The Art of the Mix Tape...

 

It was probably about 1978 due to the luck and new found profitability of being employed at a well paying blue collar union job that I upgraded the 8 track tape player in my car to one of those new fangled cassette players. I also upgraded the vehicle but that's another story. I then purchased a state of the art stereo with large, loud speakers, turntable and cassette deck and began recording the albums I had been buying with my yard mowing money since age 12 to cassette for playing in the car. Just for a reference point my oldest child will be 40 this year. Substract 28 from today's date and google what the hit songs were. That's what I sounded like going down the street. 

By 1984, time for another car upgrade, my taste in music had evolved. I had been playing music with other guys in little bands a bit and attending lots of shows so certainly I knew "good" music. My taping theory had also evolved and I was making mixtapes. I thought you should make a mix tape so when you were on a cruise in your Rocket 88 the intensity of the experience and the excitement of the trip increased with each song that blared for the scientifically ordered tunes that were committed to the tape. On a recent clean out of the cassettes in my music room, the kids breathed a sigh of relief, because that is a subtraction of  the amount of crap that the old man has ratholed away to be disposed of on his passing to the other side, I discovered the original mixtape I had made. Note in the photo it's labeled "Greatest Hits." 

Another theory I have concerning mixtapes is that the first one you make is the best. I would not call listening to any successive tape a let down but maybe a tension and release thing. The emotions created by listening to music reached a peak, a climax and then feelings and experiences moved on. 

It won't be long but probably at least once more before I pass to the other side and maybe you can count twice if my wife needs another one it will be time to upgrade cars again. They tell me you can't get a car with a cassette player or a cd player in it anymore. You either play music off your phone or plug in a zip drive. Since my cars have been upgraded fairly recently, you have to consider 10 years ago recently, they are technologically advanced enough to play a zip drive. I have made two zip drives for car play. They follow my old theory that the first one you make is the best. 

That first zip drive, I started it on a whim because I wanted to practice my technology and it contains all the music that was on my computer at the time and for a short period everything I next bought till the drive was full. All songs are legal downloads. I bought them. The artist or their heirs were compensated. There is close to 5000 songs that will play randomly (it does seem to have it's favorites that play more often) and they range from early New Orleans dixieland jazz and ragtime to angry Eastern European punk rock and Morricone spaghetti western soundtracks. There are songs in Spanish, English, French, Russian, Portuguese, Swahili and I don't know what else. 

The second zip drive is still a work in progress. It's not as large size wise as the first because I was going to make them identical (see first mixtape theory) but it would not take all the songs. I then started to make it by ripping music from a cd or record one recording at a time. I would say there are 50 plus cds on this zip drive or about 3 gigs of 12 gigs used. On a recent 30 hour driving trip there were recordings I knew that were on the drive that never played. There will be more driving. I'll get to them. 

When I was cleaning up the cassettes in my music room I probably tossed at least 100 and probably more in the trash. Most were home recorded, some were visibly damaged to be unplayable and many had lost their labels. There were some old favorites such as the "Greatest Hit" tape, one labeled "Carl and the Rhythm Kings" which is a pretty good home recording of a four man combo playing electric instruments into a cassette player/recorder in someone's living room made about 35 years ago and one that I have not had the courage to play yet labeled "Gary's B-Day Party." 

Yes, I do still have a cassette deck that I can make real mix tapes on tape on. It's not the original one I bought with the money from that well playing blue collar union job but I do still have the original large, loud speakers. I'll probably regret throwing away all those cassettes because little record companies like Nouveau Electric Records are selling their own mixtapes on cassette. 

When I started out writing about mixtapes I did not know I was going to mention passing over to the other side twice. Records became popular again after a decline in use and now cassettes are coming back. Maybe the afterlife is kind of like technology. You go back and forth.               

  

  

Nothing Much to See Here Just Supper...

This Kentucky bass thought he would look good in pink. 

The Bream fishing has been hot on B.A. Steinhagen lake but it's bit of a drive over there so I decided I would take the canoe and check some spots around Hanks Creek on Sam Rayburn. Today's catch was two 12" catfish, a Kentucky bass, one large bream and several throw back bream and bass.  

Catfishing has been good the last couple of trips and maybe that is what I should have tried today as they certainly liked the 1" crappie slider. I had lots of short bites that I missed and I wondered if that was the cats nipping at the paddle tail. 

