Tales from the Minneapolis Jukebox - A Personal Challenge

Hey Toads Herotomost here!  Hope this finds everyone having had an awesome Christmas and getting ready for an even better New Year.  Sooo... I am here because Izzy gave me her last challenge.  She graciously asked if I would accept...are you kidding!  As most of you know I have been around the blogosphere for a while and have camped out with some outstanding writers and individuals.  The only reason I found my way to this site was because of Kerry and once here, people like the incomparable Isadora Gruye just sealed the deal for hanging in the garden.  Its been love at first read since our Writers Café days. I came a hairs breadth from meeting her last summer (yay for me, probably not as much for her) but alas, it was not to be.

For this challenge, she gave me a list of You Tube links of songs from local artists in her neck of the woods and asked me to write about one of them.  The list was really cool and I found myself listening again and again and tracking down other works by each of the artists.  I chose to write about the band Actual Wolf.  First off its a cool name, second she described them as "folk meets asphalt"...gotta love that and third the song and the video were just too cool for school.  Not sure I did this justice, I am a little rusty as of late, but it was fun pulling something together. 

IG, it has been a pleasure knowing you and a pleasure being asked to play in one of your challenges. Thanks for the friendship and I hope your 2015 is the best ever!

It's Where Songs Come From....

I wrote this after seeing an actual wolf

I was searching for treasure in Alberta
Like it’s the dragon’s lair, I beg to differ honey
But I did realize there are things scarier than you leaving me
And this song isn’t so much about anything
It just represents a point of disembarkation
And you don’t have to get it

We Interrupt this drivel for station identification…

     “Where do you get your Song’s?”

     "Really?”

     “What?”

     “That’s the sort of question a third grader might ask?”

     “I think your fan’s would like to know.”

     “Let me tell you something David……my fan’s don’t ask me stupid questions. All they really want is to hang out, be a part, get a little close, OK man.”

     “Sorry.”

     “Listen, if you really want to know where I get my songs then open your damned ears, I’m only gonna say this once. Count this down, David.”

     “Its Maggie’s dingy thong showing every time she sits down. It’s my grandmother blowing smoke rings with her pipe.  It’s Eddie Vedder in the mother fucking rafters.  It’s Dolly Parton and her shitty coat.  It’s mom making heart for us kids because she’s making liver for dad and we hate liver.  The only thing is David, heart is no damned consolation to a kid. It’s thinking about how cool it would be to walk on the moon.  It’s smoking a cigarette after the show with Justin Furstenfeld.  It’s shelling out your last hundred bucks to go see the Avett Brothers. Do you see what I’m saying David?  It’s that stupid look on your face right now.”

     “OK.”

    “Of course you don’t get what I’m saying David.  You are not an actual wolf.  All you got to do is sit down and fucking listen man…just listen.”

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming…

She wrote that after lying with an actual wolf

After the proselytizing was done, she was convincing
One word can be a savior, a salve, a poultice for the soul
Which word depends on how far down that road she’s been

You can take her out and sniff your territory together

But when the snow starts blowing and the wind cuts
It will be nothing compared to the bite she takes out of your ass

Who’s the actual wolf now