Last Trip to Camp Casey: The Last Weekend
Aug/29/2005 11:02 AM | Thoughts from Purple
Land |
Permalink
Camp Casey is now
winding down, and in a few days it will all be packed
up for good.
The last weekend was certainly a big one. I actually ended up going down twice: Friday and Saturday. On Friday, I went down with Bill McElvaney, one of the emeritus pastors of our church. He'd been down the very first weekend, and wanted to get back down again one last time. (I'll probably post some of Bill's pictures later...)
The first thing we noticed, of course, was the vastness of Camp Casey II. Good Lord, it was a big tent! Wireless internet...huge food line..tons of tables for folks to site around at. How amazing to see how much it had changed from the first trips we'd both made...when there were, maybe 50-70 folks out at Camp Casey I...
Friday was clearly a day of preparation down there. There was not much scheduled. There was "peacemaker training" in the afternoon, to prepare for the following day. Johnny Wolfe, from the Crawford Peace House/Dallas Peace Center, led the training. We sat in on a little of it, and it seemed like the main goal was to have folks who would be looking out for trouble the following day, but who would be trained to respond in love and non-violence to anything that did happen.
There was a palpable sense of concern out there Friday. Everyone knew the weekend would be big, but nobody knew whether it would be smooth. Everyone knew of the counter-protest groups coming from California and all over, and really no one knew what that would mean...would things go smoothly? With that many new folks, many of whom are angry (on both sides...) would tensions escalate into violence?
Anyway, Ann Wright, the brains of Camp Casey, gave a impassioned plea for restraint and non-violent, peaceful action the next few days.
Bumped into Tom Geddie down there. Tom is a great music critic and lover all all things Texas. He moved from Dallas to East Texas a few years back, and now actually lives just a few miles from my family's lakehouse out there. Bill, Tom and me had some good conversations.
I also got the chance to meet many of the new family members who had come in during the past week since I'd been there. Some of them had only arrive that day, or the night before. They all looked a little wide-eyed, and wondering about what their experience would be like. Person after person said that they simply felt compelled to come...compelled to to come and tell their stories and to be with other family members and vets.
Saturday was the BIG day. I had to be in Waco for a funeral that morning, and so I actually had to drive by myself. Since I'd been before, I knew the backroads and, unbelievably, got an incredible parking space. (I drove the Hybrid...) Saw lots of folks I knew out there. There were probably ten or twelve folks from our church. Saw all my friends from the Dallas Air America listener group. Saw some musician friends from Austin. Caught up with some of the vets and family members who I'd met the Friday before.
Since I came in the back way, I didn't even see the majority of the counter-protesters. I heard they had a big demonstration --perhaps even with as many or more than were at Camp Casey II-- but I never saw it. By the time I drove back through town in the late afternoon, most of them had left.
The crowd at Camp Casey was HUGE. I mean HUGE. It was wall-to-wall people.
(photo: Jeff Paterson)
Here's Jeff Paterson's pictures of the day.
The main rally from 12-2 was very well planned. Each of the four main groups that eventually became sponsors of Camp Casey spoke. I was especially impressed with the young vets from Iraq, and their group "Iraq Vets Against the War." (Quicktime Video here) One of the things that perhaps most folks don't realize is just how MANY vets --and how many Iraq Vets-- were there and present at Camp Casey. I don't know what the exact count finally was, but it had to have been at least 20 to 30 of them on Saturday alone. (With others who had to leave earlier...)
The family members, as I've mentioned several times, were deeply touching to me. Specifically, I got the chance to meet Steve DeFord. Steve DeFord is a Gold Star Father, whose son was killed in Iraq. On Friday, when I saw him, he seemed a little shell-shocked still by the whole experience of being at Camp Casey. His wife had been there my previous trip (and was present at the Friday Prayer Vigil), but had gone home and handed the baton off to Steve. It was clear that he still wasn't sure about how much he would speak out, or what he would say.
Joan Baez played all throughout the main event, leading the group in many classic protest songs. Cindy Sheehan gave quite a good speech, commenting a lot on the obvious growth of the Camp Casey movement.
I have to say, that's the thing that really astounds me too...just how much this movement grew in just a few short weeks. How amazing it was --almost like a paradigm shift-- from that first trip I made when there were probably 60-70 folks out by the side of the road, and when I just happened to run for cover into Cindy's tent shelter and get caught in the storm with Ann Wright. How amazing it was to now see the thousands there in Crawford.
As I surveyed the huge crowd that day, I thought back, and it seemed to me that the Friday we were there for the Prayer Vigil was really a crucial turning point. Two things were going on simultaneously that day:
1) Cindy Sheehan was gone...the first full day she was gone, and
2) Camp Casey II was being constructed.
Cindy Sheehan's being gone really probably gave the movement a depth it wouldn't have had otherwise. That day we were there, as we finished the prayer vigil, we marched with the family member to the Bush Ranch (Quicktime video here). It seems that this moment was when these other family members and vets who had been somewhat in the shadows up til then (Quicktime video here) came into their own. Everyone realized that their stories need telling too. Everyone realized that, as Cindy Sheehan has said, the movement is bigger than Crawford Texas and Cindy Sheehan.
If Cindy's being gone gave the movement a paradoxical new depth, it was Camp Casey II that gave it new breadth. And how amazingly organic that it was being constructed at just the same time these other families were stepping out of the shadows.
Sooo....I thought about all this, and what a turning point that Friday has been in retrospect, as I looked out over that HUGE crowd on Saturday.
It was really, really something...
Teri Hendrix played after the main rally ended. She always plays, of course, with Lloyd Maines, whose daughter's comment, several years ago, created a whole new verb. After her, James McMurtry did a set. I've been a big fan of his for years, and it was great to see him live for the first time. Sumer Erickson, Roky's younger brother, followed him.
And then, just before they took a thirty-minute break, I got the chance to get on stage and play "Prairie Chapel Road."
(Photo: Nancy Cunningham)
It was really an awesome moment. Perhaps half the crowd had left by that point. But that still meant there were a lot of folks out there. Everyone was clapping along too. There were a ton of musicians, really good ones, waiting patiently in line to play, and so it was really very kind for Richard Bowden (formerly of the Austin Lounge Lizards, and organizer of the entertainment that afternoon...) to fit me in for the one song. I had worked up a longer set. But I really wanted to play earlier rather than later....and, when I thought of all those others still waiting to play, I really wanted to just play that one song one more time. So, was a tradeoff....earlier appearance, shorter set.
I probably gave out 40 copies of Prairie Chapel Road to the veterans and family members, including one to Cindy Sheehan. The rest were left to be sold, all proceeds to the Crawford Peace House.
(Photo: Nancy Cunningham)
It really was great to get to play the song again down there. It feels like it will probably run the course of its life soon....although it's still being downloaded about 50 times a day right now. I'm just so honored to have had the chance to be even a small part of what I truly believe will be an historic movement.
Bumped into Carter Thompson in the late afternoon, and offered him a ride back to Dallas. We drove back into town, and then back out to Camp Casey I one more time. Carter had never seen it. It seemed like whatever had happened earlier in the day was long over by then. Same thing for downtown....perhaps a hundred or so "counter-demonstrators" still there. (At that same moment, there were still probably 400-500 folks out at Camp Casey II...)
I really still don't know what the counter demonstrations were like. I have heard folks say that some of them were pretty angry and vitriolic in their comments. And, if this account is any indication (the part about the "Protest Warriors" halfway down the story...), it's probably a good idea both sides stayed away from each other, for the most part. We stopped by the Peace House on the way out of town, because Carter had never seen that either. Laura Flanders was doing a live broadcast of her radio show, and we stopped to listen for a while.
The most amazing thing is that I bumped into the Burns Sisters! What's really funny about this is that I'd bumped into Jeannie Burns as we were getting back off the shuttle to go home from that first Monday visit. She'd come down from Ithaca for a few days, and I thought it an amazing coincidence to actually bump into her there. I mean, what are the odds that you just bump into someone like that, right?
Soo...now it's several weeks later, I'm back at the Peace House, walking into the side yard, and low and behold, all three Burns Sisters are there. They were just getting ready to go out to the camp and, once again, I was just getting ready to go home...how cosmic is that? We chatted for a while, and I got the chance to tell Annie how much I LOVE her newest CD. (I really do, and it's really in my car CD player right now...) She also took a picture of me with all of them. (Which I hope to post here eventually....)
I told them that they needed to get their considerable talent up on the stage, and they said they thought they'd probably end up doing some acapela stuff. Sure enough, Sunday night, I was listening to the live internet stream from Camp Casey II, and I could hear the Burns Sisters in the background, doing "No More Silence." It was very cool...
I'm pretty sure I heard Susan Werner get introduced later too. Some pretty fantastic musicians came down to Crawford.
I hear that Sunday was a pretty amazing day, with even more big name celebs coming by. I'm glad Martin Sheen came, and I admire him a great deal. I really like his quote where he said, "You know what I do for a living, but this is what I do to keep me alive."
I know that I have lots of friends, perhaps even some of you reading this, who probably have grave doubts about the whole "Camp Casey" movement. I can certainly understand that. The one thing I can say with certainty is this: the reality of Camp Casey felt very different to me from what I saw on television. Had I not gone myself, I too might have had "concerns."
But what I saw was as genuine, heart-felt movement, from folks who felt almost a pilgrimmage-like compulsion to come.
Remember the Spielberg film "Close Encounters?" Remember how the characters simply have this compulsion to get themselves to that specific Utah mountain? That's what I read in the face and stories of the vets, moms, dads, and other family members who came to Crawford. The just came because they had to come. They didn't even know what they'd find when they got there.
Sure, there were a lot of other distractions down there. But, at the heart, there were these folks, who feel they cannot be silent any more. In fact, some of them feel like they've been silent far too long. They are not professional politicians, so sometimes they don't speak very eloquently. But, then, sometimes that very lack of "polish" gives them a genuineness that is often missing in our political discourse today.
I know a lot of folks have a hard time with the idea of bringing home the troops right now. I certainly understand that reservation. I feel like I need to blog on some of my own views on this war....as if to blog about Camp Casey this much pre-assumes that I agree with everyone and everybody at Camp Casey...I'm sure I don't. So, I'll probably step back and do that blogging in a few days.
But for right now, my heart has been touched by these family members who have poured their heart and soul out to our country. I mentioned Steve DeFord, one of the fathers I met down there. As I mentioned, Steve is a Gold Star Father, meaning his son was killed in combat in the Iraq War. On Saturday, in the midst of the big rally, in the tent filled with 2,000-plus people, I looked off to one side. Steve was just standing there by himself, looking very sad.
So, I went over to talk to him. "What do you think of all this?" I asked.
He broke into tears.
"It's all so wonderful. It's all so amazing. But it's just too late."
He took a long look around the room, "It's just all too late."
We both fell into tears and into a hug. Because I knew that for Steve, no matter what anyone does to try to end the war now, that would also always be true.
The last weekend was certainly a big one. I actually ended up going down twice: Friday and Saturday. On Friday, I went down with Bill McElvaney, one of the emeritus pastors of our church. He'd been down the very first weekend, and wanted to get back down again one last time. (I'll probably post some of Bill's pictures later...)
The first thing we noticed, of course, was the vastness of Camp Casey II. Good Lord, it was a big tent! Wireless internet...huge food line..tons of tables for folks to site around at. How amazing to see how much it had changed from the first trips we'd both made...when there were, maybe 50-70 folks out at Camp Casey I...
Friday was clearly a day of preparation down there. There was not much scheduled. There was "peacemaker training" in the afternoon, to prepare for the following day. Johnny Wolfe, from the Crawford Peace House/Dallas Peace Center, led the training. We sat in on a little of it, and it seemed like the main goal was to have folks who would be looking out for trouble the following day, but who would be trained to respond in love and non-violence to anything that did happen.
There was a palpable sense of concern out there Friday. Everyone knew the weekend would be big, but nobody knew whether it would be smooth. Everyone knew of the counter-protest groups coming from California and all over, and really no one knew what that would mean...would things go smoothly? With that many new folks, many of whom are angry (on both sides...) would tensions escalate into violence?
Anyway, Ann Wright, the brains of Camp Casey, gave a impassioned plea for restraint and non-violent, peaceful action the next few days.
Bumped into Tom Geddie down there. Tom is a great music critic and lover all all things Texas. He moved from Dallas to East Texas a few years back, and now actually lives just a few miles from my family's lakehouse out there. Bill, Tom and me had some good conversations.
