Top 10 Reads of 2011

here are the books that most excited me this past year:

1. So Big by Edna Ferber

this was an accidental and welcomed discovery. it was written nearly a 100 years ago and celebrates life from an exciting angle rarely expressed these days. it’s all about beauty out of bleakness.
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2. In the Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music by Nicholas Dawidoff

any one interested in the roots of Americana Music needs to read this one! hello Harlan Howard, Kitty Wells, Jimmie Rodgers, Johnny Cash, Carter Family, Merle Haggard…
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3. The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

nothing like the beauty of pure music and the unleashing of the aural and visual power of a cello to juxtapose the evils of war. a masterpiece.
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4. In the Skin of A Lion by Michael Ondaatje

i read this while lying on a couch at a cabin in Wisconsin alongside Lake Michigan. sometimes it helps to leave home to see the your native land from such an exciting angle. i’d never read any Ondaatje before this one, but you can bet your ass i’ll be reading more.
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5. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

my love for Chicago continues to grow every day. the Chicago World Exposition back in the 1890′s was an exciting time for both Chicago and the world. it was an age of excitement towards a future with endless possibilities. it was the beginning of electrically lit cities, unimaginable architectural feats and the Ferris Wheel! we could use some forward thinkers leading the charge once again. umm, just the other half here, the mass murderer types, those can stay in the past. this historical book reads like a great work of fiction.

6. The Color Purple by Alice Walker

finished reading the last few pages to this one at the library and it nearly broke me down with tears. lots of accolades for this one, i can see why. powerful story about race, family, rape, spirituality, sexuality and love.
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7. Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke by Peter Guralnick

not quite finished this one yet but thoroughly still engrossed. Sam Cooke is a musical genius and Guralnick’s writing is at his best.

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8. The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

please don’t watch the movie, especially after reading it, you’re only asking for a let down. i loved this book. characters to fall in love with. visuals that make you wanna just plop yourself right down into the middle of the story.
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9. There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America by Philip Dray

there’s no shortage of union haters out there these days. unless you’re of the ultra-rich class i have a hunch this book might just get you thinking unions have a place in society. a well researched and written tomb.
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10. Continental Shift by Russell Banks

maybe if you’re depressed don’t read this one. its bleak as hell yet beautifully captures the spirit of our age. the Grapes of Wrath of our time?

Ron Leary Sextet Hockey Puck

Well here it is, my first ever merchandising venture…

the Ron Leary Sextet hockey puck

Those down in Windsor/Detroit will have driven past the inspiration for this particular design numerous times…know what I’m talking about?

Thanks! to Julia Padvoiskis for the design

Pick up your very own! — only $5

For the most part I’ll just be selling them at shows, as postage will cost as much or more than the actual puck, but if you’d really like to get your hands on one let me know and we’ll make it happen.

* Made in Canada pucks, we’re talking high quality Folks!

The New Girl Who’s Causing A Stir

well, because of exhaustion issues i never really got around to touring my most recent album Dependent Arising very much. them’s the breaks. here’s what would have been the single…

The New Girl Who’s Causing A Stir

Back A Ramblin

walkin up Yarmouth Street downtown Guelph, with the sun a settin, and a crisp fall air refreshingly invigorating my old weathered bones, Woody Guthrie was singing loud on the ipod, guiding me up the street.

Tom Joad Part 1 came on and within the first couple lines something just clicked.

the past couple years i’ve been battling exhaustion and burnout which finally inspired me to take the last few months off from performing…and a great few months it’s been.

i’ve just been singing at home every day, writing music at a rate unknown in years and learning Townes and Prine covers. it’s felt great to just purely enjoy music in a most selfish way.

but something clicked walking up Yarmouth Street this past Saturday evening on my lonesome. a big smile appeared across my face as i realized the nomad in me was once again strong, i finally felt ready and excited to perform again.

good thing as i was on my way to my first in gig in months at the Woolwich Arrow. Rich Burnett joined me on guitar and lap steel. it was great to be back on stage again. we were a little rusty at first and it took a bit to get the rhythm and momentum flowing but before long it was just like riding a bike again…with pint hand.

i got rid of my car a couple of months ago. to cut expenses, but even more so to reduce my carbon footprint and heighten the adventure of touring.

taking public transit sure made the journey more epic. i took the subway down to Union Station then hopped on the GO bus to Guelph and in the process saw things i’d never seen before like the Amouries smack dab downtown Guelph. also met some interesting folks and stopped in a great used bookstore, Macondo Books, and picked up a Sam Cooke biography to keep me company on the way back home.

through it all, Woody Guthrie was right there inspiring me to follow through on my desire to tour Canada coast-to-coast on the steel rails this winter. it’s time to see the country from a different angle. and get a good parka.

it feels good to be back a ramblin.

