3 Chords & the Truth: Recent Episodes
The_Mighty_Favog
I'M THE MIGHTY FAVOG, and welcome to Revolution 21 . . . and its freeform show, 3 CHORDS & THE TRUTH. 3 Chords & the Truth is good music and a good time. 3C&T shares the Revolution 21 empire with Revolution 21's Blog for the People, which -- like the show -- is a mixture of t. . . EVERYTHING. The serious and the foolish. Rock . . . and roll. And blues in the night.
We live in a country -- hell, a world -- of limited horizons.
Cynical people more accustomed to sitting in the front row of class, of sucking up to teacher and all the "right" people, make their money by foisting the mediocre off on those who sat in the back of class, more interested in spitballs than scholarship.
That assessment may strike you as cynical as all get out. You may be right. But I would argue there's more truth in it than any of us are comfortable with.
IF YOU DON'T believe me, turn on the radio. Hell, follow country music today.
Five words: "Try That in a Small Town."
3 Chords & the Truth ain't about that. Thus, our putting out a little Big Show from the cramped confines of a culture-war bunker, somewhere behind America's Ironic Curtain somewhere in Flyover Country.
But did you ever consider that the leavening in what's left of our culture just might be the work of the unknown and unheralded -- the presence of extraordinary anonymity in our midst? That's a big part of the program this week.
Extraordinary talent doesn't always, or even usually, lead to fame and fortune in our society. When you zoom out for a wide-angle look at things, extraordinary talent probably more often leads to a lifetime of being overlooked. Remaining relatively unknown . . . or completely unknown.
Consider the Unknown Dorm Singer, circa 1967. At the University of California, Santa Cruz during the fall following the Summer of Love, we had a guitar-toting hippie hitchhiker in need of a place to crash, a freshman-dormitory room, a young man with a decent tape recorder . . . and magic.
TO THIS DAY, no one can figure out who was that girl. So, for now, we have no choice but to let the mystery be.
But that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the music -- the magic -- 56 years hence. On 3 Chords & the Truth, we will.
Today, that isn't something likely to be tried in a small town. So they say.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
You know the old saying, "When you have nothing in particular to say, just shut up and play the music"?
You don't?
Well, you do now. See, there's a reason you listen to 3 Chords & the Truth.
Maybe it's because I'm preoccupied with taking a week off next week. Mrs. Favog and myself are celebrating our 40th anniversary (Yes. I am old. She, however, has not aged a day.), and we plan to revel in goofing off and doing fun stuff. For a whole week.
Listen, would you want to be stuck with me non-stop for four decades? The woman has earned at least a week of goofing off and doing fun stuff. At least.
So, I'm talking about pretty much nothing, and I'm letting the music do all the heavy lifting. (As if that weren't the case already.)
It's gonna be great.
Naturally, the lack of things to say extends to describing the episode of the Big Show where I have nothing much of importance to say. So . . . so . . . so . . . so. . . .
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
You have to admit there's one thing about American life that's easier today. It's easier to be a depressive.
That, I think, is a sane reaction to . . . American life today. And all you have to do to get there is pay attention.
But that's not healthy, you might say. You likely are correct. But tell me this: How healthy is it to check out from the world around you, to no longer pay attention, to live in a world faux-sanitized for your peace of mind?
Does balance exist? Where might it be?
These are the questions confronting every episode of 3 Chords & the Truth. And to tell you the truth, they're not easy questions, and it's not easy to do a music program that aims neither to ignore our reality today nor to wallow in it with no respite in sight.
Personally, I think the root cause of this country's social and political brokenness is some sort of American civilizational collapse. Try "keeping it real" amid a nationwide nervous breakdown while also trying to be somewhat entertaining.
"Keeping it real" could make you a total depressive. Being tight and bright might tend toward delusion, with a certain head-in-the-sand je ne sais quoi. If you live on this side of America's Ironic Curtain, behind authoritarian lines somewhere in a red-state enclave, it helps to do your show from a culture-war bunker.
What does this have to do with a freeform music program, thisBig Show, going out over the Internet during troubled, spite-infused times? I suppose both nothing and everything. Your guess is as good as mine.
