What a storm it was. If you are in the massive affected area, we hope you are getting power back and that you are starting to put things back in place. I know for many, this will take months, maybe even years, to accomplish.
So today is Halloween, huh? I hope the kids don’t trick or treat tonight in my still darkened neighborhood, not that I want to eat all the candy by myself! For our first post-Sandy stab at a return to normalcy, here is Corb Lund with a Halloween treat, from his brilliant new album Cabin Fever. “Dig Gravedigger Dig.”
Sandy is coming, and here on the east coast we are waiting. Our preparations are done; water, batteries, canned food. If the power goes out, we hope we have what we need. I spent an inordinate time on Sunday buying all that stuff, and then looking for a portable radio. Time was that radios were on the shelves everywhere. I tried the usual places, remember Radio Shack USED to even have ‘radio’ in its name. Walgreen’s was out. Marshall’s had only iPod accessories. I finally found one at a tobacconist/newsstand in Denville, NJ. They even had the C batteries to power it, hallelujah. Radio used to be ubiquitous. Sunday’s search is a sad testament of how things have changed.
I keep hearing the strains in my head of a classic radio tune from way back when; “Sandy, 4th of July, Asbury Park.” It would be a cruel irony indeed if Sandy makes landfall on the Jersey shore. This storm is so huge though, that it will bring misery to many - wind and flood damage, disruption to normal life. Heck, it is not every day they shut down the NYC transit system. So if you are in the affected area, Godspeed through it all. May you and yours stay safe. Here is an offering from David Jacobs-Strain, “Ocean Or A Teardrop,” originally found on his 2004 album. Here is the Music Fog recording, filmed during Americana Fest 2010.
A couple of weeks ago, I ventured out for my first concert since returning to New York. In such a big city, the opportunities are almost limitless as to what to do any given evening. There I was at Irving Plaza, on a Friday night to see Drivin' and Cryin' open for Blackberry Smoke. Two hot bands, for sure. Some things just don't change. There was the cornucopia of folks you would expect to see at a rock show. They all look so familiar to me, though it is just the types that resonate. Then through the province of having done this for so long, I started to actually run into people that I knew and have a hell of a time. In New York, rock still resonates.
In my book, performance is what it is all about; being able to deliver in an adrenalin infused moment, live. Life in all its glory. Trying to describe Americana music to people in the past, I always referenced the rock and roll sprit with which it is made.
Take Amy LaVere, for instance. She worked at Sun Studio Memphis, soaking up all the ghosts, and with her upright bass in hand, calls them up in a haunted fashion. She is a master of Americana Noir. In many of her songs, danger lurks at the periphery. This tune is from her 2007 album Anchors & Anvils, and our Spring Music Fog Marathon at Threadgill's WHQ in 2911. Here's "Washing Machine."
