Community of Goodness
with Larry Long & Tom Thibodeau
Mondays at 8:30AM
Larry Long is an American singer-songwriter who has made his life work the celebration of everyday heroes. He has written and performed hundreds of ballads celebrating community and history makers. Author and historian Studs Terkel called Long “a true American Troubadour.” When Pete Seeger was told that Larry was often referred to as the Pete Seeger of Minnesota, Pete replied, “I would be honored to be called the Larry Long of New York.”
Through a curriculum called Elders’ Wisdom, Children’s Song, Larry has brought elders into schools for over thirty years to share their life stories with students. Over one-thousand of these life stories have been recorded and honored by Long with youth in song.
Now a Smithsonian Folkways recording artist, Larry has sung at major concerts and festivals throughout the United States and world.
Long is a recipient of the Bush Artists Fellowship, the Pope John XXIII Award, Leadership In Neighborhood Fellowship (St. Paul Companies), Sustainability Award, and In The Spirit of Crazy Horse Award for his work in forgotten communities.
Tom Thibodeau is the Distinguished Professor of Servant Leadership at Viterbo University in LaCrosse, Wisconsin where he has been teaching for 37 years. He is the founder of the Master of Arts degree in Servant Leadership at Viterbo, the only master’s degree in servant leadership in the country.
Tom speaks locally, regionally, nationally and internationally of the growing servant leadership movement. Thibodeau is featured in a Ted Talks on “The Positive Power of Servant Leadership’.
Tom is a founding member of the Place of Grace Catholic Worker in LaCrosse where for the last twenty five years they have been serving, food, hospitality, and human dignity.
Thomas Thibodeau just received the 2021 Community Service Award from the City of Lacrosse. He’s the 153rd recipient of this award, an award not based on physical wealth but for that which one gives back to their community. As Tom often says, “Service is love made visible.”
Community of Goodness is merely one more extension of Tom and Larry’s shared work with hopes that it will help inspire and reinforce your love and commitment to others.
Recorded at Sound Strations Audio in La Crosse, Wisconsin by composer, producer, and engineer Brett Huus. Brett founded the studio in 1993 and is the recording rngineer for the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra, and Professor of Recording Technology at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.
Larry Long is an American singer-songwriter who has made his life work the celebration of everyday heroes. He has written and performed hundreds of ballads celebrating community and history makers. Author and historian Studs Terkel called Long “a true American Troubadour.” When Pete Seeger was told that Larry was often referred to as the Pete Seeger of Minnesota, Pete replied, “I would be honored to be called the Larry Long of New York.”
Through a curriculum called Elders’ Wisdom, Children’s Song, Larry has brought elders into schools for over thirty years to share their life stories with students. Over one-thousand of these life stories have been recorded and honored by Long with youth in song.
Now a Smithsonian Folkways recording artist, Larry has sung at major concerts and festivals throughout the United States and world.
Long is a recipient of the Bush Artists Fellowship, the Pope John XXIII Award, Leadership In Neighborhood Fellowship (St. Paul Companies), Sustainability Award, and In The Spirit of Crazy Horse Award for his work in forgotten communities.
Tom Thibodeau is the Distinguished Professor of Servant Leadership at Viterbo University in LaCrosse, Wisconsin where he has been teaching for 37 years. He is the founder of the Master of Arts degree in Servant Leadership at Viterbo, the only master’s degree in servant leadership in the country.
Tom speaks locally, regionally, nationally and internationally of the growing servant leadership movement. Thibodeau is featured in a Ted Talks on “The Positive Power of Servant Leadership’.
Tom is a founding member of the Place of Grace Catholic Worker in LaCrosse where for the last twenty five years they have been serving, food, hospitality, and human dignity.
Thomas Thibodeau just received the 2021 Community Service Award from the City of Lacrosse. He’s the 153rd recipient of this award, an award not based on physical wealth but for that which one gives back to their community. As Tom often says, “Service is love made visible.”
Community of Goodness is merely one more extension of Tom and Larry’s shared work with hopes that it will help inspire and reinforce your love and commitment to others.
