Ditty TV Spotlights Plain Sense's Review on No Depression "Keith Sykes Delivers on 'Songs From A Little Beach Town' "

Keith Sykes Delivers on “Songs From A Little Beach Town”

Artist: Keith Sykes

Album: Songs From a Little Beach Town

Plain Senseoriginally POSTED ON MARCH 15, 2016 on No Depression

One of America’s best songsmiths is back with a charming little ep entitled “Songs From A Little Beach Town”.  After moving in more of a country direction the last several projects, Keith throws his audience a change up in the form of a trip to Key West, the Caribbean or to be precise, South Texas. 

To say “Songs From a Little Beach Town” harkens back to the day when Keith played guitar in Jimmy Buffet’s Coral Reefer Band would be too easy.  Sure there are the obvious references to Syke’s early career association to Mr. Buffet in the project’s title and some of the content on his new ep, but since that time Keith Sykes has quietly gone on to an impressive career amassing one of the best bodies of work for a songwriter bar none.  Under appreciated by the public but incredibly respected by his peers, Sykes journey as an artist, albeit along a road less traveled has been far more interesting artistically, whether as a songwriter, performer  or producer, that any comparison to his more famous past is grossly unfair and more importantly, inaccurate to him as an artist.  Keith Sykes is the kind of artist you can’t pigeon hole because just when you think you have him figured out he’s off in an entirely different direction.  Sykes is the personification of the old adage “the only constant in life is change”.

Like a lot of the ponies I bet on at the track, Sykes doesn’t like running to form and the current project is the perfect example.  Just when you think Keith has figuratively sold his home in Memphis and permanently moved to Nashville he’s fooled us all again and instead headed for the beach.  But don’t expect Keith to be sorry because he has already done that, literally, several albums ago.

Recorded in Nashville, presumably not for the irony or to make people like me sound foolish, I don’t need any help thank you very much, but rather, that is where some of the best talent has migrated these days and this project is no exception. Produced and engineered by Brent Maher, the production is first rate.  The musicians who back Keith up on the project are some of the industry’s finest:   Nir Z.  on drums and percussion, the legendary Willie Weeks on bass, Bobby Ogden holding down both piano and organ duties, the absolutely wonderful Brent Mason on electric guitar and Thom Flora on backing vocals. 

The six track ep opens with one of the set’s stronger pieces and slated single, “Come as You Are Beach Bar”.  What in a perfect world would be destined for heavy rotation on either pop, rock or country stations this summer, Sykes displays his ability to craft the perfect warm weather song.  Like all his work, the musicianship is first class.  “Come as You Are…” is set in one of those laid back, hole in the wall watering holes you find in resort areas that caters to the locals, who are the “stars”.   Wait a second, “…didn’t Mr. Young (already) sing about it…”  The second track, “The Best Day” sounds like it is right off an old Buffet album, acoustic guitars over a calypso beat sets a happy, upbeat mode before the melancholy “I Pick You”.  But things brighten up again with “Little Beach Town”. 

Listening to the guitar work on “Little Beach Town” I swore I heard slide and Hawaiian slack key.  I was so impressed by the tasteful, perfect tone guitar I reached out to Keith’s PR person, Elizabeth at Signal Flow to ask who was playing slide guitar on the track.  The ever attentive Ms. Elizabeth immediately got back to me with a great quote from Keith himself: “It is Brent Mason, but it’s not slide. It’s just Brent Mason!”  No Depression readers make a mental note to keep your ears open for Brent Mason because he is the real deal.

Next up is a song Keith wrote way back in 1977 and appeared on Buffet’s “Son of a Son of a Sailor’ lp, “Coast of Marseilles”.  If there was any doubt in your mind that Keith Sykes was a world class songwriter this track should put it to rest.  Beautiful lush arrangement complete with strings, it is the perfect set up for the set closer and my personal favorite “Drive Myself to Drinking”.  Just Keith solo playing acoustic guitar and the perfect economy of words and notes

There is something for everyone on his new ep.  For those familiar with Mr. Sykes early work, “Songs From A Little Beach Town” makes for an interesting respite from his recent concentration on country music, and undoubtedly will be welcomed by the legions of Parrot Heads as a return to the fold. For the uninitiated there is the joy of discovering one of America’s music treasures and for those intimately familiar with his long and storied career, a certain smugness.  Perhaps now the rest of the country will finally find out what we have known all along.  Those in the know have high expectations for the man who penned such Americana classics as “Love to Ride”, “Flying Low”, “I Know an Angel” and “I Was Right About You” and on “Songs from a Little Beach Town” Keith Sykes delivers.

