3 Chords & the Truth: Not going back

This could be the end of the world as we know it. I don't feel fine.

I am old enough to know what American fascism is like, having grown up in the deepest of the Deep South in the 1960s and '70s. I am old enough to have been threatened, by my parents, with being sent to "the n***er school" when I acted up -- as if that legally were possible then.

Having grown up that way informs who I am. Having spent a lifetime trying to dig myself out of that fascistic black hole -- and if you don't think Jim Crow was fascism, open up a history book, why don't you -- informs who I am even more. It also informs what 3 Chords & the Truth is . . . every damn week.

That doesn't mean the Big Show isn't fun. It is. But, trust me, it's a damn high-wire act.

And here we are, a week and a half out from the most consequential presidential election of my lifetime. And fascism is on the ballot. That's because, as it turns out, a lot of Americans are. . . .

That does not surprise me. I'm a Southerner, after all.

There's not much more I can say about that, so I won't. I'll let the music do the talking from here on.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Life is a cabaret, old chum

What good is sitting alone in your room?

Come hear the music play
The Big Show's a cabaret, old chum

Come to the cabaret

(Boots clicking on the pavement en masse. . . .)

Put down the knitting, the book and the broom
It's time for a holiday
Life is a cabaret, old chum
Come to the cabaret

Come taste the wine
Come hear the band
Come blow your horn, start celebrating
Right this way, 3 Chords & the Truth's waiting

What good's permitting some prophet of doom
To wipe every smile away?

(Voice on the PA speaker at the political rally down the street
rails against scum, vermin, the enemy within. . . . )

The Big Show's a cabaret, old chum
So come to the cabaret. . . .

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

3 Chords & the Truth: A beastly affair

Here's a truth bomb for you: I've kinda been dreading this show, No. 666.

Six hundred sixty-six. 666. Mark of the Beast. That's some seriously bad juju.

When you enter this neighborhood, you don't know what will happen. You do know it will not be good.

While the music on this portentous edition of 3 Chords & the Truth is just as exceptional as ever, it did not take long for the god of hellfire to show his sulfurous self. That's bad.

AS IT TURNS OUT, 6-6-6 is not the only way to spell "mark of the beast." God preserve us.

Listen and learn, my friends. Listen and learn. Do not let this happen to you, especially on Nov. 5.

Like I was telling you, the music this week on the Big Show is great -- really, really great. But I must tell you that you're going to have to endure some things to get there. I would suggest you arm yourself with some garlic, some holy water, a crucifix . . . and perhaps a Kamala Harris yard sign.

Yeah, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Thou hast been warned. Hold thy soul, and thy family, close to thy heart. The Enemy lurketh, seeking the destruction of souls . . . and nations.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: If you can't laugh. . . .

Well, at least we don't have little messages before the late news saying "It's 10 p.m. Do you know where your cats and dogs are?"

Yet.

Every damn week for the last nine years or so, whenever I'm confronted with writing another little missive for another episode of 3 Chords & the Truth, I have to think of something to say amid the crazy. And You Know Who has prompted the fruitiest of the Fruit Loops in America today.

Now, it's "They're eating the cats. They're eating the dogs." You Know Who floated that bit of crazy during  the presidential debate, no less.

What in the Wide World of Sports is your average, marginally sane person supposed to do with that level of bat shit?

To maintain my marginal level of sanity, I make merciless fun of it. So we're breaking a bubbling-under-the-Top-40 future smash hit on the Big Show this week. It, unsurprisingly, is from that unfathomably popular group, The DJT Music Explosion.

They're exploding something, all right.

Let's just hope it doesn't end up being the United States of America.

That said, insert the usual description of the awesomeness of this week's show, because that generally doesn't change a whit.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Xanax, take me away!

If you can't laugh, you'll end up sticking your head in the oven.

Yeah, I watched the presidential debate pitting a bad debater who's lost a step . . . and a pathological liar who aspires to be Short-Bus Hitler. Couple that with a thoroughly broken journalistic infrastructure (I'm looking at you, CNN), and if cannabis were legal in this state, I'd be snarfing pot gummies like Raisinettes in a freakin' movie theater.

Thus, the importance of good music on 3 Chords & the Truth . . . and the ability to laugh at this s***.

I'm hoping I achieved the good-music and humor goals on this week's edition of the Big Show. I am betting heavily that you are, too.

