Yes, January 6, 2021 has been a day that will be well known for the horrible deed perpetrated by a group of thugs, goons, insurrectionists, domestic terrorists, and rioters. A deed by a mob that was incited by the sitting president of the United States due to this selfish man’s injured pride. A president who was enabled in his lies about a stolen election by a large segment of a political party that has put power above democracy, a media network that has put the convenient lie above the hard truth, and wealthy oligarchs who have put the maintenance and growth of their personal wealth above all other considerations.
Field of Blood by Joanne B. Freeman
It is one more day when the fragility of our democracy and democratic institutions was showcased for all the world to see.
It is a good day to recall that violence and paranoia are part of the American character. Both were on full display today. If you want to see what can happen when those traits get out of hand, it may be a good week to read Joanne B. Freeman’s Field of Blood.
As I wrote in 2019, you will soon be absorbed…
“,,, in the riveting tales of mortal threats, canings, flipped desks, and all-out slugfests…and that’s just on the floor of Congress! During the turbulent and violent three decades leading up to the Civil War, bowie knives and pistols were regularly drawn on members by other members. Duels happened with alarming frequency, including one that led to the death of one representative at the hand of another. All involved, with the exception of the poor victim, were handily re-elected. Slavery, and its future in America, was the key issue that led to this bullying, fighting, and total breakdown of civil discourse.
The book tells the story of:
Extreme polarization
Fundamental disagreements about what kind of nation the United States would be
Splintering political parties
New technologies skewing and scattering the news, and complicating politics in the process
Conspiracy theories being spread, North and South, as the nation’s crisis unfolds
Panic about the impact of free speech in that fraught environment
Rampant distrust in national political institutions as well as rampant distrust of Americans in each other
Seeing the Confederate and Trump flags in the hands of the mob walking through the rotunda was one more painful reminder that we haven’t worked through our racial issues in this country. Watching the Capitol police’s restraint in handling the insurrectionists breaking down the doors of our “citadel of democracy” was a reminder that white privilege extends even to the handling of thugs…as long as they are not black.
It was a sad day, and we have much work to do.
Watching the Senate debate on the baseless objections to Arizona’s electoral slate by Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley — who inconceivably put out fundraising appeals in the middle of the siege — was one reason I have some hope. After the Capitol was cleared and order restored, some of the senators who enabled this president for four years or more seemed to understand that not only the president, but they had crossed a line. History is what told them to take a step back. Lindsey Graham reminded those objecting that the 1877 compromise — which Cruz, Hawley, and others cited as precedent for their objections — led to the trading of the presidency for the end of Reconstruction in the South and the institution of Jim Crow. And Lindsey, of all people, noted that this was a bad incident to cite as your precedent.
Will miracles never cease?
Three other things give me hope. First, the outcome of the special elections in Georgia that will end for a while the stranglehold Mitch McConnell has had on our government. Second, the fact that in the early morning hours of January 7th, Congress returned, did its business, and certified the 2020 election victories of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And finally, the belief that this could be the wake-up call we have been needing to take back our democracy.
But there is no way to put lipstick on this pig; this was a bad day for America. And Donald Trump was only the instigator today. He had plenty of enablers as part of a project that is built on inequality and is now four decades old. As Duke historian Nancy MacLean wrote in herDemocracy in Chains, “the extremity of our current situation is in good part due to the outsized power of corporations and wealthy donors over our politics and public policy.” In other words, individuals who put wealth and power over democracy and people.
This Weekly Reader features links to articles that grabbed my interest or tickled my fancy at the beginning of the New Year. Here’s hoping you find something that makes you laugh, think, or cry.
We talk about 2020 being a dumpster fire as if the year itself was responsible. Nope. This one is on us. All of us.*
Writing in Musing About Law, Books, and Politics, Teri Kanefield has seen enough in Goodbye 2020, and Good Riddance…but she has plans for 2021 and ways that all of us can join the fight to save democracy.
“2021 will be the year to Make Democracy Cool Again.
If the universe is unfolding as it should, Trump awakened enough people from complacency and spurred us to treasure our democracy and take the necessary steps to preserve it.“
Kanefield has ten suggestions for how to make that happen. They include a call to “Run for something (or help someone else run for something),” and thoughts on how to stand up for our institutions.
I would add an 11th suggestion to Kanefield’s list: Understand your history. The relevance of history is never so obvious than in times of turmoil, and 2020 more than exceeds that bar. David Smith in The Guardian interviews my friend and former colleague, Dr. Anthea Hartig, in People see how relevant history is: Smithsonian tackles Covid challenge.
This has been a year unlike any other for the museums that are dedicated to telling our history. Museums like the one where Dr. Hartig is the director.
“The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, boasting more than 1.8m objects over 800,000 square feet, can draw 10,000 visitors on a good day and usually closes only on 25 December. But this year a museum dedicated to preserving history found itself living that history.
Given its location on the National Mall, the museum’s curators were also within touching distance of protests, violence and mourning that shook the nation’s capital this summer. They faced the real-time challenge of collecting artefacts and testimonies that will help future generations make sense of a year like no other.“
As Anthea notes, more people are interested in history this year than at any other point in her three-decade career. “I think people understand how relevant it is,” she notes. “I often joke that I wish I had a context wand, like a magic wand, and I could just pat people on the head and say, ‘I have thus gifted you context.’”
She’s right: understanding context matters.
One of the challenges when you don’t know your history is that delusions and myth take the place of facts, with often horrific results. The U.S. isn’t the only place that happens. In Bloomberg, British historian Max Hastings writes How Delusions About World War II Fed Brexit Mania.
Hastings begins his “rumination on the British character, rather than on our government” by quoting Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, who — in Hasting’s telling — “possesses the fiercely contested distinction of being the least impressive member of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s cabinet.” After Williamson attributes the speed in which Britain developed a Covid-19 vaccine to the fact that, “We’re a much better country than every single one of them, aren’t we?” Hastings continues:
“Underpinning almost everything Britain has done since 1945 is a belief among most of its people that we are special, different, important. Many middle-sized nations cherish this conceit in some degree — think of France — but few allow it to influence their political courses as doggedly as do Winston Churchill’s inheritors.
