Americana Gazette December - January 2013

MERICANA GAZETT E A December / January 2013

FEATURE STORY TOM MASON Jim Lauderdale Anne Gravel Sullivan CD Release Party Chris Knight Releases New CD Picker's Kitchen with Darol Anger Americana Gazette's Top CD Picks for 2012 Rebekah Long Jimbo Mathus Warner E. Hodges, Joe Blanton and The Bluefield's with Dan Baird come to Belleville Katie Burns Hannah Adams Remembering Paul Gruenenfelder Let us In (Breast Cancer Project) Peter Cooper & Phil Lee Working on New CD Doug Briney - The Alaskan Cowboy Winding Stream - The Lineage of the Carter Family L'il G, Zee and Cali - Michael & Anna Webb's Cats Clay Canfield Holiday Music Ideas Farmer Jason Rocks in Belleville Bobby's Corner Music Regular Columns

by Bob, Rick, Jim, Rosemary, Litt and Celia CD Reviews

AMERICANA GAZETTE Happy Holidays: Well here we are again, almost at the end of another year and the holidays are upon us. 2012 has been a great year. We opened up a new store, Action Guitars, the Americana Gazette magazine is going well, we have been healthy, we have a great staff, and we did lots of traveling and saw lots of music. I’m not sure 2013 can top this, but it will I’m sure.

I also had the experience of flying to Nashville by myself to visit Warner and Deb Hodges and to attend their granddaughter’s 1st birthday party. That evening the family went out for dinner and Warner introduced me to my first Sushi taste of sushi and eel. I think he liked watching me try it and was delighted with the facial expressions. The party was fantastic and the sushi was delicious.

Later in the fall when the Hodges, Andy and I went to Door County on Deb Hodges and Granddaughter vacation, Warner and Winter Deb introduced me to snail. Andy wouldn’t try that either – his rule is “no crustaceans!

Maybe this will be our 2013 goal – get Andy to eat crustaceans!!!!!

Till next year, Season Greetings to all and keep The Hodges & Ziehlis in Door on reading the Ameri- County cana Gazette!

Joyce Ziehli Publisher

PUBLISHER Joyce Ziehli • jziehli@advisorymgt.com

Anne Sullivan

SENIOR EDITOR Andy Ziehli • aziehli@advisorymgt.com

Bobby Westfall

STAFF WRITERS/PHOTOS Celia Carr

Rosemary Ziehli

Guest Writer: Michael Belz Travis Cooper CREATIVE DIRECTOR Ric Genthe • rgenthe@charter.net Litt Dubay

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Welcome to

Americana Gazette TABLE OF CONTENTS

WHERE TO LOOK Farmer Jason 3 4 Jim Lauderdale 6 Anne Sullivan 6 My Trip to Action Guitars 7 Chris Knight 8 Tom Mason 9 Picker's Kitchen with Darol Anger 10 Litt DuBay 11 The How and Why of Flatulence 11 B-Side by Celia 12 Rebekah Long 14 Jimbo Mathus 16 Green County Normal School 17 Hannah Adams 17 Katie Burns 18 Remembering Paul Gruenenfelder 19 Americana Gazette's Top Ten CD Picks 20 Robert’s Ramblings 20 Peter Cooper 21 Doug Briney 22 Pet Note - Li’l G, Zee and Cali 23 Rick Recalls 23 Let Us In (Fighting Breast Cancer Project) 24 The Dream of the Stream 26 Holiday Music 27 Phil Lee 27 Bob's Guitar Corner #7 28 Bumps in the Road 30 Clay Canfield 32 - 34 CD Reviews 36 Warner E. Hodges & Joe Blanton plus the Bluefields in Belleville

FARMER JASON ROCKS THE BELLEVILLE SCHOOL AUDITORIUM Young kids, parents, grandparents, teachers – everyone in the auditorium was entertained by Farmer Jason at a concert held at the Belleville High School Auditorium on October 28th .

The concert was sponsored by the Americana Gazette and all proceeds were donated to the School Music Program. $812.00 was raised, and will come in handy for assisting in putting on the school musicals. Thank you all for your support.

Now back to Farmer Jason.

101 6th Avenue • New Glarus, WI 53574 608-527-4300 Hours: Monday-Saturday 9:30-5:00 Sunday 10:30-5:00

The Americana Gazette is printed by: The Print Center • Brodhead, Wi. 53520 AMERICANA GAZETTE % Andy & Joyce Ziehli P.O. BOX 208 • Belleville, WI. 53508 OFFICE: 608-424-6300 Andy Cell: 608-558-8131 Joyce Cell: 608-558-8132 w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t

Farmer Jason is the brainchild of rock music legend Jason Ringenberg of Jason and the Scorchers; an Americana Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award Winner. In 2002 he created Farmer Jason to educate and entertain children about farm life and the wonders of nature. The character is based on his own farming background and love of the great outdoors. As Farmer Jason he has released 3 records and a DVD. He has starred in the “It’s a Farmer Jason”video interstitial program,which airs on several public broadcasting stations around the united States and won an Emmy Award in 2009, plus an Emmy nomination in 2012. Farmer Jason’s records have won numerous awards, including the Parent’s Choice Gold Award and the Los Angeles Time’s Children’s Record of the Year list.

Farmer Jason has performed several thousand concerts in venues ranging from rural fairs on the Alaskan tundra to posh European performance halls. And now he has performed in the Belleville Wisconsin School Auditorium. If you missed this concert, please try to catch him again when he is in the area. It was amazing and he draws his musical influences from folk, country and rock’roll. The kids get to be involved in the performance and a Farmer Jason Show will have them talking for days on end.

Please check out Farmer Jason at www.farmerjason.com .

Article and photos by: Joyce Ziehli Information from Farmer Jason Website.

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American(a) Workingman: The Continuing Acceleration of Jim Lauderdale

Legendary railroader Casey Jones, in one of the most enduring songs in the Grateful Dead’s sprawling catalog, was famously warned to watch his speed. No doubt Americana mainstay Jim Lauderdale heard, and perhaps took note of, that admonition etched in the final grooves of the now-classic 1970 album Workingman’s Dead. Lauderdale’s own ride on the rails seems, in contrast, to have been a slow and steady one—the kind that, as old Aesop liked to say, wins the race.

Lauderdale is a bona fide original who carries a boxcar-load of influences, though it’s not hard to identify the spot along the tracks where the heavily country-flavored and song- (rather than jam-)centered Workingman’s Dead—and the similarly outfitted album American Beauty—meets the rootsy eclecticism of Lauderdale’s more than 20year recorded output.The fact that, years into his professional career, he would work alongside one of the architects of those albums seems all the more fitting in light of his affection for Jerry Garcia and company’s forays into countrified acoustic territory. (In recent years, Lauderdale has participated in a traveling tribute to that rural slice of the Dead’s output,The American Beauty Project, which has been presented at notable venues including New York’s Lincoln Center.)

Lauderdale’s own rural roots reach considerably deeper than once-removed hippie country, though, and they’re never far removed from his work, though he’s managed to twist them into an impressive range of variations along the way: stone-cold honkytonk, Bakersfield-style twang, sinewy roots-rock, progressive as well as vintage-model country, R&B, mountain soul, and near-countless permutations of those and the many other elements in his deep musical well.

Over the last dozen or so years, the singer/songwriter has focused roughly half his efforts—seven of the fifteen Lauderdale albums released since 1999—on bluegrass music.As a banjo picking teenager, it was his dream to play and record bluegrass, but he later got sidetracked by a shot at country stardom that instead resulted in a string of critically acclaimed, proto-Americana albums and a successful songwriting career that straddled both the country mainstream and its outer margins. Bluegrass, his first love,wouldn’t become a regular part of his career path until a serendipitous encounter with the legendary Dr. Ralph Stanley that led to a particularly auspicious bluegrass coming-out party for Lauderdale—his 1999 collaboration with Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, I Feel Like SingingToday, and the 2002 follow-up, Lost in the Lonesome Pines.

“I was doing a country record for RCA [1999’s Onward Through It All],” recalls Lauderdale, “and I had done a TV show with Ralph Stanley at the Ryman. I approached Ralph and said,‘Hey, can I write a song for you and the Clinch Mountain Boys? I wanna make it the last song of my country album.’ So that’s how I connected with him.”

The next time the two men met, it was at North Carolina’s annual acoustic music gathering Merlefest, where a jet-lagged Lauderdale, fresh (or, rather, not-so-fresh) off a plane from a European jaunt with Nick Lowe, found out that his services—and his partly dormant bluegrass sensibilities—were suddenly in demand: Stanley’s son and bandmate, Ralph Stanley II, was ill and Lauderdale was asked to fill in for him.

“And so we had a quick rehearsal . . . and we did two sets. So that was just such a thrill, and I approached Ralph later about doing a whole album. So that came to be, and then we got the Grammy nomination [for I Feel Like Singing Today], and Ralph agreed to do a follow-up—Lost in the Lonesome Pines.We actually won a Grammy on that.”

It was while preparing material for the first of those two projects that Lauderdale initiated a writing relationship with lyricist Robert Hunter,the longtime Grateful Dead collaborator who co-wrote such Dead perennials as “Truckin’,”“Uncle John’s Band” and “Casey Jones.”Hunter, in an interview with jambase.com, recalled how it all began.“He sent me a letter in 1999 in what might be the worst scrawl I’ve ever seen.And it seemed right from the heart, as do all communications with Jim. I said to go ahead and send

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me a tape. I liked it, and sent him a tape back. In 2000, I went to Nashville for a couple of months and we wrote several albums’ worth of material.”

Lauderdale, recently speaking to the audience members gathered for the live Nashville radio broadcast of Music City Roots (which he hosts), recounted his first collaboration with Hunter, recalling that he’d “overnight-mailed a cassette of a melody” he’d written to accompany Hunter’s faxed lyric. (At that time, Lauderdale admits, he was computer illiterate.) The twosome have come a long way since then: for starters, Lauderdale has acquired the computer savvy to e-mail Hunter melodic ideas, which he now captures on GarageBand audio software, and, this past September, they released their fourth fulllength album and third consecutive one as co-writers, Carolina Moonrise.

Moonrise, the second bluegrass-centered album from the duo, follows closely on the heels of 2011’s Reason and Rhyme.“Carolina Moonrise is kind of an extension of Reason and Rhyme with a lot of the same players,”says Lauderdale,“and so I think it’s a really good companion piece.This one came about as I was visiting Robert the June w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t

before last on his birthday. He said,‘Boy, I really like Reason and Rhyme—we need to write a follow-up really quickly.’ So we did. I ended up postponing my trip back and went over there for a morning and part of an afternoon and then the next morning we had the gist of [the album] there. It just really didn’t take us long.”

Hunter commented on the pair’s writing process in the aforementioned interview from jambase.com.“He can write tunes as fast as I can write the words.This makes it fun,and also exhausting. [A] couple hours of composing at speed is real work.Then it's always,‘What about this?’ and he's got one more tune that’s kind of hard to leave hanging.”

Lauderdale, on the other hand, primarily credits Hunter for the rapid pace the two maintain when working together. “I’m kind of a slow writer, and so sometimes I’ll have a melody and/or a title and it might take weeks, months or years to get back to it or finish it,” he says.“And Robert and I write really quickly. He will either give me lyrics [for which] a melody will come right away, or else I’ll give him a melody and then, you know, within probably half an hour or forty-five minutes he has a lyric—if not sooner.

So it’s a real fast process.”

Not that Carolina Moonrise sounds hurried, mind you—it’s a rich collection that appealingly strays from standard formulae on occasion but offers a bluegrass bouquet that more often evokes a traditional sound.The latter category includes the sprightly shuffle “Can I Have This Dance?”;“Happiness,” an endearing mid-tempo number that could easily pass for prime Ricky Skaggs material; the heartwarmingly romantic and melodically sublime“Anybody’s Guess”; the quick-stepping, banjo-driven“Triple Crossroad Blues,” a quasi-spiritual and not-altogether-black-and-white tale of a fearless and righteous man’s encounter with the Prince of Darkness; and the wryly funny opening track,“Iodine.”

“I love ’em all,” says Lauderdale, marveling at the volley of diverse lyrics that sprung from Hunter’s pen over the two-day songwriting summit that resulted in the majority of Carolina Moonrise. He seems to imply, however, that “Iodine” is especially high on his personal list. “‘Iodine’ was the first one that we wrote that morning we got together. [Robert] just comes up with these ideas I never would have come up with.They are just so creative,” enthuses Lauderdale,“and I’m just surprised so much by how he can take a melody and come up with a story that’s just so different. . . . he’s just got something no other lyricist has.With “Iodine,” for instance, to come up with something as ingenious as that . . . I’m just in awe of that ability.”

Indeed, the song boasts a grin-inducing, left-of-center lyric—pay close attention to the skewed logic in the opening line (which eventually makes sense after the song’s fearsome female antagonist comes into clearer focus): “Well, I check my watch, it’s ten o’clock, I’ve got a date at nine / With the darlin’ of my heart, I call her Iodine / Iodine, Iodine, assorted cuts and bruises / Hangs my heart out on the line anytime she chooses” Lauderdale notes that he and Hunter’s process can begin with either words or music, but he affirms that the new album was primarily birthed in the form of melodies to which Hunter swiftly retrofitted lyrics. One exception is “Troublemaker,” a sturdy fourto-the-bar country number that didn’t fully take shape until the wee hours of the marathon single session in which all 13 of Carolina Moonrise’s basic tracks were laid down.“Troublemaker” started out, explains Lauderdale, as a Hunter lyric he’d been holding onto for a couple of years but hadn’t found the right tune for.

Under the pressure of a recording session-in-progress—a motivator the songwriter admits is a potent, though “nerve-wracking and kinda scary” method upon which he frequently relies when his muse is hard to harness—he finished the song, he says,“at, like, 1:30 in the morning.”

Additionally, another brand-new melodic figure percolated at an earlier point in the session. He e-mailed it to Hunter, and about an hour later received the lyric for what would become the album’s syncopated, Latin-flavored closer,“Wild and Free,”a mean-woman-themed counterpart to“Iodine”that neatly bookends the 42-minute-long package.

Hunter’s rapid-fire creativity, it so happens, is only part of the power behind Lauderdale’s increasingly speedy recorded output as of late. He also gives kudos to his producer, Randy Kohrs, the fleet-fingered multi-instrumentalist who’s also been providing Lauderdale with both daring and delicate dobro licks (or, if you prefer, resonator guitar) for a number of years now. Kohrs, a recording artist with several albums to his credit,is a triple-threat among pickers,adept not only musically but also technically and administratively—qualities that led Lauderdale to willingly surrender the production reins he’d often held on earlier efforts.

“I am not a technical person at all, [but Randy] is a really great engineer,” says Lauderdale. “He knows where every wire goes and he’s just got great ears, great sensibilities . . . just a really great producer. I feel totally confident in just, you know, letting him step in and . . . be the quarterback, and guide things along, and he really does it well,” he praises.

Kohrs, who’d started working with Lauderdale first as a touring musician and later as a session player, was tapped to produce his 2007 album (and eventual Grammy winner), The Bluegrass Diaries.“When I came out with the first record I did with Ralph Stanley,” recalls Lauderdale,“I started doing gigs around town at the Station Inn and various places and Randy and I somehow connected.Randy was really so helpful in getting musicians together.” w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t

It’s hardly surprising that, as Lauderdale puts it, he and Kohrs“somehow connected”— the phrase has the ring of profound understatement, not unlike saying that magnets of opposite polarities will attract. Both men come from traditional music roots but are hardly restricted by them;Kohrs’musical instincts line up smartly with Lauderdale’s creative DNA, which involves applying an intuitive sense of exploration to old-school touchstones ranging from Bill Monroe to Buck Owens.The connection hasn’t been lost on Kohrs, who shows a clear understanding, and appreciation, of Lauderdale’s methods.“[Jim]'s the most ambitious writer I've ever encountered,”says Kohrs, matterof-factly.“He brings elements of all the genres he works in into the bluegrass world and doesn't trap it into a bluegrass stereotype. It makes him unique, interesting, and a fun listen every time.”

Lauderdale and Kohrs are distinctly different, though, in the way they pace themselves as producers. Lauderdale, who describes himself as “really slow”when it comes to coordinating the many aspects of putting an album together, speaks admiringly of Kohrs’ efficiency, which was evident in the one-day tracking sessions for both Reason and Rhyme and Carolina Moonrise. Minor vocal-track repairs and mixing aside, the albums were captured inside a 24-hour period that,Kohrs notes,allows for superior sonic continuity as well as sustained creative flow from the players,who get warmed up—and stay that way.

In Lauderdale’s case,the sessions for both projects necessitated unmercifully early flights back to Nashville from out-of-town gigs in order to arrive at Kohrs’ home-based Slack Key Studio in time to be prepared for a 10 a.m. start time. For the Moonrise session, he says,“I took a 6:30 a.m. flight back, went home and changed clothes and went straight to the studio.” Considering his flight’s sunrise departure and the fact that “Troublemaker” was in the process of being written and recorded well after midnight, the session made for one flat-out long day.

While it may be true that Lauderdale isn’t the Speedy Gonzales of the record-producing process, he’s nonetheless been increasingly prolific as a recording artist. Between 1991 (when his solo debut, Planet of Love, was released) and 2001, he put out eight albums (not counting the appearance of the previously unissued 1986 collection Point of No Return);during his second decade,between 2002 and 2012,a total of 13 solo and collaborative albums have seen release—the newest being his recently released teamup with longtime friend Buddy Miller. Lauderdale also revealed that he has three albums in the works and mostly in the can—one underway with legendary musicians James Burton and Al Perkins, one recorded with Nick Lowe’s band (a mixture, he tantalizingly reports,of Beatlesque songs and R&B) and a blues-influenced project with the North Mississippi Allstars, again a Robert Hunter collaboration—and he’s planning a solo acoustic album with Hunter that he says may be his next release . . . never mind that it isn’t written yet. Check back in a few days.

Now breezing along on the collective momentum of his, Robert Hunter’s and Randy Kohrs’ considerable abilities, Jim Lauderdale may just be giving Casey Jones a run for his money. But his acceleration, unlike Casey’s presumably reckless one, has been thoughtful and measured. Rather than trouble, there’s a load of fine music—and a continuing track of artistic achievement—dead ahead.

Story by Steve Morley Photos courtesy of Compass Records

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Anne Sullivan follows her dream

instrumentalist Julie McConahay,Whisky Doll was an incredible show to see. A perfect opening act for Anne.

Anne started the evening with Steal Away the 5th song on Pathologies. It set the tone for a fantastic set of original and cover songs. With band Beth Kille on guitar, mandolin, and background vocals, Doug Sies bass and guitar, Jim Smith on drums, Anne’s songs came to life in a wondrous rain of heartfelt music and lyrics. Joining the band on some of the songs was Julie McConahay fiddle, Jaye Barbeau on Piano, and I on lead guitar. Anne chose two fantastically great cover tunes to play Gone Again by the Indigo Girls and the Mists Down Below by the Duhks. These covers were perfect selections to compliment Anne’s songs. My favorite songs from the CD and the show were Winter Ballet a beautiful waltz (that’s right a waltz) and Smoke in the Valley a beautiful song with lyrical imagery to die for! Anne ended the night with a Blues Rocker that she and I wrote when we were in Watershed called Some Small Dream of Mine.

With the heavy beat of Jim Smiths drums and the funky bass line of Doug Sies,Anne rocked the crowd to their feet!

Hats off to Anne Sullivan for tasking the time and effort to follow her dream,and to Beth Kille for mixing and producing this fine CD. Its five stars in my book! As I said in the beginning of this article it’s great to see someone chase and accomplish their dream, it’s even better to be there to see them shine. On Thursday November 8th Anne Sullivan shined tall and bright from the stage of the Brink Lounge in Madtown! A great show, from a great person, and a great talent!

