Tag Archives: 9/11

Easy Ed’s American Roots Music Broadside: September 2020

Used Via Pixabay License.

Greetings…I’m back after a few weeks of getting my head cleared and I’m ready to share some of my latest favorite Americana and roots music songs and videos, news, events and whatever other stuff pops into my head. As many of you know, I have left No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music to get off the treadmill of having a weekly column deadline, and to allow myself to focus on other areas of interest. Without going into some rant you don’t need to hear, we’ll leave it that I am very fearful of the future not only in America, but throughout the world. From climate to pandemic, politics to racism, divisiveness to income inequality…we are not living in the best of times. And so we escape into a world of comfort and familiarity, riding it out as best one can. Music, sweet sweet music.

Nashville’s Sunday Someday

The gracious and excellent guitarist/singer Annie McCue reached out to me late last night to share something she helped put together. Sunday Someday is a jam band that was formed by a very busy group of side-musicians and singer-songwriters who under normal times have played Sunday brunch gigs at Dee’s Country Cocktail Lounge in Nashville. They played monthly and often asked special guests to play and sit in with them, covering artists such as Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, Fleetwood Mac, Mississippi John Hurt, also dipping into the original songs they had all been writing over the years. It was a Sunday kind of thing.

A couple months into the quarantine with Dee’s still closed, McCue suggested they start working on a song. She sent out a basic track with guitar and vocals and everyone passed it around a few times, adding parts and harmonies until they decided one day it was finished. McCue then compiled video footage and pulled it all together and here they give you their version of George Harrison’s Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth). The other musicians are Megan Palmer, Jason Quicksall, Bob Lewis, Erin Nelson and Johnathan Beam.

‘This beautiful song is of this time,’ says Annie. ‘It’s exactly what we all need right now.’ I agree.

People We’ve Lost: Justin Townes Earle and Toots Hibbert

You’ve likely read the news, and know they’re gone. Justin’s loss hit me hard, for not only that we share the disease of addiction, but because the music he could have, should have, and would have given to us will never be heard. Cole Louison published a remembrance of Justin circa 2010, titled It’s As Hard As You Make It: The Legacy of Justin Townes Earle. An interesting read; it made me shudder to think that by twenty-eight he had made thirteen trips to rehab and overdosed five times. Otis Gibbs has put up a video eulogy that I’d like to share with y’all, and a song if you don’t mind.

And from NYC/2010:

Frederick “Toots” Hibbert, the lead singer and songwriter of Toots and the Maytals and one of reggae’s foundational figures, was seventy-seven when he passed. A few weeks earlier he had just released his first new album in over a decade. His NPR obituary offers a brief but notable survey of his life and career, and he left a huge body of work for us to have. Two days after the release of Got To Be Tough, Hibbert was admitted to Kingston’s University Hospital of the West Indies. If you have the time, the BBC did a documentary on Toots and the band and you can watch it here.

Live at the Winterland, San Francisco, CA on November 15, 1975.

Toots performing “Pressure Drop” on Jools Holland’s Annual Hootenanny-2010/2011, backed by the Rhythm & Blues Orchestra

New Music….Or At Least New To Me

This first one comes with a giant thank you from one of my Broadside followers. Rob Oakie is the executive director of Music Prince Edward Island, and he sent me a note sharing that I may have missed an album from the past year titled Coyote, the seventh studio recording by the award winning folk musician Catherine MacClellan. He was right, and although I knew her name I honestly didn’t know her music. So I’ve been exploring all of her work and fallen in love.

There’s a bit of Canadian musical legacy in her family, as her father was legendary Canadian songwriter Gene MacClellan, who wrote the megahit “Snowbird” that was covered by everyone from Anne Murray to Elvis Presley. Catherine has followed in her father’s musical footsteps, winning the 2015 Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album.

Not on the album, I found this song which appears to have been recorded less than a month ago. I would imagine even on Prince Edward Island they are feeling the impact of the pandemic, and musicians are sadly shuttered down from the road.

The Avett Brothers‘ album The Third Gleam is in rotation on my main playlist. Speaking to Rolling Stone, Seth shared this about the songs:

“We touch on historical prejudice, faith, economic disparity, gun violence, incarceration, redemption, and as is increasingly standard with our records, stark mortality. This is by no means a record defined by any specific social or cultural goal, nor is it informed by a singular challenge posed to humanity. It is merely the sound of my brother and I in a room, singing about what is on our minds and in our hearts at the time…sharing it now is about what sharing art is always about: another chance that we may partake in connecting with our brothers and sisters of this world, and hopefully joining you in noticing a speck of light gleaming in what appears to be a relatively long and dark night.”

Transmigration Blues is singer-songwriter Ryan Gustafson’s fourth album as The Dead Tongues, and it was recorded back in 2019 but only came out earlier this past summer. Living in Western North Carolina, he’s been making music for almost twenty years under different names or with various collaborators, spending time on the road with Hiss Golden Messenger and Phil Cook. This is a video from the album, followed by one of Louden Wainwright III’s best, “The Swimming Song” along with Mandarin Orange.

