Blog 5B: It's a Good Night For Singing

Since I went to college in Music City, USA--Nashville, Tennessee--one might expect me to be a fan of the music coming out of Nashville and playing on top-forty country stations. What a mistake!

I certainly tired of top-forty pop while I was a student.  I think I heard one too many Carpenters song--or it might have been Olivia Newton John--and I started looking up and down the radio dial for something different.

At the time, even country music fans were rebelling against the mainstream, and about that time (and I do date myself) the "Outlaw Country" music started coming out of Austin, Texas--and Luchenbach.  Willie Nelson grew out his hair, tied on his bandana, and started recording the songs that he'd practically given away to the likes of Patsy Cline--"Crazy," "The Night Life (Ain't No Good Life)," and "If You've Got the Money, Honey, I've Got the Time."

A lot of those musicians were also making their way to Nashville.  At that time, it wasn't hard to hear such great singers as Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, or Guy Clark playing in small clubs and tiny venues.  One artist might be booked, and lots of others would show up and perform.  I made some great friends with whom my first common interest was music.  One of those friends introduced me to Jerry Jeff Walker.  I've been a fan ever since.

Jerry Jeff is probably best known among mainstream for writing "Mr. Bojangles," recorded and made famous by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. His cult favorite hit is "Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother," by Ray Wiley Hubbard.  Over the years, though, I have loved so many of his songs.  I've seen him in large venues, but I've enjoyed him most in the smaller ones, such as the Neighborhood Theatre in Charlotte's NoDa district.

A lot of the songs he records are also covered by some of his compadres. It's hard to remember who recorded the songs first--Jerry Jeff, Guy Clark, Rita Coolidge, Emmylou, up-and-comers like Todd Snider.  Everyone's done "Desperadoes Waiting for a Train" and "L.A. Freeway," for example.

Some of his songs are the soundtrack for my life.  My children recall singing along--and very loud--to "Navajo Rug" as we made many road trips back and forth between Alabama and North Carolina, since my husband moved here in September before we followed in June. Jamming with some more recent friends, I was tickled recently when someone started up "Jaded Lover," another old favorite.

While early Anglo-Saxons and their forefathers hoped to gained glory and travel in the afterlife to Valhalla, I guess I'm just hoping to make a side trek through that part of Texas, easing onto a barstool at Gruene Hall. I hear any night there is "a good night for singing."

Blog 5: Music Video

I have always been fortunate to share my love of music with my children.  While they have developed wide interests, we have always enjoyed playing the "listen to this" game.  John, my middle child, my oldest son, has more similar music tastes, though. I'm sure the time he logged at ASU had an impact too. We are both devoted WNCW listeners, and I took him to his first Merlefest.

Now John is living back in our hometown, Florence, Alabama--the famed Muscle Shoals area.  While I was growing up, the music coming out of the area was at a height.  The Eagles, the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney--everyone came here to record.  FAME studio had a horn section that drew lots of recording artists, particularly when they were trying to break out of a mold or a slump.

The area is experiencing a renaissance these days, producing such groups and artists as Drive-by Truckers (including Patterson Hood, son of David Hood) , Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, The Civil Wars, and the Secret Sisters.  "Funky" Donnie Fritts, songwriter and longtime side man for Kris Kristofferson is a local. The Alabama Shakes hail from just up Highway 72 in Athens. 

Jon Davis, a friend of my son, has played with lots of the local musicians and with the Bottletree Band.  He played recently at one of Dick Cooper's infamous parties that was covered by Rolling Stone magazine (linked above). Jon has just released his first solo CD, Hint of a Southern Drawl, accompanied by several other local musicians, including Dylan LeBlanc (who's had his songs recorded by the likes of Emmylou Harris).

Listening to Jon's music reminds me of the lesson I learned so long ago:  most good musicians are just ordinary people with enough talent and drive to take it to the next level. How nice when it produces an album I love to play as I drive!

 

Blog 4: Dreams

What is the nature of dreams?
Do you believe in coincidence?
What is memory?

