Morning Song – Salty Papa Blues This is Dinah Washington in the recording studio for the first time at age 21, demonstrating why she would become “Queen of the Blues”. “Salty Papa Blues” starts out as a ty…

Morning Song - Salty Papa #Blues by Dinah Washington

"Go get yourself a fortune telling woman,
Who knows how to read your mind...."

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/22/m...

Money Unplugged Podcast Listen to Money Unplugged with Chris Hill. The new podcast from long-time host and executive producer of Motley Fool Money podcast and radio show.

"My mother's salary got published in the local newspaper when I was a kid...and she was mortified."

Jeff Santoro @marketmusician.bsky.social on #MoneyUnplugged with @chrishillalx.bsky.social

www.moneyunpluggedpodcast.com

Morning Song – What I Got Long Beach ska-punk rockers Sublime are one of the great “what-if” bands of the 1990s. “What I Got”, their biggest hit, was released two months after lead singer Bradley Now…

Morning Song - What I Got by Sublime

"Early in the morning, rising to the street..."

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/21/m...

We Take Care Of Our Own June Skinner Sawyers’ 2024 book, We Take Care Of Our Own, is a brisk (120 pp.) and impressively detailed overview of, as its subtitle states, “Faith, Class, and Politics in the Art of B…

We Take Care of Our Own: Faith, Class & Politics in the Art of @brucespringsteen.net by June Skinner Sawyers

"...a lovely summary of and introduction to–in prose, poetry, and photographs–the man, his music, and his message(s)."

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/20/w...

Morning Song – House Shoes “Man, that groove is as comfortable as an old pair of ‘House Shoes’.” I’m not saying that’s how The Bar-Kays named this deep cut from their 1967 debut album. I&#…

Morning Song - House Shoes by The Bar-Kays

"...as comfortable as an old pair of..."
#soul #instrumental

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/20/m...

Morning Song – Call To Worship The assumption behind any call to worship–be it in word or song, the blowing of the shofar, the call of the muezzin, the chiming of a bell, or the ringing of a gong–is that the would-be…

Morning Song - Call to Worship by @kirkwhalum.bsky.social

"...sweet, soaring, sanctified..." #gospel #jazz

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/19/m...

Why haven't they? *Nobody knows*. Because no ambitious, talented DC reporter has dug out the story and written that book.

Going a step forward, if party leadership said "no", they could have gone to Democratic leadership and cut a deal (e.g., give us these 3 issues plus cmte chairs and we'll form a majority with you).
3/

At any time in that period, 5-10 GOP senators could have formed a "Red Dog" caucus and placed demands on their party in exchange for their votes.
2/

The great unwritten book about DC politics is the repeated failure of centrist Senate Republicans over the past 17 years to take collective action in defense of democracy and their own stated interests.
1/

Morning Song – Blue Monk Here’s the genius (some of it, anyway) of Thelonious Monk: he could play so many “wrong” notes (flatted fifths, flatted ninths, chords with adjacent notes, whole tone arpeggios) a…

Morning Song - Blue Monk by Thelonious Monk

"...showcases all his talents as a soloist and bandleader."

Enjoy.

#blues #jazz

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/18/m...

"and instead of seeking to assuage those fears, the messengers from Silicon Valley are all "we’ll take your jobs, make the planet uninhabitable, and flee to Mars before the robots kill the rest of you"."

P. S. "...how is it that our tech bro overlords aren’t using the #3LawsOfRobotics at least as a propaganda tool if not an actual design feature? Every ordinary person is increasingly aware of and worried about the potential harmful consequences of AI...

I, Robot Live long enough and you’ll get to enjoy the multifarious pleasures of re-reading. Re-reading books that have been faithful companions throughout your life as you’ve read them every yea…

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

"...holds up. It’s still a fast-paced, entertaining, and thought-provoking read."

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/17/i...

Morning Song – P. Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up) “P. Funk (Wants To Get Funked Up)” is the opening cut from Parliament’s world-changing-and-making 1975 album Mothership Connection, and a declaration of staggering scope – j…

Morning Song - P. Funk (Wants to Get Funked Up) by Parliament

"Make my #funk the P. Funk; I want my funk uncut...."
#FunkyFriday

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/17/m...

Morning Song – Little Red Rooster Willie Dixon wrote it. Howlin’ Wolf recorded it. But Sam Cooke had a hit with “Little Red Rooster” (#11 on the Billboard Hot 100) in late 1963. Cooke took a slow, straightforward …

Morning Song - Little Red Rooster by Sam Cooke

#FirstRuleOfCoverSongs #blues

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/16/m...

