Dazed

The Dazed & Confuzed album featuring “The Statue”

an album that reintroduces the musical role of the folksinger in the 21st century.

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PLEASE LISTEN ON GOOD SPEAKERS

The Statue

The STATUE is a song about the symbols of racism and hatred, political divide remaining between people and communities, black and white, conservative and liberal. It is a lyrical condemnation of prejudice and racism and the hurt it causes.

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THE STATUE MP3 single DOWNLOAD  CLICK HERE

THE POINT OF THE VIDEO AND LYRIC:

Removing a symbol of racism and violence is a good first step, but it should not be the only step. Removing the symbol without removing the reason the symbol existed in the first place, does not accomplish anything. Does the symbol of racism, like a flag, remain bad if it’s used as a blanket to help an injured child? Do the issues that created the symbol almost two centuries ago remain in 2020 and ignited America on fire? What does pulling down a statue of George Washington do? Does erasing history erase what caused history? Should not Germany dismantle Hitler’s concentration camps … or is it OK they remain and maintained, even selling tickets to tour them?

Where is the balance?

That is the point raised by this song and music video. You can pull the statue of Robert E Lee down but the “rope remains” around his neck if the reason the statue was put up in the first place continues to exist. Whether the symbol is a piece of cloth, a piece of marble or steel, or even a word like “boy” nothing is more important than removing the REASON it exists. That takes purposeful action. This can sometimes happen first as protest, but not if the action ends there.

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TEACHERS and HOME SCHOOL PARENTS can download free lesson plans to this music video for a discussion with your kids about what is happening in America right now at the WoodSongs.com/classroom download cente

WATCH the music video for The Statue below: filmed on location in Union, WV, Charlottesville VA and Paris, KY. Lincoln and MLK narration by Josh White Jr.

Watch “The Statue” Music Video

for the FULL SCREEN version click https://youtu.be/e0BgR-21gsw

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Order Dazed & Confuzed

THREE CD SPECIAL: Get the brand new Dazed & Confuzed studio album PLUS the 23 song MOONFIRE Banjo Album PLUS the original WoodSongs album that started it all (featuring JD Crowe, Odetta, Homer Ledford and Jean Ritchie). ALL THREE for just $20. PayPal to radio@woodsongs.com  Credit card call 859-255-5700  Check to: PoetMan Records PO Box 200 Lexington, KY 40588 or use the easy PayPal Button below


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The Meaning of the Lyrics and Video

“You use a mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.” –  George Bernard Shaw. It means that Art is not supposed to be obvious. So don’t be surprised if some can’t understand the song or the video at first. Many will view it from the prism of their past experiences, and miss the point completely.

The video opens with the words of Abraham Lincoln who set the template for the new America, the new society … and ends with the words of Martin Luther King Jr who shows that we really haven’t achieved that goal of peace between communities. The video uses bold imagery to show the foolishness and injury of racism. The confederate flag, a symbol of hurt to many, is used as a tool of comfort, there-bye removing its power as a symbol of hurt. As the woman steps out of the cabin she enters 2019 to see the issues that injured the child are STILL being fought with violence. Nothing has been learned and instead of helping, people take pictures with their cell phones. In the end she lays the lifeless body of the child at the feet of the statue as a statement against the violence and hurt she sees.

THE FOUNDATION OF RACISM:

“If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.” As explained by President Lyndon B. Johnson during an interview with reporter Bill Moyers

“You hung your soul from the limb of a tree …” conjures up the hatred between the races, but it is NOT about hanging slaves. It is what the white race did to THEMSELVES by those acts of violence. They may have hung a black man’s body … but they actually hung their own souls, their own consciences from the limb of those same trees.

“You might pull it down but the rope remains around the neck of Robert E. Lee …” makes the poetic point that pulling down a statue does not remove the REASON it’s there. We learned in Charlottesville VA that a piece of rock, a carved image of marble, is not a important as the anger and emotion it represents.

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The School Lesson Plans

WS23 THE STATUE music video about racism and violence

We live in a divided time, with divided communities. Anger, distrust and violence is everywhere and … yes … it affects these kids. They want an honest conversation about what is really happening to their neighborhoods, hometowns and nation. This is a music video that begins during the Civil War and ends in modern times, using the SYMBOLS of hate and prejudice to guide a conversation about love and healing.

YOUTUBE LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0BgR-21gsw&feature=youtu.be

SEE THE MUSIC VIDEO (3:34)                    WS23-MIDDLE             WS23-HIGH               WS23-COLLEGE

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Folksingers … album liner notes

They are the poets, dreamers and time travelers, world-wanderers and highway vagabonds, rail riders and drifters, like mirrors held up to the world to reflect back what they see. They sing so other voices can be heard, they feel hoping others can feel with them, and make friends instead of fans. They dream what is unseen so others can appreciate what has been created, like musical miners exploring great treasures hidden deep within dusty vinyl vaults. They crave community, communication, flannel shirts and coffee, peace with appreciation and love without regret. They are spiritual log cabin dwellers living in cars, vans and hotel rooms, organic gardeners eating in sleepy cafes along dark roadsides and your best friend, met once on the side of a stage, never to be seen again. They are 5-string politicians, 6-string therapists, banjo barristers, acoustic lovers and penny-pinching peacemakers … because those who sing together can not fight. They are still there. Still writing. Still searching. Still singing. Still trying to get their world in tune.

They are America’s folksingers.

 

The Songs on the Dazed & Confuzed album

The STATUE is a song about the political divide remaining between people, black and white, conservative and liberal.

MAPLE TREE was recorded live on a Warren May built dulcimer.

LOG CABIN TWINS is for Makayla and Caleb

MELISSA’S SONG about the day we met.

SOMETHING’S WRONG … well, there is. CLICK HERE

HIPPY LUV is for every granola-chomping, sandal wearing, tie-dyed, Mother Earth News reading post-retro hippy freak.

GROWING OLD … well, we are.

(I Hate Your) SMOKE was written in the hope of helping anyone, everyone stop this dangerous and filthy habit. Sure, we are free to do what we want. But when someone you love is unsafe, and this is VERY unsafe, please help them want to stop.

$5 WIFE is my re-worked rendition of the classic song made popular in the early days of the Grand Ole Opry by Uncle Dave Macon, later by Stringbean. I play the Vega long neck open back banjo and Isaac May plays on the Franzke mandolin.

DAZED & CONFUZED written about the high speed tsunami of useless over-hyped insistence that we all think the same. We can’t. And we should not.

 

The MUSICIANS

Michael Johnathon
Martin 0000-28s, 000-28s, D28s, Vega longneck banjo,
Warren May dulcimer, piano, Franzke mandolin,
tamborine, harmonica, Vietnamese bells

JP Pennington – electric guitar, vocals
Rob Ickes – dobro
Bob Bryant – bass
John Johnson – drums, tamborine, shaker
Kristy Kirsh – flutes and recorders
Melissa Deaton, Vicky Myers, Alice White – vocals
Lee Carroll – piano, Hammond B3
Isaac May – Franzke mandolin
Ruth McLain – upright bass, vocals
JR Williams – banjo
Al White – mandolin