Jim Novak Songwriter

TWO POLITICAL PARODY SONGS ON SOUNDCLOUD

My latest is “It’s My Party,” written in August 2018, and I’ve also uploaded “The Wreck of the Ryan-McConnell,” from the summer of 2017. Many thanks to Lesley Gore and Gordon Lightfoot, whose classic songs provided an outlet for my wonkish outrage. Below are the Soundcloud links and a copy of the each lyric.

My Soundcloud User ID is https://soundcloud.com/user-698601894

It’s My Party:

The Wreck of the Ryan-McConnell:

IT’S MY PARTY
(1963, By Wiener, Gould and Gluck; additional words by Jim Novak, 2018; jimnovakmusic@gmail.com)

In The New Yorker magazine, August 16, 2018: “Trump’s Grip on the Republican Party Just Got Even Tighter,” by John Cassidy.

It’s my Party and I’ll lie if I want to, lie if I want to, lie if I want to
You would lie too if you knew what I knew.

Nobody knows where the GOP’s gone, but Republicans get I’m the King
They wear my red MAGA hats, and kiss my ass and my ring.

GOP voters are solid for me, never a peep or a doubt
Congress’ oversight, man what a joke, minority Dems got no clout!

It’s my Party and I’ll lie if I want to lie if I want to, lie if I want to
You would lie too if you knew what I knew.

Working class white people voted for me, they still think I’m on their side,
Health care, tax breaks, all that I pledged, they just don’t get that I lied!

GOP candidates, best get this straight: Russia’s my friend, not the Press,
White supremacists, go ‘head and hate: you domestic terrorists (“fine people”).

It’s my Party and I’ll act like I want to, distract if I want to, change facts if I
want to, You would lie too if you knew what I knew

OK so what if I break a few norms, and I’m shameless about getting laid,
I bully with morning tweet storms , and shit on the CIA!

I punish enemies, Payback is sweet, and Emoluments are no prob,
Money laundering, shadowy deals, I’m like the Boss of this Mob!

It’s my Party, I’ll collude if I want to, talk crude if I want to, screw you if I want to,
You’d cover up too, if you knew what I knew.

Subpoena my records, I’ll just dance away, & call the whole thing Fake News
Mueller’s Witch Hunt, & my D.O.J. (are) G-Men I love to abuse!

Vlad, the Russkies and Porn Movie Stars, I pick my friends from the Best,
Swamp Pirates Scott, Paul and Chris, DC’s our Treasure Chest!

It’s my Party and I’ll troll if I want to, control who I want to, burn coal if I want to,
You would lie too if you knew what I knew

Tax cheating, campaign laws, who gives a crap, I conspire with friends to make fraud,
So unfair now to come after me, but Fox News treats me like God!

Casual racism, dog whistles too, then I claim Whites are oppressed,
Evangelicals boy they love me: my greed and adulteries are blessed!

It’s my Party and I’ll lie if I want to, lie if I want to, lie if I want to
You would lie too if you knew what I knew.

RECITATIVE:

I’ll end regulations and Roe versus Wade, stoke resentment against immigrants;
More court justices, more nutty tweets — You really want Mike Pence??!!

“Resistance” is futile, my voters don’t care I’m disruptive, unstable, bizarre,
“Unhinged” and orange, I swear, they tell me, We love how you are!

It’s my Party and I’ll lie if I want to, lie if I want to, lie if I want to
You would lie too if you knew what I knew.

The Wreck of the Ryan-McConnell (Lyric by Jim Novak, jimnovakmusic@gmail.com; from the song by Gordon Lightfoot)

From Politico, July 28, 2017: “At a closed-door conference meeting with House Republicans hours after Sen. John McCain scuttled perhaps the last best hope of repealing Obamacare, Ryan read an excerpt from ‘The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,’ a song about sailors drowning in a 1975 shipwreck. He likened the tune to what he deemed the Senate’s tragic failure to repeal Obamacare.”

