To: CHRIS VAN HOLLEN UNITED STATES SENATOR FOR MARYLAND
BEN CARDIN • U.S. SENATOR FOR MARYLAND
DUTCH RUPPERSBERGER, U.S. CONGRESSMAN, MARYLAND 2ND DISTRICT
Donald J. Trump✔@realDonaldTrump
This is the One Year Anniversary of my Presidency and the Democrats wanted to give me a nice present. #DemocratShutdown
6:33 AM - Jan 20, 2018
PLEASE, PLEASE, give him the really BIG present he so justly deserves. . . REMOVAL!!! Start talking to your level-headed co-legislators on BOTH sides NOW about the 25th amendment. How much longer will you let this country suffer?
It's time for everybody to write to their representatives in Washington DC to encourage initiation of:
Amendment XXV
Section 4. to the U.S. Constitution
Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
-----
If you think your voice doesn't matter, or if you think (and I've heard a multitude of rationalizations) that this cannot be done, then of course, nothing will be done. I know Congress has a majority of Republicans, but let us NOT generalize. We all agree that generalization is not applicable to races, colors, creeds, national original, profession, sex or tribe in this, the year 2017. Rest assured that there are members of the Republican party or or rational, reasonable people. Further, if your rationalization originates from places other than the political makeup of Congress, remember that if we do not try to do what is right, and refrain from making even the slightest effort to stop this nonsense, we will in the end, receive exactly what we deserve.
. . . a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the ability to write a tune inspired by the . . .
Un-Tie-Teld
from Critic's Choice @2005 Raymond M. Jozwiak
Available at CD Baby
One of my favorite parts about visiting the Songwriters Showcase at Brewer's Alley in Frederick (MD) every month, apart from playing my Gonzo tunes and improvisation for the appreciative crowd and seeing (and now frequently accompanying) some wonderful people, is discovering a musical talent of immense proportion. No, I don't mean overweight, I mean that special, musical artist that actually moves me. And this week, I have found another . . . Korby Lenker.
(from http://www.korbylenker.com/index.php/bio#bio)
An abbreviated list of Lenker's achievements so far includes: a significant amount of airplay on the legendary Seattle indie rock station KEXP; a BBC 2 interview with Bob Harris, which is only about the highest honor a rootsy singer-songwriter touring the U.K. can get; opening slots for acts ranging from Willie Nelson to Ray LaMontagne, Nickel Creek, Keith Urban, Susan Tedeschi and Tristan Prettyman; a successful run with one of the hottest young West Coast bluegrass bands of the aughts; and wins in the Merlefest folk songwriting contest as well as the Kerrville Folk Festival's elite New Folk songwriting competition. . .
"I like it simple," says Lenker. "I just do. As soon as there's a weird chord, I'm like, 'Why? That's all been done. Who cares?' What's really hard is to hit people in the heart and to reach them. That's what I'm trying to do: make music that's easily likeable, but with a kind of secret sophistication. I'm always trying to write a song that you can hum along with on the first listen. You're like, 'Yeah, I'd like to hear that again.' Then maybe you hear it 20 times and you're like, 'Damn, that's actually something I'm going to think about now.'". . .
"I like it tight," he offers about his experience fronting the 5 piece bluegrass outfit, which SPIN magazine called "The Young Riders of the bluegrass revolt". "I like the solos short and I like harmonies in tune...it was all song-driven for me.". . .
Deep down, Lenker is drawn both to the sort of unadorned expression the discerning folkie crowd treasures and to the sort of playful pop embellishment and electronic textures that may land one of his tracks in a primetime T.V. show or film any day now. . .
And there's nothing at all wrong with having it both ways musically when it comes this naturally. "I can't abandon either one of them," Lenker says, "because they're both so me. One of my favorite musicians in the world, bassist and composer Edgar Meyer once said in an interview 'The boundaries of music have been and always should be limitless.' I couldn't agree more."
". . .Beginning with the unforgettable "Green Green Grass of Home", Curly Putman has written or co-written an endless stream of smashes, including the million air-play, "My Elusive Dreams", "D-I-V-O-R-C-E", "Blood Red And Going Down", "It Don't Feel Like Sinnin' To Me, "It's A Cheatin' Situation" and "He Stopped Loving Her Today", just to name the #1's.
Curly wasn't born and raised with "great future staring him in the face," like the TV Waltons. Curly was the son of a sawmill man, reared on a mountain that bore that family name. About six or eight families lived on Putman Mountain, mostly descendants of a one-armed Methodist preacher named Jesse Putman, who first brought the holy writ to the mountain. . .
