Episode Transcript
[00:00:25] Speaker A: I'm Aaron Nathans.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: And I'm Michael Ronstadt.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: And this is the very first live recording of the Nathans and Roncast, a podcast about the songcraft and musicianship behind the songs we love.
All right. We are here in greater Chicago at the annual conference of Folk alliance region Midwest or as the young kids say, farm.
Our guest today will be Alexa Dawson, a songwriter from Emporia, Kansas. She was a founding member and lead songwriter of the band We Da Skirts. She now also performs as a solo artist in addition to the band. Her hopeful messages cut through the mundane without sidestepping pain. Deeply connected to land, her songs speak of the earth and community and celebrate all relationships from mother and child to friend and lover.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: She grew up in Chandler, Oklahoma, near the current land base with a citizen Potawatomi nation where she was born and enrolled. Her latest album is Wanderlust, a collaboration with Stanley Hotel. From the first songs expedition to the outer limits of the human experience to the last guided meditation delivering a message from the ancestors, this album is an epic quest worthy of your best traveling shoes.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: During today's episode, we will take a deep dive into Alexa's songwriting on a topic close to her heart. The water protectors of Standing Rock, who in 2016 took a stand against the Dakota Access pipeline. This now constructed and operational 1,172 mile long underground crude oil pipeline runs from the Bakken region of North Dakota and travels through the water supply that runs by the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Protesters say the project threatens the water supply there. A leak or spill along the route risks contaminating the reservation's water supply and sullying culturally sacred sites. We'll look at two songs she wrote with the Banweeda skirts from roughly the year 2016. The songs are Mother and Black Snake. She will now perform the song Mother. Please everybody, welcome Alexa Dawson.
[00:02:36] Speaker C: Thank you all. Miigwech. That's how we say thank you. Amon Dejnakas, Bodhi Wadami, Anishinaabe, Kwendao, Shishibeni and Oklahoma Ndochpia Mina, Kansas Miskode Osage Mina Kanza Akit, Ndeira Jigue Mina Mishike Guillendo Deming.
And this is a song, a channeling if you will, from your mama, your mother earth right to your little heart.
[00:03:16] Speaker D: You and I we are the same.
I'm the place from whence you came.
Gave you bones, I gave you blood.
Turn your face toward the sun.
Stay with me a little while.
Sow your seeds, drink deep.
You'll remember who you are Remember who you are, who you are.
Stay with me you will see you and I, we are the same to dust.
[00:06:30] Speaker C: From whence you came.
[00:06:35] Speaker D: Everything returns to us Turn your face toward the sun Stay with me.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: All right, Beautiful. That was Mother by Alexa Dawson, who is our guest today on the Nathans and Ron Cast. So, Alexa, was that song written from the point of view of the water itself?
[00:07:47] Speaker C: From the mother? I actually was hanging out with an elder, a mentor, auntie, I guess, a friend of mine. And she said, you know, you're going to write a song about the mother. I said, okay, auntie, thank you. I will. Sure. I don't know. And I was actually going through, like, an experience where my dog was crossing over.
His cells were remembering where they came from, you know, which is a way that I like to think about death. And so as he was doing that, you know, that's when I was writing that song. And I kind of didn't really know where it was coming from. But after I got done, I was like, gosh, she was right. I just wrote a song about the mother, and that's why it was so named. From the mother. Yeah.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Okay, so you wrote two songs on the same subject here. And was it more than two or same day?
[00:08:52] Speaker C: I just. This is when that was all happening. I think I was really just glued to the news every day when the standoff was happening and when the camp was active.
And I really wanted to go and be there and experience that. And I had a young child at the time. Like I said, this was in 2016, 17. And so I wasn't able to go. And I just. I remember waking up and seeing a news article about how a young man had been arrested and he was unarmed. He was not doing anything but creating fear in the mind of a police officer. And so that's kind of where Black Snake then came from, was just from that point of view of not really having anything threatening but still being perceived as a threat. So that's kind of where that came in.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: I was curious, when these songs came out and they were being heard, did the subject matter lead to any unique performance situations for you or bring you to some opportunities that you wouldn't have had otherwise?