I tell myself this weekly 90 minutes is a refuge, though not one for delusional thinking. Maybe the better analogy is a sanctuary for what beauty and sanity we can preserve. Maybe it's the audio version of a candle in a dark room.
Whatever it is, I'm certain that 3 Chords & the Truth is better than the prevailing social and political ethos -- at least in many quarters to the right of me -- of burning the motherfer down, because one's grievances (justified or no)* demand it. The nihilism of the "burn the motherf*er down" crowd has no Plan B and no plan for what comes next.
The only thing left, as one stands in the ashes following a conflagration of one's own making, is "Well, f***."
"Well, f," indeed. Maybe the truth of *the Big Show is that all we can do is remind folks of what they're putting the match to -- so much beauty, so little regard for it. I don't know . . . but I reckon that's not nothing.
All I do know is that a country full of mental toddlers really shouldn't be allowed to play with matches. Now here's something to listen to by the warm light of the flickering flames outside as you recall when we were better than this.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
There's music in the air.
It's the Big Show, drifting across the aether, in the night, into your device and into your soul -- a refuge in dark and stormy times. That is kind of the niche we occupy these days.
If nothing else, the program -- if everything goes to plan and we hit the sweet spot -- can be a reminder that we can be so much better than the times we unfortunately inhabit. America has had moments when we were better than this, and we can be better that this once again.
3 Chords & the Truth music certainly points to that. Once, when we grimaced because a song hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, it was because it was just dumb. Now, and we're looking at you Jason Aldean, it's because the hottest song in the land reminds one of the heat coming from a flaming cross.
IT'S BECAUSE one suspects the song would at least sound better in the original German.
The Big Show doesn't play that game. We expect you're better than that. If you're not, I'm pretty sure you are not listening to this particular podcast coming from a Midwestern enclave somewhere behind America's own Iron Curtain . . . the Ironic Curtain.
What the show is . . . is diverse. That's not a popular thing in many quarters in a country teetering on the edge of fascism. What 3 Chords & the Truth is . . . is eclectic. The expectation here is that, like two things being able to be true simultaneously, you are able to appreciate -- and love -- several genres of music at the same time.
And in the same show. We're funny that way.
If you love music, period, and if your mind is capable of expansion, this is the show (and the episode of the show) for you. If not, I'm wagering you never listened to start with -- and won't in the future.
So get ready for another great episode of a great music program. It starts as soon as you click or download.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
A fair portion of the music we play on the Big Show falls into one of two categories -- stuff that's even (crackle) (pop) older than your Mighty Favog, and various records that (click) that (click) that (click) that (click) that (click) that (WRRRROOOOP!) are almost that old.
That's the beauty of 3 Chords & the Truth. That you'd be extremely hard pressed to tell that was the case, that is.
You see, your genial host works magic to make sure that's the case, to make sure even the oldest, scratchiest, snap-crackle-and-poppiest records get new life through audio science. Now, don't go getting a big head . . . you may or may not deserve it.
But the music does. The music deserves to sound just the way it did when it was new. And it deserves to make a good first impression (or 200th impression), so you'll fall in love with it, too (or fall in love with it all over again).
Is the Brand X program on the radio -- or on the Internet -- all about love? Probably not. That right there is what makes the Big Show different . . . and better.
Sometimes, you just can't do that with a compact disc or download. Sometimes, if you already own the vinyl, why pay again to get the digital? And sometimes, you just gotta do what you gotta do. We're not fanatics here, after all.
I wasn't sure what new to say about this week's episode, being that all of them are pretty decent. So, I just thought I needed to say this. So I did.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
I favor playing music just the way it was supposed to sound when it came out.
I also have a soft spot for the high-fidelity miracle devices of my youth, like 1950s and '60s record changers. No, a mid-1960s LP is not going to sound as good as a well-recorded and mastered CD, but it's (first) going to sound the way it did when it was made, and (second) is going to be a hell of a lot more fun.
This is the kind of thing that makes music such an enjoyable obsession, especially for geeks like me who do shows like 3 Chords & the Truth.
