TPC Album Review: Robert Plant | Alison Krauss -- "Raise the Roof"

 Friends, the Missus gifted me the latest recording from Krauss & Plant for Christmas & I'm so glad & grateful she did. 

2007's Raising Sand by the duo was obviously a transformative  American musical experience in that it took the world by storm & netted multiple GRAMMYs for the two as well as others (remember: Jimmy Page got one as well for co-writing "Please Read the Letter"). 

What made their album from 14 yrs ago so amazing was...basically everything. Krauss & Plant's otherworldly vocal harmonies, T-Bone Burnett's production prowess, the backing band's genius (Buddy Miller in particular), etc. 

I'll be honest. I actually had a bit of trepidation leading up to my first listening of Raise the Roof. Surely it couldn't match their previous effort. 

Well, I'm here to tell you this, folks.  

It does. 

Rounder Records

The opening track is an interesting one. At first, I wasn't so sure, but as I hit about 30 seconds in, I was totally hooked. 

Track # 2, a take on the  Everly Brothers' "The Price Of Love," is such a keeper. Perhaps the best track
on the album. Song choice? Perfect. Musicality? Perfect. Vocals? Perfect. 

Ditto for "Go Your Way." 

By the time you get to Allen Toussaint's "Trouble With My Lover" & you hear those soul-stirring vocals from Krauss, it's almost as if you just can't stand it no more; but then, after almost two minutes when Plant finally comes in? Well, it's really a musical Manic Nirvana, so to speak. 

Next on the playlist is an old, perhaps overlooked one by Bobby Moore from back in the mid 60s & is - once again - maybe the best one on the entire recording. 

