Writings from the Dirt Road

I’ve been really struggling to figure out what to talk about on this poor blog. I don’t really want to post about how frustrating work is or how difficult it is to raise twin toddlers. I get tired of reading people’s complaints online so I don’t want to be just another complaining over-worked parent. Whatever the case, work and child-raising are the bulk of my life right now, so that doesn’t leave much else to talk about.

So… it’s time to force myself to post other stuff by going with a new theme for a while. About this time of year, when I’m really over winter, I spend a lot of time thinking about summer. When I think of summer, I start thinking about Cornerstone Festival. Even in years when I’m not going, I follow along with my friends via e-mail, twitter, and photos and experience the buildup and the festival with them. I’m hopeful about attending again this year and it’s still more than three months away, but the excitement is starting ignite, like a tiny spark at the bottom of a pyre.

In the buildup and anticipation, I’ve decided to post every couple of days some of my favorite videos from Cornerstones past on youtube here and talk about them a little bit. One of the great things about Cornerstone is the laissez-faire attitude the festival takes towards audio and video recording. (Um, festival organizer friends, let’s pretend you didn’t see that last sentence. Okay? Okay.) Record labels may not like it, but what it means is that Cornerstone is one of the best documented Christian festivals out there, with plenty of material out on the Internet. I did some extensive searching and I’ve narrowed it down to 35 (yes 35!) videos. I’ll be posting them in chronological order from the first festival in 1984 up to last year’s festival every couple of days from next week up to the week before the festival. Please note, these aren’t all the *best* performances at Cornerstone. Some of those are sadly, not documented, or not online. These also are not the best quality videos. Some are barely listenable, barely visible recordings done with amateur equipment, but I hope they catch the energy of the performance. Some of the shows I was at, many I was not at. I’ll discuss a little bit of context around the video and I’d love to have some discussion about the bands and performances in the comments.

I hope you all enjoy this as much as I did selecting the videos and hopefully they will all embed with no problems and such.

Now that I am old, 7:00 sounds like a perfectly reasonable time for a concert. Getting home by 10:00 PM sounds even better. I don’t know when I turned into an old man, but here we are. Aging was on the mind of Karin Bergquist and Linford Detweiler, too. The two artists, accompanied by Jake Bradley and Kenny Hutson on a bevy of guitars, slide guitar, mandolin, and upright bass brought out new songs for the crowd at Eddie’s Attic. At least two of the songs, if not more, focus on the inevitable march of time.

The new songs are so new they haven’t even really been formally recorded yet. One was still pre-lyrics as Karin just wordlessly rang out the notes. Their parents were on their minds as Linford mused about the death of his father and how a man’s perspective changes when he buries his father. His thoughts coalesced into a song with lyrics about how their love should be like Johnny and June Carter Cash and “Who Will Bury Who.” Karin also had a song about her mother who currently resides in assisted living after a stroke and about how the whole place is a “collision of comedy and tragedy” in her song “Only God Can Save Us Now.”

The night wasn’t all maudlin, though. Linford was amused by a woman who requested a song “about a satellite.” He couldn’t immediately figure out what song she was talking about, but quickly realized she meant “I Radio Heaven.” He proceeded to entertain us with a spoken word version of the song. Karin introduced us to two new songs both tangentially related to her dogs. There was some fun pickin’ and grinnin’ as Jake Bradley led the band in a rousing version of “You Don’t Know My Mind.”

The band also put a couple changes are what are now old standards. Karin’s song “Ohio” was given some musical depth with Linford on bass and Jake on guitar. I always associate “Who Am I Kidding?” with Mickey Grimm and his frantic drum solo, but with his absence Kenny explored the song a little more on guitar. “Professional Daydreamer” was also given a nice full-band treatment.

There aren’t many bands out there brave enough to try out new material on their audiences before it’s been polished to a sheen and put out on CD, but part of the fun of following Over the Rhine is following the development of their music and how some songs start out as one idea, but in a couple of years end up sounding totally different. At this stage, it appears that Karin and Linford are at only the beginning of another song writing cycle and we are in for another chapter in the story of Over the Rhine.

Set list (* – new songs are guesses on my part.)
I Want You To Be My Love
Etc. Whatever
Trouble
I’m On A Roll
C’mon Boy *
Who Will Bury Who *
Only God Can Save Us Now *
Who Am I Kidding
Ohio
Professional Daydreamer
What a Waste *
Trumpet Child
-Q & A- (I Radio Heaven by Linford)
Soon (no words) *
All I Need Is Everything
—
No Kill Shelter *
You Don’t Know My Mind (Jimmy Martin cover)

In the morning when you finally go
And the nurse runs in with her head hung low
And the cardinal hits the window

In the morning in the winter shade
On the first of March, on the holiday
I thought I saw you breathing

Dear cardinal,

We’re sorry you’ve already migrated back here. We thought it would be spring here by now, too. Please be patient. Maybe in a couple weeks it won’t be so dreary around here.

Signed,

Eagerly awaiting spring in Atlanta.

…you just have to know your wife.

I think she liked them.

I haven’t blogged lately because, quite frankly, I haven’t done anything interesting lately. I’m looking back on January and I don’t really recall anything very memorable. That seems to be the way it goes, though. After a busy and frantic December with holidays and all with the cold weather it seems like I became just as frozen as the grass outside of my house. It’s a month that fills well into the malaise I’ve been in lately.

That doesn’t mean the month has been all bad. I wish I had the discipline of some of my friends that blog a list of good things that happened every day in a month. I look back on a month and I can’t remember that much. There were bits and pieces here and there though. We’ve been taking the girls out a lot, just to fight off cabin fever in the house, and they’ve been very good for us. Thus far, we’ve avoided having to leave a shopping center or resturaunt early because one of them is throwing a temper tantrum, but I’m sure it’s bound to happen eventually. (Maybe it helps that they LOVE shopping, just like their mom.) I’m starting to finally get back to exercising and running and someday I’ll be brave enough to brave the weather and run outside again. We’ve been in the slow process of getting the house back into decent shape after all of the clutter from Christmas and we’re slowly regaining ground. As for work, well, we’ll just talk about good things here.

It’s been a month of hibernation, a rest for the upcoming year. I’m hoping for more to happen, more memories, more fun with the girls. The year is still young yet.