Julius Margolin (and Friends)
Hail to the Thief! Songs for the Bush Years.
The CD that takes on Dubya, his stolen election, and his inadequacies; folk-style songs, parodies and serious work, from some of the country's most active labor singer/songwriters.

Produced by labor folksingers angry at the theft of our nation's top elected office, "Hail to the Thief! Songs for the Bush Years" has 15 songs about Dubya and his right-wing administration. It is folk music with a twist of satire, parody, and dead seriousness about this travesty. "Hail!" is full of hard-hitting songs of the stolen election and the coming struggle against Bush's agenda.

Review - Peoples Weekly World Singing the George Bush Blues

T h e M u s e a n d W h i r l e d R e t o r t
July 2003 Volume 4 issue 10

Hey everybody,
OK it's not quite that time of the month yet… but I wanted to get the newsletter out a little early this time… sorry – once again I gotta be brief…

Those of you sitting at home and waiting by the computer at the first of the month may have your schedules interrupted – but frankly – you *should* be interrupted if that applies to you. The only reason we make schedules in the first place is to break them. I mean, wasn't it Mickey Newbury who said that time was created so that everything wouldn't happen all at once?

If everything did happen at once it would be chaos all the time – and any order would interrupt the inflexible disorder of the universe. Apollo -- riding shotgun -- on the road with Jack Kerouac trying to subvert the authoritarian coyote trickster.

Hmmmm…. Sorta sounds like our foreign policy – now that I think about it…
How does the T shirt read?
War is peace
Slavery is freedom
Bush is President

Now, let's see... where did those weapons of mass destruction that we heard so much about end up?

Maybe Saddam zapped them with his super secret invisible ray gun and magically teleported them to the parking lot of some mom & pop hardware store in SE Nebraska where they will never be found, thanks to the brand new Walmart that opened up next door. Nah, people would never believe that... but then ... what the hell – they are buying everything else.
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Coupla quick snap shots – central, PA
A caravan of Boy Scout vehicles – sporting the slogan "let's Roll"
Good thing they do not allow homosexuals in the scouts – it might say – "let's decorate"

and for all you Georgians out there... how about Herman Talmadge and Maynard Jackson dying with in 24 hours of each other? … I somehow picture Herman clinging on to that ax handle tighter than he was clinging on to life waiting for Maynard to get the hell out of here.

A billboard in Arkansas… Large picture of Christ in black and white – hanging from the cross – only the blood is in bright red. A caption reads: "This Blood's for you."

A black Billboard with white type in Oklahoma reads: "Stop using my name in vain – God" (really)

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Anyhow
I really gotta run…
I wanted to get this out early because I arrived here in Pittsburgh late last night and Anne and I are about to get on a plane to Seattle – where we are playing tommorow night – followed by 30 some odd dates on the west coast…

Then --- TIME OFFFFFFFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Peter Paul and Mary are recording Anne's song "Have you been to Jail for Justice!!!! And we'll be in the audience when PP&M play Pittsburgh on July 31 (see www.peterpaulandmary.com for details)
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We are looking for dates in Wisconsin Minnesota Chicago Illinois and Indiana in late October
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We are planning a 10 day trip to Texas in November (by Texas We mean that triangle of land from Dallas/Ft Worth to Houston to Austin) can you help us? then on to SOA & the FTAA rally/riots in Florida
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I am sure there are other announcements but I feel so overwhelmed by the notion of getting to the airport on time that I just can't think – please feel free to zap me back if ya got any questions or anything else.
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Anne and I are still looking for the right fit on labor day – got any ideas?
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Oh, had a great time with my old friend Wiktor – tooling around DC towing his fabulous statue "The evolution of the trickle down theory"
Check it out athttp://www.wsart.com/public/candidate.html

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It has often been said that we are an act to be witnessed live so finally! The new Live CD is here!
Live from the Wholly Stolen Empire.
You can buy it by clicking: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/afcc

T H E M U S E A N D W H I R L E D R E T O R T
JUNE, 2003 Vol 4 issue 9
Kerrville, TX

Hey everybody,
It's that time of the month again! Only this month I really am going to be brief – Anne and I are at the Kerrville Folk Festival – with limited computer access. And even if that were not true – the last thing I would want to be doing is sitting in front of a computer at the Quiet Valley Ranch – do this is a brief one…

Yes, the rumors are true – we did play on the treadgill stage last Thursday – WOW! 5 standing ovations (but who is counting)

We are looking forward to a busy June and July.

Right now my life is in boxes – in a tent… just over there – at camp CALM… 15 years of living on the road – stacked in boxes of suitcases and glove compartments – on an endless thrift store pub crawl in pursuit of more boxes and things to put in them.

And even though my life is in a box that is not to say my thinking is in the box – there are those that would say MY thinking is Way outside the box – but they would be wrong – because if you think there is a box – then that is the very reason you are in a box – and you will be until you realize – there is no box.