The Most Important Thing You Will Do In Your Lifetime

Over on The Real Easy Ed Facebook page, I often sprinkle in politics and satire with the music. Here, I’m not going to preach or holler. But I will share that I believe we not only must exercise our right to vote, but that we need to preserve the health and welfare of our children. A deranged autocrat running a racist and facist state with a cult-like band of gunslinging disciples does not make for an open and safe society. So I know many of you might have second thoughts about Biden/Harris and will either sit it out or look for Kanye or someone else to register a vote of protest. No. It will will not help your cause. You’re either part of the problem or part of the solution, so suck it up and vote this piece of garbage out of office. Here’s how to register or check to see if you already are: CLICK HERE!

A Daily Broadside From 9/11/20

Sunrise Between Twin Towers, World Trade Center, New York City, NY,designed by Minoru Yamasaki, International Style

Here in NYC today the local TV stations have, as they do every year on this date, suspended programming and are broadcasting the reading of the names of all who perished on 9/11. It’s usually done live, but this year the audio track was prerecorded. There’s another tragedy playing out this year in the form of a virus that has changed up the day’s usual memorial ceremonies. Nevertheless, it is a solemn day here as the memories of that horror come flooding back. And the loss of human life beyond that day have continued, as thousands of first responders have developed ravaging diseases that have left a long train of continuous pain, suffering and death.

You might think the country would take care of the men and women who put their lives on the line not only on that day but in the months that followed to search for survivors and clean the pile of rubble left in the wake. Yet the Victims Compensation Fund has always been a thorn in the side of Republicans and three times they’ve tried to eliminate it. Imagine. They have expressed concern over their fiscal responsibility and the cost. Famously, just last year Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee blocked the latest funding extension.

Luis Alvarez, a first responder, came to Congress to plead for help. “I will not stand by and watch as my friends with cancer from 9/11 like me are valued less than anyone else because of when they get sick. You made me come here the day before my 69th round of chemo. I’m going to make sure that you never forget to take care of the 9/11 responders.” Three weeks later he died, at age 53. The Senate ultimately passed the bill, that now guarantees funding through 2092.

On this date it is often pointed out as a point in time in our nation’s history when we all united together in our anger, rage and mourning. And It did seem like that for a month or two, but eventually the fractures in that myth rose back to the surface. And nineteen years later the country should collectively look at itself in the mirror today and recall that moment of unity, when for a brief time we each came together in our loss. It will likely never repeat itself. Some believe that the wars that began soon after 9/11 and still continue today were payback, yet I think most of us now know that it was built on a lie, as most wars are.

What 9/11 has left us with is a nation in pieces, torn apart by political divisiveness, racial injustice, corruption of power, an inequality of wealth and a pandemic that has traded the lives of almost 200,000 people for the benefit of an autocrat and his disciples. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures or cartoons of a man with a sandwich sign board over his shoulders that reads “the end is near”. Most of us take that as being humorous, but here on 9/11/2020 it is closer to the truth than ever before. I’ll leave it at that

Many of my past columns, articles, and essays can be accessed here at my own site, therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana and Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email address is easyed@therealeasyed.com.

Luis Gustavo Alvarez: A Ground Zero American Hero

I’ve never considered submitting a weekly music column to No Depression to be hard work. Given the latitude I’m given to cover basically whatever pops into my mind rather than being assigned a particular topic, it’s rarely been too difficult to come up with something that hopefully readers will find of interest. On a few occasions I’ve gone off the beat, straying into areas or events that are topical and in the news, and perhaps at times controversial. I’ve gotten feedback from many folks to “just stick to the music”. Sometimes I try but No I can’t.

I’ve been troubled these past few weeks, or maybe a deep funk would be a better way to describe it. I can pinpoint the first time I felt the knot in my stomach; it was around the Fourth of July. A man had just died of cancer, and his obituary said it was linked to the three months he spent at ground zero of the 9/11 attacks searching for survivors and bodies that he helped pull out of the toxic soil. Luis Gustavo Alvarez was only 53 years old.

After he graduated high school in 1983, Alvarez joined the Marines, and after serving he attended classes at City College in New York. He joined the NYPD in 1990 and was a detective in the narcotics division when we were attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. The New York Times‘ obituary noted that before he retired in 2010 he was recognized five times for his excellent police work. He then took a job with the Department of Homeland Security, until he was diagnosed with cancer and it became too debilitating to continue.

Two and a half weeks before he passed away, Alvarez went to Washington, DC, to testify before the House Judiciary Committee and urge them to continue offering health benefits to first responders who have fallen ill. “I did not want to be anywhere else but ground zero when I was there,” he said at the hearing. “Now the 9/11 illnesses have taken many of us, and we are all worried about our children, our spouses and our families and what happens if we are not here.” (Fox News)

Luis Gustavo Alvarez was born in Cuba. He was an immigrant who came to America, became a citizen, served his country, and was a hero to many for his efforts. And at death’s doorstep he had to plead in front of the politicians in Washington to put forth what should be the simplest, most nonpartisan, no-brainer effort: Give aid to the survivors. The House passed its bill to extend funding for the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund, but a vote on the Senate measure was blocked by Sen. Rand Paul, who cited cost concerns.

