LOUIS GOSSETT, JR. – R.I.P.

Guitar Shorty, R.I.P.

From Beachcomber Magazine, Destin, Florida, April 2010...

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Blues Great Guitar Shorty Rocks Beachcomberland June 6

By Christopher C. Manson

Alligator recording artist and blues legend Guitar Shorty returns to Destin’s The Shed Barbeque & Blues Joint Wednesday, June 6, for a FREE performance at 7 p.m. (He’ll play at Pensacola Beach’s Paradise Bar & Grill Inn the following night.) He’s no stranger to the area, having appeared last year at the Village of Baytowne Wharf’s concert series to great acclaim. This year marks the 55th anniversary of his first recording, and with 2010’s Bare Knuckle still eliciting well-deserved praise and earning the man new fans at every tour stop, Guitar Shorty shows no signs of slowing down.

You recorded your first single with Willie Dixon in 1957, and your latest album, Bare Knuckle, came out in 2010. How has the record industry changed for better or worse in 50-plus years?

It has changed tremendously. Most people are downloading now. I think it’s a (bad thing)…a lot of shops are closing up, everything is going to the Internet. Artists and record companies can lose a lot. You get a real CD, you get better quality sound.

“Please Mr. President” from Bare Knuckle was released during the current administration. Do you think Mr. Obama has done a good job, and what are your thoughts on the upcoming election?

I think he’s doing all right myself. All the things they say he’s done since he’s been in the White House, all that mess was there when he got there. Before he got there, actually. He’s getting the blame for all the things that have happened. There’s no way he could clean up all that mess in four years. I’m constantly getting emails with all these statements about him—I just delete ‘em. 

Your guitar style has been cited as an influence on Jimi Hendrix and Buddy Guy, among others. Who influenced you, and how did your style develop?

My uncle was the one that taught me how to play. I used to get mad ‘cause I couldn’t bend the strings like he did. My grandma would tell me to keep practicing. “One day it will happen.” And it happened. At the age of seven, I was playing. I never looked back since. I’ve had so many people help me coming along.

What’s your guitar of choice?

In 1994, I picked up a G&L. That’s the genuine Fender—the G stands for George, and the L stands for Leo. It’s been with me ever since.

This is the third or fourth time you’ve been to the area that I’m aware of. What are some of your favorite things about Northwest Florida?

I remember the barbecue. I ate so much, I felt like a bag (laughs). I’m looking forward to getting back there again.

You’ve worked with a lot of music greats. What were some of the highlights?

My first was Ray Charles. I was just 16 years old, and I got to go on the road with him. I was scared, but I learned a lot from working with him and his whole crew. They taught me a lot. My singing—phrasing the lyrics—is very similar to his. I played with B.B. King, which was great. I’ve done shows with Guitar Slim when I was doing flips and standing on my head. Sam Cooke and Lou Rawls. Back in the ‘90s, I did some stuff with Chuck Berry. Oh, man, I can’t think of ‘em all right now. My dream now is to be on a show with Eric Clapton—I’ve been trying to do that for the longest.

How many days a year are you and your band on the road?

I used to be on the road almost 300 days a year. Now I’m lucky if I can do 200 days. I just like to be on the road. I love to be on stage. I’m happy long as I got my guitar in my hand.

Tell me about your current band.

I have a complete new band now. Right now, I have my drummer Danny Gerass, he used to be with the Who. My bass player, Eric Ward, played with Marvin Gaye, and my rhythm guitar player, Mark Burgess, he sings as well. He’s been with lots of other dudes. 

 

Have any of the new generation of blues musicians captured your fancy?

I got so many young guys coming up after me it’s pathetic. There’s one out of Phoenix, Arizona called Nick Sterling—he’s kicking up sand like it’s nobody’s business. I gave him the nickname Guitar Nick.

What advice would you offer to blues up-and-comers?

If you wanna play the blues, you got to live it. On the other hand, if you’re gonna mess with playing, you have to be dead serious about it. I see so many people playing rock and roll that don’t have a clue. I don’t consider myself a blues player—I play rock—but I can play the blues with a rock edge. 

Do you ever think about retiring?

