On the morning of 1 July 2011…that “whisper became a shout.”

What started out as a regular weekly spotlight on one of our great culture warriors at BigDawg Music Mafia – this time on the amazing music of our good friend Chip Murray, a truly gifted singer/songwriter who also happens to be a delightful, down-to-earth blogger – has turned out to be so much more.   We are reminded not only of God’s incredible Grace, but we are also reminded of the sacrifices of our fallen brothers and sisters that enable us to celebrate our freedom.   May this story–Chip’s story–lift your spirits and give you hope.

It is a pleasure and an honor to introduce our friend, Chip Murray.

Chip’s Biography:

Chip got his first guitar (a Stella) at the tender age of 13.  It may have been a cheap guitar, but he quickly found it to be a great tool of expression and a very cool way to connect with people.  Growing up in the turbulent 60’s, the guitar became his life raft and steady friend through the whitewaters of adolescence…. And while the rest of the world seemed to be finding themselves, making their marks and staking their claims, he was tasting the silent sweetness of nowhere.  And yet, by 35 he had lived everywhere from Boulder to Reseda, to Morgan City and the Houston suburb of Bacliff.  He lived, worked, loved, fought, and danced with “the people” on every coast of this great land.  He became one of them, assimilating their culture by inhaling their music and stories into his heart and soul… “Gone Wishin‘,” the debut CD from his band Cavern was his first public “exhale” and but a glimpse of what’s inside.  From “Devil in Me” to “Deja Vu Blues,” Gone Wishin’ is a metaphor for our journey from the darkness to the light….and after “we rest on the wind, we’ll come right back to our mothers again.”- Gibran.

By 2010, Chip was back in the studio again, this time with Producer/Engineer Adrian Holtz (The Bravery, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Ravonettes, Neil Dorfsman), his former Cavern bass player Peter Verutes and fellow Warwickian keyboardist Glenn John Arnowitz.  The result is a new 15 track CD, Wide Awake, released 5/1/11!  His new material from “Wonder Why” to “Home,” and “Tip Jar” is less personal and yet from a deeper and more connected place that is sure to touch you in places long forgotten…leaving you completely satisfied, wanting only a smoke!

If the world hasn’t heard of Chip Murray yet, they’re going to. With lyrics as powerful as Bob Dylan (yes, that powerful), an earthy, warm, weathered voice that sings about love and life and everything else in between, and wonderful, acoustic, honest production, “Wide Awake” is one of the best albums of this decade.~ Bobby Jo Valentine

In His Own Words:

It gets awfully lonely up here in New York for an out-of-the-closet Conservative like myself.  I recently had a liberal friend of mine passionately encourage, advise, and counsel me to actually “SHUT UP ‘n sing!”  LOL!!!

I made a promise to myself in early 2008.  I felt that if some kid could strap on body armor and leave his home, family and friends to go dodge bullets in some God-forsaken desert foxhole, then the least we could do is stand and engage the even more ruthless enemy here at home!  The Ballad of John Hall was my first politically inspired song…reflecting my experience at the first 9/12 march on Washington and my complete disgust with our local Congressman at the time, John Hall (Former front man for the 70’s band, Orleans).

I’ve never truly felt purpose in my life…until now.  At 58, I’ve always been a late bloomer, but the truth is that I didn’t become a serious musician until 8-10 years ago.  My wife saw something in me that nobody else (including me) saw.  That seeing gave birth to I Believe, and the rest is history!  Now it is clear to me that God has blessed me with a voice to sing, a pen to write, and the heart to empower both!  Everything else is just bugs on the windshield!

I wrote Independence Day on July 3^rd, 2009.  It came to me as I was putting the flag out and wondering where had all the honor gone?  “My cousin Rocky” was a helicopter crew member who was shot down and killed during his 2^nd tour in Vietnam.  The fact is that my consciousness has evolved from those turbulent years to a point where I have learned to question everything and develop the courage to stand, even if it means standing alone!

