"The Post-Holiday Happy Sads," music, and Seasonal Affective Disorder

I have not thought much about the post-holiday period as a time for sadness. I mean, I live in an area of the country where the rain comes down, the sky is gray and a certain kind of cold gets in my bones and won't leave no matter how high the thermostat gets set or how much wood gets burned in the fireplace for what seems like six months in a row. I have come to accept that and just try to power through. I welcomed the recent snow just for the break in routine and I was rewarded with a couple of blue sky days with snow on the ground and some blessed quiet. But here you can see and feel people getting depressed and short on joy and compassion and thankfulness as the rain and cold go on. It's called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) and it's real.

The great folks over at The Bluegrass Situation have a somewhat different take on things than I do, and I'm glad that they do. They're keyed into helping with our post-holiday "Winter happy-'sads'" and they have at least a partial cure for what some of us are going through, whether it be SAD or feeling kind of down because the holidays are past, time is passing, we're kind of cooped up, and the dopamine rushes of giving and receiving and feasting and drinking are wearing off. 

Their cure for it all is music, of course. They have six great special music videos that get right to the business of cheering you up or cheering you along or just helping you get through. I can't say that I have a favorite of the six, but Etta Baker's "Railroad Bill" is just so cleanly played that I want to share it from their post.

 

I had not heard of Pharis and Jason Romero before, but that's my kind of music, too. I'll say the same about the Earl White Stringband.

There is just something about finding new music and new food and getting some new clothes to help me through the dark days. I hope that that is true for you also and that you're able to pull through. I made this dish the other day:

Now, I based that dish on two recipes that I found at Camellia Beans but I messed around and added some ingredients and didn't do some of the other things that they suggested and that dish above has 21 ingredients in it and I'm eating it with yellow rice and Texas Pete pepper sauce. I promise you that no one is paying me for product placement. Camelia Beans does have some great recipes up and you could probably spend all winter and spring eating your way through and enjoying most every meal.

For some brand new clothes I went to Red Kap and got myself some coveralls and to the Belk on-line store for some shoes. The Belk stores are an old favorite of mine.

 

Don't worry--I only bought myself two pair, but...

The only big mistake that I have made in all of this is that I wasn't watching what I was doing and I ordered a case of Dixie Lily corn meal when I meant to order just a few bags. Thank goodness that I can always use corn meal for something and that I can give my extra as gifts. 

The other tried and true things for me to do are to keep some Christmas lights up, to pray, and to read. I need to hang out some with friends and to do things that connect me with others, like going to protest and union rallies, poetry readings, and on-line learning sessions. It helps me to know before I go to sleep each night that I am helping someone or somebodies. 

All of that said and done, I don't want to give the impression that anyone should try to purchase their way out of the blues and hard times that hit in these months. Buying stuff gives folks that dopamine rush that I referred to above, but it won't solve your problems at hand, and it may create another problem by running up your credit card.

Make sure that you're sleeping and getting up on a regular schedule that works and keeps you going and happy. This is a tough one, I know. Take your vitamins and eat.

If you still need some help here, turn to someone and talk about it. Don't hit the bottle or the pipe if you can help it. Call 988 if you think that you need to or if someone tells you that they think that hat is what you should do.

Hammie Nixon was born on January 21, 1908. Here is a favorite clip of him and Sleepy John Estes

From Ward Weems

Hammie Nixon & Sleepy John Estes---Down South Blues/Clean Up At Home---

1964---RITY Archive

 

Blind Lemon Jefferson and Johnson City, Tennessee

Ward Weems posted the photograph and text below on his great Facebook page recently. Johnson City is in Appalachia, and I remember it as an industrial center with a reputation for tough-living people and good music. I am adding a sample of Blind Lemon Jefferson's music.

Renowned guitarist Walter Davis, who was recorded by Columbia for the Johnson City Sessions, was among those who told of Blind Lemon Jefferson playing at the railroad junction in Johnson City, Tennessee during the early 1920s.

Davis, Clarence Greene and Clarence Ashley seemed to have learned blues and other guitar styles from Jefferson at Fountain Square in Johnson City where three railroads had stations around the square. Walter Davis, later, interacted with Doc Watson.

Clarence Ashley’s rediscovery had a important role in kicking off the folk revival period. His recording of ‘Coo Coo Bird’ played a significant part in this.

Ashley also taught ‘House of the Rising Sun to Roy Acuff who recorded it in 1938.

The image of Blind Lemon Jefferson is by Kimiaki Ishisuka who created a figurine and drew the image of the figurine. It is based on the only known photograph of Blind Lemon Jefferson. Ishisuka’s image of Jefferson is added to a photograph of the Fountain Square area of Johnson City.

Larkin Poe | Preachin' Blues (Official Video)

 

Lightnin' Hopkins - Sinner's Prayer 1963

 "She was gonna pray for me---go 'head--but let you prayer be true!"

Luke 6:17-26 & Lightnin' Hopkins

Luke 6:17-26:

17.  And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon

18  came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.

19  Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.

20  And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours.

21 Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.

22  Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.

23 Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.

24 But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.

25 But woe to you who are filled now,
for you will be hungry.

Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will grieve and weep.

26 Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.

* * *

Well, today's sermon was on Luke 6:17-26, and I thought that the pastor did a pretty good of speaking to the reading and I liked the violin solo that followed. As the pastor said, after that solo we all knew what it was like to be blessed.

Three thoughts came to me as the sermon was progressing. One, when the pastor was emphasizing how it's the poor that are blessed and that the rich have a more difficult time I started thinking that I wish that I had not been so blessed for so much of my life to be a (relatively) poor man. I could have done with just a little less blessing and a little more rent money quite a few times. Second, I figured out pretty quickly that part of his sermon was for people who are doing better than I used to be and I do so appreciate the effort to explain things to them. Last, I thought of Lightnn' Hopkins' great sermon on this reading. Here it is: