This blog post about music and movement...

Here's a photo given to be by my cousin Mary Lou and her husband Mike that is from the Wiley family archives. You can read here about some other photos from old family pictures of BOB McKNIGHT and his band at this link. Lots of interesting comments were made on the blog page following this post and this is an apparently similar publicity photo given out to fans. This one is of a group that probably played on local radio in Memphis or Nashville and was in range of listening by my kinfolks living in Arkansas and Tennessee along the Mississippi River. This band what am a band is called the Argotane Entertainers.  

Now I know all you pickers out there, most of ya'll drinking beer as I write this have show biz dreams of grandeur. I know I certainty have had those but a life that has been spent busily playing music on street corners and flat bed trailers in the woods, in country bands, at church at 9am in the morning, making cigar box guitars, community concert bands and now a currently developing brass quintet project that rock and roll is not always what it's cracked up to be. Like singer song writer Todd Snider says a song you are writing sometimes turns in to a song about a song you are writing. 

Maybe the Arotane Entertainers felt a little like this. They certainly look to be dressed for success and I think dressing like you are with the band as they say is very important. The chick singer has what appears to be a Martin guitar, probably a pre WW2 model and one of the best with her name "Billie" in mother of pearl inlay on the neck. The block inlay on the other guitarists instrument is impressive and the banjo looks fancy too. I would guess the lobby of a radio station or a publicity appearance at the grand opening of some new business is the occasion. Not exactly a rock and roll decadence location. On the right behind the band is a painting of a sailing ship and on the left you catch a bare glimpse of what might be a repo of Whistler's Mother but as I say, I have played on flat bed trailers way out in the woods before. 

The internet does not give up anything on the Argotane Entertainers. I did find out what Argotane was. It's a laxative. As I say, the music business is not always what you expect and I have played in a few bands that seemed a bit constipated. Singer song writer James McMurtry admits to being a glorified beer salesmen. This band was sponsored by a laxative company. At least Billie got a Martin guitar out of the deal

  Here's a photo I found of the product.

This packaging is believed to be about 50 years old so the band photo is older Looks to have a new York and Memphis connection from the fine print on the label. Ingredients are extract of ox bile, P. E. Cascara, Papain and capsicum. Cascara is a folk medicine from a tree bark used as a natural laxative. Not good in cases of intestinal blockages or chronic intestinal diseases it was banned as an OTC product in 2002. Papain is from the papaya tree and seems to have some healing, inflammation reducing and digestion benefits but there are some dangers to diabetics and those on blood thinners. Capsicum is pepper. Yeah, I want that in my laxative, sure, why not? Ox bile is ox bile. Funny, I don't see feces from Bulgarian peasants mentioned anywhere as an active or inactive ingredient. 

I sum all this up by saying if you have a gig no matter what it is it's a good thing. I see the product Argotane as kind of like a tuba or a big closed back Fender amp. It will get the job done. 

       

A good walk spoiled, manners and monster woods beasts...

I tried out a birthday present from Mary and Miguel today. It's a canoe cart. Mary always thinks about how hard it is for the old man to move stuff around. One time she got me a two wheel dolly. Maybe in the future I'll get some kind of tuba toter. 

 The idea behind the canoe cart is that you strap the canoe to the two wheel frame and pull it down to the water. I knew the perfect place to try this contraption. It was a forest service road blocked by a locked pipe gate. the boat slipped under easy enough and the road was made from a white rock base. Only thing was after walking several hundred yards and having the road begin to turn impassibly muddy and washed out from the recently receded high water it curved away from the lake and headed the other way through the woods. I turned around, headed to the truck and launched at near by Monterey Park which is now open for launching with the water right at the top of the ramp.   

After launching and paddling down the bank for 50 yards and beginning to fish it started to rain. I pulled the canoe into the flooded timber under a sweet gum tree and waited it out. It was not really a good shelter and while I sat there getting a good soaking and thinking all those things you think while sitting in a downpour like bad luck, being unloved and if all this portends some bad thing happening next this guy, who was waiting around the boat ramp pulls behind me. I thought he might tuck into the woods like I did and as turning around in a canoe is a balancing act I did not pay him too much mind till the rain stopped and I paddled back out to resume fishing. I was a little surprised that he had begun his fishing where I had left off and was continuing down the bank in the original direction I headed. 

I thought oh well and headed for a creek channel on the other side of the cove.   

Then this guy comes along. He heads down the opposite side of the creek bank I'm fishing. He's covering quiet a bit more ground than I am with a paddle vs. and electric trolling motor and I know that this is not a long creek so I turn and head for another spot. 

I grew up on the lake and it seems boating manners maybe taking a slide. I would never crowd another fisherman, especially a guy in a canoe or cut in front of his fishing. When we fish the cypress tree sand bar these bass boats often speed by at 50 miles an hour  quite close. I have noticed a decline in boat ramp etiquette also. Instead of being ready to launch when you back down and pulling up in the parking lot to tie down after loading people park on the ramp doing what ever they need until ready and this seems to be ok with all others as it seems like it's an if you have the ramp it's yours's kind of world now.   

