Where Have All Of Our Minds Gone?

Somehow, I must’ve been asleep for the better part of the last thirty years. I can remember when Miller’s department store was in downtown Knoxville and my mother stressed the importance of courtesy to my younger self. As we would wait for the elevator, my mother made sure that I knew to wait until the passengers had gotten out before I made my anxious, youthful entrance. It was the end of an era, I think. Perhaps it was a hold over from the “children should be seen and not heard” mentality of the ‘50s; but there is something “right” about it still.

These days I am overcome with the lack of thinking in America. Everyday a new situation or experience sheds light further down the dark hole that is the America that we now know. Would you like examples?

OK. Let’s see…

Now when I am riding in elevators, I am amazed that I can be riding along and get to my floor and before I can ever even blink - the persons waiting have already barged in and are ready to get going. They must think that I am riding just for the sheer hell of it. As though I have nowhere to go or nothing better to do.

OR

When I moved to Nashville and you wanted to get into traffic, there was always a wave given or received from each party involved in said merge. These days the wave is usually replaced by the “social” finger –despite ownership OR fault. I am constantly amazed at how many people out there on the highways seem to live in the delusion that they are semi-professional NASCAR drivers. I can just see them hoisting their fat bellies every morning into their 58” waist pants and exclaim “Goddamn! Eating pork rinds in the LazyBoy is fun and all; but today I’m gonna be just like that goddamned Dale Earnhart!!!”
They crowd the Tennessee highways more often than not these days and they continually make me wonder if we shouldn’t thin the herd a bit. I mean….really?

OR

Though I may be a long bearded, independent thinking feller living in a clean shaven, faceless, bland society; it does not mean that my facial hair impedes my hearing. There is not a week that goes by that someone stands directly in front of, beside, or behind me and muses about what kind of person I could be.
The best was my recent trip to Starbucks (I know…I bought into the corporate blandification that day. Hold it against me! I deserve it!). I was quietly dressing my coffee at the little creamer kiosk when I realized that the conversation beside me had taken a weird turn. I kept my head down, but my ears up. This is what I heard…
“Why, that’s almost as bad as that goddamn ZZ Top”, one gruff voice mused.
“I know it! How disgusting! I used to have a beard but I had the sense to keep it trimmed. Then my work made me shave and now I just have this.”, the second gruff voice chimed in.
At this point I looked up and saw two firemen sitting beside the creamer stand and looking right at me. I glared back at them unflinching and unapologetic. And can you believe that they kept on talking?
“I reckon he doesn’t have a job”, the first idiot said to his pal.
I left in disgust, shaking my head the entire way to the truck. Do I somehow look like Billy Gibbons’ deaf cousin? Is my beard obscuring what must be hearing aids?
I wonder about this often enough and then I talked to my equally hirsute friend, Elmer, about it and he tells me it happens to him. THEN…we were together just after this Starbucks experience and somebody stood beside us and muttered the same stuff, except this time they included Elmer (who must also be deaf) when they said:
“Check it out! The short one has a big beard too!”
Maybe short people are deaf too.

So…I digress. Back in Miller’s department store we learned the basics of many life lessons. Wait your turn, don’t stare or make fun of the handicapped, be courteous, and mind your manners at all times. I am beginning to believe that the hills, hollers, caves, and virtually every other place where people were brought up we deprived of a Miller’s department store or a mother or mind of any kind. I have to wonder aloud, “Where did we go wrong?”

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As If Things Hadn't Gotten Bad Enough - News from Tennessee

From Nashville Scene (3/25/09) - Jeff Woods:

State representative speaks for God.
An unidentified advocate for children's issues went on a blog last week to report on an alien encounter in Nashville. She said Rep. Tony Shipley, R-Kingsport, told her (A) that God might drop entire states, apparently starting with California, into the ocean as punishment for letting gays adopt children and (2) God-fearing Christians might secede from the union and start shooting minié balls at people if gays keep trying to adopt babies.
The Scene was able to contact the anonymous advocate, who said she can't give her name for fear of losing her job.
"If I take this any more public than I already just posted on the blog, I could literally be fired," she told us. "I was just shocked because Rep. Shipley had never met me before. I thought, 'How do you know I'm not gay? How do you know I don't have a gay kid?' "
Asked about all this, Shipley explained that the advocate generally reported their conversation correctly. But he wished to clarify that he was not ranting and raving at the time, as some readers might have assumed. Instead, Shipley said he was perfectly reasonable and calm as he warned God might drop Tennessee into the sea for the sins of its people.
"The way it was presented is a little bit out of context. But the fact of the matter is that being of that way of thinking, a conservative Christian, I do believe that God punishes us for things that are against his word. I believe that with all my heart. I did tell her, and this is in reference to the calamity of Sodom and Gomorrah, the parting of the seas and all those things that happened in the Bible, that if we misbehave as a people God could place calamity on us. I did say, you know, God could punish California or anybody else, he could slide it off into the sea, if it's not doing things that comply with God's word. It was a biblical reference."
Shipley added that he objects to the advocate's blog post because "it made me appear to be ignorant and I'm not, not even close to ignorant."

