dinner tonight

...was halibut steaks (on sale at work) basted with a mixture of butter, brown sugar, minced garlic, soy sauce, and ground black pepper, then broiled for five minutes a side and served with brown rice and sauteed broccoli (woulda steamed it but the steamer was in use and i didn't wanna wait). thank goodness for allrecipes.com.

Fort Worth's plan for the homeless in jeopardy

A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I attended a meeting of our neighborhood association (Arlington Heights), where the city's Homelessness Coordinator, Otis Thornton, spoke to us about Directions Home, Fort Worth's plan to get its chronically homeless citizens off the streets within a decade. It included a lot of what sounded like sensible and pragmatic approaches, such as bringing job training to the homeless shelters and providing subsidized transitional housing. From what we heard, it sounded like the program was well conceived and effective, and we were pleased to learn that our city has a thoughtful, dedicated civil servant like Mr. Thornton working on this intractable issue.

Then today, over lunch, I read Dan McGraw's article "Detours Home" in the current issue (July 29th) of the Fort Worth Weekly and learned that the city council is contemplating a cut of $1 million dollars -- a third of its funding -- from the program. It would be a shame, I think, for the city to withdraw funding from a program which has already demonstrated its effectiveness in a problem this city was late in addressing. As one of the fastest growing cities in America, surely we can do better than this. Write or call your council member today and let them know this isn't acceptable.

Soul Power @ The Modern and OUR FIRST CONTEST!

It's on! Soul Power, the documentary of the Zaire '74 music festival that took place in Kinshasa in conjunction with the October 1974 "Rumble In the Jungle" between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, screens at the Modern Art Museum August 28-30. The film stars James Brown, B.B. King, Bill Withers, and Celia Cruz, among a host of others. Where else can you see JB and Muhammad Ali in the same motion picture?

We're gonna make sure and be there, and through the generosity of Magnolia At the Modern, we have two tickets to give away to the reader who can answer the following three questions:

1) What label was James Brown recording for at the time of the Zaire '74 concert, and what was his current hit?

2) What country was Zaire a former colony of, and by what name is the nation that was Zaire known today?

3) Who was the president of Zaire at the time of the "Rumble In the Jungle," and for how many years did he remain in office?

Email your answers to ken.shimamoto@gmail.com by midnight August 7th, and I'll announce the winner on August 8th.

Oh, and by the way...It Might Get Loud, a history of the electric guitar through the eyes of the Edge, Jimmy Page, and Jack White, screens September 18-20, so get ready.

where the wild things are

one of the things i dig the most about the bastardos de sancho is hose aaaaaayy!'s maurice sendak tattoo. now apparently spike jonze is making a film of sendak's children's classic, where the wild things are. and by way of a very convoluted route to a plug, the bastardos will be playing the moon with the li'l stoogeband on september 19th. so there.

"you deserve the best!"

r.i.p. reverend ike.

cats playing schoenberg

my fellow ailurophile herb levy alerted me to cory arcangel's youtube vids of cats playing schoenberg's drei klavierstucke op. 11. note the comparison with glenn gould's performance of the piece. man, those cats can play!

peter laughner

the tormented leading light of rocket from the tombs and early pere ubu, creem magazine scribe, and proponent of the burning-candle-at-both-ends-while-applying-blowtorch-to-middle school of self-destruction, peter laughner checked out in 1977, aged 24, in his bedroom in his mother's house. i used to have this cd of his demos which i let a guy borrow a few yrs back and never saw again. hoping for the release this autumn of a laughner box on smog veil.

spencer davis group

hey, t.tex, i see your traffic and raise you...with subtitles in finnish.

my scrawl on the i-94 bar

a review i penned of the strange attractors' new album sleep and you will see is online now at i94bar.com.

the neptune band

terry horn digs these guys. they're from boston. i gotta check 'em out.

love detroit rock? got a hundred bucks?

(click on the image to make it big.)

ADDENDUM: you can order online here.

my scrawl in the fw weekly

a review i penned of saxophonist chris potter's new album ultrahang is in this week's paper.

speaking of shows...

last one ever at the chat room is tonight:

Orange Coax (denton)
Rival Gang (Dallas/denton)
Oicho Kabu (Charleston, S Carolina)
Drug Mountain (FTW)
Lychgate (denton)

$5 (that's right, $1 per band)
21 and up ONLY
ID Required

Starts at 10pm

i asked for a show, and for my sins they gave me one

stoogeaphilia at the moon with bastardos de sancho and the magic of ash adams, saturday, september 19th. this is the second stoogeshow this yr i'm playing on one of my children's birthdays. if we can play one on november 10th, the trifecta will be complete.

improv show in dallas sunday!

michael chamy sends:

Late-developing show

Elliott Levin Trio
(featuring Aaron and Stefan Gonzalez)
Zanzibar Snails
The Tidbits

@ The Annex House
1207 Annex Ave.
Dallas, Texas 75204
9pm.
BYOB.
Please donate, cuz Monsieur Levin is on the road!
!REPOST!

Elliot Levin Bio:
Have you seen this man walking the streets of Philly? His signature single dread emits musical spores over sidewalks, music halls, and coffeehouses. Elliott is the ubiquitous Philadelphia musician. He has played with everyone.....reading his poetry into his flute, literally, improvising with Charles Cohen, Rick Iannacone, and New Ghost, the list is long. A discography appears below.

Elliott studied music and creative writing at the University of Oregon. He also studied extensively with Michael Guera (former saxophonist with the Philadelphia Orchestra), Cecil Taylor (..pianist/..composer/..improvisor),
and Claire Polin (..flutist/..composer).

Elliott has performed with groups including Cecil Taylor's Ensemble, Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes, Odeon Popes' Sax Choir, Scram!, New Ghost, Atzilut (Fourth World), and Talking Free Bebop. He has collaborated in performance with poets Miguel Algarin, Gloria Tropp, Mbali Umoja, Marty Watt, and Frank Messina & Spoken Motion among many others. Venues have included Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The United Nations, The U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Yale University, The Greek Theater, Watts Towers, Lollapalooza! and scores of galleries, clubs and theaters. In 1999, he performed at the Crossing Borders Festival in the Hague, the Sexial Jazz Festival in Lisbon and Portugal, The Alternative Festival in Prague, and the Sonic Logos Festival in Philadelphia.

