Country Joe McDonald, The Country Store

M U S I C

N E W !
50
Country Joe McDonald

This eclectic album is, in a sense, a contemporary survey of current topics -- some right from the headlines of your local newspaper, like “Era of Guns.” “Black Fish” points out, in the footsteps of “Save The Whales,” the continued mistreatment of sentient species on our planet. There are songs of longing, angst, and time passing (“Where Did the Time Go?”).

Tracks, lyrics, notes, audio samples, and more at countryjoe.com/50.

RB1042 CD, each $14.00 How to Order

Time Flies By
Country Joe McDonald and friends

This two-CD set spans Country Joe's entire career, with some songs going back 45 years and others brand new. Some are solo, and others feature full arrangements from a hand-picked group of musicians.

Tracks, lyrics, notes, audio samples, and more at countryjoe.com/timefliesby.

RB1041 2 CD set $14.00 How to Order

War War War Live CD War War War Live
Country Joe McDonald
Nine poems from Robert W. Service's war-themed collection Rhymes of a Red Cross Man set to music and sung by Country Joe McDonald. Recorded live on July 7, 2007 at the 2nd annual "Our Way Home Peace Event and Reunion," honoring US Vietnam War resisters and others in Castlegar, British Columbia. Live show includes an introduction by Country Joe explaining how the original Vanguard album came to be recorded.
1. Foreword 2. The Call 3. Young Fellow, My Lad 4. The Man from Athabaska 5. The Munition Maker 6. The Twins 7. Jean Desprez 8. War Widow 9. The March of the Dead
RB1040 CD, each $14.00 How to Order

From Yukon News:
An anti-war collaboration between a famed 60s counterculturalist and the Bard of the Yukon has recently resurfaced. Country Joe McDonald is thrilled with the piece, and hopes it continues to build a fan base. War War War is the American rock musician's obscure 1970 album of Robert Service poetry put to music. It was recently re-recorded live at an outdoor festival in Castlegar, BC, honoring Vietnam War resisters.
War War War was a commercial flop; the album only existed on vinyl for about 10 years. "We sold way less than a 100,000 copies," said MacDonald. But for years, McDonald has received requests from fans looking to obtain a copy of the now-discontinued album. (A used copy of the record can cost upwards of $150 on Amazon.com.)
Blocked from re-release by the original publisher, MacDonald's 2007 recording was done to resurrect the music and bring it to a wider audience. Consisting mainly of poems from Service's Rhymes of a Red Cross Man, the album is a powerful operatic journey throughout the different stages of war. Through nine acoustic songs, the album follows soldiers, munitions makers, refugees and grieving fathers.
"The Man from Athabasca" is a haunting ballad about the journey of a northern Canadian trapper to the trenches of northern France. In one passage, the man regales French soldiers with stories of Canada while war rages around them.
And I tell them of the Furland, of the tumpline and the paddle,
Of secret rivers loitering, that no one will explore;
... While above the star-shells fizzle and the high explosives roar."
"War Widow" is laden with typical Robert Service sarcasm: the war is praised for ridding an overpopulated society of young men. The album ends with "The March of the Dead," a poem imagining a parade of resurrected war dead crashing the jubilant celebrations of a Boer War victory celebration. The song is a fitting finale because, even with all the heroism and sacrifice of war, at the end "all you've got is a bunch of dead people."
From beginning to end, the album is "interesting and typical of the memories of people who experience war," said McDonald, who has spent extensive time with Vietnam War veterans. A former military man himself, McDonald's career has always sought to take anti-war stances from the perspective of the soldiers.
Recorded in only two days, McDonald still sees the album as a masterwork from "on high." "Just last year when I sang them all together ... I thought, 'man, this is great stuff, the most powerful anti-war musical piece I've ever heard in my life.' That I had a part composing it is unbelievable," he said. "I just did it because I was inspired, because it was fun, and I'm amazed that it's (lasted this long)."
-- Tristin Hopper

"The Vietnam Experience"
Directed by Daniel Keller and Country Joe McDonald

This DVD video uses the songs from the Country Joe CD Vietnam Experience synched to documentary footage of the Vietnam Era. The footage is all kinds: black and white, color, video, 16 mm, and larger. Songs included:

1. I Feel Like I'm Fixing To Die Rag 2. Foreign Policy Blues 3. Agent Orange Song 4. The Girl Next Door (Combat Nurse) 5. Kiss My Ass 6. Secret Agent 7. Vietnam Veteran Still Alive 8. Vietnam Never Again 9. Mourning Blues 10. Welcome Home

Country Joe vocal and guitar, David Hayes bass and vocal, Barry Flast keyboards and vocal, Peter Walsh guitar, Mike Herbick drums and others.

The video was intended as an educational device and for that reason there is no Hollywood footage. Starting with recruitment footage the film moves through agent Orange spraying, booby traps, napalm drops, the Chicago Convention Riots, veterans' protests after the war, and welcome home parades. Film critic Judy Stone called it the "best of all the Vietnam War films."

A1004 NTSC DVD, color, approximately 30 minutes, not rated. $14.00 How to Order