Old Songs, Public Libraries and Speakers Pressed Upside Your Head...

 Tiny Tim, the falsetto singing ukulele player who sold 2000,000 copies and got a Grammy nomination for his first album "God Bless Tiny Tim" which included the 1968 hit "Tip Toe Through the Tulips" is a fellow many would underestimate. It's not that way around here. 

In addition to someone I know who once spent an evening in a dark room with large 1960s vintage stereo speakers pressed to each side of the head studying Tim's music with a method I have been assured that gets the very most from it there was also the songs my late father in law Bill Cooney played. Bill, a uke and tenor banjo player born in 1931 and Tim born in 1932 no doubt heard some of the same songs because they played in similar styles. Both were also devout Catholics.  

So how do you learn these songs?  Well, in Bill's case I'm not so sure. He did not learn things like "Dark Town Strutter's Ball" at Mass. He did not learn them at clarinet lessons since we know from his own verbal history of musical development that he skipped the lesson and used the money to buy cigarettes.

We do know how Tiny Tim learned his songs. It's very well documented. Tim was a bit of a weird kid. It was noted that he had musical talent and started teaching himself instruments at the age of six. He did not do well in school and spent some time mostly in his room recovering from a surgery while reading the Bible and listening to music. 

Tim lived in New York City and his interest in the phonograph industry and early recording artists of the 1900-1935 period led him to spend all available time in the New York Public Library. There's 55 million books in that library. Wiki reports that Tim researched the musicians he read about, made copies of their music he found in the library and carried the tunes home to learn to play them. It was a practice he continued his whole life. He was a walking catalog of songs.  

I'm not much of a rock music memorabilia collector. A couple of years ago a friend needed to raise some funds and began selling off his collection and one of the items was a Tiny Tim autographed copy of an early Rolling Stone magazine cover. There were many other tempting historical items available but a weird kid who made good following the most unusual path possible was a something worthwhile to have. 

There are people out there that say there are bad books in a public library. Don't let them fool you. There are bad people paying them to say things like this hoping that you have the seed planted in your mind that the library is a bad place where for example, you might read about someone different from you or you might actually find true information about virus control. You might even learn to play old strange songs different from what the internet streams choose for you.  Of course it's just my humble opinion but I don't think these people are smart enough to go through the 55 million books New York City Public Library and spot bad books much less good songs. They will find it easier to just burn the whole place down which is a popular idea making the rounds these days. 

Be like Tiny Tim, the weird kid that looked stuff up in the library. Be like Bill Cooney but don't use your clarinet money for cigarettes. Seek out funny, unusual songs. Don't burn the world, build it.

    www.venmo.com/u/Carl-Wallace-23 

 
 

        

Dreams...

 I had one of those dreams. 

I was in HEB. They had crawfish in stock. I was wrestling with a large mesh sack of the crawling, snapping critters.. You know how they label those sacks with a number of pounds  penciled in on a little tag. I did not note the weight but I was having a lot of trouble getting the sack into the cart and it was so large that the dads started spilling out the top. 

Approaching me down the isle from one direction was Barack Obama. He was pushing a shopping cart. Coming down the isle from the other direction also pushing a cart was Bob Dylan. Obama looked like recent pictures I have seen of him but Bob, on the scene since about 1960 and sporting many different looks for his varied career had a mid to late 80s vibe about him. He wore sunglasses.  

They both started helping me pick up the spilled crawfish and hoist the large cumbersome bag into the cart. Obama seemed to know my name. Bob never spoke a word.  

I don't know what all this means. Maybe I wish Obama was still president. I don't think I wish Bob would make music like he did in the 80s. The 1980s were not hardly kind to anyone much less people trying to make music. 

Maybe I just need some crawfish swimming in my belly. Maybe I need to listen to music like in the link more although I since it's kind of what I listen to already I don't know how such an increase would work unless I played it while I was sleeping.

Then there would probably just be more dreams. 

 www.venmo.com/u/Carl-Wallace-23

   

Oh How I Wish You Were Here...

It was a busy weekend. There was a couple of parties but there was work also. A crew gathered up to paint the old Zamora Corporation house in preparation for selling. It jogged some memories of my  friend G.W. and in connection with that the English psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd. 