[00:10:14] Speaker C: I don't know. I think in general, Weeda Skirts, who's the band that initially released these recordings? There's an album called Mother. If you're here in person, there's a couple download cards in the back there, or it's all over the Internet. When we released that album, we were already kind of Doing our thing where we're recognized as people who are connected to land.
We come from Kansas, and a lot of us do come from Chase county, the tallgrass prairie. We have a lot of love for the Flint Hills there. And so I think we were already kind of tight cast, if you will, into a lot of jobs and performance opportunities that put us outside. Put us. And then I was. I hosted an Earth Day Festival, annual Earth Day Festival, for over 10 years there in Chase County. So we already sort of had this reputation, I guess, for being Earth 11 hippies, you know, what is it about.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: Water that speaks to you? I mean, these are songs about the water.
[00:11:22] Speaker C: Sure. I mean, we are water. We are whatever. I don't know the number. Numbers are not my game. But we're over like 70% water, right? Ourselves. Oh, yeah. So I'm from the citizen Potawatomi Nation, as you said earlier, and in all indigenous cultures, regardless of whether they're from North America, Europe and everywhere. I mean, water was and is the most important resource, and not just resource, but it's the lifeblood of the mother. So it's necessary for life. It's, you know, what we're searching on other planets for instead of preserving here, unfortunately. And so I think that talking about just these really basic needs, human needs, can be seen as, like, novel, which is really strange to me, honestly, you know, like, why would you sing about the water? I don't know. What else is there to sing about? You know, like, to me, it's like, this is the most important thing that we have to protect and to make sure that it stays available to everyone and not just bottled up and sold back to us. This is our right, you know, as human beings and as mammals on the earth, it's our right to drink water that's clean. And so. Yeah.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: And I mean, how did it make you feel to hear that this pipeline project was threatening the water supply?
[00:12:54] Speaker C: Well, yeah.
I grew up in Oklahoma. I grew up in a family that was both Citizen Pottawatomie and lovingly acceptance of our white trash slash oil field trash status. And my family and my grandpa worked in the oil field his entire life, you know, and so I was sort of raised in this environment, and it was a learning experience for me, you know. I mean, Erin, when you contacted me about this song, I was like, I don't know if I want to talk about this song, because it's not really my story. You know, I was singing this, writing the story from the standpoint of those who were there and those who were standing up for the water. And so, I mean, it was a big awakening for me. I had really only started to reconnect with, like, going back home to Potawatomi lands, for instance.
The Potawatomi came to Oklahoma, were forced to Oklahoma through three different forced removals.
My tribe. But there are other tribes who are still in Michigan. And my family, before being forced to the south, were actually founders of Chicago, interestingly. So the Beaubian family was a prominent family here in Chicago. And the OGs as well, they operated taverns and ferries. And I just.
Charles Beaubien was involved in politics and translating and involved in negotiations between the United States and the Potawatomi tribes. And so these were already.
And he was involved in oil back. And, you know, even that far back.
[00:14:48] Speaker A: So how far back was it?
[00:14:50] Speaker C: So that would have been 8, 1940s. I'm not good with numbers.
[00:14:55] Speaker A: I'm sorry, before the fire.
[00:14:57] Speaker C: Yeah, I've got. It was. Yeah, before the fire.
I've got some books that I could look at and tell you about the numbers, but that's not really my strong point.
[00:15:08] Speaker A: Yeah, that's wild that you've got that connection.
[00:15:12] Speaker C: Sure. Yeah. It's not something that I was super aware of.
And I'm kind of the one in the family that has gone back and looked at genealogy and studied about, you know, where we came from and what happened. And so many things have surprised me. Just, you know, when you think about native tribes who were moved out of their lands, you probably get an image in your head. And that image is probably some pretty primitive looking people who, you know, maybe didn't even wear, like, clothes that we would. Whatever.
[00:15:46] Speaker A: Well, that's a caricature.
