Helping with a White Winter?

Hey folks -
It's a short one but that doesn't mean there isn't a handful to explore...






Please check the new music selections to your right----------->

And one of my favorites... a beautiful song that hopefully, if you all play it at the same time, will bring northern Minnesota some SNOW in the new year of 2012!



Hope you all have a new year filled with peace and happiness.

Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for BEARDwatch2012.... it's going to be FunTastic!

3 Finds of the Week - Boner Dollar, Sled Dog Trucker Hat & a 1974 Alvarez 12 String Acoustic Guitar!

Hey folks -
Last week was one of those special string of days where you can't help but get lucky... mine went a bit like this....
A student at work comes to me and says "hey, do you have change for a five?" I say, "Why yes, I think I do." And so he proceeds to count out five dollar bills, and says, "Hey, look at THIS!", the dollar had been defaced - from reading "ONE" on the back to this....

Needless to say, I kept this dollar and still have it today... careful not to spend it... I have to pick a good place to pass this baby along... certainly not at WalMart or in a soda machine...

Second nice find was a new sweet trucker hat that came to me at Goodwill... yeah, I frequent Goodwill... they have some nice stuff - like dogsled trucker hats... and cheap-ass stuffed animals that work great for dog toys among other things... need a can opener - go to Goodwill... it'll cost you 50 cents rather than 8.99.
Anyway this is the kind of hat you just don't find ANYWHERE else...

It's all silvery too.

And the BIG FIND OF THE WEEK goes to the vintage 1974 Alvarez 12 string guitar I scored off of Craigslist from Jim in Superior for a ROCK BOTTOM price of just  $100... that's right $100. She plays like a dream, has a straight-as-an-arrow neck, beautiful finish with nearly 40 years of patina and even came with a case! I'll try to get some audio/video up here soon so you can hear the chorus of angels that come out of the thing when you pluck a string!
Check it out...

Hope all is well with everyone reading this... Keep DellMarie in your thoughts - she's going through yet some more crappy medical stuff... as if the gall bladder and hysterectomy within a few months last year wasn't enough... she's a tropper though - battling through.

Alright... hope you all get a few good finds come your way soon!

Meanwhile you can rock out to some Wild Flag from a recent Letterman broadcast... some interesting rock n roll...

~peace~

Dave Van Ronk & Drive By Truckers

Music Post # 113
Two tunes I've listened to about 47 times in the last week.
Thought they were worthy of a blog post.
Hope you enjoy.
Dave Van Ronk - you MUST check this one out... some great growls in here.... and when you're done dial up Charlie Parr's version on the 12 string resonator guitar live from Terrapin Station on YouTube... dare I say it's better???


And Drive By Truckers doing their tune "Used to be a Cop"... the vid is nothing to look at so if you're at work hit play and go about your bidness... and let it rock... it's a 7+ minute jam... love the bass line...


It's mid December in Minnesota and we don't have any snow on the ground... all you folks out there reading... run outside tonight at midnight in your underwear and do a snow dance under the full moon! You ROCK!

COMING SOON!
MONTHLY BEARD-A-THON...Stay tuned!

So You Wanna Play Drums Like Pepe eh?

Hey people.
Sorry for the blog inactivity - DellMarie hasn't been feeling well and we've been back and forth to the docs trying to get her pointed in the right direction... so that's what has been occupying our time as of late.

Hey... check out what's diggin musically over in the side bar... you can click on them to bring you to a YouTube vid of that music selection! ------------------------->>>>>>>>
Anyway, have you ever wondered what it would be like if you could play the shit out of a dusty old drum set that has been laying around in a storage trailer for a few years? Probably thinking to yourself that you could make that baby ring and pop and bang! And then when you run into your buddy on the street you could say something like "Hey man... WANNA PLAY DRUMS!?!"
Well check this out... None other than Mark "Pepe" Macham rockin' it...


Didn't that rock your socks off...

The other news is that Chris "Sid" has the home studio set up and rarin' to go... so all you music types that might want to record something for an alien life form to find in the year 2412... if your cd or digital file survives that long.... dial him up - or me and we'll get ya goin. Hopefully I'll have a sample of the crispy clean recordings he's capable of here in the next few days.

Keep on rockin'!

