3 Chords & the Truth: 'Round and 'round

'Round and 'round we go, where the Big Show stops, nobody knows.

Or . . . who is Spencer, and why should we give him gifts at the mall?

Is this making any sense? Of course it isn't. We don't do sense in this country anymore -- there is no sense! Nothing makes sense.

We're not even trying to be outrageous or witty or anything on 3 Chords & the Truth anymore. Why? Because we can't make this stuff up anymore. We cannot compete with Washington, D.C., and the 24-hour news cycle.

And, come to think of it, Spencer can buy his own damned gifts.

TODAY on the Big Show, we have some perfectly good guitars, two of everything and a whole big bunch of hurt. All in all, it sounds pretty decent.

That's the best we can do. We have been outstripped by events.

We got a record player, some records, a CD player, some CDs and a computer and other audio implements of destruction. That will have to do. So listen up, Buster, and listen up good.

If you don't, I will tweet nasty things about you during my 3 a.m. constitutional. LAME!

Well, it seems as if I may have written enough, so I'm out of here.

IT'S 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: A word about high fidelity

And now, courtesy of 3 Chords & the Truth, a word about high fidelity:

Good.

And so is the freeform format of the Big Show. Not much more to be said.

Except this . . . listen. It's the tastiest music on the Internets.

That's all. C'est tout.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: A musical sanitorium

We can take only so much of this crap at one time.

So we take a rest. We restore ourselves and our souls.

3 Chords & the Truth does this with music, because everything is better with music. And the music on this restorative episode of the Big Show is especially good -- both in and of itself . . . and for your soul.

Really . . . we live in interesting times, in the Chinese-curse sense of interesting times. We have to take care of ourselves.

Consider this edition of the podcast just that.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: The revolution starts now

Uncle Sam wants you . . . to live as an American.

Not a Russian.

Not an angry German.

Not a Serb.

Not a Klansman.

Not an "alt" anything.

THE ALT STOPS HERE on 3 Chords & the Truth. The revolution starts now.

Welcome to the Zeitgeist Edition of the Big Show. There will be lots of good music to listen to -- and to chew on -- this week. Believe me.

Just remember one simple thing: Be more American. Be less a**hole.

That's about it.

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: Soundscapes

Did you know you can paint with sound?

Did you know that you can create a musical landscape with a playlist?

What we do here on 3 Chords & the Truth is paint soundscapes, which is the same thing as a musical landscape, with audio equipment as your canvas and your ears substituting for your eyes. This edition of the podcast takes the concept of soundscapes and -- BAM! -- kicks it up a notch.

Bet you like it.

WHEN YOU look at the playlist for this week's episode of the Big Show, what you see is a spreadsheet. When you listen to the playlist for this week's show, what you hear is magic.

What you hear is pieces of music and snippets of sound creating a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. You hear familiar songs put together in unfamiliar ways.

You hear unfamiliar compositions take on a certain familiarity.

What you don't hear is something that you fully expect. What you cannot be when faced with a fresh soundscape is complacent.

WE HAVE a media world out there that's overrun by complacency. 3 Chords & the Truth  ain't that.

And that's an audio picture worth painting.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Buddy and the Beatles

The Cricket is the father of the Beatle.

This week on 3 Chords & the Truth, we explore Buddy Holly and his influence on The Beatles, which I submit was huge. In short, had Holly not lived and blown open rock 'n' roll with all kinds of then-not-rock 'n' roll influences and instrumentation  -- A full string section? Harps? Heresy!!! -- you have to wonder whether it would have been possible for John, Paul, George and Ringo to make the music they ultimately did.

Maybe so. Then again, maybe everybody would have been remaking "Roll Over Beethoven" and the greatest hits of Fabian over and over and over again.

But Buddy Holly blew it open, and the boys from Liverpool reaped the musical benefits.

THAT'S WHERE we're going this week on the Big Show. And you are going to reap the musical benefits as we revisit some classic Holly and some live Beatles, as broadcast back in the day on the British Broadcasting Corporation.

We're live on the BBC, and we're on top of lots of other exceptional stuff this go around. You're gonna love it.

So. . . .

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

3 Chords & the Truth: An offer you can't resist

As if getting to listen to a classic song from Hawaiian legend Alfred Apaka wasn't enough reason to listen to the Big Show today, I have 23 other good reasons for you.

Of course, there are the other 22 bits of musical excellence on this week's episode of 3 Chords & the Truth. And then you have your witty, charming and thoroughly brilliant Mighty Favog.

OK, you have 22 other wonderful songs on this edition of the Big Show.  We promise that Favog doesn't talk all that much . . . concentrate on the music. It's as eclectic as the host is, uh . . . uh . . . uh, eccentric. Yeah, that's the word.

