3 Chords & the Truth: E pluribus unum

I don't do verbatim transcripts of what I say during 3 Chords & the Truth in this space, where I'm enticing you to actually listen to 3 Chords & the Truth.

And you know what? F*** that. This week, I will, because I had a revelation about what the hell I'm doing here on the Big Show. . . after nearly 17 years.

Here goes.

BEING THE politics nerd that I am, I’ve been watching the Democratic National Convention — and note there’s an -ic on the end of Democrat. Calling a political party the “Democrat Party,” is like calling a Jewish barber a “Jew barber.” It’s a slur; it’s dehumanizing, and we don’t do that in this country.

Or, at least, we used to not do it most places. During Jim Crow, it was the strategy of all the wrong people in the South. I hope I don’t need to elucidate, here.

Anyway, something occurred to me as I watched. Something occurred to me about this show as I reflected on this convention and that other one last month. As I reflected on folks who get their knickers in a twist if, at some social event or another, they think there’s not enough “White” music being played.

And as segregated and as nasty as the Deep South could be when I was growing up, there’s one thing that was great about it — “Black” music was “White” music, too. It was a bunch of what all-white Favog listened to back in the day. And “White” music was a bunch of what my Black high-school classmates listened to.

There was one thing ol’ Jim Crow failed miserably at, and that was in trying to segregate music and make our ears as separate and unequal as everything else.

If you want to know what 3 Chords & the Truth is all about, it’s about America. It’s all “E pluribus unum” all the time — “Out of many, one.”

In brief, there’s only two kinds of music, good and bad. And the bad, we don’t mess with.

If you like this program, there’s one thing I do not need to tell you: Music, like America, cannot be segregated. It does not recognize bigoted hierarchies of worth or authenticity.

And it all belongs. Period. End of sentence . . . and of the argument. If you disagree, you probably have figured out this isn’t the place for you. And, perhaps, neither is this country.

WELL, that's all I have to say about that.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: We got the power

To be honest with you, I couldn't tell you what really happened the night the lights went out in Georgia. I wasn't there.

I can tell you, though, what happened the night the lights went out in Omaha, just as I was getting ready to pick music for what would have been the Aug. 2 edition of the Big Show. It wasn't good.

There's a big pile of limbs and branches sitting in front of the 3 Chords & the Truth culture war bunker, waiting for the city to haul it away. That's one of the smaller piles on the street.

THE STORM that turned out the lights in Omaha also dropped trees and huge limbs on houses all over town -- and on more than a few power lines. One of those houses was next door.

Oh . . . and we had no power for a week. No Internet, either. Obviously.

So, no electricity, no show for two weeks.

After sweating profusely for a few days, then bugging out to our friends' downtown condo after the temperature inside got within spitting distance of the 99-degree heat outside -- this with all the windows open -- the lights finally came back on late on Aug. 7.

And now we're back in business, in brightly lit, Internet enabled, air-conditioned comfort. I gotta tell you, I was getting a little stir crazy only as an old radio/media guy can.

And this week, we're trying to make up for the unplanned absence. Boy, are we. Trust me, this edition of the show is a good one. As usual.

Thus, without any further ado. . . .

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Really? What the hell?

If you know, you know.

First, I ain't young. I started in radio -- long before the Internet and 3 Chords & the Truth -- during the age of cartridge machines, big studio consoles with round knobs, turntables and reel-to-reel tape decks. Editing was done with a grease pencil and razor blade. The computer was the Heathkit they built in electronics class, which was where it stayed.

And the thing about being Not Young is that I've seen some things. And I remember most of them.

SECOND, I ain't never seen what I'm seeing now. Enter the 2024 presidential race -- 81-year-old Joe Biden, who's had a pretty damn good run as president vs. 78-year-old Donald Trump, an adjudicated rapist, convicted felon, federal defendant, Georgia defendant, word-salad aficionado, and all-around reprobate.

And the felonious reprobate, running on a flat-out authoritarian platform, is winning. I was born in the Deep South in 1961. What we'll get under a second Trump Administration, I've seen. It was called Jim Crow. It was horrific.

No wonder that I felt the need to bang my head on this week's edition of the Big Show.

I am old enough to have seen a lot of good music. This is it. Trust me.

