My 91-year old, born-here mom, JoAnn Dyer, says she was told by her mom, Faith Bolender, about the county poor farm that existed when Faith was young. It was on Log Cabin Road, near the Bolender family farm on the Boulevard Road. It was gone by the time my mom lived on her grandfather’s farm.
I love what Peter Randlette did on this song. Former Olympian Steve Fisk told me Peter had acquired a fake Buchla synth (Peter’s long-time employer TESC has real Buchlas!), so I called him up and said put some weirdo stuff on this song. Peter did more – he went out and did field recordings, etc. and came up with a finished masterpiece. I did nothing to his tracks besides add them (he had already mixed them down) to the existing song. Wow!
This is a song that I felt had to be on this album. One of my activist pals, fiddle master Lisa Ornstein, told me the song needed to tell people what to do to make a difference right now – a call to action! I did not see the song having that role, I wanted to tell the story and get people to reflect a little, to see others’ humanity. Sadly, the fact is that this situation is not likely going away any time soon. Lisa recommends (and I agree) you should go to these places right now to find out how you can help.
SideWalk -
www.walkthurston.org;
Olympia Mutual Aid Partners -
olymap.org;
2828MartinWay (Interfaith Works) https: //www.2828martinway.org/
Crooks, Jennifer. (2019) A Turbulent Age. In Crowell, Sandra A. & Stirling, Shirly A. (Eds.) Thurston County Water, Woods & Prairies: Essays On The History Of Washington’s Capitol County. Olympia: Thurston County.
America’s 1% hasn’t had this much wealth since just before the Great Depression
Retrieved from
www.marketwatch.com/story/its-been-almost-a-100-yearssince-the-americas-1-had-so-much-wealth-2019-02-11.
Verse 3 derived from a conversation with Tye Menser.
from
Olympia - A True Story,
released October 14, 2022
The True Olympians + Peter Randlette – Sample collage recorded at Salamander Labs