Clinton, South Carolina, December 4, 2020, 11:17 a.m. Java Cafe, Mt. Holly, NC, 2009. One never knows how an audience will respond. When I played music and told jokes at last night’s Christmas gathering of the Laurens County Cattlemen’s Association, I worried that I was overrehearsed. I spent so much time considering songs to play, …
Tag: songwriting
Satire at Sunset
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, April 18, 2020, 8:37 a.m. Back when I traveled most of the country, writing about race cars that went ’round and ’round and the mostly white men who drove them, my favorite device was not a shock absorber but its literary equivalent, satire. Once -- it was in Dover, Delaware, I …
Monday Morning Coming Down
Clinton, South Carolina, Monday, October 21, 2019, 12:57 p.m. Let’s just say I’ve been in a pensive mood since I got home from Greenville Saturday. It was windy and rainy enough at Furman for me to feel cold all night, and the football game was even colder. By this morning, I was down to one …
Another Ken Burns Masterpiece
Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, October 1, 1:10 p.m. I had to write about Ken Burns’ Country Music series of documentaries, which ran their course last week. I just haven’t had the time until now. I love them all, but Country Music is right down Broadway, the one in Nashville where I have spent many hours. …
Adventures with Freddy, Part 2
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, July 31, 2019, 12:15 a.m. When last we checked in on Freddy Frost, he and “Horace” were becoming well acquainted. As in the words of Johnny Cash, by way of Shel Silverstein, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July, and before continuing on to Nashville, after a day of writing in collaboration with …
Suddenly a Song
Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, July 2, 2019, 11:20 a.m. For about a month now, I’ve thought that next year, when I vote for the first time, it will also be the first time I walk into a poll unsure of my choice. The more I think about, this is natural. It’s likely that if I …
Pick My Fiction Up on Your Way Down
Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, May 7, 2019, 12:23 p.m. It would probably be easier to write a song. A song can be quick and clever. A blog requires a bit more wisdom. It has to be more than clever. It’s not as complicated, but there’s more heft in its thoughts. Not that I’m an expert …
One More Year in Review
Clinton, South Carolina, Monday, December 24, 2018, 1:31 p.m. I’ve been working on stories about the year in review, so I guess I might as well take up the subject of my own. Milestones come at intervals by definition, I suppose, but they’re not necessarily significant just because they end with a “0” or a …
Words and Lyrics and Titles and Tunes
Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, August 26, 2018, 2:42 p.m. I listened to a Johnny Cash song that had slipped my mind. “See Ruby Fall.” I feel I know exactly how Cash wrote it. He was in his tour bus, heading through the country, probably in the mountains of the Appalachian chain, and he saw an …
The Fog of Doom Descends
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, January 12, 2018, 10:37 a.m. I have started to confront the possibility that the world has passed me by. I am losing touch. When I write about high-school sports, it makes perfectly good sense that I don’t understand the kids. Their music. Their clothes. Their tastes. Hell, I remember when the …
Nightrider's Lament 