Recorded at Sound Strations Audio in La Crosse, Wisconsin by composer, producer, and engineer Brett Huus. Brett founded the studio in 1993 and is the recording rngineer for the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra, and Professor of Recording Technology at St. Mary’s University of Minnesota.
Honoring the Dakota 38 Patriots with Troubadour Larry Long & Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
Placing the Santee Dakota Nation on reservations for the first time in 1851 was an act of cultural genocide. A mere decade thereafter, deprived of the freedom of the hunt, this ancient people stared starvation in its grim face. In August of 1862, there began a final defense of the Dakota Oyate – the long road to Wounded Knee. When the Wars of August were quelled, 303 Dakota were marked for the gallows. President Lincoln, in commuting the sentences of all but 38, paved the way for the largest mass execution in United States history. Featured songs: Water In The Rain (Honoring the Dakota 38) by Larry Long & Amos Owen (BMI); Lay Hatred Down by Larry Long (BM()
Celebrating Winter with Troubadour Larry Long & Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
Every winter Mother Nature reminds us that she could kill us if she wanted to. Snowstorms. Ice. While driving along those back road, we recognize that we could freeze to death. Time slows down when you’re cold. There are things you can learn through your body that you can’t learn from your mind. Coldness teaches compassion. Coldness reminds us that a warm bed, enough to eat, and a hot shower are precious gifts that many of our brothers and sisters are not able to attain. Thank God for those places and people who give those in need of a place called home shelter.
Welcoming Strangers with Troubadour Larry Long & Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
The power of strangers gives us the moral imagination where we have the capacity to care for not only family members but people we do not even know. Mother Teresa was asked, “Mother, why do you do the work you do?” She looked at the reporter and said, “If I hadn’t picked up that first man, probably never would have picked up the other forty-five thousand.” We live in the company of strangers. Do not fear the stranger, welcome the stranger, for whatever we do to the least is most significant.
Featured songs: Tramp on the Street | Words & music by Grady Cole & Hazel; Somalia | Words & music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1999 (BMI); Jesus Says | Words & music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1991; Renewed 2022 (BMI)
Celebrating Uncles, Aunts, & Family Members with Troubadour Larry Long & Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
All of us have an Uncle Mel, Uncle Dale, Uncle Jimmy, Uncle Jamie, Aunt Florence, or a character in the family who makes us smile whenever we think of them. In times of need they’re always there to help out, asking nothing in return, except our love and affection.
Giving us all the gift of joy that bonds the generations together.
Featured Songs: Uncle Mel | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1976; Renewed 2022 (BMI); Grandmother’s Song | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry :ong 2022 (BMI)
Honoring the Contemplative with Troubadour Larry Long & Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
Contemplation is the opposite of reaction. It’s the ability to pay attention. Wherever your attention goes your energy flows. Silence is the language of intimacy. Where words are not spoken, yet everything is understood. I am yours and you are mine. We are one, but we imagine that we are not. Contemplation is taking a long loving look at what is real and to receive in the eyes of another human being the reflection of one’s own self. The contemplative is so much needed in our society today.
Featured songs: Innisfree | Words by William Butler Yeats | Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2022 (BMI); He Gave His Life | Words & music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2022 (BMI); Heaven | Words by Mary Phillips | Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2018 (BMI)
Celebrating Neighbors with Troubadour Larry Long & Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
Our neighborhoods are the kernels of democracy. Strangers get to know and depend on each other. We learn this as young children. If we’re going to have enough kids to play baseball, we will need everybody. Stokely Carmichael said, “Politics is what you can see from your living room window.” We may not be able to change everything in Washington DC, but we all can have an impact on what happens right outside of our house. What our neighbors have done or are in need of doing shapes our lives. Neighborhoods are not perfect places; they are human places, where we live. It’s where beauty is born.
Featured songs: When Brother Ron Makes It | Words & music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2018 BMI; Welcome Home | Words & music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2020 BMI; In My Neighborhood | Words & music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1991 BMI
Celebrating the Poetry of Autumn with Troubadour Larry Long and Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
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Honoring Caregivers with Troubadour Larry Long and Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
Care comes from a Greek word that means ‘to cry out’. Who are the people who care for us when we cry out? They are the caregivers, but who cares for the caregiver when the caregiver needs care. Who takes care of that nurse, doctor, therapist, and EMT? Who takes care of the farmer, clerk, and forklift driver? Who takes care of the mother struggling to put food on the table, teaching her children, and struggling to hold onto her job? Today we honor those who cry out and need to be listened to when they, too, cry out. Who takes care of the caregiver? We all do.
