Through the Holidays...

I hope everyone reading this has had happy holidays. Mine were fine. On December 19 my friend Doug Purcell hosted a Christmas party/jam session at his seaside condo, attended by many local area friends. On Christmas Day I worked around the house in the morning, and in the afternoon, along with Doug Purcell, I dropped by the home of friends Ellie Schwartz and Doug Travers for visiting, music, and food. Good fun. On New Year's Eve a crowd of us met up again at Doug Purcell's place. Then on January 1 I attended a big jam session and party at Jim and Peggy Kaufman's house in Pinellas Park, Florida---an event that happens every year. I never miss it if I am in Florida for the holidays. The past few years I have been at the Woolshed Festival away off around the world near Dargaville, New Zealand, when the new year has come in. This year, for a change, I was here at home!

I've written a few Christmas songs. About twenty years ago I wrote one called Christmas In The Country, after stopping at the Little America truckstop at Green River, Wyoming, on a Christmas Day. Just for grins I dug it out this holiday season and have been singing it. Response has been good. I may end up recording the darned thing!

Here are the lyrics for Christmas In The Country:

CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY
Copyright (c) 1989 by Charley Groth

Turkey dinner in a truckstop tastes all right;
I guess I'm glad I stopped here in this long Wyoming night;
They've got pretty lights and presents and a big old Christmas tree---
And the waitress says she comes from Tennessee.

Jammin' gears about a thousand miles today,
I've stayed right on the road to drive these holidays away;
But now I'll sit and drift a while back thru the years, I know---
Back to CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY long ago.

[CHORUS]
CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY---in my heart I'm going there,
Where the hills of home lie sleepin' deep in snow;
CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY---with all the love we shared,
At CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY long ago.

Carols playing on the jukebox sound so good;
I can't forget the kids we were, who sang the best we could;
Merry Christmas in my mem'ry: There we are around the tree---
And I'll find one gift that's waiting just for me.

Jammin' gears about two thousand miles away,
I can't go back; I've gone too far, and I'll just have to stay;
But I'll drink my coffee black and drift on back again I know---
Back to CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY long ago.

[CHORUS]
CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY---in my heart I'm going there,
Where the hills of home lie sleepin' deep in snow;
CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY---with all the love we shared,
At CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY long ago.

CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY---when everybody cared,
At CHRISTMAS IN THE COUNTRY long ago.

I've continued to stay busy. I've been working on both the e-book I'm writing and on my new CD. The good news is that the CD is almost finished. I'm into final mixing and mastering. This one will called Roll On, and it will include a number of my own compositions, both songs and instrumentals, and music from sources as diverse as tradition, Jean Ritchie, Hank Snow, and Duke Ellington.

Here's a list of the contents, for those interested: Roll On Buddy (Nine Pound Hammer); Florida Blues (my song, not the Chubby Wise instrumental); Friendship Waltz (one of my waltzes, written especially for Autoharp); When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again (the great old country standard, in what I hope is a fresh new version with interesting instrumental breaks); Rattlesnake Road Rag (an instrumental rag I wrote years ago when I did a radio show on Rattlesnake Road out near Lake Wales, Florida); Easy Street (one of my rare jazz-style songs); From Dusk To Dawn (an old story song I wrote years ago to tell a true tale, recorded live during an NPR radio show, with just my vocal and guitar); Janny Bea Rag (an instrumental inspired by a very cute picture of Jan Milner as a child, and her story of dancing with her father when she was a little one); The L & N Don't Stop Here Anymore (the great Jean Ritchie song); Hazel Eyes (a re-mastered re-issue of a 12-string guitar instrumental I wrote and recorded on an album many years ago, back in the vinyl days); So Many Songs, So Little Time (a recent ballad of mine); Don't Get Around Much Anymore (an instrumental take on the Duke Ellington classic, featuring my beeyoootiful Gibson Herb Ellis electric archtop guitar); Black Range Tales (an impressionistic alternate-tuning guitar instrumental seeking to evoke New Mexico's Black Range mountains); and Play Something We All Know (a country song I wrote about a life lesson I learned as a young man on the music road).

As always, I've tried to do unusual, creative arrangements of all of the CD music. I think I've succeeded in doing things listeners will find interesting. That's the challenge for me: Not just getting another CD out, but doing something people will really enjoy because it isn't just pretty much the same as all the others. Of course, "same as all the others" is exactly what the corporate music lords in Nashville are looking for...never realizing that when the most recent flood of "sound alikes" began, what began that particular flood was something NOT pretty much like all the other releases happening at the time. Okay, griping over. The good things so many people tell me who have enjoyed my recordings through the years is what is truly important to me. Thanks for all the kind words.

I can say this: The cover picture on this new CD will be far and away the most unusual album cover picture I've ever used!! I can hardly believe it myself. You'll have to wait to see it!!

The CD will be onsale both directly, online, and in some stores, soon. I'll announce the date here.

Health notes, negative and positive:

I have continued to have problems with occasional numbness and some pain in my left shoulder, arm, and hand. Finally went to a (non drug-and-surgery) doctor who sent me to a chiropractor. After two visits, I don't think the chiropractor has done me any good and, in fact, has caused the numbness to worsen if anything. So, probably will not go back.

On the other hand (pun intended), I have had great good luck with my battle with environmental allergies (pollen, etctera) here in Florida. In the past few years I have developed increasingly severe allergic reactions. I don't like to take drugs, ever, and so have taken antihistamine drugs VERY reluctantly to get some relief. I listen to an excellent radio health show called Duke and the Doctor. The show's Dr. Jan McBarron, who is both an M.D. and a naturopathic physician, provides solid advice for health maintenance using natural, non-drug and non-surgical methods. The show is associated with a organization called Institute for Healthy Living that also provides some online health counseling. These two sources have lately led me to get on VitaLogic brand's Allergy Formula (herbal supplement) and a good probiotic to boost my immune system. I also was already taking VitaLogic's Daily Extra, a high-quality multiple vitamin supplement, and VitaLogic's Immune Formula, designed to boost the immune system. I am very VERY happy to say that since starting the Allergy Formula and the probiotic (I am using Vitamin Discount Center's Suprema Dophilus) about 90 percent of my allergic symptoms have vanished! It really works!!

Here are Duke and the Doctor:

Duke and the Doctor

Here is Institute for Healty Living:

Institute for Healthy Living


I would enthusiastically recommend these to anyone!

Well, friends, sad to say, it is chilly here in Florida right now. The HIGH today is supposed to be about 50 degrees f. That means, by Florida standards, it is actually DAMNED COLD here. Someone said it has been forty-odd years since it has been this cold here. I have a young house guest right now, Austin Truax, whose wife and kids are WAY up north, in northern Nebraska close to the South Dakota line...where the big blizzards are blowing. Funny, they don't think it is cold here at all. Nevertheless, I'm cold, and I need to go find out where I can buy a half-cord of firewood. I have some wood, and a very nice fireplace to burn it in, but I need more. I know of one wood seller, but he is all sold out today.

Later!!