Keith Sykes: “Advanced Medication for the Blues”

Plain SenseOriginally POSTED ON MAY 16, 2015 on No Depression

One of America’s most talented songwriters, guitarists and producers, it is simply amazing that Mr. Sykes has managed to keep flying low under the radar of most people except those in the industry and those familiar with the Memphis scene. Keith has made records that are simply among the best in the blues, roots, country and Americana genres. His songwriter showcases are legendary and the cd recorded at the Black Diamond in Memphis, in my opinion, is the best of the songwriter showcase formats. Whether its taste, tone or songwriting and production talent, Keith Sykes has it all. This video is special because it captures Keith with a great band and gives the uninitiated a hint as to the man’s immense talent.

Rudy Giuliani's wild week of television interviews

Justice Department releases White House summary of the phone conversation between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskiy.

Today the Justice Department released the White House summary of the phone conversation between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.  Read it yourself and form your own opinion...just bear in mind that the following has been filtered twice, (note the strategic use of ellipses) once by Attorney General Barr's "Justice" Department and once by the White House.  Better yet, let me have Rudy give you a call...he's alot like Manafort but unfortunately Paul's unavailable for the next 7 1/2 years.

See Original Document


The President: Congratulations on a great victory. We all watched from the United States and you did a terrific job. The way you came from behind, somebody who wasn’t given much of a chance, and you ended up winning easily. It’s a fantastic achievement. Congratulations.

President Zelenskyy: You are absolutely right Mr. President. We did win big and we worked hard for this. We worked a lot but I would like to confess to you that I had an opportunity to learn from you. We used quite a few of your skills and knowledge and were able to use it as an example for our elections and yes it is true that these were unique elections. We were in a unique situation that we were able to achieve a unique success. I’m able to tell you the following; the first time, you called me to congratulate me when I won my presidential election, and the second time you are now calling me when my party won the parliamentary election. I think I should run more often so you can call me more often and we can talk over the phone more often.

The President: (laughter) That’s a good idea. I think your country is very happy about that.


President Zelenskyy: Well yes, to tell you the truth, we are trying to work hard because we wanted to drain the swamp here in our country. We brought in many many new people. Not the old politicians, not the typical politicians, because we want to have a new format and a new type of government. You are a great teacher for us and in that.

  The President: Well it’s very nice of you to say that. I will say that we do a lot for Ukraine. We spend a lot of effort and a lot of time. Much more than the European countries are doing and they should be helping you more than they are. Germany does almost nothing for you. All they do is talk and I think it’s something that you should really ask them about. When I was speaking to Angela Merkel she talks Ukraine, but she doesn’t do anything. A lot of the European countries are the same way so I think it’s something you want to look at but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine. I wouldn’t say that it’s reciprocal necessarily because things are happening that are not good but the United States has been very very good to Ukraine.

    President Zelenskyy: Yes you are absolutely right. Not only 100%, but actually 1000% and I can tell you the following; I did talk to Angela Merkel and I did meet with her. I also met and talked with Macron and I told them that they are not doing quite as much as they need to be doing on the issues with the sanctions. They are not enforcing the sanctions. They are not working as much as they should work for Ukraine. It turns out that even though logically, the European Union should be our biggest partner but technically the United States is as much a bigger partner than the European Union and I’m very grateful to you for that because the United States is doing quite a·lot for Ukraine. Much more than the European Union especially when we are talking about sanctions against the Russian Federation. I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. We are ready to continue to cooperate for the next steps specifically we are almost ready to buy more Javelins from the United States for defense purposes.

The President: I would like you to do us a favor though because our country has been through a lot and  Ukraine knows a lot about it. I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say Crowdstrike… I guess you have one of your wealthy people… The server, they say Ukraine has it. There are a lot of things that went on, the whole situation. I think you’re surrounding yourself with some of the same people. I would like to have the Attorney General call you or your people and I would like you to get to the bottom of it. As you saw yesterday, that whole nonsense ended with a very poor performance, by a man named Robert Mueller, an incompetent performance, but they say a lot of it started with Ukraine. Whatever you can do, it’s very important that you do it if that’s possible.