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: Mind games

If you've been watching some of the 357 channels on which there is nothing much, you may have seen that MAGA Nation is convinced that Taylor Swift and Chiefs wide receiver Travis Kelce are the center of some sort of psyops operation to ratf*ck the election against Donald Trump.

It's the Deep State, don't you know.

Now, you may be saying these people have lost their damned minds. It does look that way.

You, however, do not know the whole story. The music superstar and the future NFL hall of famer, indeed, are not the centerpiece of a CIA (Or is it the Department of Defense?) psychological-warfare operation. In a world of budget continuing resolutions in Congress, alas, the Deep State cannot afford Taylor Swift.

WHAT THE government can afford . . . is me. Your Mighty Favog. And 3 Chords & the Truth.

Unfortunately for the gummint, you get what you pay for. Make sure your passport is current.

The good news, though, is that amid the psychological warfarin' on this edition of the Big Show, there is a lot of great, great music. As usual. So that's not nothin'.

Actually, that a whole lot of something to enjoy while you're researching how to obtain resident visas for various countries not this one. So, if I were you, I'd start listening right now.

Crank it up. You'll be glad you did.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some brainwashin' to do, which is -- to say the least -- is challenging to accomplish when a sizable percentage of the population's minds are gone.

A good psyops officer wouldn't have said that, would he? Again, one gets what one pays for.

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: That's freeform for ya

I have a new minimum standard for the Big Show.

All I need to do is not f*** this thing up as badly as House Republicans f*** up everything. That should be easy enough.

And what am I not f***ing up? Basically, playing what the hell I want. All I have to do is make sure that makes some sort of sense.

Again . . . way ahead of the House GOP.

Freeform in the 21st century. That's exactly what 3 Chords & the Truth is, and this week's program is about as freeform as it gets. Minus the Tuvan throat singing or Bulgarian folk songs.

This time.

The Big Show. It's a little of the 1960s in the 2020s. It's a little vintage big-city, freewheeling FM radio behind red-state lines.

What it is, is 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all.  Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: Further out, man

It was Friday, Sept. 22. It was gray and damp in Omaha, by God, Nebraska. I was working the night watch out of the 3 Chords & the Truth culture-war bunker.

My partner's Belle the Dog, the boss is Mrs. Favog. My name is Favog. A powerful new podcast capable of producing strange and mind-expanding auditory phenomena had found its way onto the Internets. It had fallen into the hands of listeners in several places. We had to try and keep the party going, man.

We had to get further out, man. We had to get further out.

MAN, IT WAS a blast having half your head in rock and half your head in the space-age bachelor pad. But, man, you have to get further out. You have to get further out.

We could give you something on a sugar cube or in a little capsule, man. But that requires some bread, you dig? But, man, this thing cats call the Big Show, that don't cost nothin'. It don't cost nothin', man. And it'll get you further out.

Way far out, man.

MAN, it's groovy. Trippy. You'll go into orbit, man.

Forget Coca-Cola, man. 3 Chords & the Truth is the real thing. It's a happening all by itself.

Man.

And it's real, so real, so real, so real, so real, so real.

Can you dig it?

I can dig it, he can dig it, she can dig it, we can dig it, they can dig it, you can dig it. Oh, let's dig it. Can you dig it, baby?

I thought that you could.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Walk on by?

Some of the most vexing questions in our daily lives revolve around a single vexing question.

Walk on by, or don't walk on by? That is the question.

3 Chords & the Truth cannot answer that for you, but we do have a strong suggestion in one particular case. A strong suggestion.

Another strong suggestion for you right now is not to walk on by this week's episode of the Big Show. It's another good one.

And dat's the name of dat tune.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Keeping score

I took me out to the ballgame. I took me out to the crowd.

I did not buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack (substitute Fritos walking taco, hamburgers and a brat here) but, ultimately, I did have to come back.

To the Big Show. You knew that I would.

STILL, the College World Series here in Omaha, by God, Nebraska was maybe the greatest that's ever been -- 11 days of outstanding contests, including the best baseball game I have ever witnessed. That would be the 11-inning pitchers' duel between my alma mater, LSU, and Wake Forest . . . that ended in the bottom of the 11th with a two-run homer to give the Tigers a crucial victory on their way to the national championship.

