When I was going out with my wife, we were just teens.

I won’t say what ____teen, but she was on the lean side of the spectrum and leave it at that, okay?

Anyway, she babysat a little runny nosed kid.

Jimmy. Jimmy Cartoonfishy.

That wasn’t his real name. But he did add the “fishy” think to his real last name.

The little tyke.

Anyway, it seemed young Jimmy had quite the fetish for the word, “why.”

Jimmy, it’s time for bed.

Why?

Because it’s your bedtime.

Why?

Because it’s 8:00 PM.

Why?

Because that’s what the clock says.

Why?

Because you’re an irritating little snot-nosed kid.

Why?

Okay, she never said that.

I prob’ly did though.

Once, we counted a full 28, why’s, in one go.

Thing is, he wasn’t stalling. He was just curious of, why.

Today, he’s probably got someone on his couch getting paid $350 an hour still asking…

“Why… why do you feel that way about your newly deceased husband Mrs. Thompson?

“And why did you stick that Pink Flamingo yard decoration through his chest last week?”

Anyway, the little nose miner was on to something back then. Because when we know the “why” behind things, it opens up a whole new world.

There was a time a few years back I’d gone through some dry, dark times musically.

Non-existent to tell the truth.

But my “why” behind stopping was all wrong.

I probably should have had that Cartoonfishy kid around to ask why I was turning my back on it.

My wife did though.

She was a good student of professor Cartoonfishy.

But, not only was the reason why I stopped songwriting, wrong, I wasn’t asking myself, why should I get songwriting back in my life?

I had plenty of reasons not to, but I didn’t even ask why I should put songwriting back in my life.

The reasons not to amounted to my day business taking circumstantial hits at the time.

I didn’t feel I earned the right to play around with songwriting.

I didn’t feel it was responsible to play around with songwriting.

I felt guilty playing around songwriting when all this other work needed doing.

I should have realized songwriting offers more than anything finances could ever do.

Sure, I make some money at music.

But that’s far from why I do it.

It took my wife saying it, and me ignoring her long enough until I felt it…

I’m a different person when I’m not writing.

So if I were to ask myself why I write. It would be things like:

When I write, I feel like I have a super power no one else in the world has.

And it’s true. Other people write. Millions of them.

But no one has lived in my skin, and writes like I write.

I feel at peace when I write.

I feel like I’ve just come back from a relaxing vacation after having written.

I feel stress wash away.

I feel like I can work out my thoughts better.

I feel like I’m honoring the gift I’ve been given.

Most of all, I feel like me.

And if I go down in a muddy mess in life because I chose to take some time out of my day or week to write songs which I like, and help someone else along the way?

Then bring it on buddy, bring it on.

But, that will never happen.

Why?

Yes, Jimmy Cartoonfishy, I’ll tell you why.

Because I am more balanced, less stressed, and can think clearer.

I’ve already won.

What am I really saying?

If you have a creative gift…

Paint pictures of mountain cabins.

Make gorgeous quilts.

Carve Smurf figurines out of blocks of blue cheese.

Or have the most impressive dead June bug collection…

Whatever it is, if you find peace in it?

You owe it to those around you to partake.

You’ll be a better you for them…

And you owe it to yourself most of all.

It is not squandering money away. You’re investing in you.

Listen, time on this earth is shorter than you realize.

I went to my high-school forestry class, fell asleep on the buss back to the school, woke up and it was 40 years later.

It seems like you have all manner of time as a young person, but it goes by quick.

I thought my dad was just talking like an old fart when he said, the older you get, the faster time seems to fly.

It’s true.

So go get out that guitar, whittling knife, or whatever it is you do… and do it, just because you love to!

 

One of the member activities in the Minnesota Association of Songwriters is taking part of song challenges: to write a song based on certain criteria.

Since I awoke this activity as vice president of the group, I figured I best take part in it.

The challenge I cooked up for the group was writing a song entitled, Mississippi Moon.

It needed to be a solo write, no cowriting.

