mcouture

Well, they fixed the floor, new carpet, and they did a nice job laying it down. I always appreciate fine craftsmanship, since I'm incapable of it myself. I see some nicely poured concrete, a curved railing, anything, and I say to myself, wow.

I made a pun worthy of Fern Lulham after listening to Coleman Hawkins play "I Talk to the Trees," I said "Well, I don't talk to the trees, I talk to myself, and the trees just 'leavesdrop.'"

I got an email from Hartwell a week back, telling me that his wife, Alex, had just been accepted into graduate school, and "...can you play a congratulatory song for her? I know she listens to your show. Maybe something about a second chance or about starting out on a new road/life, or just something about being old." I did the best I could. I realized that the "congratulatory" songs I was familiar with were ironic, i.e. congratulations on leaving me high and dry, alone and miserable without you. Cf. Paul Simon and Faron Young.

So what I did, and I hope this floated, was play a couple of celebration songs by Derrick Harriot. He was singing about Jamaican independence, so I said something like "do the mental exercise of substituting 'getting into grad school' for 'Jamaican independence." Then, for the "being old" part of the request, Johnny Cash's "My Old Faded Rose":

Oh, you have got them all hanging around
Like the fringes on your gown
You're picking them up and a laying them low
My old faded rose
Was it me that said you're getting old
And a losing your appeal
Was it me that said you're growing cold
And I wanted another deal
Well, I see that you're not wilted
But you never did let it show
Why didn't I know about the fiery glow
In my old faded rose

I just got my swag yesterday from WFMU. For me, the word "swag" means the goodies that you get when you donate money to a radio station. I understand that for the younger generation it means something like what I would mean with the word "swagger," a sort of strutting confidence. Here, they took off the -er. The exact opposite of what they do with the word "creep." For the youths today, a creep is a "creeper," while for me a creeper is like ivy or kudzu. Language!

So along with my bumper sticker and my Glen Jones / X Ray burns DVD was the deluxe version of U2's Achtung Baby. I used to listen to U2 on my boom box (cassettes) in the mid eighties as I washed dishes at the Taj Mahal restaurant in East Lansing. Soon enough I quit listening to them; Bono was just too earnest for me. But I popped Achtung Baby into the CD player ... and it's pretty good.

The album was recorded in Dublin and Berlin ... Speaking of Germany, when a German interviewer asked Charles Bukowski for his definition of love he responded, "when you see a fog in the morning. It's just there for a little while and it burns off.

"Really?" She replied.

Then he refined his answer into a quotable quote: "Love is a fog that burns with the first daylight of reality."

Well, for Bono, love is blindness. I knew "Love is Blindness" from Cassandra Wilson's cover. What I didn't know was that it was a U2 song. So we listened to both, starting with Wilson's cover.

I guarantee, this is the first time I've played U2 on CCR. I also played "Mysterious Ways."

Anyway, Happy Memorial Day. Catamount Community Radio, Sunday mornings, 10-12 (Michigan time) on WWCU-FM.

1. Abdullah Ibraham – The Mountain
2. Coleman Hawkins – I Talk to the Trees
3. Jesse Van Ruller – Everything Happens to Me
4. Otis Redding – You Left the Water Running
5. Nick Lowe – Lately I’ve Let Things Slide
6. Johnny Hodges – Two Sleepy People
7. Derrick Harriot – Happy Times
8. Johnny Cash – My Old Faded Rose
9. Nick Lowe – Somebody Cares for Me
10. Tennessee Ernie Ford – Sixteen Tons
11. Glen Campbell – Wichita Lineman
12. Duke Ellington – The Feeling of Jazz
13. Blind Blake – Diddy Wah Ditty
14. Chico Freeman – You Are Too Beautiful
15. Sly & the Family Stone – Thankful and Thoughtful
16. William De Vaughn – Be Thankful for What You Got
17. Maceo Parker – In Time
18. Jimmy McGriff – Dig On It
19. U2 – Mysterious Ways
20. Cassandra Wilson – Love is Blindness
21. U2 – Love is Blindness
22. Sketch Show – Microtalk
23. Rumbanella Band – El Congo
24. Antonio Arcaño – Mambo
25. Joe Walsh – Analog Man
26. Miles Davis – Devil May Care
27. Derrick Harriot – Our Time to Celebrate
28. Johnny Cash – We’ll Meet Again


Derrick Harriot

Oh, Radio, I can't quit you. Not that I want to.