Elliott has received awards from New American Radio (New York), The Cityof Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts and the California Endowment for the Humanities.

A prolific poet, Eliott's work has appeared in L.A. Weekly, Blue Beat Jacket (Japan), The Painted Word, Po' Fly, Vital Pulse, Poets & Prophets, and Intervals: The Poems of Musicians (Beehive & Sisyphus Press). A book of Poetry by Elliott Levin was published in 1996 (Heat Press, Los Angeles).

Born in 1953, Elliott Levin is a Philadelphia born and based jazz musician and poet. For ten years he toured the world with Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, as saxophonist in The Sound of Philadelphia band. His poetry has been published in several periodicals including the LA Weekly, Blue Beat acket (Japan), The Painted Word, Po' Fly, The Nile, Vital Pulse, Ozone, and Poets & Prophets. He regularly performs jazz and poetry with Gloria Tropp, Miguel Algarin, Cecil Taylor's groups Phthongas and Unit Core Ensemble, New Ghosts, Interplay and Talking Free Be-Bop. His original music and poetry was recorded for broadcast throughout the USA as part of the New American Radio Series. Elliott performed as solo, and in collaboration with Frank Messina at Lollapalooza in 1994, where they also jammed with Courtney Love in Phila. at a late night jam.

He is currently a member also of drummer (Ornette Coleman, Blood Ulmer, Lounge Lizards)G. Calvin Weston's BIG TREE (www...calvinweston...com); Animus (world/fusion music); The Philadelphia Phenomenon (w/ Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Rick Iannacone, Calvin Weston).

who knew these things had lyrics?

bonanza:



star trek:

mott the hoople

back in 1973-74, dave relethford, ronnie rowe, peter mengler, john wilmshurst and i usedta play air gtr to this song, in spite of the fact that a couple of us could actually play by that time. duh. seeing these guys live convinced me that big rawk shows are bullshit and what's really essential is seeing the musos sweat and feeling the speakers/skins moving yr clothes around. luther james grosvenor aka ariel bender blows a coupla outrageous clams here.

the pretty things as the electric banana

kind of like to sir with love on acid.

pretty things - "baron saturday"

nice stacks of amps with no cords.

mo' insomnia

one of the beer 'n' wine dudes at work hooked me up with a mixed six the other night. (thanks, miles!) here's the verdict:

1) fuller's london porter -- just what it says. he musta known this'd be right up my alley when i told him i usually drink shiner or ugly pug.

2) rogue dead guy ale -- in the same ballpark, but somewhat less exalted. drank this warm inadvertently and it was probably better for it. cold guinness still seems wrong.

3) maudite -- well i'll be damned. a little sweet for my unsophisticated palate. now i want to go play "fan club."

4) tommyknocker maple nut brown ale -- a really interesting taste. sweet but not overpoweringly so.

5) victory golden monkey -- full-bodied and a little sweet.

6) ayinger celebrator doppelbock. i saved this for last because of the little plastic goat. now this is more like it. like drinking a loaf of pumpernickel, and i mean that in the best possible way.

socialybrium

bernie worrell, the funkateer that went to julliard and the new england conservatory, gots a new band called socialybrium with blackbyrd mcknight on gtr, melvin gibbs on bass, and j.t. lewis on drums. sounds like a partay to me.





ADDENDUM: wow. there's a documentary about bernie, from 2005. out on dvd, too.

reggie rueffer

"Resurrecting The Kessler" - Reggie Rueffer

trifecta

can't play. can't write. can't sleep.

thank goodness for beer.

the romance of the artifact

since doc's records materialized within walking distance of mi casa, i've been thankin' a lot about my own vinyl fetishism and how selective it truly is. not just for economic reasons, i don't feel tempted to try replacing all my cd's with vinyl -- there are some favorite albums that are legitimately enhanced in their cd forms (live at leeds, f'rinstance, or the great concert of charles mingus, or howlin' wolf's moanin' in the moonlight).

also a consideration is how i initially encountered the music, which is why i passed on a vinyl copy of elvis' sun sessions i stumbled on at hpb a few months back (since i first got into sun elvis via cd and lotsa nyquil during a bout of flu ca. '97). there are even -- gasp! -- albums i first experienced (or have listened to the most) via digital download or in itunes.

this is also making me think about what my relationship with music was like before everything by everybody wasn't so readily available. a lot of bands i liked back when i was a snotnose had skimpy release schedules, and their stuff wasn't always generally available, making anything you could lay hands on muy desirable. in the fullness of time, i've developed a better idea of what i can and can't live without. there are certain key albums that i feel compelled to own on vinyl (electric ladyland, say) while i'm perfectly happy to listen to the rest of their creators' output in some digital format.

all that said, i'm no longer trawling for stuff online the way i'd become accustomed to, now that i'm a ten-minute walk away from crate-digging with a high probability of unearthing a lot of stuff i'll want. an exciting (and dangerous) prospect.

john lee hooker

his dogshit equals other ppl's diamonds. doomy, monochromatic -- the real ancestor of sleep. dig the hook:

johnny shines

when terry horn of yanari/blind umizato/hentai improvising orchestra fame was a teenager in montgomery, alabama (where i attended the air force's academic instructor school almost 20 yrs ago), he once played bass with blues legend and robert johnson "familiar" johnny shines. "there was another white dude playing lead gtr," terry remembers, "and when he soloed, johnny would fall asleep, then he'd wake up at the end of the solo like an alarm clock had gone off." the other day when terry was over the house, he put on a john lee hooker record and i've been listening to blues albums ever since (with a break that lasted most of today to write liner notes for a jazz album).

who knew? playing in the dirt makes you happy!

from arthur.

stasis

so the hentai date canxed and we're waiting for another date from the metrognome collective.

also waiting to see if stoogeaphilia can play a moon show in early september; depends what's going on with hembree's work.

no stooge prac this week due to my work sked and richard's other band auditioning bassplayers again. none next week because i'll be in ohio, and none the week after that because ray-boy will be in seattle. hopefully we'll be able to get together at least once before breaking the seal on big d at muddy waters on live oak 8.22.

it might be time to start working on a writing project i've been procrastinating over, even though i'm not even sure i want anyone else to read it when it's done.

august 8th @ rubber gloves in denton

(click on the image to make it big)

michael chamy sends:

Saturday, Aug. 8
Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios
411 E. Sycamore
Denton, TX
9pm; $6

PROJECTIONS by The Whaler

ST 37
Austin, TX cosmic rock legends, equal parts Hawkwind and Chrome, with dashes of Eno-pop, Peter Hook, Texas psych, and mind-melting lunar Krautrock drift





Book of Shadows
Shadowy improvisational ambiance from Austin, TX led by Carlton and Sharon Crutcher with a distinct pagan/spiritual mood, detouring through passages mindbending, crystalline, medieval and alien.



