Better Days

2006-11-15T02:32:00.000-08:00

Kim Beggs, from Canada's Yukon

Songwriter-Horse Whisperer, Mike Beck

Better Days 250
SONG FOR MY UNCLE

Thursday, November 23rd
10:00 pm - 12 midnight Pacific time
webcast: www.coopradio.org

My friend Marc Lindy guest-hosted Better Days
last week (November 16th) and I'll be back in the chair this
coming Thursday, November 23rd, with episode 250
of the show, titled Song For My Uncle.

I'll be featuring a whole whack of new things that have
come in the mail the past three weeks. Among them
are John Spillane's The Gaelic Hit Factory, Bob Frank
and John Murry's World Without End, Kim Beggs'
Wanderer's Paean, Mike Beck's Rooted, and a couple
items from Gott Discs featuring songs and stories from
the recent BBC Radio Ballads series, including Fire Thief
from Karine Polwart.

I will also read from a recent song-story of mine called
Song For My Uncle.

Join me on the 23rd of November when I celebrate the
250th episode of the Better Days radio show with a whole
two hours worth of great music and spoken word.

That's 10:00 to midnight Pacific time on CFRO 102.7 fm,
webcast live at www.coopradio.org

Best of life,

Doug Lang

Featured Artist Listens:
www.myspace.com/johnspillane
www.myspace.com/bobfrankandjohnmurry
www.myspace.com/kimbeggs
www.myspace.com/reatarecords
www.myspace.com/karinepolwart

2006-10-14T20:47:00.000-07:00

Better Days: Thursdays 10-Midnight www.coopradio.org

2006-08-21T14:19:00.001-07:00

Better Days 236
Here Is The River
Thursday, August 27th
10:00 pm to 12:00 am Pacific
CFRO 102.7 fm
webcast www.coopradio.org

Join me this Thursday for episode #236 of
Better Days, called Here Is The River,
a boat ride on the backs of songs that have
a connection to rivers, the passage of time,
and the wisdom we find along the way.

Some fine recent releases have come to me
which fit well into this theme, foremost among
them being from Eamon Friel of Derry, his
fine new cd called Here Is The River, from which
I borrow the title for this week's episode of the
show. I'll have a few poems to add to the songs.

That's Better Days #236 this coming Thursday
night, August 27th, ten o'clock to midnight
around the corner at 102.7 fm in the Pacific
Northwest and around the world by webcast
at www.coopradio.org

Join me, won't you?

DL

2006-08-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

My son, Joness.

2006-05-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

UPCOMING RADIO SHOWS

Better Days is heard at CFRO 102.7 fm in the signal area.
Webcast : www.coopradio.org

The show airs every Thursday night, 10-to-midnight Pacific.
All shows are hosted by Doug "Duke" Lang unless otherwise
noted. All shows are listed in Pacific time.

Thursday, July 6th
Better Days #228
Home Again

Thursday, July 13th
Better Days #229

Thursday, July 20th
Better Days #230

Thursday, July 27th
Better Days #231
Hosted by Ruth Leibik

Join me for the best in roots music of all kinds,
from around the corner and around the world.
That's Thursdays, 10pm to midnight Pacific,
webcast live at www.coopradio.org

DL

2006-05-06T19:35:00.000-07:00

MAKING WAVES

A Radio Special
Sunday, May 4th
4:00 - 5:30 p.m. Pacific
Listen: www.coopradio.org

Sunday afternoon, I'll be doing a 90-minute
radio special, Making Waves, as part of CFRO's
Spring Member Drive.

The music will be from the UK and Ireland,
and will include such artists as John Spillane,
Christy Moore, Karine Polwart, John Tams,
Kate Rusby, Eliza Carthy and many more.

Join me, won't you?

DL

2006-05-03T10:37:00.000-07:00

BETTER DAYS 216

SEIZE THE DAY

Thursday, May 4th
10:00 pm to 12:00 am Pacific
CFRO 102.7 FM
www.coopradio.org

Two hours of songs that speak out, take risks, or
simply capture the moment with resounding clarity.
Artists will include Dylan, Dick Gaughan, Kristofferson,
Steve Earle, Eliza Gilkyson, and many more.

Please, join me for this Better Days special.

DL

2006-04-23T02:59:00.000-07:00

COMING HOME

I've been away in Europe - with Disa in Holland,
visiting Magne and Harald in Norway - busy putting
the finishing touches on The Norway Sessions cd.

Sorry to have let this page slip a while, but it's been
time away from the internet mostly, well spent. I
will be home at the end of April, and back on the air
as of Thursday, May 4th, ten to midnight, webcast
live at www.ccopradio.org

I've learned about a few new artists, and picked up
some great new cds, so I am looking forward to a
good run of shows once I'm back. Stay tuned for
details as those show come up!

Thanks for listening,

DL

2006-04-02T22:12:00.000-07:00

John Spillane

John Spillane is from Cork, Ireland. I learned of
him through a recommendation from Christy
Moore, saying he's worth finding.

I play John Spillane's music on my radio show
on a regular basis. The mysteries are in him.

There's a live version of Magic Nights In The
Lobby Bar on his myspace site's jukebox, with
Louis de Paor of The Gaelic Hit Factory. It is
something to hear.

Also on his myspace site (link below), down the
left side a few inches there's a video of Spillane
with the Irish legends Christy Moore, Donal Lunny
and Declan Sinnott, doing John's song, Johnny
Don't Go.

Ten minutes well-spent!

Link: www.myspace.com/johnspillane

P.S. Ruth did the show last Thursday, as she always
does the last Thursday of the month. I'm in this week.
News here tomorrow about what I'll be doing with my
last show before a month in Europe.

On we go,

DL

2006-03-24T19:59:00.000-08:00

DUKE SONGS
www.myspace.com/dukelang

2006-03-22T00:01:00.000-08:00

Better Days 210

O Death

Thursday, March 23rd
10:00 pm - 12:00 am Pacific
CFRO 102.7 fm

Webcast : www.coopradio.org

This week's edition of Better Days, episode 210,
features songs and writings which pertain, either
directly or through metaphor, to death and dying.

Will it make for a sad and morbid show? You'll have
to listen and decide for yourself. There are so many
transporting and resonant songs relating to the
end of a life, to the mysteries that attend the event
of a soul abandoning a body, and to the events which
lead to this transition.

As we grow older, the experiences of friends and
family dying are closer together, more frequent.
This week's edition of Better Days will, I hope,
have the ability to bring to mind and heart some
of the wisdom and feeling we gain from those
who have left us, and to share some of the stories
that are raised to their memory.

Better Days originates in Vancouver, Canada, and
is heard around the corner in the listening area at
102.7 fm, and around the world via webcast at

www.coopradio.org

Better Days 210 : O Death airs this Thursday night,
the 23rd of March from 10:00 pm to 12:00 am Pacific.

I hope you'll join me.

DL

2006-03-08T20:34:00.000-08:00

Better Days 208

Only One Way

Thursday, March 9th
10:00 pm - 12:00 am Pacific (GMT -8)
CFRO 102.7 fm

Webcast : www.coopradio.org

On Thursday, March 9th, from 10:00 pm to 12:00 am
Pacific time, Better Days episode 208, Only One Way,
will go to air.

As Wednesday marked International Women's Day - a
day which is now recognized around the world with
respect to a movement and a struggle which I support
wholeheartedly - this week's Better Days program will
highlight women artists who are making a difference
through their music.

I play women artists on the show every single week,
but tonight I'll let the men pause and reflect while the
women sing and play.

The feature set will celebrate the music of Scottish Borders
artist, Karine Polwart, including songs from Faultlines,
her soon-to-be-released Scribbled In Chalk, and a couple
of demos of songs Karine did for the 2006 BBC Radio Ballads.

You'll also hear tracks from KTB, Patty Griffin, Bjork, Eliza
Gilkyson, Beth Orton, Jenna Reid, Gillian Welch, Tracy
Grammer, Eivor Palsdottir, Laura Veirs, Dar Williams,
Amy Rigby and many others.

Better Days is heard around the corner at 102.7 FM in
British Columbia and parts of north-western Washington,
and around the world by webcast at www.coopradio.org

I hope you'll join me.

DL

2006-02-24T22:24:00.000-08:00

Remastering

Songs Of Leonard Cohen - his first album, a remastered
version from Holland - arrived in the mail today.

When I came of age and found my way into the private company
of brilliant and mysterious young women, this album always
seemed to be on in the background. Now, almost forty years
later, I removed it from its lovely black-laquered folding case
and put it on the stereo.

The bass still sounded muddy, the guitar still a bit distorted,
but the overall presence was sharper. Suzanne, The Stranger
Song, Sisters Of Mercy, So Long Marianne, Hey That's No Way
To Say Goodbye, the one about the thin green candle - how
beautiful, beautiful! And I was back in Susan's room out on
Interurban Road overlooking the rain-toppled grasses, and
in Catherine's attic along Admirals Road under the beaded
skylight. I could hear their voices as we discussed Steinbeck,
Orwell, the genius of William Golding. Catherine talked of
the careful mind of Atticus Finch, and I wondered, whatever
happened to Harper Lee.

O the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone. They
were waiting for me when I thought that I just can't go on.

Susan's voice lilting with the rising wave of each thought.
Catherine's hair an even more intense red than I recall, as
if she'd stood on a thousand new pennies and willed their
copper upward, through her blood and out her skull.

That must be what writing is for, to bring the past more
carefully into the present, closing time in folded hands,
remastering memory.

DL

2006-02-24T21:15:00.000-08:00

Next Stop, Feeling

There aren't many singers who have it, that ability
to get underneath the bed you're laying in and cause
it to shiver, move a little, as though a train were
passing beneath your house.

I'm not talking about the voice as a musical instrument
of beauty and versatility, but of an authenticity. What I
am speaking of is a commitment to the song that allows
you, the listener, no exit.

This is the meaning of extraordinary rendition that we
ought to know. Of being captured, spellbound, by a song
until it is over.

It's in the way Robert Johnson sang his blues line, like
he'd chewed metal into a midnight gum, and the song
is mineral spit.

It's in the way Sandy Denny took up the contradictory
tenderness and ferocity of every woman, and sang
from the place that fracture was grafted back together.

Dick Gaughan, of Scotland, pictured up top, has one of
those voices.

Over the next four weeks of Better Days, my radio
program, I will be sharing music by singers - and an
instrumentalist or two - whose voices stop what you
are doing, lead you down below.

No exit while the train is moving.

Next stop, feeling.

DL

2006-02-23T21:05:00.000-08:00

Scribbled In Chalk

Karine Polwart's new album is due out in the UK soon,
April 10th to be exact. It's called Scribbled In Chalk,
and having listened to an advance copy that Karine
was kind enough to give me a while ago, I can tell you
that it's going to charm more and more people into
being admirers of her work. Have a listen yourself to
three songs, posted at the link below.
http://www.myspace.com/karinepolwart

And make sure to visit Karine's website at
http://www.karinepolwart.com

and her blog site at
http://www.karinepolwart.com/newscentre.html

You're going to be hearing a lot more from this artist.
I'm happy to call her my friend.

DL

2006-02-22T23:57:00.000-08:00

Our Mother

"As I tried to bring a deeper quality of presence
to all my works this day, I found God moving
through the day with me, like a Mother, opening
my eyes to beauty. Quietly, joyfully, gratefully,
without complaining, I welcomed all the beauty
that crossed my path."

Her babies grow so heavy
Heavy as can be
And the God who is their mother
Cannot lift them to her knee

Apocalypse Now. Kurtz, up the river where the heart
of darkness is. Remember? Willard watching him as he
spoke about judgment being the ultimate horror. His
shaved head, jungle sweat, a blood vessel in his forehead
twitching, pulse-like, by torch light.

Judgment, the horror. The horror!

Weighted by our blindness
By all we cannot see
The God who is our mother
Cannot lift us to her knee

Coretta King said once, that if the soul of the nation
is to be saved, women must become its soul. In the
same way, Mother Nature must again become the
temple we enter, distracted not by any gospel but
the very essence that leads us to grow upward,
upward, encouraged by the sun.

Heavy with believing
Heavy with decree
The God who is our mother
Cannot lift us to her knee

Kilgore said he loved the smell of napalm in the
morning. When I saw the movie, people laughed
when he said it. I used to go and sing at a mental
asylum, and I heard the same laughter there. The
broken heart does not always bring tears.

Gandhi said that non-cooperation with evil is as
much a duty as cooperation with good.

I heard a singer asking, the other day, where the
mothers of America are.

Woke the other night from a dream of angels. They
were leading this tired old warrior down to a stream.
When they spoke to him, they called him God. He
told them, with a sniff of displeasure, that they ought
not to call him by that name, that he was a stranger
to them. Then we offer water to a stranger, the angels
said. He nodded. It was a beginning.

Father Leo, the motorcycle-riding Roman Catholic
priest who married two pagan gypsies long ago, said,
we are breathing God. And slowly waved his hand
toward the plum blossoms, toward the gardens of
Beacon Hill Park, toward the diamond glints of sun
on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. We are breathing God,
he whispered again, almost in tears.

All the grief we've never grieved
All the shackled liberty
The God who is our mother
Cannot lift us to her knee

The opening quote is from Macrina Wiederkehr, a
Benedictine Sister at St. Scholastica Monastery in
Fort Smith, Arkansas. In her book, A Tree Full Of
Angels, she remembers being in a bus station, seeing
a little girl helping her brother get a drink at the
water fountain. He was too small, and yet he was
too heavy for her to lift him to the stream of water.
Just as Macrina was about to rise and offer to help,
the girl ran over to the shoeshine man, pointed to
a footstool he wasn't using, dragged it to the fountain,
and helped her baby brother step on it and get a
drink.

Taking care of each other, without falling prey to our
frustrations, without waiting to be rescued -- it's the
only prayer I care to say, for it is active inspiration.
I know without asking that, when the girl took the
footstool back, the shoeshine man was beaming.

I, too, look for possibilities of mercy and delight in
my actions, to bring a deeper quality of presence
to the work I do each day. It's true, we have made
ourselves too heavy to be lifted. We are all in need
of a bright sister with a footstool.

