this is what i want

this is what i want. i want all the punks to take to the streets playing their guitars. this is what i want. black kids and white kids sharing all the songs that their grandmamas taught ‘em. and we’ll play ‘em on our horns, we’ll bang ‘em on our drums, we’ll play ‘em on our guitars. singing songs that our mothers sang to us when we were young. songs that we may remember reading. songs we heard a stranger sing or humming on the streets. songs we made up yesterday on the porch in the rain on our guitars. and we’ll never sing a song we heard on your radio, or a song someone else was paid to write or sing. and we’ll never sing of sex the fakest kind of love. those songs will not be played on our guitars. – this bike is a pipe bomb

time to rethink

I watched Rethink Afghanistan yesterday with my peace group. Basically, the US should have never gone in and the US should get out now.

In other news, I love Buffy Sainte-Marie:

I never saw so many business suits.
Never knew a dollar sign that looked so cute.
Never knew a junkie with a money Jones:
He’s singing, “Who’s selling Park Place. Who’s buying Boardwalk”?
These old men they make their dirty deals.
Go in the back room and see what they can steal.
Talk about your beautiful and spacious skies.
It’s about uranium; it’s about the water rights.
Put Mother Nature on a luncheon plate.
They cut her up and call it real estate.
Want all the resources and all of the land.
They make a war over it: Blow things up for it.
The reservation now is poverty row.
There’s something cooking and the lights are low.
Somebody’s trying to save our mother earth.
I’m gonna help them to save it,
To sing it and bring it

Singing: No no Keshagesh:
You can’t do that no more, (no more, no more no more)
No, no, no, no Keshagesh
You can’t do that no more, (no more, no more no more)
No, no, no, no Keshagesh
You can’t do that no more, (no more, no more no more)
No, no, no, no Keshagesh
You can’t do that no more, (no more, no more no more)

Ole Columbus he was looking good,
When he got lost in our neighborhood.
Garden of Eden right before his eyes.
Now it’s all spy ware: now it’s all income tax.
Ole’ brother Midas looking hungry today.
What he can’t buy he’ll get some other way.
Send in the troopers if the natives resist.
Old, old story boys, that’s how you do it boys.
Look at these people; ah they’re on a roll.
Gonna have it all, gonna have complete control.
Want all the resources and all of the land.
They’ll break the law for it: Blow things up for it.
When all our champions are off in the war,
Their final rip off here and is always on.
Mr. greed I think your time has come.
We’re gonna sing it and pray it and live it then say it.

Singing: No no Keshagesh:
You can’t do that no more, (no more, no more no more)
No, no, no, no Keshagesh
You can’t do that no more, (no more, no more no more)
No, no, no, no Keshagesh
You can’t do that no more, (no more, no more no more)
No, no, no, no Keshagesh
You can’t do that no more, (no more, no more no more)

Thai Folk!

On Sunday I had the pleasure of going to the Woodstock Folk Festival with my friend Carol. It was awesome!

The festival took place in the center of the Historic Square in the town of Woodstock, Illinois. If you’ve never been there, you should at least check it out once. It’s a square with a little park in the middle. Around the square are various shops and restaurants. There is a small local bookstore there that is very neat called Read Between the Lynes. You may have seen the square in the movie Groundhog Day because a lot of it was filmed here.

Anyways, the festival took place in the middle of the square. It consisted of a main stage, a children stage, and there was a guy doing a harmonica workshop.

First up was John Flynn. He was good, had a country sounding voice and played nice guitar and harmonica! I bought his cd America’s Waiting. I love it!

Next up was a group called Magpie, a duo consisting of Greg Artzner and Terry Leonino. They’re really cool! Apparently they’ve been playing together for over 30 years. Greg played guitar while Terry played different instruments including a harmonica and a dulcimer. Good voices too! I purchased their cd Raise Your Voice The cd has a lot of covers on it including Phil Ochs and Pete Seeger, among others!

Natalia Zukerman came up next. It was just her, her guitar, and her beautiful voice. Her songs were more bluesy which was really cool. In one of her songs, she twanged that guitar real good!

After Natalia Zukerman came Still on the Hill This was also a duo, but I guess originally they were a quartet. The guy was really good at finger picking his banjo and mandolin! What was interesting is during one of the songs they had instruments made out of crazy things. They sang this sweet song about apple pie; it was awesome!

Next up was the Jamie O’Reilly Trio. This consisted of a Jamie O’Reilly singing (very good voice might I add), a guy playing the cello, and a guy playing the guitar. The guy playing the guitar was Michael Smith who after his performance with the trio received an award and then performed solo.

The last band to perform was Trillium. They did instrumentals as well as songs with vocals. I looked a their website and almost all of their tour dates are in Illinois, which is pretty cool. If you get to their website, check out the dates and if you get a chance, check them out because they are really good!

My favorite part came at the end. This was the part where everyone that performed came on stage together to do some songs for a sing-a-long with the audience. Someone came around handing out a sheet of paper with song lyrics on it, many of which I knew. The first song we sang was Circle Game by Joni Mitchell Great sing-a-long song considering on the actual song the chorus is song by many people. Next we did I Ain’t Marchin’ No More by Phil Ochs Then came Down by the Riverside.

After this, all of the people that partook in the harmonica workshop came up to show off their new found skill. How embarrassing!!! They played a thing on the harmonica which sounded like a train coming, with the guidance of the harmonica workshop director.

After this the musicians came back on stage for one more sing-a-long. This time it was Over the Rainbow Everyone knows that song! the sing-a-long was my favorite part, the only problem is I couldn’t hear much of the audience signing. It might have just been me though!

When the festival was over we left and we were starving. Since we had to drive through McHenry to get to where she lives in Buffalo Grove There is a really awesome Thai Restaurant in McHenry called The Green Peapod that has this amazing appetizer called Mama’s Tofu. It is SO GOOD! It’s fried tofu with cucumbers in a peanut sweet and sour sauce. Crushed peanuts and shredded carrots top it off. It’s so amazing I get it every time I go there. I just had to take a picture to show everyone how sexy it looks!

All in all, the day was awesome and I had so much fun. I love folk music and I didn’t even realize there was a folk festival this close tom me. I’m definitely going again and hopefully always will!