A Night on the Town...

The Tedeschi Trucks Band on Stage

Each year for the last twenty-some years I have attended Merlefest, a music festival honoring the late Merle Watson.  And each year, some individual or group whom I've never heard of absolutely dazzles me.  At this year's Merlefest, both Mary Ann and I were blown away by the Tedeschi Trucks Band, named for its founders, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks.  This is a substantial (11 members on stage) bluesy band with a wonderful sound.  Susan and Derek are both world-class guitarists and Susan's clear and intense voice is perfect for the music that they perform.  And I kind of felt like a moron when I returned from Merlefest and all of my musician friends already knew of the individuals and the band.

A few weeks ago, I went to the Tedeschi Trucks Website to see if they had any new CDs.  I was very fortunate to hit their Website only a few minutes after tickets had gone on sale for a late summer tour starting on August 25th in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, only a couple hours' drive away from our home.  I jumped in and bought two seats.  They were in the center of the fourth row!  Then I called Mary Ann and told her we had a date!

We drove down to Tuscaloosa on Saturday afternoon and checked in to the motel.  I still have over 300,000 Hilton points from the years I worked for Gary Humphreys and lived in a hotel, so we were guests of the house.  We cleaned up and headed out for dinner, ending up at a very nice restaurant called Chuck's Fish.  After a really pleasant dinner, we headed for the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater.

The concert was spectacular.  The opening act was the venerable B.B.King and his band.  They were the perfect warm up to get the crowd in a "bluesy" mood.  During the intermission, we met up with our friends Melissa Haydel and Manny Pimentel whom we know in Huntsville.  Then we returned to our seats for what to us was the "main event."  What a treat!  For the next two hours, we reveled in the Tedeschi Trucks sound.  It was wonderful.

After a good night's rest and a leisurely morning, we hit the road.  We decided to have brunch at a place recommended by the Urbanspoon Website.  Our destination: the Magic City Grille, a downtown haven of Soul Food, where we enjoyed (for the first time ever) the soulful combination of Fried Chicken and Waffles. As one reviewer put it, "If tastes good and is probably gonna kill you then they'll have it on the menu."

It was a great weekend.

Great Gift!

Mary Ann and I recently celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary.  She wanted to come up with a unique idea for a gift and she really outdid herself.  She knows how enamored I am with 1932 Plymouth automobiles.  These cars had an optional hood ornament in the shape of a "flying lady," a kind of angelic figure with wings and head thrown back proudly leading the car into the breeze.

A few weeks ago, Mary Ann expressed an interest in starting a radiator mascot collection and asked if I had a spare flying lady that she could have.  I informed her that the only one I had was going on the roadster, but I also agreed to keep my eyes open for a decent one on eBay or in some other advertising that I run across. I didn't know why she really wanted it.

She had seen an internet source for cellphone chargers in which an individual was using old airplane parts as the base for the chargers.  She got the inspiration of making a cellphone charger for me based on a Plymouth flying lady!  After looking for a few weeks, Mary Ann found one on eBay, probably not quite good enough to restore, and acquired it for this purpose.  She knew that a hole would have to be cut in it to accommodate the connector, so she didn't want to use a really perfect candidate.

Keeping everything a secret, she proceeded to take the mascot out to Dan Shady, who crafted a gorgeous walnut base and mounted the whole assembly.  Here's the result:

Thanks, Mary Ann.  I love you.  This gift was perfect!  It will occupy a place of honor on my desk.

Civil War Infographic Courtesy of the Civil War Trust...

Brought to you by The Civil War Trust

Happy Birthday, Woody!

Saturday was the 100th anniversary of the birth date of Woody Guthrie.

According to Wikipedia, Mr. Guthrie "was an American singer-songwriter and folk musician whose musical legacy includes hundreds of political, traditional and children's songs, ballads and improvised works.  He frequently performed with the slogan This Machine Kills Fascists displayed on his guitar.  His best-known song is "This Land Is Your Land."  Many of his recorded songs are archived in the Library of Congress.  Such songwriters as Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Pete Seeger, Joe Strummer, Billy Bragg, Jeff Tweedy and Tom Paxton have acknowledged Guthrie as a major influence.

Guthrie traveled with migrant workers from Oklahoma to California and learned traditional folk and blues songs.  Many of his songs are about his experiences in the Dust Bowl era during the Great Depression, earning him the nickname the "Dust Bowl Troubadour."  Throughout his life Guthrie was associated with United States communist groups, though he was seemingly not a member of any.

Guthrie was married three times and fathered eight children, including American folk musician Arlo Guthrie. Guthrie died from complications of Huntington's disease, a progressive genetic neurological disorder.  During his later years, in spite of his illness, Guthrie served as a figurehead in the folk movement, providing inspiration to a generation of new folk musicians, including mentor relationships with Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan.

Woody Guthrie was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 1997."

In 1972, just five years after Woody's death, the Oklahoma chapter of the Huntington's Chorea Foundation decided to have a fundraiser in his memory.  It was held at the Oklahoma City Fairgrounds.  Several musicians were invited to participate including a group that I had briefly been playing with.  So early in the program the good folks of OKC got to see John Hadley, Adam Granger, Bob Mead, and Dudley Murphy (on bass) perform together for the first and last time.  The other three went on to successful careers in music as both songwriters and performers.  In fact, just a few weeks ago I heard Adam on A Prairie Home Companion.  I wisely decided that I was not cut out for a musical career.  Can that really have been forty years ago?!?!

Celebrate

Speedster Progress...

A few days ago, I posted some pictures describing my friend Dan building a Model T Ford speedster with his grandson Daniel.  Today I was at the shop and took a couple progress pictures.  I'll continue to update these as the car takes shape.

Grandpa

Grandson

An Unusual Chief Petty Officer - John F. Morrissey

At the beginning of World War II, it was the practice of the military services to enlist or commission people at a rate or rank that was appropriate to their civilian occupation.  When I served on the USS Maloy (DE-791) in 1964-65, we had a Chief Petty Officer who had never been anything but a CPO!  John F. Morrissey had owned a successful office supply business in the Boston area before the war.  When he volunteered for the Navy immediately after Pearl Harbor, he went through some abbreviated "boot camp" and was granted the rating of Chief Yeoman.  He was around 44 years old when this took place.

The Chief served his country for the duration of the war and stayed in the reserves afterwards.  After a few years, he decided to come back on active duty to finish up twenty years of active duty and earn a normal retirement.  He did this through the so-called "TAR" program, which stood for Temporary Active Reserves.  Because he was over 65 years old when I made his acquaintance, he was actually on some kind of official waiver to be assigned to sea duty.  He loved going to sea on a ship.

During the 1930's, Chief Morrissey had invested some money with a schoolmate of his who was expanding his restaurant business.  That fellow's name was Howard Johnson.  The result was that when I became acquainted with the Chief, he was an extremely wealthy man.  That wealth led to something that seemed fairly bizarre at the time.  We would come into port from a month out at sea.  A long chauffeur-driven limousine would appear at the end of the pier, and Chief Morrissey would be whisked off for his weekend.  His home was in Cohasset, Massachusetts, as I recall. And his wife was bedridden with some long-term debilitating disease, for which she had round-the-clock nurses.  He would spend his weekends with her when we were in port and then he would return to the ship in time for Monday morning muster.

Typical Ship's Office

We decommissioned the Maloy in 1965, after which the Chief was transferred to a shore duty assignment to complete his career.  He was a real gentleman, a good shipmate, and a beloved member of the crew.