MERICANA GAZETT E A October - November 2009
Feature Story: COUNTRY TWIST Whitney Mann Tracy Lawrence Jeff Cook Dan Baird & Homemade Sin Aaron Tippin Emily O’Leary Huffin Glue Dick Radtke
AMERICANA GAZETTE Greetings: October – my very, very favorite month of the year. I love the outdoor smells of Fall and the beautiful colors, festive decorations, and the wonderful foods of the season. Andy and I are also celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary this month. My how time flies when you are spending it with the one you love. (He will like this comment – true or not – just kidding!) Also, October is Country Music Month, therefore this issue has a little more county articles and interviews than normal. I had the opportunity to speak with Tracy Lawrence, Aaron Tippin and Jeff Cook, to name a few. I hope you enjoy the articles. Andy and I were in Nashville attending the Americana Music Conference the middle of September. We will have lots of news to report on that in the next issue.
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Welcome to
Americana Gazette TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURE STORY 16 Country Twist
WHERE TO LOOK: 3
1/2 Notes
Amber Sky’s is the name of the new Americana Band out of Belleville, WI. The eight piece band plays a mixture of Americana and Country Rock songs. Joining past members of Jug Prairie (John Fahey, Bob King, Rob Kosmeder, Sara Rupnow, & Andy Ziehli) are Steph Rupnow on vocals and keys, Matt Sarbacker drums, and Andrew Pulver electric 12 string guitar. The band is booking jobs and available to play now. Look for them in your favorite club or venue.
1/2 Notes
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Litt DuBay’s Slant
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Women In The Round
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Tracy Lawrence
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Press Release
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Beau Geste Productions LLc has severed ties with Joel Pingitore and the Playground of Sound. In a statement by Beau Geste Productions, LLc the reasons stated for the split will be released to interested parties by Contacting Beau Geste Productions Whit Lehnberg or Geoff Wilbourn. The main reason given was the misuse and ownership of intellectual properties.
CD Review
10 Jeff Cook 12 A Pet Note 13 Aaron’s Anecdotes 14 Coyote Castle 15 PMS 16 Country Twist 18 3 for 1 19 Dan Baird &Homemade Sin 20 Aaron Tippin
19th Autumn Fiber Extravaganza Rainbow Fleece Farm, W7181 Hustad Valley Rd., New Glarus 11 am - 4 pm Rainbow Fleece Farm and Carding Company - from Hwy. 69, go west 5 miles on Hwy. 39.Turn right on Cty. J, and right on Hustad Valley Rd. Patty Reedy for more information 608.527.5311 rainbowfleece@yahoo.com Swiss Village Harvest Fest Swiss Village Visit the village and witness old world artisans demonstrating their crafts: sausage making, bee keepers, quilters, broom maker, basketry, spinning, weaving, and blacksmith. www.swisshistoricalvillage.com November 21, 9am-2pm Arena’s 2nd Annual Holiday Arts & Crafts Fair Sponsored by the Arena Business Association, this fair is a wonderful opportunity to find the perfect holiday gift, gift for you, or for your home at prices that are hard to beat. Most of the lovely products offered are hand-crafted by local crafters and artists.Valuable door prizes drawn every half hour. Well-advertised. Yummy concessions and lots of free parking.This is a fun time for all! Admission: $1.00 for adults. Grandma Mary’s Café (Brisbane Banquet Room), 175 US Highway 14,Arena FMI: Judy Reyes, 608-753-2122 or judyreyes@charter.net
The First Annual Bounty of Green County was held at the New Glarus Brewery on September 12, 2009. The event included brewery tours and tasting, food samples by Green County merchants and supplies,demonstrations on cooking and use of natural food ingredients, music by Amber Sky’s and a special treat the New Glarus Swiss horns and choir. The event was very well attended and plans are already in the making for next year’s event. Wild Hare Foods of Belleville,WI is making plans and putting together their holiday gift boxes which include Sausage, Cheese, and other treats. You can pre-order your gift boxes by contacting Wild Hare Foods at Wild Hare Foods, LLC, P.O. Box 166, Belleville,WI 53508, toll free 866.424.1717, mobile 608.843.6301, scott@wildharefoods.com or by clicking on their web site at wildharefoods.com. These gift boxes make great gifts, especially for businesses to send out or distribute. Also check out the other great products they make and distribute including a wonderful line of Snack Sticks.
22 The Diner 23 Kim Novak and Bambi 24 Emily O’Leary 25 Bath Tub Mothers 26 Huffin Glue
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Litt DuBay’s
Rant! by Litt DuBay
A disclaimer of sorts: Litt Dubay says what he wants and how he wants to say it. He does not try intentionally to irritate anyone except New Country Music Lovers. He says things other
like her voice or smile. No one can be that happy!!! That Life in a Northern Town song with all her tour mates has got to be the most irritating video of the year! If not I know what is and it’s the Sugarland Video for All I want to do. God it is so syrupy it makes my teeth hurt! Got a chance to visit an old friend in Nashville( Randy Blevins) in September. If you have not heard of Randy Blevins check out his photography on his website. Randy is the MAN when it comes to fixing analog tape machines and super large recording boards throughout the US. He is also a world class photographer, and one of the funniest people I know! I always have a blast and laugh till my sides hurt when I spend time with Randy. What about this cash for clunkers program. The old lady wanted to trade me in but the dealer said I had no Blue Book value. He said that my mileage was too high, my born on date was too old, I had too many leaking parts, my color had faded, and even the government could not find anyplace to recycle me at!
not your dude! I am not Jeff Bridges! I am a man not a four letter noun! Oh I guess I am a four letter noun. Sorry, got a little carried away there. But I still hate being called dude! Lastly I think I’m going to write a book on St. John of Marinette. Written by: Litt
BlackWaterGin Texas Rock with Bite ((( BWG ))) BWG Entertainment 608-574-2916 www.myspace.com/blackwatergin
Learned a valuable lesson a week or so ago. That lesson was that Windex (a copy written product) is very slippery when sprayed on plastic, and one should not try scraping the said plastic with a razor blade and hold the Windex covered plastic object in one’s hand when doing so. Ouch!!! I also learned the same day that spray painting an object that is hanging from a wire should not be held onto with a razor blade cut finger and spraying paint into said cut. Ouch again!!!
people wish they could or have thought about saying but have a better upbringing and more refined manners than Litt. He is not a racist. He is a multicultural phenomenon explainer. He is an equal opportunity disser. He also is an interpreter of modern dance and a fashion consultant to the Americana Gazette. Litt’s views do not reflect the views of any other staff member of the Americana Gazette except Litt’s. If he has offended you in any way suck it up and grow a pair, and if not he certainly will offend you sometime in the future!
Hey you all! Old Litt Dubay here with another column of information and ideas to get you off your butt’s and into the clubs again. Verona, Middleton, and out lying taverns in Dane Country are now smoke free. Let’s hope some of them start booking bands and people start going out to see them again. No excuses on either side. Just Do It!!! (Nike please don’t sue me) Well found someone more irritating to me than Carrie Underwood in Country Music. That Jennifer Nettles from Sugarland takes the cake. Man I don’t
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Now don’t think I’m a racist but White guys shouldn’t Rap and Black Guys shouldn’t wear Cowboy Hats unless the white guy grew up in an urban setting or the Black guy was a real Cowboy not a dime store video type. It’s like Swiss guys should not make lutefisk and Norwegian Guys should not make Bratzeli. It’s just not natural!!! It’s okay to cross cultures but hey somethings just don’t fit well and should not be seen in public. There is nothing worse than an upper middleclass white guy rapping about the hood he grew up in (or not) and acting like he’s a big man with his own posse. A Cowboy Hat should not be worn just because it fits or you think it makes you look cool and earthy. A Cowboy Hat is a badge of honor not an accessory for your designer jeans. Check out the Chris Ledoux song This Cowboy’s Hat and you’ll hopefully understand. Fudge season is almost here! Yea!!! It starts on November 20th and goes until January 3rd. I can’t wait. I hope John Miller gets some fudge in at the Fat Cat or I’ll be really pissed! Saw a bike rider in spandex and hoop earrings the other morning. Again don’t wear spandex into public eating places!!! Someone please come up with an outer worn nut cup or tiki towel for these guys! I had to go back to Guitar Center again. Got a different clerk,one with less fishing tackle attached to his face and ears. Not much more help though. Had to bring in the big guns, the assistant manger supervisor dude to ring up my transaction. Got the job done in twenty minutes for two items that were marked one price and showed up on the register as a higher price. Could not figure out what price to charge me dude. I hate being called dude! I am
We are a regional advocacy, technical assistance and networking program for all types of creative entrepreneurs – including visual artists, composers, musicians, writers, actors, dancers, and choreographers. We connect artists and arts leaders throughout southwest Wisconsin. :H DGYRFDWH IRU WKH DUWV :H GHOLYHU ZRUNVKRSV DQG HGXFDWLRQDO offerings on entrepreneurial skill topics :H IRVWHU FRPPXQLFDWLRQ DPRQJ artists and arts groups via email updates containing information about grants, workshops, and opportunities. 2XU RQ OLQH GLUHFWRU\ RI DUWLVWV KHOSV creative entrepreneurs increase their visibility. $UWV%XLOG LV FRPSOHWHO\ IUHH WR MRLQ
Carol Spelic 608.342.1314 spelicc@uwplatt.edu w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
A ONE ON ONE WITH WHITNEY MANN This issue’s Women in the Round features a young singer/songwriter from the Madison area. She is just starting out, made her first EP and is a very talented musician. I took some information from her website and had the pleasure of speaking with her to get a little background on her to share with all of you. Whitney Mann is a singer/songwriter based in Madison,WI who is equally inspired by Willie Nelson and Ingrid Michelson. She plays with a four piece band consisting of acoustic guitar,pedal steel, bass and drums and fits into the indie alt-country genre being made more popular by the likes of Jenny Lewis. Whitney recorded her debut EP, entitled The Way Back Home, in Milwaukee with producer J. Christopher Hughes (Corey Chisel, Miles Nielsen). The Way Back Home is the culmination of two years spent writing songs, playing shows, changing band members, and finding ‘the right sound’.The right sound for Whitney is countrified folk songs with an emphasis on vocal melody, harmony, and aching pedal steel.The songs are sad, the lyrics ring true, and the emotion of Whitney’s voice can not only be heard, but felt. Whitney Mann has been playing piano since she was seven years old. She took piano lessons, learning mostly classical songs,until she was around seventeen. At age thirteen Mann picked up the guitar and took a couple years of lessons. She kind of put that away for awhile and then picked it up again when she was around sixteen or seventeen and started writing songs. Music was a big part of her life growing up, as her Mom played piano at the church they attended and she belonged to her local school band. She is now busy playing with her own band,writing songs and generally enjoying life. In her spare time Whitney is learning how to play the fiddle,enjoys cooking and bicycling and spends as much quality time as possible with her pet cat, Buttercup. Whitney Mann plays in a band with Kyle Jacobson, Tim Russell and Andrew Harrison. Mann met Kyle Jacobson in Rockford, where they both worked as photo journalists.When they moved to Madison there were two other guys in the band, one from Chicago and one from Iowa City. (Eventually this became too long of a commute and they replaced with the current guys). Kyle is the Bass w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
player, works in Madison and is actually the main reason that Mann plays music around here. Tim Russell is the band’s drummer. Mann found him off of Craig’s List. Tim also is super into bicycling, he actually builds ramps and bicycle jumps around town. Whitney says he’s a pretty cool guy! Andrew Harrison plays pedal steel on the CD. Whitney met him when she was a back up singer in his band called The Brown Derby. To keep in the theme of things, Whitney says Andrew is also a real bicyclist enthusiast. Andrew works on bikes for a living. Whitney prefers to write songs by herself, then passes them onto Kyle to listen to and offer up some suggestions. Mann’s song inspirations come from random thoughts in her head then she sort of writes the song around that phrase. She tries to write the guitar parts as she writes the lyrics. She says its like I come up with a single phrase, then build the rest of the song around that. If the song is good enough to play in front of an audience, I bring it into a band rehearsal and we learn it to play out live. The band plays around the Madison area mostly at some places such as the Frequency and the High Noon Saloon. They have ventured out to Lacrosse, Sparta, Rockford, Milwaukee and Minneapolis. The band hopes to play more around the State of Wisconsin during the rest of this year. You will find a copy of some of there upcoming performances at the end of this story. But I want to explain what their performance listed as: By Request with Whitney Mann @ The Alchemy Café means. Kyle came up with this idea kind of to get people to come back to hear them again. Whitney has a monthly residency at this bar and instead of only playing her songs every month, people can email in requests to byrequestwithwhitney@gmail.com and she will learn these songs and play them the next month. Of course people have to email them a couple
weeks before hand so that she has time to learn them. We laughed at the thought of her receiving a request the night before and having to be up all night cramming to learn a song!!! This is a very cool idea and Whitney says she is excited to learn new songs. Whitney has made her first CD and I asked her to tell me a little about this. “I was kind of apprehensive about doing a CD. I didn’t think anyone would buy it or it wouldn’t turn out well, but it did”, stated Mann. “We recorded it in Milwaukee with J. Christopher Hughes. On one Saturday we recorded the album live and spent the next day doing mixes. We did it super quick with the atmosphere of putting a microphone in the middle of the room and letting the band play”, added Whitney. Whitney and I talked about the songs on her EP and she shared that the song “I Said” was about her Grandma who passed away a couple of years ago. One of the last things her Grandma said in the hospital was,“If I die, just leave me dead.” Mann said she used this as the beginning line in the song and it is basically stating that when someone is potentially about to die, they are letting their friends and family know they had a satisfying life and it is OK. They are OK with the life they lived and are OK with dying. The song“Daddy”really isn’t about anything in particular, but Mann likes to open her shows with this one. At this time Whitney doesn’t have any immediate plans on doing another CD, at least not in the real near future. She is working full time, as do the rest of the band members. She hopes to keep on writing, and playing out and having fun doing this. Whitney Mann is a young artist, with kind of an old school country vibe to her. Her favorite female artist is a toss up between Jenny Lewis and Alison Krauss. If you want to learn more about Whitney Mann and her band or how to purchase her CD, please check out her website at www.Whitne yMannMusic.com. If you have the opportunity, check out one of their shows or book her for your own party. Let’s support this young lady and her band in their musical career!!!! Upcoming Shows Oct 1 2009 • 8:00P The Brink Lounge *SOLO* • Madison,WI Oct 21 2009 • 10:00P By Request with Whitney Mann @ The Alchemy Cafe • Madison,WI Oct 24 2009 • 6:00P The Frequency • Madison,WI Nov 18 2009 • 10:00P By Request with Whitney Mann @ The Alchemy Cafe • Madison,WI Dec 16 2009 • 10:00P By Request with Whitney Mann @ The Alchemy Cafe • Madison,WI Story by: Joyce Ziehli (Some information as well as photos supplied by www.WhitneyMannMusic.com website.)
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FROM “STICKS AND STONES” TO “THE ROCK”
HOW “TIME MARCHES ON” FOR TRACY LAWRENCE T
ime is marching on in a good way for 41 year old multi-platinum recording artist,Tracy Lawrence. In June 2009 Tracy released his second label release entitled “The Rock”, co-produced by Lawrence and Julian King. The Rock is a powerful and emotional overview of spiritual consciousness allowing us to count life’s blessings and recognize that life is sometimes hard. Tracy had made a promise to his parents that he would one day record an inspirational album. Well that day has arrived. Tracy felt he was in the right place and the right time in his life to deliver this passionate CD. This is the first project Lawrence recorded with his road band and they accomp0lished this in just two days. For more information on this incredible CD please visit Tracy’s website at: www.tracylawrence.com . About this time some of you may be trying to remember some of those great number 1 hits of Tracy’s. Well let me help you out a bit so you can go on with this story.
