Words to live by

Good advice is good advice.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: No, this ain't ordinary

It's the glory of, the power of "No."

In Washington, it can make bullies fold like a newspaper. Here, it can banish the stale and the ordinary -- "No, we're not doing what we're supposed to do. No, we're gonna do something way beyond the ordinary."

And then the "nos" lead to yesses. "Yes, this is something that will blow your mind."

"Yes, 3 Chords & the Truth is something that's extraordinary."

"Yes, we're throwing away all the labels."

"Yes, we recognize only two kinds of music -- good and bad."

AND THEN,  and then . . .  we're right back to another "no." No . . . the bad, we don't mess with.

That's the glory of, that's the power of the Big Show. Dig it?

I knew that you would.

See, that's the story of this here little podcast. We embrace the power of "no." And that's a great big "YES!" for you.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Plumb out of clever

This is your head.

This is your head when it's plumb out of clever.

This is your head when you embrace the void, and just play some s*** and call it . . . good, actually.

That's where we are today on this, the latest episode of 3 Chords & the Truth. We're absolutely, positively out of cutesy, clever or anything vaguely resembling thematic.

You know what, though? That's OK. As it turns out, the Big Show doesn't particularly need cutesy, clever or thematic. What it needs is good music, and that we got plenty of.

OH . . . we also got this nifty picture of a vacuum tube from a 1928 RCA Radiola 18. That's a radio -- remember those?

After 91 years, it still works fine. I seriously doubt your big-screen TV, your laptop, your smartphone . . . or your government will still be functional in nine decades.

Hell, your government isn't functional now. But I digress.

The show. Music. Good. Getting by without big theme or cleverness. Check.

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

It's magi-sounda-what?

Don't know what to make of 3 Chords & the Truth?

That's OK. Sometimes, neither do I. Then again, that's kind of the point of the whole thing.

It's the Big Show, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords & the Truth: All in all . . . .

All in all, we're just another brick in the wall.

Or another bollard in the steel-slat, fencey-wally thing to keep the brown people out.

As we post this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth, a quarter of the U.S. government still is flat-lined because Someone wants his big, beautiful border wall, and Congress won't fund it. Some 800,000 federal employees aren't being paid . . . whether they've been furloughed or are being forced into "essential personnel" involuntary servitude.

Slave labor is real, people. Still.

It's another fine mess we've gotten ourselves into.

OR, IN THE topical Big Show universe in which your Mighty Favog produces this particular podcast, it's (as is regularly said in the Omaha, by God, Nebraska studios as a show theme percolates its way into reality), "Another week, another clusterf*** we have to address."

Well, let's just say that 3 Chords & the Truth endeavors to make America's national clusterf***s as entertaining as possible. And dat's da name of dat toon.

Yeah. Amusing and thought-provoking clusterf***s. Such is life these days in these here United States. And on this here program.

You can be assured that this latest cock-up is being made the most of. Dangling preposition and all.

I personally think it's well worth a listen. But that's just me. You're welcome to agree, however.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Dude! Merry Christmas!

If you don't listen to a 3 Chords & the Truth Christmas -- that's the big Yuletide Blowout Edition of the Big Show -- Santa Claus is going to shove a lump of coal down your Fruit of the Looms and set it alight.

And Buddy the Elf is gonna laaaaaaaugh and laaaaaaaugh and laugh.

Have a blessed Christmas, now, y'all, y'hear?

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

3 Chords & the Truth: We bring the magic

There's magic in the air -- it's almost Christmas, then there's the magic of the radio. On the Internet.

On a podcast that remembers the magic of radio and the magic of those Christmases of long-ago youthful exuberance.

On this edition of 3 Chords & the Truth, we remember the magic. We bring the magic. You just listen and see . . . hear . . . whatever. Magic and a couple of curveballs -- how's that for a description of this week's show?

This week's Big Show.

Geez, how many ways can we say "It's great!" It's like being in junior high and trying to hit that magic 500-word benchmark for an in-class essay. Junior high . . . when we were young and exuberant.

But not about in-class 500-word essays. Yuck.