And then comes somebody like Jason Aldean to f everything up. Bad bro-country music (as if there were a good kind) with a deeply stupid, deeply bigoted, deeply deplorable message. The boy has both* kinds of music -- shitty and** hateful.
The music video for "Try That in a Small Town," by the way, is even worse. It manages to feature a Tennessee courthouse noted for a lynching that took place there. We won't be linking to any of it.
On the bright side, your Mighty Favog has a solution for shitty music by hateful people. We don't play it on the Big Show. At all. The farthest we'll "go there" is to warn you of its existence.
Consider yourself warned. And here's some more sound advice that has nothing to do with sound: Don't be a peckerwood who thinks it's some sort of a virtue to parade your hatefulness and ignorance for the whole world to see.
That is all. That is enough.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
I was wired in, but then I shorted out.
Such is the life of your Mighty Favog as he continues with this enterprise we call . . . we call . . . we call . . . (looks at picture) 3 Chords & the Truth.
I know we play a whole lot of exemplary music on . . . on . . . on . . . (looks at picture) 3 Chords & the Truth this week, but I would have to look at the playlist to tell you what it is. On the bright side, I do not know why I came into this room, either.
Belle the Dog informs me that I came into this room to post this episode of the . . . the . . . the . . . (Belle whispers "Rig Row") the Big Show. Alrighty then. I shall do that.
Do what?
Oh, yeah. That.
Say goodnight, Gracie. Goodnight, Gracie.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
This week's Big Show finds me feeling strangely groovy.
Must be that I'm into something good. But that can't be the reason for this feelin' I've been feelin'. After all, we're into something good every single week on this thing we call 3 Chords & the Truth.
And I'm not even wearing a paisley print shirt. Or bell bottoms.
Also, it's been raining, so we in Omaha certainly aren't having a sunshine day. I am seriously at a loss.
THE ONLY THING I can come up with is that, unlike Roger Daltrey's fervent wish, many of us folks who grew up in the 1960s and '70s did not, in fact, die before we got old. That's right, I'm talkin' 'bout my generation.
You can call me Boomer, and you can call me Jones. You can call me Beatnik, and you can call me Hippie. And you can call me Throwback, but you doesn't have to call me Relic.
If you get the reference for the preceding paragraph, you may be chronologically challenged, too.
And, honestly, I have no idea where I'm going with this, apart from yadda yadda yadda Boomer. And that's suspect as well, being that Late Boomers like myself have little in common with Early Boomers, and it's been argued that we're actually a separate generation -- one called Jones.
We're kinda proto-Generation X, actually. What we started, they perfected.
But that's neither here nor there . . . which fits in quite nicely with the rest of this Big Show missive.
So, to not sum up because I never got to any point, let me just say listen to the program. Music good. Host not particularly unfortunate. Much grooviness.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
I took me out to the ballgame. I took me out to the crowd.
I did not buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack (substitute Fritos walking taco, hamburgers and a brat here) but, ultimately, I did have to come back.
To the Big Show. You knew that I would.
STILL, the College World Series here in Omaha, by God, Nebraska was maybe the greatest that's ever been -- 11 days of outstanding contests, including the best baseball game I have ever witnessed. That would be the 11-inning pitchers' duel between my alma mater, LSU, and Wake Forest . . . that ended in the bottom of the 11th with a two-run homer to give the Tigers a crucial victory on their way to the national championship.
LSU's seventh national championship in baseball.
We, of course, will pay tribute to that in this week's edition of 3 Chords & the Truth. Is this Heaven? No, but it ain't half bad.
There also will be, during the show, the usual complement of mind-blowing musical moments, with a healthy smattering of "Can he DO that?" Yes. Yes, I can. It's my program.
Well, that's about it for the preshow promotin' and explainin'. Just one more thing to add, though.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
Welcome to the art of sound, which today especially trumps the insanity of American politics.
Crap. There’s that word again — trump. Or, in our case, Trump.
Donald Trump is the boil on our collective arse that resists all treatment. And now he’s up on federal espionnage and obstruction charges. Cue the flying monkeys hooting, whining and threatening revenge and civil war.
Music is art, but it also can be a balm in these troubled times. 3 Chords & the Truth, overwhelmingly comprised of music, alas, can soothe our collective angst . . . I think. At any rate, it’s all I got, so it had better.
