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llllll Front Porch Compendium Social Commentary Log Cabin Manual SongFarmer’s Notebook by folksinger Michael Johnathon llllll ©2017 by Michael Johnathon/Rachel-Aubrey Music, Inc./BMI All essays and songs, graphics, layout and design by Michael Johnathon Music copyright: Rachel-Aubrey Music, Inc/BMI and can be heard on the CD's available on PoetMan Records CD's and Tapes. published by POETMAN RECORDS USA P.O. Box 200, Lexington, KY 40588 Music Transcriptions by JOHN ROBERTS YE OL ’ LEGAL DISCLAIMER : All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be duplicated for resale or copied for publishing in any media without express written permission from the author. The only exception is for use in short quotes by literary reviewers. HOW -EVUH : The writer grants permission to any teacher, musician or other brave souls who wish to quote, copy or sing anything from this book for classroom or personal use which just about renders the above disclaimer useless. BOOK and COMPACT DISC ISBN: 978-0-692-82754-3 Library of Congress Control: 2017930977 Special thanks to Loretta Sawyer, Bryan Klausing, Will Harvey, Lance Cowan, Melissa Johnathon, Faith Quesneberry, Kevin Johnson, Rick Marks, my SongFarmer friends and the WoodSongs Crew. Photos of Michael Johnathon by Larry Neuzel A book by Michael Johnathon WoodSongs III Front Porch Compendium, Social Commentary, Log Cabin Manual & SongFarmer’s Notebook An original collection of commentaries, short stories, poetry, songs with music and tablature. Table of Contents The Beginning 4 Cello in a Tree 8 The Log Cabin 9 Jack got Married 25 Power of the Front Porch 27 Front Porch song (music and lyrics) 32 SongFarmers 36 The Significance of the Feather 45 SongFarmers Blues (music and lyrics) 46 The Pig 48 Banjo Mouse 130 Tree Hugger 52 The Coin 132 Lover, Haters, Awards & Critics 54 The Coin (music and lyrics) 134 The Bronze Star 57 Pamper Creek 136 My Father’s Grave 58 Pamper Creek (music and lyrics) 137 Artist & Krit-icks, part 2 61 The 911 Call 62 Tools of the Trade 63 Dimensions of Art 64 Poppy 67 Cutting the Arts 70 The Woody Guthrie Opera 72 Believe (music and lyrics) 78 The Dream 80 The Dream lyrics 85 The 26 Commandments 86 Artists 88 Freight Trains 140 SongFarmers Chapters 92 Know Your Name 146 Jamming Tips 96 Gun 150 Pick & Play 97 Gun (music and lyrics) 152-153 BMI, ASCAP & SESAC 98 Violence 154-155 Organic SongFarmers 107 Autumn Song (music and lyrics) 156-7 Finding Home 108 The Refrigerator 158-167 Looking Glass (music and lyrics) 122 Don’t Suck 168 Heart & Hands 124 Banjo Players & French Fries 170 Friends & Fans 125 Indian Dream 171 Non-Protest Protest Songs 126-127 Indian Dream (music and lyrics) 174 Mousie HiWay 128 Mousie HiWay (music and lyrics) 129 WoodSongs III Album List 176 The Beginning ... Gandhi said "Where there is love, there is life." Love is a wonderful, amazing, powerful, and addictive need. It's the nuclear fuel that powers us when we have it ... and the crippling blow that stops us cold when taken away. Love is our most powerful joy hanging by a fine thread connected to our greatest pain. “Abandonment is no less a betrayal than adultery; no less cruel than abuse; no less painful than death ..." Whewn lost it’s like being adrift in a stormy black sea, losing sight of the shore. You can’t breathe and you can’t keep your head above the churning waters no matter how hard you try as you desperately strain to navigate yourself toward anything that resembles safe land. And that land is the unattainable idea of Love, Family and Home. Arriving at dry harbor, tired and exhausted and unsure, you crawl toward a dream seeking an allusive paradise of affection and confidence that you are completely untrained and unprepared to recognize. Love becomes an crushing internal tsunami that you do not understand, yet desperately need. You drag yourself upon the sandy shore with no maps, no navigation, no sense of direction. It’s like walking through an island peppered with land mines, detonating and exploding around you. With each step you cup your ears in anticipation of the next thunderous roar of heartache. But you are used to it. You expect it. You have learned the fine art of tolerating the intolerable as you keep moving forward no matter what, hating every moment and yet unable to change it. And the relationships that you form seem to be with others walking the same path and navigating the same mine fields. And when you finally find that delicate rose of love, that paradise of