Eric  Ramsey

Well, September, to begin with.It's hard to believe that we (our country, generally, our household specifically) has been shut down by COVID for 6 months. Half a year.  We've been lucky. Diligent in our protocols, but still lucky; No one in our immediate family has gotten sick. So far. One niece and one nephew caught the virus early on, but had relatively minor symptoms and effected a full recovery. 

BUT - it's not over. The politicization of this issue will ensure a never ending rerun of finger-pointing…

There have been any number of paeans for Ruth Bader Ginsburg these last few days. I'm not so arrogant as to suppose I might sing her praises in a way that hasn't already been sung; word of her passing came as no real surprise, but a lot of us kept thinking "She's gonna be ok, she's gonna be around forever."

Well, no, she's not. And the world is just a little bit more dreary, the landscape of our country even more unsettled and scary. The current regime has made a mockery of the tenets of our democracy…

As if it couldn't get any weirder, or worse, I came across this article on a Social Media Not To Be Named news feed.

Click this link: NPR 

You're more savvy than I, but this is the gut punch of all gut punches. Sucker punch is a better phrase, because I've been a sucker, as have you, as have we all.

Big Petro wins. Again. We're all working for the Pharaoh.

Richard Thompson's song: PHARAOH

Stay well. Question Authority. Wear your mask.  

We all labor. Some of us work with our hands, some build, some tear down, some pick up and some throw away. We all labor. 

Celebrate those who work daily to help provide the lifestyle to which we've grown accustomed.
Celebrate those who create works of art - aural, visual, tactile.
Celebrate those who strive to make our world a better place for ALL.
Celebrate those trying simply to put food on their family's table.
Celebrate those (perhaps you) who try to make their relationships better - the personal…

Still working on form and arrangement, of course. Is it ever done? But here you go:

The Truth Will Come 

You proselytize 
And polarize 
And shamelessly self-aggrandize 
But the truth will come 

You calculate 
And agitate 
And orchestrate 
And escalate 
But the truth will come 
Yes the truth will come 

You scandalize 
And demonize 
Everything that you despise 
But the truth will come 
Yes the truth will come 

You nightly dream of potentates 
By day you’re simply obdurate 
You render illegitimate 
All semblance of the…

I stay away from the political, generally, in my music. At least the overtly political. Every once in a while something'll sneak in, though. (See "Around 
Here", from my CD Road Of Man). 

As I said last week, this lyric came to me unbidden, and compelled me to write it down. It's still very much a work in progress, but here's (possibly) the bridge:

You nightly dream of potentates 
By day you’re simply obdurate 
You render illegitimate 
All semblance of the legal 
Your electorate all salivate 
As daily you…

I'm working on a new tune, finally, the title of which is the title of this blog post. I have resisted writing anything about our current government administration, but this one came to me - unbidden, might I add - early one morning after a failed attempt to go back to sleep. Currently I'm refining the rhyme scheme and trying to settle on a rhythmic feel. More to come....

This is an old version of a song that's currently in heavy rotation - in a decidedly different form. Enjoy "Wills And Won'ts:

Did my first Livestream show yesterday. It was on ZOOM, organized by some friends in the Tucson area. I've had misgivings about live-streaming as a format for music consumption; I think we've all seen shows online with bad audio and/or video quality and I don't want to put anything out there that doesn't look and sound good. Performance mistakes and personal physiognomy notwithstanding.

It was an enjoyable experience. Twenty-some folks checked in, were attentive and receptive (at least while the camera was…

New tune, and a demo version for you today. Please stay well, safe and strong....

Time And Water 

I need a double shot of whiskey to jump start my day 
A bottle of burgundy about half way 
Through my morning 
Which is shaping up to be 
Quite like yesterday’s and 
What tomorrow will bring we shall see 
Probably more of the same 

Life’s double aught buckshot done tore a hole 
Clean through the roof of the place my soul 
Used to live 
Rain and pain and angry 
Pouring in and 
Guess what tomorrow will bring 
More of the…

Yep. We had just a hint, the merest whiff of rain here at the House Of Strays last week. Usually by this time of year our monsoon season is in full swing, with temps down in the low 100s and humidity up from 8% to 25% or so. Like everything else in 2020, however, the weather seems to be at odds with "normal" too. Oh well. There's still nothing like the scent of the desert just before a rain - the combination of Mesquite, Brittle Bush and Creosote and dust. At least we had that evening last week.

Living in…