The early Thanksgiving Day parades often had a circus orientation, and hence the animal elements. Actual lions, tigers, and bears were trucked down city streets, traumatizing them and causing the elicitation of roars and growls that frightened observing children. Wisely, the use of living animals was abandoned after a few years, with animal balloons and floats substituted, together with some great vintage cartoonish stuff that was rather surreal.
[Image and text found here; previous Thanksgiving posts here.]
“In a small town in the old west, a lone and weary gunfighter enters a saloon.”The Gunfighter is a classic short by Eric Kissack (narrated by Nick Offerman). NSFK content, language.
[h/t Andy D.]
The Bus Boys had a great retro sound and were featured on SNL and in the 1982 movie 48 Hours.
New Orleans’ famous Preservation Hall Jazz Band was founded by Pennsylvanian Allan Jaffe in the early 1960s as a dixieland revival group, and that song wasn’t at all what I expected.
Have a great weekend, folks. Be home by 9:59pm so the ‘rona don’t gitcha, or stay out to 10:01pm and you’ll earn some serious ‘vid-kickin’ braggin’ rights.
The Dillards, live at the Tonder Festival in Denmark in 1999. Entertaining intro to Ebo Walker, song starts about 03:45 in.
But there was also a real Ebo Walker, an upright bass player from Kentucky, and the song is not a tribute. From a Reddit discussion:
Harry Shelor
“Crazy story time. Ebo Walker’s real name is Harry Lee Shelor Jr, (there’s a song called Ebo Walker, which Harry took the name from). Harry cultivated and grew marijuana. He ended up shooting a Kentucky State Police Detective by the name of Darrell Vendl Phelps. He began serving a 50 year sentence in 1981.”
Shelor was released from prison in 2013, age 70.
Prior to his arrest in 1981, Harry Shelor/Ebo Walker was a founding member of The New Grass Revival.
Victor Wooten won the Bass Player of the Year award from Bass Player magazine three times and is the first person to win the award more than once. In 2011, he was ranked No. 10 in the Top 10 Bassists of All Time by Rolling Stone.
That set of connections happened somewhat by accident, just like a lot of things these days. Find something fun to do this weekend accidentally, and when you’re done c’mon back here. Got some cool stuff for you to click on.
“It is with heavy hearts we announce that early this morning, May 30th, 2019, Leon Redbone crossed the delta for that beautiful shore at the age of 127.”
We started this recording on a back porch in East Los Angeles With members of Los Lobos, And Then returned to the roots of the song in Veracruz, Mexico. As we Traveled, musicians everywhere mixed the traditional and rock ‘n’ roll styles of “La Bamba” into a new Song Around The World. – Playing For Change
Guaranteed to be the best version of the traditional you’ve never heard. Have a great weekend, folks. We’re not going anywhere, so stop back here tomorrow for, you know, stuff.
Photograph of the construction of the Forth Railway Bridge in Scotland. Undoubtedly Britain’s most famous railway landmark, The Forth Bridge was opened by HRH The Prince of Wales in March 1890 following eight years of building, and completed the east coast railway route between London and Aberdeen. It spans the Firth of Forth, joining the city of Edinburgh and Fife in Scotland. The bridge was designed by Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker, and built by engineer Sir William Arrol. It contains almost 54,000 tons of steel and when completed, the 1.5 mile long bridge was the biggest in the world. It is the world’s oldest cantilever railway bridge and remains in use to this day.
[Image from Feral Irishman‘s awesome rotating banner. Description from here.]
Link Wray‘s recording career spanned decades, 1958 to 2000, and it’s hard to pinpoint when he was really at his prime. Wray was ranked No. 45 of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time bu Rolling Stone, and is considered the “Father of the Power Chord.” Other fun facts: his parents were Shawnee and Cherokee; he was a Korean War veteran; he lost a lung due to tuberculosis in 1956.
Carlos Santana‘s 1999 album Supernatural is one of my favorites. Can’t believe it came out over two decades ago.
That kinda wraps things up until tomorrow. See you then.
Tacky Raccoons 