome to my stream of consciousness.

Most weeks, I have no idea where the Big Show is going when I start to pick the music. I’m just looking to mix it up and not play stuff that I’ve recently had on the program.

That’s about it.

This week. . . . This week is that on steroids. I had no effing idea.

I SCROLLED through stuff, and I picked something that caught my fancy. Then I picked something else that sounded good to me. Then something that I figured would go with what came before.

The stream of whatever got to be something else.

Again, welcome of stream-of-conscience programming on 3 Chords & the Truth. It is what it is, and you get what you get.

And I’m hoping it doesn’t suck. Maybe I’m the best judge of that; then again, maybe not.

Note the slick use of the semicolon there.

And that pulled pork in the Whole Foods dinner really was almost pureéd. Not bad tasting, just baby foodish. The collard greens and macaroni and cheese were surprisingly good for store food.

OK, the stream-of-conscious thing is getting out of hand here.

I think it’s time for me to stand down now. Just listen to the show and let me know. Wait, is the LED lightbulb in the studio fixin’ to go out? Blink, blink. blink. I hate that.

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

Friday, November 03, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: Don't be a monster

We're going to go places -- musical places -- during this edition of the Big Show. Not that that's surprising by now.

I am hopeful it will take us far, far away from the ugliness, strife and hatred enveloping everyday life in these Disunited States of America.

At a time when the worst of us is on full display, as it has been for a while now and keeps getting worse, it's all the more important to keep sight of the best of us. It's important to hear the best of us.

THAT'S what 3 Chords & the Truth is all about.

Yesterday, someone told me he could have sworn I was a Jew. It wasn't a compliment. Amid my visceral sickness at the exchange, I nevertheless took it as a backhanded one.

The past three weeks or so, we've been getting a master class in how the "friends of the oppressed" left can be just as awful as the MAGA right. And when you can't bring yourself to condemn terrorism, regardless of the perpetrator, you are demonstrably awful.

You are not the best this country or world has to offer, and that's a profound understatement.

Things here are ugly, and people ain't playin' anymore. I can't single-handedly stop that; I can remind people of the beauty surrounding us instead. Without that, we become inhuman.

Without that, we become monsters.

Don't be a monster. Do listen to the Big Show.

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

Saturday, October 28, 2023

3 Chords & the Truth: It's not nothin'

World affairs have not improved in the last week. There was another spasm of mass murder via assault rifle in the United States. And MAGA Ned Flanders is the new speaker of the House.

It's still time to be desperately worried about . . . well, everything.

Good thing there's 3 Chords & the Truth to elevate the mood around here. Fine pieces of music, expertly crafted into an eclectic, yet coherent, whole can do that for you even in the darkest of times.

That's not nothin'. And that's the Big Show -- though I'm not sure "not nothin'" is the best slogan one could craft.

It's a good thing I'm not relying on myself to be the advertising guy. Oh, wait. . . .

Well, shit.

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

Sunday, December 20, 2020

3 Chords & the Truth: A socially distant Christmas

Well . . . it's been a year. 

And this year, it'll be a Christmas -- just not the one we'd all hoped for. 

There's nothing we can do about the year 2020 has been, but there's lots we can do about the kind of Christmas this one will be. No, it's not the one we'd dreamed of -- but we certainly can make the best of the one we've got. 

Maybe -- just maybe -- it will be special in its own pandemic-y manner. We at 3 Chords & the Truth are doing our best in the effort. And this is our Christmas gift to you, wherever you might be and however you plan to muddle through somehow. 

AFTER ALL, the Savior whose birthday we celebrate now in the bleak midwinter was born in a manger, surrounded by livestock, had nothing but swaddling clothes  . . . and soon had to flee into exile with his parents. Despite social distancing, incompetent and pernicious political leaders, and the 'rona stalking us all, we will muddle through. 

Somehow. 

Perhaps, we'll even triumph. Just like Jesus -- despite everything.

That's our Christmas wish for you here at the Big Show

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

Saturday, December 12, 2020

3 Chords & the Truth: Listen to the Big Show. It's good.

It's coming up on Christmas, and all I want Papa Noël to bring me is . . . something to say.

Of all the things 2020 has taken from us, something useful to say that hasn't already been said over and over again is the latest loss for me. In this age of COVID and Trump, you do what you can -- try to keep spirits up -- but sooner or later, you start running out of gas.