World War II still dominates British self-image. As a historian of the conflict, I am sometimes driven to despair by my fellow-countrymen’s determination to preserve nationalistic myths about it, rather than to acknowledge harsh realities.“
In an insightful essay, Hastings points out that the myth of British superiority continues to drive public policy some 80 years after World War II. He mentions briefly the similarities to Donald Trump’s America.
“The great political success of the Brexiteers is that they have convinced a narrow majority of the British people that most of their woes, even the weather, derive from Europe. In truth, scarcely any do, but foreigners make convenient scapegoats. There are close similarities between the tribal attitude of President Donald Trump’s supporters in the U.S. and Johnson supporters in Britain. Both see themselves, above all, as patriots.“
“For us, the UK has always been seen as like-minded: economically progressive, politically stable, respect for the rule of law – a beacon of western liberal democracy,” said Rem Korteweg, of the Clingendael Institute thinktank in the Netherlands.
“I’m afraid that’s been seriously hit by the past four years. The Dutch have seen a country in a deep identity crisis; it’s been like watching a close friend go through a really, really difficult time. Brexit is an exercise in emotion, not rationality; in choosing your own facts. And it’s not clear how it will end.”
“In a West Wing meeting that would seem more fitting for a nation with a long history of authoritarian rule, Trump recently met with deranged, conspiracy-peddling advisers and discussed the possibility of using the U.S. military to seize voting machines across the country, declare martial law, and re-do the election in an effort to overturn this year’s contest, which Trump lost by seven million votes. The meeting reportedly unraveled into a shouting match, with Trump’s unhinged “election fraud” advisers condemning his staffers as “quitters.”
“…Incredibly though, the Times did not run its martial law story on page one on Sunday. Instead it was tucked inside on page 28. (It was also buried on the paper’s website.) Additionally, the military coup aspect of the report — the fact the President of the United States might want to enlist armed players to destroy free and fair elections — wasn’t even included in the Times headline, or in the lede of the story.“
We need to name things as they are to understand them.
Pep Talk by Niklas Göke in Medium is a reminder of all the things we can do every single day for our own mental health and for that of those around us.
Even in a pandemic, we are asked to recall that:
You can smile. You can laugh….You’re allowed to have flaws….You can let go. You can hit pause….You mean something to someone…Someone misses you.
“Rice died in his North Carolina home on Christmas morning, 2020. The worst news imaginable to acoustic guitar fans around the world on what has been pretty much the worst year ever for everyone.
Just two months earlier, our other guitar deity, Eddie Van Halen, passed away. For a lot of us, EVH and Tony Rice were the giants bookending the Mount Rushmore of Guitar (throw B.B., Django, Segovia and Jimi in the middle and call it a day). Just like Van Halen, Rice influenced thousands of future players with his imaginative solos. Also like EVH: Rice made everything seem effortless and fluid, even when it clearly wasn’t.“
Since Fretboard Journal is a guitar magazine with a fixation of gear, Verlindie goes into some detail about Rice’s famous Martin D-28 guitar.
Rice was mostly about one guitar, his often-copied 1935 Martin D-28, serial number 58957. (Talk about famous: Can you even think of any other guitars simply by their serial number?) Formerly owned by Clarence White of the Byrds / Kentucky Colonels, the “Antique” has been played-to-death, abused, driven over, shot at, highly-modified and, by at least a few accounts, only sounded truly great when Tony was playing it. Its enlarged soundhole is now an option from at least a handful of guitar companies, including Bourgeois, Huss & Dalton, Collings, Martin (of course), and the Santa Cruz Guitar Company, who for decades have produced a Tony Rice signature model. Rumors abound around who did what to the Martin over the years, if that striking tortoiseshell pickguard is from an actual tortoise, on-and-on…
While the guitar gets some glory in the article, this is primarily a beautiful and warm remembrance of an exceptional musician who will be sorely missed.
we decide to give up on democracy because we lack the courage to face the unknown and in doing so succumb to the fear that seeks shelter in the authoritarian lie;
we don’t do the boring and hard work of democracy, and we don’t even do the easy things like vote in midterm, or state, or local elections;
we traffic in insane conspiracy theories that could easily be seen as untrue if we gave them even a modicum of thought;
we primarily talk with those who believe just as we do, while we disparage those who are not like us;
we bypass one of the key rules of empathetic listening — seek first to understand — in order to make, and score, our points;
we allow corporations and oligarchs to sustain a four-decade war against democratic government in order to secure their power over us, because we’ve confused unbridled capitalism with freedom;
we try and explain away authoritarianism and sedition by a major political party; and
we allow our nation’s greatest enemies to meddle in our elections, without any serious pushback.
Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment. It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which I can choose gratitude instead of a complaint. I can choose to be grateful when I am criticized, even when my heart responds in bitterness. I can choose to speak about goodness and beauty even when my inner eye still looks for someone to accuse or something to call ugly. I can choose to listen to the voices that forgive and to look at the faces that smile, even while I still hear words of revenge and see grimaces of hatred.”
Anticipating the rancor and resentment to come this week when we will certainly “hear words of revenge and see grimaces of hatred,” we can make a conscious choice. We all have the responsibility — which means the ability to respond — with words and actions that build up rather than tear down.
Real leaders are those who recognize the fragility of moments like the one we are in and lead with affirmative words and actions that build us up. True and authentic leaders — recognizing the power and strength of gratitude — make that conscious choice.
Each morning since 2013, alongside pictures from work, travel, musical moments, and family, a list of eight simple reminders shows up on my computer screen. These rules of how I want to live day-to-day are the result of a more intentional focus on life’s journey rather than relying on a changing list of annual resolutions. As one blogger noted in outlining a similar set of what he called “cardinal rules,” these are not quite principles, but are rules which — for the user — have lasted over time.
