I Want My Country Back - Greg Brown

I'm getting ready to visit the Iowa countryside where I grew up.

I'm seeing visions of a time when I used to sit with my great grandparents and the rest of our family and listen to stories from the Great Depression and what it was like to live on cornmeal and all the different things you could make out of it...what it was like to make less than a dollar a day...what it was like to depend on others for survival...My great grandparents were amazing people and I was lucky enough to be in their presence all the way through most of my 20's. They were married for over 65 years and I've never since witnessed a true love quite like theirs. I learned so much from them, most notably, how to live simple, laugh, love, watch wildlife and play music. I remember fishing with grandpa on the river at the cabin and how he would pay me a quarter for every grasshopper I could catch and bring to him. Great grandpa Brown brought the guitar and harmonica out at every family gathering. He would play and sing for hours. In those moments of music, nothing else mattered, grandpa's music was like a spell, bringing you entirely into the moment, and that moment only. Every song told a story of what life was like so long ago, and many were quite humorous as well. How I miss those days. I will never forget his voice. Greg Brown carries on a piece of what I experienced growing up. Our families overlap and his songs, his voice and even his demeanor at times are so reflective of grandpa. Listening to him brings me right back to the old, warm living room where my great grandparents lived, listening to grandpa sing. It's amazing how much Greg sounds like him...

One of the coolest things is that one of my favorite singer-songwriters, Jack Johnson, is also a Greg Brown fan and has covered Greg's song "Spring Wind." I've only been able to find the entire song (Jack's version) for streaming: http://music-mix.ew.com/2010/06/18/jack-johnson-spring-wind/

A part of it is incorporated here:

When I stumbled across this years ago, I had no idea Jack Johnson was a Greg Brown fan. It's significant to me because Greg often sings about life in Iowa and a time when things were so much more simple. A time when our relatives played music for hours within the vast expanses of midwest farmland. That a touch of that has been incorporated into Jack Johnson's music is completely awesome to me, and it's almost like a touch of Grandpa and our other relatives are up on stage with Jack when he sings that song, the roots of which came from the prairies of Iowa and the music that was shared together as a family.