March On Wisconsin – free download

Over the past three weeks the events in Wisconsin have been nothing but captivating. The popular uprising is both exciting and empowering and is turning into quite the showdown:

corporate greed vs. the middle class.

Governments have been obsessed with corporate tax cuts and the destruction of the middle class for three decades now. But the popular uprising in Madison is delivering a clear message – enough is enough!

My own personal experience is that it’s the middle class that drives the local economy not massive corporate profits. They are the ones who live in our communities and spend the most in local shops, restaurants and on the arts. i learned this lesson well over the past few years down in Windsor, Ontario where lots of good paying jobs quickly dried up. The end result for me was that my ability to pay rent quickly dried up as well.

i’m certainly not part of the middle class, and like most artists in the country struggle just to make it to the poverty line, yet i can’t see how the destruction of the middle class is going to improve my lot one bit. It doesn’t infuriate me that some folks have good paying secure jobs while i don’t. It makes me happy. It gives me hope for a better society and that some of that dough might trickle my way too.

But hey, not all are struggling. The two head honchos over at Ford Motor Company just got paid $98.9 million in combined bonuses.

Let’s break that down. The average Canadian family income (two people or more) was $74,600 in 2008. So two Ford execs got combined bonuses of that of 1,200 Canadian families entire earnings. The average income for unattached individuals in 2008 was $31,000 making that roughly 3,200 individuals. But we’re only talking about bonuses here not even the actual income of these two Ford execs.

And where might all that money be coming from?

Win or lose, what’s happening in Wisconsin is extremely important.

Surely the McGuinty Government and the newly minted Harper Government (excuse me?!) are watching closely. Will they take a calculated risk, bet on Canadian passivity and further the dismantling of Canadian democracy and continue to aid the corporate takeover of our country? The events in Wisconsin just made that a much riskier move.

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i’m not seeing a whole lot of coverage about this in our national or local papers so i decided to write my first topical political song in the spirit of Phil Ochs. Possibly this will become a regular thing.

Here it is…

March On Wisconsin
(free download) – right click “save link as”

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March On Wisconsin – words & music by Ron Leary © 2011

march on Wisconsin
don’t be pushed around
oh we know what’s right
and what we’re hearin’ is just plain wrong
march on, march on

it’s a coup d’était
by the corporate class
they tried to slip it past
while no one was lookin’
but they were caught in the act
march on, march on

i hear voices
growing day by day
releasing decades of belt tightenin’
joinin’ hands yellin’ “SHAME, SHAME, SHAME!”
shame shame, shame shame

you been told
keep your mouth shut
let the experts shed light
while they drain pockets
in one great heist
shame shame, shame shame

there’s a chance
this is the first you’ve heard
cause the media’s been sold off
to just a very small rich few
those who control the message
we all know they rarely lose
til today in Wisconsin
we’re learnin’ there’s a brand new day
march on, march on

it ain’t just about
workers rights
it’s an attack on democracy
and that’s what they got
square in their sights
shame shame, shame shame

this ain’t no time
to just stand around
stretch your legs and your mind
let Wisconsin know
that we’re all behind
stretch your legs and your mind
let Wisconsin know
that we’re all behind
march on, march on, march on

march on Wisconsin
don’t be pushed around

Henry Adam Svec: Folklorist

Welcome to the Bedroom Sessions. Occasionally i’ll be posting interviews with some of my friends who are out there doing interesting things in the world.

Folklorist, actor, songwriter, scholar Henry Adam Svec stopped by my place last week, in between performances at the 2011 Rhubarb Festival, to sit down for a little chat.

In installment #1 of the Bedroom Sessions here, Henry discusses his passion for bringing to life the work of Staunton R. Livingston.

Enjoy!

Issue #1 – Henry Adam Svec: Folklorist

Learn and hear more of The CFL Sessions

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songs on this program:

1. Life is like Canadian Football “The CFL Sessions”
2. On Discipline “The CFL Sessions”

* interview recorded Feb 26, 2011
** Travelling Salesman theme song “The Convincer” by Dean Drouillard & Nate Milk

Grasslands National Park & Holy Piss!

One of my favourite things to do with a day off while on tour is to head for the hills.

On one particularly ridiculous Canadian tour a couple of years ago (driving 20,000 km’s in 7 weeks) i made a stop at the Grasslands National Park in southwest Saskatchewan. It turned out to be one of the most memorable nights of my life.

There’s something incredibly special about driving down dirt roads in the middle of nowhere Saskatchewan. All you can see for millions if not billions of miles is endless wheat fields.

The national park is just a few hours southwest of Regina by car and it takes driving down some dirt roads and through a ranch of likely the largest beef cows you’ll ever see to get there.

My first thought upon arriving at the park was wow, not too many people around here. None in fact. The next was hmm, there sure are a lot of bullet holes in all these signs here. Whatever i was exhausted so set up camp for the night.