1.
The law was signed in Obama’s time,
For health-care reform and expansion.
Affordable care with a free-market share,
It helps 24 million and then some…

A Conservative thing but Dems gave it wing,
No one was ever Death-Paneled.
Republican jerks said the law’d never work,
With their lawsuits and bills to dismantle!
2.
The Law of the Land the GOP could not stand,
Voting 50-plus times to repeal it.
Folks were so scared, the GOP did not care,
They’d take your coverage and steal it…

Medicaid and markets, for all the insured,
The goal was for all to be healthy.
The cost wouldn’t bust us, it’s pure social justice,
But the Right wanted more for the wealthy!
3.
Trump was elected, Hillary rejected,
Republicans took over Congress.
The House bill in May got Paul Ryan’s OK,
It was callous enough to astonish…

Costs out of pocket were sure to sky-rocket
For those who were poorer and older,
Mandates were gone and the tax breaks were strong
But if you’re not rich you’re cold-shouldered!
4.
The Senate’s bill was a similar pill,
As 13 old men worked in secret.
McConnell was nasty, but couldn’t get it passed, he
Had Trump’s help but he is a nit-wit…

Calls and e-mails on a massive scale,
At Town Halls, alarms were sounded.
Til McCain’s thumb went down and the GOP drowned,
And the Ryan-McConnell was grounded!

5.
If they can’t dislodge it, won’t Trump sabotage it,
By dropping the insurer payments,
Discouraging consumers, fomenting false rumors,
And kill it with all such betrayments…

The coverage to be lost and the premiums’ cost
And subsidies they’d just as soon kill,
There’s no compromise, there’s still blood in their eyes,
Where’s the Wreck of the Ryan-McConnell?

6.
With things so unsettling, some people are betting
That Ryan-McConnell ain’t over.
Til a mid-term election and mid-course correction,
One day, the Dem’s will take over…

Then we might mend it rather than end it,
And do as the law was intended.
Good folks should be able to make markets stable,
And Ryan-McConnell upended!
7.
And let’s say one prayer for single-payer,
For fair-minded ways of wealth-sharing.
We’re all common stock, so let’s sit down and talk
Not Repeal-Replace, but Repairing!

The law that was signed in Obama’s time
For health care reform and expansion,
It’s affordable care with a free-market share,
It helps 24 million and then some!

DIRECTORY: “SONGWRITERS OPEN MIC” PERFORMERS ON THE YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Here’s a list of nearly 50 performers from Songwriters Open Mic, and where to find them on my Youtube channel, officially called “Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor.” When you are at the Channel in search of a particular performer, click on the thumbnail with the four-digit Episode Number associated with the name in the Directory below. When you open a 30-minute video program, you’ll see a description of the contents of the episode including a list of the performers in order of appearance.
Alec Wiener, Episodes # 1100, 1101, 1102
Andres Hernandez, Episode # 1071
Ashley Schuliger, #1073, 1077
Austin Dubois, # 1092, 1095
Brian Lampkin, # 1092, 1093, 1097
Bryan Elum, #1055
Charlie King, # 1109
Craig Lemieux, # 1085
Dan Bilich, # 1071, 1074, 1085
Dan Boyd, #1055
Dan Meloni, # 1072, 1075, 1079, 1094
Duel at Dawn, # 1106
Ed Dupas, # 1110
Folk Y’All, # 1104
Greg Maxwell, # 1083
ilyAIMY, # 1097
Jeanne Mackay, # 1109
Jeremy Morse, # 1095
Jerry Mack, # 1087, 1101, 1102
Jim Bouldin, #1071
Jim Eddy, # 1071, 1073, 1074, 1075, 1078, 1079, 1103, 1100,1098, 1094,1093, 1092, 1090, 1089,1088, 1083
Jim Novak, # 1078, 1072, 1071, 1080, 1103, 1101, 1094, 1093, 1092, 1083
Joe Kidd, # 1106
Kat Renae, # 1092
LaRon Williams, # 1109
Laurie White, # 1109
Lily Talmers, # 1084
Linden Thoburn, # 1096, 1093, 1092
Mary Ann Kirt, # 1078, 1075, 1074,1073, 1079, 1096, 1094, 1091, 1084, 1083
Michael Joseph, # 1083
Oliver de Peralta, # 1077
One Dangerous Mind, # 1104
Paul Epstein, # 1077, 1075, 1074, 1073, 1080, 1082, 1081, 1102, 1100, 1095, 1094, 1090, 1089, 108, 1087
Phil Daker, #1100, 1103
Phil McMillion, # 1099
Richard Daddy Love, # 1055
Rod Johnson, # 1076, 1080, 1082, 1081, 1103, 1101, 1099, 1095, 1086, 1083
Sal Schmittou, # 1074, 1077
Sarah Robinson, # 1081
Sean Kagalis, # 1105
Sheila Burke, # 1106
Stuart Benbow, # 1105
Stuart Fensom, # 1104
Steve Trosin, # 1110
Tim Reahard, # 1073, 1071, 1080, 1082, 1081, 1103, 1102, 1100, 1098, 1095, 1089, 1088, 1086, 1083
Tommy Badfinger, # 1092, 1093
Wolf B. Reuter, # 1076
So far, the Channel is 8 months old, and there are about 40 “SOM” videos (30 minutes each) on the Channel, including recent and not-so-recent performances. Later this summer, I’ll add videos that are newly edited and others from the archives, at the rate of about two per week. (NOTE: There is a separate Directory for performers taped at the Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters, in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2016.)
jimnovakmusic(at)gmail(dot)com

Here is a Directory of a dozen thirty-minute videos I edited from the 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2016 Lamb’s Retreats for Songwriters. The 24th annual Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters will happen in early November 2018. Sponsored by the non-profit Springfed Arts, the Retreats take place in an idyllic setting in Harbor Springs, Michigan. Visit springfed (dot) org for updated details. There are open mic’s for attendees on Thursday and Friday nights, and staff concerts on Saturday. Each video listed below originally appeared on Community Television Network in Ann Arbor, and Grand Rapids TV, public-access channels. Later this summer, I’ll upload additional videos to the Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9NEc1wuphx3tiaBQwvcoXA?view_as=subscriber

Directory:
Songwriters Open Mic # 1,111 was recorded in November of 2011. Appearing in this episode are John D. Lamb (intro remarks), Kirby (“Til I Pay You Back”) and Dan Hazlett (“Picture of a Heart” and “This Old Carpet”). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_bEO7zUc_I

Songwriters Open Mic # 1112 was recorded in November of 2012. Performing in this episode are Dan Bracken; Dan Hazlett; and Andy Baker. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-3f9mRiINQ

Songwriters Open Mic # 1113 was recorded in November of 2014. Performing in this episode are Sigrid Christiansen; Michael Crittenden; and J. Oscar Bittinger. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3omKZQ9hnCI

Songwriters Open Mic # 1114 was recorded at Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters in November of 2016. Performing in this episode are Charlie Walmsley; WT Davidson; Ken Bierschbach; and Laura Hood. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjFvoCVJGRA

Songwriters Open Mic # 1115 was recorded in 2011. Performing in this episode are Luti; John Finan; Lisa Pappas; and Lauren Crane.

Songwriters Open Mic # 1116 was recorded in 2012. Performing in this episode are Ken Bierschbach, Jim Novak, Scott Cooley, and Tracy Kash. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWNejbUOe4s

Songwriters Open Mic # 1117 was recorded at Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters in November of 2014. Performing in this episode are John Kumjian; Patrick Niemisto; and Christian Olsen.

Songwriters Open Mic # 1118 was recorded at Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters in November of 2016. Performing in this episode are Patrick Harrison, Sandra Kennedy, Rich Marr, Bob Elliott, Tracy Eby, and Jim Novak. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dMGeTnEH8Y

Songwriters Open Mic # 1051. Recorded at Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters in 2016. Performers: Joe Peters; Duane Allen Harlick; Gary Browe; Stuart Campbell.

