"Down Through The Years" by Jean Shepard, On Reading Her Autobiography

My wife Candice and I just completed reading this 2014 autobiography of Jean Shepard who was one of the first major female stars in country music, and also the first female star to have a #1 Hit on the charts which was actually her first released single, "Dear John", which was a duet piece of sorts with Ferlin Husky. Husky didn't actually sing on the song but narrated a soliloqy by a male figure in the song who is abandoned by the female protagonist who marries his brother while he is in a war zone in the military. The book is well worth reading despite several weaknesses. The text was recorded by Jean Shepard on cassete tapes and transcribed by a secretary. The transcription is literal, without any editing, and often has clearly recognizable errors in grammar and syntax which are assume are due to the secretary's faithful verbatim rendering of Jean Shepard's dialect which was rooted in her native Oklahoma. The book is composed of a Foreword, twelve numbered and titled chapters, and three other sections which are labled as "Endnote From Jean", "Special People", and "Acknowledgements". The book has no clearly identified publisher other than the author, but it does have an ISBN Number. It is somewhat oddly produced and took me some time to locate a copy on the internet. The book is filled with page after page of anecdotesa about Shepard's life, her rapid rise to stardom, the fifty plus year career she had, and the many friends both famous and unknown which she developed during her lifetime. There is sizeable discussion of her brief marriage to Hawkshaw Hawkins before his death in the same plane crash which killed Patsy Cline and Cowboy Copas. She also delivers what appears to be honest discussion of her other three marriages which are comprised of one before her fame which was annulled due to domestic violence, another brief marriage to a Nashville detective after Hawkins' death, and her marriage of nearly forty years until her death to Benny Birchfield who was a man of many talents: guitarist, bus driver, mechanic, and devoted family man who raised his own son with Shephard and her two previous sons by Hawkins. It is an easy read in short sections within the chapters. It is also well worth reading if you like country music, especially classic country music. You could have difficulty, as I did, in finding a copy on the typical used book websites due to the unexplained publication route the book took. But when you find it, you will enjoy it!

"A Song To Kill For" by Billy Edd Wheeler

"A Song To Kill For" is Billy Edd Wheeler's only novel. Wheeler is best known as a songwriter and playwright in addition to also having done some performing in the field of country music, having been a popular after dinner speaker for many years. This novel was self-published under the label Infinity Publishing which is virtually non-existent on the internet. They have been defunct since October 2023. I purchased this copy from Amazon and it was publication on demand. I'm not certain if Infinity which had been primarily a children's book publisher was an imprint of Amazon, or if it might have been owned by Wheeler and later sold to Amazon. While this is a self-published novel,Wheeler has a lenghty history as a playwright having written at least nine plays, several of which were produced for quite a few years as outdoor dramas around the southeastern US and Midwest. Wheeler also wrote several songs which were major hits as performed by others. Those songs include "Jackson" which was a signature duet for Johnny Cash and June Carter; "The Reverend Mister Black" which was a hit for the Kingston Trio;"Coward Of The County" which was a massive hit for Kenny Rogers; and, "Coal Tattoo" which has been recoreded by numerous artists with history in the Appalachian Coalfields including Kathy Mattea, The Kingston Trio, and Jim Croce. His well received plays include ""Hatfields and McCoys", "Young Abe Lincoln", and "Johnny Appleseed". It shouldn't surprise anyone to know that his greatest impact as a writer came in the area of playwriting since he held a masters degree in playwriting from Yale University in addition to his bachelors degree from Berea COllege. This book is worth reading even though it is not a great novel. It is funny, fairly well plotted, and has some well developed characters including the protagonist Gabriel Leatherwood who seems to, at least in part, to have been an alter ego of Wheeler himself. Leatherwood is a native West Virginian who is a musician and songwriter who traveld to Nashville only to have several of his early songs stolen by the lead villian who is the owner of music publishing company. Leatherwood decides to take on the company and its owner along with a sizeable cast of lesser villians who assist in his crimes including murder. Along the way, Leatherwood is lucky enough to fall in love with a beautiful female attorney, get invited to the White House to perform, and survive a rather graphic attempted murder by one of those villians. In the end, he marries the heroine, saves his songs, becomes rather wealthy, and chooses to return to Appalachian West Virginia with the woman of his dreams. I repeat, the book is worth reading especially if you are a musician of the country persuasion, an Appalachian, a writer,or if you enjoy crime stories and mysteries. It is not a great novel or a perfect novel. But it is worthy attempt at a first novel by a gifted writer in other areas of the arts.