Echo-Toll
Denton sound/performance artist Chris Boughton, poses a dazzling, baffling, interactive challenge to the word at large, with assistance from Ineka Guerra

The Ill Eat
A massive, skullbending afrobeat/psych rock ensemble featuring members of Wu Fru de Lu & Space Dragon Killah. Featuring such notables as asex, ruuu p. , millinarl expunger, dead animal, mc from Zanzibar, and the Turkish admiral.

today

going out to buy running shoes. chasing the nursing home bus through the parking lot at work reminded me of how good i felt during the 15-or-so yrs when i was a regular runner -- roughly encompassing the time between my enlistment and when my first reserve unit lost its mission and i had to transfer to carswell, where i spent two yrs of weekends and summer camps inventorying computer equipment and picking up cigarette butts before i bailed. i'm not one of those fools who delude themselves that they're going to live forever because they run. it's just that having all that oxygenated blood coursing through my arteries felt better than any drug i ever did. see you on the track.

new dennis gonzalez cd

from dennis gonzalez:

Hello again Friends, Colleagues, and Family!

My newest CD has just arrived, and it's a beaut! I've titled it A Matter of Blood, and it's some of the best jazz you'll ever hear. It features legendary Coltrane bassist Reggie Workman, the great pianist Curtis Clark, back after two decades in Amsterdam, and drummer Michael T.A. Thompson. And, of course, me, Dennis Gonzalez, on trumpet and cornet - the one Mom and Dad got me when I was 10 years old.

In the U.S., the CD is $12.50 + $1.70 postage (check or money order). In the UK, it's £10 cash postage paid. In Europe it's €15 cash postage paid. Just email DennisGonzalezx@aol.com and when I verify your order, it'll go right out and you can send your payment:

Dennis Gonzalez / 1127 N. Clinton Ave. / Dallas, TX 75208 / USA

And if it's been a while and you want to see what else is available, click here:
Amulets (The Talismans Store)

tonight at benito's

...i saw eight people that said they woulda made it to the firehouse for the hentai extravaganza (including one who offered us her house for a performance if we wanted to do that), as well as bill pohl's parents. i tried the blackened tilapia tacos instead of my usuals, my sweetie had a k.c. strip with eggs 'n' taters instead of _her_ usual, chamy had the tamales, and hickey the queso flameado (the only thing on benito's menu that i just don't get). good times, but not as good as playing.

our chirpy chap

my sweetie says that auggie makes his signature sound "whenever he's made a discovery, or reached a conclusion." sounds good to me.

*** METROGNOME EVENT TONIGHT CANXED ***

shit. ben rogers just called. the firehouse lost power (construction in the neighborhood) and they don't expect to have it back before monday. show's canceled. we'll try and rebook another time. damn.

hoofin'

on the way back from getting my hair cut, walked past the big field by the kimbell, where it looked like some school was having their field day. anglers were practicing their casting, and the frisbee dudes were out throwing. progress/the master plan etc. be damned; i'm gonna miss that sward of green when it's gone.

the construction on the science and history museum continues. i liked the paintings done by schoolkids hanging on the wall around the site. remembered when the katrina folks were staying at will rogers, and how we'd play "cissy strut" for a few of 'em when they'd come to the wreck room to play pool on wednesday nights. thought about hosea, too. and fraf (i was wearing the t-shirt brian waits made in his memory).

had some time to kill before doc's opened, so i stopped by the montgomery street cafe for breakfast. one of the waitresses asked what the symbol on the back of my shirt meant, and i told her it was a tattoo a friend of mine used to have. she said she'd known chad. "he grew up behind me. he used to terrorize the whole neighborhood." "and a lot of other places besides," i said.

the older gent at the counter offered me more space, and when one of the kitchen cats came out, he shook his hand and expressed his appreciation. "i like to sit up here to see all the action," he said. "they're always busy, and always good." i finished my two scrambled with bacon, hash browns, biscuits 'n' gravy, coffee and water, and shook his hand when i left.

doc's already had a few customers by the time i made it there. some girl had a blowout on montgomery and plowed into a pickup that was parked in front of the store. i didn't even hear it happen. (john lee hooker and manu dibango were on the box while i was there.) she was shaken but not hurt. there was a cop on the scene by the time i left. i got the double a&m best of the move and a clean village green preservation society that i hadn't expected to find. just part of the fun of crate-digging.

on the way home, i remembered how the other night, when i was on my way to the bull & bush to have drinkie-talkie with terry, i saw jeff ferrell and his wife sitting on lawnchairs in their yard reading their paper, their dogs sprawled in the grass around them. i dig our neighborhood.

jh: "hear my train a-comin'"

from the last experience show, royal albert hall, 1969.

the things ppl do for minimum wage

1) once i stopped at the barnes & noble downtown because i was late for a graduation party and needed to buy a present for the graduate. when i asked the black-clad slacker-clerk behind the counter if i could borrow a pen to inscribe it and explained why, she said, "yes, sir. barnes & noble is just great for those last-minute gifts." i wanted to tell her, "no-o-o! don't say that! it's your _soul_ you're giving up!"

2) my sweetie once spent a _very_ brief period working for the olive garden. (she'd been making bank cocktailing at j.r. bentley's in arlington, and needed something closer to home in the fort.) she lasted three days. the straw that broke the camel's back was the phrase "hospitaliano," which was supposed to be inserted into the server's patter with the customers. personally, i can't think of a context where that would be appropriate. when she quit, the manager mistakenly thought she was trawling for a raise/promotion. HA!

3) when ron geida was in high school back in springfield, mass., he worked for burger king. they had a competition called "the burger king all-stars," and ron's manager wanted him to participate, on the, um, chicken sandwich team. when ron said he wasn't interested, the manager responded, "whatsamatter, ron -- are you _too cool to be a burger king all-star_?" when we used to play together, i suggested calling the band "ron geida & the burger king all-stars." ron was not amused.

