With Poland Behind Me

 

And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once (Luke 21:9) I wish I knew more about the current situation in Ukraine so that I could let you all in on what is really happening but, as you have probably heard, truth is often the first casualty of war. This you can be sure of though--many Christians are caught up in the conflict on both sides and they have very few choices available to them to escape violence. Millions are fleeing to Poland. Being Polish myself and the son of immigrants, I grew up hearing stories of war time atrocities and when I visited then communist Poland in 1985, you could cut the air that was heavy with Soviet oppression. There is a long history of bitter rivalry that exists between nations in that part of the world that we, relatively comfortable in our blessed country, really have no concept of and if you would like to read about my reflections and travels to Eastern Europe, you can do so by getting my brief travelogue that I wrote upon my return to the USA from behind the Iron Curtain that existed then. It's available here at Amazon. But above all, I encourage you to remember the members of the Body of Christ that are facing death and tribulation daily and pray for peace.

Red Beets and Horseradish

Curiously enough, I received this week an order to do a music review and band feature on the new album by long time musicians, Little Wretches. RED BEETS AND HORSERADISH is inspired by a relish or side-dish usually served around the holidays of Easter or Passover by various ethnicities of Eastern Europe. For the Serbs, for example, the red of the beets is symbolic of the blood of their people, and the horseradish the bitterness of their suffering. For others, the symbolism involves the blood of their savior and the bitterness of His suffering. People in the Jewish tradition also enjoy the dish, but there is no blood involved—the beets are merely for flavor—but the horseradish does represent the memory of bitter suffering in bondage. It always fascinates me how the timing of these things work out. You can check out the post here on my blog.

After a few weeks of collaboration with various artists and others involved in the project, my band, Patient Chill's second EP is almost ready for full distribution soon when the finishing touches have been applied. It's an eclectic combination of songs in smooth jazz, pop/rock, worship style and psychedelia that we are proud to release. You can hear snippets of it at our Linktree page and, if you go there, please click on the link to follow us on bandcamp.Honestly, I don't know what's so hard about following! I do it all the time to support other Indie Christian musicians. But alas, a prophet is without honor amongst his own.

Thanks for subscribing to the CMA newsletter and remember: As crazy as things appear on earth these days, all is right in heaven! Just keep calm and listen!

Music Review: Red Beets and Horseradish by Little Wretches

 Red Beets and Horseradish 

by

The Little Wretches

RED BEETS AND HORSERADISH is inspired by a relish or side-dish usually served around the holidays of Easter or Passover by various ethnicities of Eastern Europe. For the Serbs, for example, the red of the beets is symbolic of the blood of their people, and the horseradish the bitterness of their suffering. For others, the symbolism involves the blood of their savior and the bitterness of His suffering. People in the Jewish tradition also enjoy the dish, but there is no blood involved—the beets are merely for flavor—but the horseradish does represent the memory of bitter suffering in bondage.

The songs on the album involve vignettes and portraits of people who’ve suffered—old people, sick people, crazy people, people who are alone—but the heart of the songs lies not in the suffering of the characters but in the indomitable faith and humor that sustains them.

The introductory track to the album, Rise, sets the tone and theme of the collection with a folksy and upbeat ballad that offers promise straight up in the face of adversity:

Rise from your slumber

Days without number

Wait for you

Shake off your losses

So many causes 

to put your shoulder to

It’s time to mend

Time to turn the next bend

We depend on you to harmonize

so Rise

Rise

Next comes the song, Lovingkindness, which begins with a harmonica intro hook that blends into a pleasing and catchy melody accentuated by lyrics that glorify the personal praise and testimony of a soul grateful to the God of Creation who is fearsome yet loving and kind to those who He has purchased through His sacrifice on the cross in Christ Jesus.

The third track, Palms & Crosses, picks up the beat somewhat with the drums and electric guitar sounds, and it is a song that seems a bit ironic regarding our Lord's passion at Calvary:

One week palms, joy and praise, 

Hearts are lifted, voices raised

Next week nails and crowns of thorns

The mother of God herself will mourn

The chorus line to the song is my favorite: "All I know is that tomorrow will decide what yesterday means!" And it's a good application of gospel doctrine that should be exercised by every believer who walks in faith and not by sight.

Winter's Grace is a beautiful ballad, written by Annette Dietz and performed by Rosa Colucci, that is almost existential in its sympathy and awareness of human limitations in the face of adversity but yet we try: 

My friend lives in a deserted mine, 

He wears brokenness like a cloak.