Billy Edd Wheeler, Appalachian Polymath: Reflections On The Death Of A Great Appalachian

On September 16, 2024, Billy Edd Wheeler died at his home in North Carolina at the age of 91.  Depending on whom you ask, you could hear Wheeler described as a practitioner of various occupations and, before you ask, you should know that he was a master at several.  He was a song writer and performer, an author of nearly a dozen books, a college administrator, a humorist, and a playwright.  He was admired all across Appalachia as a shining example of what a great Appalachian should be and what all Appalachians should seek to become.  Several of his songs have embedded themselves deep in the psyche of the country.  His half dozen books of humor, co-authored with another great Appalachian, Loyal Jones, are found on the display shelves of book stores, variety stores, and general merchandise establishments.  Several of those humor books are likely to be reprinted for years to come.  He was also the author of several outdoor dramas in states as varied as his native West Virginia to Indiana, Ohio, and Kentucky.  Wheeler was a man of man talents and he worked daily to utilize them all to the best of his prodigious ability.  In addition to those occupations from which he received most of his support, he was also a painter, wood worker, and sculptor whose works were actually good enough to be displayed in several galleries over the years.  

 

 

He was the  son of a mother who raised to be man enough at 16 to climb on a bus in his native West Virginia and travel to Swannanoa, North Carolina, to a residential school with only a single dollar in his pocket.  Over the years after that fateful trip to North Carolina, he served his country as a student pilot, was hired as Alumni Director at his alma mater Berea College, and completed graduate school in play writing at  Yale University.  His was truly a varied and prodigiously productive life.  

 

I never knew Billy Edd Wheeler but we have had three mutual friends including his coauthor of six books Loyal Jones, and Betty Lynn whom he hired as a secretary at Berea College and who also worked with Wheeler and Jones on the publication of their books.  My friend Betty Lynn had this to say about Billy Edd Wheeler: "I read the obit, but it didn't list BEW's first job out of BC. He was associated with the outdoor drama, "Wilderness Road" at Berea, and was the Alumni Director for a few years before going to Yale. He hired me in Jan.'59 to be the secretary/office mgr. in Alumni Office; and we completed the Alumni Memorial Bldg. in 196l under his leadership. I started being Assoc. Ed. of THE BEREA ALUMNUS, a publication for alumni, staff and the campus, under his leadership. I worked with him and Loyal Jones on the Traditional Music events, held annually on the campus and in the publication of their humor books. BEW wrote several outdoor dramas, one in Indiana about Abe Lincoln; one in West, KY at Murray (I went to both of those) and one in WVA about Hatfields/McCoys; and, maybe others? He put out several albums himself, I have most of them. He was very talented!"  

Another friend who had worked with Billy Edd Wheeler on an outdoor drama in North Carolina said, "he authored our sesquicentennial play in MacDowell County some years ago. 1993. " Voices In The Wind". My oldest daughter and I were both in the show. He was quite taken with her performance, at 9 years old!"   Billy Edd Wheeler was obviously a man who enjoyed watching children develop their talents and was willing to reward them for their achievements.  

I have not even mentioned the things I appreciate most about Billy Edd Wheeler and his amazing life.  I love his obvious zest for life and his ability to achieve success in many fields, his lifelong striving to produce high quality work, his outstanding example for other ambitious Appalachians, and his incredible song writing ability.  I consider three of his songs about the coal mining life to be among the ten or so best songs ever written about coal mining.  "Coal Tattoo" is an incredibly masterful work about the difficulty of being a coal miner and facing periodic layoffs and injuries from the profession.  He addressed the frequent loss of a job in coal mining in that song with these words: 

Travelin' down that coal town road,
Listen to those rubber tires whine;
Goodbye to Buckeye and White Sycamore,
I'm leavin' you behind.
I been a coal man all my life
Layin' down track in the hole,
Got a back like an ironwood bent by the wind
Blood veins blue as the coal.