- 17 No. 1 Singles (*Four co-written by Lawrence) “Sticks And Stones” (1992) • “Today’s Lonely Fool” (1992) • “Runnin’ Behind” (1992) “Alibis” (1993) • “As Any Fool Can See” (1993)* • “Can’t Break It To My Heart” (1993)*
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“My Second Home” (1993)* • “I See It Now” (1994) • “If The Good Die Young” (1994) “If The World Had A Front Porch” (1995)* • “Texas Tornado” (1995) “Stars Over Texas” (1996)* • “Time Marches On” (1996) • “Better Man, Better Off” (1997) “Is That A Tear”(1997) •“If You Loved Me”(1998) •“Find Out Who Your Friends Are” (2007) - Studio albums: STICKS AND STONES • ALIBIS • I SEE IT NOW TIME MARCHES ON • THE COAST IS CLEAR • TRACY LAWRENCE LESSONS LEARNED • STRONG • FOR THE LOVE • THE ROCK In Tracy’s 18 years he has acquired many career and awards including: “Vocal Event Of the Year” with Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney (CMA/2007ACM/2008) “Top New Male Vocalist” (Billboard Magazine/1992) “Top New Male Vocalist” (ACM/1993) “Best New Touring Artist” (SRO/1993) “Video Artist Of The Year” (Country Weekly Golden Pick Awards/1995) w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
“Editors Choice:The Platinum Pick Award” (Country Weekly Golden Pick Awards/1996) Lawrence is also a huge contributor for many charities including raising more than 1 million dollars for Cystic Fibrosis over the course of his career, as well as being an active supporter of the Alzheimer’s Association. Arkansas (He shares his own personal experiences with Alzheimer’s disease as his grandmother died of complications associated with Alzheimer’s disease in November 2003.) He also has been very supportive to his community of Foreman,Arkansas. Now that your head is buzzing with all these memories of songs and videos, let me tell you a little more about Mr.Tracy Lawrence. I had the pleasure of being able to have a chat with him via a phone call. Indeed he is a true Southern gentleman. (No wonder I had a crush on him back in the late 90’s.) AG: How did you get involved in music? Who were your inspirations? TL: I was just passionate about music from a very young age. I remember singing Glenn Campbell songs and Charley Pride songs when I was just a young kid. I just grew up loving country music. When I was about 12 years old, it was about the time George Strait came out, I just became consumed with George Strait. Then I discovered Merle Haggard and I really loved the baritone singers coming out at that time. I just loved traditional country and Texas country music. It’s something I just gravitated towards. I taught myself how to play guitar and went from there. There really wasn’t a lot to do in my little town of Foreman,Arkansas. It was a town of about 1,100 people, so very rural, and didn’t have a lot of influences that were musical around me. I didn’t come from a musical family, none of my friends were musicians, it was just my internal passion. AG: When did you move to Nashville in the early 90’s? TL: Yea, it was in the Fall of 1990. AG: Do you write by yourself or with others? TL: It varies. You know I write some by myself. I really don’t like to write with more than 2 other people at a time. It gets too confusing. I do some 3-way co-writing but that’s about the extent of what I do. I’ve written a lot this year. I’ve been more focused on it. I think I’ve written 20 songs this year. I plan on doing 20 or 30 more by the end of the year. This is the first time I'm really focusing on writing my entire album, I’ve never done that before. Kind of want to check it off my to do list. I really think I’ve been writing what I think is the best music in my life. It’s some pretty deep, some intellectual stuff, I’m just focusing hard on it this year. AG: What inspires you to write, movies, people, family,? TL: All of the above. I mean where ever they come from, I’m always looking for a great idea. I’ll snatch something off TV if I hear a line in a movie if something really intrigues me. I pick up on what people say. I’ve got book titles and notes all over the place. There’s times when you show up for a writing in w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
which you have absolutely nothing. You start out with a line and just build it as you go, you never know how it’s going to turn out. Sometimes I’ve written things from personal experiences, or stuff that’s going on in my family, so it comes from all these places. AG: Tell me about your latest CD – “The Rock.” TL: It’s really different for me. Really wanted to experience life, something I wanted to do for a long time. I didn’t want it to be like a gospel record. I just wanted it to be kind of country inspirational stuff. And there is some really powerful music in this album, very dynamic, with lots of great messages in this record. I think it’s something that will lift you up and touch your heart. It took me a long time to get to the place where I was ready to make this record and do it the right way. I’m really proud of the way it turned out. AG: Have you always been a musician or did you have other jobs?
I work a lot. I have a couple of businesses, my real estate stuff and when I’m not on the road I still have a lot of stuff going on in the week. AG: Where do you play mostly? TL: All over North America, all over Canada. We play Alaska and all over Europe. We play roughly 100 jobs a year. I travel everywhere. AG: What plans do you have for the future? TL: One thing I’m wanting to do is to break out a new act. I got several kids to sign to my label or management company. I’m working actively with them trying to get their careers rolling. I’d like to be a part of making something like this happen in the next 4-5 years. Just continue working. I’m pretty settled into life the way that it is. I do about 100 shows a year and enjoy watching my kids grow. I’m in a good place. I don’t expect to do a lot different than I’m doing right now. AG: What about that new CD?
TL: I’ve done all kinds of things from landscaping to construction, to telemarketing to working for a temporary service, sacked groceries, you name it, I’ve done it!
TL: Not this year. I won’t even start recording to the earliest probably in January. It will probably have a summer time release of next year.
AG: You do a lot of charity work – hats off to you. How did you get so involved?
AG: Any thing else you’d like people to know about Tracy Lawrence?
TL: I am still very active in Alzheimer’s Association Charity work. My grandma passed away from this and it is something that I focus on. I’ve learned a lot about the disease watching her suffering and it was just such a terrible thing. You lose them before they actually pass away from the disease. I think we’ve made great strides over the past several years and I’m trying to do my part and bring awareness and contribute and help raise money. I think it’s a disease that we are going to see cured in my lifetime. I think we are very close to it.
TL: That I am very passionate about my craft. I’m a loving husband and father and that is the most important!
(Tracy and I shared some personal Alzheimer stories and ended up laughing as Tracy stated he thinks he already has it about 2 days a week.) AG: What do you do to relax? TL: I play a lot of golf. Yup, that’s pretty much my outlet. I hunt in the Fall. But when I’m out on the road, I play a lot of golf in the summer time. We like the water a lot and we spend a lot of time at the Lake with the kids. That’s one of our other big outlets. When I’m home I focus on spending a lot of time with my kids, because I’m gone traveling so much.
Tracy Lawrence indeed is a man of his word, with inspirational words to live by. Looking for a little inspiration, put on one of Tracy’s CD’s. Better yet pick up his new CD – “The Rock” - give it a listen. That’s what I’m going to do. In fact I’m listening to my favorite Tracy Lawrence song, “Time Marches On” as I’m writing this article!!! Check Tracy out at: www.tracylawrence.com . Story by: Joyce Ziehli Information and photos supplied by: Music City Media – Kathy Atwood 38 Music Square East, 2nd Floor Nashville,TN 37203
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Press Release CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL'S THE SINGLES COLLECTION, PRESENTING 30 SONGS FROM 1968 THROUGH 1972, FROM TOP 5 HITS TO OBSCURITIES PLUS MUSIC VIDEOS,WILL BE RELEASED BY FANTASY RECORDS ON NOVEMBER 3 Set will be available as a two-CD, one DVD box with poster and liner notes by Ben Fong-Torres. A separate deluxe vinyl collectors' edition featuring reproductions of original 45s will also be offered.
(LOS ANGELES, Calif.) -- Creedence Clearwater Revival's golden era of hit singles (fall of 1968 through spring of 1972) rivals that of any band in rock 'n' roll history. The Southern-flavored quartet from El Cerrito, Calif., turned out 17 hits in a 44-month stretch, nine of them in the Top 10, five of them in the Top 5. On November 3, Fantasy Records will release The Singles Collection, a two-CD, oneDVD box with a slip case, containing all of the band's U.S. singles -- 30 songs in all. Top 5 smashes like "Bad Moon Rising," "Green River," "Down on the Corner," "Travelin' Band," "Who'll Stop the Rain," "Run Through the Jungle," "Up Around the Bend," "Long As I Can See the Light" and "Lookin' Out My Back Door" are joined by seldom-heard singles that never charted ("Porterville" and "Call It Pretending" on Fantasy's Scorpio subsidiary, and later singles "Tearin' Up the Country" and "45 Revolutions Per Minute [Parts 1 & 2]"). The 30 songs, (which are presented in their original single mixes,manyost of them in mono --- are making their CD debut), housed on two CDs, will be joined by a DVD containing four never-before-available, long-pre-MTV music videos: "I Heard it Through the Grapevine," "Bootleg," "I Put a Spell on You" and "Lookin' Out My Back Door." Also included in the package are a poster featuring the dozens of international single sleeves, and a 16-page booklet with liner notes by former Rolling Stone editor Ben Fong-Torres, who lived and wrote in the Bay Area during CCR's golden half-decade. Fantasy will also manufacture a limited edition collectors' version of The Singles Collection featuring actual vinyl 45 rpm singles with reproductions of the original Fantasy label design and housed in their rare picture sleeves-the ultimate holiday gift for Creedence fans. The members of Creedence Clearwater Revival, of course, hailed from the suburbs of Oakland the little town of El Cerrito, lappeding up music on the radio through the late ' '50s and ' '60s, and eventually signeding to a small, open-minded jazz label in Berkeley called Fantasy Records. Originally known as the Tommy Fogerty & the Blue Velvets and then The Golliwogs, the band's break came with its swampy 1968 cover of Dale Hawkins' "Suzie Q," which notched #11 on Billboard's pop singles chart. 8
Starting on San Francisco's free-form rock radio stations, the song crossed over top Top 40, putting Creedence on the map. As Fong-Torres notes, "radio needed acts like CCR -- reliable producers of solid tunes laden with hooks." Even in the South, radio was taken with CCR. DJ Scott Shannon, then on Memphis' WMPSAM, was a Dale Hawkins fan and thought Fogerty nailed it."His voice and his mixes were perfect for Top 40," he said. "It just screamed out of the AM radios." But it wasn't just the radio.CCR songs began popping up in movies and TV shows -- several dozens of them, in fact. "Bad Moon Rising" has shown up the most often (including in An American Werewolf in London),and "Fortunate Son" has been heard in films ranging from The Manchurian Candidate (2004) to Live Free or Die Hard (2007). "I used to say in 1968 that I wanted to make records they would still play on the radio in ten years," John Fogerty said in early 1993, on the eve of Creedence Clearwater Revival's induction into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame. Forty years later, the music sounds as fresh and vital as ever. ### For more information on Creedence Clearwater Revival, please contact: Joel Amsterdam, Concord Music Group 310-385-4206 • jamsterdam@concordrecords.com Cary Baker, conqueroo 323-656-1600 • cary@conqueroo.com
MERLE HAGGARD WELCOMES ALABAMA GUITARIST JEFF COOK TO RYMAN AUDITORIUM STAGE (Nashville, TN) – Last night, country music legend and world renowned musician Merle Haggard, welcomed Alabama lead guitarist Jeff Cook to join he and his band on the Ryman Auditorium stage. Cook jammed with Haggard and The Strangers for a rockin’ hour and a half set that drew out some of country music’s biggest names including Vince Gill, Jamey Johnson, Bobby Bare, Kellie Pickler and Joe Nichols. “Joining ‘The Hag’ and his band onstage at the ‘Mother Church of Country Music’ was a real honor,” notes Cook. “I haven’t ‘picked’ like that since Alabama left the road!” Absolute Publicity Don Murry Grubbs
"The Holiday on Holiday: Grand Re-Opening and Dark Songs Celebration" Live from the Holiday Music Motel in Sturgeon Bay
Oct.30th & 31st - Dark Songs : Celebrating the 200th Anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's First Halloween. Oct.31st - Grand Re-Opening of the Holiday Music Motel Join the Holiday Music Motel on this special Holiday Weekend in celebrating the 200th Anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's First Halloween with two Dark Songs Concerts,and their Grand Re-Opening! In the vein of Steel Bridge SongFest's Construction Zone, also hosted by the Holiday, several handpicked songwriters, some local, some national, some international among them Eric McFadden, Delaney Davidson, Geri X,Chris Simmons and pat mAcdonald - will haunt the Holiday Music Motel for a week of collaborative songwriting and recording.The event finale will be two shows on Halloween weekend, open to the public (21+), where the Dark Songs written and recorded during the week will be unveiled.The first show will be Friday Oct. 30th at CHERRY LANES (10pm2am); the second will be Saturday Oct. 31st at the LADDER HOUSE (7pm-midnight). Both venues are a very short walk from the Holiday Music Motel in Historic Downtown Sturgeon Bay. Costumes encouraged! There may be a contest... And don't miss the Grand Re-Opening of the Holiday Music Motel, Free and Open to the public, Saturday, October 31st (1pm 5pm) for Live Entertainment, Motel Tours, and Refreshments. Contact the Holiday Music Motel at (920) 743-5571 or holiday.musicmotel@gmail.com for more information about the Grand Re-Opening and Dark Songs at the Holiday on Holiday! Holiday Music Motel 30 N. 1st Ave Sturgeon Bay,WI 54235 (920) 743-5571 holiday.musicmotel@gmail.com www.HolidayMusicMotel.com
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CD Review Bath Tub Mothers ♪♪♪♪ Bath Tub Mothers Style:Americana / No Depression Okay this is one great CD! It is full of well written songs that tell a story and have simple but fantastic instrumentation which is alright with me. The Bath Tub Mothers CD is all originals except a Fred Eaglesmith tune Some Roads. Eight of the songs were written or co written by lead vocalist and guitar player John Norland. The other original songs were written or co-written by Mandolinist Pat Wynes, who is also a very accomplished songwriter in his own right. The CD kicks off with You might like to know. A slide guitar part starts out this great song. The thing that I found the most enjoyable about all of theses great tunes was the easiness I found myself drifting into the story of the songs themselves. If you can take a lyric and create a mini movie in your head that’s a great song, and with every song on this CD that can happen. My favorite cut on the CD was song number 2 Razor and Bowie Knife, a real swinging bluesy tune that had my foot tapping all the way through it. Sloppy Joe Man is an interesting song. Played on aTenor Ukulele and recorded to sound like it is coming out of an old radio from the 40’s was also very interesting. This CD is well worth buying. It is great to find a band like the Bath Tub Mothers out there playing in Southern Wisconsin. They are a great live band (see accompanied article) too. All three members are very accomplished musicians. You can buy the CD at live shows or get it from their website at www.bathtubmothers.com. It will be a great addition to your CD collection. Heck I bought 3 copies so I could send to friends out of state! Reviewed by:Andy Ziehli
Briana Hardyman ♪♪♪♪ People Like Me Tres Pescadores Records Style: Americana / Country Briana Hardyman is one talented Lady!!! The girl can sing and she can write songs with the best of them. Her stage presence and show is fantastic. I don’t think there is anything this young lady can’t do well. This is first solo CD and it is full of great music! There are a couple of wonderful covers such as Do you Right Woman, Angel from Montgomery (which she delivers as good as the original), and Alcohol and Pills which is a favorite of mine. The rest of the tunes were either written by Hardyman or her very close friends, namely Mark Elliot who also co-produced and engineered this CD, along with playing guitar on it. Hardyman’s deep soulful vocals take you to places in her songs that make you not want to leave. My favorite cuts were, Only when it Rains, Neverland, Tell you Goodbye, You can go now, and Alcohol and Pills. These songs really shined on this CD. I thought that they were the best representation of Hardyman’s live show and vocal style. I also loved the 12 string guitar in You can go now. This song should be a career opener for Hardyman. It would have been nice to have a couple more up tempo songs on this CD. Hardyman does those songs very well live, but there’s always the next CD for that. Someone get a copy of this to Tony Brown pronto!!! England has found out how good Hardyman is already. They love her there. So America buy this CD and take a hint from your English cousins and make Briana Hardyman a household word here too. You can get the CD from her myspace page www.myspace.com/brianalynnhardyman. While you are there check out her tour schedule and make a point to see her live. You won’t be disappointed. So Tony Brown if you are listening “check this girl out!” Reviewed by:Andy Ziehli
Whitney Mann ♪♪♪♪ The Way Back Home Style:Americana / No Depression This is a very stark sparsely recorded EP. No Nashville mainstream tricks here, just good I mean very good music. This is not an EP you would listen to if you are in a parting mood, rather it is an EP for reflection. The kind of EP and music you would put on to read or just kick back and listen to. Recorded live at Post historic Studio in Milwaukee by J. Christopher Hughes. Hughes did an excellent job of capturing Mann’s style and music on this EP. No over production here folks, just a bare bones archive of Mann and her band playing their music. Mann’s style reminds me of Gillian Welch’s first recordings. Her style and vocalization though is closer to Nora Jones. The six song EP is filled with wonderful songs. Each is a mini novel in itself. The instrumentation is filling but not overpowering. My favorite cuts are track one Call the Cops and track six Why don’t you leave a more up tempo tune from the others. Band members Kyle Jacobson,Andrew Harrison, and Tim Russell do a fine job interpreting Mann’s songs. This is a very good EP to get to know Mann. Not stuffy but not blowing your ears out either. Mann is making the rounds playing clubs throughout Southern and Middle Wisconsin so check her out when she comes to your town. You can also check out Mann and her music at www.myspace.com/whitneymann and on facebook. I look forward to a full length CD from Mann in the future. Review by: Andy Ziehli
Mike McCloskey ♪♪♪♪ Blues, Swings, and Other things Style:Americana / Blues / Swing Mike McCloskey is a very very talented singer/songwriter from Southern Wisconsin. This is a gem of a CD if you like the Bluesy Swingy style of music made famous by acts like the Moon Gypsies and Harmonious Wail. McCloskey is a fantastic guitar player and soloist. He gathered the cream of the crop to help him record this CD including Randy Sabien, Chris Powers, Tom Swenson, Ron Linzell, and Chris Mittlestandt. McCloskey has a clear strong vocal style. His vocals cut through the mix and provide a very pleasant listening experience. I was very impressed by continued on page 15
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IS THERE LIFE AFTER ALABAMA?
