The Sword Of Damocles

My office is a wreck. That’s not a complaint or even an admission of guilt, it’s just an observation. Kind of like; “the sky is blue.” When I’m on the road, Buffy cleans up my office and puts everything neatly away. Then I come blowing in with 15 guitars and bags and CDs and magazines and small crumpled bits of paper with song lyrics on them and receipts and turn a once neat room into a cluttered catastrophe, once again. Thank you to my beautiful wife for taking care of me for the last 20 years!

 As I sit writing this blog, listening to an excellent Jeff Buckley bootleg (02/02/95, Skala Espacio - Fukuoka, Japan), I can feel the teetering stacks of CDs behind me. I turn around and choose one stack at random (there are currently 6 stacks total, behind me) and here’s what’s in the pile;

Steve Earle - I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive

Jesse Johnson - Verbal Penetration

Johnny Cash - Personal File, Bootleg Vol.1

Hank Williams Jr - Whiskey Bent And Hell Bound

Harry Nilsson - Nilsson Schmilsson

Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection

Elton John - Madman Across The Water

Willie Nelson - Honeysuckle Rose Soundtrack

Townes Van Zandt - Live At The Old Quarter, Houston TX

Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Annie Lennox - A Christmas Cornucopia

Keith Richards And The X-pensive Winos - Live At The Hollywood Palladium

Cage the Elephant - Thank You Happy Birthday

Jeff Beck - Rock And Roll Party

Rush - Moving Pictures

Whitesnake - Greatest Hits

Beady Eye - Different Gear Still Speeding

Foo Fighters - The Colour And The Shape

R.E.M - Collapse Into Now

John Lennon - Walls And Bridges

John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band

John Lennon - Rock And Roll

John Lennon - Sometime In New York City

Have a little faith...

 I am a man of faith. I Believe. I believe that my wife loves me. I believe that I’ll be able to buy all of the land contiguous to my land some day (it’s not a lot, I mean it’s a lot but not like the Louisiana Purchase ‘a lot’). I believe that every time my whammy bar comes back up, my guitar will be in tune. (Okay, that one’s just a pipe dream!) I believe in God and I believe that He is in control of my life, that the path that I am on is by His design, that He’s given me the talents and desires that I have and that as long as I stay true to Him, everything in my little world will be just fine...then I doubt. I worry. I get scared. I get scared and the little voices in my head start chattering away; “you’re not that good.”, “you’ve played that same lick a million times and now everyone’s going to realize you’re a fraud.”, “you don’t have a good singing voice.”, “you’re too fat/tall/skinny/bald...”...you get the idea. Sometimes it seems like the closer you get to some really great thing; (a vacation with my family, a big gig, a stable career...) something comes along and undermines it. An unexpected bill, an unexpected crisis, an illness (although I do not get SICK, TIRED or HUNGRY. Just ask my wife!) Something comes along and shakes my faith. 

 When I was growing up, I was taught that God (or as it sounded from the preachers and teachers; GOD) was my father. Now, you have to understand, my earthly father, Jess Holt,  is/was a gentle, loving, full of life and humor, supportive, understanding man.  He loved golf, books, backgammon, his sons, his wife, life, photography and most of all his family, (yes that means I put us in that list twice, on purpose). I could go to him in the middle of the night (which I did every time I saw the Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds on late-night TV) and he would say, “it’s okay, son.” “every thing's fine.” “you just had a bad dream.” “I’m right here and I won’t let anything happen to you.” I would then go to bed and sleep like the baby that I was. 

 GOD, on the other hand, was a white haired, white bearded man who was angry at me. He had lightning in his hand that he was ready to throw at me. Nothing I could say or do would gain me the comfort that the church hymns said I was supposed to be feeling. In fact, every day that I was alive just drove me further from his love and grace.

 Lot of conflict growing up. Which I am still doing. Growing up, that is. I’m going through some tumult now, like I’m sure you are too. Mine’s minor, minor; business related so it might be small potatoes to what you’re going through. I was visiting a family member in the hospital recently and was reminded that there are worse things in life than being cutoff in traffic, (but I digress). My point, (and yes Virginia, I do have one) is about faith. Faith, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said; “Faith is taking the first step, even when you don't see the whole staircase.” Faith is belief. Belief that you are not alone. Belief that something is working beyond your power, knowledge and ability. That there is more to this than...THIS. What stops you from robbing banks or kicking canes out from under old ladies. My worries and issues these days are small. My worries are just little nuts and bolts issues. My family is healthy and strong and loving and focused. My dad faced death with grace and strength that I can only pray that I will have. I have family members that are dealing today with catastrophic issues. Things Buff and I have never had to face, (thank God). I have a very dear friend that is battling a life and death issue and I have watched, silently for the most part, while he deals with it in a fairly public forum (facebook). He posts his thoughts, his fears, his frustrations and I have been continually amazed and uplifted by his strength. “Here is a man of true faith!”’ I says to myself... A while back, he had some bad news. Then, he had some good news. Now, he’s had some sketchy news that rattles him. You can hear it in his writing. But, his faith remains. His ability to see through the doubt and fear is his biggest strength. I have always admired him for that. Tonight, however. Reading his latest post, I was struck by another realization; God is working on all levels. He’s caring for CK (my friend) and he’s also using his experience and his ability to articulate and communicate a bigger, more universal message. Basically the way I hear it, is like what my dad would say to me and certainly what I say to my daughter now; “ I got ya!” No matter what, no matter how bad it gets; “I got ya!” You might not believe me, you might not agree with the outcome, but “I got ya.” 

 I’m told that we’re all going to grow old and then die. I’m told that. I don’t believe it for me personally and if you ever happen to come to my funeral (which I promise you will be an affair you will want to attend...if you can get tickets for one of the performances!) and look down into my casket, you will see one very surprised MF!:) I am told that though. I have faith. I have faith that there is a plan. I have faith that there is someone, smarter than all of us, driving this train. That love will prove to be the prevailing force in our universe. There has to be a reason why children and old people suffer. There has to be a reason why good people leave here and not so good folks seem to thrive and carry on. Faith. Faith is believing in something. Have faith. Have faith in each other. Have faith in yourself. Have faith in your loved ones. Whatever your faith is (and even if you’re an atheist you have faith!:)), pray for my friend tonight. And, while you’re at it, pray for one another, pray for your enemies, pray for YOUR friends, pray for a stranger, pray for ‘your fellow man’, pray for our country, pray for your country, pray for CK, pray for me and I’ll pray for you. Pray and have faith that your prayers will be answered. What have you got to lose?

"I'm giving her all I got captain..."

 I really can’t say enough about the great band of guys I am surrounded with. This weekend was a great example of the talent, focus and determination that these guys are putting forth daily. We’ve been having some kind of mechanical issues with our touring vehicle and thought we’d fixed it by staying in Moscow, ID for 4 extra days a couple of weeks ago. No luck! After an uneventful ride home the problems came back about 250 miles into a weekend run that had us going just north of Chicago and then to Quincy, IL., before getting back home in time for Easter. 

 After an incredibly useless stop at a mechanic on Saturday, we limped through the weekend and made it home in time to celebrate Easter with our families. I couldn’t have done that with any other group of guys! Dan, Marshal, Pappy & Shelton; Thank you all so much for your dedication, energy, talent and belief!

Who is John Galt?

What a great start to the year 2011 for the SHB! KUDZU, our best record yet, was released in January and we’re getting a lot of radio play including satellite radio now on XM! We had a great time playing on the Mando Blues Show in Nashville earlier this year (www.radiofreenashville.org), what a blast! Great leg of touring just finished with two nights in Moscow ID. John’s Alley is becoming a favorite place to play, thanks to Dave and the staff there as well as the great fans that come out and see us. Great shows in Minneapolis, Fort Dodge, IA., Sioux Falls, Billings and our first ever show in Vancouver! Just an awesome leg of our never ending tour. Buff and I heard That Girl on XM radio over the weekend and it was a big thrill for me to hear our music played on the radio, (that will never get old). It was really important that Buff and I heard it together for the first time. Check out XM channel 74/B.B. King’s Bluesville and request our music!

 Last Saturday was National Record Store Day. Hope you supported your local record stores! Jack White, a Nashville resident and newly named musical ambassador for Nashville, hosted a concert by Jerry Lee Lewis. I’m grateful to artists like Jack who use their influence to protect the best parts of our industry. Thanks Jack!

 I’m looking forward to getting out and seeing more of ya’ll this spring/summer. We’ve got some cool festivals in the lineup and some interesting gigs. I’ll be in NYC in May as part of a tribute to the late Rory Gallagher. We’re doing the Windsor International Blues Fest this year as well as a bunch of other gigs that we’re looking forward to like Stoogefest in Jackson MO for our Jackson friends. We’ve been in the studio working on some new music and hopefully we’ll get some of that out in the next few months, stay tuned!

P.S. If you wondered about the title of this blog, yes I am reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Amazing Book!

If I Had A Radio Station...

I am not a fan of talk radio. I like music. I LOVE music, actually (not like I love my wife but very much like I love Mexican food, actually MORE than Mexican food! But much, much LESS than my wife!!). I like for my radio to play music. I expect it to play music. That’s it’s job as far as I’m concerned. Maybe it’s not your radio’s job and that’s fine. Maybe you like talk radio and that’s fine too (If you love it so much why don’t you marry it?!...sorry I’ve been watching a lot of Pee Wee Herman lately!). I’m just talking about MY radio and what I like to hear. When my radio stops playing music, I put in a CD, turn on my iPod, sit down at the piano or pick up a guitar because I want to hear music. Talk radio is very popular these days. There are stations that talk about sports, news, conservative issues, liberal issues, science, comedy, cooking, etc. there might even be a station that talks about music! I’ll have to check. I have many friends, musicians and music fans among them, who listen to more talk radio than music. I am not one of them. If I had a radio station it would play music 24/7. According to the current paradigm, it wouldn’t be very successful to most people I know. My friends would listen to it because I asked them to, (at least they would claim to be listening to it, probably while listening to talk radio). I would limit advertisers (you have to have the ads to pay for the airtime, or maybe I could be like XM and just sell subscriptions!) to 5 second commercials; “Buy Ford Trucks!”. The news would only come on if something major happened and then wouldn’t repeat until a really new development actually happened. There would be no hours and hours of commentary about the implications of this major event on the rest of the world, blah, blah, blah, unless there was an implication for the rest of the world to be concerned about, and then the implication would be explained and we would move on.  The news would come on with that sound that they used to use on TV when news would break; click, click, click... We don’t use that sound anymore because news is ALWAYS breaking! Turn on any news program and while they’re talking about news, a scroll is running underneath telling more news. Sometimes it’s important; Japan’s earthquake and nuclear disaster, but sometimes it’s not important; the warlock Charlie Sheen. That’s not news. It’s strange and interesting like a car wreck is interesting, but it’s not news like Libya and yet it’s on the same scroll as news about the economy or the health care debate. Sometimes, they break in to the news with more news! It’s like; “That’s interesting news Bob but we’ve just heard this even more interesting news!” 

 My station would be unlimited when it comes to genre. I don’t recognize them in the world so why would I recognize them on my radio station? Blues would be next to Rock, which would be next to Country, which would be next to Jazz, which would be next to Pop, etc. I think other than making it easier to find CDs in the record store (if you can find a record store and even know what a CD is...) Genres are kind of useless anyway. It gets very hard to categorize some artists and figure out which section they should even be in; (is Johnny Cash in the Country section or the Folk section?) For that matter, if “Pop” is short for “popular” (it is) wouldn’t all artists who’s records are selling well be considered “pop”? Currently, according to Billboard magazine’s chart of the top 200 songs, R.E.M, Sara Evans, Bruno Mars and Jason Aldean would all be considered ‘pop’. Hmmmm. On my radio station, they would all get played anyway, so I guess the categories wouldn’t matter.

 On that thought, genres are kind of like us humans. We’re always looking for the differences in ourselves that separate us from each other and yet there’s way more stuff that make us the same. Just like music! Race, sex, religion, social class, nationality, eye color, weight, skin color; all that stuff that we use to differentiate ourselves, separate, put apart. Categories are great for a simple explanation but they rarely tell you anything about a song, a movie, a painting, an artist or a person for that matter. I’m not sure why we feel the need to do that. I have a young daughter that I’m trying to teach about life and the world and trying to teach her that all people are the same is a very important part of that. I try and explain to her that we don’t judge people. We get to know them. That tells more about someone than the color of their skin or their height. Music is like that too. Don’t dislike something out of hand, listen and judge it based on if it moves you or not. 

  My playlist of artists would look something like this:

• B.B. King
• Ms. Aretha Franklin
• Motorhead
• Justin Bieber (just wanted to put his name right next to Motorhead!)
• Roy Hamilton
• Buck Owens
• Rhianna
• The Statler Brothers
• Albert Collins
• The Police
• Elvis Presley
• Jeff Buckley
• Jeff Beck
• Jeff Bridges (I could just do a day of ‘Jeffs’)
• George Jones
• Salif Keita
• Buddy Guy
• Eric Clapton
• The Monkees
• Hound Dog Taylor
• Material
• Sonny Sharrock
• Fleetwood Mac
• AC/DC
• Steve Earle
• Jimi Hendrix
• Merle Haggard
• The Beatles
• Van Halen
• Tammy Wynette
• Spinal Tap
• Ali Farke Toure
• Robert Johnson
• Prince
• The Rolling Stones
• Stevie Ray Vaughan
• The Sex Pistols
• Hank Williams
• Scott Holt (well, it IS my radio station!)
• John Coltrane
• Sam Cooke
• T.V on the Radio
• P-Funk
• Jerry Lee Lewis
• Billy Idol
• Sly & The Family Stone
• Wes Montgomery
• Miles Davis
• Santana
• Skip James
• Faron Young
• Mozart
• Bob Dylan
• the cast of Glee (seeing if you’d actually read the whole list down!)
• etc. (by that I mean, I could go on and on. Etc. is not to indicate a band called etc. although I’d probably play them too)

In Defense Of The Tangible

 I love technology. I love my iPhone, my Mac, my Kindle, my iPod, etc. I believe that technology is our friend. I’m all “big screen TV’s and wireless guitars!” That being said, this blog is in defense of the “old school”. I recently read an interview with Jon Bon Jovi, in which he was lamenting the seeming replacement of the physical album or CD with MP3’s or Wav's. He blamed Steve Jobs personally, which I don’t really agree with, but much of the interview felt right to me. I reposted the article on my facebook and got some interesting responses. It made me think about my own feelings concerning this topic, which in my line of work is kind of important!

 When I was growing up, (in olden times) music was on albums (33 1/3 baby!!), then we got 8-track tapes (horrible) and then cassettes (ehh), then the glorious CD! Yes, an indestructible, last forever format; except it’s not. They scratch, have a shelf life, and you can break them. Still it was the last physical format to come along before the age of 1’s and 0’s. When MP3’s became the thing, it wasn’t the sound quality that bothered me as much as the physical “not being able to hold something” feeling. My high-school years (my truly formative music listening years) were spent listening to most of my music while driving in my truck, cruising up and down the streets of my hometown, on a really crappy car stereo with a graphic equalizer that did little more than add too much treble, bass and volume. In other words, sound quality was not really a major issue for me at the time. Even now, as I write this, I’m listening to music (Lucinda Williams / Blessed) on desktop computer speakers...sounds fine to me:). A lot of my favorite stuff isn't really “audio-phile” type stuff anyway, I’ve been listening recently to Robert Johnson, not exactly pristine recordings (some things even technology can’t do yet!)!

 When I first heard Jimi Hendrix, it was important that I saw a picture of him. It was important to read the liner notes and see where the music was recorded, who else played on it, when was it recorded, etc. I learned as much about music from reading my CD’s as from listening to them. I learned about Guitar Slim in the liner notes of a Stevie Ray Vaughan, CD. I found out about Earl Hooker from Buddy Guy, but I learned more about his discography from liner notes on Muddy Waters records, etc. I can’t overstate the importance of that source of information and knowledge when learning about music. There IS a reason why there’s a Grammy category for liner notes! 

 When I first started exploring iTunes I was excited about the “compactness” of it; I can carry my entire record collection with me everywhere on a device roughly the size of a deck of cards. That’s awesome! When I started touring, I carried a little CD player and 3 BIG albums of CDs! Very cumbersome!! Once the newness of iTunes wore off and it became a regular part of my day, the limitations started to reveal themselves. Especially after my first hard drive crash that lost my entire iTunes library! 4,450 albums...GONE! That’s a great, (albeit painful) wake up call! I’ve had a couple of crashes and ‘losses’ since then and it sent me scurrying back to my local record store (Grimey’s in Nashville) and made me appreciate, again, the feeling of tearing the plastic off of a new resource and a new friend. 

 I believe in the ability of humans to assimilate new technology and refine it over time. I think that’s what will happen to recorded music; it’s great to have MP3’s, it’s great to have iTunes and be able to buy a song while driving down the interstate at 3:00am (yes, I have done that for some of the most random songs you can imagine!) but I don’t believe 1’s and 0’s will ever fully replace the physical recorded work any more than I believe that texting will ever fully do away with face to face conversation (although it is very handy!!) Buddy used to tell me; “just because something is new doesn’t make it better.” I agree with that.

Finding it pt.2

The meandering stream of life. Can you remember how you came to have the list of ‘favorites’ that you currently have? If today you like eating lobster, did you start with fish sticks? If today your favorite book is Water For Elephants was it once Green Eggs and Ham? If today you are jamming to Born This Way by Lady Gaga, was there a time in your past when it was Fallin’ by Alicia Keys? (Did you know that was 10 years ago?!) Sometimes I wonder why I like certain songs. In my line of work it’s an important thing to try and study. If I could figure it out, I’d be writing this from my private island fortress, while sitting on a stack of gold bars. How did I go from listening to my parents live Sha Na Na record to listening to Lightnin’ Hopkins? How do I draw the line from my love for Hank Williams Jr to my love for Funkadelic? I loved Elvis long before I began to raid his record collection for guidance. I got my appreciation for B.B. King from Buddy Guy. I found out about Guitar Slim from Stevie Ray Vaughan. I learned my gospel music from church but I learned my love of George Jones from my mom listening to WSIX in Nashville. There’s a place in the Bible where Jesus says to become like “little children”. I won’t go into the spiritual aspects of the passage but I will say that a lot of aspects of the creative life (and maybe just life in general) are made better by following that ideal. In my last blog, I spoke about how I discovered music. I discovered it in a random, sort of meandering way that wouldn’t make sense if you were trying find the straight line of discovery. I still find music like a child plays; any toy is fair game, size and proportion doesn’t matter. A 2” tall doll can be friends with an 18” doll and they can live in a house that is in now way proportionate for either of them. When I play dolls with my daughter, I’m the ‘boy dolls’ which tend to be a little less ‘together’ than the girl dolls. My favorite is the one we call business man; he has a tie and suspenders but no jacket and no shoes. She may be a Cinderella or a small girl in a riding outfit but it makes no difference. The rule is; there are no rules. It’s just playing. Imagination.
Music is like that (thank God!). In my iTunes, Donny hathaway is right next to The Doors (alphabetized by first names I guess) I found Robert Johnson like this; Jimi Hendrix - Stevie Ray Vaughan - Buddy Guy - Billy Idol - John Lee Hooker - Robin Trower - Eric Clapton - The Time - Robert Johnson. There was no straight line, no path of logic, just a sort of “Hey, I wonder what this sounds like?” I remember sometimes I would find someone that I wasn’t really ready for and it would be a while before I could come back to them and it make sense to me. John Lee Hooker was like that for me. I had heard Buddy, Stevie, B.B., Muddy and I had heard John Lee’s name enough to know he was “important” but when I bought my first record, Mad Man Blues, it made no sense at all. It sounded out of tune, unorganized and nothing like what I was used to. It was NOT love at first sight. As time went on, I developed a broader sensability, found more music, varied sounds and when I came back to John Lee, it WAS love. I put him high on my list of favorites and consider him one of the greatest bluesmen ever. I heard the Sex Pistols looooong before I loved them. For a long time I liked Adam & The Ants better than the Clash! (What do you want, I was a Prince fan!)
(My List of Greatest Blues Men, order subject to change daily or hourly)
Muddy Waters
B.B. King
Robert Johnson
Howlin’ Wolf
John Lee Hooker
T-bone Walker
Buddy Guy
Albert Collins
Freddie King
Hank Williams

*I add this caveat; Stevie Ray Vaughan was the LAST real authentic blues man. I’ve yet to see anyone access that channel since. Also, I know that I left off; Little Walter, Son House, Sonny Boy Williamson, Albert King, Junior Wells, Elmore James, Little Milton, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Charlie Patton, etc...

My daughter, who has become one of my best teachers, shows me every day how to ‘learn like a child’. She discovered the song You Really Got Me not from Van Halen like I did, not from The Kinks but from Alvin & The Chipmunks. Not trying to be cool or hip, she just found the version that to her ear sounds ‘good’. She learned Hank William’s I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry from a film version of Beverly Hillbillies. I learned the same way; my first Clapton record wasn’t Derek & The Dominoes or Cream, it was Behind The Sun. Good record but not the record responsible for his “godhood”. Not the ‘cool’ record you want to say was your first. My first Buddy Guy record was a Vanguard compilation. Then I accidentally came across Stone Crazy on Alligator, (still my favorite and I would argue his best). I heard Elton John for years and saw his videos through the 80’s and early 90’s but couldn’t be bothered to even own an Elton John record. Then one day it just clicked into place and a casual purchase of his greatest hits (because I am determined to own every record ever made) led to me deciding that he is one of the greatest pop music geniuses of the 20th century. (Yes I am prepared to argue that point with anyone!) I liked the Monkees before I liked the Beatles. I liked the Beatles before I liked The Rolling Stones. I liked 70’s jumpsuit era Elvis better than 50’s era (I still do sometimes) because that’s the one I was exposed to first. I like Merle Haggard doing Lefty Frizzell better than the originals. I like to discuss music. I will debate (not argue) with you about my choices if challenged, but in the end it’s about what you like as an individual. There are 31 flavors of ice cream for a reason (except in Libya where there is just the one flavor; Kaddafi Krunch! Bahahahahahaha!! WINNING!)

Finding it pt.1

I’m always fascinated by how “new” music finds me. I’ve been on this planet for several years now and not only do I find new recent music all the time (still in love with F**k You by Cee Lo Green) but I also find stuff that I’m amazed I haven’t come across before. Some of you who came out to the shows last year on ‘The Big Nasty’s Traveling Freak Show’ tour know that I was in the throes of discovering Elton John for real, finally. The temptation to play Bennie And The Jets was often irresistible (sorry for that!)! These days I’m finding amazing artists like Townes Van Zandt. I’m a music fiend, so I’ve heard his name for years, but actually tracking down some of his work and listening to it is different from just being aware that we share oxygen.
I’m not sure how other people do go through this type stuff (or if they even think about it at all) but being a musician, I’m always working on my craft from every angle and that includes my “diet”. I believe that an artist is not only the combination of elements and desires that God gives but also a result of the influences that come to you and at what stage they arrive. I started with Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan in very short order so discovering the guitar gave me an entry to my medium. If my first influences had been Frank Lloyd Wright, Jean-Michel Basquiat or Charles Portis, I would be a very different type of artist!
After spending a bunch of time immersing myself in the blues (I actually wrote Muddy Waters but just couldn’t bring myself to let the pun go!), I was introduced, by Buddy and others, to P-Funk, Earth, Wind & Fire, Prince, Bobby Womack etc. I also looked around my hometown area and started finding the people that I had grown up hearing; George Jones, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams, Jr. My list of favorites has grown over time to be quite an eclectic list; Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Miles Davis, Donny Hathaway, Annie Lennox, Jeff Beck, Aretha Franklin, Jason and The Scorchers, Sly & The Family Stone, The Sex Pistols, Mozart, B.B. King, John Coltrane, Funkadelic, Wes Montgomery, Elton John, Steve Earle, The Rolling Stones, Prince, Eric Clapton, George Jones, The Beatles, Dwight Yoakum,... I could literally go on and on!
The point (if in fact there is a point) is that I am so grateful that God has given me such an adoration for what I do and allows me to continue to discover new music and have it feel like it did when I first started. I’ve told the story of “finding” Jimi for the first time. I can still access that feeling in my memory. I can still see the place I was, the way the sounds hit me and assaulted my senses and left me knowing that this was my path. I remember going to see Elvis with my parents, I can still feel the air from that night. I remember exploring Prince’s 1999 album (yes kids, on vinyl!). Hearing Buddy Guy for the first time, on a cassette, late at night. The impact on me was huge! I LOVE MUSIC! can you tell?

Recommended Playlist (if you’re interested)
Buddy Guy / One Room Country Shack
Hank Williams / Rambling Man
John Coltrane / Naima
Duke Ellington / Lotus Blossom
George Jones / He Stopped Loving Her Today
Jason & The Scorchers / White Lies
Townes Van Zandt / Pancho & Lefty
Funkadelic / Maggot Brain
The Rolling Stones / Rocks Off
B.B. King / You Done Lost Your Good Thing Now
Prince / She’s Always In My Hair
John Prine / In Spite Of Ourselves
Earth, Wind & Fire / September
Donny Hathaway / A Song For You

...when she's dreaming

Just got back from the latest recording sessions in Minneapolis. (Snuck out in 18” of snow before another 12” fell!) We are in the process of recording a new project. Tentatively titled; ...when she’s dreaming. We’re calling it an acoustic record, but hopefully it will be more than that. We did make a rule that the only “electric” instrument would be Truth’s B3, so we’ll see if we’re able to keep it like that! In the process of recording, we actually put down a couple of songs that will be on a later, somewhat larger project, more about that later. I’m really happy with the reception that Kudzu is getting. We’re getting a great response to all the songs every night and it’s really great to see our fans really “getting it” so to speak. Being able to create music is my favorite thing to do (second favorite thing actually...) and suddenly it feels like we have no limits in what kind of music we can make and that feels great! If you haven’t checked out Kudzu yet, what’re ya waiting for?!? Go to iTunes or Amazon and download it right now!...I’ll wait...:)
Buff and Olivia give the new stuff their thumbs up so hopefully we’re on the right track! Look for the new stuff later this year and until then BUY KUDZU!!!

Random:

Just my Monday morning thoughts; Congratulations Packers! Christina Aguilera should be forgiven for messing up the National Anthem, it’s a lot of pressure to perform solo in front of the entire world. I don’t think that it should put your patriotism into question if you can’t remember the words. The Black Eyed Peas were actually pretty good for a Super Bowl Half Time show. Not sure what you’re supposed to expect from something like that but I thought they performed well, actually sang live and made it interesting. The commercials this year were probably the most unimaginative and dull of any year I can remember. I think the Bill O’Reily interview with President Obama was strange. I thought the president handled himself well but I’d rather see John Madden interviewing. Doesn’t anyone else remember that Bill O’Reily was the host of A Current Affair?
Buffy gave me a Kindle for Christmas (thanks again Beautiful!) and I have read more in the last two months than I have in the last two years! Best books so far; The Kennedy Detail, Hellhounds On His Trail, A Terrible Glory, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest.
TODAY'S PLAYLIST:
1. ALICE IN WONDERLAND - BILL EVANS
2. A LOVE SUPREME - JOHN COLTRANE
3. GYPSY WOMAN - MUDDY WATERS
4. WICKED AS IT SEEMS - KEITH RICHARDS
5. CONTREDANSES (12) FOR ORCHESTRA - BEETHOVAN
6. SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE - CREAM
7. CLOSED CAPTION DEMO - FUGAZI
8. SINCE I'VE BEEN LOVING YOU - LED ZEPPELIN
9. HOT PANTS - JAMES BROWN
10. MY BABE (LIVE) - SONNYBOY WILLIAMSON

All Hail The King!

“Before Elvis, there was nothing.” - John Lennon

Elvis’ birthday is today. He would have been 76 years old. I, like many people, called him the King of Rock and Roll today on Facebook and was challenged to explain how he could merit that title. So here goes;
It’s hard to imagine how different the world was 60 years ago. Nowhere was our cultural differences more broadly expressed than in music. Pop music was divided into ‘black’ music and ‘white’ music. The names for the categories were much more genteel; white music was either ‘pop’ (short for popular music) or country & western (yes, both kinds!) black music was first called ‘race records’ and then was changed to ‘r&b’. Of course all of these distinctions were only invented by the recording industry to sell records. In the real world, ‘white’ people would listen to ‘black’ music and vice-versa.
When Elvis walked into Sun records in Memphis, TN in 1954, he stood in front of the mic and let loose a new kind of music. An uptempo, countryfied version of an old rhythm and blues song by Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup called That’s Alright Mama. This was the birth of Rock and Roll. Rock and Roll transcended boundaries of culture, race, gender or nationality. The music was embraced by kids all over the nation and soon the world. Elvis started the avalanche of artists that followed; Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, etc. He influenced everyone from Buddy Holly to Led Zeppelin. Keith Richards, in his recent autobiography, had this to say concerning Elvis’ imprint on his own career; “Heartbreak Hotel...was the stunner...when I woke the next morning, I was a different guy.”
No other single artist or group influenced more artists or a more diverse group of artists than Elvis. In the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland there are a collection of drawings made by a young Jimi Hendrix in grade school, the subject of one drawing; Elvis Presley. Bob Dylan referred to listening to Elvis like, “busting out of jail”. Little Richard called Elvis “an integrator”. Rod Stewart said; “Elvis was the king. People like myself, Mick Jagger and all the others only followed in his footsteps.” Elton John said; “If it hadn’t been for Elvis, I don’t know where popular music would be.” In a career that only lasted 20 years, including 9 years in Hollywood making movies instead of rock and roll records, it would be easier to make a list of 20th century artists who weren’t influenced by Elvis...it would be a very short list.

6th Annual Have A Blues Christmas

Well, another year is almost gone and once again we were able to have our annual Have A Blues Christmas charity event to raise money for the needy kids in my hometown. After 6 years, the generosity of people still amazes/blesses me! This year it seemed like everything was working against us; we lost our venue from the last two years, we were having trouble securing a ‘backup’ venue, the economy remains hard on everyone and by the time we got in position to announce the event and start selling tickets and accepting donations, we were about a month behind schedule. Even with all of that, we managed to sell out the venue and raise over $12,000.00 for the charity.
The heavy lifting for this event is always done by Keith Throneberry. It’s impossible to describe the amount of work that he selflessly puts into this event to make it perfect. He’s in charge of every aspect of the event from securing the venue, to printing and selling the tickets, to handling the T-shirt design and sales, organizing the lights and sound, staffing the event, gathering donations from large contributors, arranging the meal and drinks, coordinating the band’s soundcheck and load-ins, and probably a dozen other items that I’m not even aware of and he does all of this while maintaining his own business, full time! It is a LOT of work. Those of you that have been to the event know what I’m talking about; Keith is there when you get there (no matter when you get there) and he’s there when you leave (no matter when you leave). I can’t praise or thank him enough for taking this responsibility on his shoulders every year for the last 6 years.
Ms. Natalie Stovall and her fantastic band donate their time and talent every year and I truly believe that her show is worth the price of admission alone! Natalie is an extremely talented young lady with a bright future in front of her and it’s an honor and a privilege to share the stage with her every year.
The Xtreme 4X4 club provides the manpower (and woman power!) every year and we literally couldn’t do the show without them. Every chair, every table, every trashcan, every ‘overexerted’ audience member is taken care of by these incredible people and it’s an honor to work with them as well!
We’ve also been blessed with the donation of items to sell through the events silent auction. These include works of art from many local artists (including my extremely talented wife Buffy!) and sports and music memorabilia. This year we had a football autographed by Chris Johnson from the Titans and a guitar autographed by Robby Krieger, Joe Bonamassa, Mick Taylor, Natalie Stovall and myself.
If you still want to be a part of this great event, we have T-shirts for sale (contact Keith Throneberry: iceman@xtreme4x4.net ) All money from sales will be delivered to the charity until Dec.24, so it’s not too late!!
Make your plans to make it next year!! Merry Christmas!!

Church

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
We went to church this Sunday with our best friends Keith and Jen. I’ve been a Christian since I can remember. I was raised in church. I was baptized when I was 12. I have a bible with my name on it. My parents sang in church, my grandparents sang in church and church has just been a part of my life, all my life. My momma took me to church every time the doors opened. Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, vacation bible school, etc. When I was young I never questioned what I was being told. I was taught that my denomination was the only true denomination. I was taught that not only was everyone not in church on Sunday going to hell, but everyone that wasn’t in a church of my denomination was going to hell as well (my church even taught that a lot of the people in my church were going to hell so I’d better be exceptionally scared!). I thought everyone who sat on the front row, or was old, or had a bigger bible, or who wasn’t me was guaranteed to go to Heaven and I was just lost. There was a secret code or something and I didn’t have it. God was scary because he was already mad at me. I was doomed from the start and I was supposed to spend my life playing ‘catch-up’, trying to ‘fix’ myself and that was something that could really never be done, but I’d better try forever!
I got older, I strayed. I was under my own choice and I quit going to church. I missed Wednesdays first, then Sunday nights and then it was a small leap to missing Sunday mornings. Late Saturday nights full of ‘sin’ made Sundays easy to sleep through. As an ‘adult’ my first exercise of my ‘maturity’ was to stop going altogether. God’s already mad at me, I’m not perfect, even though I know ‘right from wrong’ I still do ‘wrong’ so I’m sure I’m doomed.
Interestingly, for all of the ‘holiness’ that I didn’t posses and was constantly being drilled into me, when I started missing church, no one from my church ever called to ask if I was okay or why I wasn’t coming to church. Not one of the people, that I was sure were going to Heaven, ever tried to help me ‘find my way’. That’s not an accusation, it’s just interesting in hindsight.
I got older, I started to read books and question everything. I still doubt algebra. I doubt that not having good typing skills will stand in the way of me finding work. I was never good in school ( The only thing Ms. Sonya Ingram, my third grade teacher, and quite possibly the meanest, worst teacher in the universe, taught me was to hate school. Thanks Ms. Ingram, wherever you are.), by the time I realized that mistake (long after I had graduated from school), I started trying to compensate in every area, including religion. I read the bible. I read it again. I still believed in God, I still believed in Jesus. I believe that he is the son of God, sent to earth to die for our sins. I still want to go to Heaven. I want my family to go to Heaven. I want my friends to go to Heaven. I want you to go to Heaven. I’m still not perfect. I won’t ever be. I read about a Jesus that turned water into wine. I read about a Jesus that ate with prostitutes and tax collectors. I read about a Jesus that spent more time with the ‘imperfect’ than the ‘perfect’. I read about a Jesus that said;<‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’>
Some things seem to stick with you and that verse stuck with me. I started to realize that while I had been taught that; <...God created mankind in his own image, 
   in the image of God he created them; 
   male and female he created them. > God created people in His image, I had treated that verse as a figure of speech. “Surely God didn’t mean all people, just the ‘good’ people.” ‘People who had a job, who weren’t addicted to drugs or alcohol, people who didn’t ‘sin’, people who were ‘perfect’. ‘ I was sure that God had created ‘special’ people in his image to try and guide the way of the rest of us ‘sinful savages’.
I got older, my ‘black and white’ world started to get some gray in it. My politics changed. My philosophies changed. My view of the world changed. I have friends who are different from me in philosophy. They don’t see things like I see them. They might be a different denomination, they might be a different culture, they might have different politics, they might even be vegetarians(!) they might be a lot of things but they are my friends and I love them. Some of my older friends think I’m a ‘lefty’ or a borderline socialist! I have some younger friends who haven’t found the ‘gray’ yet. It’s easy for them to see right and wrong. They can judge moral issues better than I can. Or at least easier than I can. In their eyes, foreigners, homosexuals, vegetarians, addicts, democrats, people that drive foreign cars, etc. are wrong and if they (or anyone purporting to be representing them) offend us, we should destroy them. I just can’t find that black and white anymore. It’s just not easy for me to say to someone; “you don’t like the Titans, or hot sauce, or Jimi Hendrix, you are going to hell!” I try, not always successfully, to see their side. Or at least accept them for who they are.
I’ve kind of gotten off the point. The point is I went to a church today that had a ‘crazy idea’. That’s what the preacher said anyway. He said; “We’re going to do something really crazy today...” I’m a visitor, so I’m mentally saying; :Oh no!! What’s going on here? I just want to hear a little sermon and get out of here in time to eat lunch and watch the Titans play!” The crazy thing was this; They handed out a sheet of paper with a shopping list on it. Instead of a sermon, they dismissed the service so that the entire congregation could go shopping and fill trucks with items to donate to a family center for families in need. No sermon, no collection plate, in fact, they specified that a collection would NOT be taken so that that money could go to the Family Center. In all my Christian life I never felt like I was closer to the true intent of Jesus than that moment; doing for someone who has less. Doing for the least of these. Giving! My family and I had the best Sunday I can remember. The title of the sermon was “Be The Sermon”. I took that to mean, if you are a Christian, if you say you’re a Christian, go do something “Christlike”. Go help someone else. Don’t just mouth the words and call it a day, go act! Don’t spend your time pointing out to someone how they are falling short or failing. One of my favorite gospel songs says;You may run and hide, slip and slide
Trying to take the mote from your neighbour's eyes
As sure as God made the rich and poor You gonna reap just what you sow” . I fall short all the time. I fell short later the same day. I will forget to be that Christian tomorrow but I pray that I will at least try and remember to be a better version of myself.
No matter what your beliefs are, Christian, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist, etc. at least agree with me that we can be better to our neighbors. Be kinder. Be gentler. Try and be more understanding. Try and be more forgiving. Be an example of what we want to see in the world. It doesn’t have to cost us anything and you never know, it might just turn out to be the best day you’ve ever had!
Thanks to Maury Hills Church Of Christ for showing me and my family a fantastic Sunday!

Gratitude

I am grateful. I am a blessed person with too much and I am grateful. Right now we are in Sioux Falls, SD. Today is Wednesday. We’re broke down, waiting on a new transmission, that won’t be ready until Friday. Stopped for fuel, got in to drive off and nothing! We still have 958 miles to travel when we get rolling and in the meantime, we’re sitting still. Even still, I can’t be anything but grateful. I’m grateful for the obvious stuff; my wife (my heart), my daughter (my life), my friends and family, my music, etc. I’m also grateful for the fact that we broke down in a place where we could get the transmission fixed properly. I’m grateful that I have a band of guys with me that I can depend on. My guys made a conscious decision to stay here and face this with me, for that I am incredibly proud and grateful. It’s hard to be on the road, to do it alone, for me, is unimaginable. I’m grateful for the people that support me behind the scenes at Gracetone (my company) that work so hard to make our lives run smooth. I’m grateful for the fact that we have a safe, comfortable place to stay while we wait. We started the trip home in Moscow, ID. We traveled 1,000 miles through plenty of desolate country that would NOT have been hospitable to us if we’d broke down there. We broke down 15 miles from a dealership that services and repairs our brand of vehicle. We broke down in a town that has a classic rock station that happened to play one of our songs on the radio last night. Just that little thing (a big thing to us) was special and wouldn’t have happened if we had blown through here like we were intending. I’m even grateful for the little stuff like being walking distance from Starbucks and Mexican food! It would be easy to focus on the cost of being here, the missing of my family and whatever, but I can’t / won’t do that. I’m just not wired that way. I have to focus on what I see which is just an avalanche of blessings. God is great and I am blessed!

My 5 Desert Island Discs

My mind is wandering this morning (yes, it CAN be a dangerous thing...), so I thought I would write a blog about my 5 favorite albums. I decided to call it my “Desert Island Discs List”, because that’s what I’ve always heard it called. The inferred question being, “If you were stranded on a desert island and could only have 5 CD’s, what would they be?” Soon my thoughts of CDs were taken over by the idea of being stranded on a deserted island. Would I really be worrying about CD’s? If I was, how would I play them? More importantly, however, how did I come to be on this island? Plane crash? Shipwreck? Was I taken prisoner by an evil genius, like in James Bond movies and left to die here after being interrogated for hours? In fact, if I was the captive of an evil genius, would he allow me to choose 5 CDs to keep me entertained on the island that is supposed to be my prison? If he did, should I take a really long time to decide in the hope that he’d lose interest and I could more easily escape?
If I table the ‘why am I here’ aspect of this already slightly unsettling and potentially horrifying scenario, I am left with the practicality of survival on a deserted island. Is this place truly deserted or are there cannibals or dangerous animals that I will have to fend off? If there are animals, can I eat them if I catch one? (also, can you eat a cannibal? is that morally okay since they would surely eat you...) What about snakes, (of whom I am NOT a fan!)? Would it be like Tom Hanks in the movie Castaway? He managed to do pretty well after he got acclimated to the situation. He did however end up with a bizarre assortment of stuff to survive with; ice skates, a volleyball, etc. Apparently he was NOT asked what 5 CDs he’d like to have with him. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that I have a made a thorough reconnoiter of the entire island and found it to be strangely absent of any other life forms...yeah, right.
I think if I was to be stranded on a deserted island and being a fan and longtime viewer of the show Survivor, I would first like to have fire. A LOT of fire. As Jeff Probst is always saying “Fire means life.” I would ask for an entire carton of Bic disposable lighters. Yes, I realize that disposable lighters would be bad for the environment, but I’m stranded on a deserted island at the moment and if and when I am rescued, I will return here in a boat and restore the island to the way it was...I promise. Next, I’m going to need shelter. This one was tough because it needs to be comfortable, dry, warm or cool depending on the outside conditions, etc. Therefore, I choose a tour bus. They are familiar, comfortable to sleep on and if cannibals or snakes attack, I can just lock the door. The following items are necessary without any explanation; a CD player (apparently), a shotgun, ammunition, Spam, fresh water, bathing suit, a big knife, a machete, a small knife, another shotgun (in case something happens to the first one), a GPS, a satellite phone, a flare gun, flares, my guitar, pictures of my family (this is assuming that they are not with me), salt, pepper, Tabasco sauce, a skillet, a coffee pot, coffee, plenty of socks, a solar powered generator, crackers, a BBQ grill, a hammock,...
As I look over my list so far, I realize that this is going to cost quite a bit. The tour bus alone is about $500,000.00 and after it’s been on an island, it’s probably going to be greatly depreciated. No resale value there! (by the way, when they deliver the tour bus, couldn’t I just catch a ride back with the delivery person?) This brings me to the question; “ In this scenario, is money ‘no object’?”. Is the question; “If you were a jillionaire and allowed to prepare yourself to live on a deserted island, what 5 CD’s would you take?” I have to say that sounds pretty unrealistic to me. If I’m a jillionaire I could afford more than 5 CDs. Also, if I’m a jillionaire wouldn’t I have a staff of people around me that would theoretically protect me from inadvertently finding my way to a deserted island all alone? A more likely headline would be; “Famous Jillionaire Guitarist Almost Lost On Deserted Island, Saved By Very Efficient Staff Members”. If I am a jillionaire, I would definitely have a personal flying machine, like a jet pack or something (in addition to my Segway of course), so I could probably just use that to escape. (That is if I’m the captive of an evil genius of course) I guess to be fair the question should be; “If you are NOT a jillionaire and you find yourself stranded on a deserted island through no evil machinations of any sort and while money is an important consideration your mind is focused clearly on the 5 CDs that you would like to have with you to listen to, understanding that these are the last 5 CDs you will ever listen to...wait...am I to understand that this scenario contains no ‘happy ending’?!? I’m going to DIE on this island?!? Suddenly my appetite for Spam is disappearing. As are my thoughts of what music I want to hear before I die from starvation and exposure. Or maybe I die of thirst because I can’t get fresh water. When I was a jillionaire, I had plenty of fresh water but now I’m just a poor, unfortunate soul with 5 stupid CDs to my name, dying of thirst on this uncharted deserted island. Or maybe there were cannibals after all and they were hiding in those caves that I saw on the other side of the island but I was tired and thirsty and ready to get back to my camp...to listen to my CDs...God this Spam is starting to turn my stomach...one should never eat Spam in the hot salty air! The salty ocean air is scratching my CDs too! Soon they’ll be unlistenable! What was that noise?! I think I hear something in the jungle...
Okay, so the question as I now understand it is; “You are going to die. You are not rich and no one can save you. You are going to die alone on an uncharted deserted island, far, far removed from any known shipping lanes and the chances for rescue are nonexistent. While you are going to die...soon...for some unknown reason, the gods of fate have seen fit to allow you to have in your possession 5 CDs and a device to play them on. If you can stop your mind from dwelling on the fact that you are DYING(!!!), and can concentrate on music purely for the purposes of enjoyment (in these, your last few hours before delirium sets in signaling that final sweet slumber) what CDs would you take with you to this ISLAND OF DEATH?”
That’s the question?....well...hmmm...alright...I guess...