Then he went on to address the frequent injuries in coal mining with one of the great metaphors in all of song writing, comparing a near death experience in the mines with a tattoo,  And yet, that same stanza ends with another reference to the typical coal miner's love of the job which has nearly killed him: 

 Somebody said "That's a strange tattoo
You have on the side of your head."
I said "That's a blue print left by the coal.
Just a little more and I'd be dead"
But I love the rumble and I love the dark
I love the cool of the slate.

Billy Edd Wheeler addressed the deaths and injuries in the coal mines once again in another of the best coal mining songs ever written, "Red Winged Blackbird".  

Oh, can't you see that pretty little bird
Singing with all his heart and soul
He's got a blood red spot on his wing
And all the rest of him is black as coal

Of all the colors I ever did see
Red and black are the ones I dread
For when a man spills blood on the coal
They carry him down from the coal mines dead

Fly away you red winged bird
Leave behind the miner's wife
She'll dream about you when you're gone
She'll dream about you all her life

Oh, can't you see that pretty little bird
Singing with all his heart and soul
He's got a blood red spot on his wing
And all the rest of him is black as coal

 Using the coloration of a beautiful bird, the red winged blackbird as a metaphor for the wounding, disabling, murdering  accidents inside a coal mine was a brilliant piece of writing.  "For when a man spills blood on the coal  They carry him down from the coal mines dead."   It is my personal opinion that Billy Edd Wheeler was the greatest writer of coal mining music who ever lived.  And he proved it once again the beautifully poignant song "The Coming Of The Roads" about a broken love affair and the death of a coal mining town.

Once I thanked God for our treasure
Now like rust it corrodes
And I can't help but blamin' your goin'
On the coming, the coming of the roads
No, I can't help but blamin' your goin'
On the coming, coming of the roads 

While I value the song writing of Billy Edd Wheeler most for his incredible contributions to the genre of coal mine music, I would be remiss if I didn't also mention that Wheeler also wrote a couple of other songs which were even more favorably regarded by the market place.  He was also the author of the songs "Coward Of The County" which was a Number 1 song for Kenny Rogers; "Jackson" which was often regarded as the signature song of Johnny Cash and June Carter; and the humorous "The Little Brown Shack Out Back" which Wheeler  himself took into the Top 10.  He is a member of the Nashville Song Writers Hall of Fame, the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame; and the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.  That, my friends, is a career. 

 

Colonel Hugh X. Lewis, In Memoriam, December 25, 1930--December 30, 2020

  

Hubert Bradley Lewis, known professionally as Colonel Hugh X. Lewis, died in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 29, 2020, only 4 days after hie 90th birthday due to Covid 19.  He had been born on Christmas Day 1930, in Yeadis, Kentucky, during the heart of the Great Depression and rose to nationwide fame as a country music singer and songwriter.  He was not touring but was still actively working until he became ill.  He was hosting a weekly radio show on WSGS-FM 101 in Hazard, Kentucky, and was a regular caller to the Faron And Scott Show on that station.  During those telephone calls, he would tell some of his thousands of stories about his life as a star in the world of country music from the 1950's to the time of his death. He had known, worked with, and often written songs for many of the biggest names in country music.  He had been married to his wife, Anna Mae Lewis, for 69 years at the time of his death.  He was always devoted to his wife and family and could accurately be described as a "family man" as you can see in the photo below.  He reputedly began hitchhiking from Southeastern Kentucky to Nashville to try to get a start in the music business shortly after he was married and working as a coal miner.  He was a fascinating man with a wonderful memory right up until his death, loved to meet and come to know people, no matter who they were, and could literally talk about any subject.  He will be greatly missed and long remembered both by those who knew and worked with him and by thousands who knew him only as a wonderful story teller on WSGS. 

