The south's gonna do it again.

Yesterday in The Arizona Republic, Ed Masley published a list article called "Six Pillars of Southern Rock," which purported to pick out the most significant Southern Rock albums without ever stating so explicitly. Here's his list

1. The Allman Brothers Band, The Allman Brothers Band (1969)
2. Lynyrd Skynyrd, (pronounced 'leh-'nérd 'skin-'nérd) (1973)
3. The Allman Brothers, At the Fillmore East (1971)
4. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Street Survivors (1977)
5. The Drive-By Truckers, Southern Rock Opera (2001)
6. The Black Crowes, Shake Your Money Maker (1990)

In fact Masley's weasel words descriptive qualifier for his list is "six essential albums that are probably more Southern Rock than ZZ Top." Putting aside the obvious comment on the timorous adverb. This is clearly a definition that defines nothing. From the list we can in fer that Masley is looking for some kind of traditionalist notion of Southern Rock as a guitar driven entity, coming out of the wedding of blues and country traditions, which focuses on some notionally Southern version of manhood. Thus we get such a conservative list that misses at least two bands best album and has the throwaway sixth entry, which really doesn't belong despite all Masley's protestations otherwise!



There are many ways to redo and improve this list. I will simply offer two: a better traditionalist list followed by a better list which has a much broader definition of Southern Rock. Also I fail to see why there are six pillars? Sikhism has three, the Dominican order has four, Islam has five. But wisdom (Proverbs 9:1) has seven! and surely what said list is offering is wisdom.

Seven Pillars of [Traditional] Southern Rock
1. The Allman Brothers Band, The Allman Brothers Band (1969)
2. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Second Helping (1974)
3. The Allman Brothers, At the Fillmore East (1971)
4. Lynyrd Skynyrd, One More For From the Road (1976)
5. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Street Survivors (1977)
6. The Drive-By Truckers, The Dirty South (2004)
7. Molly Hatchett, Flirtin' With Disaster (1979)

Honorable Mention:
The Outlaws, Outlaws (1975)
.38 Special Wild-Eyed Southern Boys (1981)
Derek & The Dominoes,Layla and Assorted Other Love Songs (1970)
Little Feat, Dixie Chicken (1973)
The Band, The Band (1969)
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bayou Country (1969)

This list is temporally bound as Southern Rock's great era came to a close with the inauguration of Ronald Reagan, with only the Drive-By Truckers as a unique outlier. The Allmans were the originators but Skynyrd was clearly THE BAND, thus they merit 3 slots. Their second album is better than the first, plus everyone knows the version of "Free Bird" you wanna hear is on the live double LP with Cameron Crowe's famous liner notes. Molly Hatchett stands in for all the other lesser Southern bands, some of them listed in the honorable mention section. This section is provided not as a cheat on the 7, but rather to give readers a wider range of listening/investigating options. It also points to some precursors.

Seven Pillars of [Non-Traditional] Southern Rock
1. The Allman Brothers Band, The Allman Brothers Band (1969)
2. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Second Helping (1974)
3. Big Star, Radio City (1974)
4. Pylon, Gyrate (1980)
5. Archers of Loaf, Icky Mettle (1993)
6. OutKast, Stankonia (2000)
7. The Drive-By Truckers, The Dirty South (2004)

Honorable Mention:
Dusty Springfield, Dusty In Memphis (1969)
The Rolling Stones, Sticky Fingers (1971)
The B-52s, Wild Planet (1980)
REM, Murmur (1983) or Reconstruction of the Fables (1985)
Superchunk, Tossing Seeds: Singles 89-91 (1992)
The dBs, Stands for deciBels/Repercussion (2001)

The list veers away from strictly guitar driven rock venturing into rap and the new wave. I chose the B-52s second album because the red one is more "Southern" than the yellow one. I also, against the critical grain, like it better. Both Fame in Muscle Shoals and Stax in Memphis needed to be noticed in this list, thus the Dusty and Rolling Stones' honorable mentions.

How many more years.