My friend lives in a deserted mine, 

He wears brokenness like a cloak.

My friend lives in a deserted mine.  

Tonight, we walk to the quiet shrine

The moon settles onto my upturned palm

With a brilliant dusting of snow.(A brilliant dusting of snow.)

Some days the best I can do Is clear a path for light.   

       

Heaven Was Open, is a song that speaks of "seeing the light" and offers a comparison between unseen spiritual realities and the fallen visible world and the Lord is to be praised for this eye opening experience (of course).

Old Hundredth, is partially based on an old Isaac Watts hymn with modifications and is probably my favorite track on the prolific album which totals thirteen songs. It is modern and moving with timeless words of strength and encouragement:

Eternal are Thy mercies, Lord

Eternal truth attends Thy word

Though mist and shadow all around

I’ll set my feet on solid ground

 Solid ground, Solid ground

 Solid ground

The final song, It's All Between Me and God, is a great outro song to the album that makes anyone who has spent time plying the path to eternity to pause, look out the window and reflect upon the wonderful (and sometimes frightening) aspects of salvation. And in the final analysis, this might be a good way to sum up the concept behind the entire collection of Red Beets and Horseradish -- a thoughtful musical journey through trials and tribulations of both a personal and social nature that keenly reflect the Christian experience. Do give a listen!

CLICK HERE TO ORDER A COPY OF THE CD!!!

RED BEETS & HORSERADISH BY THE LITTLE WRETCHES, THE NEW ALBUM IS HERE ON MARCH 18, 2022 

Click here to order a

Robert Wagner of Little Wretches

(photo by Melinda Pietrusza)

ROBERT A. WAGNER - THE LITTLEST WRETCH

My songs are mirrors, and I often begin or end my performances by

playing a version of The Velvet Underground’s “I’ll Be Your Mirror”

extended to more than ten-minutes in length to include some of the

images that most shaped my view of the world as a young

man—working men and women enslaved in pursuit of the dollar, the

now-vacant void from whence the spirit fled filled with the distraction of

mindless entertainment, alcohol and assorted drugs, people so numb

that self-destructive violence has lost its impact and the only way they

can hope to feel anything is to hurt the people they love.

Having descended from Slovakian immigrants that sought fortune in

the once-booming steel towns of Western Pennsylvania, I elect to

portray the lives of those around me—family, friends, community,

work. In literature and art, working class characters tend to appear as

comic relief or in the form of the noble savage.  They are cast as

victims, oppressed and betrayed. Personally, I'm sick of Tom Joad. I

hold my characters accountable.

If you sell your soul for money, don’t come crying that you got a bad

deal.

I don’t suppose I’ll ever be accused of telling people what they want to

hear. Then again, I’ve crafted some rather compelling musical portraits

of my grandparents and parents, my sister and brother, my neighbors,

closest friends and fellow travelers. There’s a considerable portion of

love and compassion in these songs, though a lot of people tell me I

sound angry.

I’m not angry; I just enjoy a good fight.

As a kid, I idolized Popeye, Mighty Mouse and Bruno Sammartino. I

ran around the neighborhood, an empty can of spinach stuffed under

my shirt and a corncob pipe between my teeth, a super-hero’s cape in

the form of a bath towel pinned to my shoulders as I defended the

weak and battled the evil-doers of my imagination.

I also loved music. My older cousin said The Beatles were the best

musicians because they wrote their own songs, so he and I built

guitars from scraps of plywood, two-by-fours, nails and rubber bands

and started writing our own songs.

My Catholic parents sent me to St. Anne’s School, where I learned

that we can only be happy when we do what God asks of us. The

nuns taught that God has a special purpose for each of us, and we will

know that purpose by the joy we feel when we’re fulfilling it.

God wanted me to grow up to defend the weak and vanquish the evil-

doers by writing songs and telling stories.

And if I’m wrong, I’ve wasted my life.

NO SHELTER - PRECURSOR TO THE LITTLE WRETCHES

No Shelter was co-founded by John Creighton and Robert A. Wagner

while drinking beer in the Squirrel Hill Cafe the night before The

Pittsburgh Steelers faced the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl.

Wagner was battling cancer and wasn't sure he was going to live.

Creighton was depressed and wasn't sure he had a reason to live.