What I have come to LOVE about BigDawg Music Mafia is the fact that Independence, Courage, and Common Sense aren’t exceptions here…they are the rule here!  It has become a very cool sanctuary…a place to re-charge, re-generate and energize!  Kindred Spirit is the warm glow of candle light there…

Chip had sent a copy of his new CD Wide Awake to me shortly after it was released and there is not one song on the CD that I don’t enjoy thoroughly.  His warm, melodic lead vocals and perfectly blended harmonies, his thought-provoking and heart-warming lyrics, and his beautiful acoustic arrangements are amazingly soothing to one’s soul and need to be shared.

When I first heard Independence Day, I really had hoped to share his story in time for the Independence Day weekend.  Unfortunately (or fortunately as it turns out) he had no video for that song to include in this spotlight piece so I offered to do one for him and began scouring the internet for photos to accompany his lyrics.  When I got to this this verse…

My cousin Rocky who I never knew…Fell from the sky for me and you…Rice paddies are soft but can’t break the fall…the weight of freedom, heaviest of all.

…I decided to include a photo of the Vietnam Memorial.  While searching for one I wanted to use, I regretted that I didn’t think to try to find out Rocky’s real name early enough for me to drive to Washington, D.C., pay a visit to The Wall, look up where on the wall his name appears, snap a photo, and use it for the video.  So in lieu of that, I looked at literally hundreds of photos and selected the two I liked best.

Here is where the goosebumps come in…

On the morning of July 1, 2011, a few hours after I sent the just-completed video to Chip, he sent an email to me saying he absolutely loved it.  About an hour later, I learned that he had exchanged emails with Rocky’s brother, Steve, where he asked Steve to look carefully at the photo of the wall at 1:29-1:32 in the video…and asked if Rocky’s real name was James R. Dean, Jr.   As Chip mentions in his song, he never met Rocky…nor did he know his real name.  Yet, Chip later told me that when he watched the video for the first time, when the images of The Wall appeared, something made him pause and go back to take a closer look.  He saw the last name “Dean” upon closer scrutiny and recalled he had an Uncle with that last name, called his mother and asked if she knew Rocky’s name but she did not.  She did, however say that Rocky’s father’s name was “Jim.”  Chip told me his hands were trembling as he typed out the email to his cousin Steve.

This was Steve’s reply:

Oh my gosh!  It is!  Rocky’s real name was James R. Dean, Jr.  My dad was Sr.  I have been to the wall and looked at & touched his name. The odds of this happening are unbelievable.  A song that mentions Rocky, a friend does the video not knowing anything about Rocky, does a random wall shot on a huge wall….wow!!!!!…Makes the song even better and more meaningful and it was already incredible.

When Chip told me about this, he said we just “witnessed one of God’s miracles” and added:

God truly has us secure.  I don’t even know what to say….This is the most amazing thing that has ever happened to me…How do I sing tonight without crying???  You captured Rocky at 1:29!!!!

Yes, the tears welled up and a few spilled over…and I had chills that would not go away in spite of the very warm temperatures that day.  A mere coincidence?  I think not.

Consider this:  There are 58,272 names on The Wall and “about 4,330,000 results” that came back on a Google search for images of the Vietnam Memorial.  I looked through several of them before I found the ones I wanted to use.  I’m no mathematician but figure the odds of my using one that actually had the name of the person Chip sings about in his song.

As Chip said to me later that day…”God went from a whisper to a shout”…and he emailed the following to some of his close friends and family members:

“…there is a light in what I am about to share that transcends everything…and I want the purity in the newness of this revelation to shine directly into your deepest hearts with a nourishment that no one could appreciate as much as you…The person who made the Independence Day video for me knew NOTHING about my cousin Rocky other than what the rest of you knew from the song lyric.  She alone picked out “The Wall” footage you will notice at 1:29 to 1:32 in the video.  I DID NOT KNOW until this morning that my cousin Rocky was James R. Dean, Jr.!  Now I do know, as now do you…and we now know a whole lot more when you really think about it.”

