Search - John Sweeney :: Throw A Penny To The Minstrel

This reissued collection of recordings from the late 60's by singer-songwriter John Sweeney tells the story of an aging sidewalk minstrel playing for pennies trying to find a way back home. Sweeney is like many minstrels on street- stages, bars, college campuses, promising "one day you'll hear my song on the radio!" This collection carries the depth of keen observers, poets of the common man, storytellers, writers of small scenarios that paint pictures of the good and bad in us all. In "The Outlaw", Sweeney tells the story of the loser, tells us the reason that we lock our doors. He warns his ex-lover that it's better to get a good friend to see her die, than to die alone. (This recording is one of four in the collection made with a full band). In "Waterline" he, tells the story of how he lost his legs in the time of the floods. In "Number 45" he's calling the operator to get the police to come to his house number "45" where they'll find all lying dead in the shadows. He tells of "Crazy Mary" who in last desperation pleads naked in the crowd for someone out there in the name of love. The love songs found here, like "Hold On To Me Girl" make a universal statement for lovers everywhere to dream for the rest of one's life. And finally, Sweeney writes of leaves and branches, "You know the rain in winter is only summer singing low, I think I'm caught in the leaves and branches," as we're all caught in life in leaves and branches, in the cohesive nature of life, breaking free is one's individual choice. As John Sweeney says, just "dignify your life, and dance! Dance, on and on."