There's a good bream. When I was a kid on family camp outs I caught bream around the Hanks campground. My kids caught bream on our campouts here and there is a couple of spots that still consistently pay off but not today. Bream like warm water and maybe it's not quite there yet. 

I got a good cardio workout paddling against the wind on the way back. Lake was not rough but I did the hardest paddle I have had lately for the least return on fish. 

I did clean the 4 I kept and baked them with a handful of shrimp, butter, a little garlic, Cajun spice and lemon.   

Are these good to eat? Seems I took a look at New Orleans trumpeter Kermit Ruffin's web page around Easter time and he was cooking rabbit and turtle for Easter dinner. He said it was a thing down there. 

 

 

Dance Records and Theories...

I googled dance records. None of these three records I recently bought in thrift stores in Lufkin and Chicago were mentioned. In fact no one had ever mentioned these records to me but I found them, I knew they were something and now I can spin them any time I want and while listening I came up with a theory. 

If you are a student of music, the history and especially swing music and big bands you know there were a lot of great groups in the 1930s and into the 1940s. Couples went out and saw these big bands and danced the night away in clubs and ballrooms. I had an older woman tell me that at her college prom, University of Michigan, there were two bands at each end of the ballroom floor. Tommy Dorsey was one and Benny Goodman the other. When one took a break the other played.  World War II comes along, rationing of certain raw materials puts a halt to record production and guys that had been musicians were drafted as soldiers. After the war things never quite get started up like they were. Jazz players start playing a new expressive form, bebop. Some musicians start touring smaller groups and their music begins to rock, roll and boogie. Maybe most influential of all TV is invented and couples stay home watching instead of dancing. 

One of the records I found is Arthur Murry's Music for Dancing by the Arthur Murry Orchestra directed by Ray Carter. It's all the Latin dance styles with step patterns on the back of the record jacket. If you don't know Arthur he once had over 3000 dance studios, the oldest franchised business beside A and W Root beer. There's still about 270 of them worldwide. Looks like this late 50s record I gave a buck for is on Amazon used for $39. 

The second record dating from 1965 is Killer Joe's International Discotheque. Killer Joe won so many dance contests in Manhattan that someone finally hired him to teach dancing. By the mid 60s DJs spinning records in clubs had spread from Europe to America and this record has music to Watusi, Money, Swim, Frug and more to so you can rehearse the latest craze at home or simply throw your own party. The musicians, billed as the Killer Joe Orchestra is made up of players that went on the their own fame such as King Curtis, Tate Houston, Cornell Dupree, Eric Gales and Chuck Rainey. Killer Joe created a dance for Smirnoff Vodka called the "Mule" and though his 60s star declined he remained well known in the New York discos of the 70s and 80s. An MP3 is cheaper on Amazon but you can find this record for $39

The last record is Memo Bernabei's  Dancing on Air. Memo began his music career at age 12 in the Pittsburgh Orchestra and continued on the road with big bands, during the war as an Army Band Drum Major and USO show member and continued on as he settled in Los Angeles to play the ballrooms and hotels for those that still got out and danced. The record jacket mentions that professional instructors Gene and Milli De Wald were enlisted to help with "tempos, rhythms and stimulating moods."  Memo played sax and retired at age 89 and on Amazon his record is a bargain at $4.56.  

So here is the theory. We all know that in the past year due to the pandemic there has been no cheek to cheek ballroom dancing. We know that screens are bad, for kids, for adults but subscription services for TV have flourished and musicians have been able to sell tickets for online shows that you could watch on your phone. People have stayed home and watched all this. I know I did. 

Maybe in the 50s and 60s people were staying home also. Maybe this is what led Arthur, Joe and Memo to put out dance records. They simply said, if they won't come to the shows or sign up for lessons we will sell them a record. I don't know how many records they sold but certainly they were successful, dancing and playing gigs as long as they could.

Throw out your TV. It killed the big bands. It killed the dance studios and ballrooms. It killed good music. It will kill you.

Come to think of it that's really not a theory.     

 

             

 

Bream Fishing or This Alligator Wants Some of My Lunch...

Bream fish was hot again at Martin Dies Junior State Park. Matt and I fished from the canoe and totaled 15 big ones on 1" crappie sliders. We filleted and cooked them right up as soon as we got home. If you remember my fishing reports from last year these spots continued to be good on into June, which is the last trip I made over here to chronicle on the blog. I think I'll work it as long as I can this year. 