A photo essay on yesterday's 14th annual Howlin' Wolf Memorial Blues Festival at The Civic in West Point, MS.

Festival Director Richard Ramsey introduces the next act.



Big Joe Shelton does the "Black Prairie Blues!



Memorial shrine for the late Willie King.



Honored guests and members of Howlin' Wolf's immediate family.



Bill Abel from Belzoni.



Some signs at the Civic's entryway faux Juke.



Mississippi has been a "red" state since Reconstruction even whe it voted yellow Dog.



Billy Dee always was smooth . . . Bingo long anybody?



Colin Linden from Nashville via Toronto.

Medley.

Sam Cooke presents a classic medley.



Seems appropriate that this blog's 350th entry is a mishmash.

Tonight I'm heading West Point way for this. With any luck some photos up in the future. And don't forget this other local festival, which will have some major news re: headliners for 2009 the Tuesday after Labor Day.

This medley by The Bishop of Soul Solomon Burke pays homage to his fellow travelers.



Looking forward to a historic opener for the Mississippi State Bulldogs as they become the first SEC team to host a SWAC HBCU team, the Jackson State Tigers. More specifically, I'm really looking forward to the halftime performance of the visiting team's band, The Sonic Boom of the South!



A few other famous show band performances with better sound:







And let's close with a classic medley from "the Hardest Working Man in Show Business . . . Mr. Dynomite . . . Mr. Please Please . . . Soul Brother #1 . . . Are you ready for Star Time?"

Dixie Chicken.

The most recent issue of the Oxford American is an extravaganza for lovers of Southern writing. They list not only the Best Southern Novels of All Time but also the Best Southern Nonfiction.

Here's the Novels Top 10

1. Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! (1938)
2. Robert Penn Warren, All The King's Men (1946)
3. William Faulkner, The Sound and The Fury (1929)
4. Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
5. Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird (1950)
6. Walker Percy, The Moviegoer (1961)
7. William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying (1930)
8. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)
9. Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood (1952)
10. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

As I've commented elsewhere, this list is surprisingly conservative in providing a narrowly focused view of one particular version of The South. Sure;y there has been a great novel or two in the last 30 years or even longer since the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964! Later this week the online OA will publish the longer list from 11-50 and that's probably where the more interesting action will be. For now my thoughts. 3 Faulkner's is too much, but he's important enough I don't mind seeing him twice. I'd lose The Sound and the Fury Myself. Penn Warren's mess of about four different novels shoved together is really overrated at 2 here. I'm not convinced Invisible Man really belongs on a list of great Southern novels although I do realize it has the "Tuskegee" section. Personally I'd replace it with another forgotten Harlem Renaissance classic, Jean Toomer's Cane (1923). I'd put something modern in the place of the third Faulkner and perhaps something urban. Maybe a Florida noir by John D. MacDonald—say The Deep Blue Good-by (1964)—or something Appalachian like Ron Rash, Serena (2008) or Sharyn McCrumb, She Walks These Hills (1994). For a quirkier old school selection I'd go with George Washington Cable, The Grandissimes (1880).


Here's the Nonfiction Top 5

1. Agee & Evans, Let US Now Praise Famous Men(1941)
2. Richard Wright, Black Boy(1945)
3. W.J. Cash, The Mind of The South (1941)
4. Eudora Welty, One Writer's Beginnings (1984)
5. Shelby Foote, The Civil War: A Narrative (1958-1974)

Sure this list avoids the former's time-boundedness, but it is still pretty conservative and presents a kind if old fashioned monolithic view of the South. Agee & Evans at number one is a well-earned given as was Absalom, Absalom! I'm glad to see W.J.Cash gte his due rather than being trashed as some kind of racist by ex post facto. holier than thou academics. I'd jettison both 4 and 5 from my top 5. I was at the Harvard lectures which became One Writer's Beginnings. Professor Costello is right that this book represents an idealized and nicer little old lady version of Welty. It was also Harvard University Press's first NY Times bestseller but I'm not sure it rises to the level of greatness. Similarly I think Foote owes his prestige more to his appearance on Ken Burns' miniseries than he does for the impact of his extended history. What do I put in their place? My Mississippi book would be Willie Morris, The Courting of Marcus Dupree (1983), discussed more here. Food being so important to the South, I'd think long and hard about a food book and perhaps go with a book about food rather than one of numerous cookbooks, so John T.Edge, Southern Belly: The Ultimate Food Lover's Companion to the South (2000).