YES, THERE IS SAYS LEAD GUITARIST, FIDDLE PLAYER, JEFF COOK
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t has been five years for Jeff Cook since retiring from the road from his days in Alabama. We all remember Alabama don’t we?? 42 #1 Hits,two Grammy Awards,23 American Music Awards,three CMA“Entertainer of theYear”Awards, ACM’s“Group of the Decade”and the RIAA’s“Group of the Century”. And if you still don’t know who I am talking about check out some of these highlights of his life: Jeff Cook (& The Allstar Goodtime Band) • Digitally Released Ashes Won’t Burn on March 7, 2009 • Cook co-founded the band Alabama in 1977 • He contributed vocals, lead guitar, keyboard, and fiddle to the group's productions • Cook has formed the Allstar Goodtime Band, with which he performs. Produced the recording project, Cook & Glenn • Cook founded Cook Sound Studios, Inc., in his native Fort Payne, and also established radio station WQRX-AM, which he later sold, in adjacent Valley Head,Alabama • Cook is also noted for his culinary endeavors, having operated a restaurant and markets his own sauce. • In 2001, Jeff was named “Guitarist of the Year” by the Gibson Guitar Company • ( With Alabama) RCA records in 1980, launching a career that to date has resulted in 21 gold, platinum and multiplatinum albums, • More than 78 million records sold • 2005, Jeff and his band mates received Country Music’s highest honor, being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame • Alabama is one of the 20 best-selling acts of all time
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Now you know who I am talking about………..? Do you think Jeff has been sitting quietly, enjoying his retirement? Well, I spoke to Jeff about this, and sitting quietly he is not. He has been a very busy individual since 2004. In fact he is so busy, we did the interview while he was shopping at the supermarket! Cook has handpicked eight members to make up his band, the Allstar Goodtime Band (AGB). Earlier this year Cook and the AGB released a new CD,“Ashes Won’t Burn”, which showcases previously released re-recorded cuts from Cook’s days with Alabama, new cuts co-written by Cook, as well as some classics including,“BrickHouse,”Knockin on Heaven’s Door,”and“All Right Now.” The AGB is made up of; Ronnie Farmer, Link Detten, Jim Nelson, J.D. Cooper, Larry Hanson, Ken Harper, R.K. Brown, and Randall Key. (Please check out our CD review section in this issue for our review of“Ashes Won’t Burn”.) www.JeffCook-AGB.com Jeff was born in Fort Payne,Alabama and has been playing lead guitar and keyboards since he was 13 years old. Cook said he is self taught, though his Dad did play guitar. Besides playing guitar, fiddle and keyboards, Cook plays bass, mandolin and drums. As Jeff perused the deli section in the supermarket, our conversation went a little like this: AG: Jeff, tell me about life after Alabama. JC: Well I didn’t slow up at all,in fact when we were playing the last show with w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
Alabama, saying our good byes and stuff, myself and Larry Hanson who played on the back line with Alabama and who is also in my current band, said to each other, “see you next week, let’s get this thing together.” I think I could just exhale when I hit that last note in Alabama.
ing, casino showrooms, festivals, and fairs where you need a variety of music, and I think we cover several demographics with what we do.
AG: Do you have any pets?
We travel and we’re for hire in the United States and abroad, too, for that matter.
JC: That I am down to Earth – just regular people that got lucky in the music business.
AG: You personally picked the other 8 members of the AGB band. Did you know these guys before?
AG: What are your future plans?
JC: I’ve been asked that before and my standard answer is “When Pigs Fly”,( lol) so be looking for a new album called“The Pigs Have Flown”. My analogy on this is that I am referring to the Eagles, “When Hell Freezes Over” and their next album was “Hell Freezes Over”! I stay in contact with Teddy a bit and he has sat- in with the band on several occasions.
JC: Yes, I did. Four of them have played together off and on, some of them have 15 years together. AG: Was it hard to pick just 8? JC: The first thing I did was put out an instrumental album that can be found on my website: www.jeffcook-agb.com . I did this first as a bridge for me to get from Alabama to the Allstar Goodtime Band. I had also played some prior shows with some of the guys. AG: Who taught you to play guitar and fiddle?
Right now I am JC: working on a Christmas album and what I hope to have out by October 15th. I’m trying to pick songs that weren’t played to death. I want to give it my own twist, including a couple of songs by my wife, and another by a friend, Mitch Glenn, of mine who I worked on a project with. Also, it will Feature a track with my vocal and music by Rock’n’Roll hall of fame members, The Ventures. I am hoping the end result will be a little different.
JC: Yes, actually simultaneously. I already have a few songs picked out for the non-Christmas CD.
AG: Do you come from a musical family?
AG: Are you any good at it?
JC: My Dad played guitar but I passed him up by the time I was 12 or 13.
JC: Well…I enjoy it. I’m the State fishing Ambassador for Alabama.
AG: Do you write songs? What inspires you?
I have a background in electronics, I was a DJ at the age of 14 and I still have a little of that ‘radio bug’ in my blood. I like to cook and have some compilations of recipes in charity recipe books. I like to make a holiday muffin that is mega-nutty.
AG: How did you decide what songs to put on this CD? (Ashes Won’t Burn) JC: I pretty much pick the whole thing myself. If, let’s say, the piano player is going to have a cut on the CD, I say what do you want to do? We talk about it, just figure out what can we do the most with. AG: Where do you and the AGB play? What type of venues? JC: It was put together for express purpose of playw w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
AG: What kind of person do you want your fans to thing you are?
AG: Any plans of an Alabama reunion?
AG: Anything else you’d like people to know about Jeff Cook? JC: Listen to us, hope you like the CD and come see us!!! Jeff and I laughed about him doing this interview while shopping in the supermarket. See multi-tasking is great!!! Being as anal retentive as I am, I did double check with Jeff to make sure he got all the items on his list…… Please check out Jeff Cook on his website: www.jeffcook-agb.com , pick up his latest CD
AG: Are you working on a new CD?
JC: Pretty much taught myself. Well let’s get back to the guitar. A guy I went to school with and I , he was 2-3 years older than me and actually in my first band when I was 13 years old, when one of us would learn a chord, we’d call the other one to come check out this new chord. We sort of taught each other. And the fiddle came along by necessity. I went to Myrtle Beach in 1973 and took it up there.
JC: Yes, I do write songs. Inspirations can be different things. Sometimes it’s just a little tune you start with, sometimes they have a line or a phrase, a hook line as they say, sometimes a personal experience and just build on that.
JC: Oh yes, 2 shelties. Binky & Barney , but they don’t travel with me. They are great home dogs.
AG: What do you do to relax, hobbies? JC: Oh, I’ve been a fisherman since 3 days before dirt.
AG: What is the one thing you wish you could accomplish or do in your lifetime? JC: As long as you are alive there are things to do and accomplish. I’ve been asked before who I’d like to record with and do a project with and that would be Paul McCartney. I figure if I say it enough, he actually may get in touch with me. Who knows he may read it in this magazine. I think we’d hit it off because we have the same expectations in music.
“Ashes Won’t Burn” ( and other CD’s by Jeff & the AGB) and don’t miss Jeff and the Allstar Goodtime Band if they are in your area! Also be watching for the new Christmas Album coming out in October – it would make a perfect holiday gift. Story written by: Joyce Ziehli Photo supplied
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A PET NOTE
Baxter says HELLO from AMERICA’S Little Switzerland Baxter with Matt Kenseth's sister, Kelly Maruszewski.
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have been doing the Pet Note column in the Americana Gazette for over a year now. My husband told me that“it wasn’t a good idea – people wouldn’t want to read about this”. Well, I think I proved him wrong as many people ask who am I featuring in the next issue and some of our readers actually turn to this page first to see who the pet is!!!! Thanks to all you pet lovers. After one year I felt that I had to pay tribute to my“almost like my own dog”, a little Shih Tzu from America’s Little Switzerland named Baxter. I have known this little guy since he was 8 weeks old. Baxter is my little buddy who I try to visit on a weekly basis. You see, Baxter belongs to Russ & Nancy Bethke, owners of the Glarnerladen Antique Store in New Glarus,Wisconsin. I try to take one of my lunch hours weekly to go visit Baxter, and of course, do a little shopping. When Russ sees us coming, he says to Baxter, “whose coming?” That little black and white fur ball will meet me at the door, jump into my arms, and after a few kisses to me and my fellow coworkers,Aunt Jean and Aunt Erin, snuggle in for a quick nap. Then I carry him around for a half hour or so. ( I always make it a point to walk down Baxter’s favorite aisle in the store, that being the aisle of stuffed animals. Sometimes I even let Baxter pick out a toy, and then I get ready for the tongue-lashing from Russ, “Stop spoiling that dog!”) Russ should be happy, I’m babysitting and shopping – what more would he want. So one day during my visit at the Glarnerladen, I had a chat with Baxter about just how life was going for him. Wow, he was quite a talkative little fellow. Hi Americana Gazette readers, my name is Baxter and I was born on July 23, 2007 in Browntown,Wisconsin. Want to know how I got my name? My Dad Russ, took one look at me, saw the white streak on the top of my head and said I looked like a skunk. I should have known from this point on what life would be like with the Bethke’s. Immediately the name Jeff Skunk Baxter of the Doobie Brothers came to his mind. There you have it!