In thinking of the work before us in 2021 as we look to regain our equilibrium after a tumultuous year, we can all return to our own set of reminders. Though I often miss my personal marks, I return each day to be prompted about the things that matter to me and to focus on ways to live with compassion, grace, insight, integrity, and love.
We are all looking for our way through and beyond the difficulties of 2020. I’ve written — in one way or another — about each of my personal reminders over the past twelve months. Here are eight of those stories from More to Come, given in the hope that they will help you think about your cardinal rules in this new year.
Rule #1. Be Grateful. Be Thankful. Be Compassionate. Every Day.
Making time for gratitude(December 28) is my story of a practice that didn’t begin as a pandemic project. But as the weeks passed and turned into months, the realization deepened that the specific action of writing one or more thank you letters each week — not in a reflexive way but in a more thoughtful and intentional fashion — was a perfect antidote to the poison that seemed to permeate our lives in 2020. It was, for me, an ideal pandemic project.
Rule #2. Exercise six days a week for the rest of your life.
Journeys that move us toward justice never end(October 20) begins with a walk through Brookside Gardens. There were small signs of “Garden Mindfulness” along the path with reminders to “feel the air moving across your skin” and to “bring awareness to those parts of the body where you could feel the wind.” Upon discovering a labyrinth, I began to walk its path and recalled Rebecca Solnit’s words about the rules and morals of the practice:
“…sometimes you have to turn your back on your goal to get there, sometimes you’re farthest away when you’re closest, sometimes the only way is the long one. After the careful walking and looking down, the stillness of arrival was deeply moving.”
In troubled times it was a good reminder that your grandmother was right: A walk will do you good.
Rule #3. Listen more than you talk.
Listen, learn, love…and act (June 8) was written after the horrific murder of George Floyd and as the nation reached an important inflection point in our 400-year-old history with race and racism. A number of smart commentators noted that while we should stand up in the moment for an end to racism, white people like me need to listen, listen, and then listen some more, followed by work to educate ourselves about the systemic nature of racism, the ties to implicit bias, and how we can train ourselves to be anti-racist. But listening and learning, without action, will not change history. As the first African American presiding bishop in the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry, counsels, our actions should come as we walk a path of love.
Rule #4. Spend less than you make.
Be there (December 7) focuses on how you never know when someone needs you to be your best. It may be as you write a note or pour a cup of coffee. It fits with this reminder about money in that it contains the story of Lene and Abeba Tsegaye who left Ethiopia in the 1980s to move to the U.S. and set up a coffee shop in our town. On a recent visit to Kefa Cafe, Abeba told me these were challenging times, but that she and her sister have seen challenges before. I was able to tell her how much the café meant to us, and how much I appreciated the sign they had placed in their window which read, “Gratitude turns what we have into enough.” She replied that it was the way they tried to live. This is a good year for all of us to be grateful for what we have and to resist the urge to try and satisfy ourselves with more stuff.
Rule #5. Quit eating crap! Eat less of everything else.
Reflect. Reconsider. Reset. (March 23) was written early in the pandemic as we were each learning that navigating through difficult times is both a personal and communal journey. One of the ways to reset was my suggestion that we could use this time to straighten out our mental house. “Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision making, but they’re not. They’re habits,” according to Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business. Oftentimes the way I eat — and eat too much — is simply a habit. It was easier to reset this habit during 2020, since we stopped eating out and I benefited from thoughtful, well-prepared meals.
Rule #6. Play music.
Saturday Soundtrack: Doc Watson’s Deep River Blues (November 21) relates to a life rule that works for me but may not be important to you. Virtually any time I pull out one of my guitars, I end up playing Deep River Blues in the style of the late Doc Watson. In this post, I thought it would be fun to see what real guitar players do with this tune.
Rule #7. Connect and commit.
Remembrance, not regret (March 2) was written as I approached my 65th birthday. It has a similar focus to the first cardinal rule referenced in Niklas Göke‘s blog: “Make peace with your past so it won’t mess with your present.” In this post I thank the many family, friends, colleagues, and even strangers who have been there for me over 65 years. Their support has led me to a place where I now move quickly past feelings of regret to memories that provide a solid foundation on which to connect and commit anew. And while they may, or may not, remember what they did to lift me up, I remember.
Rule #8. Don’t be a Grumpy Old Man.Enjoy life!
Finding your potential: Aging in a time of turmoil (June 15) contained thoughts on two books I read this year after recognizing that one can’t claim to be middle age when no one lives to be 130 years old. Times of turmoil give us the chance to “change the status quo” about many things, including how we see the roles older people play in daily life and how we, as we age, can move past grumpiness into full enjoyment.
What did I learn from those who have successfully navigated the next third of life? To find the power and potential of our lives, we should:
Maintain a future orientation that provides the ability to anticipate, plan, and hope. Learn something new every day.
Stay engaged with meaningful work.
Exercise, but don’t worry about getting a gym membership.
Spend time with younger people.
Build the capacity for gratitude and forgiveness and focus your perspective around empathy for how others see the world.
Get enough sleep.
Do things with people, as opposed to doing things to people.
Oh, and as neuroscientist Daniel Levitin reminds us at the end of his book, don’t forget to laugh. “Whatever’s going on around you, remember to laugh.”
Here’s to a better 2021.
More to come…
DJB
Image: My computer wallpaper with DJB’s Life Rules as a daily reminder of what matters.
This special Thursday edition of Saturday Soundtrack is timed for December 31st, when, for some reason, you may have a drink in your hand.
You may be drinking to celebrate the New Year and to welcome President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Or you may be lifting a glass to say goodbye to a year that has been horrid in almost every way possible. You may be toasting the soon-to-be end of an administration that has tried to kill democracy in America. Perhaps you are anticipating a Dry January and have decided to load up before the calendar turns over.
No matter the reason, here are a few songs for Jack, Jim, and all of their friends to get you in the mood, beginning with a couple from one of my old favorites, David Bromberg. The first, with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen, is Keep on Drinkin’ — not the last time we’ll hear someone disregard the advice of their doctor.
