There are some things that AI should just leave alone. Top is Opie & Andy Taylor from hell; middle isis Opie & friend inspecting a crank from hell; bottom is Aunt Bea & Barney Fife laughing at something from hell.
[AI generator: https://deepai.org/machine-learning-model/text2img.%5D
Click to enlarge, clip and steal as you wish.
The Darlings were a regular feature on the Andy Griffith Show, usually showing up whenever there was trouble brewing (like when Ernest T. Bass tried to woo Charlene Darling). The Darlings were The Dillards.
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:
“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.
New Grass Revival covers Townes Van Zandt‘s White Freightliner Blues (ca.1981). This lineup consisted of
Sam Bush – mandolin, fiddle, guitar, vocals
Pat Flynn – guitar, vocals
John Cowan – bass guitar, vocals
Béla Fleck – banjo, guitar, vocals
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, featuring Victor Wooten on fretless bass , his brother Roy “Futureman” Wooten on Drumitar. That’s one tight trio.
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.
EBO WALKER
Now Ebo Walker was born in Kentucky,
and raised by his daddy on a hillside farm,
He took up fiddle playing just for fun,
that’s the last work that Ebo Walker done.
Well Ebo Walker, he left Kentucky
’cause Ebo’s daddy said durn your hide,
You won’t plant corn, and you won’t make hay,
you sit on the porch and play that thing all day.
Well Ebo Walker, he walked and he fiddled and he walked and he fiddled and he fiddled till he died,
But I’ve heard tell when the winds is down and the moon shines bright, and the leaves are brown,
You can hear old Ebo fiddlin’ all around.
The Dillards (as the Darling Boys) on the Andy Griffith Show, around 1960 sumpm.
The Dillards in Denmark, 1999.
[Related Post here.]
Pure Oddness. Now for something completely different.
FZ on the Mike Douglas Show, 1976, playing “Black Napkins” with the studio band. Amazing benign culture clash. [This is part one of a two part interview… kinda slow to load, and we may have linked to this one before. So what.]
Zappa’s “Black Napkins” live on MTV’s Halloween BFD, 1981.
No slinkys? Use Post-It Notes! [via here.]
Tacky Raccoons 