By: Alkelda,
on 2/28/2008
I'm going cross-eyed with school auction work and feel as if I'm blogging with blinders on. I plan to get back to posting chord charts after the middle of March. In the meantime, here's the song that introduced me to Bessie Smith, the Empress of the Blues. It's called "Downhearted Blues," and it was Smith's recording debut for Columbia.
By: Alkelda,
on 2/14/2008
Traditionally, Valentine's Day was the time I designated "catch up on correspondence day." After the early grades, when the requirement to make a card for everyone in the class turned into a popularity contest, I didn't have much to do with this saint's feast day. Most of the time, I did not have a boyfriend around February 14, and if I did, he wasn't the kind to buy into the commercialism, blah
By: Alkelda,
on 2/7/2008
I've been listening to a lot of blues and blues-inspired music lately, and working on my guitar blues-shuffle. I'm predesposed toward women who play guitar, and Odetta is one of my favorites. Here is a video of her singing "You Don't Know My Mind" with its chorus that should be recognizable to many of us in spirit if not by its actual melody: "You, you don't know my mind, When you see me
By: Alkelda,
on 1/24/2008
The song I've had going through my head quite a bit lately is a haunting melody of lost love called "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us," by Leslie Ann Phillips, a.k.a. Sam Phillips. I first heard it sung by Alison Krauss with background vocals by Robert Plant on the album Raising Sand. Phillips' recording can currently be heard on the somewhat haphazard player located on the bottom right corner of
By: Alkelda,
on 1/18/2008
I met a man once who had an uncanny sense when it came to people. He told me, "There is someone in your life who is important to you. That person extends a hand toward you, but as soon as you reach for it, the hand is gone. That person says, 'There is so much I could offer that would make you feel special and wonderful. I know what you need-- and I'm not going to give it to you!'" I wish at
By: Alkelda,
on 1/10/2008
In high school, I auditioned for the school musical (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat) with a song I learned in my introductory chorus class called "Tumbalalaika." I had a weak, untrained voice, and so I didn't get any of the singing roles.* If I were to return to high school, I'm sure I'd fare much better-- but then I'd have to return to high school. I cannot remember the name of
By: Alkelda,
on 12/23/2007
A Song of the Week Special Edition While you may know Eleanor Farjeon by way of her poem, "Morning Has Broken" (sung both as a church hymn and as a popular song by Cat Stevens), most children's book afficionados know Farjeon as a prolific children's book writer of an older era. The New York Review of Books recently reprinted Farjeon's Hans Christian Andersen award-winner, The Little Bookroom.
By: Alkelda,
on 12/20/2007
For this week's edition of Song of the Week, I point you to Walter Minkel's Jungle Bells. Walter provides his send-up of a classic secular winter holiday song using easy ukulele chords. If you're playing guitar, you can transpose the song into the key of D thus: C becomes D F becomes G G7 becomes A7 As you might have guessed, this blog will be updated on a lighter schedule for the remainder of
By: Alkelda,
on 12/14/2007
I've published an iMix of all the songs to date that featured on Song of the Week and are available through iTunes. Just so you know, the "Bought Me a Goat" Project never took off. It's just as well-- I doubt any of the supposed revenue-earning widgits on blogs actually work. (Or is that just sour grapes?!) In any case, now you have 16 available songs grouped together for your convenience.
By: Alkelda,
on 12/13/2007
This edition of Song of the Week comes to you courtesy of the First Transcontinental Railroad. The idea of a railroad built across North America was spurred on by the notion of Manifest Destiny, otherwise known as, "We're superior and we know what's good for you, so get out of the way." The First Transcontiental Railroad was officially completed in the late 1860's. Chinese immigrants worked on
By: Alkelda,
on 12/7/2007
I first heard the song One Meatball at a friend's elopement 12 years ago here in Seattle, prior to her fancy wedding across the country. Over the years, I meant to find a recording, but didn't think about it until recently, when I was making meatballs out of ground lamb. I started singing the chorus to Lucia, and when she wanted to know the rest of the words, I knew I had my next Song of the
By: Alkelda,
on 11/29/2007
Today's post shall be brief, as we're all busy reading MotherReader's Carnival of Children's Literature: the Tips Edition. Therefore, it's fitting that today's song of the week only requires one chord: A minor. You could throw in another chord if you liked (C chord), but if you're a new guitarist who wants to march your storytime audience around the room with much singing and dancing, then grab
By: Alkelda,
on 11/22/2007
My favorite lyrics from "The Library" by Cursor Miner: The library, the library, it's the place where books are free. The library, the library--librarians are often sexy! You'd better believe it.
