I am in Santa Monica, California, for a set of meetings. For most people, when they think of Santa Monica they think of the beautiful beach and the restored Santa Monica Pier, with its historic carousel and the great Ferris wheel that lights up the night sky. Those things are all pretty wonderful, but when flatpickers come to Santa Monica they think of Live at McCabe’s.
Back in the 1970s, Norman Blake was making his first west coast appearance and he recorded an album at McCabe’s Guitar Shop, which is located on Pico Boulevard here in Santa Monica. It is a wonderful album for several reasons, but most of all because it showcases Blake’s incredible guitar flatpicking skills. For those who’ve only heard Blake on O Brother Where Art Thou or on his later albums, there’s always a wonder – as others have noted – at how Blake came to be mentioned among the first guitar greats in the same breath with Doc Watson, Dan Crary, and Clarence White. When you listen to Live at McCabe’syou no longer ask the question. Playing solo and with his wife Nancy, Blake gives a tour de force of guitar flatpicking on this album. I learned Sweet Heaven When I Die from this version many years ago and still play it today – although without Norman’s virtuosity.
I drove past McCabe’s last evening on the way to dinner and was reminded of this album, Norman’s place in flatpicking history, and of this wonderful video of Norman and Tony Rice that I found on YouTube just a few days ago. Enjoy these two guitar giants as they ride along the New River Train.
In searching the Internet this morning, I found a post on the Daily Kos’ Street Prophets section on faith that discussed the difference between the prayers of Rick Warren and Joseph Lowery at Tuesday’s inauguration ceremony. I recommend the entire post, but I loved the ending enough to add it here. Pastor Dan writes,
As a Facebook friend says, “Rev. Lowrey is to Rick Warren as Mavis Staples is to Britney Spears.” Yep, pretty much.
That’s a great line…and very true. If you don’t know Mavis Staples, listen to the following video. And the images are a poignant reminder of why so many people were quoted yesterday as saying, “I never thought I’d see this in my lifetime.”
January 20, 2009 was a great day to be an American. It was also a wonderful day to be in Washington. And although I’m writing this from Santa Monica, California – I didn’t leave Washington until we had a new president.
Claire was on the mall with friends and she took several pictures of the inauguration – including the one at the top of the post. She reports that it was very festive, and this picture captures that spirit.
Because I had to fly to California later in the day, and Candice was coming back from a long weekend in Florida, Andrew and I opted to go to Politics and Prose – the wonderfully independent and progressive neighborhood bookstore – to watch the inauguration with like-minded friends and patrons. It was great. The staff provided free popcorn, the coffee shop was hopping turning out the hot chocolate and lattes, and everyone was in a very good mood. Andrew had on his Obama ’08 cap and we enjoyed the view and the company. There were three different screens and the place was full…it was almost as busy as a Harry Potter launch party! We all cheered, a few hissed at the sight of outgoing officials, and I think everyone had a tear come to the eye. I certainly did.
So I flew across the country for work later in the day, but did get to see the parade (thanks to Virgin America’s cool in-seat TV screens). And just watching Larry King Live on CNN, one of his quests just talked about a great moment for him which I also found very moving. That was when Joseph Lowery, the Civil Rights icon, began his prayer with the third stanza of Lift Every Voice and Sing, the Negro national anthem. Hearing that song the day after the MLK holiday and in this context was just the right touch.
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou Who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou Who hast by Thy might, led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee.
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee.
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand,
True to our God, true to our native land.
God bless our new President. And God bless America.
It wasn’t the concert the Institute of Musical Traditions originally envisioned, but thanks to the professionalism and love for music the performers brought to the evening, it was more than advertised.
Andrew and I took in the regular Monday night IMT concert this evening, which featured Peter Ostroushko and Danny Gotham. However, they were delayed by a major pile up on I-70 that Peter later told us included a fiery semi that was completely incinerated. Thanks to quick thinking by the IMT folks, however, they called in friends Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer and in a delightful half-hour opening set they kept the evening moving and proved they’re much more than just children’s artists. Marxer’s musicianship was in special evidence on her cello banjo and in some sweet swing guitar solos.
Ostroushko and Gotham then took the stage and began with a mandolin duet of tunes learned from Norman Blake. The second tune in the medley, a Blake original entitled Jeff Davis, got Ostroushko in the mood for some political humor. He told of a time a few years ago when he read an opinion article in the Minnesota paper that said W. was the worst American President since Jefferson Davis. Peter said he was perplexed…because he didn’t think Jeff Davis was that bad.
Sly humor and major musical chops were in evidence throughout the evening. Peter played a beautiful arrangement of Bob Dylan’s Girl From the North Country, and then explored the “Minnesota Blues tradition.” (The headwaters blues.) While Andrew and I had to duck out before the end in order to get ready for tomorrow’s trek to see the inauguration, it was a very satisfying evening.
The IMT series has plenty to delight this winter…but guitar players will want to mark March 30th for the John Jorgenson concert.