Morning Song – You’re Not Alone Someone, somewhere today needs to see and hear this 2023 video of Allison Russell and Brandi Carlisle performing Russell’s gorgeous, inspiring, life-affirming “You’re Not Alone&#8…

Morning Song - You're Not Alone by @allisonrussell.bsky.social
ft. Brandi Carlisle

"...gorgeous, inspiring, life-affirming..."

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/15/m...

Morning Song – Feelin’ Love That time back in 1996 when indie-folk singer-songwriter Paula Cole channeled Prince at his most erotic* and came up with “Feelin’ Love”. “You make me feel like a sticky pis…

Morning Song - Feelin' Love by @paulacole.bsky.social

“You make me feel like a sticky pistil,
Leaning into her stamen….”

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/14/m...

A Statement Of Failure There’s a lovely, stimulating, and wide-ranging interview of John Carr by Heidi Schlumpf in the March issue of Commonweal (and on the magazine’s website). Carr retired last year from Ge…

A Statement of Failure

"...we haven’t persuaded people to our convictions about human life and dignity." - terrific John Carr interview by @heidischlumpf.bsky.social in @commonwealmagazine.org

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/13/a...

Morning Song – Opus 8, No. 4 (Presto) (One in an occasional Monday series of Fanny Mendelssohn’s (Felix’ more talented—according to one of their teachers—older sister) Songs Without Words.) The concluding “Presto” movement …

Morning Song - Opus 8, No. 4 (Presto) by Fanny #Mendelssohn

"...all rippling 16th notes with one hand and gorgeous, yearning, hopeful melodies in the other." #SongsWithoutWords
#LiederOhneWorte

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/13/m...

Morning Song – Hang On In There “…God’s at the end of your rope.” Sometimes all you need is a memorable image and a soulful groove. As a bonus, Candi Staton’s recording last year of “Hang On In…

Morning Song - Hang On In There by Candi Staton

"...God is at the end of your rope." #gospel

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/12/m...

"The lesson I learned watching my dad was #money is a rarity (so) spend it as quick as you can."

@thesmattering.bsky.social on #MoneyUnplugged with @chrishillalx.bsky.social

www.moneyunpluggedpodcast.com/episodes

Morning Song – Blues For Ben It’s not that all roads in jazz lead to Kansas City*; it’s that an astonishingly high percentage of them do. And one thing you learn quickly about musicians who came out of the interwar…

Morning Song - #Blues for Ben by Ben Webster

"...all the comfort, style, and swing you could want."

Enjoy. #jazz

h/t: #BTP34

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/11/m...

The Fugitive Slave Act & The Declarations Of Secession (One in a series of posts about the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and its consequences.) The great anti-lynching journalist* Ida B. Wells pioneered a particular and particularly effective form of advo…

The #FugitiveSlaveAct & the Declarations of #Secession

"...if you want to get an idea of why southerners really seceded from the Union in 1861, read what they wrote."

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/10/t...

Morning Song - Feelin' Happy by Lee Oskar

#FunkyFriday

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/10/m...

The #FugitiveSlaveAct - The War Before the War by Andrew Delbanco

"Fugitive slaves...incited conflict in the streets, the courts, the press, the halls of Congress, &...the minds & hearts of Americans who had been oblivious to their plight."

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/09/t...

Morning Song – Short Skirt/Long Jacket Cake’s unlikely 2001 hit, “Short Skirt/Long Jacket”, is a great example of working with what you’ve got. Got a standard drums/bass/guitars rock band…with a trumpet pla…

Morning Song - Short Skirt/Long Jacket by Cake

"I want a girl with the right allocations,
Who's fast and thorough and sharp as a tack...."

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/09/m...

Morning Song – Going Up The Country Blues A century and more ago, Sippie Wallace was the most prolific blueswoman of the day, backed by the likes of Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet for her 78 rpm recordings for Okeh Records. The onset of…

Morning Song - Going Up the Country #Blues by Sippie Wallace

“He treated me low down and dirty,
He’s bound to reap what he done sowed…
I’m going up the country,
Don’t you want to go?”

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/08/m...

Morning Song – So Swell When You’re Well Here’s how highly regarded James Booker was regarded in the tight-knit fraternity of New Orleans pianists: when Fats Domino recorded Booker’s “So Swell When You’re Well&#822…

Morning Song - So Swell When You're Well by Fats Domino ft. James Booker

"...but you just stay sick so long..."

masscommons.wordpress.com/2026/04/07/m...

💯 That's just #physics.