Well, I guess you'll just have to see, now, won't you?

This has to work. I have an electric oven. Ouch.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: What just happened?

What just happened here?

Well, as this episode of 3 Chords & the Truth came together and headed to the Internet tubes, a former president of the United States was convicted on 34 felony counts in New York. That's a first in two and a half centuries.

Momentous stuff, to say the least.

And, unsurprisingly, convicted felon Donald Trump and Republican politicians from soup to nuts -- emphasis on the nuts -- are waging a brutal rhetorical war on the American justice system. Throw some dude in the 'hood under the jail, our criminal courts are great. Convict a psychologically damaged, orange authoritarian? THE TRIAL WAS RIGGED! DEMOCRATS ARE WAGING WAR AGAINST THE PEOPLE!

EVEN THOUGH our system held here, even though we saw that no man is above the law -- in New York state, at least -- the United States remains in a world of hurt. American patriots (the real ones, not the performative ones) continue to fight for our democratic lives.

Interesting week to come out with another Big Show.

And the existential question remains: Which side are you on, boys? Which side are you on?

Here, we're on the side of America -- the noble idea of America. America is an idea, you know. It's a creed, an aspiration. We haven't fully lived up to the tenets of that creed yet, but the defining characteristic of Americanism is that we keep trying to.

Our national bond, now so horribly frayed, is in the trying . . . trying to live up to the words of the Declaration of Independence. Trying to remain faithful to our constitution.

This is a music program, however. We're also on the side of great music, and we're pretty firmly rooted in that respect. I'd recommend, after the day -- after the decade -- we've had that you kick back and chill with the musical greatness of the Big Show.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Here comes the music

Sooner or later, the Big Show's gonna get ya.

Sooner or later, friend, you got to give in.

Sooner or later, the tunes are gonna let 'cha.

Sooner or later, the music's gonna win. Music's gonna win.

IT'S JUST a matter of time before you make up your mind.

To give all those grooves that you've been hiding.

Its just a question of when, I've told you time and again. You'll get all the tunes you've been denying.

Sooner or later, 3C&T is gonna get ya.

Sooner or later, friend, you got to give in.

Sooner or later, the tunes are gonna let 'cha.

Sooner or later, the music's gonna win. Music's gonna win!

So . . . here comes the Big Show. You betcha.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Off to the races

Ever had one of those weeks when all you could manage was to go off on a tangent?

This has been one of those weeks, following a couple of weeks off. Which led to this week on 3 Chords & the Truth, with what I could manage.

But -- oh! -- what a tangent. Actually, make that two legitimate tangents. Sometimes, all you can manage after a couple of challenging weeks turns out to be pretty glorious.

And this week, that is your Big Show.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Feebling stubbfy

Ogbayb, dis willb be shorbt anb sweeb. I hab a code in my nobe and keeb coughinb.

I dib a showb, anb I managbed to keeb thinbs togebber longb enough to doob dis edibsion ob da Bibg Showb. Anb ib turbed oubt prebby goob despibe eberythinb.

And I dib nob cough onb anythinb, so I don'b thinb you bill catchb anybing fromb libbening to dis 3 Chorbs & da Trub.

Ib reallyb ib prebby goob dis weebk. Lobs ob goob mubic.

Ib's 3 Chorbs & da Trub, y'all. Be dere. Alobha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Music to bundle up with

It's a beautiful sight, we're happy tonight, we're walking in a winter wonderla . . . aw, screw it.

Omaha is closed until April. Send hot chocolate. And thermal underwear.

It's a cold, cold snowy night as this edition of 3 Chords & the Truth goes up on the Internets, to flow through the electronical pipes to your home or smart telephone. And it's about to get a lot colder, so it's a good thing that the program this week should make you feel all warm and cozy.

Or, at least it's making me feel all warm and cozy . . . ish.

We're talking some good, good stuff, here. Primo listening material. I think you'll like it, because I sure do. After all, that's the goal of the Big Show.

If you're in these parts -- the frigid, snow-clogged Midwest -- it's perfect for listening to as you watch your obsessive-compulsive neighbor snowblow his front yard, only to bury the other half that much worse, then snowblow that part back onto the other half, then. . . . OK, that's not my neighbor, but somewhere. . . .

I'm sorry, the cold is shutting down my brain. I'll go now and find a warm blanket.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Truth or lies?