I also got the chance to meet many of the new family members who had come in during the past week since I'd been there. Some of them had only arrive that day, or the night before. They all looked a little wide-eyed, and wondering about what their experience would be like. Person after person said that they simply felt compelled to come...compelled to to come and tell their stories and to be with other family members and vets.
Saturday was the BIG day. I had to be in Waco for a funeral that morning, and so I actually had to drive by myself. Since I'd been before, I knew the backroads and, unbelievably, got an incredible parking space. (I drove the Hybrid...) Saw lots of folks I knew out there. There were probably ten or twelve folks from our church. Saw all my friends from the Dallas Air America listener group. Saw some musician friends from Austin. Caught up with some of the vets and family members who I'd met the Friday before.
Since I came in the back way, I didn't even see the majority of the counter-protesters. I heard they had a big demonstration --perhaps even with as many or more than were at Camp Casey II-- but I never saw it. By the time I drove back through town in the late afternoon, most of them had left.
The crowd at Camp Casey was HUGE. I mean HUGE. It was wall-to-wall people.
(photo: Jeff Paterson)
Here's Jeff Paterson's pictures of the day.
The main rally from 12-2 was very well planned. Each of the four main groups that eventually became sponsors of Camp Casey spoke. I was especially impressed with the young vets from Iraq, and their group "Iraq Vets Against the War." (Quicktime Video here) One of the things that perhaps most folks don't realize is just how MANY vets --and how many Iraq Vets-- were there and present at Camp Casey. I don't know what the exact count finally was, but it had to have been at least 20 to 30 of them on Saturday alone. (With others who had to leave earlier...)
The family members, as I've mentioned several times, were deeply touching to me. Specifically, I got the chance to meet Steve DeFord. Steve DeFord is a Gold Star Father, whose son was killed in Iraq. On Friday, when I saw him, he seemed a little shell-shocked still by the whole experience of being at Camp Casey. His wife had been there my previous trip (and was present at the Friday Prayer Vigil), but had gone home and handed the baton off to Steve. It was clear that he still wasn't sure about how much he would speak out, or what he would say.
Joan Baez played all throughout the main event, leading the group in many classic protest songs. Cindy Sheehan gave quite a good speech, commenting a lot on the obvious growth of the Camp Casey movement.
I have to say, that's the thing that really astounds me too...just how much this movement grew in just a few short weeks. How amazing it was --almost like a paradigm shift-- from that first trip I made when there were probably 60-70 folks out by the side of the road, and when I just happened to run for cover into Cindy's tent shelter and get caught in the storm with Ann Wright. How amazing it was to now see the thousands there in Crawford.
As I surveyed the huge crowd that day, I thought back, and it seemed to me that the Friday we were there for the Prayer Vigil was really a crucial turning point. Two things were going on simultaneously that day:
1) Cindy Sheehan was gone...the first full day she was gone, and
2) Camp Casey II was being constructed.
Cindy Sheehan's being gone really probably gave the movement a depth it wouldn't have had otherwise. That day we were there, as we finished the prayer vigil, we marched with the family member to the Bush Ranch (Quicktime video here). It seems that this moment was when these other family members and vets who had been somewhat in the shadows up til then (Quicktime video here) came into their own. Everyone realized that their stories need telling too. Everyone realized that, as Cindy Sheehan has said, the movement is bigger than Crawford Texas and Cindy Sheehan.
If Cindy's being gone gave the movement a paradoxical new depth, it was Camp Casey II that gave it new breadth. And how amazingly organic that it was being constructed at just the same time these other families were stepping out of the shadows.
Sooo....I thought about all this, and what a turning point that Friday has been in retrospect, as I looked out over that HUGE crowd on Saturday.
It was really, really something...
Teri Hendrix played after the main rally ended. She always plays, of course, with Lloyd Maines, whose daughter's comment, several years ago, created a whole new verb. After her, James McMurtry did a set. I've been a big fan of his for years, and it was great to see him live for the first time. Sumer Erickson, Roky's younger brother, followed him.
And then, just before they took a thirty-minute break, I got the chance to get on stage and play "Prairie Chapel Road."
(Photo: Nancy Cunningham)
It was really an awesome moment. Perhaps half the crowd had left by that point. But that still meant there were a lot of folks out there. Everyone was clapping along too. There were a ton of musicians, really good ones, waiting patiently in line to play, and so it was really very kind for Richard Bowden (formerly of the Austin Lounge Lizards, and organizer of the entertainment that afternoon...) to fit me in for the one song. I had worked up a longer set. But I really wanted to play earlier rather than later....and, when I thought of all those others still waiting to play, I really wanted to just play that one song one more time. So, was a tradeoff....earlier appearance, shorter set.
I probably gave out 40 copies of Prairie Chapel Road to the veterans and family members, including one to Cindy Sheehan. The rest were left to be sold, all proceeds to the Crawford Peace House.
(Photo: Nancy Cunningham)
It really was great to get to play the song again down there. It feels like it will probably run the course of its life soon....although it's still being downloaded about 50 times a day right now. I'm just so honored to have had the chance to be even a small part of what I truly believe will be an historic movement.
Bumped into Carter Thompson in the late afternoon, and offered him a ride back to Dallas. We drove back into town, and then back out to Camp Casey I one more time. Carter had never seen it. It seemed like whatever had happened earlier in the day was long over by then. Same thing for downtown....perhaps a hundred or so "counter-demonstrators" still there. (At that same moment, there were still probably 400-500 folks out at Camp Casey II...)
I really still don't know what the counter demonstrations were like. I have heard folks say that some of them were pretty angry and vitriolic in their comments. And, if this account is any indication (the part about the "Protest Warriors" halfway down the story...), it's probably a good idea both sides stayed away from each other, for the most part. We stopped by the Peace House on the way out of town, because Carter had never seen that either. Laura Flanders was doing a live broadcast of her radio show, and we stopped to listen for a while.
The most amazing thing is that I bumped into the Burns Sisters! What's really funny about this is that I'd bumped into Jeannie Burns as we were getting back off the shuttle to go home from that first Monday visit. She'd come down from Ithaca for a few days, and I thought it an amazing coincidence to actually bump into her there. I mean, what are the odds that you just bump into someone like that, right?