from a deep sleep at the delicious sound of a tin of cookies opening or the incredible crackle of a potato chip bag.) I’m one pretty tough dude behind that glass store door, but I have to admit I am afraid of a couple of things which makes me head for cover behind my Dad or Mom. One of those things is the vacuum cleaner. I absolutely hate it when Mom vacuums. I even hate the closet where she stores the vacuum. When I hear the roar of that motor, I hurriedly run around and pick up my toys so that Mom won’t suck them up into “my toys are gone forever world”!!!! Even if one of my toys accidentally rolls under the closet door, I cautiously stick my little paw under to retrieve it before the almighty mean vacuum sucks it up. Who invented that machine anyway? The evening hours means walk time for me and Dad. If we don’t go for a walk,I settle down to an evening of fun filled stuffed animal games. I especially like the noisy ones like the flying monkey, Furbies, talking bears and chicken dancing animals. Dad and Mom aren’t overly thrilled about my choices in toys. I’d like to sneak upstairs to check out Mom’s teddy bear collection of over 200, but those really big steps scare me. On Fridays and on weekends, Dad takes me to flea markets frequently. You can pick me out as I will be the adorable black and white Shih Tzu riding in the stroller!!! Who says spoiling your pets is wrong? Be sure to stop into my shop,The Glarnerladen Antiques, 101 6th Avenue, New Glarus,WI. I will be ready to greet you at the door. You can do a little shopping, carry me around awhile, but I want you to know I save all my best kisses for my Aunt Joyce. Written by: Joyce Ziehli Photo by: Russ Bethke
My days are spent at the Glarnerladen working with my Dad. I hear the little tinkle of the bell on the shop door and I run to see who it is? I’m especially excited if young kids come in. I have many friends that visit me on a regular basis. I think they just come in to see me and not really shop. ( But I think when I say this it hurts my Dad’s feelings.) When I get tired of “greeting people”, I just flop my little 10 pound body down on the floor and stretch out, where customers have to walk around me. (After all it is my store.) A good day for me is watching the NASCAR races with Dad, where I get to watch my favorite race car driver, Matt Kenseth. Did you notice in the picture that I am proudly wearing a Kenseth collar!! While watching the races with Dad, we enjoy snacks together. Basically I eat anything he eats. (When I hear Mom chopping stuff on the cutting board, I come a running. I know eventually she is going to drop a morsel. I also have excellent hearing, as I can wake
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A s m ’ n o u r sin Aa
s e g Anecdot
Picking the Bone! I
have a bone to pick with some of the purists out there. I’ve always been a person that loves testing the waters and sees what can and can’t work.As a creative outlet we all like to think we push the boundaries a bit. Perhaps I’m not at the cutting edge with my music but I’m certainly not trying to copy or emulate anyone. It’s amused me in the past when I show up a jam session and I hear these cats out there playing solo’s note for note off a CD from 1973. I can appreciate the effort it takes to emulate note for a note,but to me that is missing the point of what music is.Music is about trying new things. One of my favorite quotes my father always repeated to me was “if it sounds right, it’s probably been done before.”At the same time I completely agree with one of my favorite country artist Brad Paisley when he gives this piece of advice,“copy your idols until you can develop your own sound.”As an artist starts out, we explore different options and different takes to our music.Two of my favorite artists when I began to play were,Stevie Ray Vaughn andTommy Castro.I feel they no longer shape my musical voicing but undoubtly can still be heard in my playing and writing.We are all constantly evolving our sound and the influences that shape us come from different aspects of our lives, some we have no obvious connection to while others we can pinpoint the exact time and place the reference came from. This brings me to one of my least favorite sayings in the world of blues music,“he doesn’t play real blues or he doesn’t play the blues right.”Me being in the blues world I get this all the time but this phrase can be inserted with any form of music, let it be Country, Punk,Americana and the list goes on. I’ve always wondered what real music sounds like. I know there are many out there that believe this phrase to the core and I’d love to hear the other side of the argument. But I couldn’t disagree with that statement more. Sure there are forms to music, blues has the format I-IV-V, and standard country music is the same way with its own form. If an artist uses a pedal board full of pedals in the blues world or a country guitarist uses a Gibson Les Paul it’s considered not true to the music and is looked down upon. If we don’t push the boundaries and push the norm all music will stand still creatively speaking. There is a great harmonica player by the name of Jason Ricci; he’s an amazing player and it’s doing some amazingly creative things with the harp these days in the blues world. He started out years ago playing the standard form of blues with some of the great old timers of the day.As his career has moved on so has his form of playing. I’ve seen this guy perform and if needs to, he can jump,swing and shuffle with the best blues purist out there.But he’s chosen his own path and has moved the form of blues harmonica to a new level. He’s pushed the boundaries and has succeeded in my opinion fusing blues with other forms of music into something fresh. He’s taken the chance and has gotten a lot of flack for doing so, but I’m sure he wouldn’t have it any other way. The blues community is like a club, the fans expect certain things each and every show.And for you blues fans out there, you know what I mean! However I’ve noticed the past few years that fans are starting to embrace new forms of musical blends with blues. Jason is playing some of the top blues festivals and clubs in the world and is succeeding with his cutting edge sounds. People are w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
accepting this new sound and it’s also bringing a new set of fans to the genre which will only increase it’s stability as an art form and appeal to new fans all over the world. I challenge all you out there to try new artists, even if you’re a purist, pick up a CD of someone you might not have given a chance to before.There will always be a place for the tried and true form of each musical genre if there is such a thing, don’t be afraid to explore. Music is driven by creativity and we must push these standards that have been set forth by years of what people thought was real.We must always challenge the norm and not be afraid to fail as listeners and musicians. It’s our duty to keep an open mind and love the music we love. I think it’s time to throw away the titles that we like to use; the standards we like to instill and remember...good music will always be good music. Written by: Aaron Williams
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Coyote Castle T
here is this magical castle not a hundred yards from this new cabin that reeks of longevity. For this home has been here for centuries without notice. I had been seeking a particular piece of land for nearly a year when I found it on a Friday afternoon. During that year I visited many hilly sites of field and forest but found none with what I was seeking- a true forest, a forest that had lived the tests of time; fire, wind, and lacked the acts of man with saw, cow, or plow. From the town road I could see a well-developed hardwood canopy and a few towering white pine that reminded me of the Northwood’s. My closer inspection walk revealed what my subconscious knew all along- here was a place where man’s efforts of resource use had faltered. Thirteen acres out of seventy-seven acres had somehow survived the acts of man. This first walk awed my soul as I found a few open grown bur oak that witnessed the prairie and its fires before the plow. Equally impressive opengrown and closed-canopy grown white oak were found that said “ we were the kings that ruled the woods after the plow stopped the fires”. Some would say the plow was the ruler- and today this maybe right for a short time. But the rich soil beneath gave forth then an abundance of black walnut- enough to create the dark forest of my unconscious mind. The canopied woods and rich soil beneath lead my mind to the third element of land- water. The realtor knew his perspective buyers. “There is a spring on the property that one can dam to build a pond”. In this lake-starved driftless area of Southwest Wisconsin the realtor knew this would catch the eye of those city folks from Illinois that would of liked a piece of the North Woods lake country but preferred something closer and cheaper. A tight valley fell from the open contoured farmland above into my now precious woods. At the top of this narrow wooded valley emerged a small spring and 50 yards later a second slightly larger one. It appeared for a moment that enough water had flowed over time to expose and smooth the limestone bed to create a few three-foot waterfalls. This small spring soon entered the open meadow of the valley floor and disappeared. Yet for hundreds of yards down the valley remnant banks and gullies could be found in the thick grassland.The full story of this valley had not yet been told. The larger valley witnessed many a storm and spring runoff before the contoured fields above and the growth of the forest canopy on the hillside
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protected it. At one time heavy rains eroded silt from the plowed fields and cattle grazed vegetation on the steep hillsides so no forest canopy would develop. This old farmer protected this small narrow valley and hilltop for some reason. Perhaps, when he was a child exploring the wild, away from the chores of a farm, it was this glen that he found solitude and adventure;Then as an adult chose to fence the cattle out. The large farm was passed to an absentee landowner who rented the steep hillsides and silted valley floor for grazing and the fields at the top of the hill to the plowman. But his interest in the land was hunting and investment and he found government conservation on highly erodible land offered an opportunity to improve this land for his passions. For twenty years this cropland land, and that of many of my neighbor’s had been in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). I always called it the Crop Reduction Program for good reason. Over time the idle plow land and silt-laden valley had turned into a monolithic sod – not producing food for human consumption let alone food and cover for but a few species of wildlife. The steep hillsides gave way to rogue apple trees and exotic species after the land baron gave up pasturing this section of his 600 plus acres.The supplemental hay to support the grazing animals in winter came with seeds of exotic evasive plants that sprouted and added to the poorness of the pasture and the value to wildlife. For twenty years the large farm was sold piece by piece and the idleness of the disturbed land returned, but changed drastically. Yet I was still looking for a place to call home and picked a hillside in the center of this all with a view of the meadow valley, surrounding wooded hillsides, and only glimpses of the hilltop farm fields. On my way back to the truck I tried to visualize a winding path for a road through the woods that would not disturb this precious site. Then I found it; a large mineral soil cas-
tle of a volcano erupting over 30 feet on the forest floor. At the same time the musk smell of coyote brought an old olfactory memory of deer hunting in a damp cedar swamp where this same odor was carried on the air before the song dog appeared a few minutes later. The coyote of Indian legend spoke “when all things on earth perish the song dog will survive”. This coyote den had probably been used for centuries and perhaps by other Wisconsin mammals. It is possible the master digger,the badger,at one time had a hand in building this den when fire, prairie, and the open- grown bur oak were observed from this pyramid. This location in this narrow, spring, valley would provide refuge from the fires in the prairie above and below. A badger is the weight man of the prairie, the coyote the sprinter from the fire. On good years song dog mates could litter as many as 19 pups. On years lean of mice and rabbits only one. On an average six for these young must be feed and nurtured for 6 to 9 months by foraging the night away- and probably during the day too – when more pups were at the castle door.At the end of this time the male pups disperse from the territory but the females now make up the local pack. Time goes on- the coyote is mature at a year and lives for ten. One can easily imagine the female coyote and female offspring for generations returning to this castle den as it eventually was shaded by the emerging oak forest. The song dog survived the fire, the plow, the cow, and the gun. To understand who you are and where you belong always comes with a sense of place over time. The changes in place are generational. Adaptation to these changes points to continual survival of self, offspring, and place. Understand and take care of the land and there will be a long-lived place for man too. Rand Atkinson, Bio-Interlink August 25, 2009 w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
PMS I
know what you are thinking. Really I do. Hmmm the name at the end of this article is Jim and the title of the article is P.M.S. Okay, hold the presses. What is going on? Yes, readers, I do have P.M.S. I have had it all of my life, and for a while I thought I was secretly crazy. Being male and sharing with a person that“I have P.M.S.”has led to more that a few strange looks and my share of interesting conversations. Most often folks just don’t quite know what to say. A small smile will appear and because most people are kind, they will actually listen to me and nod politely. Then I can see the far off look in their eyes,and they tune out. But they still smile and nod the nice folks that they are. I can always feel it coming on. I start to have trouble sleeping. I then begin to crave foods that are generally not on my daily intake of sustenance, the crunchier and the saltier the better. If there is a pickle flavored ice cream out there,for the love of all that is gentle and kind DO NOT tell me about it. Then the weight gain starts. Yessir, I bloat. Okay, so maybe it has something to do with all the crazy things I begin eating, but its more water weight than anything. I can feel it,and,of course,think you can see it so to help myself feel better I eat something crunchy. Then the mood swings start. Hi, Jim, how are you today? Fine, mostly. No, I guess I am feeling a little anxious. To tell the truth I am feeling like someone is pulling my brain apart in five directions and…really I am fine. How are you? Before you can even give me an answer I am off on another emotional rant of some kind or another. For most folks it is just a little rain shower, but for me it ruins my ENTIRE day. I can’t ride my motorcycle now because then it might get wet and dirty, and then I would feel bad because I like things clean and neat. Then I would have to spend the REST of the day cleaning the motorcycle on which my ride was not much fun because the entire time I was riding I was thinking about having to get home to clean the bike so it would look good so you would not think less of me. No, really how are you doing? The day of the big event arrives and let me tell you, stay out of my way. Do not ask me to make any sort of decision. Financial matters are completely beyond my comprehension. Balance the check book? Forget it. Renew a CD? Are you out of your mind? You may as well have asked me to
perform brain surgery on you because you would get that same “deer in the headlights” look.
cd review... continued from page 15
Oh, yes, it is a mighty day indeed. It happens once a month without fail. If I am lucky my day will fall in the middle of the week when I can lay low and hide and make the best of it. The night of my big day is terrible. I try to sleep. Ha! There is no rest when my body has turned against me and is acting on its own accord. So I get up and often I just walk around the house. The outside world is really interesting at three in the morning. Just ask me. Hmm, maybe if I eat something, that will help. The carton of ice cream, full just a few hours ago now sits in the sink waiting to be tossed. Maybe this will work,honey,are you asleep? Would you mind going to the store and getting me some more ice cream? What do you mean no?! Finally the moment occurs. The sky’s intensity is expanding and there is hope! The orb has pierced the horizon! The sun has finally come up, and it is now the day after. I feel like I have been run over by a Mac truck and I am completely useless. The sleep following the day that is the day after my big day is amazing. You can poke me with a stick and I won’t care. Light me on fire. I might not like that much, but I will just tell you that I don’t like that much and go back to sleep. Ah, yes, I am back on track. You might say that for a few days I turn into a lunatic. You would be correct as well. You will notice that the word lunatic has at is preface, Luna. Lunar: Of, involving, caused by, or affecting the moon. Yes, I turn into a lunatic! I am deeply and profoundly affected by the full moon. My P.M.S. is not quite what you were thinking. I call it my Pre. Moon. Syndrome. I get as crazy as a lark. It is a chemical change in my body. I feel the pull of what makes the ocean tides do strange things. My body is like a tuning fork resonating loudly to the vibrations of the full moon in the night time sky. It took me into my 30’s to figure it out. There were months when I really thought I was losing my mind!
his writing style and song selection. The sign of a great artist is that they know a great song when they hear one and chose it over something they have written. McCloskey has five of his own and the other five are covers of other local and famous artists. He has chosen well. The instrumentation on this CD is fantastic! It has been recorded well by Ron Linzell at Rockett 88 Studios. The mix is pure and clean. Nothing over powering anything else. McCloskey’s style and personality shines through here. My favorite cuts are No Class, No Style, No Money, I get the blues when it rains,You Can Close your eyes ( a James Taylor cover), and the Celtic Triad. This CD is well worth purchasing especially if you are looking for something light and lively for that relaxation at night with a bottle of wine,or the long road trip to the in-laws. Either way you’ll be in a good mood when you’re finished listening to this CD. Written by: Andy Ziehli
There is much about the world and how we live in it that is a mystery. We may do or say things at one time or another that might seem out of context or beyond our “normal” patterns. Those that know me and love me know this about me and allow me a much wider circle of space for a few days each month. Without judgment they observe and are entertained. This P.M.S. is a natural thing for me. My body reflects what is happening on the larger canvas of our universe. There are lots of things that some folks may experience that can be unique and sometimes, puzzling. Be kind when observing another. Take a moment to consider that they may just walk to the beat of a different drummer. Oh, great, I am a drummer too. I can just hear all the drummer jokes now. Written by: Jim Smith
Murrow’s Boys ♪♪♪ Murrow’s Boys Style:Americana The Murrow’s Boys are a three piece acoustic band out of Royal Oak, MI. The members are Greg Marten, Ken Marten, and James Murphy. They play a cross between Bob Dylan and James McMurtry in their songwriting and style. This CD is an eclectic 14 song collection of story and lesson songs. Ken Marten’s harmonica is a dominate force throughout the CD. He is a very accomplished player with a very country/blues style. The songs continued on page 29
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Country Twist - Not Your Average Country Band
I
I have interviewed many bands and artists in the past for both the Americana Gazette and Rick’s Café, but I can honestly say I have never had as much fun interviewing anyone locally as Country Twist! I have known lead guitar player Extraordinaire Tim Haak for many years, so I knew what to except from him (those of you who know Tim know what I mean!!!) but the other members turned out to be a hoot too!!! Country Twist is a fine example of the marriage of Rock & Roll and what good old Country dance tunes should be. Their high energy playing style, great song list, and personalities makes them a must see during your weekend excursions to the local clubs and honky tonks. Born out of the desire to keep his son Chad here in Wisconsin, Country Twist founder Jerry Helmer promised Chad that if he did not move to South Carolina to play in a band they would put a band together here in Wisconsin. After 15 years the father and son team put together the band Country Twist along with guitarist Dana Ostrom and another member and practiced for a year and that played out. The other member did not fill the mold they were looking for and soon left. Haak then explains how they had “killed” him and that that was the real reason for his departure! Jerry quickly explains that he was not killed and remains a good close friend today. They went through a few more guitar players before settling on Haak four years ago from a reference Steve Swadley. Country Twist looks at the member’s changes as generational steps in the evolution of the band. Each step was a turning and growth point for Country Twist. A year ago another of theses points took place with the addition of lead vocalist Kirstie Kraus who joined from Green Bay. Now another evolution is taking place as Bassist and vocalist Jerry Helmer retires and new members Kelly Boelter on Keyboards and Will Martin on Bass join Country Twist to help take it to another growth level. Jerry is retiring because he wants to spend more time pursuing his hobbies and family life. Jerry has been playing since the early 1970’s and feels that it is just the right time to step back. Below is the conversation I had with Country Twist. It started out with Jerry, Chad and Tim. Dana joined us 20 minutes into the interview and Kristine joined in about an hour later. The conversation was informative, entertaining, and down right funny at times. Don’t get me wrong this a band of professionals who take their music and shows very seriously. They just like to have fun and let the good times roll each night they strap on their guitars and hit the stage.