It seems to me that the art of sound resides within the music, but not only that. The art of sound also encompasses how we use the music, how we present the music.
Yes, it’s the Big Show. But I also hope it’s, in some way, art. And I hope it’s something of a balm.
I mean, like I said, it’s all I got.
This week on the program, we’ve got a progression of music going, so to speak. You’re going on a journey — a pleasant one, I trust.
And the farther we go on our musical journey, I’m hopeful the farther it takes us — even if it’s just for a while — from the insanity and ugliness of this present American political dystopia. One does what one can.
This show is what I can do.
Enjoy.
It’s 3 Chords & the Truth, y’all. Be there. Aloha.
New this week in the culture-war bunker, far behind America's Ironic Curtain: A flying monkey warning.
Now that Donald Trump has been indicted on federal charges of the conspiracy and Espionage Act variety, we at 3 Chords & the Truth are hunkered down here in Red America, waiting for the disgraced former president and future felon to unleash his flying monkeys upon us all. Trust me -- there's no more disturbing sight than flying monkeys in red MAGA hats.
Still, the show must go on. And go on, it will.
Given that much of what the former prez says sounded much better in the original German, the Big Show will feature some music . . . in the original German. Which sounds fine to me, being that it features none of the original Nazi.
Unlike most of what we hear here behind the Ironic Curtain, which is much like the old Iron Curtain. Here in the former United States, though, it's incongruent with the "freedom" and "liberty" blather favored by the flying-monkey crowd.
Anyway, just because we hunker in the bunker, it doesn't mean we can't crank out program after program featuring the best music mix on the Internets. After all, the proof is in the listening. Which you should begin about now.
So, that's about it for another introductory missive for yet another show. There's only one thing left to be said.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs.
Come to think of it, I ought to have played the Five Man Electrical Band this week on the Big Show.
Just as the Nebraska Legislature closed out a session where it pretty clearly put out a sign saying who's not welcome here, the skies opened, the lightning flashed, the wind roared . . . and the lights went out. Makes you wonder.
But the electricity eventually came back on, so you're thinking "Well, maybe not."
Until, as I was putting together this edition of 3 Chords & the Truth early this morning, the lights went out again. And it wasn't storming. The computer instantly went dead. The lights went off. It was early -- very early -- so I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.
So, there I was, stumbling around like a blind man without a cane, trying to find a flashlight and channeling my inner Roy Kent. And while two power outages may or may not be a sign from the Great Beyond, they certainly are a metaphor.
THE LIGHTS are going out in these parts. Darkness reigns, trying to pass itself off as light. People are always falling for that one.
And here we are. And here I am.
But here's the thing: The lights went out -- twice -- yet here's a band-new episode of the Big Show. The process took a little longer, you're kind of thinking "Now, where was I?" when the power comes back on, but nevertheless. . . .
I'm crouched down here in the culture-war bunker, in Omaha, by God, Nebraska . . . and I'm still inserting an eclectic, adventurous and stellar variety of music right onto the Internet and right into your preferred electronic device. Maybe that's a metaphor, too.
The brief version of my little story is just one short sentence: Don't let the bastards get you down.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
It's Christmas season once again, and another year that has slipped through our grasping fingers.
Because it's the holidays, we do the festive thing. Because it's another year that has passed by, leaving us -- yet again -- wondering where time has gone while our attention was elsewhere, we also think of all that was, yet is no more.
On 3 Chords & the Truth this week, we're doing a bit of the ho-ho-holidays. Behind the musical scenes, I'm wondering how six-plus decades could pass so quickly. So much I thought would be forever when I was young isn't anymore.
TAKE THE Dalton Theaterin North Baton Rouge. It was a little neighborhood movie house we'd always drive by whenever we went to see my Uncle August. A middling landmark of my Louisiana youth, it was, standing there at Dalton Street and North Acadian Thruway.
First it closed sometime in the 1970s, then it decayed. Then the city condemned it. Then, in 2000, the city tore it down. The progression of Uncle August -- who died, age 65, of cancer in 1982 -- was not dissimilar.