Bigfoot or Sasquatch in Carlton County - Finding Bigfoot with Ranae Holland & Buddy Knox

So apparently Carlton County - where we live - is a hotbed of Bigfoot - or Sasquatch - activity. So much so it has attracted the Animal Planet show "Finding Bigfoot" to little ole Carlton County. They conducted a town-hall meeting regarding Bigfoot sightings/experiences -filmed an episode and were quoted as saying the town hall meeting drew the largest crowd they had ever seen with well over 100 folks attending - including many first-hand accounts of Bigfoot experiences. Kind of make you Tomten campers a little on edge eh?

All this went down in late August... here is a link to the local articles posted on the Finding Bigfoot blog...
http://bigfootevidence.blogspot.com/2011/08/finding-bigfoot-minnesota-town-hall.html

So to go right along with that like bacon and eggs... here is a tune called "I STILL BELIEVE IN BIGFOOT"


I just couldn't pass this one up... seems to be the original of any of the Bigfoot songs out there...
By Buddy Knox... Bigfoot Song - even though it says copyright 2009 - I'm pretty sure that's a load of bullshit.
Enjoy - and keep an eye out for the Sasquatch!

David Mayfield's mom had sex with Jimi Hendrix, Zach Galifianakis and Jim Croce

David Mayfield... Schizophrenic Folk-a-fatized music... I found it.. had to post it... don't know what else to say but WOW!

Occupy American People with Pete Seeger and Social Justice!

So... after having a session at the Gopher Lounge down in West Duluth for a "work meeting" we - meaning the hardcore folks that we left after induldging for 5+ hours came to the conclusion that "THE REVOLUTION IS HERE".   That bears repeating... "THE REVOLUTION IS HERE"... the class revolution that has taken form in of "Occypy ______". There was spirited talk of protest and solidarity... WHO'S WITH ME?
Even Duluth - less than 100,000 folks have had week long protests - Occupy Duluth - who would have thought? I think it says a whole lot if you ask me.

So I'll provide you with some solid facts in case you aren't hip to the revolution...

The richest 1% of adults in the world own 40% of the planet's wealth, according to the largest study yet of wealth distribution. The report also finds that those in financial services and the internet sectors predominate among the super rich.
Europe, the US and some Asia Pacific nations account for most of the extremely wealthy. More than a third live in the US. Japan accounts for 27% of the total, the UK for 6% and France for 5%.
The report found the richest 10% of adults accounted for 85% of the world total of global assets. Half the world's adult population, however, owned barely 1% of global wealth.
 

 
And one misconception that NEEDS to be cleared up is the idea that Obama can wave a magic wand and "create" jobs. Sorry folks, doesn't happen that way. The companies that control the money in this economy - dare I mention the bailed out bastards - are sitting on a huge pile of cash that they aren't investing  - ie. JOBS... not to mention they still pay the CEO's a heafty ?? million dollar salary and bonus every year since...so in the meantime the American public whiles away the hours wondering why our president isn't making jobs for everyone to go work at!?!

And so we have ridiculous statements by presidential candidates like "if you're not a millionaire the only one you have to blame is yourself". And we need to give tax breaks to the richest people in this country because if we don't they won't create jobs and we'll all be screwed! Yeah that trickle down economics is certain to work one of these decades!

Misinformed, sound-bite american public zombies that don't understand how this system works and how corrupt it is... Millions, if not Billions of lobbyist money sleazing up our government... given the cost of living and inflation the average wages in this country hasn't moved since the 70's.... do some research! 

WHEN DO YOU STAND UP AND SAY BULLSHIT... I'VE HAD ENOUGH? 
 
Off my soapbox... 
But I will end with the grandfather of protest songwriters... Mr. Pete Seeger fighting for justice...
WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
 
M

Richard Simmons and/or Bob Ross Halloween Costume Tutorial

RICHARD SIMMONS and BOB ROSS!

Obiously for the Richard Simmons you need some sort of bedazzled tank top, a sweat band, some short shorts (running shorts work great - especially if you bedazzle them with sparkly sequenes and such), wrist sweat bands, athletic shoes of some sort and a flammer attitude.... good to go.

Bob Ross - a blue button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a painters pallete, paint brushes, blue or black jeans, a beard and again, an afro wig. Talk about friendly trees and happy accidents and it's all up to you what lives in your world... and you're good to go. When you leave the party say... Good night my friends... and God bless as you tinkle your fingers at them. Make sure you bring a brush that you "beat the devil out of" on everything you encounter.