The second Bromberg tune is a long-time favorite of fans — as you can tell by the sing-along nature of the chorus — I Like to Sleep Late in the Morning.
Norah Jones doesn’t normally go off on benders, but her “alternative” band, The Little Willies, get drunk singing a song written by the inspiration for the group’s name, Willie Nelson.
“I gotta get drunk I can’t stay sober There’s a lot of good people in town Who’d like to hear me holler See me spend my dollars And I wouldn’t think of lettin’ ’em down
There’s a lot of doctors that tell me That I’d better start to slowin’ it down But there’s more old drunkers Than there are old doctors So I guess we’d better have another round“
Even though the quality of the video isn’t great, the guitar solos by Jim Campilongo are amazing and worth the trouble.
The Watkins Family Hour with Sean and Sara Watkins calls up one of the saddest drinking songs around, The King of the 12 Ounce Bottle, on their debut album.
We don’t know how long we’re here for, do we?
So much beer, and so little time.
Chris Stapleton has sung his share of drinking songs. Here he is with his old band The SteeldriversDrinking Dark Whiskey, Telling White Lies followed by the beautiful solo acoustic version of Whiskey and You.
And just because Stapleton left the Steeldrivers to begin his solo career, it doesn’t mean the band forgot how to drink.
“I’m drinking like a fish and dancing like a mule Fighting like a chicken and talking like a fool And I will ’till I don’t have to honkey-tonk my blues ‘Cause anything’s better than thinking about you Sitting at home, knowing your gone Watching the phone, drinking alone“
I don’t know, drinkin’ alone sounds so 2020.
Seriously, folks, don’t drink and drive. At all. Be safe. Enjoy yourself. And goodbye 2020…you’ve been a helluva year (and that’s a nice way to put it).
Welcome 2021.
More to come… DJB
Image: Bourbon (Photo Credit: The Adventures of Sarah and Derrick)
Bonus: And here’s one of many references in song to being with Jack (Daniels), Jim (Beam), and all of their friends, from the 2015 CMA Awards show.
“I can’t drink you away I’ve tried Jack, I’ve tried Jim I’ve tried all of their friends But I can’t drink you away“
This Weekly Reader features links to articles that grabbed my interest or tickled my fancy as we approached the end of 2020. Here’s hoping you find something that makes you laugh, think, or cry.
With everything that happened, editorial cartoonists more than made their money this year. Have you forgotten that we impeached a president in 2020? That seems like history from another era.
Immerwahr wrote one of the best works of history I read this year. His ability to illuminate complex issues comes through again in this piece in the Post, where he outlines the contours of the battle over patriotism in the classroom. He explains that the study of history isn’t based on how we feel, but what we learn, and provides two reasons why the question over patriotism in the classroom is an odd one.
“The aim of a geometry class is not for students to love or hate triangles but to learn the Pythagorean theorem. Similarly, the point of U.S. history isn’t to have students revere or reject the country but to help them understand it.
The second reason is that, by imagining history class as a pep rally or a gripe session, we squeeze the history out of it. The United States becomes a fixed entity with static principles, inviting approval or scorn. And that makes it hard to see how the country has changed with time.“
A good history class, writes Immerwahr, “doesn’t treat the United States as an unvarying force for freedom or oppression but as an arena where worldviews compete. Students learn that different people had irreconcilable dreams, clashing understandings of what made their country ‘great.’ They learn that history is messy.”
Ed takes the reader on a fascinating look, with an insightful assemblage of maps, at how two centuries of black migration in the U.S. shaped today’s political parties.
“In many ways…the broad outlines of the election of 2020 — like the elections of the last half-century — are products of the 1820s and 1920s. Fundamental contours of the electorate were defined by the migrations of Black Americans, first in the forced movements of enslavement and then in the bold movements of the Great Migration and succeeding generations.“
Eight years before the 2020 election the changing nature of the suburbs in the South (from white to black) and gerrymandering by Republicans in more rural states had crystallized voting patterns at the congressional level. If you want to understand more about how the election played out, take a look at Ed’s history of black migration over the past 200 years.
In one of the under-reported stories of the year (perhaps the press should get a pass just this once, given everything on their plate), the brains who run Major League Baseball decided that this was the time to gut another of America’s beloved institutions.
“There will be 40 fewer minor leagues farm teams next year than there were in 2019….The minor leagues—which rely on in-person interactions like concessions and ticket sales—were hit hard when the pandemic forced the cancellation of their 2020 seasons, but that’s not why these franchises got kicked to the curb. Plans to dramatically reduce the number of minor league franchises and players were in the works long before that, because Major League Baseball is filled with insufferable ghouls.“
Of course, the cheating Houston Astros with their ex-McKinsey general manager were among the leaders of this drive to “optimize” baseball and save costs.
“It’s a testament to the almost religious levels of self-absorption among Major League owners and executives that they didn’t think (or perhaps just did not care) about just how awful it sounds to tell people, publicly, that baseball games are a wasteful byproduct of professional baseball, as opposed to the entire point of professional baseball.
“Even as other sports produce better highlights or cooler players, baseball’s great asset is that it’s there. A game is a nice place to be, with friends or family, reasonably close to where you live…Most people who go to these games will not particularly care if a pitcher throws 90 miles per hour instead of 93. They might not even be able to tell you what happened on the field at all. Getting rid of the ubiquity that’s sustained its popularity for 150 years gets sold as streamlining. It’s really just strip-mining.“
This is not just a baseball story, notes Murphy.
“By this point in the 21st century, you should know enough to run full speed away from people who talk about optimization—people who take over beloved institutions with little appreciation for what those institutions actually do, who talk about getting better by getting leaner, about rooting out inefficiencies and pivoting into a new ‘space.’ These people buy newspapers and gut them. They buy your company and make you build a stage for the announcement where they lay you off. They take over the post office and, well, you know.“
Yes, we do. As I said, Murphy hits a home run with this piece. Go read the entire aticle.