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AG: Have you always played the same type of country music you play now? CT: In the early years Jerry brought in a majority of the music we played and that included Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. We were more of a Honky Tonk Country Band in the beginning. With the addition of Tim we have become more contemporary in our music and playing style. Tim has been instrumental in pushing the heavier rock oriented material we are now playing. It wasn’t hard to get us to change. We had always had a rock background and tended to play the traditional country material with a heavier beat and bass sound. Things changed even more when Kirstie joined the band a year ago. That opened a whole new style of music to play. Tim interjects how the Americana Gazette covers more traditional based country style music so how did Country Twist get here? AG: I explained how we were broadening our scope to include great music played by rockier bands that still held to a country tradition. You guys are at the fore front of what Country Music has turned to today and that you are not the poor red headed step child. You are Country Music! The Haggard and the Cash are now considered Traditional Country Music. Country Music today is 70’s rock. That’s what the people want. (We talk about the changes in equipment from the “old” days of Telecaster’s, Fender Twins, and Precision Basses and how today it is Gibson SG’s and Firebirds, 5 string basses, and drummers with computers. I soon realized that maybe I am the dinosaur my friends say that I am!) CT: We saw Big & Rich and loved the show! We saw how they infused rock into country and how the kids were really getting in to it. It felt like we had arrived and that we were on the right track. The music and style we really wanted to play was acceptable and it was viable for us to play. We took a lot of the older material we were playing and retooled it to fit our new style and it has worked very well. The kids dig it and we love playing it. AG: What made you deicide to add a female singer to your band after being a four piece w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
all male band for so long? CT: That was a total fluke. Kirstie emailed us that she was coming down to Madison to go to College and that she was looking for a Country Band to sing with. Tim looked at her MySpace page and was very impressed with her original songs and brought her to the attention of the rest of us. She could sing, she had experience on stage as a performer, and she was a pleasure to work with so the choice was easy. We had been performing in this configuration for four years but just could not get the following we all had hoped for. Bringing Kirstie on board brought us an instant following and took us in a new direction that really complimented our style. Truth be said comments Tim “no one wants to look at four old guys when they can look at a nice looking young lady. Good women singers draw crowds and Kirstie is great!” We now have also added Kelly and she and Kirstie sing wonderfully together so that will bring us to another growth step. There is nothing like the harmonies that these women produce. She was originally from Janesville but moved to Green Bay area when she was in middle school. She has been writing songs for years and belongs to the NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association Incorporated). AG: You mentioned that you had heard Kirstie's original songs on her MySpace page. Are you playing any of them live or do you have plans to play some originals in the future? CT: Kirstie belongs to a writing group in Nashville and they sent us a disc of 7 songs we could use in our shows. We have taken one of these songs and rocked it up a bit and played it out a few times. We are going to revisit it along with some other original material very shortly with our new members and see how they turn out. We think now with the new members and the instrumentation we have we can do a better job on making
them great songs in our shows. In the past we were limited because we were just four guys playing guitars. Now we have more vocalists and instruments to interject in theses songs. We still play the original that Kirstie brought in. We play it acoustically with just Tim and Kirstie. It is a very powerful song done that way and we plan to keep playing it. It is amazing to see the reaction of the crowd when we play this song. She wrote it when she was 13 years old. It is a song written beyond her years in style and story. AG: Does Kirstie come from a musical family? CT: No she does not. Her parents are totally behind her and have always supported her choices and musical inspirations. She has performed in musicals at the Fireside as a young child. She was originally from continued on page 30
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les, you name it – Russ has the memorabilia.
3 for 1
I could go on and on with the list, but I suggest you just take a lovely drive to downtown New Glarus and check it out for yourself. Make a day of it, hit the little local specialty shops, have a little “Swiss Bite”for lunch, - it would be a great little day trip. Who knows what treasure you may take home with you!!!! Written by: Joyce Ziehli Photo by: Andy Ziehli
LOOKIN’ FOR AN ANTIQUE –
Visit the Glarnerladen in New Glarus
Fat Cat Coffee Works
Americana stars have visited the Fat Cat, and make it a priority to return when they are passing through Southern Wisconsin. John Miller a musician himself, works most days at the Fat Cat and provides a steady banter of humor and philosophy to regulars and newbie's. The atmosphere is both relaxing and stressless for those times when you just need to get away. The menu served includes homemade quiche, hot and cold sandwiches,breakfast burritos,brownies, muffins, cookies, quesadillas, lemon pound cake, and soups. There is a wide selection of coffee drinks, smoothies, and wonderful thirst quenching mint limeade made with mint grown by the Miller’s. Hours are 6:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. Weekend hours are 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m Saturday and Sunday’s. It is closed on Holidays. Photo and story by: Andy Ziehli
The Barnaby Guest House
Looking for something unique, unusual, a real find? Remember someone’s trash is another man’s treasure!!! Stop into the Glarnerladen Antiques located on 101 6th Avenue, New Glarus, Wisconsin. The Glarnerladen is owned and operated by Russ & Nancy Bethke. (And of course Baxter, if you happened to read this issue’s Pet Note). This building used to be the local jewelry store (Zweifel’s Jewelry) and Russ converted it into a plethora of stuff for the ever exploring treasure hunter. The shelves are full of many collectibles, including Mary Moo’s, Cherished Teddies, and Denim Days, just to name a few. One whole corner is devoted to M & M items and Campbell Soup goods. The green and gold for Packer fans and red and white for Wisconsin Badger fans can even be seen throughout the store. Many different types of glassware, dishes, and bowls are also beautifully displayed. Now for those Holiday people, there is a section with nothing but Christmas decorations,plus seasonal deco. I myself have gotten some real neat Halloween stuff from my buddy, Russ. Rows of dolls and homemade doll clothes (made right here by a local New Glarus lady) can be found amongst the shelves of stuffed animals of every species. The back room is filled with movies, books and beautiful plates of all sorts! If you are looking for a particular item, Russ probably has it. Elvis, Beat-
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No trip to New Glarus would be complete without a stop at the Fat Cat Coffee Works on Rail Road Street. This casual coffee house is a favorite for local artists and musicians. The Fat Cat is welcoming in its menu and atmosphere. Owner’s John and Anne Miller have established the perfect place to relax and enjoy the best coffee, tea, and baked goods for miles around. The Millers have created a place where politics are left at the door and good thoughts, music, and conversation abide. The walls are decorated with pieces of the Miller’s own collection of photography and art along with local artist’s pieces which can be purchased. An old F hole guitar hangs on the wall as an invitation to anyone who wants to pick it and play while they are visiting the Fat Cat. Three lofts are available for those who want privacy, along with a fine selection of magazines, and family games to play. In the warm months of the year an outside patio offers a scenic view of the Sugar River Bike Trail. July thru August the Fat Cat along with the Americana Gazette hosts the Party on the Patio Concert Series featuring local singer songwriters and bands from 11:00 a.m.until 1:00 p. m. on Sunday’s. This winter songwriters in the round series will be held 2 nights a month (day to be determined) hosted by local songwriters, and everyone is invited to listen or participate. The lofts also offer a place to hold a meeting away from the office. Just check with the Miller’s for availability. Weekends brings in groups of bike riders and tourists who easily mix and mingle with locals. A steady local following keeps the Fat Cat jumping during the week. Many Nashville musicians and
Nestled along the Little Sugar River in beautiful New Glarus Wisconsin is the Barnaby Guest House, owned by Marc and Tabatha Barnaby. This splendid private getaway is equipped to make your stay in New Glarus one you shall surely remember. Marc & Tabatha have had the idea of operating a guest house for years. The original structure was built in 1890. In 2002 Marc added an upper floor and it soon became an apartment that could be rented by the month. After their last tenant moved out in June they decided to take the plunge and become innkeepers. The guest house is a two bedroom home away from home. With a queen size bed in the master bedroom, two twin beds in the guest bedroom and a futon that sleeps two, the guest house will be a perfect place to take the family or use it as a romantic getaway for just two. It includes a laundry, fully equipped kitchen, outdoor fire pit with wood for evening campfires, an outdoor gas grill for barbequing, extended channel cable television, wifi, two television sets, DVD and CD players, micontinued on page 30
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Dan Baird & Homemade Sin
TWO NIGHTS OF WILD ENTERTAINMENT IN SOUTHERN WISCONSIN turned to the Sates and settled in Nashville when Warner was very young. Warner is an international renowned guitar player. He has played with many bands over the years. Warner is the lead guitar player for Jason and the Scorchers. (Joyce did a story on
B
It was unusually cool the last weekend of August when Warner Hodges and Dan Baird traveled from Nashville to play a couple of Wisconsin gigs. They met up with Keith Christopher and Mauro Magellan to perform as Dan Baird and Homemade Sin at The Scatz Club in Middleton and Knute’s Bar and Grill in Orfordville. We were fortunate enough to make both shows, what a treat for the both of us. Dan Baird actually shares Joyce’s birthday of December 12th. He was born in San Diego, California and later on moved to Atlanta, Georgia. In 1980 he teamed up with guitarist Rick Richards and bassist Keith Christopher and became Keith and The Satellites. Shortly after this, Baird split to join the Woodpeckers withTerry Anderson. The original Satellites ended and Richards moved onto working with bassist Rick Price and drummer Mauro Magellan to form the Hellhounds. Baird eventually came back to jam with his old buddies and the band became known as the Georgia Satellites. You may be familiar with the Georgia Satellites for their brush with stardom with “Keep Your Hands to Yourself”. (Dan Baird wrote this song.) In 2005, Dan Baird established a new band Homemade Sin with Dan Baird, Ken McMahan, Keith Christopher and Mauro Magellan. They toured a great deal in Europe and in 2007 McMahan was replaced by Warner E.Hodges of Jason and the Scorchers. Warner E.Hodges was born on June 4 in Wurtzburg, Germany. Hodges Dad was military and they rew w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
Warner in an earlier edition of the American Gazette. You can check it out on line at www.americanagazette.net ) Friday night’s show at the Scatz Club offered up two bands ahead of them Soul Shaker
tune around 11:00 P.M. The crowd was inhaling every song they did, and they gathered on the dance floor to get a closer view of these guys. Warner entertained them with his guitar tricks of swinging his guitar over his back with it landing right back in his hands, and him not missing a note of the song. How does he do that? Later on he set himself into spins on the stage, never missing a beat. He is a guitar God! Mauro was all over those drums. Homemade Sin is Rock & Roll all the way! There tight rhythm section and guitar interplay reminds on e of the Stones circa 1969. Warner Hodges is one of the best guitar slingers you will ever see. His style and God his tone was out of this world! His Telecasters screamed, squelched, and tore through the mix. Dan Baird's vocal style is down and dirty Rock & Roll. Ace drummer Mauro Magellan is as steady as Charlie Watts. You can set a clock to his perfect beats. Bassist Keith Christopher played loud and proud. He pranced on stage and set the bottom end on fire. All in all this was one hell of a show and they still had to play Saturday night. Saturday morning Joyce picked up Warner and his wife, Deb and met Andy at the Town Edge where Dan Baird and Mauro Magellan joined in for some good old fashioned skillet breakfasts. The coffee was flowing as well as our conversations as our out of town guests enjoyed their entrees. Conversations went in every which direction, from bootlegging margarine over the state line back in the early 70’s to Mauro sharing his story of eating fiddleheads! (I’ll let you think about this one.) Of course, we had to stop at the Fat Cat Coffee Haus for a couple of refreshments before heading back to the motel. Saturday evenings show was early at 6:00 p.m in a very cold tent in Orfordville. The weather or accommodations did not stop Homemade Sin from putting on an even better show that Friday night. They rocked it out for two straight hours playing some of the same tunes from Friday, but mixing it up with some great covers including an unbelievable rendition of Joe South’s Hush, Let me tell you that there was no stopping the boys from tearing up the stage. Warner’s leads again were spectacular. Dan played a lot more lead on Saturday and showed everyone that he is no slouch on the guitar himself. His style although not as showy as Warner’s is none the less just as breathtaking to behold. Mauro has to be the best drummer in Wisconsin. Not flashy just down in the groove the best. If you ever get a chance to see Dan Baird and Homemade Sin jump at the opportunity. You will not be sorry, though your ears may ring the next morning. I think I’m getting a little too old for two nights of Rock & Roll.
and Fedora so the crowd was primed for more. Dan Baird and Homemade Sin blasted off their first
Story and photos by: Andy & Joyce Ziehli Information on Dan Baird and Warner Hodges from their website pages.
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aaron tippin
“one of the hardest working men in country music” the interview I
f you picked up the August/September 2009 issue of the Americana Gazette and perused it from cover to cover, you would have read some information on a few of the many things Aaron Tippin has been busy with. In July 2009 Tippin launched a lifestyle campaign and nutritional supplement line,Aaron Tippin Nutrition. For more information on Aaron Tippin Nutrition (ATN) visit: www.tippinnutrition.com or call 1-800-223-0160. Aaron Tippin was also recognized for his American ideals and patriotism by receiving the DAR (National Society Daughters of the American Revolution) Award. Tippin was awarded this honor on July 10, 2009 at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC for his outstanding dedication and service to American Troops and their families. Earlier this year,Tippin released his new CD,“In Overdrive”. Tippin says this album of country classics was created for the American trucking professional and the people who care about them. “In Overdrive” is available on the NIPPIT Records Country Crossing label, distributed by RED Distribution. Aaron Tippin is 51 years old, married to Thea and has three children, Charla,Thomas and Teddy. Tippin has sold over 5 million records, has 5 certified gold albums, 1 certified platinum album and more than 30 charted singles on the Billboard Hot Country chart, 9 top 10 singles and 3 #1 hits,“That’s as Close As I’ll Get to Loving You”,“There Ain’t Nothing Wrong With the Radio” and “Kiss This”. OK, indeed he is a very busy man, but he took a few minutes while he was changing his clothes to get to the gym to answer a few questions for me and my readers. (I just seem to catch everybody in
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very unique places and/or activities.) Anyway, here’s a little more information for you Aaron Tippin fans! AG: The beginning goes back to July 3, 1958 when you were born in Pensacola, Florida. Tell me a little about your childhood, who did you listen to growing up? Tippin: You know I listened to Hank Senior, Jimmy Rogers, Ernest Tubbs, these guys that were really the core of country music. They are my real heroes. No one in my family was very musical. My brother played a little guitar, but that’s about it. AG: How did you get involved in music? Tippin: I’m kind of a late bloomer in the music business. Actually I didn’t get into it professionally until my 20’s. I was a professional airplane pilot up until then. That’s what I thought I was going to do for the rest of my life, but the energy crunch kind of changed that,so it was kind of one of those deals where I accidentally fell into something really good. AG: When did you write your fist song? Tippin: I wrote my first song when I was about 10 or 11 years old. There wasn’t much to it. I guess I had music in me but it didn’t really surface until later in life. I sang in the church choir as a kid, and what not, but believe me being in the entertainment business was the furthest thing from my mind. My ideas come from all different places. I think the greatest song ideas come from people’s conversations. Just talking to folks, you can come up with some cool ideas.
tle bass. I’m not the world’s greatest guitar player, but play well enough to write a song. AG: You were the first entertainer to travel overseas to entertain troops. What was this like? Tippin: I think what they are talking about is that in 1990 I went with Bob Hope to Saudi Arabia to entertain our troops in the Persian Gulf. I was the first country singer over there to do that. I was one of the first guys to get to Afghanistan to entertain our troops. This relationship with the troops goes a long ways; I’ve been with them for a long time. AG: You just received the DAR Award. How exciting was this? Tippin: Yup, sure did. That was pretty cool. I never been honored quite like that before. Really special. I’m very honored to have this award. I got to be honest and say I think I think it’s the duty of every single American citizen to be patriotic. In that regards I think showing support to our troops, no matter how you stand on war issues, we need to make sure our troops know that they are loved and supported. Their sacrifice is very important. I would say that if folks remember anything about this is that I would hope it to be that Aaron Tippin isn’t getting an award for patriotism, but that Aaron Tippin is supporting our troops. AG: Aaron, you are in great shape, good lookin, and body builder physique? Let’s talk about Aaron Tippin Nutrition program. (APN) How did this program develop? Tippin: Folks always asking me Aaron how do you stay in shape, blah, blah, blah…..? I just laugh it off. I make sure I eat 5 Twinkies a day!