Let us rise up from the ground
Let us learn to stand
The God who is our mother waits
For us to take her hand

"Holiness comes wrapped in the ordinary. There are
burning bushes all around you. Every tree is full of
angels. Hidden beauty is waiting in every crumb. Life
wants to lead you from crumbs to angels, but this can
happen only if you are willing to unwrap the ordinary
by staying with it long enough to harvest its treasure."

Macrina again, from A Tree Full Of Angels.

I don't want to smell the napalm. I want to breathe
in the mystery until the tears come up. Coming back
down the river with Willard, I am exhausted by what
I've been witness to. The only war I know how to stop
is the one inside of me.

DL

2006-02-20T16:25:00.000-08:00

Water For A Stranger

I saw angels coming down the hill
The old recurring dream
They take their maker by the hand
And lead him to the stream
God, he must be thirsty
They know his mouth is dry
Look at how he trembles
As if he's going to die
God, his mouth is dry

We drift through nameless valleys
Gypsies, no homelands
The truth laid bare, the ruthless prayer
That opens folded hands
Our bodies free these unheard choirs
When we lay them down
Our blood goes singing through the wires
Crier without a town
I hear the voices now

That woman back in Francisville
Did you note her eyes
So wide and deep, they put to sleep
The nuisance of our cries
Call it a lesson, call it a grace
The pain those eyes absorbed
Her soul alight around her face
Her purpose undisturbed
She needn't say a word

Go on, then, share your story
Your body knows the song
And if you hear wings, don't worry
The tale we tell is long
Are they real or are we dreaming
The footprints on the path
Is it real or is it dreaming
Tonight we know it's both
For we are on the path

There are angels coming down the hill
The old recurring dream
They take their maker by the hand
And lead him to the stream
Water for a stranger
They know his mouth is dry
Look at how he trembles
As if he's going to die
God, his mouth is dry

DL

2006-02-11T21:44:00.000-08:00

1 Dead In Attic

I received this letter from Chris Rose yesterday.
I support what he's doing, hope you will, too.

Hello. This is Chris Rose, from the Times-Picayune
in New Orleans.

I wanted to tell you that I have published the book.
I won't go into great detail here; if you are interested,
please check out my website - chrisrosebooks.com -
for all the information.

I'm very proud of the book. I think it captures the
raw emotion of what happened here this fall. And
I'm pleased to add that we are sharing proceeds
with a couple of very important music and arts
programs here in the city. There's more about
those organizations and about signing events and
the photographer I worked with on the website.

If you are in the New Orleans area over the coming
days, I'd like to invite you to our debut reading and
signing events at Tipitina's Sunday afternoon, the
R Bar on Monday night and Monkey Hill Bar on
Tuesday night. We'll have plenty of books available
and music and general mayhem.

Thank you for reading my stories and for sending
your kind words. I appreciate that. We're going to
win this battle.

New Orleans now. New Orleans forever!

Regards, and thanks for your support.

-Chris Rose

Note: If you Google "1 Dead In Attic," you can find
the original newspaper article and give it a read,
to gain an idea of what Chris Rose is about.

2006-02-07T22:23:00.000-08:00

Better Days
episode 204

Late At Night, The Poet's Voice

Thursday, February 9th, 2006
10:00 pm - 12:00 am Pacific (GMT-8 hrs)
CFRO 102.7 fm

Webcast www.coopradio.org

Those nights out on the road, the road dry, the sky
clear, just you and white lines, occasional headlamps
of oncoming cars turning from high-beam to low.

You're alone, turning the radio dial to see if there
might, by miracle, be a poet on the air this late.
Unlikely, yes, but you never know. Some of those
far away city stations come through stronger on a
clear night in winter, surprise you.

This week I'll do a little tribute to Canadian poet and
songwriter, Leonard Cohen.

Ireland's Albert Niland has linked me up with a few
of his songs, and I'll share them with you.

Jeffrey Foucault is an American songwriter whose
work is too fine to remain under the radar.

I will also share another song or two by Krista Detor,
from her brilliant new album, Mudshow.

There are others. If you roll the dial Thursday night,
turn it to the fm band, to 102.7, just at 10 pm Pacific.
Or go to the computer, burn a few candles, turn off
the electric light, and hook into www.coopradio.org .

It gets lonely out on the road at night. Souls can go
missing in that mesmerizing dark. Let the poet's voice
keep you company, guide you safely home.

DL

2006-02-06T22:08:00.000-08:00

The Back 40 : February 2006

The Back 40 gives you an idea what I've been playing
on Better Days. Listings are in no particular order; it's
not a contest. Recent additions show the artist's name
highlighted in red. If I think an album is the best they've
ever done, I highlight the album title in red. Visit these
artists' websites by clicking the link below their entry
and, where inspired to, support the artists' commitment
and gift by purchasing a copy of their music.

Better Days is heard Thursdays, 10:00 pm to 12 midnight
Pacific Time (GMT -8 hours) at 102.7 FM in the signal area
and live via webcast at http://www.coopradio.org

Watch this site for radio specials aired outside the usual
time slot. Artists or labels wishing to submit material, please
e-mail the show at cfrobetterdays@yahoo.ca

*****The Back 40*****

Mudshow : Krista Detor
http://www.kristadetor.com

Cello voice, finely-wrought songs, mesmerizing.

Hey Dreamer : John Spillane
http://www.johnspillane.ie/

Singer-songwriter won recent Irish Music award.

Rebecca Drive : Willy Clay Band
http://www.willyclayband.com/

Fresh country sounds from the arctic north of Sweden.

Hands Across The Water : Various Artists
http://www.handsacrossthewater.com/

Resonant trans-Atlantic benefit for tsunami orphans.

Burning Times : Christy Moore
http://www.christymoore.com/

The greatest living Irishman, at his interpretive best.

Prairie Wind : Neil Young
http://www.neilyoung.com/

Rust or fade away? Neil chooses life instead.

Giants : Donal Hinely
http://www.donalhinely.com/

The title cut alone is worth the price of admission.

I've Got My Own Hell To Raise : Bettye LaVette
http://www.bettyelavette.com/

Detroit blues-soul singer dishes out her best record ever.

Little Fugitive : Amy Rigby
http://www.amyrigby.com/

Amy writes from a unique, cuttingly female perspective.

Mantras For Madmen : Harry Manx
http://www.harrymanx.com/

Manx freshly combines blues and eastern sounds.

Fair & Square : John Prine
http://www.ohboy.com/

What would we do without this guy?

Lookaftering : Vashti Bunyan
http://www.anotherday.co.uk/

Thirty-five years between albums; worth the wait.

Gone But Not Forgotten : Emptyhouse
http://www.emptyhouse.info/

From the far north of Scotland, wonderful folk.

Iron Flowers : Grey De Lisle
http://www.greydelisle.com/

Grey makes new music that sounds old as the wind.

Stripping Cane : Jeffrey Foucault
http://www.jeffreyfoucault.com/

One of the best, lesser-known songwriters in America.

Flower Of Avalon : Tracy Grammer
http://www.tracygrammer.com/

Tracy revisits the late Dave Carter's songbook.

Humming By The Flowered Vine : Laura Cantrell
http://www.lauracantrell.com/

Laura's singing takes me away somewhere. Great cd.

Get Myself Together : Danny Barnes
http://www.terminusrecords.com/

Makes me laugh, with the blessing of all my feelings.

The Outsider : Rodney Crowell
http://www.rodneycrowell.com/

Rodney is putting it out there stronger than ever.

Two Birds : Kirsty McGee
http://www.parkrecords.com/

Original songs, beautifully sung by this UK artist.

Soul's Chapel : Marty Stuart
http://www.martystuartmusic.com/

Further evidence of Stuart's spiritual changes.

I Am A Bird Now : Antony & The Johnsons
http://www.antonyandthejohnsons.com/

Emotional incantations I like more with each listen.

Here Come The Choppers : Loudon Wainwright
http://www.loudonwainwright.net/

An American original. Loudon's best in a while.

Pulling Through EP : Karine Polwart
http://www.karinepolwart.com/

Scotland's best songwriter gives us five.

Cripple Crow : Devendra Banhart
http://www.xlrecordings.com/

Well-produced, without comprising his brilliance.

Song Of The Traveling Daughter : Abigail Washburn
http://www.abigailwashburn.com/

My selection for 2005 album of the year.

Chicago Wind : Merle Haggard
http://www.merlehaggard.com/

Haggard's in good voice, and is speaking out, too.

Mercy : Sam Baker
http://www.sambakermusic.com/

A survivor, an unknown, this is Baker's masterpiece.

Dreamin' My Dreams : Patty Loveless
http://www.pattyloveless.com/

Patty Loveless, a beautiful singer glowing in her prime.

American Jukebox Fables : Ellis Paul
http://www.ellispaul.com/

New England's Ellis Paul gets better each time out.

The Girl Who Couldn't Fly : Kate Rusby
http://www.katerusby.com/

She is a spellcaster. Another Rusby gem.

Begonias : Caitlin Cary & Thad Cockrell
http://www.caitlincary.com/

Begonias deservedly made many best of 2005 lists.

Childish Things : James McMurtry
http://www.jamesmcmurtry.com/

McMurtry's sinewy writing and guitarwork at their best.

Out Beyond Ideas : David Wilcox & Nance Pettit
http://www.outbeyondideas.org/

Ancient poems to new music, a lovely accomplishment.

Hair In My Eyes... : Corb Lund
http://www.corblund.com/

Albertan Lund's beat and humour are irresistable.

Blissville : Jeff Talmadge
www.jefftalmadge.com

Talmadge has made his best record yet with Blissville.

Part Of Your History : Jamie Hartford
http://www.johnhartford.com

Jamie pays beautiful tribute to his father's songs.

The Art Of Virtue : Adrienne Young
http://www.adrienneyoung.com
An exquisite and intelligent record, and a big wow!

Chavez Ravine : Ry Cooder
http://www.ryland-cooder.com

A sensitive aural movie about a vanishing Los Angeles.

DL

2006-02-02T00:46:00.000-08:00

A Late Night Verse

I don't like this world a lot as others move to claim it
There's another place I know and take the time to name it
A realm of soul, invisible, evasive, shadow bound
Some say it's in the air we breathe, I say it's in the ground
Like coins that wait for digging, forgotten histories
Where earthworms shine the silver of our oldest mysteries
Not to see, but feel again, the spirit that prevails
Welcomed back by valkyries with dirty fingernails

DL

2006-02-01T00:27:00.000-08:00

BLESSED

I let myself be poor again
Simple now and still
Put aside distracting things
Learn to be alone
My garden is unsure again
I leave open the gate
Welcome what my keeper brings
The sun behind the hill

Blessed be those who never turn away
Blessed be the ones who stay

The empty branches cannot hold
The heavy winter sky
Roses close their tiny hands
Vines grip to the stone
No more stories needing told
The books are put away
The wind walks in the open gate
Broken shadows fly

Blessed be those who never turn away
Blessed be the ones who stay

I love the dark and quiet hour
Silence of the snow
The fence that bends beneath the weight
The wood under the tarp
Tending to each little chore
The voice that tells me how
Let me build a fire with you
And make a pot of tea

Blessed be those who never turn away
Blessed be the ones who stay

I find you now in everything
My heart is sad and ripe
Branches fall, the sky remains
No simple answer comes
There is not a god or king
Who knows us in the dark
We kiss our solitudes
And say good night

Blessed be those who never turn away
Blessed be the ones who stay

DL

2006-01-31T00:14:00.000-08:00

I know this will not become the new state song
of Idaho, and mean no offense to anyone who
is from there. Songs are mysterious visitors.

Idaho

Through the rain to see Irene in Pocatello
Tilts the rearview down to check his hair
Turns out Irene is with another fellow
He's jealous so he fishtails out of there
His wife of seven years lives down in Boise
Then there's Tina up in Coeur D'Alene
The contradictions, they get awful noisy
Caught inside the shushing of the rain

He's hungry so he stops to see the Colonel
Hits on the girl behind the cash machine
She laughs and says, "Ain't you the puer eternal"
What the hell was that supposed to mean
He's still lookin' for a piece of heaven
Stops for gas and makes a couple calls
Reaches Kim, she's drinking at a tavern
The other side of American Falls

He can't admit the fact he's gettin' older
Dyed hair makes his skin look older still
He nearly skids his Buick off the shoulder
Twists the cap and pops another pill
Kim was married to a long haul trucker
The only thing she misses is the sex
She'll be drunk but she won't let him kiss her
In case she ever gets back with her ex

He's still obsessing on that other fellow
That Irene was with when he checked in
Could be he's seen the last of Pocatello
But he's crazy for the tan lines on her skin
He gets with Kim and then heads back to Boise
This weekend he'll drive up to Coeur D'Alene
The contradictions, they get awful noisy
Caught inside the shushing of the rain

He hopes there ain't a speed trap at the junction
Where 86 folds in to 84
He's had a couple shots but he can function
Pops another pill just to be sure
It's then he notices that it's stopped raining
All-night talk show on the radio
Folks from everywhere call in complaining
They ought to come and live in Idaho
They ought to come and live in Idaho

DL

2006-01-30T17:08:00.000-08:00

Better Days 203
Part Of Your History

Thursday, February 2nd, 2006
10:00 pm - 12:00 am Pacific (GMT -8)
CFRO 102.7 fm

Webcast www.coopradio.org

I love the idea of America, and love much of what that
country has given us, things like jazz, blues, baseball,
great songwriters, novelists, poets... and a document
called the Constitution. Whatever you wish to call the
United States today, it is no longer the same America as
I came to know it, defined by the gifts listed above. It
now appears that its originating document has been edited
to suit a new agenda, one which leaves people out. The
America that I love has seen its foundations come under
relentless attack since the new century began.

This week I am going to divide the program into three
segments of roughly 40 minutes apiece. The first segment
I will feature tunes from some of the recordings I've had
come in the mail recently. Rosanne Cash, Chan Marshall,
Ryan Adams, Jeff Talmadge, among others.

