Last blog posting I wrote was about live music I had seen and one of the places I wrote and thought about was the old Fitzgerald's club in Houston. I discovered that the old club, built as a Polish Culture center and dancehall in 1918 had been torn down and turned into a parking lot. Everyone that was anyone from James Brown to the Ramones had played there. I bought live music tickets today to see the band Ranky Tanky. It's the first tickets I have bought since the pandemic started. Due to social distancing concerns the show will be outside the old Pines Theater in downtown Lufkin. The Pines was built in 1925 and the first movie shown there was "Coast of Folly" staring Gloria Swanson. It's now a live music venue on the concert series circuit.
Seeing shows has changed a lot and not just because of the pandemic. The last two shows I saw at Fitzgerald's were The Mountain Goats and King Kahn and the BBQ. Now these two bands might not be real high on your radar but I like them and they drew enthusiastic crowds. The venues packed them in standing room only. This has been a trend at most clubs. All the chairs that used to be in these place so you could sit like a civilized person to see music have been removed for a rattle rattle here comes the cattle approach to providing live music.
I recall a show I saw back in the mid 80's at Fitzgerald's. It was blues men Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. The club was furnished with tables and chairs so a man and his date could have a seat. There were ash trays on the table for those inclined to smoke and a waitress came to you, took your drink order and returned with drinks in real glassware that was picked up and returned for reuse. Now days at these standing room only places there are strategically placed 39 gallon trash cans that are soon to be overflowing with the beer cans and plastic cups that held the drinks you stood in line to get. If the the floor is clean of the trash and everyone was sitting at tables that left room for a dancefloor in front of the stage. If you did not have a date you could ask a man or a woman sitting at another table to dance. Usually they would. The show I saw probably was very similar to this video.
I'm looking forward to Ranky Tanky's show. Maybe the pandemic will bring back civilized club attendance and soon we will get to enter the old Pines and enjoy the refurbished glory of a sit down venue. I'm getting to old to stand in front of the stage with the true believers. If I'm sitting at a table I can rest between dances.
Now that I think about it 2019 was not all that good a year. There were things that happened including my mom passing away at 95 years old. Then 2020 came along and Cathy's dad declined, passed away at 88 years old all while the pandemic was hitting. 2021 has been off to a bumpy start with numerous people I know contracting covid, including myself and then this past week Texas was hit with a severe winter storm. It was not the worst thing that could have happened if you like camping but it knocked out power and water to many homes. Although some things made us sad there were also triumphs, births and other milestones and if you consider that in some parts of the world today a child starved to death and a village was strafed by a helicopter gunship things have not been all that bad this year.
In fact all this brings me to a song by the band The Mountain Goats. If you don't know them and the central member is John Darnielle. I have seen the band twice. Once was in Chicago at the Riviera Theater and once at the old famous but now demolished for a parking lot Houston venue (I have also been to the famous FitzGerald's venue in Chicago) Fitzgerald's. If you are a fan of emotional, driving low-fi boom box (at least the early stuff was recorded this way) mostly acoustic songs about relationships and life this is the band for you.
I have a zip drive plugged into my car. On that drive there are 19 Mountain Goats albums. They were downloaded from the old emusic service we used to subscribe to by Cathy. He's one of her guys and with 19 cds playing at random among the other 5000 songs stored on this medium you do not hardly make a trip anywhere without hearing some Mountain Goats. He's become one of my guys also.
The song that has stuck in my head the past several years is called "This Year." The main line is "I'm going to make it through this year if it kills me." I picked this cut because it showcases the fine backing musicians that I have seen at each show. It's also the first I have seen of Darnielle with long hair.
That's the way I feel, the way we all should feel. If you like the Mountain Goats I suggest the albums "All Hail West Texas" and Tallahassee." They just might get you through this year.
Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans are shut down due to concerns it will be a Covid super spreader event. That does not mean Mardi Gras is shut down it just means it will be different this year. With a polar vortex event headed for our East Texas area it looks like things will be shut down around here. We will still have Valentine's day but due to the current climate, weather wise and virus aware it will be a bit different also. That does not keep us from taking note of an important anniversary.
One night in December 1987 I was in Houston, Tx visiting a friend. We decided to go out to the old Club Hey Hey to see blues band Anson Funderbrug and the Rockets with Sam Myers. Cathy, we were acquaintances but did not know each other well made arrangements to meet us there. Needless to say we spent the night dancing and although she was busy with nursing school in Houston we decided to stay in contact. Sometime in the next month or so she let me in on plans to visit her friend Nancy in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and as I had been to the Crescent City for Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest I was always looking for an excuse to go. It only seemed natural that I should go with her. Technically it was our second date.
I don't remember a lot of the travel arrangements. We flew and sat on the plane by a salesman headed to the city for a convention. Who has a business convention during Mardi Gras? He had a name tag that identified him as William Stanberry. He reached into his suit jacket for something and accidently pulled out a baggie of a green organic substance. Nervously replacing this in his jacket he settled into reading a magazine with pictures of nude women. I always wonder what kind of Mardi Gras William had.