Hope you have a great Halloween... get out there and dress it up!

Halloween Costumes... Bob Ross, Richard Simmons and Freddy Mercury!

Hey dudes...
With Halloween fast approaching, I have been doing some searching for Halloween costume ideas. I'm a bit limited to ones with beards since DellMarie threatens divorce if I shave... and I've already done that once so twice would spell disaster!
Anyway, we have been going to our friend's tattoo shop - INK - for their annual Halloween Party - lots of fun costumes every year.  This year should be no different.

This year I'm debating between Uncle Jesse from the Dukes of Hazzard and Papa Smurf.... and the outside possiblility of the Gordon's Fisherman - ya know.... fish sticks guy... but a big yellow rain slicker and hat might be tough to come by.

Here are some pics from last year....

Kenny as Richard Simmons, Jill as the Bearded Lady and me as Bob Ross.

 Jacob as Freddy Mercury - with the nasty teeth even!

A Chilean Miner, a dead sailor and a hot dog... now just imagine having a few drinks and getting a little sideways with a Chilean miner, Richard Simmons, Freddy Mercury, a bearded lady and a hot dog!

Good times! 

DellMarie as Otis from House of 1000 Corpses, Bob Ross again and Carrie Ann as the Bride of Frankenstien.

In keeping with the Halloween theme...

Here we go with Frankenstein from the Edgar Winter Group...

Prepare for a MONSTER jam!



Broken Dog Leg, External Fixator and Rodrigo y Gabriela

So the big news of last week was that our youngest doggy - Poppy - who broke her leg in early June - not sure how??? ask us later.... she got the 4 pins in her broken leg taken out on Tuesday... it has been a LONG, LONG 3 months of wrapping, taping, cleaning, vet visits.. etc. etc. But... she's running around minus any fixator or support and is doing great... still not 100% but getting there.
Just for shock value.. here is her initial x-ray... broke her leg clean in half... pretty it aint...

Now on to the good stuff...
Rodrigo y Gabriela... a duo of guitarist that play the holy shit out of their guitars... espcially Gabriela - she has some ridiculous strumming patterns. It's spanish-guitar with a big dash of attitude... they cover Metallica tunes,... and not lame ones.. like Ride The Lightning tunes!
Anyway, check them out....

PALEFACE + AVETT BROTHERS + MUSTACHE = MUSIC DELICIOUSNESS

Mid week bracer comin' at ya... well a little past mid week but what the hell it's the Wrenshackian Blogger 200th post! FRICKIN' YA!

2 music selections by one of my recent new discoveries - PALEFACE.

First... a tune called ROCK AND ROLL... it's explained well in the beginning of the video...



And secondly...
a tune called New York featuring the one and only AVETT Bros. Really diggin Seth's (the dude on the furthest left) 1. Trucker hat on the tilt and 2. His ultimate mustache-fighter mustache.
I wish I could play on a pier or a boat and sound that good on a one shot dingwop... damn.


HEY.... COMMING NEXT! POPPY BROKEN LEG RECOVERY NEWS! GOOD TIMES!

From Englund with Love from Barry Gibb

Hey folks...

A gem from this summer... Kurt Englund from Esko-town doing a Springsteen tune at Al and Phoebe's big backyard bash down in the furthest west reaches of D-town... 

And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Mark Macham - drummer extrordinaire - was sitting in with Kurt on most of his set and obviously this tune.

As Kurt said... this recording is "NO JOKE!" thanks to Jim Randall... I'm 93% sure that was his name... he mixed the sound at Al's... did a great job on Sid's PA no doubt.

 

And some comedy for ya... anyone hip to BARRY GIBB and the Bee Gees?

Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake do the Barry Gibb Talkshow on Saturday Night Live from

time to time... I think there are about 4 or 5 "episodes" out there...Enjoy the fall season out there!

~peace~

Kilgour, Crooked Still, and Ole Hippie Dude's Daughter or probably Grand Daughter

HEY hey HEY... What's Happenin'?

Not much here.. just posting a couple quick music nuggets I'm diggin'....
Please... check 'em out!

We'll start out with the most controversial of the three.... Racheal Kilgour from Duluthtown with a thought-provoking tune about organized religion.... great song - well written....