Here's a photo of the painters.   

Back in the early 1980s I was getting to know G.W. and he showed me a business card. This was way before websites, facebook, influencers and such and it was generally thought that a business card gave you the look of a professional and just about guaranteed success. I have some cards from my cigar box making days. U.S. Tico left a box of business cards here and I guess there has been modest to good success that it is kind of hard to decide what part of that to attach to the business card. 

G.W.'s business card said "P.F. Paint Company." He was in the business of painting. Always having been a work for the hour/take the weekend off kind of guy it was not something I would do but I kind of admired but did not feel jealous of a fellow that had his own business. I asked G.W. what "P.F." stood for. He looked at me like I had two heads. He stared like I had put my under ware on the outside of my pants, which kind of like business cards it's not something people stare at anymore. 

With this look G.W. replied, "It stands for Pink Floyd." 

I note that due to English copyright laws that allow material that sits unused for a period of years to become public domain the band Pink Floyd recently released live recordings from the late 60s/early 70s period. I read drummer Nick Mason's book "Inside Out"  where Nick allowed as when sound mastering technology progressed the band was able to clean up murky old recordings or make use of musical ideas developed in earlier periods. It was essentially a way for the band to keep making money developing material from previous work. I don't know the worth of the Pink Floyd catalogue but I would say if the business plan they are using keeps being successful that none of their great great grandchildren are going to have to paint houses.            

Here's Miguel with an official P.F. Paint Company t shirt. I don't suppose G.W. owes the band anything for the development of paint company idea. 

If you like this blog and want more like it Venmo me what it's worth to ya. It's just so I don't have to paint houses.

@Carl-Wallace-23 

 

An Amp Story for the Gear Heads...

 I saw this week that famous, mysterious guitar amplifier builder Alexander "Howard" Dumble passed away. He might not be a household name to you but he is a legend who began modifying Fender amps in 1963 and by the 1970s he was building custom amps for a high end clientele of players of which no two amps were exactly alike but were tuned to each player's specific playing style. I use the term "mysterious" because he only built several amps a year and the interworking's were coated in an epoxy to conceal the building specifics. Used Dumble amps reportedly sell for $75,000 to $150,000. 

If you listen to Santana, a famous early user, Clapton, David Lindley, SRV, Eric Johnson, Joe Bonamossa, Ben Harper and Jason Isbell who must be a poor boy because he is reported to use a Fender Pro modified by Dumble you have heard his amps. There are many other famous users but the story I have today is about Louisiana guitarist Sonny Landreth, a Dumble owner I have seen play many times.   

I'm not too sure what year these Jazz Fest photos of Sonny and band are from. They seem to be 35mm shots so pre digital age. As I say I have seen Sonny a lot. My story may come from the last century but it's certainly a story that predates Katrina New Orleans. 

It seems like Pop and Geneva were with us and I don't think it was a Jazz Fest trip but we had tickets to see singer song writer John Hiatt, backed by Sonny and band as they did on several of John's albums and they were opening for Crosby, Stills and Nash in a big concert hall in New Orleans. 

The John and Sonny part of the show was great, just what we wanted to see. CSN, who I had seen before came on and all the baby boomers went head banging wild but I was disappointed to hear backing tracks on the vocals. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to climb on stage and match licks with any of those guys and you could probably find someone that thinks I should be using backing tracks but I like to hear people playing their instruments and singing. Especially if I have paid my money.   

We decide to walk on CSN because we knew Sonny and band were going to play a late set at Rock & Bowl. If you don't know the venue it's a bowling ally, they sell buckets of beer on ice and the band plays in a corner with the crowd standing and grooving out in front. They have a copyright on the name Rock and Bowl. You name your joint that and they sue.  

We got there and went right up in front of the band. Sonny's band is guys he has played with for years so they are tight. I was probably less than 20' from Sonny and I noticed behind him the big Dumble amp. Even back then I knew it was a special thing that you don't see often. The show was loud and it was fun. It was real people playing real music for real people. 

I can't recall that I have seen a Dumble onstage since then. Last time I saw Sonny he was playing a small theater show with a Blond Fender head (modified?) on a mismatched speaker cabinet. I have seen Isbell a few times with Fender amps which were probably his Dumble modified unit.