FOR EXAMPLE, in just this edition of the epitome of eclecticism on the Internets, you'll hear bands and artists like:

• Creedence Clearwater Revival,
• Chuck Prophet
• The Avett Brothers
• Mimi & Richard Fariña
• The Allman Brothers Band 
• Rosanne Cash
• Bruce Springsteen 
• Billy Bragg
• John Prine 
• Glenn Miller & the American Band of the A E F 
• Frankie Carle
• Les Elgart and His Orchestra 
• Eddie Heywood 
• Al Hirt 
• Crystal Gayle . . . 

. . . AND MUCH, MUCH MORE! If you act in the next 24 hours, you also will get other episodes of 3 Chords & the Truth absolutely free!

So you get the most recent edition of the Big Show for free, and then the extra added bonus of several other gems of freeform programming at no additional cost. Act now!

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Let yourself go

 
As a public service to our listeners everywhere, the Big Show is happy to pass along the following advice from Irving Berlin.

Per the usual procedure, it is strongly advised that you do the following while listening to 3 Chords & the Truth for maximum musical enjoyment. And now, our free advice:

As you listen to the band don't you get a bubble?
As you listen to them play don't you get a glow?
If you step out on the floor
You'll forget your trouble
If you go into your dance
You'll forget your woe
So:

Come
Get together
Let the dance floor feel your leather
Step as lightly as a feather
Let yourself go

Come
Hit the timber
Loosen up and start to limber
Can't you hear that hot marimba?
Let yourself go

Let yourself go
Relax
And let yourself go
Relax
You've got yourself tied up in a knot
The night is cold but the music's hot

THIS MUSICAL advice has been brought to you by the Big Show, the happy home of your Omaha friends on the Internets. Listen early and listen often -- a rich menu of musical goodness awaits!

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Wide awake . . . ish

This Looney Tunes is lagniappe. You're welcome.

I don't sleep so you can stay awake.

I have no idea what I just said here. I mean that I don't sleep so each week's 3 Chords & the Truth won't fall asleep . . . uh, put you to sleebh.

Sleep.

The keybirtod os loojinf kinfa blurty. Blurdy.

Blurry.

What did you say your name was again?

OK . . . what did I say my name was again?

LIsstdn, aal I knowe is that this week's ebisodbe of the Big Show kicbks bubtt. You willm not falss azsleep during it -- ths sis because I forgo sleep to put together an exceptional music podcasty proddcut.

Product.

In fgact, you will marvel. You will be enraptured. You will even snap your fingers.

You will keep comming banck for more 3 Chords & the Truth. Now let ypour Mighty Favog take a little nap.

IT'S 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

(thud)

3 Chords & the Truth: I'm not jivin' you

Well, maybe I am.

Then again, I put in a lot of time, blood, sweat and tears into production of this here show, this 3 Chords & the Truth thingamajig, so why shouldn't I jive you if I feel like it?

So I hope you enjoy the 90-minute program I've prepared this week on Tibetan throat singing and "the romantic zither" of Ruth Welcome. Naaaaaw . . . I'm just jivin' you!

See, there you go.

THAT'S CORRECT, after putting in the work and summoning the creativity necessary to conjure up each new episode of the Big Show -- and let's not even think of the Herculean effort that is saying something pithily original about the program every week, week after week, month after month, year after year -- I reserve the right to mess with your mind.

The show is free on the Internets but, no, there is no free lunch. Particularly since the "sequester"  went into effect in Washington. So here's the deal: You get the best in freeform musical programming; I get to screw with your head.

Sound fair? Who cares?

YOU SEE, that Ruth Welcome album, The Romantic Zither, is on the shelf at the local Goodwill, and I am not afraid to pay the 99 cents.

Naaaaaw . . . I'm just jivin' you!

Or am I? Listen to the show and find out.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: C'mon, get happy!

This episode of 3 Chords & the Truth has a theme song.

I stole it from a TV show of my youth, The Partridge Family, which was the Hollywood version of the Cowsills, sans the abusive father. Because that's how we illicitly roll on the Big Show.

I blame bad parenting; your mileage, as always, may vary.

Here it is:

Hello, world, here the song that we're singin',
C'mon get happy!

A whole lot of lovin' is what we'll be bringin',
We'll make you happy!
We had a dream, we'd go travelin' together,
We'd spread a little lovin' then we'd keep movin' on.
Somethin' always happens whenever we're together,
We get a happy feelin' when we're singing a song.
Trav'lin' along there's a song that we're singin',
C'mon get happy!

A whole lot of lovin' is what we'll be bringin',
We'll make you happy!
We'll make you happy!
We'll make you happy!

-- Words and music by Wes Farrell and Danny Janssen

 

IT'S 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: The tunes abide

 
It's May. It feels like February -- and looks it, too.

This is no way to run a springtime.

What do you do when you're tired of something, but that something's the weather -- which you cannot change?

There's nothing left but to abide, dude. In the face of crappy, unchangeable weather . . . the dude abides.

Like Jeff "The Dude" Lebowski, whadda ya gonna do, man?

WELL, I'd suggest what I'm doing this week -- and every week on 3 Chords & the Truth. That would be listening to some tasty tunes. Lots of luscious jazz and pop, for starters.

Maaan.

To ease your stress level, we've been digging through the laid-back music section of the Big Show archives. You wouldn't believe the great stuff in there. Well . . . maybe you would if you're a regular 3 Chords & the Truth listener, man.

Like, just listen to the show, man. It'll put a smile on your face -- even if the weather is crappy, and it seems to be staying that way.

IT'S 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Riddle me this

 
Riddle me this.

Tell me the truth.

What can this mean on 3 Chords & the Truth?

"Carry your fear on the radio because your baby is gone."

The mystery is deep.

The show is long.

Thank God the Big Show is known for fine song(s).

Does this make sense? Not a whole lot.

But I'm pretty sleep-deprived, so this is what you've got.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Do you remember?

Somewhere in America today, there is a little girl blue.

You see, when someone asked her "Do you remember rock 'n' roll radio?" she realized that, no, she did not. Truth be told, she barely remembered radio at all.

Her parents, engrossed in the latest episode of 3 Chords & the Truth -- a most excellent podcast, by the way -- said that rock 'n' roll radio hadn't mattered, hadn't really mattered, since the end . . . the end of the century. Maybe the end . . . the end of the '70s.

For some reason, this left the child on needles and pins. She knew that her parents, despite their advanced age, were barely old enough to remember this thing -- was it on television?-- called Hullabaloo.

Upbeat, Shindig and Ed Sullivan, too.

But they remember rock 'n' roll radio.

YES, they remember rock 'n' roll radio. Country, jazz and easy-listening radio, too. Were they anything like that Hullabaloo? Wow. Rock 'n' roll radio. It must have shone brighter than the California sun.

The folks told her radio was a lot like 3 Chords & the Truth is today. In other words, a really Big Show, only back at the end of the century. Back at the end -- the end of the '70s.

But then the country took a swing to the right, and Mom and Dad said it was like everybody just put their teeth up on the windowsill after moving into a one-room country shack. And not even Mr. President has pity on the working man -- unemployed DJs, for instance.

It's all in the game, apparently.


Everybody wants you to pay them their money down. This has caused many to have almost lost their mind in the still of the night. After hearing her parents bare a piece of their hearts, the little girl blue wished she could bring Murray the K and Alan Freed to show and tell.

But she learned the two great DJs were not on Broadway, but instead were long cold, cold, cold in the ground. I don't know about you, but I go to pieces just thinking about it. Mercy, mercy.

THEN the little girl blue thought that, perhaps, she could bring the Big Show to show and tell. That's as close to rock 'n' roll radio you can get now, the folks say. And it makes them feel so young! They dream of lying in bed, with their covers pulled up over their head. Radio playin' so no one could see.

Yes, she thought, we need change, we need it fast. Before rock's just part of the past.

Yes, she thought, she will bring 3 Chords & the Truth to show and tell. She'll rock it like it's the end, the end of the century. Like it's the end, the end of the '70s.

Mom and Dad, she realized, are pretty smart. So's the Big Show.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Don't be chicken, listen!

This week's show is not about chickens.

On the other hand, the music on this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth is so good that it just might cockle your doodle do. That's a funny, boy! I say . . . I say, I made a funny! What's wrong with you, boy?! Cat got your sense of humor?!?

I say, that's another funny, boy!

SORRY, the weather's been so bad this week, we're all a little loopy.

So, on the Big Show, we decided to have a little dance party to cheer ourselves up. But you'd better be versatile if you want to join in -- just a word to the wise.

And we're also going to have the mother of all Beatles-covers sets. Really, you'll want to hear this.

Other than that, I got nothing else to add -- other than a giant rooster.

That is all.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Rebuilt and relaunched

And we're back . . .

This is the first new 3 Chords & the Truth episode since January, when the Big Show was being produced on an old PC that went BRRRRRRRT -- no, Beano isn't for electronics, alas -- in an overcrowded studio that really needed a facelift. So, it got a facelift.

And a new iMac. With new software.

And some paint.

And a lot of uncluttering.

And we're feeling groovy now.

YES, LIFE ON the Big Show front is good, and so is the music. Well, that's one thing that didn't change -- the good music.

It would have been a bloody shame to do all that remodeling work for the sake of sucky tunes.

Am I making any sense here? Exhaustion, don't you know?

So check out this brand-new episode of our studio-fresh music extravaganza while I enjoy the new digs here. And maybe take a nap.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: It's good

Remember Barq's root beer?

When I was a kid in south Louisiana, there were Barq's advertising signs all over the countryside. They all said the same thing:

Drink Barq's. It's Good.

The perfect slogan -- a call to action plus the perfect rationale. Plus, Barq's was good. Still is.

Well, you just as well could apply the same slogan to this week's delicious episode of 3 Chords & the Truth -- the Revolution 21 music podcast. You just as well could apply it to every episode of the Big Show. So I will.

Listen to 3 Chords & the Truth. It's Good.

And it's right here.

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