Author: chimesfreedom

Editor-in-chief, New York.

Lonnie Johnson: “Another Night to Cry”

Another Night to Cry

Singer-songwriter-musician Alonzo “Lonnie” Johnson was born on February 8, 1899 in New Orleans. Johnson was a musical pioneer for, among other reasons, his work with the electric guitar and the electric violin.

Besides the fact he created some great music, he has been credited with creating the note-by-note guitar solo style that became common in many kinds of music. His career spanned decades, starting with his jazz and blues work in the 1920s and 1930s. And after World War II, he had some success as an R&B performer, although he eventually ended up taking other labor jobs to support himself.

Below, Lonnie Johnson performs “Another Night to Cry.”

Johnson died on June 16, 1970 in Toronto.  He had been in poor health following getting hit by a car in March 1969. Because he had no money when he died, in 2014 the Killer Blues Headstone Project paid for the headstone on his grave.

What is your favorite recording by Lonnie Johnson? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    “The Staircase” Is a Fascinating Real-Crime Documentary

    About a decade ago, I caught the eight-part documentary about the North Carolina murder trial of Michael Peterson.  In the show, which originally aired on British and U.S. T.V. in 2005, French director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade pulls back the curtain on the American criminal justice system.

    I purchased the DVDs and made as many people watch them as I could.  Not only did I want them to enjoy the series, but I needed to know if they saw it the same way I did with respect to Peterson’s guilt or innocence.  There were a lot of disagreements.  Now you may judge it for yourself because the series, with extra episodes, is available on Netflix.

    After the original series ran, two more episodes were released in 2011, called The Staircase 2: The Last Chance.  The new Netflix release includes those and three more episodes that cover judicial proceedings in 2016.  So, now you may binge watch all thirteen episodes.

    I do not want to give too much away beyond telling you to drop everything to go watch it.  But the accusations against Peterson centered on the events of the night of December 9, 2001.  On that night, his wife Kathleen went into the house while Peterson was outside.  He later claimed that he found her at the bottom of their staircase, bloody and dead.

    Eventually, Peterson was accused and tried for killing his wife.  The case not only divides viewers, but the family becomes divided too.  The filmmakers created the series with extensive access to Peterson and his lawyers, making you feel you get to know many of the people involved.

    The case goes through several twists, turns, and surprises.  Did he kill his wife? Did she fall? Or did something else happen? I enjoyed The Staircase even more than the similarly very good crime documentary Making a Murderer (2015).  Go check out The Staircase for yourself.

    Do you think Michael Peterson was railroaded by the system? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Burl Ives & Johnny Cash

    Folksinger, actor, and famous snowman Burl Ives was born in Illinois on June 14, 1909.  Ives had one of the most recognizable voices of American singers, although I suspect that most people today know him for one TV role more than anything else.  But many of us, like Johnny Cash, learned some of our first songs from Ives.

    In the 1930s, Ives became an important figure in the folk-revival movement.  After moving to New York City, he worked for progressive causes and performed with musicians that included Pete Seeger, Josh White, Alan Lomax and Lead Belly.

    A rift later developed between Ives and Seeger after Ives, accused of being a communist, cooperated with the witch hunt by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952.  Ives saved his career as others who stood up for the First Amendment suffered.  Seeger compared him to a “common stool pigeon.”  But Ives and Seeger eventually reconciled decades later.

    Ives recorded a number of successful albums and helped popularize songs like “Blue Tail Fly” and “Big Rock Candy Mountain.”  Growing up, my family welcomed Christmas every year with Ives’ interpretation of Christmas folk songs on the record album Christmas Eve (1957).

    Many associate Ives with Christmas for another reason.  He provided the voice for the narrator Sam the Snowman in the 1964 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer holiday TV special.  Ives also developed a career as an actor, including roles in films like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958).  He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in The Big Country (1958).

    Throughout it all was his wonderful voice.  The warmth of his tone made every song welcoming and familiar.

    Below, Ives appears on Johnny Cash’s television show.  After performing by himself, Ives is joined by Cash to sit down, tell some stories, and sing some folk songs.  Cash introduces the songs by noting how he learned some of his first songs and chords by listening to Ives.

    Ives, who was a pipe and cigar smoker, died from complications related to oral cancer on April 14, 1995.

    What is your favorite Burl Ives recording? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Song of the Day: Odetta Sings “House of the Rising Sun” Live

    Odetta House of the Rising SunOdetta, who was born in Alabama on December 31, 1930, performed a range of jazz, blues, folk, and spiritual music.  She inspired many other artists, contributing to the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s.  And she also was active in the civil rights movement.

    Thus, it is wonderful to see Odetta singing the timeless traditional folk song “House of the Rising Sun.”  While many know the song for the rock interpretation by the Animals, its origins go back at least to the early twentieth century with the first printed version appearing in 1925.

    In this performance from 2005, Odetta reveals the tragic blues of the song.  She makes you feel it as the singer warns the listener not to “do the things that I’ve done.”  Check it out.

    Odetta passed away about three years later after that performance on December 2, 2008.

    What is your favorite Odetta song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    The Brilliance of Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”

    Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower” raises more questions than answers.

    Meaning Watchtower DylanOne of Bob Dylan’s great songs is “All Along the Watchtower” from his John Wesley Harding album.   Dylan’s eighth album remains one of his great accomplishments.  Released in December of 1967, seven months after The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band, the acoustic sound of John Wesley Harding appears as a stark contrast to the psychedelic sounds from across the ocean.

    The lyrics to “All Along the Watchtower” raise more questions than answers, but that is the brilliance of the song.  Who are the princes and the two riders?  Who is the joker and who is the thief, and why did the joker tell the thief, “There must be some way out of here”?

    All along the watchtower, princes kept the view.
    While all the women came and went, barefoot servants too;
    Outside in the distance, a wildcat did growl;
    Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.

    Nerdwriter 1 created a short video exploring the depth of “All Along the Watchtower,” a song you may have thought was a simple tale.  But in the video, Nerdwriter1 dissects some of the mysteries behind the lyrics, and why the brilliance of the song helps explain why Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in literature.  Check it out.

    Some believe that Dylan is the “Joker” in the song, while Elvis Presley is the “Thief.” Others surmise how the two characters are really different sides of Dylan. Still others see a Biblical reference, with Jesus as the Joker and the Thief being the thief on the cross. There is no one answer, but a great thing about the song is how it can make you think and find your own interpretation.

    Another wonderful feature, as Jimi Hendrix knew, is the way the song rocks.



    What do you think is the meaning behind “All Along the Watchtower”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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