Live - Donny Hathaway
Stone Crazy - Buddy Guy
Electric Ladyland - Jimi Hendrix
The Violin Concertos II - Mozart
A Love Supreme - John Coltrane


WAIT! I’ve got it! What if, when the cannibals come for me, I play my CDs to them and they, never having seen a CD player before, are fascinated by the magical box of sound and decide that I am one of their gods! They take me back to their caves and give me food and fresh water and through my time with them, I gain their trust and convince them that cannibalism is just not morally cool. Then we all work together and build an outrigger canoe and we row ourselves into the shipping lanes and are rescued by an oil tanker (probably owned by BP!!) we return to the US, get the cover of People magazine, (one of the cannibals gets caught up in a love triangle with Lindsay Lohan and Mel Gibson and ends up on the cover of the National Enquirer...Hollywood can be more dangerous than a deserted island!) get interviewed by Matt Lauer, meet the President, who gives me the Congressional Medal of Survival or something, we get to make a cameo in The Hangover 3, get invited to be interviewed on the CBS morning show and turn them down...after we stop laughing! (who watches the CBS morning show anyway?!?), we do Leno, Conan, Jimmy Kimmel, Letterman (where we jam with the band of course) we do Jimmy Fallon just to jam with The Roots (oh, Fallon’s alright, but he seems like he’s just trying a little too hard..),National Geographic wants to have me host a reality show and the cannibals and I are invited to be Grand Marshals of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! (all of which can only help the sales of KUDZU - out Jan. 11, 2011)

1968 - Martin Luther King's Prophetic Last speech - Remember

Snapshots from Memphis

Recently, I took a trip to Memphis for a project I’m working on. I’ve always had a real affinity for Memphis. Some of my biggest musical influences come from there; B.B. King, Little Milton, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis of course, the flow of music that has passed through Memphis from New Orleans up through the Delta and northward has probably been the single biggest path of influence in contemporary music. So I went to Memphis to soak up some of those ghosts. Feel the weight of the air that men like Howlin’ Wolf pushed out of their lungs to sing something like Moanin’ At Midnight. Even though I live just 3 hours east in Nashville, the vibe is completely different. There is a rhythm to southern towns for sure but at the same time they are all very distinctive in the way they feel, the way people walk and talk and just the ‘texture’ of them.
I went to Memphis to soak in that feel for a while and see if she would ‘shake the muse’ so to speak. “Hello Memphis, I write songs, whaddya got? Anything left in the old tank?” I’ve just begun to scratch the surface of what I found, so I can say Memphis is still there!
The coolest moment of this particular trip though was sort of an unexpected one. We went to the National Civil Rights Museum, which is in the old Lorraine Motel, site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. The museum is a profound space. A well done introductory film of Dr. King’s life and his pivotal role in the Civil Rights movement begins a self guided tour and it takes you to the actual motel room he occupied on that fateful day as well as to the room where the shot was fired from. All in all, a very profound and thoughtful trip in and of itself, but we weren’t done. The next day was a cold and rainy one and we were sort of wandering around Memphis, talking about the city and what we were seeing and almost as an afterthought, we decided to drive by the Mason Temple, Church of God in Christ Headquarters; the site of Dr. King’s final speech.
We entered, although I’m not sure visitors are even permitted! We were allowed, after signing in, to go into the sanctuary by ourselves! A huge, stately space. I’ve been in a lot of churches when they’re not having services and I’m always awed by the stately silence they have. Just a deep, peaceful air. This one was no exception, a large room, the center of which was occupied by the podium from which Dr. King made his speech. We approached the spot and when I stood there, the feeling was overwhelming. This was the spot where a man, who knew he was destined to die because of his convictions, boldly stood and espoused those very convictions and exhorted the audience to keep the faith. The air felt solemn, heavy with the kind of somber, passive awareness and resignation of a witness. Thanks to an iPhone and YouTube we were even able to sort recreate the speech. Even from little cell phone speakers, Dr. King’s voice was powerful and we all got chills. Thanks to YouTube, I’ve been listening to a lot of Dr. King’s speeches lately and I’m so grateful for the technology that allows us to access these kinds of things! I hope we can put the ideas of people like Dr. King back into the forefront of our consciousness. Just simple ideas; respect, dignity, peace...really simple.

