My Thoughts on the Confederate Flag

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:04:05 +0000

I just want to clarify one thing. I’m not too crazy about that confederate flag. I get requests for friendship, I’m assuming because of the name “Southern,” from folks with confederate flags on their page. If I think this person is simply a redneck, non-racist, that likes the music I’ll accept you. Though I still don’t like that flag, I understand for some folks from the South it’s more an identity with “place” and not “race.” Still, you should find healthier ways to identify your area if you ask me. If I find anything remotely racist, forget it! I want my music to include everyone. My music is not about the South. The name Southern is a translation of my real Swedish last name. I’d say I’m a Yankee, but I hate the Yankees, always buying their way into a World Series every year! Go Twins!
So, if you’d like to be friends, please try avoid using that flag if you can. It represents a horrible thing to many Americans, not to mention people all over the world. “Don’t be hate’n”
Peace! ~ Billy Southern

County Jail - Sunday, January 25, 2009

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:03:01 +0000

It seems like Sunday’s are the best for writing blog entries. Today’s entry came to me just now while listening to Twin Cities Radio on the net.
“County Jail” is the song I’ll cover this week. I’m really not sure where it came from. I listen to a lot of Todd Snider and he has a song about sitting in the Tillamook County Jail I’ve heard maybe a couple thousand times now. No I’m probably not exagerating. ha ha. His song is much better than my county jail song, and I should credit Todd with the inspiration for a county jail song, though when I wrote it I honestly didn’t make the connection. I was sitting around the kitchen table one night, just having a beer and working on songs, and this one just spilled out. It was one of those songs that started writing itself after one verse, and after an hour or so I had the whole song.
The recording of the song, I think is one of the best on the cd. Barry Schwartz plays lead guitar on this and does a great job! Ashley Northey sings on the choruses with me and in the recording I keep screwing her up. If you listen close you’ll notice one of us is singing “all the time” while the other sings “every time.” This is my bad. She’s following my lyrics and I’m running off the cuff. (Something you should never do in a recording studio I’ve discovered.) Still it’s barely noticable and I think it’s one of the best songs on the cd as far as over all completeness.
Is it a true story? Maybe for someone. My songs are not all about me. In fact many of them are about other people I know or just characters I make up. I think the character in this song has a lot in common with the guy in All the Proctor Girls. It’s the “woman getting the guy in trouble” theme that, looking at it closer, is really a “guy being an idiot” theme. Being an idiot is something I can relate to. That’s probably why songs I write about guys doing stupid things comes easy to me. ha ha. It’s nice to have a source for material….
It’s -5 F right now. The sun has sunk below the trees and there is a beautiful dark blue sky filling my window. I’m tired having hauled wood for the wood stove an hour ago, but I feel good about life and what it to come. Times are hard in America, but I think it’s when times are hard we need to push harder, defiantly telling life who’s really in charge here. As long as you own your soul, what can anyone really take from you? Money comes and goes, and goes, and goes….but if you can aford a cup of coffee, and a place to rest your head, you’re doing just fine. Life is weird, hang tough though, it only gets weirder…

Song: Over There Again - January 18, 2009

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:02:15 +0000

I’m finally getting around to writing about the song “Over There Again”. This song was the result of my trying desperately to come up with a song about the blond girls from Proctor. Thompson Hill, or I believe the actual name is something like Thomson Hill without the “p”, is a hill everyone drives over when they are either entering Duluth, or leaving Duluth heading to the south on I-35. It runs right by the exit to Proctor, and I’m pretty sure it is a part of Proctor.
Locals all recognize this hill as being both scenic, and tretcherous in icy-snowy conditions. For me, growing up in the Duluth area, there is nothing better than coming home at night and hitting the crest of Thomson Hill. The city lights stretch for miles and reflect on the harbor. It’s a beautiful sight. There are places to park and just look at this beautiful sight along Skyline Boulivard. As a late teen I remember dating a girl from Duluth and parking along skyline. And we would just listen to the radio and look at the city, sometimes for several hours. We were both very young. Out of highschool, but not quiet twenty. And though I fell in love with her, the Marine Corps seperated us, making it all seem like a dream. This girl is kind of the picture of the girl I had in mind for the song. I do remember her name of course but the dreamlike state of this song makes sense to me that this guy wouldn’t recall her name.

This song, to me is really about this seperation, but it also delves into the never ending circle of wars. Why does the “Father War” seem to always prevail? It’s like we never learn our lesson after the most recent war. I see the photo’s of the young soldiers in the papers and online today and think that they should be alive. I don’t believe “fate” is always the answer, and I think that we can fool “fate” and kill ourselves faster, and yet everyone seems to just say it was fate, or God’s plan, or whatever. To me that’s just bullshit! Young people die in wars because they are in a war. They are in a very dangerous place, and some of them die. Fate has nothing to do with it! Neither does God! War is not the answer. It wasn’t the answer back when, and it’s not the answer now. In fact, if the leaders of any nation really think we need to send our young men and women to war, then they should be required to send their young sons and daughters into combat right along side them.

