Was it really a simpler time, way back when? As teenagers, Rich and I pined for those older women who seemed to embody the tidal pulse of desire. For me, it was the Delta song-spinner Bobbie Gentry, whose Ode to Billie Joe, a mystery delivered in honeyed, but troubling tones, captured the world's - and, my imagination; for Rich, it was the slinky seductress Joey Heatherton, who complicated his yearnings by aligning herself with Bob Hope on those USO tours during the Viet Nam war. ...

In the mood for some baseball? Of course you are; it’s still our national pastime, after all, despite the threat of encroachment by football, soccer, basketball, Nascar and Monster Trucks. And now that the innovation of the pitch clock has trimmed down the times of games, it’s a little more dynamic than it used to be back in those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summers past. This World Series has been a humdinger, breaking several records, but it ain't over yet - The series is tied at ...

Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is one of the best depictions of the creative process that I’ve ever seen, exploring where an artist’s ideas come from: those sources, personal and environmental that are processed via one’s family history, dreams, desires - and are then delivered through said artist’s private relationship with their tools - (in this case the Tascam Portastudio, Echoplex reverb unit, and a water-damaged boombox). I was thrilled by that examination, and by Bruce’s steadfast...

IT IS TIME TO WALK WITH THE ZOMBIES! ' WELCOME TO THE PORTAL NO ONE LEAVES ALIVE. HALLOWEEN IS UPON US, AND WHAT BETTER WAY TO CELEBRATE THIS TERRIFYING TRADITION THAN A "DIG THIS" JOURNEY INTO THE THE NIGHT OF THE VAMPIRE. YOU WILL BE TRANSPORTED AND EDUCATED WITH DELIGHTFUL DREAD AS WE VISIT THE TALE OF ROCK AND REAPER ICON ROKY ERICKSON, A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SPOOKY SPLENDOR OF HALLOWEEN AND THE MEMORY OF JOHN ZACHERLE, THE HEAD MASTER OF THE GHOUL SCHOOL OF OUR YOUTH. ENTER AT YOUR OWN R...

This nation’s troubled history with Manifest Destiny will continue to haunt us for some time. Throughout the decades some Native voices have emerged and contributed to the ongoing cultural conversation: most recently on the Broadway stage, on film, and television, and this awareness might move us towards some, if not restitution for atrocities past, at least a dialogue that might point the way towards the future. Today Double Trouble features the efforts of two important Americana artists, ne...

What is the fascination that we have with seductive avatars of oblivion? Carolyn Jones as Morticia Addams indoctrinated the adolescent me to the possibilities of the Succubus, and became my tween age, gothic sex symbol; the painting by Pre-Raphaeite John Millet: Ophelia (who floats beautifully in the river) hung on my dorm wall for years. Today, Double Trouble features a couple of ice queens who inspire detached sexual delirium, one contemporary, and one long gone, but still as ma...

At risk of seeming sexist, it must be noted that the two prodigies of the bass featured here are female, and perhaps that, in some sense, informs their approach to their artistry. Listening to BC by Tal Wilkenfeld, and Esparanza Spalding’s Vague Suspicions, one cannot help but appreciate both the technical precision, and the soulfulness of their musical expression. The bass rarely takes the lead in an ensemble - they are usually responsible for holding down the bottom with the dru...

DT: STRING THEORY / TELEVISION AND KALEIDOSCOPE The guitar as we know it has had an illustrious evolution, starting its journey in ancient Mesopotamia, then finding its earliest recognizable incarnation 5 centuries ago in Spain, and continuing to move through various cultures until blossoming into its electric manifestation in the modern era. It was the magic wand to the baby boom generation - suddenly, everybody had to have one to express themselves, along with a garage band with whom to pra...

DT: STAYING HYDRATED WITH MARTY ROBBINS AND REV. AL GREEN H2O - we can’t live without it. As the temperatures rise, physically and spiritually, you better keep plenty of the life giving elixir handy. The human body contains over 50% of the stuff, the earth- about 70 percent. It’s all around; within and without us. From the book of symbols: “River is vital fluidity: the rivers move through both the upper world and the lower world, over ground and underground, inside and outside: ri...

ANCHORS AWEIGH! This episode comes from diary entries written from March to August, 2018 - and, involve labyrinthian efforts to get my nephew into the Navy. My dreams were plentiful and disturbing, but nothing compared to the bureaucratic nightmares that lay before us. Enjoy!

