-Booksongs-
…a free literary adventure
featuring many original songs
coupled with three related books:
Love and Light (poems, photos, bio),
Secret Souls (spiritual thriller),
and Working Class Manifesto.
(FREE Downloads below)
jerryebertmusic@gmail.com
More bio info at Jerry Ebert Wikipedia
Help Support This Effort
If you enjoy my music and writing, simply hit the virtual tip jar or donation links at the top of the page. Much appreciated!
I'm Gonna Miss You
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Imagination
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Hello Hello
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"The truest treasure you give me are memories."
-from Love and Light
My Dream of You
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Hometown
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"Destiny is what you decide to do."
-from Secret Souls
Let Me Be The One
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Now Is Our History
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"If you're not negotiating a workplace contract, you're not doing business."
-from Working Class Manifesto
Empty House
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Curiosity
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Many times over a 40-year span, Jerry accompanied legendary folksinger Pete Seeger. (Jerry Ebert Wikipedia.) Read Jerry’s tribute to Pete Seeger in Working Class Manifesto and Other Essays
Watching the River Flow
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I've Got A Thing For You
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Poem (from Love and Light)
Come to the shoreline
of laughter and imagination,
the ocean of your truths.
Listen to the music
of waves seducing sand.
I need you
when I least expect it.
Not in the danger
or storm,
but when the wind
is still,
tide pulling,
sun and moon
together yet apart.
Beauty is mystery
unaware of itself,
the elegant depths
never seen,
you,
a world hidden
below the sea,
waiting in
pristine silence
for the loneliness
to end.
...at a gig in Albany NY, 1985.
Help Support This Effort
If you enjoy my music and writing, simply hit the virtual tip jar or donation links at the top of the page. Much appreciated!
Chains
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Besides working as a musician and journalist, Jerry is also a union organizer. Photo above, with the negotiating committee at the West Point Mess Hall after winning a decent contract
My Only One
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Jerry (bottom row, second from right), with his brothers and sisters, circa 1973. The family all sang together at the local church in Cornwall-on-Hudson NY.
Shooting Star
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Jerry has negotiated contracts on behalf of police, school teachers, bus drivers, nurses, warehouse workers, truck drivers, public employees, and the West Point Mess Hall, Hospital and Bus Service employees.
From Working Class Manifesto
What I’m telling you is true whether your cause is left-wing, right-wing or turkey-wing.
Before you snowflake-dismiss me, be aware that in my 40 years of union organizing I’ve called for more picketlines and carried out more strikes than most of you will ever experience.
So take five minutes to read this, and let what I’m saying percolate through your mind for a few days.
Martin Luther King had it right, as did Gandhi and Christ.
Practice the three nons: non-hatred, non-violence and non-destruction of property. Respect your adversaries.
Imagine a scenario where a group of people want you to do something. To increase the pressure, they insult and threaten you. How would you react? Probably as I would: you’d resist, even if you were initially inclined to do what was asked.
Sometimes in my job negotiating contracts for workers, I had to urge them to vote to strike. Over the years I learned that if I cultivated the respect of the boss along the way, he or she would then usually reach out to make a deal before the actual picketline was ever assembled. When I didn’t cultivate respect, prolonged problems ensued, and sometimes the entire effort collapsed.
Those who espouse hatred, violence and destruction of property harm the cause they espouse.
I Refuse
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From Secret Souls:
Chapter One
Anna and her seven-year-old granddaughter Nina lay on a blanket in a backyard, looking into the October night sky.
Indian Summer, 1978. The village of Cornwall-on-the-Hudson sleeps under a veil of moon and stars.
“I can’t see it Granma,” says Nina, frustrated.
“Mi cariño” soothes Anna in her native Spanish. “Relax. Close your eyes and breathe deeply. Clear your mind. Then slowly open your eyes and look inside the sky, not at it. Make your eyes flip it over.”
Nina shuts her eyes and calms herself. Then slowly, she opens them.
For a split second, the white moon and stars turn black as the dark night brightens.
She blinks in disbelief; it reminds her of an x-ray she once saw in a doctor’s office.
The image disappears.
“See inside it,” Anna presses.
Nina tries again.
The moon and stars become black dots, and the darkness turns light. This time she holds the image.
“Wow…Granma…I see it.”
“Bueno, Nina, bueno…this is how you see the unseen. This is my gift to you, my legacy to you alone. Tell no one; this is our secret: nuestro secreto.”
“Can I see my brother in Heaven?” asks Nina, still staring in a half-daze into the strange sky.
Anna catches her breath before answering.
“You can’t see inside Heaven until you go there, and that’s a long time from now. But don’t worry, Davey’s watching over you. He can see you, so he’s happy. Someday you’ll see him again. No se preocupe – don’t worry.”
Nina shifts her eyes to her grandmother. “Oooh Granma…I see your colors…so pretty…bright…”
She sees her grandmother’s form glowing three colors: white, yellow and blue, almost invisible, like waves of heat rising from summer pavement.
Anna smiles at her granddaughter’s excitement.
“You’re seeing the colors of my soul, Nina.”
[NOTE: Secret Souls derives from interviews with the main characters. As the story unfolds, Anna teaches Nina many secrets of life-beyond-death. They inadvertently channel into malevolent souls who are angry at being identified. A violent struggle ensues.]
Jerry, standing right, with the band The Insurgents in the mid-1980s. Read more bio information in his My Crazy Life essay from the book Love and Light.
Booksongs Producer Lenny Underwood has played and/or recorded with Madonna, Amy Winehouse, Celine Dion, Jaco Pastorius, Jennifer Lopez and others. He tours Europe regularly, where the club dance music he helped create with Prelude Records in his younger years still has a strong following.
MANY THANKS:
Lenny and Bernadette Underwood (Personal Touch Studios)
Steve and Ellyn Morgan, Tom Destry
Elliot Glen (On Target Recording)
Ray, Matt, and Ed Ebert
(Boilerroom Sound), and their house musicians Frank Johns, Mike Fornal
and Tom Hunter (of the band Skull)
Video Editor Joey Fezza
Pat Ledyard, Alfie Simpson, Sara Sherwood, The Estis Family
Debbie Major, harmonies
Lawrence Cullen, electric guitar and congas
Guitarist Tony DePaolo and vocalist Debbie Major for their work on Wish
Website editors Tom Bahr and Robert Maines
My family and all my friends
Dedicated to my wife Jeanette, who passed away Jan. 2, 2019. She inspired this.
All songs written by Jerry Ebert.
Acoustic guitar, harmonica, vocals: Jerry Ebert
Help Support This Effort
If you enjoy my music and writing, simply hit the virtual tip jar or donation links at the top of the page. Much appreciated!
Lonesome Lullaby
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From Love and Light
Remember the child,
the smile
that was yours,
the eyes
that asked all
in the wonder
of innocence.
Remember laughter
if your cares close in,
how you played
when there was
no time.
Carry your own light
into this world,
keep walking
toward the star
in the distance.
Hold to nature,
the things
that are real,
nurture
the fire inside.
Hold to your soul,
don’t let it go,
it’s who
I’ll love forever
…and we’ll
grow young
as the world
grows old.
Wish
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