Month: June 2022

Great tweet on causes of inflation

Covers: K. C. Moan

K. C. Moan is a Memphis Jug Band song from 1929. (The list of versions is from the great Second Hand Songs site.) It was included in Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. A cover by Geoff Muldaur is on The Harry Smith Project: Anthology of American Folk Music Revisited which is based on Tribute concerts.

The right-wing Supreme Court could be very harmful for the environment

Update on gerrymandering in Louisiana

Nashville sessions by Bob Dylan

This is an excellent video about the three albums Dylan recorded in Nashville – Blonde on Blonde (1966), John Wesley Harding (1967) and Nashville Skyline (1969).

Blonde on Blonde is my favorite Dylan album. I don’t think the songs are better than on Highway 61 Revisited but the musicians are. The backing is much more subtle unlike the pounding on Highway 61 Revisited. John Wesley Harding was released during the same period that the Beatles and Stones (and others) succumbed to the excesses of psychedelia. It was out of step then but sure sounds better now than Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Covers: The Ballad of Casey Jones/Casey Jones

Casey Jones was a real person. He was a railroad engineer who was killed when his train collided with another train. Several songs are based on his life and death.

“The Ballad of Casey Jones” is the best-known song inspired by him. It was written about 1909

“Casey Jones” by the Grateful Dead was released in 1970. It’s not faithful to the actual events. This is my favorite Grateful Dead song. It’s concise (which many of their songs weren’t). It looks to the past (old country blues songs which influential on the band.) It looks to the present with the cocaine references. It’s old and modern at the same time.

Warren Zevon and David Lindley covered the Grateful Dead version.

Baltimore Penn Station

Baltimore’s Penn Station is being renovated