This week’s Bushwick Song of the Week is a bluegrass tune written a few years back by Galen Green. It’s titled The Golden Key and was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland. Here is what Galen had to say about his inspiration behind the song:
I was listening to a lot of bluegrass and old-timey music at the time I wrote that song. Ralph Stanley, murder ballads, that sort of thing. I really enjoy the language in bluegrass music. It can sound fancy and flowery, but really plain at the same time. It usually has a strong narrative. Plus there are certain lyrical motifs and metaphors that always pop up, like traveling, alienation, despair, longing, salvation, damnation, the promised land, and of course getting really drunk. I thought Alice In Wonderland – a book about a young girl getting lost, eating magic mushrooms, carousing with disreputable creatures, finding a hidden magic kingdom, pissing everyone off, nearly being executed, and finally finding her way back home before anyone noticed she was missing – was a bluegrass song waiting to happen. After that, it pretty much wrote itself. The only problem was that I could fit just a single chapter of the book into my song, so it might work better as some sort of bluegrass-opera concept album.
— Galen Green
Did someone just say “bluegrass-opera concept album?!” That sounds incredible. I’m really hoping that happens at some point. But until then, check out Galen’s fantastic song below — plus you can download it for FREE. It was recorded live on January 6, 2012 at the Fremont Abbey.
Don’t forget to download it. It is FREE! Just click on the blue “download” link below and you’ll be all set.
For more info about Galen Green visit his website — galengreen.com
Song of The Week: The Need To Believe by Joy Mills | inspired by the poetry of Gabriela Denise Frank
In November of 2012 Bushwick teamed up with Jack Straw Productions to create original music inspired by the Jack Straw Writers Anthology 2012. For this event, each Bushwick artist was paired with one of the writers from the Anthology. And it was the poetry of Gabriela Denise Frank that inspired Joy Mills to write this song.
Download the Bushwick Song of The Week
“The Need to Believe” by Joy Mills | inspired by the poetry of Gabriela Denise Frank
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Bookshelf Report: A Tidy Collection of Books
The Bookshelf Report is an ongoing series where a Bushwick reader invites us into their home and shares a little bit about the books that occupy their shelves.
Today’s bookshelf lives inside the home of Chuck McKeever. I first met Chuck a few months ago at A Literary Mixer which is a local book club meeting here in Seattle scientifically designed for fun people. Chuck is a full time staff member at Literacy Source, a Seattle based non-profit organization that has been providing adult literacy services since 1986.
How do you organize your books?
You’ve caught me just after moving, so my books are looking tidy for the first time in ages. There’s generally a pile of books on my immediate “to-read” list stacked apart from the others, and at times I’ve kept another pile going of books that for whatever reason I never finished and intend to pick back up again. Right now, they’re organized by… whichever ones fit best into my cramped little shelves.
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Song of the Week: Some People by Alice Howe |Inspired By Jim Bouton’s Ball Four
Published in June of 1970, Jim Bouton’s “tell all behind the scenes style” story about his 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots was pretty controversial for the time. So much so that then Major League Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn issued an official statement declaring that “Ball Four” was “detrimental to baseball.
Bushwick performed original music inspired by Jim Bouton’s Ball Four at Columbia City Theater on October 13th 2014. Alice Howe was one of the many talented artists that night who read the book, wrote a song inspired by it, and played it live for house full of readers.
Her tune is called “Some People” and you can listen to it below (or even download it for FREE!).
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Bookshelf Report: Meet the Newest Member Of The Bushwick Team And Her Books
The Bookshelf Report is an ongoing series where a Bushwick reader invites us into their home and shares a little bit about the books that occupy their shelves.
Today’s bookshelf comes from the newest member of the Bushwick Staff — producer Christine Hale. Christine brings a ton of experience and expertise in live event production to the Bushwick team and we are absolutley thrilled to be working with her. She also likes books, a lot (obviously).
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The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Book Cover Controversy
There is a controversy lighting the book blogosphere on fire this month. When Penguin Books published the cover to their new British edition of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory many people reacted with confusion or anger. Released for the 50th anniversary, the cover depicts a dolled up young girl sitting with a woman who is presumably her mother. Before I go on, take a look at the cover and decide for yourself. What do you think?
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Bookshelf Report: Mts. & Tunnels Full of Books
The Bookshelf Report is an ongoing series where a Bushwick reader invites us into their home and shares a little bit about the books that occupy their shelves.
Today’s bookshelf comes from one of our very own Bushwick Artists Chris Poage. Over the last year or so, Chris has dazzled crowds at several Bushwick events. He is also currently a big part of one of Seattle’s best bands Mts. & Tunnels.
I highly recommend you listen to this Mt.s & Tunnels song while you read the rest of this.
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Song of the Week: The Golden Key by Galen Green | Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland
This week’s Bushwick Song of the Week is a bluegrass tune written a few years back by Galen Green. It’s titled The Golden Key and was inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland. Here is what Galen had to say about his inspiration behind the song:
Did someone just say “bluegrass-opera concept album?!” That sounds incredible. I’m really hoping that happens at some point. But until then, check out Galen’s fantastic song below — plus you can download it for FREE. It was recorded live on January 6, 2012 at the Fremont Abbey.
Don’t forget to download it. It is FREE! Just click on the blue “download” link below and you’ll be all set.
For more info about Galen Green visit his website — galengreen.com
Bookshelf Report: Staying Fit With Superheros, R. Kelly and Tacos
The Bookshelf Report is an ongoing series where a Bushwick reader invites us into their home and shares a little bit about the books that occupy their shelves.
Today’s bookshelf comes from one of our very Bushwick Blog writers, Kerry Garvin. She has recently moved and her bookshelves are as pristine as ever. Let’s take a look and what she’s got going on.
How do you organize your books?
I organize my books by category or genre. All the cookbooks are on a shelf in the kitchen and all the craft books are on a shelf in the craft supplies cabinet. In my living room, I have a pile of comic and cartoon related coffee table books for easy access and in the hallway I have two small bookshelves of books I’ve read and want to reread and books I haven’t read yet. The top shelf here is devoted to children’s books I’ve found at used bookstores and want to reread and write Bushwick Blog posts about. The other shelves are mostly Young Adult novels, but there are some non-fiction and fiction for grown-ups mixed in as well.
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Retreat! — Early Musings From My Willapa Bay Arist Residency
The daydream had a pronounced hold on me for many years: disappear into a cabin in the woods for a couple of weeks to write my next album. I took it for granted that I’d emerge with brilliant, pathbreaking material—more importantly, however, I’d get to bury some cryptic, legacy-building disclosure in the liner notes (remember those?) once I’d recorded everything, something like “Conceived over ten days and two quarts of huckleberries in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.” Who could resist buying that?
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Bookshelf Report: The Tale of Two Bookshelves From the West Side
The Bookshelf Report is an ongoing series where a Bushwick reader invites us into their home and shares a little bit about the books that occupy their shelves.
Today’s bookshelf (or bookshelves I should say) comes from the West Seattle home of Sheri Fairchild. As you can tell by the pictures below she is in avid reader. She also loves her dogs (dogs not pictured) and has been known to rock the karaoke mic (also not pictured).
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