Featured Songs: I Love You | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2011 BMI; It Takes a Lot of Peope | Words & Music by Larry Long | Collectively written with students from Strother Elementary School in Little, Oklahoma | Copyright Larry Long 1989 BMI.
“Celebrating Ben Logan & The Land Remembers” with Troubadour Larry Long & Storyteller Tom Thibodeau.
Once you’ve lived on the land, been a partner with its moods, secrets, and seasons, you cannot leave. The living land remembers, touching you in unguarded moments, saying, “I am here. You are part of me.” When this happens to me, I go home again in mind, or in person, back to that hilltop world in southwestern Wisconsin. . . The land is my genesis. I was born there, cradled by the land and I’m always there even though I’ve been a wanderer. I cannot leave the land. How can I when a thousand sounds, sights, and smells tell me that I’m part of it? Let me hear the murmur of the dusk of the summer nights. Sitting beneath the maple tree in the front yard hearing the voices of the people I have loved.” – Ben Logan, The Land Remembers: The Story of a Farm and Its People
Featured songs: Farmers, Miners, Preachers, & Cobblers | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1976; Renewed 2022 BMI; John Deere Have a Beer | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1979; Renewed 2022 BMI; Grandma’s Penny Sale (Give a Prayer for the Farmer | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1981; Renewed 2022 BM
Celebrating Poetry with Troubadour Larry Long and Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
Poetry helps us to remember what we’ve forgotten. Poetry gives us images which words cannot capture in definition or doctrine. Poetry gives us comfort in difficult and uncertain times. Poetry lifts our spirits, captures our hearts and imagination in unsuspecting moments. Mary Oliver, one of the great American poets, writes, “It doesn’t have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don’t try to make them elaborate, this isn’t a contest but the doorway into thanks, and a silence in which another voice may speak.
Featured songs: A Little Longer | Words & music by Larry Long | Inspired from Psalm 37 | Copyright Larry Long Publishing 1998 BMI; Song of the Wandering Aengus | Words by William Butler Yeats | Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long Publishing 2022 BMI; How High Can Angel Fly | Words by Evelyn Hurley | Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long Publishing 2022 BMI.
Honoring Teachers with Troubadour Larry Long & Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
The mere act of teaching means that one wishes the world well. As Pete Seeger spoke, “Long live teachers of children, because they can show children how they can change the world.”
Featured songs: Blowing In The Wind | Words & Music by Bob Dylan | Copyright © 1962 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1990 by Special Rider Music; Be Kind To All That Live (Honoring Helen Tsuchiya)| Music by Larry Long | Words by Larry Long with Brenda Dronen’s 4th Grade Class, Prairie View Elementary School | Copyright Larry Long Publishing 2004; Renewed 2020 (BMI)
Celebrating High Aspirations of America with Troubadour Larry Long & Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
Hospitality comes from the Greek word hospice. It means to be welcomed as a guest into the life of another. In the best of moments this is who we have been as a nation. Saw a wonderful sign in a gift shop out in the country that read, “If you have more than enough, don’t build walls, build a bigger table.” Invite each other to the table. Get to know them. Hear their stories. What do we see happening when people gather around tables? Strangers are welcomed. Community is born and the high aspirations of America are reignited. Let us all build larger tables and take down the walls.
Featured Songs: American Hymn | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1981; Renewed 2022 (BMI); One More Day in Isolation with You | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2022 (BMI) | This Land is Your Land | Words & Music by Woody Guthrie | Copyright 1956 (Renewed), 1958 (Renewed), 1970 and 1972 by Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc. & TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc (BMI).
Honoring the Nonviolent Teachings of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther with Troubadour Larry Long & Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
In 1912 a peasant walked into an abandoned home in France and saw these words written on a wall. He copied them down and the words said, “Make me a channel of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is discord, unity; where there is error, truth; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.”
