The Song in My Head

I had THE most vivid music dream last night.

In the dream, I was down in the mountains of Tennessee and somehow I ended up at an old cabin where they were recording a country music radio show, featuring Johnny Cash. And the radio show's producers were asking for volunteers to play three songs each with The Man in Black. You had to perform one of Johnny's songs. Then sing a cover song of your choice by another artist. Then you had to sing one of your OWN songs.

There were about a dozen other people there, all musicians, and they were struggling to come up with their three songs. The next thing I knew I was up there on the creaky stage, standing next to Mr. Cash (who smelled of beer) grinning like a fool, trying to remember what songs I wanted to do. We played a passable version of "Ring of Fire," my fave Johnny C. song. Then I pulled out a song I just learned, called "Blue Northern Lights" by Ollabelle. It's a lovely ballad with pedal steel guitar moaning in the background. Johnny Cash raved about it and wanted to play it over again.

Lastly I played him one of my up-tempo mountain-music tunes, called "I Don't Want to Be A Soldier Boy" about a reluctant participant in the American Civil War. He liked that one, too, but he LOVED the Ollabelle song. And I can see why, since it's been the Song in My Head for two weeks.

Too bad Johnny Cash is gone. In my dream he was a prince of a nice guy--very supportive of the younger artists trying to impress him. I have no idea what the dream meant, or what it portends, but it was vivid as heck. I can still smell the old cabin!

Ollabelle is a relatively new band with a great musical lineage. One of the female members of the band, Amy Helm, is the daughter of Levon Helm, drummer for The Band. Ollabelle has a very old-timey musical sensibility, without getting boringly repetitive. And since so many band members sing and play instruments, they put out a lot of different sounds. You can hear some of these songs and sounds here:

Tonight the Song in My Head is:

Blue Northern Lights
by Ollabelle
from their recent album

Riverside Battle Songs

Red Belly

Red-bellied woodpecker, male, photographed on Saturday in the snow and through a closed sliding glass door.
He's showing off just a touch of his namesake belly color.

As a beginning bird watcher I often wondered about certain bird names. Why was the ring-necked duck so named? Where's the ring on the neck? And the red-bellied woodpecker? I never saw its red belly. These names are left over from the era of shotgun ornithology, when birds were shot, then examined in the hand for unique field marks.

It's hard to see the subtle ring around the neck of the ring-necked duck, unless one is lying in your hands and its head is dangling lifelessly downward, exposing the full length of the neck. Red-bellied woodpeckers in their normal pattern of living, keep their bellies firmly propped against tree trunks, making any red feathers very hard to see. Again, on a bird in the hand, those red belly feathers pop right out at you.

I'm glad we're not still shooting birds to identify them. It's loud, bloody, hard to do, and too hard on the birds.

A Good American

Like all GOOD Americans I finished my taxes yesterday. Which is to say I crammed all my receipts and bank statements into a giant manila envelope and dropped it off at my accountant's office when he was not looking. Now it's his problem.

I worked really hard and got several nasty paper cuts. Here are some photos of me, upstanding American that I am, working hard on my taxes*.



*actual photos do not represent, nor are they intended to represent, a citizen of the United States of America engaging in his/her/its patriotic duty to prepare and pay in full all taxes due to the federal, state, or local government all of which are run by simians, which does not imply, infer, or suggest the validity or the invalidity of Darwin's theory of evolution. If the amount on line 14 was paid on or after 4/15/07, enter 0. If the amount on line 14 was paid before 4/15/07, make the following computation to find the amount to enter on line 16. Amount on line 14 multiplied by Number of days paid before 4/15/07 multiplied by .00022”. In 1814 we took a little trip. Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip. We took a little bacon and we took a little beans and we fought the bloody British near the town of New Orleans. My gosh, look at the time!