9/5/08 I saw in a Nashville newsletter that Jerry Reed died today. Jerry Reed was one of my favorite performers, he was an inspiring guitar picker and songwriter. Of course he wrote the theme song and played third banana to Burt Reynolds and Sally Fields in Smokey and the Bandit. Some folks might say fourth banana, but I liked him much better than I did Jackie Gleason as the high sheriff. My favorite Jerry Reed song was Amos Moses. He died under hospice care of emphesyma, he was only 71. I particularly remember him from the Glen Campbell show where he was a semi regular along with John Hartford.

9/5 I just wanted to make a brief comment about the political scene now that both conventions are over. I watched the speeches given by Obama, Palin and McCain and thought they were all inspiring. However I am still not sure who to vote for. I am a registered democrat, but have voted republican a lot lately mainly because I thought the domo's candidates sucked worse than the republican's. And in this election I just don't see a clear cut choice. I desperately want change: change from the highly partisan, lethargic, self centered, arrogant government that we see today in Washington; that can't accomplish even the most basic needed acts of legislation such as social security reform, immigration reform and providing affordable health insurance to all Americans. And the democrats are not any different from the republicans, they are all that way. McCain said all the right stuff, I appreciate his history, and I like his VP, but he has been a part of the problem just by being there over the past however many years he has been there. He is a republican and he can not reform the entrenched republican beurocracy which is a lot of the problem. I think that only by electing a democratic majority can a real clean up begin. But I am apprehensive about that too: Biden is just as establishment as McCain, he has no credentials for change. I think it was a mistake to put him on the ticket, especially to answer criticizm that Obama had little foreign experienc. I'm not sure how importmant that is. We have the strength now in the world that we can demote foreign policy matters to a lower burner until we clean up the mess in Washington. That is priority number one and Obama chose the wrong running mate to help there. So I am in a quandry. I like McAin better than Obama, Palin better than Biden, but I want the hard core ultra conservative republicans out of there, but with a republican victory in November they will perceive a mandate to stay. So I will probably vote against the incumbant party and not for the other side. My motto this year is "give them the gate in zero eight".

9/5 Here is a really brief summary of our music in August. I will add to this as I find my notes. We started with Ivory Coast, a jazz band who has played here before, playing to a full house. I like this band and they put on a good show.
On August 9th, Ben Farley opened for Sparrow which attracted a lot of young people. Sparrow put on a really good show featuring good songwriting and good harmonies. It's nice to hear young people putting their lives to music. The Walker Street Opry, a great bluegrass band from Huntsville performed on August 9. They did a really good job. As good bluegrass as you will hear. Mike Patton came on August 15 for the debut of his new cd. It was a cd release party. We had a good turnout. Mike does a real good job, I like his style. He writes good stuff and is a really good guitar picker. Bimini Road came on the 16th. They always do great, but I think this was the best they have ever been. I am hoping they will be able to to cut a cd from the recordings they took while here. Bruce Jones a Birmingham folk singer came on the 23rd. This was a really good show, but not well attended which was too bad, this was something to hear. I hope Bruce will come back. August was one of the better months for music we have ever had and I wish I had kept up with this blog and reviewed them all in greater detail. As I mentioned I will add to this writeup as I have time, which seems to be at a premium right now..