No. I’m like B.B. If he dies with his guitar in his hand, he’ll die happy. And I’m the same way. I’ve been on stage since I was 19 years old. I still walk, jog, do my stretches. People ask me if I get arthritis going up and down the neck of the guitar, but I don’t feel it. I can still do the same stuff I did when I started.

The Town That Music Rebuilt - John Swenson's "New Atlantis"

In 2011, I spoke to author John Swenson by phone from New York, where he was promoting his excellent book, New Atlantis: Musicians Battle for the Survival of New Orleans. The book is a tribute to the healing power of music…among other things.

New Atlantis benefits from a true insider’s perspective. How long have you been immersed in the New Orleans music scene?

I’ve been writing about New Orleans since the 1970s. I did a cover story for Crawdaddy in 1974 and I started going—I’m from New York—in the early ‘80s and covering the music there more thoroughly while doing other things. In 1999, I was hired as an editor of OffBeat magazine. So I’ve been pretty much exclusively writing about the music of New Orleans since then.

After the flood, it became not just a love but an obsession. Because writing about it—collecting stories about what people were going through—was how I dealt with my part of the recovery. I’m not much for fixing rooms and stuff. The story I was writing wasn’t magazine length. It became obvious the musicians were one of the main economic engines driving the recovery. They were the independent contractors coming back to the city and providing its character. In the years after the flood, the corporations left, and even the fast food places weren’t reopening.

There was a sense the city was finished, but the people who were part of the culture wouldn’t let that happen. Without the second lines and music in the streets, what is New Orleans? Fortunately, the new mayor Mitch Landrieu really gets that. It’s not just something that exists on the side to play at conventions. I think you’re going to see that since the flood, the French Quarter Festival has overtaken the Jazz Fest because it’s all local music. The main message is the music of New Orleans, and the numbers say more people come to the French Quarter Festival now.

One of the great things about your book is that it provides a comprehensive overview of the music recorded post-Katrina. Dr. John and the Lower 911’s The City That Care Forgot and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band’s What’s Going On I already knew and loved, but I thank you for introducing me to most of the others, especially John Boutte’s rendition of Randy Newman’s “Louisiana 1927.”

It’s amazing. He and Paul Sanchez collaborated on that. What I’ve done over the course of my life—I’ve been a reporter, done magazine work for Rolling Stone, a lot of newspaper work for UPI and Reuters—my basic strength is as a reporter. What I’ve been doing is reporting on what’s happening, and that’s reflected in the book. I try to cover a lot of ground.

I wish there was a companion soundtrack album for the book. I was fortunate to have MOG on my phone, so I could dial up a lot of the songs as I was reading.

I’m putting together a Web site now for the book, and I plan to stream music on it. I’ve already gotten some help from Mark Bingham. He’s given me a lot of stuff that’s been recorded at Piety Street, some of which has been released and some outtakes. My blog is johnswensonlistens.blogspot.com, and eventually there will be a link to the new site.

There are a lot of characters in the book, and it’s a tribute to your writing skills that I could keep up with them all.

When I originally wrote the book, it was half again as long. My editor at Oxford Press told me the book needed to be redesigned in terms of its narrative, that I should streamline it and take a few characters to make a storyline you could follow. I organized it around the Voices of the Wetlands All Stars—Tab Benoit, Dr. John, Cyril Neville—so it was easy to weave their stories for the book since it started there.

One of the gratifying things about covering the music after the flood is seeing the challenge and how the tragedy has tempered and changed the musicians. James Andrews was in the city playing when practically no one else was, and the music had a much more profound effect. Before, it was legacy music, but “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans” and “St. James Infirmary,” which I think is the anthem, take on a new meaning. The songs are so good, they reflect the contemporary reality of the flood.

And watching Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews develop… He was a virtuoso player, but in the years since the flood he’s developed into a great singer. Before that he was shy about his singing. He’s developed into a powerful bandleader, frontman and great organizer. I think he’s the single most exciting musician in New Orleans right now. He’s going to be a great star for a very long time. He was advised to move to L.A. and New York, like so many others have, but he insisted on staying close to home and being with his family—whenever he wasn’t on the road.

James and Troy’s cousin Glen David Andrews is someone I got a chance to cover a lot after the flood, and he ends up being the main character in the book because it’s not just the narrative arc with him---you can see character development. He’s so open about his feelings in his interviews with me. I see him in all these circumstances—succeeding, failing, struggling, reaching a moment of triumph. If there’s a main character in the book that embodies what New Orleans has gone through, I think it’s Glen.

Obviously, your book has been in the works for a long time, but is the renewed interest in New Orleans—I’m thinking of HBO’s Treme series—a happy coincidence?
Undoubtedly I’m benefitting from it. First of all, any fictional or nonfictional narratives about New Orleans after the flood with musicians as the main characters are going to have a lot of parallel development. Treme and my reporting overlap a lot. That’s not lost on people who watch Treme and read the book. (Creator) David Simon had wanted to do a New Orleans series before the flood, and he was sort of scouting around in the immediate aftermath and came across the first piece in OffBeat I wrote after the flood. It was a piece on DJ Davis Rogan where I talked about his album and how it reflected his personal life. David read the review and called Davis.

If you follow Treme, the Steve Zahn character is based on Rogan’s life. That’s why I think there’s such a bond between my book and Treme. I have an interesting task ahead of me. I’m working on a piece for OffBeat on Davis, following him around, watching the results of the HBO series… it’s like being in a dream. That show often gives me that feeling, and I think that’s why it has such a profound impact on people who lived through the flood. It rings true. The show is a semi-documentary in a sense, capturing the music and Mardi Gras Indians and brass bands in the streets. The quality of the production the Treme crew gets…the soundtrack album is a really important record for New Orleans history. It’s helped a number of people, like Davis, Glen David Andrews—if they use one of your songs you get, like, 10 grand, I think. That’s as much as some musicians make all year playing clubs. The impact of being on that show can really make a difference. For that alone, I thank David Simon.

What do you hope readers will come away with after they’ve finished New Atlantis?

I hope they listen to New Orleans music and get a feel for the people behind the records. New Orleans musicians treat music like a sacred trust, handed down from their ancestors. It’s different from the commercial pop world. I hope readers get a sense of that from the musicians’ stories. I wanted to tell their stories in their words. I hope they get a sense of who these people are and by extension how different they are from who you see on MTV and Entertainment Tonight. I hope when I’m not around anymore, future generations can read this book and understand what happened.

My Memories of Elvis, Who Would Be 10,000 Years Old Today If He'd Lived

You know, 10,000 years old, playing Ring Around the Roses with Peter, Paul and Moses or whatever.

Dad was definitely an Elvis guy. He had most of the LPs, which are now in my possession, and they still sound great. Every Sunday, he’s play them on the enormous record player (same size as the couch almost) in the living room.

I don’t specifically remember what the favorites were, but he did love ALOHA FROM HAWAII, which I’m a little cool on. I’ll never forget when I grabbed his copy of NBC-TV SPECIAL and listened to it upstairs. It blew my mind, and I didn’t think it could get any better than that. At least, until I watched the video.

Today I put on ELVIS’ GOLDEN RECORDS and 50,000,000 ELVIS FANS CAN’T BE WRONG (so far). The Sun recordings are a titch overrated, I think, but still pack a wallop. I really love the late-‘60s stuff. I don’t think the man ever sung better.

I’m old enough to remember the day Elvis died. I was in downtown Florence, Alabama, in front of Anderson’s Bookland on Court Street waiting to be picked up — by whom, I can’t recall, I don’t think my mother was driving in 1977. I was reading the STAR WARS issue of CRACKED Mazagine, which not only satirized George Lucas’ Immortal Classic brilliantly, but also included some socko (or was it boffo?) jokes about The Fonz and President Carter.

I didn’t become an Elvis fan til much later on, though on this night I felt bad for the old man. He’d made the pilgrimage to the International Hotel in Las Vegas during (I think) the first Elvis residence there. And dragged two-year-old me to the show, and being a two-year-old, I cried and screamed the whole time. My sister still gives me shit for this.

But at least I can tell everyone I saw The King live in concert! And before the scarves and fat took over.

My favorite Elvis records (today, anyway) are “Jailhouse Rock” (the ’68 SPECIAL version is even better than the original), “Follow That Dream,” “Bosom of Abraham,” “Hurt,” and, lately, the aforementioned tune about being born about 10,000 years ago. Wonder why Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks didn’t sue?

Also, the weirdo budget compilation LP C’MON EVERYBODY, which is finally on streaming but with some of the tracks out of order.

The best Elvis movies are FLAMING STAR (a real director, for starters), KING CREOLE (mainly for that “You go to school!” scene), the reimagined version of THAT’S THE WAY IT IS, the extended version of the THIS IS ELVIS documentary (great soundtrack, too), FOLLOW THAT DREAM (amusing), KID GALAHAD (because Charles Bronson’s in it), and CHANGE OF HABIT ‘cos it’s so fucking insane.

Also, TRUE ROMANCE (1993) should count as an Elvis movie.

My favorite Elvis book is the one by Dave Marsh titled, simply, ELVIS. The appendix lists alone put it on top. There was a time not too long ago that I’d devour any and every book about Elvis Presley, including the one by the cousin that nobody had ever heard of.

Aside from the ’68 special, my favorite Elvis TV appearance was when he hosted NBC’S SATURDAY NIGHT during the first season, with musical guests Paul McCartney and John Lennon, who showed up at the studio unannounced a week after Lorne Michaels’ Beatles reunion offer. Classic episode, and I wonder why you can’t find it on DVD, Hulu, Peacock, etc.

One of the coolest things about Elvis was that he could apparently quote the movie ACROSS 110TH STREET in its entirety. If only he’d covered the Bobby Womack title song. Wonder if he sang it around Graceland?

Maine Couple Not Sure Why They Keep Coming Here Every Winter - RATED R ***NSFW***

From the January issue of the local SNOWBIRDS magazine…

By Frank Bauggs, Editor and Publisher of SNOWBIRDS, because there’s no money in the budget to hire writers.

Ed and Gail Hickman began their latest adventure — retirement, coupled with some of those kinky sex things they’d always wanted to try when they were younger — in 2017.

Ed, aged 70, grew up in rural Massachusetts, and Gail, aged 67, in what she calls “deep in the darkest asshole of Maine.” They tied the knot back in 1991, but engaged in a lot of premarital hanky panky years before that.

The couple combined Ed’s two daughters from a previous marriage (“I don’t wanna talk about that cunt,” Ed tells me when I ask about his first wife) and some other assorted kids, pets and hangers-on into their family. The spend three or four months a year on the Emerald Coast, but they’re not sure why.

The Hickmans first visited Northwest Florida in 2010 to visit one of their daughters (“Can’t remember her name, sorry,” says Ed) who had relocated here with five of the couple’s 47 grandchildren. Ed and Gail attend and are active members at Destin’s Church of the Poisoned Mind.

They spend the rest of the year visiting their other children, who, Ed says, are “scattered all over the fucking country. What, do they think we’re made of gas money? We have a place on the beach. Why don’t they drive down here, for Christ’s sake?”

What did you do before retirement?

ED: You’re gonna need to speak up, the missus and I are a little hard of hearing.

WHAT. DID. YOU. DO. BEFORE. RETIREMENT?

ED: Jeeps, you don’t have to shout, fella. Honey, what did we do before we retired?

GAIL: What didn’t we do? (winks and laughs maniacally)

ED: He’s not talking about what we did in the boo-dwah, Gail. I can see you’ve been hitting that bottle pretty heavily, and it’s not even lunchtime yet.

GAIL: You damn skippy. Fuck it, I’m retired.

Has the Novel Coronavirus changed your habits while you’re here on the Redneck Riviera? If so, how?

ED: The Novel WOT?!

I’m sorry, the COVID-19. The Pandemic. The goddamn plague.

GAIL: Oh, yeah, they’re really off their nuts up there in Maine, enforcing mask wearing and social distancing, telling people they should hold off on exchanging bodily fluids. But we love that here in Florida, you guys just don’t give a fuck and act like everything’s normal.

ED: We like to go see that fella that plays for the Snowbirds at AJ’s. Wally, I think his name is, he’s from Ohio. And I swear to Christ, there’s more motherfuckers there than last winter. I kind of feel like they all just wanna die. But Gail and I have each other, and we don’t really care about any of those people anyway.

What activities do you enjoy?

GAIL: As you might have guessed, I like to get a little wobbly. I keep a bottle of vodka next to the bed, so I can have a big ol’ swig as soon as I wake up. And if I happen to get up in the middle of the night, all the better.

Ed and I like to go for a walk on the beach around eight o’clock in the morning. In my case, it’s a stumble on the beach.

ED: I pretty much like to nap and watch the Weather Channel. And I like some of those cute videos everybody shares on the Internet. We just watched one called CUM GUZZLING WHORES, and it was a doozy. We went to see the Cirque du Soleil show in Vegas last fall, and believe you me, they have nothing on the gals in that video.

Gail does a lot of cooking, and I have to — er, I mean LOVE — to eat anything she dishes out. We enjoy watching CELEBRITY BOWLING episodes on Amazon Prime. I feel bad that the kids don’t know what a badass Arte Johnson was, and how good that goddamn Creamettes macaroni tasted back in the day.

GAIL: Also, we love to go to the supermarket right when they open in the morning and buy up all the good stuff at the bakery. And if any of those Instacart weirdos are shopping we make sure we take up the whole aisle and walk really slow. Those losers don’t get paid by the hour, and they’re always in a hurry. But Ed and I, we’re not. Fuck ‘em, we’re retired.

From 2009: An Interview with Joan Jett

This article appeared in Beachcomber Magazine in October 2009. Although I missed Joan Jett's performance at the Destin Seafood Festival, I met up with her afterward and grabbed a photo. As you can see, she looked great. Me, not so much... - Chris

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts headline the Destin Seafood Festival Saturday night, Oct. 3. The Beat spoke to Jett recently about everything from her longtime collaboration with Kenny Laguna to her preference for live performances over studio recording.

“I liked her as a recording act when I first met her in 1979,” says Laguna, who tried to get Jett a record deal and was told by the head of Atlantic Records that she “shouldn’t hide behind a guitar.” “They would never say that about a guy.”

Laguna says Jett remains devoted to her live performances. “Her voice is never off, or her guitar playing,” he says. “Even Les Paul was in love with her playing. She makes eye contact with everyone (in the audience).”

Jett is most famous for her Billboard #1 hit “I Love Rock ‘n Roll” from 1982, but she has been making great music for years, most recently 2006’s Sinner. She and Laguna run Blackheart Records, home to Jett’s own recordings and notable albums by the Dollyrots (2007’s Because I’m Awesome) and Girl in a Coma (this year’s Trio B.C., on which Jett performs as well).

“Girl in a Coma is the best act I’ve run into in a while,” says Laguna. “The whole band is amazing.” He is not impressed by the “rock” acts on the radio these days. “Rock ‘n roll as an art form is not embraced by the radio. It’s all created crap. Some of these bands that are big and considered ‘rock’ are not really rock. There’s something insincere about it.

“Joan never made compromises or did things that would be considered short cuts to success. She turned down millions of dollars in endorsements. She’s very adamant about that.”

Jett and Laguna are executive-producing a new big screen biography of her first band the Runaways, and a brand new greatest hits CD is in the works. You can hear Jett’s immortal “Bad Reputation” on TV’s American Chopper and plenty of other classics everywhere else. Jett also appears in the new-to-DVD National Lampoon’s Endless Bummer, and it’s appropriate that the rock goddess would take on a role in a comedy about surfing—Jett and the band recently headlined the VANS Warped Tour.

You’re the first major female rock ‘n roller to own her own record label. What kinds of artists does Blackheart Records specifically look for?

I don’t know that we have a cut-and-dried plan. We sort of slant toward girls, but we sign bands with girls and guys. We do like all-girl bands. Rock ‘n roll—I can’t really define it. I’ll know it when I hear it.