"Can't Let Go" could've easily been on the 2007 record. It is exceptional. 

~~~ 

Like the previous work, the musicianship on Raise the Roof is remarkable. The aforementioned Buddy Miller makes a few appearances, but it's 2007's  lesser-utilized talent , avant-garde, free-jazz guitarist Marc Ribot, that really shines this go 'round.

And finally, the rhythm section of Jay Bellerose on drums & Dennis Crouch on bass is the really the key - the glue, as it were - to this offering. 

The rest of the album keeps up the pace & the penultimate Merle Haggard tune is simply awe-inspiring. 

Easily one of the best recordings I've encountered in the last several years. 

Highly, highly Rec'd, my friends. 

- MBM 

### 

ROBERT PLANT | ALISON KRAUSS 
Raise the Roof 
Produced by T Bone Burnett
ROUNDER Records
Copyright 2021
Distributed by Concord

Merry Christmas From TPC

 *Ed. note: well, gang, I lied again. With the change of format I promised that TPC would average at least one post a week. That hasn't happened, YET, but in the words of Ray Goff: we're gonna work hard to get better! Seriously, we will. In the meantime, here are some past Christmas write-ups from Yours Truly & others that have graced these pages. Hope you enjoy & hope you all have a very Merry Christmas --MBM

Glory to God in the Highest Heaven and on earth Peace to those on whom His Favor rests

A Good Christmas, Indeed 

A Christmas Novella by Marshall McCart 

A Christmas Tradition 

A Christmas short story by Perrin Lovett 

Remember Christmas Trees Past 

From Bess Tuggle's Memoirs of Surviving Children 

And a very special Christmas write-up I did several years ago in a different publication: 

Christmas Time’s A Comin’
~from the December 2009 issue of About Covington to Madison~

Hey everyone. So glad to be back with you again. Wow, December already! It’s hard to believe. Time really does seem to speed up as we get older. But the Holidays are upon us once again and that makes me very happy. Christmas…man, it just doesn’t get much better. A celebration of faith, love, and fellowship—it’s obviously a very special time of the year.

What is Christmas exactly? That answer can be as varied as the people you ask. For a lot of us, Christmas is a celebration of the Lord Savior Jesus Christ as we remember his entrance to our earthly world. But Christmas is also simply about love. Love of our fellow man. Love of our families and friends. And love of the things we hold most dear. While Thanksgiving is certainly about giving thanks, Christmas, for me, is just as much about gratitude. It is also about the spirit of giving. But what about the history of Christmas?

The roots of Christmas go back to the Romans. They had a festival called Saturnalia that celebrated Saturn, the god of agriculture, marking the end of the fall harvest and honoring the winter solstice. During the heyday of Rome , this was the festival and was considered the most important time of the year. Other cultures and other peoples in other parts of the old continent also had celebrations around this time of the year. In the early years of Christianity, church leaders were looking for ways to help spread the Good Word, so in the 4th century A.D., they adopted the time of Saturnalia as the “Feast of the Nativity.” Within a couple of centuries, it had stuck and December 25 to this day remains the celebration of Christmas.

For many of us, Christmas always brings back memories of being young and anxiously awaiting Santa. The origins of Santa Claus are as interesting as the origins of Christmas itself. It starts with St. Nicholas, a monk born in the 3rd century who gave away all of his wealth to help the poor and sick. He was known as “Sinter Klass” by the Dutch and this would turn into Santa Claus by the 18th century. The image of Santa that most of us have with his red suit, large belly, and white beard can be traced back to the drawings of Thomas Nast in the 19th century and further reinforced with ads from the Coca-Cola Co. in the 1930’s.

There are many wonderful Christmas stories throughout the annals of history but perhaps there is none better than the story of the WWI Christmas truce. In 1914, on the fields of Flanders  German and British troops were squared off in their trenches fighting a terrible war. Then on Christmas Eve, German troops lit candles and started singing Christmas carols. The British followed suit and in no time, a truce had been called and the fighting stopped. Germans and Brits exchanged gifts, spent time together, and even played soccer. This phenomenon occurred in several other places along the battle lines and in some cases lasted all the way until New Year’s Eve. To me, that is a story that truly captures the Christmas spirit.

One of the key aspects of Christmas also has to be the music! There are so many wonderful Christmas songs. “Silent Night” is probably one of the better known and ingrained of all Christmas songs; it was written in the early 1800’s by a couple of Austrians. Originally written in German, it was later translated to English with a slightly different melody and that version is the one we know today. “White Christmas” has been ranked as the number one Christmas song of all time by several groups and publications. Written by Irving Berlin, the original recording was done by Bing Crosby. Speaking of Bing Crosby, if you want a real treat—search Youtube with the key words: Bing Crosby, David Bowie, and Little Drummer Boy. You will find a magnificent version of that song by two of the greatest artists of the 20th century. The title of this column is a new favorite of mine. I had never heard this song until I played it a while back with the Biggers Family Band—a country, bluegrass-gospel band that I play with from time to time with my wife and her family. But probably my all-time favorite Christmas song has got to be—“Come Home for Christmas” also known as “Bells Will Be Ringing.” Released by the Eagles as a Christmas single in 1978, it is such a great tune.

