SINISTER: to add to the last post

Harp Magazine's Fall 2001 edition has an interview with Gillian Welch which refers to her songs about April 14th. I will add this interesting article to my links list too.

Welch refuses to explain the connections between the events mentioned within the songs. With a nervous laugh, she admits, “When I was working on ‘Ruination Day,’ I got spooked. I honestly spooked myself. I don’t know how deep to go into it, but, um, you know, it’s a bad day. Some bad stuff went on. And it’s so peculiar, and such a strange coincidence, that it makes you stop and think. That’s all I’ll say. Sinister. I found it very sinister, the number of bad things that have gone down on April 14.”

"It was not December, and it was not in May. It's the 14th of April, that is Ruination Day."

1865 - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford's Theatre by John Wilkes Booth.
1912 - The British passenger liner RMS Titanic hits an iceberg in the North Atlantic, and sinks the following morning with the loss of 1,503 lives.
1935 - "Black Sunday", the worst dust storm of the U.S. Dust Bowl.

This day is one of the few dates I remember (sorry Chris, about your birthday). I was initially introduced to the happenings of April 14th through Gillian Welch. She, no doubt heard about it through Woody Guthrie and her general knowledge of history. Woody wrote about it in relation to the devastating dust storms that caused the soil in the midwest to take flight. In 1940 he released Dust Bowl Ballads, a series of songs that protest injustice, add humor to widespread tragedy, poke a finger at politicians, and tell of the general blues of the era. I have been listening to this album for 6 or 7 years and it led me to read Guthrie's partly true autobiography Bound For Glory. The book is ridiculously humorous, witty in jargon, and reveals some of Guthrie's concern for social justice.

The Great Dust Storm:

On the 14th day of April of 1935,
There struck the worst of dust storms that ever filled the sky.
You could see that dust storm comin', the cloud looked deathlike black,
And through our mighty nation, it left a dreadful track.

From Oklahoma City to the Arizona line,
Dakota and Nebraska to the lazy Rio Grande,
It fell across our city like a curtain of black rolled down,
We thought it was our judgement, we thought it was our doom.

The radio reported, we listened with alarm,
The wild and windy actions of this great mysterious storm;
From Albuquerque and Clovis, and all New Mexico,
They said it was the blackest that ever they had saw.

From old Dodge City, Kansas, the dust had rung their knell,
And a few more comrades sleeping on top of old Boot Hill.
From Denver, Colorado, they said it blew so strong,
They thought that they could hold out, but they didn't know how long.

Our relatives were huddled into their oil boom shacks,
And the children they was cryin' as it whistled through the cracks.
And the family it was crowded into their little room,
They thought the world had ended, and they thought it was their doom.

The storm took place at sundown, it lasted through the night,
When we looked out next morning, we saw a terrible sight.
We saw outside our window where wheat fields they had grown
Was now a rippling ocean of dust the wind had blown.

It covered up our fences, it covered up our barns,
It covered up our tractors in this wild and dusty storm.
We loaded our jalopies and piled our families in,
We rattled down that highway to never come back again."

He also details a two song telling of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath in the songs Tom Joad, Parts I & II. Most of the songs on this album show the best of Guthrie including Dusty Old Dust (So Long, It's Been Good to Know You). It's one of his most famous songs. Check the album out at your local library.

Now, I've spent a couple of years of my life on a Guthrie kick, but Gillian Welch's album Time (the Revelator) is my number one favorite of all time. Gillian's songs April 14th, Part I & II, document the three tragedies listed at the top of this post.

"And the great barge sank and the Okies fled
And the Great Emancipator took a bullet in the head
In the head... took a bullet in the back of the head

It was not December and it was not in May
It was the 14th day of April, that is Ruination Day
That's the day, the day that is Ruination Day

They were one, they were two
There were three, they were four
They were five hundred miles from their home
From their home... they were five hundred miles from their home

When the iceberg hit, then they must have known
that God moves on the water, Casey Jones
Casey Jones... God moves on the water, Casey Jones

It was not December and it was not May
Was the 14th of April, that is ruination day
That's the day.. the day that is ruination day"

That's Part II. Part I is more of an autobiographical, and at least 1st person narrative about musicians blowing around like dust. I love it, listen to it. Now, I've got to go.

I'm thinking about starting a What I Listened to Today bit because I'm pretty busy these days... we'll see. Listen to these songs

Four Winds - Bright Eyes

Lately, its all videos. What can I do? I like it.

So far, so good.

Tonight I played a concert In The Round with Damien Jurado and Jenna from Troubletown and I think I pulled it off pretty well.

And... I now love Howlin Wolf... these are not related.