I think we stayed at a motel on the West Bank of the Mississippi River. Darwin and his late wife Debbie were also there and I can't recall if that was by plan or accident. Darwin probably made these earliest photos of us together.
This photo of Cathy has been cropped a couple of times. She does not like an old picture of her holding a beer but since she has been sober almost 30 years I think it might be ok. I cropped it again today because I noticed an offensive flag in the background.
We had to have this shot on the corner of Bourbon and Toulouse Streets. It's around here somewhere blown up to poster size. I don't know when the last time I have visited this part of the French Quarter and I always wonder what happened to the guy in the photos passing behind us.
This trip took place on the weekend before the big Fat Tuesday Weekend. I really don't know why the date was picked but I have found that it's usually a bit less crowded and in recent years I have enjoyed the parades that take place a couple of weekends after Epiphany (seems like more tuba players) or the ones on St. Patrick's or St. Joseph's Day.
I used the old internets to check what the actual date of Mardi Gras 1988 was and I discovered that for that year and this year, 2021 all the days are the same. Valentine's Day hit on a Sunday and it does this year also. That means we were in New Orleans the weekend of Feb. 6, 1988. I don't know how often that happens but maybe it's significant.
If I tried to figure out all the times I had been to New Orleans it's probably going to sound like bragging. I know it's a significant place to us in our love for each other and the fun we have had there.
Cathy used to tell me all the time how she was an old creek fisherwoman. Only thing she married a guy with a boat. She learned pretty quick how to fish from a boat. The past few years we have been making the trip up to River Ridge for some spring Sabine River sand bass fishing so she has had a bit of return to the roots.
If you do not know River Ridge it's a private property with some cabins and campsites to rent, a small boat launch, bank fishing and guide services available. It's never been crowded when I have been there but even though we have had pretty good luck a few times early season I don't think we have hit the main part of the run. People will come from everywhere for sand bass and it is often hit or miss depending on river flows with a bit rain likely to scatter fish way back up into the creeks. We like fishing from the sandbar at the boat launch because it's easy access and fishing. Here's our bank fishing wagon.
River fishing can have a lot of hang ups and tossing the 1/16th and 1/8th ounce roadrunners the sandies like is a light tackle business. I remember a trip for a sand bass run on the Trinity way back in the late 70s. River access there usually involves climbing up and down steep, crumbling sandy banks. This particular year the river was low and we were casting white and yellow maribou jigs and we caught them well but due to the trees felled into the river by swift currents we lost a hatful of those jigs. I wear a big hat.
Cathy usually catches the first fish and for some reason even though I have a nice heavy duty saltwater float stringer she always reaches for the one with the homemade pool noodle float.
The sand bass run on the Trinity is reported to be on. For your info as to why I'm not fishing there is that due to mercury contamination the state advises three 8 ounce meals a month for adults, and one 8 ounce meal for women of childbearing age and children under 12. If you are eating Sabine sand bass it's 6.6 meals a month with no restriction mentioned for women and children. I like those odds.
I talked to the guides before I left and they reported hit or miss, load the boat one day the next nothing. They expect action to pick up after Valentines day. Baring big rains we will try again after the big polar front.
I listen to radio station WWOZ out of New Orleans. It's a public radio station and they have various shows playing styles of music ranging from the traditional jazz that New Orleans is famous for to modern jazz, gospel, R&B, bluegrass, Irish, salsa and some shows that just mix it all up.
I think there is something romantic about music coming over the air waves late at night from a distant city, especially a city like New Orleans where about everything a a human could experience or buy is available. Now I know since I listen to the station on my computer it's coming to me over fiber optic cable but actually with wifi the sounds do spend a short time in the air so that romance is not exactly lost.
Probably by conservative estimate I own about 1700 records and CDs. There are hundreds of blues recordings in this collection. I may be listening to these recordings any time of the day but something about hearing that blues tune coming over the perceived airwaves late at night will set my hair on edge. It was the Koko Taylor tune "Voo Doo Woman" that WWOZ played that recently did this for my old balding head.
I saw Koko perform two times in the mid 1980s. Once was at the New Orleans Jazz Fest. The other time was at the old bank in Houston called Rockefeller's which had been converted to a music club and often featured many of the blues greats. Here is a photo I made at the jazz fest performance. I could not establish what year but it was but probably the mid 1980s which would put this around the time she won her 1985 Grammy for Best Traditional Blues Album. She was nominated eight times for Grammys.
Koko was born near Memphis, Tn. By the late 50s she was in Chicago singing in the blues clubs. In 1966 her version of the Willie Dixon tune "Wang Dang Doodle" sold a million copies.
I wish I had the names of the band members. She always had some hot guitar players, masters of the Chicago sound playing with her. Koko also appeared in the movie Blues Brothers 2000.