In the second segment, I want to feature a new cd from
Krista Detor, called Mudshow. I'll also honour Jamie Hartford
for his 2005 tribute cd to his father, John Hartford, called
Part Of Your History. That's son and father in the photo
above, taken, if I'm not mistaken, at John's last public
performance.

In the third segment, I am going to create a 40-minute
soundscape of songs, music and spoken word which will
pertain to the America which I grew up admiring, the one
which is being lost, which is part of our history.

I look forward to having you join me Thursday night
for episode #203 of Better Days, heard around the corner
by signal at 102.7 fm, and via live webcast around the
world at www.coopradio.org

DL

2006-01-28T10:06:00.000-08:00

This Old Guitar

The ritual of a concert can be a powerful
experience if the performer is wise enough
to tune the room to silence.

Why do we burn the candles
Why dim down the lights
And gather in the growing dark
Of this stormy night
The song is in the wind again
The rain is on the roof
I hold this old guitar to heart
Tonight it tunes itself

Now each song is the last one
Encores are a gift
Where expectation grinds us
Surprises are a lift
Don't be shouting titles out
Sweet mystery unfurl
Don't be watching kettles now
Let spirit come to boil

Some of you live up the road
Some live worlds away
We all come from the broken drum
That is the world today
So enter in this house tonight
What longing brings you here
To know that we more clearly see
When looking through a tear

So tune the room to quiet now
No one say a thing
Join hands with the silence now
Until it starts to sing
To listen is to tend a wound
To let the judgments go
Songs you've never heard begin
To sound like songs you know

That's why we burn the candles
Why we dim the lights
And gather in the growing dark
Of this stormy night
The song is in the wind again
The rain is on the roof
I hold this old guitar to heart
And every song is proof

DL

2006-01-16T23:15:00.000-08:00

Better Days 201
My People In The Streets
Thursday, January 19th
10:00 pm to 12:00 am
CFRO 102.7 fm
webcast : www.coopradio.org

The election of Michelle Bachelet in Chile lifts my heart. Almost
all of South America now - with some 82% of the population -
has elected left-of-center leadership. Anything is possible when
people's voices are actually counted. In Chile, voting is not
only a right, it is mandatory. I wonder what would happen
in North America if this were the case.

Michelle Bachelet is a single mother, divorced with children,
an agnostic, a victim of imprisonment and torture, a woman
whose own father was killed by the Pinochet dictatorship.
She has achieved this election triumph on her own merit,
on her own principles, not from being the wife of someone
famous or previously in power. She appealed to the people
of Chile. People are celebrating in the streets.

This Thursday, Better Days is going to celebrate not only the
election of Chile's first female president, but the relentless
struggle of peoples all over the world to reclaim a say in their
governments and communities. I came of age travelling from
campus to campus during the Vietnam war, being in the
streets with people who shared convictions and dreams.
Though this old world appears to be falling apart as a result
of greed merchants who lie to the point of challenging our
mercy and sanity, it is good to see my people in the streets
once again, committed, uplifted, smiling a while.

As Leonard Cohen might say, let us place our paper hats
on our concussions, and dance.

Join me, won't you?

Thursday, January 19th
10:00 pm - 12:00 am Pacific time (GMT -8 hrs)
at CFRO 102.7 fm around the corner, and webcast at
www.coopradio.org around the world

DL

2006-01-10T18:03:00.000-08:00

The Back 40 : January 2006

The Back 40 gives you an idea what I've been playing
on Better Days. Listings are in no particular order; it's
not a contest. Recent additions show the artist's name in
red. Visit the artists' websites by clicking the link below
their entry, and where inspired demonstrate solidarity
and support for the artists' commitment and genius by
purchasing a copy of the music.

First, out of respect for the great tradition, five cds from
days gone by that I've been listening to and recommend...
Dick Gaughan's Handful Of Earth, Sleepy John Estes's
Legend Of Sleepy John Estes, Mickey Newbury's Stories
From The Silver Moon Cafe, Sandy Denny's Attic Tracks
1972-1984, and The Band's Music From Big Pink. Wow,
the well is deep. Get yourself a drink of water!

Better Days is heard Thursdays, 10:00 pm to 12 midnight
Pacific Time (GMT -8 hours) at 102.7 FM and live on the
webcast at http://www.coopradio.org/

Watch this site for radio specials aired outside the usual
time slot. Artists or labels wishing to submit material,
contact the show at cfrobetterdays@yahoo.ca

*****The Back 40*****

Hey Dreamer : John Spillane
http://www.johnspillane.ie/
One of Ireland's finest singer-songwriters.

Rebecca Drive : Willy Clay Band
http://www.willyclayband.com/
Fresh country sounds from the arctic north of Sweden.

Hands Across The Water : Various Artists
http://www.handsacrossthewater.com/
Resonant trans-Atlantic benefit for tsunami orphans.

Burning Times : Christy Moore
http://www.christymoore.com/
The greatest living Irishman, at his interpretive best.

Prairie Wind : Neil Young
http://www.neilyoung.com/
Rust or fade away? Neil chooses life instead.

Giants : Donal Hinely
http://www.donalhinely.com/
The title cut alone is worth the price of admission.

I've Got My Own Hell To Raise : Bettye LaVette
http://www.bettyelavette.com/
Detroit blues-soul singer dishes out her best record ever.

Little Fugitive : Amy Rigby
http://www.amyrigby.com/
Amy writes from a unique, cuttingly female perspective.

Mantras For Madmen : Harry Manx
http://www.harrymanx.com/
Manx freshly combines blues and eastern sounds.

Fair & Square : John Prine
http://www.ohboy.com/
What would we do without this guy?

Lookaftering : Vashti Bunyan
http://www.anotherday.co.uk/
Thirty-five years between albums; worth the wait.

Bones In The Backyard : Kensington Hillbillys
http://www.kensingtonhillbillys.com/
This is an excellent record of good-time country music.

Gone But Not Forgotten : Emptyhouse
http://www.emptyhouse.info/
From the far north of Scotland, wonderful folk.

Iron Flowers : Grey De Lisle
http://www.greydelisle.com/
Grey makes new music that sounds old as the wind.

Stripping Cane : Jeffrey Foucault
http://www.jeffreyfoucault.com/
One of the best, lesser-known songwriters in America.

Flower Of Avalon : Tracy Grammer
http://www.tracygrammer.com/
Tracy revisits the late Dave Carter's songbook.

Humming By The Flowered Vine : Laura Cantrell
http://www.lauracantrell.com/
Laura's singing takes me away somewhere. Great cd.

Get Myself Together : Danny Barnes
http://www.terminusrecords.com/
Makes me laugh, with the blessing of all my feelings.

The Outsider : Rodney Crowell
http://www.rodneycrowell.com/
Rodney is putting it out there stronger than ever.

Two Birds : Kirsty McGee
http://www.parkrecords.com/
Original songs, beautifully sung by this UK artist.

Soul's Chapel : Marty Stuart
http://www.martystuartmusic.com/
Further evidence of Stuart's spiritual changes.

I Am A Bird Now : Antony & The Johnsons
http://www.antonyandthejohnsons.com/
Hard to describe, but I like it more with each listen.

Here Come The Choppers : Loudon Wainwright
http://www.loudonwainwright.net/
An American original. Loudon's best in a while.

Pulling Through EP : Karine Polwart
http://www.karinepolwart.com/
Scotland's best songwriter gives us five.

Cripple Crow : Devendra Banhart
http://www.xlrecordings.com/
Well-produced, without comprising his brilliance.

Song Of The Traveling Daughter : Abigail Washburn
http://www.abigailwashburn.com/
My selection for 2005 album of the year.

Chicago Wind : Merle Haggard
http://www.merlehaggard.com/
Haggard's in good voice, and is speaking out, too.

The Duhks : The Duhks
http://www.duhks.com/index.php
Canada's finest new band makes a wonderful debut.

Mercy : Sam Baker
http://www.sambakermusic.com/
A survivor, an unknown, this is Baker's masterpiece.

Dreamin' My Dreams : Patty Loveless
http://www.pattyloveless.com/
Patty Loveless, a beautiful singer glowing in her prime.

American Jukebox Fables : Ellis Paul
http://www.ellispaul.com/
New England's Ellis Paul gets better each time out.

The Girl Who Couldn't Fly : Kate Rusby
http://www.katerusby.com/
She is a spellcaster. Another Rusby gem.

Begonias : Caitlin Cary & Thad Cockrell
http://www.caitlincary.com/
Begonias deservedly made many best of 2005 lists.

Childish Things : James McMurtry
http://www.jamesmcmurtry.com/
McMurtry's sinewy writing and guitarwork at their best.

Out Beyond Ideas : David Wilcox & Nance Pettit
http://www.outbeyondideas.org/
Ancient poems to new music, a lovely accomplishment.

Hair In My Eyes... : Corb Lund
http://www.corblund.com/
Albertan Lund's beat and humour are irresistable.

Paradise Hotel : Eliza Gilkyson
http://www.redhouserecords.com/
Eliza keeps besting her last outing. A great cd.

Part Of Your History : Jamie Hartford
http://www.johnhartford.com
Jamie pays beautiful tribute to his father's songs.

The Art Of Virtue : Adrienne Young
http://www.adrienneyoung.com
An exquisite and intelligent record, and a big wow!

Chavez Ravine : Ry Cooder
http://www.ryland-cooder.com
Ry Cooder continues to honour the true blood of living.

DL

2006-01-10T01:27:00.000-08:00

Cover, Iarla O'Lionaird's The Seven Steps Of Mercy

2006-01-09T23:05:00.000-08:00

Better Days 200
What We Do With Feeling
Thursday, January 12th
10:00 pm - 12:00 am Pacific
Webcast www.coopradio.org

Great need was my only strength
And so we were separated
As if we had become slaves
Out on the boats
Lost in the fog
To know one another no more
Because time moves forever forward
And carries with it
This endless sense of
Being alone*

I was having a chat with Texas Granny the other night on
MSN and we were talking about feelings.

I said I would take mine sometimes, put them in a bottle and
drop them off a bridge into the currents of the river below.

Motion. The mercy of possibilities.

If I remember properly, she wasn't so sure it was a good idea
to be letting go of feelings.

I joked for a minute, saying that it might explain what Billy Joe
McAllister dropped off the Tallahachie bridge.

Despair, my old psychologist once told me, is bearable,
because to despair, one's feelings must be in motion.
Depression is static, no fun at all.

I got to telling Texas Granny how some of the time I keep
feelings submerged at the bottom of a pond. Then, I told
her the old story of a person who was in the woods with a
dog one day and, when they came alongside a pond, a hairy
mud-caked arm reached up from the stagnant water and,
like that, the dog disappeared. The dog went down.

Word reached the king and he dispatched an army of men
to bucket out that pond. At the bottom they found a giant
named Iron John. He was led by 20 guy-ropes to the castle,
where he was locked in a cage in the courtyard.

Our buried feelings, freed briefly from the bottom of the
murky pond, soon imprisoned again. Not much progress there.

One day, the legend goes, the king's son was playing with his
golden ball and it rolled into the cage. The giant kept it and
spoke with the boy, cutting a deal. If the boy would bring him
the key to the cage, he promised he would give back the boy's
golden ball. The boy said he didn't know where the key was.
Iron John told him. "It's hidden under your mother's pillow."

Most men smile a little at this point.

So one day when his mother wasn't around, the boy looked,
and found the key. He freed Iron John from the cage and,
true to his word, the giant returned the boy's golden ball.

As I was telling this story to Texas Granny, I forgot its ending,
so I made one up. Something about the king's son rebelling a
few year's later and, when confronted by his father's absence
and his mother's judgments, he ran away. And, of course, he
ran toward something, too. I asked TG where he might go, this
boy, what he might run toward. To the pond, she said. I had a
feeling that she was right.

If I look at my own escape toward adulthood, I would say yes,
that's where I would go. I would go to the pond and then, from
there, to the river.

And from the river to the sea.

Iarla O Lionaird is from Ireland. One of the songs I'll air on
Thursday night, Seacht (Seven), is from a 1997 record called
Seacht gCoisceim na Trocaire, or The Seven Steps To Mercy.
It is a rare record, in Gaeilge, language of antiquity, a solitary
voice singing in the sean nos tradition, calling to the ancestral
spirits. Such songs bear textures of feeling, many feelings, ones
which come from before our births. With these sorts of songs,
you must give yourself to them before they give themselves to
you. Best to imagine that you are a bottle floating down river
toward the sea, toward the unknown, toward the memory.

There may be despair in the music, but it moves you. It's
one of the uses of music, part of what we do with feeling.

In the Irish tradition, the singer takes the hand of the person
nearest to him, whether friend or stranger, holds that hand,
lifting it and turning it as the song rises and falls over time,
to its last note. A kind of dance, across generations.

I can easily muse on that image as being a little like what I
mean to do each Thursday night when I take to the air.

This Thursday's show, the 200th Better Days episode, is
going to explore the textures of our feeling, how we find
our feelings moved along in music. The show is going to
begin at the bottom of the pond. I don't expect to reach
the sea, but, by midnight, at least we ought to be moving
in the direction of the river.

I hope you'll join me. Bring a bucket, or a bottle.

DL

*a translation of the lyrics to Seacht (Seven)

2006-01-03T23:36:00.000-08:00

Better Days 199
Bird With A Broken Wing
Thursday, January 5th, 2006
10:00 pm to 12:00 am Pacific (GMT -8 hrs)
CFRO 102.7 fm
webcast live at www.coopradio.org

New Year's wishes to all who read here and listen to
the Better Days radio program!

So much good music has come rolling in over the
holiday period, and I'll post the new Back 40 playlist
for January 2006 in the next day or two.

Thursday night, I'll get after some of the new stuff
on the first regular show of the year. Monday's special,
three-hour show, Hands Across The Water, has now
drawn e-mail responses from 10 countries, and the
HATW cd's producers, John Cutliffe and Andrea Zonn,
phoned in during the webcast from Nashville to say
hello. They had a simultaneous chat going on AOL,
as well, about the recording and the broadcast.

The title of Better Days 199, Bird With A Broken
Wing, comes from a song that Mike Beck sent me,
Amanda Come Home. Mike's a California-based
singer-songwriter-guitarist and horse whisperer,
and the song is for his good friend, Amanda, who
is presently in Iraq working as a linguist.

