Songs About America Week

This is one of the very first songs I wrote. (At least, in the past 4 years or so.) I wrote it sometime back in 2006, maybe even late 2005. This recording is from early 2008, though. I played this one out occasionally when I was first gettin going. It’s a relic now. It’s in the past. The title is Shock & Awe.

I got the idea for this song from the great old tune “Peg and Awl.” If you have the Harry Smith Anthology of Folk Music you’re probably familiar with that song. Here’s a link to that tune. I always loved it, but couldn’t sing it. It ain’t my life. Peggin’ shoes and then a machine comes along and does it for me. That sounds like science fiction to me.

Anyway. Shock and Awe is all about America. It’s about American war. American politics. American people. American fireworks. American money. American grub. It’s about as American as you could get. Mainly because the song could keep going on into infinity, adding a new verse about every new year. Eventually it would become a big circle again. That’s how every day is in America. You wake up and the sun is a-shinin and the birds is a-singin and by the end of the night you just lay down dead as a rat.

See ya, here’s some shock and awe for ya.