“Desert Scene” — Photo-Artistry by kenne
“The sky above, the mud below
The wind and rain, the sleet and snow
Two horse thieves from Mexico
Drinkin’ hard and singin'”
— from “The Sky Above, The Mud Below” by Tom Russell
Archive for the ‘Tom Russell’ Tag
Desert Scene Painting Leave a comment
Blue Wing — Might Have Been A Bluebird 7 comments
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
Coyote Fence — Computer Painting Leave a comment
Computer Painting by kenne
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
An Old Red-clay Boy 2 comments
“On The Roads Outside Of San Diego”
On the roads outside Oshiobo,
I fell down on my knees
There were female spirits
In old mud huts, iron bells
Ringing up in the trees and
An eighty-year white priestess,
Who made juju all night long
East of Woodstock,
West of Viet Nam.
— from “East of Woodstock, West of Viet Nam” by Tom Russell
It’s Always The Poet Than Tells Us — If Only We Would Listen! 1 comment
“A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall” Leave a comment
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 Leave a comment
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
— from Beyond the Blues by Tom Russell