As I write this column, the calendar still reads November but I am starting to feel an almost child-like excitement for Christmas that I haven’t felt in years. It will be the first Christmas for my little baby girl and I am so very excited. From my family to yours—Merry Christmas &  Happy New Year.

Ellis Millsaps: How I Spent My Summer Vacation, (Part One?)

  I spent a lot of time on my porch this summer watching hummingbirds and squirrels. Of the many squirrels I've seen in my section of Porterdale, only once have I seen one on the ground. Squirrels here travel by tree, rooftop and to a great extent by utility line. We have some really thick electrical lines on West Palmetto, I assume because when installed they were furnishing power to a huge mill on the river, the one up river from the one that is now The Lofts and equally as large.

 The last of the hummingbirds left for Costa Rica in late October. Now it's just me and the squirrels.

 As noted in a prior post, I spent most of my indoor summer hours reading. I started this reading binge in New Orleans while staying in my daughter's in-laws’ empty for the summer house. I looked at their book collection and discovered The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, a writer with whom I was familiar. In my semi-educated opinion Whitehead along with Donna Tartt are the best American novelists at work today.

 The Nickel Boys won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2019. It is not a fun read. It will leave you unsettled. It's based on an incident I remember from the news in 2014. After years of complaints about abuse at The Dozier (reform) School For Boys,  South Florida University students at the behest of the state discovered over a hundred (the number is still growing) unmarked graves around the school’s official graveyard. These were the graves of boys who over the years were reported to have escaped the facility. In fact they were each beaten to death. Whitehead gives the story through fictional characters but spares no detail of the gruesome and well-researched factual account. I highly recommend this book.

 Over the rest of the summer I read fifteen more books. I rated them for myself on a scale of one to five ranging from a low of Fahrenheit 451 at 3.0 to three books I gave the full five. Some of these  books were really long. War and Peace, Anna Karenina and The Magic Mountain are over 4000 pages all together. My three books rated five were The Nickel Boys, The Secret Commonwealth by Phillip Pullman, the second in a proposed fantasy trilogy which like his earlier prequel trilogy rivals Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, and the only non-fiction book on my list, The Body by Bill Bryson. If you've read any Bill Bryson you know that he is a widely self-educated man. He has no medical training that I know of but this work is erudite and fascinating,  It contains interesting tidbits such as the fact that all of the penicillin in the world came from the mold on one cantaloupe in Peoria, Illinois discovered during WWII, and that ,in spite of what we’ve always been told, hair and fingernails do not grow after we're dead. Look it up.

 I've continued this reading frenzy in the fall and I am now up to twelve more  lengthy volumes finished. Maybe I'll talk about them next time or maybe I'll talk about something else. Till then, TTFN. 

Contributing Writer & Editor Emeritus of The Piedmont Chronicles

 Ellis Millsaps

Ellis "Da" Millsaps is a recovering Attorney but has worn many hats over the years: father, bus boy, stand-up comedian, novelist, wiffle ball player, rock'n'roll band manager, and at one time wrote a popular and funny column for The Covington News. A Fannin Co. mountain boy originally, Mr. Millsaps now stays at the mill village of Porterdale by way of 20 years in Mansfield. Usually funny and at times irreverent and subversive, he leans left in his political philosophy but can always be counted on for a pretty darn good write-up. The Chronicles are proud to have him involved... 

Good Cop, Bad Cop: A Novel by Ellis Millsaps

A Moment From The Editor -- TPC: Going Back To Its Roots

 By MB McCart, Editor 

Greetings, friends, and as always -- it's so good to be back w/ you. 

Well, I've been doing a lot of thinking about a lot of things. Something always on the forefront of my mind is this space right here -- The Piedmont Chronicles. 

Thoughts have been had about the long-term direction of this site & I've decided to pull a trigger of sorts. 

I've decided to go back to the TPC prior to 2015. 

