Best cover of Woody Guthrie: John Mellencamp's "Do re mi"

Long ago...John Mellencamp joined several artists in an album called "Folkways: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie and LeadBelly"

Here's one of the best covers of a Guthrie song.

 "Do re mi" about the dust bowl Okies looking for work in California.

John Fogerty wants to KEEP ON CHOOGLIN (with some guitar licks)

This is John Fogerty back touring in 2005.  You can get this on DVD ("The Long Road Home"), and it's worth it all the way.

He shows you...what he knows about Kansas City Blues.

He starts with guitar show off moves...that are subtle enough to be a perfect intro as he harks back to his
bluesy electric interpretation of Delta blues (which moved north first through Kansas City, then to Chicago, where a muddier sound fusion defined a sub genre).

Notice the pretty girl in the white tank top...at the 2:00 mark.....she's getting her groove back.

From Wikipedia:


....Fogerty traveled to Mississippi in 1990 for inspiration and visited the gravesite of blues legend Robert Johnson. According to him, there he realized that Robert Johnson was the true spiritual owner of his own songs, no matter what businessman owned the rights to them, and thus Fogerty decided to start making a new album and to perform his old Creedence material regularly in concert.^[7][8] 

 It was at this time visiting the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church cemetery that Fogerty met Skip Henderson, a New Jersey vintage guitar dealer who had formed a nonprofit corporation The Mt. Zion Memorial Fund to honor Johnson with a memorial marker. Fogerty subsequently funded headstones for Charlie Patton, James Son Thomas, Mississippi Joe Callicott, Eugene Powell, Lonnie Pitchford and helped with financial arrangements for numerous others.^[9]
.......

Salute to TODD "god" RUNDGREN

From Wikipedia:           Todd Harry Rundgren (born June 22, 1948) is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and record producer. Hailed in the early stage of his career as a new pop-wunderkind, supported by the certified gold solo double LP Something/Anything? in 1972,^[1] his career has produced a diverse range of recordings as solo artist, and during the seventies and eighties with the band Utopia. He has also been prolific as a producer and engineer on the recorded work of other musicians.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Rundgren engineered and/or produced many notable albums for other acts, including Straight Up by Badfinger, Stage Fright by The Band, We're an American Band by Grand Funk Railroad, Bat Out of Hell by Meat Loaf, and Skylarking by XTC. In the 1980s and 1990s his interest in video and computers led to his "Time Heals" being the eighth video played on MTV, and "Change Myself" was animated by Rundgren on commercially available Amiga Computers.^[2]

His best-known songs include "Hello It's Me" and "I Saw the Light," which have heavy rotation on classic rock radio stations, and "Bang the Drum All Day," which is featured in many sports arenas, commercials, and movie trailers. Although lesser known, "Couldn't I Just Tell You" has had a major influence on artists in the power pop musical genre.<sup>[3]....

 .....</sup>
By 1972, the Runt persona/band identity had been abandoned, and Rundgren's next project, the ambitious double LP Something/Anything? (1972) was credited simply to Rundgren, who wrote, played, sang, engineered, and produced everything on three of the four sides of the album. Something/Anything? featured the top 20 U.S. hits "I Saw The Light" (#16; not to be confused with the Hank Williams song of the same name), and a remake of the Nazz near-hit "Hello It's Me", which reached #5 in the U.S. and is Rundgren's biggest hit. The former song featured Rundgren on all vocals and instruments.....

 ...
Although he opposed the use of drugs during his days with Nazz, in the early 1970s Rundgren changed his views and began experimenting with various mind-altering substances including marijuana, LSD and the stimulant Ritalin and this had a marked effect both on the style of his music and his productivity:

"It (Ritalin) caused me to crank out songs at an incredible pace. 'I Saw the Light' took me all of 20 minutes. You can see why, too, the rhymes are just moon/June/spoon kind of stuff..."^[8]

Speaking of the effect on A Wizard, A True Star, Rundgren commented:

"With drugs I could suddenly abstract my thought processes in a certain way, and I wanted to see if I could put them on a record. A lot of people recognised it as the dynamics of a psychedelic trip—it was almost like painting with your head."^[8]

^.... Rundgren's production of Meat Loaf's Bat out of Hell (on which he also played lead guitar) helped that album become one of the top selling LPs released in the 1970s. The industry regard for Rundgren's production work has been a lofty one: Jim Steinman, with whom Rundgren worked on Bat Out of Hell, has said in interviews that "Todd Rundgren is a genius and I don't use that word a lot."^[13]

Listen to THE JAYHAWKS, "Tommorrow the Green Grass" album

Here's a little something about something I've said long ago:  THE MINNESOTA ALT COUNTRY BAND, KNOWN AS THE JAYHAWKS are pretty good.

This song is "Bad Time"....and shows off their perfect break through album "Tommorrow the Green Grass".

Nice harmonies....no?

These two songs...should lead you to...consider buying this album...or, do what I do when I want to hear a whole album in it's entirety for free...with NO SIGN IN.....JUST LIKE WIKIPEDIA...just go to GROOVESHARK.COM and search something like "The Jayhawks " Tommorrow the Green Grass'"....then wait about five seconds....see an icon that says "play all"...click...and hear one of the best easy listening albums, you probabely never heard of.

This is The Jayhawks playing, probabely their highest charting song, "I'm gonna make you love me" from The Smile album (video is something from some cable TV show...just hear the music).

Unknown superstar, AUSTIN TEXAS' GUY FORSYTHE celebrates the morning sun at Kerrville Folk Festival

After I permanently moved to Austin, Texas, (1993)....it was not long that I found myself walking down Sixth Street near Joe's Generic Bar.  This was a place where any decent musician could get free exposure while playing for tips.  Guy Forsythe found a quick easy home there, that vaulted him into parochial stardom as one of Austin's leading points of light and tunes.

Guys like "Guy Forsythe" made Austin...the greatest city in America during the nineties.  Now, it's a part of Los Angeles, and nobody knows nobody when it used to be something like, "...Everyone is Somebody in Austin, Texas, where we liked to keep Austin weird...".


I remember reminding Guy one day at a coffee shop...just how good and energetic his first early shows at Joe's were....but....he just smirked hopeing those shows were quickly forgotten?  Apparently, he had moved on from primitive formats and early attempts at reaching for cosmic significance?

Guy plays alone and forms groups...and stayed along time with The Asylum Street Spankers.

You can see Guy...in this video...at the SUNRISE CEREMONY held every morning at The Kerrville Folk Festival (2011)....which is comparable to a mini, hippie, Texas Woodstock.

Guy is alot of things...but mostly...a talented singer, songwriter, and another obscure superstar who hasn't reached the levels of destructive fame, that usually ruins good hearted souls.

Thank God for graceful small failures in avoidance of destructive special treatment sometimes identified as "fame" or "Transference".

Worth your time...during the Moab, Utah or Wyoming winter months....to keep the idea that "you can survive the winter blues" by searching and studying Guy Forsthe's musial history and discography.

The movie, "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad....World"

This is a famous clip from a famous funny movie, made in the 60's.

The title: "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad....World".

A classic family movie loaded with comedic stars and famous actors from an earlier time.

The above scene shows Jonathon Winters at his best doing what is called.... physical comedy.

Very funny movie, and clean enough for families.