Season of the ukulele 278: "YOU CAN'T SEE THE WOOD FOR THE TREES"

STOP PRESS!!! Owing to the TREEmendous response from some of our Entrants, I have decided to abandon the ten song limit! (If you have more tree songs in you, then please don't LEAF yet!)

What are ENTrants? Wild gone trees from the Lord of the Rings? May be somebody should tie a yellow ribbon round the wild gone tree!
 
And time to LOG off for tonight! Thanks so much again to today's conTREEbutors, who were Elmann, Alan, Trent, Lynda (BEV), Linda (L), Rex, Rusty, Ryan, Dave (the Silly One), Robin, Stan, Randy and Dick!

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE TEN SONG LIMIT HAS BEEN LIFTED, SO PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING IN!

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AND TONIGHT'S TREE JOKE:

This little skinny guy applies for a job as a lumberjack. "Sorry", says the head lumberjack, eyeing the man up and down, "You're just too small!"
"Give me a chance to show you what I can do", the guy pleads, "You won't regret it!"
"Okay", says the boss. "See that giant oak over there? Let's see if you can chop it down."
Half an hour later, the mighty oak is felled, amazing the boss.
"Where'd you learn to cut trees like that?" he asks.
"The Sahara Forest"
"You mean the Sahara Desert"
"Sure, if that's what they call it now!"

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Google translate????
yes, i realise i may have to engage my own brain and do my own work here, if the universe doesn't magically drop a perfecto translation right in my lap!

HOLD THAT THOUGHT, i engaged my brain already! (not to any great effect, but i engaged it!)


STOP PRESS!!! I have decided to abandon the ten song limit!
this is very kind of you, val, especially given you have twice the usual hosting duties, wrangling all the tree jokes!


AND TONIGHT'S TREE JOKE:

This little skinny guy applies for a job as a lumberjack. "Sorry", says the head lumberjack, eyeing the man up and down, "You're just too small!"
"Give me a chance to show you what I can do", the guy pleads, "You won't regret it!"
"Okay", says the boss. "See that giant oak over there? Let's see if you can chop it down."
Half an hour later, the mighty oak is felled, amazing the boss.
"Where'd you learn to cut trees like that?" he asks.
"The Sahara Forest"
"You mean the Sahara Desert"
"Sure, if that's what they call it now!"

:worship:
 
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This is another true story about my dad and a tree. I whipped this one out pretty fast, so don't expect too much.



Well we had gone to see
Some family
Like we used to do
They lived way up north
In Temple (Texas that is)
Cousins on my mom's side of the family

Now my cousin's dad had a great big tree
Growing in the back yard
It grew higher than I could even see
He said it was a sycamore
The first time I ever saw a sycamore tree

And my dad said, "Man, that thing makes some shade, don't it?
But them old sandhills are prob'ly too dry for it grow."
My cousin's dad said, "Maybe, but if you water it plenty, all the time,
It might even grow in them old sandhills, you know."

So he took out his pocket knife
And he opened it with a click
And he reached up and grabbed a small, low-hanging limb
And he sliced off that little limb
Clean and nice and slick
While that giant sycamore rustled in the wind

He said, "Just stick it in the ground,
Don't have to plant it all that deep
Just stick it in the sand and water it like..." well you know what he said
He said, "Water it all the time, don't never let it get too dry
Before you know it, it'll be higher than your head

And that's what Daddy did, he stuck it in the ground
And fed it with the air conditioner condensation drain
So it had a steady flow all summer long, you know
And when the winter came, it soaked up all the rain

It shot up straight and tall, branches, leaves and all
When it was one year old it was as high as the roof
When it was two years old, it was as high as them old oaks
That big old sycamore standing lonely and aloof

Yeah, it's the only one around
Tow'ring above the ground
And now it's about the biggest tree on the place
There's seven pines that you already know
Not far away, alongside the road
And even them big old pines, they know they've lost the race

To that one huge sycamore tree
It's really something to see
There ain't no other tree that's around so big
It's hard to believe that big old tree
Standing there for the world to see
Grew up from one tiny, cut-off twig
 
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Here is a song written by Adirondack folk singer, Dan Berggren, called "Logging Roads, Graveyards, and Old Cellar Holes." It's not specifically about trees, (although trees and logging are mentioned), but it's about walking in the woods and finding interesting things that had been left there years before.

The lyrics remind me of my own childhood growing up in the Adirondacks: exploring old logging roads on foot or horseback, finding tumbledown abandoned houses and barns in the middle of the woods (and yes, even old stone cellar holes and an abandoned - but more modern - foundation next door), overgrown orchards, and a forgotten family dump at a farm up the road, where I found some interesting bottles and pottery that looked many decades old. So, here is my contribution to this Season. Hope you enjoy, and thanks for listening! :)

 


Have you ever done so many failed takes on a song that you kind of hate the song after you finally finish? That's the way I feel about this song now. If this had been our first take, we wouldn't have kept it, but by this point, we were ready for bed.

Oh and did we really just cover a Taylor Swift song?
 
My Father's House

A song that doesn't mention woods, forests or trees in the title itself, but imagery of woods and trees runs right through the song. After coming home to the grim news of Grenfell Tower (less than 2 miles from my home), didn't really fancy taking on anything upbeat.

 
John Dominy's "Bury Me By the Sea"

Although this song has a sea theme, the first verse mentions trees, and I think the overall gist of the song fits. It was written my a friend and former bandmate John Dominy, who is a fine young singer, songwriter, and guitarist.

I recorded it in Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky, at the tail end of my recent 2-week camping road trip through parts of Appalachia and the Mid-West, which also included Ukulele World Congress, where I got to hang out and play with a bunch of former and current Seasonistas.



- FiL
 
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