Volume 10, February 2021

Buenos Dias, buckaroos and buckarettes!

Hi - I'm Bob! You may know me from the band Big Medicine Head or daytime television.  This monthly missive from the land of tumbleweeds and the lonesome six string guitar features news from the frontier, music and prose.  Each issue will have a downloadable track and lyrics, along with the backstory of the song. For the duration of the pandemic we'll also feature live songs from the bunker. Call me crazy, but I'm giving all this away for free.

If you'd like to revisit past issues of Tales of the Western Hemisphere you can find them at bobgemmell.com


S O N G  o f  t h e  M O N T H
Sit back and relax as we explore the Bob Gemmell and Big Medicine Head song catalog. The download instructions are at the bottom of this message.

Big shiny diesel powered chunks of love to everyone - Happy Valentine's Day! 

You may have the misconception that Big Medicine Head is merely a band of swaggering lotharios, but that isn't the full story. We also have a sensitive side. Sometimes we write poems.

Valentine #1 represents both sides of that coin. The first in a set of Valentine songs, V1 is the sound of a Dodge Challenger 440 V8 roaring down an empty highway in the hot desert sun carrying a delicate cargo of champagne and orchids. 

I wrote this - or started writing it - in New York while we were mixing the Rex Hotel album. My god-daughter Nediva listened to this song and asked me, "Are you the Hobo King?", to which I replied, "Yes - I am the Hobo King."

Listen here, or follow the download instructions below.

I hope you dig it.

Valentine #1          

A one way ticket on the blue train
this lonely stretch of pavement soul
was praying to get over the border
dreaming crazy thoughts, going insane
like a train running wild        

The hobo king was leading the parade
marching bands played out of time
batons collided in the air
the clowns are lining up now to be paid
the parade’s burning down

I can’t maintain
you’re always in my head
I dusted off my valentine
and laid on your bed

I can’t maintain
let’s paint the whole world blue
I dusted off my valentine
I’m sending it to you          

The warden’s drunk, the guards unlocked the gate 
we’ve all gone home there’s no one left
to stamp out all the license plates
the clowns are lining up now to be paid
and the trains going home

I can’t maintain
you’re always in my head
I dusted off my valentine
and laid on your bed

I can’t maintain
let’s paint the whole world blue
I dusted off my valentine
I’m sending it to you              

Can you hear me?
Do I sound the same?
On the steps or down the street or
waving from a passing train
the Hobo King is whistling in the rain
and I’m almost home

I can’t maintain
you’re always in my head
I dusted off my valentine
and laid on your bed

I can’t maintain
let’s paint the whole world blue
I dusted off my valentine
I’m sending it to you      


B U L L E T I N

America, After the War was just released - it's blowing up the internet - the highest views and likes we've ever received on YouTube and Instagram - check it out here.


M I L A G R O S

My Valentine? That would be Lea. I'm a guy who got lucky in the pandemic: I get to be sequestered with an amazing and beautiful person.

Lea and I have embraced this strange societal interlude as an opportunity to explore a creative plane of existence. While I write songs and hone my skills on various instruments, Lea has exploded by bringing her considerable talent to a variety of media, ranging from the culinary to the metaphysical. Lea has taken the sourdough thing as far as one can go, practicing what can only be described as Extreme Fermentation. This goes beyond her baking (which has included beignets, crepes and hot dog buns). She has also applied her fermentation acumen to create kefir, kefir soda, and medicinal tinctures. 

Lea has painted and penned prose. Don't even get me started on gardening and animal husbandry. 

One of the coolest things Lea has created are milagros. These traditional folk charms are used for prayers, petitions, requests for healing and offerings of gratitude. They are frequently attached to altars, shrines, and sacred objects. 

And...Lea is now trying her hand at mercantilism. Check out Lea's creations at http://www.etsy.com/shop/JuniperPaisley.

 


S O N G  f r o m  t h e  B U N K E R
Each month we spin up a new song from the foxhole we find ourselves in. 

Valentine #2

Topical songs haven't been difficult for me. Social commentary seems to write itself. Slice of life narratives and snapshots from the American west have also been in my wheelhouse. The one thing I've struggled with are love songs. It's taken me awhile to find that voice. I remember when I wrote "all of this whiskey might make me a fool, but I'm writing tonight from my favorite barstool" that I felt like I was starting to figure it out. For people who know my oeuvre this song tends to fall into the favorite bucket.  

V2 contains one of my favorite verses. I'm not sure why. It might be because my mom listened to Hank Williams when I was a kid, and she always seemed wistful when she spoke of him - like his ghost was still out there, testifying for the lonely and the disposessed. What I know about Hank Williams is that he established a legitimate category for poetry in country and western music:

The ghost of Hank Williams is lost
the southland is closed for the night
steel guitar strains
are falling like rain
from a dashboard on Interstate 5 

Just click here to listen, or anywhere on the photo of me and Rex.

Me and Rex