[00:15:47] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a caricature. And that's not. Not at all the reality of what transpired. And so we didn't even gain citizenship to the United States until after we were forced to Kansas. And then there was a choice made to leave Kansas to gain citizenship and go to Oklahoma. And I'm only speaking specifically of the citizen potawatomi. There are 13 bands in the Pottawatomie Confederacy, newly formed, that are spread through Canada down to Oklahoma.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: Do you know how long ago the last relocation was?
[00:16:22] Speaker C: But it was 1800s. 1880s, I'm gonna say.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: 1880S. Wow.
[00:16:28] Speaker C: Yeah, that's pretty recent.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: What inspired you to originally play music? Was it just playing music in school? Was it family? Was it wanting to say something?
[00:16:38] Speaker C: And I tell this joke all the time. I'm gonna go ahead and tell it again. So when I was born to young parents, my grandparents were in the waiting room, my nana and my granny, and they heard me cry out. And my granny said, that sounds like a boy. And my nana said, no, that's an alto.
And then I continued to sing from that point on. She was a singer and she sang in the car, she sang in the kitchen, she sang wherever she was. And so that was just something that I grew up around.
My papa played guitar, my Uncle Tom played guitar, and we had a porch swing. And you know, the very.
The standards Will the Circle Be Unbroken and Wabash Cannonball, you know, those were the songs that I kind of grew up on.
She instilled a deep love of Peter Palmeri and Joan Collins and all of those early in life. And so I've always been around what I later understood to be folk music. I didn't realize that that's what folk music was for a long time.
So I've always sang. I was on stage singing in church and singing in talent shows from a very young age. And I sort of went away from that. I learned to play guitar when I was about 16, and then I got a set of fake nails put on for junior prom and abandoned guitar for a while.
And then I became a mother at a young age. And when I was 20 years old, myself and my 3 month old daughter were invited to the Walnut Valley Festival by my nana and papa. They had been going for quite some time. They were involved in Winfield and also like Bentonville and some of those auto harp and mountain dulcimer and hammer dulcimer type focused festivals. And so they invited me to Winfield and I didn't have anything else to do. My aunt was driving and my cousins were loading up in the car. And so. So I piled in with the baby and we headed down to Winfield. And I can say with 100% certainty that my life completely changed at that moment.
I realized that music, I think for a while when I was doing it like competitively and doing it for critique and doing it for like, for show, I wasn't really connecting with it on like a soul level. And through college I got some cool hippie friends who listened to, to Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin and stuff like that. And I was like, this is what it's supposed to be like, you know, like it's supposed to be from your gut and not just like so performative. And so Winfield gave me like this smorgasbord of like other musicians who were doing that, who were playing music that was Original. And that was working class, you know, that was talking about things that I wanted to be talking about. And so that's where I really started playing guitar again and started writing songs when I was about 22, I would say is when I really started writing songs. At first I was in like an evangelical type church and I started writing some stuff like that. And then as I moved away from that, started writing my own things and played here and there in Oklahoma City. But really when I moved to Kansas was when I started to play on a semi professional level.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: Did you consider, I guess what kind of guitar did you gravitate towards when you first started playing and where did it go from there?
[00:20:32] Speaker C: Well, I've always just kind of strummed along and I think over the years I've developed my stylized rhythm guitar playing.
I'm always trying to get better at playing guitar, but been having these conversations. Like the reason I like to play music is because I like an audience.
I really do like to share the moment. It really is about connecting with people and connecting through music and finding that the songs that I write affect people. That is important to me. And so I am not a big, you know, finger picker or flat picker, although I love and appreciate that so much and love to play with other musicians who are able to do that, such as in Halion. Haleon is a project that is mostly in the studio, but we have some amazing musicians that I get to perform with, and I play mandolin in that group. But I really love and appreciate that. But I've always just been kind of a stylized rhythm player and developed my own style over the years.
I've been told it's very different and unique. I don't know what it is that I'm doing so well.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: I mean, just the way you approach, you know, even the. From the first song you played, the chord choices, you know, the space you leave with your strumming, I think it really pulls the listener in. And so it's really. And then you have the. The soaring melody on top. That is extra bit.