4) when my middle dtr had a horrible telemarketing job after high school, she said they used to have "power hours," when all the telemarketers were supposed to make all their calls standing up. i figured it was to keep them from falling asleep in the chair. (i once knew a woman who'd worked as a phone operator and said they had to stand up _all the time_.) it reminded me of when my rabbi from radioshack was moonlighting at the home depot and they usedta have "alley rallies" at the beginning of a shift. gawd, how i absolutely lurrrve stuff like that.

fz in nyc, 1967

the guy who owned the rekkid store on long island where i worked as a teenager claimed the distinction of having seen fz and the mothers of invention when they usedta play the garrick theater in greenwich village ca. '66. this is the kind of biz they used to get up to back then. note the presence onstage of theodore bikel (captain von trapp in the original broadway sound of music and rance muhammetz in 200 motels, prolly 'cos he and frank shared a manager, herb cohen). also note that billy mundi is playing drums while indian-of-the-group jimmy carl black plays trumpet.

tonight @ firehouse gallery

photog/educator rene west's cyanotype collages and the music of yanari, PFFFFT!, and hentai improvising orchestra. artist's reception from 7-9pm, music after. it's at 4147 meadowbrook (where oakland meets meadowbrook -- look for the firetruck in the yard). costs a fin for the bands.

fz/vai

something every fz fan must struggle with: that frank directly paved the way for the '80s legion of neck-tapping italo-americans.

gunslingers update

here's "stub of fortune," live in baltimore back in april.



greg raimo's gr and full-blown expansion album -- previously vinyl-only -- will be available in cd form soon, on the german world in sound label that released the gunslingers rec.

eric dolphy's "god bless the child"

the italian kid posted this on the fw weekly blog. this was actually the first dolphy i heard, on the copenhagen concerts, a double lp prestige reished in the '70s from sessions waxed in '61.

tomorrow

while my sweetie's off with her friend laurie trawling for building supplies, i'm gonna take a walk to salon 707 to get a haircut, then stop by doc's to crate-dive on the way home. in the evening time, we'll join mr. chamy for din-din at benito's before heading over to the firehouse gallery for rene west's photo opening and the yanari/PFFFT!/hentai improvising orchestra extravaganza. terry's even threatening to unveil new instruments. yeah!

while we're renaming streets

apparently a piece of arch adams st. is being renamed van cliburn way in honor of the world renowned ivory tinkler. i hereby propose that the remainder of said street be renamed "ash adams street," in honor of the yalie architect-magician. why not?

pruning back tomatoes

here's a gardening tip from t. tex, with whom my sweetie enjoys talkin' 'bout diggin' in the dirt as much as she does discussing the same with ronald shannon jackson.

catwalk

here's my neighbor johnny reno's contribution to mayor of oak cliff jeff liles' documentation of the ongoing kessler theater renovation.

jazzfest brings the funk and the spirit

chef keith hicks just pulled my coat that this year's jazz by the boulevard headliners include george clinton & parliament/funkadelic (8pm friday, 9.11) and the five blind boys of alabama (6:45pm sunday, 9.13). might have to see if i can get those nights off from work.

t. tex attempts to awaken my sg envy

gloriathon

here's a nice story about late, lamented austin hotspot liberty lunch and the night t. tex edwards cut off van morrison in the middle of the belfast bard's second most overplayed song.

zanzibar snails in the fall

local noisesters zanzibar snails (whose michael chamy will perform this saturday at the firehouse gallery with hentai improvising orchestra) gots a new cd-r, vitiligo, out this fall on nyc-based tape drift.

today at work

...i chased a bus around the parking lot.

when i got to work there was a guy in my department from an old-folks' home in irving, who'd brought some of the folks from there to the market on an outing. my boss put together a bag of potion 'n' lotion samples for them, but when she walked the store trying to find him, he was nowhere to be found. i tried looking for him on the patio, since he'd mentioned telling his charges to have lunch there, but i didn't see any sign of him or them, so i went looking around the side of the building, where the buses usually park. no sign of 'em there, either, but just as i was getting ready to go back inside, i saw what appeared to be a short bus at the end of the first aisle in the parking lot.

i took off running, waving my hands and yelling, but the bus driver didn't notice or didn't figure i had anything to do with him, so he turned and headed past borders. i kept chasing him until he'd turned the corner and was heading toward world market. finally he stopped and i was able to shove the bag o' goodies through his window, along with an explanation. on the way back in, i saw the first dude eating lunch on the patio (duh -- i musta overlooked him the first time) and let him know about the bag of stuff for the old folks.

i used to run all the time, but that was many sedentary years (and lotsa packs of smokes) ago. i was surprised i could still run after all this time. my legs are probably going to hurt like hell tom'w, but maybe this is something i might wanna start doing again once it's a little cooler. (terry from the hentai orchestra does.)

"a bridge to the stars"

from the nyt, here's white-suited father-of-new-journalism tom wolfe on the failure of nasa, which believe it or not started when armstrong and aldrin were scuffing their space-boots on the lunar surface. food for thought indeed.

keith wingate

the jazz gtrist extraordinaire has a myspace thingy and upcoming gigs at the flying saucer (7.23) and 7th haven (7.31). yeah!

saw andre's stoogevid from last thursday @ lola's 6th

the good news: it came out pretty well. it was kinda trippy to watch, as i've never "seen" us (except on crappy youtube vid). the not-so-good news: now i know what a dork i look like onstage. oh well.

this saturday @ the metrognome collective

photography by rene west, with music by yanari, PFFFFT!, and the hentai improvising orchestra. artist's reception from 7-9pm, first band starts at 9pm.

breakfast with giraffes

this story reminded me of a guy from my reserve unit in shreveport and the story of his family's summer vacation to carlsbad caverns, which got as far as the wildlife park in grand prairie, where he decided to ignore the signs warning visitors not to feed the giraffes.

i can't possibly do his story justice, partly because i don't have his accent, but the gist of it was, "you never really think about how big a giraffe's head is until you see one up close," followed by the animal getting its head stuck in the pickup's cab, his wife screaming "AAAH! AAAH! AAAH!" as she kicked at it, and the giraffe's horns tearing up the ceiling of his cab while it blew snot all over his children, who were cowering under the dashboard. "after that," he said, "we drove straight home and didn't say a single word the whole time."