My trip to Action Guitars

Story by:Andy Ziehli Photo by Joyce Ziehli

Friday, October 5th, 2012 – One Day Before the Grand Opening As many musicians know, or any type of collector (cable TV calls us hoarders),it’s good to get a first look. You want to avoid the “It factor” reoccurrence. Where a treasure, a trinket, an item you recall from your youth, or something you’ve always wanted, sold, just before you showed up.

The “It Factor” may occur at second hand stores, garage sales, flea markets, or as often is, in my case, guitar stores. Pretty much anywhere you’ve arrived too late. This scenario is normally worsened by the fact that the item had been purchased moments ago, for much less than you would have offered. At least in retrospect.

Well, not this time, not today. I’m going a day early, no “It Factor” for me. I’ve readied myself out my front door by 1:30 P.M. In my car, I’m approaching speeds of 18 mph, no time to waste. Once downtown I find a parking space just outside the front door, YES! I feel a chill as I exit my car, much colder outside than I have dressed for. Pay it no mind, get steppin. Upon entering the store, my eyes are invaded by visions of guitars and amps, all colors, shapes and sizes. The smell of coffee brewing, a cozy environment. No flashing lights, no blaring music to rearrange your hair or earwax!! I am greeted promptly by a pleasant young lady. Andy, the store owner looms in the background. He is directing his guitar tech on some critical adjustments to an instrument.

My attempt at verbal correspondence is over ruled by sensory overload.

It’s always a blast when you get to witness a friend accomplish something they have always wanted to do. It’s even better when you get to be part of that accomplishment and share in the joy that they feel for completing the task at hand. For Anne Sullivan that task was to write and record an album of songs, play it live, and then contemplate the next record! On Thursday the 8th of November Anne (who is a writer for the Americana Gazette and a dear friend) had her CD release party at the Brink Lounge in Madison. It was a wonderfully fun filled evening of music and comradery celebrating Anne’s lifelong dream.

Anne who grew up traveling the globe with her Anthropologist father, and has always had a love of music and words. She has been exposed to all sorts of music from her travels and experiences. Her father was a Canadian who exposed Anne and her brothers to his native music along with Greek Music that they heard while living in Greece as a child. Playing and singing music comes second nature to Anne who was also a college professor in Communications at the UW Whitewater. Anne was part of Watershed a musical group of songwriters who got together in the late 90’s early 2000’s. Anne’s producer on this CD, Beth Kille also started out in Watershed along with Bass and guitarist Doug Sies, drummer Jim Smith,and me. It was during this time that Anne’s songwriting came to the forefront and the seed was planted to someday record an album.

The CD release party at the brink lounge was opened by Whisky Doll. All I can say about them is WOW!!!! What a wonderful group of musicians and songwriters! The harmonies were out of this world, along with top-notch musicianship. Led by multi-

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Suddenly a beam of light, reflected from the windshield of a passing car, sears through the store windows. It focuses on and illuminated a particular guitar displayed on the wall.The light bathes the beautifully finished temptress, vivid hues come alive. The chromed tuning pegs glitter and hypnotize, as if saying we saw you the very moment you saw us! The momentary spell is broken by Andy’s voice. Still captivated by this six stringed wallet wrecker, he offers me “a coffee or a soda?” We begin exchanging jousts and guitar guy chatter. I decline his offer, no need for caffeine. As I scan theses electric and acoustic gems, I need to be empty handed for that chance I’m granted permission to pick one and play it. The moment comes quickly. Andy recognizes the glazed look in my eyes and my inability to continue conversating. (A new word I learned from Judge Judy). He offers up his entire inventory,“play anything you want!”.

His eyes dart quickly over his left shoulder, a subtle but obvious directive. And there one the wall opposite the gallery dangles a single guitar,the entire wall space dedicated to its gravity.

Andy begins the story line on this fine creature, but realizes he need not continue. I’m on board. He closed his pitch by saying he tries to keep from playing it for fear the need to take it home may overcome him. Joyce, his wife of many years, likely would not share his attachment to this bronze beauty. Andy’s personal collection is at or perhaps has breached the maximum allowed to maintain a harmonious home. I understand his circumstance and admire his strength. I as well must be disciplined, a poor decision at a weak moment could devour my emergency fund. I do however ask Andy to put a hold sticker on the guitar that found me. He does so, we have defeated the“It Factor”.

I need to “sleep on it”, go over the checks and balances, it’s closing time. After all tomorrow is the “Grand Opening”, who knows what that may bring! (to be continued…………………)

Story by: Mike Belz w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t

Joyce: Wow, pretty exciting stuff and you have had and continue to have a great career.

Chris Knight Releases “Little Victories”

Chris: Yea, it’s still building I guess. I got a publishing deal back in 1994 and that’s the only job I’ve had since then; playing on the road and writing songs ever since.

Joyce: Chris, you new CD“Little Victories”is being released this fall. What can you tell me about this?

Chris:Well, there is a song on the CD called,“Little Victories” and it’s kind of a collection of songs I’ve written over the last few years. Whatever is going on or wherever I was, I was writing songs. I recorded this with my road band. The songs are about absolutely everything. Every word I write is the truth!

Joyce: (laughing) No lies? The absolute truth? I hear this all the time.

Chris: (laughing) Absolute!!

Joyce: Now that I’ve gotten you loosened up, what are some future goals for you?

Going to hit the road hard after the new CD Comes out?

Chris: Not any harder than usual. I do about the same number of shows every year. I play mostly in the states. I played 7 or 8 times over in Europe. But will be doing most gigs in the states.

Joyce: Chris, what is on your bucket list?

Chris: I don’t have a bucket list. I don’t think that way. If I have something I really want to do, I’m not going to tell anybody. (he laughs) That’s not me. I’ve been all over and there’s no place I’d rather be than on my 40 acres here in Kentucky. If I never had to leave here again, that would be my bucket list!!!!

Joyce: (laughing) Guess you told me how you feel. You love it there!!!!

Chris: Yea, before I got in the music business I loved it here. I love sitting in my back yard, looking at the blue sky and the green trees, it’s an exciting thing.

Joyce: I take it you would rather be doing that than talking to me?

I have always been a Chris Knight fan, from the first time I heard him on the radio. I love the growl in his voice!!! Now with doing this magazine, I actually got to sit down and talk music and other stuff with him.

Chris: (laughs) I’m doing that right now. I’m sitting on my back porch looking at the blue sky and green trees. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else than I am right now, sitting here and talking with you!

Below is a little background info on Chris and a CD review from Daryl Addison before we get into my interview.

Joyce: Good come back. You are smooth! I’m really a nice person and I only write nice things.

Chris Knight is a singer and songwriter from Slaughters, Kentucky. He has written songs for Confederate Railroad, John Anderson, and Randy Travis among others. He is best known for writing the hit Montgomery Gentry song "She Couldn't Change Me".When he was three years old,he asked for a plastic guitar for Christmas.At 15, however, he became serious and began teaching himself John Prine songs on his older brother's guitar.

Chris: Yea! (laughing) I can tell!

Joyce: Chris, any hobbies?

Chris: I got three kids, wife and 40 acres of land. I live my life. I like to hunt. Hobbies are for kids. Like right now I’m talking to you and I am having a great time. I take the family camping sometimes, but usually the wife and kids have to drag me away. Why would I want to leave?

Knight earned a degree in agriculture from Western Kentucky University. He worked for ten years as a mine reclamation inspector and as a miner's consultant. In 1986, he heard Steve Earle on the radio and decided to start writing songs. After six years he came to Nashville and won a spot on a songwriters' night at the Bluebird Cafe. He attracted the interest of Frank Liddell, who signed him to a contract with Bluewater Music.When Decca Records hired Liddell for an A&R position, Knight received a contract and in 1998 Decca released his self-titled debut.

GAC Album Review: Chris Knight’s Little Victories by Daryl Addison

09/10/2012

Drawing inspiration from the blue-collar struggles of his hometown, Slaughters, Ky., Chris Knight’s eighth studio album, Little Victories, is a gritty and unflinching look at the troubles facing small town America.There’s a desperate tension running through the 11-song set, in stores September 11, as the portrait here is often bleak.

I had a chance to talk with Chris via telephone and it was quite an interesting conversation. Trust me, this man is all about music, but when he says he’d rather be sitting on his back porch or hunting, he is dead serious!

Joyce: Hi Chris. I have always admired your work and it is such an honor to be able to speak with you. Thanks for taking the time away from your busy schedule to visit with me. Are you home in Kentucky now?

Chris: Yup, I am at my home.

Joyce: Let’s get started. Please tell me a little bit about yourself and how you started out in music.

Chris: Well, I started playing guitar and writing some and decided to send some songs off to Nashville. I got some positive feedback so I kept writing. I took a few trips to Nashville, knocked on some doors and got involved in a writer’s night where I met some people. I kind of got my foot in the door shall we say and from there I got a recording contract. That’s how it all began. w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t

Joyce: Wow, you do love it there. I’m glad you are having fun talking to me cause I sure am having fun talking to you! Ever played in Wisconsin or are you planning on coming up this way?

Chris: I’ve played in the Dells a few times and down by Madison, if I come up that way, it would probably be an acoustical show.

Joyce: Why don’t you come up in January and enjoy our beautiful winter weather?

Chris: Yea, and why I’m at it I will go to Alaska too. (laughs)

Joyce: Chris, I see you will be playing in Texas, maybe I should come on down and visit you?

Chris: You do that Joyce. You look me up! We’ll have fun!

Joyce: I have really enjoyed talking with you and your“dry”sense of humor. I’m going to mail you some Wisconsin chocolates, that will sweeten you up a bit!! Thank you so much and good luck with the new CD. Chris: Thank you Joyce. It was a pleasure.

Check out Chris Knight at; www.chrisknight.net and be sure and pick up a copy of his new CD, “Little Victories” Story by: Joyce Ziehli Photos supplied.

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Tom Mason,

Not your average Pirate Captain!

Tom Mason picking a cigar box guitar designed by Morgan Smith at Action Guitars.

Tom Mason alias the Blue Buccaneer hails not from the Caribbean, but from Nashville via Minneapolis. Mason grew up in the Twin Cities and played music at an early age. He left Minnesota and moved to Chicago in the late 80’s and then moved to Nashville in the early 90’s. Besides being a fantastic musician and songwriter Mason took up acting and has been in plays all over the US and in commercials.

Tom is one of my favorite people in the whole world! Every time I see him he makes me laugh and smile until it hurts with his stories and fables! His stage show is wild and one of the best times you can have legally in any state! A true performer in every sense of the word, a Tom Mason show is not to be missed!

AG:Tom Mason - take one!

banjo (laughs)!

Being from Minnesota I grew up going to a lake cabin where we had sing-alongs at night. We would build a fire in the fire place and the whole family would gather around and we would sing songs. My grandfather played a little guitar and both my brothers played guitar and we would all sing along. In High School I never really liked a lot of the kids so I spent my time learning to play the guitar. I found some friends who played guitar and the kid next door played drums so we put a band together.

AG: I saw a picture of that on Face book and your orange Strat.

Mason :( Laughs) It was spray painted copper! I got a paper route and saved up my money to buy a 63 Strat I found in the want ads for $225.00. Unfortunately it got stolen 12 years later, but I really loved that guitar.

Mason: Fantastic, I was born in the North Woods……

AG: Were you a rock band?

(We both laugh loudly) AG: How did you get started playing music?

Mason: Well my brothers both played guitar, and I was always asking them to teach me how. When my hands finally got big enough to reach around the neck they showed me a few chords. I wanted to play guitar for years so the drive was already there to really get into it. Actually my parents bought me a banjo when I was seven or eight, but I played it like a guitar, and know I’m trying to play the guitar like a

Mason: Yeah a rock band. I grew up on the blues and folk and then graduated to Rock. The Blues gave me a great foundation. When I was a kid all of us Mason kids had to take piano lessons.The teacher figured out that if she taught me blues and boogie woogie, I would practice and I did. Learning that gave me a really good base to start with. I learned the mathematics of music at an early age so it was easier learning the guitar. continued on page 29

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Pickers Kitchen with Darol Anger Pickers Kitchen is a new series where I will ask a musician to submit a recipe, and I will include a short bio/story about them and make the dish.

Darol Anger is in my opinion one of the most innovative fiddler/violinist of the last four decades.We would need the entire magazine to list all of his accomplishments as a ground breaking violin/fiddler and world class artist. He is not only a musician, but a composer, arranger, does film scores, and is an educator in many forms, and has helped to redefine fiddle music in the world. If you have not heard him you are missing out!

And like many musicians Darol loves to cook and eat when the opportunity presents itself. Here is a small snippet of his accomplishments.

Darol Anger entered popular music at the age of 21 as a founding member of the David Grisman Quintet.Anger played fiddle to David Grisman’s mandolin in The David Grisman Quintet's (DGQ) 1977 debut. He co-founded the Turtle Island String Quartet with David Balakrishnan in 1985 and performed, composed, and arranged for the chamber jazz group. He frequently collaborates with fellow DGQ alumni Mike Marshall.

Anger met pianist Barbara Higbie in Paris and formed a musical partnership with her.

Together they released an early record on Windham Hill,Tideline (1982).Two years later, they formed a group called The Darol Anger/Barbara Higbie Quintet with Mike Marshall,Todd Phillips, and Andy Narell.This group performed at the 1984 Montreux Jazz Festival.The quintet later took the name Montreux.After two studio releases, the band broke up in 1990 and Anger continued with the Turtle Island String Quartet founded in 1985.He still collaborates with Montreux and fellow Psychograss colleague, Mike Marshall,and occasionally also collaborates with Barbara Higbie and Michael Manring.

Open the white wine and drink a glass.

Put the olive oil and salt in the hot skillet, Then throw in the finely chopped onions & bacon.

Open the cans of chopped clams and drain the juice into a cup.Add about half again some white wine to the juice.

Quickly rinse off the clams in a strainer; getting rid of sand.

Onions start to turn clear...Carrots in next, then the garlic.

Add the coriander Couple of minutes, add all the tomatoes.

Add the clam juice and wine; don’t dump in any sand which might have settled.

When it starts steaming, add the clams.

When they are hot, add lots of chopped basil and parsley, Stir a minute, and then take off heat.

Pour the sauce over the drained pasta in a large bowl.

Enjoy with the rest of the wine, and a nice baguette.

Try fresh peaches and a sharp knife for dessert.

Article by Bob Westfall – recipe photo Bob Westfall Photo of Darol Anger by Irene Young supplied

Using classical, folk, and jazz music as springboards, he currently leads Republic Of Strings,founded with Scott Nygaard.He also co-foundedThe Duo (with Mike Marshall), Psychograss (the bluegrass group including Mike Marshall, mandolin;Todd Phillips, bass; David Grier, guitar; and Tony Trischka, banjo), and Fiddlers Four (with Michael Doucet, Bruce Molsky, violins; and Rushad Eggleston, cello).Anger also plays frequently with pianist Phil Aaberg. He has performed or recorded with musicians ranging from Tony Rice, Stephane Grappelli and Mark O’Connor, Marin Alsop, Jerry Douglas, Bill Evans, Nickel Creek, Chris Thile and Punch Brothers,Yonder Mountain String Band, Béla Fleck,Taarka and Anonymous 4. He can also be heard on the NPR's Car Talk theme song. He is a MacDowell and UCross Fellow.

He has completed the construction of 2 violins under the guidance of luthier Jonathan Cooper and was in 2010 named Associate Professor at the Berklee College of Music.

In 2011 Darol began teaching fiddle online at the School of Fiddle, as part of the Academy of Bluegrass.You can read more about Darol and find his concert schedule at http://www.darolanger.com/ Here is Darol Angers recipe for Pasta and Clam Sauce.Thank you Darol.

Pasta & clam sauce Pasta- 4 servings 2 cans chopped clams White wine Good olive oil I med. Onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, sliced 2 carrots chopped into small cubes 8 Dried tomatoes, chopped 1 Fresh tomato, coarsely chopped 2 slices of bacon, chopped fine Fresh basil Fresh parsley 1 tsp Coriander seed, crushed or powdered.

1 tbsp Salt Start boiling the pasta; could be fettuccine, angel hair, or any number of short spirally types w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t

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Litt DuBay’s

Rant!

by Litt DuBay

Litt Dubay here, If you are reading this after the 21st of December the Mayan’s were wrong. If it is before the 21st and you are not reading this, you’re missing out on some great literature!

Hey Ho Ho Ho to all you scurvy dogs out there. December is starting out great with Captain Tom Mason and the Blue Buccaneers coming to New Glarus to play Ziehli’s 55th birthday party at Puempel’s Olde Tavern in New Glarus on Saturday December 1st.

Ziehli is not “officially” 55 until Monday the 3rd, but when you get that old you better celebrate when you can!

In fact the conversation last week was about fat guys with Velcro tennis shoes driving carts at Wal-Mart with fat assed kids following them around stuffing their faces with candy bars. See previous month’s rant!

My rant this time is this; why can’t people stop asking questions to me that they know I can’t answer! God nothing pisses me off more than someone asking me a question they know damn well I can’t answer! Why can’t they ask me stuff I know and can shine on, like is it hot or cold outside, are you married, do you like squash, is that really your hair, how come you look thinner in pictures, when is it sock it to me time?

You know stuff I can get a real handle on.

Not questions like; why do people ask such dumb questions, is it true you made 10 porn films, why did you just do that, is that a mole,are you that fat in person,if this was live TV would you really say that, do think Tom and Minara Wood Family Taylor Swift is going to marry Shane McGowan, is it true you and Phil Lee can wear the same clothes, how come Miller is so darn pleasant all the time, where did that just go to, does this (insert your own text) make me look fat,and may favorite question I can’t answer how come you’re so darn good looking and sexy all the time?

Have a great holiday season, stay safe, and may 2013 be your best year ever!

Litt Dubay

The election is over and the results are in.

The big guy is coming to town to bring presents to all the good boys & girls this month. I hope he stops by my house and leaves me what I want this year instead of what he thinks I need. Last year he brought me support hose and Monkey butt powder along with some special brownies made with love from a secret admirer. Should have brought some kaopectic too!

Minara Wood went to a Packer Game in November. That’s not so strange except that she is a diehard Bear’s fan! Hopefully a full conversion to the Green and Gold is possible for the future!

It’s officially Fudge Season!!!!! Yea says Ziehli who promises this year not to try to eat his weight in Fudge. The Belleville Sewer District thanks him!

Miller actually begged Ziehli to come back to the Fat Cat and end his embargo. It seems that Miller’s gross margins w e r e shrinking a n d Ziehli’s high intellect w a s missed greatly at the Fat Cat.

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B Side The How and Why of Flatulence /Farting Greetings!

I have discovered through my limited research that there is a condition that all people in the universe may experience at one time or another.It does not discriminate between a male and female. Gender makes no difference to it. Animals and reptiles alike have been known to have it. Sometimes the dog gets blamed for it.This is not an Americana thing. It is the condition known as flatulence or farting.The scientific name for it is flatulence. If you are in the 47% of the population as I am it is called farting. It is a condition caused by gas being produced in your intestines caused by certain foods.When it is expelled it makes a certain sound and may become odorous.All people pass gas even shortly after death.

I once wrote a column on the subject of walking farts in a senior citizen paper I used to write for.

Some people thought it was humorous, one lady was offended by it, and other people told me that they had been affected the same way. If this subject is offensive to you, the reader, turn the page and go on reading the next article.

Not too long ago, on a Saturday night, I was flipping through the channels on the TV. TV does not have a lot to offer these days.As I was messing around with the remote, a big burly guy wearing a cap and flannel shirt caught my eye and I stopped to see what he had to say. It was Comedy Central and the guy was the comedian Larry the Cable Guy. He was going on about how he hated to take his grandmother to Wal-Mart. It seems she always got the “walking farts.” Paul, my husband, and I both laughed at his rendition and after his short skit we shut theTV off and went to bed.No more was ever said about the program.

A few weeks later it was time for us to do our monthly Wal-Mart trip. We go once a month to Monroe and get toothpaste, toilet paper, paper towels, vitamins and all that good stuff. Paul goes to Farm and Fleet to get things he needs and I stay at Wal-Mart and get the things on my list. He comes and picks me up later. It works out quite well and saves a lot of time.

I was pushing the cart down the aisle and checking my list.All of a sudden I got the strangest feeling in my stomach.Then I heard a strange sound behind me. It went puttputt.I looked around and found that no one else was around and so I kept walking.This time I got a cramp and heard putt, putt, putt. It knew it was me the sound was coming from and I hurried to the restroom.I was beginning to sound like a John Deere tractor as I made my way down the aisle. It was then that it dawned on me that I was behaving just like Larry the Cable Guy’s grandma. I was having a case of the walking farts.

I made it t o the rest room and went into the first stall where upon closer examination, found no evidence that anything had happened. It was just a lot of gas that my stomach had to get rid of. I guess the walking farts were the quickest way my body know how to do this. I was relieved at this and thought that now I was as famous as Larry the Cable Guy’s grandmother.Wal-Mart is truly an amazing place.

I sat there awhile until I was sure that the episode was over and I knew I could leave without any repetition of the incident.There were quite a lot of people in the store and I did not want people connecting me with the strange sounds.

As I left the store I kind of had to chuckle to myself as to what had happened and it was then that I realized that I had experienced a true Senior Moment.

This was one experience that I have had with the condition known as flatulence or farting. I have since learned a few things about the condition. I am passing them on to you. (get that passing them on) Women fart just as much as men. But most men take more pride in it than most women.

Men are most likely to fart first thing in the morning while in the bathroom. It is called Morning Thunder.

There are a series of foods that make this condition happen to our bodies. Foods such as corn, bell peppers, cabbage or cauliflower, milk, bread eggs, beer and raisins. Beans make this happen because they contain a sugar that humans cannot digest.

There is a company called FARTYPANTS.They make a product that if you wear it,it will protect any smell from escaping. The garment contains charcoal and is washable.There is an illustration to show you how it fits your body You can buy it online for $21.95 There are several books and links on the web that cover the topic of farts.

Some links are.www.farts.com –Genuine Fart Sounds from TOOT ARCHIVE and there w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t

One of the huge problems with the internet is that it’s really hard to avoid spoilers,particularly if a television show or movie or something (*herm* Downtown Abbey *herm*) is out in another country before it’s been released in yours.You can try your utmost to remain spoiler-free, but then some blissfully happy person who’s already seen said television show or movie or something posts and enormous spoiler somewhere totally unexpected (let’s say the comments of a photo you liked on Facebook or something like that) without even stopping to think that ‘Oh, I might be spoiling this for somebody!’. So let’s just say, for the heck of it, that it’s you who’s been spoiled, and that it’s something you’re really super invested in that’s been spoiled for you.You’re going to be pretty. Darn.Angry. BLAH! See, that’s one of the really nice things about the music industry – there are no spoilers. If I hear a snippet of a song before it’s officially released, or before I buy the CD, I don’t have a moment of extreme angst and regret,I’m just kind-of intrigued. And I’m quite likely going to have that song go ‘round my head for at least a day.

There’s none of the same sneaking about and trying not to see (or in this situation) hear something that you can’t un-see, despite desperately wishing you could.

A while ago, I was stuck in the car for quite a long time, so I was thinking about this, and it occurred to me that the only way you could really have spoilers would be if there was some storyline to the song. Or perhaps to the entire album… hmmmm. It’s an intriguing idea, to tell a story through an entire album of songs, but I feel like it’s been done before. So then I thought, well what if one artist or band or something decided that all their albums ever would fall together into some sort of a story. It seems like the sort of thing that would either be terribly, terribly popular, or flop spectacularly,probably depending a bit on whether you actually went through with your plans or not (because it’s terribly, terribly disappointing when things that are rather fantastic just suddenly stop).

So then I started to think about what this would be like, and what the spoilers would be like, and it came out a little something like this: “Ye gods! Have you heard CatWizard’s new song?” (The name – just bear with me please.)

“It’s out?! No, I haven’t! Is it good?”

“Yeah, it’s fantastic! Smudge was totally serenading Tabitha, when she interrupted him and told him that she was going to have a litter! And the best part was, the litter was from another tom!”

(Enraged silence) “Oh, sorry. Spoilers.”

I mean,admittedly said chronicles in song form would probably not be cat soap operas, but it would be kind of strange. Like ‘Have you listened to song three from album five yet? Oh my gosh…’ weird.

On a totally unrelated note, I’m having holiday spirit.This is quite strange. In the past, I’ve been mildly scrouge-ish, but this year I’m already entertaining thoughts of painting my fingernails red and green and going shopping for Christmas sweaters.Christmas sweaters! Plus we’re playing music from the Nutcracker in band, and Nutcracker is sort-of my baby, so I’m constantly rather bubbly about that. On the whole, it’s a rather interesting experience.

Have happy days.

By: Celia Carr

is even a fart survey.

According to Wikipedia the English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary. It is commonly used in reference to flatulence and the word is generally considered unsuitable in formal situations as it may be considered vulgar or offensive.

The word fart has been incorporated into the colloquial and technical speech of a number of occupations, including computing.

So Dear Reader you have a choice of words to use here.Whether you call it flatulence or fart the results are all the same.

Putt putt, Story by: Rosemary Ziehli.

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Rebekah Long – A Name You Should Become Familiar With As She Is A Great Person To Know and So Talented

I met Rebekah Long a few years back when I was out to Tom T. and Ms. Dixie Hall’s place. That’s right, Rebekah works with Tom T. and Ms. Dixie, and she is a very talented,intelligent lady and a blast to hang with. She is the Engineer and graphic designer for the Hall’s,and she is a musician!!! You have probably heard and seen some of her work and not even known it!

Joyce: Rebekah, please give our readers a little background information on you. Where did you grow up, what kind of music did you listen to, do you come from a musical family, etc.?

Rebekah: I grew up on a farm in Lincolnton,GA,which is about 40 miles north of Augusta, GA. I do have a musical family! I began playing when I was around 7 or so. My Dad,Aunt (his sister) and Granddaddy had a lot to do with planting those seeds. Some of my favorite music growing up was Fleetwood Mac, Flatt & Scruggs, The Lewis Family, Bonnie Raitt, Bette Midler, Tom T. Hall, Sister Rosetta Tharpe… you know, anything that was good I listened to it! I’ve been told I have quite an eclectic palette when it comes to listening to music!

Joyce: When and how did you come to be in the music business? Education, past jobs?

Rebekah: By default really, my family and I lived down the road just a mile or two from The Lewis Family (Little Roy Lewis). Dad had asked Little Roy if he would come by the house and work with us girls (my twin sister, Lizzy, and me) and we caught “the bug”. I have two bachelors in music.The first being music education with an emphasis in percussion and the other I have in Bluegrass - the world’s first degree in Bluegrass from Glenville State College in Glenville,WV. I have worked several jobs in my lifetime! I have worked on the farm growing up, at a vet, pizza joint, etc. I even pumped septic tanks, which always seems to make people cringe! Musically though, I started out with Little Roy Lewis and my twin.When I got to West Virginia I started the first professional bluegrass band out of Glenville State College with an all girl group named Mountain Fury.After college I went back with my twin and Little Roy for a few years.

During that time period I had the enjoyment of getting to know and play with Earl Scruggs on and off. I went on to play with Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike and then I came off the road for a bit and now work as a studio engineer and graphic designer for the lovely Dixie and Tom T. Hall! If my grandparents could

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only see me now!

Joyce: How long have you been working with the Hall’s and tell us a little bit about your job duties there?

Rebekah: I believe I have been with them for about three years now. I create all the graphics for ads and any other needs for their publishing company Good Home Grown Music (BMI). Dixie will tell me what she wants and I will design it to her specifications. I also do a great deal of the studio engineering. I record almost all of the demos for anything they write and I also work with groups for their record label Blue Circle Records.This year we have been working non stop on the new Daughters of Bluegrass box set. It will be 4 discs (including the previous project Bluegrass Bouquet) so be sure to keep an eye for that to be out soon!

Joyce: What instruments do you play, do you write songs?

Rebekah: I am mainly known as a bass player (electric and upright). I do play guitar and a few other knick-knacks when necessary. I won’t insult songwriters globally and say I consider myself a songwriter, but I did have the pleasure of getting to try my hand at it and co-write a song called I Can Make It Happen with the fabulous Dixie Hall that made it onto the new Daughters of Bluegrass box set called Pickin’ Like A Girl.

Joyce:Tell us about the bands you have been in or are in at this time? Where do you play, etc.?

Rebekah: Well as I mentioned before I have played with Mountain Fury,The Little Roy & Lizzy Long Show, & Valerie Smith & Liberty Pike. I have had opportunities to play with Earl Scruggs quite a bit also. I have been working with an upcoming country artist Austin Moody and lately I’ve done a lot of fill in work with several bands like Rambo-McGuire: Remembering The Rambos, Donna Ulisse & The Poor Mountain Boys etc.

Joyce:What do you do in your spare time? Hobbies, etc?

Rebekah: Spare time? What’s that? (Laughing) Well, I dig motorcycles. Before I got my Sportster I rebuilt a 1974 Yamaha DT125… that’s right, lookout guys.

I know how to use a wrench! I haven’t had much time lately in the past year to have a hobby so we will say sleep is my hobby right now… along with randomly texting Andy (co-editor of Americana Gazette) because I know how much he likes texting.

Joyce: (laughing) Yes, we all know how much Andy loves to text!!! What are some items on your bucket list Rebekah?

Rebekah: Hmm… bucket list…

1. Get a Grammy for something… I’m not picky 2. Win the lottery… all of it 3. Get a reply from Andy by text

many more to come.We are currently working on the first single and I will use it to begin a kickstarter to help offset the cost of making and advertising etc.

It’s definitely going to be something to hear as soon as Alan tacks me and all my big ideas down!

Joyce: # 1 & 2 are looking good. I wouldn’t be holding my breath on #3. Tell me about any future goals, musically or personally.

Joyce: Let me know when you start the Kickstarter program, I’m in. Better not text Andy about it though, maybe just call him!!!! Who are some folks that you have recorded at the Hall’s studio?

Rebekah: A future goal is to have my own studio.I already have the beginnings with a certain amount of quality gear and slowly working towards being able to make music of all variety some day.

Musically and personally I think I just want to “move” people. I want to send them reeling in emotions be it with recordings or live. I think the art to being a performer is being able to relate/connect with the audience (live or listening).

So, my goal is to perfect that art… musically and personally, recording and live.

Rebekah: I have had the opportunity to record a great deal of women in bluegrass this year because of the new Daughters of Bluegrass project, such as; Stella Parton, Pam Tillis,The Isaacs, Donna Ulisse, Fayssoux Starling-McLean, Jeannette Williams, Heather Berry-Mabe and many, many more. I’ve recently just recorded a project produced by Jerry Salley with a lovely Australian named Karen Lynne.Another is a suave and talented eleven-year old kid named Isaac Moore (a.k.a Colonel Isaac Moore).We also had Hello Stranger with Dale Jett, Tom Brantley and Missionary Ridge and Lonesome Meadow.

Joyce: Do you have any pets?

Rebekah: I do! I have a great dane, Sir Winston and a yorkie, Heaven. I’m obviously all about extremes.

Joyce: Thank you Rebekah for talking with me today and sharing all thee wonderful things you do. I look forward to our next visit with you when we head to Nashville. That lunch Ms. Dixie fixed us that day was amazing and we had such a blast. Folks please check her out at the following links:

Joyce: Any funny stories about anything you’d love to share with our readers?

Rebekah: A funny story… well, let’s see… I am making my own record! An Americana record and I am totally excited about it! I am working with legendary producer Alan Shacklock (Roger Daltrey, MeatLoaf, Sir Andrew Lloyd Weber, Babe Ruth). It’s definitely going to be an interesting thing if we survive each other! I wanted to work with someone who knew almost nothing about bluegrass and make them transform what they do (rock, in this case) to a bluegrass influence.I realize this obviously is not the newest thing on the block,but I think people will dig it. It’s definitely going to be a “rootsy” thing with all the dynamics, emotions and whatever else I can afford. I have some great people already joining in like Deanie Richardson (The Chieftains, Patti Loveless,The Likely Culprits),Teri Reid (Ronnie Milsap),Sim Daley (The Tina Adair Band) and w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t

www.rebekahlong.com https://www.facebook.com/rebekahalong www.daughtersofbluegrass.com www.goodhomegrownmusic.com www.bluecirclerecords.com Rebekah: Thank you Joyce. Hope to see you soon and bring Andy,we will work on his texting skills.

Story by: Joyce Ziehli Photos supplied by: Rebekah Long

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Jimbo Mathus Back Home Jimbo Mathus knows what it’s like at the top.This honky-tonk-blues singer-songwriter from the Mississippi Delta was once the lead singer for the Squirrel Nut Zippers, a jazzrock,“hyper ragtime”band in the 1990s that played the White House and had one platinum and two gold records.Those were heady days for Jimbo and the other members of the group.There were appearances at the 1996 Summer Olympics, on Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor, the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night With David Letterman, and Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. The live performances were always the best, whether there was a TV audience or not, for there was Mathus at the front of the stage, shouting out the lyrics with his little boy grin and a cowlick swirling through his chopped off hair:“Grab your drink and clear a space/I think it’s time to torch this place.”The lights would flash and the drums would pound, and the crowds most nights would rush the stage.The Squirrel Nut Zippers were riding the wave.

But even then, it seemed, even in the middle of that musical high, Mathus could feel something tugging at his heart. Growing up in Mississippi, he says he was raised on traditional music. His father once played for Flatt and Scruggs, and as Mathus came of age in the 1970s his first real crush was the bluegrass guitar. But this was Mississippi, after all, and so he also loved the blues – the pain and the passion of Howlin’Wolf and Blind Lemon Jefferson – and later as he grew more serious about it, he studied the subtle technique of Robert Johnson.There was something in the chords – the flatted notes, the diminished voicings – that clearly foreshadowed the great Duke Ellington. The whole evolution seemed to be right there.

“I can hear it now plain as day,” Mathus said.And so the music kept calling him home.

In 1996, even though he was living in North Carolina, home base for the Squirrel Nut Zippers, he returned to Mississippi to cut a blues album. It was a project close to his

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heart, for it was a benefit record for Rosetta Patton, the only daughter of the late Mississippi bluesman Charley Patton. Rosetta, who had worked as a maid for the Mathus family,was living in poverty in the Mississippi Delta,and as a gesture of friendship – and a tribute to her legendary father – Mathus and a bunch of his musical friends cut a record full of Charley Patton-inspired songs, with all the proceeds going to Rosetta.

Then came the opportunity of a lifetime. In the year 2000, he was invited to tour and record with bluesman Buddy Guy, an iconic performer whose guitar style had influenced a generation of rock ‘n’ rollers, including Eric Clapton. Mathus played on two of Guy’s albums,“Sweet Tea” and “Blues Singer,” both of which were recorded in Oxford, Mississippi, and soon after that Mathus decided to move back home. For the past ten years, he has lived and recorded in Mississippi, working on a sound that is part country, part blues, and part rock ‘n’ roll, with a little bit of gospel thrown in for good measure. But in Mathus’ mind, all of it has its roots in Mississippi.

“I was born into the nexus of Southern/American culture, from Elvis to William Faulkner,” he explains.“I’m continually amazed that these great accomplishments in the arts were somehow achieved in this unlikely location.This state is revered by many worldwide for its arts, culture, cuisine, letters and athletic heroes and abhorred for its cruelty and racism.You can find the depths of ignorance and the loftiest of thinking.”

Against the backdrop of that understanding, Mathus has now released his latest album, “White Buffalo,” which he calls “my best music to date, bar none.” Recently, I had a chance to see him in concert at a listening room in southern Alabama.His hair is longer now than it was, but his onstage energy and his exuberant love of Mississippi music remain unchanged.Afterward, we talked about his career and his latest CD. Frye: So it’s good to see you again, man.Are you having fun? w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t

Jimbo: Oh, man, after all these years, with so many ups and downs in this business,I’m still as excited and enthused about the music as ever.

The band I’ve assembled – the Tri-State Coalition – is my dream group for performing the music I’ve envisioned for so long … a true alchemical amalgam of Southern music.

Frye: Let’s talk about some of those ups and downs.The Squirrel Nut Zippers had their share of highs.

Jimbo:Yeah, we had one platinum and two gold records with Squirrel Nut Zippers.We played the second inaugural ball for President Clinton, whom I met briefly in a reception line.We disbanded in 2002.

Frye:What did you take out of that experience?

Jimbo: My years with the Squirrel Nut Zippers brought me so many blessings, namely the freedom to pursue music as a life-long career. During our hectic rise to success, I continually focused on learning more music and practicing my instrument.On the tour bus on long drives, backstage or in dressing rooms, I researched and learned so many styles and techniques. I continually sought out masters (Al Casey, Jim Dickinson, Buddy Guy) to educate me.I never,ever took the popularity for granted. I remained absolutely resolved to get the best out of the experience and to make myself into the artist I wished to become.Through all the fatigue, drama and heartbreak that normally goes with such quick success and subsequent dissolution,I kept my eye on the prize, which was a life fulfilled by art and music.

back to Mississippi from North Carolina.You had been in Carolina for a while, right? Living in the Durham-Chapel Hill area?

Jimbo: I lived in North Carolina from 1989-2002, at which time I returned to my native Mississippi. In 2000, I was blessed with the opportunity to work with blues guitarist Buddy Guy. I recorded his "Sweet Tea" and "Blues Singer" records with him right here in Oxford with producer Dennis Herring. Through the early 2000s,I toured with him as a support act with my Knockdown Society and in his band, The Double Trouble Rhythm Section. Playing with and learning from him was a great education in the art of blues music, showmanship, technique and attitude.

Frye: Speaking of attitude, it’s one of the things I love about your music.Your lyrics can take us to some pretty dark places,but the music itself leaves us feeling good.That’s always been the great alchemy of music, particularly country or blues or what we’re now calling Americana. It can take hard times, sadness, anger, heartbreak, and somehow leave us feeling better. One of the great music writers of all time – that is, people who write about music – is an author named Albert Murray, who was born in Mobile,Alabama and now lives in Harlem. He was a close friend of all the jazz and blues greats, and he used to say that “life is a lowdown, dirty shame,” but music is a thing that makes it bearable.

Jimbo:That’s it, man.

Frye:Well, talk about your latest album,“White Buffalo.”

Frye:Your music has always been so innovative, and yet so deeply rooted in tradition, especially the musical traditions of Mississippi. I loved the album you did for Rosetta Patton.What was the name of it?

Jimbo: Jas. Mathus and his knock down society Play Songs for Rosetta.

Frye:Tell me a little more about Rosetta.

Jimbo: Rosetta Patton Brown is now 95 years old. She is the daughter and only known child of Charley Patton. She worked for my Italian family in the Mississippi Delta until her stroke in '95 as the "help." She was and is considered one of our family. She is now blind and nearly deaf but is otherwise in good health, thanks to the loving care of her daughter, Martha, and granddaughter, Kechia. Kechia is currently expecting her first child – a boy – who will be Charley's great-grandson! I look forward to teaching him guitar lessons.Any devotees of early American music should consider donating some money to help this deserving family who live in the poverty-infested region known as the Mississippi Delta.The fact that this family has stayed together and is healthy and happy is a testament to their character and strength as people. Please donate checks to Rosetta Patton Brown, P.O. Box 281, Duncan, MS 38740.

Frye: Before we talk about your current album, let’s talk about your decision to move w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t

Jimbo: It’s probably the highlight of my being home in Mississippi these past ten years.

It was funded by fans through a Kickstarter campaign and was subsequently picked up

by Oxford's own Fat Possum Records. I have incredible respect for their organization and for many years have wanted to be part of it. Now, with this recording in place, I look forward to working with them throughout 2013 and hopefully beyond.This is my best music to date, bar none, and I'm mighty proud to have their assistance in promoting it.

Frye: I haven’t heard the whole album yet. It’s just now being released. But based on what I have heard, there’s a lot of blues in it, and a lot of hard-edged, honky-tonk country. But everything about it makes me think of Mississippi and Alabama and what these Deep South places have contributed to the music of America.

Jimbo:Yes and no. I think the roots are so ingrained now that I'm feeling the freedom to create some new style! These songs are simple and soulful yes, but also modern and cutting edge in an exciting way.

Frye: I can’t wait to hear the whole thing.

Written by: Frye Gaillard Photos Supplied.

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Green County Normal, Monroe, WI

It was the third Monday in August, and it would be the opening day for the fall semester at the Green County Normal in Monroe,Wisconsin. About forty students were enrolled for that fall term. Most had been May or June high school graduates that same year. A few men had been in the armed services for two years, and they were now out and chasing a college education. Another handful had joined the work force after high school, and now after working for a few years, they decided to start college. County normal schools were created to train teachers. They were two year colleges, and after completing those two years,a graduate would receive a two year license to teach. Most were hired to teach in a one-room rural school. After a successful two years of teaching and signs of an effort to complete a bachelor’s degree, the state would give you a five year license to teach. It was expected that you would earn your bachelor’s degree in that time frame. That could be done by night and summer classes. This way you could earn as many as 14 credits in a year. Summer school would be on a college campus, but many of the night classes were held in area towns as a professor would come from a nearby college to teach the course. You also had the option to quit teaching for two years and complete your degree on campus.

Almost every town or city in Green, Rock, and Lafayette Counties were represented by a student in my class. Helen Bollig Christen and I came from Belleville, and we had classmates from New Glarus, Brooklyn, Albany, Monticello, Brodhead, Blanchardville, Argyle,Juda,Monroe,Beloit,Janesville,Orfordville,and Hanover. We were a determined group wanting to finish the two years and begin teaching.But we also had lots of laughs and plenty of fun, too. Our school building was a typical three-story red brick building. The bottom floor contained a lunch room and kitchen, pantry, rest rooms, and storage rooms. The main floor contained the demonstration room and classrooms.

The top floor had more classrooms and a large room that served as our library and main room. While we were attending those two years, the typical student desk chair was replaced by individual teacher desks. Thus we had the immediate feel that we were already teachers. There was a small stage in the front of the room,and on the back wall of the stage hung a large picture of an orange poppy. That picture became the focus of many impromptu skits we put on during the noon hour. We would gather a variety of props and put on skits for our own amusement. We were easily entertained!

This room was our study hall. It was an honor system. There was no teacher looking after us and maintaining a quiet study hall. We were college kids!

As I recall there were only four teachers on the staff: a principal who was also the math and science teacher,a social studies and teacher methods instructor (probably the best teacher I ever had), a music and arts and English teacher who also had the unhappy job of teaching cooperatives to us. It was a state requirement. She hated teaching it, and we hated studying it. The fourth teacher was in charge of the demonstration room and guiding us in lesson plan making and learning about classroom management and instructing us on methods of teaching the core subjects.

The demonstration room was a mini school. People in the Monroe area could send their child to elementary school in the Green Co.Teacher’s College building. People would send their child if they felt the child needed more one-on-one education and/or small group education. In other words, we, the college students, practiced learning how to teach on these children. We had to meet with our college instructor and prepare lesson plans under that guidance. We were frequently supervised, and we met with that teacher to review how we had done, etc.

We had an intense schedule with multiple classes each day. We were kept busy with reading assignments, projects, class lectures, and daily assignments. There were frequent quizzes and tests. Some special features of this education were many field trips, and on-site lessons and work in the conservation world. We attended a week long Trees for Tomorrow camp. It was the coldest October week in history, and we kept adding layers of everything we brought along to fight the cold. I can still picture us out in the rain and snow planting trees, and I can see my classmates all bulked up in the many layers and blankets wrapped around themselves trying to plant trees in the mud and cold. We resembled over-stuffed snowmen.

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The summer before I began attending the school, the school cook had died. The principal decided to not replace her. Instead he hired our class to do the cooking.

He would put into our class treasure what he would have paid a cook,and at the end of the second year, we would have a large sum of money for a week long all expenses paid class trip. Our class was divided into groups and assigned a week at a time kitchen duty. He planned the menu, and we prepared, cooked, served, and cleaned up for a week at a time. I recall a lot of peeling, and I recall wondering just what would be the final product on some of his“recipes”. But it was a great learning experience, and we had so much fun in the kitchen, and we had a great class trip after our graduation. A special bonus of our week of kitchen duty meant we got to skip some of our classes, and we have an easy access to the cookie jar!

A memory of that class trip is that one of our cars was stolen from a parking garage on the first night of our trip. We had to divide those passengers up and take one more passenger in each car we had for the trip. Classmates volunteered their cars and their driving,and they were paid mileage, etc. from those class funds. The stolen car was not found until several years later.

We had a great deal of fun with the name of our school. We called it the Green County Abnormal School. The school’s name was changed the second year to GREEN COUNTY TEACHER’S COLLEGE, and to our dismay we no longer could joke about being “abnormal”. We also played some mean games of croquet on the school lawn.

We played cards during bad weather. A favorite card game was court whist. We had picnics in snow showers. We went roller skating or to the movies. I was a commuter student, and a few classmates would visit me at my home for an evening of cards and snacks.

I believe we all found a teaching job upon our graduation, but the majority of that class did not stay in teaching. The ladies got married and raised families. Some of the men left teaching for other careers. A few of us got our degree and some of us got a master’s, too. Rural school teachers were often hired by town or village or city schools because of the experience in teaching in a one room school meant you had good time management skills and good classroom management. Those two qualities were in demand by those “bigger” schools.

Two special memories linger even now after all those years. One,the math teacher had the habit of taking out his car keys and using them to clean his ears. Gross, right? He did it every single day, and soon we classmates started a pool to guess when in the class period he would take out those keys and insert them in his ears. One classmate from Juda seemed to win more often than any other of us. The second special memory involved the music and art and chorus teacher. We liked being in chorus with her.

She had a special knack for making singing fun. When we returned to school for the second and last year, we discovered she was not there. She had moved to her hometown to teach there and care for her ailing mother. We missed her, and when we were on a conservation field trip that fall, we figured out a detour to take us for a surprise visit to her hometown. We contacted her principal, and he helped us spring the surprise. She had a last period study hall that Friday afternoon. We arrived at her school, we were escorted to her chorus room where we all lined up as we had in Monroe, and she was called from her study hall to come to her chorus room. As she entered the room, we began to sing one of the songs she had worked with us in Monroe. She cried with joy, and we sang with tears streaming down our faces. She went to the piano to accompany us on our songs we had done with her the year before in Monroe. She had shared with us that year that she had done the accompaniment for silent movies in her hometown theater. Once she told us that,we always insisted that we end the practice session with her playing one of those songs she had played for those silent movies. She would do so only after a lot of our begging and her fussing that she really shouldn’t do that. We usually got four or five songs out of her. And on that Friday afternoon we insisted on one more movie song. And Miss Graves played that one more for us making our surprise and her surprise complete.

As far as I know, I taught the most years of all my classmates. When I visit Monroe now, I often drive by our old campus. The Senior Citizen Program of Monroe now operates out of that old building. I wonder if that poppy picture is still somewhere in that building.

Story by: Bob Hoffman w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t

HANNAH ADAMS THE POETRY OF POSSIBILITY

SINGER/ SONG WRITER KATIE BURNS

Who is Hannah Adams? If you have ever been to the Gray Dog Deli in Mineral Point Wisconsin, there is a good chance that you have already met her,even if you don’t recognize the name.Tiny in size, with a shock of reddish brown curly hair peeking out from beneath her hat, she greets every deli customer with an amazing smile and an open heart.The first time I met her I was immediately struck by her curiosity and boundless enthusiasm for just about everyone and everything. Her warmth, wit,energy,and positive view were irresistible.She is a waitress by necessity,but a poet by nature. I recently attended her spoken word performance at Leah Crubel’s Photography and Artist Annex in Mineral Point and was absolutely knocked out by this young woman’s poetry and performance.This article is from a taped interview we did the following week.

One of the best things about living in Mineral Point Wisconsin is the opportunity to interact with so many creative people, from the building restoration trades, to writers, craftsmen and women, visual artists, actors, and happily for me, musicians. One of our areas most admired and respected singer/songwriters is Katie Burns.This article is based on a taped interview I did with her in the kitchen of the home she shares with her husband and their three children.

RH: I loved your recent show. Please tell me about yourself.

KB: I’m originally from Omaha Nebraska. I went to college in Kansas.We moved from Chicago, where I was teaching English so my husband could be a cheese- maker.

HA:I was born and raised near Platteville Wisconsin. I was attending college in Lincoln Nebraska when I realized that the path I was on would not take me to the reality I wanted to be in. So, I quit school and my job, packed away my dishes, said good-bye to my friends, and was about to hit the road, when I got an invitation to join the No Coast Slam Poetry Team. I thought this would be a great opportunity so I put off my travel plans for a while. It was a good experience but by the end of the year I felt it was time to go.

RH:Where did you go?

HA: I was in California, Oregon,Washington, Montana, and eventually Hawaii. I was on the road for about a year hitch- hiking or catching rides with people I would meet.

RH:Tell me a little about your experiences.

HA: I have a strong interest in self sustaining intentional communities.You can think of them as communes that have grown up.I traveled to some of these communities and had an opportunity to work on their organic farms.You work without pay but you learn their organic farming methods. I was living on a jungle farm on Maui and had been thinking a lot about the idea of community. It came to me that we are all given a bonus community at birth, our family. I felt that I hadn’t really appreciated my family. I realized that by not appreciating that gift, it was like throwing it away. While I was thinking about these ideas of family and community I got a message saying that my mother was very sick.The doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong with her. It was really scary. I knew I had to go home. Luckily she is well now.

RH: Let’s start with your background.Tell us a little about yourself.

RH: I have seen you perform several times and I’ve noticed that you are a very strong finger-style guitar player.Are you musically trained?

KB: I started playing guitar around fifteen years of age. I majored in English in college but also studied classical guitar. I was fortunate to have a professor that allowed me to pursue my own musical direction on guitar.But I also have some classical training.I also played professionally in bars during college for money.

RH: How much of your performances are your own material?

KB:At this point, almost all of it. I’ve been writing songs since I was fifteen. I guess it’s been my way of getting things out, of expressing my-self. It’s something I’ve always needed to do. It’s never a chore.

RH:Tell me about your writing process.

KB: I home-school my kids so there’s not always large windows of time. I think I’m a much better writer since I became a mother. Maybe you just get better at multi-tasking. But if you are going to write you just have to make the time. Once a week I meet with a friend at her house .I’ll write alone for two hours then we get together and critique each others work. She’s an artist and musician, and very creative. It’s nice.

RH:And your songwriting process?

HA: I learned a lot on the road but I now want to be very intentional about the way I live and impact the world. I think we have lost a tradition of wisdom. Learning from people who have learned from experiencing life and in particular, honoring the feminine wisdom. I want to live in a way that is most healing for my-self and the people around me.

KB: Songs come to me in different ways. But if I’m really feeling something I will sometimes use just two chords to start. In a quiet time, it’s like a heartbeat in a way. If you stick to just the two chords sometimes the song will just pour out. Later I’ll tweak the chord structure to add interest.The I IV V chord structure so common in our culture has trained our brains to go to certain places and notes in a melody. Sometimes I’ll just play two notes over and over. It allows my mind to go to different places. Places it wouldn’t have gone if I had heard all those other notes in the full chords.

RH:Your recent spoken word show was terrific. How does your poetry fit into your plan?

RH: I know that you have an ongoing writing collaboration with writer Dean Bakopoulos. What’s the process there?

HA: My show was really fun and I have another one coming up in Platteville Wisconsin in the near future. I would like to keep the momentum going. I know now I will always be a writer. I sold all my books and half of my dvds at the first show. All the proceeds from my shows are going into my Tiny House on Wheels project.

KB:Dean’s and my family are very close.When Dean comes up with a story idea he calls me and we discuss it.Then we both work independently. Dean writes a story and I write songs based on his idea.It’s interesting because we often come up with the same imagery even though we are working separately. I love to collaborate with other people.

RH:What’s next for you?

RH: I love those little houses.Tell me about your project.

HA: I’m in the planning stages right now. I have a friend who is a carpenter and she is helping me with the design. But I plan on building it with my own two hands using as much salvaged material as possible. Oh, did I mention I’m starting massage school in March?

If you should get a chance to see Hannah Adams performing her poetry live, do not miss it. She is simply wonderful.

Story by: Rick Harris Photo by: Eve Studnicka

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RH: I understand you just finished your first CD. KB:Yes, it will be released in early December.We recorded it in three long days at ARC STUDIOS in Omaha Nebraska. It was an amazing experience. I always wanted to work with a producer. I co-produced it with Ben Brodin.The studio was great and so were all the people involved.Writing and creating music, and working with good musicians, is what I always wanted to do; touching people with my music and to keep growing as a writer.That’s what’s important to me.

Story by: Rick Harris Photo by: Amanda Okopski

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Paul Gruenenfelder my Big Brother Again with great sadness we Musicians in Southern Wisconsin/Green County lost another brother this past month. Paul Gruenenfelder of Blanchardville leader of the Country Band The Greenfield Brothers passed away from cancer.

Paul was a giant of a man and so talented even though for the last 32 years he had been confined to a wheel chair,the results of an auto accident in 1980. I was with Paul on the day the accident happened playing music at a jam Session in Argyle on a cold Sunday afternoon in February. Paul was leading the charge that day singing and playing bass with as many musicians as he could. A fabulous talent and a regular guy,giving lesser musicians the chance to shine whenever he could. I remember when his brother Mark called me that Monday morning to tell me the news of the accident. Joyce and I both went to the hospital that night to see him. He was Paul, laughing and joking about the halo attached to his head. Never one to let anything get him down Paul kept everyone in good spirits even though the diagnosis was not good. Joyce and I would visit frequently and take some good old fashioned homemade chocolate chip cookies to him. Six months later he left the hospital and returned to Blanchardville to start life over. The first thing Paul did was start a business, and then another, become mayor, and started two bands. Never let it be said that Paul was a quitter!

I knew Paul for over 38 years. He was my surrogate big brother. He gave me advice and taught me the right way to play Country lead guitar. When I was just learning to play bass guitar at age 19 he slung his Fender P Bass over my shoulders at the old Milk Pail Bar in Belleville and said “go ahead and pick” which gave me my first taste of playing live. When he formed Toby’s Trailblazers he asked me to be his lead guitar player even though there were many more talented and deserving players out there. If Paul had one thing it was patience. He let me struggle through songs and would point out on the guitar neck where to put my fingers,even though he could no longer hold a guitar himself.

Paul was known for never taking breaks when he played we would just switch instruments and keep going. It was not uncommon to play 5-6 hour sets a night, never repeating a song. If it was a country song from the 50’s through the 70’s Paul knew it!

Paul loved to drink beer and smoke cigarettes which finally took him down in the end.

He had the greatest sense of humor and would use it to his advantage every time he could. He loved to tell jokes and spend time with his family and friends. I have never known a man who loved his family and friends as much as Paul did! You were never an outsider with him. He always told me that Joyce and I were family and he treated us as so. Something neither one of us will ever forget. Hell, he even invited us to the family Christmas get togethers.

I’m sure today Paul is singing, playing and dancing in that big Honky-Tonk in the Sky. I’m also sure that we are all better people and musicians for knowing and playing with him all these years. I know that I am. I can honestly say that I would not be the guitar player and musician that I am today if it wasn’t for Paul Gruenenfelder. He took the time to teach and mentor me, allowed me the pleasure of making music with him, and just be his friend and a little brother! Adios Paul pick um good up there!

Andy Ziehli

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Americana Gazette Top 10 CD's of 2012 Well as I said in the beginning of the year the CD’s keep getting better and better each month. It was a terribly hard choice to make a top selection this year. There were so many top CD’s that I almost didn’t make a choice. Every CD in the top 10 deserves to be # 1. Thank you to the artists and the PR folks who sent us CD’s. They are always appreciated! So without further ado here are the Americana Gazette’s Top 10 CD’s from November 1, 2011 to October 31, 2012.

Top 5 Local Southern Wisconsin CD's 2012 The Jimmy’s 1.

2.

Chris Head & the Honchos 3.

Copper box 4.

Rick Harris 5.

Tony DiPofi

1. The Trishas 2. Chelsea Crowell 3. Bluefields 4. Tommy Womack 5. Chuck Mead & His Grassy Knoll Boys 6. Kevin Gordon 7. Tift Merritt 8. Chelle Rose 9. The Coal Porters 10. Farmer Jason

Congratulations to all the winners.

High Wide and Handsome Crystal City Pure Now What Back at the Quonset Hut Glory land Traveling Alone Ghost of Browder Holler Find the One Nature Jams

Gimmie the Jimmy’s Hard Truths People Change Up all night Dreadful News from a recently refurbished garage

AMERICANA GAZETTE SUBSCRIPTION The Americana Gazette is a free bimonthly publication and may be picked up at area locations. However if you would like a copy mailed to you, please fill out the following information and submit a check for $15.00 to:Americana Gazette, P.O. Box 208, Belleville,Wi. 53508.

_______________________________________________________ First Name Last Name _______________________________________________________ Address _______________________________________________________ City State Beth Kille ***** Dust Requius Records Americana/Folk Rock Beth Kille is probably the best singer songwriter that Southern Wisconsin has to offer bar none! Every CD she grows and excels beyond expectations or reason. The lady’s got it going!!! This CD Dust is a collection of songs that Kille wrote during her yearlong absence from the Southern Wisconsin music scene she spent in Texas, a John Prine cover, and an old song from her Clear Blue Betty days.

______________________ Zip Code 1 Year Subscription - $15.00 2 Year Subscription - $25.00 Date:______________________________________

This time around Kille enlists some of Madison’s top musicians to help her bring Dust to life. Mike Tulley, Chris Wagoner, Brian Schiro,Tom McGirr, Jon Pelk, Leroy Deuster, and Bill Maynard, her husband Tony Kille, Jessi Lynn, and producer Jake Johnson all play and/or sing on Dust. Kille and Johnson always create great music at Johnson’s Paradyme Studios in Madison,WI. The CD is layered, not overcrowded with great instrumentation and wonderfully tight harmonies.

Outstanding cuts are Chasin the Sun, I can’t love you anymore, Dust, I’ve been accused, Rome, and Idelwild River. This is a wild and woolly ride through a tapestry of cutting edge music and lyrics. The growling lap steel guitar and funky banjo make Dust a must for your collection. Kille has released great music in the past both with Clear Blue Betty and on her own, but Dust raises the bar higher than any of the rest of us can even hope to reach! Great music from a great performer! The lady can rock and does on dust! Let Dust rock your world, it did mine!!!