I think of that stuff at Christmastime. My parents' generation of the family is all gone. So are a lot of the things and places I grew up with. We shall not go there this week on the Big Show. I suspect you, if you're of a certain age, don't need my help in that regard this time of year. It's there, lurking, in the corners of our minds. It stares back at you in the bathroom mirror every morning.
C'est la vie.
No, this week, 3 Chords & the Truth, as always, is about the music -- pop, rock, big band, jazz, soul, standards, easy listening, country and all the rest. It's all mashed up in the food-for-the-soul processor of the mind and spit back out onto the Internet in sets that make musical sense. Well, I think they make musical sense; such is freeform radio, even when it's in cyberspace.
If my thoughts turn melancholy when the bitter wind sweeps across the Plains and the mercury digs a hole for itself, the Big Show does what it always does. It entertains and, one hopes, enlightens a bit. That doesn't change, even though everything else does.
Even though everybody else does . . . and you, too.
That's where we are as Christmas 2022 draws nigh after two previous, warped COVID Christmases removed so many things -- and people -- from the here and now and tossed them unceremoniously into the once was.
There's so much that, in Louisiana-speak, ain't dere no more. But the thing is this; the music always will be. Dance while you can, because the tempus is fugiting, and its run at the Dalton has been extended indefinitely.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
Ask any random podcast listener what is this thing we call 3 Chords & the Truth, and chances are they won’t know, eggsactly . . . er . . . exactly.
But if you weren’t shunned, punched or had the cops called on you when you asked, you could deduce that you were dealing with a good egg.
So, what is this thing we also call the Big Show? It’s . . . uhhhhhhhh . . . it’s . . . uhhhhhhh . . . ummmmmmm . . . it’s eggsactly that. Whatever that is.
I CALL IT postmodern freeform radio on the Internets. I call it that because I just made that label up. Yay, me.
But, really, what the program is, is good. It’s diverse. It’s full of surprises. Eggsactly that. Er . . . exactly that.
This week on 3 Chords & the Truth, we’re gonna get you moving. We’ll have the best in soul, and the best in. . . . Well, why would I spoil the surprise?
Maybe you need to listen and find out what the rest of the good stuff is. In other words, do yourself a favor and be a good egg.
Eggsactly.
Here in the 3C&T studio, your Mighty Favog works hard so as not to have egg on his face. That means your ears will be happy. Eggsactly that.
Do your ears a favor for Thanksgiving. And you’re welcome.
It’s 3 Chords & the Truth, y’all. Be there. Aloha.
Submitted for your approval, the curious story of Betty, who, unknown to her, now resides somewhere between past and present, between 1954 and 2022.
Between suburban Omaha sometime during the Happy Days and . . . the Twilight Zone.
Ostensibly, this is an ordinary day. Betty thinks she is having an ordinary phone chat with her best friend, Marge. But this is no ordinary telephone call, and hers is no ordinary telephone.
Unbeknownst to her, Betty’s is a special telephone. And she has called not to Happy Hollow just across town. She has dialed 68 years into the past . . . and Marge, unfortunately, still resides firmly in 1954.
LET'S LISTEN IN on Betty’s unwitting long-distance call, a long-distance call like no other.
“Hello, Marge? You won’t believe what I just heard! It’s this freeform music podcast called 3 Chords & the Truth, and it’s fabulous!
“What’s that, Marge? Yes, a freeform music podcast. FREE . . . form. That means freewheeling, I think. Without a set format. Format. You know, like the structure and content of something.
“Yes, Marge. What? What’s a podcast?
“It’s an online program you can download and listen to anytime. Download. Off the Internet and onto your smartphone . . . or computer or tablet.
“No, Marge. No, I haven’t had a stroke or a nervous breakdown.
“No, dear. I assure you I’m making perfect sense. No, the Internet is not some kind of a communist organization. Yes, I’m here at home. Why do you ask?
“Surely there must be some reason you wanted to make sure that I’m at home right now.
“No. No, I don’t need help. Why on earth do you think I need help?
“What? Who exactly do you need to get off the line to call?
“No, I am telling you that I am fine. I do NOT need help. I happen to be making perfect sense, dear.
