Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Speaker A: Hi, this is Michael Ronstadt from the Nathans and Roncast. You're listening to another bonus episode that features various musicians from around the world. This week we're featuring my dad, Michael J. Ronstadt. I tour with a group called Ronstadt Brothers, and when my dad was alive, we toured as Ronstadt generations. And my dad was one of the most gifted and wonderful songwriters, one of the most wonderful people I ever knew, and one of the biggest inspirations in my musical life. And I want to share something from my childhood that moves me to this day. Many of you may remember a poem called Winkin, blinken and nod. And it was a poem for children written by american writer and poet Eugene Field. And it was actually originally published March 1989. But I didn't know it as that. I didn't know it as the dutch lullaby. And I just knew about this fantasy bedtime story about three children sailing and fishing among the stars. And it just was so beautiful because my dad sang it to music. And I always thought that he wrote his own version, and I think his version was a conglomerate or an impression of other people's versions that he set to music. And through time, it morphed and changed, and it became the Michael J. Ronstadt version of Wink and Blinken and Nod. He originally recorded it on his second children's album called Younger Generation, released around 1997, I think. And we're going to get that digitized and released at some point, but until then, there's no place you can hear it except here on the Nathan's and Roncast. So without any further delay, I'm going to play Winkin, Blinken and nod the way that I fell asleep to it as a kid when my dad brought out his guitar and sang us to sleep.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Wink and Blinken and nod one night.
[00:02:13] Speaker C: Sail off in a wooden shoe with.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: A sail on a river of crystallite in the sea of dew well, where are you going and what do you wish?
[00:02:26] Speaker C: The old moon?
[00:02:27] Speaker B: Asked the three well, we've come to fish for your herring fish that live.
[00:02:32] Speaker C: In your beautiful sea nets of silver and gold have we cried, winking and blinking at night well, the older moon.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Laughed and he sang a song as.
[00:02:48] Speaker C: They rocked in the wooden shoe and.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: The wind that carried them all night long rustled the waves of dew the little stars were herring fish that lived.
[00:03:01] Speaker C: In the beautiful sea now cast your.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: Nets wherever you wish never feared our.
[00:03:08] Speaker C: We so cried the stars to the fisherman three winking and blinking and art long their nest they threw to the stars in the twinkling foam then down from the skies came the wooden shoe bringing the fishermen home it was also pretty a sail it seemed as if it could not be and some, they said was a dream they had of sailing the beautiful sea.
But I shall name not the Sherman three winking and blinking at night wink and blinking we're two little eyes not as a little head and the shoe that carried them all night long as the we once trundled bed now close.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: Your eyes while your father sings of.
[00:04:24] Speaker C: The beautiful sights you'll see and you.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: Shall see all the pretty things as.
[00:04:31] Speaker C: You rock in the misty sea.
Well, the old shoe rocks the fisherman three winking and blinking and nod wink.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: And blinking and nod one night sailed.
[00:04:48] Speaker C: Up in a wooden shoe where they sail on a river of crystal light into the sea of dew.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: As always, we're thankful that you take a listen to our tiny little podcast called the Nathan's and Roncast. If you're listening on apple Music or any of the places you find your please please subscribe and leave a comment. Leave a rating we prefer five stars, but if you want to give us six stars, we'll take more. If you want to check out where Aaron Nathans and I are performing next, go to nathansandronstatt.com. And if you want to find out anything about either of us individually, we're on Facebook and Instagram and all the good places you can find people.