Obviously, 3 Chords & the Truth is still going, but my words are. . . are . . . are . . . are. . . .

I got nothin'. Just listen to the Big Show. It's good.

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

Saturday, December 05, 2020

3 Chords & the Truth: The Late Show

Now that America has completed the Thanksgiving national 'rona superspreading event, we eagerly careen toward the Christmas national 'rona superspreading event. 

So, just in time for the most festive time of the year, it will not be festive at all for millions of our American countrymen. Some of the darkest days of our history will coincide with the darkness of winter. 

This is enough to cause many an otherwise sane and confident person to curl up beneath a mountain of blankets in the dark of night, afraid for the future and despairing for the present. Amid the dark, cold night, we seek a little light -- even if it's the dial light of your old radio . . . or, as the case may be, the light of your smartphone's screen. 

3 Chords & the Truth can't do much to fix what ails us during this dark December, but it can keep you company in the night. We can play music that might, for a moment or three, make you forget and bring a little joy.

And starting with this week's edition of the Big Show, we can bring you a little Christmas, right this very minute. Really, don't we need all the Christmas we can safely get right now? 

That, friend, pretty much sums up this week's program -- a little comfort and light in the cold, dark night. It's something we all need to grab a hold of as often as we can, especially when it comes in the form of really good music.

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

Saturday, August 29, 2020

3 Chords & the Truth: Shots in the dark


This edition of the Big Show comes at the end of a week that began with seven shots in the back.

Then it saw two protesters shot dead in the middle of the night by a teenage vigilante, then had a hurricane and Nuremberg for Dummies -- because the other mayhem wasn't enough to satisfy fate.
I need a drink, and you need the music. Because the crazy never, ever ends.

Otis! Take us away! (And if you want to know what that's all about, listen to the show.)

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


Saturday, August 08, 2020

3 Chords & the Truth: Somewhere to run


Where do you run to when there's nowhere to run?

Excellent question, if I do say so myself.

Well, this week on 3 Chords & the Truth, we're escaping somewhere deep into the music. When you feel like you can't take another damn thing, it's good to have a bunch of rockabilly queued up and then go from there.

WHICH IS exactly what we're doing this week on the Big Show.

It's the next thing to having a time machine and heading back to a world that was COVID-free, where Trumpism sounded like something having to do with bridge . . . and where you (meaning me) sported fewer pounds and more hair.

I guess that sort of sums up this week's show. Alas.

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


Thursday, April 02, 2020

The records that made me (some of 'em):
The contradiction of Mama and Daddy's 78s


The album-cover challenge continues, Part 4. The thing is, this ain't an album. It's a few 78s, ones that I've been playing since I was old enough to work a record player, which was age 4-ish.

First, behold this influential record of my youth -- Elvis Presley's "All Shook Up," on glorious shellac.

In many cases, high fidelity spun into 1950s homes, and into popular culture, at 78 rpm.

And so did the king of rock 'n' roll.

Now I have brought much of my analog musical formation into the digital present, I guess, preserved on not-so-glorious hard drives these days. (Don't worry; I still have the records.)

"All Shook Up." I couldn't tell you how many times I played this record -- this very 78 that's four years older than I am -- as a kid. The rough estimate: lots.

In 1957, "All Shook Up" was magic. As it still was when I first got a hold of it around 1964 or 1965. As it still is today.

Me (age not quite 3) and the Silvertone . . . and the records
THAT GOES as well for another of my little stash of Elvis on 78 . . . "Too Much." That's it sitting on a 1952 Webcor record changer here at Anachronism "R" Us.

And you know what? After half a century and more, the Elvis records still sound pretty much like new. Hell, I have many compact discs that sound a lot worse. I mean, some of these old 78s sound great.

RCA Victor's "'New Orthophonic' High Fidelity" was, indeed, all that. All that and a pair of blue suede shoes.

Now let's turn to a couple more 78s that more fully became touchstones when I hit my 50s -- Walter Brown's "Fine Brown Baby" / "My Baby's Boogie Woogie" and The Delmore Brothers' "Blues Stay Away From Me."

In 1946, when my parents were still newlyweds, they were buying "race" records and hillbilly blues records from their favorite Baton Rouge music emporiums.


LOW-DOWN BLUES. R&B. Along with pop, jump and country twangfests like the Delmore Brothers.

"She's got what it takes, make a preacher lay his Bible down," sangeth Mr. Brown. You should hear the flip side.