 

 I have been a regular listener to WSGS-FM 101 in Hazard, KY, for more than 60 years and in the last few years one of the best aspects of that station, which I consider to be the best radio station around, was the fact that about once a week The Colonel would call in to the Faron And Scott Show and talk at length about his long career in country music, the stars and common people he knew, the places he played, the songs and poetry he wrote, and the long happy, productive life he had led. I'm sorry I never got to know him personally. It is a real tragedy that he died at a time when he was still being productive and from a pandemic which never had to happen if the federal government had done its job in early 2020. Hugh X. Lewis has now joined Charley Pride, Joe Diffy, and John Prine on the list of innocent victims of this American tragedy. Somewhere, that is a pretty damn good band! 

 

 

Suicide As A Theme In Country And Bluegrass Music

This is a topic which I have considered writing about on this blog for quite some time after having written my previous post about what I call "Dead Baby Music" in Bluegrass.  I recently heard a song by Bluegrass banjo player and comedian David "String Bean" Akemon called "Suicide Blues" which is so strongly and clearly about suicide that I knew I had to write this blog post.  With the general public perception of String Bean as being primarily a comedian, I know many of you probably don't think he ever recorded a serious song. I am uncertain about who wrote the song since I have also located a 1919 version of it recorded by a man named Arthur Collins who was known as a ragtime singer.

David "String Bean" Akemon--Photo by Wide Open Country

But "Suicide Blues" is not the only serious song String Bean ever recorded.  He also wrote and recorded a strongly worded anti-Vietnam War song called "Crazy Vietnam War" which took me by surprise when I found it recently.  I also have to say that it surprised me even after I have known one of his banjo playing nephews, Phillip Akemon, who is a man of many talents in Gray Hawk, Kentucky, not far from where String Bean grew up in Annville, Kentucky.  But, to get to "Suicide Blues", here are the lyrics: 

I go downtown
Lay by the railroad tracks
I'm gonna go downtown
Lay down by the railroad tracks
You see I don't want nothin'
Since my baby, she ain't comin' back

My lady she's gone
Took all my reason to live
My baby she gone
Took all my reason to live
Since she don't want me
I got nothin' left to give

Chorus:
She won't see me
Won't pick up the telephone
I wonder if she knows
She's the reason that I'll be gone

Lay in my bed
Stare at the ceiling for a while
I'm gonna lay in my bed
Stare at the ceiling for a while
My baby gonna miss me
My lady gonna miss me when I die

(Repeat Chorus)

Got my pills
Got my bottle of gin
I'm gonna swallow my pills
Swallow my bottle of gin
When I close my eyes
I won't see the sun again

(Repeat Chorus)

Get me a gun
Go back into my room
I'm gonna get me a gun
One with a barrel or two
You know I'm better off dead than
Singing these suicide blues

There are no more clearly suicidal lyrics ever written than those above recorded by David "String Bean" Akemon and Arthur Collins.  Every verse has a clearly worded statement about suicide.  In the first verse, we read about the reason for the contemplated suicide "my baby, she ain't comin' back" and we also hear the first of several stated methods for suicide "I'm gonna go downtown Lay down by the railroad tracks".  In at least one recorded version of the song, String Bean changed the words in that stanza slightly in order to more directly reference suicide and sang  "I'm gonna go downtown and Lay my head on the railroad tracks".  The chorus expands on the blaming of the former girlfriend or wife   "I wonder if she knows She's the reason that I'll be gone".  In the second stanza, the reason for the suicide is discussed further  My lady she's gone Took all my reason to live."  The third stanza discusses a common theme among many actual victims of suicide and attempted suicide, the concept of having the person who is being blamed know about the suicide and the fact that "It is their fault".  I should also state here that I am a trained mental health and substance abuse therapist with a Master of Education degree in Counseling and Human Development, a Bachelor of Social Work degree, and more than twenty years experience in the field.  I have dealt with hundreds of potentially suicidal clients in my professional life.  The wording in that third stanza says "My baby gonna miss me My lady gonna miss me when I die".  The fourth stanza references a new method of suicide, substance abuse, with these words  "I'm gonna swallow my pills Swallow my bottle of gin When I close my eyes  I won't see the sun again".  This wording is also introducing the common idea among suicidal people of the world, either before or after death, as a dark place with the words "when I close my eyes I won't see the sun again". The fifth and concluding stanza of String Bean's "Suicide Blues" introduces the most common suicide method for men, gunfire, with the words  "I'm gonna get me a gun One with a barrel or two You know I'm better off dead than Singing these suicide blues".  I have no idea or information that David "String Bean" Akemon ever actually contemplated suicide but we all know that he had thought enough about it to record "Suicide Blues".  