Jeffrey Barg notes that there are so many things we should leave behind as the calendar turns — “including far too many words and phrases that 2020 wrung dry.” Here are three of the 13 he features in a funny and insightful piece:
“I don’t know who needs to hear this, but …” Stop lying. You know exactly who needs to hear it. Grow some stones and confront them.
“Asking for a friend.” Stop lying. You don’t have friends.
“This is so me.” Grammatically, this one is interesting. So is a remarkably versatile word, having legitimate uses in five different parts of speech: It can be an adverb, adjective, conjunction, noun, or pronoun. In this sentence, me, which would typically be a pronoun, is functioning as an adjective, following the linking verb is. So that makes so an adverb modifying an erstwhile pronoun functioning as an adjective. But being grammatically interesting doesn’t make your overused sentence interesting itself.
Moving to a musical theme, for those who like their songs with a Southern twang, check out the 30 Best Southern Albums of 2020 from The Bitter Southerner.
The list is wide and eclectic, just like the South. Some are from old musical friends, such as Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, and The Chicks. Others were new to my ears. All are interesting and many are worth repeated listenings.
“Haven’t we all spent the year examining myriad aspects of our lives, reflecting on what works and what doesn’t? And even more than before, we’re turning to reading with wildly different purposes in mind.“
Bogel has structured her challenge around these questions:
What do you want more of in your reading life?
What do you want to be different in your reading life?
What are you looking for in your reading life right now?
For those who want to “read harder” in 2021, you might also want to check out this challenge.
Enjoy these writers and artists, and we’ll see what the first week of 2021 brings in the next Weekly Reader.
In early March, when the thought of how best to express my gratitude first arose, it was near the milestone of a 65th birthday. But as the weeks passed and turned into months, the realization deepened that the specific action of writing one or more thank you letters each week was a perfect antidote to the poison that seemed to permeate our lives in 2020. It was, for me, an ideal pandemic project.
“I turned sixty-five in 2020,” each letter began…
“,,,which certainly falls in the “time flies by quickly” category. In ways that I never could have imagined, I have had a fortunate life. In wanting to recognize this milestone, I found some inspiration in two very different places. First, I was taken with the powerful scene in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood when Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers asks a reporter to take a minute of silence in the middle of a Chinese restaurant to consider the people who’ve loved him into being. The second is writer Nancy Davis Kho’s Thank You Project. Both have motivated me to write thank you notes over the course of this year to the people that have enriched my life. This week I want to thank you.
What followed was several paragraphs that described the reasons I was grateful to have that particular person in my life. The letters generally ended with the complimentary close, “With much gratefulness and admiration” sometimes augmented with “and love.”
When making the decision to begin this year of gratitude, my journal quickly filled with the names of siblings, in-laws, former bosses, teachers, and long-time friends. But as the weeks passed and I thought more and more about the people who had really been there in times of need — benefactors in one way or another — the list expanded to include a range of colleagues over four decades, spiritual and secular mentors, people in positions of power who demonstrated how I should support others when given similar levels of responsibility, and those who guided and stretched my intellect.
By December 20th, 52 individuals had received a letter, one for each week of the year. Those who would have been on the list had they lived included my parents and grandparents, of course; a board chairman who called every single morning during his two-year term to check my temperature and see how he could be of help; and an influential college professor and his wife, who became good friends over three decades.
Early in life I was taught the importance of saying thank you, to the point that it entered my DNA. However, real appreciation for the act of gratitude and the kindness that is conveyed through that action has come only in recent years. It can mean a great deal when people remember you with a short but pithy note, send a generous and unexpected recognition, or reach out across decades to recall long-ago friendships. I have been the recipient of each of those gifts in my lifetime and know their power.
This year of gratitude has provided an abundance of life lessons. By focusing on how to articulate what it is about someone else that has proven so beneficial in our lives, we are led to the realization of how much our thoughts, words, and deeds are shaped by others. Community, in all its meanings, is key to a fuller existence.
The first boss who truly shaped my career served as a role model in how to support staff by recognizing their individual needs. She also encouraged my professional growth, even when it meant leaving her office for new opportunities. Bosses and other mentors who followed her taught lessons in how to listen, in generosity that leads to sharing as opposed to hoarding, in ways to build and reward initiative, in the value of a wide and curious perspective, in the need for clarity in thought, and in the benefits that come in welcoming a stranger with a figurative embrace as people move into new and different circumstances.
So many mentors believed in me, providing affirmation that was there at critical times. They had a willingness to share work, decisions, credit, and praise; encouraged engagement and empowerment with boards and other leadership groups; and placed me in situations where I could learn, succeed, occasionally fail, and ultimately grow. It is a good lesson to keep front and center as the opportunities arise to support those in earlier phases of their life and careers.
It became clear over the year that many of my benefactors were vulnerable and human, revealing ways to open up to others that did not come naturally to me. So many have an uncanny ability to listen with empathy. Knowing how to laugh came through time and again. Abundant good humor — often of the self-deprecating variety — can help make suggestions easier to digest. I thought of friends, co-workers, and loved ones whose lives demonstrated the value of generosity, a positive outlook on life, forbearance, and simple kindness. A choral director changed my life when, through her patience and skill, she showed me the transformative nature of music. There were two individuals in particular who will forever be important in my life, as they taught me how to work through troubles and handle loss.
And some of the earliest and most enduring benefactors were my siblings, who challenged, nurtured, and supported me throughout childhood and beyond. From them I learned the warmth that comes from a spirit of hospitality, the fearlessness that makes life worth living, and the love that overcomes differences.
Writing weekly letters of gratitude did not begin as a pandemic project, but the intentionality of articulating what others have brought to my life could not have come at a better time. Besides recognizing the good fortune we have in those who shaped us, a benefit of giving is what comes back in return. I received dozens of kind and thoughtful responses, some several pages long, that spoke of the effect of the gratitude on the recipient and the depth of our relationship from their perspective. These are emails, notes, and letters that I will always treasure.
