Easy listening while Waiting for a Chinook

The painting above is titled “Waiting for a Chinook” by Charles M. Russell (1864-1926). He was a great artist who lived in Montana. My dad, who grew up in Great Falls, Montana, dispelled any mythology about him, saying that he would sell his doodles in bars in exchange for drinks. But man could the guy paint. Here’s what another favorite artist of mine, Ian Tyson, had to say about Charles in his unduly sentimental song, The Gift:

God hung the stars over Judith Basin
God put the magic in young Charlie’s hands
And all was seen and all remembered
Every shining mountain, every longhorn brand
He could paint the light on horsehide shining
The great passing herds of the buffalo
And a cow camp cold on a rainy morning
And the twisting wrist of the Houlihan throw

The “Houlihan throw” is a cowboy on a horse roping a calf.

By the way, a “Chinook” refers to warm winds blowing off the western slopes of  our Rocky Mountains – having grown up in Montana, a good old Chinook was a sign of warming – a cold spell ending, snow melting, spring on the horizon. Willard Fraser, once mayor of the town I lived in, Billings, complained that the official stationery of the city had “that damned cow” on it. He ordered it changed, saying it had scared off too many tourists.

Chinooks were common when I grew up there, and we just had one here in Colorado. Man, did people freak! Two fires came to mind, the Camp Fire in 2018 that destroyed the town of Paradise, California, and the Marshall fire here in Colorado that burned hundreds of homes south of Boulder in 2021/22. We were told that the winds were going to be record breaking, and in anticipation of downed power lines, all electricity would be shut off in five counties, including our own, Jefferson. So we endured a 30+ hour blackout over the weekend.

As I told my wife right off, “This feels like a drill.” First, I have no idea how hard the winds blew, but I doubt any records were set. But they did want to justify shutting down the Front Range mountain towns. Was it necessary? Probably not. Was it prudent – I suppose so. Have they responded this way in the past to Chinook winds? Not that I am aware of, but I’ve only been here 14 years. What my deep dark heart suspects is we are being prepped for “climate emergencies” as a justification for lockdowns. Climate alarmists do talk about such measures – in fact, they were impressed that the entire world was shut down by the Covid-19 “pandemic” that never was. They thought “We could do that too!”

Anyway, our power came back on in the wee hours this morning, long, long after the winds had ceased. No one I have read or heard has used the word “Chinook.”

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And now for something completely different. I truly idolized the musician Glen Campbell, a natural and self-taught guitarist, and one of the best in the world. He did not read music, and only wrote one song that I know of, Turn Around, Look at Me. But his skill on the fret board was unparalleled. Fil Henley of Wings of Pegasus has highlighted several of Campbell’s performances, including this one of Gentle on My Mind.

Fil comments about how conversational Campbell is in his singing of the song, and that is precisely the word I would have used had I thought of it. The song itself is almost that, and I love the way in the original recording you easily walk into it and then at the end walk out just as easily. At one time in the 1970s the song, written by John Hartford, tracked as the second most popular and widely played song … in the world.

Something I deeply admire about Campbell (and his friend Alice Cooper): both were notorious drug and alcohol abusers while living in Los Angeles, and both converted to Christianity and moved to Phoenix to get away from it all. I don’t care about Christianity myself, but want to take note here that it worked for these two gentlemen, turned their lives around. That is what it is good for, and why we should never try to disown religious belief. It can make people better people, and happier.

Now you know how I spent my weekend, watching the trees swaying in the breeze … excuse me, I mean terribly threatening and dangerous high winds while listening to GC, among others.