WHAT YOU MAY FIND HERE

RANTS, RAVINGS and RUMINATIONS along with
RAUCOUS RIBALDRY and RAMBLING REFLECTIONS

Saturday, May 31, 2014

A Little Saturday Nite Bluegrass Div

Hunter Berry doing Wow! Baby!  (along with Rhonda Vincent and the Rage)



Hunter Berry - Fiddle, Kenny Ingram - Banjo, Mickey Harris - Bass, Ben Helson - Guitar
and Rhonda - Mandolin

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Memorial Day Div

My post from 2012 still applies  - - though they've now closed Walter Reeed and I'm no longer Driving4$$ (since they don't want to pay what they owe me, why work, eh ??).

Jim Wright has an excellent essay over at Stonekettle Station on the current VA mess. Jim is a veteran also and though sometimes he's a bit verbose, he's good. ..... and yes, Eric Shinseki deserves better treatment.

Last night, I listened to a reading of one of Walt Whitman's poems from 1865,  .... may our honored brothers in arms rest peacefully.
Pensive on Her Dead Gazing

Pensive on her dead gazing I heard the Mother of All,
Desperate on the torn bodies, on the forms covering the battlefields
gazing,
(As the last gun ceased, but the scent of the powder-smoke linger'd,)
As she call'd to her earth with mournful voice while she stalk'd,
Absorb them well O my earth, she cried, I charge you lose not my
sons, lose not an atom,
And you streams absorb them well, taking their dear blood,
And you local spots, and you airs that swim above lightly impalpable,
And all you essences of soil and growth, and you my rivers' depths,
And you mountain sides, and the woods where my dear children's
blood trickling redden'd,
And you trees down in your roots to bequeath to all future trees,
My dead absorb or South or North--my young men's bodies absorb,
and their precious precious blood,
Which holding in trust for me faithfully back again give me many a
year hence,
In unseen essence and odor of surface and grass, centuries hence,
In blowing airs from the fields back again give me my darlings, give
my immortal heroes,
Exhale me them centuries hence, breathe me their breath, let not an
atom be lost,
O years and graves! O air and soil! O my dead, an aroma sweet!
Exhale them perennial sweet death, years, centuries hence.



Saturday, May 24, 2014

A Little Saturday Nite Bluegrass Div

One of my favorites, Norman Blake's Green Light on the Southern here performed by the Punch Brothers from early 2008 at the Birchmere in Alexandria, VA.



Sunday, May 18, 2014

Geography Div (remember when …. subsection)

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at 24 hours worth of air traffic in the US. On September 11, 2001 all that stopped. I remember sitting on my deck that evening (right under the FAF for Runway 10 at BWI) and being amazed at how quiet it had become.

Saturday, May 17, 2014

A Little Saturday Nite Bluegrass Div ( John Denver subsection)

The Special Consensus doing John Denver's Wild Montana Skies (from their new tribute album)



The Special Consensus :
Greg Cahill - Banjo, Dustin Benson - Guitar, Dan Eubanks - Bass, Rick Faris - Mandolin.
Special Guests Claire Lynch - vocal and Rob Ickes - Dobro.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Geography Div (Civil War subsection)

On May 12-13, the Battle of Palmito Ranch took place in Texas. This was considered the last major confrontation of the Civil War (though Lee had surrendered on April 9th).
It's kind of amazing that one hundred and fifty-one years later, some folks want to do this all over again.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

A Little Saturday Nite Bluegrass Div

Today is National Train Day !!!


The Sam Bush Band with a jazzy rendition of Bringin' in the Georgia Mail.



The Band: Sam Bush - Mandolin, Stephen Mougin - Guitar, Scott Vestal - Banjo, Todd Parks - Bass and Chris Brown - Drums.

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Geography Div (Getting from here to there subsection)

A couple of weeks ago, we looked at air traffic across the world in 24 hours. Here's what it looks like here in the US ( and when the weather gets bad ………..

Saturday, May 3, 2014

A Little Saturday Nite Bluegrass Div

Thought of this song on the recent road trip as I crossed from West Virginia to Kentucky. The old Bill Monroe standard Big Sandy River.



Noam Pikelny - Banjo, Stuart Duncan - Fiddle, Ronnie McCoury - Mandolin, Bryan Sutton - Guitar, and Mike Bub - Bass.