“I am telling you, Marge, that I am NOT a communist and that I am NOT having a stro . . . hello? HELLO??? Marge?”
BETTY DOES NOT know that in 25 minutes — or, perhaps, 68 years and 25 minutes ago — two white-clad men will arrive at her tidy, tastefully appointed home. They will come to take her to . . . the Electroshock-Therapy Zone.
They will not notice the futuristic little device plugged into her new hi-fi console. The device is the size of a Big Chief tablet, but it contains no ruled paper. It’s an iPad, and it belongs not to the world of 1954, but instead to ours.
It is the world of tomorrow — the world of the Big Show. We know it as . . . today.
It’s 3 Chords & the Truth, y’all. Be there. Aloha.
Here's the thing about 3 Chords & the Truth: It takes time to put together.
You've got to pick the music. You've got to prepare the music -- clean up the clicks and pops on the vinyl, equalize the audio levels, yadda yadda yadda. Then you have to order the music so it all fits together in a pleasant manner. It's got to flow, you know?
Then you have to talk about the music . . . and whatever else strikes one's fancy. Then it all has to be turned into a computer file to be uploaded to this spot right here.
That's a lot of work to put on the Big Show.
And there has to be an easier way.
And that's what I've been searching for here in the 3 Chords & the Truth apocalypse bunker in Omaha, by God, Nebraska. Well, I think I've come up with something.
This week, let's see how that works out, shall we?
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
I remember skinny ties, legal beer at 18, doing the Pogo . . . and college radio.
I remember when college radio was a force of nature. Driving the musical narrative. Making commercial radio look ever so lame.
I remember a time before commercial radio started making itself look lame.
I remember college radio with real DJs behind real microphones, all through the night. Playing real records, before CDs -- much less computer automation -- was a thing.
I remember.
And so does this edition of3 Chords & the Truth.
This week, we're going back to the 1980s . . . and the 1970s, with a couple of side trips to the '60s and '50s. College radio was a little freewheeling back then.
What we do on the Big Show owes almost everything to the glory days of college radio . . . and what we learned in high-school radio, too. We just kick it up a notch for the online age.
So join your Mighty Favog as he relives a bit of those days when he was young . . . and pogoing. It's gonna be quite the journey.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
You'll be over the moon about this edition of 3 Chords & the Truth. Whether you want to be or not.
By George, you will.
NASA is sending up the first, unmanned, Artemis mission to the moon this coming week, but you're going to get there first. Your space-age Mighty Favog is going to make sure of that, and the Big Show is your rocket ship.
Bang! Zoom! You're goin' to the moon!
And all you have to do is sit back and listen.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
Listen.
Do you want to know a secret?
Do you promise not to tell?
Closer.
Let me whisper in your ear . . . about the show you want to hear.
The Big Show.
It's all you need to know. That's a plain and natural fact.
Telling you that, at least, is no violation of the Espionage Act. And no search warrants are needed to hear that for yourself.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
Alrighty then, I'm going to tell you how to make the magic that is 3 Chords & the Truth.
First, you gather up a bunch of records, CDs and tapes. Then you mix in some digital files. Place the preceding into the 3 Chords & the Truth machine.
Put the power switch in the "on" position, then depress the "engage" button.
In a few hours, you will see the finished product in the output bin. A copy automatically will be uploaded to the Internet.
Then, sit back and enjoy the Big Show.
These are the basics, but if I went into granular detail about how the audio magic is performed . . . well, I'd have to kill you.
That would be bad.
So don't ask too many questions, OK?
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
There will come a time during this program that you will have a serious thought pop into your overloaded brain.
It will be a simple thought, yet profound.
This thought, arguably, could sum up 14 years of 3 Chords & the Truth.
You may question your sanity.
You may question my sanity.
But first, there will be the thought.
At the time in question.
It will be this, I assure you:
"This is some fed up s, but it could be brilliant."