I love when the arts cross over into the metaphysical! I waver a little in my opinions (belief may be too strong a word) about coincidence, chance, serendipity.  It was a lovely coincidence that this blog prompt appeared the same day I was scheduled to read with several of my poet friends at Poetry Hickory, a monthly event held at Taste Full Beans in Hickory.  After the two featured poets Tim Peeler and Keith Flynn read, some other writers and I read our poems included in issue one of Bud Caywood's time chapbook Bloodshot. 

The book, which sells for $5, was produced to help raise funds for the Bethlehem (Alexander County) Public Library. Caywood decided to publish a book small enough to mail for regular postage.  The theme of this issue was DREAMS.

Before submitting my poem "Midlife Dreams," I ruthlessly edited it, cutting out the first couple of stanzas because, as I pointed out during my portion of the readings, "No one really wants to hear your dreams.  Not the real ones.  Our dreams are only interesting to ourselves."  I know I may have overstated my case, but I sincerely believe we only pay attention to others' dreams when they are like our own.

I discovered, for example, than my sister Emily and I share a strange recurring dream:  We both have dreamed more than once that our contact lenses are gigantic. We have to fold them and force them into our eyes.

Most of my dreams represent my most common worries--being unprepared, for example. I spend countless night trying to find something to wear (usually for my wedding) or trying to get my hair dry (not usually much of a problem in real life).   Probably my most common dream motif if my trying to get a phone call placed. Sometimes the room is dark and I keep hitting the wrong keys. Sometimes I am using a touch tone phone and the keys keep falling off like Chiclets.

I think our subconscious works best during dream time.  I know I solve problems, plan brilliant lessons, put to rest worries.  In dreams, I reconstruct places and memories--my childhood home with my grandparents' back yard.  If my dreams are art, they are a collage, with layers upon layers of varying opacity. 

Sometimes though I just dream I'm at back at elementary school naked. No one has noticed. Yet.

Before you dream...

...you have to sleep.
Honestly, I find that the ten thousand projects I imagine completing in this class keep me from going to sleep on time, finishing my own lesson plans; some of my to-do list items keep edging farther down so I can play with Photoshop.

Working with layers and textures, I played with some pictures I took when my photograph class took a field trip to the Hickory Airport.  I realize that changing colors is my biggest challenge right now:  Here are a few attempts and works in progress:

I am also having to remember to save projects in 72 (successfully accomplished above).  These next examples still need resizing:

This "visual pun" lacks a little believability.  I realize I will have to take my own pictures of Bible covers for my "Bible Belt" so I will have the right angle. It's been good practice though.

 



Blog 3: A Work in Progress

Blog 3 Assignment:

 

As you'll see in the text below--my prewriting for this blog--my biggest challenge with this assignment has been selection (not the Photoshop tool, but the actual process of working through all my photographs and deciding what to do first. The picture above represents just a few minutes of work, just a few clicks, and a little help from my friend Thomas.

 

I started with a picture of a grate, then added a picture of a wagon wheel taken a year or so ago at a vineyard/winery in Valdese. (Who knew?)  After working through some blending modes, I added one more layer, the line of geese flying across the page (originally across Shoal Creek in North Alabama.) As long as I took trying to complete my first visual pun, it was actually relaxing to work with layers and blending.  I'm ready to work more on my puns (see below and you'll see why) but I imagine I will have to tear myself away from Photoshop this weekend to grade papers and to handle routine household chores.

 

 

(I must confess that this would be more correctly called a Freudian petticoat.  The slip options just showed too much cleavage for poor Sigmund.)

 



Lets make some art…
Take artistic photos of subjects of your choice.
Take photos of textures (close up shots of old deteriorated things, rust, paint coming off an old wall, crumpled up paper, old pages from books, texture is everywhere)
Combine the textures with the photos to add mystery to the content of the work.  The steps are simple but the results can be profound.   Add a texture layer to a photo you have taken then change the blending mode of the texture layer – Done!  Make three and upload them to your blog then write a little about where the images came from and how you made them.

I am toying with a lot of pictures I've taken over the last two or three years, many unwittingly just for this assignment.  Before I start layering, I'll add a few of the photos I'm considering.  Some are closeups of shadows and light through windows or grates; some are architectural details. I have dozens from which I must choose.