Cal Smith - The Lord Knows I'm Drinking

Written by none other than "Whispering" Bill Anderson. This live version from the Porter Wagoner show doesn't have the background vocals of the single version.

Ray Price - For The Good Times

A great song by Kris Kristofferson, a great voice. That hair, though...

Claude King - Wolverton Mountain

Hank Williams - Hey Good Lookin'

In Memoriam J.R.L.

August 16, 1940 -- November 25, 2010

Second time in six weeks I've lost a relative unexpectedly. This sucks.

Howard Nemerov - Thanksgiving

Neil Young - Expecting To Fly (Live 1998)

Krugman on the Economic Mess, Again and Still

Professor Krugman on the slow-motion financial disaster and, in this case, it's cheerleaders.

The fact is that one of our two great political parties has made it clear that it has no interest in making America governable, unless it’s doing the governing. And that party now controls one house of Congress, which means that the country will not, in fact, be governable without that party’s cooperation — cooperation that won’t be forthcoming.

Elite opinion has been slow to recognize this reality. Thus on the same day that Mr. Simpson rejoiced in the prospect of chaos, Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, appealed for help in confronting mass unemployment. He asked for “a fiscal program that combines near-term measures to enhance growth with strong, confidence-inducing steps to reduce longer-term structural deficits.”

My immediate thought was, why not ask for a pony, too?

Frank Rich on Palin 2012

Sometimes people will say, don't you get tired of always being right? Frank Rich is, once again, stating obvious facts that for some reason almost no one else is.

Of course Palin hasn’t decided to run yet. Why rush? In the post-midterms Gallup poll she hit her all-time high unfavorable rating (52 percent), but in the G.O.P. her favorable rating is an awesome 80 percent, virtually unchanged from her standing at the end of 2008 (83 percent). She can keep floating above the pack indefinitely as the celebrity star of a full-time reality show where she gets to call all the shots. The Perils of Palin maintains its soap-operatic drive not just because of the tabloid antics of Bristol, Levi, et al., but because you are kept guessing about where the pop culture ends and the politics begins.

Frank Sinatra - It Never Entered My Mind (1955 version)

Lyrics by the brilliant Lorenz Hart, music by the estimable Richard Rodgers, arrangement by the remarkable Nelson Riddle, singing by il maestro.

Jerry Garcia Band - Mission In The Rain, 11/11/93

Not great image or audio quality, but good enough, and great shots of JJG playing guitar. It's such a low key song that it may take you a while to realize that it's burned into your brain.

Secret Kitten

What can I say? What can I say?
H/t Digby.

nada considers all available options

Nothing today, sorry.

The Byrds - I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better

Gene Clark rules! Plus, Chris Hillman is nearly unrecognizable with straight hair.

It's A Beautiful Day - Hot Summer Day

Bay Area, sixties.

Little Willie John - There's A Difference

One of the great voices of the fifties/sixties.

The Mamas and the Papas - Look Through My Window

Mills Brothers - Lazy River

The film clip is quite the period piece, and features four men working very hard to appear relaxed. But those voices...

Hatsune Miku - World is Mine

Hatsune Miku is an anime character, famous in Japan. She has recently been performing "live" in that country...as a hologram, with a band composed of human beings. Welcome to the twenty-first century. H/t HuffPo.

Armistice Day - (Paul Simon Cover)

Another bit of YouTubeana.

Tommy Tedesco - A Taste of Honey

Tedesco was one of the busiest session guitarists in LA in the sixties, heard on hundreds of recordings. Here he is under his own name.

Susan Tedeschi - Angel from Montgomery

Bonnie Raitt, posted yesterday, may have been the first white woman to become well-known for playing blues guitar, but there have been others since. Here Susan Tedeschi does a John Prine song that Raitt herself has performed for many years.

Bonnie Raitt - Love Me Like a Man (Live 1976)

Elvis Costello and Stephen Colbert - All I Have To Do Is Dream

Not bad for a pick-up group.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Exclusive - Elvis Costello - All I Have to Do Is Dream
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election March to Keep Fear Alive

A Question

So I've got a question for anyone who looks at this blog. But first let me explain the situation.

For about three years, if I wanted to post a music file on this post, I used a hosting service called Vox. I built up a small library of songs on my Vox account, and the posts here linked to the actual songs that I had uploaded to Vox. But Vox shut down not long ago. Fortunately I was able to migrate my account, including all my posts, to typepad.com. Unfortunately, all the links broke. So if you go to one of the old posts on this blog that linked to Vox, you will be directed to my typepad account, but not to any particular link -- you'd have to search for that specific song.

So here's my question: should I go in and try to fix all the links on the old posts? It's labor-intensive work, and if people don't really care, there's not much point in doing it. But if people do care, I'll do it. So let me know what you think.

Link Wray - Rumble

Christy Karacas & Stephen Warbick - Barfight

H/t to Lance Myers.

The Election

A simple note: congratulations to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Because...he wasn't beaten by the Tea Party candidate. And the Republicans did not take control of the Senate.

Mississippi John Hurt - You Got to Walk That Lonesome Valley

It's true -- you do.

Frank Rich on the Tea Partiers and the GOP Establishment

Mr Rich feels that the Tea Party folks are going to be disappointed by what the fat cats are buying for them.

What the Tea Party ostensibly wants most — less government spending and smaller federal deficits — is not remotely happening on the country club G.O.P.’s watch. The elites have no serious plans to cut anything except taxes and regulation of their favored industries. The party’s principal 2010 campaign document, its “Pledge to America,” doesn’t vow to cut even earmarks — which barely amount to a rounding error in the federal budget anyway. Boehner has also proposed a return to pre-crash 2008 levels in “nonsecurity” discretionary spending — another mere bagatelle ($105 billion) next to the current $1.3 trillion deficit. And that won’t be happening either, once the actual cuts in departments like Education, Transportation and Interior are specified to their constituencies.