- Susan Herndon - Blog

WAKE UP AND FIGHT

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 21:40:44 -0800

Happy New Year to You. I hope and pray that this year brings great good things to you and yours, and lots of love and good cheer throughout.

Here, as we're in the midst of several Woody Guthrie tributes and studies and I'm in the process of learning a handful of new Woody songs, myself, I thought I'd post this wonderful photo of Woody's resolutions from 1942.

My ex used to joke about how many Woody tributes there are, but hey-- there's a reason for that. His songs are still relevant and his spirit, and his family, and the festival in his name, are all living on and on and there's an extended family created by this man and these songs of his that is remarkable to me.

It's also amazing that he wrote so many different kinds of songs about so many different things-- political songs, dust-bowl ballads, kids songs, down-and-out blues tunes, patriotic songs about the land that unite us, songs about dams, and boats, and flights, and love, and even crazy nonsensical tunes.

Even if I were to learn a new-to-me Woody song for each event, I still couldn't come close to learning before i died, all the songs he wrote in his lifetime. All the songs he wrote, and the songs he's still writing-- by virtue of the fact that people are still putting his words to music-- so there always seem to be new Woody Guthrie tunes.

Here's a lo-fi bedroom-recording of some words of Woody's that I put to music several years ago. At a time when i was feeling very down and out~ i found that Woody had already been there and had charted that territory.... of Careless, Reckless Love.

but i'm still,..... willin'

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 12:01:25 -0700

So, it's dusk, and I'm just East of Memphis, driving back from Nahsville...

Rockin' out to John Hiatt's latest, Mystic Pinball, re-living the fantastic show he and his band had put on the previous night, I suddenly gather that there are flashing red lights behind me.

I pull over.

I have no idea how long they've been following...

I wait.

The guy walks around the truck and I roll down my window.

His badge says, DEA Special Agent Johnson.

He tells me, "You were weaving."

"I was what?!"

"You were weaving."

Hmmmmmm

He asks me to get out of the ride....

He wants to know what I do for a living, where I'm coming from, where I'm going, what I've been doing.

I swear to him I'm not carrying anything illicit.

... a musician, singer-songwriter, caught weaving between Nashville and Memphis....

He seems not to believe me.

It's nightime now. And for the next hour, he searches every bag, every case, every sack in the vehicle. Looking. For something. He opens my guitar case. Nothing. He looks through my CDs. Nothing. He searches every compartment-- places I didn't even know existed in this thing.

Nothing.

He opens up a door and a bright red chiffon tutu springs out and bounces in his face.

"WAOH!" exclaims Johnson.

My friend, Andrea, had left it there after she and her friends had gone to a festival in Colorado. They had dressed up as mushrooms.

I start thinking, wondering if maybe they had dropped some magic mushrooms in the truck?

But Johnson, as he eagerly goes through my affairs one by one in the suitcase, seems disappointed.

Not one stem. No seeds. No moonshine.

Not even any beer in the cooler.

How pitiful.

....And I think of my hero, Willie.....

And I think, I need to have more fun! ;-)