Your partnership with Laguna is one of the longest lasting in the industry. Lennon-McCartney and Elton John-Bernie Taupin have nothing on you two.

I guess it’s true. It’s an abnormality, unfortunately. Kenny and I are friends first and foremost. We don’t compete—I’m happy if he gets credit. We’re not the same person. We fill in each other’s blanks. People get too caught up in the ego.

You seem to be everywhere these days. At first, I thought they were ripping you off with that Sunday Night Football theme, but I understand that’s not the case.

No, they wanted to use the song, change the words. I’m a sports fan. I thought, “Why not? Check it out, see what happens.” Faith Hill does a great job. I’m a Packers fan, but not by geography. As a little kid, I got into them because they were always muddy. As a six-year-old, that appealed to me. I do pay attention to the New York teams and root for them, but I’m not as emotionally attached.

Is the Destin gig going to be an in-and-out deal, or will you have some time to enjoy our beautiful beaches and exciting local music scene?

I don’t know that we’re gonna jump in and out. We might have a chance. There’s a band from Gainesville I like that we played with on the Warped Tour. Against Me! I gravitate towards their rhythm guitar player.

Your debut album Bad Reputation is an all-time classic, and Sinner is right up there with it. Are you currently working on new material?

You always are. I’m always writing. I think some of the new songs will end up on the new greatest hits. I’m always coming up with riffs and titles and putting them down and trying to put them together—like a puzzle, pretty much.

Your Fit to Be Tied: Great Hits of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts collection is one of my favorites. How will the new compilation top that, aside from including newer material?

We’re working on a lot of extra things for the fans. All the videos from the ‘80s, plus some we did for Sinner that people haven’t necessarily seen—“Androgynous” and “Change the World” and “A.C.D.C.”

What are your thoughts on the current music industry?

It’s in trouble. It’s a normal course of how things go, the cycles of business and technology—it’s happened all throughout the industrial age. New technology replaces the old. I think that’s what’s happening—when you talk about people making new material, it’s a new “file,” not a CD. I don’t know what to think about it. It’s different from when I started out. I try not to think of it as a good thing or a bad thing, but try to deal with it and navigate it and run a business in this sort of climate.

You’re one of the few rockers to have made a successful leap to films (notably Paul Schrader’s Light of Day). What projects attract you?

I like to do things that are as different for me as possible. Not always the kind of things people see me in. You have to get experience—I don’t mind playing the occasional rock star here and there, but I like to do things outside of what people think I can handle. Most of the things I’ve done have been some take on a musician.

I did Rocky Horror on Broadway for eight months—that was a lot of fun. I remember the movie coming out in the mid ‘70s, and it coincided with the forming of the Runaways. It brought back a lot of good memories. The people that work on Broadway are so talented and work so hard. It’s a world unto itself. I was worried I couldn’t handle that when I got the part.

Everyone knows “I Love Rock and Roll,” your #1 hit from 1982. My personal favorite is “Fake Friends.” What are yours?

Jett: I don’t really have favorites, but I’d pick a lot that aren’t singles, particularly the album Pure and Simple from the ‘90s. Most of those songs I love, “Go Home” and “Rubber and Glue.”

 

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LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS ABOUT JOAN JETT

- Jett left high school in the 11th grade to go on world tours with the Runaways. She studied while on the road and got her GED.
 
- Jett’s label Blackheart Records was formed only because no major or indie label was willing to take a chance on her, although she had already recorded and presented "I Love Rock and Roll," "Bad Reputation," "Do You Wanna Touch Me" and "Crimson and Clover."
 
- Jett was the first major artist from an English-speaking country to perform in Panama. She visited Roberto Duran in the hospital with his whole family and physically turned the big wheels to open the Panama Canal, a rare honor for anyone. While there, Jett appeared on a live Panamanian TV talk show, and thousands of Panamanians gathered outside the studio. When she tried to exit, a major riot ensued. Then-president Noriega called out his troops to get Jett back to safety. Later, he sent the presidential airplane to pick up Jett and take her to his palace for a presidential rendezvous. Jett was not eager for a night alone with El Presidente at his digs, so the U.S. military, fearing an international incident, whisked her out of the country.
 