LSU's seventh national championship in baseball.

We, of course, will pay tribute to that in this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth. Is this Heaven? No, but it ain't half bad.

There also will be, during the show, the usual complement of mind-blowing musical moments, with a healthy smattering of "Can he DO that?" Yes. Yes, I can. It's my program.

Well, that's about it for the preshow promotin' and explainin'. Just one more thing to add, though.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Music from the bunker

Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs.

Come to think of it, I ought to have played the Five Man Electrical Band this week on the Big Show.

Just as the Nebraska Legislature closed out a session where it pretty clearly put out a sign saying who's not welcome here, the skies opened, the lightning flashed, the wind roared . . . and the lights went out. Makes you wonder.

But the electricity eventually came back on, so you're thinking "Well, maybe not."

Until, as I was putting together this edition of 3 Chords & the Truth early this morning, the lights went out again. And it wasn't storming. The computer instantly went dead. The lights went off. It was early -- very early -- so I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.

So, there I was, stumbling around like a blind man without a cane, trying to find a flashlight and channeling my inner Roy Kent. And while two power outages may or may not be a sign from the Great Beyond, they certainly are a metaphor.

THE LIGHTS are going out in these parts. Darkness reigns, trying to pass itself off as light. People are always falling for that one.

And here we are. And here I am.

But here's the thing: The lights went out -- twice -- yet here's a band-new episode of the Big Show. The process took a little longer, you're kind of thinking "Now, where was I?" when the power comes back on, but nevertheless. . . .

I'm crouched down here in the culture-war bunker, in Omaha, by God, Nebraska . . . and I'm still inserting an eclectic, adventurous and stellar variety of music right onto the Internet and right into your preferred electronic device. Maybe that's a metaphor, too.

The brief version of my little story is just one short sentence: Don't let the bastards get you down.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: The Ironic Curtain

Greetings from the wrong side of the Ironic Curtain.

The what?

The Ironic Curtain. Let me explain. What we’re seeing in America these days is the building of an Iron Curtain in this country, dividing red and blue states -- and dividing Americans into first- and second-class citizens.

In America . . . again.

The irony, of course, is that we now have an Iron Curtain -- much like the one that divided democratic Western Europe from the communist east after World War II -- in a country that styles itself as a beacon of freedom and democracy for the world. This is the second time that's happened here.

The first time, it was the line separating the Jim Crow South from the rest of the United States. Back then, there were definite similarities between the repression found in the Eastern Bloc countries and the repression found in the American South. Before that, the South's Jim Crow regimes served as inspiration for the policies of Adolf Hitler's Germany.

TODAY, those of us stuck behind the modern-day Ironic Curtain are starting to see certain similarities between ourselves and Vladimir Putin's fascist dictatorship in Russia and, much more closely, Viktor Orban's fascist, authoritarian regime in Hungary.

It's not a good place to be, especially if you're an official "Other." That's what this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth is all about, which is pretty much what last week's show was about, too.

As a Nebraskan by choice who sees what is happening to this state, I have been on the razor’s edge of rage for a while now. But it’s not really rage, fundamentally. What it is, is grief.

What I have witnessed during this session of the Nebraska Legislature -- and I have watched hours upon hours of it on television the past few weeks — is incipient fascism. The content of LB 547, and the chicanery employed to pass it, looked familiar to me; I was born in 1961 into Jim Crow era Louisiana.

I attended legally segregated public schools in Baton Rouge . . . until 1970. When my school was desegregated under a “neighborhood school” plan, I had a teacher tell me not to play with a Black classmate. I saw that Black classmate demeaned and discriminated against by our fourth-grade teacher.

As a Southerner of a certain age, I know what fascism and official “othering” looks like. And it has followed me here after all these years.

In Nebraska today, the Others are vulnerable pregnant women and transgender youth. Next year, the legislator behind today's othering intends to target drag shows.

I AM a 62-year-old man who has been married for almost 40 years. I do not understand transgenderism because, well, how the hell could I?

But I do understand that trans individuals are citizens of the United States and children of God, and they deserve to live in peace. The parents of trans youth have the right to seek the best care possible for their children. Medical science has no solution that will perfectly reconcile mind and body, but it should not be illegal to do the best one can -- especially when that might be what keeps your child alive.