That very evening, Chip performed several of his songs at his Wide Awake CD release party.  He shared the following with me the next day:

Our CD Release was amazing on Friday night…I chose a farm, Pennings Farm, for my release party…A big flag draping the back of the stage overlooking corn fields…kids…ice cream…it was open to the public so we had an amazing turnout…the Liberals looked like they were going to implode when we played “The Ballad of John Hall”, but there wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd when I told the “Rocky” story before playing Independence Day…

God’s timing is always…perfect.

One grows weary of having to repeat the same defense of our immigration laws, (indeed, the defense of our entire American way of life). But, for those who either have short memories, or, rather than pay attention in high school, preferred to gaze idly out the window during U.S. History class — or are just woefully and irretrievably short of clue…let’s review. 

We are a nation of LAWS.  The so-called ‘undocumented immigrants’ are, in fact, ILLEGAL ALIENS…and every one of them is breaking Federal Law being in this country without having gone through existing proper, legal channels to acquire documentation in order to come into and remain inside our country.  

Our desire to be able to buy low-cost produce is among the weakest of arguments for open borders and/or amnesty. These concerns are trumped by our societal attempt to shun anarchy and remain a republic, maintain our designation as ‘a nation of laws’, as well by a growing concern for national security … but I digress.  Back to undocumented field workers.  

Everyone has a price.  There is a wage for which virtually anyone will work — and at virtually any sort of job.  As weird as it sounds, if the hourly wage were high enough, college grads and white collar workers would put on their jeans, don wide-brimmed hats and get out in the fields.  A lot of the older guys, unaccustomed to the demands of such arduous, monotonous work would probably quickly say FTS! and quit – leaving a shortage of labor to bring in the crop; so the younger guys would more than likely get a pay increase just to keep them around.  And those who just had to have their leafy green (and chose to afford it)…would end up paying maybe $20 for a head of lettuce.  

For a brief time. 

The FREE MARKET has a way of working these things out.  But, for sake of argument, let’s suppose that all illegal labor was suddenly stopped.  Farmers could no longer employ illegal immigrant labor.  The demand for lettuce is still there…but there is a limit to which most people will pay per head, and a large majority will simply go without…or find some other alternative. 

Lettuce sales would fall off.  Only the rich would pop for it.  But the demand would remain high, even get higher — which would prompt some enterprising dude to come up with a new method, probably a machine to harvest lettuce.  And until the price climbed that high, this dude had no MOTIVATION to go to risk the expense and invest the sweat-equity to develop this new machine.  But now, with his new machine…geez, he’s raking in the profits to satisfy market demand…and his new business is booming.  So, what does an enterprising new innovator do?  He EXPANDS his business to keep up with the demand.  And he rents or buys a larger building and HIRES more workers to make this new machine.  Soon, his machines can harvest enough lettuce so that the farmers can sell each head to the stores for 50 cents a head.  The price is once again low enough for everybody to be able to afford a head of lettuce.  Lettuce-growing is booming, every farmer wants one of his machines …and he opens up manufacturing outlets all over the country, and eventually all over the world.  

End of story?  No!  The world economy is dynamic.  Other industrious innovators see this guy’s success and they work hard and develop a newer, even more efficient machine to harvest lettuce.  And they open up new outlets and compete for that big lettuce market.  And now there are several companies vying for that business, each one trying to grab a share of the huge world-wide market.  

At this point, perhaps the original innovator  simply sells his patent to a large firm and walks away rich to retire on an island somewhere.   Or, more likely, he rolls up his sleeves, takes the competition on, and fine tunes his original machine to produce even better, more cost-effective results.  His was the first, so his name carries much gravitas in lettuce-harvesting machine manufacturing (he’s well-branded by now), and he decides to take part of his company and devote it to PRODUCT DIVERSIFICATION.  He gets his guys to develop other labor-saving machines.  Strawberry pickers…tomato harvesters…bean pluckers.  Pretty soon his name rivals John Deere in the farm machinery market.  And he wouldn’t have gone the extra mile to develop and branch off into these other enterprises without the COMPETITION of other companies trying to take away his market share.  