I own three old Fender tube amps I bought in the early 80s from music stores and pawn shops. They were not too desirable then, except by me and two were actually worked on by the late Big Cookie, a man associated with the origins of Sewell and PRS amps. A Dumble modified amp would be nice but I'll settle for semi famous.

I have not bothered to see CSN again although reportedly Crosby's latest records are good. All of Sonny's and John Hiatt's are good.      

      

Fishing the Old Way...

I headed out to the Big Slough again yesterday. I called myself duck hunting but did not see a thing. When my wife told one of my son in laws I was gone hunting he said, "by himself?" As a man that will fall into the elderly category of the population when my 65th birthday hits next week like a megatron bomb I do know how to make good use of my time. If there's no ducks on the water I check to see if there is fish in it.   

I had god luck on my last trip catching these little bass like this on my Ronco Pocket fisherman. Today for some reason it jammed up. I had brought a telescoping crappie pole which was really to be used to rake fallen wood ducks in but I tied a short line to it and a chatter bait and it worked just fine for bass fishing. 

I remember my dad telling me that they used to bass fish rivers and sloughs in the days before reels were common equipment in the everyman arsenal of gear. In those days they used a cane pole and a length of black dacron line to pitch the lure out and drag it by downed logs and brush tops. Here are a couple of lures from that early age of bass fishing which were in my dad's tackle box. I consulted an antique fishing lure book I own but no luck identifying these. One might be a Hawaiian Wiggler. Antique lures in good condition usually have some value but I don't think these would make that grade.      

The Ronco Pocket fisherman. The advantage to this outfit is the small bass seemed to hit after following the vibration and flash of the chatter bait after a longer cast. 

The old ways still work. Granted the equipment is a bit more modern. The telescoping fiberglass pole is easier to carry down through the woods and the chatter bait has a lip that skips over hang-ups making it pretty weedless. Flip it out and drag past a brush top and those bass decided it looked like a meal.   

There was another fellow that showed up on the slough with a bucket of minnows and a slip cork rig. He caught quite a few undersized crappie. That slough is full of fish.

Here's an example I filmed of my pitching technique with the crappie pole and a H & H spinner bait. The H & H was always my favorite when I was a kid because they were small and the bass liked them but because of their size big crappie would latch on. I think they were made in Louisiana to the exacting standard of some ancient Cajun French Creole who knew all kinds of things about the size of each species of fish's mouth. Now they are made in China by folks that are probably nice as that long gone Cajun but have little idea about old sloughs and bayous and what swims in them.  

There are a lot of good bass fishermen out there using modern techniques some of us might not have heard of yet and having a great time. I'm a catfisheman and it makes me feel good to fish like my dad did. It was a pleasure to fool a few fish with a lure and the fight of the fish on the light crappie pole was worthy.

Maybe I'll take someone with me next trip. 

@Carl-Wallace-23

     

 

Big Slough Trip...

Over the past two weeks I have made a couple of trips to the Big Slough Wilderness Area in Davy Crockett National Forest. It's a great getaway and if you need some relief from the crazy world I recommend it. 

Roads are pretty good, and any muddy spots will have hard bottoms but it's bumpy and there is a spot that was probably part of an old railroad tram that is starting to wash so if you like a sightseeing trip a pick up is probably better than a car. There's been some logging on private properties so that part of the road is well maintained for the big trucks. I don't know what the Forest Service plan (probably not one) is for the roads in the wilderness area since there are often separate rules different from regular national national forest.      

Note the beer can. I've made about four trips down here the last several months, I think all week days and I've seen one other car so not a lot of people use the area. I can only surmise that Bigfoot threw that can down. I don't drink beer so who else besides me is down here? Must have been him. 

This hill coming up out of the bottom is more impressive in person than the photo shows. Go up that and down the other side and you will get to Ratcliff Lake and Park. Probably be later rather than sooner. Start early and bring food, water, toilet paper, sturdy shoes, a GPS and if it's spring time bug spray. 

I noticed about four of these signs along the road. They are boundary markers for the wilderness area and the trees have overgrown them. They give a brief reminder that nothing with wheels, motors (includes boats) or hang gliders are allowed. Somebody must have once had a pretty big screw up to get hang gliders on the list. 