Random moments of grace from the first half of a special holiday weekend here in Washington…
Having the time to read the New York Times slowly. Many Saturdays I’m so busy with errands I zip through the Times and the Washington Post. I’m glad I didn’t yesterday. Gail Collins has a sense of humor that I love, and the start to her Saturday column had me laughing out loud.
Right now you may be asking yourself: How am I going to celebrate Barack Obama’s inauguration?
You may, of course, have something else on your mind entirely. Like what the chances are that the next time you get on a plane, geese could fly into both engines. Or what the heck geese are doing in New York in the middle of winter when their relatives who worked hard and played by the rules had all gone south months ago.
Or you may just be wondering how that rescue in the Hudson River would have gone if it had been led off by the Department of Homeland Security rather than New York Waterway’s director of ferry operations.
I can’t help you, people. Today I am on inauguration duty.
Yep. I’m glad that Brownie was nowhere near the Hudson this week. Collins goes on to skewer William Henry Harrison and the Obama campaign’s evolution into Amazon.com for all-things Obama. It is a funny read. Laughing is good for the soul.
Singing Lift Every Voice and Sing in Church. It is the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, so there’s a 100% chance that we’ll sing the Black National Anthem – Lift Every Voice and Sing – in church. And our musical director Sonya doesn’t disappoint. I love this song, although someone in my family who shall go nameless says it sounds like it was written by committee. (She can’t understand the shifts between the A and B sections.) Nonetheless, when I get a chance, I sing this with all the gusto I can muster. It is moving even when 75% of those singing are white. And today we had a bonus as Sonya also had Wondrous Love on the program. Read my earlier post to find out why this is my favorite song in the hymnal. He who sings prays twice.
Laughing Out Loud during A Prairie Home Companion with Andrew. We’re driving along listening to the portion of Prairie Home Companion when Garrison Keillor reads notes from the audience. One note says, “Enjoy the party, but not too much. Remember that assisted living is a finite term.” Andrew and I both LOL, and he adds, “That’s pretty good,” with a joke-lover’s acknowledgement of a well-turned phrase. I love my son’s perspective on the world.
Reading Frank Rich and remembering my childhood. Frank Rich is required reading at our breakfast table on Sunday morning. Today’s column talks about growing up white in a segregated Washington, DC, and how so much of the city was unknown to him as a child. I also grew up in southern communities, but our home – although on Main Street – was next to the city’s African American neighborhoods. I probably thought I knew those areas. My parents were quiet but firm southern progressives who encouraged us to treat everyone with respect. So I spent a lot of time on playgrounds with the kids from our neighborhood – black and white. It was just normal. But I now understand there was much I didn’t understand about being black in the south in the 1970s, a revelation Rich notes in his column as well. Once I found myself as the only white in a neighborhood basketball game. “Are you scared?” asked one of the kids. I wasn’t. But I did think then, and again today, that I really didn’t know what their life was like. The MLK, Jr. weekend when we inaugurate the first African American president in the country’s history is a good time to be reminded that we still have a long way to go.
Claire’s Inaugural Memories. To her credit, Claire made up her mind that she was going to be in the midst of history this weekend. Right now she’s at the Lincoln Memorial for the concert. As you see the Lincoln Memorial this weekend, check out the story about the Daniel Chester French model of the seated Lincoln coming to DC. Claire and Andrew saw that model last March when we visited the National Trust Historic Site Chesterwood. On Tuesday, she’ll walk down to the mall with friends who live on Capitol Hill to witness history. She’s excited…and I’m excited for her.
Listening to Patty Loveless Sing Hank Williams. Is there a more sublime country singer than Patty Loveless? I don’t think so. On that same Prairie Home Companion show, Loveless sang songs from her new CD of 50s and 60s classic country, Sleepless Nights. One was a beautiful and haunting Hank Williams song.
As much as I like Hank Williams, this wasn’t my favorite Patty Loveless song. That would be the Darrell Scott-penned You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive. Written about the coal miners of Kentucky, Loveless sings this as only someone from eastern Kentucky can. Enjoy the video below from Merlefest, and keep looking for those random moments of grace this weekend.
In the post, the writer Ari focuses on a King speech entitled The Other America that Dr. King gave weeks before his death. Ari writes:
By this time in his life, though, King openly expressed sympathy for those who embraced other means, for those who would not turn the other cheek:
But at the same time, it is as necessary for me to be as vigorous in condemning the conditions which cause persons to feel that they must engage in riotous activities as it is for me to condemn riots. I think America must see that riots do not develop out of thin air. Certain conditions continue to exist in our society which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard.
“A riot is the language of the unheard.” That’s wonderful writing. But also: that’s not the MLK my son learned about in kindergarten last week or the MLK my students learn about in their textbooks.
