”Homespun From Niagara”

Belle Starr - The Bandit Queen

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/belle-starr-murdered-in-oklahoma

Much has been written about Belle and several songs celebrate her life. Here is a Homespun compilation of two such songs, one by Pete Seeger and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot and the other recorded by Michael Martin Murphey.

Seeger and Elliot

Belle Starr, Belle Starr, tell me where you have gone
Since old Oklahoma's sandhills you did roam?
Is it Heaven's wide streets that you're tying your reins
Or single-footing somewhere below?

Eight lovers they say combed your waving black hair
Eight men knew the feel of your dark velvet waist
Eight men heard the sounds of your tan leather skirt
Eight men -heard the bark of -the guns that you wore.

Michael Marin Murphey

As she rode into Dallas on a dashing black stallion

A silver-trimmed bridle caught the rays of the sun

She had a plume in the band of her spotless white Stetson

A long velvet gown and two matching six-guns

 

Sometimes she wore a fringe on her bright-beaded buckskins

Raised hell with her pistols and smoked a cigar

She had a rattlesnake necklace and she loved desperados

This petticoat wildcat, the outlaw Belle Starr

 

Born Myra Belle Shirley in southwest Missouri

She spoke Greek and Latin and Hebrew quite well

She's fierce as a wildcat, deadly aim with a pistol

She played the piano like a sweet Southern Belle

 

 

Seeger and Elliot
Cole Younger was your first and the father of your girl
And the name that you picked for your daughter was Pearl
Cole robbed a bank and he drawd the life line
But I heard he was pardoned after Twenty Years time.

Your Cherokee lover, Blue Duck was his name
He loved you in the sand hills before your great fame
I heard he stopped a bullet in Eighteen Eighty-Five
And your Blue Duck's no longer alive.

You took Jim Reed to your warm wedding bed
And from out of your love was born the boy, Ed
A pal killed Jim Reed by the dark of the moon
And your son Ed was blowed down in a drunken saloon.

Then there was Bob Younger you loved him so well
He rode with the James boys out down the long trail
Well they caught him in Minnesota along with the gang
And he died down in jail - - in the cell or the chain.

You loved Mister William Clarke Quantrill
And his Civil War guerrillas in the Missouri hills
He hit Lawrence Kansas and fought them still
And when he rode out Two Hundred lay killed.

They say could have they whisper you might
Have loved Frank James on a couple of nights …
He fought the Midland Railroad almost to death
Then in Nineteen Fifteen Frank drawed his last breath.

They say it could be, they say it maybe so,
That you loved Jesse James that desperado,
Jesse got married, had a wife and a son ----
Was shot down at home by the Ford brother’s guns.

Belle Starr, Belle Starr, your time's getting late,
But how is Jim Younger, did you hear his fate?

He was jailed and then pardoned for all he had done,
And he blowed his own brains out in Nineteen and One.

Eight men they say combed that black waving hair
Eight men knew the feel of your dark velvet waist
Eight men heard the sounds of your tan leather skirt
Eight men heard the bark of the guns that you wore.

Belle Starr Belle Starr tell me where have you gone

Michael Martin Murphey

One day when her daughter Pearl went out a-ridin'

She saw Belle's horse galloping and she'd not gone far

When she found Belle face down, fatally wounded

A shotgun ambush killed the outlaw Belle Starr

 

The Cherokees came to the Bandit Queen's funeral

They dropped crumbs of cornbread in the casket and cried

And the New York Times front page soon noted her passing

She was buried in riding clothes - a gun by her side

Voice Over

 

On February 3, 1889, two days before her 41st birthday, Americas most famous female outlaw, Belle Starr was ambushed and killed while riding home from a neighbor's house. After she fell off her horse, she was shot again to make sure she was dead. Her reputation as an outlaw, the novelty of being a woman outlaw, and her violent, mysterious death led to her being called “The Bandit Queen.”

Seeger and Elliot

Eight men they say combed that black waving hair
Eight men knew the feel of your dark velvet waist
Eight men heard the sounds of your tan leather skirt
Eight men heard the bark of the guns that you wore.

Belle Starr, Belle Starr, tell me where have you gone
Since old Oklahoma's sand hills you did roam?
Is it Heaven's wide streets that you're tying your reins
Or single-footing somewhere below?

The Greening Grass at Home

The Greening Grass at Home - 2.28.2024   Thomas J. Salter

Yesterday was Tuesday, February 27 2024, and I played golf at St. David’s with some great lads. It was 58 degrees.

Our old place is not the same

I took this picture after the rain

Remember when this month was mostly winter

There’s no ice, no snow, and plants now grow

Redwing blackbirds at the feeder

The lawnmowers ready

To cut the grass at home

Seems to me like the weather has gone bi-polar, hasn’t it? Freezing later today, then warm tomorrow, warm the following day, and then freezing once again. Can you believe it, the grass at home is greening!

No, our old place - just not the same

Look at this picture after the rain

Can you remember when this month was mostly winter

But there’s no ice, no snow, and plants now grow

Redwing blackbirds are at the feeder

And the lawnmower’s ready

To cut green grass at home

The Greening Grass at Home was written and produced right here at StonewallStudios, in the heart of Niagara, on February 28^th, 2024.

 

0-30-0

1967 -Tribute to the Time and to Larry Hillman

The 1960s were a time for almost every purpose under heaven,  and a special year in that decade, was Nineteen Sixty-Seven. It was Canada’s hundredth birthday of those who gathered at Charlottetown, it's when they cast their votes and they rolled the dice,… and our great country, Canada, was born.

One hundred years later, Toronto and Montreal was all the news you needed to know and needed to share.  Montreal with a world class Fair called Expo Sixty-Seven. It was a privilege and an honour if you were able to get there. Toronto, hog Town, toasted their magnificent Leaf’s - their proud and winning team - Fans stood in line for hours then as they do now and they lived that lifetime hockey dream.

