3 Chords & the Truth

3 Chords and the Truth: Black coffee and the blues

The Mighty Favog — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:38:52 GMT

Whatever gets you through the night (or the day) is all right . . . is all right. Lots of the time, it's coffee. Coffee made with love, patience and an old, old pot -- because it's better that way. OTHER TIMES, it's the blues. This week on 3 Chords & the Truth, however, we're putting together the blues with a little black coffee and seeing where it gets us. No doubt, somewhere that's all right . . . is all right. Of course, there's lots of other tasty stuff on the Big Show this go around as well, so you'd just as well stick around and give it a listen. You just might have your horizons expanded amid the musical fun. Well, that's about all for now. Go grab yourself a hot cup of joe and meet me back here at the Internet connection. Because it's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords and the Truth: Six to the three

The Mighty Favog — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 04:47:37 GMT

This week on 3 Chords & the Truth (among other aural goodness). . . . Well, hang on. Let me quote the Four Seasons here: Oh, what a night! Late December back in '63, What a very special time for me, As I remember what a night, Oh what a night! You know, I didn't even know her name. . . . WELL . . . all right, then. Enough of that. How about that 3 Chords & the Truth, eh? Good stuff, am I right? We present only the finest in musical entertainment on the Big Show. YEP, a chunk of this week's show is devoted to the one to the nine to the six to the three -- 1963. The sheer musical variety of one to the nine to the six to the three. And the sheer musical variety of a lot of other years, too. It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha. Drat. Five years too soon with that one.

3 Chords and the Truth: On the road

The Mighty Favog — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 04:00:12 GMT

We're on the road again. Just can't wait to get on the road again. . . . Now, wait a minute. With apologies to Willie Nelson, you can't get on the road again if you've never gotten off. And that's the story of life -- you're on a long, long road and you never get off. At least until . . . well. WE'RE ALWAYS on the road to something or down the road from something. Life is a journey, and we live it on the road. This week on 3 Chords & the Truth, we'll celebrate that little fact with a great big, honkin' set of songs for . . . the road. And that's just one part of the deal with the latest episode of the Big Show. Maybe you need to tune in to see what it's all about, Alfie. But that's another song, entirely. It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords and the Truth: Saints and sinners

The Mighty Favog — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:47:59 GMT

It's gray. It's wet. It's cold. And it's drafty in here. I've been drinking so much hot tea -- with the requisite amount of fresh mint -- that my kidneys bought one of those inflatable giraffe life-ring thingies kids use in the swimming pool. All I need to accessorize my toasty flannel robe is three days without a shave and an empty six-pack of Schlitz. I'VE GOT SOME SORT of low-grade crud, my sinuses hurt, and I'm thinking that -- if I'm really lucky -- people will someday pray for my purgating self on All Souls' Day. I will be the reason future Catholics still are at it the day after All Saints' Day. Hey! There's an episode of 3 Chords & the Truth in there somewhere. Ah . . . look. Here it is. As usual, the Big Show has the usual variety of great music, spanning various styles and genres. This week, in addition to our saintly and "soulful" musical musings, we also saunter through the '70s. AND THEN WE . . . aw, hell, you just need to listen to the thing, all right? It'll be worth an hour and a half of your time. Really. It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords and the Truth: Cold day, hot tunes

The Mighty Favog — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 07:39:10 GMT

The chill is chilling, the wind ain't thrilling, but we can weather the storm! Who cares how much under the norm? We've got the Big Show to keep us warm. I can't remember a worse October. Just watch that low pressure form! What do I care if low pressure forms? 3 Chords & the Truth will keep me warm. Off with my overcoat, off with my glove! I need no overcoat, it's music we love! The iPod's on fire, the flame grows higher! So I will weather the storm! What do I care how much it may storm? The Big Show will keep me warm. With apologies to Irving Berlin, this is your Mighty Favog signing off with this final word: It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords and the Truth: Two! Four! Six! Eight!

