The Red Rascal Rides Again...

Remember the guitar my neighbor found in a trash dumpster? I got it playing. Or rather Jason at Encore Music did. Nice to find a store that don't mind fixing up a Junkey old guitar. I spent $55 bucks for bridge, strings, nut and a neck glue re-enforcement job. This baby makes for a great slide guitar. With the strings way off the neck especially in the high register means that this thing is dangerous to children, baby animals and anyone who wants to play chords and boring stuff like that.  Satisfied my Hound Dog Taylor jones for now.  

How does it sound? Click here...

http://soundcloud.com/carl-wallace-1/rocket-88s

Loves It!...

We caught some pretty good music in Chicago on our visit. Our intentions were to visit Rosa's. It's a famous blues lounge that advertises on the NPR show Blues before sunrise and is in walking distance of Katie and Peter's apartment. We never quite made it there.  Instead, among other musics we caught some friends of Katie's, Jenny and Vaughn who call themselves Loves It! and are based out of Austin as they played last Saturday at Uncommon Grounds. 

The show was great. Good singing and playing on guitars, mandolin and banjo. I guess this falls under the folk/roots/Americana/country banner. I detect all kinds of influences all mixed up in tragic love lost country songs, painful sad English folk a capella tunes with high lonesome harmonies and a few good rave ups thrown in for good measure. It's that old weird America music that can't be returned by the vote to your favorite political party. It's that something that will only be carried on by folks who beat the paint off the faces of wooden instruments all day every day and on into the good night. 

As a bonus to the show we got to ride the old beat up Toyoda camper thing Jenny, Vaughn and dog Boxy travel from show to show in back to the Tulloch's apartment. Jenny slept on the floor. Vaughn and Boxy slept in the camper on the street with the instruments. I would have done likewise. In the morning I awoke and they were gone to play a show in Madison Wisconsin.  

I recommended our local Standpipe Coffee House to Loves It! as a possible gig. I'll also recommend Loves It! to the Standpipe. I recommend them to you.   

Just Back From a Chicago Visit...

Just back to the East Texas heat after a few days in Chicago visiting Katie and Peter. Weather was great for the trip with hot days in maybe low 90s and one really nice day of temps in the 70-80 range made for some good relief to begin what looks to be a long hot summer at home. 

Our visit saw us covering ground we haven't in this city before. Top photo is the Tullochs in China town. I'll have more photos of that later. Second photo is of the Wrigley Field scoreboard. It's made from the street. The Cubs were not in town and I am kind of glad as that is a congested, busy area around the ballpark and our visit was not on one of the busy days. Bottom photo is Katie and Cathy on the Chicago river where we took the architectural boat tour of the city. 

Visit was very nice with a bunch of pictures taken, good food eaten and new things seen. Thanks to Katie and Peter for hosting.  Get some more photos up later.     

Happy Anniversary...

Happy anniversary to me and Cathy.  June 24th we were married 24 years. Love you honey. Can't wait till the big 25 next year. 

Due to Recent Requests...

...by Ed Sullivan, Elvis, Republicans, Democrats, Bobby Dillion, Knights of the Eastern Star, NRA, ACLU, CIA, FBI, IMF, National Broadcast System, Solar System, NBC, ABC, CBS, Screen Actors Guild, the farmers market, the free market, the stock market, the corner market, The Doors, the walls, the windows, Mother Hubbard, Mother Goose, Humphrey Dumpty, Hubert Humpty, Alice in Wonderland, Alice in Chains, Black Magic Woman, Big Legged Woman and Tiny Tim that we permit only above the waist photos only. 

This new policy is in reaction to the basic fears that these two notorious blog characters may be what is wrong with most everything. For those that don't think there is anything wrong with everything please pass on by, nothing to see or hear. 

Jump...

Morgan tosses Coraline high in the air during a recent pool frolic at Uncle John's house. I don't know if I have ever used the word frolic on the blog before. I guess that's a sign there is still some ground to be broken here yet. 

I think I might have photo like this of me tossing a kid in the air. I could put them side by side for a comparison but I don't have time to dig through photo albums this morning.   