Soo...now it's several weeks later, I'm back at the Peace House, walking into the side yard, and low and behold, all three Burns Sisters are there. They were just getting ready to go out to the camp and, once again, I was just getting ready to go home...how cosmic is that? We chatted for a while, and I got the chance to tell Annie how much I LOVE her newest CD. (I really do, and it's really in my car CD player right now...) She also took a picture of me with all of them. (Which I hope to post here eventually....)
I told them that they needed to get their considerable talent up on the stage, and they said they thought they'd probably end up doing some acapela stuff. Sure enough, Sunday night, I was listening to the live internet stream from Camp Casey II, and I could hear the Burns Sisters in the background, doing "No More Silence." It was very cool...
I'm pretty sure I heard Susan Werner get introduced later too. Some pretty fantastic musicians came down to Crawford.
I hear that Sunday was a pretty amazing day, with even more big name celebs coming by. I'm glad Martin Sheen came, and I admire him a great deal. I really like his quote where he said, "You know what I do for a living, but this is what I do to keep me alive."
I know that I have lots of friends, perhaps even some of you reading this, who probably have grave doubts about the whole "Camp Casey" movement. I can certainly understand that. The one thing I can say with certainty is this: the reality of Camp Casey felt very different to me from what I saw on television. Had I not gone myself, I too might have had "concerns."
But what I saw was as genuine, heart-felt movement, from folks who felt almost a pilgrimmage-like compulsion to come.
Remember the Spielberg film "Close Encounters?" Remember how the characters simply have this compulsion to get themselves to that specific Utah mountain? That's what I read in the face and stories of the vets, moms, dads, and other family members who came to Crawford. The just came because they had to come. They didn't even know what they'd find when they got there.
Sure, there were a lot of other distractions down there. But, at the heart, there were these folks, who feel they cannot be silent any more. In fact, some of them feel like they've been silent far too long. They are not professional politicians, so sometimes they don't speak very eloquently. But, then, sometimes that very lack of "polish" gives them a genuineness that is often missing in our political discourse today.
I know a lot of folks have a hard time with the idea of bringing home the troops right now. I certainly understand that reservation. I feel like I need to blog on some of my own views on this war....as if to blog about Camp Casey this much pre-assumes that I agree with everyone and everybody at Camp Casey...I'm sure I don't. So, I'll probably step back and do that blogging in a few days.
But for right now, my heart has been touched by these family members who have poured their heart and soul out to our country. I mentioned Steve DeFord, one of the fathers I met down there. As I mentioned, Steve is a Gold Star Father, meaning his son was killed in combat in the Iraq War. On Saturday, in the midst of the big rally, in the tent filled with 2,000-plus people, I looked off to one side. Steve was just standing there by himself, looking very sad.
So, I went over to talk to him. "What do you think of all this?" I asked.
He broke into tears.
"It's all so wonderful. It's all so amazing. But it's just too late."
He took a long look around the room, "It's just all too late."
We both fell into tears and into a hug. Because I knew that for Steve, no matter what anyone does to try to end the war now, that would also always be true.
The Brits Go Mad for "Prairie Chapel Road" (Well not
really. But it was used in a BBC radio clip...)
Aug/25/2005 07:44 AM | Music News | Permalink
Thanks to
Madaleine, from the Kerrchat list, for the catch of
this one...
Apparently, my new song, "Prairie Chapel Road," written in honor of Cindy Sheehan and Camp Casey, made it into a BBC Radio clip the other night...or, at least a clip of the song made it into the clip of the story.
Listen here.
Stream here.
This seems to be a clip from the live performance during last Friday's prayer vigil with the military famlies and vets. You can learn more about that trip to Crawford here.
As of this writing, Prairie Chapel Road has been downloaded/streamed almost 1800 times this past week. Someone told me that there was a video clip of me playing that aired on both Nightline and CNN...but I didn't see either one.
Pretty wild stuff.
Hoping to get back down there for either Friday or Saturday, and play the song for more folks...I'll keep all yall posted....
Apparently, my new song, "Prairie Chapel Road," written in honor of Cindy Sheehan and Camp Casey, made it into a BBC Radio clip the other night...or, at least a clip of the song made it into the clip of the story.
Listen here.
Stream here.
This seems to be a clip from the live performance during last Friday's prayer vigil with the military famlies and vets. You can learn more about that trip to Crawford here.
As of this writing, Prairie Chapel Road has been downloaded/streamed almost 1800 times this past week. Someone told me that there was a video clip of me playing that aired on both Nightline and CNN...but I didn't see either one.
Pretty wild stuff.
Hoping to get back down there for either Friday or Saturday, and play the song for more folks...I'll keep all yall posted....
Friday at Crawford: Camp Casey without Cindy Sheehan
Aug/20/2005 07:27 PM | Angels and Pins
| Permalink
Spent
yesterday out at Camp Casey. I had been asked to
provide music for an interfaith prayer vigil to take
place at noon-time.
Here's a great photo collage from Jeff Paterson and "Not in Our Name" of the prayer vigil.
Jeff has also produced an incredible video, with my song as the soundtrack.
(I heard that Channel 8 and Nightline both mentioned the vigil last night, but I didn't get to see either one...)
Spent several days this week, fretting over what music to play, and finally decided on some very simple songs. (I''ll talk about those in a minute...) The over-riding news of the day, of course, was the departure from Camp Casey of Cindy Sheehan herself. The news was so fresh that no one really knew what we'd find there at camp when we arrived...would the movement be continuing? Would it fall apart?
Far from it. Actually, when I compare my trip Monday and my trip Friday, there were probably DOUBLE the number of folks out at the Camp and in at the Crawford Peace House on Friday, after Cindy had left. (And, as I was leaving yesterday, more and more were still pouring in...) So, clearly, the movement is not waning, even with Cindy not there.
The clergy gathered at the Peace House about ten thirty, and went over our brief order of service. Then, we loaded in vans and went out to the site. It was great to meet Barbara R, from Austin, who was our van driver and an incredibly wonderful person. She and another guy (whose name escapes me...) seemed to mostly be putting things together.