To all who have touched and supported my life, thank you. I cannot begin to truly express how grateful I am for you, but I am enriched beyond measure in making the time to try.
The world lost one of the greatest and most influential acoustic guitarists of the last 50 years when Tony Rice passed away on Christmas morning at the age of 69.
In the 1970s at the tender age of 21, David Anthony Rice — known to everyone as Tony — redefined bluegrass guitar when he joined banjoist J.D. Crowe’s New South and began playing guitar leads that referenced flatpicking greats Clarence White and Doc Watson, but were nonetheless uniquely Tony Rice’s music. Crowe’s band came to include Ricky Skaggs and Jerry Douglas, both of whom had long associations in various musical combinations with Rice. It was with the New South that Rice also began to make his mark as one of the new breed of vocalists in bluegrass, who owed as much to Gordon Lightfoot as he did to Bill Monroe. The New South’s self-titled album, known among aficionados by its catalog number 0044, is considered a classic in bluegrass. This 1975 video showcases the band — with Rice’s lead singing and guitar playing — at the height of their time together.
In the mid-1970s Rice left the New South to join with mandolinist David Grisman to create what became known as Dawg Music or, more broadly, New Acoustic Music. The group’s debut album, The David Grisman Quintet, remains as one of the most influential of its time. Grisman, Rice, and violinist Darol Anger — taking the leads — were playing a type of string jazz influenced by gypsy, blues, and bluegrass music that had a beauty and clarity that was unique for its time and jaw dropping in its inspiration. Now, 40+ years later every acoustic musician worth his or her salt can work their way through similar tunes, but the originality of Grisman’s vision in the 1970s reminds me of the breakthrough of bluegrass when Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs joined Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys in the 1940s and a whole new American music was created. The opening tune on the album, E.M.D. — seen here played by Grisman, Rice, violinist Mark O’Connor and longtime Grisman bassist Rob Wasserman — set the tone for what was to come. Rice’s dazzling guitar break begins at the 1:10 mark.
When Rice left Grisman’s band, he continued with the jazzy sounds of DGQ through his own Tony Rice Unit — featured here with Mar West — but he also began returning to his bluegrass roots with albums such as his tribute to country brother duets with Ricky Skaggs, captured here with The Soul of Man Never Dies, and the Bluegrass Album Band, seen in a 1991 performance at the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) awards show with fiddler Vassar Clements.
Throughout the 1980s and 90s, Rice played with a number of musical collaborators, as he was the guitarist of choice for many musicians. Some of the best of those bands were the super-groups often consisting of Rice, banjoist Bela Fleck, mandolinist Sam Bush, dobroist Jerry Douglas, fiddler Mark O’Connor, and bassist Mark Schatz. Whitewater, a Bela Fleck tune played by the group at an early Merlefest, is a great example of these collaborations. Rice’s first guitar solo begins at the :50 mark and his second one begins around 2:45.
UPDATE: Since writing this appreciation on Sunday, I’ve listened to hours of Tony Rice on YouTube, and I have to add in another song from this wonderful Merlefest set with Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas, Bela Fleck, Mark O’Connor, and Mark Schatz. Freeborn Man is just the coolest of the cool from what is arguably the best bluegrass supergroup ever assembled. Don’t take my word for it, listen to what Tony said:
“Have you heard any of the stuff that was done by the group of myself and Sam, and Bela and Flux, and Mark O’Connor? Have you heard any of that stuff? It was back at MerleFest, there’s quite a bit of footage of us playing live. There’s tunes like Freeborn Man and Nine Pound Hammer, were – you talk about an ensemble. And uh – I don’t know – Mark O’Connor playing that bluegrass fiddle like that was just absolutely mind-blowing. I’ll go and get on my computer and listen to that stuff and listen to him paying the solos in Freeborn Man and Nine Pound Hammer – listen to Jerry Douglas’s solos and I think Jesus, this is just amazing shit.” –Tony Rice (taken from “A Conversation with Tony Rice directed by Jan Johansson, in 2019)
And if to prove my point, my younger brother sent me this video of a guitar teacher breaking down this song. His mind is blown, as every solo in here is just amazing in its complexity and in the way the ensemble interacts.
BACK TO THE ORIGINAL POST: Rice continued to honor others who made the acoustic flatpicked guitar such a force in roots music through his collaborations with Watson and Norman Blake, among others.
Manzanita was a signature tune for Rice, that he played and replayed on various albums and with different musical collaborators throughout the years. Here is a version from Tony’s 2000 album Unit of Measure.
In the Nineties, Rice was diagnosed with dysphonia, an affliction of the vocal cords that all but robbed him of his singing voice. Rice also battled arthritis and elbow issues that affected his playing. He gave his last public performance on guitar during his 2013 induction into the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and delivered an emotional acceptance speech.
The obituary also quoted numerous musicians and acolytes who noted Rice’s influence.
“’The list of guitarists who reinvented the most played instrument in the world is very short. Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix… a few others. Tony Rice is on that list,’ Charlie Worsham told Rolling Stone in an email. ‘Hang out long enough with a couple guitar players, and you’ll hear phrases like ‘Manzanita, or ‘Cold on the Shoulder,’ dropped into the conversation like code, like a test to see how much you know about the good shit. Anyone who strives to flat pick a guitar with a solid right hand, to meld raw physical power with the grace and precision of a hummingbird’s wings owes a debt of gratitude to Tony Rice.’”
I first heard Tony live with the David Grisman Quintet in Atlanta around 1978, and I last heard him with the Tony Rice Unit at Merlefest in 2009 and again in 2012, a year before he stopped playing in public. He was always inventive, thoughtful, and stretching boundaries in ways that pointed paths for others.