[00:22:00] Speaker C: Oh, I appreciate that. Thank you.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a pleasure to play along with it and listen and. Yeah. So beautiful work on guitar and vocals.
[00:22:10] Speaker C: Thank you so much.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: Who are some of your songwriting heroes, your folk music heroes, including anybody who might be wandering around here at this convention.
[00:22:20] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. So Walnut Valley Festival, again, Winfield is where I was kind of born, you know, into this world and into this world of songwriting. And I think my earliest strong influence from that sort of underground crowd is a songwriter named Mishkin and I don't know if anyone has ever heard of Mishkin, but she performed with a man named Kirk Renstrom for a while, who was a member of Split Lip Rayfield, who was, like, really influential Kansas bluegrass band. So it was a lot of these undergroundish, you know, local scene people who I really appreciated their songwriting and wanted to try to emulate. And then from there, Lucinda Williams was a big influence. And now, of course, I appreciate people like Jason, Isabelle, and. Gosh, there's too many to list, but I do appreciate great songwriting. Really appreciated hearing you guys. Honestly, last year at the. Did you play the DJ showcase?
[00:23:21] Speaker B: The DJ show?
[00:23:22] Speaker C: Yeah. You did the song about. And I'm not a computer person, but you did the song about the hello or whatever. Hello, world. Hello, world. I love that. And, you know, there's something about, you know, talking about something that's really unique. And I try to. I write love songs. I mean, we're all flawed people. We gotta write about the things that affect us. But I do try to write about things that are affecting the community, affecting everyone. And I do try to leave interpretation a little bit open, you know, and not be too specific so that a song can stand for a lot of different people. But I. So I really appreciated, like, the way that you took this topic. And even though I didn't really know anything about the topic, I was having an emotional response to the song. I thought that was really crafty. So, yeah, way to go.
[00:24:11] Speaker B: Well, thank you.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: Thank you.
We're still here in greater Chicago at the annual conference of the Folk Alliance Region Midwest. This is the Nathan's and Ron Cast, a podcast about the songcraft and musicianship behind the songs we love. We are still here at the Farm Folk Alliance Region Midwest conference with a live studio audience. You guys still out there? All right. All right.
Awesome.
Here at the Nathans and Ron Cast, we are more than just podcasters. Michael and I make up the acoustic duo Aaron Nathans and Michael G. Ronstadt. The Philadelphia Folk Festival wrote that Aaron and Michael, masters of their craft, will enchant you with their spellbinding harmonies and soul stir. Soul stirring lyrics. Did you write this?
[00:25:07] Speaker B: Did I. I don't know. Did you write this?
Yes.
[00:25:11] Speaker A: From intimate acoustic ballads to footsteps, I. This is. I can't compliment myself.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: We can just say that we're musicians and we do what all of you do, so it's okay.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: Tradition. Tradition and innovation. Creating a sound about what that is humble. And if you run a house concert or performance series, we'd love to Speak with you about bringing our show to your town. Get in touch or learn more about us at our website, nathansandronstadt.com that's Nathan's and ronstadt.com and we are back. All right, we're still here with Alexa Dawson here and we're going to talk a little bit about your song Black Snake. In a moment, we're going to hear that song. So let's talk about fracking for a moment because, you know, so, I mean, you know, we're in the middle, right? We're taping this on what day is it today? October 26th. We're about a week and a half out from the election. Some of us have already voted.
I'm in Pennsylvania and we're hearing a lot about fracking in Pennsylvania. It's an abundant source of domestic fuel, but it has a lot of opponents. What is objectionable about fracking in this instance?
[00:26:31] Speaker C: Well, there's all kinds of really dangerous things about it, and I think that your audience is probably smart enough to go and do a little research on it. I'm not a scientist, I'm not a geologist. I've talked to some. In the process of doing some advocacy work for my area, there was a wastewater injection petition that popped up and I noticed it. Somebody posted it to like a community group on Facebook or something like that. And so I got together a group of volunteers and we petitioned. We objected to the application through the, through the Kansas Corporation Commission.