Plastic sheeting across the floor today in the studio, but no problem. Just kinda weird. Apparently there is some sort of moisture issue.

No fixed themes today; no holidays, nobody died. So just a regular show. Mark Couture has been writing on Facebook about a disco hit called "Boogie Oogie Oogie." So I took his hint, and upped him one, playing not only "Boogie Oogie Oogie," but also "Hoochie Coochie Coo." How about that?



Freddie Hubbard covered "Wichita Lineman" again. As beautiful as his trumpet tooting is, I think next week I'll play the original Glen Campell side. What a great song. Tyler covered it at the jazz gig last month, bringing it back onto my radar.

For my blog entry on Nick Lowe I had to do a little research into his set list (Which I nerdily copied down as the show went on). It enabled me to discover a few new Nick Lowe gems that I didn't know about, including "Raining, Raining," "What Lack of Love has Done." So I played these tunes. As Jim Dandy dares me: How Lowe can I go? Pretty Lowe.

I didn't shy away from the honking R&B saxophone: Plas Johnson, Bobby Gregg, The Chavelles, great, full tenor solos on all. I've decided that since I'll never have great technique, I'm going to work on tone and soul in my own playing and be happy with that. I'll take my cue from these guys, but maybe try a few sixteenth-note runs here and there, just to let you know that I'm not immune to Sonny Stitt.

I played homage to the keyboard manipulators: Jelly Roll Morton, Thelonious Monk, Teddy Wilson.

All in all, good live radio. Catamount Community Radio, Sunday mornings, 10-12 (Daylight Saving Time) on WWCU-FM.

1. Freddie Hubbard – Wichita Lineman
2. Butch Thompson – Mamanita
3. Elvis Costello – Hidden Shame
4. Nick Lowe – Raining, Raining
5. Louis Armstrong – Save It, Pretty Mama
6. Nemours Jean-Baptiste – Manman tyoul la sou
7. El Pauling – Soul House
8. The Flamingos – I Only Have Eyes for You
9. Floyd Cramer – Woodchoppers’ Ball
10. Willie Nelson – Funny How the Time Slips Away
11. Sonny Stitt – Where is Love?
12. Hank Ballard – The Hoochi Coochi Coo
13. Nick Lowe – Lately I’ve Let Things Slide
14. Kenny Burrell – Moten Swing
15. John Fahey – Fix Me a Pallet on the Floor
16. Ronnie Boykins – (title unknown)
17. Plas Johnson – Hoppin’ Mad
18. Eddie Floyd – Knock on Wood
19. GTS featuring Melodie & Mark Sexton – Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing
20. Thelonious Monk – I Love You, Sweetheart of All my Dreams
21. A Taste of Honey – Boogie Oogie Oogie
22. Bobby Gregg – Potato Peeler
23. Nick Lowe – What Lack of Love has Done
24. Mulatu Astatke & the Heliocentrics – Cha Cha
25. Teddy Wilson – Zonky
26. Arthur Blythe – from “Metamorphosis”
27. The Chavelles – Red Tape
28. Nick Lowe – I Trained Her to Love Me
29. Bo Diddley – Bo’s Bounce
30. Golden Gate Quartet – My Time’s Done Come



Sonny Stitt

I’ve mentioned before how I prefer to see live music in smaller venues. It was nice to see Bob Seger on his last tour, but it would have been better had I remembered to take binoculars. Also, in most cases, the sound is better in these small places. Well, I had just about the perfect seat when I saw Nick Lowe at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta a couple of weeks ago. One of the advantages of going to a show with general admission by yourself is that, since people sit with their friends or dates, there is often one seat left between two groups. This is what happened to me. I found a spot in about the seventh row, right in the middle.

I haven’t been following Nick Lowe through the years; only recently become a fan. One Sunday Glen and X Ray played “I Read a Lot” on their radio show. I was amazed. It’s an achingly beautiful tune:

I read a lot, nowadays

Much more than before you left me high and dry

In a loveless land

With nothing but time on my hands.
I read a lot, not just magazines
,
But other more serious things,
to get me through the day

Nighttime too

Whilst wondering how in the world
to go on without you.
"Lonely" isn't the word for me now

"Blue" doesn't describe it somehow
I read a lot, I can't put it down

While others are painting the town,
you'll find me in a world 
of fantasy.

