It is the birthday of country musician Jerry Reed.  Probably best known as Burt Reynolds sidekick in Smokey & the Bandit.  I've never been a fan of Reed's work as it tended toward novelty songs and fluff.  But he was a monster guitar player and started out as a session guitarist in Nashville.  So lets have some pickin'. 

Never knew about that Tonight Show Chuck Berry appearance, that was really good to see. I did see at the theatre the Hail Hail Rock and Roll documentary they talked about that was out around the same time.

He was always the first rocknroll artist to me, his the earliest music that sounded like what I thought of as rock and roll. Maybe Bill Haley & the Comets' Rock Around the Clock came earlier - or at least it always used to be cited as the first rock and roll song when I was growing up - but I never liked it that much so it didn't count to me.

I remember when I was very small, in the 60s, I thought Chuck Berry was one of the coolest looking guys in the world, though today I don't even know where I would have seen a picture of him, unless it was on tv or something. This will probably sound weird but I distinctly remember assuming that Marvel Comics' Black Panther had his face, with the prominent cheekbones and slicked-back hairstyle, I suppose because I hadn't yet seen any comics where he took his mask off and Chuck Berry was the only black man I had a mental image of from pop culture.

Latest Bob Dylan Interview


Fascinating and very surprising

My only close encounter of the musical kind (keep in mind I live in Idaho) was with Phillip Walker.  That probably doesn't mean a lot as Walker was never particularly well known.  He was one of those blues men who was better known and appreciated by critics and other musicians than by the public.  I found Walker when I was digging through some super cheap CDs at a store called On Que which was kind of like a mini-Hastings in the little mall here.  I used to take my middle son there in Saturday mornings and I'd get a coffee from the kiosk and he'd get a milk and we'd wander around the store for 20 minutes or so killing time.  I didn't know anything about the CD, but it was cheap and looked interesting, so I bought Phillip Walker Blues.  



I threw it in the player on the way home and listened to a couple of tracks and was pretty impressed.  I do not remember if the top was down or not (I had a convertible at the time).  The album went into heavy listening rotation because I thought it was incredible.  In particular it had a recording of "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" which was allegedly recorded the day before Robert Cray's version.  At the time my friend Dan had his first band and I spent a lot of time working doors for him and helping he and the band schlep equipment.  So we listened to Walker (I'd since picked up two or three more albums of his) and I turned Dano on to his work.  

I was in my office and I get a call from Dan.  "Phillip Walker is going to be at The Mint in Hailey."  So we arrange to go.  The Mint, at the time was owned by Bruce Willis.  Half the damn town of Hailey at the time was owned by Willis or Demi Moore.   On the day, I throw the top down on the convertible and head up.  It's fairly quiet in the venue.  I'm guessing more people were there just for the atmosphere than the music.  But the show is going well. Sounds great.  Dan and I find a couple of very attractive young ladies who are there for a conference and start talking to them and it's a great evening.  

Walker and the band end their first set and it was excellent in spite of a small crowd.  As the band it heading toward the door I decide to thank Phillip for the music.  I just step up real quick to tell him he sounds great and thanks.  But he stops and I get the chance to tell him that my little boy really loves to sing along with his songs that ask about he and Cray recording "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark" at essentially the same time.  He is very friendly and incredibly gracious given he's just finished a musical set and has another one coming up.  He even invited us down to the band's van to "smoke", but I declined because I didn't want to intrude.  

Nothing super exciting.  But it was very cool to talk to a musician whose work I really admired and find that he was a genuinely nice person.  

My musical tastes are at the same time fairly eclectic and pretty narrow...so I honestly don't pay a lot of attention.  You can see a lot of acts in Boise, I think partly because it's a good middle stopping place between Seattle or Portland and Salt Lake or Denver.  Most of the bigger country acts and most of the bigger rock or pop acts will come to Boise or Salt Lake (I'm roughly half-way between the two).  Then you will have acts that play in smaller venues somewhere because they want too.  

The last two concerts I went too showed the dichotomy.  I saw Willie Nelson at one of the bigger venues in the Boise area.  Big show, lotta people.  The biggish concert experience only mitigated by the fact that it was outside.  On the other hand, I saw Steve Earle at a pretty small bar in Ketchum, Idaho.  I think it was arranged on fairly short notice because it was a midpoint between two shows and Steve wanted to go fishing on Silver Creek the next morning. 

My middle son and I are scheduled to see Son Volt in Boise in early May.  It's at one of a number of mid-size venues in Boise.  

If you want super big acts, you're going to have to travel...at least to Salt Lake, but probably to Denver, Vegas or Seattle.  But you can probably see something you're going to like in Boise every couple of months. 

Of the names listed I've seen Taj Mahal, and he put on a really good show. I like his sound a lot and think of myself as a fan even though I've only listened to two or three of his many, many albums so I can't say I know his music really well.