Tag Archives: jcshepard.com

The Disease that Afflicts all Modern Institutions

Repatrimonialization Modern state institutions, which are supposed to be impersonal even if not necessarily democratic, are particularly vulnerable to insider-capture in a  process that I labeled “repatrimonialization.”  As we have seen, natural human sociability is built around the twin principles … Continue reading

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The Fates Have Been Kind — New Music for 2017

The Fates have been gracious again to Americana music this year. 2017 has featured several strong releases from long-time Country music stars (Alison Krauss, Marty Stuart, Willie Nelson), Alt.Country should-be stars (Son Volt, Mavericks, Jason Isbell), and ignored-by-radio Texas Country … Continue reading

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Songs of the Fall – Confessions

Stetson Adkisson and Cia Cherryholmes—Songs of the Fall—have a new Americana album out, called Confessions.  After an initial singer-songwriter release as Stetson & Cia, they recorded a self-titled album in 2012.  So this may be a sophomore effort, or it … Continue reading

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Declaring That a State of War Exists: 6 April 1917

On this date, 6 April 1917,  in response to a request by President Wilson on 2 April, the United States Congress approved America’s entry into the Great War, which came to be known as World War I. Joint Resolution Passed by … Continue reading

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Windy City Turn Loose My Baby: Alison Krauss Absolves the Sins of the Nashville Sound

Alison Krauss‘ new release Windy City is a journey forward into the past of Country music. I kick myself that back when Alison was starting out as a youngster in Central Illinois, I was wasting my college days in Urbana-Champaign … Continue reading

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In Search of… American Roots Music at the Grammy Awards

William Bell won the Best Americana Album Grammy Award earlier this month for This Is Where I Live, released on a revived Stax label. A lot of people said nice things about the award and what a great artist Mr. Bell … Continue reading

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Political Order and Political Decay in the Time of Trump

Political Order and Political Decay is the second part of Francis Fukuyama’s epic tome of political economy begun in 2011 with The Origins of Political Order.  The 2014 follow-up fills out the 2011 tome’s theory of politics as biology with consideration of … Continue reading

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Pancho Villa Crossed the Border…and got US into the Great War

Pancho Villa crossed the border in the year of ought sixteen The people of Columbus still hear him riding through their dreams He killed seventeen civilians you could hear the women scream Blackjack Pershing on a dancing horse was waiting … Continue reading

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JC’s Top Tunes of 2016

I played a lot of music during the January cold, streamed KRFC-FM more in February, March and April.  I’m still not quite sure why I spiked my last.fm scrobbles in May before spending more time outside in June.  July, August … Continue reading

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2016 Blog Posts in Review—Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty

2016 was a year for the books.  I read a lot more this year, and listened to a lot of good music, so that’s a good thing.  On the other hand, as demographics and biology would decree, our Greatest Generation … Continue reading

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