Population: one. That's me
So if you ask me how I stop

Contemplating what I now have not

I'll reply, 
I read a lot

Soon I realized that all the tunes on his new album “The Old Magic,” were (OK, I’ll say it) magic.



In Atlanta, he started out solo, with his acoustic guitar, playing “Stoplight Roses,” and “Heart.” He can hold an audience in the palm of his hand with just his guitar and his voice. Then the band came out: Geriant Watkins on keyboards, Robert Trehern on drums, Matt Radford on upright bass, and Johnny Scott on guitar. The interplay between the musicians, especially Scott, Watkins, and Lowe, was special. The only thing I could ask for more would have been a horn section, but perhaps that would have just muddied things up a bit.

Lowe has a gift for pacing: he mixes up the slow tunes with the upbeat ones to perfection. He did a lot of slow tunes, but also had people dancing in the aisles and shaking their tail feathers with pieces like “I Knew the Bride When She Used to Rock and Roll.” The version of "I Trained Her to Love Me" was sultry, and naughty, I'm tempted to say.

Lowe is also charming. He had funny stories for each member of the band that he introduced, and his banter between tunes was endearing.

It’s cliché to say “one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to,” but I can say it in this case. In my experience, even though you enjoy a show, by the end of it you’re usually tired and ready to go home. At this show, I was still full of energy and enthusiasm as he exited the stage after playing Elvis Costello’s “Allison” acoustically for the second encore. The only reason we didn’t clamor for more was that we figured that the guy deserved a rest.

If I have the chance to see him again, I’ll leap at it.

Photos up at Mondo Marco

Set list:

1. Stoplight Roses
2. Heart
3. What Lack of Love has Done
4. Raging Eyes
5. Lately I’ve Let Things Slide
6. Has She Got a Friend?
7. I Trained Her to Love Me
8. I Live on a Battlefield
9. Cruel to be Kind
10. I Read a Lot
11. Raining, Raining
12. Sensitive Man
13. Somebody Cares for Me
14. House for Sale
15. Tower of Strength (Gene McDaniels cover)
16. Without Love
17. I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll)
18. Only a Rose (duet with Geraint Watkins)
19. What’s so Funny (About Peace, Love, and Understanding)?
20. When I Write the Book
21. Tokyo Bay
22. Allison

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers! I went through my library using the keywords "mother, mama, mamma, momma," to see what I could come up with. I found quite a few.

Couldn't resist the temptation of adding Anita O'Day singing "My Heart Belongs to Daddy" into the mix.

Shelby Lynne covered John Lennon's "Mother."

Last week Alex requested Rickie Lee Jones, so today I delivered.

"Whatever it is he has up his sleeve
I hope it's not contagious."

It's a rainy day today in Cullowhee, but lovely in its own way.

Catamount Community Radio, Sunday mornings 10-12 (DST) on WWCU-FM.


1. Dr. John – Delicado
2. Orquesta Aragón – La comparsa
3. Marijata – Mother Africa
4. Abdullah Ibrahim – Mamma
5. Larry Goldings – Many Rivers to Cross
6. Al Dexter – Pistol Packin’ Mama
7. Zoot Sims – Lullaby of the Leaves
8. Count Basie – The Dirty Dozens
9. Rickie Lee Jones – Chuck E’s in Love
10. Julia Lee – Mama Don’t Allow It
11. Dr. John – Mama Roux
12. Merle Haggard – Runaway Mama
13. Hot Lips Page – Lovin’ Mama Blues
14. The Uniques – Mother and Child Reunion
15. Dave Douglas – Play It, Mamma
16. The Chicago Afrobeat Ensemble – Talking Bush
17. Memphis Slim – Mother Earth
18. Nick Lowe – Shame on the Rain
19. Gil Gilberto & Caetano Veloso – Desde que o samba é samba
20. Roger Miller – Walkin’ in the Sunshine
21. James Brown – Mother Popcorn
22. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band – Inner City Blues
23. Brook Benton – Mother Nature, Father Time
24. Anita O’Day – My Heart Belongs to Daddy
25. Shelby Lynne – Mother
26. Stan Kenton – Lament
27. Kris Kristofferson – Me and Bobbi McGee
28. The Impressions – Talking About my Baby
29. Joe Henderson – Mamacita
30. Louis Armstrong – Save It, Pretty Mama
31. Mavis Staples – If I Could Hear my Mother Pray Again

of being an old-timey country music star is that you get to wear crazy, sequin-studded outfits. Another is that you get to play your music surrounded by dreamy girls.

