The Conical Glass: Liberal folk, part 2

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Liberal folk, part 2

It's only February and our taxes are finished and in the mail. Our accountant charged us $100 less than he did last year, when I gave him everything towards the end of March and he got them back to me right around April 15. I don't mean to gloat, but... no, I do mean to gloat. Having that noxious chore out of the way this early is a relief.

Joe and I went to the Freight and Salvage on Valentine's Day to see one of our favorite performers, Cheryl Wheeler. Most of her songs are beautifully observed slices of life about topics like her elderly neighbors, love, or her childhood (she even has a number about how much she loved singing hymns with her family -- that's pretty red-state friendly!), but she did throw in a couple political numbers, including "Dubya Dubya" (sung to the tune of "Louie Louie").

Coincidentally, a few hours before the gig, an anonymous person added a comment to my "Liberal folk" post from last month, pointing me to a fabulous site called Conelrad.com, which is devoted to chronicling "atomic age" Americana. Conelrad features obsessively lengthy articles about two right-wing folk artists from the 1960s: The Goldwaters, who released the timeless The Goldwaters Sing Folk Songs To Bug the Liberals; and Janet Greene, known as "The Anti-Baez" for tunes such as "Commie Lies," "Poor Left Winger" and "Comrade's Lament." Both are fascinating reads. Former Goldwaters lead singer Ken Crook describes the combo's LP as "completely unlistenable" (Conelrad helpfully supplies clips of tunes like "Down in Havana" and "Barry's Moving In" so you can decide for yourself). Greene, on the other hand, had a genuinely pretty voice; don't miss her calypso-flavored "Fascist Threat" ("Destroy the government with lies/Seize control and centralize/Very shortly you will see/A fascist state monopoly!") or the playful "Hunter and the Bear."

posted by 125records @ 9:41 PM

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