Dr. Martin Luther King in a letter from the Birmingham jail said, “I want to be remembered as a drum major for justice.” These were his marching orders, “Make us channels of your peace.”
Featured songs: Love Will Lay Hatred Down | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1985; Renewed 2022 (BMI); I Don’t Believe in Violence | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1991; Renewed 2022 (BMI); May There Always Be Sunshine (Пусть всегда будет солнце) | Music by Arkady Ostrovsky | Words by Lev Oshanin & Korney Chukovsky.
Honoring Freedom with Troubadour Larry Long and Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
Freedom to think. Freedom to speak. Freedom to gather. Freedom to worship. Freedom to love. Freedom to forgive. Freedom to serve. Freedom to lead. Freedom to continue on and make the world a better place. A gift worth preserving and to share with others.
Featured songs: Freedom, Oh Freedom | Words & Music by Larry Long with Children from Beatrice, Alabama | Copyright Larry Long Publishing 1996 (BMI); Road to Freedom | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1984 (BMI); This Little Light of Mine | Traditional | Adapted by Zilphia Horton (Highlander Folk School).
Celebrating Joy with Troubadour Larry Long and Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
When you’re in the presence of ultimate goodness there is joy. You can purchase pleasure. You can produce happiness, but joy is a gift. Friends are a gift, and they bring us joy. We enjoy being with our friends. We waste time with our friends. We hang out with our friends and when we think about them, they put a smile on our face and a skip to our soul saying, “Hello friends. Hello brother and sister. It’s just good to be with you.”
Featured Songs: Wonderful World | Words & music by George Weiss & Bob Thiele; Farm Song | Words & music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1974Renewed 2022 BMI; I’m Falling in Love with You | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1982; Renewed 2022 BMI.
Celebrating Summer and The Driftless with Troubadour Larry Long and Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
The elder storyteller of the Driftless is Ben Logan. In his memorable book The Land Remembers he writes this about summer, “I went out to the cornfields. I knelt by a stock of corn along with the other sounds. I could hear my heart beating. The ground was damp against my knees. The sweet sticky smell of the growing corn was everywhere. A light breeze started the leaves whispering. I put my ear up against the stalk. There was something there. It was a little stretching, popping noise, that could have been the corn pushing upward. I moved my ear away from the stalk and the sound was gone. I tried several times, each time the sound was there. I had heard corn growing. It was a pleasant secret I carried with me through the days.” As Larry Long writes in his song Going Home to the Driftless, “A hoot owl is calling. A coyote howling. Down in the wetlands a north wind blows. Moonlight on the water. No need to go farther than right where I am. In this place I call home.”
Featured songs: Going Home to the Driftless | Words & music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2021 BMI; Dr. Bauer You Mean the World To Me | Words & music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2021 BMI | Isabelle | Words & music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2021 BMI.
Honoring and Embracing Justice with Troubadour Larry Long and Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
Justice is being in the right relationship with one another. Justice is giving back to people what is rightfully theirs. Making justice visible and having the courage to confront it. All of us have an opportunity to provide dignity, freedom, and respect to each other every day. Tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth, and things will go well for you. This is the work of justice.
Featured Songs: Love Will Lay Hatred (Honoring Leonard Peltier) | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1989; Renewed 2022 BMI; George Floyd (Say His Name) | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2021 BMI; Lift Every Voice & Sing (Black National Anthem) by James Weldon Johnson.
Honoring Farmers with Troubadour Larry Long and Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
Where does all the food on our tables come from? From people who work the land, grow the crops, care for the animals, and make sure we have enough to eat. Those are your people. Those are my people. Give a prayer tonight for the farmer. Give a word of thanks for their labor.
Featured Songs: Pope County Blues | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1977; Renewed 2022 | BMI; Hauling Freight, No Fences (Honoring Gerald Johanneck: A Truck Driver’s Life) | Words & Music by Larry Long with Youth from Wabasso, Minnesota | Copyright Larry Long 1988; Renewed 2019 | BMI; Grandma’s Penny Sale | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1982 | BMI
Honoring our Veterans and Armistice with Troubadour Larry Long and Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
Veterans Day is celebrated around the world as Armistice Day. Veterans Day grew out of the Armistice signed to put an end to World War I in 1918. On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month the world goes silent for two minutes to reflect upon peace and how we can put an end to war. As Army combat veteran and friend Max Siegrist shared upon returning from Vietnam, “If you want to help a veteran, put an end to war.”