Just a little bit more grading to do, and my summer will officially begin. My goals for the summer are to get some writing done, to practice my music, and to be nice. I should have no trouble with one of the three.

I suppose it is somewhat predictable that I would feature Nick Lowe today, having been to his concert on Thursday. Well, that's what I did. I played some oldies and some tunes from the new Old Magic album. I've been talking so much about Nick Lowe lately that I suspect the spousal unit is getting tired of it.

I played a couple versions of the old spiritual "Wade in the Water," one by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and the other, pure heavy metal, by the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.

Adam Yauch (MCA) passed away, so I played a Beastie Boys tune in tribute.

Steal from the rich and I'm out robbing banks
Givin' to the poor and I always give thanks
Because I got more stories that J.D.'s got Salinger
I hold the title and you are the challenger
I've got money like Charles Dickens
Got the girlies in the Coupe like the Colonel's got the chickens
Always go out dapper like the Harry S. Truman
I'm madder than Mad's Alfred E. Newman



I brought back the cover contest. But I don't seem to have any entries. I played a reggae number, "(Music is my) Occupation" by Tommy McCook. The question was, what country song do the horns quote? (Answer: "Ring of Fire"). Question two was to find out whom CCS was covering. (Answer: Led Zeppelin, "Whole Lotta Love" ... an easy one). Number three, a cumbia version of "Me gustas tú." Whom are they covering? (Answer: Manu Chau.) I think it's time to retire the cover contest again, at least until Jim Dandy gets internet at his house.

Yesterday was the Kentucky Derby, so I decided to play "One Mint Julep." I've never had one before, but I bet they are good. What's in them anyway? (I'm not going to google it, I'm going to guess bourbon, mint, sugar, and water.)

Tune in to Catamount Community Radio, Sunday mornings 10-12 (Daylight Saving Time) on WWCU-FM


1. Clorofila – Almada
2. The Montgomery Brothers – Delirium
3. Nick Lowe – The Man that I’ve Become
4. Herb Alpert – Wade in the Water
5. Nick Lowe – House for Sale
6. Buck Clayton – Ballin’ the Jack
7. Michael Lowenstern – Mumble
8. Nick Lowe – Somebody Cares for Me
9. Jill Sobule – League of Failures
10. Nick Lowe – All Men are Liars
11. Freddie Hubbard – Wichita Lineman
12. Tommy McCook – (Music is my) Occupation
13. Nick Lowe – I Read a Lot
14. Kahil El Zabar & David Murray – Meditation for a Celestial Warrior
15. Matt Wilson – Tenderly
16. CCS – Whole Lotta Love
17. Nick Lowe – Heart
18. Poncho Sánchez – One Mint Julep
19. Johnny Cash – Without Love
20. Sonora Dinamita – Me gustas tú
21. Tommy Dorsey Orchestra – Wade in the Water
22. Nick Lowe – Stoplight Roses
23. The Beastie Boys – Shadrach
24. Nick Lowe – Sensitive Man
25. Elvis Costello – Alison
26. Arthur Blythe – Dear Dessa
27. Nick Lowe – I Trained Her to Love Me
28. Don Redman – Shakin’ the African
29. Nick Lowe – What’s so Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding

A couple of weeks ago I was thinking, "Should I do this?" I was looking at the Nick Lowe tour dates, and I saw that Atlanta was the closest he'd be. So I looked at my schedule, saw that I had my last final exam that morning. Smooth. I could give the exam, wrap up as best I could, drive down to Atlanta, check into a hotel, see the show, and drive back the next morning. I have a serious case of abulia, not in the modern, psychiatric sense of the word, but more in line with its Greek origins. I overcame it though, booked a hotel, bought the ticket to the show ... made the drive (about enough to drive me crazy itself) and here I am.

I quite like this hotel. It's an old building; you unlock the door with a key rather than a card. Plus it's within walking distance from the venue where I saw the show. Speaking of the show, I can say without hyperbole, that it was quality entertainment ... but I think it merits an entry to itself. Needless to say, I'm glad I pushed my abulia aside and did this. It was worth the drive.