Review by;Andy Ziehli

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Robert’s Ramblings

Have you heard about the singer Rodriguez? Until this summer I don’t think I had ever heard of him. When I was at the movies in June I saw a preview of a movie called SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN. The background music for this preview of the movie featured the music of Sixto Rodriguez. The music was so haunting and soothing and the lyrics so poetic. I learned from that preview that in the 1970’s a singer named Rodriguez cut two albums. Both received high praise from critics, but the public ignored them. The joke was that he sold six albums. His first album COLD FACT later became a hit in South Africa. His lyrics and his haunting soothing voice seemed to speak to the down trodden people in South Africa so wanting freedom and equal rights. But Rodriguez never knew of this and received no royalties for the hundreds of thousands of his albums sold there. No doubt they were pirate copies. This went on for twenty years, and then a few people became interested in learning more of this singer. Rumors existed that there were no more albums or songs from him because he had killed himself on stage. So twenty years later a few people tried to track down that story. Using the lyrics to one song using the city name of Dearborn, they traveled to the Detroit area, and soon they discovered he was very much alive living in the same house all this time.

He was still working at hard labor, and he had raised a beautiful family and lived comfortably on his hard earned wages. When he was interviewed after his fairly recent discovery, it was learned he had no idea of his popularity in South Africa and had no idea he should have received royalties all these years. All of this is shown in the award winning independent film SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN.

Since his re-discovery he has gone to South Africa to present a series of concerts, and he plans on returning next February. He and his family were shocked to find a limousine waiting for him at the airport and 30,000 plus fans at his concerts. They had hoped 100 would come to one of his shows.

Thus all these years later he is finally reaping some financial gain, but as is his style he has given it away to friends and family. A reviewer of a recent show in the Detroit area described Sixto Rodriguez as frail man wearing a gray suit, bolo tie, floppy hat, and sunglasses. His show was interspersed with chatter and humor and Zen Buddhism. That would explain his calm soothing delivery. So if you are looking for something off your usual beaten path, you could check out this movie or go on line and learn about him and attempt to listen to some of his album cuts. I did a research and found that the South Central Library System does have his critically proclaimed CD, COLD FACT. What ya’ reading? I get that question a lot, and I always hesitate to talk too much about what I have read because we all have such individual tastes in what we read, but a few kind people have told me they like to hear about my reading and then they attempt to find out more about my selections,and if that investigation feels good to them,they will read a few of my choices. CALICO JOE by John Grisham was a recent read. It is a fast reading baseball book (fiction) comparing the lives to two players: the pitcher that had hit a promising rookie player in the head ending the rookie’s career and the life of the rookie after that accident. SOUTH OF BROAD by Pat Conroy is not a new book, but I

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just caught up with it. It reminded me so much of Conroy’s book PRINCE OF TIDES. It is an epic story covering many years and many generations in a Southern city. BEAUTIFUL RUINS by Jess Walter is a book using real people (Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor) in a fictional story of a young man in Italy who has spent his entire life thinking about a beautiful Hollywood actress that had stayed for a few days in his family’s hotel in Italy. The story covers many years and ends with this man coming to Hollywood to find out what happened to that actress. You will have to read the book to find out the Burton/Taylor connection to the plot. As usual, a quick and fun read is a mystery by Mary Higgins Clark. This one is called THE LOST YEARS and the mystery surrounds a supposed letter Jesus wrote just before his crucifixion.

Besides the previously mentioned SEACHING FOR SUGARMAN, I thoroughly enjoyed and was kept on seat’s edge with ARGO proving that real events can be as exciting as made up espionage. THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER was a surprise favorite of mine. It is based on a popular young adult book about high school life told by the “wallflowers” of the school. Some very talented young actors are outstanding in this movie.

Now I have to go check on some recorded television shows: the latest VOICE, a documentary of a man fighting for his freedom after he was wrongly convicted of murder, and a sports interview of Aaron Rogers. And I am waiting for the delivery of this year’s Christmas card order. That means the season of the Christmas letter. People are very passionate about them one way or the other. I happen to enjoy the ones I receive. I am lucky to have family and friends that do very interesting things each year, and it is fun and interesting to get a review of what they did or what happened to them. I am lucky too, mine are not medical reports. To be honest a series of descriptions of a family’s medical issues is not much of a joy to read. The arrival of the cards does mean I need to think of my own Christmas letter. Happy Holidays!

Written by: Bob Hoffman

Peter Cooper to Release New Solo CD in 2013

Readers if you go back to our first issue, we featured Mr. Peter Cooper from Nashville, TN on the cover. Besides being an amazing, performer, songwriter, story teller, great Dad,good looking – most of all,he is my dear friend. I just wanted to let you know that Peter is working on a new CD to be released in 2013, so all you Peter Cooper fans keep an eye out and watch for updates in this magazine on the progress of this. The CD will be a solo album that'll be finished by the end of the year.

“The album will feature significant steel guitar from the legendary Lloyd Green, who is showcased on each song,”Peter says.“Other musicians include Kieran Kane,Jen Gunderman, Richard Bennett,Thomm Jutz, Dave Roe, Dave Jacques, Pat McInerney, Mark Fain and my duo partner/record label boss, Eric Brace.There are two cover songs - one written by Tom T. Hall, the other by Bill Morrissey - and there are original songs about baseball, waiting tables, babies, home, drone warfare, schoolgirls in Germany and tattoos for elderly people.”

Also be sure to mark your calendars, Peter Cooper and Eric Brace are coming back to Wisconsin to perform at Puempel’s OldeTavern in New Glarus on Friday,May 17,2013!

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Doug Briney – the Alaskan Cowboy I received an email about a singing cowboy who is also a pastor from Alaska. What do you all think? Of course I had to talk to him just because it sounded so untraditional and triggered my interest. I checked out his website and here is a little background biography on him.

With the release of“It’s All Country,”Doug is showcasing his signature sound, which he cultivated from years of touring camps, churches and conferences across the US. “We even played in an airport once, to impress a pretty girl for one of the band members,” he says with a laugh. Blending traditional influences from country music’s past,like Lee Greenwood,Gatlin Brothers and Kenny Rogers,with modern contemporaries likeToby Keith and Trace Adkins, Doug has created an original, honest and authentic sound that is all his own. “It’s All Country” is a timeless collection of well-known country classics from recent memory (“Bleed Red”,“Voices”, ”Ol’ Red”) alongside heart-warming and inspiring new tracks, such as the title track and first single,“More Than Just a Farm.”

“More Than Just a Farm” was written by fellow ICMA member, Pat Kelley and Ed Leavitt, and it tells the true-to-life story about growing up and learning life’s lessons, set against the backdrop of a working farm. “When I was selecting songs for this project, I must have listened to hundreds, looking for just the right ones. I wanted songs that, not only spoke to me on a personal level, but would also be very relatable to country music fans everywhere,” says Doug. With his first single, he has done just that. Sure to strike a chord with listeners around the world, the track is already receiving international airplay on more than 150 stations.A music video for the track has been released, and debuted at #1 on the OnlyLyrics.com Music Video chart, where it remained for over a month. The video has also been added to the playlist of Country Music Channel (CMCTV,)and SCMTV, two popular internet video channels. His follow up single, “It’s All Country”is currently in the Top 10 of the Roots Music Report Traditional Country chart. In May, Doug made his television commercial debut, playing a dynamite fishing hillbilly, in a spot for Alaska’s KTUU TV, to promote their fishing report.

Doug: There are 4 cover songs, 2 are Chris Young songs and 1 Ronnie Dunn and 1 George Jones (original). I am not a writer. I used Independent Country Network and shopped around for the songs. I came across a writer named Pat Kelley and fell in love with his music. So the other six songs are actually Pat Kelley songs. Some of which he had co-written with other folks.

Joyce: Do you play out alone or do you have a band?

Doug: I usually have my “band in a box”. I have all my recorded tracks on an IPod. I am working on getting a regular band together by the end of the year. I am presently auditioning people for a band. I have been performing alone and just performed at the Alaska State Fair.

Joyce: Where do you play out?

Doug: Wherever they will have me. I play mostly in State. I just rode my motorcycle through California and did a couple of concerts there and a radio interview. I would like to play more in the lower 48 next year.

Joyce: You are a pastor correct?

Doug: Yes,I am the Pastor for the Cowboy Church of Anchorage,Alaska. I do the music as my supplement. I was operating a coffee stand and sold it to work more on my music.

Joyce: Doug, any plans of moving South towards Nashville?

Living up to that reputation can be a difficult task for any artist, but for Doug, it is second nature. Grateful for being able to live his dream of performing and recording music, he has gladly given back to his community in a big way. He is the pastor at Cowboy Church of Anchorage. He is involved with charities like the Wounded Warrior Project. In fact, it’s his unwavering faith that keeps him grounded along his musical journey.

Doug: I have made many trips to Nashville. I even sang at the Ryman,it was in the parking lot. ( he laughs) The big joke around here is that maybe next time I am there, I hope they invite me in to sing this time. I have been in Alaska for about 21 years and I love it here. It is really hard to tour from here. It is expensive to get out on tour from Alaska. You have to have something coming in to be able to afford to get out! Maybe someday in the future, I hope.

Still think a country singer can’t come from Alaska? Just ask this Northern Cowboy,and I did just that.

Joyce: What are some future goals you might have?

Joyce: Good morning Doug. What is the weather like there today in Alaska?

Doug: It is 10:00 AM here in Alaska and it is in the upper 50’s. It is going to be a gorgeous day. We have about a 3 hour time difference from you there in Wisconsin.

Joyce: Yes, it is 1:00 P.M. here. Doug, let’s start out by you telling me a little bit about yourself and how you became the Alaskan Cowboy Country Singer?

Doug: I sang my first song in Church when I was 2 years old.

Joyce: 2 years old?

Doug: I would love to be able to attend the ACM Awards show, go to more conferences like the Americana Music Association Conference in Nashville and do some networking. I’m working on my second CD and looking at some labels to go with it. I want to do more touring.

Joyce: Well, I better let you go. Are there any words of advice you would like to share with our readers?

Doug: I am a pastor. I talk all the time!! (laughs) Here are my words of advice. If you are new in the music business, make sure you really love it and continue to work on your craft,hone it down,don’t rely upon electronics. You have to believe in your music and surround yourself with honorable people.

Doug:Yup, I don’t remember a whole lot about it but my parents have an old reel to reel tape of when I sang it. The church recorded it. Music has always been a part of my life. I have been involved in youth choirs, played in marching bands in high school and went on to college as a music/vocal major. I have been leading music in churches for 20 some odd years. Country music is what I grew up listening to and it wasn’t really a“lights on moment”. That’s just who I am. My Dad doesn’t sing. Let me rephrase that. My Dad sings a lot, but he’s tone deaf. About as tone deaf as you can get. Mom does a lot of singing and is much more musical.

Joyce: Thank you Doug for your time. Good luck in your future endeavors. If I ever get to Alaska I will look you up. Meanwhile I will send you some delicious Wisconsin cheese curds to munch on.

Joyce: (still laughing about his Dad’s comment) What instruments do you play?

UPDATE: NOVEMBER 5, 2012 - Doug just signed a digital distribution agreement with CBM Records.

Doug: I play guitar, a little bit of dobro, some keyboard. I actually play just about a little bit of everything, but the only instrument I lay claim to is rhythm guitar.

Doug: You do that Joyce. Thank you so much. I love cheese curds!!!!

Please check out Doug Briney at www.dougbriney.com . His new CD is called,“It’s All Country”.

Story by: Joyce Ziehli Photos supplied.

Joyce: Doug, did you write the songs on your latest CD,“It’s All Country”? w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t

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A PET NOTE

Li’l G, Zee and Cali Rock ’n Roll Cats of Michael and Anna Webb of Nashville, TN

Li’l G (pictured on Michael’s lap), Zee (the cat on the ground), and Cali (the one who decided to not be in the photo) are the rock ’n roll cats of Michael and Anna Webb of Nashville,TN. Michael is enjoying the successful music life he has always dreamed of; writing, singing, and performing music on the road currently with Poco and Bobby Keys and in Nashville, where he is surrounded by friends in the industry and where he has enjoyed so many opportunities, including several performances on the Grand Ole Opry! Anna is a painter as well as a set and prop stylist for film and print photography; television commercials, music videos, photo shoots, etc. She is also the owner of Heart of Nashville, an art inspired product line that blossomed from her Nashville skyline paintings. I have had the pleasure of meeting Michael at a Dan Baird and Homemade Sin show in Nashville. Warner E. Hodges introduced me . I have not yet had the honor of meeting Anna, but it is on my list and you people who know me, know how I love to cross things off my list!

Now Li’l G (rightful name is Little Grimey) has had an interesting story on how he got his name as well as how he became a household name at the Webb residence and studio. He's a "classic tabby" with swirls, stripes and a bull’s eye on his side. They are not sure how old he is, but guessing approximately one year old. One night Michael was at a Tommy Womack concert at The Basement Bar in Nashville (popular local venue located under the infamous “Grimey’s New and Preloved Music Store”, and there was this stray cat outside.) Now you folks that are reading this close probably just figured out where the name Li’l Grimey came from!!!!! A bunch of Michael’s friends were there, including Brad Pemberton,Tom Littlefield, Jackie Littlefield and Lisa Oliver Gray and they decided to rescue this cute little kitten from the parking lot. They brought him in to show Michael and the kitten immediately leaped right out of their arms into Michael’s arms and more or less has been there ever since. Michael named him Little Grimey, but Li’l G has seemed to be the name that sticks with him.

Li’l G is a "hot mess", as they say in the south, with an impish and playful expression.

He is indeed a rock ’n roll cat and loves to hang out at Michael’s studio. He loves to sit in the middle of a recording session, surrounded by all the rock’n roll stars, listening to the music. The louder the better, he’s all about the music!!!! One of these days he might even start playing an instrument or singing on a song!!! Li’l G and Michael are what you call kindred spirits. He wears his little heart on his sleeve, is always the life of the party and rolls over for tummy rubs. I haven’t seen Michael roll over yet for a tummy rub, but will take Anna’s word for it. Lately Li’l G seems to have a sparked an interest in squirrels! Let’s hope this doesn’t interfere with his music career? Also he really enjoys it when Dan Baird comes over and carries him around like a baby in the back yard.

Zee on the other hand is Anna’s baby. He's a "mackerel tabby" with clearly defined even stripes. He also was a wild stray that Anna started feeding in the front yard during the fall of 2007, and finally around early Winter, allowed Anna to pet him. On New year’s Eve,with one little paw,Zee tapped on the door and decided he wanted to come in and become a regular member of the family. He has become the serious big brother looking out for his siblings, which includes an occasional fight even if it is to just teach them a lesson. He's a cool cat; strong, confident, wise, no nonsense and a very skilled hunter. He is not quite as musical as Li’l G. His interest has been peeked by his favorite prey, the skinks: a lizard that is plentiful here in Nashville.Well, at least plentiful in the Webb’s yard!

The third Webb cat is Cali.Apparently when Anna took this picture she had other plans.

She was also a stray kitten with a collar, but they could never seem to locate the owners. She had been on her own for some time and was being pestered by a neighborhood dog on their porch, so the neighbors brought her over to the Webb’s. (Knowing

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Michael Webb and the crew

they were the Elly May Clampett’s of the neighborhood and suckers for strays).She was very undernourished, anemic from literally hundreds of fleas. She is about eight years old and is most certainly a Norwegian Forest Cat,commonly called a Weegie,with extra long back legs, very long hair and a very zaftig figure. She is doing quite well now as a regular member of the Webb family!

This picture was taken by Anna. It is in their back yard just outside Michael's studio.

Michael’s studio looks like a detached garage but there's never been a car in it (Anna says she was tricked, I know exactly what she is talking about. Remember I’m married to Andy – a musician as well). Michael is sitting in a chair that Anna had brought to do a Maverick's photo shoot last summer for their upcoming CD. It was never used in the photo shoot, but Anna liked it and decided to let it age gracefully in the yard. Since then it has become a favorite scratching post for the cats. And Michael looks pretty good sitting in it as well!!!!

Information supplied to Joyce Ziehli by Michael and Anna Webb

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RICKRECALLS Pay Dirt This is the fourth installment of Rick Recalls.And if I’m any judge (and I believe I am, just ask me) I think I’ve got some mighty fine tunes this time around. Let’s go.

FRED NEIL (A LITTLE BIT OF RAIN) is one of my favorites. He had a foot in several musical camps. His voice always sounded like he was sitting right next to you.Very intimate, sadly, he’s another example of an artist loving the needle more than his art. He’s best known as the writer of the tune from Mid-night Cowboy, Everybody’s Talkin’.

BOOZOO CHAVIS (PAPER IN MY SHOE) live.A Zydeco pioneer. I have a version of this song on a Boozoo Chavis collection. Let me tell you it is mighty primitive. So I was glad to find this fine live version on Youtube. Paper in my shoe refers to an old Louisiana country tradition of writing a letter that explains your romantic intensions, placing it in your shoe, walking to the girl’s house, and presenting it to her parents for their approval. It’s an interesting custom and a killer groove.

LAURA NYRO (STONED SOUL PICNIC). She is one of my all time favorite writer/singer/fantasy girls. Like so many of hers, this song is incredibly original and soulful.

CHUCK BERRY (HAVANA MOON)A beautifully simple song by R&R’s first great lyricist.

OTIS BLACKWELL (DADDY ROLLIN’ STONE very pure, very understated, and very snakey! The Who did a great rocking version of this song.

MERLE TRAVIS AND JUDY HAYDEN (TOO MUCH SUGAR FOR A DIME) Wonderful hoakem and Texas swing. I remember seeing this music short on T.V. as a kid. Funny, charming, and some fine Travis picking.They didn’t name it after him for nothing! And that’s Speedy West on steel!

MOONDOG (UP BROADWAY) I’ve always loved these outsider music visionary guys. I remember first seeing one of his albums in my local record store and thinking, a Viking? What is this? But hey, it wasn’t just any Viking. It was a blind, New York City composer Viking! Of course music must sound different when you are out there, alone, on the edge, wearing a horned Viking helmet.

ALLEN TOUSAINT (SOUTHERN NIGHTS) this song is one of my all time favorites. I think it’s an American classic. Pop, jazz, and if you listen closely, just a hint of the blues. It’s a jewel for sure. I saw him coming out of Stella’s restaurant one night in New Orleans, dressed sharply in his periwinkle colored suit.The exact same color as his Rolls Royce.The license plate read SONGS. Kind of says it all.

CLIFF EDWARDS aka UKULELE IKE (IT’S ONLY A PAPER MOON) A great version of this beautiful song. I like it so much I perform it myself. His voice was sweet and clear.And his uke arrangement is cool indeed. He was also the voice of Disney’s Jiminy Cricket.We are now in the midst of the Ukulele’s third wave in American pop culture and it’s never been more popular than it is right now.

WILLIE DIXON (WEAK BRAIN AND A NARROW MIND) An unlikely song written by this blues giant.And while you’re in the neighborhood check out WILLIE DIXON’S, BASSOLOGY. Tight………..like that!!!!!!!!!!!!

By: Rick Harris

Let Us In. . . . the fight against breast cancer A Tribute to Linda McCartney Sir Paul McCartney gives his blessing to the “Tribute to Linda” charity album being produced by The Women and Cancer Fund Inc. and hopes that it is a great success in raising funds for the charity.

Campaign Overview - Reviver Music has the singular goal of delivering a social action agenda through the music of Sir Paul McCartney.

Through live concerts, audio and video recordings, and merchandising, Reviver will support The Women and Cancer Fund, a not-for-profit charity led by Dr.Alicia Alvarez.