Once again Matt boats three different species with a small large mouth bass, bluegills and this beautiful google eye perch. I used a black with a blue tail slider jig and he used a pink body/chartreuse tail. Funny how the combo of light jig vs. dark jig did not seem to matter. The crappie slider is one of those do nothing lures that you can't fish wrong as long as you fish it slowly.    

We stopped on the bank for a bit of lunch during our paddle and a guest showed up. Can you spot him? He asked if we had any more of them smoked oysters and hot sauce. 

I'm thinking five or six feet. We spotted this guy in the same area but from the road last trip. I guess alligators are territorial. He seems to just hang around in this one particular spot. This area has not been a spot we caught a bunch of fish so I wonder what he's he's eating. Maybe there is a fish holding structure we have not found yet and we just need to ask about sharing.  

One thing about fishing here is that you would think there is a fish by every old cypress but there is not. We seem to have located a few fish holding spots and we rotate around them till we have a fish fry.  

We continued on back the way we had come hitting all our hot spots for a few more fish and the alligator just watched making sure we moved on out of his area. Matt sits in the front of the boat with a "do we have to do this?" posture. 

These are such nice size fish that we fillet them up, rolled in corn meal and fried them up. We did this as soon as we got home. I eat the freshest fish in town and it had been six whole days since I fried fish. I was ready for some swimming in my belly.  

George Harrison In Illinois...

In September 1963 the Beatles were unknown in America. They were gaining fame in England with their first LP "Please Please Me" and had played 200 concerts that year. They were flush with cash the first time in their lives and Paul and George took off for a vacation in Greece, John Lennon went to Paris and George Harrison visited his sister who lived in Benton, Illinois. On our recent trip to Chicago we stopped and made our photo by the mural there commemorating his visit. 

George is Cathy's favorite Beatle. The four Beatles were such public personas that if you know someone's favorite you will know more about that person than years of psychoanalysis would ever revel. I think he just got the most girls and that's why she likes him.    

This two week period that George spent in  Benton was the last carefree period of Beatle life when no one in the USA knew who they were. He stood out a bit in Benton because of his long hair. His sister Louise had shopped one of their records around to local radio stations and George himself gave away copies. George went to Fenton Music store in nearby Mount Vernon and purchased a Rickenbacker 425 guitar for $400. It was like a black one Lennon owned but it had the more desirable fireglo red finish and Harrison had the shop owner paint it black to match the dark suits and guitars of the rest of the band. That guitar was used on "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sold at auction in 2014 for $675,000. 

It was a coincidence that when we saw a road sign "Mount Vernon 1 mile" that the Harrison penned tune from the Beatles Revolver album "Taxman" came up on random play on my car's zip drive.

In addition to taking in American culture and cars Louise introduced George to local musicians and he played a VFW gig with a local band called the Four Vests. George did not play Beatle songs but instead chose rockabilly and Hank Williams tunes. It's been a while since I played a VFW gig but at the last one I did Hank was still popular with that crowd. 

By the end of September George returned to England. He told locals he would try to get his band to play Benton but in 1964 the Beatles played the Ed Sullivan Show and the rest is history. Benton fell on had times and like a lot of small town America I'm not sure how much town is left. While we did not get off Highway 57 to drive through I think Louise's home has been restored to it's 1963 look. 

In a letter George wrote to Louise about the town and his visit he said:

 “They’re great people. They were glad to see me—not because I’m a Beatle, but because I’m me.”

Maybe that's why George is Cathy's favorite. 

 

           

 

Chicago April 2021...

We took off, me, Cathy and Unkee Matt for a visit to Katherine, Peter and Wallace in Chicago. We spent almost 31 hours in the car, nearly 2000 miles driving, 60 gallons of gas, (in my hybrid that's probably less of a carbon footprint than flying) and my latest endless zip drive mixtape. 

The Chicago family is doing fine with a new member, a boy expected on May 31st. 

It was nice trip with some fine thrift store record purchases, a trip downtown, a zoo visit and lots of playing and enjoying the cool weather. 

Here Cathy, Matt, Peter, Katie and Wallace walk downtown. Just a note if you are traveling to the big city masks are mandated in all indoor areas as vaccine roll outs are just beginning there. I did not research the per capita infection rate compared to Texas but I like being safe and don't want to pick up something that I bring back to family. 