Well, the show's magic, we're simply having a wonderful Christmastime, and I've officially run out of literary bovine fertilizer. This, my friend, will have to do.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: The Then Sound?

We may do more than speak anachronism around here.

This week on the Big Show, the closest we actually come to "the NOW sound" is a new record from someone who's been in the music biz as long as I've been alive. Note: That's a looooooonng time.

Otherwise, we have some 78s, some old LPs and some 45s that go back to the genesis of the format. Which was at least a couple of generations removed from how folks get their music now.

At least.

WE SPEAK anachronism -- hell, we live anachronism around here -- because apart from liking it, there seems to be less and less percentage in the present. And sometimes you just need a reprieve from it.

OK, 3 Chords & the Truth needs frequent reprieves from the present . . . the eternal NOW. Give us some good, old-fashioned Then now and again. And again. And again.

Anachronism, c'est nous.

Embrace anachronism. It's good.

AND, while I'm thinking of it, the tasty Christmas tunes continues apace this week on the program as we try to make the season bright. And hot chocolate, pepperminty, candy cane-y.

So it's ho-ho-ho . . . and on with the show.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Gettin' in the spirit

The last of the Thanksgiving turkey has gone into a sandwich. It's cold outside, and we're waiting on the snow. Christmas is around the corner, and I may have had a drink or two.

You would even say I glow . . . it glows. Something glows.

Happy ho-ho-ho to you, pally.

Where was I?

Oh, yeah. The latest edition of 3 Chords & the Truth. Well, this is it.

The show is back after a Thanksgiving break, and we're trying to get in the holiday spirit -- such as it is these days. The Big Show will do its best, which your Mighty Favog is confident is on display with this present episode.

It's festive. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Ho, ho, ho. Listen to the show.

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

Pour me another martini, will ya, Jackson? (Thud.)

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.

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.

3 Chords & the Truth: Yes, sir! Couldn't be better!

It's great!

What's great? Everything!

Everything is great again in America, and everything is great here at 3 Chords & the Truth! Everything is going so phenomenally -- never has anything been so phenomenal -- that we may even add a fourth chord!

America is great again! The Big Show is great again! If America and the show were any greater, we'd be whistling Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah out our . . . well, we'd be whistling.

IS THIS a great country, or what?

Oh . . . one more thing. Please don't blow us up.

That is all. Because we're just great!

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Warm and comfy

The Big Show is warm and comfy like glowing vacuum tubes and sweet, sweet music from your hi-fi on a chilly autumn's evening.

I admit that's a nerd's vision of warm and comfortable, but work with me here.

What we can say that everybody can get his warm and fuzzies around is that 3 Chords & the Truth will make you feel all good inside as your troubles -- and the nasty, ugly world outside -- just melts away. At least for an hour and 30 minutes.

LONGER if you binge listen to every episode on the Big Show audio repository.

As usual, this week's show is an exemplary one . . . and we're confident you'll enjoy the eclectic heck out of it. And that, friend, is just about all there is to say.

Except for this . . . .

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

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.

3 Chords & the Truth: Tunes in the ruins

In 1961, I was born into a society and a state run by preening, fascist jackasses who weaponized bigotry and hatred as a means of governance and civic intimidation. Such was the Deep South under Jim Crow.

In middle age, I find myself living in a society and -- now -- an entire country run by preening, fascist jackasses who weaponize bigotry and hatred as a means of governance (such as it is) and civic intimidation. Such is the whole damn country under Trumpism.

Forget two steps forward and one step back. Try two steps forward, then 60 years back.

This week's episode of 3 Chords & the Truth comes at the end of a particularly ugly week in American history -- this by the prevailing standards of a time in American history when every week is an ugly week presided over by a president who is the Pied Piper of Pathology. The Duke of Deviance. The Count of Cruelty.

And he has a trail of toilet paper stuck to his goddamn shoe.

Or the soiled, tattered souls of Republican senators. One or the other.

THIS UGLY WEEK featured the slut shaming of victims of sexual assault. The ridiculing of a woman who had given credible testimony that a nominee for the Supreme Court had tried to rape her when they were in high school.

