A bit more uptempo and aggressive than previous tracks.

The Glass Harmonica

The first song in my musical tour through a more inclusive, honest historical look at the Homestead Act. We begin with the idealism of this song but will go through the harrowing experiences of White and Black farmers and of course it's massive, tragic motivation of dispossessing Native people of millions of acres of land.

Hutchinson Family Singers- Uncle Sam's Farm (Cover)

This is a cover of "Run Indian Run" by Buddy Red Bow, sung by me, Johnny Lofenstein, a non-Native songwriter. Jarring no doubt as the person singing the song inevitably changes it meaning. I made the questionable decision of singing it from the original perspective of a Native person, as its written and not changing it to the colonizer's perspective. Purposefully fraught and a bit awkward to show another side of homesteading history. We cannot deny that our identity often shapes how we view history. Therefore, why hope for one all-knowing objectivist account? Instead, we need to amass diverse voice and perspectives and sort out the truth from these varied accounts.

Buddy Red Bow- Run Indian Run(Cover)

You cannot think about the Civil War without thinking of John Brown, his violent actions to Kansas a free state and his failed raid on Harper's Ferry. You can't think about the Homestead Act without the Civil War, as in some respects the redistribution of indigenous lands to largely White farmers helped stop the spread of plantation economics powered by enslaved labor. Brown's legacy would call Black farmers to Kansas where they claimed land and formed the community of Nicodemus, the subject of another "Wokestead" song, "Wake Nicodemus".

William W. Patton-John Brown's Body (Cover)

The depiction of homesteading from Little House on the Prairie  dominates public thought on the Homestead Act. Lesser known, Black folks decided to strike out, fleeing the violence of the South and to seek opportunity and economic advancement on the Great Plains. Practicing safety in numbers, they claimed neighboring homesteads and built communities. They ran local social institutions and adapted their farming knowledge to drier, harsher climates.

Henry C Clay-Wake Nicodemus (Cover)

I had almost forgotten about this amazing Johnny Cash song until I stumbled upon the cover version by Floyd Red Crow Westerman, an indigenous singer, songwriter and actor. I will add one of his songs on here later. I appreciate the sweep of the song from the boarding schools to the stolen land. If I remember right, Johnny Cash believe he had Native ancestry when he created the album that featured this song. Though it didn't turn out to be the case, the deep empathy he infuses this song with is amazing. The cultural genocide described here hangs deeply to the idea of empty West that the government could "give away to homesteaders.

Johnny Cash-Drums (Cover)

A cover of a "Now That the Buffalo's Gone" by the amazing Cree First  Nations singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie. The song makes some amazingly impactful points of the U.S. and Canadian colonial onslaught against Native people/ First Nations: 1) How people will claim Native ancestry when convenient, 2) That certain segment of society empathize with the plight of Native people but do nothing to rectify injustices, 3) that the Allies treated Germany with kid gloves after the Holocaust, but robbed Native people of their land and rights after no such crimes and 4) despite the real existence of treaties the U.S. government continues to weaken tribal sovereignty and disrespect indigenous territory. History repeats itself whenever corporations or the government covets access to Native lands and the resources they hold. The buffalo remain a powerful metaphor, once the center of indigenous lifeways on the North American Great Plains, wiped out by a noxious blend of capitalist militarism.
Homesteaders of course are the upspoken characters in this tale, having followed the governments call to be settler colonists, sometimes directly attacking Native people, at other times weakening the ecological networks upon which Native people relied. Homesteaders descendants have created a legal and moral claim to the "real" native people of the Plains, forgetting the treaties signed less than 200 years ago that guaranteed Native people territorial and hunting rights to these lands.

Buffy Sainte-Marie - Now That the Buffalo's Gone (Cover)

What an Amazing Speech as MLK expanded his vision to call out white privilege inherent in the colonization of the west. While some Black folks did claim land through the Homestead Act in both the south and the west, in many states they claimed less than a few percent with whites gaining all the intergenerational wealth from land. The Homestead Act did not deny African Americans land, but demanded that people who just gain freedom after generations of bondage to have the capital to start a farm. White people had the capital ready. As MLK notes they constantly subsidized predominantly white farmers. Politicians named this "settlement" and not colonization or the building of existing income inequality. Only class action lawsuits proved that local governmental agencies had made racist decisions to favor white farmers.

Martin Luther King Jr --How White People Got Their Land and Wealth (Remix)

Sounds like I just found a bunch of random loops and stuck them together, but in fact as always I played all the instruments. More like an experimental blend of styles all tied together in the key of C. Probably happened over multiple days and instead of focusing on one or two of the best parts, I decided to not let anything on the cutting room floor.

Making a Collage Off His Meds

An echoing guitar bounces me back to my hometown many years ago and a small diner where my friends would smoke cigarettes and I would eat butter burgers and spin records on their old jukebox.

I Can Still Taste Their Butter Burgers

Finally the spring is set to arrive. The first shoots emerge from the melting snow. Soon it will be stinging nettle season, when this otherwise wicked plant because harvestable. A gift of a wild green that much like all that remains truly seasonal, something to appreciate while it lasts.

Stinging Nettle Season

The outcome of lots of early morning lounging around listening to dancehall playlists. Have a lot of work to get getting the vibe as well as playing around with heavy effects on the mix.

North Fork of the Candy River

Heard You From a Mile Away

Had all kind of riffs that as per usual, I couldn't edit out. First experiment with a toy foldable digital drum set that I got in the mail yesterday. Just like the track itself, the title is pure excess.

Posthemous Player of Pre-Impressionist Portraiture

A long jam like many of the Jan Fonk track, complied out of a lot of idea by these pure rascals. Lots of time for guitar solos and different flavors of the rockitude that had them banned in many a Lewis County township.

Please, Just Point Me to the Exit

Jan Fonk and the Lewis County Loverboys doing what they do best, playing Croc Roc. Lots of room for solos and guitar leads while never trying to lose the grove that keeps the feet tapping on a Saturday night in Chehalis.

Please, Just Help Me Find the Exit

The final track to the Jan Fonk and the Lewis County Loverboys Play Croc Roc album. As with any good Croc Roc sound adventure there is a lot of guitar soloing, without losing the beat and vibe that keeps thise Crocs tapping

Please, Just Point Me to the Exits

All over the map here for Jan Fonk and the Lewis County Loverboys, going on the kind of explorations of varying dynamics and instrumentation that the dive bars of 1970s Chehalis never imagined.

Why You Can't Ever Find a Good Pineapple

Johnny's Loaf & Stein was a restaurant in the mall in the town where I grew up. It always seemed to attract a cast of real characters. I imagine these songs playing as background music there. 
Having moved recently from the Great Plains to the Cascades and now to Lower Michigan, I try to release a track every few weeks of my own brand of instrumental music that mixes a hefty dose of 60's pop and rock with accents of blues, jazz and classical music.
I hope listeners will indulge me and take the attitude towards my music as listening to a crazed radio that will randomly change stations and never linger too long a single musical style.
I don't use samples or premade loops. I figure if it doesn't come from me it's not really my song.
Contact me at johnnylofenstein@gmail.com.
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