A few other serious contenders would include something by C. Vann Woodward from the list The Strange Career of Jim Crow (1955), The Burden of Southern History (1968), Origins of The New South (1951), or Mary Chestnut's Civil War (1982) any of which could be seen as a corrective to Cash. For reportage and because it became even more relevant after Katrina, John M. Barry, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America (1998). Barry's book really helped me understand the area I had moved to when took my job at Mississippi State. Penn Warren shows up either in I'll Take My Stand: The South and The Agrarian Tradition (1930) or with Cleanth Brooks, Understanding Poetry (1938). Finally one personal quirky favorite would be Gloria Jahoda, The Other Florida (1967). The essay, "Two Hundred Miles from Anywhere Else," remains the best explanation of why my hometown Tallahassee, FL is unlike any other "city in Florida, or in the South" (128).



Little Feat at the Rainbow Theatre London 1977

UPDATE [Saturday, September 5 9:37 AM]

The full Oxford American Lists were released yesterday for Underrated, Novels and Nonfiction. As I expected this is where the real interest in this categorizing/listing project lay. I was pleased to see many of my alternate suggestions there and some just outside the Top 5 or 10. For example if you collate the split votes for C. Vann Woodward across the 4 works I mentioned he gets to 22 and is 6th on that list. I was also leaed that one novel and one nonfiction pick of mine were unique (MacDonald and Edge).

Another the letter.

Woke up to this shocking news which came to me in a circuitous route. Someone landed here when they Googled this: "closing of harvard university press display room in harvard square." Sure I understand the world of publishing has changed, but surely the wealthiest University in the history of the world could cut its own Press a little slack on the rent of a room or two in Holyoke Center, now couldn't they? I know, I know, the silly mantra: "Every tub on its own bottom" Blah Blah Blah.

Now you'll have to head to Blackwell's in Oxford, Foyle's in London, or Powell's in Portland for that amazing wall half red half green filled with Loeb Classical editions. Plus how many cheapo copies of Lipstick Traces did I score over the years (slight damage here, dog ear tear there, et cetera et cetera et cetera)? And no I'm not interested in hearing how great your Kindle is!



Lagniappe for making it this far. Our title song on German TV in 1978:

Little whirl: GBV (iii).

Bob is everywhere with helicopter at Memphis' Last Place on Earth.



2/3 of the rockin' rhythm section.




"Smothered in Hugs" at the New Years's Eve 2004 Final Show in Chicago

"Game of Pricks" Amoeba in-store in Hollywood 2002



The club is open for the Final Show!



"Unleashed! The Large-Hearted Boy" Live in Dayton 1994 (The classic line up)



Cut-Out Witch at the GbV reunion show (AKA Bob's 50th Bday party)



Tobin Sprout "Awful Bliss" from Bee Thousand Live in Chicago



Tobin Sprout "Dayton Oh 19 Something and 5" reunited with GbV at Final Columbus, OH show



2 from a 40 Watt show.




A band of seemingly endless line ups, whose like we'll surely not see or hear again!

Fin.

Picture me big time: GBV (ii)

A random collection of my favorite GBV videos through the years.

"Bulldog Skin" This one has played on the JumboTron at Davis Wade Stadium Scott Field right here in Mississippi. To which I say, "More Cowbell!"




"Weed King"



"Glad Girls"



"I Am A Scientist"



"My Kind of Soldier"



An Old School Interview from 1996



The famous Family Feud send-up. Incidentally Guided by Voices won the game!

The last part of our trilogy will highlight live performances; here's a foretaste.