Things are not as opened up as Texas, a good thing as places we visited in the city were not crowded and people keep their distance. It's the friendly way to be. Museums, zoos, and public places are open they just usually require an advance ticket to maintain safe distances which is always nice in the city.     

Katherine and Peter walk to the car after our zoo visit. 

Nice to be out traveling again. There will be another trip soon, when the baby is born with Cathy going to provide the support only a mom can for pregnant daughters and my services required within a few days to teach tuba, banjo and evaluate casting skills.    

 

The Well You can't Win Them All Fishing Report...

I must admit that I have been on a good run, a run that I have kept to myself as I have found it's not good to mention when you outfit your wife. What goes around comes around as I kind of got it put on me today from my brother in law Matt who out fished me on a pan fishing canoe trip to Martin Dies Jr. State Park 9 to 3. Probably should not use this photo as there are identifying background items that might help someone locate my fishing spot.  

I did snap a great photo of a Little Blue Heron, one of the smaller members of the heron family as he even caught more than I did. I might have qualified for the smallest fish award. All fish on Charlie Brewer Crappie Sliders or when I finally started taking a few my go to bait became a beetle spin. We used light tackle with 4 and 6 pound test line.   

Matt lands a nice keeper crappie. I think I had a throw back crappie and he may have also.  The bream run should just heating up. If you recall last year's fishing reports we caught good ones April-June. We had a few throw backs, probably not throw backs for someone like blues man Howlin' Wolf who was reportedly able to eat 50 bream at a sitting. It might help the fishing if we got a bit of rain to raise the level up into the bushes along the bank. 

Matt takes the mixed bag award for three different species caught. I think this is a short nosed gar.  

These fish, along with the catfish we caught the other day are making a run to Chicago to be delivered to the PK. People hollering for catfish and bream in Chicago. 

Hey! Are these good to eat? 

 

Ray Wylie Hubbard at the Pines...

Live music is starting back up as Covid subsides and the old Pines Theater was packed with an enthusiastic crowd for a Ray Wylie Hubbard show, sponsored by Brookshire Brothers as a part of their 100th anniversary celebration.    

I often wonder how many people really get Ray Wylie. His songwriting references so many things that I would think a person would have have to had some experience with to really understand. Things like flipping the standby switch on a big Fender amp on at sunset and turning it off at dawn. I'd expect you to have a bad habit of taking old beat up guitars and tuning them to open chords and raking a metal slide across the strings. There would be a memory picture in your mind of walking into the Continental Club in Austin when South Congress Street was way down there and seeing Stevie Ray Vaughan leaning against the cigarette machine. The hair would still be standing up on your neck from those lonely midnights when you were alone spinning records by Muddy, Lightenin', Son House and Skip James. Tie all that together by loving a bohemian gypsy woman with a mimosa tree, lizards, love bugs and birds tattooed down her leg. 

Do these things. You will get closer to what Ray's songs are about.      

I've seen Ray a bunch of times. I think my ears are still ringing from the time he played the old Crossroads Club in Nacogdoches backed by Jerry Jeff Walker's Lost Gonzo Band. That must have been the early 1980s or maybe before.  

Ray and the band brought their "A" game to the show tonight. That's his son Lucas on guitar. Kyle is on drums. There is no bass player and with the groove they create the bass is not missed.  

Ray is country. Ray is Rock and Roll. He's got that dead thumb picking style that creates a spooky blues when he leaves the 3rd of the chord out of an alternating bassline picking pattern. His band is locked in the pocket. He's got a gold top Les Paul and you might find a Beatle, an Eagle or other music business stars taking a backing role on his records. Tell us again why you don't have all his records? 

Singer Songwriter Cas Haley opened. He has a great set of pipes and has been a winner on America's Got Talent. 

The Pines has been doing a great job. We had recently seen the band Ranky Tanky there. I look forward to future shows. 

 

Pattern Was a Bit Different but One More Fishing Report...

My wife, who is my main fishing partner told me since I was retired and she is still working it was ok if I took someone else fishing if she was not available for the trip. "As long as it's a man," she said, "no women." Today I took her brother, Matt and we had a good catfish bite. 