The Willy Clay Band is five young Swedish fellas from
Kiruna, up in the arctic recesses of northern Sweden,
where they met at a jam session in 2003. Two years
later they were in Hendersonville, Tennessee making
a debut record with the likes of Garth Hudson, former
member of The Band. I'll feature a few tunes from
Rebecca Drive, their excellent 2005 release.

John Spillane is an Irish songwriter-singer whose
music has been in my ears a lot since I received his
music in the mail just before Christmas. Not only does
John write strong songs -- Christy Moore covered his
Magic Nights In The Lobby Bar on his recent cd --
but he sings in the sean nos spirit and lifts your heart
on the back of his voice. I'll do a feature on John's
music on Thursday's show.

Other highlights will include songs from Karine Polwart's
recent Pulling Through EP, plus Devendra Banhart,
Harry Manx, and Silver Jews, along with many more
new things from the mailbag.

Join me Thursday night, 10pm Pacific, for two hours of
the best in songwriters and worldwide roots music as
Better Days 199 goes to air.

DL

2005-12-28T00:19:00.000-08:00

Hands Across The Water
A Better Days Radio Special
Monday, January 2nd, 2006
2:00 to 5:00 pm Pacific (GMT -8)
CFRO 102.7 fm
Webcast: www.coopradio.org

Been putting in some heart time here, dovetailing songs
and instrumental pieces for this radio special coming up
on the 2nd of January. It's mysterious, the creative juices
which come to you when you heart goes into a project.

I have a thing about tonal centers, shifting keys from one
song to the next. It's about one song passing the torch to
the next, not letting it fall or go out. This radio show idea,
Hands Across The Water, came to me after I received
an advance copy of the new cd of the same name from
John Cutliffe, who produced it with Andrea Zonn. The
cd features 16 collaborations between artists on both sides
of the Atlantic Ocean. John Prine, Rodney Crowell, Paul
Brady, Jackson Browne...I won't run all the names by you
here, but suffice to say it's a knockout lineup and the songs
are made to last. The purpose behind the cd is to raise funds
for the children who were made orphans a year ago by the
devstating tsunami. There's compassion in the world...

The music for this radio special is symbolic of compassion
without borders. The image I began with comes from a piece
I read on December 26th. Many survivors on the coastlines
struck by the tsunami were floating empty boats out to sea.
Gypsy boats, they're called. Often they lay flowers in them,
some candle lanterns. Given the severity of the disasters the
people of the earth have seen over the past year, the loss of
life, the millions of people who have lost not only loved ones
but homes and belongings -- in Banda Aceh, they even lost a
piece of the island, where some 20,000 people used to live --
I wanted to offer something of a requiem and remembrance
for the dead, and something of a healing song for the living.
There will be some joy in the program, too, as we owe that
to those who are gone.

One piece I'll play is a gentle hymn from Austin's Eliza Gilkyson,
called Requiem....

Mother Mary, full of grace, awaken
All our homes are gone, our loved ones taken
Taken by the sea...

In the dark night of the soul
Bring some comfort to us all...

That our sorrows may be faced.

It is a privilege to compose these kinds of radio shows. You see,
if you tune in, you may find the show tuning you in, too. Time,
date and means of listening are above. If you can listen in on
January 2nd, it would be good to have you there when I float
a gypsy boat of compassion out across the waters...

Joining hands.

DL

2005-12-27T00:52:00.000-08:00

a young Thai woman sends flowers out to sea

2005-12-25T10:29:00.000-08:00

The Flame

The flame begins to flicker
Cup it with your hand
You know well what fierceness is
You are a gentle one
You're bound to trample something
When you walk this land
You’re going to cast a shadow
No matter where you stand

The flame begins to flicker
Cup it with your hand

The flame begins to flicker
The high wind shakes the pines
The road across the border closed
By fallen power lines
We ride out the storm together
Two weary Ichabods
At the mercy of the weather
And the fury of our gods

The flame begins to flicker
Cup it with your hand

The flame begins to flicker
Wind always finds the cracks
And runs its icy fingernails
Up and down our backs
May a higher wisdom reach us
And spread across the land
The flame begins to flicker
Cup it with your hand

The flame begins to flicker
Cup it with your hand

DL

c 2005 SOCAN

2005-12-23T02:01:00.000-08:00

Texas : Three Days and Two Nights

Here's the link to a great article by a Texas-based pedal steel
player named Susan Alcorn. Worthy of your time. When you're
done the article, click Susan's website link at the end of the piece,
and when there, click where it says Louisiana 1927 to hear Susan's
solo steel version of the Randy Newman song...
http://www.counterpunch.org/alcorn12172005.html

2005-12-19T22:43:00.000-08:00

Better Days 197
Survivors

Thursday, December 22nd
10:00 pm - 12:00 am Pacific (GMT -8)
CFRO 102.7 fm
Webcast : www.coopradio.org

Ruth is in on next week to close out the year, so this
is my final Better Days show of 2005. What a year it's
been. Such pleasures and adventures in music, both in
making it and in listening. The show continues to expand
its audience, and we are enjoying its progress.

My eleven weeks in northern Europe still walk across
my dreams at night, images of friends, images of those
who welcomed me into their homes, a few of whom I'd
never met in person until they gathered me and my
belongings at the airport. Bless you all.

I spoke with Thordis Gudmundsdottir on Sunday, my
dear Icelandic friend, whom I love so much. The days
are very short in 101 Reykjavik right now, the nights
very long. I miss her.

I spoke with Magne Hellesjo also, the Norwegian farmer
in whose house we set up a recording studio to lay down
the tracks which will comprise my soon-to-be-released
cd, Crooked. We're hoping it will be ready by May 2006.

Today, I received copies of Karine Polwart's recently
issued EP, Pulling Through, as well as an advance copy
of her next cd. What a joy to have met her at her home
in the Borders of Scotland.

Tomorrow is the official release date for a cd produced
by John Cutliffe and Andrea Zonn, a wonderful record
called Hands Across The Water, which is one of the cds
I'll feature Thursday night on Better Days.

Yesterday, December 18th, marked five years since
Kirsty MacColl died. She sang with Shane McGowan on
Fairytale Of New York by The Pogues, a song which is
being re-released today, I'm told, in the UK.

Below are the four cds to complete my dozen favourites
from 2005. I'll feature them all Thursday night.

Redbird : Redbird
John Prine : Fair & Square
Rodney Crowell : The Outsider
Various Artists : Hands Across The Water

Remember to join me January 2nd, 2006 for a three-hour
worldwide special, Hands Across The Water, on CFRO
from 2:00 - 5:00 pm Pacific time, broadcast live on the
web at www.coopradio.org It's to mark the release of the
Hands Across The Water cd, the benefits of which go to
the surviving orphans of the tsunami. The show will not
only play music from that cd, but songs to restore your
heart and spirit, songs from around the world.

My best to everyone who reads here and who listens to
Better Days, around the corner at 102.7 fm or around
the world at www.coopradio.org

DL

2005-12-17T22:29:00.000-08:00

Night Thoughts

People who educate themselves, who live by their conscience,
who seek wisdom in daily life, are the most longing-filled souls
on earth. I am fortunate to know a few of these.

Gandhi said at a crossroads in his education that he once
believed God was Truth, but had come to understand that
Truth is God. What a conscientious wisdom to find. What
a shift from conformity to responsibility.

There are many who repeat the word "Amen" until it
literally turns into "Money."

I was delighted to learn that when Icelanders are asked
if they "believe" in God, they are apt to say no, that they
"accept" God. It is more of a welcome than a claim, more
of a steady embrace than a followed script.

All this talk of happiness now...

Is it a conspiracy? Is it a means by which people shine the
surface brighter so as to deflect attention from the depths?
The kinds of happiness which I am invited to seek most
often make me want to take a nap.

Happiness? It has its moments, its resonant epiphanies,
but in some forms it's overrated, too often a pyramid game.
If it excludes grief and witness, compassion and mercy, our
sadnesses and instructive solitudes, it loses some meaning.

I go on living among the self-educated, conscientious and
longing-filled souls who awaken my life.

Their lives touching mine provide a tenderness which makes
my heart stronger.

A kind of happiness which is deep, enlivening.

DL

2005-12-12T17:26:00.000-08:00

Christy Moore www.christymoore.com

2005-12-12T16:41:00.000-08:00

Favourite Dozen : 2005

This is not a rating, just a radio host's joy expressing itself.
The following 12 recordings have been merciful, inspiring,
and have stayed close to my stereo since the day they first
arrived in my home. If you're looking for something new to
listen to, or to give as a gift to a friend or loved one, I am
confident these will not disappoint.

Song Of The Traveling Daughter : Abigail Washburn

These simple echoes feel as though they passed from
China through Harry Smith's Anthology of American
Folk Music and then through the medium of Abigail
Washburn's body, voice and banjo. Mesmerizing.

Mercy : Sam Baker

From a bombed-out train in Peru to piecing his life
and body back together in Texas, Baker has made a
defining record album of uncommon grace and sharp
poetic eye. The title redefines the word.

Fair & Square : John Prine

Prine survived throat cancer and a change to his voice
to write and record one of the finest records of his
career. He's one of a kind. There is a glowing maturity
here, humour and depth.

Burning Times : Christy Moore

Though it's a record of covers, Christy's new one may
be the most durable artistic statement of the year.
A timely, resonant and biting collection of songs by
a master of the interpreter's art. Ireland's finest.

Humming By The Flowered Vine : Laura Cantrell

She has her own radio show, spinning old-timey tunes
gathered from secondhand bins, yard sales and such.
Until recently Cantrell held a job on Wall Street. With
her third release, she's given up the day job. This is
so lovely, in its singing and its country-flavoured soul.
One of those albums that sounds like home.

Prairie Wind : Neil Young

Deeper into his Canadian roots here than ever before,
Neil appears to re-examine the choice between
burning out and fading away, and in the end chooses
neither. An acoustic feel throughout, this record is
Neil being Neil again, as if for the first time.

American Jukebox Fables : Ellis Paul

This is Bostonian Ellis Paul's most fully-realized set
to date. Listen to Jukebox On My Grave and Clarity,
and shake your head. A unique singing voice, pure
Americana, referencing much of what is great about
the cultural roots (and routes) of his country.

Redbird : Redbird

Released in the springtime, Redbird is Peter Mulvey,
Kris Delmhorst, and Jeffrey Foucault. The three got
to playing together by chance, in a hotel room across
the sea. The record was made with a single microphone
in a living room, and is, as one reviewer said, "a love
letter to the body of American song."

Hands Across The Water : Various Artists

Due out December 20th, my advance copy has proved
constant inspiration since it landed in my possession.
Fine artists, great songs, sensitive playing. Each song
is a trans-Atlantic collaboration. All proceeds from the
album go to support children orphaned by the tsunami
that hit southeast Asia on December 26th, 2004.

The Outsider : Rodney Crowell

Crowell appears at times to be cramming more words
per line than ever before, and it's because he's got more
to say. His heart keeps getting bigger. His singing and
music continue to be appealing. A fine record, one that
keeps revealing itself with further listening.

Get Myself Together : Danny Barnes

I cannot imagine living without this guy's manic genius.
Barnes makes me bust out laughing, with the blessing
of all my other feelings. Former leader of the Bad Livers,
Barnes lives in Seattle now and travels the world with
a banjo on his knee. Trip along with him a while.

Hotwalker : Tom Russell

This one makes the list for its reach more than its grasp.
It's a movie more than an album of songs, a sweeping
travelogue through the Beat and Folk Scare eras, on
across the dust bowl to California bars and blacktop hops.
The wheels of the carnival wagon may wobble at times,
but they never quite come off. A record brimming with
carnies, poets, legends and American piss and vinegar.

DL

2005-12-12T00:04:00.000-08:00

Welcome back, Vashti Bunyan

2005-12-11T23:46:00.000-08:00

The Back 40 : December 2005

The Back 40 gives you an idea what I've been playing
on Better Days. Listings are in no particular order; it's
not a contest. Recent additions have the artist's name
in red. Visit the artists' websites by clicking the link
beneath their entry, and support their commitment
and genius by purchasing a copy of the music.

Better Days is heard Thursdays, 10:00 pm to 12 midnight
Pacific Time (GMT -8) at 102.7 FM and live on the web at

http://www.coopradio.org/

*****The Back 40*****

Hands Across The Water : Various Artists
http://www.handsacrossthewater.com

Burning Times : Christy Moore
http://www.christymoore.com

Prairie Wind : Neil Young
http://www.neilyoung.com

Seattle Songs : Jim Page
http://www.jimpage.net

Tanglewood Numbers : Silver Jews
http://www.silverjews.net

Let It Go : Alastair Moock
http://www.moock.com

Year Of Meteors : Laura Veirs
http://www.lauraveirs.com

Mantras For Madmen : Harry Manx
http://www.harrymanx.com

Fair & Square : John Prine
http://www.ohboy.com

Moments From This Theatre : Dan Penn
http://www.properamerican.com

Lookaftering : Vashti Bunyan
http://www.anotherday.co.uk

Red Dog Tracks : Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez
http://www.trainwreckrecords.com

Iron Flowers : Grey De Lisle
http://www.greydelisle.com

Color Came One Day : Chuck Brodsky
http://www.chuckbrodsky.com

Stripping Cane : Jeffrey Foucault
http://www.jeffreyfoucault.com

Flower Of Avalon : Tracy Grammer
http://www.tracygrammer.com

Humming By The Flowered Vine : Laura Cantrell
http://www.lauracantrell.com

Eye To The Telescope : KT Tunstall
http://www.kttunstall.com

Get Myself Together : Danny Barnes
http://www.terminusrecords.com

The Outsider : Rodney Crowell
http://www.rodneycrowell.com

Two Birds : Kirsty McGee
http://www.parkrecords.com

I Am A Bird Now : Antony & The Johnsons
http://www.antonyandthejohnsons.com

Here Come The Choppers : Loudon Wainwright
http://www.loudonwainwright.net

Funeral For A Friend : Dirty Dozen Brass Band
http://www.dirtydozenbrass.com

Faultlines : Karine Polwart
http://www.karinepolwart.com

Cripple Crow : Devendra Banhart
http://www.xlrecordings.com

My Father's Wildest Dream : TR Ritchie
http://www.trritchie.com

Song Of The Traveling Daughter : Abigail Washburn
http://www.abigailwashburn.com

Chicago Wind : Merle Haggard
http://www.merlehaggard.com

Come Feel The Illinoise : Sufjan Stevens
http://www.sufjan.com

The Duhks : The Duhks
http://www.duhks.com/index.php

Mercy : Sam Baker
http://www.sambakermusic.com

Dreamin' My Dreams : Patty Loveless
http://www.pattyloveless.com

American Jukebox Fables : Ellis Paul
http://www.ellispaul.com

The Real Deal : Billy Joe Shaver
http://www.billyjoeshaver.com

Exploration : Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion
http://www.sarahleeandjohnny.com

The Girl Who Couldn't Fly : Kate Rusby
http://www.katerusby.com

Childish Things : James McMurtry
http://www.jamesmcmurtry.com

Paradise Hotel : Eliza Gilkyson
http://www.redhouserecords.com

Front Parlour Ballads : Richard Thompson
http://www.richardthompson-music.com

DL

2005-12-10T21:34:00.000-08:00

The inimitable Danny Barnes

2005-12-10T20:48:00.000-08:00

Better Days #196
A Thimbleful Of Rain
Thursday, December 15th
10:00 pm - 12 midnight Pacific (GMT -8)
webcast at www.coopradio.org

This week and next I'll complete the feature on my twelve
favourite releases of 2005. Last week I did sets on fine
recordings by Laura Cantrell (Humming By The Flowered
Vine), Ellis Paul (American Jukebox Fables), Abigail
Washburn (Song Of The Traveling Daughter) and
Christy Moore (Burning Times). This week I have four
more gems for you...