Ari then moves on to talk about how the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, which was enacted over a great deal of controversy with the support of unions and corporate America, was finally approved, and he ends with this summation:
I wonder what Martin Luther King would think of his eponymous day. Of the MLK lesson plan — long on heroism, patriotism, and feel-good rhetoric but short on violence, non- or otherwise — in my son’s classroom. Of the fact that his holiday’s roots in organized labor have been completely forgotten. Of the painful irony that corporate sponsorship proved key in passing the law marking his birthday.
More than that, I wonder what those sponsors would think if they were transported back to Grosse Pointe, on March 12, 1968, to hear King deliver his “Other America” speech, including the line, “a riot is the language of the unheard.” I suspect they wouldn’t recognize that Dr. King. I wonder how many of us would.
Not your normal post around the MLK holiday, but it is important to understand the full dimension of King and his work. As a historian, I found the post worth the read and worth sharing. Recommended.
Thanks to the Bluegrass Blog for passing along the news that Mark O’Connor and Bela Fleck will be playing next Monday at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower’s Theatre as part of the Let Freedom Swing concert. The evening’s program of jazz music is in honor of the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and in anticipation of the inauguration the next day of President-elect Barack Obama. While O’Connor and Fleck made their name in bluegrass, they routinely cross musical genres and have the musical chops to join host Wynton Marsalis.
While tickets are by invitation only, the event is to be televised, so be on the lookout for this mix of terrific musicians.
The Atlantic online magazine has this fascinating look at America in the Bush years, all presented in a map filled with graphics and stats. Did you know:
There were 298 billionaires in 2000. The number grew to 454 by 2008.
28 out of 50 states had obesity rates below 20% in 2000. By 2008, the number dropped to 1 state in 50.
Gross federal debt as a percentage of GDP was 58% in 2000; 67.5% by 2008.
And the list goes on and on. It makes for a fascinating look at stats and changes both important and silly…and you’re free to interpret it as you see fit. As the President gave his exit interview to the press corps today, you may find this of interest.
Well, our little place on earth is getting pretty excited about the next ten days. Washington is making plans to keep Virginians from coming into the city. (I would have thought they’d be treated better since they actually voted for Obama, going blue for the first time since Jamestown was founded, or so it seems.) While Candice and I will be passing each other in the airport on the way to and from town, the children are busy making their plans. Claire has a good friend on Capitol Hill, so she’s already set for a sleepover and a morning hike to the mall. Andrew is vacillating between hiking to the mall with friends and watching it all in the comfort of the restored AFI Theatre on the big screen. I just hope I can see the actual ceremony before I have to head out of town.
But for those looking for something to do in Washington during the inaugural week, my organization, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has put together a great list of “off the beaten track” ideas of historic sites and great places to visit. And even if you can’t be in Washington, I recommend you take a look at the Lincoln’s Washington videos with Preservation magazine editor James Schwartz. This is a companion piece to the article In Search of Lincoln’s Washington in this month’s magazine. And also learn about some great DC-area neighborhoods in the PreservationNation.org blog. Brookland and Capitol Hill are featured as of today, and more stories are in the works.
We live in a great place…and these pieces give a hint of all there is to see.
I love listening to music late at night when driving on a country road. There’s a warmth that’s hard to capture in other settings. You feel connected to the world, but the distractions are minimal and the darkness enfolds the car as if in a cocoon.
Tonight I had teenager taxi duty after an especially late party, so I found myself driving alone through the only stretch of road that could remotely be considered country on my route. Rock Creek Park is an oasis of nature in the midst of the city. It is also one of Washington’s treasures, and tonight I was crossing through in a drizzle, with only the threat of wandering deer to worry me.
Another great Washington treasure is Mary Cliff’s Traditions, a long-running folk-music show on public radio. Since Mary switched stations a few years ago, she comes on later and I don’t have the chance to hear her as often. But tonight I was tuned in, and the sound of Jack Williams playing Dylan’s Forever Young came through during a set to honor a recently deceased member of the local folk music scene. That great song and the setting transported me back to late night drives in South Georgia thirty years ago, listening to folk and bluegrass in the car while returning from evening meetings with my first job. I remembered a more recent time, with a couple of hour-long drives to get from Merlefest to my sister’s cabin in the North Carolina mountains, with stacks of new CDs beside me and Del McCoury singing It’s Just the Night with the Fairfield Four coming through the car speakers.
Few things beat a late night car radio on a country road.
January 20, 2009 was a great day to be an American. It was also a wonderful day to be in Washington. And although I’m writing this from Santa Monica, California – I didn’t leave Washington until we had a new president.
different screens and the place was full…it was almost as busy as a Harry Potter launch party! We all cheered, a few hissed at the sight of outgoing officials, and I think everyone had a tear come to the eye. I certainly did.
Claire’s Inaugural Memories. To her credit, Claire made up her mind that she was going to be in the midst of history this weekend. Right now she’s at the Lincoln Memorial for the concert. As you see the Lincoln Memorial this weekend, check out 
MORE TO COME... 