And that was a really eye opening experience. I don't like being in courtrooms. I don't like going to state buildings. But it was a really interesting experience. I really appreciated the other people that were on that team. They were able to follow through with, you know, filing suit basically against the state for not properly allowing the right amount of time that was supposed to be allowed. And there were a lot of like, red tape type things that they didn't, they, they weren't following their own rules, which is kind of the story of the United States in general. And so I went through that process and we, we formed a group to do that. And I think now my focus is more on getting people to understand why it's important to take care of the earth in general. I mean, there's all of these little things like fracking and like the overuse of pesticides and the overuse of herbicides and our rapidly declining insect numbers and things like that that are really, really alarming. And so being overwhelmed with all of the things that were going wrong, I really had to, for my personal Mental health. Had to kind of focus on what can I do to make a change that is meaningful to me. And so I began doing things like I went to school for sustainable agriculture during the pandemic. Just because it was a thing seemed like an opportunity that I needed to take advantage of. That was kind of a cool story, but I won't get into that now, but. And then founded Goodway Gardens, which is a land based arts organization that is hosting monthly concerts outdoors. Really the idea is just to get people outside and to take three hours on a Sunday night to be away from your screen, whether it's the handheld one or the one in your living room, and to be outside to breathe some fresh air, to listen to good life music, original music, you know, and to hear the tree frogs singing along. It's something that I feel is really lacking in my own life now that I've moved to the suburbs, you know, I have to kind of force myself to get outside. So it's something that I can do. You know, it's one small thing that I can do to try to facilitate more connection with the earth. I mean, it's where we all came from. It is who we are. And we have built a lot of things that are very illusory. Is that the word?
[00:29:39] Speaker A: Illusory?
[00:29:39] Speaker C: Illusory.
To separate us from that reality. And my goal is to kind of break down that illusion and help us all remember that we are elemental. We are made of the same thing that the trees and the dirt are made from. We just have like, we're animated strangely. So. Yeah.
[00:30:00] Speaker B: You know, you just made me think of a conversation I had with someone who I think they grew up in Detroit and you could take any city.
And they said that they weren't. They didn't see any stars until they were maybe 15, you know. And to me, just growing up in Tucson and seeing beautiful stars and that idea of someone who hasn't seen the stars, you know, growing up in a big city and it's expensive to get out of town and glad that some people do, but I think it does develop that appreciation. And what a neat way to approach helping humans better themselves by just showing them, showing us humans. Like, oh, nature, it's beautiful, right? It's like, wow, it's so simple.
[00:30:45] Speaker C: Yeah. I think I and many of the people that I know and love have wanted to get out to the country, you know, like get a house in the country, move to the country. I love the country. I love being in the country. It's where I grew up. It's where I'm comfortable.
And just the opportunities that were presented to me and my partner, it was the right move for me to go and live in town for a little while. We've got kids in school and things like that. And it also is, like you said, it's expensive to get out to the country. It's not something that's super accessible. You know, the agritourism type stuff, you know, that was one of the ideas. Like, I could take good white gardens and we could have this place in the country. We could invite people to come out. Then I realized, like, the people who really need this are the people who are stuck in town. Let's do this in the suburbs. Let's. And we got really lucky to be able to work with the local Lyon County Historical Society. They have this property that's kind of on the edge of town, but still. So, like, in the. On the south side of Emporia, which is not. Got a lot of cultural opportunities, like, not got a lot of cultural events going on, so feel like we're serving multiple needs. We have a little educational garden space there that we welcome people to come and help us plant, help us weed, help us harvest, take home some flowers, take home whatever you want or need. And yeah, I just. I know there's a lot of people who haven't, like, gone out and pulled up a carrot and taken it to the hose and rinsed it off and eaten it, you know, and there's just something really precious about that process. That's a discipline that I try to get into if I haven't yet today, to go outside and find something I can eat, whether it's a dandelion green or a wood sorrel flower or something, to go and take something from the earth and put it in my body because. And making that direct connection, I think, is something that we really forget to do when we think that the apple comes wrapped in wax at the store.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: You know, as songwriters, we. A lot of people look to us. These are really difficult times right now in so many ways. Environmentally, socially.
