Right now, I don't have time to keep up two sites. All My material is here. My focus now is on the Deep Blues.
Peace in hard times,
Walker

.....and not at any particular bar. Trane realized that, in his own work, form had taken precedence over content, and what was also of importance was the use of the five-note (pentatonic) scale in all its derivations and the fact that the "blues scale" had emerged with the secular music, arising from spirituals and early work songs, not the subdivision into specific categories. It was an intense realization, one which became immediately apparent in his music." From Bill Coles memoirs

There's a new musical wind blowing through the northwest. Young people are playing banjos in the streets, revolution is in the air. In Eugene a great jug band scene is emerging, full of fire, invention, and great playing. Check out the Link to Eugene's Jug Band Scene, and support your local music.

Utah on YouTube

The Axe and Fiddle was the site of Walker's last time on a stage. Walker, along with Tim Long on the washboard, and Ken Babbs on trombone had a fine old time.

I'm going to play some music, celebrate the struggle, and see old friends and mentors,Guy and Candie Carawan.

Past Recipients of the NCTE Doublespeak Award

2006
President George W. Bush

President George W. Bush is the recipient of the 2006 Doublespeak Award for his Jackson Square speech on Hurricane Katrina and disaster relief, September 15, 2005.

During Bush’s September 15 address, he remarked,

“As all of us saw on television, there's also some deep, persistent poverty in this region, as well. That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action. So let us restore all that we have cherished from yesterday, and let us rise above the legacy of inequality.”

However, a week before the President’s speech, he signed an executive order suspending the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act, thereby allowing federal contractors rebuilding in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to pay below the prevailing wage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BEsZMvrq-I
chilling every time.

Jug Band Music certainly was a treat to me. (see Links)

We had a ball playing out at the Fair this year. Washboard man Tim Long, joined me and we saw and played with many friends including The Inkwell Rhythm Makers (www.myspace.com/inkwellrhythmmakers),
The Conjugal Visitors
(www.myspace.com/conjugalvisitors),
The Blair Street Mugwumps (www.myspace.com/theeblairstmugwumps), and Bayou Cadillac. Also picked with Brian Chevalier, Lauren Sheehan and Ken Babbs at Blue Moon Stage.

I'd seen Sam's work a couple of years ago, and was really taken with his abstract work.The man is a master.I finally met him this last weekend. It turns out we're both Southern California boys.

THE REAL NOO ZOO REVIEW

Rev. Walker T. &
TIM, the Washboard Man
image courtesy of http://skypilotclub.com

judy and I set out early because we didn't know where anything was in cottage grove and wanted to be fashionably late.
judy's a cop so she didn't want to drink.
unlike the rest of us who would just get our names in the paper, she'd lose her retirement, but she's no wet blanket.
she was a good time anyway.
We got there early and hadn't eaten so we ordered little pizzas and listened to the guy who was playing the opening act.
some time later, Walker T. came in dressed in black.
Another guy was with him and pretty soon, the other guy, whose name is Tim, came over and sat with judy and me and we talked.
This was Walker T's back-up guy who played a washboard.
This was no ordinary washboard, it had mirrors, pan, cans, and even a cowbell, which he'd reach down and tickle from time to time while on stage.
Walker T and Tim opened their act and immediately, people were on the floor dancing.

For a small place, there was quite a crowd, about 30 people from their 20s all the way up to our age and maybe older [but not by much lol]

They played a set and then Babbs came out and received a roaring applause.

Accompanying himself on his ubiquitous trombone, Babbs read two poems, one by Walker T and one of his own, to the crowd's delight.

Some people in the front corner booth were talking during Babbs' performance so he tooted his trombone in their direction and they got the hint
[rude!]
He definitely had the crowd going because no one wanted him to stop.
I haven't seen anyone speak to musical accompaniment since the 60s [or last july 4, anyway] and Judy never had
and she thought it was terriffic.
She's still talking about the time we had up there.

After Babbs' performance, there was a short break and I hopped outside for a quick joint.
When I came back in, Walker T and Tim had full command of the stage.
I swear music was coming out of the walls, and it wasn't just what I'd smoked.
The rest of the night was SERIOUS!!!

Some of the older crowd thinned out
and left the kids and the two crazy women for the treat of everyone's life, I'm sure.

You would have sworn there were more than two guys up there, and certainly more than one guitar. Every time they'd finish one song, I would think to myself that it couldn't be topped, just as they'd start into another even better song.

Everyone was on their feet, even people who couldn't dance.

Judy and I laughed and laughed at this one guy, a white kid who was trying to dance like a robot, but he looked more like Elaine on Seinfeld [little kicks hahaha]
After a lot more wine, someone asked me to dance and I found myself in the middle of the writhing crowd having the aerobics workout of my life but even that was good.
All too soon, the evening came to an end but not before one last number.
by that time, there were about six women and only one guy dancing but no one cared.

