{"id":2170,"date":"2016-11-05T07:00:45","date_gmt":"2016-11-05T11:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?p=2170"},"modified":"2024-01-01T13:59:07","modified_gmt":"2024-01-01T18:59:07","slug":"long-as-its-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/","title":{"rendered":"Long as It&#8217;s Green (George Gritzbach)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GEmehz9iZTA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve rarely found songs that give equal play to my political and musical tastes, so I was thrilled to hear this one from George Gritzbach. I spent a weekend opening for George at the Caffe <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2171 size-full alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Gritzbach-lp.jpg?resize=300%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Gritzbach-lp.jpg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Gritzbach-lp.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Lena in 1982 or thereabouts, and when I played Leon Rosselson&#8217;s &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/we-sell-everything\/\">We Sell Everything<\/a>,&#8221; he countered with this one off his <em>Sweeper<\/em> album. It was a similar piece of writing, a wittily worded satire of capitalist marketing and conspicuous consumption &#8212; except that it was cast in a blues framework. Aside from Mose Allison, I hadn&#8217;t heard any contemporary artists use blues to comment on political conditions, so I took to it immediately.<\/p>\n<p>I took to George as well. He was a tall, solid, handsome guy who wrote well, played well, talked well, ate well, and drank well, and we hit it off because both of us were similarly cranky about the state of <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2578 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/ew-and-gritz-at-caffe-lena-poster.jpg?resize=211%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/ew-and-gritz-at-caffe-lena-poster.jpg?resize=211%2C300&amp;ssl=1 211w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/ew-and-gritz-at-caffe-lena-poster.jpg?w=300&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 211px) 100vw, 211px\" \/>the folk scene, which was increasingly dominated by singer-songwriters &#8212; which is to say, generally sub-par poetry readings with guitar accompaniment. Gritz was a solid ragtime-blues guitarist, knew his Gary Davis backwards and forwards, but was also a smart writer who didn&#8217;t want to be known as just another blues revivalist. He was feeling inspired by what Waylon and Willie had done in Austin, and wanted to start an &#8220;outlaw folk&#8221; movement, and he seemed to think I might fit in as a kindred spirit. I was more than happy to go along with that, and he tried to get me booked on a bill with him at the Iron Horse in Northampton, which didn&#8217;t work out, then got me a gig opening for Odetta at the First Encounter, his home base on Cape Cod, which was a pleasure.<\/p>\n<p>Along the way I learned a couple more of his songs &#8212; &#8220;The Sweeper and the Debutante,&#8221; a shaggy dog story complete with shaggy dog, and &#8220;American Car,&#8221; which I still think could have been a hit if he&#8217;d done <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2173 size-full alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Gritzbach.jpg?resize=211%2C218&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"gritzbach\" width=\"211\" height=\"218\" \/>it with an electric band, or gotten it into the hands of someone with connections. It was a wryly patriotic rock &#8216;n&#8217; roller, with the catchy tag line, &#8220;Got to go fast, not far &#8212; need an American car.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That came out on Gritz&#8217;s next album, <em>All American Song<\/em>, but with acoustic backing that didn&#8217;t do it justice. I sang it for a while, along with yet another topical offering, &#8220;Off the Wall Street Blues,&#8221; which started, &#8220;Wall Street fell again today &#8212; look out below!&#8221; Then I lost track of him. He was still on the Cape, as far as I could figure out, but there were problems of one kind and another, and my attempts to reconnect hit some dead ends, and that was that.<\/p>\n<p>Thirty-some years later, I still play this song and still recall George with affection and admiration. I just looked up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GeorgeGritzbachBand\/\">his fan page<\/a> on the internet, and he seems to be going strong, fronting an electric rhythm &amp; blues band and working regularly on the Cape. I wonder if he still does this one&#8230; it sure hasn&#8217;t lost any of its timeliness.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve rarely found songs that give equal play to my political and musical tastes, so I was thrilled to hear this one from George Gritzbach. I spent a weekend opening for George at the Caffe Lena in 1982 or thereabouts, and when I played Leon Rosselson&#8217;s &#8220;We Sell Everything,&#8221; he countered with this one off &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Long as It&#8217;s Green (George Gritzbach)<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Long as It&#039;s Green (George Gritzbach) - Old Friends: A Songobiography<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Long as It&#039;s Green (George Gritzbach) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#8217;ve rarely found songs that give equal play to my political and musical tastes, so I was thrilled to hear this one from George Gritzbach. I spent a weekend opening for George at the Caffe Lena in 1982 or thereabouts, and when I played Leon Rosselson&#8217;s &#8220;We Sell Everything,&#8221; he countered with this one off &hellip; Continue reading Long as It&#8217;s Green (George Gritzbach) &rarr;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-05T11:00:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-01T18:59:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Gritzbach-lp.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ElijahWald\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elijah Wald\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/long-as-its-green\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/long-as-its-green\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"headline\":\"Long as It&#8217;s Green (George Gritzbach)\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-05T11:00:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-01T18:59:07+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/long-as-its-green\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":533,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/long-as-its-green\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/Gritzbach-lp.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/long-as-its-green\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/long-as-its-green\\\/\",\"name\":\"Long as It's Green (George Gritzbach) - Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/long-as-its-green\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/long-as-its-green\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/Gritzbach-lp.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-05T11:00:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-01T18:59:07+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/long-as-its-green\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/long-as-its-green\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/long-as-its-green\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/Gritzbach-lp.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i0.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/10\\\/Gritzbach-lp.