you probably had to be there.

tj does "black betty"

liked his take on prince? get a load of this...

shatner "rocket man"

the i-94 barman posted this in honor of the moon landing anniversary, reminding me that somewhere, there's a tape of me and dave karnes playing gtr and singing this song (while nathan brown pretended to sleep) with this nutbag we stayed with on tour in alabama back in 2004. gawd help us.

original jethro tull

i still harbor a certain fondness for the first three jethro tull albs (that'd be this was, stand up, and benefit). here are a coupla vids from a reunion of the this was lineup (with gtrist mick abrahams, who was replaced by martin barre for stand up) that took place in 2001. the first song is the one they did in the rolling stones rock & roll circus movie, with tony iommi (!) miming in place of abrahams.

pro/con

listening to we're only in it for the money on vinyl, i'm reminded how heavily censored the album originally was. curiously, the unexpurgated versions of "who needs the peace corps?" and "absolutely free" were included on an mgm compilation album i owned before ever hearing the 'riginal. fz fucked up the initial cd release (which combined money with its "part two," lumpy gravy) by re-recording the bass and drum parts. the '95 cd versh has the original tracks restored and includes _some_ of the censored lyrics, but it still sounds thin in comparison with the vinyl. so there.

stoogeaphilia and strange attractors pics @ meezlady.blogspot.com

some of my sweetie's pics of the strange attractors and stoogeaphilia from last week's extravaganza at lola's 6th street are up now on her photo blog. (click on 'em to make 'em big.)

jethro tull's moon landing song

pink floyd jams on the moon landing

while aldrin and armstrong were landing on the moon, pink floyd were jamming in a bbc studio. david gilmour remembers.

yesterday/today

yesterday we celebrated my sweetie's b-day. i'm so happy she was born! stopped by my oldest dtr's house to take her the peavey amp i got from mimi and sat singing beatle songs with her for a minute (she still has my old acoustic in addition to her new ovation and knows the chord changes better 'n i do). we'll have to do that s'more. terry and jo horn joined us for din-din and he 'n' i discussed plans for the hentai improvising orchestra gig this sat'day. (clay stinnett sent me a msg to tell me he's in to drum -- hooray!) today we're not planning to do much except sit at home enjoying the wonderful rain.

it happened 40 yrs ago today

here's farren on the apollo 11 moon landing.

cherokee dance

another forgotten classic from t. tex. i remember canned heat's cover of this song!

maybe nuns really are superheroes?

from the albany times-union.

fave kinks songs

thisun's been stuck in my head since i scored the great lost kinks album from doc's. (in the uk, it appeared on percy.)



others:

1) waterloo sunset
2) days
3) strangers (in spite of hearing on the market muzak)
4) this time tomorrow
5) love me till the sun shines
6) wonderboy
7) death of a clown (yeah, i know, lots of dave songs)
8) victoria
9) get back in the line

r.i.p. walter cronkite

it seems like science fiction now, but back in prehistory, when i was a yoof, tv newsmen were actually credible journos -- more so than even print journos are now. they reported on real stories and actually did the legwork. they were newsmen, not entertainers or clowns. in a generation, there won't even be people who remember what a newspaper was, let alone what guys like cronkite and his contemporaries (the ed murrow generation of broadcast journalism) used to put down, and we'll be a more ill-informed polis for it. (i anticipate the wire services will have gone tits up by then, since who's gonna pay for them to keep stringers stationed in karachi and katmandu if no one's willing to pay for content?)

i talked to larry harrison

...and discovered that not only does larry prefer cd's to vinyl, he thinks neil young is overrated and says that for him, hendrix "just goes in one ear and out the other." but back when he was working at the now-defunct borders at i-20 and hulen, he was a great old-school recordman, in the sense that every time i came in his store, he had something that he knew i wasn't gonna be able to live without. and he gave me the first gentle shove down the road to being a rawk scribe. bless him.

someday before i die

...i'm going to make a record with will risinger.

trust me on this.

stoogeaphilia @ lola's 6th 7.16.2009 post mortem

for some reason, we were really happening that night. had the best stage mix we've had in awhile, and from what hembree says, it sounded good out front too. i'd like to say some of that is due to the new varsity amp, but chris fisher did yeoman service (and had the gtrs firing toward the center). hembree said the recording came out great, and he'll have it online as soon as he gets done editing the recordings from the hentai improvising orchestra/underground railroad/harry has a head like a ping pong ball show. my sweetie took a ton of pics, some of which will be uploaded to her photo blog as soon as she culls 'em out. the strange attractors played great and their new rekkid is boss; i just penned a review for the i-94 bar that hopefully will run while they're still out on the road. playing fewer shows this yr than last but enjoying (and remembering) them more. next: hentai at the firehouse on 7.25, and the stoogeband breaks the seal on big d at muddy waters on live oak with the bipolar express and dj jeff martin on 8.22.

metrognome benefit @ the chat room tonight

Hosted By:
metrognome collective

When:
Saturday, July 18, 2009

Where:
Chat Room Pub
1263 W Magnolia Ave
Fort Worth

Description:
Fight Bite
Great Tyrant
Akkolyte
Darktown Strutters
Personal Victories w/ George Quartz
Eat Avery's Bones

8pm to 4am
$5
21 and up ONLY

the who's "dogs" and "dogs part two"

thanks to t. tex for reminding me of what was prolly the 'oo's most english-sounding single (in its released and demo versions) and its unlikely follow-up, a madcap instrumental that i liked real much when i had it on the b-side of the "pinball wizard" single. (their b-sides were almost always ace. my other faves: "heaven and hell" and "baby don't do it.")

my oldest dtr

...turned 27 yesterday. and she's playing gtr again, so i'm gonna take her an amp this sunday. hooray!