What are some ways that you work to bring a little bit of, I don't know, relief, maybe, to the audience in the face of such great challenges. And what are some ways that you are able to find peace in a world like this?
[00:33:22] Speaker C: Sure. I mean, yeah, getting outside, getting out of the four walls of my house, you know, which is very comfortable and lovely. And I get sucked into that comfort more often than I really want to on a big picture level, because I want to be Outside, I want to get dirty. I want to breathe fresh air. I want to get a little sun on my cheeks. And I do a lot of camping with friends, whether it's festivals or just being at the lake or whatever. That's one of the big things that I like to do. Any way that I can connect, Go take a walk in the woods, go take a walk on the prairie. I'm very lucky to be very close to the tallgrass prairie, which is a gorgeous landscape if you haven't ever been.
And I don't know, I also try to remember that like my Potawatomi ancestors, my Cherokee ancestors, my Nana, they experienced apocalypse, you know, they experienced the loss of everything that they knew. They experienced the complete desecration of their entire way of life. And somehow I'm still here, you know, so I try to remember that and try to make sure that I'm being a good ancestor, you know, that I'm writing songs because that's my medium, because that's my outlet that hopefully will be medicine for them in the future and hopefully will, you know, I hope that they're able to find a way even closer, you know, back to being connected and being held by the mother in a way that's, you know, comforting and confident and life affirming. Because I think, you know, I think we get.
Sometimes I get afraid of losing my way of life, and then I'm wondering what exactly I'm afraid of, you know, like, what are these things that are worth hanging on to and preserving? What is worth hanging on to and preserving?
[00:35:19] Speaker A: What do you mean by your way of life?
[00:35:21] Speaker C: Well, I think that comfort and convenience are such a huge part of my life. Right. And that's like what I'm scared of losing. I'm scared of losing comfort and convenience. And so trying to recognize that and check myself in those areas. Like, there are so many people who are not enjoying the comforts and conveniences that I am enjoying. And let's be real, I don't need those things. Like, I will whine and cry about it, but I don't really need them. And trying to remember that life is about more than those comforts and conveniences, I think is really, really important.
[00:35:55] Speaker A: Let's talk a little bit about Farm before you, before we get to. So you. You are vice president.
[00:36:02] Speaker C: I have been serving as your vice president. I will be serving as your president next year. Yeah, yeah.
[00:36:08] Speaker A: Wonderful.
[00:36:10] Speaker C: Yeah, Farm has been great for me. I. I got introduced to farm as the official, unofficial showcase artist, the virtual year.
And so Annie Capps took me right in under her wing. And I also was serving on a cultural equity council for Folk Alliance International, where I got to know Charlie Mossbrook, who invited me to the board. And so I had agreed to be on the board before I ever even stepped foot into an in person farm conference. But that first year, I just was really embraced by the community and saw what a value these conferences can be to artists and to everyone else in the ecosystem. And I'm just. I have a lot of passion for making sure that live music is something that we can enjoy for a long time and love to ask questions about, you know, what's important and what is to be preserved. Like, you know, what are the things that we're kind of hanging onto that are maybe old models and what can we do to make this ecosystem work for everyone? So I enjoy the challenge. I enjoy the conversations.
[00:37:22] Speaker B: The first time Aaron and I came last year for the DJ showcase, it was a breath of fresh air, just. And it felt like, at least to me, how I wanted every conference to be. And so it's.
[00:37:36] Speaker C: I keep hearing pharma's the best of the regions. Don't tell anyone. I keep hearing that.
[00:37:41] Speaker A: What is it, do you think? What do you think makes it so good?
[00:37:44] Speaker C: I don't know. People have attributed it to Midwest. Nice. But I think it's more than that. You know, I think that here in the. In the inland and the landlocked areas, you know, we just have a lot of rural influence. I think there's a little bit of that. I don't know. I don't know if I'm answering this question correctly because I really am not familiar with the other.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: What?
[00:38:04] Speaker C: The other regions, and I know that they all do really great work in their regions. I just think that here in this Midwest region, we have, you know, a certain. We have certain needs, we have certain features to our industry that I think we can uniquely address here. So that's wonderful.