I suppose this is sort of hipster Atlanta. When I post some photos over at Mondo Marco you can judge for yourself. After the drive, I checked in, bought some Pilser Urquell at the corner gas station, and chilled in my room for awhile. Then I went out, armed with my map, which I had printed from Google, and determined to find a certain Japanese izakaya to have some nigiri sushi. Well, I got lost, and walked a little too far. I asked a parking attendant for directions and found the venue. I decided to eat nearby. I stopped in a beer bar, and had grits with shrimp and mushrooms (very good) and washed it down with a Georgia beer called "Terrapin Golden Ale," which the menu described thusly: "drinks like a rich-bodied pilsner, very sessionable." What the freak does that mean? Very sessionable? I realize that beer has achieved, at least here, the status of wine, and is now described with the same sort of language: "citrus, honey, tea, vanilla, smooth sweet flavor." and so on.

Then on to the sublime concert. On which, more later.

On the way home I stopped quickly in a bar for a shot of Maker's Mark, neat. And now here I am in this groovy hotel, typing on a laptop. To think that tomorrow, god willing, it will be merely a memory.

As I type, Elvis Costello comes on the ipod with "Alison," which is the tune that Nick Lowe closed the concert with, solo, with his guitar.

I opened the show with the Velvet Underground doing "Jesus":

Jesus, help me find my proper place
Jesus, help me find my proper place
Help me in my weakness
'Cos I'm falling out of grace
Jesus, help me find my proper place

How free is my form? Well. today I played both Miley Cyrus and Sun Ra. One of my favorite Dylan songs is "You're gonna make me lonesome when you're gone." I thought I might like to hear a cover, so I checked the itunes store to see what they had. Cyrus's version was the most popular one; I gave it a listen and I liked it. I had a version by Madeleine Peyroux, but I wanted something different. It's sort of weird to hear Miley Cyrus cite Verlaine and Rimbaud, but cool.

The other two Dylan tunes were "Not Dark Yet," from 1997's Time Out of Mind album.

Shadows are falling and I’ve been here all day
It’s too hot to sleep, time is running away
Feel like my soul has turned into steel
I’ve still got the scars that the sun didn’t heal
There’s not even room enough to be anywhere
It’s not dark yet, but it’s getting there

My friend Ron claims not to like any post-sixties Dylan. I don't understand that. The other number was "Early Morning Rain." It's a Gordon Lightfoot tune that Dylan covers, appropriately enough.

This old airport's got me down, it's no earthly good to me
Because I'm stuck here on the ground, cold and drunk as I might be
You can't hop a jet plane like you can a freight train
So I'd best be on my way in the early morning rain.

It's included on Self Portrait, a 1970 double album of mostly covers. The tunes have that Nashville Skyline sound. Dylan called it his official bootleg album.

We heard two from Willie Nelson, "Crazy," the big hit that he penned for Patsy Cline, and "Recollection Phoenix":

Recollection Phoenix
I wonder when the hell did I got older
My mind still on my woman
I wonder what she thinks of when I hold her

Judging by the silence
You might think the road has made her colder
But I can’t live without her
And I can’t remember if I ever told her

We heard two from Bob Marley, including "Duppy Conquerer." from the Burnin' album. This was the last album with Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer. I love the vocal harmonies: Peter Tosh at the bottom, Bunny Wailer up high, falsetto even.

For the jazz: Gabor Szabo pickin' that guitar, Monk, John Lewis, Cobb's Mob, Kenny Burrell, Chet Baker, Joel Frahm and Brad Mehldau, Sonny Stitt, Sun Ra.

Ella Fitzgerald, covered Cole Porter's "You're the Top". I admit, I like a Berlin ballad, Whistler's Mama, a turkey dinner, cellophane, but I could do without a Waldorf salad.

All this and more. Catamount Community Radio, Sundays 10-12 (Daylight Saving Time) on WWCU-FM.


1. The Velvet Underground – Jesus
2. Joel Frahm & Brad Mehldau – Away from Home
3. Bob Marley – Jammin’
4. Willie Nelson – Crazy
5. Cobb’s Mob – I Miss You, My Love
6. Carmen McRae – You Took Advantage of Me
7. Nick Lowe – Checkout Time
8. Sun Ra – Tapestry from an Astroid
9. Mose Allison – Everything I have is Yours
10. Miley Cyrus – You’re Gonna Make me Lonely When You’re Gone
11. Bob Dylan – Not Dark Yet
12. John Lewis – December, Remember
13. Chet Baker – I Talk to the Trees
14. Sly & the Family Stone – Brave and Strong
15. Orquesta Aragón – La comparsa
16. Sonny Stitt – After You’ve Gone
17. Ella Fitzgerald – You’re the Top
18. Bob Marley & the Wailers – Duppy Conquerers
19. Fairground Attraction – A Smile and a Whisper
20. Bob Dylan – Early Morning Rain
21. Nick Lowe – So It Goes
22. Kenny Burrell – Ballad of the Sad Young Man
23. Willie Nelson – Recollection Phoenix
24. Gabor Szabo – Gypsy
25. Groundhog – Take it Off
26. Unknown Jamaican – Dorothy
27. Thelonious Monk – I Love You Sweetheart of All My Dreams
28. Steve Earle – This City