The good book tells us that the truth will set us free. If that is so -- and I believe it is -- America today might as well be a gulag.

And there will be no great escape. Welcome to 2024, the year we've been dreading.

Hell of a thought to sell another episode of 3 Chords & the Truth with, but it is what it is, and we are where we are this election year in America. The choice this election year in these Disunited States of America isn't just between a representative, constitutional democracy and a crazy man's authoritarian dystopia, it's also as simple as a choice between truth and lies.

Reality and delusion.

A MORE perfect union and "Screw it. Let's find some scapegoats to persecute, so that we might feel holy."

That, frankly, is what on my mind as we dive into the year we've all been dreading, and dive into it with music -- as is our want.

Fortunately, unlike the political news, the music on the Big Show is quite good. And it goes down a lot easier.

And that's the state of things today, as seen from the culture-war bunker here in Omaha, by God, Nebraska. Now you know why I have a bunker.

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

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 Christmas
Let your heart be light
Next year all our troubles will be out of sight

 

Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yuletide gay
Next year all our troubles will be miles away

 

Once again, as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Will be near to us once more

 

Someday soon we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then, we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

 

3 Chords & the Truth: Bleak midwinter

It's gray. It's raining. It's December, and Christmas is nigh.

The rain, in these parts, actually is something of a holiday treat. Drought, don't you know? The gray and the chill and the nights that begin in the afternoon, that's just midwinter in the upper Midwest.

This time of year, you have to make your own light. You have to add color to the world by whatever means necessary. In the case of 3 Chords & the Truth, that would be through playing the best music anywhere.

This week, like every week here in the studio, is no exception.

I've got the tunes; I've got my Community coffee shipped from South Louisiana, and that's all anybody needs to keep the gray -- and the December chill -- at bay.

IF I TRY hard enough, I can smell the big blue spruce tree of my childhood Christmastimes. That's not nothing -- these days, our household trees run toward the plastic and metal. "Trees" is not a typographical error. If one tree is good, two are better.

This year, a new wrinkle on the fake-tree front: fixing a loose branch with electrical tape and a bit of faux-fir camouflage. I don't recall ever fixing a real evergreen, so chalk up an advantage for artificiality.

Anyway, as we continue the run-up to the Big Show's big Christmas show next week, we have a mix of all the great music you normally hear, plus some holiday classics, plus some yuletide tunes that might not be so familiar to you. You'd expect no less from this program, right?

Ring those Christmas bells, then settle down in a comfortable chair with your favorite hot beverage for another full-fledged musical experience.

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

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.

3 Chords & the Truth: Can I even?

It's been a couple of weeks.

Last week, I couldn't even.

This week, I'll give it the ol' college try.

Welcome to 3 Chords & the Truth. Some weeks, I feel like I'm playing music in the darkness and hoping for the best. This week, I feel like I'm playing music in the darkness inside an insane asylum.

SUCH IS LIFE in the United States -- and inside a red state in the United States -- these days. And here I am doing a freeform radio show on the Internet. Congress is paralyzed, thanks to the Rabid Weasels Eating People's Faces Party . . . now engaged in eating one another's faces.

Normally, the sight of that would be highly gratifying. But we really could use a legislature right now, when Hamas terrorists are beheading Israeli babies, and the whole Middle East is a powder keg in the middle of a bonfire.

I can't even. But I'll try here on the Big Show.

For so many reasons, I can't even. For so many reasons, I have to try.

Shalom.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Love and hate

It's a thin line between love and hate.

Or is it a chasm?

Perhaps it depends on the context. In America today -- or is it Amerika? -- there's a chasm. And hate is all around. Fascism is on the rise.

This week on 3 Chords & the Truth, we take a musical look. The subject matter is harsh, but the music goes down easy.

I'm biased, but I recommend you give this edition of the Big Show a listen. The devil you try to ignore will kill you even faster than the one you acknowledge.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Just let the mystery be

We live in a country -- hell, a world -- of limited horizons.

Cynical people more accustomed to sitting in the front row of class, of sucking up to teacher and all the "right" people, make their money by foisting the mediocre off on those who sat in the back of class, more interested in spitballs than scholarship.

That assessment may strike you as cynical as all get out. You may be right. But I would argue there's more truth in it than any of us are comfortable with.