Sam Baker : Mercy
Danny Barnes : Get Myself Together
Neil Young : Prairie Wind
Tom Russell : Hotwalker

I'll air a few other sets of things that have come to me
lately, as well as a few recent writings, but these four
superb albums will provide the show's centerpiece.

That's Thursday, December 15th, ten to midnight in
the Pacific time zone, for another edition of Better Days,
heard around the corner at 102.7 fm and around the
world by webcast at www.coopradio.org

Look forward to spending a couple hours with you.

DL

2005-12-07T19:05:00.000-08:00

Laura Cantrell

2005-12-07T18:25:00.000-08:00

Better Days 195
A Long Year Closes
Thursday, December 8th
10:00 pm - 12:00 am Pacific (GMT-8)
cfro 102.7 fm

webcast : www.coopradio.org

This week - and the two Thursdays to follow - I'll be
featuring a dozen recordings that found a special place
in my life in 2005. This Thursday, I'll be giving you a
good listen to four of them. They are...

Ellis Paul's American Jukebox Fables
Laura Cantrell's Humming By The Flowered Vine
Abigail Washburn's Song Of The Traveling Daughter
Christy Moore's Burning Times

I'll feature these four albums right off the top of the show,
and get to some other things in the second half. Join me
Thursday night, 10 pm to midnight Pacific time, for episode
#195 of Better Days, at 102.7 fm around the corner and
live around the world at www.coopradio.org

Bless bless, DL

2005-12-04T15:54:00.000-08:00

MIDNIGHT FALAFELS

It was late in the novel when she arrived, added
her Medusa to the chapter on apparitions, asked
if he still made midnight falafels for lost souls.

She is the one he used to sing for when summers
were unbearably heavy with fruit, so many plums
and cherries that the birds needn't argue.
Those Julys when she'd slip her nightgown off,
reveal the geometric marvels the noon sun made,
traces of pomegranate juice on her bottom lip.

After their first affair she'd gone off to be
a gypsy in Africa, was captured by slave traders
north of Marrakech, men who took her to the old
pink city, the square of Jemaa I-Fna, where she
was pinched and tested in the shaded tents.
The day she stood again in his open doorway she
had bluebells woven in her long dark hair, as if
a thousand unwanted kisses had brought her
back to the soul's undeniable purity. That night
he made falafels, her favourite, tahini and yogurt
dripped over the ground meal. Their love deep red,
swollen as the sun on the water at Spanish Banks.

For two years they were consumed, believing lovers
could tunnel their way to paradise, their story
a scent under their fingernails. Last April she left
to join the circus, Cuban lion tamer in Miami
promising to teach her how to handle the big cats.
In the end it was the snakes she learned about,
snakes and alligators, and the marks the jellyfish
leave behind when they kiss you. Medusa at his door
as he wrote of energy taking diaphanous form
in the cornfields, orphaned angels who leave negligees
floating in the chalkened meadows of the moon.

It was almost midnight. For eleven years now it had been
almost midnight. He turned on the stove, set the mortar
and pestle on the table. She was hungry again.

DL

2005-11-29T21:24:00.000-08:00

The American poet, Jack Gilbert

2005-11-29T20:52:00.000-08:00

Better Days #194
Refusing Heaven
The Poems of Jack Gilbert

Thursday, December 1st, 2005
10:00 pm - 12:00 am Pacific time
CFRO 102.7 fm

webcast at www.coopradio.org

As we enter December 2005, Better Days nears its 200th show.
What an inspiration and honour it is to be able to provide for
you, our listeners around the world, a radio program which
balances good music with stories and poems that call to a deeper
heart. The times we live in present unique challenges, two of
which are the finding of meaning and the rebuilding of spirit.
As Scottish songwriter, Karine Polwart, sings, "You have to
find joy where you can."

Another writer who speaks of the refusal to abandon the search
for - and experience of - joy is the unique American poet, Jack
Gilbert. He is anything but prolific, having released just four
books of poems -- Views Of Jeopardy, Monolithos, The Great
Fires and, recently, Refusing Heaven -- since 1963. In episode
#194 of Better Days, the music selections will dovetail with
selected poems from these four enriching volumes of Gilbert's
poetry. Gilbert has lived many years in Europe, Japan, and on t
he Greek islands of Paros and Santorini. For a number of years
he also lived in San Francisco. Jack Gilbert presently resides in
western Massachusetts.

As well as offering you a taste from a few new releases from
songwriters such as Kirsty McGee (Two Birds) and James
McMurtry (Childish Things), and getting around to a short
feature on Neil Young's strong new one, Prairie Wind, I'll
include new entries from the jazz world by the veteran bassist-
composer-bandleader, Charlie Haden, whose longstanding
Liberation Music Orchestra has a new recording called
Not In Our Name, and from New Orleans, the street energy
of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, whose new one is called
Funeral For A Friend.

Lots more, but those are a few things you'll hear when you
tune in to this week's edition of Better Days, on the air from
10pm to midnight Pacific time (GMT -8) Thursday night
on CFRO 102.7 fm around the corner, and live on the
web at www.coopradio.org around the world.

Look forward to having you join me.

DL

2005-11-27T02:46:00.000-08:00

Two By Two

Two by two
In the ark of the ache of it
Two by two
In the ark of the ache
In love for the soul of it
The rise and the roll of it
What will we make of it
Me and you

The rolling sea
The rise and the swell of us
The rolling sea
The rise and swell
Let's go through the hell of love
The taste and the smell of love
We'll live to tell of love
You and me

The gift of grace
How does it summon us
The gift of grace
That pulls us through
It knocks now to summon us
Beats like a drum in us
What's to become of us
Me and you

Bless the storm
The sky it is shaking now
Bless the rain
And the rising sea
The sky it is shaking, love
The day it is breaking, love
It's love we are making, love
You and me

Two by two
In the ark of the ache of it
Two by two
In the ark of the ache
In love for the sake of it
The give and the take of it
What will we make of it
Me and you

DL

"Two by two in the ark of the ache of it" is a line
borrowed whole from Denise Levertov's poem,
The Ache Of Marriage. Denise was a writer and
activist, born in England, who was drawn to America
by the love of a man. She died in Seattle in 1997.
I would like to think this little song would receive
her blessing.

2005-11-26T17:53:00.000-08:00

I'm a folksinger, he said

2005-11-26T17:30:00.000-08:00

Folksinger

There was this place down on Carrall Street in Gastown,
separated from the harbor by rows of railroad tracks.
Sometimes in the midst of a song you could hear a train
pulling in, or a foghorn sound out on the water. One of the
singers who played in that joint showed up one night with
his right leg in a cast. Older guy, Trent, raw tobacco voice,
expatriate eyes. He wrote ballads about life on the sea. I
spoke with him a couple times. He wasn't particularly
friendly, but meant his words, and his words were sound.

A small coffee house at the foot of the stairs
Candlelit tables and unmatching chairs
Listen to my song, he said, have ears before I go
This may be the last one, you never ever know

The last time I saw him he'd broken his leg
A port-addled Ahab in search of Queequeg
Nicotine fingers picking a parlor guitar
Eyes full of storms, mouth for a scar

Tobacco chaw stories he spat in a bowl
Pulling his words from the hold of his soul
Like nails, bent nails, that no longer served
To hold him together, rusted and curved

He was a folksinger, he said at the start
And took his sweet time taking all his wisdom apart
One foot on a chair, one anchored to the floor
This master of the language and the lore

Never again, he sang, never again
The sea will no more give up its treasures to men
An albatross follows my ship in the mist
And death is a lady who waits to be kissed

And love, what is love, to a captain whose life
Took a storm for a compass and port for a wife
We drank coffee bolstered with pirated rum
The candles were melted and midnight had come

A small coffee house at the foot of the stairs
Tuna tin ashtrays and unmatching chairs
Listen to my song, he said, have ears before I go
This may be the last one, you never ever know

DL

2005-11-21T23:05:00.000-08:00

Midnight clothesline, Siglufjordur, Iceland

2005-11-21T22:53:00.000-08:00

Now & Always

I have known time, son
Known it two ways
One kind is passing
The other kind stays
Time is a straight line
Counted by days
Time is a circle
Now and always

The weather is changing
Something's amiss
It seems Mother Nature
Is angry with us
I worry a lot now
As I grow old
The summer's too hot now
Winter's too cold

A storm it is coming
Coming tonight
The windows are boarded
The boats are tied tight
A storm it is building
Out over the sea
I'll look after you, son
Look after me

The light it is dying
The waters they rise
Time after time, son
Mortality cries
I think of you living
Long after me
Now and forever
Days I won't see

I have known time, son
Known it both ways
One kind is passing
The other kind stays
Life is a straight line
The sum of our days
Love is forever
Now and always

DL

2005-11-20T23:15:00.000-08:00

The Grapes Of Wrath

It's a town like any other
Sprouted up on claims
Half the stores are empty
Signs still bear the names
We all took a cut in pay
To keep from shutting down
The women made a co-op of
The one cafe in town
It doubles as a bookstore
And a kids' arcade
Some books are missing pages
We don't buy, we trade
On Friday nights the Cleary girls
Who live up on the bluff
Play concertina and guitar
Until we've had enough

Guess we're kind of loco
Those who have remained
Summer nights the northern lights
Still keep us entertained
The school is at Miss Jenkins' house
She teaches every year
Scratch my head and wonder
Just what keeps her here
The bosses of the smelter
Come and go each day
They prefer the city
Forty-seven miles away
They say the grass is greener
But where else would we go
In the end we settle for
The devil that we know

Cold here in the winter
Heating bills are high
If you let it, Christmas time
Can lead a man to cry
The women knit some sweaters
The men all build some toys
Christmas Eve the old cafe's
Alive with girls and boys
We drink and make a party
The sisters play so bad
Miss Jenkins sings in Spanish
Felice Navidad
Then tells us all a story
Enchants by candlelight
The women cry more than the kids
We hug and say good night

It's a town like any other
Sprouted up on claims
Empty stores like open sores
Signs still bear the names
Jill's Bakery, Mock's Shoe Repair
McMillan's pharmacy
The Steinbeck book I'm reading
Came from the library
Checked it out four years ago
Never paid the fine
No way to return it now
The Grapes of Wrath is mine
They say the grass is greener
Where else would we go
We take care of each other here
Let the green grass grow

DL

2005-11-20T15:26:00.000-08:00

Billy Joe Shaver & Friend : The Real Deal

2005-11-20T09:57:00.000-08:00

Forevering

I heard this word - forevering - a long time ago from
a woman named Rose. She used it to describe a way of
dreaming ahead. She'd go forevering. I saw the word
again somewhere a few weeks ago. I'd forgotten it, and
it had dreamed ahead all these years waiting for me to
remember. This one is for the father whose son or
daughter has gone away and he is lonely in his body,
forevering...

An old man clears his throat out on the porch and starts to sing
The present's hard to live with so he goes forevering
There's a shiver in his body that no fire could ever warm
And a photograph pinned on the wall, a boy in uniform

There's a scarecrow on the highway, beat-up guitar in a sack
There's a tumbleweed keeps rollin' down a trainless railway track
There's a menace in the midnight where it isn't safe to go
And a heart that is afraid to tell the pain it's come to know

There's a girl up in Seattle, tryin' to form a metal band
A kid named Late who caught a freight back home to Beulah Land
There's a woman says she's leavin' and a man begs her to stay
There's an empty mailbox waiting on a Dear John letter day

There's a fallen priest in Texas whose faith once made him rich
He saw too many rainbows drown their colors in the ditch
There's a woman in Dakota lost her past near Wounded Knee
She walks on blind still tryin' to bind the hoop of history

There's a boy out in Salinas who has learned to swallow gin
He’s crazy like a circus pitched its tents beneath his skin
There's a hooker down in Memphis with blood blisters on her feet
Still lookin' for a porch light at the dark end of the street

There's a farmer in Nebraska, red dust across his face
And all he grows pays what he owes for workin’ this old place
There's a baker wakes in Couer D'Alene to make our daily bread
One day the sun will rise and he won't get out of his bed

The old man clears his throat out on the porch and tries to sing
Today is hard to live with so he goes forevering
He hasn't heard a word now, it's been near twenty days
He's lonesome in his body and singing's how he prays

DL

2005-11-18T15:12:00.000-08:00

Eklektikos

Eklektikos is the name of John Aielli's radio show on KUT
in Austin, Texas. Most of the last year's shows are archived
and available for listening if you click the following link.
You not only hear some great music performed live in a
casual setting, but the artists also discuss their lives and
their creative processes.