I'm back from Kentucky. The traveling part of traveling can be unpleasant, but I do like being somewhere else sometimes. Instead of going straight home, I headed for my office to prepare today's radio show. Years ago, I was browsing the wine aisles at a yuppy grocery story in Durham, NC, when the wine guy came up to me, looked at the bottle I was examining, and told me, "It's sublime, but good." Perhaps that would be a good description of today's show: sublime, but good.

Dick Clark died last week, reminding me of the seventies, when I would sit in front of the TV with my little cassette recorder and tape the songs I liked from American Bandstand. If my dad came walking through talking loud I would be angry. I wonder what ever became of those tapes. Surely they're decomposing at a millennial pace in a landfill somewhere.

We kicked it off with a string quartet version of "Mind Games." For one reason or another, the tune was kicking around it my head last week, and whenever a song gets stuck in my head, I'm compelled to play it on the radio.

While writing my blog entry on the visit to Lexington, I was listening to WFMU on the headphones. The DJ played Heart's "Dog and Butterfly," a tune I hadn't heard in eons. I remember in the seventies, going to Traverse City with my mom to buy a stereo. We went into the speaker room and the salesman put on some Heart. Oh boy, did it sound good. I saw Heart perform about a thousand years ago. They rocked.

As I type right now, I'm listening to the late Levon Helm and the Band do "The Weight." I don't know why, but Levon Helm was not often on my radar, not because I didn't like his music, but because I was always listening to something else. While in Lexington, I enjoyed listening to a late night special on the radio about Levon Helm. A few weeks ago I watched a video of Mavis Staples, Wilco, and Nick Lowe doing "The Weight." Poor Nick Lowe was swallowed up by exuberance of Staples and Tweedy. Speaking of Nick Lowe, I played a few of his tunes. Lowe is currently far and away my favorite song writer. I played three of his tunes, including "All Men are Liars:"

Their words ain't worth
no more than worn out tires
Hey girls, bring rusty pliers
to pull this tooth
All men are liars
and that's the truth.

We heard a couple from Steven Bernstein's "Diaspora Soul." "Chusen Kalah Mazel Tov" which is reminiscent to me of "St. James Infirmary" (So I played a couple versions of the latter tune).

I played a couple from Steve Earle, including a love song in open tuning on guitar, "Every Part of Me." Next time I have some goof around time I need to goof around with open tunings.

Catamount Community Radio, Sunday mornings 10-12 (DST) on WWCU-FM. Tune in, be somebody.

1. Vitamin String Quartet – Mind Games
2. Betty Carter – Again and Again
3. Duke Ellington – Honeysuckle Rose
4. Marc Ribot – Conserito plena
5. Heart – Dog and Butterfly
6. Al Wilson – La La Peace Song
7. Dr. John – Marie Leveau
8. Nick Lowe – All Men are Liars
9. Dizzy & the Sonnys – On the Sunny Side of the Street
10. Steven Bernstein – Chusen Kalah Mazel Tov
11. Hot Lips Page – St. James Infirmary
12. Marc Ribot – Aquí como allá
13. Taj Mahal – Cakewalk into Town
14. Nick Lowe – Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day
15. Tom Waits – Jersey Girl
16. Steve Earle – Everey Part of Me
17. Freddy King – The Bossa Nova Watusi Twist
18. Sun Ra - Of Wounds and Something Else
19. Al Tharp – Boatin’ Up Sandy
20. Steve Earle – Rich Man’s War
21. Neil Young – Silver and Gold
22. Bajofondo Tango Club – Air Concrete
23. Nick Lowe – Somebody Cares for Me
24. Johnny Cash – A Little at a Time
25. Silje Nergaard – Let There be Love
26. Taj Mahal – It Takes a Lot to Laught, It Takes a Train to Cry
27. Merle Haggard – Misery and Gin
28. Marc Ribot – St. James Infirmary




Steve Earle


Taj Mahal

Here I am on my annual trip to Lexington. I come here each April for the Foreign Language conference at UK. I generally have a good enough time to question Eliot's claim that April is the cruelest month.