The Gold Star Families, Iraq Veterans Groups, Military Families Speak Out, were holding a ten-thirty press conference, and as soon as it was over, our vigil was to start. You can hear some of that press conference here. (Quicktime)
The clergy gathered at the end of the row of crosses, and processed down toward Camp Casey. The family members, who were finishing their press conference, met us halfway, and we embraced and headed back to the camp. I must say, this was the most moving, but also the most annoying, part of the prayer vigil. It was moving, because we got to meet these family members of those who had died in Iraq, and the Iraq War Veterans who are joining them in support. It was annoying, because the media was crowding in, snapping pictures, and almost leering at us. I've been around the media now and then, but I've never found them to be THAT intrusive before. Even the Sheriff started speaking to them, challenging them to get off the road.
When we got the site, I opened the service with two songs: "The Gift of Love" (caution: cheezy midi sound at this link...) and a song I'd written for the occasion, called "God is Here With Us." After this, there was a time of prayer from several clergy of many different denominations, a time for the "prayers of the people," and finally a time when the families and Vets gathered in the midst of us, and we prayed for them by laying hands on them in prayer.
At the very end, I played my new song, "Prairie Chapel Road."
After we were finished, it was incredibly gratifying to have several of the family members come up to me and tell me how much they appreciated the song.
Several of them kept saying, "That's OUR song!"
And I said, 'Yes, of course it is...that's why I wrote it."
People kept telling me over and over that they hoped everyone could hear the song, and that it captured the feeling of Camp Casey really well. It's not often, as a songwriter, that you encounter people THAT grateful for what you've written, so it was humbling and gratifying all at the same time.
Among the wonderful military families I met who were grateful for the song, were Mimi Evans, and Becky Lourey (sp?) who is a Minnesota State Senator. They did a marvelous job at their press conference, making it clear that they are keeping the questions Cindy originally asked open.
I spent a lot of time with Charlie Anderson, an Iraq War Vet who served around Basra and "south of Bagdad." Won't go into all of what we talked about, but it was a powerful and moving conversation. (Quicktime of Charlie reading a letter).
After this, we escorted the families members and vets to the doorstep of Bush's ranch, as they attempted to deliver a letter to him. However, a Secret Service agent was there at the gate and said that no one was there who could officially accept the letter. So, the families left the letter in the middle of the road, along with one of the flowers we'd given them.
Afterwards, we went back to the Peace House for lunch and more visiting with the families/vets. I am very grateful for this chance to listen to the stories of these mothers and veterans, and to support them and their right to speak out for peace. I'm amazed at their courage and their ability to stay focused, in the midst of all sorts of craziness. They don't ALL agree...they don't all see the "solution" eye-to-eye. But they are united in their desire for a swift and lasting peace.
To date, my song, Prairie Chapel Road, has been downloaded over 850 time during the past week (update: 3100 times as of 01.31.06). I DO hope that folks continue to use Prairie Chapel Road as a way of talking about their experience of Camp Casey, and I'm grateful for every person who finds it healing.
Here's a great photo collage from Jeff Paterson and "Not in Our Name" of the prayer vigil.
Jeff has also produced an incredible video, with my song as the soundtrack.
(I heard that Channel 8 and Nightline both mentioned the vigil last night, but I didn't get to see either one...)
Spent several days this week, fretting over what music to play, and finally decided on some very simple songs. (I''ll talk about those in a minute...) The over-riding news of the day, of course, was the departure from Camp Casey of Cindy Sheehan herself. The news was so fresh that no one really knew what we'd find there at camp when we arrived...would the movement be continuing? Would it fall apart?
Far from it. Actually, when I compare my trip Monday and my trip Friday, there were probably DOUBLE the number of folks out at the Camp and in at the Crawford Peace House on Friday, after Cindy had left. (And, as I was leaving yesterday, more and more were still pouring in...) So, clearly, the movement is not waning, even with Cindy not there.
The clergy gathered at the Peace House about ten thirty, and went over our brief order of service. Then, we loaded in vans and went out to the site. It was great to meet Barbara R, from Austin, who was our van driver and an incredibly wonderful person. She and another guy (whose name escapes me...) seemed to mostly be putting things together.
The Gold Star Families, Iraq Veterans Groups, Military Families Speak Out, were holding a ten-thirty press conference, and as soon as it was over, our vigil was to start. You can hear some of that press conference here. (Quicktime)
The clergy gathered at the end of the row of crosses, and processed down toward Camp Casey. The family members, who were finishing their press conference, met us halfway, and we embraced and headed back to the camp. I must say, this was the most moving, but also the most annoying, part of the prayer vigil. It was moving, because we got to meet these family members of those who had died in Iraq, and the Iraq War Veterans who are joining them in support. It was annoying, because the media was crowding in, snapping pictures, and almost leering at us. I've been around the media now and then, but I've never found them to be THAT intrusive before. Even the Sheriff started speaking to them, challenging them to get off the road.
When we got the site, I opened the service with two songs: "The Gift of Love" (caution: cheezy midi sound at this link...) and a song I'd written for the occasion, called "God is Here With Us." After this, there was a time of prayer from several clergy of many different denominations, a time for the "prayers of the people," and finally a time when the families and Vets gathered in the midst of us, and we prayed for them by laying hands on them in prayer.
At the very end, I played my new song, "Prairie Chapel Road."
After we were finished, it was incredibly gratifying to have several of the family members come up to me and tell me how much they appreciated the song.
Several of them kept saying, "That's OUR song!"
And I said, 'Yes, of course it is...that's why I wrote it."
People kept telling me over and over that they hoped everyone could hear the song, and that it captured the feeling of Camp Casey really well. It's not often, as a songwriter, that you encounter people THAT grateful for what you've written, so it was humbling and gratifying all at the same time.
Among the wonderful military families I met who were grateful for the song, were Mimi Evans, and Becky Lourey (sp?) who is a Minnesota State Senator. They did a marvelous job at their press conference, making it clear that they are keeping the questions Cindy originally asked open.
I spent a lot of time with Charlie Anderson, an Iraq War Vet who served around Basra and "south of Bagdad." Won't go into all of what we talked about, but it was a powerful and moving conversation. (Quicktime of Charlie reading a letter).
After this, we escorted the families members and vets to the doorstep of Bush's ranch, as they attempted to deliver a letter to him. However, a Secret Service agent was there at the gate and said that no one was there who could officially accept the letter. So, the families left the letter in the middle of the road, along with one of the flowers we'd given them.