As a result, his industry builds, he expands his corporation further and he opens up new manufacturing facilities in this country and world-wide.  Providing JOBS for hundreds of thousands.   And not getting-heat-stroke-kneeling-in-the-fields jobs…but working inside an air-conditioned, high-tech assembly plant.   Which approach do you think is the most ‘compassionate’? 

This is how the free market works…and works quite well…when left alone.   At no point was a government ‘correction’ or some other intrusive regulation needed to help the ‘working families’.   At no point was it useful to have some union thug approach this enterprising innovator and use pressure tactics and/or EXTORTION to force him to pay his workers more than both he and they had, by FREE CHOICE, agreed to. 

In fact, at no point is COERCION necessary at all – regardless of the whining, sanctimonious complaints of the myriad of hand-wringing, freedom-squelching, meddlesome community activist groups hell-bent on bullying and blackmailing out some hoped-for Politically Correct utopian outcome… so they can look good in the hood and run for public office. 

 Nope.  FTS.  All of the above actions were done VOLUNTARILY in an unfettered spirit of INNOVATION and FREEDOM. 

Welcome to CAPITALISM. 

This is  America.  It’s not that we just ‘got lucky’ in the roulette Big Spin of history.  It’s not that we were simply brutal and larcenous to have ‘grabbed all the goodies’ on this continent and given everyone else the boot.  And it’s not that we are a particularly better people than peoples anywhere else on the earth; after all, America is made up of all the peoples of the earth, a ‘melting pot’, united in one monolithic quest – the desire to be free. 

No, it’s nothing very complicated that explains why America is so very exceptional:  It’s because we have the best system of self-governance  and free-enterprise that has ever been devised in the history of mankind.  Thank you Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Franklin, Washington, Hamilton, et al.  

I’d call you guys ‘genius’, but my style is just to say — you ROCK. 

In my wayward, college-addled youth, I had the ol’ Easy Rider beer-goggles on.  And I, like so many of my generation, saw nothing but fault… nothing but deficiency… nothing but malfunction… when I looked out at America.  But when I grew up I put away childish things, and a new clarity descended upon me.  Maybe God had a hand in that – I like to think He did.  

I began to see America with a new, clearly focused vision.  And though there was no ignoring her faults, and there have been many…I began to appreciate her attributes and advantages.  And I began to see not only her exceptionalism…but her greatness.  

We are the good guys.   We are America.  And we do have a truly great system of self-government and free-enterprise.  I don’t know about you, but I won’t sit back and let that system be ‘fundamentally transformed’.   Not by inattention, apathy or default.   Not by distraction.  And not by Executive Order.  And I will be G-Damned if I will stand by and watch some bowing, Marxist, dictator-loving, redistributionist empty-suit community organizer  fundamentally transform my nation into yet another collectivist Eurotrash oligarchy of a bankrupt hellhole.  Not in my movie, bucko – not while this Citizen Soldier stands guard.   

I will live to see America restored to American values, or die trying. 

God bless the United States of America.

Yesterday, Independence Day, Vice President Joe Biden attended a naturalization ceremony at Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq.  During the ceremony 237 U.S. servicemen from 59 countries, including Iraq, were sworn in as citizens of the United States of America.  At the conclusion of this solemn, undoubtedly moving and inspirational occasion, and in the presence of his own son Beau (currently serving in the 261st Theater Tactical Signal Brigade, Delaware Army National Guard), this is what the Vice President of the United States had to say: ”As corny as it sounds,” he told the troops, “Damn, I’m proud to be an American!” 

Where to begin?  

