Words & Music

by Mike Power

latest

  • Chet Atkins, Leo Kottke and Doc Watson – Last Steam Engine Train

    I’ve gone on record saying Matthew knew how to write and I’ll stand by that statement. You can keep your Moses and Ezekiel and the rest of the evangelists. David wrote some beautiful poetry and you’d be a fool to dispute it. But it was Matthew who said, quoting Jesus, “Man cannot live by bread… Read more

  • Psycho Therapy

    I went for therapy last night for the first time and now I can’t get this song out of my head. It’s the Ramones from their 1983 album, Subterranean Jungle. Psycho therapy, psycho therapy, psycho therapyThat’s what they want to give mePsycho therapy, psycho therapy, psycho therapyWhat they want to give meI’m a teenage schizoid,… Read more

  • Robert Devito – Rest In Peace

    I was 19 or 20 when I met Bob. He came to visit my friend Terry at the house we shared off-campus in Oneonta. Bob was older than us and, if not wiser, certainly more experienced than we were and not shy about sharing the benefits of his experience. Maybe that’s what wisdom is. He… Read more

  • The Kesh Jig

    Here’s another Irish jig I picked up from Bucky Reed’s excellent site.It’s also known as The Castle, Kerrigan’s, The Kesh Mountain, The Kincora, The Mountaineers’ March, among others. Michael Coleman recorded the melody on 78 RPM as “Kerrigan’s Jig.” The first printed version appears to be in George Petrie’s 1850’s collection under the title “Tear… Read more

  • The Surgeon

    I have to go back in – there’s no way around it. I don’t know how it happened but I missed something. I had that poor woman cut open on the table for more than three hours. I checked everything. But tests don’t lie. She’s still bleeding inside.There aren’t a lot of people whose judgment… Read more

  • The Poet

      What I’m trying to do is impossibleIs that the right way to start?You tell me.What I’m trying to do is find words that don’t exist for feelings that do God knows there are enough wordsMillions of themThey’re everywhere – like gnats   Because none of them are quite right, I combine a bunch of them,scrape… Read more