I could go on and on about the way I feel about that, but who needs another tirade? Ultimately the song “Over there Again” is a reflection of the revolving war starting nation we live in. We are not a peaceful nation and we need to either change that or at the very least be honest about it. Our lack of peacefulness is not felt here in the US because our affects of death and destruction are removed from our citizens to remote places, such as Iraq and Afghanistan. We here in the US do not see it, barely read about it, and definitely do not feel it, smell it, taste it, and sadly in many cases, even care about it.

Ending thought: I am an American. I love many things about this country. I do think there is always hope in America, and compared to many countries around the world we really do have a good thing going. However, I think that as an American it’s our duty to criticize our leaders, hold them accountable, and constantly look for ways to better our country. Some people think by criticizing a war you are unpatriotic. To the contray, I say by not being critical, by following quietly, and by obeying the every wish of your president and government, now that is what makes one unpatriotic. It’s our country to shape, so let’s shape it.

Not my fault… - Sunday, January 11, 2009

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:01:21 +0000

If you came to the Thirsty Pagan to see us start playing at 9pm this past Friday, I just want you to know the Reader listed it wrong. It should have listed it as 6-9pm.
If you want the best scoop possible on shows, please email me at william.billysouthern@gmail.com and ask to put you on my concert list. You’ll get updates on everything, from up and coming concerts to album updates.
The next CD is nearing completion. We have a couple things to work on on a different songs. Then we will master it, and send it to production. For indipendent artists this isn’t cheap, so please please please buy an album once it is done. I could give them all away, but I’m not a multi-million dollar artist, let alone a multi-thousand dollar one, or even a few hundred for that matter. I do this for the love of it, but if you like what you hear and want to support it, please purchase a cd. If everyone does their part, I’ll keep this train’a chugging and make more CD’s!!! Thank you.
Things are going good for me right now. I’m cross country skiing every chance I get. I plan to ski my 5th Birkebeiner!! It’s only 51 kilometers (30 miles).
Take care, and thank you all who keep coming out to the shows!! Right on!
Billy

Stupid and Elated - Sunday, December 14, 2008

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 05:00:32 +0000

Song: Stupid and Elated

I’m back. I really did mean to write about every song, but I’ve been so busy it seems you have to wait for a day when the snow is ass deep to finally sit inside and do things, other than play guitar that is.

The song Stupid and Elated, or “Stupid and a Lady” as my youngest daughter once thought I was saying, is about young foolish people cheating on boy friends and/or girlfriends. It’s not auto-biographical, but I’m not saying I was some kind of Saint in my early twenties either. When you’re young-er, the power of passion, coupled with driving hormones, makes you do stupid things. I’ve been on the receiving end as well as the delivering end of messing around, and the instances are about equal. I know the pain of being cheated on, but I also understand the driving force behind cheating. It’s sucks to be the recipiant, and I hope you don’t think I’m the biggest asshole because I put “elated” on the same level. Older now, I recognize the errors of my ways. Let’s just leave it at that…

Honesty ~ To me this song is about honesty, although what is happening includes a certain amount of dishonesty, ironically enough. But the honesty part is in the “elated” feeling. Rationally a person should recognize the “Stupid” part. But emotionally the “Elated” part can not be denied. I don’t fear the wrath of some god, and I truly believe we are all animals trying to survive just like the wolves, rabbits, crows, and salmon. We are a species, with instincts unlike other animals, the only difference is we can recognize our impact on others around us. This makes us aware, but this does not mean are animal instincts are non-existant. I’m not saying we should all just go out and follow every instinctual tendency, but I am saying I think we should look for them within ourselves. Some of them can even help us at times.

Finally, I hope you enjoy the song. My brother tells me about humming the melody from time to time, just out of the blue. I love hearing shit like that. Seems like everyone I run into has a different favorite song off Swamp Dog. That’s really cool.

Until the next song blog ~ Peace! (and seriously, don’t cheat on anyone on less you plan on breaking up anyway, but then you should probably just break up first, but…awe shit, do what you want!)

Myspace issues… originally posted Friday, December 05, 2008

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:59:36 +0000

Hey there, you, whom ever you are. I have a gripe or two about myspace, but I don’t think it’s inherently myspace’s problem.