OK, if you were really proud to be an American, Mr. Vice President, you wouldn’t find it necessary to preface that declaration with the words, “as corny as it sounds”.  If you were really proud to be an American those words wouldn’t sound corny to you.  Then again, if you were really proud to be an American you wouldn’t be serving under a President who spent his last trip overseas apologizing to the world on behalf of America.  You wouldn’t be serving under a President who either doesn’t recognize or simply doesn’t understand the concept of American exceptionalism.  You wouldn’t, it could be reasonably argued, be a member of the current Democrat Party.     

Joe Biden is known in Democratic circles as a “shoot-from-the-hip” type of guy, which means he’s known for shooting his mouth off on subjects he knows nothing about without the slightest regard for where he is or who he’s speaking to.  You might say that’s his trademark, along with the serial plagiarism and the hair plugs.  Well, yesterday’s outburst was vintage Biden.  It simply never occurred to America’s Number Two (as he’s known around my house) that it might be sort of…oh, I don’t know, moronic?…to stand up in front of hundreds of U.S. soldiers in a combat theater and tell them you think it’s corny to feel proud of your country.  Then again, Biden knows virtually nothing about the military despite his (much boasted-about) service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as any English-speaking adult who’s analyzed Biden’s, uh, “thoughts” on Iraq could tell you.  Like Vice President Dick Cheney (who I’m sure doesn’t think it’s corny to be proud to be an American), Vice President Biden sought and was granted five military deferments during the Vietnam War.  So like Senator Barbara Boxer, who recently scolded a brigadier general for (correctly and properly, as it turns out) addressing her as “M’am”, Biden might be forgiven for the stupidity of today’s remarks on the grounds that’s he’s simply ignorant of military culture. Which I guess would be something else for him not to be proud of.  Then again, it could be worse. Michelle Obama only started being proud of her country about a year and a half ago, and she’s the First Lady! 

But let’s say a reasonable person might, under certain circumstances, be feeling somewhat reticent, somewhat bashful about a full-throated declaration of pride in being an American.  Like, say, after visiting the Bill Clinton Presidential Library or attending a deceased senator’s memorial service with Al Franken or something like that.  OK, fair enough.  Personally I don’t get it, but I suppose that, in some hypothetical situation, the words, “I’m proud to be an American” might strike some hypothetical person as being somewhat corny.  But if there’s one person, in one scenario, who should never, ever feel that it’s corny to be proud to be an American, it would be: 

- The Vice President of the United States.
- Surrounded by hundreds of U.S. servicemen and women.
- Who have just become U.S. citizens.
- In a war zone.
- On Independence Day.
- You stupid moron, you.  

So on this July the Fourth weekend, please take a moment to contemplate the implications of Joe Biden’s casual, unscripted (thus, highly revealing) thoughts on what it means to him to be an American.  And after careful consideration if you still think an arrogant,  grinning, eye-blinking, speech-stealing simpleton like Joe Biden is qualified to be Vice President of the United States–  and Sarah Palin is not!–  I’d love to hear from you in care of this website.  

As for the rest of you: at the risk of sounding too corny, happy Independence Day to you all, and may God continue to bless the United States of America.

I made the above painting:

A. To point out to the art community who I am?

B. To make clear to my Latino brothers and sisters who I am?

C. To leave no doubt to anyone as to who I am?

D. To suggest that the journey is relevant but that in the long run, it is who you are now and what you do now that matters?

E. All of the above?

Alvaro Avillar’s portfolio can be viewed here.

Lest we forget, we are at war. 

Men and women at this very moment are fighting for their lives and for the lives of those they took an oath to protect and defend. 

There have been some recent films about war and what it means for the “average Joe” to be at war. A few of these are receiving deserving accolades for their realism. No, not the realism of blood and guts spilled, which is what war is, of course, but the realism of human behavior in adverse conditions, or as Hemingway put it, grace under pressure. This is the human condition that we all face, in one form or another, each and every day of our lives. Of course, most of us can face our pressures, make our decisions, get through our daily angst without wondering if a shell is going to go off five feet away, having the vehicle we’re riding in targeted for destruction or being exposed to combinations of chemicals not even named yet. No, we don’t have that extra worry. But some out there do. 