Then we have CROOKED STILL doing "Darling Corey".... heard it on my way home today on the one and only KUMD 103.3
If you dig Allison Krause and Union Station you'll dig this... and the chello player is... as Mel Torme would say... "THE TOPS!"  It's just a black screen and the tune so close your eyes and enjoy!


Finally... I stumbled across this while searching out a David Bromberg tune... OleHippeDude of Youtube posted it... I think it's beautiful. Hope you do too. Sounds like the Cicadas dig it too!
~peace brothers and sisters!~

I Aint No Fortunate Son!

Hey party people...

Not making excuses here... well maybe I am... but only played this one about 3 times but I think it has some nice potential...and I promised a tune this week... so didn't have much choice. Hope you dig it.

Sorry for the coughs at the end... I was trying to choke them back... remnents of that damn cold!

THis goes out to all those peace-lovin', anti-war folks... support your soldiers but HATE the war!

I'm a poet and I live in a compound defended by polygamist haikus

Heard this on NPR years ago and for some strange reason I kept it in the back of my mind for recall later.... well today has officially become later. I'm sharing this gem with you... Poet Andrei Codrescu entertains you with a great commentary on the bailout a couple years back... Hey... if you check this... write a poem tonight! ANd if you're REALLY cool you'll share that poem with us on the comments!

Back At The Salt Mines

Hey folks... Not much big news here... just spent last week back at the grind in PROCTOR town.... went well. Shakin' off the cold... 95% gone. I'm making a deal right now that I will post some sort of music dingwop of my own this week... so stay tuned... couldn't breathe much less attempt to sing anything last week... but we'll have something in a few days here. IN the meantime check out this new tune by Ben Harper... heard it on the one and only 103.3 KUMD on the way to work the other day and really dug it.... Waitin' On A Sign.... absolutely LOVE the guitar solo....great sound. ROCK!

Everybody Look What's Goin' Down

HAPPY LABOR DAY! For those keeping score... we didn't make it to Ted "the Nuge" Nugent and Foghat on Sunday... still feel like SHIT... slowly getting better... but way to slow for my liking. Worst cold I EVER had - hands down. But I'll survive...thanks for your concern and well wishes... I'm sure the cards and letters got caught up in the mail due to the holiday weekend... We went down the the big Labor Day Celebration in CLOQUET-TOWN.... one of the biggest Labor Day Events in Minnesota and one of the longest held in the nation! Stopped off for a free lunch at the Labor Temple and then checked out MILKBONE... a band of older dudes that know how to groove... they play anything from the Greatful Dead to Dylan to Merle Haggard.... did a great cover of For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield today.... you know the song.... "Somethins happenin here... what it is aint exactly clear... theres a man with a gun over there....tellin'me I got to beware... I think its time we stop children whats that sound everybody look what's goin' down!" Sounded great! SOrry no photos. Well, Here's one for the WORKIN' MAN! This is a Merle Haggard tune... Workin' Man Blues... but this version is done by Johnny Hiland... guitar extrodinaire... the dude can pick! POWER TO THE WORKIN MAN!

Gay Pride Parade - SoupTown USA!

Hey blogger reader folks Today we headed out the door at 11:00 on our way to INK Tattoo in Superior, WIsconsin. Why you ask? Cause the good folks at INK - Jacob, Jill and Matt (You cats ROCK IT!) have a bloody mary bar in their tattoo shop - which is a helluva shop if you're ever thinkin' bout inkin' it up. Anyway, they do this prior to the gay pride parade that travels past their store front on Tower Avenue. I have to say that their spread brought a tear to my eye... shrimp, celery, pickled garlic, olives, pickles, asparagus spears, Pabst beer for snits... I'm forgeting half the stuff... but what really brought me to my knees was a big plate of BACON... and not just some pan-fried-here-ya-go-bacon-&-eggs-bacon... this stuff was baked in brown sugar and something else that I forgot cuz when I bit into that stuff I went straight to heaven... a Gay Pride Heaven! Have you ever had a slice of bacon in your bloody mary? Well then you haven't lived! Wow that stuff was great - thanks to Matt O... wow again! I"m just pissed I didn't snap a photo of their spread. A couple pics from the parade....

DellMarie and Carrie couldn't keep their eyes off this guy... the dude in the orange... they tried taking like 10 pictures of him...but OOOPS... BUSTED! By the way ladies... HE"S GAY!