Eklektikos: http://www.kut.org/site/PageServer?pagename=mus_eklektikosarchive&JServSessionIda001=0dyckjh2r1.app11c

2005-11-18T14:42:00.000-08:00

Riverbend

Riverbend is the pseudonym of a young Sunni woman
living in Baghdad. She has a blog and usually posts every
two weeks or so. This week was different. Riverbend
posted on two consecutive days, November 17th and 18th.
Here's the link to her two recent posts:

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

2005-11-15T00:23:00.000-08:00

Better Days #192
Adrift In November's Ark

Thursday, November 17th
10:00 pm - 12:00 am Pacific time
CFRO 102.7 fm www.coopradio.org

Today, November 14th, it did not rain. That's the first day
this month that it did not rain. I've been suffering through a
back injury, the result of a fall, and my bones need the sun.
Today was the most sunlight we've had in 48 days, they said
on the radio. Maybe we should renamed it Noahvember?
T.S. Eliot said April is the cruelest month breeding lilacs out
of the dead land, but I think it's November, when winter's
about to arrive, the light is shorter, the nights longer, and
the rain and cold combine to drive us indoors.

A lot of fine new music has come to me lately, and I've also
found new love for some older things that I haven't listened
to in a while. So this week's Better Days will be a mixture of
new releases and a couple rusted hinges from earlier days.

I'll play from Merle Haggard's new one, Chicago Wind, along
with a song or two from Devendra Banhart's Cripple Crow,
Alexi Murdoch's Four Songs, Marty Stuart's Badlands,
Antony & The Johnsons' I Am A Bird Now, and Dar Williams'
My Better Self. Going back a little, I want to tell you a story
about Michelle Shocked, play some Nick Drake. In fact, given
the idea of drifting in an ark, a lot of the sounds will have a
fog or mist or rain-like texture, a moistness...

That's this Thursday, November 17th, ten to midnight in
the Pacific time zone (GMT -8 for those of you across the
Atlantic), a brand new Better Days episode, heard around
the corner at 102.7 fm and around the world by webcast at

www.coopradio.org

Looking forward to having you drift with me.

DL

2005-11-14T17:57:00.000-08:00

Jimmy Martin Article

Bluegrass legend, Jimmy Martin, receives his due in this
excellent article from Counter Punch.
http://www.counterpunch.org/neumann11112005.html

2005-11-13T10:12:00.000-08:00

Devendra Banhart Video

Devendra Banhart's new record, Cripple Crow, is the latest
addition to the Back 40 - scroll below - and the red link takes
you to a video of Heard Somebody Say, a song from it.

http://www.xlrecordings.com/broadcast/~heardsomebodysay/

2005-11-11T20:57:00.000-08:00

Merle Haggard (pictured here with my good
friend, Cowboy Johnson) is in fine voice on his
new record, Chicago Wind.

2005-11-11T20:08:00.000-08:00

The Back 40 : November 2005

The Back 40 is a way of letting you know what I've been
playing on the show. Listings are in no particular order; it's
not a contest. Recent additions have the artist's name in
red. Every one of these recordings has something to give us.
Please visit the linked artists' websites, and support their
commitment and genius by purchasing a copy of the music.

Better Days is heard Thursdays, 10:00 pm to 12 midnight
Pacific Time (GMT -8) at 102.7 FM and live on the web at

http://www.coopradio.org/

*****The Back 40*****

Hands Across The Water : Various Artists
http://www.handsacrossthewater.com

Burning Times : Christy Moore
http://www.christymoore.com

Seattle Songs : Jim Page
http://www.jimpage.net

Let It Go : Alastair Moock
http://www.moock.com

Year Of Meteors : Laura Veirs
http://www.lauraveirs.com

Amen : Arthur Godfrey
http://www.arthurgodfreyonline.com

Fair & Square : John Prine
http://www.ohboy.com

Moments From This Theatre : Dan Penn
http://www.properamerican.com

The Red Thread : Lucy Kaplansky
http://www.lucykaplansky.com

Red Dog Tracks : Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez
http://www.trainwreckrecords.com

Iron Flowers : Grey De Lisle
http://www.greydelisle.com

Color Came One Day : Chuck Brodsky
http://www.chuckbrodsky.com

Stripping Cane : Jeffrey Foucault
http://www.jeffreyfoucault.com

Flower Of Avalon : Tracy Grammer
http://www.tracygrammer.com

Humming By The Flowered Vine : Laura Cantrell
http://www.lauracantrell.com

My Better Self : Dar Williams
http://www.darwilliams.com

Hair In My Eyes... : Corb Lund Band
http://www.corblund.com

The Outsider : Rodney Crowell
http://www.rodneycrowell.com

Since Kyabram : Declan O'Rourke
http://www.declanorourke.com

I Am A Bird Now : Antony & The Johnsons
http://www.antonyandthejohnsons.com

Here Come The Choppers : Loudon Wainwright
http://www.loudonwainwright.net

Land Of The Plenty : JL Stiles
http://www.JLStiles.com

Crashyertown : The Believers
http://www.thebelieversUSA.com

Faultlines : Karine Polwart
http://www.karinepolwart.com

Cripple Crow : Devendra Banhart
http://www.xlrecordings.com

My Father's Wildest Dream : TR Ritchie
http://www.trritchie.com

Song Of The Traveling Daughter : Abigail Washburn
http://www.abigailwashburn.com

Chicago Wind : Merle Haggard
http://www.merlehaggard.com

Four Songs : Alexi Murdoch (EP)
http://www.aleximurdoch.com

Come Feel The Illinoise : Sufjan Stevens
http://www.sufjan.com

The Duhks : The Duhks
http://www.duhks.com/index.php

Mercy : Sam Baker
http://www.sambakermusic.com

Early Hours : Eleanor McEvoy
http://www.eleanormcevoy.net

American Jukebox Fables : Ellis Paul
http://www.ellispaul.com

Why The Long Face : Suzzy & Maggie Roche
http://www.roches.com

Badlands : Marty Stuart
http://www.martystuart.net

Exploration : Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion
http://www.sarahleeandjohnny.com

The Girl Who Couldn't Fly : Kate Rusby
http://www.katerusby.com

Childish Things : James McMurtry
http://www.jamesmcmurtry.com

Paradise Hotel : Eliza Gilkyson
http://www.redhouserecords.com

Front Parlour Ballads : Richard Thompson
http://www.richardthompson-music.com

DL

2005-11-07T16:33:00.000-08:00

John Fowles

John Fowles' novel, The Magus, had quite an impact on me
when I was starting out to write songs and short stories.
He died Saturday after a prolonged period of ill health.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/4415100.stm

2005-11-06T10:29:00.000-08:00

Herons

2005-11-06T10:13:00.000-08:00

Every Chance I Get

I've been out with the eagles and herons again, out in Richmond,
along the dyke walkway beside the marshes. Walking, reflecting,
enjoying silences broken only by the call of the snow geese. There
were thousands of them, rising together as if by a signal, the gold
and horizontal sun lighting up their wings. Then the silence again.
Sometimes in that silence, you find a little song. The phrase "the
smallest crawling creature" comes from Black Elk.

EVERY CHANCE I GET

Every chance I get
Turn a wound into a blessing
Every chance I get
Take the broken, make it whole
Every chance I get
Look for what is missing
Lay my burden down
And raise the soul

Every day I live
Find a lesson in the warning
Every day I live
Ask the sky to shelter me
And every day I give
My brown eyes to the morning
Open wide and see what I can see

Measure silence with my sister
In the holiness of nature
Measure silence with my brother
For the secrets we don't tell
Measure silence as a gesture
To the smallest crawling creature
When a feeling reaches Sunday
Ring a deeper bell

Older doors are closing
Open up a new one
Older doors are closing
The spirit kept in cells
New doors have come open
I just walked right through one
A new spirit is rising
Kindness never fails

Every chance I get
Turn a wound into a blessing
Every chance I get
Take the broken, make it whole
Every chance I get
Recover what is missing
Lay my burden down
And raise the soul

DL (cSOCAN2005)

2005-11-05T00:20:00.000-08:00

The Coming Of The Day : photo by Billy Mazappa

The Coming Of The Day

It's okay, love
You are with me
Be here with me, it's okay
There is no terror
Like the coming
Like the coming of the day

Shadows move now
They can scare you
Shadows scare you when they move
They're only walking
Toward daylight
When the sun's up they will leave

The sun is sacred
Earth is sacred
No one owns them, they are free
And I am crazy
For a feeling
A feeling for love's mystery

We are dying
Are we dying?
Sun comes up and sun goes down
We are herons
We are flying
Shadows moving on the ground

Shadows moving
They can scare you
Make you shiver when they move
We are loving
Full of midnight
When the sun's up, we will leave

It's okay now
I am with you
I am with you, it's okay
Such a blessing
What a blessing
Is the coming of the day

DL (cSOCAN2005)

2005-11-04T23:05:00.000-08:00

These beautiful young children, orphaned as a result
of the tsunami, live now in Khuk-Khak Village, in the
Takuapa District, Phang-Nga Province, Thailand

2005-11-04T21:29:00.000-08:00

Hands Across The Water

Hands Across The Water : A Benefit For The Children Of The Tsunami
was an idea first discussed on December 28th, 2004, between John
Cutliffe and Andrea Zonn, the eventual producers of this fine disc.
They were witnessing the initial video clips of the tsunami disaster
in southeast Asia. They were overwhelmed, and began to discuss
how - as individuals - they could help. Beyond sending money to
aid organizations, they wondered how they might put their hearts
into action. Somewhere in that long-distance conversation across
the Atlantic Ocean between North America and the UK, they
imagined how their need to express their humanity might be able
to join hands across the water and make a difference. An idea
came to them, the idea of making a benefit recording for orphaned
children in the lands devastated by the tsunami. They decided to
call on favours from friends and musical colleagues, to invite
artists to perform - together - from both sides of the Atlantic.

Over 100 musicians, 30 engineers, 30 studios, thousands of e-mails,
phone calls, data transfers and text messages later, the result is this
16-song benefit recording to raise funds for the orphaned children
of he tsunami. The record is to be released December 20th, 2005,
six days ahead of the one-year anniversary of the tsunami. All of
the proceeds will go to boosting the flagging aid, still required.

Each of the sixteen tracks on this disc is a hands-across-the-water
collaboration between artists from both sides of the ocean. Artists
include, among others, Darrell Scott, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh,
Oisin McAuley (Danu), Bonnie Raitt, Paul Rodden, Jon Randall,
Alison Brown, Mairtin O'Connor, The Duhks, Andrea Zonn, Flook,
Tim O'Brien, Lunasa, Sharon Shannon, Jackson Browne, Solas,
Mindy Smith, John Prine, Fiona Prine, Dermot Byrne, Blue Merle,
Beth Nielsen Chapman, Paul Brady, Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill,
Pauline Scanlon, Altan, Vince Gill, Stuart Duncan, Cerys Matthews,
John Jorgenson, Jown Cowan, Brock McGuire Band, Jerry Douglas,
Ciaran Tourish, Jim Lauderdale and Maura O'Connell.

It's a beautiful collection of songs that, in my opinion, you may wish
to give to a few of your friends this holiday season, as well as
having a copy for yourself. I've received a number of collaborative
cds - with themes, or done in tribute to a deceased legend - and
with almost all of them the heart and imagination behind the
project supercede the actual performances. Not so on this one.
On Hands Across The Water, they took the time to get it right,
and the performances are the magic.

Make note. December 20th, 2005 is the release date. Compass
Records is the label. All proceeds to the aid organization judged
- at the time - to be performing the most effective and credible
job on behalf of the children of the tsunami-devastated areas.
If you want to learn more, visit the project website below. You'll
not only be getting (or giving to a friend) a wonderful recording,
but your money will be going to children who could use the blessing
of whatever kindness we can send their way.

www.handsacrossthewater.com

DL

2005-10-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

The Back 40 : November 2005

The Back 40 is a way of letting you know what I've been
playing on the show. Listings are in no particular order; it's
not a contest. Newly added albums have the artist's name
in red. Every one of these recordings has something to give
to us. Please visit the artists' websites, and support their
commitment and genius by purchasing a copy of the music.