Now, let's discuss the most popular song in country music of which I know that mentions suicide. That one is "The Ballad of Billy Joe"  which was recorded by Bobbie Gentry.  I am not including the full lyrics to the song here but, in the first stanza the song bluntly references the suicide of the character Billy Joe McAllister "I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge  Today, Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge".  Unlike "Suicide Blues", this song is written in the third person and it is the narrator who discusses the suicide in a manner which tells the listener that the suicide was unexpected.  In the second stanza, we see a common element which is seen after actual suicides when the lyrics place blame on the victim by saying "And papa said to mama, as he passed around the blackeyed peas Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense; pass the biscuits, please." These words lead us to understand that the victim was not considered reasonable or reasonably intelligent and that the character "Papa" blames "Billy Joe" for his own death.  This is one of the most enigmatic songs in all of country music in that it never clearly establishes a reason for the suicide being discussed but does establish a relationship between the victim and the narrator and her family. 

Bobbie Gentry--Photo by Rolling Stone

It also mentions the fact that the narrator is affected by the news and does not eat normally with these words from the fourth stanza "And mama said to me, child, what's happened to your appetite? I've been cookin' all morning, and you haven't touched a single bite".  That fourth stanza is just loaded with information, lack of information, and  is the basis of the major enigma of the song as well as what I believe is the source of much of its undying popularity with these further words  "He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge".    The final stanza has the narrator tell us "And me, I spend a lot of time pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge".  This stanza seals the deal on the enigma(s) of the song in more than one way.  It establishes that the narrator has returned to the Tallahatchie Bridge to throw flowers, a common sign of mourning, into the river where Billie Joe McAllister commited suicide and where the two of them were presumably seen throwing something off the bridge.  What it does not tell us is what the two people were seen throwing off the bridge, why Billie Joe actually committed suicide, or exactly what constituted their connection.