- Jett was the first artist to buy S&M studs and leather and use it for rock and roll stage clothes. This look has become the standard for rock ‘n roll, punk and heavy metal fashion. She gave Sid Vicious the "ring" belt she bought at the Pleasure Chest in Hollywood, and he wore all the time.
 
- Jett was the first American of any kind to perform behind the Iron Curtain in satellite countries, when she went to the DDR (East Germany) in 1982. Jett was paid in antiques, caviar, and Russian vodka, none of which were useful to her.
 
- A punk producer of note, Jett produced the Germs' GI, the seminal American punk album, when she was still a teenager. She also produced Bikini Kill and Circus Lupus (for Fugazi's Dischord label). This year she produced the Vacancies’ A Beat Missing or a Silence Added, which has already made the college radio charts and is on the way to mainstream success.
 
- She is active in politics and was Howard Dean's first celebrity supporter. Jett stood on stage with him while he gave his notorious "I Have a Scream" speech in Iowa.
 
- Jett has been a big supporter of American troops throughout her career. Aside from a few war correspondents, she is the only noncombatant who has been in more active war zones than anyone else, including senators and congressmen. She was the first to entertain the troops in the Kosovo war, and the first noncombatant to sleep in the war zone during Operation Enduring Freedom. Jett was not only the first to go to Afghanistan (when she went deep "downrange" with no equipment other than a guitar and a battery amp with no band or crew), she was the second entertainer when she returned a few months later with her band. She is the only antiwar activist to be featured on Oliver North’s War Stories because—although she has a different political persuasion than most military people—she has been right there when called to support the troops, even when she does not agree with the policy. Her many activities with the troops are largely unnoticed, since she has not permitted any publicity to be done around these events.
 
- Jett sang the national anthem for her friend Cal Ripken when he tied and broke Lou Gehrig's "unbreakable" consecutive games played record in 1995. Jett sat with baseball legends Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio and Frank Robinson, along with President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.

- She was the “wake-up call” on fight days for former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson from the sixth fight in his career on until Tyson changed management. They met doing the cover of In Fashion magazine for charity. The first fight for which Jett did not call Tyson to wake him on fight day was the boxer’s first loss, to Buster Douglas.

- On one trip to entertain the troops in Turkey and the Middle East, Jett was traveling with the Secretary of the Air Force. Jett had requested a trip to Jerusalem while she was playing on the USS Bataan in the harbor of Haifa. When the Israeli colonel guarding her was distracted by her band members, Jett wandered over to the Wailing Wall. Not acquainted with the culture—and looking rather androgynous while covered up with jackets on a cold December day—Jett accepted a yarmulke from one of the guards and pranced over to the men's side of the wailing wall to make a prayer. This intrusion of the sacred rules was a major no-no. Just as Jett noticed a bunch of women at another part of the wall, the Israeli colonel appeared. He was freaking out and screaming, "INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT!! INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT! " at Jett's manager. The American Marines watching this were getting ready to protect Jett from the hordes of orthodox worshippers who would surely try to exact retribution if they discovered the transgression. As a British filmmaker captured all of this, Jett's manager stealthily eased her out of harm’s way. The Israeli detail assigned to the trip agreed never to speak of this to anyone.

From 2011: Rodney Crowell on His Memoir CHINABERRY SIDEWALKS

Note: Much of my work for the Northwest Florida Beachcomber Magazine (R.I.P.) is still online, with some glaring exceptions...one being this interview with the great singer-songwriter-author Rodney Crowell, whom I had the pleasure of meeting (stalking?) at the first 30A Songwriters Festival back in 2009. In this 2011 piece, Mr. Crowell talks about his memoir Chinaberry Sidewalks, among other things. - Chris

Author Rodney Crowell reads from his memoir CHINABERRY SIDEWALKS during January’s 30A Songwriters Festival at Central Square Records in Seaside. Photo by Shelly Swanger.

Grammy Award winning singer-songwriter-producer and two-time 30A Songwriters Festival performer Rodney Crowell’s outstanding new memoir Chinaberry Sidewalks is available in stores now and at www.rodneycrowell.com. The Beachcomber caught up with Crowell by phone as he was packing for a three-week solo tour.

