Season 280: Before The Breathin’ Air Is Gone

Hurricane Smith got to number 2 in the UK charts in 1971 with this song.

Malvina strikes again!

Return to Malvina? Malvi-nado?

Anyway, for Randy's Nature season, 280, here is Green Shadows.

Nature tip: don't gather up dried pine needles w/o using gloves or rake, unless you have calamine lotion handy. Actually, not even then.

Bill Staines is a fine singer/songwriter. He plays guitar upside down and backwards. If you want to yodel he isw the man to learn from!

Keep your lamps trimmed and burning

Mississippi Fred McDowell and Rev Gary Davis did different versions
of this song. I poked in my apocalyptic oar.

Nice Rogers and Hart song.Big hit for Mel Torme who incidently also played the ukulele

It's a couple of days since TCK challenged RedPaul to do "The Air That I Breathe". Albert Hammond is one of my absolute favourite songwriters, so Paul, if you snooze, you lose.

...and one from Roy Wood, a hit for The Move, fifty years ago - yes, that long.

Mount Graham is a part of me. My childhood family memories are on that mountain. We've had a remote cabin on the mountain for 50 years in the Turkey Flat area. It is truly a place to get away from real life. Having a place with no electricity, no phone and no TV causes you to enjoy each other and explore together. It is like stepping into another world on that mountain. If you are interested in seeing the mountain check out this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xotfj7O4Jp4&index=21

The mountain was struck by lightning on June 7 and is less than half contained. It is not expected to be out until the end of July. Firefighters have made efforts to save the Turkey Flat area however our cabin is in a more remote area and sits in a place that no efforts are being taken to save.

This song is an original reading of my thoughts of the fire and the distruction that is tugging at the hearts of many concerning the fire. Surely there will be parts of the mountain that will not burn but for the cabin owners it will never be the same. The entire landscape will be different, the animals will be forced to survive in other areas and the vegitation will be gone. It will sadly be thousands of burnt black pines and will take more than a half century for new growth to restore what it once was.

Edit: I should mention that the cabin home that I have is not on Mount Graham. When we decided to build we searched for a place that is closer to necessities. We sit at 8,700 above sea level in Greer. That is the same elevation as Turkey Flat so the temperature is a cool get away from the heat. The year after we built we nearly lost this area to a forrest fire but they made huge efforts to save the town of Greer. We were lucky!

Mount Graham comes up off the desert floor and rises to 10,724. It is the Coronado National Forest and is called a sky island. It has been a refuge from the summers heat for many generations of locals. It is home to a some of the oldest conifer trees in the southwest. Trees so old they have been dated back to 1257 and 1270 AD. It has one of the largest stands of Ponderosa Pines in the state. It is home to the endangered MG Red Squirrel and the MG International Observatory. The mountain is the home of the densest concentration of Black Bears in the Southwest.

The fire has burned more than 38,000 acres so far and is less than half contained. My thoughts go out to all the fire fighters and hotshots during their efforts to fight the fire.

This song was new to me yesterday, perhaps not to you. I like it. It's got rain, wind, sun, & sea. I only had to supply some dissonant sounds.

If I Could Be the Rain by Bruce "Utah" Phillips.

Hey guys,

We're on the way back from Chicago and thought we would get a song in. We're on the road quite a bit this summer, so if we want to stay involved, we'll have to do some from the van.

Y'all are spoiling me! Such terrific music!

RAB11 • Dead Fox • I like this a lot. Your strumming is perfect here! Good message too!

LimousinLil • A DAISY A DAY • I'v always assumed that this song was quite a bit older than that. Thanks for the info! Very cute song, very well done!

guzzler • Don't Let It Die • This is a really good song and a terrific addition to this Season. Very well done!

dickadcock • Green Shadows • So many cool new songs! Love it!

IamNoMan • River • Thanks for the lyrics & chords! This is a good song, I'm gonna learn it!

wee_ginga_yin • Keep your lamp trimmed and burning • That was intense! I like it!

stanat20 • mountain greenery • Good song, well done! I did not know that Mel Tormé played the uke!

YorkSteve • The Air That I Breathe • This is such a well-written song, and your take is so earnest and mellow. Great addition to the Season!

YorkSteve • Flowers In The Rain • This is really good. I love how you do this song.

lelouden • Fire on Graham Mountain • This is such a powerful piece. Truly majestic poetry, it captures the feeling, frustration, and wonder of nature. So good.

dickadcock • If I Could Be the Rain • Nice. We needed some Utah Phillips here, and you've brought in in fine form!

UkuleleLibrarian • Where the Green Grass Grows • Hey Martins! Y'all are amazing as usual! I hope the Chicago trip was as fun as this song!

Best stay indoors tonight.

A Tom Lehrer topical song that is as relevant now as it was when written over fifty years ago.

Here's an environmentally friendly song. This one came together better than I thought it would, and was fun to play.

Season 280. Submission 2. "Cloudy" (Written by Paul Simon and Bruce Woodley, 1966. Recorded by Simon and Garfunkel, the Seekers and The Cyrkle.)

homemade song

"wolf's song"

Included are some photos from the internet of various vultures. We have both turkey and black vultures here, so I've included them both. Also one photo of a crested cara-cara, which is not a vulture, but is a scavenger, so it's common to see them together on a carcass.

Descriptions of buzzards in this song are not entirely accurate.

280-4

This is an environment I would love to visit someday.

I love the Okee Dokee Brothers. They write really fun music for children but I find them really fun for adults too. They have done a few music documentaries and along the way they use their time to explore and write. This song comes from there month long trip hiking the Appalachian Trail. If I had the time this week I would bring several of their songs. We will see what happens. Its another extremely busy week! Their version is worth watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBqVDCqLWB4&index=17

"the wind" by hawkwind (off their new album "into the woods")