One of my favorite performers and song writers of all time, Tom T. Hall, wrote a song called "The Rolling Mills Of Middletown" in which the narrators friend disappears in a steel mill in the Ohio steel town of Middletown to which hundreds, if not thousands, of native Appalachians moved in the Great Migration.  In that song, the narrator tells a story of his friend who is a worker in a steel mill who marries a woman of questionable morals.  "I knew he shouldn't marry any woman quite that wild Then later on I learned that she had been expectin' a child."  After the marriage, things go down hill as they often do, both in real life and in country music songs.  "He worked all night she shopped all day bought everything that fit A helper on the BOF three thousand degrees at a round His wife was just about that hot in the bars in old Middletown  Of course he was the last to know".  Those lines continue the story of the deteriorating marriage and are reinforced by the line in the repeated refrain "the rolling mills of Middletown roll on, roll on, roll on".  That refrain is a clear indicator of the inevitability of life both for a steel mill worker and for the subject of the song in his unsalvageable marriage.  Then Tom T. Hall, who is one of the greatest songwriters who ever lived in my opinion, brings us to his own enigmatic conclusion.  "One night the foreman on his turn said, "Cool down No 2" And he told my friend to go on home as soon as he was through He stopped into a little bar to have a good cold beer His woman and some dayturn guy were dancing closely there Oh, I knew him well and in his mind there must have been a storm  While the rolling mills of Middletown roll on, roll, on roll on They say he never spoke a word he just turned and walked away".  The jilted husband now has irrevocable proof of his wife's infidelity and instead of confronting her and her companion "he just turned and walked away.  And no one knows exactly what took place that fateful day."  Hall, "The Storyteller" as he has been known for many years, has nearly brought this story to its sad conclusion.  He has left us with that lack of knowledge again and we don't know "what took place that fateful day."  All Hall leaves us with is the enigma of exactly what happened to his friend.  "Some say they saw him near the tracks at furnace No 1 With heat so hot the hubs of hell would seem just barely warm Well, they never saw my friend again did he do something wrong While the rolling mills of Middletown Ohio roll on, roll on, roll on."  He has left us with the friend's last known location "near the tracks at furnace No 1 With heat so hot the hubs of hell would seem just barely warm".  We do know that the friend was near the furnace which is described in that incredibly grapic line "With heat so hot the hubs of hell would seem just barely warm".  By using the words "hubs of hell" Hall has also inserted a reminder of the puritanical vision of Hell as a punishment for suicide which is often considered to be an unpardonable sin.  Just as we must come to our own conclusions about Billy Joe and the narrator in the previous song, we also must reach our own conclusions about the subject of Hall's wonderful suicide song.  The natural assumption is that either the distraught husband "did something wrong"  or that he deliberately walked into the death zone of the furnace.  No matter how you personally believe the man responded to his wife's infidelity, you have to conclude that it is a fine suicide song by one of the world's great songwriters.


Another of my favorite song writers of all time in both Country and Bluegrass Music is Dolly Parton who has written numerous songs in categories which I loosely call "Songs For Social Workers".  She wrote and recorded a song called "The Bridge" about a young pregnant woman who is contemplating suicide and that song is narrated in the first person. "You kissed me for the first time here An' held me awfully tight And the bridge became our favorite place We came here often in the night."  Parton, who is a songwriter in that same class among the greatest in both genres as is Tom T. Hall, has told us that the affair began on the bridge and she raises the symbolism of darkness by saying  "We came here often in the night".  And that mention of the night is naturally a premonition of the young woman's death.  The concluding stanza clearly leaves us knowing that the narrator has committed suicide when she says:   "To think that you could leave me here My heart is beating wild  Tonight, while standing on the bridge With our unborn child My feet are moving slowly Closer to the edge Here is where it started And here is where I'll end it....  Parton has left us with no doubt that her young, pregnant narrator will "end it" and step off the bridge to her death before her fatherless child can be born.  Interestingly, this song is only one of several which Parton has written and recorded about young women who become pregnant by men who later desert them although all the other female characters in those songs do not commit suicide.
 

A Young Dolly Parton--Photo by Good Housekeeping

While every singer and songwriter in Country and Bluegrass Music does not perform or write songs about suicide, enough of such songs have been written and recorded by musicians and writers in the two genres to make the subject of suicide a common theme in both types of music.  And both Dolly Parton and Tom T. Hall have strong histories and lifelong commitments to both genres.  Each of them has written and performed for many decades in both genres.  Both have written numerous songs in each genre which are among the best known in all of American music.  I am sure that we will never see the end of suicide as a subject in both Country and Bluegrass. 

John Prine, The Corona Virus, and The Great Compromise

John Prine, Photo by t2.gstatic.com

"I used to sleep at the foot of old glory
And awake in the dawn's early light
But much to my surprise when I opened my eyes
I was a victim of the great compromise"
"The Great Compromise" by John Prine