[00:38:25] Speaker B: You know, we're so thankful that you let us interview you.
[00:38:29] Speaker C: I'm really thankful for your invitation. I'm honored. Thank you so much. Yeah.
[00:38:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Would you like to play us Blackstone?
[00:38:34] Speaker C: Sure. Yeah, let's do it.
[00:38:35] Speaker A: All right.
Is there an audience participation part in this?
[00:38:39] Speaker C: Yeah, there is. Yes. Thank you for reminding me, because I would have forgotten.
[00:38:44] Speaker A: I thought this might go over well in a live setting.
[00:38:49] Speaker C: Yeah, I love it. So your part is just to sing oh, the Water. I'm gonna sing. I'm gonna sing it, and then you're gonna sing it right after me. So like, oh, the water.
[00:39:01] Speaker D: Oh, the water. Oh, the water.
[00:39:05] Speaker C: And just keep doing that over and over and over. All right? You can do it as long as you want. You don't ever have to stop. Okay, Mama.
[00:39:38] Speaker D: They said it's a felony.
[00:39:43] Speaker C: To stand.
[00:39:44] Speaker D: Up for the water that we drink so I put my body in the.
[00:39:52] Speaker C: Way.
[00:39:54] Speaker D: The machine that was digging up those graves well, they dug up the place where my grandmother laid now they wanna put me in jail all these uneven ways keep My people are slaves Let me say your black snake will.
[00:40:23] Speaker C: Fail Will the old one say there.
[00:40:48] Speaker D: Are two different ways Go with the gold or go with green and it's gonna take a changing our ways and all our prayers for the water to be clean well, they dug up the place where my grandmother lays now they want to put me in jail all these uneven ways keep my people as slaves Let me say your black snake.
[00:41:31] Speaker C: Will fail.
[00:42:59] Speaker D: Black snake will fail.
[00:43:15] Speaker A: Alexa Dawson, Michael Ronstadt. This has been the Nathans and Ron cast. To hear all our back episodes, go to our website, nathansandronstadt.com or visit the Nathans and Roncast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. We'd like to thank our guest, Alexa Dawson, as well as our sound tech, Michael G. Ronstadt, and conference director, Ellen Stanley.
And thanks to our live audience here at Folk Alliance Region Midwest for making this so much fun. Should we finish with a song?
[00:43:52] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:43:53] Speaker A: All right. I have a request. Michael. Speaking about black snake, do you. Can you do the thing you do? Yes.
[00:44:01] Speaker B: That growing up in Tucson, you can do Rattlesnake. That's the.
[00:44:40] Speaker E: There must be some kind of way out of here Said the joker to the feet there's too much confusion.
[00:44:54] Speaker A: I.
[00:44:54] Speaker E: Can'T get no relief Businessman ain't drink my wine Melvin D.
[00:45:36] Speaker A: No reason to.
[00:45:37] Speaker E: Get excited the thief, he kindly spoke There are many here among us.
[00:45:50] Speaker A: Who.
[00:45:50] Speaker E: Feels that life is but a joke but you and I, we've been through that and this is not our faith Let us not go talking falsely now the hour is getting late.
[00:46:14] Speaker C: Ra.
[00:47:00] Speaker D: No.
[00:47:01] Speaker A: All along the watchtower the princess kept.
[00:47:06] Speaker E: The view While all the women came and went Their foot servants too.
[00:47:18] Speaker A: Outside.
[00:47:19] Speaker E: In the cold distance A wild cat did growl Two riders were approaching the wind began to. How.
This is F. Nathans and broadcast. Thank you all for coming. Have a great conference.
Alexa Dawson, thank you for being here today.
Have a beautiful day.
Peace.
[00:48:43] Speaker A: We didn't talk about this.
[00:48:46] Speaker B: Let's go ahead and fade it.
[00:48:56] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:48:56] Speaker B: There we go. Thank you so much. This is our first time doing a live podcast. We'll see how it goes when I mix it. But thank you for being here.
[00:49:04] Speaker A: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:49:05] Speaker C: It was like the magic of Hollywood.