It was 2015 when the vision of what TPC was changed to include current events, and more specifically, local politics (as well as state & national politics for that matter). The content volume also ramped up considerably hitting a peak in 2018 - 2020. With massive pageviews that continue to surprise & amaze me, the journey has been quite something over the last six years (and the entire 11-yr history of the page). 

However, amongst all of that during the entire duration, I've always had pangs & feelings that I was missing something, and that the true essence of TPC was still not being realized. 

A few months ago & I realized the time had come. 

### 

The Piedmont Chronicles, as the title of this piece mentioned, is going back to its roots w/ a concentration on local history, events & people. In addition, rather than hitting the local REAL Politick, the site will now also concentrate on the overarching theme of The Esoteric South in addition to true human interest stuff & even...Philosophy!, particularly, the discipline of Stoicism. And we will also even be addressing Culture! 

How ya' like them apples? 

P.S. Though we're going back to our roots, it will not be the same in terms of the output of those first few years. I assure you TPC will average at least a post a week. 

*****

But what of the politics? I can hear some of you saying. 

Fear not, fearless readers, I'm on the Mutha! 

As of a few days ago I've set up a Substack account. This is the platform that most legitimate & non-sell-out writers have been migrating to for the last couple of years. 

For one thing, it takes Big Tech out of the picture, especially the two worst offenders - Facebook & Twitter. 

It's a subscription model that includes direct email delivery. While some writers charge a subscription fee, they still offer a good bit of their content for free. At the moment, I'm not charging any subscription fee. In the future, I might very well do that, but like most Substackers, I will be offering a good deal of my content for all subscribers - paying or non. 

Without any further ado, here it is:

MB's Word on the Street 

Another really cool thing about Substack is that it allows for me to do podcasts, which I will be doing in the near future, as well as the ability for folks to listen to articles in addition to reading them. It's pretty darned cool. 

Folks, I'm pumped... 

As of press time for this piece, I'm already at a few dozen subscribers after a social media post from a few days ago. Very much hoping that number will grow very soon. 

Very Kindly Yours, 

Marshall "MB" McCart 

TPC Real Politick: Not So Fast on the VETO; Advocating for THC; Memo to Ezell on the First Rule of Holes; Embrace the Chaos?

By: MB McCart, Editor  

The Home County

In re the County Manager situation, apparently Marcello can use his veto power to deny the vote that a majority of the BOC - Mason (2nd district), Sanders (3rd) & Henderson (4th) - approved to not renew Kerr's contract as manager but purportedly, per state law, a political subdivision has to have a majority (which is veto-proof) vote in order to offer an employment contract to anyone, specifically in this case - Loyd Kerr as county manager. Therefore, the point appears to be moot unless one of the aforementioned Commissioners changes their mind (not likely). 

I remember when they first made the changes to the charter several years back that there were some situations where a veto was not possible or was not permitted. This appears to be one of those instances. Honestly, I'd have figured that the (other) Team MB (Team Marcello) would've had their ducks in a row on that, but, apparently no, not really, because, reality, and history. 

Not surprising...

As a politico perhaps somewhat on a lonely island, my position may be different than most & certainly your mileage will likely vary but basically I'm all here for it. It? Whatever. Anything. Everything. 

No, at this point, I think I'm basically a supporter of chaos. Full-on. In Toto. 

I have no allegiances to anything, or anybody. I'm not Team Marcello; I'm not Team JC; I'm not Team Anyone. I'm Team Home County (THC). Unfortunately, THC doesn't have hardly any advocates right now; THC needs to be embraced by its citizens, to be fully...inhaled, metaphorically speaking, if you will. That the essence of THC needs to fully permeate amongst us all.

But...that's likely not going to happen anytime soon & that's just too bad. 

Stop Diggin' 

So Ezell decides to talk to the other local press the other day & pretty much makes the case for him have having indeed violated the U.S. civil rights of that Georgia Guardian fella, an American citizen. 

I was wondering why Tommy Craig was riding a unicycle yesterday on College Ave while juggling five bowling pins. Also, he was wearing a funny looking hat. 

Strange times, indeed. Until next time, friends. 

Best, 

MBM 

Newton Co. Sheriff Ezell Brown Spectacularly Fails His "1st Amendment Audit"; Lawsuit Likely

 A civil liberty advocacy group & police watchdog, the Georgia Guardian, did a 1st Amendment Audit of the Newton County Sheriff's Office (see below). 

They actually arrested this guy for exercising his constitutional rights (though the Newton DA did later drop the charges.)

So...Ezell spectacularly failed his 1st Amendment Audit.

Another lawsuit for the NCSO.

I was wondering why Tommy Craig was doing somersaults there at the corner of College & Elm the other day. That’ll be a LOT of billable hours for the ole fella.