Both loved music and agreed that starting a band was the key to

survival. 

No Shelter was part of the first generation of Pittsburgh-area

punk bands. The single Brooks Robinson's Camp / Soldier Boy was

considered a breakthrough for the scene; raising the bar for quality

and production-values and combining powerful lyrics, expressive

performance and a compassionate world-view. Brooks Robinson's

Camp is the transcribed monologue/rant of a deranged man in the

24-hour fast food restaurant where band-members used to drink

coffee and talk. The ascendancy of President Ronald Reagan led to

the cutting of social programs for the mentally ill, rendering people like

the narrator Brooks Robinson's Camp homeless.

THE EARLY WRETCHES - FOLK/PUNK PIONEERS

The Little Wretches was co-founded by brothers Robert Andrew and

Charles John Wagner. Bob wrote original songs and adapted

traditional folk songs, tried to sing and accompanied himself on guitar

while Chuckie worked out counterpoint melodies on violin. Chuckie

and Bob were joined by former members of No Shelter, Ed Heidel on

bass guitar and John Creighton on flute, percussion and background

vocals. Religious missionary Chris Bruckhoff was attracted to the

group because a lot of the songs seemed to have spiritual content,

and he apparently believed he could recruit the members of The Little

Wretches into his church by infiltrating the band. Like John Creighton,

Chris sang background vocals and played various percussion and

wind instruments. Bob Goetz played electric guitar and did some

singing. Deena Alansky took pictures, tried to book gigs, and pasted

posters all over town. The original line-up of The Little Wretches

debuted at The New Group Theater (founded by Martin Giles in the

spirit of the legendary progressive theater company, The Group

Theater) along with the godfathers of the Pittsburgh hard-core scene,

The Five. The earliest version of The Little Wretches came to an end

with the sudden death of John Creighton. John never considered

himself an actual member of The Little Wretches (he was just helping

out), but he was so much a part of the group's sound and persona that

his loss was devastating.

BORN WITH A GIFT - THE CLASSIC ERA

The Little Wretches went straight rock adding Dave Mitchell on

drums, Mike Michalski on bass, and Ellen Hildebrand on electric

guitar. This generation of The Little Wretches played so often at The

Electric Banana, central venue of the Pittsburgh underground, that

many came to regard them as the house-band. The Little Wretches

felt otherwise and eventually stopped performing at The Banana.

Robert Wagner said, "Being content to be the house-band at The

Electric Banana is like a family being content to live on welfare and

food-stamps".  Michalski, who later founded The Heretics and The

Kelly Affair and produced recordings for Rusted Root and Get Hip

Records, described his time in The Little Wretches as like going to

rock school, " Hundreds of bootleg recordings were made by friends

and fans of the band."

 The theme-song of the era was Born With A

Gift, and songs like Thanks for Saving My Life,The Taste of Dirt, Who Is America, Let Me Play Your Guitar sound as vital today

as they day they were written. This generation of The Little Wretches

ended with the departures of Mike Michalski, Dave Mitchell, and

Chuckie Wagner.

ALTHOUGH IN THE FUTURE, THEY'LL

SAY THESE WERE DARK TIMES -

MAYBE NEXT TIME, MAYBE NEXT TIME

David Losi had been living in Atlanta, performing in groups like Sexy

Up and B-49. He dropped in on a Little Wretches recording session

while in Pittsburgh to visit his family, played piano on the entire

session, and decided to return to Pittsburgh to join the band. Losi was

unembarrassedly Beatles-esque could KILL with harmonies, ballads

and raw rock vocals. Mike Madden was/is one of the best rock

drummers--period. When The Little Wretches performed at The

Decade, the legendary Pittsburgh rock club graced by Springsteen,

David Johansen and any number of blues heroes, the club's manager

asked, "Where'd you get that guy? He's the best drummer to come

through here in years!" Unfortunately, Mike was raising a family and

unable to tour, so The Little Wretches had to look elsewhere for a

drummer. Gregg Bielski, a friend and fan of The Little Wretches, had

been attending Indiana University of Pennsylvania and generating an

awesome body of work as the founder of Shrink Wrap (see G. G.

