Category: Thursday Music

Dolly Parton’s ” Jolene ” is one of the most iconic songs in the history of country music. In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine ranked it #217 on their list of of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. But apparently not everyone agrees with the song’s narrator who begs Jolene…

Hey gang, below is my entry into National Public Radio’s annual song contest, aka ” Tiny Desk Contest”. The video is rare footage of an irascible and cantankerous recluse in his natural habitat performing a surprisingly tender song at serious odds with his public persona. So if you could find…

Here’s Joni Mitchell live, with Roger McGuinn and Bob Dylan, at Gordon Lightfoot’s home. What a line-up. What a party that must have been!

Rickie Lee Jones has a new book out, Last Chance Texaco. Here’s the song from which the title is taken, which was a track from her eponymous debut album released in 1979. Loved this record when it came out. Still do.

Bob Dylan turned 80 years old this week. Happy Birthday Bob!

Neil Young wrote it. Grace Potter and Joe Satriani nailed it. Enjoy.

Tori Amos belongs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. With 15 studio albums during a career spanning 30 years she has consistently charted a singular path with a style and sound all her own. Here she is performing ” Winter “, live, from her debut album Little Earthquakes.

Stephen Biko was a anti-apartheid activist and leader of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa during the late 1960’s-1970’s. In September 1977 he was beaten by police during a 22 hour interrogation and died days later from his injuries while in detention. His death sparked an international outcry and…

The late, great John Trudell came to national prominence as the spokesperson for the ” United Indians of All Tribes ” who occupied Alcatraz Island from November of 1969 to June of 1971. He became a leader of the American Indian Movement in the 1970’s and turned to writing and…

I wrote this song 30 years ago, shortly after the Gulf War began in 1991. I didn’t know at the time that another invasion of Iraq by America would occur in 2003, or that by 2021 we would be involved in 20 years of war in Afghanistan with no end…