By: Alkelda,
on 11/15/2007
The only reason I hadn't made "Shady Grove" a Song of the Week before was because I thought I had already written about the song two years ago. My uncle taught this song to me in the key of E minor from the indespensible Rise Up Singing book. "Who is Shady Grove?" people wonder. "Is it a place or is she a person?" The answer is, "Yes." Some versions of this traditional Appalachian tune refer
By: Alkelda,
on 11/8/2007
I was addicted to the television program Six Feet Under. It was one of my guilty pleasures. I never watched it while it actually played on cable. We didn't have cable tv to begin with, and after Brad the Gorilla threw out our television, we had to rely on our computers to provide our visual opiates. So, I'd wait until each season of "Six Feet Under" was on DVD, and then I'd wait some more until
By: Alkelda,
on 11/1/2007
Thanks go to my college Humanities: Arts and Music class professors for introducing me to the history leading up to Paul Simon's "American Tune." Hem, hem. (Taps at microphone by the podium, adjusts notecards, and commences...) In the early 17th century, Hans Leo Hassler wrote a secular love song called "Mein Gmüt ist mir verwirret," which, according to my research thus far, roughly
By: Alkelda,
on 10/11/2007
Today's Song of the Week offering is a quick study, as I am focusing the majority of my creative attention on getting ready for Kidfest this Sunday. The good news for you, my dear Spinnerets, is that I will share the fruits of my labors in the form of more stories, songs and resources. Keep in mind that once I had a word-pool going by which a reader would submit a word in the comments section,
By: Alkelda,
on 10/3/2007
According to Rise Up Singing, in 1968, after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, people in many cities expressed their grief and outrage in riots. Frank Rizzo, the Philadelphia police chief at that time, declared that any assembly of three or more people was a "riot." This particular "riot" about which Arlo Guthrie sings occured in Rittenberg Square. I wish I could tell you that I
By: Alkelda,
on 9/26/2007
Since I just featured Nancy Stewart in yesterday's edition of Spinning Wheel, I thought it appropriate to feature one of Nancy's tunes for Song of the Week. I first heard a version of this song from my sister-in-law in 2001. She'd just had a baby eight months before and had learned "Dinosaurs in Cars" from the leader of her parent group. However, the song ended with one dinosaur and no resolution. My sister-in-law wondered where the song came from, and thought that perhaps it had been translated from another language. "It just stops in the middle and then goes on," she said.
A few years later, I bought Nancy's "Plant a Little Seed" cd and booklet set, which had the song my sister-in-law mentioned. Soon after, Nancy made it her song of the month, which you can listen to here and print out sheet music plus chords here. I sent it to my sister-in-law, who said, "No, this is not the song-- the tune was different." However, the words and music were indeed Nancy's compositions. Somewhere between Seattle, Washington, and Victoria, British Columbia, someone altered the tune and forgot the final verse.
Here are the lyrics:
There were five dinosaurs riding in cards
Havin a "wheely" good time
They said, "Step on the gas, we'll go really fast!"
And they did until one had a flat tire
Ca-chunk, ca-chunk, ca-chunk, ca-chunk
Whooosh---
And he said, "Go on without me!"
After counting down to one, the last dinosaur realizes that leaving his friends behind wasn't the only option after all. He fixes his car, picks up his friends, and they all go off having as much fun as before. However, now they are now a little bit the wiser for having figured out how to fix a flat tire. I am reminded of what Nancy told us in guitar clinic: Knowing how to change a tire on a car and a string on a guitar are two necessary life-skills.
Ahem. I have helped to change two flat-tires in my life, and one time I was the one holding the manual. As Bede lay on his back under the car, I said, "Now, the manual says to make sure you get the widget in the right place or the entire car will break into two parts."
If you need your guitar strings changed, I can definitely help you out with that project (and your guitar won't be at risk of breaking in half).
By: Alkelda,
on 9/19/2007
By: Alkelda,
on 9/12/2007
Today's installment of Song of the Week is a cover of The Safety Dance by The Donnas. The link is a streaming mp3. Give it a few moments to load. You can listen the original song by Men Without Hats (and see the video) right here. For a good while, the Men Without Hats version was one of Lucia's favorite songs. Whenever she heard it, she grinned and shot her arms up in the air. I would pick her up and bounce around the room. The song she liked almost as as much was Dragostea Tin Dei by O-Zone. These days, Lucia isn't as much into the synth-pop as she used to be. Yesterday, totally unprompted, she requested Lead Belly Sings for Children.
By: Alkelda,
on 9/5/2007
This edition of Song of the Week is dedicated to Cloudscome of A Wrung Sponge and Diana of St. Fiacre's Garden.
While I was practicing The Garden Song on the guitar, Lucia asked me, "What's the name of the song?"
"It's called 'The Garden Song,'" I replied.
"'The Garden Song' is called...?" she asked again.
"The person who wrote the song [David Mallett] decided to call it 'The Garden Song,'" I said. "That's the actual name of the song."
Have you ever tried to reason with a four-year-old?
Eventually, I found it easier just to switch songs.
I still enjoy playing "The Garden Song," though. It's been covered quite a bit, and I'm pretty sure you've heard at least one version of it:
Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
All it takes is a rake and a hoe
And a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by row
Someone bless these seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below
'Till the rain comes tumbling down.