Allin). Gregg had been working with tapes and drum-programs, started

collaborating with drummerless The Wretches, and soon began

performing with the band. Ellen Hildebrand switched from guitar to

bass, and this new version of The Little Wretches went into the studio

to create JUST ANOTHER NAIL IN MY COFFIN and THIS TIME THE

REBELLION WEEPS, and a modified version of this band (with

Angelo George on drums and Jon Paul Leone on guitar) recorded

THE LITTLE WRETCHES. The band rehearsed and recreated at

Ellen's sheep farm in Clarksville PA, and a major breakthrough

seemed to be right around the corner as the band began to meet with

lawyers, managers and publicists. This generation of the The Little

Wretches passed when various band-members entered the season of

their lives that called for raising children and caring for families. Listen

to the recordings. Read the reviews.

THE FOLK POET - TELLING STORIES AND ASKING

QUESTIONS LIKE JESUS AND SOCRATES

I continue to perform solo and with small acoustic ensembles, usually

appearing at coffeehouses or small clubs. In addition to writing songs

and telling stories, I teach and counsel abused, neglected,

traumatized and court-adjudicated youth. (I have both Crip and Blood

bandanas hanging on my bedroom door, souvenirs from battle.) The

season of rock n roll having passed for The Little Wretches (It no

longer made sense to be carrying amplifiers and unloading trucks at

4:30 in the morning), I had a something of a rebirth after

hearing/seeing/studying the live-performances of Michelle Shocked,

Steve Earle and Peter Himmelman and the live-recordings of Phil

Ochs. I got involved with the songwriter's group at Calliope, The

Pittsburgh Folk Music Society back in the mid-nineties. With Gypsy-

jazzman James Hovan, I co-founded The Calliope Acoustic Open-

Stage at The Bloomfield Bridge Tavern, a weekly event that has lived

for going-on fifteen years. We also founded The Threepenny Opry

performance-series at The Starlite Lounge. I've managed to record

and release some pretty powerful stuff. I hope I get to meet you and

play for you someday. 

Sincerely, Robert A. Wagner The Little

Wretches

MAKE SURE TO VISIT THE BAND'S WEBSITE FOR THE FULL SCOOP AND LINKS TO MUSIC AT LITTLEWRETCHES.COM

Bitcoins, the Bible and the Beast

 Christians beware: the devil let loose in these end times is a roaring lion found everywhere. Last night I watched a 2021 documentary on Amazon Prime Video called Cryptopia: Bitcoins, Blockchains and the Future of the Internet. I couldn't help but fit it all into a Scriptural point of view tempo track so here's my take.

Watch movie trailer on Amazon

There's a certain sort of successful music promoter on the East Coast who claims to be follower of Jesus Christ (he won't deal with explicit music at all) and he has several irons in the fire within the industry from selling beats to selling bitcoins. Or at least he claims they are bitcoins. The documentary I watched explained how easy it is now to forge bitcoins into what is called 'bitcoin' cash and market the product over the Internet as the genuine item. I can't accuse him of that but since he's a Spotify playlist pusher for pay, red flags immediately go up for me. That's a shady venture to be into and it suckers people into paying to get their music heard for a limited time with very small fiduciary results that don't come near to matching the cost of the service. It's called vanity based marketing and Omari, in the name of Christ, appears to be good at manipulating the unsuspecting.

Those of us who read our Bibles are probably familiar with the lament of Ecclesiastes: 

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity! (Eccles 1:2)

In other words, every action that a natural man makes is based in selfishness and I can't help but believe that the bitcoin phenomenon is also self serving although many of its proponents claim they are decentralizing currency for the good of mankind. Such altruism sounds skeptical even to the least educated but what would Jesus say and isn't that what really matters?

In Matthew 6:21, Christ says: "For wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also." In the documentary, the producer was allowed limited access to a massive, nuclear proof vault deep in the heart of the Swiss Alps somewhere to see and to show us where bitcoin digital keys are kept securely offline in mainframes protected by guards with shoot-to-kill orders without prejudice against unauthorized intruders. For me, it was a hellish descent into the bowels of the earth that reminded of the line from the Revelation 6:16: 

And they cried to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.

I don't know about you but I don't want my heart buried kilometers beneath the earth's surface awaiting a resurrection of the damned. I would prefer that my thoughts and imaginations sing freely at the top of peaks overlooking the wonder of God's green earth and touching the lower atmosphere of heaven! Sure, money is important and music to me equals a currency that is magnified throughout the Bible as gift from the Creator to His people given so that they may sing His praises forevermore. That's the beat that I live for!

Deception from the Naked Flame EP

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