It also featured a sham FBI investigation of that accusation and others against Brett Kavanaugh. Did we know enough to say for sure what happened? No.Was there enough smoke to logically assume something was fully engulfed in flame? You bet.

Did congressional Republicans care? Of course not.

Does it look like the United States is coming apart at a level not seen since 1968 -- and perhaps since 1861? Looks like it from here in Omaha, by God, Nebraska.

This is the week we wish wasn't, and this is a week when we're -- somehow -- supposed to do another episode of the Big Show. Remember the Big Show? Yeah. It's easy to forget in times like these.

THE PROBLEM in doing yet another episode of 3 Chords & the Truth when shit gets exponentially weirder with each passing week is the specter of overwhelming cognitive dissonance. You start to feel like you're returning to regularly scheduled programming in Detroit as the Motor City burns around you in the spring of 1967.

Or, more in keeping with my personal frame of reference, you're the overnight man at Loose Radio in Baton Rouge, La., playing hippie, trippy rock 'n' roll music in 1971 while the rednecks from the end of Easy Rider keep circling the block, shotgun barrel pointed out the window of the pickup truck.

At you.

It occurs to me there's only one thing to do in such a situation . . . in this present situation. What do you do? What you do is give the f***ers the finger and keep playing the tunes. In the ruins.

Amen.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Nasty ugly out there. Fine in here.

What can you say?

Yeah. Well, crap.

Sums it up, because it's nasty ugly out there. You don't want to be out there too much in the nasty ugly feces-flinging match that is American life and American politics today. You just don't.

That, friend, is why 3 Chords & the Truth is here. It is your refuge; I can't do much, but I can do this. I can create a musical refuge that summons the better angels of our nature . . . while the devils run amok outside the safe confines.

I mean, it sucks out there.

SO, while the U.S. Senate is out there "boofing" and the Supreme Court is nervous, we'll just abide in the Big Show safe space where the ladies can be at peace and the gentlemen will act like . . . well . . . gentlemen. And we'll all enjoy ourselves listening to the best music on the best dang show on the Internets.

That would be this one -- 3 Chords & the Truth.

Well, that's about it. Oh . . . at the end, there may be some thoughts spurred on by Boz Scaggs.

Now that really is it.

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

Another endorsement for the Big Show

We take what testimonials we can get. Such as they are.

And "some of it might be alright, we suppose" is better than anything I could say about the state of these United States today, which I truly find too distressing to even discuss on here much anymore. Sometimes, however, the despondency lifts some, and your Mighty Favog tries to spread what light -- and music -- he can on this little thing called 3 Chords & the Truth.

3 Chords & the Truth: Start of something big

The song's right. This could be the start of something big.

Or we could just do long-distance dedications all day here on 3 Chords & the Truth.

What will it be? Could it be both? Beats me -- I just work here.

I could go on (actually, I couldn't) but the edification is in the discovery here on the Big Show, dear listener. (No . . . I have no damned idea what that's supposed to mean, if anything.)

IS THAT 500 words yet, teach?

No?

Tough. I'm done. Just listen.

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

3 Chords & the Truth: Up all night with the music

Forget alternative facts. We need alternative reality.

Fortunately, you've come to the right musical place -- 3 Chords & the Truth.

This week, we're going to be up till dawn with some night-light highlights of the tuneful variety. It's late night radio the way it used to be . . . kind of. With a twist, of course.

Picture this in your mind's eye: Some fool has just given your Mighty Favog a 50,000-watt, clear channel AM blowtorch to play with, and he's appointed himself the all-night host. Radio will ensue.

So come with me on an overnight journey with the electrons, the radio waves and the music -- especially the music -- for an alternative reality where broadcasting still matters, a live body is still behind the microphone, we don't assume you're a knuckle-dragging idiot . . . and magic just might break out at any moment.

IT'S ALL here, right now, on the Big Show, brought to you by the Ambassador Cafe, alternative Omaha's all-night spot for quality eats and a hot cup of joe.

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

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.