"Teeange FBI" Live on The 10:30 Slot

Man called aerodynamics: GBV (i).

Anybody who really knows me understands it was only a matter of time before the GBV You Tube entry sprung up. They also probably realized it would be a multiple parter. I dedicate Part 1 to my Facebook friend Doug Gillard: he of the endless riffs!

Doug was in a lot of bands before GBV, lastly Cobra Verde, for whom he wrote a little ditty made famous by Pollard & co.
"I am A Tree"



Tallahassee native that I am this clip, filmed at the Cow Haus as it was in 2002, gives me great joy! At a 40 Watt show, Doug accepted my copy of Mag Earwhig! to get signed by the entire band to send to my friend who had just moved to Dayton, OH to be a Department Chair. Ask yourself one question: why was the lead guitarist for international "rock stars" wandering around a club freely available to his fans? Yeah, Doug is a mensch!

"Redmen and Their Wives"



Speaking of the 40 Watt, I only ever heard this track live once on the Electrifying Conclusion tour in Athens, GA.

"Back to the Lake"


Amoeba in-houses rule whether Hollywood or Haight!

Speak Kindly of Bob's best solo album, the one with Doug Gillard!



GBV is done, but occasionally this will happen:



I haven't done nearly full justice really to the genius of Doug Gillard, but you get a real taste of him here. All I can say is the club will always be open, when DG is in town!

I close with 2 rare pictures I took myself.

The first features DG in full flight at the legendary Last Place on Earth show in Memphis.



We shall never forget the other guys: Farley and Tobias. They were way cool too. Here they hang out at The Nick after Ice Storm 2000 with Gordon before GBV's set!



More Pollard madness tomorrow . . .

Field day for the sundays.

A short sharp shock from the irrepressible Pink Flag! 1977 collides 2009.

Wanted to do a video essay for Wire like I did for the Buzzcocks last week and am finding it harder to get interesting footage for Wire. No luck yet with any live stuff. And Wire do put on memorable live gigs, however rare-ish they might be.

A beautiful Wire original followed by an equally impressive Flying Saucer Attack cover:





And then I remembered the Wire, Live on the Box (1979) DVD, and lo and behold . . . "Map Ref 43°N 110°W" from the famous Rockpalast gig:



Wire introduced by Suzanne Somers?!!?



"In the Art of Stopping"



"Lowdown" live at South Street Seaport, NYC 5/30/2008

Airwaves dream.

Did you know that song? No, not you J.G. Norman; I'm sure YOU did. Well I didn't! I know The Buzzcocks' Singles Making Steady-era extremely well and also on vinyl have a new-ish 7" discussed here.



"Airwaves Dream" helps to make my point about the essential genius of the songwriting team of Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle. Well O.K., Pete writes most of the songs. But it's their interplay on guitars that makes the whole thing tick and why the band has survived through a variety of 3rd and 4th players.

1 short one and 2 long(er) ones to fill your aural feast.

"Why She's A Girl From A Chain Store"



"Moving Away From The Pulsebeat"



"I Believe"



They still put on a great show as Buzzcocks MK IIIb! Investigate Manchester's Likely Lads for yourselves then. And watch for the tour where they play their first two albums in their entirety coming to North America perhaps later this fall. The Publican's Secret is out.

Centerfield.

Well no left, actually. Yesterday, they inducted two of the left fielders of my youth into the Baseball Hall of Fame: the utterly unique Rickey Henderson, of whom Bill James once exclaimed that statistically he had two Hall of Fame careers (!), and the BoSox Jim Rice, my second favorite player on my favorite team after right fielder Dwight "Dewey" Evans, he of the cannon and perfect form when performing the long throw from the outfield.

She's about a mover.

Texas Monthly's No. 1 Texas song.



Saturday

Rather than sleeping in we got up at 7 and took a 4.2 round mile walk from Blanco along the Lady Bird Trail around Town Lake stopping at Auditorium Shores for Gacie to go off-leash, swim, and play with some other dogs. We interrupted out homeward journey at the foot of Blanco to grab a quick breakie at Sweetish Hill: Hibiscus Mint Iced Tea, Cherry Empenada, and Ham & Swiss Bialy which we shared.

