19 Sep Inky on the Air
I have been remiss, Gentle Reader(s). I have neglected these pages for way too long, having been distracted by a variety of other pursuits and Matters of Grave Import. I beg your forgiveness. As much as I’d like to pin responsibility for this grievous oversight on someone else, I must admit that I have no one to blame but myself. So, whoever you are, wherever you are—if you are—please accept my apologies.
Hello? Anyone out there??
Perhaps I am addressing my apologies unto the Void, but be that as it may—I will still beg your forbearance, Gentle Reader(s). I have not been entirely idle. Far from it. The primary Matter of Grave Import that has been distracting me from posting here with the regularity to which you have doubtlessly become accustomed is this: I have been writing. A lot. Obviously not for this particular venue, but take my word for it—the work has been if not quite all-consuming, very steady nonetheless. There’s also been some travel, some bike riding, some baseball watching, some guitar playing, even a bit of socializing (!!) but primarily it’s been writing. I consider this a reasonably good excuse and I hope that you will find it in your heart(s) to consider it too.
‘What, pray tell, have you been writing?’ you ask? Well, since you bring it up, I’ll tell you—a bit. I’m writing (drumroll) a novel. Of a sort. More like a semi-fictionalized memoir of a period of time in my life when I was still a young lad and was out on the road traveling the highways and byways of this great nation in the company of a rock & roll band. The primary character in this story, other than Your Humble Narrator, is the Goof. See my post of February 4, 2017 if you’re not already aware of who that is/was.
The provisional title of this gargantuan undertaking is The Road Crew. Over 100,000 words in, the tale continues to unfold but the end is within sight. I hope to finish it this year, and then… ? Then, who knows. I’m hoping that this manuscript will be considered to have sufficient merit to warrant a life out there in the Real World. I’ll find out when I get there, but I ain’t there yet. Soon, I hope, but not yet.
In the meantime, I had the opportunity to spend this past Saturday morning (September 16, to be exact) down in Albuquerque in the company of my old gal pal Perdita Wexler. I’ve known Perdita since she was, like, 13 or something. Hard to believe, but true. Perdita and her posse of teenyboppers used to come into the Late, but not Great, Budget Tapes & Records on Central Avenue in Albuquerque when I was employed there back in the 1980-’81 range. That’s also where I met the Goof and where we began a friendship and creative partnership that carried on more or less uninterrupted for the next 37 years.
Perdita has been a DJ at the great KUNM FM, the voice of the University of New Mexico, for several years now. Every few weeks she takes to the airwaves as the Hostess with the Mostess of Folk Routes. Folk Route airs on Saturday mornings from 10 AM to noon MST and it’s one of my favorite shows. Perdita always does a great job as moderator and curator of the program and, knowing that I’m usually listening, she occasionally gives me a shout-out. Last week she graciously invited me to join her in the studio to play some music and talk about some artists who have shuffled off this mortal coil in recent weeks: Robbie Robertson, Jimmy Buffett and Albuquerque’s (and KUNM’s) own Claude Stephenson. We had a very enjoyable couple of hours atop the Building With No Name (formerly known as Oñate Hall), just a stone’s throw away from where I lived at Hokona Hall as a UNM freshman back in 1980, and just a slightly further stone’s throw away from my old digs on Girard SE and from the legendary Bow Wow Records. A few minutes of dead air notwithstanding, it was a pretty solid show, in my humble estimation.
If you direct your intrawebbing device to KUNM.org you can find the show listed in a couple of places. Click on the drop-down menu for ‘Programs’ and you will see a link to the ‘Two Week Archive.’ As that title would suggest, the link to the actual program will be available until September 30. If you’d like to see the listing of the songs we chose for the program choose the ‘Programs A-Z’ link from the ‘Programs’ drop-down menu. Scroll down to ‘Folk Routes’ and click on the logo and you will find the list. The songs I contributed to the mix were Hum’s Liquor from the new Lucinda Williams release, George Jones Talkin’ Cell Phone Blues by Drive-By Truckers, The Mississippi by Continental Drifters, a live take of California Cotton Fields by Gram Parsons and Fallen Angels and Long Black Veil by the Band. We had a nice chat in between the toons and a good time was by all.
So much great music, so much to talk about, so little time: Hopefully we’ll have a chance to do it again before too long. Thank you, Perdita. Thank you, KUNM. Rest you Claude and Robbie and Jimmy.