IF YOU DON'T believe me, turn on the radio. Hell, follow country music today.

Six words: "Try That in a Small Town."

3 Chords & the Truth ain't about that. Thus, our putting out a little Big Show from the cramped confines of a culture-war bunker, somewhere behind America's Ironic Curtain somewhere in Flyover Country.

But did you ever consider that the leavening in what's left of our culture just might be the work of the unknown and unheralded -- the presence of extraordinary anonymity in our midst? That's a big part of the program this week.

Extraordinary talent doesn't always, or even usually, lead to fame and fortune in our society. When you zoom out for a wide-angle look at things, extraordinary talent probably more often leads to a lifetime of being overlooked. Remaining relatively unknown . . . or completely unknown.

Consider the Unknown Dorm Singer, circa 1967. At the University of California, Santa Cruz during the fall following the Summer of Love, we had a guitar-toting hippie hitchhiker in need of a place to crash, a freshman-dormitory room, a young man with a decent tape recorder . . . and magic.

TO THIS DAY, no one can figure out who was that girl. So, for now, we have no choice but to let the mystery be.

But that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the music -- the magic -- 56 years hence. On 3 Chords & the Truth, we will.

Today, that isn't something likely to be tried in a small town. So they say.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Wired in

I was wired in, but then I shorted out.

Such is the life of your Mighty Favog as he continues with this enterprise we call . . . we call . . . we call . . . (looks at picture) 3 Chords & the Truth.

I know we play a whole lot of exemplary music on . . . on . . . on . . . (looks at picture) 3 Chords & the Truth this week, but I would have to look at the playlist to tell you what it is. On the bright side, I do not know why I came into this room, either.

Belle the Dog informs me that I came into this room to post this episode of the . . . the . . . the . . . (Belle whispers "Rig Row") the Big Show. Alrighty then. I shall do that.

Do what?

Oh, yeah. That.

Say goodnight, Gracie. Goodnight, Gracie.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Talkin' 'bout my generation

This week's Big Show finds me feeling strangely groovy.

Must be that I'm into something good. But that can't be the reason for this feelin' I've been feelin'. After all, we're into something good every single week on this thing we call 3 Chords & the Truth.

And I'm not even wearing a paisley print shirt. Or bell bottoms.

Also, it's been raining, so we in Omaha certainly aren't having a sunshine day. I am seriously at a loss.

THE ONLY THING I can come up with is that, unlike Roger Daltrey's fervent wish, many of us folks who grew up in the 1960s and '70s did not, in fact, die before we got old. That's right, I'm talkin' 'bout my generation.

You can call me Boomer, and you can call me Jones. You can call me Beatnik, and you can call me Hippie. And you can call me Throwback, but you doesn't have to call me Relic. 

If you get the reference for the preceding paragraph, you may be chronologically challenged, too.

And, honestly, I have no idea where I'm going with this, apart from yadda yadda yadda Boomer. And that's suspect as well, being that Late Boomers like myself have little in common with Early Boomers, and it's been argued that we're actually a separate generation -- one called Jones.

We're kinda proto-Generation X, actually. What we started, they perfected.

But that's neither here nor there . . . which fits in quite nicely with the rest of this Big Show missive.

So, to not sum up because I never got to any point, let me just say listen to the program. Music good. Host not particularly unfortunate. Much grooviness.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: 20 songs in the sunset

I suppose, as much as anything, this episode of the Big Show is about sunsets. The sunset of life, the warm glow of the sunset -- you could go on and on.

However the sunset speaks to you is good enough for us. That's what it's about today.

Of course, that didn't become clear(er) to me until this go-round of 3 Chords & the Truth was in the can, so to speak. So . . . yeah. Just consider the show this week to be 20 lovely songs in the day's fading light.

THE PAST couple of weeks, as is increasingly the norm for folks the age of your Mighty Favog, have seen the passing of a couple of musical giants -- Harry Belafonte and Gordon Lightfoot. The loss is great. What they have left us, have left in our cultural coffers, is tremendous.

And you'll get a taste of that this week.

You'll also get a taste of a lot more, as well. That's utterly normal for what we call the Big Show. That also is what makes this program stand out . . . and, during these times, stand apart.

If you know, you know.

If you know, you're exceptional. And fortunate.

There's really not much more to say, so I'll leave it right here. Now get comfortable and get musically enriched.

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