Death and Opera

Death and Opera

By John Hawkins

 

Someone is going to die.

The question the chorus asks first

always is "Chi morirĂ ?"

 

This is no place for small emotions,

no room for tepid gestures or timid steps.

 

We must love deeply now,

laugh loudly,

gasp in shock and horror

so that the emotion

cannot be mistaken.

 

And when the time comes

when someone must die,

let it be done extravagantly,

with an orchestra,

and let it be well sung.

 

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John Prine in Concert - February 20, 2010

I saw John Prine on Saturday night at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank. It was awesome!

He played acoustic guitar with a backup band consisting of an electric guitarist (sometimes mandolin) and bass player (sometimes electric, sometimes double bass plucked or bowed). The band played the beginning and end of the set, with a solo acoustic stretch in the middle. For the encore, he was joined by Sara Watkins on fiddle and vocals (she was the opening act for the show). Sara's set was about an hour, and John's about two.

The concert included music from throughout his career, and a few terrific stories as well. One story was about his first gig, Thursday nights in a club in Illinois (Steve Goodman's?). SInce the same people were showing up every night, he thought he needed some new material, and wrote a song in the car on the way to the show. His guitar was in the trunk and when he arrived he realized he had written a song that probably included chords he didn't know how to play. So he ran inside, started working through the song, and realized it used the same three chords all of his other songs used! (That song was "Souvenirs".) At another point, he mentioned that since he only knew three chords, he'd be sunk without a capo.  The point was reinforced when he played the intro to what I thought was "Clocks and Spoons" and then proceeded to sing an entirely different song to that arrangement.

Three chords or more, it all sounded great. He did a lot of spare, haunting ballads as well as driving, up-tempo numbers, and was happy to play songs that the crowd shouted for. Even some of the more sentimental numbers that aren't my favorites came across with total authority and conviction; I like those better now than I did before. Same with the ones I hadn't listened to as much, though I knew pretty much everything he sang.  So did the rest of the crowd, who sang along to a greater or lesser degree with about 70% of the songs, and knew all the words too. Although that might sound annoying, it wasn't. Instead it just made sense. (I tried to stick to a little light harmony on the choruses.)

"Angel from Montgomery" accompanied by slide guitar and a beautiful bass line was amazing. So was the encore of "Late John Garfield Blues" with John and Sara alternating verses. They also did a terrific job with "In Spite of Ourselves".  

Sara was formerly with Nickel Creek, and was a pleasure to hear. She played solo for her entire set, which included nice versions of "Different Drum" (Nesmith) and "Feelin' Good Again" (Keen), along with a fair number of original compositions for guitar and fiddle. .

Highlights of John's set were too many to mention. "Lake Marie", "Sam Stone", "Paradise", "Hello in There" were all songs that the crowd requested. Really, everything he sang was great. After a two hour set, one of the things that really struck me was thinking of all the great songs he's written that he didn't sing!

John Prine is an amazing songwriter with an unbelievable body of work. If you've never seen him, you should.

john hawkins

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Wade On, Dr. Mason

(download)

Wade On, Doctor Mason

by John Hawkins (with the choir of the First Missionary Baptist Church of Biloxi)

 

Am

The water in Biloxi is not too deep,
                G                                       Am
You can walk to the channel, barely wet your feet.
But if we all want to go for a swim,
                       G                                    Am
We ought to thank Doctor Mason for what he did.

 

Chorus

Am
Wade in the water, Doctor Mason.
Em                G                   Am
Wade in the water, Doctor Mason.
Wade in the water, Doctor Mason.
G                                    Am
We’re not going to stay dry.

 

In Biloxi Beach, 1959,
The color of your skin had to match the sand.
But Doctor Mason did not give in,
He went down to the beach and he waded on in.

 

Chorus

 

The police and the Ku Klux Klan,
They did not appreciate the Doctor’s stand.
The police took him down to City Hall,
But they couldn’t find a book with Jim Crow’s law.

 

Chorus

 

Then the people came from miles around,
They waded in the water of the Mississippi Sound.
The police watched while the Klan got rough,
But Dr. Mason’s people, they did not stop.

 

Chorus

 

So Dr. Mason called upon the law
To open up the beach for everyone.
It took eight years, but the courts did agree
That the beaches in Biloxi must be free!

 

Chorus

For Gilbert Mason, Jr., in memory of his father                                                           

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Backstreets of New Orleans

(download)

The Backstreets of New Orleans

by John Hawkins (arranged and played by Paul Caluori)

 

E

Bourbon Street is buzzin'

and the music's spillin' out

           A

like a big old muddy river

                B7

with the tourists all about.

                  E

But the backstreets of New Orleans

are lonesome as the dawn

         A

with too many houses empty

       B7                        E

and too many people gone.

 

Chorus

A                                        E

In the backstreets of New Orleans

         A                       E

they do the best they can,

spendin' all their savings

             B7

and the labor of their hands.

       E

Not waitin' for the promised help

                                     A7

that's comin' much too slow,

    B7

to build again a city

             A7                       E

like the one they used to know.

 

The levees they have been rebuilt,

but who knows if they'll hold

when the next hard wind comes blowin'

from the Gulf of Mexico.

It takes a lot of faith to build

what's done been washed away,

and a lot of hope to come back home

and face another day.

 

Chorus

 

So play a dirge for loved ones

who won't be comin' home,

play for the ones who left town

some other place to roam.

But for the ones still fightin'

play a hot and joyful song,

and put on a pot of gumbo

to help and keep 'em strong.

 

Chorus

to build again a city

like the one they used to know.

 

 

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