Its Organic And It Comes From The Vine

Its also legal and it gets you so high....

What I'm talking about, of course, is sangria. One of the best inventions of humankind. Today's assignment is to make yourself some delicious sangria. To get started you need to locate your copy of Jerry Jeff Walker's album "Viva Terlingua!" and spin track 3 repeatedly. In case you don't yet own the whole wonderful record, check this out: Sangria Wine (buy album). An all-time great.

Anyway, Jerry Jeff's recipe (taken from the lyrics of the song) requires mixing the following ingredients in whatever amounts suit your fancy:

- Start with some wine
- Get some apples and brandy and sugar just fine
- Add sparkling Burgandy wine (huh? more wine?)
- Everclear is added sometimes (especially in Texas on Saturday night)
- Lemons and Limes

There you have it. For another, slightly more complicated mixture (which will require you to obtain a red apricot and split a strawberry into exactly three pieces), check in with Martha Stewart here.

And now for a word about Jerry Jeff Walker. He's probably best known for writing the 1970's hit "Mr. Bojangles." But in my mind his greatest achievement was becoming a key part of the Austin, Texas outlaw country movement. Viva Terlingua is a great introduction to this genre. See AMG review here. It was recorded live in 1973 at a virtual ghost town called Luckenbach, Texas -- a locale made famous four years later by fellow-outlaw Waylon Jennings' song Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love) (buy album). In fact, one of the verses in Waylon's song (the last one, sung with Willie Nelson) mentions "Jerry Jeff's train songs."

Another one of my all time favorite Jerry Jeff songs is the irreverant Pissin’ In The Wind (buy album), which describes one way to end a Saturday night sangria party.

And now for a genre shift: All of this semi-rowdy country music brings to mind the Replacements' 3rd album, Hootenanny--especially this track: Treatment Bound (buy album). While not really a country album in any way, shape, or form, Hootenanny hits a lot of the same tones as JJW. And the album Hootenanny also contains one of the world's great rock songs, "Color Me Impressed," which will be fodder for another post...

Thanks for reading!