Protest songs score big on Neil Young‘s hit list

March 28, 2007

Two Northern Michigan songwriters are enjoying the thrill of a lifetime as their original tunes skyrocket up the list of a protest song website established by Neil Young.
The “Living With War” link at www.neilyoung.com features more than 1,500 protest songs, many of which have an anti-war theme. Players featured on the site range from the likes of J.J. Cale, Eric Clapton and Son Volt, to Northern Michigan’s own Adair Correll and Les Dalgliesh.
Last week, Correll’s song, “Georgie Porgie the Can Do Guy,” moved up to #26 on the site, while Dalgliesh’s song “The Cost of Comfort” moved up to #33.
“I’m not sure why all this is happening, but both Les and I moved up again,” says Correll, best known in the region for his work as a founder and facilitator of Songwriters in the Round. “I don’t think this will put us in the rich and famous category, but for a couple of unknowns it has been kind of fun.”
The website is filled with the rich foment of feisty folksters, heavy metal rockers and everything in between, with song titles like “Mary Went Off to the War” by the Cracks and “Who Dares Defy the Hand of God to War” by thrash metal artist Jim Shelley. Then there’s “Don’t Be Afraid of the NeoCons” by bluegrass legend Norman Blake. You just go to Neil Young’s site and look for the “Living With War” link. The songs also feature links to the performers’ websites or MySpace sites.
Correll and Dalgliesh heard about the site earlier this year and decided to upload their original songs. They were pleasantly surprised when their work rocketed up the list of “most played” tunes.
Correll’s “Georgie Porgie” tune is a spoof on the Bush administration that always draws a laugh at his Songwriters in the Round performances at Horizon Books (third Friday of each month).
  As for Dalgliesh, here’s what he says about his song on the hit list: “I submitted a song, ‘The Cost of Comfort,’ to Neil Young’s Living With War website, about a month ago.  The song concerns itself with the fact that, we of the post-modern era, have traded away most of our freedom in exchange for an illusion of safety and security.  In the end, we have to ask ourselves if it was a fair trade.”


Following are the bios from Correll and
Dalgliesh from their respective websites:

Adair Correll
Singer-songwriter Adair Correll was born and raised in the Traverse City area of Northern Michigan. He began playing the guitar while in junior high and wrote his first song in high school. He was greatly influenced by the music of the ‘60s and artists like Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, and Peter, Paul & Mary.
Having put his guitar on the shelf for almost 15 years, Correll became involved in the music scene again in the early ‘90s. He has performed at the Ark, the Sleeping Bear Dunegrass Festival, Sol Michael’s All Star Folk Festival, McCune Arts Center, the Hiawatha Music Festival, Horizon Books, and was considered a regular at the Tuesday night “Open Mike Jam Sessions” at the Cedar Tavern for many years. He is a charter member and the administrator of the Northern Michigan Songwriters in the Round, a loose-knit consortium of the Northern Michigan Songwriters, which was founded 10 years ago in 1997. His songs offer a blend of humor and real life experiences woven together with thought provoking lyrics, a soothing vocal, and finger style guitar.
 
Les Dalgliesh
I’ve been playing guitar and writing songs since 1971.  I started playing clubs in Northern California back in the ‘70s, and moved to Michigan in 1978. 
I  “got religion” about that time, and started writing gospel songs, playing in churches and Christian coffeehouses, which were all the rage at the time.  I played all over the state, from Houghton to Lansing, and all points in between.
The coffeehouse circuit faded out, and I started playing bars and regular gigs again.  I ended up at John Knight’s Songwriter’s Network, and met Adair Correll there.  He invited me to the Cedar Tavern open mikes, and the rest is history.
I’ve written songs for video productions, notably for Munson Medical Center, Century Tool, and Sarah Lee.  I even wrote one for the Second Chance body armor company. 
I’ve been married to Sarah for 28 years.  We have five grown children.  I have a restoration and woodworking company called “The Master’s Touch,” which specializes in Victorian and Craftsman style design and construction.
I spent six years at College of the Redwoods in California, studying fine arts and journalism.  I’ve written two novels (both yet to be published) and also write a daily blog on MySpace.