Graphic above and at end: Photos of Music on the Square, Jonesborough TN -- one of Media USA's 50 "Best Historic Locations" nationally -- in its tenth year now with enthusiastic audiences ranging between an estimated 800 and 1200 on any given Friday evening during good weather months in "The Lost State of Franklin"
"Singing is almost like reading prose or poetry with a musical background. I think pop singing is a fine art form; it should move people like a fine painting, a fine piece of symphonic music or a fine acting job." -- Frank Sinatra
"One of the factors the Pew researchers identified as a reason for mellower relations between Baby Boomers and their children: a mutual affinity for rock 'n' roll. The Age of Aquarius? Not yet. But closer." -- USA Today, 8/14/08, as part of Fortieth WoodstockAnniversary weekend coverage
"Man can make the desert bloom... [but] he can never conquer the implacable sea." -- Editors, Life Magazine
Graphic above: Oil painting by Marjorie Harris Scranton of Casco Bay rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean and viewed from the coastline of Bustins Island Maine
"I was a highwayman. Along the coach roads I did ride/
With sword and pistol by my side/
Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade/
Many a soldier shed his lifeblood on my blade/
The bastards hung me in the spring of twenty-five/
But I am still alive./ "I was a sailor. I was born upon the tide/
And with the sea I did abide./
I sailed a schooner round the Horn to Mexico/
I went aloft and furled the mainsail in a blow/
And when the yards broke off they said that I got killed/
But I am living still./
"I was a dam builder across the river deep and wide/
Where steel and water did collide/
A place called Boulder on the wild Colorado/
I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below/
They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound/
But I am still around..I'll always be around..and around and around and/
around and around/ "I fly a starship across the Universe divide/
And when I reach the other side/
I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can/
Perhaps I may become a highwayman again/
Or I may simply be a single drop of rain/
But I will remain/
And I'll be back again, and again and again and again and again."
-- The Highwayman by Johnny Cash
"... Jesus Christ/
Jesus Christ/
Who are you? What have you sacrificed?/
Jesus Christ/
Jesus Christ/
Who are you? What have you sacrificed?/
Jesus Christ/
Superstar/
Do you think you're what they say you are?/
Jesus Christ/
Superstar/
Do you think you're what they say you are?/ Tell me what you think/
About your friends at the top/
Now who d'you think besides yourself/
Was the pick of the crop?/
Buddah was he where it's at?/
Is he where you are?/
Could Muhammmed move a mountain/
Or was that just PR?/
Did you mean to die like that?/
Was that a mistake or/
Did you know your messy death/
Would be a record breaker?/
"Don't you get me wrong Don't you get me wrong/
... Only want to know Only want to know/ "... Jesus Christ/
Jesus Christ/
Who are you? What have you sacrificed?/
Jesus Christ/
Jesus Christ/
Who are you? What have you sacrificed?/
Jesus Christ/
Superstar/
Do you think you're what they say you are?/
Jesus Christ/
Superstar/
Do you think you're what they say you are?/..."
-- Superstar by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber
"Please allow me to introduce myself/
I'm a man of wealth and taste/
I've been around for a long, long year/
Stole many a man's soul and faith/ "And I was 'round when Jesus Christ/
Had his moment of doubt and pain/
Made damn sure that Pilate/
Washed his hands and sealed his fate/
"Pleased to meet you/
Hope you guess my name/
But what's puzzling you/
Is the nature of my game/ "I stuck around St. Petersberg/
When I saw it was a time for a change/
Killed the Czar and his ministers/
Anastasia screamed in vain/
"I rode a tank/
Held a general's rank/
When the Blitzkrieg raged/
And the bodies stank/ "... Let me please introduce myself/
I'm a man of wealth and taste/
And I laid traps for troubadors/
Who get killed before they reached Bombay/
"... Just as every cop is a criminal/
And all the sinners saints/
As heads is tails/
Just call me Lucifer/
'Cause I'm in need of some restraint" "So if you meet me/
Have some courtesy/
Have some sympathy, and some taste/
Use all your well-learned politesse/
Or I'll lay your soul to waste, um yeah/... "
-- Sympathy for the Devil by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones
Table of Contents
(Updated for August September October 2009)
Country
Inscriptions
BY FAITH ALONE Servants and armies of the Light "Mirandy Musings" COUNTRY RECKONING Regional short stories, verse and articles by Susan Mccachren "TBA" DISTILLED SPIRITS Musings from a naturally poetic land by Jeannette Harris "Tanasi: The Spirit of Community" HOLLER NOTES Historical stories, articles on Appalachian lore and genealogy by Don Silvius "Anxiety!!!" (ALL THAT) JUBILATION JAZZ Joys and delights of town and country life by Jeannette Harris "On Being Human" MOUNTAIN EMPIRE Observations and insights on Appalachia by Dave Waldrop "Martin Luther King, Jr.," "The Steel Mill," "North Georgia Saturday Night," and "Keep Holdin' On" NATIVE DAYS Every day life by Dr. Frances Lamberts "Safeguarding the Earth's Crops!" OCCASIONAL TREATS Unexpected, unscheduled gems of interest and variety byJeanne Cope "Amy" PEAKS OF UTTER High points in literary expression and experience by Wilson Roberts "Two Poems" RIVERS SIDE Country prose and verse from Caroline Freedom Ross "Livin' Large" RUSTIC REFRAIN Articles, prose and poetry on traditional life and pastimes by Dave Waldrop "Black, White, and Both" WHOLE WOMAN Exploring experience and consciousness by Dr. Gwendoline Fortune "Three Poems" and
"Global Shift and Collective Change"
Mountain
Features
A DIFFERENT DRUMMER quotes from the region and nation APPALACHIAN HOME Notes on the scene and environment by Jeanne Cope "Harvesting and Preserving Garden Bounty" COUNTRY CALENDAR Reviews of recent regional events with links to resources byJeannette Harris "The Fourth in the First" GAS LAMPS AND COBBLESTONES Valley and hill culture notes byJeannette Harris "Call Me Eve" GLORIA! A celebration of spirit in prose, poetry and graphic arts by Lillie Clayton Waldrop Pannell "Three Poems and One by Her Son" RURAL REVIEW Checking out releases in music and literature byDr. Gary Carden "THE MISSING by Tim Gautreaux -- A Review" WINDING ROAD Life's ups and asides, curves and bends, dips and drop-offs byCaroline Freedom Ross "Decorating Hatboxes"
Appalachian Scenes Graphics, listings, links to regional attractions Quote Closet Famous and near-famous regional to inter/national quotes BACKWOODS RECIPES Down-home cooking section COUNTRY TALK Mountain/Valley sayings and colloquialisms Links to Appalachia Regional website listings, including genealogy sources Site Credits Corporate membership and positions Site Scene Publishing info TripLink Travel around the world via internet websites Word Preserve Archive of articles, essays, poetry, columns, short stories, and graphics XYZ Index Title reference and links by author
"Immersion in wilderness life, like immersion in the sea, may return civilized man to a basic element from which he sprang and with which he has now lost contact." -- Anne Morrow Lindbergh
"He often said an unearned suffering is redemptive, and if you give your life to a cause in which you believe and which is right and just -- and it is -- and if your life comes to an end as a result of this, then your life could not have been lived in a more redemptive way. And I think that this is what my husband has done." -- Mrs. Coretta Scott King about her husband Martin Luther Jr.'s recent assasination, 4/19/68