Folks: Please do not clog up your pages with all that fancy, sparkly, hundreds of videos, and links, and multi-colored screens! Stop it. If it takes me longer than ten seconds, (and I’ve timed myself), to see your page, at least 75% downloaded, I move on…(and I’m a patient person). I have friends whose pages are so slow to down load I never see what the hell they are up to. So, for the love of pizza, keep it simple…..

Also: I ramdomly move favorite friends around. I’m kind of a loner anyway, but don’t get bugged if you one day don’t see yourself in my fab forty. (heck, maybe you could message me once in a while if it really bothers you,,,hee hee.) I appreciate you all whether I see you daily, or have never personally met you at all. Something about you and what you do has either brought me to your page or vice versa and I’d love to meet you for real some day! Unless you’re some dick running our country into the abyss…then I probably don’t want to meet you…

So, clean up your page, message me once in awhile, especially if you’ve discovered someone I would musically be interested in hearing, or you are that person. I also love poetry. (good poetry). and or just creative people.

Take care and write: I don’t bite…

Peace,

Billy

Today was the day… OG posted Friday, November 28, 2008

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:58:26 +0000

Today was the day 17 years ago when my sister passed away. It was at a swim meet in Superior, Wisconsin. It still hurts, but anyone who’s ever lost someone close knows that kind of pain.

I’m playing tonight, in Superior, as I have been off and on for awhile now. I’ll try to block it out, and have a good time, because that is why many of you come to shows in the first place, to kick back and forget about the day to day bullshit. To be honest, that’s probably the best part of it for me too.

I’m not going to go on and on about what this day represents for me, other than it’s a difficult one. So many questions were left unanswered when she passed away. You always wonder how things would have been now, with family, kids?? Who knows.

If I can suggest one thing to anyone reading this, learn to appreciate the people around you right now. Today. Don’t wait, and don’t ever assume the future.

Peace and lots of love,

Billy

In Some Other Time- About the song

admin — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 04:57:15 +0000

I started writing about the songs and will try and continue…

For this Song review I’ll try and go back to “In Some Other Time” and fill in the blanks.

This song came about one night when I had an idea to do something in 3/4 time. A waltz…(that is 3/4 right?) I’ll admit I don’t read/write actual notes, and can just barely read music. I wish I had that background, but oh well, I is what I is.

It was a dark evening and this slow waltz kept coming out, starting in D minor. “I love Dm.” I also love history. I’ve studied it to some extent in college, and almost chose History major over English.

The song is a recap of our history, American history, and how wars seem to be the bench mark. We look back in reverie on the most distant wars, almost as if the human suffering was non-existant, and all the wars were “Just” wars. But the wars of our generations carry deep, unending pain. We know people, close loved ones who have laid down their own life, as if it was the least they could do. But the pain is ampliphied by the lack of concern; the lack of understanding; and the blatant misuse of our young American lives.

This song was meant to paint several pictures and in the end reveal the ugliness, almost the way Dorian Gray’s picture became more and more hideous to Dorian. I know this song won’t sit well with many, but that’s not why I write songs. You know what the saddest part of this song is? When I wrote the lyrics “over three thousand soldiers are gone…” we were still under three thousand soldiers. I added the deaths to a couple hundred soldiers to my lyrics. With a pen and paper I simply wrote it down as “over three thousand” because I knew it would be. Now we are well over four thousand. For what?? I only hope I never write another one like this one…

PS: Yeah, I did write the title to a different song, similar, but different, the first time I wrote this blog. I knew what I meant but just wrote the wrong title. Funny thing is, “Over There Again” is very similar, but I will cover that song later. Sorry for the mix up. All lyrics can be found in the CD sleeve. (or I’ll email them to you upon request.)

The Song: “All The Proctor Girls” - Sunday, September 14, 2008

admin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:36:00 +0000

I started writing about the songs and will try and continue…

For this Song review I’ll try and go back to “In Some Other Time” and fill in the blanks.

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Sunday, September 14, 2008

The Song: “All The Proctor Girls”
Current mood: cheerful
Category: Music

All The Proctor Girls

I’ve decided I’m going to try and fill in some blanks for those interested. I’m going to talk about the songs from Swamp Dog. I’m hoping to do one to two songs a week until I’ve covered them all. I’ve had quite a few questions from folks about certain songs after shows or via myspace messages, which I love by the way. Through this it occured to me that it might be cool to get the scoop first hand through a blog.

In no particular order I’ll start with “All the Proctor Girls”.

This song started with a title. Originally I called it “All the Proctor Girls are Blond”. This title came from a newspaper story on the front page of the sports section one morning. The headline story was on the Proctor girls softball team. The top photo, a rather large photo, had two Proctor softball players arguing a call with the ump, (the catcher and the pitcher). Both girls blond. No big deal right, but then I unfold the paper and the photo at the bottom of the page shows the Proctor team running from the bench cheering at their victory. About 8 or 9 girls jumping, cheering, with arms raised and hair flying in the breeze, and every girl as blond as can be. I simply mumbled to myself: “damn, all the proctor girls are blond.” A second later I decided this had to become a song.