The Mighty Favog — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 07:23:35 GMT

Good God, it really is the '60s all over again. Of course, when you're talking Louisiana, that can have, er . . . interesting ramifications. Really, when did you ever think miscegenation would be a legal issue again? Can you say "biracial president"? AND I THINK we at 3 Chords & the Truth now can answer -- musically and with full confidence -- the burning question "Will Louisiana ever stop shooting itself in the foot . . . and other interesting places?" The answer is "no." But anyway, since it's the '60s again, and since elected officials in the Gret Stet are still doing '60s-stupid (not to mention flat-out evil) things, I guess it's time to start the protests. Right here. Right now. LOUISIANA, this episode of 3 Chords & the Truth is for you. From your perspective, that is not a good thing. For everybody else, I think you'll enjoy this week's edition of the Big Show. It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha.

3 Chords and the Truth: Let it snow!

The Mighty Favog — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:58:40 GMT

Welcome to October 10 on the Great Plains. Now that the produce is in and the wheelbarrow has gone fallow under an autumnal coating of snow, it's a good time to grab a hot cup of something, prop up your feet and enjoy another episode of 3 Chords & the Truth. After all, that's what winter's for. Even when it comes in the middle of fall. TODAY'S EPISODE of the Big Show is a good 'un . . . and decidedly New Wavish. What can I say? Sometimes I get in moods. But this mood has led to some fine tunes for watching the leaves change -- or the snow fall. Just don't trip on your Snuggie (as seen on TV) if you get an urge to dance. Consider this a consumer warning about dancing to 3 Chords & the Truth while wearing a Snuggie. I don't want none of your dang lawsuits. So . . . there you go. The weather outside is frightful, but the music on the Revolution 21 website is delightful. Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow! It's 3 Chords & the Truth, y'all. Be there. Aloha . . . ha . . . ha . . . CHOO!

Four Songs: Yesterday Once More

The Mighty Favog — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 07:40:41 GMT