Songwriters Open Mic # 1048. Recorded at Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters in 2016. Performers: Jack Benedict (“Should Have Stayed Home” and “Different Today”); Dan Hazlett {“Good Day to Wear a Suit” and “Hush”); and Michael Crittenden (“Getting Out of Town” and “Ring in My Pocket.”) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkpQmWin358&t=21s

Songwriters Open Mic # 1047. Recorded at Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters 2016. Performers: John D. Lamb; Dennis Kingsbury; and Kirby. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teXkdJCIUXk&t=24s

Songwriters Open Mic # 1107. With Michael Peter Smith. This is part one of two 30-minute episodes featuring a lecture-demonstration on “Writing Songs for Shows,” given by Michael Peter Smith at Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters, in November of 2016. Michael is the Chicago-based performer called “the greatest songwriter in the English language” by Rolling Stone. Here, Michael talks about his creative process, with examples from musicals he’s written including the Tony-award-winning Grapes of Wrath, Moby Dick, and The Snow Queen. This episode was taped with Michael’s gracious permission at Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_Rc2ZWbrqA FYI, Michael released a CD called SONGWRITING, in 2018; it’s part memoir and part master class, intended “for people who are just starting to get into songwriting.” Highly recommended, even for more experienced folks.

Songwriters Open Mic # 1108. Part two with Michael Peter Smith. This is part two of two 30-minute episodes featuring a lecture-demonstration on “Writing Songs for Shows,” given by Michael Peter Smith at Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters, in November of 2016. Michael Smith is the Chicago-based performer called “the greatest songwriter in the English language” by Rolling Stone. Here. Michael talks about his creative process, with examples from musicals he has written including the Tony-award-winning The Grapes of Wrath, and Moby Dick, and The Snow Queen. The episode concludes with two songs from the Staff Concert, at the same Songwriters Retreat. FYI, Michael released a CD called SONGWRITING, in 2018; it’s part memoir and part master class. Highly recommended. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJGesRzW5gY

Additional programs taped at Lamb’s Retreats in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2016 will be uploaded to the youtube channel (“Songwriters open mic ann arbor”) later this summer. Around 40 programs taped in Ann Arbor, at Oz’s Music Store, are also on the channel, with more to come, uploads every week or so.

My song celebrates Michigan Central Station, the Detroit train station that was once regarded as more beautiful than Grand Central in New York City. Abandoned by Amtrak in 1988, it has recently (mid-2018) been acquired by the Ford Motor Company which will renovate the building to house its “next generation of transportation engineers.” Despite its falling into ruin in the past 30 years, the building is deeply woven into the psyches of three generations of Detroiters. Complete lyrics:

MICHIGAN CENTRAL STATION
(Words and Music by JIM NOVAK)

In Detroit like Ancient Rome, marble pillars inside
Our public palace, office tower, 18 stories high.
The 20th Century picked up steam, the common good a common dream,
Fortune seemed bright ahead, while the Fates unspooled their thread.

The last train – 1988 – left the Station for a different day,
Three generations of us, we let it go to scrap and rust.
Legend is that a Station space has people stories and stories of places,
Common knowledge it retains, what depended on those trains

(And the) Michigan Central Station, grandest in Creation, we’d get on board.
At Michigan Central Station, it’s Detroit to the Nation, and we’d get on board.
To Chicago, Toledo, Windsor and Mackinaw –
Michigan Central Station, grandest in the Nation, we’d get on board.

Vaudeville stars, vacationers, businessmen and kids on dates,
Some were scared, some excited, some were Strangers at our gates.
Imagine that you’ve just arrived and passed through Immigration,
Your first step in the USA was Michigan Central Station!
GI’s off to World War Two, the Greatest Generation,
Sent their kids to College, too, from Michigan Central Station.
All aboard, now Ford’s in charge, engineers for transportation,
Restoration back on track, for Michigan Central Station.

Michigan Central Station, grandest in Creation, on board, time to get on board.
Michigan Central Station, Detroit to the Nation, how we’d get on board.
To Chicago, Toledo, Windsor and Mackinaw –
Michigan Central Station, grandest in the Nation, time to get on board.

In Detroit like ancient Rome, marble pillars inside,
Our public palace, an office tower, 18 stories high.
Buildings built like ancient Rome are glorious as ruins,
But in our dreams is a Station dear to our destinies and doings.

(It’s the) Michigan Central Station, Detroit to the Nation, we’d get on board
To Chicago, Toledo, Windsor and Mackinaw –
Michigan Central Station, grandest in the Nation, get on board.

