Friday, November 5, 2010

Homegrown Radio 11/5/10

Happy Friday, folks!  I’m very excited about this month’s featured artist on Homegrown Radio, Bernie Jungle.  As I mentioned last week, Bernie is an extraordinary guitar player, as well as being a gifted singer & songwriter.  Bernie Jungle has always been in demand for his musical gifts, & has been a member of many bands—these include Warm Wires, The Lipsey Mountain Spring Band, The Great Auk, & Thunderbleed, AKA Blind Vengeance.  You can purchase his solo cd 4 Songs  on CDBaby here, as well as his cd with Peter Altenberg, Slumped Forward; & you can hear Bernie’s work with Carrie Bradley (also of Homegrown Radio fame!) right here on The Great Auk’s MySpace page.   You can also read Bernie's interview on the Robert Frost's Banjo Musical Questions series at this link.

Let’s see what Bernie has to say about this week’s song, “Sifting Through:”

it's a song about looking at the past and also about forgetting that we're aging

started when i saw a photo of a friends' brother who had passed away
in the picture he was probably 14 and had this amazing glint in his eye
started to think about that and other old photo's that i've got
and about how when growing up,  a friend of mine thought that when a plane flew really high in the sky
when you can't hear a sound but only see the con-trail
that it meant that someone had died
(we were both in probably 3rd grade when he told me that while we sat on a swing-set looking at the sky)

that has always stuck with me and finally made it into a song

and the rest of the song is about attraction and aging
and about being confused about falling in love
Here are the lyrics:

Sifting Through
If only the glint in an eye of a photo from seventy-two
If even a splash of that red from the fifties
When a plane high above in the sky
makes you think of the ones that you knew
I’ll be sifting, through


There’s time to be lost
And time to make sound with the bones in your body
This river has cost you dear

He sent her a poem through the air to her eyes but she didn’t receive
Then he looked in the mirror, and finally agreed
He was thinking that hearts can be had, and behave and beholdenly be
He was thinking of hearts, while drifting at sea

There’s time to be lost
And time to make sound with the bones in your body
This river has cost you dear

If only the glint in an eye of a photo from seventy-two
If even a splash of that red from the fifties

©2010 Bernie Jungle
 

Intrigued?  Here’s the song!



Pic of Bernie within the graphic is by Amy Snyder

9 comments:

  1. thanks for the heads up re bernie....poignant backstory

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  2. Okay, maybe I'm biased. Bernie and I played together about twenty-five years ago (when he was young), and he was this good back then, with music just waiting to be conceived. Well done, Bern!

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  3. Hi Mouse & Banner

    Mouse: Yes--indeed poignant. I wonder if you ever heard Bernie locally--he spent a lot of time in your area when he was younger. Great guy, great musician!

    Banner: I haven't heard Bernie's music for that long--first heard him in the early 90s when he moved to San Franc--but yes, he's always had an amazing talent. Thanks for stopping by!

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  4. Nice one, Bernie. The song structure and arrangement captures the element of wistful reflection in nostalgia, or the ache to return home.

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  5. Proof positive (as if needed) that a simple tune and an unfussy setting can do the business better than any amount of flash and filigree. More great stuff via the John Hayes jukebox!

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  6. Proof positive (as if needed) that a simple tune and an unfussy setting can do the business better than any amount of flash and filigree. More great stuff via the John Hayes jukebox!

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  7. Hi Brad & Dick

    Brad: Well said! Thanks for stopping by.

    Dick: Yes, Bernie is someone who can create very "pure songs"--a bit of an ethereal term, perhaps, but those who listen will understand. Thanks!

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  8. I Didnt Know Bernie's Music.Very Impressive .Equally Some Deft Lyrics.Thank You John.

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  9. Hi Tony: We're in agreement here! Have a good one!

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