Featured Songs: Agent Orange: My Country ‘Tis of Thee | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1979 | BMI; All Gave Some, Some Gave All | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2011| BMI; Strangest Dream | Words & Music by Ed McCurdy | Copyright Ed McCurdy 1950.
Celebrating Daughters and Granddaughters with Troubadour Larry Long and Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
There’s nothing more sacred and precious than the love we have for our daughters and granddaughters. Filled with poetry, beauty, and goodness, they take us beyond who we truly are. Helping us grow and mature. Becoming our teachers, our guides, our mentors, and our love.
Featured songs: Sweet Lura Rose | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1991 BMI; I Believe in You | Words & Music by Larry Long (Adapted from Psalms 139) | Copyright Larry Long 1996 BMI | Liliana | Words & music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2007 BMI.
Celebrating Love with Troubadour Larry Long and Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
Service Is Love Made Visible
Isn’t it true that we’re reliant upon the service and love of other people every day? Isn’t this what we have learned throughout the pandemic? People going to work, caring for us, and providing the very necessities we need to stay alive. Service is love made visible.
Featured Songs: My Love for You | Words & music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2018 BMI: If You Love Someone | Words & music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2018 BMI.
Celebrating Faith with Troubadour Larry Long and Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
Faith is an ordinary virtue that you and I experience all the time. We have faith in the people we put trust in. Through the love from others, we learn to love them because we have faith in them. We’re in rough waters right now in America. So, let’s sit a little closer and put our faith in each other’s goodness.
Featured songs:
St. Francis | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2022 BMI; We Thank You | Words & music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2022 BMI; Dr. Massey | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1976; Renewed 2022 BMI; Amazing Grace | Words by John Newton | Music: Traditional.
Celebrating Hope with Troubadour Larry Long and Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
A lot of people are going through hard times today. Our job is to be witnesses to hope. To keep the light on for those who are traveling in darkness. Isn’t it comforting when traveling down rural roads late at night to go by a farmhouse and see one back porch light on just in case you are in trouble? How is that we can provide light and hope for others? Even in a weakened state hope can redeem the human race and all of creation. Now more than ever we need to be witnesses to hope.
Featured songs: Your Love | Words & Music by Larry Long| Copyright Larry Long 1986 BMI; I Am the Water | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1991 BMI.
Celebrating Courage with Troubadour Larry Long and Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
Courage comes from the French word cœur, which means heart. How is the condition of your heart? Is your heart in it? What are the things you know by heart? What are the stories you will tell today that are heartfelt? Are you still tenderhearted, or warmhearted? We meet so many people today who are hardhearted, or coldhearted. More importantly there are so many people who are brokenhearted. Take care of your heart. It’s the source of our courage.
Featured Songs: Run for Freedom | Words & Music by Larry Long with Standing Rock Youth & Elders from the Oceti Sakowin Nation | Copyright Larry Long Publishing 1981 BMI | Tree of Life | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 2011 BMI.
Celebrating Community with Troubadour Larry Long and Storyteller Tom Thibodeau
New York Times Journalist and Author Thomas Friedman has a marvelous book called, “Thank You for Being Late.” In that book Friedman reminds us that we must learn to live in the eye of the hurricane. What’s in the eye of the hurricane? Calm, stillness, quiet. Yet, from within that space we can draw energy from the storm so we can be dynamic and stable in responding to the lives of each other. He goes on to say that the best analogue for the eye of the hurricane is a healthy community, where people feel protected, respected, and connected. A place we all call home.
Featured songs: Every time I Look at Someone (Honoring Clara Beebe) | Words & Music by Larry Long with Youth & Elders from Lac Courte Oreilles Anishinabe Nation | Copyright Larry Long 1999 BMI; Eyes of My Father | Words & Music by Larry Long 2011 BMI: Grandpa’s Song | Words & Music by Larry Long | Copyright Larry Long 1992 BMI