Sir Paul McCartney has given the charity his “wholehearted blessing” to bring awareness to women’s cancers and raise much needed funds in the memory of Linda McCartney. The Women and Cancer Fund has granted Reviver Music exclusive rights to the “Let Us In” campaign to channel awareness and funds to the charity.

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Reviver Music offers a unique combination of veteran industry leadership, access to one of the most recognized catalogs in the music industry, broad marketing partnerships and a business model that delivers unique, increased exposure for current and emergent artists.

The Company’s executive team consists of David Ross, Chief Executive Officer, a former executive at RCA/BMG and Sire Records; Dennis D’Amico, Executive Producer; George W. Dassinger, Public Relations/Media Marketing; and Mike Boyle,Webmaster/Social Media Manager.

For more information visit their website at: thewomenandcancerfund.org

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The Dream of the Stream— A Filmmaker’s Winding Musical Journey

Beth Harrington

Store in Boozy Creek

When documentary filmmaker Beth Harrington embarked on her journey to createThe Winding Stream—a film tracing the lineage of The Carter Family and its vast influence on the entirety of country music—little did she know she would encounter a trek nearly as convoluted as the musical waterway she set out to document.

Harrington, who’s been creating professional media since 1977, released her first music-based project, Welcome to the Club:The Women of Rockabilly, in 2001. While working on that project, the seeds for her second music-related film began to germinate.

starter campaigns, but the ambitious project was simply an expensive—and ultimately decade-long—undertaking.“The thing that kept me going,”she says,“was the sort of sacred trust I felt about these interviews. I felt that I’d been entrusted with information that had to see the light of day in this film.”

That daylight, as it were, is fast approaching, as The Winding Stream is in post-production and poised for a likely 2013 release on DVD and cable TV.A hoped-for festival premiere—possibly at South by Southwest—awaits confirmation. “Right now, we’re clearing rights for festivals and for public television [where Harrington’s films have all aired].We also hope to get a limited theatrical release.”

“Many of the women in [Welcome to the Club] knew or toured with the Carter Sisters or cited The Carter Family as influences,” she explains.“In addition, Rosanne Cash had narrated that film. I started to realize that there hadn’t been a complete film about this dynasty at the heart of country music.” Good fortune reared its head;Rosanne Cash had not only expressed support for the idea, but had anticipated her need for it; just as Harrington was preparing to ask Cash for an assist, the noted singer/songwriter/author invited the filmmaker to the famed Carter Fold in the Clinch Mountain region of Virginia.

“She then stressed the urgency of me interviewing her father next,” Harrington says, “and helped make that happen.The first interview we did was with Rosanne in July 2003.Three weeks later we interviewed Johnny Cash.” Urgency was indeed the key word: June Carter Cash had passed in May (just after Harrington—as fate would have it—arrived in Virginia to get acquainted with June’s siblings Joe and Janette and niece Rita). Harrington affirms that Johnny Cash’s poor health and bereavement were apparent during her interview with him shortly before his death in September of that year.

AG:Which contemporary artists—Americana or otherwise—currently represent the “stream” your film traces?

“I was affected by Johnny Cash’s passing . . . more so, since I had just had the opportunity to meet and interview him . . . [but] I can’t say I was surprised by the news, because he was clearly ailing and—more to the point—grieving June.After Johnny Cash died,” Harrington says,“I knew I had to hurry. Janette was in poor health and Joe was elderly, as were some of my other interviewees.” Soon enough, such haste would not be required.The film’s initial momentum slowed due to unanticipated difficulties with funding. Harrington did receive grants and donations, and later conducted two Kick-

BH: Clearly there are a lot of famous country and Americana artists who talk about the Carters’ influence on them—Marty Stuart and Emmylou [Harris] and so on. But I think there are lesser-known or surprising people—an artist like Beck, who recorded Carter music as part of a side project he did, or The Decemberists, who warm up in the dressing room before a show singing Carter songs. Jazz legend Charlie Haden released a roots music album a couple of years back and his daughters recorded the Carters’“Single Girl, Married Girl” for it.There are a lot of devotees in strange places.

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Watch for news of the film’s release at thewindingstream.com,where you can see clips and learn more about the project.Below,Beth Harrington graciously answers our questions.

Americana Gazette:What did you feel was missing from existing accounts of the Carter clan?

Beth Harrington:No one had connected the story of the original Carters with the story of the Carter Sisters, Johnny Cash and the current generation upholding the musical legacy.Also,no film has shown the persistent influence of the Carters throughout American musical history. I wanted to fill in those blanks and connect those dots.

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AG: It's a little surprising to hear that female rockabilly artists cite the Carter Family—what would you say is the connection?

BH: The rockabilly girls were country girls.

They grew up listening to music like the Carters. It may not be obviously reflected in the music they ended up making but the Carters are bedrock for a lot of them.

AG: What challenges have you encountered with this project?

BH:Putting all this funding together took a long time.The time frame has just been grueling, to be honest. I thought this would be a relatively easy film to fund, and I’d been pretty successful funding earlier work of mine. But what I didn’t realize was that the entire film industry and the way films were financed was changing.

AG:What are the main differences in the way films are now being funded?

BH: The big one is that the availability of cheaper capture and editing technology— [which puts] good,inexpensive high-definition cameras and laptop editing into the hands of more people—has brought with it the assumption that no money is needed up front to make a film.In the past,film decision-makers— broadcasters, distributors and so on—participated in some of the risk of filmmaking. Now, these decision-makers, generally speaking, expect filmmakers to show up with a finished product and then they will decide if they like it and will pay for it.That makes it very hard to make a film that requires materials that need to be licensed—almost any historical film—or that requires lots of travel or that requires professionals who want to make a living.

Don’t get me wrong—I think it’s great that more people can get access to equipment, but certain types of films will not get made in the future based on the current model.

AG:Is there still an opportunity for folks to contribute?

BH: We need to finish paying for the music rights and all the [archival] photos and footage.

So if people are inclined, we are still open to donations.They can give to the film at thewindingstream.com. Also, we’re looking for corporate underwriters who might see the film as a good fit.

AG: You have an estimated 60-plus hours of footage—any plans for making the unused portions available?

BH:Oh yes,the DVD will have lots of bonus features. I’m also writing a book—an oral history of the family—that will be released in a print version and an e-book version, and the e-book will have video clips that didn’t make it into the film. And at some point I will archive the film at some worthy institution that can make it available to scholars.

AG:Was the music of the Carters already part of your own experience when you began?

BH: I love all kinds of music . . . [and] I was certainly familiar with the Carters and knew some of their music. But not on the level I came to know it on. I’ve lived with the Carter story and music for over a decade now. It’s been a real relationship.

Story by Steve Morley Portrait photo by Amy McMullen.

Store in Boozy Creek photo by Bradley Sellers.

Carter photo courtesy of John Carter Cash.

Carter Family

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PHIL LEE – THE MIGHTY KING OF LOVE HAS A NEW CD COMING OUT

THE FALL AND FURTHER DECLINE OF THE MIGHTY KING OF LOVE

Phil Lee is a pint-sized Babe Ruth. Like The Babe, he possesses a wide range of the skills vital to his profession (In Phil’s case, singing, songwriting, and guitar playing), he has the respect of his peers, and women love him--if his songs are to be believed.

Phil’s also had the good fortune to be surrounded by greatness. His four albums are remarkably consistent-partly because his producer, and his band have remained the same. Guys who’ve played with The Archies, Wilco, and Johnny Cash, and there aren’t any minor leaguers sitting on those benches.

Like“The Babe,”Phil isn’t big on singles--normally a negative for a recording artist--because Phil Lee hits home run after home run. And here’s another one that lands on/bounces off the scoreboard! This record rocks like a nymphomanic’s trailer!

Liner notes by - Lord Carrett Artwork by: Paul Needham

Bob’s Guitar Corner #7

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Bumps In The Road

I was born on June 22,1962. The Beach Boys were about to release their first LP“Surfin’ Safari”. Perhaps from the great beyond I was able to eavesdrop in on their rehearsals and thought, hmm better get down there as I want to be able to play their records! Or maybe I was just born on that date because it was time.

Not long after my birth my mother became very ill with the depression that sometimes follows giving birth. Not her fault. It did however start me on a journey in a way that was not quite normal. Of course, I have no actual memory of those early days, but I do have a vibrational memory. While a new born may seem unfocused and unaware, they are anything but. I began my journey here with the tether that most have to have some safe steady mooring,severed. While I did not drift physically from my family,I was adrift in other ways.

While the start of my physical life began a bit unsteady emotionally, I had two loving sisters who did their best to make sure I got what I needed. Sure, welcoming a baby, and a boy no less, was probably not high on their to-do list, they took great care of me all the same. I only know of one picture taken of me dressed up in anything other than my railroad bibs or the usual diaper and outfit. Bet they were tempted though.

I grew up on the near west side of Green Bay. It was a working class neighborhood without frills. No one was obviously wealthy for blocks around so I really thought that the 3 bedroom ranch was the only kind of house you lived in. I also got lucky living where I did as most of my grade school years my neighborhood had quite a few kids my age, all different temperaments and a perfect blend of boys and girls. We played kick the can, hide and seek, and a great game called capture the flag, where you had to try and steal a football that was being guarded without being caught. Getting caught meant you grabbed the football, but the guarder got his or her hands on you (had to be both) and yelled, caught! caught! caught! You could free your team member by sneaking up and grabbing them (both hands again) and yelling free! free! free! You had

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to be quick at it though, if the guarder got hold of you first then you were both caught.

We played for hours.

At home I was happy and not aware of the financial trouble we were often facing. I did not realize it then, but I also picked up on all the subtle cues around me behind our closed doors. There was stress of my parents falling out of love and my sisters both growing up independent and with bigger ideas for themselves.

By the time I got to 8th grade, something happened. I got scared. Really scared.

On the outside I appeared like any kid my age. On the inside I began to deeply feel that something was wrong. I never could put my finger on it and don’t think I even tried, I was just too scared. School scared me. Kids that could sense my vulnerability really scared me. Being at home scared me too. My sisters were off to college, and I was home alone wondering just what to do. I did not trust either parent at all. I had no one to turn to with my questions, so I did my best to figure things out on my own.

Music entered my life early and became the one thing I could both lean on and lose myself in. I did have a very few close high school friends. If I thought grade school scared me, high school terrified me. Because of the tension at home I found doing homework or focusing on anything impossible other than trying to stay as invisible as I could. Soon I began a habit of thinking that I was dumb. Because of that self imposed straightjacket, I began to act that way too. I began to approach everything with an attitude of “I can’t”. I set the bar very low for myself as my fear of failure was so very powerful. With this train of self depreciation steaming along, I attempted but failed to attend any education beyond my senior year in high school. Off to work I went taking any job I could find. Retail became my life’s work. I remained quiet and introverted. As an adult I was not dramatically unhappy, but I would never have described continued from page 34

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mason... continued from page 8

AG: So you also act? How long have you been acting?

Mason: I did a lot as a kid. In High School I acted and in Minneapolis they had a great children’s theater school. I lived in St. Paul so I could not go there during the school year, but I went to summer school there.

I was also in theater class in high school where we had a great program.

When I went to college I didn’t take theater and put it on the back burner. I really didn’t pick it up again until I moved to Nashville. I had already been putting monologues in my shows, so I started taking lessons again and pursued it harder. I got an agent and appeared in some music videos. It really helped with my music. It gave me the perspective to put in better character representations in my songs and the way I approached my stage shows. Guys like Dave Olney always write about such wonderful characters, and acting helped me create and write better characters for my songs.

Playing instruments and singing gave me some openings in theater that I would not have gotten otherwise. I did a show called American Duet

by Marcus Hummon and Bill Feehely about an Afro- American country singer and a white afro-pop singer. We did a few productions of that, then I auditioned for the road production of “Ring of Fire:The Music of Johnny Cash” and got a part in that. It was great going on the road and traveling to and playing in all these smaller American cities!

got to the Pirate thing I had to write songs that ring true in this age, not just copy old Sea Chanties.

AG: You must have gotten to Nashville about the same time as Fat’s & Kristi and Tim Carroll.

Mason: Yeah I was in the class of 93! In fact you know that Tim Carroll has that song Five Year Town about Nashville, well when I got here that’s what everyone would tell you that Nashville is a five year town (it takes five years to get established). So February 7th 1998 I released my first CD and it was my birthday and my 5th anniversary living on Nashville. I was hanging with a great group of people and it was a blast.

A few months later Billy Block started his cable TV show Western Beat.

Back then it was much more focused on Americana type music. There was also this place called Coolsville where there were three houses together and folks like the Delevantes lived there. Tim Carroll, Lonesome Bob, and Mark Horn all lived there too. They would have theses crazy parties all the time.

To make a living I did what I had done in the Twin Cities and Chicago, I installed art in museums. Back then I thought if I really want to do music I should hang around people who are going to do their art no matter what. So I thought painters are so dedicated it was a great place to be. I also ended up going on the road in some theatrical productions so I ended up making music a full-time gig.

A few years earlier I had been playing guitar with Last Train Home and we went to the Virgin Islands, and then I went back a few years later with a band called the Big Happy. I decided that I needed to write a Pirate song so I wrote the song “Pirate Song (we’ll all go down with the ship)”. By the time I went on the road with “Ring of Fire” I had it down and would play it at these jam sessions we would have after the shows. The other cast members loved the song and they all said that I had to write a Pirate musical. I started studying pirates, getting any book I could find on the subject. I started writing songs so I had a body of work to draw from. By the time I got 12 songs I thought heck I got enough for an album, so I recorded one! Paul Griffith, Lorne Rall, Michael Webb, and a bunch of other friends helped me record it.

Then I found out that there were gigs out there to be had and it was a great mix of music and theater when we played them. I found out that I could do both and all these great musicians found out it was a blast to dress up and play the songs. It just took off.

AG: So tell me about your new album.

The original guys are so busy that I had to put together a new group of guys to play out especially in the North Country. This summer I went on the road with some old friends from Minneapolis as the Blue Buccaneers and played the Minnesota State Fair and festivals around Lake Superior. We had such a good time that I had to record with these guys. Last year Supe Granda and I had written a song called Yo Ho Ho a Pirates Christmas and did a video, so I decided now was the time to record a Pirate’s Christmas Album. I was staying at the house of Andy & Joyce Ziehli (you may have heard of them), and got up early one morning. The dogs Wylie & Duncan came and whispered to me “write a Christmas album” so I grabbed a guitar off the wall and started writing a song that turned out to be the first song for the album (laughs)!

Mason: I don’t know yet. We are not quite done mixing so…. Andy you’ll get production credits!

Mason: The thing I really like about Pirates is the fact that the whole crew was a melting pot of people. You would have former slaves, folks from all over Europe, ex sailors so I imagine that the music would have been the same. So I’m plundering songs and styles from all over for this record and the next Blue Buccaneers album! I want to get some Middle Eastern music in there too!

AG: I’m sure it was Wylie because he really gets into Christmas!

AG: So what does 2013 hold for Captain Tom Mason?

Mason: The bass player Dave Wynne plays in a band called Trailer Trash and every year they do a trashy little Christmas show. I go together with their lead singer Nate and he inspired me to write a couple more Christmas songs that are sea shanties that take place around Christmas and New Year’s Eve. It’s just a good excuse to play music! The other northern Blue Buccaneers are drummer Joe Luoma, inventor of Hot Rod drum sticks, and fiddler Ric Lee.

Mason:Arrrrr…

AG: You had put out another Christmas CD earlier.

Mason: Yes I have a Slide Guitar Christmas album which is all Christmas songs played on the slide guitar, all instrumental.

AG: So what brought you to Nashville?

Mason: I was living in Minneapolis and playing in that music scene for the longest time. I played the same circuit that The Jayhawks, Husker Du, Soul Asylum,The Replacements, a band called Trip Shakespeare that became Semi Sonic through the 80’s. We would all play this little bar called the 400 club where the stage and bar were connected. You could literally walk down the bar with your guitar and play. I was writing a lot of songs and I figured I had reached the highest point I was going to get there so I moved to Chicago, and I had the greatest time! I lived in a basement apartment with some Mexican guys who did not speak much English and I didn’t speak much Spanish but we learned.

I just started writing songs feverishly. I had this big collection of songs and I thought I might as well head to Nashville and give it a shot. In 1993, I decided to make the move. On February 7th I headed south to Nashville. It was great right away. It was the first time I was around professional songwriters and musicians of that caliber. I had always been around fantastic musicians in the Twin Cities, but in Nashville I was around the best of the best. The song writing was so good here that I knew I could get better at it. You either sink or swim here! I tried writing commercial Country music and found out it was not my bag. I tried the co-writing thing and that was cool, but again not really where I was at musically. I found out that I needed to do my own thing again. I’m continually inspired by the people in Nashville. When I

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Mason: I think it’s probably one of the best Pirate Christmas Albums ever done (laughs loudly)! I can safely say that! It’s a mix of songs that sound old and new rollicking Celtic rock songs by a group of northern blues musicians, along the lines of the Pogues and the Waterboys. There are a few instrumentals because we love to just play. I have written three songs for the project. There’s lots of fiddle and rocked out acoustic guitar and a new instrument the Bloe Drum!

AG: The Bloe Drum?

Mason: You’ll have to hear it! The CD has a lot of special guests including Supe Granda.

AG: Does your dog Errol Flynn play on it?

AG: That’s why they call me Andy Residuals!

AG: Booty?

Mason: A new record, touring, and I hope a trip to the British Isles. We’ll be playing the Mid-west again and Pirate festival that we have played in the past and hopefully some new ones too! It’s shaping up to be a good year.

AG: If you play the British Isles are you taking the whole band?

Mason: Well I’m hoping to hook up with people over there. That’s the cool thing about this Pirate music. It’s easy to get great musicians to play it because it’s so much fun to perform and so different than they are used to performing. One of the things I love about music is getting the opportunity to play with people I have never played with before. Getting others’ interpretations of the music is way cool.

I moved to Nashville thinking and hoping I could get hooked up with a gig playing with a big star and it did not work out that way. It actually worked out better because I get to play with other like-minded musicians who care about the songs and music unlike Music Row that cares more about the Money. I am very lucky that I get to hang with like-minded folks and make music with them. I couldn’t be happier!

Check out Tom Mason on his website http://www.tommason.net Story by: Andy Ziehli Photos supplied.

Cover photo by: Mickey Dobo Tom Mason and the Blue Buccaneers will be performing at Puempel’s Olde Tavern in New Glarus on Saturday, December 1, 2012 at 7:00 P.M. in honor of Andy Ziehli’s 55th Birthday. All are welcome. Pirate attire is encourage, but not mandatory!

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CLAY CANFIELD

When I first got bearings straight in Nashville, a small circle of songwriting and musician friends of mine kept telling me of this guy I just had to see.The chance finally presented itself when I was strolling down Broadway and ran into my street busker friend, Mandolin Mike. Mike’s a Nashville institution in his own right, I might add. So after picking out a few old Jimmie Rodgers tunes, he packed up his mandolin and took me into one of the honky-tonks down there called the Stage, where Clay Canfield was playing that afternoon. It wasn't too many songs into his set that I realized that what my friends had been telling me about this guy was true.The mark of a great performing songwriter has a natural 'believability' behind what he or she is trying to convey through the 'mileage' of their lyrics, you can hear it in the vocal delivery and with Clay, the passion even comes through with his singular style of the way he plays his instrument. Sweet at one minute, and a ‘galloping’ rhythm style the next. He is the complete package.In a town where the fluff is continuously pushed to the top,and that’s not just cliché, it’s the truth, Clay was like a breath of fresh air. I immediately picked up his Comanche Sessions CD and loved it.We met up at on Demonbruen Street at a place called Dan McGuiness, where he was about to play a show with some other well known hit songwriters. I say without hesitation, that he would blow them all away. I was excited to talk to Clay about his history of being a true musical troubadour, and what was on the horizon for him.

