I met a guy named James down at the local bait shop. He was gearing up to do some fishing from the banks of the river as people do here. I asked him what he was going for. "Flathead," he replied, as he directed me to a photo on the wall. It was taken at night with a flash, and James in the photo, but you wouldn't know it. He was mostly hidden from head to toe by the 5 foot monster he struggled to hold for the camera.  I feigned interest in taking up such a hobby, but who was I kidding. For me, knowing something like that lurked in the river is the stuff of nightmares.

From atop the levee I can see him from time to time down there planted in the sandy banks, in his chair and a cooler by his side.

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 The Dreams of Flathead Battles © 2025 by jazzcittern.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Dreams of Flathead Battles

The Dreams Of Flathead Battles

Near our town there is a silent trestle that stands behind a blind of hissing black willows that few ever see. Hosting track that goes nowhere, bridging a creek that rarely flows, it is reminiscent of those 19th century British railway structures erected to provide access to Tsavo and beyond. And even when our spring floods cover the surrounding plain, this lattice of creosote beams and blackened piles stands strong, stable and dry. Since the turnstile bridge downstream went the way of the ferryboat, railways have little reason to pass this way.

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Under a Forgotten Trestle © 2025 by jazzCittern.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Home and Away

Under a Forgotten Trestle

Following the trail from Riverside Park through the dense woods along the river wildlife refuge, there stand foundations of stone. The inhabitants are long gone, and it fires the imagination: Who was it that once called these structures Home? Crossing the river at the next town upstream, following the trails back downstream on the opposite banks, dense woods and open grassy expanses hide more of these ancient structures. Some sheltered settlers, others mark the farms that they once worked on the fertile floodplain. Still others lead to sacred mounds and seasonal campsites abandoned long ago by the native inhabitants.

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Quiet Ruins on Floodplain Trails © 2025 by jazzcittern.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Quiet Ruins on Floodplain Trails

"Thunder-dunders," said the weatherman. My dad stole the term and made it his own.  He would watch the local weather forecast in the evening to see about tomorrow's fishing. Broadcasting from a larger town an hour south of our rented North Woods cottage, we had to work hard on the rabbit ears and tin foil to receive these important prognostications. (Another of Dad's words, though I don't think it originated with the meteorologist.) Fish or not, Dad was a weather enthusiast. Whenever a summer storm front would thunder on through, Dad would post himself defiantly at the open front door, arms folded, feet firmly planted. We'd hear him calling out, "Hey Kids, you wanna see this?"


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Welcome Rains © 2025 by jazzCittern.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Welcome Rains

Relax on the banks of our favorite waterway. Fondest wishes to you and yours, from your friends at jazzcittern.com.

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Sunset on an Imaginary Rivertown © 2025 by jazzcittern.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Sunset on an Imaginary Rivertown

Sunset on an Imaginary River Town

There is a placard posted outside the ruins of a Greek Catholic church in Poland citing its storied past. Back in the day, the village was called Plonna - A village that dates back all the way back to medieval times. That name derives from the Slavic word “plonina,” which means “treeless mountain valley” or “pastureland." Our humble Lemko ancestors were farmers of this land, and fled the area in the 1930s, avoiding subsequent ethnic cleansing operations. That is our grave backstory.

My sister visited the church a number of years ago, and she was instructed by my brother, who had made a similar pilgrimage the prior year, to inspect the stones above the lintel, in cracks in the mortar there.  And this she did.  Indeed she found a cryptic message held between the old stones. It read:

"The Cubs will shine in 2009."

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 The Missive Held in Old Stone © 2025 by jazzcittern.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

The Missive Held in Old Stone

We're all just passing through.

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Hope I See You There © 2025 by jazzCittern.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Hope I See You There

"This is proved by the fact that when we are very young children we do not need fairy tales: we only need tales. Mere life is interesting enough."
- G.K. Chesterton

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This Elementary Wonder © 2025 by jazzCittern.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

This Elementary Wonder

More often than not, Science Fiction describes fantastic worlds hosting spectacular evolutionary products thriving across exotic terrains in bizarre ecosystems. It's fun to imagine these otherworldly things. But maybe in our familiarity with this planet we are jaded, blind to the fantastic 'Pandora' all around us. Just a thought. 

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Just Passing Through © 2025 by jazzCittern.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Just Passing Through

Another "Midday Mixtape" segment from my radio show "The Midday Recharge" on 97.3fm//103.7fm HD2 The Juice! 

It was Friday so the theme was "FeEl GoOd FrIdAys" so we just blend it all up with our listeners requests and have a celebration for the weekend being here!! 

IG - @TheresOnlyWun

'Midday Mixtape' 004 from "Midday Mixtape" on 93.7fm/103.7fm HD2 The Juice 2-28-25

We like to build things and watch them run. We love music, Ambient to Epic, Meditative to Cinematic... We enjoy building backing tracks for enhanced live performance... And we love to discuss NST and fifths tuning.... 

In 2007 I Googled every instrument under the sun, and saw there is a 'jazz' usage of just about every instrument. Even jazz bagpipes. Back then somebody tabulated the term "jazz" and its association with musical instruments, and just about everything was represented - But NO CITTERN.

And that year jazzCittern was born.

(What's a jazzCittern? The 10-string long-scale bouzouki is really the happy offspring of a Mandocello and a Bouzouki. This instrument, when tuned CGDAE, becomes an extraordinary jazz instrument - the extra course illustrates the wonderful symmetries available in fifths tuning. Chord building and scale visualization is a breeze.)

Virtually and musically yours,

CS

New tracks tagged #recharge