especially on a Friday! But in the midst of this crazy election with "negative campaigning" and that crazy fucker "Joe Plumber" who is not really even a plumber at all and who is honestly just a really misguided lower-middle-class guy with pretensions of being rich, well....let's just say I'm glad the debates are over and I'm feeling in need of a hymn right now. So have a listen to this even though it is rather "churchy" for me.

You see, the strength of the Republican Party's ideology in this country lies in their ability to manipulate the "every man's" belief that he can achieve anything he puts his mind to. Self reliance, a very popular and populist notion is a powerful tool whereby politics becomes a game for "winners" and self interest and "opportunities for success." However, from my perspective, it's yet another example of what Gramsci called "contradictory consciousness," where people don't act in their own interest to get what's good for them and for their families because they believe in something that holds them hostage to doing what's good for capitalism.

Joe the Plumber believes that if the government gave him enough opportunity he could feasibly buy his employer out, (Wurzelbacher, 34, said he doesn't have a good plan put together on how he would buy Newell Plumbing and Heating in nearby Toledo), and make over $250,000 in income and he thinks that under Obama's proposed economic plan he will be punished by paying higher taxes for doing so. It's very simple in Joe's mind. By entering the "rich" class he will have to pay for all those "poor" folks who need healthcare and other social services. Joe's against socialism. The mainstream media just won't come out and put it this bluntly to you, but I bet talk radio is saying it, no?

Joe's contradictory consciousness dictates that even though right now he's making quite a bit less income than $250,000 and probably has huge health insurance premiums for his family of two, and perhaps fears for the future if he loses his job and his health insurance, he's getting ripped off because he's not owning his own business. He's limited in the amount of money he can make because he's someone's employee instead of employing others.

What he fails to take into account, because of his belief in the "American Dream" is that in employing others he will be burdened with providing them fair wages, adequate healthcare, maternity leave, .......oh wait... with the "American Dream" in power there's no need for that! All he has to do is make as much money as he can. So yes, I guess Joe is right, he should vote for McCain so that when he gets enough capital together to qualify for that Small Business Administration load to buy out his boss he can exploit workers just like he's being exploited right now. In the meantime he can suffer along with all the rest when it comes to wondering where his health insurance is coming from. Or money to pay off his car loan, his credit card debt, his mortgage.

Of course in a perfect world, employees can just go find a job where good wages, adequate healthcare, and safe working conditions are available, if Joe's boss doesn't provide them. It's a free market of competition out there for jobs afterall ;) Let me know where that world is, I'll help ya pack.

Joe the Plumber and our election seems like a small and local issue in light of the recent economic crisis. But we'd be a fool to not realize how this election plays into that. The world is watching to see what happens on Nov. 2.

Finlandia is hymn of internationalism. For me it evokes a sense of how small our "American Dream" is and should be in this globalized world. We can no longer afford to dream that dream... So if (like me) the god bits don't speak to you, just listen to the rest xoxo

Finlandia mp3 Indigo Girls Rairities
invest in it

[Edit: Just confirmed, Samatha and The Midnight Shivers will be at the Double Door here in Chicago on Oct. 17 with Will Hodge, the everybody fields, and McCarthy Trenching]

If you've never been to O.K., well... that's the best introduction I can think of for it. And Samantha Crain might become the best singer to come out of it since Woody Guthrie. I say become because this tiny person with this great big voice that echoed all the way up to my seat in the balcony tonight is only 21. Now to you who've seen the YouTube vid above that's not so shocking, but if you've only heard the songs, well, you'd be as shocked as I was.

Disclaimer: I'm a lover of folk music, but bad folk music is worse than even bad punk music and I've no qualms about walking out on a bad gig. No worries here, however with Samantha Crain. Tonight she gave a great solo performance, no... I take that back, tonight she gave a fan-fucking-tastic performance! She sauntered out on stage in her red cowgirl boots and blew us away with "Devils In Boston" featuring her wailing vocals and a damn fine harmonica.

I soon snuck an envelope outta my pocket and a pen and wrote down all the songs she sang, for being in the balcony I knew I'd never make it to the stage in time to swipe the setlist if she even had one. Sure enough, I never even saw it. I did get to speak to her after the show and hastily grabbed my crumpled and scrawled upon little paper, "oh and here's my attempt to keep track of what you sang!" I squealed a bit too loudly into her angelic face. "But of course, that's a bit crazy, isn't it?!" and I trailed off the end of that sentence with a laugh, to which she replied, "well a bit, but you can email me and I'll try and remember it for you." Sweet kid, this Samantha Crain, and I say that with no sarcasm in the least.

So, I'm embarrassed to email the girl from O.K. and here is what I can make out of what she sang for a captive and attentive audience tonight, who all applauded and some of us cheered and whistled, and one older woman in the balcony even sang along on the one's she knew and got an autographed poster, for she already had the EP, thanks "Campfires and Battlefields" and Matthew over on Song, by Toad:

• Devils In Boston - a foot stamping, rowdy opener, she shone righteously doing this for us.
  
• something with the chorus of "What will I do?"
• Get The Fever Out - go find this song and listen to it, it's beautiful.
  
• Calm Down - unknown to me, a slow and almost melodramatic tune, really lovely and yes, I can't help myself but say it, ...haunting.
  
• The River - with an introduction instructing us that indeed it is a comedic song, at least in O.K. where a preacher drowning children while baptizing them in the river really does hit the funny bone, from The Confiscation EP
  
• Traipsing Through The Aisles - from The Confiscation EP
  
• Where Will You Go? - this was a real and rare treat, a debut of a new song, never before played before an audience and she confessed to being quite nervous about it. I asked her after the show what the name was, this was the working title she gave me, but agreed that it was in flux still. The song was brilliant, full of passion, and I know that's kind of a cliche with her work, but honest to goddess, this song was so real, so full of force, you could see in her body how close to the surface it was for her, how new and raw it was. I think it gave us both chills, her to perform it (she kind of shook it off afterward, like when you get out of a cold pool of water and your flesh is all tingly) and us to receive it, we felt the electricity in the air this evening then.
• I Wish The Dam Would Break - introduced as a real "Oklahoma kind of sad song" and it truly was.
  
• the last song she played was the second song she ever wrote. I didn't get the title, I wish I had, for it reminded me of some of the early Indigo Girls songs, before they became known and when they just wrote folk music like their heroines did. The chorus went, "It ain't over yet... What you say, we hold each other up?" And it was gorgeous and simple and young and honest.

Go and buy Samantha's EP, it's only got five songs, it's all she could afford to do at the time, but there's more to come and it's going to be brilliant. She's heading back into the recording studio as we speak, with her band.

But more importantly go see her and The Midnight Shivers, she's wonderful to hear in person, her voice has incredible range, a tone and shape that is unique and interesting and just jarring enough to be so interesting that you want to keep listening to it for another hour or so to try to see what she'll do with it next, and she's gracious and unassuming on stage, a rare treat in so many ways! Lyrically, her songs travel to all those places of heartache, sadness, melancholy, bittersweet and remembrances long past due. You want to go there with her. You need to go there with her. Go see her. You have received your orders. xoxoxo

The River, The Confiscation EP, Samantha Crain and the Midnight Shivers 2007

Change Your Mind, Demos, Samantha Crain 2007

I Don't Wanna Know, Strange Fire, Indigo Girls 1987

buy The Confiscation EP
her MySpace
(Yes, two very different kinds of folk music for you today, but something about them goes together in my mind, ... the early rawness of an emerging woman artist perhaps)