Less than two weeks after Alvarez’s death, our House of Representatives voted to condemn the president of our country for using racist language. Using his favorite communication tool, he had lashed out at four Democratic women of color — Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — tweeting that they should “go back” to their home countries despite the fact that all four of the women are US citizens and three were born in this country.

Back on Labor Day in 1980, when Republicans were conservative but not yet the xenophobic white nationalist party of today, candidate Ronald Reagan stood with the Statue of Liberty in the background and said this about immigrants:

“These families came here to work. They came to build. Others came to America in different ways, from other lands, under different, and often harrowing conditions, but this place symbolizes what they all managed to build, no matter where they came from or how they came or how much they suffered. They helped to build that magnificent city across the river. They spread across the land building other cities and towns and incredibly productive farms. They came to make America work. They didn’t ask what this country could do for them but what they could do to make this refuge the greatest home of freedom in history. They brought with them courage, ambition, and the values of family, neighborhood, work, peace, and freedom. They came from different lands but they shared the same values, the same dream.”

In January 2018, the current Republican president shared his thoughts on immigration:

“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?”

Ask Luis Gustavo Alvarez, an immigrant and true American hero.

This was originally published as an Easy Ed’s Broadside column at No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music’s website.

Many of my past columns, articles, and essays can be accessed here at my own site, therealeasyed.com. I also aggregate news and videos on both Flipboard and Facebook as The Real Easy Ed: Americana and Roots Music Daily. My Twitter handle is @therealeasyed and my email address is easyed@therealeasyed.com

Hello In There…Can You Hear Me?

I published this at the No Depression website on the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Living in California at the time, I was inspired to write it after listening to a favorite song of mine. You know it too…John Prine’s ‘Hello In There’. As much as it’s about growing older, for me it also represents the stories of those that passed away too soon. It’s curious that this past year has seen Prine release his biggest selling album, going out on a long tour that sold out at every stop and receiving accolades far and wide. I saw him perform for the first time right before last Christmas and he was sharp and spry, literally dancing across the stage at the end of the night. He sang that song I like, and as usually the case when I hear it, I cried a bit. It used to be about old folks, now it’s about me. And maybe you, too.

My mom will turn ninety next month and my sister has been going through boxes in her basement looking for old photographs. She found the one above just last week, and mom is on the right looking very fashionable while standing with her Uncle Alfred and Aunt Tiny on the roof of the Empire State Building. I think it must be sometime in the late thirties before the second world war started, and it looks so peaceful and calm so far up in the air. That this was found just days ahead of the tenth anniversary of what we simply call 9/11 was not lost on me.

For the second time in as many years, yesterday I learned that an old friend, someone I’ve known and cared about, died. I’m used to seeing social media reminders that this or that musician was either born or died on this date, and we’ll watch a video, say nice things about them and move on with our lives. News about people you really don’t know personally is just that…news. But when you find out a person you’ve spoken with, shared time together with, broken bread with, laughed and cried with has passed on, it’s a very different experience. It’s hard.

Throughout the past week my fifteen year old German exchange student and I have sat on the couch together in front of the television and watched many of the special broadcasts about 9/11. She was just five when it happened, and seemed as interested to learn about that day as I was in trying to forget about it. It’s been many moons since I’ve watched the footage of the planes smashing into the Towers, the dust storm as they fell, the people searching for survivors, the doctors and nurses waiting to treat the sick and injured who never showed up. Three weeks after the attacks I stood at Ground Zero and ten years later I can still smell of death.

Last night down in Florida there was a Republican presidential primary debate, hosted by the Tea Party people. I didn’t watch it, as I’m not interested in the venom they spew and the hate they peddle. It was reported in the news that when the talk turned to health care issues and a question was asked about what you do with a sick and uninsured person…do you let them just die…several in the crowd yelled “Yeah!”. Not one single candidate spoke out against that “Yeah!”…and they’re not ashamed of it and they don’t give a shit. Just let ’em die.

As we remember the lives lost on 9/11, we also think of those that are slowly dying today due to the after effects of toxic exposure. I imagine that survivors, family members and loved ones who’ve lost someone must think of those final moments over and over in their heads every night as they lay in bed. And often I think of the indescribable pain suffered on the nights and days after 9/11 as they hopefully waited for husband, wife, son, daughter, relative or friend to come back home.

My mom will be ninety next month. I’ll be flying into New York in about ten days to visit with her and my family. My sister and I will drive her down the turnpike to Philadelphia where we grew up and lived for much of our lives, and visit the grave of my father. Maybe we’ll drive by our old house on the way back. The next day I’ll take the train alone into Manhattan to visit Ground Zero . And as I fly back to California, when I pass over Ohio, I’ll look down and remember my old friend who died too young.

Postscript: A lot has changed since then, a lot hasn’t. My wife and I divorced the year after, the boys and I moved to New York, the exchange student I mentioned went back home to Germany (she turned twenty-four this week) and many of my friends and family have passed on. Mom’s not with us anymore, and if you’re a believer she’s in a batter place with dad, the love of her life. If you two are looking down or listening in, I just wanted to take a moment and say…hello in there.