Bahamas Blow

Nobody Knows What The Hell They're Doing

Watch: worth the time... I think.  But what the hell do I know.


Copped from today's Doonesbury

A Long Time Gone

The real reason for our trip back to Memphis?

It seems the City of Memphis, NARAS, and the Memphis Music Foundation all put their heads together and decided to award Larry Raspberry and The Highsteppers a Brass Note On Beale Street.
This one was a special award. As a member of the Gentrys, (Remember "Keep On Dancin"?), Larry had already received a note a year or so earlier.   —

— but the foundation wanted to specifically to show him and the Highsteppers some love.
The Highsteppers were and are still some of the top players in the business. I was proud to be one of them in my time and honored to be asked to come back home and stand up with this fine group of musicians as we received our recognition.

What a night.          

                                                             

It's been a long time gone, alright — 33 years to be exact — it was a blast to see this many friends and old band mates in one place at one time; sadly a few are no longer with us.

This brass note will be embedded in the sidewalk somewhere along Beale Street where it will stay forever.

It's quite an honor.

Good friends , Jim Gaines and Sandy Carroll were there to help celebrate and return the favor. 

Jim, a Grammy Award winning engineer and producer and Sandy, a singer/piano/songwriter, made the day even more special. Both have received Notes on Beale for their ongoing works.

(Photos I took at their award ceremony.) >> https://youtu.be/YfHVtEgS-BI

Photo by Dan Wiseman

It was a great show, a great crowd, and hell of a lot of fun.
I'm not a reunion kinda guy, but this was worth the drive.

Did I join in and play bass?      Nope — opted out — just shot photos and hung out instead.

Let the players play.

For me... it truly has been, 'A long time gone'.

Cheers,

Istaboa

P.S — To the guys: More pics from the night will be posted as I process them.

Photo by Dan Wiseman

 

Surf's Up

The Mississippi River

Yesterday, Acting like tourist at home, we walked to Beale St; enjoyed the Gumbo at Blues City Cafe, stopped at the Peabody, then Ubered over to the new Bass Pro Pyramid to check it out.

This is a shot looking south down the River that takes in all of downtown and both bridges.

The Bass Pro is way over the top. Quite impressive, actually. We even went bowling at Uncle Buck's  lanes in the Pyramid.

If you're in Memphis, check it out... You certainly can't miss the huge Pyramid next to the River and the ride to the top is worth the 10 bucks. Have a cocktail while you're up there.

Memphis In The Meantime

Lets go to Memphis in the meantime baby
Memphis in the meantime girl

Maybe there's nothin' happenin' there
Maybe there's somethin' in the air
Before our upper lips get stiff
Maybe we need us a big ol whiff

If we could just get off-a that beat little girl
Maybe we could find the groove
At least we can get a decent meal
Down at the Rendez-vous

'Cause one more heartfelt steel guitar chord
Girl, it's gonna do me in
I need to hear some trumpet and saxophone
You know sound as sweet as sin

And after we get good and greasy Baby we can come back home
Put the cowhorns back on the cadillac
Change the message on the cord-a-phone

But...

Lets go to Memphis in the meantime baby
Memphis in the meantime girl

 Within the lyrics of this tune, John sings of going back to Memphis to escape the glitzy/ritzy atmosphere of Nashville, though he will eventually go back because...
As you can see, we're back in Memphis for a few days. It's great place to come home to — Funky Old Memphis. Seems like everywhere you look there's a photo asking to be taken.

Music in the streets followed up with excellent food, Downtown Mempho's definitely as authentic as it is flat out cool. 
Last night was dinner at Five Spot,  Fried Chicken Skin BLT?  It's worth it.

Cheers,

Istaboa

No reason, just liked this little gif and thought I'd post it.