home and family, that precious yet unkind ‘moment of deception’ where you actually give your whole self, heart and life force to it ... the storms of your youth come surging back as the mines explode at your feet. You are left alone in complete disbelief as you again pick up the smoldering, charred pieces of every dream you had. And when the smoke finally clears and the thunder subsides, you step forward again ... cupping your ears and bracing, waiting, anticipating the next detonation, the next rumble from the storm. To me, the Front Porch represents the shelter from that storm. To me, the front porch has three meanings: the literal, actual front porch on a home. The emotional front porch of finding the love of your life. And the global, universal front porch between nations. Those three viewpoints are bound up in that song. This book is mostly about family, about love and the powerful keys that make it work: Pride & Forgiveness. Is a literary search for the emotional front porch we all desperately search for. Gandhi said "Where there is love, there is life." I used to believe that, but I’m not so sure anymore. I have learned through time that so many function each day battered by rejection, exist without love as they search for emotional paradise. Most of us live within the prison of extreme heartbreak and disappointment. It's a double edged sword: usually the one growing up without love is the first to withdraw love from those closest to them. The road to paradise is fraught with pot holes and barriers. Forgiveness is the bridge that carries us over every obstacle. Forgiveness is the fuel that powers love forever. It is the glue that holds our inner front porch together. Without fo rgiveness, love is weak and fragile, it crumbles and withers from the slightest heat. Gandhi should have said, "Where there is forgiveness ... love will last forever." That is the only possible road map to the lovely, poetic, calm, and peaceful paradise that I want ... the inner front porch that we all ache for deeply, whether we acknowledge it or not. Folksinger, SongFarmer & Tree Hugger [email protected] Dedicated to the kids: Makayla Rayne & Caleb Johnathon MichaelB, Rachel Aubrey & Melody Larkin “There is no remedy for love but to love more.” Henry David Thoreau “There is nothing more truly artistic than to love.” Vincent Van Gogh “Forgiveness is choosing to love.” Mahatma Gandhi Welcome to WoodSongs III. This is a book about Music. This is a book about Art. And this is about the glue that binds it all together: Forgiveness, Pride and something called Love. mj “I see a cello in a tree. ” the Artist said. "There’s no cello in a tree." the people sneered. "But, I see a cello in a tree," he said, and the people laughed. "I see a cello in a tree," he repeated as he chiseled the wood. "I see a cello in a tree," as the crowds pointed and rediculed. "I see a cello in a tree," and the people gasped at what they saw happening. “Why ... look! There’s a cello in a tree!" they cried as the Artist left with his chisel. The Artist’s job is to see the cello in a tree. The Log Cabin n o h t a n h o J l How hard can it be? e a h c i M Why “not knowing much” Why “not knowing much” y b o t o can be very hellpfull.. h P When I was in high school I had three main loves: Music, art and woodshop. I suppose if you are reading this book, the music part is self explanatory. It has won over the other two, although together the trinity of music-art-wood remain very important, passionate elements in my life. In the previous book, WoodSongs II, I explained how drawing became a fascination when I read a vintage World Book Encyclopedia section about Charles Schulz, the creator of Peanuts. I would sit for hours copying, tracing and drawing each of his panels ... I would even duplicate the squiggly, slightly nervous look of his lettering. I vividly recall sitting in my bedroom late one night, my sketch pad blazing with ideas in front of me when the thought of creating my very own cartoon strip hit me. “How hard can it be?” I thought. All I needed was to come up with my own original cartoon characters, three panel story lines and be able to draw them consistently week after week. Heck, piece of cake I thought. So, I started drawing bugs. 9 Yes, bugs. “If Bugs Ruled the World” was the name of my cartoon strip and my characters came to life with pen and ink and, before you knew it, I had half dozen cartoon strips done. Now what? On my parents table was the day’s mail including the free weekly newspaper for the Mid-Hudson Valley area.