Thursday, January 24, 2008

hey, another great one from steve earle!

this is another one of my favorite videos from the man....great stuff......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T9qBdbV7v0

Texas My Texas


Missing Texas

I admit one of my problems living in Minnesota has been that I've never really "let go" of Texas...and we have been here 20 years. For the first few years we were here, I could still think of living in Minnesota as a sort of temporary thing, that we would eventually go back to the Lone Star state.

The longing for Texas was especially strong while Mama was still alive....March 21, 2008, will be 14 years though since she died.

I reckon I will have to quit pining for Texas at some point. It's just that I have never developed the emotional attachment to Minnesota that I still have for Texas.

Well, today the "high" was 12, and that's warm compared to what the last 10 days have been. 12...I never thought I would live anywhere but Texas, and sure never anywhere that's called the "icebox of the country."

I've lived though now though temperatures way below zero. -20, and that was not taking the wind chill into account.

When our daughter was born in January of 1996, the high that week was -10....the high.

When our second son was born in October of 1988, it snowed 33 inches on Halloween. In one day. 33 inches.

I think it snowed twice the whole time I was living in Texas, and the inch or so of the stuff on the ground put the entire area into red alert.

So, I am trying....still....wonderful things have happened to me in Minnesota, most especially the births of our three children...and, I have made a few good friends. But, with the exception of those blessed events, I think I could move tomorrow and not miss Minnesota one bit.

Really.....




Wednesday, January 23, 2008

more steve

i sure hope i get this video posted right...still learning the ropes....

one of Steve's best....



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vq4MgDwmIs

Incredible Steve Earle!!! He just gets better all the time......

Steve Earle is coming to Minneapolis!!!!

For the first time, since we moved here twenty years ago, I am counting down the days until winter is done....well, nearly done....Steve is coming to Minneapolis on March 9, three days after I turn 51, and I have the tickets in my freezing little hand....



He's been here, of course, in the last twenty years, but illness, babies or various other aspects of life kept me from seeing him...meanwhile, he made many CDs (or albums as we called them in my youth) and my children are nearly all grown up now. He's older, but still has the same powerful, wonderful voice that I have loved all of these years. In this house, I am a devoted roots rocker, trying to keep alive the music I cut my teeth on in Texas, even though some of the singers have gone onto their rewards. Waylon is gone, but Steve Earle is still with us, living in New York City and keeping a lot of us here in Flyover Land trudging through the snow and cold until March 9...



Keep rockin' Steve!!



Thursday, January 17, 2008

Happy Birthday, Steve

Happy Birthday, Steve...

January 17, 2008

You have two years on me...

All of us who have loved your music, and you, for so long hope you have a wonderful day, with many happy returns...

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Gray skies, nothing but gray skies....

Hello Again.....

Life in Minnesota, in the winter, is a challenge at best...the cold has ceased to really bother me, even when the "high" here the end of the week is going to be -5.....

The gray skies, on the other hand, really beat me down...

It's all I can do to stay awake, here it is nearly 4:00 p.m. and I'm struggling to keep my eyes open...I am coming off the end of being sick anyway and still don't feel 100% normal...or as normal as I've been in the last few years....

I've been listening to Steve E. more than ever lately....his music always encourages me...it reminds me a lot of home, of Texas, and even if nieither one of us has lived there in a lot of years, it will always be first in my heart....


“Townes van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I'll stand on Bob Dylan's coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.”

Steve Earle

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Hello friends, old and new

Hello friends and welcome to my blog....

This is all new to me and I hope you will feel free to post, comment or, if prefered, just ignore me. Share your thoughts here, if you would like....

I am a 50-year old mother of three wonderful children, Joseph, 19, Kyle, 16 and Hannah Joy, 11 going on 27. We have lived in Minnesota for 20 years, but I was born and raised in Texas, 20 miles south of Austin. Growing up in the Texas hill country, one of the most beautiful places in the world, was the greatest way to live. We had, back then anyway, lots of space and rolling hills and big, fat bluebonnets in the Spring. Austin was, and might still be, the music capital of the Southwest...and maybe world....and there was no better time for country and alternative country music than in the 1970s and 1980s. Life for my only sister and I and my folks was great...

My sister and her husband still live in Texas and my daddy and his wife. My Mama died of a sudden illness nearly 14 years ago now, a fact I have learned, more or less, to live with.

I am a graduate of the University of North Texas with a BA in Journalism, a Catholic Christian, kind of a "half and half" Democrat (no, I wouldn't vote for Hillary if you put a gun in my mouth....) I am a recovering addict to opiates and alcohol, have been sober now for 115 days...still shaky, but doing okay...

Music has always been a sustaining part of my life, hence a little of the reason for this blog. In my recovery (my 3rd and last, thank you) I have been especially bolstered up by the music of Steve Earle, the amazing singer/songwriter who grew up about 20 miles north of me in Texas. Steve and I are both "old Texans" I guess, he is just turning 53, I will be 51 in March. My MP3 player, loaded with nearly all of his music, has gotten me through the first part of this recovery...for that, even if he never knows, I am enternally grateful.

He and his beautiful wife are stopping in Minneapolis on their current tour. March 9, three days after my birthday. As a freeelance journalist, I am hoping to obtain a small, but incredible, interview with him and will post it on this blog. I am not sure this is going to work out, but I am going to do my best.

At any rate, this blog celebrates many things, my life, my family, my faith and, of course, Steve Earle and his incredible contribution to life in so many different ways.

Keep coming back!!


Joanna