Tag: blues

Monday’s Theme Music

Welcome to another May Monday, the tenth day of May, the one hundred thirtieth day of 2021. Sol marched into the sky at 5:55 AM and is staying until 8:20 PM. Our southern Oregon classic spring continues with cool, refreshing blue-sky mornings, clouds coming in later in the day, and a high in the low seventies. A mild wind mixes things up.

On a personal note, my kidney stone passed yesterday afternoon. A small brown pebble, I have named it Gerald. Although it talks and laughs much, it rarely moves.

Outside at midnight last night (actually stepping out after opening the door for two cats to return), I checked out the midnight sky and remembered CCR’s cover of “Midnight Special” from 1969.

Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a light on me
Let the Midnight Special shine a everlovin’ light on me.

The original song was traditional folk song, and the light is thought to reference a train light coming into a jail cell. No trains were passing by when I heard the song in my head last night. Only starshine and houselights.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get that vax.

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Saturday, in the house, I think it was the eighth of May. Yes, it is May 8, 2021. I sometimes misplace the day and date during this pandemic. It rattles around my head and then sinks out of sight.

The heavenly bright thing’s initial appearance came at 5:58 AM in Ashland, and it’ll twig out at 8:18 in the PM. Spring temperatures are rolling along under a mix of cirrus feathers on an azure field. The high will nudge the upper sixties before returning to the lower thirties when darkness comes.

It’s Saturday and it’s been a while since I’ve indulged myself in a Stevie Ray Vaughn Saturday. I’m breaking that streak today with a performance from “Sunday Night”. Stevie is playing with the house band —   Omar Hakin, Tom Barney, Philippe Saisse, Hiram Bullock, and Don Alias. It’s an energetic, rocking performance by all. Look at Tom Barney move that bass. Nothing like some screaming bent notes, fiery keyboards, thundering beat, and a hot cup of java to stimulate your Saturday morning neurons. Here’s SRV with “Crossfire”, which was his only number one hit, from 1989. He was killed in a helicopter crash in the next year. Meanwhile, that guitarist, Hiram Bullock, died from cancer in 2008, 52 years old.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax.

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Monday’s Theme Music

“Pour some coffee for me.” You need to imagine this being sung by Def Leppard to the tune of “Pour Some Sugar On Me”.

Bright sunshine has filled this Monday morning, April 12, 2021. Outside temperature is stirring past 42 degrees F. Promise for greater sunshine and warmth are in the air. Sunshine stole o’er this southern Oregon valley at 6:35 AM Pacific time. We wave good-bye to it at 7:49 PM, same time zone.

I’m thinking “Thorn In My Pride” by The Black Crowes (1992) for today’s music. At daybreak, while feeding the cats (thus curtailing their growing demands), the song’s opening lyrics came over me. I like the song’s bluesy sense, with its flashes of acoustics, organ, piano, and electric lead guitar. Add some Gospel elements. It’s a throwback sound to the late sixties/early seventies for me, like a lot of the group’s music.

Wake me when the day breaks
Show me how the sun shines

h/t to AZLyrics.com

I think the floofs were waking me at daybreak so I could see the sun shine. (Or so they claim. I really think it was just about food.) “No need,” I told them. “I’ll catch up with it later, while you’re napping.” They were eating, though, and my retort travelled wholly over their little bowed heads. Then I returned to bed for just a little longer.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, get the vax, and have some coffee. Or tea. I hear tea works well, too. “Pour some tea for me.” Sounds like it works. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

Hi. Today is April 2, 2021, Friday. Sunrise is 6:52 AM in Ashland, and sunset will come at 7:38 PM. Weather-wise, spring is establishing its footprint with sunshine, light breezes, and a high of about 70 degrees F. Right now, it’s 50 degrees F outside, so we have a strong start toward that high. Light, intermittent showers are expected back next Monday.

The blues were on my mind this morning. So many great blues songs have passed through my ears over the years. Great artists were and are out there. Eventually, though, a Buddy Guy – Eric Clapton collaboration, “Every Time I Sing The Blues” (2008),  found its way to my mind front. One line was sharpest: “I’m just trying to tell the truth every time I sing the blues.” Oddly, it’s a line I associate with fiction writing. No matter what story genre, writers are digging out the truth behind the story in their head, trying to convey this to the page, hunting for the details that delivers the essence in a satisfying manner, whether that page is ink on paper or bits on a screen. That struggle to capture that truth and tell the story in all its right facets is what it’s all about.