And the Gardens were never really gardens, no, and they were never really green The Gardens were hockey’s hallowed throne when the Leaf’s brought good old Stanley Home once again. Some of us were married and others born that Centennial year that fifty-seven years ago - seems but a moment now – now that we see the leaf’s are still trying to rebuild and who knows what building they will be doing next.

I had the opportunity to speak with Larry Hillman in the spring of twenty seventeen, he said he  might remove his hex, if you are not familiar with his hex you can get it on line . It’s true, I spoke with Larry and he said you know Tom, it’s been fifty years, I just might remove my hex but it will have to be some time after June the twenty-third, that's the day the Leaf’s last won the Cup in sixty-seven. Fans continue to fill the stands but the great cup continues to allude them and the team. Larry passed on to the great hockey league in the sky on May thirty-first, twenty twenty-two. Prior to his death Larry insisted he had lifted the hex. But that hex may have been more powerful than even he knew. The cup continues to stay beyond the reach and the abilities and the leadership of the buds.

Truth/Reconciliation Part IV A Song for Buffy

This is a singing version of a song rewritten for Buffy. Apologies in advance for the vocals. No apology for the lyrics eh.

Strange that this story would be released by CBC during this  Halloween week of 2023, a time when CBC carries dozens of stories about how much fun it is to dress up in an effort to trick others about "who you are" for treats -  It may well be Buffy dressed up every day and tricked most of us into believing she was indigenous - for more than 60 years  - if so, she may well deserve all the treats she received - on the other hand, maybe not lol

Truth/Reconciliation Part III - Now is the Time Buffy

Truth and Reconciliation – Buffy Ste, Marie Part III

The ongoing questions of Buffy Sainte Marie’s ancestry is driving a wedge into her fan base so I’ve taken one of her great hit songs Until its Time for You to Go and rewrote it today, October 30^th Halloween, 2023

Truth/Reconciliation Part II Buffy In the Footsteps of Grey Owl?

One hundred and twenty five years ago, a great conservationist - and imposter - was born in East Sussex. Known as Grey Owl, he was one of Canada's first conservationists and is said to have saved the Canadian beaver from extinction.

But his beginnings in south-east England were a world apart from his public image as a celebrated writer and speaker on both sides of the Atlantic.

Born Archibald Stansfeld Belaney on 18 September 1888 in Hastings, he grew up enthralled by stories of Native Americans and moved to Canada aged 17 in search of a new life.

 

In some ways the story of Buffy Saint Marie is similar.

Truth/Reconciliation Part I - A Tribute to Buffy Saint Marie

Two, CBC programs, the Current and the Fifth Estate reported recently that legendary musician and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie, a female folk singer who we loved to listen to and wanted to love, well that her birth certificate, and other documents and details from family members contradict her claim that she is Indigenous.

Prior to these programs airing Buffy said “To those who question my truth, I say with love, I know who I am,” Buffy I think we know who you are too!

Family members in the US including Buffy’s younger sister, told CBC that Buffy was not adopted and does not have an indigenous ancestry. CBC located her birth certificate, which says Buffy was born in 1941 in Stoneham, Mass., to Albert and Winifred SaintaMaria, an Italian family. The document lists the baby and parents as white and includes a signature of an attending physician.

Times: Oh How They Have Changed

A rewrite and Homespun recording of Bob Dylan's (1963) classic - Times They Are a Changing as - Times: Oh How They Have Changed ( 2023) 

Will Smoke Get in Our Eyes

The research and recording of Homespun productions normally happens in the Fall and Winter. I take a break in Spring and Summer but this was compelling. A Homespinner asked for a story and song about the current haze of wildfire smoke choking southern Canada and many US states. Scanning the internet the wildfire headlines today are staggering.

Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. CC OOnt (November 17, 1938 – May 1, 2023) was Ribbon of Dark=nera Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960s and 1970s.^[1] He has been referred to as Canada's greatest songwriter^[2] and was known internationally as a folk-rock legend.^[3][4] Lightfoot's biographer Nicholas Jennings said, "His name is synonymous with timeless songs about trains and shipwrecks, rivers and highways, lovers and loneliness."^[5]

Obituary - On the Death of Common Sense

Thank you Dippy for the link to the obituary on Common Sense and this background guitar track of Starry Starry Night, tribute to Vincent Van Gogh is somehow appropriate. It was recorded by an anonymous guitarist @acousticlounge on Youtube.

Whitecaps on Lake Gibson

This was an unusual day, there were whitecaps on Lake Gibson - almost as if the lake was irritated, even angry.

The First Gardener

This is Episode #1 of Season #2

The First Gardener is a story within a story thought to be appropriate given the lengthening days and Canadian gardeners all making plans and growing seedlings for planting out on or before Mid May. 

We are celebrating 2000 downloads of Season #1 Productions. Thank you all!

 

I Love You in a Song

A Homespinner got in touch with me and said Hey Tommy - why don’t you do a story and song by Jim Croce? Oh absolutely, this is long overdue. I'll Have to Say I Love you in a Song is a Homespun valentine for a very special Gal!

Should’na Sold Our Shares

I’ve Been Every Where was written in 1959 by Geoff Mack, an Australian. It was rewritten with mostly North American place names added and popularized by Hank Snow and Lucky Starr in 1962. Johnny Cash recorded it with a smash hit in 1996. In 2020 it was rewritten again as a Covid Anthem by Chuck Mead Titled We Aint Been Nowhere -then recorded by Rhonda Vincent. The song was sent in be a Homespinner and has been adapted and homespun now as Shouldn’a Sold Our Shares