200 motels

for richard hurley's b-day, went to doc's and found a french vinyl copy of the soundtrack to fz's 200 motels, which includes "magic fingers," a song we usedta occasionally play at the wreck room jams. aynsley dunbar on drums, flo and eddie on vox, ringo starr's chauffeur martin lickert on bass.

going to a go-go

woke up this morning with this in my head. ladies and gentlemen, james jamerson! JAMES JAMERSON!

rice field art

you round-eyes can keep your "crop circles." howzabout some rice field art from japan (via juxtapoz)? thanks to butterpantz for sharing the link.

eureka!

this afternoon, digging through the stacks at doc's records on montgomery, i unearthed a clean vinyl copy of the great lost kinks album, which i hadn't seen a copy of since my future ex-wife gave all my good records to goodwill in shreveport back in '89. (my gawd -- 20 yrs ago!) hooray!

coming soon to the modern

john nuckels from sub oslo and the modern art museum lives around the corner from me. tonight i saw him at the market and he said that the next selection of films in the museum's ongoing magnolia at the modern series should include soul power, the documentary of a 1974 music festival, headlined by james brown and b.b. king, that took place in kinshasa, zaire, concurrently with "the rumble in the jungle" between muhammad ali and george foreman. also under consideration for inclusion in the modern's series is it might get loud, a documentary on the electric guitar from the perspectives of the edge, jimmy page, and jack white. gotta keep an eye on the modern's website for these 'uns.

my scrawl in the fw weekly

a "last call" column i penned about quitting smoking and a remembrance of my ex-frontman hosea robinson are in this week's paper.

marriage is what brings us together

my sister-in-law posted this on facebook. i can relate, even tho my sweetie 'n' i didn't meet until we were in our 40s. it reminds me of barry kooda telling everyone who'll listen, "i've been married for 32 yrs and faithful for 32 yrs." sounds pretty fuckin' punk-rock to me.

defer to our pointy-eared overlords 3

our friend jessamine sent this and we thought it was a hoot. (click on the image to make it big.)

talkin' loud and sayin' nothin'

woke up this morning with this bass line (which reminds me of a tuba) in my head.

back in albany, '74, i once helped a band led by a guy i played with for a minute load in at the showbar on central avenue. the stage at the showbar was behind the bar, and they had a hammond b-3. it was pretty interesting.

i like the way you can hear the crackling noises on the ancient 45 in this vid.

when obsessions collide

t. tex put me wise to this cover of neil's "cinnamon girl," a bonus track on the cd versh of john entwistle's smash your head against the wall.

tattoo

fave who song of all time.

i can't explain - just watch this

this bullshit here sure is some weird bullshit. yeah!

neil young in mojo

here's a 1995 int nick kent did with neil for mojo. (the link to the second part is in the first link.)

my all-time top ten neil songs (in no particular order):

1) sugar mountain
2) tell me why
3) cortez the killer
4) the needle and the damage done
5) cinnamon girl
6) the loner
7) old man
8) broken arrow
9) i am a child
10) powderfinger

ADDENDUM: might have to swap that last one for "tired eyes."

joe nick patoski's writing retreat

t. tex posted bit of biz. one of the finest pure products of fort worth is hosting a week-long writer's workshop out in far west texas starting on july 27th.

happy bastille day!

liberty, equality, and brotherhood to all.

random stuff

saw this in the star-t a coupla wks ago: this lady in fairmount waited 38 yrs for her century plant to flower, and when it did, somebody cut the top off it. the damnedest thing.

right now, in between working and playing, i'm listening to neil young's archives (thanks, frank!) and reading jimmy mcdonough's neil bio shakey -- an act of idiot fan devotion unmatched since the time i stayed up all night before a working day writing a review of the stooges' funhouse box while craig regan kept im'ing me from orstralia saying, "play another disc! play another disc!"

defer to our pointy-eared overlords 2

you thought i was kidding? read this.

hubris

lee jackson's womblife blog said some nice things about yr humble chronicler o' events' music/scrawl a few weeks ago. thanks, lee!

yesterday at work, one shopper told me she likes reading this blog and another, who'd been at lola's the night before, said nice things about the hentai orchestra. much more gratifying than the time i came offstage after a stoogegig and was greeted by someone who exclaimed, "hey! you work at central market!" many thanks.

kosmik radiation radio's annual p-funk spectacular

...will be in the show's streaming archive until july 17th.

r.i.p. compay segundo

on this date in 2003, the great cuban gtrist-singer compay segundo left the planet.

apollo 11

forty years ago, i sat in my grandmother's living room and watched the apollo moon landing with her. it must have been a trip for her; she'd grown up in 19th-century japan, and seen a lot of changes in the world in her lifetime. i remember her saying, "wonderful america," which is funny, because i don't remember her saying very much in english. i think she already had alzheimer's then.

this site lets you follow the mission's trajectory.

search and destroy

also from t. tex, this is swedish singer sofia's versh of iggy's raw power classic. you never heard it this way before. this apparently came from james williamson's facebook page. nice that james has a sensahumour.

joe nick patoski on jimmy reed

something t. tex sent me about selena's boutique closing reminded me of arlington heights h.s. alum joe nick patoski and my favorite thing he ever wrote, about jimmy reed for blues access magazine.

lay down your weary tune

i'm no dylan fan, but i do dig this song, which i first heard ca. '94 on a mixtape uncle johnny bargas made to show me what was good about bob. he was approaching whitman/emerson territory here, i think.

Lay down your weary tune, lay down,
Lay down the song you strum,
And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum.

Struck by the sounds before the sun,
I knew the night had gone.
The morning breeze like a bugle blew
Against the drums of dawn.
Lay down your weary tune, lay down,
Lay down the song you strum,
And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum.

The ocean wild like an organ played
The seaweed's woven strands.
The crashin' waves like cymbals clashed
Against the rocks and sands.
Lay down your weary tune, lay down,
Lay down the song you strum,
And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum.

I stood unwound beneath the skies
And clouds unbound by laws.
The cryin' rain like a trumpet sang
And asked for no applause.
Lay down your weary tune, lay down,
Lay down the song you strum,
And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum.

The last of leaves fell from the trees
And clung to a new love's breast.
The branches bare like a banjo played
To the winds that listened best.