Then it was on to Central Market to do both long-term grocery shopping preparing for Madison and Janine's return from Holland as well as short-term shopping preparing for tonight's dinner with visitor Molly Schwartzburg, a curator at the Harry Ransom Humanities Center and like me with an AB from Harvard and a PhD in English from Stanford. I focused on doing some amazing bacon wrapped huge seas scallops and my secret marinade sauce (it involves soy, chili, teriyaki and Worcestershire sauces plus various secret herbs and spices). Isaac did nice potato frittata and some baked Halibut filets.

We also stopped by Karavel, and I got a new pair of running/training New Balances to replace the ones I got on my last Austin sojourn over July 4th 2006.

Sunday

We had a Mexican breakfast at Joe's Bakery and Coffee Shop on the Eastside. Isaac went with three increasingly larger tacos: chorizo & egg, carne guisada, y Miga con todo. I had a small Taco with carne guisada and a Huevos Ranchero plate with scramble degss plus some water. After a car tour around the UT campus, we stopped by Blanco and then drove up to Mount Bonnell. Point of information: I made it a point of saying I was going to climb Moutn Bonnell this trip and I did because in 2006 on a downward spiral health-wise I just couldn't get up those steps to the summit. 8 months later I was hospitalized for a week with what was ultiately diagnosed as CHF. Thought I'm not at the body type weight I want to get to eventually. I am far healthier now with good blood pressure and choloesterol levels!

Texas knows how to tell a funny historical story.



Looking back 2/3 up the climb.



The top of Mount Bonell and views







Isaac with a bored Gracie.



GE bringing Mississippi Blues to the Austin highlands.



On the way home, we stopped at Austin's music central and minded the gap!



I picked up a fascinating 2008 local release: athens v sparta, the history of the peloponnesian war. Then home and a lazy afternoon watching the British Open slip away from Tom Watson . . . sigh! But congrats to first time major-winner, Stewart Cink! Then I folded my laundry and completed submitting a Sound Affects blog entry, Musical Genius and Its Discontents (I): American-style, to PopMatters, which considers the "2nd Acts" of oky Erickson, Brian Wilson, Sly Stone, and Shuggie Otis. I'll work on part 2 concerning the British later tonight and tomorrow.

Indian food 2nite . . .

On the road again (parte dos).

I leave for a week of pleasure and business in Austin, Tejas mañana. Will do some blogging from the Republic of . . . Plus news of upcoming Sound Affects columns at PopMatters. Stay tuned.

One step beyond.

My take on step-by-step cooking demonstrations.

Class 1: The Clear the Fridge & Make a Great Sandwich Lunch: Step-By-Step-Style

Start with your basic ingredients. Especially thick and wide (preferably from a boule) slices of sandwich bread. On one side layer main ingredients on top of say coarse ground mustard. Here we have thinly sliced Vidalia Onion, slabs of slicing tomatoes, and shave deli sliced garlic roasted Turkey. On the other slab deconstructed avocado slices plus some mayonaise with olive oil and salt and pepper to taste.



Top the avocado half with cheese, in this case Jalapeño Cheddar slices and Crumbled Feta with Garlic and Herbs. Place under broiler until cheese is melted then remove.



Assemble sandwich, slice, and plate. Serve with any side. Here simply a few grape clusters. Chips or potato salad are other solid choices.




Remember whatever happens, ENJOY YOURSELF!



Class 2: Step-By-Step Steak on the Patio Meal

O.K. we're moving up several weight categories t a more elaborate dinner preparation. And that's the key: preparation. Thinking things out in advance and organizing ingredients and tools makes the cooking process ever so much easier. Here's what a professional chef would call his/her mise en place.



Tonight, we're attempting to grill and hickory smoke Marinated Bacon-wrapped Center Cut Sirloins and serve them with Caramelized Vidalia Onions and Sour Cream, Curry, and Chive Mashed Potatoes.