The Song That Almost Wasn’t

After securing a title for a new song, I also submitted this title as an entry into the Highway 61 Folksfestival, song writer’s contest that would come months from now, in August. Plenty of time to actually write the song…Right? Ha. The funny thing is I actually gained two songs from this one title. In my summer long struggle to come up with an actual song that would fit the title “All the Proctor Girls are Blond” I came up with “Over There Again”, also on Swamp Dog. You’ll notice in the lyrics for that song I refer to Thomsen Hill, a hill everyone from Duluth and surrounding area know’s is right at the heart of Proctor, creating a gateway to Duluth when you’re coming from the south on I-35. It’s spectacular really, especially at night when you reach the opening and can see all the city lights and harbor below.

The original title for “Over There Again” was actually “The Girl from Thomsen Hill.” I won’t say much more about that song in this blog, but I did want to mention it’s connection to “All the Proctor Girls.”

Now, one week before the folk festival in Mahtowa and still no song relating to blond girls from Proctor. Oh well, I thought, I’ll just scratch it and play another song for the contest. But suddenly it came to me and I wrote the entire song in one night in a couple hours. Yay! I have no idea how it finally all came out, and so fast but I remember Charlie Parr telling me once how some songs just come out, you know, like throwing up. (Not the most plesant thought, but effective analogy nontheless.)

Politically Wrong

There’s a lot wrong about this song, from the grammar to the political incorrectness of stereotypes. However, I think most people can see the light-hearted nature of the song and realize the guy singing the song, (not me, or so I’d like to think), is kind of your stereotypical “guy”. Afterall, he’s the one getting himself into all kinds of trouble, whether he blames it on the blond girls or not. In the end he pays the price when he meets “Big Jake”.

Side note: please keep in mind, I was an English major in college and I tend to see my songs as stories, most of which are fictional. For this song about the only thing I can relate to that might be remotely true is I did date a Proctor girl once and she was blond. It was in high school and I remember I was so nervous I could barely hold her hand in during the movie. I think an actual kiss would have given me a heart attack on the spot. I’m not sure where she is now, or if she’d even remember, and I definitely don’t hold anything against her or anyone from Proctor for that matter. ha ha. Go Rails!

The lyrics for this song come from this redneck Harley rider with a poor sense of good judgement. (To be honest, I’ve never driven a Harley and have only had limited motorcycle riding experience as far as that goes.) I did however forget to take my car out of gear one time when I was stationed out in California and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why the stupid thing wouldn’t start! I came this close to calling a tow truck before I realized you can’t start your automatic car while it’s still in drive. Duh! Who’s “blond” now…ha ha.

I hope this song review was at the very least entertaining. I know that I really enjoy reading the stories behind the songs and artists I enjoy, and with that in mind I thought why not return the favor.

Thanks for supporting what I do and I’ll try and cover another song next week. If I forget please remind me, and feel free to comment or message me…I don’t bite…hard. ha ha.

Peace,

Billy

Music and Such - Thursday, July 03, 2008

admin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:35:11 +0000

Should I mow the grass or write a blog entry? Guess you know which one I picked.

Played a show at the Brewhouse last night. Not a lot of folks were there but about average for a Tuesday night with a show starting at 10pm. I had Jillian Lantry (fiddle) and Karl Anderson (upright bass) joining Barry and I. The show went really well considering we rarely play together. Things got going a little late though, partly due to a power cable for the PA not being there. Oh well, good things come to those who drink another beer and chill…

I realize these blog entries are pretty boring when there is nothing revealing, so I’ll try share some inside/behind the scenes thoughts, etc.

Currently I’m working on a new CD. Barry will be the featured guitarist, like on Swamp Dog. Jillian will be playing fiddle and singing on several tracks, and hopefully I can get daddy-Karl to some recording sessions because he did such a fine job on Swamp Dog.

Now I don’t/won’t ever beg, but if you are ever out there at a show and want to support the recording for the new CD with a buck or two, I wouldn’t be offended. ha ha. And thank you so much to those of you who are always coming to shows and supporting the Billy Southern music. Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! You are the folks that keep me going on this search, for what? I’m not quite sure yet…

Agent? It’s been suggested that I should get an agent…hm? I’m not sure. Any thoughts you’d like to share by comenting, or messaging me are now welcome. I’m going to play the rest of my life regardless, but I’ll admit we could use some more better paying shows and promotion. Please let me know what you think/know about agents myspace world.

I really should mow the hayfield…or take a nap?…

Till next time ~ Happy 4th

Billy