April 27, 2005

• Well, I TRIED to put a whole bunch of photos up with narrative, but somehow Xanga wiped them all out without a trace, and I couldn't undo. I think the program smirked at me. Okay, let's try a couple! These were taken at the 50s Rockfest at the Oneida Casino April 11-16. What a blast!

  
  

  

  
  

   Me with Joe Bennett and the Sparkletones, artists who had the big hit, "Black Slacks," back in the 50s. I know you've heard it.."B-b-b-b-b-b-b..Black Slacks...." Starting from left, it's Joe Bennett, me, Jimmy Denton, Howard " Sparky" Childress, Wayne Arthur. We are all of an age, within about five years of each other. What a super bunch of guys, and can they rock!! I am proud to call them my friends, and Ginny and I had a wonderful sharing time over a meal with Joe and Howard. It is so great when someone you have looked forward to meeting turns out to be as nice as, and even, nicer than you hoped they would be. A class act, either on or off stage.

  
  

  BTW, if you see this shot on the Rockabilly Hall of Fame website, you will see that the "Starfires" logo on my shirt has been carefully expunged. Oh, well.......we didn't play, and I was the only member of my band there...so...okay.

  
  

  

  
  

  Ginny and me with the legendary New Orleans performer, Clarence" Frogman" Henry. Clarence is 68 and severely crippled with arthritis, but did a wonderful show with his band, including his big hit," Ain't Got No Home." If you don't know that song, you need to correct that. He is a delight,a warm, gentle person with great stage presence.

  
  

  

  
  

  How about a photo without me in it? Okay, here are two legends: Hank Thompson, the famous country and western singer, and Roc LaRue, rockabilly star. Hank is 81, and a little slow getting around, but a wonderful performer. Roc is an old-time rockabilly performer who is just getting re-discovered by the legions of neo-rockabilly fans.

  
  

  

  
  

  Me and rockabilly star Glen Glenn. This is a funny man, and we had a lot of fun with his stage name. Betcha can't guess what his middle name is; it begins with a G and has an N at the end and an LE in the middle. Glen also did an excellent job.

  
  

  

  
  

  Eddy "The Chief" Clearwater, from Chicago, with Pete Curry and Danny Amis from Los Straitjackets. They were using a new drummer, Jimmy Lester having left the band. Ginny and I are getting together with Eddy and his wife, Renee, when we are in Chicago in June.

  
  

  

  
  

  This photo appears several different places on the Internet, but since it's my photo, I figured I might as well put it here. Ginny took this one, which is why it's a good one. From left: Me, Bob Timmers of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (www.rockabillyhall.com, and Slim Jim Phantom, drummer for the Stray Cats. As noted below, I had the unbelievable thrill of playing onstage with these two guys for two nights at the Casino Lounge. No photos of that, since cameras aren't allowed anywhere near the Casino.

  
  

  

  
  

  Okayyyy. This is one of these embarrassing "gotcha-with-your-eyes-closed" shots. I have a mild form of Tourette's Syndrome which causes me to blink more often than most people. Usually I tell the photographer to count three before they take the photo, but this I forgot. However, this is a great pic of Mr. Ike Turner (yes, THAT Ike Turner) and his singer, whose name I believe is Audrey. And, I know, she looks a lot like You-Know-Who, but she is her own person and a fine singer. What is really cool about this shot, is that Ike and his band had performed the night before, yet, here he was, the next day, hanging out with us and enjoying the music of some of the other acts. I know some of the festival attendees were not into what he was doing, (One reviewer called his music "inappropriate."    'Scuse me!! Can you say " Ain't got a clue," boys and girls?) but Ginny and I enjoyed it a lot.

  
  

  

  
  

  Here is a classy gentleman: Art Adams, long-time rockabilly star. I had the pleasure of backing Art up when he performed at the Casino Lounge. His bio said he was born " in the 30s," which makes him at least in his late 60s, yet he is a dynamic performer on stage. It was really fun to get to know Art and perform with him.

  
  

  

  
  

  The great Narvel Felts, hitting the high note on "My Prayer." You can see I was pretty close to him, and I got a new appreciation of him as a performer. I didn't get a photo with him, but I did buy his album, "Narvelized," and get a chance to chat with him a little bit. A very talented, humble man, who is very appreciative of his fans.

  
  

  

  
  

  Wanda Jackson, whom you could kind of call " The Queen of Rock and Roll." She and her band put on a fine show. She, of course, did " Let's Have A Party, and I like her version more than Elvis's, whom she dated, by the way. The song contains the immortal line, " Everybody come and taste the possum Papa shot." I didn't meet her, but I did see her from across the room, greeting fans and signing autographs. Almost all the performers made themselves available after their performance, to greet fans and sign autographs, whether they bought an album or not.

  
  

   

  
  

  Here's one that didn't:

  
  

  

  
  

  Jerry Lee Lewis. Yeah, okay, he's a great singer; yeah, okay, he originated a style of piano playing that has been imitated but never duplicated, but the man is an OLD 69, who has ruined his health and his reputation by running around loose for decades. He was a day late performing, the reasons for which ranged from " bad flying weather in Nashville" to " too wasted to play." He did well, but others did better.     Here's one that didn't:

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

  I have edited this, because the original was a bit too harsh. Link passed away  at 76 November 6 in Copenhagen. He was who he was, and we all felt his influence.

  
  

  Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray:  a pioneer in rock and roll and rockabilly circles. Link had the distinction of blowing out two Fender Twin Reverb amplifiers and severely injuring  a third. They had only four backstage, and he was not the last act on the program. Link was kind of a bad boy. He was the only performer all week who used an obscenity onstage, and he was WAAAAYYYY too loud ( amps and guitars cranked to 10!).  Heavy metal has nothing on this guy in terms of sheer volume.

  
  

  Okay, I think that does it, of the photos that I thought it would be good to post. It was a great experience, and I was ready to go do it again the following week. BTW, the Weavers were not there, being as some of them have passed on, and it would not have been their style of music anyway, but the title seemed to fit!

  
  

   

  
  

   

  • 10:40 am
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