Despite a long fruitless walk in the woods in search of a secret launch, crowded conditions and rain I did have a good time. I took this photo of the biggest blackest squirrel I think I have ever seen. You see black squirrels occasionally but this guy was a monster. I kept quiet and observed him from the water praying he would not swim out and turn me over.  

And I did manage to keep the string alive. I think I have caught a fish every time I have had the canoe out for a fishing trip. This is a Kentucky Spotted bass. With no size limits in the state of Texas for these guys this is a legal fish. That spinner bait was in my dad's old tackle box still in the package brand new. My dad passed in 1991. That bait waited a long time for a fish. 

Don't look but more catfish...

What the world needs now, besides another catfish photo is more light tackle fishing. While Cathy and Matt sit at the front of the boat probing the brushy shallow water pockets on our Friday afternoon trip I sat at the back and fishing just a bit deeper along a structure break in more open water scored this 6 pound 9 ounce blue cat on 8 pound test line. That's some kind of metaphor of life right there. Cut it close, don't play it safe, take a chance on getting your rig wrecked and broke you can pick what it means to you. It's my second 6 pounder since December. Final fish total was 20 fish this trip.  

Speaking of fishing the brushy pockets here is Matt giving a lesson. You have to have skills casting to put the bait right into one little particular pocket the fish may be preferring. Click on the photo and you will see his day glo yellow slip cork looped over a limb on the right side of the picture. 

This cat tried to help him pull it loose. 

The method to this fishing madness is tying up the boat with the wind. We were able to retrieve this fish and the hardware by letting the rope out to drift to the fish and then pulling it back into place. We were just lucky. We loose a good many slip corks fishing like this. Out on this open sand bar we sometimes gather them up later but often when fishing the flooded forest they drift on back on a joy ride carried by wind current to some deep woods grounding far from where the normal pool level will be later this summer. 

From the water marks on trees the lake is dropping fast. Enjoy the high water while you can. As for us and to answer inquires we have had lately about fish fries we donated 20 pounds of fillets to cousin Runt's mother's 90th birthday party. We have some travel plans upcoming so after that we start over filling the freezer. 

Yet Another Fishing Report...

Despite the double catch by Cathy and her brother, Matt the action was not this furious to whole time we were fishing. Final count was 12 cats. Three of them, like the one Matt holds up here were good fish. 

Cathy hold up her 4 pounder. Two others weighed right at four and even with the lower than usual numbers the meat count was heavy. That's going to be the name of my next band, "Meat Count." 

Sundown on the lake. We hurried home so some of these could swim in our belly. 

Suzuki Classical Guitar...

My father in law, Bill has a real talent for finding thrift store/pawn shop/garage sale musical instruments. It's usually stuff that's a little bit broken but with a little care can be put in a gigable condition. Here is a Suzuki Classical Guitar Bill picked up for $20. It had a broken tuning key and three strings on it.  

Looks to be made by the Nogoya Suzuki Company in Japan. After WW2 Allied General Headquarters set about restructuring Imperial Japan. According to this run down of the company history found on this WEBSITE The original Suzuki Company, the origins of which date to the 1880s was split into Nogoya Suzuki Violin Company and Kiso Suzuki Violin Company. Kiso went bankrupt in 1987 and Nogoya stopped making guitars in 1989. They still make violins. Safe to date this to pre 1989 but I could find no other info on model 6058. There are some numbers inside on the neck heel but they don't seem to match any recognized serial number dating sequence.  

Nice headstock. 

It's been played as the wear on the fingerboard shows. 

I don't have any real expensive guitars but I am always impressed by how shiny Gibson guitars display in the music store so I bought some Gibson brand polish. That's what I used here. Top of the guitar shows honest wear like it was played in place that matter like a home, the beach, or around a campfire.  

More honest wear on the back. 

Besides a new set of strings here is the part I did. I put on a fancy set of gold tuners to replace the chrome broken ones. So don't like gold hardware but here I think it blends with the finish. The original tuners were a workman like get the job done kind of thing. 

Singer songwriter Steve Earle has a tune about how everyone told him he would not get far on $37 and a Japanese guitar. This guitar is worth a bit more than that and my wife is sitting in the other room playing the heck out of it as I type this. Bill might better come get it back from her quick. 

March Catish...

What the world needs now is another picture of Cathy catching a catfish. There were not many to make on this day as it was cool and windy after a couple of freezing nights so they seemed to have lock jaw. We only caught 3. It was a nice cool spring day to be out and I suspect it will be steadily warming up after this. 

Hanks Creek ramp still closed. We had camping reservations this weekend but the park canceled. Just as well as our main fishing buddy Matt had his hip replacement so that's or main activity this weekend. He is doing fine by the way. 

We launched at Shirly Creel. I saw a KTRE news story about lake front erosin. Here's an out crop we spotted.  

If you click on the photo you can probably see the water line on the trees marking the previous high level. 

Water turkeys acting as branch managers roost out of the wind on a quiet shore.  

We released the three cats to swim another day. Had hoped to catch enough for an impromptu fish fry but maybe this is what retirement will look like, catch a few, cruise the lake, go home with no fish work to do.