JH

Whew... gone dark for a while there while I began my journey from "musician-journalist" to "musician-journalist-with-an-economics-degree."  With that in mind, let's pick up with a Christmas tune that's got an economic twist. A live recording from our last (sniff!) Story Slam, at the end of 2007. Three years later, I'm still failing.

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It's back to school time!  Not just for the rest of the world this year, but for me too. Been so busy I haven't posted in a while, but I'm here to keep it alive. This was from a spring 2007 show on education: Schoolhouse Rock meets a truly cynical history of U.S. public schoolin'.  With Robin Johnson in her first-ever performance in the role of "Jimmy," Joe Weismann on various manly voices, and The Smarts backin' me up.  And for those of you viewing this (podcast) post on the web, here's the video, still doing decent traffic on YouTube:

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The video of the live performance on Twin Cities Public Television. (Never know quite what to do with my face during the introduction. Just look contemplatively at the guy talking, I guess.)

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Hold up: Something new? Yes, indeed, it's a brand new song. I had a date with Twin Cities Public Television's "Almanac" to write a song about the week's news, and I was drawn to the latest grim forecasts for the spread of Asian Carp into the Great Lakes.   Decided to model it after a children's song I remembered -- maybe you do too?

Joe from The Smarts joined me on bass.

This is only the song -- I'll post a video of the full segment (including delightful little interview) to the feed shortly.

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Surfing for something fun to post today, I smiled listening to this again.  From the nostalgia-shrouded, beautiful, creative days of our live show -- and also the depths of disenchantment with a certain now-ex-president. With the drubbing Obama's getting in his public approval these days, this is a reminder that he has much farther to sink. The magical thing about this recording -- and you can hear it from the audience -- is that this song arose in the midst of a show not about politics, but about whether we're defined by our jobs. They never saw it coming.  Features The Smarts backing me up, of course...and one of my first attempts to play mandolin in front of a crowd of people.

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Rounding out the end of the week, here's the last track -- a song entirely based off of a ubiquitous, three-line advertisement for Rosetta Stone language learning software. The company discovered a live recording I posted online (from an MPR talent show) and promptly flew me out to their Virginia headquarters to perform it for an all-staff meeting. I always knew good things would come from reading SkyMall...btw, that's a baritone ukulele leading it off, and bassist Joe Weismann on the harmony vocals.

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So here's the Black Sheep of the batch: It's not really journalistic or storytelling in the way the other four are. And it's the only one of the tracks that is actually about me, written in the depths of my social malaise as a transplant in St. Cloud some years ago.  But in that sense, it very much fits the "Small Town Heroics" theme.  Plus the band has been playing it live a lot more lately, and it was really starting to groove. Good time to lay it down, with the rest of The Smarts and I playing our best "The Range" to Jim Kennedy's Bruce Hornsby piano.

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Of all the dozens and dozens of tunes I wrote for the show, perhaps I feel most strongly about this one.  For one thing, it's the song from our last live show (sniff). But the story is what gets me. Based on a suggestion from a listener, I drove two hours north to meet her 107-year-old grandmother. The year before, this woman (Marie Ring) became the second-oldest known person to obtain her U.S. citizenship. This song is based on her life and memories. I turned it in just a few day, as usual, but I think it stands up as a lasting tribute to a long, interesting, and not always perfect journey.

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Here's the second track off the (five-song) EP, "Small Town Heroics." This one I wrote after spending a night in St. Paul's Dorothy Day homeless shelter, part of my preparation for a show we hosted there in 2007. I took three people I talked with there, and made a song from what I remembered they told me. Though we performed it for the live show, I cut it from the radio version because we needed time (two homeless musicians were also featured on the show -- like I was gonna cut them?).  But I liked the song, and still play it for shows that can tolerate kind of a downer in the set.  Props to Mo for not losing his mind while playing those Johnny Cash Drums.

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The first track off the new studio EP, "Small Town Heroics."  Recorded with The Smarts. While I wrote this tune eight years ago, and it has been recorded live a couple times, this is the first full studio recording -- featuring backing vocals, a tenor guitar intro and all-sax horn section.  Mo on drums, Joe on bass, Jim on piano (all three on backing vocals) and me on whatever else you hear.  St. Cloud Superman is a real guy, and you can probably still find him at the location mentioned in the song.

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