This Blue Moon is celebrated by a piece from E. M. Cook, composer, and one-hit wonder. Well, the internet would have you believe. about Mr. (I assume it's Mr., but it just as well may be Ms.) Cook. Cook published Blue Moon Two Step in 1913 and it's a pretty typical little rag. The tempo's nice and the syncopation good, but unlike it's namesake, it's nothing unusual. I do love the cover, though, and you can hear a MIDI of it here.

Cell Mates - Blue Moon Baby

It's blue moon time again and to honor the second full moon of July 2015, I figured I'd throw on a little rockabilly. Here's Blue Moon Baby by the Cell Mates!

Moonlight Serenade - Glen Miller

One of Glen Miller's one most popular tunes, Moonlight Serenade, was a slow evolution of previous Miller collaborations. It started out in 1935 as a tune entitled Now I Lay Me Down to Weep, then with lyricist Eddie Heyman it became Gone with the Dawn, and later with lyrics by Mitchell Parish it turned into The Wind in the Trees. In the end the Now I Lay Me Down to Weep version won out and the tune with its familiar clarinet melody line went into the Miller books. How did it get its title? Well, Miller was in the midst of doing a cover of the Frankie Carle song Sunrise Serenade and Robbins Music which had bought Now I Lay Me Down to Weep felt that a tune entitled Moonlight Serenade would make a nice complement to the Carle tune.

Welcome to the Super Moon

The roll of the cosmic dice will give us three "super moons" this summer, the first of which comes tonight! A super moon occurs when the elliptical orbit of our celestial partner brings it closer to the earth than normal during a full moon. This, combined with the optical illusions created by the atmosphere, gives us the extraordinarily large looking moon we'll see tonight.

In honor of our July super moon, I give you the cover for a little moon ditty by Jimmie Crane, Underneath the Indiana Moon.

Jimmie Crane was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1910 to the name Loreto Domenico Fraieli.  He wrote mistral music and produced minstrel shows as well as publishing tunes of his own tunes. He first break came in the Summer of 1941 with patriotic tune entitled It's Great to be an American. I wish I could play the Hoosier ditty for you, but I wasn't able to lay mouse on it at such short notice. Maybe I'll be able to find one in the future.

The Full Buck Moon

Ah, July, one of my favorite months. It’s the month of thunderstorms and fireworks. Thunder in the sky and thunder on the earth! I can remember many a July 4^th sweating in the July heat and returning to the blessing of air conditioning smelling like sulfur and black powder. There’s nothing like a good hot dog and some salty chips after you’ve spent an hour lighting up the night in honor of your country.

Though we didn’t have a full moon for fireworks this year, here’s a little on the Full Buck Moon, July’s full moon (caution, I had to go through some acrobatics to get this one embedded - you may get Old Farmer's Almanac's whole video play list from YouTube).