It also needed to have a specific chord pattern in it. The chord pattern was taken randomly.

So random in fact, I took my cell phone number, removed the 7’s and 0’s out of it, and the remaining numbers served as the Nashville numbering for the chord pattern to be included somewhere in the song.

When I sat down to write Mississippi Moon, I thought…

Maybe it should be about Kiln, Mississippi. Once known as the capital of illegal moonshine during the prohibition days.

Or, maybe it should be about a quaint lover’s café in someplace like Gulfport, Ocean Springs, or Biloxi.

Or, maybe it should be about two lover’s skinny dipping on the banks of the Mississippi.

Out of the ideas bouncing around, a towboat on the Mississippi River kept pushing its way to the front.

I started watching YouTube videos of various river pilots and crew. It actually became quite interesting.

I didn’t realize just how much freight they can haul.

First, towboats are not tug boats. Sometimes they are called pusher boats, but tug boats have a different purpose.

Often times tugs are used to guide large ships to port, and even sometimes help towboats flank their freight around tricky bends in the river.

Towboats don’t tow the barges, they push them. The name towboat has to do with the name of the barges strung together, a tow.

Some towboats have three engines running three props, often called triple screws.

These screws are powered with as much as tens of thousands of horse power.

They’ll move a tow (set of barges) 8 barges wide by 6 long, or sometimes 6 wide and 7 long loaded with all manner of freight.

In feet, we’re talking as much as 280 feet wide and as long as 1,400 long.

Including the length of the towboat, the total length can be as much as 1,600 feet long, well over a quarter of a mile, taking up as much as 6 acres of water.

These are massive freights being pushed up and down the freight rivers in the USA, the Mississippi River one of the most notable.

And since the Old Muddy is a few short minutes from where I live, it fit perfect for the song.

I started watching YouTube videos by a river pilot calling himself Mark Twain. Then I saw videos by my song’s character, Towboat Toby.

Toby Clarkson, I found, actually lives in the Smokey Mountains. Not Baton Rouge as in my song.

Toby does his one-month shift on the river, then heads home for 28-days or so, then rinse and repeating it.

Happily, Toby is alive and well in real life, but I killed him off in my song.

Sorry Toby.

And well, is he really dead in the song?

You’ll have to listen and find out.

While watching the videos, I saw news clips of riverboat pilots which went down with their towboat. Sadly, a few never made it out.

I guess this song is a bit of a tribute to them.

A song which, a short while ago never existed.

So here’s a “dirt roads version” of the song.

Thanks to Towboat Toby, I borrowed a few audio snippets from a few of his videos to get us started.

 

 

Mississippi Moon

©2020 Brad Dunsé. All rights reserved.

 I’m Towboat Toby out’a Baton Rouge
Pushing 40 barges with a triple screw
Headed north for Cairo Illinois
Flankin’ banks at 10,000 horse
Dodging skiffs and bars of course
Smell that river… man it’s a beautiful night
And look right there, ain’t that quite a view
That’s my Mississippi, Mississippi moon

[Chorus]
No matter where I roam in this old world
My pilot house and crew are always here
Back here on the river
Pushing 46,000 ton
And to get back here all I got to do
Is see my Mississippi, Mississippi moon

Wilkerson Point’s lyin’ dead ahead
That’s one wicked piece of riverbed
It’ll throw your tow when the river’s floodinghigh
It pulled us under in a massive fit
My crew got out, some say I didn’t
Somethin’ ‘bout that story ain’t quite right
I’m doing fine aboard The Déjà Vu
‘Neath my Mississippi … Mississippi moon

[Repeat chorus]

They say old river pilots never die
When they go down with their tow
I reckon there’s a bit
Of truth to that old myth
Guess that one’s best left up to you
‘Neath my Mississippi … Mississippi moon

[Repeat chorus]

I come back to the river
Every time they make this run
To get me here all they got to do
Is see that Mississippi… Mississippi moon
To get me here all they got to do
Is see that Mississippi… Mississippi moon