thanksgiving music

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. However, if you look around (even the grocery store) you might think it's December 21 rather than November 21. My friend Sarah complained that she couldn't find a Thanksgiving coloring book for her daughter. And where are the Thanksgiving decorations? Sure, Whole Foods had chocolate turkeys for sale...but what does a chocolate mold in the shape of a bloated turkey have to do with being thankful?

Today, I accidentally stumbled on what turns out to be an amazing Thanksgiving soundtrack. It's Pete Seeger's "American Industrial Ballads," put out by Smithsonian Folkways.

As Irwin Silber's liner notes say, "The songs themselves are an American treasure. Many are priceless historical documents, recalling events and personalities that might otherwise have been lost or, at best, kept alive in the footnotes of academic theses They are also works of art whose capacity to evoke the passions which first produced them has not diminished over the years."

Track 10 is fascinating on at least one additional level. Listening to this song, I kept saying, "My god, this is totally Will Oldham's Palace Music"

The fact that so many of the songs reference food -- really, the lack thereof -- makes these even better Thanksgiving songs.

"10 cent cotton and 40 cent meat, how in the world can a poor man eat?"

another song references "fatback pork and pinto beans, cook me up a mess of collard greens" (but not in a good way)

"corn bins empty and the cows gone dry"

"I'm tired of living on dried beef and tomatoes. I'm going away."

Happy Thanksgiving.

By the way, I made this sweet potato callerole this evening...for eating tomorrow. I also made corn bread, apple/cranberry crisp and the pink stuff (fresh cranberries, marshmallow, cool whip, sugar and crushed pineapple)