Afterwards, we went back to the Peace House for lunch and more visiting with the families/vets. I am very grateful for this chance to listen to the stories of these mothers and veterans, and to support them and their right to speak out for peace. I'm amazed at their courage and their ability to stay focused, in the midst of all sorts of craziness. They don't ALL agree...they don't all see the "solution" eye-to-eye. But they are united in their desire for a swift and lasting peace.
To date, my song, Prairie Chapel Road, has been downloaded over 850 time during the past week (update: 3100 times as of 01.31.06). I DO hope that folks continue to use Prairie Chapel Road as a way of talking about their experience of Camp Casey, and I'm grateful for every person who finds it healing.
Video of Prairie Chapel Road: Using my song as the
soundtrack (Very, very cool...)
Aug/20/2005 05:16 PM | Favorite Entries
| Permalink
Prairie Chapel Road: A Song Inspired by Camp Casey
and Cindy Sheehan
Aug/16/2005 11:31 PM | Favorite Entries
| Permalink
In August of 2005, I had the great good fortune to be
a part of "Camp Casey," the organic and grassroots
peace movement inspired by Cindy Sheehan. During some
of my trips there, I was inspired to write a song
called "Prairie Chapel Road," which has now become
one of two great songs to come out of that movement.
It's been downloaded almost 3,000 times since then.
I've revised this original blog entry several times, and now it's sort of a "one stop" place to find all the other writing I've done about Camp Casey. The entry below tells the story of how "Prairie Chapel Road" first got written, and will give you the links so you can download/stream it yourself.
But I thought you might also be interested in some of the OTHER writing I've done about Camp Casey and what's happened since I wrote the song....
So, you can learn about my second visit to Camp Casey 1 here, where I played PCR for family members the very first time, at a Friday prayer vigil.
You can see an incredible video that uses PCR as the soundtrack at this second link.
This third blog entry tells about how BBC Radio used a clip of the song in a that aired on Public Radio in the states.
Fourthly (is this a word?), you can learn about my final visit to Camp Casey last August, on the last incredible Saturday, when 2,000 people were gathered there and I got to play the song on the big main stage at Camp Casey II, here .
Last but not least, you can read here how my musician friend, Jesse Dyen, has covered "Prairie Chapel Road."
But, before you read any this, you might want to start with what's below. It's the very first "Prairie Chapel Road" blog entry that tells the story of the song, and of how all this got started. Perhaps give it a read, and then explore some of these other links I've just mentioned....EF
---------------------------------------------
I went down to Camp Casey yesterday. It's only an hour and a half from home, and I'd been moved by what I'd been reading of the powerful questions she hopes to ask the President. So, me and two others from our church went down for the day.
We got off the shuttle at Camp Casey about 2 minutes before a HUGE gully-washer rainstorm blew through. (Reminded me of Kerrville, actually...) I ran to the nearest shelter which, as it turns out, was the Veterans for Peace shelter where Cindy's original tent had been. (According to woman named Ann, who was nice enough to let me keep out of the rain with her...)
After the rain, Ron, Kim, and me went down the entire row of 800-plus crosses. The storm had toppled over some of the American flags that were next to them, and some of the names had blown off. So, as we walked down, just soaking in all the crosses in the soaked ground --a little less than half of the actual US casualties-- we did our best to put them back in order.
Imagine my shock, then, when I awoke this morning to find that the crosses had been mowed down by some Crawford local the night before. Apparently, he'd tied a metal pole to the back of his truck, and just plowed through them, like he was plowing up corn. Beside the violence of his act, it seems to me that despite his claim to be a "good Christian," the whole crucifixion thing must be lost on him. I mean, thinking theologically here, how completely metaphorical IS it for him to RUN OVER a bunch of CROSSES?!!!*
There are just whole levels of powerful metaphor to this senseless act. Even some of the pro-war (or pro-Bush) folks had been moved by the display of crosses. I heard stories that some of them "crossed the road" to walk up and down the line. Some of them left American flags. Some of them left flowers.
I heard the story that there was a local guy who drove by, who was very much pro-war (or pro-Bush). He had lost his son in the war, and he came up, angry and wanting to talk to someone. After a while, he noticed the crosses, and decided to check and see if his son was among the names. Turns out, he was. And the man melted into tears, in the hands of a peace advocate whose name he barely even knew.
Such were the stories of power that I heard while at Camp Casey. These don't seem to be making into the mainstream press.
There was so much more that I wanted to blog today about the trip to Crawford. But somehow this thing with the crosses stayed in the front of my brain, and wouldn't leave me alone.
So, although I had bloggers block, I didn't seem to have songwriters block. And I've got a new song called "Prairie Chapel Road"
On the way home today, these words of hope just came tumbling out.
It's been said that there's no good protest songs being written these days. Well, maybe it's because there are very few good protests. I don't know if this is a good song, but I DO know this is a powerful protest that deserves good songs.
And so, this song goes out to Cindy Sheehan, and to all the others who camp there in non-violence, and who believe that their witness CAN make a difference in people's lives. They've inspired me, and they've inspired countless others.
And, as this witness goes on, and the tensions mount, we all need to believe in the hope that was ignited by their original willingness to speak up and speak out.
Prairie Chapel Road
Download it here
Stream it here
Lyrics
Prairie Chapel Road
The grieving mother pitched her tent,
On Prairie Chapel Road...
With questions for the President
On Prairie Chapel Road...
A host of pilgrims came along
To Prairie Chapel Road...
Raised their voices, sang their songs
On Prairie Chapel Road...
You can mow down the crosses,
but you can’t mow down our hope,
‘Cause the truth will always greet
The light of day.
And we know what the cost is,
In this darkness, where we grope,
But we know that peace
Will be the better way...
On Prairie Chapel Road...
Around the nation, all eyes turned
To Prairie Chapel Road...
To mark the lessons we had learned
On Prairie Chapel Road...
People who had found their voice
On Prairie Chapel Road...
Millions more who joined their choice
On Prairie Chapel Road...
---------------------
In every city, and small town,
There’s a Prairie Chapel Road
Where two sides of the road are found,
On Prairie Chapel Road...
And we may always disagree
On Prairie Chapel Road...
But the right to do keeps us free
On Prairie Chapel Road...
----------
The grieving mother pitched her tent,
On Prairie Chapel Road...
With questions for the President
On Prairie Chapel Road...
Copyright, Eric Folkerth © 2005
All Rights Reserved.