Happy Father's Day...

Happy Father;s Day to all the dads out there. I post this picture of me and my dad, from the late 80s with a 28 pound opp catfish we caught on a trot line. 

My Dad left this world too soon. He helped me a lot. There were things I never got to ask him. I am sorry about that now. You never worry about that kind of thing because it seems that the good times like in this picture will go on forever. These days I often treat patients that would be my dads age and if they are open to it I ask them the things I should have asked my dad  

Guadalupe River Float...

Here are a few photos from our Guadalupe River Float last weekend. 

First photo is of the USS Ali/Morgan. Double tube, floating cooler Ali has a we have all we need look on her face while Morgan's notices that the water is cold. 

Second photo looking up river at the tubers reminds me of something my dad used to say on holiday weekends here on East Texas lakes. He said "They will pave the bottom of the lake in beer cans."  These modern times they pave the bottom of the lake in cell phones, sunglasses and beer cans. 

Third photo Cathy says "Gimmie the damn camera." 

Third photo Mudbelly who never wears a shirt while blog posting  says, "anybody for a game of Hearts of Darkness?" 

Rodeny Crowell at Gruene Hall...

Caught Rodney Crowell at Gruene Hall, the oldest dance hall in Texas last weekend. Great show. I think one time I saw the Fabulous Thunderbirds there back in the day and it was also a great show. This one was on par with that, great songs, great band. 

If you have not checked out Rodney's last few musical releases they are some of his best. All full of middle age angst and growing up in Houston that resound around here with me and Cathy. Rodney also spent some time in Nacogdoches in the early 70s. Some of the old houses where my friends lived and I cut my teeth jamming on old blues tunes were supposedly when Rodney played his songs also. Our friend Anne, who attended the show with me, Cathy, Mary, Miguel, Morgan and Ali related a story of our late friend Debbie Mann who had a friend that dated Rodney. They sometimes doubled dated together. The is a line in one of his recent songs that mentions "double date Debbie." That was the second song he played this night.  

More Family...

I Copied some photos from my Mother's albums to remember my Grandma Wiley who passed away on this day in 1970 at age 85. As a child Bonanza was a big TV show. In my play I always imagined Grandma to be Little Joe while I was Hoss. I was a pretty big Hoss in 1970 and I guess I am still kind of a Hoss. If I play my cards right at work and arrive at a patient room at a certain time in the afternoon I sometimes get to watch a little bit of Bonanza as Hoss and Little Joe ride through an endless cycle of reruns just like the days when play seemed forever. 

First photo dates from 1901 on the day when Ethel Janet Ledbetter married Caleb Lester Wiley. "Pinkie" as she was know to the Ledbetters was 16 years old. The house is a forgotten location in the hills of Tennessee.   Second photo may also be from that day and is surely from her 16th year.

Last photo is from their 50th wedding anniversary  in 1951. Grandpa Wiley passed that year. It was before my time and I never knew him. Any family that wishes to post in with some remembrances or corrections is welcome. Let's keep family alive. 

Friends and Family Together...

What a past few days it has been. We gathered last weekend for Morgan's birthday. Top photo round the table is Morgan, Ali, Anne Kelly, Miguel, Mary and Cathy at the Rodney Crowell show at Gruene Hall, the oldest dance hall in Texas. It was a good show and we have some pictures for later. 

Katie was in from Chicago for Cathy's Uncle Joe's funeral. Here you see Rose, Cathy, Katie and Mary. Katie says you can't get barbacoa in Chicago.

Next is Cathy and siblings, Jim, John, Matt and Margaret. 

Last photo is Cathy's dad Bill and his siblings gathered after their brother Joe's funeral. Standing is Kevin and David, seated is Shelia and Bill. 

Good times and sad times. Family is together for it all.   

Happy Birthday Morgan...

I know it's not Christmas, but it is your birthday. Sorry I made you sit it that old guys lap. Thought that was what parents were supposed to do. 

Any way it was a fun weekend with you, Ali, Cathy, Mary, Miguel, and Anne. Many more.

Cathy's Uncle Joe Passes...