Better Days is heard Thursdays, 10:00 pm to 12 midnight
Pacific Time (GMT -8) at 102.7 FM and live on the web at

http://www.coopradio.org/

*****The Back 40*****

Burning Times : Christy Moore
http://www.christymoore.com

Seattle Songs : Jim Page
http://www.jimpage.net

Let It Go : Alastair Moock
http://www.moock.com

Year Of Meteors : Laura Veirs
http://www.lauraveirs.com

Amen : Arthur Godfrey
http://www.arthurgodfrey.com

Fair & Square : John Prine
http://www.ohboy.com

Moments From This Theatre : Dan Penn
http://www.properamerican.com

The Red Thread : Lucy Kaplansky
http://www.lucykaplansky.com

Red Dog Tracks : Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez
http://www.trainwreckrecords.com

Iron Flowers : Grey De Lisle
http://www.greydelisle.com

Color Came One Day : Chuck Brodsky
http://www.chuckbrodsky.com

Stripping Cane : Jeffrey Foucault
http://www.jeffreyfoucault.com

Flower Of Avalon : Tracy Grammer
http://www.tracygrammer.com

Humming By The Flowered Vine : Laura Cantrell
http://www.lauracantrell.com

Why Should The Fire Die : Nickel Creek
http://www.nickelcreek.com

Hair In My Eyes... : Corb Lund Band
http://www.corblund.com

Mercy Now : Mary Gauthier
http://www.marygauthier.com

Since Kyabram : Declan O'Rourke
http://www.declanorourke.com

I Am A Bird Now : Antony & The Johnsons
http://www.antonyandthejohnsons.com

Here Come The Choppers : Loudon Wainwright
http://www.loudonwainwright.net

Land Of The Plenty : JL Stiles
http://www.JLStiles.com

Crashyertown : The Believers
http://www.thebelieversUSA.com

Faultlines : Karine Polwart
http://www.karinepolwart.com

Ten Thousand Mornings : Peter Mulvey
http://www.petermulvey.com

My Father's Wildest Dream : TR Ritchie
http://www.trritchie.com

Martha Wainwright : Martha Wainright
http://www.bradthegame.com/martha-wainwright/

Song Of The Traveling Daughter : Abigail Washburn
http://www.abigailwashburn.com

I Never Heard You Knockin' : Malcolm Holcombe
http://www.malcolmholcombe.com

Four Songs : Alexi Murdoch (EP)
http://www.aleximurdoch.com

Come Feel The Illinoise : Sufjan Stevens
http://www.sufjan.com

The Duhks : The Duhks
http://www.duhks.com/index.php

Mercy : Sam Baker
http://www.sambakermusic.com

Early Hours : Eleanor McEvoy
http://www.eleanormcevoy.net

American Jukebox Fables : Ellis Paul
http://www.ellispaul.com

Why The Long Face : Suzzy & Maggie Roche
http://www.roches.com

Fisherman's Woman : Emiliana Torrini
http://www.emilianatorrini.com

Exploration : Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion
http://www.sarahleeandjohnny.com

The Girl Who Couldn't Fly : Kate Rusby
http://www.katerusby.com

Paradise Hotel : Eliza Gilkyson
http://www.redhouserecords.com

Front Parlour Ballads : Richard Thompson
http://www.richardthompson-music.com

DL

2005-10-27T17:13:00.000-07:00

How sweet to learn some angels are very young

2005-10-25T21:59:00.000-07:00

Natalie Merchant Retrospective 1995-2005

Formerly the lead singer of 10,000 Maniacs before initiating
her own solo career, Natalie Merchant has quietly gone about
building a following, if not quite becoming 'famous.' Not a bad
position for a songwriter to occupy. Living mainly in Spain
nowadays and raising a child, Merchant's last album was 2003's
The House Carpenter's Daughter. With Retrospective 1995-2205,
she's gathered together a baker's dozen of her favourites. It's
a good listen, and offers a decent starter for those new to her
music. Christy Moore recented covered a Merchant song,
Motherland, on his new cd, Burning Times. Natalie's website
is about as tasteful as a personal website can get, one that the
artist put a lot of time and care into.

Natalie's website is at www.nataliemerchant.com

A brief interview with Natalie from the Independent is at
http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/interviews/article320903.ece

2005-10-25T18:14:00.000-07:00

South Saskatchewan River
below Cranberry Flats

2005-10-25T17:23:00.000-07:00

The Old Man Knew The River

The old man knew the river
He’d fish there every day
Shaded by a wide-brim hat
He’d pass the time that way
He'd only keep what he could eat
And whistle with the birds
A song he’d like someone to write
If they could find the words

The old man knew the river
The winding southern arm
On the other bank the horses from
The young O’Malley’s farm
The sun would catch the water
Turn shadows blue and green
He would sit and marvel at
The colours that he'd seen

There were days he would surrender
Set aside his rod
Remove his hat and look out at
The evidence of God
Not the one we lost to war
Or found in any book
The one who’s there to feel and see
The day we stop and look

The old man knew the river
Swam across her as a boy
Made the far bank shivering
Naked but for joy
All these long years later
He’d fish and offer thanks
For plentiful adventures had
Upon the river banks

The old man loved the river
He couldn’t tell you how
But unawares the passing years
Had joined his river now
He'd go there early mornings
Find his favourite spot
Cut his bait and meditate
And feel more than he thought

Sometimes he would surrender
Set aside his rod
Remove his hat and smile up at
The jubilee of God
Not the one we lost to war
Or found in any book
The one who’s there for all to see
The day we stop and look

DL

2005-10-25T07:23:00.000-07:00

Better Days at the Circle Bar

2005-10-25T06:56:00.000-07:00

Letter from the Circle Bar

by BILLY SOTHERN

Gunshots down on Franklin, 11:45
Two boys from the Lower Ninth,
the coroner arrives
There's a blind man reading tarot cards
over there in Jackson Square.
He says the future is uncertain
but he don't really care.

* * *

Everyone is drowning here
and everyone is free
God protect these fools who build
their homes below the sea.

"Ash Wednesday" by The Happy Talk Band

People here in New York seem shocked when I tell them
that locals at New Orleans' Circle Bar, didn't sit around
listening to Louis Armstrong and the Hot Fives on the jukebox
all night long. While their jukebox, the best in town in my
estimation, wasn't afraid to look back into the city's past
with Irma Thomas' "Drip drop, drip drop, it's raining so
hard, looks like it's gonna rain all night," pouring out of the
speakers occasionally, the live music at the Circle Bar had a
decidedly less anachronistic tone.

I moved from New York to New Orleans almost five years
ago with the promise of cheap, old, beautiful, falling-apart
homes and drawn to the city's current and dynamic cultural
life which I had seen glimmers of while visiting. While in the
past month the media has focused on the city's cultural history
and its most prominent export, jazz, this reflects only a small
corner of what many of us loved about the city. There have
been some honest assessments of local music tastes in the press.
My favorite bit of reporting from the Times Picayune touched
on the looting of the music section of the hated Lower Garden
District Wal-Mart:

"They took everything - all the electronics, the food, the bikes,"
said John Stonaker, a Wal-Mart security officer. "People left
their old clothes on the floor when they took new ones. The
only thing left are the country-and-western CDs. You can
still get a Shania Twain album."

It is true. There was not a single "new country" fan among any
of my friends and neighbors. However, while there may be
more traditional jazz fans per capita in New Orleans than any
place in the world; New Orleans had many great musicians
of all different stripes - from rockabilly, to alt-country, to
klezmer, and many hybrids therein.

The Circle Bar played host to the city's smart and eclectic
rock scene and while the city's music roots have passed a
torch from Buddy Bolden, Kid Ory, Louis Armstrong,
Professor Longhair, and others patron saints of New Orleans
music, the bands I saw there on a daily basis reflected the
Third World city that was laid waste by the storm in a
present and immediate manner.

Luke Allen, the front man of the Happy Talk Band, could
be found behind the bar at Circle Bar serving drinks pretty
much any night that he was not elsewhere singing his songs
or sitting on the other side of the bar. He's a red-bearded
character who wears a staff-issue Angola State Penitentiary
hat and who hails from Salinas, California, "the home of John
Steinbeck," he always explains. In the post-punk tradition,
he is a less-than-perfect singer and held a guitar on stage
mostly to keep him from having to stand there bare, and
so he could jam his cigarette between the strings and the
tuners while he was singing.

Whatever his weaknesses - he would tell you that they are
many - they are more than made up for by his songs about
the city. I realized one night that almost all of the songs had
an element specific to New Orleans. "Ash Wednesday" sings
of flooding and murder in the Lower 9th Ward. "Forget-Me-
Not" sings of losing your mind, getting picked up by the police
in Bywater for murder, and waking up on the 3rd floor of
Charity Hospital, a mental health ward of New Orleans' public
hospital.

The Happy Talk Band's songs are of New Orleans: the Huey P.
Long Bridge, being drunk and naked with a girl on the levee,
Collins-mix and Methadone, and the melancholy jealousy of
dating a stripper. Luke even has an eye for the city's ubiquitous
flora and commented on the angel's trumpets blooms, the smell
of jasmine in a woman's hair when she walks in from the street,
and the cat's-claw vines that creep up anything that sits on the
ground for more than a few minutes in our rich swampy soil.

When do you ever hear New York's "it bands" singing about
Bellevue Hospital or East New York? The Happy Talk Band's
sense of place was mirrored throughout the local music scene,
filled with people who fell in love with the city as one enters a
deeply dysfunctional love affair. Many came to New Orleans
like sailors drawn to the sirens and crashed against the rocks,
but no less smitten. But now they are scattered around the
country.

When I talked to Luke Allen on the phone from Lafayette,
Louisiana, he mentioned that his upright bass player, Mike
Lenore, was tending bar in a restaurant on the Lower East Side
in New York, his drummer, Andy Harris, found work as a cook
in Peachtree City, Georgia, and his guitar player, Bailey Smith,
who was to marry his wife Emily in New Orleans last month,
is trying find gigs with another New Orleans rock band, the r
aucous Morning 40 Federation (http://www.morning40.com/).

Though the Happy Talk Band remains committed to staying
together and telling the stories of its city, it is hard to imagine
them either playing their beloved Circle Bar or coming to a town
near you any time soon. Here in New York, Alex McMurray
(http://alexmcmurray.com/ ), who sang his strange and beautiful
songs in gravelly tones at the Circle Bar every Wednesday for
years, is now playing on the Lower East Side a couple times a
week. I haven't been but it's hard to imagine where he is going
to find a tubaist or washboard player with an ear for his sound
in this town or if people will appreciate, or relate to, the drama
of selling your plasma. Who knows, maybe his perfect tuba-
washboard-rock will be the next big thing in the Big Apple?

In short, though everyone was always talking about leaving
New Orleans for some other city to find work, decent public
schools for their kids, or a music business that might allow them
to stop singing first person non-fiction narratives about doing
medical testing for money, these bands and musicians don't make
much sense living anywhere else because the real, sad, living
New Orleans fed their art at the very same time as it was eating
its young.

For my part, I have spent too many nights sitting half drunk in
the Circle Bar staring up at the old florescent clock from K & B,
a defunct, nostalgia-prompting, local drug store chain, listening
to music about floods, poverty, and urban decay. Now, it breaks
my heart that there is no one left in New Orleans to play these
songs and that the rest of the country is forced to hear about these
same horrors on the television in their living rooms while politicians
claim that what unfolded was unforeseeable.

Too bad that Bush didn't spent more time in places like the Circle Bar
in his wild, younger years visiting New Orleans. Sure, he might have
gotten drunk and obnoxious, but it would have provided a much
needed education.

Billy Sothern is an anti-death penalty lawyer and writer from New Orleans.
He can be reached at: billys@thejusticecenter.org

This piece first appeared at www.counterpunch.org and was reproduced
here with the kind permission of its author.

2005-10-24T19:55:00.000-07:00

Rosa Parks

Rosa Parks has died. She was 92 years old.
If there is a heaven, she'll have a seat there,
right near the front.

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0bio-1

2005-10-23T02:08:00.000-07:00

Saturday Morning

Yellow bananas, sugar dark brown
The cinnamon freckles I spill
Oats from the farmer, the train into town
The grinding of grain at the mill
Thank you for putting the food on my table
Thank you for seeing it through
Labourers ready and willing and able
Who don't say as much as they do...

Breakfast time, Saturday morning

The mist that clings to the field like a blanket
Is lifting off now with the sun
I'm lost in Caruso, the scratches, the accent
From back when recording began
Choirs of snow geese off in the distance
Singing their migration tune
You never wear perfume, trusting the essence
I hope you come visit me soon...

Breakfast time, Saturday morning

I want you to be here
The coffee is ready
I'm here with my feelings
I'm feeling unsteady
I want to touch you
My hands, they remember
The curve of your body
The touches so tender

Filling the birdbath full of fresh water
The little ones still come around
Food is so scarce in the north in the winter
I sprinkle these seeds on the ground
Tell me, is your suntan gone
Has the blue of your eyes turned to grey
Is there any joy in old 101
And what are you doing today...

Breakfast time, Saturday morning

DL

2005-10-18T06:33:00.000-07:00

Backstage with the Tiger: Joness in Vietnam

2005-10-17T23:38:00.000-07:00

This Is The Room

This is the room, the desk clerk said
Her key opened the door
This is where they found him dead
He'd fallen to the floor
On our stationary one last poem
Scribbled with a pen
As if in a hurry to get it done
And no rhyme at the end

The desk clerk left the girl in there
To spend some time alone
The curtains dark but drawn aside
To let the sun come in
She could see the shining river
The bridge he walked across
To visit with the memory
Of one he'd loved and lost

A room like any other room
Essentials, nothing more
For working girls without a home
For soldiers from the war
A writer with his pen and pad
The poems he never sold
A man who was a rebel lad
And wouldn't trade for gold

She sat and read his poems a while
The sentence spirit bears
The dust of every lonely mile
The smell of missing years
That chambermaids can't wash away
That bleaches never clean
The silences we leave to say
The things we really mean

Once a week, the clerk had said
He'd take a small bouquet
And cross the bridge to sit with her
And come back looking grey
As if her absence put to sleep
The colours in his skin
As if the curtains closed to keep
The sun from getting in

There was a time before this time
A room before this room
A song that stays inside the dust
And won't cling to the broom
She pulled a bottle from her purse
Drank in the fading light
To a rebel lad who stayed the course
Good night, old man, good night

This is the room, the desk clerk said
The plaque read 304
This is where they found him dead
He'd fallen to the floor
On the stationary one last verse
Scribbled with his pen
Not his best, but not his worst
And no rhyme in the end

She sat and read his poems a while
The sentence spirit bears
The dust of every lonely mile
The smell of missing years
That chambermaids can't wash away
That bleaches never clean
The silences we leave to say
The things we really mean

DL

2005-10-15T18:10:00.000-07:00

Better Days 188

CHRISTY MOORE

Thursday, October 20th
10pm to 12am Pacific (GMT -8)
CFRO 102.7 FM

Webcast www.coopradio.org

What Woody Guthrie is to America,
Christy Moore is to Ireland.

-Bono, U2

His great voice, his choice of the best songs
by Ireland's greatest 'unknown' writers,
together with the wit and passion of his own
fine songwriting, make him the most powerful
Irish 'Folk' singer today.

-Jackson Browne

Christy Moore has the sweet voice of an old
and dangerous friend.

-Elvis Costello

He is the greatest living Irishman.

-Shane McGowan, The Pogues

Since returning from a health-related retirement,
Christy Moore has gone on to record some of the best
albums of his career (This Is The Day, Burning Times)
and put out a six-cd box set of previously unreleased
music spanning forty years.

Since coming back, he's been busy with a reunion of
his pioneering band, Planxty, and done hundreds of
solo concerts throughout Ireland, the UK and Europe.
With Burning Times, Christy now has at least 36 LPs
and CDs in his discography. Luckily, a number of them
are still available if you search.