* I should note that there were also several Stars of David, and at least one Crescent Moon too...
I've revised this original blog entry several times, and now it's sort of a "one stop" place to find all the other writing I've done about Camp Casey. The entry below tells the story of how "Prairie Chapel Road" first got written, and will give you the links so you can download/stream it yourself.
But I thought you might also be interested in some of the OTHER writing I've done about Camp Casey and what's happened since I wrote the song....
So, you can learn about my second visit to Camp Casey 1 here, where I played PCR for family members the very first time, at a Friday prayer vigil.
You can see an incredible video that uses PCR as the soundtrack at this second link.
This third blog entry tells about how BBC Radio used a clip of the song in a that aired on Public Radio in the states.
Fourthly (is this a word?), you can learn about my final visit to Camp Casey last August, on the last incredible Saturday, when 2,000 people were gathered there and I got to play the song on the big main stage at Camp Casey II, here .
Last but not least, you can read here how my musician friend, Jesse Dyen, has covered "Prairie Chapel Road."
But, before you read any this, you might want to start with what's below. It's the very first "Prairie Chapel Road" blog entry that tells the story of the song, and of how all this got started. Perhaps give it a read, and then explore some of these other links I've just mentioned....EF
---------------------------------------------
I went down to Camp Casey yesterday. It's only an hour and a half from home, and I'd been moved by what I'd been reading of the powerful questions she hopes to ask the President. So, me and two others from our church went down for the day.
We got off the shuttle at Camp Casey about 2 minutes before a HUGE gully-washer rainstorm blew through. (Reminded me of Kerrville, actually...) I ran to the nearest shelter which, as it turns out, was the Veterans for Peace shelter where Cindy's original tent had been. (According to woman named Ann, who was nice enough to let me keep out of the rain with her...)
After the rain, Ron, Kim, and me went down the entire row of 800-plus crosses. The storm had toppled over some of the American flags that were next to them, and some of the names had blown off. So, as we walked down, just soaking in all the crosses in the soaked ground --a little less than half of the actual US casualties-- we did our best to put them back in order.
Imagine my shock, then, when I awoke this morning to find that the crosses had been mowed down by some Crawford local the night before. Apparently, he'd tied a metal pole to the back of his truck, and just plowed through them, like he was plowing up corn. Beside the violence of his act, it seems to me that despite his claim to be a "good Christian," the whole crucifixion thing must be lost on him. I mean, thinking theologically here, how completely metaphorical IS it for him to RUN OVER a bunch of CROSSES?!!!*
There are just whole levels of powerful metaphor to this senseless act. Even some of the pro-war (or pro-Bush) folks had been moved by the display of crosses. I heard stories that some of them "crossed the road" to walk up and down the line. Some of them left American flags. Some of them left flowers.
I heard the story that there was a local guy who drove by, who was very much pro-war (or pro-Bush). He had lost his son in the war, and he came up, angry and wanting to talk to someone. After a while, he noticed the crosses, and decided to check and see if his son was among the names. Turns out, he was. And the man melted into tears, in the hands of a peace advocate whose name he barely even knew.
Such were the stories of power that I heard while at Camp Casey. These don't seem to be making into the mainstream press.
There was so much more that I wanted to blog today about the trip to Crawford. But somehow this thing with the crosses stayed in the front of my brain, and wouldn't leave me alone.
So, although I had bloggers block, I didn't seem to have songwriters block. And I've got a new song called "Prairie Chapel Road"
On the way home today, these words of hope just came tumbling out.
It's been said that there's no good protest songs being written these days. Well, maybe it's because there are very few good protests. I don't know if this is a good song, but I DO know this is a powerful protest that deserves good songs.
And so, this song goes out to Cindy Sheehan, and to all the others who camp there in non-violence, and who believe that their witness CAN make a difference in people's lives. They've inspired me, and they've inspired countless others.
And, as this witness goes on, and the tensions mount, we all need to believe in the hope that was ignited by their original willingness to speak up and speak out.
Prairie Chapel Road
Download it here
Stream it here
Lyrics
Prairie Chapel Road
The grieving mother pitched her tent,
On Prairie Chapel Road...
With questions for the President
On Prairie Chapel Road...
A host of pilgrims came along
To Prairie Chapel Road...
Raised their voices, sang their songs
On Prairie Chapel Road...
You can mow down the crosses,
but you can’t mow down our hope,
‘Cause the truth will always greet
The light of day.
And we know what the cost is,
In this darkness, where we grope,
But we know that peace
Will be the better way...
On Prairie Chapel Road...
Around the nation, all eyes turned
To Prairie Chapel Road...
To mark the lessons we had learned
On Prairie Chapel Road...
People who had found their voice
On Prairie Chapel Road...
Millions more who joined their choice
On Prairie Chapel Road...
---------------------
In every city, and small town,
There’s a Prairie Chapel Road
Where two sides of the road are found,
On Prairie Chapel Road...
And we may always disagree
On Prairie Chapel Road...
But the right to do keeps us free
On Prairie Chapel Road...
----------
The grieving mother pitched her tent,
On Prairie Chapel Road...
With questions for the President
On Prairie Chapel Road...
Copyright, Eric Folkerth © 2005
All Rights Reserved.
* I should note that there were also several Stars of David, and at least one Crescent Moon too...
--30--
Gloria Dei's Obituary: I'm Interviewed by the DMN and
offer my opinions
Aug/04/2005 07:40 AM | Music News | Permalink
Last week,
you may remember how I lamented the passing of Gloria Dei Nights
Coffeehouse. Well, today the
Dallas Morning News has run a story about it, and
I get quoted throughout. (Along with my good
friend, Annie
Benjamin). You can
find it here. (subscription
required...) It's not often that the Morning News
covers this kind of story, and covers it well, but
I think they did a good job here.
But the great thing about blogs is that if you're in a news story like this, you can actually add to or correct what you intended to say! Actually, in this case, Christy Robinson did quite a good job on the story. And, she seemed genuinely interested in giving some column inches to other folk music stories in the future. So that's encouraging. But I thought I'd comment a little more on things I said that didn't make it into the story. (for sheer lack of space, I'm sure...)
At one point, she asked my why I think coffeehouses have such a hard time "making it." As you can see in the story, I mentioned the difficulty in getting the word out among competing entertainment options in Dallas. But I want to expand on that point here....