I know guns and shooting animals can be controversial but I killed this one duck, baked it in a clay pot and ate it last week. It was delicious. If I could kill a couple more I would breast them out, invite my friend Charlie who loves to eat duck along with his wife Suzi over and have Cathy chicken fry them with gravy. 

That shot gun was given to me for Christmas by my dad. Best I can figure it was at least 48 years ago. I have my dad's old shotgun and I hunted with it a good bit after he passed. It's probably 60 to 70 years old and is retired. 

These are not the oldest things I regularly use. I have a tuba that's 86 years old and a banjo that's 98. The instruments and the shotgun have something in common in that they are the only ones I have ever needed.  

I did see a couple of ducks today. They were down aways and on the water. For a good clean shot they needed to be closer and I shouldered my gun but I could see it was going to be a messy, iffy try and I decided a crippled bird getting away around the bend before a fat old guy could wade the slough and get over for the retrieve was likely so I let them be. When I moved to put my gun down they spotted the movement and flew. 

Lucky I had my Ronco Pocket Fisherman with me. I've caught fish from Texas to the rain forest mountain streams of Puerto Rico and it kept the day from being a skunk.  

I caught this bass and lost a couple more on a chatter bait. I'd guess a native largemouth vs. the Florida bass that are stocked in the lakes these days. I wondered if way back up in this wilderness area slough he had ever seen a lure? 

There's not a bunch of ducks over at the big slough but I might try a few more getaways for the bass before spring weather brings the snakes out and believe me, it's possible that there might be more of them than there are ducks and bass.  

 

The Mudbelly Guitar History or a Book Someone Needs to Write if Anything Ever Happens...

 All the recent interest in the Beatles that has been brought back in focus with the new documentary "Get Back" that gave us insight into their creative process. For us guitar and gear nerds it was a pleasure to see what instruments and amps played what. 

This caused me to recall a website I once saw that must have had a photo as documented proof of every guitar and amp a Beatle was publicly seen playing and a history of that piece of gear. I can't seem to find that site but there are books written and another site very similar. The information on each item was amazing. I recall there were some amps spotted in the studio with one Beatle in the 1960s and then later spotted onstage at a live performance with another after the group disbanded. Imagine the call, "Hey you still got that old Fender Bassman, can I borrow it this weekend?" 

This trove of info reveals that the fab four were pretty much like all guitar guys (except they played much better and more creatively) with it came to guitars. They worked on them, painted them, sanded them down, had them stolen, backed over by cars and traded back and forth. It seems like I read in a book that Lennon had a room in the Dakoda where he stacked guitars against the wall much like I do. 

All this brings me to the old pawn shop Suzuki Classical guitar Bill Cooney gave me to repair in 2019. I made repairs and returned the guitar to him. It came back to me after his passing. I played it in public the first time this past week at a Religious Education Epiphany Celebration at my church. I decided if a bass guitar, what I usually play at church is not essential I'll play this guitar on the Spanish and bilingual music.    

Maybe one day some one will collect up all the photos of me playing my various instruments into a book and try to explain what I was doing. Should be interesting reading. 

If they write a book on Cathy there will be a lot of photos but they will all be the same guitar since that's the only one she owns. 

 

Don't forget to include photos of me playing the shaker I made from the belly dancer

ghungroo bells. It's not a guitar but it's a favorite. 

I guess the point here is play what you like. Something will happen and that's what everyone wants.  

 

    

Souvenirs...

When I was a kid and went on vacations with my parents I always kept an eye out for the souvenirs. Preferably an ideal item from a historical site visit would look like something a native indigenous person might have used. 

I'm still like that except I am always on the look out for a handmade musical instrument. I make many shakers and voo doo sticks of my own design but a box of rough, ethnic instruments handmade in a foreign country will have sounds you won't find in the bright plastic percussion items sold in stores. It's the vibe I'm looking for.  

I estimate I might have been collecting up maracas like this for close to 35 years and right this moment, even though I have had one of those days where I seem to have misplaced microphones, music and other equipment I can probably lay my hands on at least a dozen maracas. They have played a few gigs, been used by children's church choirs, seen action at at backyard fish fries and crawfish boils and generally had their integrity tested in many ways some of which they were not intended for.