Here is the music. Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask, and get the vax. Cheers

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Sunday’s Theme Music

Yes. Sunrise was at 6:59 AM in Ashland, Oregon, on this soddy Sunday, February 21, 2021. Sunset is at 5:51 PM. Outdoor temp is 39 degrees F but it’s a warm 72 in the snug. The rest of the house is a more proper 68 degrees. The snug stays warm. Might be the computers and bodies, feline and human. We’re all in there. The cats, of course, are surfing the net. Can’t seem to get them off the ‘puters these days. I’m always imploring them, “Don’t you want to go outside and get fresh air and exercise?” They just cling to their mouses and click on, occasionally swatting at the screen.

Today’s theme music is a jam with Stevie Ray Vaughn and Buddy Guy. Warning: it has a lot of guitar playing. It’s my music choice for today because I enjoy when two major talents get together, have fun, and share it with the rest. Plus, given the chill rainy presence, it’s a sortofa blues and reading day. I will mix in some coffee, of course. Every day is a coffee day. I do enjoy it when I sip back some hot black coffee and gaze out the window as rain splatters existence.

There will be writing. It’s a requirement. The muses have had their coffee, and are eagerly chattering in my ears about which character does what thing where. Feels like it’s gonna be an intensive writing session.

Stay pos., test neg., wear a mask, get the vac. Here is SRV and BG with “Champagne and Reefer” from 1989.

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Thanksgiving’s Theme Music

Welcome to Thanksgiving in America. It’s not the shiny spectacle that we strive to create in the United States. In a lot of ways, today is like flipping back through history pages, and seeing an ugly time, and wondering, how did those people get through that?

Yes, Thanksgiving is a holiday, innit? My holiday vibe is a bit subdued today. I tried being upbeat, but, yes, I’m a little weary. A little pandemic’d out. A little elections exhausted, blended with hues of a little tarnished life syndrome. Gosh, this wasn’t how it was supposed to be, was it? No, not for this snowflake. As an average white American male, we’re not supposed to know shit like this. That’s for other people. Guess I have a tiny inkling about what those others endured.

Not really. No abusive parents. No food insecurities. No wondering if anyone, police or otherwise, are going to shoot me. No worrying about paying the rent or getting a job, or so much other shit that’s heaped on people through the sperm lottery. (Should the sperm lottery be called a spottery? It seems spotty, doesn’t it, hit and miss, about who has what.)

I don’t have COVID-19. I’m aging and male, so I cope with some enlarged prostate, some BHP. (I think that’s the proper letter combos.) I broke an arm in July, leaving me to rehab that arm, hand, wrist, and shoulder. (Yeah, it continues to improve…I think…) I have a lifelong pre-existing condition, hypertension, that I deal with. I’m a hopeful novelist, so I have all the angst, hope, and collective feelings associated with that.

Compiling the bottom line, I have a lot to be thankful for. Yet the blues have me today.

As it’s a holiday, I’m indulging myself with a blues favorite. Yes, it’s a repeat song, from a few years ago. Nothing like the blues to lift you, right?

Here’s Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble with “Cold Shot”. It’s a video of a live performing, as I wish he was, back when I was young.

Happy holidays. Yeah, and wear a mask, please. Time to go get some coffee cake and coffee. My wife made the coffee cake last night for today. Yeah, life’s not so bad here. Cheers

Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble – Cold Shot (Live From Austin, TX) – YouTube

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Simple song for today, an old one. Aren’t all the good ones now old? Yeah, some new stuff is good. Depends on my mood.

Today my mood found me thinking about friends and some shit they’ve endured. It seems like Albert King’s melody, “Born Under A Bad Sign”, was written just for them. I won’t go into their details. You probably know some people who just can’t seem to catch that break, or maybe it’s you who can relate.

Great song, made even better when Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughn, two greats, perform it together in Canada in 1983. Sit back, enjoy some blues, and let your energy fly.

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Monday’s Theme Music

Crank it up for this Monday gem.

I owe cats – natch – for this. The little beasts were unrelenting in requests for individual attention this morning. Pets and scratches were issued, food was given, words were whispered, and appeasement achieved. But at one point, as impatience was thinning — wanted to get on with writing, you know? — I told one floof, you’re running me ragged today.

That cracked open the song door. In sprang Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble’s 1992 rockified cover of Sonny James’ blues song, “Empty Arms”.

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Elvin Bisfloof

Elvin Bisfloof (floofinition) Long time Floofmerican blues musician and songwriter from Floofdale, Califloofnia, inducted into the Floof and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 as a member of the Paul Butterfloof Blues Band and on his own in 2016.

In use: “Highly successful, Elvin Bisfloof is probably best known for his 1976 released, “Fooled Around and Got A Floof”, which charted respectfully in many places and was used in the movie, Guardians of the Floofaxy.

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Been listening to some blues streaming in my head and decided to share it with you. Here’s Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble with “Pride and Joy” from 1983. Turn it up!

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