Dear Senator Inhofe

Mon, 03 Sep 2012 13:53:36 -0700

CLOSE TO TOAST

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:14:39 -0700

Hurricaine Isaac has been sitting over New Orleans and they say the price of gas will go up. I wonder how BP is doing out there.... how nice it was of them to air public service announcements about how much they're doing to help out after their big oil spill several years ago-- encouraging vacationing on the Gulf Coast.
I'm sitting in my garden hoping to see that the beets and the carrots and the peas that I just planted have come up, when i hear a commotion. It's a couple of dove that fly up onto the fence, their feathers are ruffled, they seem bothered and they're saying something. A moment later, I see the ground move about a foot from where I'm sitting. It's a snake! It's s about four feet long and an inch and a half in diameter and it's slithering in between the tomatoes and the basil and the peppers and the onions. I get a closer look and there in the middle of the bed is a little baby dove. It looks up at me with its big black eyes, completely unaware of the snake. "NO!" I scream out. The snake looks up at me and sticks his tongue out several times. It doesn't seem poisonous but it could probably wrap around a little dove and choke the life out of him. I grab a stick and try to scare the snake away from the bird. The baby dove waddles away and the snake slithers out of the garden, but not without trying to get at the bird again before he goes back to his den in a big tree trunk down the back alley.   I follow and get a good close look at him. He is BEAUTIFUL. He moved with such power and stealth. And how he could hide and you would never know he was there.
My neighbor had mentioned to me that the pile of limbs that sat next to the fire pit probably made a good hiding place for snakes. But the drought has been so bad, there's been no burning, so the pile just keeps growing as the dead branches fall.....
It's a wonder that anything in the garden is still alive. The temperatures were so intense for more than two or three weeks this summer, with a heat index at 115-120 degrees, watering felt nearly impossible. The heat was unbearable, NOTHING can live under those conditions. And I didn't think I could. It made me ill. Sick to my soul.
Last night on the news, Brian Williams says that statistics show the polar caps have melted more than ever this year.
What are we doing? And why are we doing this?
And now there's a national convention going on..... is climate change and global warming even an issue? Is everybody bought and sold?   Do these people REALLY represent us? One candidate has so much money, it doesn't seem like we're even from the same planet Earth; the other candidate bailed out the banks billions of dollars with no strings attached, it kinda makes you wonder..... And then, does it really matter whether we vote or not when somebody can steal the election if they so W-ill to?
I know I know. Very unfashionable for a singer-songwriter to talk politics.
But this is not about politics.                                                                                                                      This is a matter of survival and what we value and hold dear.
Several days ago, I'm running errands, driving around in my car, burning fossil fuel, listening to NPR. Peter Byck, the director of the film, Carbon Nation, is on. He urges that people are not polarized in opinion here, we're in agreement about energy efficiency and alternatives. The solutions will make life better for everybody. (www.carbonnationmovie.com)
....he also says that we're "close to toast."

Sweethearts of the Rodeo

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 10:53:34 -0700

Admittedly, up until now, when I'd hear the phrase, Sweethearts of the Rodeo, I would think of that great album by The Byrds, minus David Crosby, whom I love, but with Gram Parsons, whom I also love.

Alas, it's been over thirty years since that album was released.

My first and only rodeo experience was when I was about six years old. I'd go out to Coyle, Oklahoma to see my grandma, and my best friend out there, Cindy Downey and her family took us to the rodeo. They lived right across the road of that old Highway 33 and they had horses and cattle, and maybe they had someone in the rodeo. It was a great experience although I can't really remember the Sweethearts....

So, last weekend, I went to see the movie, Cowgirls N' Angels.
It's the poignant tale of a young girl who sneaks off to join the rodeo in search of her long lost rodeo-dad, and along the way she becomes a Sweetheart of the Rodeo. A new release, filmed in Oklahoma, Cowgirls N' Angels has two of my songs in it, "Lay Me Down," and the song, "Oklahoma Girl" which I wrote with Bob Livingston and John Hadley. It also features some friends, the Rangers, in a bar scene, with a great close-up cameo of Don Morris. It's a sweet film and I cried all the way through it.

And that night, there they were ~the Sweethearts of the Rodeo~ riding all through my dream.....

I'll Have Another....

Thu, 10 May 2012 11:15:06 -0700

'Dr. Dre' and I went to the hospital to see a friend who has cancer. Hang out, play a few tunes. Her sisters were there and brought food, some bruschetta for her. She asked for some Van Morisson. Wanted happy songs. "Happy~Happy" she kept saying in the twilight as the nurse brought some more pills for her.... "Happy~Happy." Her sister asked if she wanted some more bruschetta. "Yes, I'll have another...."

It's amazing we're here. Let alone, alive and well, if we are. Planet earth, the solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, the universe. I mean, what are the chances? And how many things can go wrong to ruin our chances? It all seems like one big giant amazing game and gamble at risk.

So then, to gamble on top of it all, seems redundant to me.

I, myself, don't gamble.

There was one year, just minutes before the Kentucky Derby, I glanced at the names of who was racing, and I had a complete and shining hunch that Giacomo was going to win it. He was a long-shot. His odds were 50-1. But I just knew it. I told my husband and he said that he'd place the bet for me. It was about 20 minutes before the race and we happened to be in a casino where he was performing. Naw. I don't bet. He tried again, just 20 bucks. No, my gosh, blow 20 hard-earned dollars?!

Giacomo won.

After beating myself up for the next six months, I swore to myself that from then on I would take a lot more risk in my life.