President Zelenskyy: Yes it is very important for me and everything that you just mentioned earlier. For me as a President, it is very important and we are open for any future cooperation. We are ready to open a new page on cooperation in relations between the United States and Ukraine. For that purpose, I just recalled our ambassador from the United States and he will be replaced by a very competent and a very experienced ambassador who will work hard on making sure that our two nations are getting closer. I would also like and hope to see him having your trust and your confidence and have personal relations with you so we can cooperate even more so. I will personally tell you that one of my assistants spoke with Mr. Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that Mr. Giuliani will be able to travel to Ukraine and we will meet once he comes to Ukraine. I just wanted to assure you once again that you have nobody but friends around us. I will make sure that I surround myself with the best and experienced people. I also wanted to tell you that we are friends. We are great friends and you Mr. President have friends in our country so we can continue our strategic partnership. I also plan to surround myself with great people in addition to that investigation, I guarantee as the President of Ukraine that all the investigations will be done openly and candidly. That I can assure you.

The President: Good because I heard you had a prosecutor who was very good and he was shut down and that’s really unfair. A lot of people are talking about that, the way they shut your very good prosecutor down and you had some very bad people involved. Mr. Giuliani is a highly respected man. He was the mayor of new York City, a great mayor, and I would like him to call you. I will ask him to call you along with the Attorney General. Rudy very much knows what’s happening and he is a very capable guy. If you could speak to him that would be great. The former ambassador from the United States, the woman, was bad news and the people she was dealing with in the Ukraine were bad news so I just want to let you know that. The other thing, there’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great. Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.

President Zelenskyy: I wanted to tell you about the prosecutor. First of all I understand and I’m knowledgeable about the situation. Since we have won the absolute majority in our Parliament, the next prosecutor general will be 100% my person, my candidate, who will be approved by the parliament and will start as a new prosecutor in September. He or she will look into the situation, specifically to the company that you mentioned in this issue. The issue of the investigation of the case is actually the issue of making sure to restore the honesty so we will take care of that and will work on the investigation of the case. On top of that, I would kindly ask you if you have any additional information that you can provide to us, it would be very helpful for the investigation to make sure that we administer justice in our country with regard to the Ambassador to the United States from Ukraine as far as I recall her name was Ivanovich. It was great that you were the first one who told me that she was a bad ambassador because I agree with you 100%. Her attitude towards me was far from the best as she admired the previous President and she was on his side. She would not accept me as a new President well enough.

The President: Well, she’s going to go through some things. I will have Mr. Giuliani give you a call and I am also going to have Attorney General Barr call and we will get to the bottom of it. I’m sure you will figure it out. I heard the prosecutor was treated very badly and he was a very fair prosecutor so good luck with everything. Your economy is going to get better and better I predict. You have a lot of assets. It’s a great country. I have many Ukrainian friends, their incredible people.

President Zelenskyy: I would like to tell you that I also have quite a few Ukrainian friends that live in the United States. Actually last time I traveled to the United States, I stayed in New York near Central Park and I stayed at the Trump Tower. I will talk to them and I hope to see them again in the future. I also wanted to thank you for your invitation to visit the United States, specifically Washington DC. On the other hand, I also want to ensure you that we will be very serious about the case and will work on the investigation. As to the economy, there is much potential for our two countries and one of the issues that is very important for Ukraine is energy independence. I believe we can be very successful and cooperating on energy independence with United States. We are already working on cooperation. We are buying American oil but I am very hopeful for a future meeting. We will have more time and more opportunities to discuss these opportunities and get to know each other better. I would like to thank you very much for your support.

The President: Good. Well, thank you very much and I appreciate that. I will tell Rudy and Attorney General Barr to call. Thank you. Whenever you would like to come to the White House, feel free to call. Give us a date and we’ll work that out. I look forward to seeing you.