There is no cutting edge…

…there are no lines to color inside of – outside of – only the thin yellow lines that dot the highways of fat America which carry us – and all of our boxes forever towards that inevitable pine box…

realizing all the while – that if the world we see in your rear view window is not better that the one you see in our front windshield – then we are not doing our job.

Chris Chandler and Anne Feeney FLYING POETRY CIRCUS
Chris Chandler is a fire breathing phenomenon, the jester prince supreme. Disturbing, hilarious, and always provocative. I have known some gypsies in my time, but few have hit the highways and especially the byways like this snake oil hipster. His current foil and partner in anti-corporate crime is the ever political Anne Feeney, touted even by Peter Yarrow and Utah Phillips as the most important labor singer in America.

Anne Feeney Review Have You Been To Jail For Justice?

SongRamp About chris chandler & anne feeney
Two distinguished forces have joined to form one tremendous act.
Chris Chandler, a traveling snake oil salesman and wandering troubadour from Stone Mountain, GA has rambled the thin highways of fat America to light in Pittsburgh, PA and has teamed up with the unrepentant rabble rouser for the Labor Movement Anne Feeney. Her guitar stylings - steeped in tradition - dovetail with the chaos of stories, poems and barbs.

Sabots - toss your shoes into the machine works * sabotage: During the Industrial Revolution, machines replaced workers at an alarming rate throughout Europe, and the once stable economy of Guild and craft shop members who had performed manual labor for generations found their very welfare threatened. To protest machine replacement of workers, the workers would toss their shoes into the machine works to make them stop - sabotage.
Anne Feeney, the 'Union Maid' shows this principal at work in a poster with a wrench tossed into the gears. And, of course, she sings Joe Hill's songs . . .

Voices At Work Anne Feeney & Chris Chandler In Concert
We have confirmed that we will have Anne Feeney, unionmaid, hellraiser, and the artist that sings "War On The Workers", and Chris Chandler in Houston for a concert on Sunday, June 8th, 2003 from 2pm until 4pm. Tickets will be $10 per adult.

The Militant - May 12, 2003 -- Meat packers on strike at Tyson spread their message through ‘Truth Squads’ Speakers at the rally included a representative of the United Auto Workers in Janesville, Wisconsin--a local in GM assembly and parts plants that has been active in building solidarity with the strike. Two representatives of a group of meat packers from Omaha also spoke, along with officials of the Green and Democratic parties. Participants enjoyed songs by Anne Feeney, and a hot dog meal provided by the organizers.

TrueMajority

Reject Nomination of Bush and Blair for Nobel Prize Petition

T h e M u s e a n d W h i r l e d R e t o r t
May 2003

that would be Volume IV issue viii
Milwaukee, WI
April 30, 2003

Hey Everybody,
It's that time of the month again! Happy Earth Day and Happy Mayday! Anne and I have been up here in the cheesehead state for an Earth Day to May Day festival ˆ doing things like performing for the striking Tyson workers in Jefferson. But I gotta make this brief because we gots to start counting mile markers, cows, and Tyson Chicken trucks lying like roadkill in truck-stop holding lots as we head to the Big Apple for May Day.

I know, I know ˆ many of you look to this newsletter for some sort of counterpoint to the endless inundation from Fox news - but not this month. I am sorry.

I know, I know ˆ there is a whole planet spinning out of round on its axis of evil.

SARS has not yet collateralled as many innocent civilians as the American Armed Forces.

The US Marines (with a little help from Iraqi children who happened to have mouths full of Skittles® at the time) pulled down a statue of Saddam Hussein and then erected in its place a statue of Bob's Big Boy.

Dick Cheney now has a stone tablet copy of The Babylonian Beacon- Journal (first edition ˆ printed in cuneiform) sitting on his coffee table beneath the latest issues of Guns and Ammo, Men's Health, and the swimsuit edition of National Geographic.

BTW: I picture Dick Cheney digging so far into his secret bunker that he actually goes all the way through the earth and runs into Osama Bin Laden (remember him?) digging from the other end.

But before I get to the point of this month's missive ˆ I have to say: it makes me snicker when ˆ after Anne and I finish a set -- someone comes up and says, "Don't you think you should give some equal time in your set?"

Equal time? There is not enough time in the evening for us to do a set long enough to approach equal time. We could do the whole festival, the whole week - we could play the rest of the year ˆ non-stop ˆ hell we could play longer than an episode of Entertainment Tonight and time would not be equal.


If you want "equal time" flip on the TV. Turn on AM radio. Turn on FM Radio! Turn on Cable Radio! Read the "liberal press." Walk into a bar. Open a window. Read a bumper sticker, a T-Shirt, a ball cap, a dixie cup. Eavesdrop on a conversation at the Starvin' Marvin. There is your equal time ˆ yea that's it - equal time. As equal as the median income of those getting a tax break and those who are not. As equal as the Yankees and the Expos ˆ as equal as the Conquistadores and the Incas, Lee and Grant after the fall of Richmond, the Iraqi Army and the US Marines... as balanced as the budget... (I do want to interject here that the technological difference between the Iraqi army and the US was greater than that between the Spanish and the Incas.)