Set your stove on medium heat and put some olive oil in a skillet and onion slices. Saute for a minute or so and reduce heat to low. The key here is multitasking. Grill should already have been heated. I cheat and use gas for speed.



Place smoking cup on hot end of grill and two steaks on cooler end. Will cook with top closed for best smoking effects. Note setup of high temp and low temp on each end trying to set up a convection current inside grill as well. You cook steak about 8 minutes per side. For best grill marks at the 3:30 to 4:00 mark on each side spin steak 90 degrees to get nice crosshatching.



At the same time make sure your dining area is ready to go. If it's nice enough to grill outside, it's nice enough to dine al fresco as well.



Don't forget your main mantra: always be multi-taskin'. Check the brownness of the onions. Make sure to turn them to get them evenly cooked. When done remove from stove and if need be put in a pre-warmed oven below 175 degrees to keep warm until plating time.



One advantage of grillin' for guys is the elaboration of tools: charcoal rakes, tongs, flippers, grill mitts et cetera. But don't forget also the essential indoor tools that might be useful outdoors as well. Here a Santoku (Viking 7")—kinda for show really— and the workhorse implement, an offset serrated knife for cutting through the crisp bacon and neither scalding your knuckles nor mashing your sirloin in the process (F. Dick 8"—just ask Bourdain!) a timer for keeping track of when to turn and when to flip your steaks and a spatula for close in work as opposed to standard grill flipper.

As Neil Young once opined, "When I get big I'm gonna get an electric guitar. When I get real big." To which I respond, "when I get rich I'm gonna get a Global G2 Chef's Knife. When I get real rich."

for more on the art of grilling, check out this guy's book and ETV TV series.



When done, let the steaks sit at least 5 minutes to finish cooking and cool down.



I'm eating alone and this is, after all, a how-to, s we slice one steak to see if its medium rare: charred on the edges but pink in the center. Looks about right.



The we plate our steak, onions, and mashed potatoes up and bon apetit.



Improve your mood and dining ambiance with some music. "Music for evenings" from Young Marble Giants, Colossal Youth sounds good place to start streaming on iTunes to some remote wireless speakers outside. Ahhh . . . dinner time. Just because you're single and maybe live alone is absolutely no excuse not to live and eat well.



This has been another Rat in mi Kitchen joint!

Not given lightly.

Yet another reason Chris Knox is just "a seminal figure in rock and roll everywhere" as Andrew Cox from The Fauves intones. Total Pro (watch him handle the dreaded broken string), totally humble (I love the "you've never heard of me have you? that's alright" intro) and what an a capella voice plus the hammy crowd enhancing stuff is just so obviously heart felt. From the Australian Broadcastng Corporation's Recovery (1997).



Why was this song only #13 all time in New Zealand? Knox had a stroke last Thursday. Get better soon CK! For fans of the Dunedin sound and Flying Nuns everywhere.

Calypso (part iv); or, some candy talking.

The Original Dirty South!



C'mon Babee, crunk it up! Just follow the bouncing red codpiece. Hotlanta sez Larry Blackmon You still De Man!

@SR: Yup, the NME schwag is definitely better from cassettes like Pogo A Gogo




to this Feb. '86 offering NME's Big 4.




The Flip side featured Hüsker Dü covering The Beatles' "Ticket to Ride" and "Let's Get Small" by Trouble Funk for some classic GoGo grooves.

Old School Virgin: Rare Double A-side





New School Virgin: Wasn't Tom Jones somehow involved with this next single?




Twelve Times You

Q: What do you get when old punks meet Generation Ecstasy?
A: Why a Pink Flag with white labels, of course!

I pulled a track off this delicious slice of vinyl for the CD I produced for the 1st Pop Conference at the EMP.



The tracklistings. Not on your life; that's why they're called white labels! B-sides they're pretty easy to google down to anyway.

The last one's for JP & is another mail order special direct from the UK



You know what. I played it having absolutely no idea what was coming and it sure did . . . thrill me!