After setting up my tent on a ridge, overlooking the entire valley, a coyote party erupted just over the ridge. This gave me second thoughts on sleeping in a tent alone in the middle of no where, with no cellular service, no homes nearby and well shit all those bullet holes!!

So another night of sleeping in the car. Awesome, just what i needed.

Exhausted, stiff and half asleep i stepped outta the car in the middle of the night to total silence, or more truly to a hum of the earth, like i’d never experienced before. No cars, airplanes, city sounds, or anything. Just a peaceful buzzing.

In the middle of taking a nature call my eyes finally fully opened to the sight of a massive sky, where i could see the earth rounding in every direction, not just full of stars but packed with billions of them. There was no dark sky to be seen, just a massive blanket of stars. Unbelievable.

This was likely the most powerful and astonishing few moments of my life to date. All i could think of was how overwhelming a sight up there and how deprived us city folk are from experiencing its full beauty and power. That’s what’s up there?!

And all this happened while taking a leak. i like to keep things classy.

* Here’s an interesting article about the Grasslands National Park.

** And some poorly shot video from the park put to my song Years (from the album theroadinbetween):

* next post, coming soon…Bedroom Sessions – Henry Adam Svec: Folkorist

Behind the Song: Steak in the Raw

After years of slugging away in the Windsor bars, playing folk roots music while the grunge scene raged locally, i received my first ever press.

What grabbed the attention of the press was my humourous song called Steak in the Raw. While i certainly appreciated the recognition, all the attention quickly led to the decision to never EVER write another humourous song for fear of becoming pigeonholed as the next Barenaked Ladies.

The inspiration for the song came about cause in my early 20s i became a vegetarian and, being from the Dairy Capital of Canada no less, well that decision was not always terribly well received.

“Smell that juicy piece of meat!” waving it in front of my face. “Mmmm, does that make you wanna puke?” “Come on just have a little, you know you want it” Usually these comments and taunts were delivered by faces all screwed up and looking stupid.

You know, shit like that was nearly a daily thing for years. It was kinda like the whole gay marriage thing. Just cause same-sex couples can marry now does not mean you have to become gay as well. It changes absolutely nothing in your life. Someone being a veggie does not mean you have to subscribe either. It was no personal attack, though it appeared that many folks seemed to take it that way.

After a while i was like F-you, so i wrote a song to warn those meat eaters dangling a blood dripping raw steak in my face to back off suggesting that by forcing us veggies to eat meat may in fact release a pent up voraciousness for eating meat like never witnessed before. One where even your cats and dogs may not be safe from the unleashed insatiable desire to eat meat once again.

Well, it’s a stupid song. But here it is….

Steak in the Raw – words & music by Ron Leary © Feb 2000

slab of bacon served on my breakfast plate
though i’ve not eaten meat in years
“but son don’t you think it’s been draggin on far too long
it’s just a phase and it’ll end today”

give me a hot dog, a steak in the raw
ground beef i resist no more

oh how my life has changed since you unleashed my pain
like my eggs i’m on the sunny side
but lock up the kittens and the dog or i’m liable to eat them all
shake a paw let’s go out for a walk

give me a hot dog, a steak in the raw
ground beef i resist now more

p.s. i’m not a full-time veggie anymore. Insert meat eaters club vindicated smile and “i told you so’s” here. Nowadays i subscribe to the survival diet (aka the musicians diet) pretty much eating anything that lands in front of me in order to stay alive. i’ve yet to eat cat or dog but hey don’t tempt me!

* next post, coming soon…Grasslands National Park & Holy Piss Them Stars!!

9/11 and Meat Song Tuesdays

It’s 9am and by some miracle i actually make it to my Canadian political science class on time for once just for the professor to rush into the room, all up in a knot (more than usual anyway), and announce “something tragic has just happened.” With sweat pouring down everywhere and arms a flailing she claims a passenger jet just crashed into the World Trade towers.

Class dismissed!

So i rushed home, turned on the tube and sat speechless as Dan Rather explained the scene. Holy shit was all i could think. Then, HOLY SHIT!!! live on television another plane flies into the other tower. Sitting on the edge of the couch i fell silent with the occasional outburst of “un-fucking-believable!”

An uneasiness swept across me as you could feel the world on edge…was America just gonna start bombing shit out of grief and anger? Were we on the verge of nuclear war? What the hell was happening?

This also just so happened to be the first night of my new weekly gig in downtown Windsor at The Coach & Horses as well. i kept asking myself, do we still do it? i decided what the hell, if potential nuclear war was upon us we may as well get the libations flowing, play some tunes and enjoy the company of friends.