Positivity

I’m a positive person. I believe in the ‘better’ of life and humanity. Instead of immediately thinking “rip-off” or “watch out”, I believe in the promise of “YES!”. Do I fall short? Hell yeah!! The temptation to flip off a bad driver is tremendous! The desire to berate a bad waiter is compelling! I get pissed off when things don’t go ‘my way’! I wasn’t always so focused on being positive, in fact for most of my life I thought; “It’ll never work, they’ll never go for it, this person is intentionally being difficult, I can’t...”. That IS an easy way to go through life, on the surface anyway. If you say, “I can’t”; you’re probably right. A version of that statement has been credited to Henry Ford. I don’t know if he really said it, but if he did, he’s right.
A few years ago, I was thinking about my career, my life, my music, where I was in the universe, etc, and I realized that somehow, I had been focused on the wrong things. Wrong, in this instance, meaning for me, not the most spiritually healthy things; money, record sales, etc. My wife Buffy introduced me to a book that made me stop and think. I won’t name it outright, because this isn’t an infomercial, but it IS one of the 5 books named at the end of this blog. The book in itself, on the surface, could have been passed off as one more semi-new age bit of mumbo jumbo, but it wasn’t. Buffy responded immediately, reading portions of it out loud to me. When she was through I read it and responded even more! The simple, truth of the book was that we receive the life we create and the life we “see”. If everything looks crappy to you, it will be. If everybody’s out to screw you, they are. I’m not saying that if something bad happens to you it’s your fault, what I’m saying is whatever happens to us, we have a choice to make, as to how we play it. I am a terrible golfer, so if Tiger Woods and I get the same shot, he’ll see more in the shot than I would. (conversely, if we both faced a musical challenge, I’d take him to the woodshed!! That was said with a smile and love!!:))
I realized, some time ago, that because of my path, I have a platform. What do I say? If I have a chance to address the world, what do I tell them? As an entertainer, there must be something beyond; “Hey!!...Ho!!...Wave your hands in the air!!...Do you feel alright?!?!, Let me hear you say yeah!...”. No I don’t believe in the musician/politician. I’m not the guy to pontificate on government policy or the better way to run the world. I’m not even the guy to tell you which brand of soap is better. I do have something to tell you though. #1. You are loved. Plain and simple, believe it or not! Run from it if you will, but it is true. Someone, somewhere, loves you, values you, needs you and wishes/prays the best for you. #2. Someone watches you. Not in a voyeuristic way (well...some of you...) no, seriously, someone watches you to determine how they lead their life. They watch the decisions you make, the hands you play, and they pattern their paths after yours. YOU have a platform, wether you realize it or not! #3. EVERYONE is more like you than not; that’s important so I’m gonna write the whole sentence again in caps; EVERYONE IS MORE LIKE YOU THAN NOT! What I mean is; everyone is scared, in love, nervous, shy, hurt, insecure, unsure, happy, lost...all the feelings you have. We spend a lot of time looking at the differences in each other, “how is “X” different from me?” When all the time the easier question is; “How are we alike?”
In my short time on this planet and in my limited ability to understand, I’ve watched ‘ignorance’ be the cause of a lot of trouble. Often times, the cause of aggression has been not understanding, plain and simple. Every war has ignorance as it’s source. People are persecuted because they are misunderstood. They’re beaten, marginalized, imprisoned, murdered and even crucified. The bottom line is, all it takes to change this truth is US. See you in someone else and you’re less likely to want to hit them with a brick. If you see YOU in someone else, it gets real hard to wish bad upon them! Now I grant you, this philosophy could make the Super Bowl pretty crappy! Ha! (I refuse to type ‘LOL’ as a way of showing you that I am smiling or laughing) but other than sporting events, wishing/working towards a more peaceful world is a noble, beautiful thing!
This blog is not really about ‘conversion’ so much as it’s about explanation; daily, I post quotes on my Facebook page and my Twitter page. They are positive quotes from people I admire. They are intended to point your mind North of this plane. If you read them and they don’t hit you, that’s cool, it’s just ideas. Sometimes I post videos and it’s the same intention. You don’t have to actively engage my “musings”, I just want to get them in the air. The more ‘positive’ energy in the air, the harder it is for the ‘negative’ to get through! If you see me quoting Ghandi or John Lennon, even if you’re not moved to thought, just know that I’m just trying to pollinate the air with positive. There’s plenty of opportunity in our world for negative, sometimes it seems like grains of sand on a beach! The truth is, I think, that we’re better than we think, more than we imagine, braver than we fear and all we need is a little push...nudge...:)


5 Books it wouldn’t kill you to read;
The Traveler’s Gift
The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari
The Secret
Three Cups Of Tea
The Chosen

My Babe...

So, we go back some years. It doesn’t feel like a long time, but it’s a bit. I’m a junior in high school and not really feeling the whole education thing. Low and behold you get to pick your courses in the 10th grade and for one of mine, I choose art. I figure, it’s an easy grade and I like to draw so no problem! First day, I enter the class and a girl walks in with gorgeous brown hair and wearing greenish/yellow pants. Yes I’m superficial and yes it IS the 10th grade, but she was HOTTT!! Come to find out she was a year behind me and I was in love. PERIOD. IN LOVE. I can not stress enough what a life changer that day was for me. She had a boyfriend, she had plenty more waiting in line, but I knew that she was the one for me. I did everything I could to direct those brown eyes my way. I even resorted to arm wrestling her just to hold her hand! (yes I let her win, yes I am a nerd, yes she’s that hot!)
We dated for a while, (secretly at first, sorry ex-boyfriends,,,), and then I asked her to be my wife. Best move I’ve ever made, bar none! I’m better for knowing her, better for being with her, better for being part of her life. She makes me who I am, the better part of me, the me I’d like to be. If you’ve met my wife, you know she’s an angel. If you know her, you’re blessed. It’s been 19 years and it feels like a week. Thank you Buff for making my life complete!! Happy Anniversary Baby, I Love U!!!

A shout out to the past!...

Recently I was looking for a certain CD, (actually, I’m always looking for a specific CD). Joe’s Garage by Frank Zappa. Nothing really obscure, just something that came out several years ago. First I checked iTunes, no luck. Then I checked Amazon and found it but I wanted it sooner. I called the closest store, Best Buy and spoke with a very friendly salesperson who had no idea who Frank Zappa was and actually had me spell the last name. In a matter of minutes, I realized how much we’ve lost with the death of the record store. When I started falling in love with music, I was a constant at record stores near where I grew up. That’s how I first found Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, etc. When I started working with Buddy Guy and traveling the world, I became an avid collector and was constantly in search of the best record store in what ever town we were in. Not only was I able to satisfy my desire to hear and own every record in the universe, but record stores were also incredible reference points. Employees knew and loved music and could direct me to the best recordings by artists that I was interested in. They could also point me toward similar artists or new artists. I learned about the historic independent labels like Chess, Kent, RPM, Sun and Ace, among others, by hanging out at record stores and talking to employees and other customers. I learned about European and Asian reissue labels like Pea-Vine by talking to people at independent record stores. I’ve got a lot of CDs and records and some of them are really prized to me; my CD copy of Folk Festival Of The Blues, my T-Bone Walker CD The Hustle Is On, too many of BB King’s Kent/RPM albums on CD to mention, my Otis Spann CD with Fleetwood Mac backing him; “The Biggest Thing Since Colossus”. The point is I wouldn’t have known about these records if it wasn’t for independent record stores. Places like Grimey’s in Nashville, Ear X-tacy in Louisville, Twist & Shout in Denver, Amoeba in San Francisco, Dobell’s in London (I once went in there looking for a CD that Robben Ford had recorded with Jimmy Witherspoon, the clerk’s pithy reply was; “I feel sorry for Jimmy Witherspoon.”), Jazz Record Mart in Chicago, Electric Fetus in Minneapolis, Revolver in NYC, the list goes on and on. Some of these stores are still around, but many are gone. The ones that remain are selling more T-shirts, incense, and assorted knick-knacks just to stay afloat. As we move into a much more digital era of music, we think nothing of buying a song on iTunes and other than the sound we’ve bought nothing! When I listened to BB King records I read the liner notes to learn who Sonny Freeman was (find out!), when I listened to Stone Crazy, I read the liner notes to learn that it was Phil Guy playing that amazing rhythm guitar. When I bought a Jimi Hendrix record the salesman might tell me to check out Eddie Hazel in Funkadelic. If I bought a Earl Hooker CD, they might say check out Robert Nighthawk. The point is it’s more than just having something to hold in your hands, it’s a cultural element that we’ve lost. Also, when I buy a song from iTunes, I never speak to a soul during the entire process. Yes they might have some kind of graphic that says; “people who bought this also bought...”, but it’s not the same thing. We do have some great resources on the web that can help, such as allmusicguide.com, Rhino records website or Wikipedia, but there’s just something about having someone who’s excited by music suggesting music to you that makes a difference.
You can walk into Wal-Mart and buy a Beatles CD, but you’ll be hard pressed to find John Lennon’s Walls & Bridges album or a salesperson that even knows such a record exists. They might not even know who John Lennon is! Best Buy is more likely to have 3 copies of Tom Petty’s greatest hits than one copy of Damn The Torpedoes but “We can order that for you...”. I realize that my line of work might make it more likely that I would be interested in this stuff, but I was into it before I started playing guitar and my love of music dates much farther back in my life than the first time I thought about being a guitar player. I’m not against progress, but support your local independent record store. It’s more than just a physical thing you’re buying, it’s a spiritual thing as well!