Sunday, March 16, 2008
The Walls of Red Wing
"Oh, some of us will end up in Saint Cloud Prision, and some of us will wind up to be lawyers and things....inside the Walls....the Walls of Red Wing." Dylan. Tony Glover was in the opening band last night. Wise old owl harmonica player. His notes to Dylan's 1966 Manchester Hall release (The Judas concert) was brilliant writing. He also appears in the Scorcese Dylan film. Told me he liked "Hotwalker." Mumbled something about it being my "carnival piece." We played in the great hall of the Cedar Cultural center and Rosalie Sorrells was in town to do recording. She came up and sang Townes Van Zandt's "Snowing on Raton," with me. Wonderful lady. Her song "The Last Go Round," is one of the great cowboys songs of the last fifty years. Spent a wonderful evening years ago at Grimes Creek in Idaho at Rosalie's cabin - her father built it by hand. She heated it with four wood stoves - one of them a Basque sheepherder's oven. She served roast pork, and in between food courses pulled books out of vast bookcases and read poems from her favorite Beat writers.....like Lew Welch (who walked off into the woods with a bottle of whiskey and a gun and hasn't been seen since.) "I saw myself as a ring of bone in the clear stream of things....then I saw ring as what a bell does." Lew Welch. Nights when I am sane. They told me that before he died, Mickey Newbury had my "The Man From God Knows Where" lying on his bedside table. I don't know why I thought of that. One more gig in St. Cloud, then home. Craving sunshine....pizza guy delivered a pizza a one in the morning last night and said "I like your boots, man. El Paso? You got sunsets there, right? It's all earth and sky down there....." Yep. All earth and sky.
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6 comments:
Great show at the Cedar last night, Tom! I loved the music--John Rodine and his band (good to see Tony Glover) and, of course, yours. Michael Martin is an excellent guitar/mandolin player. Thanks, too, for inviting Rosalie Sorrels on the stage. I didn't realize I was seated next to a legend.
Here's some photos from the show:
With Rosalie
Tom and Michael
John Rodine & Friends
These posts are great reading, Tom. Laura Newbury confirms it, too - re: The Man From God Knows
Where - and Mickey had good taste.
Sat with Rosalie almost 30 years ago,
when I was wet behind the ears,
and being able to listen to her was
like going to the best kind of school
there is. See you up the road.
DL
TR . . .
" Leadbelly left for dead with his throat cut , later to sing his way out of the prison walls.
Howlin' Wolf still plowing behind a mule while recording with Sam Phillips, before Chicago.
Dave Van Ronk in an unheated Paris garrett with frozen fingers to steel strings just to create friction and warmth.
Tom Russells band being used as cover up noise for a planned shooting and murder in a Van Couver skid row bar. Driving a hack in NYC. Paying dues. All the great ones must suffer to it ". -ST
PAGE - 2
Yes that should have been " Vancouver B. C. ". It went under the spellcheck radar, I guess. Slippery devil.
Somewhere in the middle of lonely Kansas, listening to Mississippi Fred McDowell's " I Don't Play No Rock N' Roll"
double disc cd. Slide guitar that could split atoms along with lessons in The Blues. A long way from . . . no home.
-ST
TR . . . I am reading what would be an excellent compendium to your " Carnival Piece " which I consider to be your masterpiece. Like Firesign Theatre you have created " movies for the mind . The referred to book is:
WRITING
LOS ANGELES
A Literary Anthology
Edited by: David L. Ulin
( The Library of America )
Also, regarding L. Cohen. Check out Anjani's " Blue Alert " that LC produced. A DVD is also included. Shout Factory also put out the Hal Wilner produced DVD and tribute to LC. All, just like your carnival ,more than worth the price of admission.
-ST
XVIII wheels and a P.O.Box
From Ripon, CA enjoying the cool Delta breeze.
Correction:
I believe I was mistaken in connecting Shout Factory with the " I'm Your Man " tribute DVD to Leonard Cohen. I am pretty sure Hal Willner did produce it though and he has done several DVD's for Shout Factory. I have misplaced my copy or I would confirm it. Did not want to send anybody on a wild goose chase. Tom has his hands full as it is with his own.
-ST
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