Travis- Great to be with here today outside on this perfectly gorgeous day here in Nashville, Clay! You might be new to some of readers so of course, let’s start with where you grew up and how did the music bug bite for you?

Clay- Well, I grew up in Vermont until I was 12 years old. I worked with my dad logging when I wasn't going to school. When I was 12, we packed up everything in a 1948 Packard and moved to Wichita Kansas.Lived there until I was 17 or 18 and that’s where I started playing music. It was so damn boring, there wasn't anything else to do. It was either pick, or watch the planes take off at the airport. It was a little hot bed of music there. I played with Mike Finnegan, who later went to play with Dave Mason and Crosby, Stills and Nash.This would have been the early 60's I graduated in '65. I played music in small joints; in fact, I played in the first Pizza Hut that ever existed. It was a tiny brick building, with 2 ovens, a picnic table...and me in the corner.They asked me if I had a big family I said, 'yes, 6 brothers and sisters and a mom and dad'. So they paid me in 2 large pizzas and 10 bucks. And I thought,' really? Well that’s a good gig!'

(Laughs) Then I went on to more shady places. I played a place called the Black Out,

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where they had everyone from professors to Black Panthers to bikers.They used to ride cycles through the club because, you could just about get a Harley between the bar stool and the juke box. (At this time I'm about laughing off the chair). I would speak up and say 'Look, I don't mind ya doing that , just do it on my break! (Laughs) Travis- So was the rest of your family musical?

Clay-My grandpa was a concert cellist.He and my grandma would babysit me when my parents were working.When I would take my nap, he would play 'Peter and the Wolf' for me, with the narration. On Sundays, the quartet would come over and play at the house. It was all classical type music, but from that I learned about keeping time, time signatures, melody and counterpoint. It has stuck with me my whole life.When I lived in Houston, I had season tickets to the Houston Symphony Orchestra all the time. I still love it.And I love country music and blues, as long as it moves me.

Travis- That’s really great you came from that kind of background! My love of ‘classical’, orchestral-type music is growing a lot lately as well.

Clay- You know, it’s a real good, 'clean' beginning.You hear the way great music was made and appreciated, low volume and acoustic, played pristine.

Travis- Who were some of the influences that shaped your sound? More of the ones that took you down the road that you chose?

Clay-My parents had a double album of Josh White. He was the first one I heard that made the guitar really sound like...something! And I really got into flamenco Spanishtype music. Carlos Montoya.Then my dad bought Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd. Byrd was playing that Bossa-Nova stuff and Getz's really breathy sax...oh man!

Travis- I absolutely love Getz's playing...

Clay-Still to this day, I put that stuff on if I want to relax. I could put on a different hat and sit in with a jazz group. (Laughs) I have a whole night of Spanish guitar stuff I could do for a gig too.

Travis- That stuff is so complex! It’s great you could do that.Were you in Nashville in w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t

the 70's? Guy Clark sometimes refers to that highly creative time to being like 'Paris in the 20's'.

Clay- It was. But I was in Colorado back then. But at the time I was getting the idea to come to Nashville because of people like Kristofferson.Actually I was in L.A. when I first saw him. I was at the Troubadour and I was to open up for Linda Rodstandt.And the owner called me up and had to bump me. He was getting pressure from guys like Johnny Cash to hire this guy to come play. But that night I went to see Kris. It was the most amazing thing. I was thinking, he's got some good songs. His voice isn't that good and he can't play that well. (Laughs) But they were great songs and that’s the way you have to look at it. It was all about the songwriting.

Travis- I know you've lived all over the country.Tell us about your time in New York.

Clay- I was an opening act, and a tweener, they called them.Anytime they needed someone to fill time between headlining acts.

Gerdes Folk City in Greenwich Village. Some nights there would be Doc Watson or Ian and Sylvia.Tim Hardin. Bluesmen, like Lonnie Jonson.

Travis- A place like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez would hang out?

Clay- Yes. I got off the bus from Wichita. I went looking for this place in my cowboy boots. Which I don't recommend doing in NewYork.(Laughs) I'd ask people along the way where this place was and nobody would talk; they would just point the way.

(Laughs) I finally got to Gerde's and signed up for the open mic night, which they called a Hootanany, which even the name… makes my skin crawl (laughs) I told the guy I play country music.

And the guy said, 'really? Like Hank Williams? “And I said, yeah… exactly. (Smiles). He said, 'well, we'll get ya up about 2:30am. I said, 'oh man, well, I guess I’ll have a chance to see every picker in New York then. (Laughs) I played for the waitresses and bartender and thought it was just a disaster. But the owner of the club asked me where you from? I said Wichita, Kansas. He was an Italian guy so he goes,'where's that?' I said it’s in the middle of the country.They have a lot of… horizon out there. (More laughing).

He offered me a job right there. Dylan was one of his employees at one time. Paid me $90 bucks a week and gave me a place to stay.This was in 1966.

were you trying to get songs cut?

Clay- I was trying to find ways to make a living. I didn't know really at that time that Nashville was such a songwriting town.And nobody was really interested in what I was writing at that time. I came here for the first time in '81. I had a small contract at one time. But I didn't know about the politics of 16th Avenue and Music Row. I was raised to be good to people.And there's people here who will screw you for a living in this town. Luckily, I have the instinct to see them coming from about 1500 yards away.There's ones you really have to watch out for here.

Travis- But didn’t Waylon almost cut one of your songs,The Wheel?

Clay- But he never got to, just the politics. But Waylon's brother Tommy was the best man in our wedding. I even wore one of Waylon's suits for it.

Travis- And you were friend with Townes Van Zandt.At the time you met him, did he have any effect on your own writing, or was your path already pretty clear at that point?

Clay- He was only as a brother in arms.Townes and I were close.We had sort of followed each other in different clubs over the course of like 20 years. Not just Nashville but all over,Texas too. He was living downtown here.A friend of mine took me over to his house. It was a surprise because I didn't know who we were going to see.So Townes answers the door with a bottle of Vodka with a handle on it. He says, 'hey brother! You want a whiskey?' I said 'I never turn down a drink'. He hands me the bottle all in the first 15 seconds I met him. I walk in and realize it’s a set up, I was nervous. He asked what I did.Said I play guitar and sing.He said,me too.So he asks me to play Poncho and Lefty for him. He hands me his Gibson J-200. So I’m playing it. The sun was going down. All kinds of dust in the room, I swear, it looked like a Vermeer painting.And I look up and he's crying. I almost get to the end and he signals to keep playing.

So he starts singing verses that he made up there right on the spot!

If I had the tape recorder at that moment! It was the beginning of a great friendship.

Travis- Wow! With your own writing, what inspires the way you write?

Travis-So you made it there towards the end of the big ‘folk scare' of the 60's.

Clay- For me, it has to be something I've lived. I don't co-write with anyone anymore.I got screwed every time I've done that.They used to call me Captain Hook. I'd have 3 shots of Tequila and come up with these lines, and these guys writing stuff down in notebooks.

Clay- Well,I always get somewhere just when the money runs out.

(Laughs)

Travis- I’ve heard about that, and have even seen it… and it’s a big reason why I don't do songwriter nights here for the most part.

Travis- I know occasionally you work with a band, but obviously you've very comfortable doing solo acoustic shows.

Clay- It’s true. I never do them unless it’s a real, stand-up situation.

Travis- So when can we expect the new record? Any touring plans to support it

Clay- I always just keep coming back to it no matter what. It's the most personal kind of music you can play. Of course, nowadays nobody really gives a shit about it.They just ask 'where's the band?' And I just say, 'well...they were killed in a car wreck.' And then all the sudden, they're on your side. (laughs) Travis- (Laughs) Oh man! I’ve got to use that one! I'm getting killed out there doing the same thing! That might just work for me! So, when you finally got to Nashville,

Clay- There's a new one in the can. Old songs from almost 40 years ago and some new ones.All which have never been recorded. I'm all about capturing things live either in the studio or in a club. And I'll be staying on Broadway for the most part. Occasional shows outside of town from time to time.

Travis- Thank you for the time Clay.You're truly one of the treasures of this town.

Story and photos by: Travis Cooper

Clay Canfield and Travis Cooper

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CD Review

WENDY BURCH STEEL OPEN WINGS INDEPENDENT RELEASE

This is a nicely done debut recording by bay area singer/songwriting Wendy Burch Steel. Ms. Steel’s voice is sweet, clear, and strong.

The cover tunes are very well done.A particular standout for me is her version of PAUL AND SILAS, a traditional gospel song. I found the backing vocals, performed by the T SISTERS very effective throughout the entire CD. I also enjoyed the tasty electric guitar of John Schott. But for me the proof of the pudding is in the originals, and Wendy Burch Steel doesn’t disappoint. HAPPY SONG BLUES and YOUR SWEET HAND are favorites. Keep ‘em coming Wendy, we’ll be listening.

Review by: Rick Harris Allen Thompson Band ♪♪♪♪ Salvation in the Ground Palaver Records Eclectic country-rock/Americana Nashville-based singer/songwriter Allen Thompson, in an online quote, says everyone should own a copy of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young’s 1970 tour de force, Déjà Vu.While Thompson’s latest album, Salvation in the Ground, wisely avoids any attempt to mirror that unmatchable disc, there are a few useful points for comparison. For starters, the memorable opening track“Dust to Dirt” bears a likeable, Neil Young-esque midtempo lope and serves as a lament for rain-deprived family farmers that would play well on the Farm Aid stage.Thompson, who sometimes sings in a pinched,pitch-imperfect fashion,offers his mostYoung-influenced vocal styling on this cut, which also suggests The Jayhawks’ once-removed Neil Youngisms.

Moreover, the disc reflects the kind of musical mixture contained on Déjà Vu, balancing spaciously arranged numbers with more fleshed-out ones that signal the one-time solo artist’s band-oriented new approach. Déjà Vu’s diversity was the result of having four high-caliber songsmiths on board, while Thompson is the sole writer represented here, and his ability to summon multiple styles owes much to the rich vein of inspiration he taps from forty-odd years’ worth of country-leaning rock.Thompson is a deft and creative appropriator of those musical riches;Salvation’s nine songs collectively unleash a rapid-fire volley of ’60s and ’70s flashbacks, the most notable reference points being early Eagles and the West Coast country scene in general, though he dabbles in R&B-flavored pop-rock and, with his band’s help, channels Skynyrd and the Marshall Tucker Band on a pair of appealing if unspectacular cuts, toughening his typically vulnerable-sounding tenor to fill the bill.

The shape-shifting disc’s most significant dissimilarity to an album as successfully eclectic as Déjà Vu—a master class in effective contrast—is its relative lack of continuity; its generally humble production values are just the ticket for certain songs, while others come off more like decent but undeveloped demo-style fare, with stock arrangements that fail to propel otherwise hooky musical ideas into the realm of long-term listenability. Fans of straight-ahead Americana are apt to favor the disc’s rustic,acoustic-based highlights (“While I’m Young,”“Love One Another,”“Tell It to Me”), which consistently hit the sweet spot both songwriting- and production-wise. Songs such as these, which affirm that Thompson’s artistic voice can rise above the sum of his influences, add earthy, nourishing substance to the modest yet promising harvest found inside Salvation in the Ground.

Review by: Steve Morley Clinton Gregory ♪♪♪♪♪ Too Much Ain’t Enough Melody Roundup Music When I come home from a long day and want to spend some quiet time with my wife, I’ll put on some nice, soft instrumental music.

Mark O’Connor comes to mind. I would have to be totally honest with you and say that there aren’t many country CD’s in my collection. Some I would call‘borderline’such as the music of Monte Montgomery. But“Too Much Ain’t Enough”

by Clinton Gregory is definitely one of those efforts that breaks through barriers. If I was going to ever be convinced that country music is as great as so many of my friends tell me, this is the CD that would be successful in persuading me.

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There are country albums that you can't listen to without enjoying.This is one of those albums. What a great effort, and what I’m sharing with you in this review is straight from the heart. Honestly, some ballads can be boring after awhile, but Clinton's lyrics and heartfelt voice make you pay very close attention. It's an awesome effort and after only listening twice, I'd have to say I'm a fan. The musicianship and vocals are tight.

Clinton’s fiddling weaves in and out beautifully creating an elaborate, yet simple style that can’t be resisted. I am particularly drawn to track number eight;“She Did.” The lyrics are heartfelt, creative and quite emotional. “They say you can’t take it with you, but she did.” For any man who has been there, tell me that ain’t the truth!

Review by: David Mathias Jimmy LaFave ♪♪♪♪♪ Depending On the Distance Music Road Records Americana/Red Dirt This co-founder of roots music’s Red Dirt strain is an Austin fixture, though his Oklahoma musical upbringing is etched into his work and his sensibilities—he’s been touring this year, in fact, with a tribute to fellow Okie Woody Guthrie.

It’s only a rolling stone’s throw from Guthrie to Dylan, who also factors significantly into LaFave’s legend. His albums commonly feature Dylan material, and his latest, Depending On the Distance, boasts his usual tasteful cover choices from the Bard in addition to two other reinterpretations and eight originals.

LaFave’s affectingly emotional vocals routinely transform his covers into something all his own—here,on Dylan’s nearly-lost 1997 outtake,“Red River Shore,”he reels off eight double-length stanzas with remarkable understatement, delivered in a lightly sanded rasp that projects a bittersweet yearning well beyond that of Dylan’s typical delivery.

Then, after the seven-and-a-half-minute story concludes, a substantial final section rewards intrepid listeners with exquisite fretwork from Richard Feridun, who also subtly builds the nearly 10-minute track with atmospheric and artfully turned phrases in tandem with Bill Chambers on slide and mandolin.

The other album-anchoring remake, Bruce Springsteen’s “Land of Hope and Dreams,” is imbued with a Jackson Browne flavor, one largely owed to guitarist Chambers’ arresting, David Lindley-esque slide work.(LaFave,slated to co-produce a Jackson Browne tribute with 2012 Americana Music Award-winnerTamara Saviano, would be wise to reenlist Chambers’ services for that 2013-scheduled project.)

Superb six-string work and overall fine musicianship proliferate,though always in service of the songs,which on this outing skew toward the low-key and romantically melancholic side, with some notable exceptions: “Living in Your Light” suggests the breakthrough point of a spiritual journey, yet carries a sense of weariness and resignation that sets up a slightly strange ambivalence; the uncompromising “It Just Is Not Right” addresses social injustice in a cliché-free lyric that rings with conviction, while the Woody Guthrie-inspired “Bring Back the Trains” travels a similar track.

LaFave’s Oklahoma connection comes forth on the scuffed-up shuffle“Red Dirt Night,” which strings together the state’s peculiarly named,almost nonsensical sounding towns (Bugscuffle,Weleetka, Oologah) in a rambling list not unlike a musician’s travel itinerary. It’s a road song,and Depending On the Distance is,in the end,a road album of sorts, despite being scattered all over the map. While it offers an experience more introspective than invigorating, LaFave’s journey is one that Red Dirt travelers will surely find worth the trip.

Review by: Steve Morley

Rich Mahan ♪♪♪♪♪ “Blame Bobby Bare” Snortin’ Horse Records Good songwriting seems to attract prominent session musicians like moths to a flame. The chemistry that develops can be magic.

In the case of Rich Mahan’s solo debut;“Blame Bobby Bare”there is no shortage of magic. Providing background vocals is Bekka Bramlett, a solo artist, former member of Fleetwood Mac and daughter of '70s rockers Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett. Songs feature distinguished studio musicians such as P.T. Gazell on harmonica, and “Man of Steel” Robby Turner on pedal steel guitar. Other studio musicians include Aaron Beavers, Bryan Owings on drums, and Nashville super-picker, JD Simo.

‘Blame Bobby Bare’ should be listened to just a little more on the loud side. Two other elements to add that might enhance the listening experience are a boatload of beer and a bottle of tequila. The songs are upbeat and the lyrics are witty and to the point. I liked the story behind the album title and rather than spoil it, I think I’ll let you pick up the CD on your own to find out what I’m talking about. You can’t listen to this music and not put a smile on your face.

My high school communications teacher told us that you need to listen to an album (those round vinyl things) at least five times before you ‘psychologically’ enjoy an album. Now that I’m much older than the age of my teacher of the time, I can tell you he was wrong. I was thoroughly enjoying ‘Blame Bobby Bare’ at the second playing. If you enjoy pure country with a twist of hemp – this might just be the best CD you pick up this year.

Review by: David Mathias w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t

A Lick of Sense

By The Dang-Its (©2012) The Dang-Its have been entertaining Wisconsinites and their Midwest brethren since 1998, when leader and lead guitarist Tom Waselchuk brought bassist Pete Olig, drummer Mark Luhring, and steel pedal player Rick Nass together for their first performance.

Characterized by their diversity of genre and exemplary musicianship,The Dang-Its’ albums have evolved over the years, reflecting the talents and interests of the musicians and the vocalists with whom they work.

Their most recent album,A Lick of Sense, debuts Jami Lampkins as the group’s new female vocalist and—a tnovel addition to their work--banjo player.With a musical long resume that extends into her childhood when she toured the Las Vegas music circuit with her family, Lampkins is a recent emigree from Nashville, where she mastered the Broadway music scene. In A Lick of Sense, fans will be pleased to see that Lampkins’ talents blend well with The Dang-Its’ musical tradition while establishing some new direction.

Waselchuk and Lampkins have found a strong partnership in performance and songwriting. Lampkins’ voice owns the feelings behind Waselchuk’s song“Mississippi,”and the joyfully rambling tribute to his family homestead in “Cabin.” Her own vibrant additions to the album literally “Razzle” listeners, adding a vitality that cascades across our senses as adeptly as her fingers across the instruments.

A Lick of Sense emanates more spiritual overtones than The Dang-Its’ previous albums-t would seem deliberately--given the selection of songs they chose to cover in addition to their originals. Utah Phillips’ inconsolable waltz“Rock, Salt and Nails”hits the gritty end of the spectrum while the fatalistic “The Ballad of Dan Moody” more directly preaches its lesson of breaking with the path.The troupe’s originals reflect a more contemporary treatment of this theme; Lampkin’s “Seven Miles Down a Gravel Road” recounts the ageless grappling of having to confront one’s imminent mortality.

Waselchuk’s“Mississippi”blends a spirited defiance with rueful resignation as the narrator reflects on the approaching end of a life well-lived. Many songs that don’t explicitly ponder these classic themes evoke a more naturalistic spirituality. Their treatment of “Shenandoah”, which showcases the highly pleasing blend of Lampkin’s dusky alto and Waselchuk’s tenor, cruises gracefully under the power of the melancholic pedal steel.

One of the challenges for a group that has found their niche as well as The Dang-Its is how to use their strengths to magnify the innovations they’re nurturing with this album as they evolve. One of the band’s long-standing hallmark talents is the rich array of vocal ability afforded by their membership; this creative and enterprising troupe is well-positioned to draw upon these talents to cultivate their harmonies. My guess is listeners will want to hear more of the wonderful bass voice on “Mississippi” and the intimate interplay of the lead guitar’s and synthetic organ’s melodic lines in “Crossing Over.”

The diversity of musical genres is what keeps this album fresh:“Crossing Over’s”gospel sound sports shades of Santana, with rich electric bass and the juicy voice of a surrogate Hammond organ, mimicked deftly by Nass’ pedal steel. Lampkins’ contributions include two lively instrumental pieces;“Razzle”features a rundown that will turn even a teenager’s head toward bluegrass. Never without a dry edge of humor,The Dang-Its also feature a cover of John Hiatt’s “Gone,” to which Luhring’s drums contribute as much as Waselchuk’s devil-may-care vocal delivery.And the album closes with a lively dance-hall version of “When You’re Smiling,” equal parts instrumental and vocal, to tilt the balance of this album toward the optimistic.