I got a call Wednesday morning telling me that my room in the Holiday Inn Express wasn't going to be available, and that they offered me a room at a place called Candlewood Suites a half mile away. It's all fine with me, I'm not one to complain. The thing is that the shuttle bus to campus doesn't come to this hotel. Campus is about an hour's walk from here, but, you know?, I really don't mind. I actually enjoy the walk. I'm staying in an industrial area, laced with black and hispanic neighborhoods. As you get closer to downtown you notice that the socio-economic status starts to rise. And, by the way, the old 19th century houses in Lexington, made of brick, many of them run-down, are awesome. I couldn't bring the camera because I lost it last Saturday. Had I brought it, I would have taken pictures of some of these houses that I saw during my walks to campus.

Wednesday night, the colleagues that I rode up with and I ate at a Cajun joint. Cheap and good. I had a plate of jambalaya and two beers for $9.50. Granted, I ate off a paper plate with a plastic fork, but still!

My panel was 2:00 to 5:00 on Thursday. So I got to sleep in. I lounged in my hotel room, drinking coffee, listening to Nick Lowe on YouTube, and solving all the puzzles in the USA Today. After my long walk, but before getting to campus, I stopped at a place and had what in New Jersey is called a "ripper," with sauerkraut and mustard. In Kentucky they just call it a deep-fried hot dog, but I kind of prefer the New Jersey nomenclature.

I chaired the panel ("Memoria histórica en México"), meaning that I introduced the other speakers and made sure that we kept on schedule (20 minutes for a paper, 10 minutes for discussion). I realize that while I've always considered myself a not-so-ambitious young scholar, little by little I've become an old fart ... I mean, elder statesman. I actually had a few people come in specifically to hear my talk... or maybe they were there by accident. Meanwhile, the Mexican graduate students who read after the coffee break read to a crowd of like, three. Anyway the panel went well, and the business part of the conference was over.

In the evening I went to the Spanish-language poetry recital, where my friend, boss, and colleague, Santiago read, along with other poets from Spain, Mexico and Colombia. Afterwards Santiago and the other two colleagues (with whom I rode on the way up) went to a fancy restaurant called "Portofino." I couldn't decide what to order so I started out with chowder and followed it up with fried squid and shrimp. Not bad. Oporto for dessert. Then off to a bar for a celebratory shot of bourbon or two. A guy hit on me, but I told him, sorry, I bat right handed. At least he thought I was cute.

Today I slept in till around 10:30, and lounged about until almost one. I made the one-hour trek to campus, stopping twice before I got there. First for a haircut at a barber shop, and then for lunch. I flirted with the idea of eating at a French restaurant I ran across. I could have started with onion soup and continued with quiche ... but it was a little "cher." Especially considering the money I spent the night before at Portofino. So instead I went to a place where I could get a big slice of pizza with three toppings for $3.75. I had artichoke hearts, red onions, and green peppers as my toppings. I washed it down with a delicious pint of Czech beer (Staropramen) from the tap ... American beer fanatics love their IPAs and their hops. But for me, the ideal beer is a German or Czech lager.

I headed to the university where I listened to papers on Mexican film. I actually interviewed the chair of that panel several years ago at the MLA conference in Philadelphia. I don't think he remembered me. I'm glad to see that he found a good job. (I'm assuming the job he has is a good one).

This evening I sort of "crashed" a party at the house of the head of the Spanish Department at KU. Santiago was invited and I tagged along. The food and drink was great. The husband, a chemist, roasted a turkey and made gumbo. The conversation was good. I rubbed shoulders with some people, whatever that means, and chatted away in Spanish with the head of the Spanish department at Pennsylvania University (a freakin' Ivy League School) along with the man of the house, whose work was nominated for a Nobel prize. Out of my element perhaps , but I faked it pretty well and took advantage of my natural charm and wit. They never guessed that as a scholar I'm a relative nobody.

Tomorrow I'll ride back to Carolina with Santiago, who missed his calling as a Formula One race car driver. I bummed a tranquilizer pill from another colleague to keep my fear and anxiety in check during the drive. On the positive side, we'll make good time.

Next year, I think I'll try to go to a horse race, and eat at that French restaurant.