The Muse and Whirled Retort 2019

The Muse and Whirled Retort April 2019

Thursday, April 11, 2019

Hey Everybody!

Welcome to the April News letter!

Jen and I are running out the door to a festival in Las Vegas this weekend and zoom right back to the bay area for a few exciting shows with some new material from Paul Benoit and Dan Bern.

Sean Shanahan and I will be doing a tour of the NW this summer and we are receiving dates now! If you are interested in having us at a house concert od somewhere else - drop me a line!

OK OK enough of the crass commercial announcements here with apologies to (yes) camper van Beethoven is your

M.U.S.E. .A.N.D. .W.H.I.R.L.E.D. .R.E.T.O.R.T.

Las Vegas,

NV April 2019

What this country needs now, more than anything... is... forgiveness... and in order to get that ... we need to deserve it...

I don't know what the world may need

But I'm sure as hell that it starts with me

And that's a wisdom

I've laughed at

and deserving it requires action.

I don't know what the world may want

But a good stiff drink it surely don't

So I think I'll go and fix us all a tall one.

No, Forgiveness will not change the past... but forgiveness COULD change the future.

There is no peace without forgiveness - just as there is no forgiveness without ... love.

and there is no way to love another without walking a mile in their shoes... now my friends...begin lacing... and feel their tension...

'Cause what the world needs now

Is a new kind of tension

'Cause the old one just bores me to death

Yes, I went to a segregated school, and I recognize the advantage I had. But can you see the hand i lended?

Because, where I grew up - the only thing worse than an N word was... an N word lover.

'Cause what the world needs now

Is another folk singer

Like I need a hole in my head

Can you see the poverty that I come from?

Yes, there is a difference - but the difference is much smaller when compared to the difference between me and those that owned your fore fathers.

After emancipation... my fore fathers too worked THEIR fields- my fore fathers too shined THEIR shoes... yes, it was different but still... it is THEY that should be the rath of your ire...

and now we come to now.

I don't know what the world may need

But a V8 engine's a good start for me

Think I'll drive and find a place

To be surly

Racism is woven into the fabric of what makes america “great.” from its cotton picking inception to the synthetic garments of the present.

The very fabric. The industrial prison complex is only the latest instrument of white supremacy.

Yes, I gained a small amount of advantage, but... My fore fathers are not the ones that owned yours...

Though, the ancestors of those that did...

do...

...Have names and addressees

.... and I want those addresses every bit as much as you do.

Remember that. Let us both research that one.

I have no doubt there those that are still those that are profiting from it.

They are our target.

I don't know what the world may want

But some words of wisdom could comfort us

Think I'll leave that up to

Someone wiser

Yes, 200 years ago 2% of the population in the US South owned well over half of the population.

200 years ago the south was not only wealthier than the north - it was on one of the wealthiest places on the globe - and its income gap the widest the world has ever seen.

Remember, THAT is why...and when...

... they went about setting you set me against you.

and God knows did they do a good job at that.

'Cause what the world needs now

Are some true words of wisdom

Like la la la la la la la la-la

The truth is: that 1% is still in power.

Focus your ire on them.

Not me.

It is a class struggle. Not a race struggle.

'Cause what the world needs now

And what the United States needs more

Is another folk singer

than any thing is forgiveness,

Like I need a hole in my head.

and in order to that we need to deserve it.

and I don’t know - any better than you do - what the numbers are!

but step one...The first one:

Replace the statue in front of the white house - the one of Andrew Jackson... replace it with a monument to the slaves that built the building in the first place.

What the world needs now

Because what the United States needs more

Is another folk singer

than any thing is forgiveness,

Like I need a hole in my head

and in order to get that... we need to deserve it.

So, let us deserve it.

H.E.R.E.S. .D.A. .D.A.T.E.S.

April, 2019

Thursday

Berkeley, CA

7:00