(2016, 2018)

Soundcloud link:

Here’s the list of first dozen 30-minute programs currently on the youtube channel for “Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor” —

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9NEc1wuphx3tiaBQwvcoXA/about?view_as=subscriber

Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor 1071. Performers in order of appearance: Andres Hernandez, “Love and Nature”; Jim Novak, “Orange Moon” plus a poem by Bertolt Brecht; Jim Eddy, “Homecoming”; Dan Bilich, “Mr Tree”; Tim Reahard, “Remembering the Rain”; and Jim Bouldin, “Pollination Song.”

Songwriters Open Mic 1072. Performers. Dan Meloni plays: “I Die a Little Inside,” “Time of My Life,” and “Save the Best for Last.” Jim Novak plays: “Song for the Civilian Conservation Corps –CCC”; “Center of the Universe” with a poem by Gerard Manly Hopkins, Wildness and Wet; and “Mackinac Nights.”

Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor 1073. Performers in order of appearance: Mary Ann Kirt plays “All Day All Night” and “Long Way”; Jim Eddy plays “Better Job” and “Lick the Sunshine”; Tim Reahard plays “Between the Lines”; Ashley Schuliger, “Bridges and Fences”; and Paul Epstein, “Russian Lilting Gown.”

Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor 1074. Performers, in order of appearance: Sal Schmittou (“Baby Let Me Know”); Jim Novak (“Michigan Central Station”); Jim Eddy (“Wall Street’s Gonna Screw You”); Dan Bilich (“Heather” — unfinished); Paul Epstein (“Ticonderoga”); and Mary Ann Kirt (“Why Do They Lie?”).

Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor 1075. Performers in order of appearance: Jim Novak (“To Ireland” plus a poem by W.B. Yeats); Jim Eddy (“Narcotic Embrace,” plus a poem by S.T. Coleridge); Mary Ann Kirt (“Two People in One”); Dan Meloni (“See My Son Shine”); and Paul Epstein (“Bloodless War”).

Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor 1076. Wolf B. Reuter and Rod Johnson play 3 songs apiece. Wolf: You’ve Been Kind to Me; Another Lonely Fool; and Flying Tonight. Rod: 1961; Last Hours of the Old World; and I Used To Be Blue.

Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor 1077. Performers, in order: Paul Epstein (“Whirley Girl”); Ashley Schuliger (“Into the Gray”); Sal Schmittou (“Friends” and “Ten in the Morning”); Jim Novak “(Shine When Trouble Shakes You”); and Oliver de Peralta (“Improvisation”).

Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor 1078.  Performers in order of appearance: Jim Novak (“Blue Star in the Window,” “Michigan Ave,” and “Dusty Sideroad”); Mary Ann Kirt (“One and Only,” and “A Lifetime Ago); Jim Eddy (“Shock of Recognition”)

Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor 1079. Performers in order of appearance: Jim Eddy (“Visit to the Doctor”), Mary Ann Kirt (“Lies,” Hard Heart”), Dan Meloni (“Hold on to Your Dream,” “Half the Dad”), and Jim Novak (“Atlas”).

Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor Number 1080. Performers in order of appearance: Tim Reahard (“Most of All”); Jim Novak (“Barmaids and Waitresses,” paired with the Carl Sandburg poem Love Is It a Cat with Claws); Rod Johnson (“Never Be Warm Again”); Paul Epstein (“Kingdom Come”); Tim Reahard (“Between the Lines”); and Jim Novak (“Center of the Universe,” paired with the G.M. Hopkins poem Spring and Fall To a Young Girl).

Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor 1081. Performers in order of appearance: Jim Novak, “Time to Start Doing Nothing”; Rod Johnson, “When My Baby Comes Around” and “Sing Sweetly”; Sarah Robinson, “When You Feel”; Paul Epstein, “When Adam Sold the Day”; and Tim Reahard, “Un-Intelligent Design.”

Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor 1082. Performers in order of appearance: Tim Reahard, “I Am”; Jim Novak, “Moving Train” (with poem Limited Express by Carl Sandburg); Paul Epstein, “What’s the Matter with Julie?”; Rod Johnson, “35 and 5”, and “Brownian Motion”; and Tim Reahard’s version of Longfellow’s Christmas Bells.