. . . After his discharge (from the service), Curly started picking with a band in Hunstville, AL, and there during one of his gigs, he met his future wife, Bernice. Soon, they started going together and were married in 1956. Thus began a long odyssey of discouragement and frustration remarkably echoed in Curly's "My Elusive Dreams: (You Followed Me To Texas/You Followed Me To Utah/We Didn't Find It There So We Moved On). The places were changed, but the pain was the same. "We moved to Chicago, but I didn't like it there too well, so I moved back to Alabama, working in the sawmill with my dad and going to trade school in Decatur, tried to learn piano tuning…anything to stick to music in some way. "We were barely getting by, so we moved to Huntsville and I went to work for the Thom Mcan Shoe Co. Eventually, Curly had a couple of songs recorded by Marion Worth and Charlie Walker, so he jumped at the chance to sell shoes in Nashville. After a short time in Nashville, however, he was transferred to Memphis. "I was so discouraged about having to leave Nashville," Curly recalls, "that I quit Thom Mcan in Memphis and went back to Huntsville and took a job in a record shop owned by a local radio personality. At night I played steel in a local band.
In the fall of 1963 Curly's luck took an abrupt change for the better. While visiting Nashville, during the annual DJ convention, he ran into Tree Publishing company executive Buddy Killen, whom he had known slightly in earlier days. Buddy casually mentioned that Tree might have a song plugging job open after the first of the year. "I came to talk to Buddy and Jack Stapp (the owner of Tree) and started working for them in January of 1964
"I guess I learned as much about writing by plugging songs for Tree as anything else I've ever done," says Curly. Yet month after month was passing and nothing was happening save a few small, inconsequential records. Was the elusive dream about to become undone altogether?
Then, one day about a year later, a bit of sheer magic struck. "One Sunday afternoon, I came up to Tree's office. No one was around. I just started fooling around and suddenly it fell in place. The surprise ending about dreaming made the song. I guess I worked on it for about two hours. I felt like I really had something, because it touched me very deeply. But, I didn't know how commercial it was because it was such a down-home song." The down-home song was "Green Green Grass of Home.
"I played the song for bunches of people over five or six months before it was ever cut, first Johnny Darrell," said curly. Then things began to happen. Porter Wagoner covered the Darrell record and had a top five country hit. Then, Jerry Lee Lewis had a chart record on the song. Tom Jones heard Jerry Lee's cut and was so impressed that he recorded it. His record became a top five pop smash in the united stated and number one almost everywhere else. The Tom Jones record sold between ten and twelve million copies throughout the world. Since then, over four hundred other artists have recorded the song in most of the world's major languages.
Since "Green Green Grass of Home," Curly's songs have been recorded by multitudes, including Charlie Rich, Tammy Wynette, dean martin, Wayne Newton, George Jones, Charley Pride, Conway Twitty, Dolly Parton, Bobbie Gentry, Glen Campbell, Nancy Sinatra, Roger Miller, T.G. Sheppard, The Kendalls, Andy Williams, Jim Nabors, Issac Hayes and Millie Jackson, Johnny Duncan, Bobby Vinton, John Conlee, Roy Clark, Elvis Presley, George Jones and almost every other country artist of consequence. And still, he continues to write, patiently and well, unable to fill the melancholy hole in his heart that refuses to ever let him rest satisfied and content to rejoice in a job well done. . ."
Here is freedom to them that would read,
Here is freedom to them that would write!
There is none ever feared that the truth should be heard
But they whom the truth would indict!
--Robert Burns
What
do YOU think?
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html
My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)
It must be time to sleep because I can't find anything to write about that seems important enough (thanks to our glorious media who have Mitt, Snooky, naked princes and hurricanes on their minds) or things other than those about which I am thoroughly disgusted (like inept home services providers, death, illness, smallmindedness and . . . hurricanes). . . maybe there is something here.
NAHHH!!!!
What
do YOU think?
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html
You can NOW download
your
very own copy of Ray Jozwiak's
newest release:
AMBIENCE & WINE
Yesterday's blog about Fishbone is gone, not a trace-not a link; the entire blog site is now different, did not play my parts well in spite of many hours of practice and familiarity; the drummer's electronic drum kit malfunctioned therefore we did not play with drums tonight; best friend/wife/love of my life isn't feeling well; the later it got the more I needed to accomplish; nodding off as I try to write this; sons are driving to Los Angeles early next week; packing, truck pick-up, return from visiting friends must all be done effectively to carry off the packing and departure; elder son flying back home Saturday morning; wishing I could make a living from music; and blogging; getting sleepy; having difficulty finishing this; need extra rest; have too much to do; drummer has very ill relatives; 2012 is an election year; need to write more but don't have much time; three sons celebrated their visit tonight; thinking about MD crabcakes; hoping that's what the boys ate; getting later and sleepier. . . feeling like a crazy person!
What do YOU think?
http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html
Download
your
very own copy of
ANOTHER SHOT
by Ray
Jozwiak
I am printing from the third floor of my house, to a wireless printer in the basement from my laptop. Exciting for some, pretty damned mundane for others. In my case though, installing, setting up, finding drivers, enabling and ALL THAT STUFF do not come easily or naturally. So, well, YES. It is exciting. . . for me.
So as I sit here around 6AM thinking I MUST WRITE SOMETHING on this blog, I am consumed with trying to make this wireless printer work. Stumbled upon something in System Preferences and realized that the word 'driver' has not appeared during this process. Now it looks like I am loading drivers and, and, and -- YES!!! I printed. Or rather IT printed. Success. Ah how sweet!!
download your
very own copy of
ANOTHER SHOT
by Ray Jozwiak
