March Hare • 2013 Page 6 Blues In The Natural State
Ozark Blues Society to throw a grand musical bash and we're all invited by Sondra Goode
Page 8 Salt & Pepper
Blues Duo wows the IBC Tony Nardi and Eddie Mobley - 4 decades young by David Hughes
Page 21 Mark Albertson
photo: Meredith Mashburn
We gotta get out while we can ‘Cuz tramps like us, Baby we were born to run… ---Bruce Springsteen
Spotlight on one of Altered State's Best by Dori Colston
Page 11 New Feature: Vintage A monthly look at historic gear by Steve Evans
Page 23 Backstage Pass
Nightflying's David & Sherree Hughes at the IBC and beyond... by David Hughes
Page 24 Concerts
Altered State's most thorough Concert listings
COVER Art: Jessica Riley
The Regulars
Space News......................................................10 Notes from the Pub: Central.........................12 Notes from the Pub: Fort Smith..................14 Bob Boyd’s World of Music ..........................15 Frets About Frets .............................................15 News of Record...............................................16 Eureka! .............................................................18 Notes from the Pub: NWA ...........................20 Notes from the Pub: Hot Springs ................22 Backstage Pass ................................................23 Concerts ...........................................................24 Club Listings ...................................................30 Own Worst Enemies.........................................44 Connections .....................................................45 Horrorscopes.....................................................46
Nightflying - The Entertainment Guide Established December 8, 1980 • Fayetteville, Arkansas Nightflying is published by Nightflying Publications, 41 St. Elizabeth, Morrilton, Arkansas 72110 and is an affiliate of ElfinVurkin, Inc. It is available throughout Arkansas and neighboring states (first copy free; additional $4 ea.) and by subscription ($40 yr./domestic; $85 yr./international). All articles © 2013 Nightflying Publications, or by specific authors where shown. All rights reserved. No reproductions, etc. Spiritual Direction: PR Grunion
Publisher // Editor
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Doug Treadway Tracy Sanchez Kody Ford Peter Read
Information Editor Dianne Archer
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Peter Read Nancy Paddock Joe Harless Andy Briant
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Contributing Writers Bob Boyd Kody Ford Nancy Paddock Dori Colston Chris King Bryon Knight Terry ‘Gabe’ Gabrion Curtis Copeland Tracy Sanchez Jennifer McClellan Mike ‘Mudcat’ Acklin Steve Evans David Hughes Tommy Roeck Sondra Goode Joe Harless
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NIGHTFLYING.COM • MARCH HARE • 2013
Greetings and Great Salutations to you All. ‘Tis a joyous time indeed, ‘tween Mardi Gras and St. Patrick’s Day, when Ol’ Man Winter tosses off his grumpy old mood and the world comes alive again as our Good Mother Nature gives great birth to all living things. It’s been a weird one, to be sure, as we’ve enjoyed high temps near the 70s and 20s at night. If we weren’t all bedazzled by the coming season, we’d surely all have pneumonia by now with these temp swings. It is now 4:20 in the a.m., of course, and here we sit trying to peck out the last few remaining tidbits of musical lore in the Altered State before we put this one to bed. It’s a real labor of love here under the desk at the Nightflying Compound in the days leading up to printing (or exercise in blatant insanity, whichever means the most to you), for we go days and nights on end without proper sleep or nutrition to get it all done. And it doesn’t matter when we start on production…it always comes down to a mad rush to get it all done. I know, I know…we only do this sort of thing because we want to, so there’s the realquestion: Why do we want to? I’ll tell you. I don’t know. All I really know is that it seems to beat having to go out and get real jobs…
In General…….
Actually, I jest, of course. Spring heralds in the Festival Season, and the Altered State is blessed with many world-class events…which right now are all in their own mad rush to get it done. This region has myriad festivals of all kinds, from Rock Festivals to Folk Festivals to Blues Festivals to Country Festivals to Artsy-Craftsy Festivals…and just about every nook and cranny of a town has its own annual Festival, too. We’ve got Mosquito Festivals, Crawdad Festivals, Bigfoot Festivals, River Festivals, Bike Festivals, Car Festivals, ToadSuck Festivals and just about Whatever You Can Think Of Festivals (though we don’t have a Tick and Chigger festival that I know of…but it’s probably on the way…) And one thing they all have in common is that the community of like-minded individuals gather in groups to celebrate
their common interests. The sheer synergy of each is, in a word, magical. These gathings are the perfect social battery rechargers for millions of people and musicians alike. In my opinion, one of the coolest aspects of virtually all these events is that people are actually out socializing with each other in person. Even with the coolest phones and gadgets and so-called social media, there’s simply no alternative to real, live, human energy. To me, it’s what makes live music such a powerful thing…it’s the crowd-spark for the masses to turn them on. Literally. My father used to hate the club and concert scene in principle, without having really experienced them in person. Being allergic to alcohol and tobacco smoke kept him out of such places, which he saw as generally unhealthy environments where people went and wasted their money and themselves. Then one night saw we saw a filmclip on 60 Minutes about a rooftop sniper in Austin, just sitting there picking people off. It occurred to me that this was what was important about clubs and concerts, and I told him so: “If you took these things away from people, there would be a lot more people on the roofs with rifles.” He said nothing, but a few days later brought it up. He’d thought long and hard about it, and came to the realization that the nature of clubs and concerts might actually be the most important business in the world: Stress Relief. Face it, folks, if we in the entertainment industry really do our jobs right, we provide the masses with the relief they need to carry on their days. After a good time out, people are going to be happier, more relaxed and as a result they will tend to treat each other better…and that alone will improve the general synergy in the world. Many thousands of years ago Chinese medicine posited that Stress is the leading cause of illness and aging…that to live a long and healthy life people need to, essentially, keep their cool as much as possible. So. Whether you’re a musician, dancer, bartender, songwriter, chef, waiter or for that matter, busboy, you are in the entertainment business, and your job is therapeutically important to society across the board…