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Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton R.I.P.

A week ago today, Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton died from an apparent suicide. He was what some consider to be the last of the REAL Appalachian Moonshiners. Popcorn had been arrested and convicted for possession of 800 gallons of his spirits and was waiting to report to federal prison. Last Monday, he received notice that he was to report on Friday. Popcorn went out to his barn and started his old Ford Fairlaine and went out on his terms (dying from carbon monoxide poisoning) - just as he had lived his life.

Here is the story as reported by JJ Stambaugh in The Knoxville News Sentinel on March 16, 2009:

NEWPORT, Tenn. — Nationally renowned moonshiner Marvin “Popcorn” Sutton died today in Cocke County and authorities are investigating his death as a possible suicide, a Cocke County official confirmed tonight.
Coroner Terry Jarnagin said that an autopsy will be performed Tuesday at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville. He said a determination as to the manner of Sutton’s death hasn’t been made yet and authorities aren’t planning on releasing further details tonight.
Sutton, 61, of Parrottsville, was soon expected to report to federal prison to serve an 18-month sentence for illegally brewing spirits and possessing a firearm as a felon, the U.S. Attorney’s Office confirmed.
Sutton spent the last three decades building a reputation as one of the South’s top makers of white lightning. He starred in various documentaries about the tradition and penned an autobiography, “Me and My Likker.”
A raid last year on Sutton’s property turned up guns, three 1,000-gallon stills, more than 800 gallons of moonshine and hundreds of gallons of sour mash and other ingredients, records show. He kept some of the illegal brew in a shed and some in a junk school bus.
Because of a July 2007 conviction on state charges triggered by a still explosion, Sutton was on probation in Cocke County when federal authorities raided his property. He also had prior convictions for moonshining and felony assault with a deadly weapon, court records show.
Sutton recently was sentenced to two concurrent 18-month terms by U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer. He was also to spend three years on supervised release once he finished up the term.
Sutton’s attorney, Tim Moore, couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. Moore filed notice last month that he planned to appeal Sutton’s case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
The Cocke County Sheriff’s Office is investigating, officials said.

Popcorn's story isn't exactly new in Appalachia. For years the land and the ways of its people have be endangered by "progress" and "civilization". There is something romantic about the old way. The way that it was done before there were big box stores putting the little guys out of business. A time when things were done out of necessity and not greed. It is important, at least to me, that we as a people don't lose sight of where we came from and the uniqueness of our cultural past.

To that end, I am happy to report that I will be playing a Memorial Benefit for Popcorn. The Event - Pickin For Popcorn - will be held on Saturday, April 4th in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. It costs $5, goes from 3-9pm, and all proceeds go to the family to help offset their mounting bills. It should be a great time and a fitting tribute to unique figure in the cultural landscape of Appalachia.

rs

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Welcome (A First Attempt)

March 18, 2009

Welcome to my new blog site! I have thought about doing this for a while and it has gotten pushed to the side a few times. Now it’s official! I have joined the ranks of other bloggers out there in the world. As always, I’m a day late and a dollar short. Well, we’re all a dollar short these days, but that’s a whole other story for a later blog entry.

I have spent the better part of the fall and winter writing new songs for my upcoming 3rd record. Honestly – I work very slowly and I have a hard time multi-tasking. I have to take time off from playing live shows and focus solely on writing and generating new material. This means that my work is not exactly prolific, but I do continue to tune up the old Gibson flattops and pick up a pen every week.

I am excited about the new songs. I think there are about 10 of them that are now finished and ready to be recorded. My method has typically been to write the songs, hone them via rehearsals and live performances, and then I will commit them to record. I have completed *most* of the initial process thus far. I have written songs that I feel good about and I have rehearsed them with the great musicians with whom I play. We will take them to the stage for the first time (save for a few of them which have surfaced on stage within the last year or so) on March 28th, 2009 at Douglas Corner here in Nashville.
It’ll be a little bit different, in some respects, from previous efforts. The real intent though is to get these new songs in front of an audience for the first time AND to pry myself off of my butt and get back out “among ‘em”.
I do hope that you, dear reader, can make it out to see the show. I hope that you like the new songs as we prepare for a third recording. I have no idea when you should expect it to be released, but I do know that I inch toward that goal every day and I hope to get you something sooner than later. Maybe I will even eventually get something posted on this blog OR via myspace for your listening pleasure.

Obviously (or maybe not) this site will not always be about my musical trials and tribulations. I hope to show off some of my non-musical writing and whatever else might come to mind in the days, weeks, months, and years to come.

Till next time,
rs



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