Lullaby Monday....

AllThePickingThatFits

SelfTaughtVille

Back when I was a younger whipper-snapper and I was kinda/sorta fighting with my department head for all the usual reasons that young whipper-snapper junior faculty do, I took a trip to Winnipeg that doubled as one of those 'come and have a look see and see what you think'-type deals..

It was in the early fall.

And the fine folks there took me out to Gimli on the Lake to a retreat where we stayed the weekend, bashed ideas around pretty good (they liked the way I make Christmas Tree ornaments, apparently), and had a marvellous time heading out to watch the birds migrate when we weren't working or otherwise engaged (because even geeks do non-geeky things some of the time).

Boy.

I'm telling you, if I had been single and unattached at the time I might have jumped at the chance to move.

And if I had done so I'm pretty sure I'd be even more of John K. Samson fan than I am now.

I also know that I would really understand him when he says that, for Winnipegers, it is always minus 40 and February somewhere in their soul no matter where they are or what time of year it is.

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Anyway.

As I've made clear in the past, I really love Samson's 'One Great City' which, of course, is about Winnipeg.

But I have never been able to figure out how to play it properly, even with all the online Tab help I could find.

So, finally, a couple of weeks ago I just sat down, made like a young R. Bachman, and watched a YouTube video of Samson playing the thing on an acoustic guitar (which is a rarity apparently) over and over and over again until I finally almost, but not quite really, got what he was doing with his hands.

Then I played it for littler e. at bedtime that night and she gave it her blessing by falling asleep in the dark.

So I recorded my slowed-down version* and sent it Bigger E. to help her nod-off during the mania that was final exam time.

Thus, if you need a little help drifing off yourself on these deepest, darkest and wettest of West Coast nights, well, here you go....

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The video of Samson playing is here....Double bonus is that you get a fistful of John Darnielle at the end explaining, as a native North Carolinan, why the song is so universal and so great.

*Background noise is because I actually recorded it at the beach the next day, which is where I go with the Whackadoodle to figure out new tunes without having to face the cringing faces of family members and/or neighbours....Truth be told, Rosie loves my playing (as long as I have a pocketful of treats, of course).

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