Songwriters Open Mic AA 1055. Richard Daddy Love plays three songs: “Red Dirt in Her Blood,” “Writing This Song,” and “Drinking Just Enough.” Also, three songs from Bryan Elum, with Dan Boyd: “Sign of Life”; “No Idea”; and “Boy Who Cried Love.” (This video is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHghDR6Q6xo&t=5s)

The youtube channel for Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor is:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9NEc1wuphx3tiaBQwvcoXA/videos?view_as=subscriber

or

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9NEc1wuphx3tiaBQwvcoXA/about?view_as=subscriber

Jim Novak

jimnovakmusic@gmail.com

YOU-TUBE CHANNEL debuts this week with 10 recent episodes. Each of these 30-minute episodes that “premiered” on Community Television Network during October and November of 2017 are available now on YouTube. The channel is called “Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor.” Shows are numbered and each show has a brief description listing the performers and songs (in order of appearance) for that 30-minute program.

Here’s the link:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnSNqa0v0G-7GJZT0BpvilA

     Two additional shows will be uploaded each week, usually on a Friday, typically with one new show and one from the archives. I’ll post the details in facebook, on the page also called “songwriters open mic ann arbor.”

This new YouTube Channel will be commercial-free and not monetized. Since 1996, my work on open-mic events and tv shows has been not-for-profit and based on particular interests of performing songwriters and music fans, such as: sharing music with friends; inviting feedback on songs, songwriting and performance; celebrating the community of songwriters; and representing the Ann Arbor/Michigan scene on public-access tv stations here and around the State.

The broadcasts on CTN in Ann Arbor (and GRTV in Grand Rapids) are continuing each week. The first broadcast on CTN was in 1996 and on GRTV in 1999. (We’ve been on and ultimately off the air in several other locations, and for a variety of reasons: Indian River and 18 communities south of the Mackinac Bridge; three counties in the Thumb of Michigan; Traverse City; and Manistee.) We’re closing in on 1100 weeks “on the air” in Ann Arbor, so there’s a lot of material.

Jim Novak, Songwriter; Producer / Editor / Host of Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor

Picture: Thumbnail for the Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor Channel, a shot from the back of the performing space at Oz’s Music Store

CTN wins award for its program ABOUT “Songwriters Open Mic” …Community Television Network in Ann Arbor interviewed me for its series on video producers and editors, called Experience CTN. I was asked about the history of the “Songwriters” show and my thoughts about public access tv.

The award is from our region of the Alliance for Community Media, which represents over 950 stations nationally, and the local organizations and individuals (like me) that use “access” tv facilities to reach out via cablecast and internet streaming. CTN received the award at The Philo Festival of Media Arts ceremonies in October. The interview is archived online and available to view anytime at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhPkZjl8ibo

The 20-minute interview was conducted by CTN’s Training and Facility Coordinator, Alysha Schlundt-Bodien. Here’s a photo taken at the tv studio last winter, when Alysha gave me an award from CTN, for twenty years of “Songwriters Open Mic.”

Picture:   Jim Novak and Alysha Schlundt-Bodien at the studios of Community Television Network in Ann Arbor, Michigan

# 1,001 …. #1,002 … In late May, the “Songwriters Open Mic” tv program reached a milestone: 1,000 weeks on the “air” at CTN, Community Television Network, the public access station in Ann Arbor. The first, weekly half-hour episode of the show was broadcast on October 11, 1996. Now, it’s nearly 20 years later, and our 1,0003rd week on CTN is the week of June 17, 2016. (And it’s still fun for me to do it.)

The show has offered the original songs of hundreds of songwriters from the local area, and occasionally from out-state Michigan and out-of-state as well. The monthly “live” open mic, where we videotape the performers, is still going strong on the first Tuesday evening of each month at Oz’s Music Store in Ann Arbor. Occasionally, I also record “on the road,” such as at the Lamb’s Retreat for Songwriters, up in Harbor Springs.

What makes it possible to put all this local music on local tv? It’s called Public Access Television. It’s part of our national law, and one important player in that law was Senator Barry Goldwater –he is partly a hero and partly a villain, so there is something in it for a person of any political persuasion.