If you want to know the music of my soul, my folks' old 78s will get you close.

If you want to know what was it that made me the musical creature that I am -- if you want to hear the records I was playing when I was but a lad, just old enough to get into my folks records and operate a record changer -- here you go. This and Fats Domino . . . and Ivory Joe Hunter . . . and Fats Domino . . . and Hank Williams . . . and Louis Jordan.

This is about as personal as it gets.

This is who I am. The music of my parents' young adulthood (and my record-geek childhood) sounded like the world -- the Deep South -- I was born into damn near six decades ago.

It was eclectic, the Louisiana . . . the South of my youth. It was seemingly at odds with itself if you didn't look any further than the surface of things. It was also rich beyond measure.

Take Brown, the blues shouter who once sang with Jay McShann's orchestra. In the particular culture I entered into during the spring of 1961, black shouters like him could sit next to white twangers like Ernest Tubb in the record cabinet in the bottom of the old Silvertone console -- even if they couldn't sit next to each other at the Woolworth's lunch counter.

AND NO ONE thought twice about either peculiarity.

This explains my parents' music-buying habits of the 1940s and '50s, long before I came along and, a few years later, started raiding their music collection. It also explains the complex and contradictory inner lives of these people -- formed by the Southern society that brought us Williams, Louis Armstrong and Jim Crow -- who could in 1946 buy racy records by blues shouters, then in 1971 yell at me about my expletive-deleted "n***er music."

People who thought Dick Clark was a communist, probably because of the fatal combination of "beatnik music" and race mixing on "American Bandstand."

Those George Wallace and David Duke voters.

A couple more of the blackest white people on earth -- as Southern Caucasians surely are -- who may have found it just cause for homicide if you had told them that back in the day.

Go figure.

The South: It's a mystery, wrapped in a riddle, tucked away in an enigma and fueled by contradiction. These records give you a peek under its hood a little bit . . . its and mine.

You might not completely understand either of us, me and the South, but it will be a start.


Saturday, July 27, 2019

3 Chords & the Truth: No static a-tall


Did your old man ever ominously warn you about giving him any static?

Mine did. It usually didn't work. I gave him static.

Well, pally, today we live in a world with nothin' but static. Static here, static there, static static static everywhere.

This week on 3 Chords & the Truth, I seek to make static amends by proclaiming this here program a static-free zone. There will be no static here, only good music.

And from the Great Beyond, Daddy now is saying "So NOW you decide to stop being an asshole."

To that, I only can say "Better late than never, Pop. Better late than never."

Enjoy your static-free edition of the Big Show.

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


Saturday, July 13, 2019

3 Chords & the Truth: Cooler than average


Embrace the chill.

3 Chords & the Truth, you see, is cooler than average. Way cooler than average.

Cool music, cool concept, cool production values . . . and a moderately acceptable host. That works out, when you do the math, to cooler than average. If you grade on a curve -- that is, factor in what you hear on the radio in most locales -- the Big Show is way cooler than average.

That's what I'm sayin'.

And that's what you'll hear, right here on this here program.

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


Saturday, June 22, 2019

3 Chords & the Truth: Tragically hip


Because someday I'll be old -- and someday is today -- there's only one thing to do.

I'll put on a double-knit polyester shirt. With a wiiiiiiiiiide collar.

I'll put on a too-tight pair of bell-bottom blue jeans (and these days, all my jeans are too tight anyway).

I'll scare up a gold chain or three as I get ready for this edition of 3 Chords & the Truth.


I'LL ATTEMPT to hide my bald spot. Then I'll attempt to avoid fast convertibles, speedboats or going outside on windy days.

Then I'll put on a Donna Summer record, talk about getting down, try to engage you in a rap session, attempt a dance move no one over 40 should even think about, much less do . . . and then I'll proclaim everything groovy.

And I'll think kind thoughts about you, my people, for you loyal listeners of the Big Show are righteous dudes . . . and dudettes.

This edition of the program, you see, is Tragically Hip.

If you think you can boogie down in Funkytown, maybe you can be Tragically Hip, too. Or if that's not your bag, man, you can just sit over there with all the freaks and be dismissive of it all. It's a free country, man.

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


Saturday, June 15, 2019

3 Chords & the Truth: Crank it up(ish)


Crank it up!

Ish.