All this takes a toll and these two examples in the photo had repairs made this week. Glue seals the cracks and firms up a grip that has the wiggles. Occasionally I find one that has no shake and I fill it with beads or dry beans and carefully calibrate the sound so it's at it's prime. 

We got a chance to load up the percussion box and provide some music for the Faith Formation Program at our church. We had some enthusiastic players and singers. I'm glad the maracas were up to their standards.           

Sometimes the best gigs are with people that don't even know how to play at all but use the music of the heart to make up the difference. 

Maybe that's why I keep the maracas in good repair. You never know who is going to pick one up during a song and leave you a souvenir. 

 

They Are Going to Pay for All Catfishing and Other Stuff Also...

I retired in May 2020 and joined a new club at the start of the New Year. It's a good organization. They send me money every month which I spend on catfishing. If I get a catfish fin stuck in my hand I just go to the hospital, present the card pictured and they pull it out. If a large catfish falls on my foot and breaks it I would imagine that the supplemental card might be needed and if there's a prescription involved or they legalize gummies or I require a cutting edge medical mushroom treatment there is a card for that also. 

Of course there is a slight stipend I pay each month to cover some of this. I don't mind. It's the way the world works. In fact the world works in such a way that most people don't realize what it does for them. 

Cathy joined the retirement club this month but is too young to be in the particular chapter I am a member of. To cover pulling catfish fins our of her she signed up for Heathcare.gov. If you call it that you filter out some of the bad reactions people have when they think they know all about about Obamacare which is the same thing. In reality it's a very good thing, something our healthcare advisor told us is here to stay and the coverage is very similar to the coverage offered by her previous employer. It also much cheaper than what the employer offered. It costs $0. Yeah, you read that right. 

Of course there is a catch to it costing $0 and that catch is we live on my catfish money, a traditional pension from one of my previous employers and a small stipend paid from our savings till Cathy is old enough to join my club and get her own catfish money. 

Judging from a talk I had planning this out with my finance guy (yes professional help pays off) most people cannot control their spending. It helps to work out a path like this if you are a dirty stinking catfishing hippie and not really spending all that much money to begin with.

Dirty stinking catfishing hippies live cheaper than you clean folks.      

 

The Great New Year's Day Catfish Round Up...

How does a fat boy spend a warmer than normal, yes dears climate change is real, New Year's Day? 

He spends it on the Great New Year's Day Catfish Round Up. 

There was not a single car on the boat ramp as other fishermen ganged up inside somewhere catching Covid instead of fish and we headed down the boat cut for the deep water spot where we most recently caught catfish. There were a few holding there but with an approaching cold front expected later in the night the wind was close to stirring up some white caps so we headed to a spot closer to the launch we call old reliable. Between these two stops we had enough catfish secured for a dinner that evening and were going to be able to fulfill a promise to my mother in law that we would deliver her some fresh frozen catfish later this week. We decided to check the shallow water bite.     

Here is the area we fished. Note the high water mark from last spring still on the cypress trees. Usually we fish where we can throw slip corks and punch bait right against that tree line that can be six feet deep in the spring. It's very shallow there now and we targeted 2.5' of water along a creek edge to the right in the photo that drops to 6' or so. We boated 8 fat channels, most full of eggs. With the mild weather might be an early spawn this year for all species.  

Cathy, who is on her second day of retirement boats a nice one. She always lays it by her foot to check the fish's length. I think her foot is a size 10 but she says that shoes in size 11 feel so good that she usually buys 12s and 12 inches is a good fillet sized catfish. 

There's a good look at Matt's slip cork rig. We like those Bass Pro Shops slip corks that come in a big cheap bag but any kind will work from a regular old salt water popping cork to the smaller foam Comal floats that I use to rig a light tackle shy bite set up. Slip corking is my favorite way to catch cats and in March they should really be in the shallows but I'll check for them if we see more mild winter days like this.   

We ended the day with 23 cats, a mix of blue and channel cat. 23 per trip was out 2021 average. We fished about 11:45 to 3pm. 

Later in the evening Anne joined us for grilled catfish, black eyed peas and corn bread. The New Year is off to a great start.