Song of the Day

Today's pick units maybe the best songwriter today with two of the most moving vocalists of the past. Plus: Going to the birds.

As I noted on Friday: My posts here usually include at least one song/video and sometimes several or a full Profile in Music. After all, I was the executive editor of the legendary Crawdaddy for nearly a decade. Now I’d like to offer something different—which may not be a long player, depending on the response. On those many days when I don’t write a full piece (or collect recent political cartoons) I will send along exactly one song/video. So we’ll see how this goes. And note to those skating in for a try—you can still subscribe for free!

And now today’s song pick. Since meeting Amanda Shires and getting his act together about a decade ago, Jason Isbell, formerly out of control with the Drive-By Truckers, has become one of the best writers of any sort in America (just ask George Saunders) and a fine guitarist. Here, in a number (with Amanda) that did not make his Austin City Limits screening a few years back, he pays tribute to two fallen heroes, Richard Manuel and Rick Danko of The Band and ponders the lessons they left for him….is he “that kind of man?” (And fine acoustic version here.) Also, I am now asking readers to suggest their own favorite song-of-the-day in Comments which I may then elevate here in coming days or weeks (which credit to you)….

A Prey Mate Calendar

It’s December and surely you need a 2023 calendar. I've created one with high-quality reproductions of 13 of my very popular (here and elsewhere) recent photos of large birds: eagle, hawks, owls, falcons, herons, egret. Comes in different sizes. If anyone is interested in maybe ordering let me know via Comments or email. Thanks!

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Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books, including the bestseller The Tunnels (on escapes under the Berlin Wall), the current The Beginning or the End (on MGM’s wild atomic bomb movie), and The Campaign of the Century (on Upton Sinclair’s left-wing race for governor of California), which was recently picked by the Wall St. Journal as one of five greatest books ever about an election. His recent film, Atomic Cover-up, screened at twenty festivals and won several prizes, and his current film, The First Attack Ads: Hollywood vs. Upton Sinclair aired over hundreds of PBS stations in the fall of 2022. For nearly all of the 1970s he was the #2 editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. Later he served as longtime editor of Editor & Publisher magazine.