Thomas D. Isern's Blog: Willow Creek: A Writing Journal, page 9

Sweet Betsy

Last week on Prairie Public - https://news.prairiepublic.org/podcas...

"Sweet Betsy from Pike," as originally published in Put's Songster, will be featured in this week's Willow Creek Folk School.

Hell in Texas

Getting a little excited about new research on the border ballad, "Hell in Texas," which will be featured in Willow Creek Folk School No. 118. Streaming live on the Facebook timeline of Plains Folk, Friday 8pm CDT.

WCFS Cancelled This Friday

Sorry to say, I'm cancelling this Friday's Willow Creek Folk School. COVID is in the house. I'm still negative, but Dr. K started the course of Paxlovid this evening. So I'm doing my best to impose a regime of rest and quiet on her. Thanks, friends.

Rivers of Texas

Willow Creek Folk School No. 117 tonight, streaming live from San Antonio. 8:30 pm CDT. Opening up, appropriately, with "Rivers of Texas," a sweet ballad. Then on to prosecute the state of Texas for ballad theft, three counts: "Red River Valley," "The Cowboy's Lament," and "Home on the Range." Finish up by channeling Tom McGrath, as the night train of autumn goes smoking out of the land. Dial in on the Facebook timeline of Plains Folk.

Felony Theft of Ballads

This Friday night, the 14th, the Willow Creek Folk School will stream live at 8:30pm (note slight deviation from usual time) CDT from an undisclosed location in San Antonio. The program: we'll be bringing in an indictment against the state of Texas for three felony counts of ballad theft. The case is solid.

WCFS Cancelled for Tonight

Sorry to say, I'm cancelling tonight's Willow Creek Folk School. The allergy or infection (not COVID) I've been nursing this week shifted to the coughing stage today, and I won't inflict that on you! Come back next week Friday, when we'll go live from San Antonio. Thanks.--TI

Batching It

This Friday night, for Willow Creek Folk School No. 117, I'll be on my own in the Salon on Willow Creek. Dr. K will be out with her publishing students, printing a chapbook in Braddock. I'm hoping she'll log on from there (8pm CDT on the Facebook timeline of Plains Folk) and join the discussion, but otherwise, I'll have only canine help with the enterprise, and the Ladies tend to doze off. So drop in and help me keep the ball in the air. I'll watch the chatline while singing a couple of ballads from the songbag. And oh yes, we have a newly discovered ballad to introduce: "The Tenderfoot Cow Boy," a song from the Yellowstone valley in 1885.

Twas in the spring of '84
I left my quiet home
And turned my back to father's door
With the cow boys I would roam

If you have any requests from the songbag, let me know!

Down by the Weeping Willow

Tonight we celebrate the birthday of songcatcher Joanie O'Bryant by singing her text of "The Jealous Lover;" uncork a newly discovered ballad, "Waiting for a Chinook;" and ride "The Trail to  Mexico." Then we come home to North Dakota for a fall supper. Drop into the Salon on Willow Creek via the Plains Folk timeline on Facebook.

Fox & Geese

This week on Prairie Public - https://news.prairiepublic.org/podcast/plains-folk/2022-09-28/fox-and-geese

Down by the Weeping Willow

This Friday at 8 CDT we're on for Willow Creek Folk School No. 116, streaming live from the Salon on Willow Creek. We're calling this episode "Down by the Weeping Willow," because, in celebration of the birthday of the songcatcher Joanie O'Bryant, we're singing her text of "The Jealous Lover."