Tag: allen ginsberg

Archiving the Heart: Greg Brown on Music, Family, and Throwing Out Old Notebooks

Posted on by Shelby Williamson

Iowa folk music icon Greg Brown is living that retired life. After playing his farewell retirement concert in 2023, he’s returned with a new book: Ring Around The Moon: A Songbook, which highlights a song selection personally picked by the songwriter himself, as well as family photos, personal anecdotes and self-penned drawings. The book features a foreword by Seth Avett (The Avett Brothers) who calls Brown’s songs “plain ​spoken ​expression ​of ​the ​nearly ​inexpressible.” In our conversation, we touch on topics like inner peace, happiness, personal growth and self-acceptance.

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He speaks of how art has impacted him in ways the artist will never understand. He talks about what it’s like to be on both the receiving and sending end of this exchange. It especially impacted him when he learned the poet Allen Ginsberg listened to an album of his while he was dying. I asked him about his music archives, which he calls “a ​bunch ​of ​old ​notebooks ​on ​a ​shelf” and “a ​couple ​boxes ​of ​old ​photos,” which assisted him in recalling family connections for the songbook. Going through the photos and old songs instilled a sense of music nostalgia, including collaboration with Iowa musicians at the Wednesday Night Jam at The Mill. Music nostalgia surfaces several times through the pages like his incredible story of founding the successful and beloved Red House Records.

There’s also discussion on a few choice Greg Brown songs like “If You Don’t Get it at Home,” addressing replacing love for materialism and drug use. We talk about “Brand New ’64 Dodge,” chronicling Brown’s personal experience with JFK’s assassination in 1963 and “Two Little Feet,” written in Alaska where he was inspired by Native American myths he heard and felt in the area. Greg Brown’s songbook was an awesome trip down memory lane for some of the best folk songs ever written from one very serious, yet very silly songwriter. It was an honor to dig in with one of the best to do it!

Photo Credit: Mei-Ling Shaw

BGS 5+5: Cordovas

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Cordovas
Hometown: Nashville, Tennessee
Album: Destiny Hotel

Answers by Joe Firstman, Toby Weaver, and Lucca Soria of Cordovas

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I always felt like I was an artist or working towards being one. So all I had to do was do it, not “become it.” — JF

I was around 7-8 years old and swinging on the swing set in elementary school. I was thinking about a song that I liked and at that time I had the feelings that I would like to play that song for people. I watched my dad and his friends play music as a child but it was at that moment I decided I would like to get a guitar and learn how to play. — TW

Feeling that feeling of “we’re doing something” as a kid in my friend’s basement trying to play some songs together. — LS

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

We spend a lot of time in the desert in Baja. Most of our mornings at the beach waiting for the surf. Checking the waves. Feelin’ the desert. Waiting for songs. Sunsets are also magnificent. There’s a lot of power and the light is changing. — JF

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

As far as living artists go, it would be Roy Bookbinder as he has personally learned from the great masters of the blues and has his own interpretation of their works as he performs them and written songs in that style. I got to meet Roy at a guitar clinic in 1998 and it was very inspiring. — TW

Bob Dylan and Grateful Dead. Hearing how Dylan writes made me want to emulate that. The Dead are like lifelong teachers, I learn something about playing music every time I listen to them. – LS

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

This is a writing technique. When we insert the word “I” into the sentence, the line, and the composition takes on an entirely new feel and tone. To make things universal often times we use the term “you” when we mean “I,” but I found that usually these are interchangeable in that the story would not suffer either way we did it. It could be a subtle thing, but being aware of the power of “I” is important. There used to be this drunk acting coach at the bar I went to in Hollywood, La Poubelle. He would always try to get everyone to have a conversation without using the word I. — JF

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

Lately, I have been reading spiritual guides and literature that feeds the mind and soul as well as biographies and autobiographies. The concepts outlined in these works have contributed to the lyrics I have written for our Destiny Hotel album, specifically the ego. — TW

As a teenager I was shown the work of Whitman and Ginsberg by a great teacher who explained that vein of American poetry. That exposure definitely fueled the writer fire. — LS

Photo Credit: Joseph Ross

Allen Ginsberg’s Folk Album Gets Box Set Reissue

Posted on by Editor

You may know Allen Ginsberg for his poetry, but did you also know that the "Howl" author and prominent Beat Generation figure had a music career? 

In addition to influencing musicians like Bob Dylan and the Clash with his poetry, Ginsberg made his own music, recruiting the likes of Arthur Russell, Happy Traum, and Dylan himself for an album called First Blues in 1971. The set of original songs was political in nature, offering commentary on gay rights, Richard Nixon, and Vietnam, among other topics. Typical of Ginsberg, there are some real lyrical gems, like "Everybody's just a little bit homosexual, whether they like it or not." The controversial subject matter contributed to the lengthy delay of the project's release, which didn't happen until 1983 after Columbia Records producer John Hammond took it upon himself to release the album on his own label.

Now, for the first time since that 1983 release, the album is being reissued as The Last Word on First Blues, a box set that also includes an hour of never-before-heard songs from those very sessions and from other Ginsberg projects between 1971 and 1984. Produced in conjunction with the Allen Ginsberg Trust, the box contains the original double album, a bonus disc of unreleased music, and a booklet with rare photos and new interviews. The tunes themselves also feature musician David Amram (a frequent collaborator of Ginsberg's Beat Generation pal Jack Kerouac), trumpeter Don Cherry, and poets Anne Waldman and Peter Orlovsky, the latter of whom was Ginsberg's longtime partner.

The Last Word on First Blues is available now. Check out the full track listing and a photo of the set.

Track listing:

Disc One:
1. Going to San Diego
2. Vomit Express
3. Jimmy Berman (Gay Lib Rag)
4. Ny Youth Call Annunciation
5. Cia Dope Calypso
6. Put Down Yr Cigarette Rag
7. Sickness Blues
8. Broken Bone Blues
9. Stay Away from the White House
10. Hardon Blues
11. Guru Blues
 
Disc Two:
1. Everybody Sing
2. Gospel Nobel Truths
3. Bus Ride to Suva
4. Prayer Blues
5. Love Forgiven
6. Father Death Blues
7. Dope Fiend Blues
8. Tyger
9. You Are My Dildo
10. Old Pond
11. No Reason
12. My Pretty Rose Tree
13. Capitol Air
 
Bonus Disc:
More Rags, Ballads, and Blues 1971-1984
1. Nurses Song
2. Spring (Merrily Welcome)
3. September on Jessore Road
4. Lay Down Yr Mountain
5. Slack Key Guitar
6. Reef Mantra
7. NY Blues
8. Come Along Vietnam (Rehearsal)
9. Airplane Blues (Live at Folk City)
10. Feeding Them Raspberries to Grow (Live at Folk City)
11. Do the Meditation Rock