We will miss Cathy's Uncle Joe who passed away last night. Here's a photo of Joe and Cathy at Pop's birthday party last year. 

After several months in the hospital and skilled nursing facilities Joe is in a better place. 

Happy Birthday Katie...

 We pick a photo from the way back machine to celebrate Katie's birthday today. 


She is old enough we better let her post in with her age.


Happy birthday! 

My Neighbor Found This Guitar in a Dumpster...

Losing my good neighbors down the road here soon. They are moving to Oklahoma. They stopped by the other day asking if I knew some one who wanted to buy a guitar they to fix up. I said let's see. I ended up basically trading them a tank of gas for this project. 

What they had was an old Ventura hollow body. Ventura is a descendant of the Burno Company which was making guitars before the Civil War. It's kind of a Gibson 335 copy. An educated guess says made some where between 1965 and 1980 in Japan. After 1980 would have had a pointed head stock. Nice maple neck with block in lays on a rose wood fret board. Pickups work, seems like the bridge pickup is fine, loud hum from the neck pick up made Coraline cry. Nothing I can't stand. Bridge is missing, no strings and the nut has had some amateur alterations to it. Probably glued on with super glue which will be the hardest fix. . 

I think for a few bucks I will be able to make this into a decent Hound Dog Taylor slide guitar with a great nasty sound. You know what they say, "Three chords, a red guitar and the truth."     

I Got Shot...

Well it really was not me that got shot, but a tire was shot out on my pick-up. It was yesterday day during a graduation party in Houston for niece Caitlyn. A neighbor was fooling around with a pistol in his kitchen. There was an accidental discharge that went through the window and punctured my drivers side rear tire 40 yards down the street. The street was crowded with cars. The neighborhood was crowded with people as there were two graduation parties on the cul-de-sac where my brother in law and family lives. Thankfully this was not worse and a person was hit. 

I went out to check on the damage. The man was very apologetic as you should be when you have done something very stupid. Believe it or not he was wearing a National Rife Association tee shirt.  he said, "you are going to have to change that tire." I said, "no YOU are going to have to change that tire." I could not resist chewing his behind a little bit. As much as I could with him being armed, red neck and stupid. He agreed to pay for the tire. He assured me nothing like this has ever happened in 40 years of gun handling. I pointed out once is too much. He showed me his concealed carry permit. It's not every day you get to make some one who is for every thing you are against eat shit. 

Some one did end up calling the police. Not me. Dispatcher called it "two graduation parties with shots fired." That's the nice officer and the shooter in the green shirt in the first photo. This photo was the slug the officer dug from my tire. He has to do that to make sure that in the crowded upper class suburban neighbor hood that the bullet did not go in another house or another person. 

I left after the officer needed me no more. I feel the guy probably got some kind of ticket. He needs his gun taken away. In it's beginning the NRA stood for the rights of the sportsman (of whom I am one) to have a gun to pursue his hobbies. Now it only stands for the rights of dummies to have a gun on their person. This only benefits the rich corporations making guns. 


I call dumb when I see it. Because I think this guy was really too dumb to realize how dangerous he is. I call for sensible gun laws.  
 

Ray Wylie Hubbard at Lake Bryan Ice House...

I know Ray Wylie is famous with most for a song he wrote at least 35 years ago. He will still sing it if you really want to here it. Like he said at the show, "this is the time of the show where we can either do it or not, what do you want?" And of course they all wanted it. 

If you have not checked out any of Ray's stuff from the last decade or so please do. His latest one is great. The music is not really the old outlaw country style but more of a spooky country blues played on funky guitars and old Fender tweed amps. What's not to like? 

These photos are from a show last weekend. He was actually in 'Doches the night before this. I did not go to that show. That's ok as this was some very good playing and singing this night. I especially dug his rhythm section. That's a bass player what am a bass  player in the bottom photo. Every now and then I go to a tent revival, a snake charming, a fortune telling, a baptizing, or any event when emotions run high and I see the singers, dancers, the whatever the movers and shakers are and I get a feeling like that's what I want to be when I grow up.  I had that feeling watching this band.