Koko had a near fatal car wreck in 1989. She passed away in 2009 at age 81 from complications after a surgery. In 2019 it was reveled her master tapes, owned by Universal Music Group were among the unknown number of master tape recordings destroyed in a back lot fire that broke out at Universal Studios in 2009.
Here's a photo I made after Koko's jazz fest performance of her and my friend Anita. Anita is a great Koko fan.
If you don't listen to the blues, have the romance of the airwaves or have friends like Anita you have some catching up to do.
I'm trying to keep up with the fishing reports. I'm tired of winter despite the fact that 60% of the USA, enough to win a presidential election gets snow. We have been as busy as an executive order fishing this week.
I made a canoe trip up old Popher's Creek. That's the FM 2109 bridge. You remember old Chief Popher. I think about him every time I visit this area. His son killed a white man and fled. When the posse came the old Chief offered his life instead and one indigenous person was as good as another. They hung Chief Popher on the banks of this creek.
Canoe trips are usually something I do alone or with my son Morgan. Cathy does not like to paddle. She will go in the canoe if I paddle and set her up with a cork fishing rig with a worm on a hook. We have caught a decent mess of panfish and bass out of this creek but I only managed one small bass today. I think it needs just a bit of water.
Nutria rat swims upstream. If he saw me he paid me no mind. Looks like a small bear swimming. See my blog post from last week on rodents of unusual size.
I don't think this white tailed deer has seen a man in a canoe before. She was real curious. With the road nearby you could hear road noises till the first bend was rounded but then it was all deer, birds, pine trees and woodpecker knocks.
Our second trip this week was to River Ridge on the Sabine. You can see Cathy fishing from the clean white sand beaches. This is a private campground, boat ramp and guide service but a $10 day camper fee will let you fish from the bank and we have never been crowded fishing here. Apparently they own their own small dragline and it looks like a full time operation to keep the ramp from sanding in by the river currents.
Total for the day was only 4 white bass but that's enough for supper. White bass is a course meat compared to catfish or crappie and for my taste it's best in blackened or broiled dishes. Fun to catch but I don't need a freezer full of these things. It's at the beginning of their spring run and we will probably check them out again. I do hear of fishing reports that indicate a good bite on white bass up the Angelina River from Lake Sam Rayburn.
I've spent an afternoon or two with a case of old cheap beer iced down in the back of a pickup truck while I drove up and down Texas highway 21 reading the historical markers. There's a bunch of them. I was glad when singer song writer Adam Carroll finally documented that engaging in such behavior, among other behaviors was common in his 1998 song "South of Town". I don't drink old cheap beer anymore or expensive beer for that matter but this past weekend I was out on 21 for a visit to Caddo Mounds State Historic Site.
It seems like it was a long time ago when I began driving up and down Highway 21 but mound builder culture seems to date to 5000 years ago in North America. It was about 1300 years ago when the Caddo people settled in the Neches River Valley. For reference it was about the same time the Chinese invented gunpowder, Charlemagne ruled the Franks and there was a good bit of war involving Christians, Muslims and anybody else who found themselves to be located between India and Spain.
The high point of the Caddo civilization was 1100 A.D. They were farming, hunting, making pots, baskets and constructing mounds which were used for temples, ceremonies and burials. The mounds are still there today. Here's the photos I made.
This is the burial mound. Just like a big monument in the local, modern cemetery you can bet there are important folks under there.
The temple and ceremonial mounds. One of these is actually on the other side of 21.
Had to see the drop off in elevation from this photo but this is the barrow pit where the dirt for the mounds came from. That's a lot of toting and fetching using woven baskets to carry the dirt and clay.
About 1300 the Caddo abandoned this site. No one knows why and there is evidence it was premeditated. In 1542 members of the De Soto expedition encountered Caddos living along the Red River. In 1659 another Spanish expedition described "...a populous nation of people and so extensive that those who give detailed reports of them do not know where it ends..." In 1687 a member of the La Salle expedition to Texas spend four months with the Caddo leaving a journal account of life among them. By 1859, after what was described on a museum placard as "tension and conflict" but in reality was probably much more painful than that the Caddo were packed off to Oklahoma by the U.S. government where they remain today.
Also to be seen on the site is a piece of the old El Camino Real or The Kings Highway. It began as a series of trails used by indigenous people and developed into a well traveled and marked road from Mexico City to Natchitoches, Louisiana.
I have noticed that a one lane forest track in the wilderness area where I often hunt or hike disappears into the forest with only the faintest traces left after about 30 years. Apparently there was quite some heavy use of this old highway and I believe you could still it follow for a piece today.
Cathy leads the grandkids along a path previously used by Caddos, Spaniards and Frenchmen for a little taste of the old days and old ways and not a can of old cheap beer in sight.
"...I know I've seen that face before," Big Jim was thinking to himself
"Maybe down in Mexico or a picture up on somebody's shelf..."Bob Dylan from "Lilly Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