President Zelenskyy: Thank you very much. I would be very happy to come and would be happy to meet with you personally and get to know you better. I am looking forward to our meeting and I also would like to invite you to visit Ukraine and come to the city of Kyiv which is a beautiful city. We have a beautiful country which would welcome you. On the other hand, I believe that on September 1 we will be in Poland and we can meet in Poland hopefully. After that, it might be a very good idea for you to travel to Ukraine. We can either take my plane and go to Ukraine or we can take your plane, which is probably much better than mine.

The President: Okay, we can work that out. I look forward to seeing you in Washington and maybe in Poland because I think we are going to be there at that time.

President Zelenskyy: Thank you very much Mr. President.

The President: Congratulations on a fantastic job you’ve done. The whole world was watching. I’m not sure it was so much of an upset but congratulations.

President Zelenskyy: Thank you Mr. President bye-bye.

DOJ INSPECTOR GENERAL REPORT ON FORMER FBI DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY: READ IT YOURSELF

Read for yourself what the DOJ Inspector General Report Really Says

As reported by the non-partisan FactCheck.org:

Comey and ‘Classified’ Information

Trump said: “But these people, there were so many lies, and lies before Congress, which is just about the ultimate, sworn testimony where Comey told so much. And he leaked – he leaked classified information. Well, if somebody in our team leaked classified information, it would be years in jail.”

The facts: We’ve explained Comey has admitted that, after he was fired as FBI director in May 2017, he shared with his “legal team” copies of four of the seven memos he had written about his interactions with Trump. But Comey said the four memos he shared were all unclassified at the time, including a February 2017 memo, which he instructed Columbia Law School professor Daniel Richman to relay the “substance” of to the New York Times.

In that memo, Comey wrote that when he met with Trump, the president brought up the FBI investigation of former National Security Adviser Flynn and said, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

Comey said he sent Richman to the Times with that information with the hope that it “might prompt the appointment of a special counsel” in the Russia investigation.

In an April town hall event broadcast on CNN, Comey said he had decided that only three of the seven memos he wrote contained classified information. However, when all seven of Comey’s memos were sent to Congress in April 2018, four of them had markings indicating they contained some classified information. That means one of the memos that Comey previously shared was “up-classified,” which refers to information that is retroactively deemed classified when documents are reviewed for public release.

We don’t know which memo that was, but we know it wasn’t the one Comey told Richman to convey to the Times. When that was made public, the memo was labeled “unclassified//FOUO,” which the National Archives and Records Administration says is used by some federal agencies for documents “requiring a degree of control” but does “not designate classified national security information.”

Update, Aug. 29, 2019: The Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General issued a report Aug. 29, 2019, that said Comey gave a copy of one memo (identified as “memo 4”) to Richman with instructions to share the contents of the memo with a reporter. The FBI later determined that memo 4 “did not contain classified information,” according to the report.

“We found no evidence that Comey or his attorneys released any of the classified information contained in any of the Memos to members of the media,” the IG report said.

Take your Pick, It’s your choice:

Take your Pick, It’s your choice:

Read redacted Mueller Report

Download for free a copy of the redacted Mueller Report here courtesy of NBC News https://dataviz.nbcnews.com/projects/20190415-mueller-report-embed/assets/full-mueller-report.pdf

Here is a sneak preview of #Trump and #DOJ version of #transparency:

Cohen's Concluding Comments and Chairman Cummings Compassionate Closing

Michael Cohen's Concluding Statement before Congressional Oversight Committee February 27, 2019:

 Chairman Elijah Cummings Compassionate  Closing Comments at Michael Cohen Hearings February27, 2019

The Old Trope That "Both Parties Are Equally to Blame" is Ignorant and Untrue.

I have a friend named Chris who likes to play the contrarian.  No matter the issue, whether he personally disagrees with a policy or even if he knows something is absolutely false, he will champion it with a straight face if he thinks he can get a rise out of a serious person.  Of all the provocations my friend likes to annoy me with, and there are many, if I had to pick just one that bothers me the most, without a doubt it would be his old trope that the Democrat and Republican parties are equally to blame.  Not only is this view point intellectually lazy and a copout for the ignorant and uninformed, it is patently false.

So when I caught Bill Mahr's pithy little video on the topic I just had to repost it so that the next time Chris makes that ridiculous allegation, instead of wasting my breath and getting exasperated I can simply refer him to this video.