When John Prine (October 10, 1946-March 7, 2020) wrote, recorded, and released "The Great Compromise" in 1972, I don't think he had any idea he was a prophet.  Based on everything he has said, written, and sung, I believe he thought he was just another dissenting American speaking out against an unjust war in Viet Nam and a government which was ignoring the best interests of the nation and the world just as Thomas Paine did when he spoke out against England and King George.  But today, 48 or so years after the song "The Great Compromise" was recorded and released, John Prine  lay in an intensive care unit in a hospital in Nashville fighting for his life for more than a week and died yesterday, March 7, 2020, just as have more than 13,000 other Americans, as of today, March 8, 2020, because once again, America is suffering from a "Great Compromise".  Actually, Prine  fought for his life died due to the Corona Virus because nearly four years ago, Vladimir Putin and Russia were able to steal an American election and illegally install the worst traitor in the history of the world  in the White House.  Now, a little over three years after the agents of the US government stood silently and allowed that treason to take place, the United States is suffering from the worst disease pandemic since the 1918 flu epidemic and the polio epidemic of the early twentieth century.  The current Corona Virus pandemic would not be devastating the United States if we had a legally, duly elected president in the White House instead of the Russian agent who, on January 29, 2020, ignored the information provided by the US intelligence community and his economic adviser Peter Navarro which informed him that a Corona Virus pandemic was beginning in China and would be likely to spread across the entire world and into the United States.

TRAITOR Trump did nothing in January after being warned and has done as little as possible with his illegally obtained power to this very day.  He lies, obfuscates, prevaricates, distorts, misrepresents the truth, and denies  all responsibility for his malignant inaction and his deliberate destructive actions to avoid doing anything about the pandemic.  And today, Joe Diffie, Ken Shimura, CBS News reporter and producer Maria Mercader, Alan Merril, Mark Blum, chef Floyd Cardoz, playwright Terrence McNally and 13,000 other Americans have died because a TRAITOR lives in the White House after having committed TREASON with Vladimir Putin and Russia.  And now John Prine's name has been added to that list of the dead for the very same reason.  

When John Prine wrote "The Great Compromise" he was protesting the Viet Nam war in song.  But the words from that song above were highly prophetic about the pandemic we are facing today.  John Prine served the United States honorably in the US Army and as a mail carrier.  He literally slept at the foot of Old Glory during those years.  Today, John Prine's eyes eyes have been closed forever, his pen and his guitar have been silenced and, truly, irrevocably, he is a victim of "The Great Compromise" just as are all of us Americans who are forced to hide in our homes from a virus which could have been stopped with appropriate government actions at the onset if we had a legally, duly elected president who had the honor, intelligence, and moral character sufficient to take appropriate actions in the best interest of the country. 

But, as I said in the beginning of this requiem, John Prine was a prophet.  The words he wrote 48 years ago foretold his death due to the Corona Virus.  John Prine will continue to speak until the day America finally hold the TRAITOR Trump responsible for his TREASON.  

Marty Stuart, Vietnamese Food, and The Corona Virus

Last Saturday, March 7, 2020, my wife Candice and I attended a concert by Marty Stuart and The Fabulous Superlatives at the Lexington Opera House in Lexington, Kentucky.  We had bought the tickets several weeks before the corona virus pandemic and seriously considered just eating the price

Marty Stuart, Photo by Biography.com

of the tickets and not going because of the danger of being in a tightly packed crowd in a concert venue like the opera house which is a beautiful but small concert hall which was built and generally intended for performances such as opera, Shakespeare, and small classical music groups.  But I consulted with a friend who is a retired doctor with whom I served on a non-profit board for a couple of years.  She said that she is currently on immunosupressant treatments and still has not curtailed her activities in public.  Let me state, though, that the communication about the corona virus took place more than a week ago and what she said then might well not be what she would say when you read this post.  NEVER TAKE ADVICE ABOUT THE CORONA VIRUS FROM ANY SOURCE OTHER THAN THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL IN ATLANTA.  HERE IS A LINK TO THEIR WEBSITE.  Far too much wrong, foolhardy, and deliberately deceptive information about the corona virus is being handed out to the unsuspecting public and has been since a few weeks before the pandemic reached the United States and much of it has originated from the White House.  

