Leonard Cohen 1934- 2017 RIP

I first saw Leonard Cohen play at the Newport Folk Festival in 1967. Joni Mitchell, in an orange striped mini-dress, led him out.He looked like a rabbinical student. He played ‘Suzanne’ as I remember, and I vowed to buy it as soon as it was out. I have bought virtually everything he has done. I …

Read more

RIP: Merle Haggard,1937- 2016

 We are losing a lot of the great ones….                                                                                              UPDATE: a great tribute from Wisconsin’s Kirk Hogan, MD, scientist, patent lawyer (!) elk hunter, gourmand, and neo- beat, whose letters often read like poems… Great “Kern River”. My top pick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aILGaYsv_bc Didn’t even make the list of Merle’s top 35! A day hasn’t gone …

Read more

The Rose of Roscrae

Tom Russell’s magnum opus, his “Western Opera” or “Cowboy Musical” will be out in mid-April, debuting at Passim at 47 Palmer Street under Harvard Square, once the home of the legendary Club 47. It was one of the very few venues that kept a sort of vernacular American music alive even as it morphed into …

Read more

La Loca

First there were my old friend John Davila, Catron County rancher, world traveler, jack of all trades… in the old days and today. and his then wife Becky… They were among the first friends I made in New Mexico. They are in Querencia- the- book in several places, and came up to Albuuquerque to comfort …

Read more

Music Lessons

Q loves rock and country, but Libby and I were brought up on classical and love it too. Both she and Jackson can play well; to my eternal regret I never learned. We liked this essay in defense of obligatory lessons for the young, written in response to one against the idea. “I do think …

Read more

Free Association

I have been kicking a few unrelated (?) things around, having plenty of material but not feeling, with our tough environmental conditions (no water, heat, impending possible rain making it an uncomfortable mix of steamy and dusty) much like writing a long essay. I was rambling freely through these things to L. and suddenly thought: …

Read more

Guadalupe

Tom Russell’s song from “Blood and Candle Smoke”, sung by Gretchen Peters, and Guadalupe herself, painted by Tom. You can see his paintings, including I believe the original of this print, at Rainbow Man gallery in Santa Fe. He began last week’s show with this haunting song. We do have an oddly eclectic “collection”– she …

Read more