As a Catholic, I would be inclined to proceed cautiously if I had a transgender child. But make no mistake, I would do what I had to do to keep my kid, first, alive and, second, happy and healthy.

But how parents raise -- or choose to medically treat -- their trans children is, fundamentally, none of my damned business. It is not the unicameral’s business. It isn’t even the church’s business. It’s just not.

Likewise, concerning abortion, I have to say I consider myself pro-life. However, LB 547, enacted by the legislature Friday, is no fitting way to reduce the instance of abortion as much as humanly possible. It also will endanger the lives of women with catastrophic pregnancies.

If legislators want to “save babies,” they should -- pardon my French -- give a shit about vulnerable women. They should give a shit about struggling families. They should give a shit about the outrageous expense of giving birth.

They should give a shit about the oppressive cost of decent daycare. They should give a shit about creating an effective social safety net. And they should give a shit about the jobs they’re about to drive away from Nebraska.

That said, this is the week Nebraska died. It’s over. And that's what informs this week's Big Show.

That is all. That is enough.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Back in the saddle again

I'm back in the saddle again.

It's a new year, and -- finally -- there's a new episode of 3 Chords & the Truth.

Since we last met, for the Christmas edition of the Big Show, the wife and I got a New Year's present . . . COVID. As much as one would like to take that one back to the store and exchange it for something nicer, that proved impossible, and we were stuck with one lemon of a gift.

This after three years of successfully avoiding being so gifted.

And getting rid of it proved to be, well, a process. And having the gift made me pretty much unfit to do a podcast. If I had had the energy to do the show, I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have wanted to hear me trying to do it.

Excuse me while I cough. The cough sticks around after the disease is gone.

ANYWAY, I'm back, 3C&T is back, and it's a good one. And it was put together on a brand-new Mac Studio computer, which is smokin' fast and . . . well . . . new, replacing the warhorse iMac that had been my trusty studio companion the past decade. That's like 115 in computer years, and it still works fine. I just couldn't update the operating system or the audio software anymore.

So, I now have that new-computer feeling.

And you have a brand-new episode of the Big Show to enjoy. Which will commence whenever you click on what must be clicked.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: More ump-ff!

3 Chords & the Truth -- it's the show with more ump-ff. 

And your mileage won't vary. Everybody gets maximum ump-ff when listening to the Big Show.

But you don't have to believe me; prove it to yourself. Try an episode and see just how much ump-ff can be packed into 90 minutes of a music podcast. 

You'll be glad you did. 

IN FACT, you'll probably think 3 Chords & the Truth invented ump-ff. We did not, but we do appropriate it heavily. That's why we have more ump-ff than Brand X. Or Brand Y. Or even Brand Z. 

Once you try the exquisite musical mix we present, it's safe to say that you'll never go anywhere else for your weekly measure of ump-ff. Because the Big Show just has more. More music, more ump-ff, more satisfaction at the low, low price of . . . zip.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Mahvelous

You have your normal, baseline self. Then you have yourself on 3 Chords & the Truth.

See the difference? To the world, the humdrum world, you seem a bit off-kilter -- a blur, perhaps. But to you . . . you look mahvelous. You feel mahvelous. You are mahvelous. 

Crucially, the music is mahvelous. It doesn't matter if you can't spell marvelous. That's because you, on the Big Show, are mahvelous. And the world just can't keep up. 

MAHVELOUS. 

That is the world of 3 Chords & the Truth. 

It's the world of infinite variety, great music you can't hear just anywhere . . . and a host celebrating yet another day he's not in the federal penal system. What's more mahvelous than that? 

I'll wait while you decide. It shouldn't take long. 

Now go listen to the show. It's . . . well, you know. 

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

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.

3 Chords & the Truth: Yet, we persist

This edition of 3 Chords & the Truth starts out by cleaning up -- or fervently hoping we'll have the opportunity to pick up, sweep up, mop up and wash up after this fine mess we've made for ourselves in these Benighted States of America.

This comes after your Mighty Favog was forced into a week away from the turntables and the microphone, because the doctor was afraid he'd contracted COVID-19 despite his paranoia about catching the Trump virus. The test was negative, but because the test ain't the greatest, there was a week confined to the bedroom and away from the studio.