One classic Hollywood film which articulates the stress of war with keen insight and wry humor, as well as pathos, is the often overlooked “Battleground,” directed by William Wellman and released by MGM in 1949.  

“Battleground” is not just a great war film. It’s a great film by any standard, in any genre. Depicting the struggles of the 101st Airborne division at the historic Battle of the Bulge, director Wellman wisely puts the emphasis on characters not tanks, on people rather than explosions.

The title “Battleground” implies not only the physical place where these soldiers battle with enemies in different uniforms, but moreover, the mental terrain they must also traverse in order to survive the horrors, the fear, and yes, the inescapable boredom of war.

Disregard the critics who say there is “too much talk” in this film, as clumsy misfires coming from those who do not, nor ever had to understand the sublime contrasts of war. Theirs is the voice of the textbook mentality, too many classes and not enough life. They should be thankful that their experience on this subject is lacking.

Talk to any veteran of war, however, particularly WWII, and you will hear stories paralleling exactly those depicted in Wellman’s “Battleground”: moments of sheer terror interspersed with eternities of boredom and the dread of not knowing what’s going on. Such feelings of helplessness were cut down to size only by the chit-chat and banter of those brave souls in attendance who feared for their lives just like you or I would. Also disregard the cynics who say such scenes are unrealistic or worse yet, propaganda, as soldiers could not possibly be so introspective, so self deprecating, so insightful while under fire. These criticisms couldn’t be farther from the truth, or the historical record, for that matter. It is exactly these moments, in battle, between explosions when “foxhole chatter”  turns to the insignificant topic just as easily and as often as it does to the crucial themes of life and death. 

Ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. 

There are many great scenes in this movie, but when actor Leon Ames as the chaplain explains why they are there, freezing, hungry and dying, and not back home,  and what could this fight possibly have to do with them in America, and as individuals, are words and sentiment that are as applicable today as they were in that far away, now non-existent world of Nazi occupied Europe. 

Another part of the film often cited as deserving of ridicule, of committing that worst of crimes for the so-called sophisticated viewer, is the ending. “It’s corny,” is often heard.  This segment, the “sound off scene,” as it’s sometimes called, is arguably one of the finest moments in the entire movie.  Wellman knew enough, as did Edward Zwick who might very well have been inspired by this scene for his marvelous “Glory,” to show the importance of duty. Wellman illustrates this in heart-wrenching poignancy as the barely surviving men pass their fresh replacements on the road. If you are a man, and this scene doesn’t move you, I’m afraid you have no soul. That, or you’ve been watching too much parody. 

“Battleground“ is not what is mistakenly called an anti-war film. That is a misnomer. Nonsense. All well made war films are, in essence, anti-war films. Just like all soldiers are against war, policemen against crime, doctors against illness. These soldiers don’t want to die. Neither do soldiers in other battles, other wars. To call any film ‘anti-war’ is to misunderstand the philosophy at the core of every fighting man and woman. Current fashion would have us believe that soldiers want to kill, maim, and loot. Current fashion would have us believe that all wars are evil, unnecessary, or exercises in national arrogance, or the newly revived terms, “colonialism” and “imperialism” (both particularly fashionable in descriptions of the previous administration’s actions and most likely banned from use or utterance by the major media outlets in describing the present one).  Current fashion would have us believe that if soldiers complain, it can only mean that they don’t agree with the need to fight, the need to stop that opposing force, or defend one’s way of life: the need to do what needs to be done.

Those who follow current fashion will not be able to accept such paradoxes, nor be able to understand this film and its main themes of humanity, duty, perseverance, and doing a dirty, dangerous job in the face of overwhelming odds. Many will scoff at the notion that man is capable of this and can do so with moments of introspection, poignancy and humor. Unsurprisingly, many of our greatest novelists, filmmakers and artists spent time in settings very similar to the characters in this story. Current fashion would prefer that we didn’t remember that part.

Thank goodness that the men who fought in battles like those depicted in this film are, for the most part, mercifully spared the current fashion.