Theme from Rawhide - Blues Brothers

 

The Blues Brothers came out of Saturday Night Live - a retro blues band featuring Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi. In this sequence from the movie, Jake and Elwood and the boys wind up at a cowboy bar trying to make a few bucks to keep gas in the car by replacing the band that had been originally booked. When the set went south, they switch seemlessly to the first cowboy song they can think of - the theme to the TV show Rawhide. They pull it off too and end the set singing Tammy Wynette's "Stand by Your Man." I love that the stage is screened in with chicken wire and there's a bullwhip hanging on the wall. The owner says they have both kinds of music, country AND western. I love it. Kinda highlights the advantages of a musician being versatile............or any independent entrepreneur for that matter. Give the customer what he wants, that's my motto.

Tom

Steve n' Seagulls - Thunderstruck

 

These guys are from Finland. Bluegrass Rock in Finland. Who knew? This will wake you up of a morning.

Home Free - American Pie w/ Don McLean

 

Radio disk jockeys used to love this song. They could put it on and wander off for 15 minutes to get a snack or go to the bathroom and not have to worry so much about the time. The enigmatic Don McLean classic is here done by the awesome acapella group Home Free with Don McLean joining in with lead vocals.

Kick back and enjoy this oldie-goldie blast from the past and see if you remember what all the lyrics were talking about.

Tom

 

 

 

O'er the Misty Mountains Cold

 

Peter Hollens is an independent musician that has been responsible for some really amazing music in the past few years. He makes his money via donations on Patreon, one of the new independent artists who make music, write books and produce films without permission of the traditional gatekeepers like publishers, music companies and film studios. This selection's lyrics were originally written by JRR Tolkien in his book "The Hobbit" and the music has sort of evolved to sound like something dwarvish. over the years

Enjoy the music. I think Tolkien would have liked this version.

Tom

What Wondrous Love

 

The multi-talented Connie Dover sings this beautiful old hymn. I was privileged to hear Connie at the North Texas Irish Festival back in the late 90s and to meet Ms. Dover afterwards. She's quite a talent and used to work summers as a chuckwagon cook on cattle drives for tourists. I can imagine the campfires were lovely things. She has a wonderful repertoire of cowboy songs as well as Scots, Irish and English folk songs and the voice to go with 'em.

Tom King

Who Am I

This song is one of those that makes me tear up when I sing it. It's one of those that was on Micah's playlist and we played it at his memorial services. The song is by one of Sheila's favorite groups - Casting Crowns.  The song made it's way into my songleader's songbook that is a collection of song-service music from camp and youth programs and stuff that I collected over the years. I eventually made a smaller print version that we printed up and bound with my old comb binder and made up our own songbooks for worship at the Tyler church.

Here's Casting Crowns' version of "Who Am I?"

It's an extraordinary song about God's extraordinary grace in doing what He did to save us.

Tom

Sixteen Tons - Southern Raised

Discovered this wonderful version of the first song I ever learned - Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons". You have to picture a 4 year old singing, "Some say a man is made out of mud, but a poor man's made out of muscle and blood. Muscle and blood, skin and bones. A mind that's weak and a back that's strong." 

I sang it with gusto. These guys, though, sing it with talent. I AM impressed.

Tom