The day was sunny with just enough wind to keep it from being hot. Water temps were 65-68 degrees which is right in the zone to make most fish species, in this area anyway swim around and say, "what's going on?" Alligator gar, some as long as four feet rolled together in pairs like synchronized swimmers over the cuts and channels of the submerged East Texas bottom land.  

The wind, which is so important when slip corking catfish in the shallows was not blowing right into the weedy pocket in the willows and cypress that had been the hot spot on the last couple of trips. We moved 100 yards down the bank to a point with less cover but there was one weed bed at the lip of a drop from four feet to nine feet and that's where they were. Wind was blowing across the point but a cast with a slip cork rig baited with punch bait right in front of the bed brought quick strikes. 

I've fished this spot so it's not like I found something new but I think it is worth noting that the lake is lower than it has been the past couple of years so some of my usual places are not paying off. 

My dad taught me to fish and one of his great techniques, which works with any species and takes some patience is to find an ambush point. Sit there and let the fish come to you. If it's a good place, like our weed bed on a drop a school of fish will come by. If you catch them all or they get spooked if it's a good enough spot more will soon come to check it out. It's worked for me as long as I can remember holding a fishing pole.          

We fished about 10am to 1pm. Fish were a bit smaller than the last couple of trips with many being males but none under 12 inches and in fact we threw back smaller legal sized fish. Total for the day was 27 channel cat. 

Just for the record since my wife could not go fishing I'll mention that the fishing log shows she caught a 10 pound blue this day two years ago. Log also shows we caught 161 cats that week. We could probably meet those numbers again the way they are biting.  

 

Catfish Spawning on the Bushes...

What we need right now is an inspirational folk singer, a new Victor Borge and another picture of Cathy with a catfish. How about we start with a picture of her and the fried catfish we ate when we got home 

If you notice we are in the same spot as last time and the pattern is wind blowing into willows, buck brush and cypress, casting near the cover with slip corks and J Piggs stink bait. We fished mid afternoon from about one to five pm. Almost all fish were stocky females full of eggs. Water Temps were 65 degrees. The sunny day made it feel good to get a little time in shirtless but I don't think I'm ready to swim. Crowd on the lake for an Easter Sunday afternoon was light.    

Final count for the fishing log was 14 cats. After eating a few we will probably wait a couple of days and cook the rest. After we ate we looked up health benefits of fried catfish. There is not a lot of them but I sure felt good after I ate these. I have a big container I'm about finished with of Louisiana Fish Fry that I opened at the end of August. It claims to be enough for 28-32 pounds of catfish. It's covered 7 months of cooking. That's only about 4.5 pounds a month.  

 

How Many Records Were Made, How Many Do I Have and How Many More are There...

 I often browse the thrift stores and flea markets for used records. If in the big city I find stores dedicated to new and used records sales. Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in 1877. It was a device playing metal cylinders. Technology advanced and improved and by 1901 there were ten inch records that played for 3 to 4 minutes. There have been some ups and downs as formats come and go but there have been a lot of records manufactured in past 120 years. In 2020 alone there were 27.5 million records sold in the USA. 

It's staggering to think how many records there might be in landfills. The thrift store had less than 100 on hand to browse but there was a nice selection of big band type music. Not original copies or anything but reissues and compilations of the best hits. They are not collectable so that makes them cheap and it's good music, clear recordings and the records were bought by people who took care of their stuff, not like a rock record that might have hit a dorm room floor a few times in the 70s. 

With all these records made it's a bit daunting to think how many groups there were recording. It still is daunting to think about this now days because it's easier to make a hit in your bedroom than ever thanks to digitalized technology. Good sounding new music can just pass you by but yesterday I found a record by a big band leader I had never heard of, Blue Barron. It's a reissue from 1979. On the back of the cover jacket is an address to write the record company for more information. Try and find that on a digital copy.  

 Blue Barron was born Harry Friedman in 1913. The band's first gig was in 1936 and other than during WW2 when everyone was in the service it continued working till the 60s. They were similar to the big bands of Guy Lombardo in that they played "sweet" as opposed to bands of the era playing "swing." In 1949 Blue had a million selling record with "Cruising Down the River."

Blue Barron has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He passed away in 2005 and had worked for his brother in law who owned hotels and oil fields since his retirement from music brought on by changing styles of the times. 

I did research the tuba player, Walter Major listed on the album. I found no mention of him anywhere on the internet but he does have a horn like mine and now when you google his name my blog will show up. 

Keep those records out of the landfills!