My personal copy, inscribed “To my old pickin pal, David – Tony Rice”
UPDATE NUMBER 2: In 2010, I reviewed Still Inside: The Tony Rice Storyon More to Come. It was part of a blog where I looked at several books, and you can find the full review by clicking on the link above, but this is the bulk of what I wrote:
“Rice is — in my humble opinion — the best acoustic guitarist on the planet, and this work covers his entire life’s story and musical development. Much of it is written in Tony’s own words or comes from remembrances from fellow musicians and friends. The section on the development of David Grisman’s Dawg music, when Rice left his bluegrass roots and joined the seminal David Grisman Quintet in 1975, is worth the price of the book. As Tony says, there are now at least 10 guitarists who can play circles around him while playing Rice’s own music, but none have the tone and touch…and none came up with the beautiful combination of roots, bluegrass, jazz, and even classical influences that makes the best of Dawg music still fresh some 30+ years later. After reading the book, I recalled all those great Rice albums that I had listened to on vinyl and immediately went online and downloaded several CDs worth of music from Tony’s four decades of music. Backwaters is Tony’s favorite, and with fresh listening I can see why.
The best part of Still Inside? My copy of the book is inscribed “To my old pickin’ pal, David – Tony Rice.” Now, there’s not a shred of truth in that, but my grandchildren (should I ever have any) will never know! Thanks to my friend Leti, who stood in line at Merlefest when I couldn’t go this year and snared the best inscription ever for a guitar lover.”
BACK AGAIN TO THE ORIGINAL POST: Tony Rice’s music was part of the 2004 documentary film Bluegrass Journey, and a fitting place to end this tribute is with his haunting solo version of Shenandoah, which — with a short commentary on art at the end by Tim O’Brien — puts a coda on Tony’s life and work.
Rest in peace, Tony Rice. Your music influenced generations and will live on in those whom you have touched and blessed.
More to come…
DJB
Image: Tony Rice with his younger brother Wyatt at Merlefest 2012 by DJB
In October of 2019, the realization hit that blog posts around music had slowed to a trickle on More to Come. To push away from always writing about politics, work, life lessons, or leadership issues, a commitment was born to write a new post each Saturday to focus on music and musicians that had caught my ear.
Soon it became clear that people were actually reading these things! One dear friend, who has since passed away, commented on the obscure musicians that “only Oakley Pearson (a mutual friend) and David Brown have ever heard of.” Yet a family member on my wife’s side wrote to say that an album by one of those obscure musicians just discovered was on his “Best of 2016” list. Sometimes I’m ahead of the pack and sometimes a bit behind. A friend and former work colleague from Chicago suggested he was finding all sorts of new music, although some of it “had a bit too much twang” for his tastes. A retired lobbyist and friend here in DC commented on a singer’s Amy Winehouse sensibilities. It helps that we have young adult children to keep us cool. A lawyer in Cleveland mentioned at the end of a business-related call that our musical sensibilities were very similar, and we found a shared love for Darrell Scott. (Post coming soon.) And then a former colleague wrote to say she would follow my playlist on Spotify, if I had one. Whew! All high praise that keeps me going.
So 2020 was the first full year of that commitment. At year’s end, we are going to turn to see what you — the readers and listeners — enjoyed by highlighting the top ten viewed/listened to posts from the Saturday Soundtrackseries, beginning with….
The July 4th post was a pitch to change the national anthem from the unsingable and militaristic Star Spangled Banner to the Woody Guthrie song that no less an authority than Bruce Springsteen has said is “one of the greatest songs ever written about America” because it “gets right to the heart of the promise of what our country was supposed to be about.” Listen to Springsteen’s live version and see if you don’t agree. “With a country, just like with people, it is easy to let the best of yourself slip away.”
Country musician Tyler Childers is from Kentucky, having grown up with a father who worked in the coal industry and a mother who worked as a nurse. Like many a country musician, he began singing in church — in his case the local Free Will Baptist congregation. His grandfather gave him a guitar, he absorbed the music of the 1980s, and began writing songs. To my taste, Childer’s best work to date is the solo acoustic work you find on the Red Barn Radio sessions and on YouTube videos. White House Road may be one of the best of these songs, as the singer from Paintsville, Kentucky — famous for its lawlessness, religion, and booze — puts his own spin on life in rural Appalachia.
Posts during the five Saturdays in February highlighted different musicians at the forefront of the work to reclaim the African American contributions to folk, old-time, country and roots music. Giddens is the woman who has one of the most visible roles in leading, in Rolling Stone’s words, the “movement of 21st-century singers, artists, songwriters and instrumentalists of color who have been reclaiming the racially heterogeneous lineages of folk, country and American roots music.” From another post this year which featured Giddens, enjoy her haunting version of Wayfaring Stranger.
“When you go to heaven and hear singing, it will sound like these three women.” That’s a quote from mandolinist Chris Thile, and apparently a lot of readers agree with his assessment of the overall wonderfulness of the Grammy-award winning roots music trio I’m With Her comprised of Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, and Sara Watkins.
I’m With Her – Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O’Donovan – at July 2015 Red Wing Roots Music Festival
Having heard this band live on multiple occasions, in 2020 I featured them in the Soundtrack series as both a trio and as individual musicians. Call My Name was awarded the Grammy for 2020’s Best American Roots Song, and their performance on Thile’s Live from Here show is a great example of the beautiful harmonies that are integral to their work.
It was great fun selecting grim and scary songs for Halloween. The best of the Halloween songs have been hiding out in the roots music bin, just as the great, old folktales were ones that really hit the mark when it came to ghosts, goblins, and other things that go bump in the night. This led to many views and some great feedback. The song that took me down this spooky path is the Del McCoury Band’s title track from the album It’s Just the Night, with backing vocals by the classic gospel group Fairfield Four.
Sturgill Simpson is the hard-to-classify, but always intriguing singer and songwriter who sounds like Waylon Jennings or Merle Haggard (take your choice, as both were great singers); writes about topics not often heard on contemporary country radio; has outspoken progressive politics sure to rub many country music fans the wrong way; and who has a gift for surprise. Two examples of the many routes his music has taken can be found in his performance with the Dap Kings of All Around You at the Grammys and the anti-war rocker Call to Arms from his Saturday Night Live show.
