In an interview, a Time magazine reporter asked Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson “What’s the most astounding fact you can share with us about the universe?” Another person, Max Schlickenmeyer took DeGrasse’s answer, added some images from BBC documentaries and a little music to make the following 3-minute video.
DeGrasse’s answer about why “the universe is in us” is cool, reminding me of Carl Sagan‘s oft-repeated comment that we are “star stuff.”
Last Friday, Bruce Springsteen dug his song “American Skin (41 Shots)” from Live In New York City (2000) out of the vault in Tampa, Florida. Without any comment from Springsteen, the reason for the song eventually became clear to the crowd. Although it was written about New York police shooting the unarmed Amadou Diallo in February 1999, the refrain about getting killed just for living in your “American Skin” resonated in Florida, where this February the 17-year-old unarmed Trayvon Martin was killed.
While everyone is still sorting out what happened in the incident, both liberal and conservative commentators have been doing a lot of yelling. While one may debate whether Springsteen’s decision to bring back “41 Shots” helps with the debate or just adds more confusion to the developing story, when Nils Lofgren’s electric guitar kicks in after the 3-minute mark, there is no question. Even more than the refrain, the building tension and screaming guitars say that despite all of the rhetoric on both sides, it’s a damn tragedy.
Legendary musician and banjo player Earl Scruggs passed away this morning at the age of 88. Even if you were not listening to bluegrass at the time and were a kid watching television, you still knew Flatt & Scruggs, as I did every week when I watched The Beverly Hillbillies and they played their instruments on “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” to open the show (with Jerry Scoggins singing on the version used on the show).
During his great career, Scruggs played with a number of famous artists, including Bob Dylan, the Byrds, Ravi Shankar, King Curtis, Elton John, and many others. The actor, comedian, and banjo-player Steve Martin wrote about Scruggs in The New Yorker earlier this year, “Few players have changed the way we hear an instrument the way Earl has.” Below is a clip from 2006 where Martin joins Scruggs to play “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” on The Late Show with David Letterman.
Scruggs started with Bill Monroe’s Blue Grass Boys in 1945, but then left with Lester Flatt to form the Foggy Mountain Boys, which later became known just as Flatt & Scruggs through the 1950s and 1960s. Scruggs also was one of the few country or bluegrass artists who spoke out publicly against the war in Viet Nam, appearing at the 1969 US Vietnam Moratorium in Washington, DC. Below is Flatt & Scruggs playing “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms.”
Flatt passed away in 1979. Here’s hoping somewhere the two are making some sweet music again. RIP.
This month is the anniversary of Uncle Tupelo’s album March 16-20, 1992, which for some strange reason is the only album in my collection where I remember the exact date it was made. The album, which was produced by R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, was recorded on the dates in the title, featuring both original songs and traditional songs.
This third album from Uncle Tupelo reflected the band’s frustrations with its record label, so the band decided to record music they wanted to record without regard for popular tastes. Below is Uncle Tupelo performing one of the traditional songs on the album, “Moonshiner” in Columbia, Missouri on November 13, 1992.
The CD also featured the Louvin Brothers classic, “Atomic Power.” Here is Uncle Tupelo performing the song on April 30, 1994 in St. Louis, Missouri at their second-to-last show together.
The first song on the album, “Grindstone,” is one of my favorites of the CD. I could not find a live Uncle Tupelo performance of the song. But after Uncle Tupelo broke up, Jay Farrar, who wrote “Grindstone,” performed it with his new band, Son Volt in Minneapolis on October 16, 1995. Check it out below.
Uncle Tupelo was at the forefront of the alt-country/Americana music scene in the 1990s. And the title of their first album, named after a Carter Family song, gave the name to the leading magazine of the genre, No Depression. But after March 16-20, 1992, the band released only one more CD, Anodyne (1993).
After the band’s final album, Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy dissolved the band in 1994 to go on to create more music with new bands, including fantastic work with Son Volt and Wilco, respectively.
But those five days in March on this date all those years ago, they created one of the albums that defined their permanent place in music history.
What is your favorite Uncle Tupelo song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
(2000) out of the vault in Tampa, Florida. Without any comment from Springsteen, the reason for the song eventually became clear to the crowd. Although it was written about New York police shooting the unarmed Amadou Diallo in February 1999, the refrain about getting killed just for living in your “American Skin” resonated in Florida, where this February the 17-year-old unarmed 
