Three years back, the Hinsleys of Dora, Missouri, had a tough decision to make. To buy a new mule. Or invest in a used bug. They weighed the two possibilities. First there was the problem of the bitter Ozark winters. Tough on a warm-blooded mule. Not so tough on an air-cooled VW. Then, what about the eating habits of the two contenders? Hay vs. gasoline. As Mr. Hinsley puts it: “I get over eighty miles out of a dollar’s worth of gas and I get where I want to go a lot quicker.” Then there’s the road leading to their cabin. Many a mule pulling a wagon and many a conventional automobile has spent many an hour stuck in the mud. As for shelter, a mule needs a barn. A bug doesn’t. “It just sets out there all day and the paint job looks near as good as the day we got it.” Finally, there was maintenance to think about. When a mule breaks down, there’s only one thing to do: Shoot it. But if and when their bug breaks down, the Hinsleys have a Volkswagen dealer only two gallons away.
Hair-Net, The 5 Peaks, (1985?) Jay-R Records
From Pueblo, Colorado, Gerald Gantt, Robert Stallworth, Casey Hynes and Joel Scherzer recorded in the 70’s as The Four Shades, The Five Bucks, and as The 5 Peaks in the late 80’s for the Jay-R label. The 45 rpm credits M. Simpkins as the songwriter. [Heard on The Hound.]
I went downstairs, made a cup of coffee, had a chat with the neighbor, took the clothes in, came back up to my laptop, and he was still holding the first “Well”.
Dale Watson, keeper of the true country music flame and the Memphis sound (despite hailing from Austin) is right up there with Johnny, Willie & Waylon – and a lot of others.
Funny papers was the title of a German-language satire magazine. After a brief start-up phase in Hamburg, the magazine was published as a weekly newspaper from 1886 to 1944 in Berlin. It was founded and published by the writer Alexander Moszkowski.
[Image found here. Note that there is no Wikipedia entry for Lustige Blätter in English.]
Polly Put Your Kettle On, Sonny Boy Williamson (1947)Williamson’s final recording session took place in Chicago in December 1947, in which he accompanied Big Joe Williams. On June 1, 1948, Williamson was killed in a robbery on Chicago’s South Side as he walked home from a performance at the Plantation Club. After his death, Alex “Rice” Miller stole the name for his own performances and recordings.
Buckin’ and beer. Buck dancing is related to clogging, flat footing, step dancing, and this film from the 1950s refers to it as skiffle. You already know about beer.
Roy Buchanan, aka “The World’s Greatest Unknown Guitarist,” from a PBS documentary 1971. Buchanan was most famously associated with a 1953 Fender Telecaster nicknamed ‘Nancy’. In 1988 he was arrested for public intoxication and was found hanged from his own shirt in the Fairfax County Virginia Jail. He was 48.
Pete Anderson was “the very first true rocker in the entire former Soviet Union” and formed The Swamp Shakers in Riga, Latvia, in 2009. Anderson passed away in 2016, but The Swamp Shakers continue performing as a trio.
Getting kinda late, so I’ll wrap this up and send it off to the internest. Have a great weekend, we’ll have more fun tomorrow.
