| “Gas Goes Higher”
is based on a June and Johnny Cash song “The Ring of Fire”. I revised
this parody from a friend who revised it from a friend who revised it
from another friend. We share the same feelings of gas guzzling cars
with high priced fuel. It burns the guy up when gas goes higher.
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| “Nevada Sunshine”
is based on the famous song “You Are my Sunshine” written by a candidate
for Governor in Louisiana. Jimmy Davis wrote this song and sang it all
over the state of Louisiana. He won the election. Nevada Sunshine –
tells the advantage of Nevada’s sunshine turning it into an energy
song. The song tells the many sources of energy we have in Nevada such
as wind power from winds whooshing across the desert and geothermal
power. In Nevada, sunshine is unparalleled and could reduce our
dependence on other energy sources such as fossil fuels.
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|
“Carson
City Jail”
is an adaptation of the Kingston Trio song of the ‘50’s called Tijuana
Jail where a group of partiers could not get out of a jail in Mexico as
they could not afford the bail. This adaptation includes the statement:
Carson City Mayor Tex telling the boys the $500 bail was fare for a
Tijuana bus. No immigration exploitation was intended, but in our
hyper-tense society I am sure someone can always take offense at a song
written only for fun. |
|
“Nye
County” song is sung to the tune of “Don’t Fence Me In” written by
Cole Porter which tells the story of the sagebrush revolution of states
rights against federal dictates against federal bureaucracy. Nye County
Commissioner, Dick Carver, is the only Nevada man ever to make the cover
of Time Magazine when he tried to open federal roads closed by the BLM,
Bureau of Land Management. This confrontation led to many years of
negotiations of county, state and federal rights of government over
land. He actually drove his Caterpillar to move piles of gravel placed
in the road as federal agents watched. I sang the song for Dick many
times and confiscated the hat off his head at one of my backyard
parties. Dick unfortunately died of a brain tumor. I sang this song in
tribute to him at his funeral at Round Mountain at the request of his
wife. |
| “Reno Trench”
is a parody of the Kingston Trio song, “The M.T.A., Massachusetts
Transit Authority”. A man is trapped on a train underneath the streets
of Boston because he cannot pay an extra nickel for the fare. The “Reno
Trench” was planned for 75 years and finally implemented. I thought,
how fun, to get lost in the trench, a time warp of political parody, “He
must ride forever ‘neath the streets of Reno he’s the man who never
returned. |
|
“Winnemucca” is the story of Sarah Winnemucca, her
father and grandfather and is a true tale of western exploitation of the
Indians. In this case a positive ending happened because of the courage
of Sarah Winnemucca. My cousin Skip lives in Winnemucca, and his wife,
Sandy Hammargren (the same name as my wife) typed this composition the
night I wrote this in Winnemucca.
Winnemucca is based on an old western song called KawLiga about a Wooden
Indian with longings for a female carved Wooden Indian. |
|
“Ballad
of Lonnie and Lincoln”
is an adaptation of the old folk song “Oh My Darling, Clementine”. This
melody was suggested by my wife, Sandy Hammargren, and we composed the
lyrics while returning from an event in Laughlin. It refers to the fact
that Governor Bob Miller was on a vacation in the Caribbean when I
attempted to appoint a County Commissioner for Lincoln County who could
not have meetings until another commissioner was appointed. The
politics behind this were extremely interesting in that the County was
attempting to raise money by parking trains full of radioactive wastes
for an indeterminate period of time in Lincoln County. This ended up
with the Legislature censoring Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa,
Nevada’s first in history. Because I attempted this, I was not looked
upon as a team player. This event reminded people of when Senator Paul
Laxalt was Lt. Governor at the time Governor Grant Sawyer left the state
for a very short period of time. Grant had to return back to change a
highway ruling made in his absence by Lt. Gov. Laxalt. These events
tend to be written up in history when a Lt. Governor takes temporary
action in a Governor’s absence. |
| “Night Time in Nevada”
is my signature song. It is not a parody. It was written by three
mid-westerners in 1931 that had never been to Nevada. It is memorable
to me because my mother who was not a singer but loved to sing taught me
this song when I was a little kid. It is of cowboys, lullabies of
dreaming of the old days on the prairie and you. This is a song I hope
that someday can become Nevada’s lullaby. |
|
Any offense in any of these
songs is not intended. I hope that you can enjoy them in the spirit
with which I recorded them. |
