Friday Dallas Rambling Part 1

[George_Savage]

          Just got home (heard Just Got Paid by ZZ Top on the radio today, and I did, though that's not a first..) about 20 minutes ago, popped on the forum and Blaine Sanders had already put out the official setlist.  My great uncle was named Clyde Sanders, maybe we're distant kin!    Tonight's show was (again) Awesome!    Big surprise, right?  I am kidded a bunch by my friends about my MMJ fanaticism.  I have been told by friends that I would love an album of nothing but Jim James fart-sounds.   I wouldn't, believe me.  
But this band had kicked my ass since Day One - they are undoubtedly one of the greatest bands in the history of recorded music.
          Anyway, let me go back a bit - Duane Allman said something like "we're gonna do this one because I feel like singin'" before they did 'Dimples' live (Fillmore outtake, possibly?  I have it on one of his Anthology albums, check it out if you aren't familiar, it's highly recommended!).   And I am going to wear out my fingers and your patience because I feel like typin'!
           I saw 'em in Nashville on Monday.  I ended up driving home early on Tuesday because I was needed here in Texas.   But at least I was able to hit California last week.  I flew out to Vegas (my buddy Jimmy, Musical Guru, pronounces it 'Vay-Juss') and we drove to L. A. that night.    We ended up hitting several infamous places like the Bobby Fuller death scene, the Janis Joplin death hotel room, the Sam Cooke death site.  We stayed in Janis' room last Thursday at the Highland Gardens Hotel (formerly The Landmark - nice room, and no ghosts were found - we listened to some live Joplin as we drove around and visited various and sundry places like the Beach Boys monument (they put a concrete marker where their house was before the freeway took over in the '60s).
         Oh yeh, we visited the Tim Buckley collapse site and the site of Tim's untimely death in June of '75.   Sudden thought:  why am I going into this!?!?   Anyway, lastly, but I could go on...we stayed in the Joshua Tree Inn, the motel where Gram Parsons died on 9/19/73.   If you ever get out there you have to visit Pappy and Harriet's, a bar in Pioneertown, just North of Yucca City (Yucca Valley?, I think it's Yucca City...it's just West of Joshua Tree, CA, and in 1946 some Hollywood moguls built a "town" to resemble the old West and they've shot some movies there throughout the years).
          So we did that and I got back home to Texas on Saturday about midnight.  It would've been sooner but we endured a two and a half hour delay - guess that's better than a three hour tour.   Last Sunday I just kinda tried to relax.  I didn't wanna drive 10 hours on Monday to The Ryman, so I left about 5 PM and I drove on up towards Nashvayjuss.   I stayed in Brinkley, AR, and I saw that hilarious Seinfeld from 1992 involved Elaine and Jerry's flight: Jerry got the first-class ticket, Elaine endured the hell of coach, and Kramer and George picked them up.  It was so totally appropriate to laugh at/with since I had endured my own hellish flight problems just a day before.
            The next day was smooth sailing until I called my cousin and heard about the crisis.  That's cool, though.   I did get to see 'em at The Ryman, and our tickets were spectacular...we were about 20 feet out (second actual row)
and right in front of my son (Jim).   The Ryman show will go down as a historic event just because of the history in that building; Jim alluded to it a few times, and he wore a suit out there as you are aware of by now.   Matt, my buddy from Louisville but a current Atlanta resident, had seen 'em in Knoxville and Hotlanta.  We ended up getting a coupla beers at a joint near The Ryman.  I can't remember what it's called, but we were sitting there and he said "there's Tommy" - I thought he meant that it was a friend that he knew, but it was actually Two Tone (aka The Quiet Jacket and 'T') and Jim walking through.   As I am wont to do, I went over to 'em and said 'hello'.   We exchanged pleasantries and I just couldn't walk away without reminded them that I saw them in front of two fans in New Orleans on March 18, 2002!    They realize that I'm just a fanatic and probably on my way to Bellevue/Belleville/name your local mental facility!
Anyway, I am really proud of their success.  MMJ has a way of changing your life if you are big music fan.   I know that I will get an 'amen' from here.

[Mr. T.]

I'm off to Part 2, see you there...