And finally - this was the most Flaming Float of the parade... which wasn't all that flaming... I was pleasently suprised... only because I think the gay community does iteslf a disservice when they have dudes parading down main street in ass-less chaps or something crazy like that... makes it tough to take them seriously... but all in all this parade was very dignified and honorable... nothing objectionable here...

Oh, crap... and finally - the folks at INK & friends were prepared for the haters and repenters.... so here are a few pics of them confronting the JESUS SAVES folks... priceless...

Woke Up This Mornin'

Had the absolutely WORST sore throat in all of my 36 years when I woke up this morning. Chest cold, head cold... this sucks... I haven't been sick like this in a decade... SUCKS! Working on a banjo version of Fortunate Son by the CCR... hopefully will get it posted after I recover... ugh. Might be going to see Ted Nugent and Foghat at Fortune Bay Casino this weekend... then again, might not... I 'll keep ya posted... Meanwhile, I'm feelin'....

Beards for Bums.... or Whiskers for Winos

Hey folks -
Today was the day - shaved the big beard. What great memories we had... that taco sauce back in June, the baby birds that hatched out in April, half a bale of hay in August, special conditioning in March, Bob Ross on Halloween... oh, how I could go on... I'll miss you big guy.

WOW!

Obviously couldn't do the full monty - more for DellMarie than me... she claimed she couldn't stand to face my bare upper lip and who knows how many chins I might have had hidden under all that hair.... speaking of all that hair....I know... kind of gross right? At least all of it sitting there,...
Still deciding on where to donate the shavings to... Beards for Bums or Whiskers for Winos. Think of how inadequate you'd feel as a bum if you couldn't grow a decent beard...
Crap, just remembered Hillbilly Hair is always accepting donations too... damnit.

Besides the beard news, DellMarie, Sid and Marnie and I attended the first and probably last Metal Throwdown in Carlton, MN... 18 death/thrash/hardcore/brutal metal bands... one of our buds was playing in a band and so we stopped on in Saturday night... I have to say the crowd was embarassingly small - like 20 people... ouch. The metalers did a great job at their craft... and it was interesting...
A pic of Joe - our buddy on bass - and the lead singer of JAUNDICE!

Oh, have to say I've never heard more F-bombs shouted into a microphone than I did Saturday night... so that's somethin'.

Well, back to work on Tuesday and Thursday for this dude... been a wild summer... guess it had to come to an end sometime...
Until next time~~~

Loose Change 9/11... It Will BLOW Your Mind!

HOly SHit... Just watched Loose Change 9/11 - I would suggest anyone reading this that hasn't checked it out to do so as soon as you get a chance... I was shaking my head all the way through it... it's crazy but frightening clear that 9/11 was not what most people believe it to be... just check it out...
here is the trailer...

Random Things That Bring Me Joy!

Wow... I'm a bloggin' fool...
Anyway, came up with a little side bar I'm incorporating....

RANDOM THINGS THAT BRING ME JOY!

I'll change it randomly so keep watch!

Check it out to your right homeslice!

Kimya Dawson from The Moldy Peaches... Truvia?? NO!

Hey...
Check it... found out about the MOldy Peaches about 2 yrs. ago... simple but fun stuff... and just dialed this one up on the Utube... Kimya Dawson from the peaches... interesting fact - apparently she was ripped off in a Truvia commerical - with a song that sounds a whole lot like her... but it's not.... hmmm...

Anyway... here is Jorge Regula by the Moldy Peaches and The Beer by Kymya Dawson... both good stuff... check out the strumming on The Beer... wild!

The Northwoods Dingwop is Back

Hey all - if anybody is checking still...
Had an outstanding Tomten weekend on the 20th of August. Great food, drink and most of all music. Had a nice downpour - wouldn't be Tomten without one... then two double rainbows... WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

So big thanks to Sid for the PA and recordings.... we'll be sending them on out soon... and big thanks to Paul and the Pilots and Sara for making the trip up from St. Paul town... great to have you guys. And of course my beautiful sister Carrie for all her help! Al and Phoebe too! Nice to see the VW Camper out and about.

Already making big plans for next year!
Here are some pics from the weekend...

PAUL SEEBA slaying on the Tomten stage...

DOUBLE RAINBOW!

The former Pilots looking suprisingly sober?!?...

CHRIS CLEMENS closing up the night or early mornin'...

Lastly, if you want to get a gut ache laughing at something... check this one out... ties into the DOUBLE RAINBOW!