The Briar And The Rose

My sister Wendy used “nutsy cuckoo” as a pet expression when we were growing up.  It faded from my memory until I was visiting Key West and I heard roosters crowing in the darkness.  I woke up from my dream and blurted out “They’re making me nutsy cuckoo!”, wrote the phrase down and started writing this song the next day.  Some songwriters call this a “catalog song”, a stringing together of similar things into a list. “I’ve been Everywhere”  and Dave Frishberg’s “Marooned in a Blizzard of Lies”, which became a musical model for our catalog of kvetches. 

I say “our” because co-writer Jennifer Lighthall joined in the effort for several days in Key West, FL.  She had been kept awake by the roosters, too.  Jen helped to identify and remind me to write down the little annoyances that crossed our paths in our moments together, and ones that tripped across our paths of recollection.  You’ll hear cock-a-doodle-doo-ing as well as a bunch other grumpy old guy gripes I hear myself complaining about. Maybe you kvetch about some of them, too.  

The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn saw retro jazz man Drew Nugent from Philadelphia reunited with Producer Vanessa Silberman.  They had previously worked together on Second Hand Man (2020), All My Pals Are Clowns (2021), Hard to Get Home (2022), and Beautiful Day in Paradise (2023).  Vanessa brought in locals Carissa Johnson and Andy Plovnick to cover bass and drums.  The Bunker had a great vibe, allowing us all to have fun with this track.  

Although the song gets caustic it is light-hearted and bright at its center, because I almost always don’t stay mad for very long.  Hoping the same is true for you… Peter.

Nutsy Cuckoo

Got to hide your love away

1000 years ago

You really got a hold on me

Strawberry Fields 4 ever

Original song written and composed by Eli Autry

You're My Church

East Coast Collective

Global warming in Northern Maine cuts both ways.  Winters there can be brutal, so warmer is good, but care for the land is sacred because the land has been the source of people’s livelihoods for so long.  Timber, dairy farming and potatoes drive the economy in Aroostook County along Route One.  These industries all have carbon footprints, which add to the greenhouse effect.  

And speaking of greenhouses, the hottest cottage industry is growing pot now that it has become legal to do so in Maine.  When it is too cold to tend potatoes, you can always look in on your hydroponics! Apparently, the proceeds can help to save the farm and to ease the farmers’ aches and pains.

Since the end of World War II, more and more Maine potatoes have been processed, instead of eaten fresh from farm to table as they were before our freezers started to resemble small closets.  So the question becomes how to keep up the production of these commodities while mitigating the environmental impacts of the harvest.  How will the spuds run to get to your table asap, unprocessed and fresh?  And will consumers be willing to give up their tater tots and frozen fries to help save the planet?

SPUD RUN

Peter Evans, a jazz/blues/folk artist from metropolitan Philadelphia, has a lifetime history as a musician, studying guitar and voice initially with Philadelphia Folksong Society co-founder George Britton in the 1960’s.  Peter has maintained his love of the music as an a cappella singer for the past 40 years, including performing with the Yale Whiffenpoofs, for whom he served as musical director.  

Peter’s songwriting has recently been informed by a project he started in March, 2018 on US Route 1, the first Interstate highway in the United States.  Ever since his days at Yale, he’s wanted to take pictures on Route 1, but that impetus has evolved into a nascent website, Route1Views.com, a geo-specific, interactive social website, celebrating the people who have lived and worked along the road.  “We are more divided as a country now than at any other point in my lifetime”, says Evans.  “Perhaps with the exception of 1968.  If in some small way Route1Views helps us to realize how much we share and how we are connected, then all of the effort will have been worth it.”

Nutsy Cuckoo

Peter A. Evans

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