AG: What instruments do you play? AG: (We both laughed) You’ll be well preserved!!! Tippin: I play a little harmonica, a little banjo, a litw w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
inspection. There’s a big event coming up and I’m trying to get them ready. AG:Are you going to the Oshkosh Fly –In? Tippin: Yup, that’s the big event. I might perform a song or two but these are my days off. I don’t do much pickin on those days. AG: Do you fly to your gigs? Tippin: Sometimes I fly myself to a gig,but very seldom. I like riding the bus, I like the guys I work with. It’s important to me to hang with them and be a part of what’s going on. I need to be a part of it and be on the bus. We work on the show and dream up things to do on the bus. AG: You also own a winery? How’d you get into this? Tippin: It’s a small winery. I’m an amateur wine maker. We have a few bottles of wine we give away once in awhile. We have a Muscadine vineyard, these are native Southeast grapes. Muscadine grapes are not really good grapes to make a deep red wine, they have no skins, are a large grape with lots of water, so when making wine we have to add commercial sugar, which really wrecks the taste of your wine and changes it. We have to do a lot of tricks to keep that from happening. We don’t have a wine line yet,but my wife and I would like to start one. If I sell it now, I’ll go to prison for about 15 years! AG: If you ever have any down time, what do you do to relax? Tippin: Hunt and fish. That is relaxing. I turkey hunt and white tail hunt. I’ve never hunted in Wisconsin, just come there to play. AG: How do you juggle all this and still have quality family time? Is your wife involved? Tippin: Yea, it’s hard. My wife actually has a new jazz album out. She did a really great job. You should check out her stuff at: www.myspace.com/theatippin . AG: What shall we be watching for from Aaron Tippin? Tippin: I didn’t realize that people were serious that they wanted to know how it’s done. So I really started talking about it, then I realized there’s a lot of people that probably don’t get the chance to ask me and wonder what kind of lifestyle I have. So I started up this little old program,ATN. It’s really all about doing the smart thing, eating healthier foods. You can go to my website, www.tippinnutrition.com and check it out. I’m not into losing 40# in 10 minutes. That’s really not what we’re about. It’s about life style change,changing the way you live, the way you think, that’s really what it is. Turning your life around and deciding you want to live longer and healthier. Do some of the stuff that I do myself,like I don’t use an elevator,I always take the steps. I work out everyday. It’s part of my life. In fact when I get off the phone with you, I have one more interview then I’m straight off to the gym. I’m getting dressed for the gym right now. (Aaron and I made some small talk about the gym w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
and my Tae Kwon Do experience, he yelled at the dog to be quiet, then we continued on with the interview.) AG: Your new CD – “In Overdrive” – What made you want to do a truck driving CD? Tippin: I used to be a truck driver. Yea, it was one of the jobs I had. I wanted to do a country music tribute to truck drivers. Music is a major part of their life in the past and I wanted to bring it back to life again. Reminiscing about this, these were great days. It was fun to do,I love the truckin world and having a ton of fun at the shows with this. AG: You said you are a pilot. What made you want to be a pilot?
Tippin: I’m gonna keep on making music and have fun with that. Keep on touring until nobody wants to see me anymore! That’s about it. Well there you have it. A hard workin man indeed, performing,writing songs,raising a family,flying planes, making wine and managing a nutrition company. I’m tired just writing about all this stuff. Good luck to Aaron and be sure to keep checking him out at: www.aarontippin.com Written by: Joyce Ziehli Photos and info supplied by: Music City Media – Kathy Atwood 38 Music Square East, 2nd Floor Nashville,TN 37203
Tippin: That’s what my Dad did for a living. I still fly and I have a bunch of planes. In fact I am working on them trying to get them ready for the annual
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THE DINER F
all is a season of changing weather patterns. Some days bright and sunny, some days, cool.There are also the days when the rain comes down slowly in a mist. Then the fog appears enveloping the world outside in its own cocoon. The rain comes down heavily now and those outside seek shelter coming together for a short time in a diner. THE DINER It had started to rain. The blue and red neon sign in the window of the diner seemed to draw people to its interior who might never have noticed the building if the weather had not interfered in their travel. The sign read DINER in bright blue neon, and underneath in red neon a steaming cup of a beverage, presumably coffee, lighted up the window. Inside the diner were three booths and a counter with six stools. Red Formica table tops held the usual sugar shaker, salt and pepper, small packets of artificial sweetener, and a milk white bud vase containing red and white f lowers to give a feeling of ambiance to those eating there. The first booth was occupied by a mother with a baby in a stroller and a small child sitting opposite her. The child ate French fries, dipping them in mounds of ketchup in a small paper cup, while the mother sat leisurely drinking something hot and steamy in a brown mug. The baby in the stroller slept with its head crooked to one side. A bit of spittle escaped from its tiny mouth while it made sucking sounds with its lips. In the middle booth a young couple sat next to each other. So close that it almost appeared they were joined at the hip. A newspaper was spread on the table in front of them. They sat sipping cold drinks in frosted glasses. The boy had a red pencil and was circling some ads in the paper which noted apartments for rent. The blue light from the neon sign in the window cast eerie shadows on his fingers as he wrote. Outside the rain made rivulets on the front window as it dribbled down the glass. Inside the smell of damp clothing and greasy fries permeated the air. A young woman sat on one of the stools at the counter bobbing a teabag up and down in a mug. Her hair was piled high on her head. Two curly tendrils hung in front of each ear. She smiled wanly at the waitress. She refused the menu, and stared in the mirror behind the counter at her own ref lection. Sitting next to her was a young man oblivious to his surroundings. He was chewing on a pencil. His head was bent over the crossword puzzle from the morning paper. So intent was he that he failed to notice the young woman next to him staring at him in the mirror. One of the stools was reserved for smokers. A heavy set man sat there. His cap tipped back on his head, displayed a logo of the company he worked for. His full attention was on
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crushing crackers into a bowl of chili on the counter in front of him. The stool he sat on creaked as he reached for the salt. Unknown to him a leaf from the sidewalk outside stuck to the sole of his shoe. The waitress behind the counter busied herself filling sugar shakers while the cook in the kitchen argued with the man doing dishes as to which team would win the World Series. Someone put a coin in the jukebox ands strains of a country western ballad echoed in the background. Eventually the rain outside started to let up just as the baby in the stroller started to stir. The mother in the booth gathered up her belongings and hastened to the bus stop across the street. She left behind puddles of ketchup and stringy fries for the waitress to clean up. The young woman seated at the counter withdrew a plastic rain bonnet from her pocket to cover her hair. She left to hail a cab for a destination unknown. The couple in the second booth arose as the young man folded the newspaper. He hid it in his sweatshirt to protect it from the rain. He left behind the pencil stub and two dirty glasses.A small patch of water formed on the tabletop where the frostiness of their drinks had melted. Only the two men at the counter remained. Having noticed that the rain had let up they too started to leave.The leaf was still clinging to the sole of the shoe of the heavy set man. The waitress cleaned the booths, spraying a solvent from a plastic bottle onto the tabletops, wiping them clean with a cloth. She was quietly humming the last few lines from the song the jukebox was playing. Outside the rain had turned to a warm drizzle. The fog started to roll in shrouding the diner in its mist. Once again the street seemed deserted. Through the fog the blue neon sign of the diner and the red coffee cup beneath were the only visible sights shining in the night. Written by: Rosemary Ziehli
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THE PURSUIT OF KIM NOVAK & THE PURSUIT OF BAMBI A
ll of us have certain pursuits. We are encouraged early in our lives to make good choices leading to those personal pursuits. In school we learn all about the Declaration of Independence and its mention of the pursuit of happiness. This true story is all about two of my pursuits; both of which are rather trivial in comparison to the pursuits in our lives. Back in 1959 I was invited to join a bus tour to Chicago for the annual Chicago Music Festival held in Soldier’s Field. Recording star Patti Page was to be the guest performer. In preparation for the trip I secured a copy of a Chicago newspaper to find out what was going on that Saturday in Chicago besides the Music Festival. The plans of the tour included time on your own for most of the day. The bus would pick up the travelers at 4 PM to take them to Soldier’s Field. My boyhood pal had invited me to come with him on the trip. Both of us had spent many minutes riding the school bus together talking about our pursuits. Both of us wanted to be teachers. Both of us loved movies. We were way ahead of our times when we talked about some day owning our own movie theater. But we talked about showing many different movies within that building. Little did we know we were actually talking about today’s movie theater complexes. Thus we were on our way to Chicago sharing the newspaper to decide how we would spend our free time in Chicago. While scanning the paper we read that one of our favorite movie stars of the time, Kim Novak, was in her hometown Chicago for the weekend. Soon we were joking about spotting her somewhere during our visit. Would she make a surprise appearance at the music festival? Would we spot her on the streets? Would we spot her eating in a restaurant? Kim had become very well known in the time frame of 1955 to 1959. She was one of Hollywood’s most popular movie stars—probably second only to Marilyn Monroe. w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
In 1955 Kim Novak became a household name after appearing in a hit movie PICNIC. The movie is set in a small Midwest town. When I saw the movie, I thought of Belleville. A scene in the movie showed the various neighbors on an entire block gathering together before sunset talking about what had happened to them that day. Whenever I visited my great aunt and uncle in Belleville, they would gather in the backyard with all the neighbors just like the scene in the movie. So the movie seemed so real to me. In the plot Kim Novak is the town beauty about to be named queen of their annual festival. A stranger, a drifter, appears in town (William Holden), and soon the two meet and love blooms. In 1958 Kim starred with Jimmy Stewart in one of the best mysteries ever VERTIGO. Thus on this Saturday in August of 1959, Kim Novak was very well known, and those two country boys now young men had dreams of meeting her that very day. The bus left us off in front of one of Chicago’s biggest department stores. My buddy and I dashed inside eyeing the wonders of such a big store. In the center was an escalator system going up the entire store---many f loors of departments to be reached by this escalator system. Escalators were a real novelty to us country guys. We rushed to the escalator planning to ride all the way to the top and back. We glanced up the crowded escalator, and there near the top stood Kim Novak in person. She was there! She looked as beautiful and regal as we had imagined. She was almost within our reach, so we jumped on the last steps craning our necks to watch her. But she was already off that f loor, but as luck would have it, we spotted her again going up the next f loor. There is a brief moment when you can see into the next escalator, and we could see HER. What would we say when we caught up with her? Would she even acknowledge us? And so we followed f loor-byf loor trying to catch up to her. We had only that brief glimpse of her on each level. That
only gave us more hope, but sad to say we never did catch up with her. On that August day Kim Novak never had the to meeting pleasure those two Wisconsin fans. But we had our pursuit, and we did get a fairly good look at her. We had chased our dream. The pursuit of Bambi also involved the same two of us. I was in summer school at Platteville, and a class assignment asked for a leaf collection of 30 different weeds. I thought that a wooded area would be the ideal place to find that many different weeds. So I convinced my pal to join me in the pursuit of those leaves. Back in the early 1960’s spotting a real live deer in this region was rare and not common as they are now. We had friends and family members that had seen one or two, and on that day it would be a great bonus for us to be able to say we saw one, too, Bambi to be exact. We hiked into the woods off highway 92 between Brooklyn and Belleville. It was an easy task finding different weeds, and I soon had my bag full of them. We had been talking and laughing all the time wondering when we would spot Bambi. It was then we realized it would be NEVER, for we were making too much noise. So we looked for a cluster of three or four trees, and we made our way behind them. We were sheltered on three sides, and we did not talk or make a sound. We stood in our hiding place straining our ears for the sound of Bambi walking toward us. And then we were rewarded! We could hear the sound of feet crunching sticks, and the sound was coming closer and closer to us. We waited silently almost not daring to breathe. The sound was louder, it stopped, it started, it came closer, and then it stopped. We could not wait any longer, so we stretched out our necks to see Bambi. No deer was in sight. Then what had been making that noise? Finally one of us glanced down, and there close to the ground looking back at us was the biggest fattest opossum you could imagine. Bambi was not there. That opossum had made all that noise. We were foiled in our pursuit. As you can easily see, two of our pursuits were not filled as successfully as we hoped. But both of us did become teachers and had long successful careers. Written by: Bob Hoffman
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Emily O’ Leary sets the bar high
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ew Glarus Senior Emily O’Leary takes her musical talents to new heights as she looks towards the future. An excellent flute and piano player, Emily started practicing at a young age and has participated in many competitions and musical programs throughout her youth. Today as graduation approaches Emily looks forward to pursuing music in a collegiate setting. Emily began playing the piano when she was seven at the encouragement of her parents. In fact Emily and her mother practiced Suzuki training, a form of learning where the parent learns along with the student. Home schooled until high school Emily found music a second language in her home. She admits though she loved to play she didn’t always love to practice. In fourth and fifth grade when practices ran a half hour every day she confesses some sessions ended in tears. Still the encouraging push from her parents inspired her to keep playing and even take up the flute as a second instrument in seventh grade. Emily often performed in recitals and festivals growing up, never receiving a low ranking when the competitions were critiqued. By the time she
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reached high school opportunities constantly arose to further her music education. As a sophomore she was accepted into the State Honors Band and this past year she made it to the highest level of WYSO. A challenge for any aspiring musician. Her junior year was spent playing the flute for WOW Winds of Wisconsin a woodwinds ensemble through the UW-Madison. Finally, this summer Emily attended a summer music clinic to play the flute at the UW-Madison where she was given the opportunity to compete for scholarships with not only flutists, but all other instruments including singers. Out of approximately one hundred hopefuls Emily won a full ride scholarship to the UW-Madison for the fall of 2010, but she’s not closing the deal just yet. Dreams of attending a music conservatory remain close to Emily’s heart, and are a large part of why she’s worked so hard at her music. Success isn’t the only reason she plays. In fact it’s not even half of it. She plays for the release that music provides; the humming tune of that perfect song that can convey a thousand words in a few melodic notes. It is the emotions behind the music that make Emily amazing. That hook that makes
people want to listen to her play. If only the audience knew the grueling hours of practice behind one piece – a perfectionist at heart Emily plays flawlessly. The one time she felt unsure about a piece for a fourth grade recital her stomach got so queasy she couldn’t go on at all. Since that day every measure has been drilled to brilliance. She strives to see dedication from her students as well. She began teaching her younger sisters at home during her sophomore year in high school. Now she teaches private flute and piano lessons to her sisters and six other students weekly. While preparing lessons and encouraging her students she sets a positive example. She is a wonderful role model as she helps her students grow individually as musicians. Music which started as a hobby has now become a way of life, inspiring her to grow as a person and to push herself to new limits.With Emily’s love and passion for this creative process she sets the standards high for herself and what’s to come, promising a future which is sure to be full of success. Her parent’s encouragement, her relentlessness, and endless inspiration have led Emily to an unbreakable love, a love that comes through flawlessly with every piece she plays. Story by: Jenna Knapp and Natalie Morgan Photos by: Jenna Knapp
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Bath Tub Mothers at the Fat Cat
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t’s not often that you get to hear a band like the Bath Tub Mothers (BTM) for free. I don’t mean an acoustic band. What I mean is a band with that much talent and pizzazz! These weekend warrior musicians are good enough to be making it in the big time playing festivals and theaters. With superb songs, fantastic musicianship, and a very professional stage presence the BTM played a two hour show on Sunday, August 23rd at the Fat Cat Coffeehouse in New Glarus: part of the Party on the Patio concert series provided by the Fat Cat and the Americana Gazette BTM put on a hell of a show!
