Condi Condi

um, from C...yes, it does seem as if one of my favorite singer/songwriters has a thing for our secretary of state...

this was before he met Allison, though...

My Old Friend the Blues

It's funny how my brain works. For almost my entire life, I viewed myself as a writer, hands downs. And I still do. Writing's still at the base, the very bottom block that if it were kicked out I'd topple.

But music is more and more becoming a dominate force, and now I have playlists in my brain that seem to accurately reflect how I'm feeling. That's where the lyrics and vids on this blog come from. They're a really accurate barometer for how I'm doing (if anyone really cares.)

So,it was no surprise that halfway through my sleep and when I woke this morning I had Steve Earle singing My Old Friend the Blues in my head. A conversation with the ex can do that. The sudden reminder that I felt like this a lot of the time, and while it's gone away it's still pretty familiar.

And I gotta throw in here, my ex isn't a bad person. She isn't. We're just really different. Opposites attract, most definitely. But there has to be some sort of commonality to keep you together, and it was just years and years of tugging against each other. It can wear on you. Wear on you to the point that today I have a headache grinding away the back of my head and my shoulders hurt like they always used to.

I think we were just too young to get married. I think most people are, to tell the truth.

But now we have separate lives and our lives are so different. Just different values and goals and dreams. And, just like in the marriage, she wants me to live her life, live by her rules, do things her way (at least that's my perception) and that's where the grind comes from.

It's hard to change. It's hard to accept change, even for someone like me who most people will say have changed the most, though I'd say I'm just me, this is the me that's always been there, lying under the surface, just sort of sleeping.



Anyway, Sue and I just look at each other and say we're going to keep our eye on the life we want, live it the way we want, knowing that it's not bad, it's good, good for everyone in the long run, and we don't hurt anyone.

Just when every ray of hope was gone
I should have known that you would come along
I can't believe I ever doubted you
My old friend the blues

Another lonely night, a nameless town
If sleep don't take me first, you'll come around
'Cause I know I can always count on you
My old friend the blues

Lovers leave and friends will let you down
But you're the only sure thing that I've found
No matter what I do I'll never lose
My old friend the blues

Just let me hide my weary heart in you
My old friend the blues

Steve Earle in Somerville

There's so much to be said about Steve Earle's concert on Friday at Somerville Theater.

Allison Moorer, his wife, but more importantly an extraordinary talent herself opened the show. Nice surprise because it seemed everyone we talked to didn't know who was opening. I found out from the beer guy. I came back upstairs to our seats with our beer and Sue was talking to the people next to us who had heard rumors of her opening.

Moorer has a gorgous trained voice and an easy way of playing guitar. It's all sort of precise and, while I don't want to use the word academic, it's that everything about it is letter-perfect.

As opposed to Earle.

An entire acoustic set, if you can discount all the electronic wizardry that Earle uses. Even when Moorer was playing her set, I suddenly realized we were also listening to violins.

Earle is just so dynamic. So passionate. His voice is rougher, and so is his playing. While Moorer's is letter-perfect, Earle, well, as a buddy of mine said about my guitar playing, he takes liberties. But it's like listening to Lucinda Williams. Their unique voice and rough guitar playing is such a major part of what makes their music what it is, how it touches us.

He played most of Washington Square Serenade. (I'm working here: it's after hours here at the office and what the fuck is it about people and their speaker phones?) Anyway...

For his encore, one of the songs he played was from his Guitar Town album, the hillbilly tear-jerker Little Rock 'n' Roller, about a dad who's calling his little boy from a truck stop in Arkansas.

He prefaced it with a long talk about being a dad and being away from his kids when they were so little. So maybe it's a tear-jerker and maybe it's a cliche but, once again, the song has always resonated with me. You feel bad for all the things you've done, all the stupid things you've done, for the way things are because of you and there's no way you can ever go back and fix things. When people say, it's never too late, well, yes, sometimes it is too late. And sometimes things get broken that can never get fixed again, no matter what you try to do. That's life.

And it's always the kids that get hurt. Who get the brunt of things. And what's so endearing about this song is, that no matter how much the dad is hurting, it's the unspoken little child who is hurting the most.


I know you miss me, God knows I'm thinkin' 'bout you
I got your picture in my wallet, it cheers me up sometimes when I'm blue
Well little guy, I'm gonna have to let you go
You know it's way past your bedtime, and they're tellin' me we gotta roll

That last line, of the boss tearing him away from the phone like that, you can just feel the hearts ripping...

Anyway, here's a vid from YouTube where Earle is pretty much giving the whole talk that he gave in Somerville. You can see how passionate he is about things. About what he writes about. How he feels.

Steve Earle's coming to the Somerville Theater tonight

Okay, I have to blog about this and fast because there is a Very Important Meeting I have to attend.

Steve Earle is playing tonight at the Somerville Theater and Sue and I wouldn't miss this for the world. This is where life and art and music come together, and give you a little insight in how all this shit is connected.