Christy has one of the more lively personal websites.
When registered, you get the regular Christy "chat"
sent to you, occasional home videos of him singing a
song, and early notification of concert dates, tickets.
Christy's shows routinely sell out now. The guestbook
is eclectic and enjoyable, and Christy himself often
replies to posts with wit, proper menace and charm.
A recent exchange goes like this....

"Just got my copy of Burning Times. Not available here
in the States yet. It's a stunner! Love the production
and selction of songs, though as a Yank it stings a bit.
I guess we all get what we have coming our way from
time to time. Maybe a change in leadership is coming
our way soon. It seems that people in the US are finally
waking up. Thanks Again! Z"

Christy's reply: "As he is the most powerful man on
earth at this time your American leader has the
capacity to sting us all. My version of Morrissey's
song (America, I Love You) is not aimed at the
majority of Americans but at the minority who
voted for him and the much smaller minority who
still believe him and his coterie of strange people."

Burning Times is dedicated to the memory of
Rachel Corrie, the young American woman who
was crushed to death by an Israeli tank. Read of
her at http://www.ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/corrie.html
and her letters home to her mother and father at
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/rachelsletters.html

Christy's site: www.christymoore.com

Join me October 20th. There is only one Christy Moore.
For two hours, I'll share his magic on the air.

Listen On Line at www.coopradio.org

DL

P.S. Burning Times just arrived in the mail! On one
listen, I'll rank it alongside John Prine's latest
as the most mature artistic statements of the year.
I look forward to playing it this Thursday.

2005-10-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

Mercy Now

Mary Gauthier's song put to images of Katrina's aftermath.
http://www.losthighwayrecords.com/e/marygauthier/katrina.html

2005-10-12T21:09:00.000-07:00

Back 40 : October 2005

The Back 40 is a way of letting you know what I've been
playing on the show. Listings are in no particular order; it's
not a contest. Newly added albums have the artist's name
in red. Every one of these recordings has something to give us.
Visit the artists' websites, and support their commitment
and genius by purchasing a copy of their music.

Better Days is heard Thursdays, 10:00 pm to 12 midnight
Pacific Time (GMT -8) at 102.7 FM and live on the web at
http://www.coopradio.org/

Burning Times : Christy Moore
http://www.christymoore.com

Year Of Meteors : Laura Veirs
http://www.lauraveirs.com

Prairie Wind : Neil Young
http://www.neilyoung.com

Fair & Square : John Prine
http://www.ohboy.com

Live at the Gaslight 1962 : Bob Dylan
http://www.bobdylan.com

I Came To Hear The Music : Various Artists
http://www.jonmarkstone.com/g4cd.html

Red Dog Tracks : Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez
http://www.trainwreckrecords.com

Iron Flowers : Grey De Lisle
http://www.greydelisle.com

Color Came One Day : Chuck Brodsky
http://www.chuckbrodsky.com

Solace : Xavier Rudd
http://www.xavierrudd.com

Stripping Cane : Jeffrey Foucault
http://www.jeffreyfoucault.com

Flower Of Avalon : Tracy Grammer
http://www.tracygrammer.com

Humming By The Flowered Vine : Laura Cantrell
http://www.lauracantrell.com

Why Should The Fire Die : Nickel Creek
http://www.nickelcreek.com

Mercy Now : Mary Gauthier
http://www.marygauthier.com

Since Kyabram : Declan O'Rourke
http://www.declanorourke.com

O : Damien Rice
http://www.damienrice.com

Here Come The Choppers : Loudon Wainwright
http://www.loudonwainwright.net

In The Reins : Iron & Wine w/Calexico
http://www.ironandwine.com

Two-Bit World : David Gunning
http://www.davegunning.com/

Faultlines : Karine Polwart
http://www.karinepolwart.com

Ten Thousand Mornings : Peter Mulvey
http://www.petermulvey.com

Martha Wainwright : Martha Wainright
http://www.bradthegame.com/martha-wainwright/

Song Of The Traveling Daughter : Abigail Washburn
http://www.abigailwashburn.com

I Never Heard You Knockin' : Malcolm Holcombe
http://www.malcolmholcombe.com

Four Songs : Alexi Murdoch (EP)
http://www.aleximurdoch.com

Come Feel The Illinoise : Sufjan Stevens
http://www.sufjan.com

The Duhks : The Duhks
http://www.duhks.com/index.php

A Brief History : The Waifs
http://www.thewaifs.com/

Mercy : Sam Baker
http://www.sambakermusic.com

Funeral : The Arcade Fire
http://www.arcadefire.com/

American Jukebox Fables : Ellis Paul
http://www.ellispaul.com

Why The Long Face : Suzzy & Maggie Roche
http://www.roches.com

Fisherman's Woman : Emiliana Torrini
http://www.emilianatorrini.com

Exploration : Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion
http://www.sarahleeandjohnny.com

Kind Letters : Martin Simpson
http://www.martinsimpson.com

The Girl Who Couldn't Fly : Kate Rusby
http://www.katerusby.com

Paradise Hotel : Eliza Gilkyson
http://www.redhouserecords.com

Front Parlour Ballads : Richard Thompson
http://www.richardthompson-music.com

About Baghdad : Amer Tawfiq
http://www.aboutbaghdad.com

For The Birds : The Frames
http://www.theframes.ie

DL

2005-10-11T23:22:00.000-07:00

Laura Veirs : Year Of Meteors
Laura's website : www.lauraveirs.com

2005-10-11T22:54:00.000-07:00

Better Days 187
Dangerous Times

Thursday, October 13th, 2005
CFRO 102.7 FM
10:00 pm to Midnight, Pacific (GMT-8)

Listen online at
www.coopradio.org

Lots of new and recent releases to offer your ears
this week, as my mailbox has been overflowing.
Among the artists you'll hear are Nickel Creek,
Laura Cantrell, Tracy Grammer, Corb Lund Band,
Chuck Brodsky, Laura Veirs, Loudon Wainwright III,
Abigail Washburn, Eliza Gilkyson and Polecat Creek.

That's Better Days, this Thursday, October 13th,
from 10pm-12am, heard around the corner at
102.7 fm and around the world on the web at

www.coopradio.org

I look forward to having you join me.

DL

2005-10-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

Cassiopeia by Joseph Cornell (1903-1972)

2005-10-09T12:44:00.000-07:00

It Took The Moon

It took the moon to warn the town
The stars, my God, are falling down
It took the moon to wake us up
One star fell in my coffee cup
Old as heaven, young as earth
Little star, who sent you forth?
The sky, the sky is falling down
It took the moon to warn the town

Were you the pointer of the Plow?
The night's a little darker now
Constellations blinking on and off
Orion, have you had enough?
Heaven was your just reward
Where now are your belt and sword?
The earth is governed by a beast
There is no star in the east

The dying star of mystery
That even Hubble cannot see
Cassiopeia, are you there?
Is Megrez angry with The Bear?
What damage have we done your sky?
The moon is hurt, the tide is high
No ears left to hear our prayer
Cassiopeia, are you there?

It took the moon to warn the town
The stars, my God, are falling down
It took the moon's emergent cry
To gather us beneath the sky
To ask ourselves what life is worth
Old as heaven, young as earth
It took the moon to warn the town
The stars, my God, are falling down

DL

2005-10-09T11:32:00.000-07:00

Christy Moore's Burning Times is now out

2005-10-09T11:09:00.000-07:00

Breath Away

Breath away, breath away
Breath away, breath
Feelings are bridges
Between life and death
Feelings are bridges
The water is wide
Breath away, breath away
Love never died

All these umbrellas
Refusing the sky
The rains never touch us
The heavens they cry
The teachers don't teach us
When we're asleep
The days ending sooner
The darkness is deep

I love a woman
Her eyes hold a light
Glowing with mercy
Stars for my night
She embraces the darkness
Her heart being wise
My sister of mercy
With light in her eyes

I went on a journey
To find me a stone
To shine on a necklace
When I am alone
When we're not looking
Changes occur
Long was my journey
It led me to her

Breath away, breath away
Breath away, breath
Journeys are bridges
Between life and death
Journeys are bridges
The water is wide
Breath away, breath away
Love never died

DL

2005-10-08T00:48:00.000-07:00

Looking at the world through a windshield

2005-10-06T06:59:00.000-07:00

The Onion

The Onion is always good for a laugh.
http://www.theonion.com/content/index

2005-10-06T01:40:00.000-07:00

Studs has been a people's champion

2005-10-06T01:23:00.000-07:00

Studs Terkel

Studs Terkel, in his nineties, recovering from heart
surgery, has released a new book. Better yet, he
appeared with Amy Goodman on Democracy Now
this morning.

Over the years, Studs has worked as a social activist,
civil servant, labor organizer, radio DJ and tv actor.
He is best known as a Chicago radio personality and
a Pulitzer Prize-winning author.

Here's a link to this morning's interview.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/05/1326215

2005-10-06T00:02:00.000-07:00

Quoting Abe Lincoln

We all declare for liberty;
but in using the same word we do not all mean
the same thing.

With some the word liberty may mean for each
man to do as he pleases with himself, and the
product of his labor;

while with others, the same word many mean
for some men to do as they please with other men,
and the product of other men's labor.

Here are two not only different, but incompatible
things, called by the same name- liberty.

And it follows that each of the things is, by the
respective parties, called by two different and
incompatible names -

liberty and tyranny.

-Abraham Lincoln, Baltimore, 1864

2005-10-04T22:52:00.000-07:00

The Oliver St. John Gogarty pub, Dublin

2005-10-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

My Dublin Blues

It rained the one day, and the wind came,
too, which cleared the streets a little and
left the papers to blow. Was I missing her
before the rain, or was it the rain that made
me think of our shared umbrella? I'd been
away from home almost ten weeks then,
and my body was a lonely thing. It's for
days like those they built pubs like the one
in Dublin called Oliver St. John Gogarty's.

Oliver St. John Gogarty's
Dublin drenched in rain
What travel does for trouble
Whiskey does for pain
A headache for the morning
When I take the road again
Wish to hell I knew to where I'm going

Maybe there's another way to try
To kiss these Dublin blues good-bye

Spied a woman looked like you
Walking Eden Quay
Saw my share of sad men, too
Who looked a lot like me
Feelings, they can change the way
You look and how you see
Tonight I'm hiding less than I am showing

chorus

This old bar is warm inside
Shelter from the damp
Hungry and I've never tried
The coddle or the champ
Where my soul is darkest now
Your love is the lamp
Tell me, is it yet a-glowing?

chorus

If your lamp is burning dim
I may in the Liffey swim
If your lamp is burning bright
I'll be home by morning light

chorus x 2

DL

2005-10-02T18:18:00.000-07:00

October Radio Specials

Below The Radar
Friday, October 14th
5:30 pm - 9:00 pm Pacific

Many compelling and gifted songwriters eke out
a living below the music industry's radar. This
three-and-a-half hour special is devoted to
these songwriters, whether veterans or just
emerging, unsung heroes or well-kept secrets.

This time slot should invite many listeners in
the central or eastern time zones - as well as
my nightowl friends in northern and western
Europe - to tune in to the webcast. I've got
some wonderful artists to share with you.

Christy Moore : A Life In Song
Thursday, October 20th
10:00 pm - 12:00 am Pacific

He's been called "the greatest living Irishman"
by Shane McGowan of the Pogues, and Elvis
Costello referred to him as "a dangerous old
friend." Christy Moore has a brand new CD
due out any day now, and if the postal service
does its bit, I hope to have it for this special.
What I will have, for sure, is a bundle of the
man's previous cds, including the six-cd box
he released last year. I have pared the show's
songlist down to about five hours' worth now,
only three more hours to edit out. That's how
much I love this man's work. Join me for one
of the most alive and interesting artists at
work in the world today.

Alias Bob Dylan
Sunday, October 30th
2:30 pm - 5:30 pm Pacific

This show is a three-hour celebration of the work
of Bob Dylan, who took this name as his alias
when he left Hibbing, Minnesota, for the streets
of New York City. I'll draw some gems from
his original albums, from official and unofficial
bootlegs, and throw in a few covers as well.
Dylan remains a revolution and a revelation
in modern songwriting.

This time slot is beautiful for all my listeners,
except for those of you I know who tune in from
Japan and Australia - a bit early in the morn,
I think, for you. I'm looking forward very much
to compressing Dylan's genius into three hours
and having a helluva lot of fun in the process.

All shows are on CFRO 102.7 fm and live via
webcast at www.coopradio.org

I love doing radio!

DL

2005-10-01T07:54:00.000-07:00

Scorcese's documentary of Dylan's wild mercury years,
No Direction Home, is now available on DVD

2005-10-01T05:27:00.000-07:00

Better Days 186
Dylan Under Cover

This coming Thursday, October 6th, Better Days will
devote itself to covers of Bob Dylan songs.

With both MOJO and UNCUT magazines including a cd
of Dylan song renditions with recent issues, my own
collection of Dylan-cover curios overflowing, and it
being 40 years since Highway 61 Revisited was first
released, I simply couldn't resist the idea.

A few of the things you'll hear are...

Desolation Row, a unique approach by Songdog
I Want You, transformed by horse whisperer, Mike Beck
Fourth Time Around by saxophonist Michael Moore
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues by Jim Byrnes
To Ramona, rarely-heard older version from Alan Price
Sweetheart Like You by folk-bluesman Guy Davis
With God On Our Side, powerfully done by Buddy Miller

That's just a taste of what lies in store this Thursday,
October 6th, from 10:00 pm to 12:00 am Pacific (GMT -8)
on Better Days, heard around the corner at 102.7 FM and
around the world by webcast at www.coopradio.org

I look forward to having you join me!

DL

2005-10-01T04:41:00.000-07:00

My attempt to capture, in one photograph, the essence of
Walkerburn, Scotland, on a bright summer's day

2005-10-01T04:23:00.000-07:00

Karine Polwart and her band performing a homecoming concert
at the Village Hall in Walkerburn, in the beautiful Borders area of
southern Scotland, August 20th, 2005. www.karinepolwart.com