With my good friend Mark Cassar joining me on the bass the evening got started off as soooooo many others had and have since. Nothing out of the ordinary. Until mid set when the power goes off and the emergency lights flash on. Someone runs downstairs to inform us they’d heard an explosion outside. Folks start freaking out imagining a plane had just flown into the Chrysler Building across the river in Detroit or something. i calmly pack up my guitar, “i ain’t leavin’ it down here!”

Eventually i was herded up to street level and out onto the sidewalk with the rest of the patrons. Turns out a transformer had blown and left the downtown core in darkness. Everyone’s nerve’s were a wreck. It all provided for some uneasy drunken laughs.

While out on the street, i figured what the hell, may as well make the best of the situation and pulled out the guitar and continued the show on the street. i’m not a huge fan of busking but this was different and turned into one of those magical moments.

Eventually they let us back in to grab the rest of our stuff. A few of us cozied up to the bar, lit some candles and drank for a while, while longer laughing and just digesting the day. It turned out to be a great night! And definitely goes down as one of the most memorable days and gigs of my life. It was a day that everything changed. Fear won the favour of the day and still grips and dominates today’s political discourse.

What grew out of this single extraordinary night was an amazingly tight knit community of folks. The weekly gig had a four month run and nearly every single person that attended the 9/11 show was there every week following til its end. We’d all been through one unbelievable experience and it formed an instant unique bond like i’d never been part of before or since.

That was the day Meat Song Tuesdays was born!

More on the inspiration and story behind the name of this particular weekly gig in next week’s post.

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* next post, coming soon… Behind the Song: Steak in the Raw

Phil Ochs Talking America

Leave the old and dying America and use your creative energies to help form a new America, which would be de-militarized, more humanistic, where the police are less hostile and closer to the community, where the wealthy are not given unleashed power for the exploitation of the people.
– Phil Ochs (quote from Broadside Magazine)

35 years after his death, Phil Ochs’ message remains as fresh as ever. i always have a place in my heart for such radicals and individuals not afraid to shout out loud what they believe in. i’m not talking about the Don Cherry types who are always yelling down others, accusing anyone who disagrees with them as leftwing bike riding pinko fags, but individuals like Martin Luther King Jr, John Lennon, and currently Julian Assange, who are brave enough to risk their own lives by promoting an alternative vision for a more peaceful world or by exposing corruption at the highest level.

i decided this week to revisit one of my favourite songwriters from the 60s, Phil Ochs. He is one of the great topical songwriters, an important figure in the history of popular music and his message is still relevant today.

Ochs moved to NYC in the early 60s and immediately made an impact on the folk scene that was raging in Greenwich Village, which included the likes of Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Pete Seeger. These heavyweights led the huge folk revival movement that swept America. Ochs was amongst the most political of the bunch. He was a political activist with a strong social conscience and heavily involved in both the civil rights and anti-war movements, lending his support to numerous benefits and protests.

In 1962 Broadside Magazine was founded, an underground independent press that became key to the cohesion of the folk movement housing folkies such as Ochs, Dylan and those too radical for the established underground. This magazine and its spirit has always intrigued me. It would be interesting to see if a publication like this could still work today.

Throughout the 60s Ochs would contribute numerous songs and articles to Broadside. Many of the songs can be found on The Broadside Tapes 1, a great showcase of Ochs’ abilities as a master writer of the topical song.

The rise of the 60s folk movement in large part ode its popularity to the emergence of The New Left in America. And vice versa. The New Left was a movement based around activism and direct action focused on attacking militarism, materialism and sexual repression. It was largely a youth movement centred around the college campuses of America. These large groups of youth on campus pressing for change provided a mass audience for folk singers like Ochs and especially Dylan, providing the conditions for them to become, like Lennon claimed, “bigger than Jesus.” These folks singers became the heroes of a generation.

One of my favourite Ochs tunes is “What Are you fighting for?” It’s still a good question to ask 35 years later and most relevant today as the Afghanistan War continues to rage on.

Is it unpatriotic to question war as folks like Don Cherry yammer on about every Saturday night on the CBC? Or it is honourable to ask tough questions of our government about its true interests? Are those interests to spread democracy and end sexual repression? Or is it to secure natural resources like British journalist Robert Fisk claims? Is it worth the sacrifice?

Read your morning papers, read every single line
And tell me if you can believe that simple world you find
Read every slanted word till your eyes are getting sore,
I know you’re set for fighting, but what are you fighting for?

What got me thinking about Phil Ochs again was a recent panel discussion followed by some excerpts from the new Phil Ochs documentary There But For Fortune on Democracy Now recently. Watch that segment here.

It’s been rather fun pulling out my Phil Ochs collection again and has also inspired me to delve further into his recorded career and message. The 60s ideals of love, compassion and peace could really give the current political discourse a nice shot in the arm.

Here’s a tribute from Billy Bragg to his hero Phil Ochs:

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* next post, coming soon – September 11th & the birth of Meat Song Tuesdays