CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous long weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — a new museum has opened in western North Carolina — the American Museum of the House Cat combines artwork (modern art, folk art, rare advertising art, vintage and antique toy cats, et al) along with a no-kill shelter.
Now open in western North CarolinaCONGRATULATIONS to the former health minister of Ethiopia, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus— who has been elected as the first African-born director general of the World Health Organization (WHO).
HAIL and FAREWELL to the jazz drummer Mickey Roker— a longtime member of Dizzy Gillespie’s band and a stalwart of the Philadelphia jazz scene in his later years — who has died at the age of 84.
THURSDAY's CHILD is one of the growing number of office cats in Tokyo — who help alleviate stress among office employees.
Tokyo office kittehSPORTING NOTES — for those who have a slight interest in European professional soccer (but have no time for weekly matches) — this coming Saturday (June 3rd) is the final of the Champions League— also a season-long tournament — to determine the European professional championship. It features Juventus (of Turin, Italy) vs. Real Madrid, Spain to be played in Cardiff, Wales … and begins at 2:45 PM Eastern (11:45 AM Pacific) — on free TV (the same Fox broadcast channel that you watch NFL games on).
FRIDAY's CHILDREN are named Sophie and Scottie the Cats— two next-door neighbor Massachusetts kittehs who have slowly developed a relationship … fully documented on Instagram.
Sophie & Scottie the CatsTHE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at historical “What If?” situations …. and four 20th Century examples: Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Fidel Castro, George W. Bush and Roger Ailes …. and a different path in life each of them had the chance to pursue (but did not).
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
MOTHER-DAUGHTER? — the late White House news correspondent Helen Thomas and Tony Award winner Patti LuPone— now starring as Helena Rubinstein in War Paint (the new Broadway hit).
Helen Thomas (1920-2013) Patti LuPone (born 1949)......and finally, for a song of the week ............... rather than focus on a specific performer, this week I'd like to focus on two old songs with an uncertain provenance: Wayfaring Stranger and O Shenandoah - both of which have numerous performers who have recorded them, which is unsurprising since both date back to the 1800's.
The history of Wayfaring Stranger - such as it is known - is a spiritual about a plaintive soul on the journey through life. It became widely popular due to the efforts of Charles Tillman - a Southern gospel pioneer - who published lyrics combined from two sources and combined that with the minor key tune of various African American and Appalachian nuance.
It became one of Burl Ives's signature songs and has been recorded by the likes of Bill Monroe, Tim Buckley, Eva Cassidy, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez, Jerry Garcia, Duane Eddy ... and this version by Johnny Cash.
I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger Traveling thru this world below There’s no sickness, no toil, no danger In that bright land to which I goI know dark clouds will gather round me, I know my way is hard and steep But beauteous fields arise before me Where Gods redeemed their vigils keep
I'm going there to see my Father And all my loved ones who've gone old I'm just going over Jordan I'm just going over home
x xYouTube VideoO Shenandoah has an even more unclear origin, but appears to have come into vogue at the time of the Civil War.
American folklorist Alan Lomax suggested that "Shenandoah" was a sea-shanty and that the 'composers' quite possibly were French-Canadian voyageurs. Sea shanties were work songs used by sailors to coordinate the efforts of completing chores such as raising the ship’s anchor or hauling ropes.
Some believe that the song refers to the river of the same name. Others suggest that it is of Native American origin: for it tells the tale of Sally (the daughter of the Indian Chief Shenandoah) who is courted for seven years by a white Missouri River trader. Still other interpretations tell of a pioneer's nostalgia for the Shenandoah River Valley in Virginia, or of a Confederate soldier in the American Civil War, dreaming of his country home in Virginia.
Twenty years ago, the Virginia legislature rejected making the tune its official state song - to replace "Carry Me Back to Old Virginia" due to its slave-era lyrics — because some thought it spoke of a time when people were migrating out-of-state, while others felt it focused on the Missouri River aspect.
Either way: it has been recorded by the likes of Paul Robeson, Thin Lizzy, Bob Dylan, Bing Crosby, Leontyne Price, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger, Van Morrison, Judy Garland, Glen Campbell, Harry Belafonte, Sergio Franchi ...... if there's a pattern there, I fail to discern it.
One version I like is by the late avant-garde jazz bassist Charlie Haden - a veteran of Ornette Coleman's free-jazz band and who was detained by the authorities in Lisbon in the early 1970's for playing the instrumental Song for Ché to the rebels fighting the Portuguese military dictatorship (in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau) publicly on-stage.
But in 2008 he recorded a bluegrass album called Rambling Boy - with his four musical children assisting - which brought him full-circle to the music his family had played growing up. He had contracted a mild case of bulbar polio in his teens, which affected his vocal chords and ended his singing career. But to conclude this album, he decided to sing one song as a labor-of-love, and which served as his final recording.
And given that Charlie Haden was born in Shenandoah, Iowa and had grown-up in Missouri - he decided to record a version of "O Shenandoah" with the guitarist Pat Metheny - who is a native of Missouri himself.
Below, you can hear their version.
O Shenandoah, I long to see you Away you rolling river Oh Shenandoah, I long to see you Away, I'm bound away Across the wide MissouriIt’s been seven years since last I've seen you And hear your rolling river It’s been seven years since last I've seen you Away, we're bound away Across the wide Missouri
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