 

First, I want to thank you on behalf of everyone who attended the 30A Songwriters Festival for making your book available the weekend prior to its official release date. The live readings were an unexpected treat for the festival goers.

That’s the show I’m doing on the tour I’m starting. It’s designed to showcase the book, and I guess you got a little bit of it while I was down in Florida. It’s a storytelling evening, basically just trying to understand the culture I sprang from.

Rodney Crowell reads from Chinaberry Sidewalks at the 2011 30A Songwriters Festival.

 

Chinaberry Sidewalks is amazing—vivid, moving and funny. What led you to write the book, and what took so long?

It took so long because I had to learn how to do it. It’s a different canvas than songwriting. I had to learn new brush strokes. To get prose to “sing,” the mechanics are different. More reason to write the book was that it was in me and wanted to get out in book form. So I taught myself how to write.

 

How crucial a role did Mary Karr, whose memoir Lit you championed on your website, play in the writing process for you?

She’s my friend, and Mary and I had an ongoing conversation about writing. I shared what I knew about writing songs, and she shared how to get a book into the world. There were some key moments when she said to me just the right thing at the right time.

 

What would you say to longtime fans that pick up the book expecting sordid stories of your life in the music business?

If that’s the case, they’re not longtime fans. I think anyone who’s a longtime fan of mine…I had no feeling there was any entertainment value for me or respecting readers to come up with a stock “here’s the story of my career.”

 

Some of the events described in Chinaberry Sidewalks have been covered in your songs, notably the first time you saw Johnny Cash perform (“I Walk the Line Revisited” from 2001’s The Houston Kid). And several of the songs on 1989’s Keys to the Highway dealt with the pain of losing your father.

As a songwriter, I’ve been a memoirist all along to some degree, especially with The Houston Kid. The first song I wrote, “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight,” is sort of a fictional memoir.

 

What are some of the key differences between the music and book publishing industries?

I’m so new in publishing, I’m an innocent. I didn’t know who some of the key reviewers were, like Jonathan Yardley at the Washington Post. It’s kind of fun. I’m learning things as I go. I had my first major book signing in Jackson, Mississippi, and they opened the book for me to sign, and I was signing the wrong page! I’m fresh meat.

 

I listened to the unabridged audiobook, and I think you did a great job bringing these stories to life. Of course, you’re no stranger to the recording studio, but what was it like narrating nearly nine hours worth of material unaccompanied?

It was work, as you can imagine. About the third day I got good at it, and after I finished on the fourth day, I went back and reread the first four chapters with a certain amount of confidence and panache. That first seven pages I read in near-flawless fashion—my tongue had loosened up. It’s enough work…the next book I write I’ll think twice before I saddle up for that.

 

So there will be another book?

I’m proud of this book, and I’m picking up the shovel to get it sold and get the readership to demand another one.

 

The response so far has been overwhelmingly positive. Does this surprise you at all?

Yes, it does. Somebody’s gonna get me. You can’t please everyone, I learned that a long time ago. In terms of music, my skin is thick enough I don’t care. But I want everyone to love this book. It’s a reinvention. So far it’s been really great. I expect it will be for the most part well received, but I understand some people are very dynamic in expressing what they don’t like.

 

You played a couple of songs you co-wrote with Ms. Karr at the 30A Songwriters Festival. Is a new album in the works?

Yes, we’ve been purposely writing songs to create a record or a CD or whatever they are these days. They’re not all recorded yet, but it won’t be too long.

 

What are you reading these days?

Adam Ross’ Mr. Peanut. Excellent fiction writer. We share the same editor and have gotten to be friendly. He’s really gifted. I just finished a book by David Mitchell called Cloud Atlas that I would recommend. They’re both wickedly insightful writers—I really admire that.

 

We’ve enjoyed having you here for the past two winters. What do we have to do to get you to come back again?

Not much. I really like the people down there. I wrote most of the last chapter or two of my book on 30A, looking straight out at the Gulf. I’m creatively connected down there.

- Christopher C. Manson