Ukulele in his songs. Please check out the BTM’s on line and for sure live when they play near you. Heck they are worth the drive to go see anywhere that they play! Hopefully other musicians will work as hard and be inspired to concentrate
on their songwriting as I was after seeing the BTM’s. They set a new benchmark to achieve by local songwriters. Go see them. You won’t be sorry! Story by: Andy Ziehli Photo supplied
Playing cuts from their new self titled CD and a few covers the BTM provided the musical backdrop to a wonderfully pleasant Sunday. Members Guitarist John Norland, Bassist Phil Redman, and Mandolinist and Ukeleist Pat Wynes moved the crowd with their Americana/Blues songs. Wonderful story tellers BTM have spun tales of adventure, self ref lection, and self discovery in their haunting melodies and foot tapping rhythms. Educating attendees and encouraging them to check out groups like the Wood Brothers and Songwriter Fred Eaglesmith, the BTM’s put their educational backgrounds to good work. It was a pleasure to sit through this show and hear superb musicians apply their crafts in such a beautiful and inspiring location as the Patio of the Fat Cat. Crowd pleasers Razor and Bowie Knife, You might like to know, Neil Young’s Heart of Gold, and Fred Eaglesmith’s Some Roads were applauded whole heartily by the audience. A new song that Pat Wynes wrote and played for the first time in public (I wish I would have caught the name of) is surely to also become a crowd favorite. Norland is a fantastic writer and deserves to have his songs heard by a wider audience than Southern Wisconsin. Wynes too is a fantastic writer and adds f lair of Rag Time with his use of the 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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Huffin Glue Legal Honky Tonk Country
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he band was started by lead vocalist Honky Ton Fil in 2002 while he was working as a shoe repair man in where the name Huffin Glue came from. The band started out as a duo but soon evolved into a quartet and then as a five piece band. At first they played old jazz standards, but when the guitarist heard traditional country music on an old CD they found behind a workbench he was blown away with how good Country musicians where. After a short time Huffin Glue evolved into a Honky Tonk/Hyped up country band. The original guitarist could not play out in public so he soon left and drummer Pete “Don Pedro Diablo Habanero” joined in. Listings on Craig’s list soon helped fill out the band. The last member to join is guitarist Jeff who won the 2009 MAMA for best Jazz Composition. Huffin Glue is based out of Middleton, WI. Their song list now consists of great dance tunes and quirky originals. This is not your mama’s country band. All the members have a Punk Rock background. Think Jason and the Scorchers meet Merle Haggard! These guys rock! Rob and I met with the band at their practice space to discuss what Huffin Glue had been up to and what they were planning to hatch onto the Madison Country seen in the near future. AG: Are all of you from the Madison area? HG: Pete is from Chicago,Andy is from Central Wisconsin, Jeff is from Madison, Bill is from Apple River, and Honky Tonk Fil is from Martinsville. AG: You play both original and covers don’t you? HG: We play over a dozen originals and about 50 covers a night. We have been banned in 2005 from the State of Wisconsin by Governor Jim Doyle. He signed into law that Huffin Glue is banned and illegal in this State. Because of this we have had to go under stage names and play underground. We were called Huffin Glue and other inhalants but had to drop the other inhalants part for now. We hope to add Du Wop girls and they will take over that moniker.
HG: It seems to be a lot of small circles of musicians that tend to hang together and help their own out. It’s really not an all inclusive scene at all. It is a healthy scene; it just needs to change to allow more acts and artists into it. Club owners want the bands to bring in the crowds and don’t seem to want to help with advertising or promotion. That’s kind of hokey. It should be a mutual act, the promotion of shows. Club owners have a responsibility to try to bring in a crowd too. It seems to be all over though. Other towns and areas expect the same. The amount of really good venues has decreased here. When we were younger there were more top level clubs for bands to play. That has really decreased in the past 5 years or so. It’s too bad. We miss the old Okayz, Headliners, Church Key, and the like. New clubs like the High Noon and the Club Tavern are great clubs; it’s just that there are so few of them now. AG: How often do you play out? HG: As often as we can. We love to play out, but we all have family obligations too. It’s just hard to find jobs in the Madison Area. AG: How do you go about writing songs for the band? HG: Honky Tonk Fil comes up with lyrics and a melody line and we work out our parts. We find songs that we can play well and add our own spin to them. It is a group effort. AG: Some of you all have stage names don’t you? HG: Yes we have Blow Torch Andy Thorson on guitar, Don Pedro Diablo Habanero on drums,and HonkyTonk Fil is the band's vocalist. Bill and Jeff are just Bill and Jeff!
AG: What do you classify your music has?
AG: What are your plans for the Future?
HG: We have that Classic Country backbone but our originals are morphed into a more jazzy Punkish style. With songs like Carney Stew it’s hard to play them straight 4/4 country.
HG: We hope to play more festivals and play out of the area a small amount. Being able to play the bigger clubs in Madison on a regular basis and getting our name out there is very important to us. We plan to just keep working and get better known so we can get the better jobs, just like everyone else.
AG: On your Myspace page you have a very wide swath of influences including Flip Wilson and Bill Malone from WORT?
AG: Thanks guys and good luck!
HG: Yes both are very important to us. Bill Malone is a true inspiration and influence with his radio show. Flip is just cool. AG: What do you think of the Madison Music Scene?
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HG: Thank You! Written by: Rob Kosmeder and Andy Ziehli Photo supplied w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
WORT back to the country Madison style L
ast month we covered a story on Dr. Bill Malone, the man that latterly wrote the boon on Country Music in America. This month I was fortunate enough to be asked to sit in on Malone’s weekly radio show on WORT in Madison, WI Back to the Country. Malone has been hosting the show for over eight years and has had a slew of guests. Each show is tailored to cover a specific year, genera, style, or class of authentic country music. The newest material you will hear is from the mid-1970’s to the oldest songs from the 1920’s. Every once in a while Malone will play something recently recorded by an artist that fits the style of the show he is presenting that day. Each show is a cornucopia of history, facts, and stories about the artists and music. You can tune in to WORT at 89.9 FM or online at WORT.com and listen to the show and the other fine programming that WORT presents each day. Out of all the things I enjoy in life radio is one of the top three. I have always wanted to own a radio station. I could easily live without a television but not a radio. My love of radio came at an early age listening to WKOW in Madison. I remember Chuck Mercury having a show. I also listened to Top 40 power house WISM and hearing Jonathon Little and Clyde Coffee. WKOW switched to a
county format an Andy Witt was the station’s top DJ when DJ’s acutely spun records. There were the Chicago stations WLS with the king of jocks Larry Lujack and WMAQ the Truckers friend blaring Country Music across America. All these stations were AM band. Something we don’t really listen to that much anymore with our IPods and CD players. I can think of nothing else in life that fascinated me more than the workings of a radio station. When WKRP came on TV I never missed an episode just to se the cool equipment and what Bailey and Jennifer were wearing. Yes radio is one of the last true hands on cool technologies we have not screwed up too badly here in America. One of the coolest stations is WORT in Madison. It is a community sponsored station which means it lives and breathes through grants and donations from folks like me and you. The coolest show on this station is Back to the Country hosted by Bill Malone. Malone is an easy going Southerner who happens to be the greatest expert on Country Music in America. He spins CD’s,Albums, and even 45’s to play some of the coolest music you will ever here. The only other stations where you will here this kind of music in Wisconsin is down in Monroe at WEKZ AM.
The show starts out precisely at 9:07 and goes until noon every Wednesday. Jane Richard is the engineer. She has stepped in and done a wonderful job taking over for Jeff Hickey who passed away this summer from injuries from a car accident. Hickey left a big hole to fill with his vast knowledge of this music too, but Richards has stepped up and is doing an excellent job. Today she along with her husband John Cooper (who is learning the ropes) are gearing up and setting up the tracks to be played today. The room that the show takes place in is a cement block room with homemade sound diffusers hanging on the wall to cut down the echo. There are three of these panels with silver moving blankets hanging from them. The board is huge with tons of LED’s lit up and sliders at the ready. There are three widows that allow folks to peak in and see the show happening live. Two turntables lay waiting to be used along with a rack of CD and tape players. There is even a reel to reel recorder on the bottom of the rack. The new technology of computer based music is also in this room. The internet is on so that information can be easily culled to answer listener call in's or to help Malone add to his huge wealth of knowledge in his take on this music. Lastly two EV monitor speakers hang by bungee chords from the front of the studio so we can listen to the music too. The studio is a flurry of activities as old friends drop by to listen and other employees and volunteers wander on through. Today old friend Jim Hodges,aTravis style guitar picker brings donuts and a wonderful sense of humor to the show. He has been volunteering at WORT for 20 years. Today he is here to learn to operate the continued on page 31
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Characters and Capers: Dick Radtke’s Smalltown Fiction L
ively, wry and poignant, the tradition of cultural critique through gentle irony is alive and strong in Wisconsin native Richard Radtke’s nostalgic fiction. Radtke writes in a voice familiar to those who enjoy the homespun humor of such American writers as Jean Shepherd (A Christmas Story and In God we Trust, all Others Pay Cash) and Garrison Keillor (A Prairie Home Companion). Inspired to write as a teen in part by the serial narratives published by the Saturday Evening Post, Dick Radtke’s stories are emblematic of small town Midwestern life in many ways. From the gossipy tales of life among community members in the diverse neighborhoods surrounding 1950s Milwaukee such as West Allis, where he grew up, to the novel-length mid-life crisis that plagues Detective Wally Dopple as he downs yet another of Mrs. Kramer’s polish Knisches, Radtke’s fiction focuses attention on the lengths we humans go to justify our behavior. His stories also provide readers with a close, local lens on national issues, from election politics to religious dicta on marriage and homosexuality. Neatly wedged in between the mundane, daily hypocrisies of people suspiciously like us, are stories of friends, family members and passersby whose lives are impinged upon by Wisconsinites’ struggles to understand McCarthyism (“those crazy hearings in Congress”), class hierarchies and the broad reach of religion. Dick Radtke credits his high school English teacher, Mr. Simpson, for encouraging him to write—which
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he does and has done daily, for a minimum of 30 minutes,for over forty years. Dick was kind enough to meet me for an interview at the Sow’s Ear coffeehouse in Verona, surrounded by the colorful skeins of yarn lining its walls. AG: How would you characterize the genre of your stories? DR: My genre…well, my heroes are people like James Thurber and the Saturday Evening Post writers—I’m a man who was born a little too late. I’m really not looking for a niche, this is just the stuff that comes out! I guess I’d call it humorous fiction, comic fiction, something along those lines…homespun stuff. Like the citizens of Keillor’s Lake Woebegon,Radtke has a regular cast of characters upon which he draws for his most recent series of short stories, which are currently available at Lulu.com as a collection titled Ladies of the South Side. Radtke’s Milwaukee denizens congregate, among other locales, at Pearl’s Isle of Beauty, where Mrs. Knutowski mulls over the probable causes of her niece’s barrenness (superstition inclines her toward too many onions), as the spiritually-conscientious Rita Owsewski says a Rose Novena to St.Therese asking for forgiveness for the rampant rumor-spreaders hovering under the hair dryers. When I asked Dick how he develops his characters and why do they seem to resonate with people, he responded “It’s a neighborhood thing.” Referencing an essay by poet Richard Hugo called A Triggering Town, Dick went on to explain the method and power behind it.
DR: “You start out with the place where you were born--or the place you feel comfortable with--and then you start on a journey. You use the people that you knew and give them other attributes that tend to suit the story at hand. And pretty soon you’re waaaaay out on your right brain (laughs)... you know I’m a big believer in this right brain,left brain stuff. You have to get that left brain out of your mind! If you can get your right brain working, you can take people that you actually knew and you can make them into something new. And let’s face it, some of these are stereotypes—we all have known people like this. (Pauses) I do a lot of clipping of news columns too—weird things have happened…people do strange things and sometimes there’s a story there. These people just insinuate themselves in my mind and they start doing things.” AG: So you don’t think people recognize themselves in your stories? DR: Yes, well…I did this novel (Jackpot) with a character who wins the Irish lottery and goes out to New Mexico. He’s a skip tracer for a loan company, trying to find this one guy. And it happened that a friend of mine has a son (Bob) who is a real character. You look at the guy and you say “I’m going to over to the other side of the street, he looks really rough.” So I thought, oh, yeah, (Bob) would really make a good character, the guy that my hero is chasing down! So I put him in the story and about a year later my friend…says “now that guy in the story, was that (Bob)? Yeah, people recognize themselves or others that they know, sure. But you have to change them enough so that they’re not… w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
DR: I’ve got three Dopple novels,two of which I’ve published on Lulu’s as print on demand (a self-publishing site). Wally’s still working out there but I need some crime story. I find myself gravitating toward small town stories more than big city stuff. One thing is that you don’t have to be as faithful to big town locations, you can create things.
But when I sit down to write my fiction, I want to do it for myself. I want to write what’s inside. And that’s what good teachers will tell you: “write about what you know.” Problem is, when you’re 19, you don’t know a whole lot—really, you don’t recognize what you know. But as time goes by and you get a longer horizon, your life and the events that have impacted it become more obvious and the relationships that have impacted it—and the more whimsical it gets! The nice thing about writing is that the older you get, if you can hang on, the more material you have. I’m teaching a class in doing your life stories at the Meadow Wood Community Center; I proposed this to them awhile ago.
AG: Did someone inspire that character?
AG: What a great idea…
DR: My brother was a sheriff in Milwaukee for 35 years, that had a little bit to do with Wally, but it has more to do with the setting again, the southside neighborhoods. One good way to talk about [familiar places] is from the point of view of someone who would run into a lot of these eccentric situations with people,and a cop is as good a way as any.
DR: So there are six in this class and they tell me“I don’t have an interesting life—I don’t know what to write about!” I try to tell them ‘yes, you do…the only thing you really own is your story.’ So that’s what I’m trying to capture in what I do. (Smiles) I’ve been wanting to [teach this class] for some time. Working with elderly people, some of whom are in assisted living— I’m getting more out of this than they are.
AG: And they take it with good humor? DR: Most do… AG: Tell me something about the origins of your Milwaukee detective,Wally Dopple.
AG: I notice that in the course of the conversations in your stories, you integrate themes that point to the kind of casual prejudice people exercise against homosexuality, foreigners, anyone “other” on many different levels. DR: Yeah, there’s a story about race in Ladies of the South Side, too--but these stories are mostly about relationships. Religion too, in the sense that The Simpsons talk about religion. It’s more about the way in which people practice their religion, their quirks and foibles. Seems to me that Catholics and Lutherans and Eastern Orthodox see each other as very different, when they’re so much alike.