Here's hoping to make up for lost time here on the Big Show.

And despite everything . . . we persist.

Our backs are against the wall. Yet, we persist.

We will persist. And we'll persist to a hell of a soundtrack, right here on this here program.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: It's all we got

Some years back, when LSU football was going through a meh stretch, and the Tigers had lost in agonizing fashion to one hated rival or another, a fellow native Louisianian was in despair.

My wife, trying to be encouraging, said something platitudinous on social media . . . you know, like "The sun will come up in the morning, and this, too, shall pass. So count your blessings, bucko."

Midwesterners. They're so frickin' earnest.

My fellow expat friend was having none of that bullshit.

"You don't understand," she said. "Football. It's all we got."

We Louisianians damn grew up in Trumpworld -- we just didn't know what to call it then. It's not like anyone was going to spend the money or give two shits enough to build a world-class university the Tigers could be proud of.

IT'S NOT LIKE, magically, government would generally work and voters would generally care.

It's not like the K-12 school system wouldn't always rank somewhere around dead last in the country.

It's not like the poor wouldn't always be with us, always be killing one another, always be hopeless and always have Bubba -- who had a union job at the chemical plant and would die of cancer in about 20 years -- blame the poor for their mean estate.

But goddammit, the LSU Tigers always had a shot. Except when they didn't.

It's all we got.

Folks in places like Nebraska don't get that. If the Nebraska Cornhuskers were magically transported to my home state, along with all their fans, in their present losing condition . . . well, "Nebraska" would supplant "Jonestown" in the Grim Reaper's thesaurus.

SO, YOU ASK. What's this have to do with the Big Show, with 3 Chords & the Truth?

Well, Cap, we all live in Trumpworld now. And we're all learning that, no, it's not darkest just before the dawn. It's darkest just before it gets even darker.

It's suckiest just before the president gets all jiggy with his Twitter account and commits witness harassment against one of his own ambassadors who -- at that very moment -- is testifying at his House impeachment hearing. And then things get even worse.

And then you learn to hang on to what you got. For as long as you can.

In the Gret Stet, that's football. And great food. And a rich culture. And a world-class musical tradition.

Being educated, having long lives and a minimally functioning government, with good roads and shit . . . not so much.

Louisiana will always have gumbo, Russia will always have great vodka, Catholics will always have the Sistine Chapel (I think), and America will always have what was the most amazing patrimony on earth -- until it all went to shit.

ME, I'M CLINGING to 3 Chords & the Truth. I look on the program as a flashlight in the darkness, a nod to musical truth, a tribute to what we had . . . and a hope that this present darkness just might be the precursor to dawn after all.

I guess that Pollyanna-ish Midwestern optimistic crap might be starting to rub off on me after 30-something years.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Still the same . . . or something

I feel like the Big Show is a Bob Seger thing . . . still the same.

Forget that. We actually don't have any Bob Seger on the show this week. We are, however, still the same -- in that we're rarely the same week to week.

Which, conversely, makes 3 Chords & the Truth still the same in programmatic non-sameness. Or something like that.

I am starting to not make sense. Which might make me president of the United States, and no one wants that. Then again, nobody wants the present president of the United States, either.

So I'll merely say that this current edition of the Big Show is the same as every other in its eclecticism and high quality. And your host is what he is.

That is all.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: A Dacron state of mind

Call me Dacron.

Dacron. Dacron Polyester.

The Big Show this week is in a Dacron state of mind. Very double-knit. Give me some Boone's Farm, and I might get triple-knit to the wind.

That's pretty much where your Mighty Favog -- and 3 Chords & the Truth -- happen to be this week. Stuck in the 1970s. Actually, in retrospect, that's not such an awful place to be.

Especially musically.

HERE'S THE thing: It occurred to me the other day that next week, specifically May 23, marks the 40th anniversary of my graduation from Baton Rouge Magnet High School. And as you'll be able to tell from the show, my mind is still 18.

My body, not so much.

But, damn, the music is so good. Thank you Young Favog.

You're quite welcome, Old Fart Favog.

Now cue the nostalgia . . . along with the usual eclecticism.

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