Welcome to the Big Show.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
way back there then,
it was a hell of a thing
to see the poetry of e.e. cummings
who wrote
but did not capitalize.
bt thn smbdy invntd txting.
this week on 3 Chords & the Truth, we're exploring musical innovation, thinking outside the clichéd and metaphorical box, and how that just -- eventually -- became . . . music.
by the way, my shift key is feeling unappreciated right now. it's just going to have to take two Theramin and call me in the morning. but speaking of the Theramin, that's where electronic music started, and we've been coloring outside the conventional lines ever since.
kind of. well, at least the innovators have, and all innovation eventually becomes conventional, and then somebody else has to get farther out, man.
and still farther out, man.
f*** me, this is freeing, this typing with no caps. or few caps. whatever, man. watch out punctuation you're next
lol
i think you're getting an idea of the thrust of this week's edition of the Big Show. it's gonna be out there. maaaaaaaan.
it's also gonna be a hell of a ride and a hell of a lot of fun. which is kinda what we do here.
so, let's hear it for the innovators and the musical freethinkers. better yet, let's just hear them.
right here.
on this here program.
it's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. be there. aloha.
If a clod like Ralph appreciates good music expertly curated . . . I expect that you'll be copacetic with everything, right?
I said right?
Now that we're clear on everything, we're good to go with another Big Show, which is a very very very fine show, with one dog in the yard, tunes used to be so hard . . . now everything is easy 'cause of you. And the 3 Chords & the Truth mascot, Ralph . . . who is a clod, which isn't an insult but a fact, in the earthiest of manners.
But he has a nice smile. Don't you think Ralph has a nice smile?
And Ralph thinks this week's edition of the program is especially mud-tacular. (We're pretty sure that's a good thing.)
So be like Ralph. Listen to the Big Show.
And, yes, we've had a lot of rain here recently.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a . . . well, shit.
America, America, God took thy brains from thee. Don't get me started on your soul.
That, sadly, is where we seem to be as a nation as we somewhat reluctantly offer up another episode of 3 Chords & the Truth. If it's not one thing, it's another.
And sometimes, it's everything at once. Well, shit.
You will have to forgive your Mighty Favog this week for a program done amid a haze of depression and, frankly, not-so-suppressed rage. Because this shit never ends.
We keep doing the same thing -- which is not doing anything -- and expecting different results. Well, the bodies keep piling up. Republicans seem to be good with that.
I am not. Maybe you aren't, either. I don't know.
And that's where we are for this go-round of the Big Show. I may have more to say about that -- give it a listen. There's some damned fine music, too.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
Crazy.
Mean.
Cruel.
Hate.
Crying.
Help.
WELL, that pretty much sums up America these days, and it sums up what we're dealing with on 3 Chords & the Truth this week.
You know, it gets harder and harder to try and do the Big Show with even something of a smile on one's face. At some point -- with a million dead of COVID and a fascist political party egging on murderous white supremacists -- a smile starts to feel like a delusion.
Still, you try. Still, you seek out joy -- and music.
Such is life in these Disunited States of Dystopia . . . er, America.
"Made it, Ma! Top of the world!" And it blew right up in our face.
Heaven help us.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
This edition of 3 Chords & the Truth is illegal in Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Listen at your own risk.
Legal notices aside, it's a damn fine show this week. Lots of great music -- as always.
Plus, you'll learn things and hear songs you had no idea about. About which you had no idea? Damn you, awkward yet correct grammar!
Well, this show must be special; I've already used the word "damn" twice. Damn!
Three times.
I'd better wrap this up and let you get to the Big Show before I get banned in a couple more states. Given Tuesday's primary results in Nebraska, I may even get banned here. too.
Uh, yeah.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.
Classic form. Classic sound. Now, pass me some heavy weaponry and a couple of clips.
We're gonna have us some legitimate musical discourse.
NOTE: We have ways of making you like this episode of 3 Chords & the Truth.
Uhhhh . . . we're all patriots here, right?
As usual, the musical mix here on the Big Show runs from soup to nuts. and there is a high degree of confidence that you will love the program this week. Right?
I said . . . riiiight? Excellent.
See, discourse is good.
Yeah, it's a great show. The best show. You wouldn't believe how good the show is this week.
It is some serious musical discourse. Or else.
As a matter of fact, I have a peaceful, easy feeling about the whole shootin' match.
NOTE: No Mike Pences were hanged during the course of the Big Show.
It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.