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were all written by the band. My two favorite cuts were # 7 Jackson County and #11 Many Falls. The rest of the cuts are good songs but a little too repetitious at times for me. This CD is a very good representation of the Murrow’s Boys work. A little percussion in some of the songs would help to break the repetition of listening to 14 songs with just guitar, bass, harmonica, and an occasional mandolin. Don’t get me wrong this is a good CD. I just like a little variation in the music I listen too. You can check the Murrow’s Boys out at www.murrowsboys.com and www.myspace.com/murrowaboys. Written by:Andy Ziehli
AG: People tend to dismiss them. DR: They often dismiss themselves. One woman told me she had nothing worth writing about, then over the course of the workshop it emerged she’d traveled to 54 countries—on her own, after her husband died. When traveling in Africa, she’d watched a mother lion nursing her cubs from less than here to there (points to corner 15 feet away)—isn’t that amazing? People think they have nothing to say and as they get older, they realize there’s not much time left.
Mauro Magellan ♪♪♪♪ My Groovy Road Jerkin Crocus UK Records Style: Rock / Pop
AG: Once upon a time we might have called these period pieces, since they’re set in the ‘50s…but they’re really staged as individual stories of epiphanies, aren’t they? Do you have any plans to do anything with these “neighborhood stories?” DR: Yes,but I remember all the trouble a friend had when she wrote her first book and got a publisher and she was expected to drive her book all over kingdom come to market it and still sold a minimal number. I just don’t have the energy to do that. I’m defining my world in a smaller and smaller way as I get older. I’ll sell two or three online and publish it. AG: I know the publishing industry has taken a huge hit in the last decade, with the internet and self-publishing is getting more common. What are some of other places your stories have been published? DR: In magazines like the Wisconsin Academy Review; now it’s called Wisconsin People and Ideas. I’ve got a few stories published in Julien’s Journal, in Dubuque and Prime Times (now defunct) that had a huge circulation but is now gone. AG: If you have a take home message for someone wanting to write, what would it be? DR: Everyone has a story, so write what you know—and for yourself. If you’re writing for an editor, then you ought to get paid for it. And you ought to pick the most profitable medium you can find, when you’re writing for a specific audience. w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
AG: I think that must be one of the benefits of your daily writing regimen—that by writing a little every day, you spend time finding your own voice. DR: Absolutely—you find yourself. And it takes awhile. Dick likens his storytelling to the Hopi’s approach to weaving a rug. The Hopi would always leave a strand of warp unknotted,a kind of straggling tail as an acknowledgement to the gods that the weaver’s work could never match the perfection of the gods’. The metaphor seems fitting to me. One of Dick Radtke’s gifts as a writer is that he takes what is taken as “normal” apart for especially careful scrutiny, always with gentle humor, exposing our imperfections as human beings. And he reassures us that though this condition is perpetual, it’s through the common struggle to understand ourselves alongside each other, that community is maintained. A writer in consumer finance by vocation, Dick Radtke writes from his home in Verona, where he lives with his wife Clare and their dogs Spike, a hybrid of“uncertain ancestry,”and Rocky, a rescue Retriever. You can find a podcast of Dick Radtke reading from his most recent publication, Ladies of the South Side, at www.americanagazette.net/radioshows. Story by: Anne Gravel Sullivan
For those of you who are familiar with Mauro Magellan’s past work you are in for a big surprise. This CD is not a Blues Rock,Alt-country, or a Southern Rock CD. This is a Pop CD pure and simple. It reminds me of something the Paisley Underground from Los Angles would have created. Who knew? Magellan is known in Southern Wisconsin as the all around go to drummer if you want a funky bluesy driving beat. He was the drummer in Monroe’s,The Crashers,the internationally known band the Georgia Satellites,and played on countless CD’s including Robert J.’s Americana style CD’s. He has played with Jason and the Scorchers and is currently playing with Dan Baird’s Homemade Sin Band. This CD starts off right away with the title cut My Groovy Road that would easily fit into heavy rotation on any top 40 station. I Blame you and Sensible Shoes are more in the style friends and fans will recognize of Magellan’s past work. No Back Door Out is a great rocker with guitar slinger Warner Hodges playing lead guitar, and my favorite cut on the CD. The other cuts feature Gary Hendrickson, Dan Baird, and Magellan himself on guitars. Other standout cuts are My Groovy Road, Just another night, and I could do better. This is a well recorded CD with great songs. Every song on this CD is a toe tapper and makes you want to get up and dance. Magellan did a very good job choosing these songs. They match his vocal style well. Many singers choose songs that they like but can’t sing, but Magellan picked a fantastic group of songs that showcases his vocalistic continued on page 31
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Janesville but moved to Green Bay area when she was in middle school. She has been writing songs for years and belongs to the NSAI (Nashville Songwriters Association Incorporated). (We then digress into talking about certain clubs and the crowds that they attract. We talk about similar experiences at these clubs. It is amazing how all bands go through the same things in Southern Wisconsin at these same clubs. The stories were hilarious but most cannot be printed here! We then begin to talk about how we all had retired at one point and started playing again. Jerry talks about his background in starting another great band Midlife Crisis with Dana. He left them in 2000. Tim quit playing years ago when his kids were younger and now is back in the game. Chad relates how he played with bands that were based out of Illinois. The other members of Country Twist forgive him for those indiscretions! Chad played with a band out of DeKalb Illinois for six years before coming to Wisconsin again to make music. Dana relates how he had played with some very good friends of mine Wally Barger, Scott Hare, and Mark Gruenenfelder. It is funny how we all know and have played with a lot of the same players over the years. Tim and I actually played together for a while, and Tim went to High School with Wally. I then inform Country Twist that I had been a judge in a Country Pick off they were involved in years before. They then asked me if I voted for them and I told them I had. This is the truth! When musicians get together the conversation bounces all over the place as is quite evident here. We soon got back on track and continued the interview.) Kirstie then joins us for the rest of the interview AG: Where do you guys play at? CT: We kind of circle Madison. We play a lot in the suburbs surrounding Madison and we get out to Brodhead. We play in Middleton, Belleville, Stoughton, you know the places. We play a lot of Beer tents and local festivals. AG: Kirstie how long have you been singing? CT: I have been singing since I was about four years old. When I was in first grade my music teacher told my mom that I could really sing and I got my first solo in a school music program. I started singing in the church choir and it just took off from there. AG: Did you sing with a band before Country Twist?
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CT: I sang with two other guys, a bass player and guitarist. It was a singer songwriter kind of thing. We played coffeehouses and small clubs. We were together for a year. They are my songwriting friends. AG: Do you still write? CT: Yes all the time. I belong to NSAI and get together with the local chapters and write. I also travel to Nashville and attend their conferences and workshops when I can. Every third Sunday there is a big gathering of songwriters at Dupe Turners house and we get together and help each other. AG: Have you cut any demos? CT: Oh yea a whole bunch of them. When I was 13 I cut a CD. The songs came from Nashville writers. AG: When Jerry told you he was leaving how did you decide on the new lineup? CT: Jerry gave us a year to find a replacement for him. We ran across this couple (Will & Kelly are engaged) that after a practice we knew they were right for the band. They were a package deal! (Everyone laughs) They are amazing to work with. We knew they were right immediately. The chemistry was there and so was the talent level. AG: Jerry you sang a lot of the material so it will be hard to replace him. CT: Well they are filling up the song list with more women’s songs and rightfully so. They have two great female singers so they should be highlighted with more material. That’s the focus for the future of Country Twist. Upbeat female material. We could sit down a year from now and this will be a different band. Our focus, materials, and attitudes are changing. We are evolving again. AG: Where do you want to be in a year from now? CT: We want to be playing more festivals. We played a festival this summer and it was awesome. The rush of playing that show was incredible. It really made us want to do more of that. The time flew by so quickly. The fire was lit to work hard to get more of those types of jobs next year. Country Twist then asked me how they were chosen to be on the cover of this issue. I told them that Tim kept calling me three times a day and begging me to write a story about them that I had no choice but to put them on the cover! The clincher I said was when he sent his brother in law Steve over I gave in!!! The guys and gals in Country Twist are a riot to hang out with. As I said earlier this was on of the funniest and most entertaining interviews I ever conducted. Country Twist is a talented band with great folks in it. You will not be sorry taking the time to check them out. I look forward to seeing them with the new members. You can check them out online at www.country-
twistband.com. I also want to take the time to thank Jerry Helmer for all the hard work he has put in promoting Country Music in Southern Wisconsin. Jerry is one of the good guys. He is talented and gracious. We here at the Americana Gazette wish him a happy retirement from the music business, but we know that old musicians never retire they just regroup. So I’m sure you’ll be hearing from Jerry again because brother that playing itch never goes away! Go out and see Country Twist Live. You’ll thank me! Story and Photos by: Andy Ziehli
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crowave, linens, and towels. Located on 500 feet of shoreline along one of the best Trout Streams in Southern Wisconsin, five minutes from the Sugar River BikeTrail,and15 minutes from the Badger Bike Trail, the Barnaby Guest House is an outdoor activity haven. Beautiful downtown New Glarus (only a 5 minute walk) with its gourmet restaurants, family dining café’s, tourist sites, and quaint shops makes it a super location for that weekend or week long stay. For those of you who want to just relax there is a wonderful Coffee House just a few minutes away, local pubs to enjoy the local flavor and New Glarus Beer, and a massage studio to help you get the stress out of your lives also conveniently located in downtown New Glarus. For the artist or musician looking to get away and be creative the Barnaby’s provide a quiet creative lodging experience. There are two fully equipped recording studios only 15 minutes away if you get the urge to record your creations. Painters and poets alike will find many sights and sounds to inspire within walking distant of the Barnaby Guest House. Truly country inspired the Guest House will provide you with a slice of tranquility in this stressful world we live in. Family can experience a mixture of activities including a miniature golf course, biking and hiking trails, pioneer village, and many parks all within walking distance. For the golfers there are two excellent golf courses’ both within a 10 minute drive of the Barnaby Guest House. The New Glarus Brewery offers tours and there is a local Wine Shop. Children are welcome. It is a non smoking and no pets facility. Rooms can be occupied by the day, week, or month. On weekends there is a two night minimum stay required. The Guest House is available 365 days a year. Rates are very reasonable; $150.00 a night, $850.00 a week, and $2000.00 a month. You can get more information on the Barnaby Guest House at barnabyguesthouse.com or by calling Marc and Tabatha at 608-527-4246. 608-7129287, or by faxing them at 608-527-4248. Written by: Andy Ziehli Photos supplied. 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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style well. He wrote the music and lyrics to eight songs on this CD, and co-wrote two others with Gary Hendrickson. Magellan it turns out is a true renaissance man. If you like late psychedelic pop music and Los Angeles jangely pop you will love this CD. It is a fresh take on Pop music, something that does not usually come out of the Midwest especially Wisconsin. Hats off to Mauro for breaking new ground and hopefully starting other musicians to look beyond the same old worn out styles that get played week in and out in local clubs. Magellan thought out of the box and scores big with My Groovy Road. Review by: Andy Ziehli
warm and dirty at the same time. The only song that could have been on an Alabama CD is Kissing a Fool, and that’s okay. Cook deserves to be able to stretch his wings and fly on his own. A Million Times Today is a great Country song. I like the guitar work and Cook’s vocals sound great. I hope that people give Cook a chance and buy this CD. Again it’s a great R&B/Rockin Blues CD. Don’t buy it if you are thinking Alabama Redux because you will be greatly disappointed, but if you love Soul, R&B, and Rockin Blues music this a great addition to your collection. Reviewed by: Andy Ziehli
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board. Today’s theme is Country music from the 1940’s. Malone has selected the 40 plus songs to be played over the next three hours. Malone stated that “putting a show together on the music of the 40’s is easier than most for him. He loves the chance to go through his music and collect theses songs to be played”.
Jeff Cook & the All-star Goodtime Band ♪♪♪♪ Ashes Won’t Burn Quest Records Style: Country / R&B Jeff Cook is a true musical veteran. A founding member of the Country Band Alabama,he steps out on his own with a collection of 12 tunes - some covers some of his own on this CD. Cook was always underrated as a guitar player and vocalist while in Alabama. This CD is a real departure from the smooth country rock that his former band played. This is a well produced and recorded CD. It’s hard to explain in words the “soul” that this CD pumps out. Many cuts remind me of the great music cut at FAME and Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in the 1960’s ands early 70’s. I’m a sucker for that great groove of those early tunes,and Cook has captured the tone and spirit of those recordings while adding his own personal touch. Cook’s originals are well written songs. Not complex or messed up with a 1000 overdubs. Jim Nelson can blow that Sax!!! Man that Cat can play!!! A very tight rhythm section of R.K. Brown and J.D.Cooper work very well together. Cook produced and recorded this CD at his home studio using a Pro Tools rig. Cover tunes include I feel fine, Knockin on heavens door, Monkey Around, Brick House, and All right now. Knockin on heaven’s door has a cool ending with Helpless by NeilYoung thrown in. Brick House does not do anything for me but either did the original so I’ll just leave it at that. I feel Fine is a good song with some cool guitar sounds. Where this CD shines are Cook’s originals. Ashes won’t burn is an excellent song! The groove is so w w w. a m e r i c a n a g a z e t t e . n e t
Malone and Hodges talk about the music that they love and the old pickers they knew. They converse about seeing these performers play in their youth. Their reminiscing goes back to the 40’s and hearing theses artists on the radio for the first time. How radio brought them the news of WWII being over and how much radio affected their lives in the 40’s. Hodge’s relates how the life of the show is Malone’s knowledge of the music and artists. Hodge’s humor is quite contagious and he keeps us laughing when the music is being played. The show is a mix of humor, warmth, and music. Malone takes the time to find material that is both known and unknown to most his listeners. The music and the banter fit's Malone’s easy going back porch style. Callers phone in to leave messages of encouragement and to ask questions. He jokes with them and answers their questions. Today a young woman calls in who is working on her PhD and asks Malone a couple of questions including how he got his knowledge on this subject. He politely answers her never embarrassing her with his titles or achievements being mentioned in the conversation. We are all amazed that the caller had no idea who she was talking too. Apparently she has not begun to research her dissertation yet! Malone takes it in stride and just laughs it off. As the time goes quickly by it is time to read the folk calendar. This triggers the all important car shuffling out on the street. As Richard’s reads this week’s calendar the rest of us jump up and go outside to move our cars so we don’t get a parking ticket. The two hour parking brings on the exercise portion of Back to the Country. This happens every week at 10:40 A.M. After this mad dash Malone easily slips back into his chair and continues the show. He tells us a story how he and his wife were at a party at Shot Jackson’s house in Nashville when a fellow guest musician asked Malone what he did for work. Malone said that he and his wife were both teachers. The musician replied that nobody worked in his family either! They were all teachers, preachers, or musicians!!! We all laughed loudly.
Back to the Country takes precise timing to make sure that there is no dead air and that all the federal governmental call sign acknowledgements are read during the show. Commercials are strategically placed to air at precise times. Malone makes the show sound like it is just a guy who likes music and playing his records which is the charm of the show. When in reality it is a well scripted performance put on each week by truly professional people who love their jobs! As the minutes click closer to noon Malone finds two extra songs to play to finish this broadcast. It is easy to see in Malone's face how much he loves this show and sharing the music he loves with his listeners. It has been a tremendous 3 hours for me. I have learned much and I have been able to watch the master work his magic on WORT’s listeners. It has truly been a great day! WORT as I mentioned earlier is listeners sponsored. Please consider them as a donation point when making cash donations this and the next few years. Without your support great shows like Back to the Country would not be broadcasted. Thanks to Bill Malone and his volunteers for letting me sit in. It was a dream come true for me. For awhile I was that 12 year old kid listening to my clock radio at night trying to imagine what it looked like and what it would have been like to work at a radio station. It was that dream and more. Story & photos by:Andy Ziehli
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