Yeah, I'm a little juvenile when it comes to my music. I'm still like a teenager when it comes to me and music. I never left the, "It's my life, man" stage. It conjures up things inside of me like nothing else does. I know I’m not alone on this in this world. There are other people who are passionate about music and experiences that so many talented people in this world share with us.

When I heard Steve Earle's Washington Square Serenade album, and starting studying up on his life and career, I thought to myself, what the?--this could be me. Well, except I don't have his talent and fame and money. That's what separates me from the stalkers.

But I was at a point in my life where I just wanted to leave where I was, leave everything behind, and this country boy decided to move to the city. Just like Steve.

I was somewhere where it was never my home. And I was hanging around people who really weren’t my friends. I mean, they weren’t horrible. It’s not like they were crack dealers. Maybe worse. They just didn’t care one damn way or another about me. Not caring is worse, I think, than anything. It's like you know a relationship is over when the fighting stops. Fighting at least shows that a person cares about something. Not caring. Apathy. It's death.

And darned if I didn't have an old dog on the floorboards and a pretty redhead by my side when I skeedaddled, too. (Guys just really dig redheads.)



And way back when I was just so full of it, too. And if that didn't seem to be ole Steve coming into Nashvlle, Guitar Town, ready to kick some ass.

Well I gotta keep rockin' while I still can
Got a two pack habit and a motel tan.

Shit, that's still me.



And then he got to Nashville and just pretty much rebelled against everything he found there. Never was his home. But look at what he did there. You find yourself somewhere where you don’t belong, and you’re just screaming, hey, it doesn’t have to be this way. And people are calling you crazy and stupid and a whole lot of other names.



And it just keeps coming. Lord, I don’t know how he came up with Day’s Aren’t Long Enough; it’s such a chick song, but dang, he’s in love and that does some pretty weird things to men. Makes some of us get all sappy.



But I mean, look at those two. And listen to Allison Moorer. What a sweet voice she has.

And Sue (that pretty redhead) and Bob (the dog) and I moved to the city so we could just jump on a train and take advantage of stuff on the city. Well, Bob had no idea what we were up to, he just knew something was up. But Washington Square Serenade is all about change, or maybe change is one of its major themes.

And now this has to end because Sue just called me and she's in the lobby and we're getting on the subway and going to hear some really good music that's all about our lives together, and that, my friends, is like the coming of a comet, or the total eclipse of the sun.

Days Aren't Long Enough

another year has come and gone
another circle 'round the sun
another thousand tears have fallen
i don't ever count 'em 'cause
i'm surrounded by your love
and days are never long enough

Tennessee Blues

fare thee well i'm bound to roam
this ain't never been my home

blue dog on the floorboard redhead by my side
cross the mighty hudson river to the new york city side
redhead by my side, boys sweetest thing i've found
goodbye guitar town

Guitar Town

Gotta keep rockin' why I still can
I gotta two pack habit and a motel tan
But when my boots hit the boards I'm a brand new man
With my back to the riser I make my stand
And hey pretty baby won't you hold me tight
We're loadin' up and rollin' out of here tonight
One of these days I'm gonna settle down
And take you back with me to the Guitar Town

City of Immigrants

From American Songwriter:


"It was the inspiration of NYC and a concern over an insidious racism that he perceives to be spreading tactiley through our nation that inspired him to write City of Immigrants. The lilting tropical rhythms buoy a celebration of diversity, and to further underscore the point, Earle recorded it with Brazilian group Forro in the Dark.

"Lou Dobbs pisses me off," Earle says, normally fiery-black eyes blazing. "City of Immigrants is the most political song on the record, and it exists because of watching Lou Dobbs crank up this anti-immigrant campaign just as the Democrats are getting started with their immigration legislation on Capitol Hill.

"I grew up in occupied Mexico," he continues, gathering steam. "Texas is part of the first illegal American land grab...and when I hear people talking about Mextisos invading us, taking our jobs, I want to say, 'But they were here first'...because they were. September 11 is about the other dark people--or else you're completely impotent about what happened. All I know is that I see we have another mean-spirited group rising. It's just easy to look at another group of dark-skinned people and single them out."

Tennessee Blues

Could have been written by me:

Sunset in my mirror, pedal on the floor
Bound for New York City and I won’t be back no more
Won’t be back no more, boys won’t see me around
Goodbye guitar town

Ghosts out on the highway, voices on the wind
Tellin’ me that we may never pass this way again
Voices on the highway angels beckonin’
Like a long lost friend

Fare thee well I’m bound to roam
This ain’t never been my home

Stranger in my mirror, lines around my eyes
String around my finger but I don’t remember why
Don’t remember why, boys don’t remember how
Goodbye guitar town

Fare thee well I’m bound to roam
This ain’t never been my home

Blue dog on my floorboard, redhead by my side
Cross the mighty Hudson river to the New York City side
Redhead by my side, boys sweetest thing I’ve found
Goodbye guitar town
--Steve Earle