I wanted to place a bet this year for the Kentucky Derby, but the race snuck up on me, and in the mad scramble to take care of the few people and things I love and care for, in between my gig Friday night in Tulsa and my gig on Saturday night in Norman, and then the hustle to stop by my home and water the garden, since it had been several days of heat since I'd been there-- there was no time to place the bet.

It really would have been a symbolic bet anyway, in honor of my father who loved the horse races. He wasn't a big-time gambler, at least we didn't think he was since no one ever came to re-possess the cars or the house; but when he finally retired, every day he would study the racing forms, do the handicapping, and go place his bets at the fairgrounds where they run a simulcast of the races from all over the country.

It seems that just about everyone in my family gambles in some way: the horses, the stock market, football games, the lottery.

For me, playing music for a living is about the biggest gamble I can make.

And then there's the gassing up of your car.... should I get gas at this convenience store or can I make it to the one down the highway, closer to the Keystone Pipeline where the price of gas is less expensive?

The last thing I did gamble my money on, and took a big risk, was late one summer. It was nightime. It was a Sunday. I was at the house all alone. I turned the tv on. There was that infomercial for the Time/Life Soul Train DVD collection. Damn. It had been awhile since I'd last seen this thing. Maybe two years prior, and I had wanted to purchase it back then. Four easy payments of $29.99, they assured me. I was depressed already. I had no money. Plenty of bills to pay. Not to mention the zillion other things that were just plain not right in my life. But gosh, "Betcha By Golly, Wow" by The Stylistics; "Everybody Plays the Fool" by The Main Ingredient; "Have You Seen Her" by the Chi-Lites; "The World is a Ghetto" by War; and Marvin, and Stevie, and Smokey, and the Staple Singers, Lou Rawls, and the Jackson 5, and Al Green, and Luther, and Sly, and on and on and on. Geezus, I HAD to have this collection. My life would be better if I had this in my possession, I just know it.

I called the number on the screen. Duane answered. He spoke in a deep and re-assuring, calm voice. He took my order and would I also like the CD collection that goes with the DVD collection?

I said, no.

He persisted.

No.

Duane said, "because you'll want to listen to these songs in your car, too, while you're going down the road."

Gosh, he was right.

"And now it's only six easy payments of $29.99."

I asked him if they could take out the Lionel Richie songs, but go ahead and leave the Commodores in the collection.

Actually, even though I should probably have spent my money on health care instead, I did win big in that transaction. And the O'Jays, and Gladys, and Bill Withers, and the Isley Brothers, and all of the Soul Train dancers, and the Afro-sheen commercials, and especially Don Cornelius often remind me of what a great investment I did make.

Bless Don Cornelius for such a great creation and how sad to hear that he was found dead by a self-inflicted bullet-wound to his head this past February.

Life is hard. But here we are.

And "I'll Have Another" won the Kentucky Derby this past weekend.

Tits and a Vagina.

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 06:38:36 -0700

Two musicians are talking, one says to the other--"gawd, I just got back from Jersey, played this club up there. The gig sucked: four hours, only two breaks, no complimentary food or drink, it only paid 200. bucks and then the check bounced." "... oh yeah," the other musician says, "and who books that?"

***********************************************

I'm heading back to play a place that I haven't played in about a year. It's on the way to a festival I'm playing and there's another gig on the way. So, in a way, it makes sense....

But the last time I played there, just as I was leaving, saying goodbye to the soundman, he tells me, "You were great. And hey, everyone here loves you, the managers, the people who work here, and everybody who comes in. It's just the guy who does the booking, he doesn't like you because you have tits and a vagina." :-)

Austin, Nashville, Memphis, Austin.....

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:04:58 -0700

It's not yet April and I've been down to Texas to play five times since January.... and to Nashville and to Memphis and next week to Arkansas. And I'm wondering if it's time to move.....

SXSW and Folk Alliance.....

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 09:08:58 -0700

Both of them, a blast. If you get a chance to go~ GO!

