Anyway...He did nail it with the Fleetwood Mac comparison. Right now, I'm listening to Foster and Lloyd. That would be: Radney Foster and Bill Lloyd. Premier Nashville Studio Guys that started their own band. I, regardless of their formulaic approach to penning hit song clones, like listening to them every so often. They kind of remind me of an overly polished Everly Brothers. F&L split up as a Duo long time ago. Probably over some Big Haired Gal From Texas or some shit.
"Cotton Candy Hair," Willis Alan Ramsey would say. Willis Alan wrote The Captain and Tennille's big hit, "Muskrat Love." Ho-Hum on the C&T version. Willis' (Originally titled: "Muskrat Candlelight") is a million times better. Leon Russel plays keyboards on the original, for instance. Willis is a: "Songwriter's Singer/Songwriter." The Captain and Tennille should have NEVER gotten off of The Love Boat. Or, it could have sunk with them aboard. Nobody would have noticed. Willis Alan did one album and vanished from the music scene almost completely. Can't blame him. The Music Business Blows Dead Bears. I know this, first hand. If a $250k a year job was offered to me (with a bottle of expensive booze, fresh cut flowers and a blow job every morning) in the Music Business, I wouldn't take it. Even if I didn't have to actually "work." I hate it that much. It's like being trapped in a room full of people talking about which strain of Marijuana is the BEST. Dope lore bores the shit out of me. Dope slang bores the shit out of me. Dope bores the shit out of me. I'll take a stiff cocktail over a hit off of the finest pot in the world, any day. I totally lost interest in Marijuana back in the 80's or so. It just makes me stupid, my short term memory drips out of my ears and I'm lazy. Lots of people like it, I guess. It, The Industrial Version of Hemp, makes fine paper and clothing.
There is a major difference between Traditional Country and New Country. The Traditional form of the genre was performed on back porches or Semi Truck Trailers at County Fairs by guys with a missing tooth or two from bar fights and there were usually fast cars, Girls with too much makeup on and alcohol involved. New Country is performed on major sound stages and stadium venues, tickets cost $100.00 and everybody reeks of Axe Body Spray. There are exceptions, of course. Hank Williams III is probably missing a tooth. But, he doesn't play New Country, anyway. "Hellbilly" is more like it. I wouldn't categorize Johnny Cash as being either New or Traditional Country. He was his own genre.
I just received a great new T-Shirt from the Jim Marshall clothing line with Cash angrily giving the lens The Finger. Jim shot the photo's of Cash's Folsom Prison Shows. After the second night's show, Jim asked Johnny if he had any comments for The Warden. The Finger/Grimace/Stare Down photo was the answer. Jim was great at that shit! He NEVER "posed" his subjects. It was his signature. Johnny wasn't "acting" for the photo. It's a very Iconic Image from Marshall and Cash. I bought another shirt (Noted, last post) from the Jim Marshall T-Shirt Factory and got the Johnny Cash shirt as a schwag gift. An infamous quote: "Cars and guns have gotten me into trouble...Cameras haven't." (Which is total bullshit. Cameras have got Jim into trouble LOTS of times) On the shirt front, as noted in the post previous to this one, there is one of Marshall's Leica M-4's on it. So, this is trodden ground. Let's plow! I'd spend good money on an 11"x14" (or larger) print of the Cash photo.
Today, when the light gets to be "just right" I'm going to photograph some Dahlias in my front yard. There are some other flowers, some kind of Oriental Lily species, that need to have their portraits taken out there, too. It's overcast outside, which is light that I like. Some of the best photographs I've ever taken were in that soft, blue-ish light that only happens when it's shining through clouds/fog/mist. The shittier the weather, the more my "eye" likes it. Grey and Green, favorite colors. Grey isn't really a "color." It's a half-light. I need to start using the Nikon PAS camera I bought last month. It's pretty hot shit, for a Point And Shoot. 18 MP's and a focal length of 28-350mm equivalent. Various automatic "scenes, all that good crap that it appears Other People are so used to that they're bored. It's all new to me so, I'm not bored. Yet. I bought the thing so I didn't have to carry a film camera on two week trips away from home. Not that my Olympus OM-1n is all that HUGE or anything but, it gets heavy with film, lenses accessories, etc. and I'm always afraid that something bad is going to happen to it. It can't really be replaced. It had, literally, never been used when I bought it about 5 years ago. $75.00 with 3 lenses. It cost three times that in 1973, when first sold.
I only have two routes left to travel with any sort of regularity, North and South of this here town. Maybe Colorado at some point. I have a Buddy that lives outside of Boulder. Another World Class Rock and Roll/Cinematographic "Stills"/Portrait/Scenic Photographer. We've known eachother for about 45 years now. Other trips I'll take at the drop of a hat is to my Mom's place and Sleeve Job's Rubber Gun Ranch up in Salmon Heaven, Wa.. It's a Hollywood joke: "Rubber Gun." Do your own homework.
"Chili" and hot sausage for dinner. Good gloomy day fare. Spicy Cornbread baked in cast iron to ladle the "chili" on top of. I say "chili" because it has beans in it. Actual Chili does not have beans. Most Americans don't know that and if you served then real Chili, they'd want to know: "What happened to the rest of the 'chili'?" Yes, I am a Foodie, of sorts. My training is that of a Waiter, Bartender, Floor Manager and Saucier but, I've: "Done everything in a restaurant except own one." End result: I eat like a King and make a wicked Caucasian.
Willis Alan Ramsey:
O.K., I'm bored.. Are you bored? Sure you are. Let's flush this turd.
Out,
-Doc
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