Download Allman Brothers Band, Cow Palace, San Francisco 12-31-73

A weird choice, I know, but I got to get Southern fried for the next few weeks. South of Louisville, south of Nashville. I got to get down to the home of the blues. I got to walk the walk that old Robert Johnson did before he had them hellhounds on his trail. I'm talking 'bout the Delta. The Motherland. The navel of the earth.

Over the next few weeks I got to be Johnny Cash kicking out the lights of the Grand Old Opry. I got to be Duane Allman screaming through Macon on his bike. I got to be on my knees at the intersection of 49 and 61 to see what the devil can do for me.

I'm talking 'bout black-eye peas and greens and cornbread and a pint glass filled to the tippity top with a corn liquor. Slide guitars and mudbugs.

I'm talking about the next installment of Preston Black's little journey. And I can't wait to see what the fuck happens.

Set the mood with a little Allman Brothers from Sugarmegs.

Allman Brothers Band
Cow Palace, San Francisco 12-31-73

101-Intro
102-Wasted Words
103-Done Somebody Wrong
104-One Way Out
105-Stormy Monday
106-Midnight Rider
107-Blue Sky
108-In Memory of Elizabeth Reed
201-Countdown To Midnight
202-Statesboro Blues
203-Southbound
204-Interlude
205-Come And Go Blues
206-Ramblin Man
207-Trouble No More
208-Jessica
209-Les Brers In A Minor Pt 1
210-Drum Solo
211-Les Brers In A Minor Pt 2
212-Les Brers In A Minor Pt 3
213-Whipping Post
214-Linda Lou - Mary Lou
215-You Upset Me - Hideaway Jam
216-Bo Diddley

Download Led Zeppelin, Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, BC, Canada, March 21, 1970

     I bought a slide, an old Coricidin bottle like Duane Allman used. But when I tried to get into Elmore James and Muddy Waters, I ended up with a bunch of CDs I never listened to more than once or twice. Being a white kid growing up in a patch house on the outskirts of Morgantown, West Virginia, the blues may as well have been N.W.A. or Public Enemy. I thought Jeff'd steered me wrong.

     So I started hitting record stores like Charlie Watts hit Mick Jagger after that 5am wake-up call. I knew my personal thread through the music went deeper, and I was more than just an orphan who'd been passed around like a bottle of Boone's. Music made me all too keenly aware that I could be more than my guidance counselors ever expected me to be. I had my own roots and didn't have to buy into somebody else's past or culture to feel complete. I didn't know nothing about my mom or dad, but I knew I was conceived to Led Zeppelin III and I knew when I finally kicked it, I'd kick with a guitar in my hands.

Download the show at Sugarmegs. 

Led Zeppelin
"Mudslide" (Pre-bootleg source) [The Diagrams Of Led Zeppelin Vol.44]
Pacific Coliseum, Vancouver, BC, Canada March 21, 1970

Perhaps the earliest Led Zeppelin bootleg to be produced was the forty minute soundboard fragment from the first show of their fifth tour of north America: a very cool listen.
 
01 Heartbreaker
02 Organ Improv./Thank You
03 What Is & What Should Never Be
04 Communication Breakdown/Ramble On
05 We're Gonna Groove
06 Since I've Been Loving You
07 Whole Lotta Love (middle cut)

Download Eddie Vedder, University Of California Berkeley, Zellerbach Auditorium, Berkeley, CA, April 7, 2008 (aka 2012, I'm trying not to hate you.)

So, there was about a minute way back in January when I thought I'd put together a post about my 2012 spiritual mentor/guru, kind of like I did with Joe Strummer about this time last year. Having somebody to 'emulate' felt kind of nice, like I could follow a path somebody else laid down since it sometimes felt like I was doing this in the dark. I wrote a little about Strummer's independence, especially during his time with the 101ers, when they had to use improvised mic stands and speaker cabinets because they were flat broke and how that didn't let that stop them from playing.

Don't get me wrong, I have many personal acquaintances from Seton Hill and Pennwriters who have gone down a path to publication, and I'm not trying to paint myself as a maverick, or whatever. But this is the first time I'VE done it. When I formatted my eBook there wasn't anybody to consult because nobody I knew was really doing eBooks. When it came time to get a real book cover I didn't have anybody to discuss it with because that's the kind of thing a publisher takes care of, not the writer.

So knowing that guys like Strummer made mistakes on their path made me feel like the mistakes I made were okay too.

This year I was leaning toward Eddie Vedder as a guy to 'emulate.' Pearl Jam has been around for 20 years, and they did a lot of crazy things that were motivated by a strong personal ethos. They fought Ticketmaster (and lost) and tried to organize their own shows at non-Ticketmaster venues. They ended up being a band that put their fans first, and built a very loyal following by doing so. I guess ultimately I liked that they worked hard, and that it paid off in a way that let them pursue the music they wanted to pursue.

But in the end, this is really just a post about how shitty my year has been so far. On January 3 a kid flew around a blind corner and nailed us, putting our car up on a guardrail and causing a lot of body damage. Then the following Monday my doctor called and said I had polyps in my gallbladder and I'm going to have to have that plucked out. Spent the remainder of the month in pain, afraid everything I ate was going to make me sick. 