This week on Four Songs: five songs. It was necessary, one of the songs is by John Denver, and a "make good" was in order. IN MY DEFENSE, I didn't pick the music. That was done according to what was hot with the record-buying public . . . in April 1975. Unfortunately, John Denver's "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" was big back then. Unsurprisingly, I would have picked differently. But they don't let 14-year-old kids program Top-40 radio stations, and that's how old I was when this episode of Four Songs was done. Live. Through the facilities of the Big 91, WLCS radio in Baton Rouge, La. In all its amplitude-modulated glory. And glorious it was. So glorious that I was sitting at the kitchen table, early the morning of April 17, 1975, with my portable reel-to-reel tape recorder patched into the earphone jack of my clock radio to preserve a piece of WLCS forever. It was a Thursday. Gary King was the morning man. WLCS was one of Baton Rouge's two Top-40 blowtorches. Radio 13 -- WIBR -- was the other. 'IBR had some great jocks, and a friend of mine even was a part-timer there when I was in high school . . . but I was an 'LCS man. No offense to WIBR. Of course, by 1976, I was firmly in the camp of Loose Radio (WFMF during its album-oriented rock salad days). But I'll always love Double-U ELLLLLLL CEE Ess . . . even though it died in 1983, a few months after I married a KOIL woman from Omaha. And if you're under, say, 30, you're not getting this conversation at all, are you? LET ME EXPLAIN. Once upon a time, there was this thing called radio -- AM radio -- and we listened to it on "transistors," which were like iPods, only affordable. And better. An iPod only can bring you the few hundred songs you load into it after illegally downloading them off the Internet or legally buying them on iTunes. But a transistor radio, that could bring you the world, baby. All for free. And without the threat of a lawsuit by the music cops. The world first came to my bedroom on a transistor radio tuned to WLCS. I also could tune in the whole wide world on WIBR, or maybe WTIX in New Orleans -- and sometimes KAAY through the ether from Little Rock at night -- but I mostly dug those rhythm and blues . . . and rock 'n' roll . . . and countrypolitan . . . and a bit of ring-a-ding-ding, too, on the Big 91. What it was, was the breadth of American popular culture at my fingertips. And British Invasion, too. Never was education so fun. I turned on the radio just to listen to some tunes, and I found myself under the spell of a thousand different tutors -- friendly voices from morning to overnight -- playing for me the breadth of musical expression . . . or at least the musical expression that charted well. It is because of 'LCS, 'IBR, 'TIX (and later, 'FMF) that this Catholic Boy has catholic tastes. Your iPod is cool and all, but it can't do that. SEE, THE DEAL IS that I can't repay the debt I owe to WLCS, for one. I can't repay the debt I owe to Gary King, that friendly morning voice on this episode of Four Songs. For a spell there, King's was the voice I woke up to, got ready for school to and ate breakfast to. He played the hits and told me what the weather was outside, and Gene Perry gave the news at the top and bottom of the hour. Back in the day, radio was a well-rounded affair. King's also was the friendly voice that answered the studio line when an awkward teen-ager in junior-high hell would call to request a song. And his was the friendly voice that would take time to chat for a bit when that kid -- or his mother -- sometimes thought he had nothing better to do . . . like put on a morning show. I didn't know it then, and Gary King (real name: Gary Cox) probably didn't know it, either, but what he was doing was being Christ, in a sense, to a lonely kid and his -- come to think of it -- lonely mother. I shudder to think what one of today's "morning zoo" shows would do with rich material like me and Mama. That is, if they answered the studio line at all. Via the AM airwaves, I made a human connection with WLCS and Gary King. I needed that. We all need that. And you can't get that from your iPod, though some of us will try to give it, because you have to work with what you have. BEFORE APRIL 1975 was done, Gary King was gone. He originally was from Kentucky, and one day the call came from WAKY, the Top-40 powerhouse in Louisville that Gary grew up listening to. On his last show, Gary's ending bit was "convincing" Gene Perry that he could catch a bullet in his teeth if the newsman would just help him out on the gun end. It didn't work as planned . . . which means it worked perfectly in radio's "theater of the mind." I think I shed a tear or two. And a couple of years later, I was learning the ropes at WBRH, Baton Rouge High's student-run FM station. And 33 years later -- after various pit stops on the air and hot off the press -- here we are at Revolution 21, trying to figure out what "radio" will be in this new millennium . . . right here on the Internet. Thanks, Gary. I can't repay you in full, but maybe this will make a nice down payment.

On dem first day of Christmas . . .

The Mighty Favog — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:52:40 GMT

Here's another special audio presentation: A bit of nostalgia recorded off the TV in the early '70s in Baton Rouge. I remembered this recording when I heard of the death of Jules d'Hemecourt, a journalism professor when I was in school at LSU . . . and the man behind "The Cajun 12 Days of Christmas" when he was news director at Channel 33 in Baton Rouge. This must have been recorded by me, off the air, sometime around Christmas 1973. Maybe '74. D'Hemecourt, who also was the Channel 33 news anchor at the time, introduces the recording on a holiday newscast. Back in the day. Enjoy.

The tale of the tape

The Mighty Favog — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 20:33:55 GMT

Here's a special audio presentation -- don't worry, the podcast will post as usual Friday -- from Revolution 21. I thought you just might want to hear this . . . a ghost in the machine, as it were. What it is, is a recording of legendary Alabama radio host Joe Rumore from Oct. 28, 1949 on WVOK, Birmingham. And it's an extraordinary look back 58 years across the tidal wave of change and cultural revolution that radically transformed America. It's a look at who we used to be, and at a kinder, more gentle and humane era of broadcasting that -- to today's ears -- sounds like a just-received transmission across many light-years of interstellar space from a star system far, far away. You can read more about it on "Revolution 21's Blog for the People" at http://revolution-21.blogspot.com/2007/03/way-we-were-1949.html. Enjoy.