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1\",\"width\":300,\"height\":300},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/long-as-its-green\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Long as It&#8217;s Green (George Gritzbach)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Old Friends: A Songobiography\",\"description\":\"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9\",\"name\":\"Elijah Wald\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\",\"width\":70,\"height\":85,\"caption\":\"Elijah Wald\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i1.wp.com\\\/www.elijahwald.com\\\/songblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/12\\\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Long as It's Green (George Gritzbach) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Long as It's Green (George Gritzbach) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","og_description":"I&#8217;ve rarely found songs that give equal play to my political and musical tastes, so I was thrilled to hear this one from George Gritzbach. I spent a weekend opening for George at the Caffe Lena in 1982 or thereabouts, and when I played Leon Rosselson&#8217;s &#8220;We Sell Everything,&#8221; he countered with this one off &hellip; Continue reading Long as It&#8217;s Green (George Gritzbach) &rarr;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/","og_site_name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","article_published_time":"2016-11-05T11:00:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-01-01T18:59:07+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Gritzbach-lp.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Elijah Wald","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ElijahWald","twitter_site":"@ElijahWald","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elijah Wald","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/"},"author":{"name":"Elijah Wald","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"headline":"Long as It&#8217;s Green (George Gritzbach)","datePublished":"2016-11-05T11:00:45+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-01T18:59:07+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/"},"wordCount":533,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Gritzbach-lp.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/","name":"Long as It's Green (George Gritzbach) - Old Friends: A Songobiography","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Gritzbach-lp.jpg","datePublished":"2016-11-05T11:00:45+00:00","dateModified":"2024-01-01T18:59:07+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Gritzbach-lp.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Gritzbach-lp.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1","width":300,"height":300},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/long-as-its-green\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Long as It&#8217;s Green (George Gritzbach)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/","name":"Old Friends: A Songobiography","description":"Revisiting the songs that have made a home in my head","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/#\/schema\/person\/20e4f69f2f284ea0ff728a9d1b7720a9","name":"Elijah Wald","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1","width":70,"height":85,"caption":"Elijah Wald"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/elijahbut.jpg?fit=70%2C85&ssl=1"}}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1347,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/friend-of-mine\/","url_meta":{"origin":2170,"position":0},"title":"He Was a Friend of Mine (Dave Van Ronk &#038;co)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"June 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"This was one of the first songs I ever heard from Dave Van Ronk, and remained a staple of his repertoire throughout his career. When he recorded it in 1963 he credited it to Bob Dylan, but in later years would say, \"I learned this from Bob Dylan, who learned\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"von schmidt - cahn","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/von-schmidt-cahn.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2033,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/bidin-my-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":2170,"position":1},"title":"Bidin&#8217; My Time (John Miller&#8217;s influence)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"September 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm pretty sure it was the late fall of 1979 that Dave Van Ronk played Passim Coffeehouse with a younger guitarist named John Miller as the opening act. Dave knew John already, and I had seen John's two albums on the Blue Goose label, though I hadn't heard them. Both\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"john miller lp","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/john-miller-lp.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1364,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/send-lectric-chair\/","url_meta":{"origin":2170,"position":2},"title":"Send Me to the \u2019Lectric Chair (Bessie Smith)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"June 17, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Among the records I assembled during my year in New York, combing the second-hand bins at Dayton's, were all five volumes of Bessie Smith's complete recordings, with their comprehensive notes by Chris Albertson. That set was an oddity of the LP era: the records were issued with the notion that\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"bessie smith lp2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/bessie-smith-lp2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1579,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/lonesome-7-7203\/","url_meta":{"origin":2170,"position":3},"title":"Lonesome 7-7203 (resisting and singing country)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 9, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Growing up where I grew up, when I grew up, I had no understanding or appreciation for country and western music. That may seem strange to a lot of younger music fans, who think of Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard as \"Americana,\" along with the Carter Family, and bluegrass, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"18 king-size country hits","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/18-king-size-country-hits.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2983,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/gimme-ride-heaven-boy\/","url_meta":{"origin":2170,"position":4},"title":"Gimme A Ride To Heaven, Boy (Terry Allen)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"August 4, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"When I was writing for the Boston Globe I would sometimes drop by Rounder Records to see what was new, and one afternoon I stopped by George Thomas's desk and he handed me Bloodlines by Terry Allen and the Panhandle Mystery Band. I'd never heard of Allen, and\u00a0 George was\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Bloodlines-LP.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1824,"url":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/bad-dream-blues\/","url_meta":{"origin":2170,"position":5},"title":"Bad Dream Blues (Dave Van Ronk)","author":"Elijah Wald","date":"July 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Though Dave Van Ronk was not principally known as a songwriter, he wrote some damn good songs. But before he got into songwriting in more ambitious ways, he recorded a handful of blues songs for which he took author credit. He didn't consider these fully original compositions, since they had\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"blues project","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/blues-project-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2170"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4898,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2170\/revisions\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elijahwald.com\/songblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}