Now, back to the evening of food and entertainment which is the primary topic of this blog post and was the sole reason we decided to take one last trip abroad from our home before shutting ourselves in as much as possible until the pandemic is brought under control.  Both my wife and I have always loved the work of Marty Stuart for many years.  He is a musical virtuoso and began earning a living as a road musician before he was a teenager.  He plays guitar, mandolin, bass, and fiddle, and could probably learn any other instrument he would choose to devote some time to.  He writes and performs in four different categories of music: country, bluegrass, gospel, and rock.  He has always had a wonderfully skilled and diverse band as well and they live up to the name The Fabulous Superlatives quite well. Ever person who has ever been a member of the band has played multiple instruments and sung well enough to be featured at times in the act.  My one regret in this concert is that we never saw Stuart while Paul Martin was still the bass player.  After several years of playing in the band, Martin left the group to perform with his wife and children in a family band.  He was replaced by Chris Scruggs, the grandson of virtuoso banjo player Earl Scruggs, who is a tremendous bass player whether he is playing the electric bass or what we Bluegrass fans fondly call the doghouse bass.  I do not say this to disparage Scrugg's musical ability in any way but I would have loved to see the band with Martin still in it. 

The concert was tremendous and the building was apparently at capacity despite the onset of the corona virus pandemic in Kentucky.  Since Candice is in a wheelchair, we were seated at the back of the front seating area in a row which is composed of straight backed chairs which can be moved to accommodate patrons in wheelchairs and might have had a little less contact with other concert goers than was true in any of the regular permanent seats.  The concert was billed as a "Pilgrim Concert" which meant that it featured a classic album of Stuart's from several years ago, "The Pilgrim", which has recently been reissued with several additional tracks.  The album was written in a form similar to "Tommy" by "The Who", a classic rock opera.  The album tells the story of two men and a woman from Stuart's hometown of Philadelphia, Mississippi.  It is complex, varied in its musical style and composition, and well worth listening to any time.  The story of the people it tells is about a tragic love triangle which results in the public suicide of the man who lost the woman's love.  The other man blames himself for the death of his rival and becomes a wanderer across America until he is able to contact the woman, learn that she loves him still, and wants him to return to Mississippi.  It is every bit as good a story as "Tommy" and just as pleasurable in a musical sense.  If you haven't heard it, listen to it on YouTube.  To say the least, we enjoyed the concert tremendously and have not yet shown any symptoms of corona virus although we are still not out of the two week incubation period which might even be a bit longer. 

Before the concert, we had a meal at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant, Pho Saigon, in Woodhill Shopping Center just off New Circle Road in Lexington.  They serve great, fresh, hot, beautifully presented Vietnamese dishes including pho or Vietnamese soups, hot pot dishes, and noodle dishes.  My personal favorite is Shrimp Hot Pot which contains more than half a dozen large shrimp, a rice base, and a belly full of fresh, perfectly cooked vegetables.  The secret to a hot pot is that it is served in a ceramic or earthenware oven proof deep dish which is placed in an oven before the dish is placed inside.  The rice is layered in the bottom and the pot is hot enough to make the rice adhere to the pot and become slightly carbonized beneath the vegetables, whatever meat you choose, and a wonderful sauce.  The pot is so  hot when it is served that you cannot touch it and if you take your time eating the last bite will still be hot when you reach the bottom.  That is a feat which very few restaurants can pull off successfully.  Pho Saigon serves beef, chicken, pork, seafood, and vegetarian dishes and everything I have ever eaten there was well worth having again.  And, in what I consider to be a positive sign of any restaurant which is billed as ethnic, when you go in Pho Saigon you will nearly always see other diners who are speaking the native language of Vietnamese.  If you hear Italian in an Italian restaurant, or Mandarin in a Chinese restaurant, or the native language in any supposedly culturally based restaurant, you will generally see and eat food which is more authentic than if you did not hear the language.  If you have never been in Pho Saigon in Lexington, the next time you are there take a trip to Woodhill and have a wonderful meal.  Another aspect of the place which I like a lot is the owner and employees are all friendly, talkative, willing to please, and hard working.  The dining room and bathrooms are spotless.  The room is large and comfortable and the atmosphere is always open, friendly, and inviting.  And if you like Asian foods, there is an Asian food market next door which I suspect is operated by the same owners.