Eric  Ramsey

Hard to tell, yet, what the "opening" of the Arizona economy and social structure will yield. While businesses and patrons alike are urged to follow CDC and social distancing guidelines, a peek through just about any bar or restaurant door will show who's taking things seriously. I get it. Businesses are going broke. People are needy. And hungry. And socially starved. Something has to give, and I guess at some point, maybe two weeks hence we'll see the upshot of folks being back in the slipstream.

Take…

When is enough enough? When YOU say it is.

How Long You Gonna Stand

Hate in the air, lightning on the street 
Love on the run 
Thunder in the gutter and blood on the wind 
Your god won’t help you, son 
Your god won’t help you, daughter

How long you gonna stand - How long you gonna stand for this 
How long you gonna stand - How long you gonna stand for this 

You say it can’t happen here no way no how 
That’s a very quaint notion 
Playin’ poker with the devil and it’s his deal 
From the bottom of the deck, son 
…

We're in our 9th week of sequestration here at the House Of Strays. No, I don't want a medal, or a trophy, or any commiseration. I'm simply stating the fact. Most of us are in the same situation, I imagine - those who take this health crisis seriously, anyway. During these nine weeks, depending on the day, I've experienced dramatic mood swings. Funny how disruption of routine causes that. But now that there is no routine, no normal, the weird is normal, and as the Good Doctor once penned "When the going…

We're entering week 8 of Sheltering In Place here at the House Of Strays. No end in sight, as far as I can tell. How are you all making out? Staying sane? Staying positive? I waver between resigned acceptance, abject despair, hope, often within the space of ten minutes or so.  What's becoming obvious, though, is the fact that I'm not nearly as strong as I had imagined. Interesting, when I can step far enough away from myself to actually see. 

We here at the House Of Strays hope you are holding up well…

What will YOU do with today? We're all just one heartbeat away from whatever happens next, after all. ME? Well, we're entering into our 6th week of being homebound, so my today will likely look very much like my yesterday and probably my tomorrow. After I finish this post (Music Monday!) I'll send out my weekly email to my subscribers detailing the shows for the week. That'll be a pretty short email today. Then I'll go record the next video for my COVIDeo Series, and probably edit that down to YouTube…

I don't know about you, but individual days have lost their meaning to me. Oh, I try to keep to a schedule - but when Saturday looks like Tuesday looks like March I'm not as diligent as I should be. 

Anyway, I hope you're all staying well. This is a weird weird time, by all accounts, and it's hard to say what our daily lives will look like on the other side of COVID-19. Certainly the live music landscape has been altered forever. I guess we'll adapt and adjust, the strong will survive and the weak will…

Here's a new song for you. I wrote it a couple of weeks ago and recorded a demo version. I also just released a YouTube video (#24 in my COVIDeo Series, but who's counting). Neither version is pristine in sound quality or performance, but that's ok. This song lends itself to imperfection. That's what the lyric is all about.

I hope you enjoy it:

This Year 

Everything was gonna be better this year 
Doors that would open, oh the possibilities 
But it seems like the world’s conspired to keep me on my knees 
This…

Which is it? To which form of isolation are we subject?

Quarantine "...a restriction of the movement of people and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests." 
Internment "...can simply mean imprisonment, [however] it tends to refer to preventive confinement...."

So? I guess it depends on your point of view, and how feel on a particular day - today being day 21 for the House Of Strays Quaranternment. 

Well, here's a little levity (or crassness depending, again, on your point of…

OK - well, as promised here's a demo version of the new song. I say "new", although the little bastard has been in gestation for more than a couple of years and just recently decided it was time to crown. Kids! Anyway, after much struggle with finding the proper voice, key, tempo, cadence and delivery I quit trying and went to the banjo. 

So - here it is in all its, what? glory? perfidy? I give you "So Much Promise" 

No need to send flowers.

We here at the House Of Strays hope you are staying well and…

Well, here's the whole thing. Lotsa time to write these days. I hope to have a scratch track for you to hear next week - but ... no promises. Stay well, be strong in the face of this Bad Craziness. 

So Much Promise 

A battered picture in my room 
The portrait of a young Marine 
Faded now to shades of gray - like so much promise 
His buttons polished 
I can just imagine how they shone like gold 
Buttons polished, how they must have shone 

Battered pictures, tattered letters 
Yesterdays flung to the wind 
Long…