"Some humans ain't human, some folks ain't kind...." (john prine)

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 08:19:19 -0800

It was such a beautiful day today~ I took Tootie, the puppy dog, for a nice long walk at the dog park. We were about to get in the car to go, when I answer a call on my cell phone from a friend. Just then, a youngish woman walks by us and scowls, "you need to keep your dog on a leash." Tootie is pretty well behaved, but I answer politely, "oh, i'm sorry, did she do something....?" "Well, I had to pick my dog up," she snapped. I look behind her at the acres and acres of empty park, wondering about this encounter, when she then exclaims, "And get off your phone!"

Wow.

Ten years ago, in my politesse, I would have sucked this up and let it all go. But I'm older now, less calm and more cantankerous, have not been doing much Yoga lately, and very little meditation. In fact, I've been completely stressed and under quite some duress in my life, so I let this self-appointed-cellular phone/doggiepark policewoman have it.

***

I really hate conflict and thank goodness things like this don't happen very often. But it did make me think about an incident that happened about five years ago when I was on a gig in Tahlequah at Roxie's.....

It was a song swap with a bunch of guys and a girl comes out and assaults me and then she goes around slandering my name. In hindsight, I think I was so stunned-- first of all that this person did not even live in that town, had driven however far to get there, and then attacks me-- I did nothing. I went home, told my husband about it and a few friends and just chalked it up to her being crazy and to steer clear. I took what I thought was the high road.

But then a few months later I hear that she had started a rumour and spread a lie about me..... and then a few months later I learn that she's trying to malign people in the musical community against me. I'm suspecting this at first, but then I find out for sure when my best friend forwards me a message that this girl had sent to her where she's pretty much trashing me. My brain just does not wrap around someone doing this. Still, I do nothing. I'm thinking: this girl is a sociopath.

In the meantime, I'm getting a flood of messages from the sociopath and she's wanting to be my friend. And more and more, there she would be at the same social setting where I was, being sugary nice to my face and in front of other people, while all the while i knew she was trying to screw me from behind...... Still, I take the high road and just keep to myself and keep going about my business.

(...the problem, I've found out now, five years later, is that NOBODY IS ON THE HIGH ROAD! Everybody is down on the low road dishing the dirt. Even God. Or so it seems. And if you don't say anything~ you're doing yourself and the world a disservice.)

Look at Hitler and Nazi Germany. How stupid humans are! Look at all of those people, in their herd mentality, following this insane little man.... slowly taking over 1/3 of the world, killing how many people.... and not until a chunk of the world rose up was this evil defeated. How scary and frustrating to the spirit when some weird fraternal order goes about imposing its exclusionary beliefs on society.

And that's what really creeped me out about this particular little vignette in my life-- almost more than the hungry-ghost behaviour and evil-doing of this girl, although that was pretty creepy, but-- that anybody would believe her. A dear friend of mine (from whom, come to find out, she'd stolen some stuff) kept telling me~ "Be glad! She's doing you a favor weeding anybody who would believe her out of your life to begin with! You wouldn't want to be friends with them!"

But it was creepy, nevertheless.

I would gig someplace, she would try to gig there. She would hear my song about the roads in Oklahoma, next thing i know, she's got a song about the roads. I go to look at the trailor a friend is selling, she hears about it and goes to look at it too. I get a short hair cut, she gets her hair cut short. I become friends with some obscure person, the next thing i know she coyly seeks him out and befriends him. I schedule a show or event, she would schedule something similar at the same time. And on and on and on. It was getting a little freaky.

Again, in my mind, the universe is infinite and expanding~ like at the doggie park~ there are acres and acres of universe! There's enough for everybody and more! But, things are also finite and you go down your chosen path and it's a lot of hard work and sacrifice to make music for your livlihood-- did she, who's been given a barn to live-in and apparently doesn't really understand what it means to work for a living, have to come around and try to tear down what I've worked hard to build? Did she really have to come stealing after something in my life? And do people really believe her crap? As big as the universe is~ it's also a small world, after all....

And in it, my little ego wants an apology from this damned souless and sinister creature of evil for coming after me.....

Of course, I won't get it. ( For that matter, I doubt she's apologized to all of the wives and girlfriends of the guys she's blown.)

I'll never forget, years ago~ I was waiting tables one night at a place called Pinks and I stop at the bar to fill a drink order. Paul, sitting there, turns to me and says with that great smile-full-of-wonder, "You know what I don't understand sometimes? Why does God let some people exist? You know? Why does He even have them in existence?"

Hahahahahahahahah!

I've wondered that same thing since then, myself.