One of my favorite Michelle Shocked songs is the one about the strawberry jam revolution. I was worried it had been relegated to the dustbin of history. Since hearing that song on Arkansas Traveler, I've been playing it again when in the mood for change. I've even bought large loads of strawberrys when they were on sale at the end of the farmers market for a buck a pint and made strawberry jam from most of them, just so I could play that song while in the act. Take that corporate jam factories! As she sang, "making strawberry jam never caused any harm." I enjoyed every serving, and will happily do it again if another good deal like that one comes along.

  

I'm really glad she played Strawberry Jam for us.

     

Somewhere in the show Michelle explained that we owe a huge debt to this woman who was the first performer to use an electric guitar. Apparently she had been a preacher in New York, who used the amplified music to gather audiences and drive home her point. I wish I could remember that name to share it with you.

      

        

Steve Earle didn't sing The Revolution Starts Now, but all around the meadow there were people that had heard it before. You could tell because every now and then someone else would yell "THE REVOLUTION STARTS NOW!" I wonder if he thought "that's your revolution buddy, mine started years ago." The song from that album he played was "Just another poor man off to fight a rich mans war."

Near the end of his set he talked about being at Camp Casey when they camped out in Crawford Texas to hear what Bush had to say about it. Then he brought out Cindy Shehan, who had inspired that event and been its face and voice. Cindy said she is running for Congress against Pelosi on a platform of "Bring the troops home now, and end the war in Iraq." She asked for our votes and left the stage before I got a good picture.

  

The woman in a gray striped hat and a dark coat had the most enthusiastic response to my little speech I can remember.

Walking up the hill after the show, I passed this woman who was playing for tips. Around her was a gaggle of people that weren't ready to go home yet. I hung out with them for a while. One guy traded me a sticker for a beer. We talked about subverting the dominant paradigm.