The one guy leaned over to Judy and said something but she was laughing way too hard for him to have asked her to dance.

When I got back to the table, she told me he'd said to her that he was the luckiest man alive, he was dancing with five women! She said that what was so funny was that he said it like he really believed it!

All too soon, the night was over and we had to go.
Later on that night, I met a nice police officer who didn't make me attempt a field sobriety test after I ran a red light in front of him.
He spoke sternly to me and said he'd almost hit me, but he didn't even give me a ticket.

good thing.

I'd still be in jail after everything
I'd imbibed, inhaled and still was holding.

So, would I do it again?

Was it worth a four hour drive?


ABSOLUTELY!!!

If you ever get a chance to hear these guys in person, do yourself a big favor and go.
You won't be sorry.
http://www.walkertryan.com/

A great night at the Axe. Babbs joined us, and we performed his new poem, "The Immigration Czar" and my poster poem, "I Got the Mean, Low Down, Etcetera Blues"
(see below). Also, Ken and I engaged in a number of trombone/ guitar jams, that were, hands down, the best we'd ever played together. Exciting stuff.

"THE IMMIGRATION CZAR"

A real lame-brain.
He was pure as the driven snow
from the top of his head
to bottom of his foot
right down to the very sole.
Then he joined a fraernity
and inside the boundary
found a life of mediocrity.
A real flim-flam man
you could trust him
all the way
sharp as a bamboo back scratcher
he opened clamshell packaging
with his bare teeth
but he never smoked a joint
never chugged a beer
never ate an oyster
never broke a sweat
never drilled a hole
never drove a nail
never hawked a luger
never sniffed a popper
never mooned a copper
never plucked a chicken
never skinned a bear
never wore a dress
esse esse, your face is a mess.




fat cats say immigrants gonna take all our jobs
you think fat cats gonna work for the corporate mobs
their children are much better than that
watching MTV eating freetohs and getting fat
tear down the walls open all of the gates
everyone in everyone out no one waits
or stands in line for a strip search check
answering questions from here to heck
globalization mobilization heed the call
live life to the fullest balls to the wall
color of skin doesn't matter at all
the melting pot is boiling
and it's all gonna fall
gonna fall down
if we don't stand up
and tell em what's right
and what's clean and what's fair
don't be dissing my daughter
for wearing clean underwear



I don't see what the doomsayers see
I see challenges and creativity
I see youngster stepping up to the plate
knowing the score and coming up great
I see birkenstocks and florsheims
high heels and sneakers
people at home people in the offices
people at work people in the gardens
ipods and earbuds
palette knives and quisinarts
spika dah spanglish and mow with a sickle
it's a rushingmad river with nary a trickle
so what do we care if the earth's in a pickle
we'll straighten things out and I'll pay you a nickel
hot tramps I love you so.
-- KapnKen




"I Got the Mean, Low Down, Etcetera Blues"             

I Got the Mean, Low Down,  meet me in the bottom deep,roots, gutbucket, jook joint, delta, take no prisoners, mojoed, conquerooing, crossroads calling at midnight, rocking chair take me home to the river, greasy, funky, backwater, bayou, boogie all night long,katrinaed, broom dustin’ , call and response, mean motor scooter, Mississippi slide, steel, bottleneck, , wind and wood and steel and meat, take my pistol, if i had possession over hell hounds goin’ down to new roads slow blues, cleanin’ graves, takin’ names, jellyroll, scratch my back, got me runnin’, lovin’, aching, lusting, workin’, number 12 train, six white horses, two old ladies, sweet low momma,low down, back porch, ghostie, scary  M-F hellhound howlin S--t ,backwoods, back alley, turpentine camp, minglewood, whitewash station 2 miles to go, on the road again, 44 special on a 32 frame, bigger at the little and bottom at the top, church bell tone, beefheart, hair on your palms, don’t you want any of these? mississippi, lemon, blind, gumbo, sleepy, son, little, big, black cat bone, saddle my pony, hitch hike, little school girl,  walkin’ down the line, underdog america, under your hood, baby, water risin’ , levee breakin’,leaves tremblin’, cold wind moanin’, nighthawks flyin, owls cryin’, midnight moon, wolf howlin, chicken scratchin’ , bad diners, all night drivin’, does the jug band have a chance? red brick powder, goofer dust, harp moanin’, dark night, rather be the devil, killin’ floor, play with your poodle, rooster  struttin, chicken frying, nighthawks flying, owls crying, one too many demons, eyes shining in the dark outside the campfire, make a dead man cum,  don’t pick it, it’ll never heal, high lonesome, deep river, dark holler, highway 61, 101, 66, 99, take no prisoners, son house is my god, stick out your thumb, grab a greyhound bus and ride,don’t you just know it, un huh, un huh, Blues!

A photo of my old friend and jug band compatriot, Rabbi David Zeller who passed away on this date in Israel. Jug band music certainly was treat to me.