The lines that resonate most with me are in the second part of the song:
Pullin' weeds and pickin' stones,
We are made of dreams and bones...
For those who want guitar chords, that don't involve the pesky F, I'm going to give you the ones Nancy Stewart wrote out for me, only I'm not going to pull my hair out by trying to format them correctly. If anyone out there has successfully posted chords on a blogger platform without pulling out their hair, please let me know. The pre-formatting tag is the best I've done in the past.
Here are the chords:
G C G
Am D G Em
Am D G Em
A7 D
G C G
Am D G Em
C D G Em A7 D G
You can find a MIDI file with the tune here.
Update: Thanks to Galetea of Blogapotamus Rex, I found a link to John Denver singing "The Garden Song" with some fruits, veggies and flowers on the Muppet Show. I hadn't found it previously because (get this) I didn't think to make "gardensong" one word.
If you want something less reverent and more on the silly side, here is The Anti-Garden Song by Eric Kilburn. It's the same tune, only now you're singing,
"Slug by slug, weed by weed,
My garden's got me really teed..."
By: Alkelda,
on 8/8/2007
In memory of my brother Bartholomew, May 11, 1979 August 8, 2003:
Changes, by Phil Ochs
Sit by my side, come as close as the air,
Share in a memory of gray;
And wander in my words, dream about the pictures
That I play of changes.
Green leaves of summer turn red in the fall
To brown and to yellow they fade
And then they have to die, trapped within
the circle time parade of changes.
Scenes of my young years were warm in my mind,
Visions of shadows that shine
'Til one day I returned and found they were the
Victims of the vines of changes.
The world's spinning madly, it drifts in the dark
Swings through a hollow of haze,
A race around the stars, a journey through
The universe ablaze with changes.
Moments of magic will glow in the night
All fears of the forest are gone
But when the morning breaks they're swept away by
Golden drops of dawn, of changes.
Passions will part to a strange melody
As fires will sometimes burn cold
Like petals in the wind, we're puppets to the silver
strings of souls, of changes.
Your tears will be trembling, now we're somewhere else,
One last cup of wine we will pour
And I'll kiss you one more time, and leave you on
the rolling river shores of changes.
Sit by my side, come as close as the air,
Share in a memory of gray;
And wander in my words, dream about the pictures
That I play of changes.
Chords to the song courtesy of Heartwood Guitar Instruction. My guitar teacher taught me substitutes for F sharp Minor and B minor chords. If you want to know what they are, email me. (Trust me, they're not that bad.)
Here is a video clip of Phil Ochs himself playing the song.
By: Alkelda,
on 8/1/2007
Everyone knows what a fan I am of the Sesame Street song Ladybugs' Picnic by Don Hadley and Bud Luckey with its dependable I,IV,V chord pattern plus the section of the song that is just asking for special sound-effects (knocking on the guitar during the part about "knock knock jokes"). The song I enjoy almost as much is Hadley's and Luckey's unabashedly vegetarian Ten Tiny Turtles:
A
One, two, three, four, five,
E
six, seven, eight, nine, ten
Ten tiny turtles on the telephone,
A
talking to the grocery man
"We would like some lettuce,
D
will you send us ten heads please,
A
And ten sweet potatoes, and ten rutabagas
E A
with the dimples on their knees.
By: Alkelda,
on 7/25/2007
Even if you don't know the words to today's Song of the Week, (and they range from innocuous to saucy, you probably know the tune to "Old Joe Clark." Listen to this version by the Rosinators....There, now don't you feel an itch to bring your banjo and fiddle out of the closet and throw a barn dance?
The history of the actual Old Joe Clark is that of a shiftless mountaineer with legions of enemies in the late 1800's:
Old Joe Clark, the preacher's son
Preached all over the plain
The only text he ever knew
Was high low jack and the game.
My "Old Joe Clark" is more of an elusive, well-off and slightly eccentric mountaineering guy. If you can actually make it to his house, he'll feed you well, but if you sleep over, forget about getting the comfortable bed. I haven't played "Old Joe Clark" as anything but a warm-up song for the patient early-comers, and have been using Hop Up Ladies as our circle dance. However, the plan is to have the children and grownups dance around in a circle for the chorus and move in and out of the center of the circle (holding hands) for the verses.
OLD JOE CLARK
G
Old Joe Clark, he had a house
D7
Eighteen stories high
G
Every story in that house
D7 G
Was filled with chicken pie.
G
Round and round, Old Joe Clark
D7
Round and round I say
G
Round and round, Old Joe Clark
D7 G
Ain't got long to stay.
Rainbows rock.
Aren't you the one who taught me about moonbows?
LSM: I might have! I've never actually seen one, I don't think. But I have seen double-rainbows a couple of times. One friend of mine saw a triple-rainbow, too. Very rare (or rather, rarely seen by humans).
I've seen double rainbows - they really rock. And moonbows, too.
lovely - I'll learn that one as a lullaby :)