HEARD IT ON THE RADIO

Last night I woke up about 4 AM and realized I'd had enough sleep. It was time to get up and do something. Anything really. So I went to Rite Aid and bought some Bran flakes. I knew from the website it was on sale. Not that I needed them right then and there. It was just a destination. The streets were cold and empty. Just my style. I was free to do what I wanted to do. That was the whole point.

In prison, when you wake up at 4 AM and realize you're no longer tired, there's not a lot you can do. You can't leave your 50 square foot cell. And your bunky is asleep. So milling about is out of the question. Paulie (Manafort) used to turn on his reading light and read the bible. Me? I read over 100 books in prison. But late at night, that wasn't for me. I listened to the radio. That was my other escape. In my 311 days at MCC, I heard maybe a total of 15 new songs I knew I'd want to view and listen to on You Tube over and over again when I got out.

In the mix were actually a few pop hits. Like "Sucker" by the Jonas Brothers and "Higher Love" by Whitney Houston. But mostly, it was country songs that spoke to me about life. Which is what country songs do. Of everything I heard, "Some Of It" by a guy named Eric Church was the song that most affected me.

As soon as I heard "Beer don't keep...Love's not cheap...And trucks don't wreck themselves. Mama ain't a shrink...daddy ain't a bank...and God ain't a wishin' well," I was all in. Eric Church is that guy who always seems to come in second on awards shows. But when he sees #1, Eric knows why that guy won. He's just that kind of man. I'd like Eric to know that he came in first in 2019 for this inmate. 

After coming home and reinstating Spectrum, I spent many hours online with my favorite songs. And in keeping with the award, the "Some Of It" video had a story line about a man going to prison - and family and guards sneaking him a guitar in pieces so he could pursue his true passion while locked up.

At one point, I commented to my roomie Chan about being anxious to see the videos record companies had produced to promote the songs that got me through prison. It had been decades since I'd fallen in love with music sans that medium to seduce me. The reality that my #1 song for the year had a video that was about an inmate's plight speaks for itself. So now, I'm gonna share it with you. Here's Eric Church and "Some Of It." He's a bad mother fucker without the fluff. But the fluff don't hurt. Here we go: