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.
You ask me what’s a coyote fence? A crooked line of cedar poles Surrounding our adobe, our refuge from the road Some nights we can see light of fires as Indians dance And the eyes of God shine through the coyote fence.
— from “The Light Beyond the Coyote Fence” by Tom Russell
Tom Russell posted the following on Facebook and I felt a need to share it — a collaborative effort of three great singer-songwriters:
“Exciting news….we were walking through the old Greenwich Village this afternoon, vastly changed, and I thought – “it would be great to do an album release show at The Bitter End.” So we walked into The Bitter End, and out walks the owner. He warms up to us and I tell him I used to work there every Sunday…so we might hook the opening gig there for the next album release tour. Maybe a return to The Bitter End! Lets make Greenwich Village great again! This is Lucinda Williams and myself doing Bob Dylan‘s “A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” off of the record “Mesabi.” All records and books: www.fronterarecords.com Your reporter for Nova Beat at the corner of Bleecker and MacDougal….”
Ronstadt Generations Live at Teri’s Bistro, Alamos, Sonora (January 26, 2016)
— Images and Video by kenne
(Short Video Clip by kenne)
Pulled these images and video clip out of my January travel archives in memory of Mike Ronstadt
(August 25, 1953 – August 7, 2016)
Beyond the shadows, beyond the rain Beyond the darkness and all the pain When you’re walkin’ in circles with holes in your shoes Love is the road that leads beyond the blues
Old man on the corner, he’s been gone for years And the guitar and the knife blade are rusty with tears But there’s a song that he left us, we’ll never lose That love is the road that leads beyond the blues
Western Bluebird — Image by kenne
Computer Painting by kenne
“On The Roads Outside Of San Diego” 
Ronstadt Generations Live at Teri’s Bistro, Alamos, Sonora (January 26, 2016)
A Labyrinth of Wild Flowers — Image by kenne
Tom Russell with Iris Dement — Box of Visions (Audio)