In June 2020, Simpson posted a video of a live-streamed one-hour concert held on Friday, June 5th, at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium — the mother church of country music — with an all-star bluegrass band in anticipation of his fall release of two albums of his own music in the bluegrass style. It is wonderful! If you have the time to pull up a chair and crack open a cold one, I won’t stop you. If you don’t have time for the entire concert, give a listen to Breakers Roar from his Cuttin’ Grass, Vol. 1 album.
Suffice it to say that my son Andrew and I share a deep love for unaccompanied vocal ensembles singing beautiful and intricately-crafted compositions from the classical canon. Realizing that one of the Saturday Music post in April would fall on the final day of Holy Week, I reached out to Andrew — who was in his London flat, sheltering in place during his final year at the Royal College of Music — and asked for some help. He was all in! His curated collection of beautiful and moving vocal music was a big hit with readers, coming in #4 on this year’s top ten list of Soundtrack favorites.
Tenebrae, under the direction of Nigel Short, is one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles renowned for its passion and precision. Their version of Like as the Hart by the English composer Herbert Howells is a beautiful and thoughtful rendering of this classic, which is based on Psalm 42 vv. 1–3. Howells taught composition at the Royal College of Music for almost 60 years, and this particular composition has long been a favorite.
Coming in at #3 on the countdown — God, I feel like Casey Kasem — is a musical celebration of Juneteenth. On the post one can find various versions of the song known as the “Black National Anthem.” Here it is in a classic setting from late November 2016 — an especially auspicious time — at Abyssinian Baptist Church.
In November, our own Andrew Bearden Brown was a part of the concert series Music at Emmanuel in his program Dream & Escape. Featuring works by Samuel Barber, Mozart, and Gerald Finzi, the program was inspired by the vivid and strange dreams many of us were experiencing at the beginning of the lockdown. Christian Lane is the pianist, and the concert was beautifully edited by Max Kuzmyak. The recital was taped in historic Emmanuel Episcopal Church in downtown Baltimore. I may be biased, but the program and music are lovely.
If anyone had to knock Andrew out of the top spot this year, he can’t complain because it was that incomparable national treasure, Mavis Staples. The picture at the top of the post may have given it away!
There was no better musical artist to celebrate during The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend than Staples. Readers seemed to agree, and kept coming back week-after-week. This post often ended up on the “trending” list.
Her reach and impact as a once-in-a-generation artist has been astounding. Staples is a member of both the Blues Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a Grammy Award winner, a Kennedy Center honoree, and a recipient of the National Arts Lifetime Achievement Award. As someone who began singing during the civil rights movement and marched with Dr. King, her longevity in the spotlight is a testament to her magnificent talent. Mavis Staples performed at John F. Kennedy’s inauguration and sang at President Barack Obama’s White House.
Let’s salute her work with one of her best-known songs, I’ll Take You There and with her great cover of Bob Dylan’s Gotta Serve Somebody.
Music is a language that helps us process loss. Throughout 2020, Americans have had to call on that language time and again as more than 300,000 of our fellow citizens have lost their lives to COVID. Overall, “25% of U.S. adults say they or someone in their household was laid off or lost their job because of the coronavirus outbreak, with 15% saying this happened to them personally.” On top of this health and economic crisis, we are facing the potential loss of our democracy to minority rule.
So many have suffered personal losses during this year, holes in their lives that shake their soul. For those who find nurture in roots, country, folk, and acoustic music, the death of singer/songwriter John Prine to COVID early in the pandemic still creates a void that is difficult to fill.
When a tribute to Prine’s song Paradise came in just outside the top ten, the More to Come editors decided to add it as a special bonus to help sum up the year. This celebration premiered October 3rd on, “Let The Music Play On”: A Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Broadcast, featuring many of John’s friends. Hardly Strictly Bluegrass is a Bay Area institution in San Francisco and Prine was a regular. His full sets from 2014 and 2017 are available to watch on the HSB website.
The artists in the tribute range from a handful of our most cherished roots musicians to some of the youngest and most innovative performers of our times. These are the type of people who are attracted to John’s music and his sensitivities as a songwriter. Bonnie Raitt — who had a huge hit with Prine’s Angel from Montgomery — takes the lead on the song’s final verse.
When I die let my ashes float down the Green River / Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam / I’ll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin’ / Just five miles away from wherever I am.”
[Chorus:] And daddy won’t you take me back to Muhlenberg County / Down by the Green River where Paradise lay / Well, I’m sorry my son, but you’re too late in asking / Mister Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away
Paradise is, of course, a song about loss. Loss of youthful innocence and the loss of our environment. In accordance with Prine’s wishes, half of his ashes were spread in Kentucky’s Green River. The other half were buried next to his parents in Chicago.
It is a wonderful tribute to someone whose loss still stings.
Thanks for listening during this most difficult of years. You chose some exquisite music for your 2020 favorites. Let’s look forward to sharing more great musicians and their craft in 2021.
As is true for so many of our fellow travelers on this earth, Christmas 2020 is unlike any other in our family.
In years past we would travel to be with family, siblings, cousins, and friends. Christmas 2020 will be celebrated without travel and without a large gathering of loved ones. Because our parish buildings are closed to help defeat the spread of a deadly virus, we won’t be able to join in some of our family traditions, such as serving at the annual parish Christmas dinner. Even in a year when we have avoided serious health issues and so desperately want to hold our loved ones close, the desire to defeat the spread of the coronavirus means that for the first time in 27 years, the four of us won’t physically be in the same city and the same house to celebrate the season.
So much of Christmas 2020 brings a feeling of dislocation, as noted by our rector in his online Christmas Eve sermon. And yet, we can use this year’s season — in whatever way you celebrate this time of year — to begin to relocate what is important in life, in relationships, in building hope for a future where love trumps hate.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays, with best wishes for 2021.
More to come…
DJB
Image: The Brown family Christmas 2020 tree (credit: Andrew Brown)
MORE TO COME... 