In addition, Abiyah Israel, a former law enforcement officer & now CEO of We The People University, also reported on this egregious violation on his YouTube channel which as of this time has garnered over 25K views as of this reporting. 

Here's Israel's synopsis: 

Guess What The Sheriff Did. Crazy Old Sheriff Becomes Brave When His Goons Arrive! 1A Audit Gone Bad Attacked By Overly Aggressive Sheriff For Filming. A lawsuit has been filed by this auditor. Newton County sheriff has proven not even he does not fully know and understand the law he has sworn to protect!

Here's his video: 

Just when you think the NCSO can't sink any lower, they pull a stunt like this. 

- MBM 

CFF Feature Column: Russiagate - Already Thoroughly Discredited - Has Now Completely Careened Off Cliff (Durham Apparently Just Getting Started...)

 *ed. note:

Well gang, after only doing one CFF Nat'l Affairs column over the previous two months I decided to make up for it by giving you a 2-for-1 today. Thank you, thank you. I do what I can. 

I believe what we might be looking at is a conspiracy of unimaginable heights where basically everything related to the Russian collusion hoax was not only a hoax, but a concerted & illegal effort to attempt to destroy DJT as well as his presidency, a legitimate coup d'etat. As multiple people are now saying, it's looking like this could go all the way to the very top, i.e. Clinton, Obama, Brennan, Comey, et al.

Very, very interesting.

As alway, thx for reading -- MBM

In my opinion it has surpassed a preponderance of evidence & is now in the realm of being beyond a shadow of a doubt that everything that started hitting in summer of 2016 & then pretty much all through Trump's presidency related to all things Russia was not only total & absolute B.S. (of course, we've already known that for quite some time) but that it was indeed part of a greater conspiracy and was a clear-cut example of criminal  (((dare I say it?))) collusion. 

For the slow folks who are reading this & already shaking their heads, here's the Master List of Russian Lies by Progressive Liberal writer Matt Taibbi: 

Master List Of Official Russia Claims That Proved To Be Bogus

Remember when Taibbi was a true darling of the left when he was castigating Bush 43 on the reg back in the day? Yeah, me too. As a true independent thinker, I was a big fan of his too at that time (I loathe W.& always have), but being that he is a legitimate journalist whose primary goal is to find the truth, Mr. Taibbi, along w/ Greenwald, Maher & a couple of others, is now considered a major Persona Non Grata w/ your various Biden Bois, Fauci Fans, party hacks & DJT Syndrome types. 

I mean -- Really? What an A$$hole, right? The truth? The facts? Didn't he get the memo that it's now all just supposed to be about power & politics? 

John Durham, Special Counsel, Does Not Look One Bit Impressed

Moving on... 

First off, we know that the Durham investigation has recently indicted Igor Danchenko, the primary sub-source for the Steele "Dossier," and, friends, the 39-page document for it is something else. I'd definitely give it a rec'd. 


From Aaron Mate's superb piece: 

It did not seem possible for the Steele dossier – the collection of Trump-Russia conspiracy theories funded by the Clinton campaign; hyped by the US media establishment; and tapped by the FBI for surveillance and investigative leads – to get more embarrassing for all of those involved.

But the indictment by Special Counsel John Durham of Steele's key source, Igor Danchenko, offers 39 pages of new evidence that Russiagate — after five years of failed innuendo, debunked “bombshells”, and humiliating revelations — has no rock bottom.

Although some people out there either can't, or won't, wrap their heads around it, it doesn't change the fact that this will go down as one of the greatest failures & scandals of both US intelligence as well as the media. 

But this is the kicker right here, as many have been talking about for years now, it was such an obvious sh!t & clown show in that the same information that the FBI already knew was fake was being not only leaked to the legacy media to try to create a furor & frenzy, but was also the same info they were actually using - that they already full well knew was fake - in order to get multiple warrants to further the sham investigation. 

What the Actual F.? 

And a couple more items of consideration: 

- Former National Security Council Department Director Kash Patel believes that Durham is all in for a major conspiracy case.  

- And former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe is "expecting many indictments."

In closing, you can hate Trump all you want. I totally get it. It's partly why I didn't vote for him in 2016. He's a thin-skinned, undisciplined buffoon & the sonuvabitch don't even know how to act right. But right is right & wrong is wrong. Now that we know it was all lies & intentional misrepresentation as well as Collusion between the deep state, intelligence community & legacy media then that begins a process where one has to start questioning many, many other things from the last five years. And frankly, a lot of folks - again - who either can't or won't do that because TO do that means they'd have to admit to the fact that they got severely duped & hoodwinked and human nature & history tells us how that usually works out... 

Regardless, 

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