Sorry, but this week on the Big Show, I don't feel like being a fanatic about it. So instead of turning the show up to 12, I'm settling in at just about 9 and a half.


That said, 3 Chords & the Truth is as worth a listen as it is every week. Really worth a listen.

You'll be amazed! You'll be entertained! You'll be eclecticized! And you might even be edified!

Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera and so on. Ish.

Just listen, OK? And tell everybody you know . . . or don't know. Ish.

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


Saturday, November 17, 2018

3 Chords & the Truth: Can this thing do 88?


Fire up the flux capacitor, and call me Marty McFly.

We're blowin' this pop stand.

To paraphrase a great legal mind who's married to a world-class White House bullshitter, 2018 is a shitshow inside a dumpster fire . . . and I can't see how 2019 is gonna be any better. So here's what we're going to do.

We've put in a call to Doc Brown, we're gonna get in this here DeLorean . . . and we're gonna put the pedal to the metal.

The Big Show is gonna go back in time.

IT'S WHAT one might call a no-brainer. Even if one has to wear a crew cut (with Butch wax, of course) and Ernie Douglas eyeglasses. If you're under 45, you may have to Google "Ernie Douglas."

Do it now. Where 3 Chords & the Truth is going, Google hasn't been invented yet. Neither has the Internet.

Hop in. The motor's running, the road is straight, and I'm about to stomp the accelerator.

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


Saturday, November 10, 2018

3 Chords & the Truth: We all know better


This week is all about the "& the Truth" part of 3 Chords & the Truth.

As in, truth exists.

As in, we know certain basic things and, truth be told, we always have. Unless you were raised by wolves -- and, sadly, "wolves" is a distinct possibility for some -- your mama taught you what's what by the time you were 5 years old. Maybe 8 if you were a slow learner.

So, amid the fine music this week, the Big Show also is all about getting back in touch with what your conscience could have told you -- us -- if you -- we -- hadn't been telling it to shut the f*** up all these years. Getting back in touch with what you knew all along.

Getting back in touch with what you already know . . . and then acting on it.


Holding your ground.

Fighting the good fight.

For as long as necessary.

Until truth one day comes back in fashion.

THAT'S AN important thing to reacquaint oneself with especially if you reside, as about half of us do, somewhere behind enemy lines.

Oh . . . did I mention that this week's show is, as usual, filled with great music, expertly arranged?

If I didn't, it is. Naturally.

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


Saturday, October 13, 2018

3 Chords & the Truth: Doing what we do


With a little luck, we won't piss off QAnon this week.

That's something that happened last week. Your Mighty Favog said something unfavorable toward the president, etc., and so forth on the Big Show, and . . . well . . . life has gotten weird in these Disunited States.

To the best of my remembering, this week's 3 Chords & the Truth is a relative bastion of sweetness and light -- OK . . . it's merely the normal amount of snark and silliness -- so we should be spared the Two-Minute Hates and the demands to shut up. Or not.

As I said, sh*t's gotten weird across the land.

Perhaps this episode of the finest music podcast on the Internets just will offend regular-strength conspiracy theorists, not the extra-strength, supersized ones. Look! Black helicopters!

ANYWAY . . .  we're here to talk about the music we're playing this week, right?

Well, we have some of this, a fair smattering of that, and you can't overlook the other thing that's on the Big Show this week. It's all very, very good.

For one thing, we have both country and  a set where we funk our way back to the 1940s. Then there's some stuff right out of left field.

Oh, crap. I said "left field." I sense some people getting pissed at the mere mention of Not Right. I swear to God, sh*t's weird these days. So very, very weird.

Listen, I'm trying not to get into trouble here. So maybe I should quit while I'm behind and just say something like "Listen to 3 Chords & the Truth. It's good." Yeah, I think I'll just do that.

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


Saturday, August 25, 2018

3 Chords & the Truth: Your refuge from the s***storm


I can't stand it anymore.

I suspect you can't either.

Well, let's you and I turn up the music real loud, grab a beverage or 30, then pretend the whole s***storm out there isn't happening at all. That's the game plan for this edition of Everybody's Favorite Podcast, otherwise known as 3 Chords & the Truth.

(thud)

Sorry, I may have started a little early on the drinkin'.

Good tunes, witty rejoinders, a little fascinating info . . . and drinkin'. That about covers it this go around on the Big Show. Descriptionwise, that's all I . . .

(thud)

. . . got.

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