To me, it's awfully hard to get the word out about coffeehouse venues, when they are usually volunteer groups that rarely have significant advertising budgets. Additionally, they're also competing against summer musicals, baseball, football, basketball, racing, soccer, Six Flags, the rodeo, museums, movies, and so on, and so on, and so on. I mean, you could make the argument, given the size and breadth of our metropolitan area, that we're among the most "entertained" folks in the nation. If coffeehouses DO get mentioned at all in the papers, it's usually because they've booked some HUGE act.
She DID use what I then said after that....namely, that coffeehouses, it seems to me, also have to achieve a breakpoint balance of both committed volunteers and committed fans.
Take Uncle Calvin's, for example. It has both. It has a hugely committed and passionately faithful core of volunteers. It also has an audience that knows where they are, how to find them, and how to find out what show they're putting on. It takes a long time to achieve this level.
All of this got reduced down in the story to a line or two, but she basically got the gist of it, I suppose.
But there were two more points that didn't make it. One was subtle, and I didn't really push it much. It was that the local media itself could do more to encourage and publicize shows at coffeehouses. Like I said, I didn't push this point much since, paradoxically, she was interviewing me for a story ABOUT a local coffeehouse. (Albeit, an extinct one...)
The final point I made that didn't make it into the story was a point about how paradoxical it was for Gloria Dei to be closing now, when the Morning News itself had recently criticized music venues for being too loud and too obnoxious. Just a week ago, Thor Christiansen wrote a scathing review of a show at the Gypsy Tea Room. But his critique wasn't about the act. It was about the FANS. It was also really about the venue itself, and how it doesn't lend itself to an audience who actually LISTENS to a singer-songwriter. And singer-songwriters are the kind of folks that the GTR is booking a lot of the time.
In response to Thor's review, my good friend Michael Terry, one of the driving forces behind the great Uncle Calvin's, wrote in to the letters to the editor about the whole issue. (scroll down until you find "For louts, sounds of silence") In case, you can't find his comments, his basic point was that when this happens, much of the blame can be laid on how the evening is set up. If a venue is mainly in business to sell alcohol, then the crowd's gonna get progressively louder. And, I would add, if they don't have any place to SIT (as is the case at GTR) then they'll just mill around like it's a sorority mixer and not a show.
Michael ended his letter by reminding the readers that music fans have other options. He mentioned coffehouses, he mentioned Poor David's. And, of course, he also mentioned Uncle Calvin's.
Anyway, so I referred to all this in my interview for this story. But it didn't make it in. Such is the editing process, I suppose.
So I guess the final point to make is this:
It's very sad that Gloria Dei is shutting down, but it's equally sad that music fans don't realize that they don't HAVE to support loud, obnoxious venues, where you can't hear the acts.
Like the airlines tell you when you fly, "You have a choice of venues when you listen to music."
It's just a matter of getting informed enough so that you realize that.
But the great thing about blogs is that if you're in a news story like this, you can actually add to or correct what you intended to say! Actually, in this case, Christy Robinson did quite a good job on the story. And, she seemed genuinely interested in giving some column inches to other folk music stories in the future. So that's encouraging. But I thought I'd comment a little more on things I said that didn't make it into the story. (for sheer lack of space, I'm sure...)
At one point, she asked my why I think coffeehouses have such a hard time "making it." As you can see in the story, I mentioned the difficulty in getting the word out among competing entertainment options in Dallas. But I want to expand on that point here....
To me, it's awfully hard to get the word out about coffeehouse venues, when they are usually volunteer groups that rarely have significant advertising budgets. Additionally, they're also competing against summer musicals, baseball, football, basketball, racing, soccer, Six Flags, the rodeo, museums, movies, and so on, and so on, and so on. I mean, you could make the argument, given the size and breadth of our metropolitan area, that we're among the most "entertained" folks in the nation. If coffeehouses DO get mentioned at all in the papers, it's usually because they've booked some HUGE act.
She DID use what I then said after that....namely, that coffeehouses, it seems to me, also have to achieve a breakpoint balance of both committed volunteers and committed fans.
Take Uncle Calvin's, for example. It has both. It has a hugely committed and passionately faithful core of volunteers. It also has an audience that knows where they are, how to find them, and how to find out what show they're putting on. It takes a long time to achieve this level.
All of this got reduced down in the story to a line or two, but she basically got the gist of it, I suppose.
But there were two more points that didn't make it. One was subtle, and I didn't really push it much. It was that the local media itself could do more to encourage and publicize shows at coffeehouses. Like I said, I didn't push this point much since, paradoxically, she was interviewing me for a story ABOUT a local coffeehouse. (Albeit, an extinct one...)
The final point I made that didn't make it into the story was a point about how paradoxical it was for Gloria Dei to be closing now, when the Morning News itself had recently criticized music venues for being too loud and too obnoxious. Just a week ago, Thor Christiansen wrote a scathing review of a show at the Gypsy Tea Room. But his critique wasn't about the act. It was about the FANS. It was also really about the venue itself, and how it doesn't lend itself to an audience who actually LISTENS to a singer-songwriter. And singer-songwriters are the kind of folks that the GTR is booking a lot of the time.
In response to Thor's review, my good friend Michael Terry, one of the driving forces behind the great Uncle Calvin's, wrote in to the letters to the editor about the whole issue. (scroll down until you find "For louts, sounds of silence") In case, you can't find his comments, his basic point was that when this happens, much of the blame can be laid on how the evening is set up. If a venue is mainly in business to sell alcohol, then the crowd's gonna get progressively louder. And, I would add, if they don't have any place to SIT (as is the case at GTR) then they'll just mill around like it's a sorority mixer and not a show.
Michael ended his letter by reminding the readers that music fans have other options. He mentioned coffehouses, he mentioned Poor David's. And, of course, he also mentioned Uncle Calvin's.
Anyway, so I referred to all this in my interview for this story. But it didn't make it in. Such is the editing process, I suppose.
So I guess the final point to make is this:
It's very sad that Gloria Dei is shutting down, but it's equally sad that music fans don't realize that they don't HAVE to support loud, obnoxious venues, where you can't hear the acts.
Like the airlines tell you when you fly, "You have a choice of venues when you listen to music."
It's just a matter of getting informed enough so that you realize that.