I gazed down in the river's mirror
And watched its winding strum.
The water smooth ran like a hymn
And like a harp did hum.
Lay down your weary tune, lay down,
Lay down the song you strum,
And rest yourself 'neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum.

nippin'

my big sis sent this youtube clip of cats "under the influence."



on an unrelated note, auggie has become a vinyl cat. when he sees me putting a record on the turntable, he jumps up on the mantle, from where he can watch the record spin before jumping down onto the turntable's cover. fortunately, because the table it's on is so rickety, or perhaps because it's cushioned with bathroom floor tiles, this doesn't skip the record, and i find it really amusing. some people say i'm just crazy about my cats...and some people say i'm just crazy.

lola's 6th street 7.11.2009 pics @ meezlady.blogspot.com

my sweetie posted some of her pics of hentai improvising orchestra and the underground railroad on her photo blog. click on 'em to make 'em big.

gentle giant

i first heard these guys via their alb free hand at brian quigley's apartment in albany ca. '76. we did a lot of some drug and i passed out reading bukowski's notes of a dirty old man, awaking alone and imagining i'd been abandoned for some reason.

i saw gentle giant at carnegie hall the following year with my friend frank santora (r.i.p.) who was actually a giant (7' 1"). i remember being quite impressed by their stage act (switching instruments in mid-song, the synchronized foot-stomping they all did) as well as their contrapuntal, almost baroque, and very english sounding (but still rockin') music.

7.16.2009 stoogeshow update

sadly, nervebreakers legend barry kooda had to drop off the bill for the li'l stoogeband's july 16th extravaganza at lola's 6th street with the strange attractors. we hope we'll get to play with barry another time. to compensate, we'll be playing a long set full of new 'n' old faves by the damned, pere ubu, rocket from the tombs, alice cooper, and the heartbreakers as well as the stooges.

the attractors include kevin pearce, jen tran, and jeremy diaz, who used to be in glammy denton-via-como punkers dead sexy, and who now purvey a woozy krautrock-infused brand of psych. they gots a new alb, sleep and you will see, out on hi-res mp3 and haze colored vinyl elpee next week, so bring some extra cash to the show. they're heading out on the road, so they'll need it.

hentai improvising orchestra @ lola's 6th street, 7.11.2009

when i first reached out to lance from spune and told him, "i've got two prog bands and an improv band i'd like to book" and he gave us a sat'day night, i remember thinking, "wow, the bar biz must be shitty." when we rolled up in front of lola's, late because i had to close at the market, i was heartened at the number of cars i saw, but then i checked the thought. after all, there _were_ 11 people in hentai alone. but most of the folks i encountered inside were actually wearing wristbands, signifying they had paid cover, and all three bands had good, attentive crowds -- a far cry from our room-clearing days with PFFFFT! at the fairmount.

i got there too late to catch harry has a head like a ping pong ball's set, but all the comments i heard from audience members were favorable, and their gtrist travis laminack said he reckoned they played better than they had their last coupla shows. will have to do more shows with 'em in the future.

the underground railroad played their first show in two years. after this was booked, they resumed rehearsing and even wrote a couple of new tunes (heard one of 'em last night; will have to book another show to hear the others, i suppose). i really dig the way the live dynamic between those guys is evolving with kurt rongey on drums. it doesn't even seem weird hearing his pre-recorded keyboard parts. bill pohl joined hembree in the legion of the shorn, and played a strat through a marshall stack. as always, i wished he'd turn up a bit. these days, the railroad is adding some aggression and energy to their complex, cerebral jams, to good effect.

hentai's lineup was in flux up until the last minute. jon teague had to beg off the gig due to recording commitments with the great tyrant, although in the event those plans fell through and he and daron beck were actually in the house. in his stead, clay stinnett came direct from an 11-hour recording sesh in dallas with the boom boom box. the final lineup was as follows:

marcus brunt - trombone
michael chamy - electronics
mark cook - warr gtr, sequencer
bob fisher - alto sax, flute
brent frishman - visuals
matt hembree - bass, percussion
matt hickey - electric gopichand
terry horn - record players, laptop
ken shimamoto - gtr
clay stinnett - drums
billy wilson - theremin

for me, the heroes of the night were clay, who played with exceptional restraint and empathy (possibly a result of recently playing with ghostcar); the horns, who, when they cut loose, alternately put me in mind of '60s free jazzers or the sections from jb's or fela's bands; and zanzibar snails mastermind michael, who added elements of dissonance and chaos to serve as counterpoint to the riddim section's groove. i couldn't see the video projection that gutterth productions / dirty water disease cat brent was running, but it was prolly better 'n looking at our ugly mugs unadorned.

my sweetie took lotsa pics which, in the fullness of time, shall be posted to her photo blog.

post mortem, a few discussions ensued re: things to try in future performances. our next one, at the firehouse gallery on saturday, july 25th, will feature separate sets by yanari and PFFFFT!, followed by a performance by a spatially divided hentai orchestra.

ADDENDUM: opened the market this a.m. on three hours' sleep. will have to wait to hear from ray whether the stoogeband or PFFFFT! won anything at the fw weekly music awards.

approach/avoidant

here's a weird one. richard thompson is playing in austin on november 7th, at ut's cactus cafe. the catch: he's sharing the stage with loudon wainwright III.

soft machine with allan holdsworth

lamar queen

this dude teaches middle school math in l.a. if i'd had teachers like this, maybe i wouldn't have had to take algebra three times.

texotica

whatthehell...a 2003 comp cd featuring tracks by mr. peppermint, tex edwards, the gospel swingers, cottonmouth tx, homer henderson, and the pointy shoe factory (among others). want one!

dvd reviews @ i94bar.com

reviews i penned of such hawks, such hounds and my dinner with jimi are also online now.

neil young archives @ i94bar.com

a review i penned of neil's archives vol. 1 for the i-94 bar is online now. so there. (thanks, frank!)

still mo' family

t. tex talks

kind of like musicians, but cuter

thanks to t. tex for the link.

casino's bar on the food network

the sunday jazz @ embargo?

not sure when it's set to start, but both embargo manager jem rodriguez and bandleader joey carter say that the long-running sunday night jazz sesh that originated under michael pellecchia's leadership at the old black dog tavern and moved to lola's 6th street with dave karnes' at the helm when the black dog folded in 2007 is moving to the 8th street downtown club soon -- maybe in august, joey says. film, as they say, at 11.

smoking ban in the military?

read this in usa today this morning. some wizard in the defense department is proposing a smoking ban in the military. we tried that in sac when i was an nco academy instructor, when we weren't at war, and it didn't work. article said 37% of soldiers, 36% of marines, and 50% of combat veterans smoke (compared to 20% of the general population). it's going to be pretty shitty when the military has to start disciplining members for tobacco-related offenses. shame on them for endangering their health that way!

road trip to austin

my sweetie 'n' i just got back from an overnight trip to america's live music capital (R) which we were able to accomplish entahrly with found money (amex reward points paid for our hotel, and my pocket change from the curious george bank supplied our walking-around money).