The story of one of the sunniest and funniest personalities to emerge in the world of rock, the Turtles‘ Mark Volman, is being told in a book whose title is a play on the name of his biggest hit, “Happy Together”. However, unlike many memoirs, Volman’s own words comprise less than five percent of the text. Instead, this is a third-person oral history, much like Legs McNeil’s wonderful punk rock history opus from 2016, Please Kill Me. Mark Volman’s Happy Forever is told almost entirely b...

Long ago and far away, around 1970, there was a smoldering rage that permeated through every strata of American society. Following a flurry of assassinations in the mid sixties, the Manson murders in ‘69, riots in Detroit, the Motor City in ’67, and in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic Convention, at Kent State in ‘70 with the murder of four protesting students - it seemed that the whole fabric of society was coming apart due to the country being mired in the Viet Nam war and the never ending sp...

Joe HIllA songwriter, itinerant laborer, and union organizer, Joe Hill became famous around the world after a Utah court convicted him of murder. Even before the international campaign to have his conviction reversed, however, Joe Hill was well known in hobo jungles, on picket lines and at workers' rallies as the author of popular labor songs and as an Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) agitator. Thanks in large part to his songs and to his stirring, well-publicized call to his fellow work...

SUNNY SONGS: LOW YO YO STUFF by Captain Beefheart (WB, 1972) We do what we gotta do to survive. We’ve got to activate our low yo yo stuff. Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart knew that better than most. Frank Zappa’s high school buddy and inspiration blew in from the desert fully formed as a cubist blues man. He reordered our mitochondria by breaking the order of music apart, and lyrically accessing a deeper realm of abstraction. But, this was always done with tongue in cheek, slightly, or a...

Today we feature two black female vocalists, born 66 years apart, both renown for their independent spirit, singing songs about trying to make love work - despite clear signs to the contrary. As artists, they’ve both shunned the spotlight, maintaining the mystery of their magic: Sippie Wallace quit show business for 30 years, preferring to express herself through her church organ, and LGBTQ icon Tracy Chapman staunchly separates her private life from her public one. Si...

Gossip, Tittle Tattle, rumors, hearsay, dishing the dirt, idle talk, back stabbing…. It’s not one of the seven deadly sins, but maybe it should be. How many friendships, how many marriages, and how many jobs have been lost through spiteful blather? In this episode of Double Trouble Howlin’ Wolf and Gene Pitney testify to the adverse effects of pitiless small town talk. Mind your own business, “they” say; “discretion is the better part of valor,”, “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw ...

In the summer of 2019, in the halcyon days before the Pandemic, Chemayne and I got to share a 25th anniversary celebration experience that we had put off for 5 years: an Alaskan cruise. A year and a half later, the world was in chaos and Chemayne was gone, but these images and moments, preserved in the diary, live on. Let's go north to Alaska together, accompanied by some amusingly connected travel dreams.

APOCALYPSE NOW! JACKSON BROWNE AND CHUMBAWAMBA Have T***p derangement syndrome? Don’t worry; be happy! Go with the flow. Things can always get worse, right? The dual apocalyptic visions featured today may derive from decades past, when anxiety within the zeitgeist was running hot, but they look positively edenic in retrospect. “All Things Must Pass,” as George Harrison prophetically wrote, and if that includes our entire civilization, we best make our peace with it. No bomb shelter can ...

IT’S A CHOICE TO BE HAPPY (Music and lyrics by Bill Mesnik) What makes me happy? Cause when I feel happy I feel like shit I can’t define it I thought I was happy But was I really happy? I don’t know I just can’t show it Each soggy birthday cake makes me quiver and quake A jog around the lake? I can’t fake it. What makes you happy? Cause you always seem happy Are you free from pain? Oh please explain it You say, “just be happy, It’s a choice to be happy,” It starts with me I just d...

ONE IF BY LAND, TWO IF BY SEA PAUL REVERE AND THE RAIDERS GREATEST HITS by Paul Revere and the Raiders (Columbia, 1967) This group, this record: they were fundamental elements in the experience of the 13 year old Captain Billy. My band, The Full House, played a smokin’ cover of “Steppin’ Out”; Dick Clark’s WHERE THE ACTION IS tv show was a can’t miss, daily after-middle school check in; I coveted those Vox amps and Mark Lindsay’s ponytail. And, re-listening to this setlist 56 years later veri...