Here’s the Wikipedia entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public-access_television

Suffice it to say that I have a legal right to make tv programs and put them on the local cable tv station. These public access channels are non-commercial and non-curated — although it’s reasonable to say that I do the curating for my shows. But the basic idea is that there’s no Sony and no ABC-Disney and no Viacom influence in what goes on CTN, or any of the hundreds of public access channels around the country. Some channels are hotbeds of political free speech and agit-prop; others routinely broadcast the meetings of their local city councils and commissions and school boards. There are one-off shows and long-running series featuring comedians, preachers, and artists and musicians of all stripes. Local historians, local talk shows and how-to programs. Local not-for-profits explaining who they are and what they want to accomplish. There is such programming all day long on three channels in Ann Arbor: Comcast 16, 17, and 18. (Cable companies pay cities a franchise fee, which enlightened towns like Ann Arbor use to fund the entire cost of CTN, including studios and equipment available to residents, as well as access to the cable “airwaves.”)

My first production for CTN was in the 1980s, a short concert featuring a modern dancer and a jazz saxophone player, both U of M graduates. More recently while doing the Songwriters show, I also made a set of three music videos using baseball footage from my son’s high-school teams. And a lecture on Detroit’s architecture and ongoing revitalization. And a couple short films about non-traditional college students. I’ll do more. As the Wikipedia article points out, the look and feel and “production values” of the shows on commercial TV and on PBS are superior to most of what is on public access, and certainly superior to my work as a non-professional; but I insist on good quality audio, and other than that, I feature the local angle on creative work and play.

Public access tv is readily extended these days from the local cable hook-up to the internet via live-streaming –which CTN currently provides for the Songwriters shows — and Youtube, Vimeo and innumerable other video possibilities on the web. My modern-dance program was shot on ¾ inch tape, and available only to local cable subscribers, way back when Senator Al Gore was just dreaming about the internet (and writing legislation and pushing for funding.) Lots of changes in the technology. You might not find too many occasions when Goldwater and Gore are linked as collaborators, but I see a deeply shared sympathy they had for the idea of “access” — via tv and/or the internet — to widen the active participation of citizens –that’s everybody — in educational, governmental, and cultural activities. In context, 1000-plus weeks of the Songwriters show is simply what Goldwater and Gore had in mind. Maybe Gore will take credit for inventing “Songwriters Open Mic”? I’m OK with that.

“It is time to reinvent the Internet for all of us to make it more robust and much more accessible and use it to reinvigorate our democracy.” (Al Gore, 2005)

Jim Novak
jimnovakmusic@gmail.com

“Songwriters Open Mic” is a live monthly event, on the first Tuesday of each month, at 7:30.  The location, pictured here, is Oz’s Music Store, at 1922 Packard Road in Ann Arbor, Michigan.  Since 1996, this is an acoustic open mic where musicians perform their songs and talk about them as well.  Performances are videotaped and edited into half-hour tv programs seen on public-access stations in Ann Arbor, and in Grand Rapids; the Ann Arbor broadcast is also live-streamed on the internet, so you can watch the “broadcast” from any computer. The times, performers, and the URL for the live-stream etc are available at the Facebook page for Songwriters Open Mic Ann Arbor.

at the april 2009 open mic just completed, our audience included:

a high school-er who came with her dad and had to leave early because it was “a school night;”

speaking of school, a UM grad student (in engineering) who uses songwriting as her creative outlet and escape from the grinding commitments of the next few years;

speaking of engineering, a retired engineer, probably age 50-something, all of his 3 songs were in 3/4 time or 6/8 time—which of course he knew and the rest of us noticed;

a women who had changed her stage name from when she last came in, two months ago (only I knew about that)—great voice, unusual guitar style;

another 50-something fellow with 5 CDs for sale and a web site and all of that, and a fine guitar player, whose songs were all sort of jokey-country-ish, and later I overheard him in animated conversation with another guy, a terrific piano player who usually works with a band,  about the relative merits of the first and third albums of Led Zeppelin, which are a complete mystery to me;

…and more… but what stands out for me is the range of styles and ages and experience levels, and they come to this acoustic open mic for songwriters, in a small space in an Ann-Arbor music store after hours, and this has been happening for a dozen years and it’s wildly various but very interesting to watch this all go by, and contribute my 3-song set, and realize, once in a while, why I keep at it.

(Jim Novak)