Equal Time.

So, with that in mind - this month I only want to tell you about this brand new CD. I know I know, I mentioned we were going to do it ˆ but we did. It is at the manufacturer right now!

So, Chandler, what's it called? Oh, I thought you would never ask:

"Live from the Wholly Stolen Empire."

It was recorded at a number of choice shows this year including Henfling's in Santa Cruz, The Cherry Tree in Philadelphia, The Norway House in Victoria and Reed College in Portland, OR.

Please understand ˆ I am only telling you about this because so many of you have been asking, "How do I get a copy of that one with the bit about the corporations that used to operate Ronald Reagan like a marionette now having their hand stuck so far up the tight rectal sphincter of George W Bush that the are now able to operate this guy like a hand puppet

"or the bit about how, from the space shuttle, Florida looks like a giant limp tallywhacker hanging flaccid from the beast now known as the United States ˆ yet, from that drooping Johnson ˆ mankind ejaculates into the cosmos ˆ shooting the seeds of the fountain of youth to swim the heavens in search of eternal creation...


"Or the one about ˆ how nothing makes me anymore fulfilled ˆ than I was ˆ when I received that brightly colored package ˆ with the picture of the Sea Monkeys waving to me as they swam by ˆ and I ripped open that package ˆ and emptied its contents into a large gold-fish bowl and watched breathlessly ˆ as ˆ as two pathetic brine- shrimp larvae floated ˆ in a most un-seamonkey-like descent to the bottom of that bowl!?"

Yes, folks it is all here. In one shrink-wrapped package.

BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE! If you order now-now-now (add echo) you will get a (slightly used) set of Ginsu Knives and an "Inside the Egg" Egg Scrambler®. (also slightly used. hey ˆ I fell for it once ˆ and ya gotta get rid of that stuff somehow.)

OK, not really. But there really is more ˆ MUCH MORE.

Anne has finally put together a CD of all of her Union Classics such as: Union Maid, and Solidarity Forever as well as some of her own inspired compositions -- War on the Workers, What Ever Happened to the Eight Hour Day? & 19 (yes, 19!) others...

So ˆ you ask How can I get a copy? And as you ask ˆ for a brief moment -- I would think, "What kind of swoosh-sticka® wearing capitalist do you take me for?"

Then I would take a big sip of my Latte Grande®, I crease the brim of my New Orleans Saints® ball cap (made in Macao but bought in a thrift store ˆ owned by GAP® ˆ but that is a different story) I take a drag off my Marlboro Medium® ˆ I realize THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS EQUAL TIME and then I tell you:

go to: http://www.cdstreet.com/cgi-bin/artisthome_db.cgi?1238384 and use a creditcard.

or (if you're like me) and do not have a credit card you can send $15 (+ $1 S&H) to Anne Feeney (she is the one responsible enough to have a checking account) 7206 Michigan Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15218 (Pennsylvania Residents add another $1.05 for sales tax)

There you have it. Till the long haul ends ˆ you will find Anne and me out on the road ˆ here's hoping we talk in person.

Everything,
chris chandler

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Kerrville is coming! Need I say more? We are Booked Booked Booked on May 29!
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Speaking of Kerrville ˆ Anne and I would like to express our deep sadness in the passing of Jim Ross. He was an anchor that stabilized camp CALM through the storm of songs that is Kerrville. His passing makes me acutely aware of how much harder we will all have to work to just keep pace in a world without Jim Ross. He was a friend of fifteen years, a music lover and a veteran. Though we often disagreed politically he taught me to disagree with grace. I will miss him ˆ and his insightful comments to this newsletter.
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We could sure use some help on both the trip down to Kerrville as well as the trip back up. Please see our tour dates below.
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Praise HA! A documentary about laughter that I have worked on (and off) for several years with my good friend Wendy Corn will be making its debut in NYC this weekend! Our screening will be taking place on Sunday, May 4, 2003 in New York City at the SCREENING ROOM, 54 Varick @ Canal at HIGH NOON (please try to shake your hangover and arrive by 11:30am) Followed by Mimosas and Bloody Marys at the cash bar. MAY FOURTH IS WORLD LAUGHTER DAY! check out: www.pythonaquarius.com/praiseha1.html
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This summer is starting to fill out nicely ˆ but we could sure use some help here and there. Please see tour dates ˆ and if you are on the west coast and have some ideas for July ˆ Zap us!
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Anne's smoking update... not since November! That is over 5 months. She is like the energizer bunny ˆ only I feel like the energizer bunny's drum.
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Past Whirled Retorts: http://www.balladtree.com/ or: http://www.antifolkonline.com/MuseAndWhirledRetort2003.html FINALLY!

See you in the road.
Anne Feeney
unionmaid@earthlink.net
www.annefeeney.com

7206 Michigan Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15218
412.241.SONG