stayed in the sumptuous hilton garden inn, which was within two blocks of both of the places where we planned to do stuff during our stay, which meant that my sweetie could drank a li'l more 'n she usually woulda if she'd been driving. first stop was casino el camino, one of my fave watering holes on earth, run by an eminently hip gent of the same name who was called something else when he was a teenager on lawn guyland and i sold him records.

casino's bar has the best burgers on earth and my sweetie got her first taste of one (an l.a., hold the sprouts; myself, i always go for the chicago) and pronounced it "tasty." casino's been in austin since '90 and his bar's been open since '95. during sxsw, he used to host the best parties there, with live music including some of the best shows i've ever seen in austin (the nomads, the mooney suzuki, and the immortal lee county killers on one occasion, the dirtbombs on another). joe lifto from the jim rose circus still tends bar there. we got comp drinks, t-shirts and stickers from the bar on casino's generosity and invited him and his new bride to visit us the next time they're in the fort.

went back to our room for an afternoon nap (because we're old homebodies and lazy that way) before walking another block north on 6th to lovejoy's to see t. tex edwards and out on parole. the stage at lovejoy's is tee-tiny and there are six musos in out on parole -- three gtrs, two electric and one acoustic, in addition to bass, drums (played by expat fort worthian mike buck) and t. tex his own self -- so they were packed in pretty tight. they opened with an instrumental, showcasing a reverb-drenched sound that straddles surf, rockabilly, honky-tonk and psychedelia, before t. tex hit the stage, singing a selection of songs from their great pardon me, i've got someone to kill cd plus covers of songs by syd barrett and john entwistle (!) because t. tex says, "you can't just sing murder songs all the time."

joe dickens got a piercing sound from his semi-hollow guild and spelled t. tex, singing a good ol' trucker's lament, while big jeff keyton played an f/x-laden, bigsby-modded telecaster, and mike buck demonstrated (as he always does) his mastery of no-frills, propulsive timekeeping. i told him that i saw him play the first weekend i was in texas, with the fabulous thunderbirds at faces on lemmon avenue in dallas. buck and another expat fort worthian, jim yanaway of "finger poppin' time"/amazing records/legendary stardust cowboy fame were of the opinion that might have been the weekend when jaco pastorius sat in with the t-birds (on keith ferguson's left-handed bass) and denny freeman and bill campbell sat in for jimmie vaughan. i don't remember any of that, but there's a lot of stuff from around that time (30+ yrs ago!) that i can't remember so well. 'twas good to see jim and hear him talking about his current gig refurbing houses and the trip he's planning to the pac northwest with his dog, smiley.

went back to the room and watched the tv (something we never do at home) before hitting the rack. in the morning, we stayed in the room right up until checkout time watching a multi-part episode of law and order: criminal intent. my sweetie 'n' i agreed that while the appointments at the hotel were fine, we like our own bathroom (and water pressure!) at home better. fell by waterloo records but i was so glutted from recent outings to hpb and doc's records here in the fort that nothing i saw really caught my eye, so we stopped at whole foods to grab something to eat on the go before heading back to the fort, la casa, and the cats. a nice li'l road trip; we'll have to do it again once we can accrue enough reward points.

tomorrow i'm attending my ex-lead singer's funeral in the morning, closing at the market, and then playing at lola's 6th with hentai improvising orchestra -- which, this time out, won't include jon teague, who's recording with the great tyrant, but will include clay stinnett, fresh from recording with the boom boom box, along with zanzibar snails' michael chamy, trombonist marcus brunt, billy wilson on theremin, and whoever else terry was able to shake out of the trees. should be a hoot.

proof that the rolling stones were always whores

floy case

johnny case's mom was one of the first journos to write about country music, and in 1983, she was awarded a certificate of appreciation from the country music foundation in nashville. a collection of her papers and memorabilia is in the music library at unt, where eventually it'll be available to students and the general publc.

tom waits, meet beck hansen

here.

so hard to share

from the nyt: what happens when a favorite neighborhood spot -- in this case, a brooklyn pizzeria -- gets hip.

it's a do-over

richard hell just re-recorded the voidoids' second album, destiny street, for a september release, with marc ribot and bill frisell playing the late robert quine's parts.

bourdain: "greatest sandwich in america"

that's what he said. just watching this makes my arteries feel like they're hardening.

doc's records @ iloveftw.com

what i said.

arthur mag's coming back!

this fall. hey justin -- you got us?

good scrawl in the fw weekly

read jeff prince and dan mcgraw's reportage of the rainbow lounge raid and aftermath here. dannyboy's report on a new south side arts space is here.

matt hickey: the new king of pop?

a review i penned of joe and the sonic dirt from madagascar's new cd match of the day is online now at iloveftw.com. (you gotta scroll down.)

billy lee riley needs our help!

from the houndblog:

Billy Lee Riley ...

one of the remaining original Sun Records artists, Is in VERY bad need of help! Billy has had his share of health problems, and is now battling Stage FOUR bone cancer. Although musicares is helping with house payment, car and such, He and Joyce are totally out of money and can barely afford to eat. This is a CALL FOR HELP to all musicians and fans. Please remember, twenty bucks from all of us would make a HUGE difference in Billy's life! What if this was you? Let's all get together and send something today to Billy and Joyce and show them that he means alot to us. If you have a website, a facebook or myspace, please post this need for help on it! We can't save the world, but it will mean alot in Billy Lee's life!

His Address is:

Billy Lee Riley
723 Crest Drive
Jonesboro, Arkansas 72401

The above was re-printed from Rockabilly Hall Of Fame site. Billy Lee Riley's Flyin' Saucers Rock and Roll was one of the first rockabilly 45's I ever heard, it totally changed my life.

Some of his other classic Sun 45's were Red Hot (this is an alternate take), and his first record, one of my very favorites-- Rock With Me Baby b/w Trouble Bound. I saw him play at the Circle Bar Christmas Party in 2003 and he was incredible. If anyone of these old guys had the whole package to make it, it was Billy Lee Riley, unfortunately Sam Phillips only had the money to promote a couple of artists, so he chose Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis, leaving Riley on the back burner. He managed to stay in music as a session man, then gradually staged a comeback and was a big draw on the international rockabilly circuit. Give the poor fella a hand.