Johnny Mandel — Source: Tony Bennett
Tony Bennett posted on Twitter Yesterday:
If Johnny Mandel had just composed “The Shadow of Your Smile” – one of the most beautiful songs I have been honored to record – it would have been enough to earn his standing as one of the finest composers of our time.
. . . and let’s not forget the arrangement Mandel did for Natalie Cole in the song “Unforgettable!”
“Joshua Tree was named by Mormon pioneers — The arms looked like Joshua beckoning them to the promised land.”
Joshua Trees — Images by kenne
Joshua Tree Fruit
Source: Sideshow Alley
Sideshow Alley is an online live music video series brings together the finest new and established artists and filmmakers at unexpected locations in New York City and Melbourne. These creative filmmakers make new friends in alleyways and on rooftops, recording each artist performing one song, one take, with no fixed agenda and no rehearsal.
I first learned about Sideshow Alley from blogger, The Hobbledehoy.
— kenne
“Because of you I have found some great new bands
that I adore and wouldn’t have even known about.
Thanks for the chills down my spine!”
@JOSHDIME VIA YOUTUBE
“Folk Singer” — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Who’s Gonna Build Your Wall? by Tom Russell on His Album Wounded Heart of America (2007)
— Albert Camus
“The Common Man” — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Poetry and Music Soluting The Common Man.
Julian Tuwim’s poem nails it.
In my younger days,
I worked with many a Harlan Clancy —
Tom Russell writes and sings
about in the album “Folk Hotel,”
referencing Aaron Copland’s anthem,
“Fanfare for the Common Man.”
In those early days,
the winters could be harsh,
and having spent many
a Christmas in the cold north,
I end this trilogy to The Common Man
with Merle Haggard,
“If We Make It Through December.”
— kenne
The Common Man
— Julian Tuwim
Tim Russell writes, Harlan Clancy
“. . . out there in the middle of Ohio,
a place you’ll never likely go . . .
Euro tourists never make it there . . .
the America of the shit jobs, farms,
remote ranches, wrecking yards,
inner-city brothels, shooting galleries,
used car lots, and back street bars that
still have Narco corridos, or Otis Redding,
or George Jones on the jukebox.”
Music Explosion — Abstract Art by kenne
Pearl Cadillac, Gary Clark Jr. on the CD “This Land”
Photo-Artistry by kenne
Joy wading out on Galveston West Beach to be with the grandchildren.
This year Joy’s birthday was celebrated in Galveston, Texas. We rented a beach house on the west end of Galveston Island. Hugh had written a song that was to have been performed at the beach house, but schedules made it difficult to happen there. So, several days later Hugh set-up his equipment in Jill’s game room for Joy and myself with James as cameraman and Jill doing the rhythm. Hugh actually did a mini-concert for Joy.
I’m now back in Tucson, Joy will be returning on the 21st — you know how grandmothers are.
kenne
Joy on Galveston Island (She’s still in Houston with family and I’m here in Tucson.) — Image by kenne
Greater Roadrunner In Patio Olive Tree — Photo-Artistry Image by kenne
“A medium of communication is not merely a passive conduit for the transmission of information
but rather an active force in creating new social patterns and new perceptual realities.”
— Leonard Shlain
Cigar Bar — Digital Painting by kenne
— kenne
Gary Clark and Diunna Greenleaf (September 2001) — Digital Art by kenne
— kenne
Western Bluebird — Image by kenne
I can’t think of bluebirds without thinking of Tom Russell’s song, “Blue Wing” — one of my favorite. Both help me see the sky above.
— kenne
Blue Wing by Tom Russell
He had a blue wing tattooed on his shoulder
Well it might have been a bluebird I don’t know
But he’d get stone drunk and talk about Alaska
The salmon boats and 45 below
He said he got that blue wing up in Walla Walla
And his cellmate there was Little Willy John
And Willy he was once a great blues singer
And Wing and Willy wrote ’em up a song. They said…
CHORUS:
It’s dark in here; can’t see the sky
But I look at this blue wing and I close my eyes
And I fly away beyond these walls
Up above the clouds where the rain don’t fall
On a poor man’s dream.
They paroled Blue Wing in August, of 1963
He moved north picking apples to the town of Wenatchee
Then winter finally caught him in a run down trailer park
On the south side of Seattle where the days grow gray and dark
And he drank and he dreamt of visions when the salmon still ran free
And his fathers’ fathers crossed that wild old Bering Sea
And the land belonged to everyone and there were old songs yet to sing
Now it’s narrowed down to a cheap hotel and a tattooed prison wing
CHORUS:
It’s dark in here; can’t see the sky
But I look at this blue wing and I close my eyes
And I fly away beyond these walls
Up above the clouds where the rain don’t fall
On a poor man’s dream.
Blue Wing by Tom Russel Video
My Sky is Full of Passion — Image by kenne
Arizona Fleabane — Image by kenne
“May your life be like a wildflower growing freely in the beauty and joy of each day.”
— Native American Proverb