A Lick of Sense offers a fine balance between the familiar finger-picking favorites on which The Dang-Its have forged their repuation and new explorations of sound and theme. The natural imagery characteristic of Waselchuk’s originals help seal their universal message and foster broad appeal. Bolder experiments with the boundaries of genre are reflected in the brassy“More to Love,”preventing the album from becoming bound to contemporary Country and the easy embrace of nostalgia. It’s perhaps one of my favorites,“Close to Me,” penned by Lampkins and Waselchuk, that best forecasts the intriguing musical crossovers to come in this newly minted album and band.

Review by:Anne Gravel Sullivan Over with You Steve Forbert Since bursting in on the popular music scene with unusual poetry and passion in 1979, Steve Forbert has had a respectable number of professional triumphs and a handful of travails. “Romeo’s Song”put the husky-voiced singer on the American songwriting map as well as the music charts, along with his second album, Jackrabbit Slim.

Thirty-three years later, after struggling with two major record labels over authorial control and distribution of his music, Forbert is back with a new album—Over With You—that is every bit as head-turning as his early work yet more nuanced and mature in its musicianship. Produced by Grammy-award winning Chris Goldsmith, this deeply personal selection of Forbert’s songs, painstakingly delivered to evoke the intimacy of their subject, eclipses the relevance and staying power of the work of his youth.

Forbert earned his stripes as an Americana artist many years ago, garnering a solid reputation as an intelligent lyricist and troubadour. Never a particularly strong singer, Forw w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t

bert nonetheless maintains a compelling expressiveness of voice that, along with his philosophical proclivities as a lyricist,has over time moved him closer to embracing the iconic mantle he was awarded long ago in the independent folk music world.

Forbert’s spare vocals and verbal acuity combine to create an unexpectedly unambiguous range of emotions in this collection of songs that so adeptly detail the human experience of love and loss.The album features songs that serve as a reminiscence of the unabashedly playful melodies of the seventies while at the same time offering lyrics that take a deep dive into the complexities of the human condition. Everything about Forbert’s melodic style is light, even while the themes his songs evoke are not. Exploring the social contracts we make with others with a candor and scrutiny equal to that he brings to examining his own delusions of love, Forbert’s sensitive songcraft has few parallels in today’s music scene. Like John Hiatt, Forbert makes ample use of imagery, irony and understatement to discern the edges and touch the core of our being.A simple piano accompaniment interlaces beautifully with crisp percussion to underlay Forbert’s hesitant, halting voice in the title track, yielding a winsome love song.

Forbert shows considerable compassion in the songs on this album, as well as streak of daring, both traits I enjoy in his songwriting. While dark, there is a tenderness to Don’t Look Down, Pollyanna, which draws on the gentle arpeggio of Ben Sollee’s cello, Forbert’s broken phrasing, and a slow, sketchy beat to give encouragement to an economically-ravaged Louisianan. Here Forbert’s imagery is so concrete it’s painful, as he calls us out for our tendency to blame those in poverty for their circumstances despite the odds against them.

The world and how to work it is a book you should have read.

There should have been a copy on the nightstand by your bed Few musicians could electrify such lines of lyric; Forbert can and does render them powerful.

Another of Forbert’s skills that makes this collection so engrossing is that he makes strategic but intuitive use of vocalizations and syncopation, putting them to effective use in In Love with You, an unpacking of the puzzling vagaries of love. From the dry scrape of fingers on the steel strings to the subtle swish of brush on the snare, the song is finely orchestrated to hone the listener’s senses.

All the things in love with you’s become Things I’ve given to and taken from Standing in the ebbtide crashing road Trying to sort your seashells from your shore A few songs, including That’d be Alright, dance with an abandon enhanced rather than constrained by the sparse instrumentation, which is rendered impeccably by the topnotch musicians recording on this album. Ben Harper’s groove and guitar joins Forbert on this song, lending it a Donovan-like funk that buoys it out of despair.

All I Need to Do showcases the best of Forbert,particularly his uninhibited delivery and the cheerful 70’s percussion, characteristically belied by the irony of its lyrics. With an honesty and voice (both intellectually and musically) that evokes the earnestness of Kermit the Frog to this Sesame Street-raised fan, Forbert manages to draw you into the intimacy of his mind and leave you feeling as if you’ve been found out, even if by a benign and kindred spirit.The collective effect of these songs is rather like a series of delicate etchings of life’s most profound yet abstract experiences.

Masterfully crafted and delivered, Over With You is an album well-suited for those who care to inhabit that interiority of mind that, at lest for a brief while, can clarify and transport you to a better understanding of oneself—and what it means to be human.

By Anne Gravel Sullivan Jim Nunally ♪♪♪♪♪ Gloria’s Waltz This sixteen song disc opens with the classic “Hold Whatcha Got”

by Jimmy Martin and sets the mood for the entire disc. Upbeat, classic, and fun! This is a tribute album to Jim’s mom, Gloria.Which in and of itself is very endearing. How many guys make a recording as a tribute to their mom? Not many I’m guessing. Jim says in the liner notes “in fact she encouraged me to pursue a career in music, against my better judgment. Way to go Mom! One of the things I like about the disc is the fact that Jim is a stellar Flat picker in the traditional and contemporary bluegrass vein.He could go toe to toe with any of today’s players.He has impeccable timing and sings in a very high lonesome style which makes this all the better. It does not hurt that he has garnered some of the finest players on the scene today to help out with this project including such greats as David Grisman, Sam Grisman, Joe Craven, John Reischman, Bill Evans, Greg Spatz, Dix Bruce, Keith Little, and Rob Ickes to name a few.The players here are all from bands and people that Jim performs, or has performed with. He is a two time Grammy Award Winner and has been a stellar player on the Bluegrass scene for a long time. Some of the standout tunes for me are the Town Van Zandt classic tune“Pancho and Lefty”which features Judy Forrest on harmony vocal,and John Fogerty’s“BigTrain from Memphis”which features the continued on page 34

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David Grisman Bluegrass Experience band.“Your Tone of the Blues” penned by Jim himself is also in the classic bluegrass style of the entire disc. Jim passes the lead vocal off to his brother Rob Nunally for Dolly Parton’s “Tennessee Mountain Home” and it is a stellar version of that song.This is another great Bluegrass recording by one of the great players of today. I’m sure Jim’s mom is as proud of him for this as he is thankful for her. If you like Flat-picking guitar, Mandolins, Banjos, and Fiddle I would highly recommend checking this one out.

Review by: Bobby Westfall Brad Cole ♪♪♪♪ Down the Line Chicago based Brad Cole released his third recording Down the Line in July of 2012.The CD was recorded in Nashville at Studio X. Cole has been on the music scene in Chicago for 20 + years and is a wonderful songwriter.

The disc weaves in and out of laid back grooves and sweet harmonies. One thing for certain is he’s a hopeless romantic. I do not find that to be a bad thing myself. Cry Cry Cry is the lead track and is about regretting a lost love that he failed to recognize.Who hasn’t done that! The funky calypso groove Butterfly is about well, a butterfly.A song that has won an award and could easily win more, it is very light and refreshing. Mr. Cole has a very rich warm voice that is easy to listen to and his guitar playing supports the songs very well and the songs are easy to listen to. He lets the songs have a lot of space and openness. Everything fits together on this recording.You never get the feeling that something is missing or someone is overplaying.A departure from his other 2 recordings this disc is in the Americana/Folk Acoustic category.The instrumentation helps these songs quite well. Guitars, hand percussion, Dobro, mandolin, fiddle, and very nice background vocals keep you interested. He kept my favorite song for last, Pilgrimage.This upbeat rocking Cajun groove is about being on a pilgrimage which is what we are all on together in this amazing grooving recording.

I’d like to hear him do more things like this and a little more on the upbeat side of things.But all in all he’s a talented artist with a gift.The future looks bright for Brad Cole, keep an ear out for him. Here’s hoping he continues on that pilgrimage and keeps bringing us more of his songs.

Review by: Bob Westfall Howlin Alan ♪♪♪♪♪ Back to Plan A Independent release Americana/ Roots Rock Pretty on the Outside, Tom Petty,

The songs on Some Things Never Change show a wide range of talent and ability in both musicianship and lyrical content. The songs are in the early John Mayer style, not to say that they are clones but rather they are fine examples of the late 90’s singer songwriter genera.

Every song on the EP is excellent! I loved every one of them! They are a nice change of pace from a younger artist. My favorite song on this EP is Jefferson Street.A gritty funky tune that reaches out and grabs you right by the collar. If I can give Flowers any advice it is “to remain your own person and stay on the funky side of things. Your songs are all very good, but songs like Jefferson Street are gold! With that said Some Things Never Change is a great start to a long career. It’s a great listen, so check out Tyler Flowers! It’s worth your time!

Review by: Andy Ziehli Jesse Lafser ♪♪♪♪♪ Land in Sight Independent release Americana Jesse Lafser is a singer songwriter who hails from St. Louis and now resides in Nashville. She is a force to be reckoned with both in vocal ability and songwriting talent. Land in sight is a fantastic collection of songs and stories. This is one of those records where you can shut your eyes and see the imagery of the words in your mind’s eye.

Lafser’s songs spring from the record with the kind of action and surprise most young artists never achieve until much later in their careers. The songs are based on a Mark Twain story about a ship lost at sea. The instrumentation is fantastic and a pure joy to listen to. This is a wonderfully put together record with imagery and substance. Lafser is a wonderfully talented writer and her ability to find new melodies amongst the sea of notes is very satisfying.

My favorite cuts are Anywhere You Go, Mississippi Line,A Little Less Poison, Farsighted Problem, and The Lighthouse. Lafser’s voice really shines on these cuts. I also really liked the instrumentation especially the B 3 organ in the background in The Lighthouse.

This is a great CD and you should own this ASAP. I hope that Lafser writes another record soon. This was and is a joy to listen to. It will take you away from the snow and cold of the winter. Jesse Lafser is only 25 years old and she made this great record. I can’t wait to hear a future composition with a little more salt in her hair and wind at her back. It’s my guess that it too will be fantastic!

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Howlin Alan plays some very cool music. I ran into him at the Americana Music Conference in September hanging with Peter Cooper.

He asked me if I would review his new CD so here we go!

Alan played most of the instruments on this CD except the keys and drums. He is a very talented musician and songwriter. His style is very Roots Rock Americana driven.

His vocals are an easy listen and his lyrics easily carry each song. His Cigar Box slide work is very cool especially on the first song Pretty on the outside. Listening to Back to Plan A,I get the feeling like I’m cruising in my old Buick GS with the windows down and the tunes blaring from my stereo. The CD has an old familiar feeling to it even during the first listen.

Favorite cuts are Pretty on the Outside,Tom Petty, Everything, Not for her, and Which side of the road. All of these songs have a very cool vibe and feel to them. Alan did a fine job recording this CD. The production and mixing of these songs is right up there with the stuff coming off the row!

For a debut CD this CD rocks! I can honestly say that for an indie project it rates right up there with some of the major label stuff I heard these past few years. Alan is talented, has a great voice, and shows that he can write great material. You should own this CD today! I dug it and it will be in my CD rotation for quite a while. Hopefully some Indie stations will pick it up and let it see the light of day. Their listeners would love it and so will you!

Review by: Andy Ziehli Tyler Flowers ♪♪♪♪ Some Things Never Change Independent release Tyler Flowers from Brentwood,TN is a singer/songwriter who uses a very cool guitar-based original sound to convey his musical talent and tastes. From straight ahead pop to some funky blues based dirty ass harp driven songs on this EP. Flowers developed his passion for music at an early age by listening to the music his parents listened to. He later became interested in singer songwriters like Paul Simon and John Mayer. His voice is clear and a pleasure to listen to.

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myself as a happy young man. I was as the great band Pink Floyd sang, comfortably numb.

Of course, there were moments of joy, no matter how focused one is on his or her troubles it is always the case that there is a lot going right in the mix as well. I met some nice people, had some adventures and began to allow my internal terror to subside. I did a lot of work to turn my internal view point back to one of joy. It took dedication and decision after decision that I wanted to feel good more than I wanted to feel bad.

I met Bob in 1994. By then I had my footing pretty much underneath me, but I was still naïve to so much of life and the world. To his credit (his huge credit) he never tried to steer me in any kind of direction. His endless support as I tried this and that is a gift I can never repay.

This year found me turning 50 as you know. (You have been reading my articles EVERY issue, yes?) Two weeks ago I had an amazing experience on one of my long walks. I was simply strolling along thinking as I often do while enjoying that activity just how happy and appreciative I am of my life. Then, like a quiet whisper I heard “I have become the man I have always wanted to be”. I literally stopped and simply stood there as I repeated the thought to myself. Then I said it out loud. And I knew it was true.

As I navigated the years of my younger life, I was dreaming of the man I wanted to be.

I realize now that my thoughts then were never about becoming a man and having this or that. For me it was becoming a man and feeling this and that. While the things in my life have value, I never measured myself by them. I never used my TV or vehicle to define me. I never made it much above the poverty line so money was not a measure for me either. It was my spirit and my feelings that I used to define me. It was what could not be seen, only felt, that was really important to me.

When my attention was drawn just a few days ago to my internal success, I was stunned. The fun part of the revelation was I felt no different after receiving it. I just knew it was true.

As my feet began to move on my walk that day I just kept repeating the phrase in my mind. I realized I had grown up. Then a deeper realization found me, the fear was gone! continued from page 35

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Why a music scene never develops in Southern Wisconsin/Madison With Madison Mayor’s Paul Soglin’s idea to make a music video and spend thousands of dollars on a one day music fest in June seems to have not gotten the initial support from local musicians as he had hoped, brings to mind a discussion I had with a local musical performer on why Madison/Southern Wisconsin does not have a vibrant music scene. My friend argued that it does and that as usual I was all wet and just being Swissy like always! She informed be that Madison was alive with music and had fantastically talented musicians, singer-songwriters and great clubs to play at. I could not argue with the first two but did put up a valiant fight on the third. The questions being why aren’t there great clubs to play in Madison/Southern Wisconsin?

Well first let me say that there are a few great clubs to play run by very competent people who love supporting local music. My hat is off to these fine folks. Theirs is not an easy row to hoe! The problem is that it is nearly impossible to get 100 - 300 people to go out and see a great band anymore. Between the drunk driving laws, the economy, and the plain fact that people have so many other things to do in their lives it is very hard to fill clubs. Now I’m not whining about this, I am just stating facts.

So now let’s look at some underlying reasons the music scene is not what it should be and what we would like it to be. I warn you I am going to be blunt and upfront on the reasons so musicians and club owners please don’t be offended. Music journalist/performer Peter Cooper of the Nashville Tennessean and Vanderbilt University told me over a cup of coffee one day the there are three things needed to have a great music scene. They are: 1. Local clubs that allow and support original music.

2. A music publication/local radio station that supports and plays and reports about the local music.

3. Fans that support local original music.

We have all three of these to a degree but we must work harder on items one and three. We are lucky to have fine publications and local radio that supports local music.

What we need is more clubs and fans to support original local music. Now I know that these are not new ideas, but they are important ones.

What we are truly lacking is a vision and plan to get fan support up, more clubs playing music, and more attention to promoting our local music and arts on a larger scale.

Rick Tvedt has tried for years to get people on board to do this and has had some success especially with the MAMA’S. The biggest hurdle Tvedt has always faced is that he gets a ton of support pre-show and next to none post show. Promotion and support

is a year round activity folks! Tvedt is right in what he does, the public just needs to get onboard with him. Roy Elkins is another person who supports and pushes local music. His work with the MAMA’s and Broad Jam speak for themselves, but two people can’t do it alone. We need more visionaries who are willing to work hard to keep local musicians and music at the forefront.

Next bands and artists have to ask a couple of very hard questions about their craft and art. First maybe the reason people are not coming out to my shows is that the style of music I write and play just does not appeal to the masses. I’m not saying change your style to suit others, but of you who are not making any money making music you have to look at yourself and what you are offering to the paying world. If they aren’t buying, you are selling the wrong thing!

Secondly promote the hell out of your music. No one is going to blow your horn for you! Yea it would be great if club owners would promote shows like they used to, but they are not going to so develop a marketing and promotion plan yourself or get professional help with it and go for it.

Thirdly if you really want to be a full-time musician or band develop a style and quit copying everyone else. Be yourself and that will come across to the audience. What I’m saying is this; play your own music, but if you want to be successful play music that appeals to the audience. I’m not saying to cop out. Just be mindful of the fact that if you want to eat you have to play music that your audience gets some benefit from.

Music is no different marketing than another product. If your customers don’t get any benefit from it they will not buy or use it.

Fourth what bands and artists need to understand is that you are up making music on the stage for the benefit of the club owner’s patrons not yourself? You need to be in tune of what the audience wants to hear not always what you want to play, so don’t book a job at a club if you don’t play the style of music the patrons or the club owners want played.

Finally what needs to happen is that when an act“makes”it they need to comeback and help others breakout and make it too. What usually happens is that they run away from here as fast as their legs can carry them never to return. Nothing else says that “I came from a hell hole of a music scene”by never returning or mentioning how good the talent and club scene was here in Southern Wisconsin.

We have elements to all of these things here in our scene both good and bad. Working together as performers and club owners and promoters can only benefit all of us.

If acts can draw bigger crowds,club owners/promoters can pay more money,and more people will come to shows to see what all the fuss is about.

The last piece of the puzzle is the fact that because we don’t have high paying jobs and mediocre to poor bands can make the same as good bands there is not the need or drive to become a step higher in musicianship or songwriting. Complicity has taken over because there is nowhere to go on the club ladder. When there were more clubs and you had to be a top-notch band or act to play the “big” places people worked harder to get there. With only three top tear clubs in Madison and the surrounding area and the ability for mediocre acts to play them the drive to be the best kind of goes out the window. Competition is good, it’s healthy, and is needed badly. What we need is better acts, more top tier clubs, in which will bring better crowds and more money for everyone. It’s that simple!

Andy Ziehli

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I realized that my life experience had value. While in the midst of living my life, I certainly did not feel like I had any kind of plan beyond survival. Over the years the desire that burned the deepest inside of me was to be authentic. Most of my life I spent trying to be what I thought everyone else either hoped or expected me to be. The feeling of the disconnected tether of my early years continued into becoming an adult.

I appreciate the fairness of the Law Of Attraction (like attracts like,Abraham-Hicks.com) I am living proof of the simple idea that if you change your focus and look for things to feel really good about very soon those good feeling experiences are all around you.

This is old news. What made it work for me is I suspended my disbelief that an idea so simple could work long enough to experience it actually working.

Who was I, really?

Hang in there.

For so many turning 50 brings realizations of stagnation and that the best of life is behind them but for me it’s just the opposite. I am just getting started.

Keep the faith.

Fake it till you make it.

While I will never say I value struggle more than success, I now understand they usually work together. My struggle was that I did not understand that simple symbiotic relationship. A sheet of white paper or canvas has a limited amount of expression. It’s white. Put a colored dot or line on it and now you have contrast. This contrast always brings deeper satisfaction as now there is a dialogue on the canvas. The bumps in the road of my life added the necessary contrast in my life.

I have often said when people ask me“what’s new”I had few words to say as I did not understand the value of my internal work and changes as much as the things that others could see and hear. My answer to that question if you were to ask me today would be everything!

Keep on truckin’.

Fear is temporary.

Today is the day.

Be authentic.

Believe in yourself!

Written by: Jim Smith

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