So, Eddie, what do you say? How do I tackle this one?

On June 30, 2000, Pearl Jam was playing the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. Nine fans were crushed or suffocated as the crowd surged toward the stage. The band cancelled the rest of its European Tour and retreated to America. A few months later they started a North American tour, prompting Vedder to say that "...playing, facing crowds, being together—it enabled us to start processing it."(Not that my situation is comparable, by any means.)

But it was good advice. So I'm back in the new book. Tallying a new word count. Reading and researching like I haven't done in years.

Download the show at Sugarmegs.

Eddie Vedder
University Of California Berkeley, Zellerbach Auditorium, Berkeley, CA, April 7, 2008


Walking The Cow-(Daniel Johnston)
Around The Bend
I Am Mine
Dead Man Walking
I’m Open
Man Of The Hour
Setting Forth
Guaranteed
No Ceiling
Far Behind
Rise
Millworker (James Taylor)
Goodbye
Satellite
Drifting
You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away (Lennon, McCartney)
Here’s To The State (Phil Ochs)
Trouble (Cat Stevens)
If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out (Cat Stevens)
Parting Ways
Forever Young (Bob Dylan)
Porch
Society With Jerry Hannan (Jerry Hannan)
Growin’ Up (Bruce Springsteen)
Lukin
No More
Arc
Hard Sun With Liam Finn, Ej And Jerry Hannan (Gordon Peterson)

A Snippet from THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK

My second snippet for Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday is taken from my Appalachian dark fantasy novel, THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK (Raw Dog Screaming Press).

Description:Preston Black has a nasty habit of falling in love with the wrong type of woman. But girls who don't play nice are the least of his problems. This handsome bar band guitarist isn't washed-up, but he's about to be. He's broke, he's tired of playing covers and he's obsessed with the Curse of 27.

He's about to add 'deal with the devil' to his list.

Lucky for Preston, he has help. Like the angelic beauty who picks him up when he's down. And the university professor who helps him sort through old Appalachian hexes and curses to find the song that may be his only shot at redemption. And when things get real bad, he has the ghost of John Lennon to remind him that "nothing is real."

Let Raw Dog Screaming Press author Jason Jack Miller take you to a place where love is forever even when death isn't, where magic doesn't have to be seen to be believed, where a song might be the only thing that saves your soul.

MURDER BALLADS AND WHISKEY is a unique blend of dark fiction, urban fantasy and horror. It's Appalachian Gothic, Alt.Magical.Realism, Hillbilly Horror. It's AMERICAN GODS meets JUSTIFIED. TRUE BLOOD with witches. It's Johnny Cash with a fistful of copperheads singing the devil right back to hell.

     Most people didn't have to dig as deep as me to find something they recognized in an old record or song.

     And digging deeper was pretty much what I was doing the day I found my LP misplaced behind Blizzard of Oz. On my way to return it to the BLUEGRASS section the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen stepped out of the stacks. She smiled. I smiled back. She asked what I had in my hand. On the album cover a bunch of anonymous pickers sat in front of an old log cabin. The back of the record said Uncle Mason's Front Porch: Best of the Blackwater Sessions.

And on the track list, between "Pretty Polly" and "Hangman's Reel" was a song called "The Sad Ballad of Preston Black," written by E. Black.

     I knew right then and there that if I could ever find the man who'd written that song, I'd have found my dad. 

Check out other author snippets at the official site: Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday

A Snippet from Hellbender.

My first snippet for Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday is taken from my Appalachian dark fantasy novel, Hellbender (Raw Dog Screaming Press).

Description:There are some strange things happening at the edge of reality where love is forever even when death isn’t and where magic doesn’t have to be seen to be believed.

Henry Collins' quiet life is changed forever the day he buries his little sister.

Her death forces him to enter a strange world whose very existence he spent his whole life denying--a dark wilderness where the old magic thrives--a place far darker and deadlier than the Appalachia he grew up in. To avenge his sister Henry must slip past the boundaries of logic and reason to a place where the only reality is survival. He won't be able to come home until his life is no longer simple, his heart no longer kind.

This is a tale of star-crossed lovers and civil revenge by uncivil hands, written in blood that is barely thicker than water.

--

If I could’ve carried her by myself, I would have. But just the weight of the pine and spruce box was more than I could bear alone. The linens that covered her body and her clothes, the last she’d ever wear, made her heavier. The coins that covered her eyes added a few ounces more.

I could’ve carried her, by herself, forever.

January wasn’t a kind time for a burial, but we don’t get to choose. Old Christmas hid the sun behind a flat grey wall of clouds. January has a way of taking a person's optimism and crushing it beneath its bony heel.

I’d take June, when long days kept wayward pessimism at bay for just a few hours more, when blackberry blossoms spilt over old stone fences while young rabbits got fat and lazy. I’d take Solstice over Old Christmas any day.

--

Check out other author snippets at the official site: Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday

(BAD) LOVE IS IN THE AIR! Get THE DEVIL AND PRESTON BLACK free for your Kindle for some Valentine's Day reading. Promotion starts today.