off to Mexico

Ships Ahoy, Matie! Whatever that means! Well, it’s time to get my sailor cap on and sail the blue Pacific down Mexico way and hang out with the old folks..I mean blues lovers from all the world over. I had thought about dying my hair before I left to get the grey out but then I realized I’d just look out of place so I left it alone, and besides the price of hair dye is equal to a pretty damn good bottle of wine these days. After hanging out in the hospital for 2 months I can ill-afford to sit on my thumb for a week just to play 2 gigs, albeit DREAM gigs with my favorite guitar player of all time (no offense to my OakTeam and Yayhoo mates!), but I will use the time wisely by either writing some new hits or figgering out what I’m gonna do when I get home and find out we’ve been evicted. I was thinking about it the other night. I’m gonna be the brokest bitch on that boat, even broker than that little Indonesian dude that will be waiting on me hand and foot the whole time.
So when I don’t return your Emails next week, think me not the asshole that I really am, but the sumbitch that still hasn’t decided what he’s gonna be when he grows up, and at $3 a minute to use the ships computer y’all can just wait till I get back. And at $16 a minute to call, you better get worried if you see my name pop up on the caller ID!
I’ll yell “land Ho!” after a week with the sea hoes, and then I’m staying home for a while this time damnit!

Word…

T-51

come to find out...

...our beloved friend and spiritual advisor, Mr. Christopher, was in the hospital all weekend. He's gonna be OK but it wouldn't hurt to send out a few prayers and warm thoughts his way.

We love you Keith!

Jimmy Crack Corn?

It was a stupid busy past four days in Nashville. I left on Saturday and tried to get through the mountains before the snow came. No prob, but it was still pretty nasty until I got to Knoxville.

At dusk the sky was as red as I've ever seen it. Finally got to Dan's about 8pm Central. When there, I really enjoyed looking through the pictures of his family.

Actually, those pics were the handywork of his lovely wife, Laurie. But they WERE family! She took pictures of their pets and added them to formal attire. Really cool!

After a welcome glass or 3 of wine, we went on down to 3rd and Lindsley where Dan was playing with Stacey Collins. We ran into that damn nut Michael Webb (super talented keyboard player! AND has hogs in his yard!). I swear as he was introducing me to someone he said that I wrote "Jimmy Crack Corn"!

Stacey and bassist husband, Alan.

Badass Warner Hodges on the left! He and his wife, Deb were over the damn top hosptable and ever so gracious to let me stay with them all weekend. They are so damn cool! Special kudos to Warner's sister Donna who got me to their place when they were held up when some drunk illegals ran into his nephew's car and ran from the scene of the accident after the gig.

Here's a pic of Dan's new writing tool..

Warner's wall.

We (Warner, Dan and I) wrote all day and on Sunday night I rehearsed with The Dinkies. The practice place was huge! If I'da know we were gonna have to pay so much I would have invited folks over and charged admission! Below, Warner and Dan are hard at work on the next big REO Speedwagon hit, "Running Back into the Storm"!

After more writing on Monday (which actually was very productive! 4 great songs total for Dan's next record!), Rinky Dinkie (Big Al) took Winky Dinkie (Jim Chapdelane) and I to see the hottest thing in town, The Time Jumpers, where I was inspired to take really bad photographs!

Back in the car this morning to fight 9 hours of rain back home. Weeeeee!

Happy Birthday G-50!

 

I Love You!

boredom...

makes you do some really stupid shit...

Hey! Let's see how many clothes we can put on!

laying in the middle of a bed full of junk...

Let's see, what can I set on fire...

SERIOUS NRBQ fan (in my room)

More clothes! Lemme see if I can get this shirt on...

click to enlarge the ignunce

trailer park dinner

We eat good here in the Anderson house. The kids, not so much, but the wife and I eat really healthy, great food, usually always fresh vegetables, fresh fish with maybe some brown or jasmine rice. My favorite dinner and I’ve said it before, I could have this every night for the rest of my life, is grilled salmon and Caesar salad. That being said, this weekend I half jokingly suggested fish sticks and macaroni and cheese for dinner. “That wouldn’t be so bad” I thought, thinking back on being a kid and loving the two. Grace was not opposed but we couldn’t make ourselves do it and she made an awesome Thai coconut soup. Well last night I got the bright idea again and actually bought the shit to make it. After getting the go ahead I prepared everything just like the boxes said and even added a little extra REAL cheese at the end. This was gonna be great, reliving the past through food. I was gonna take one bite and be back on Westchester road again and getting ready to do homework.
The moment of truth came and I put fork to mouth. Where was it? Taste, I mean, there was nothing but texture…and grease (on the stix). GOD! THIS SUCKS! How did we ever eat this shit? And I wasted valuable time making it and calories eating it! Either they’re making it worse these days or it was never as good as I remember it. Mr. Gorton, you’re in the wrong business! Ya need to start making dog food! OMG! It was awful! And I’ll tell ya something else, it didn’t get a damn bit better with the SECOND plateful I ate! When and if you ever this notion! DON’T DO IT!

Kennedy

I seen Kennedy one time. Now granted, I was 4 years old at the time. But we were living in Shelton, Connecticut and I was staying with my aunt during the day. He had just won the election was making something of a victory lap across the northeast. His motorcade rode by and he throwed his damn hand up at me up there in that second story window.
I bring this up because I was reminded of it when I was watching something on PBS last night called “Ozwald’s Ghost”. It explored whether or not Lee Harvey was really guilty or not. I fell asleep before they ever figgered it out, the suspence is killing me!
I’m headed to Nashville this weekend to write with Dan and to rehearse with The Dinkies for our “Love Boat” trip with Delbert and ‘em. The trip (Jan.26-Feb.2) is to the Mexican Riviera and is basically the same course the TV show “The Love Boat” took. We play two shows on the boat. I’ll be in my room working on songs the rest of the time.

Tim and Martha

Please accept my apologies for my lack of contact with the outside world of late, the hampster inside of our computer finally died. As a consolation prize I offer you this limeric based on a true event from my life...

I painted for a woman named Marsha
Who I have since worked for a lot
But upon our maiden adventure
Clearly my name she forgot
So then I decided to change HERS
When again she confused me with him
And when she told me her name was not Martha
I said “Yeah, well my fuckin’ name ain’t TIM!”

HB Nellie!

 

Happy Birthday Nellie! My grandma Nellie (seen here on the right, I got NO clue who that fool is in the back sticking his tongue out!) was the purest, sweetest woman to ever walk the face of the Earth. And man could she cook! She would make me my own personal baby biscuits. I ain't never cried so hard as when she died in '79.

The K-Mart Hot Dogs

 

The Woods did a show at the (should be) world famous Brewery in Raleigh, Norf Cakalaka a long ass time ago as a fictitious band called The K-Mart Hot Dogs. We did all of the stupidest, dumbest shit we knew…plus a couple of purty ones. Well, purty ONE...”She’s Nice” is a song David and I wrote together that started out as a song called “She’s an ass”. Somehow it ended up being “She’s Nice” but it IS really pretty and really NRBQ sounding. We also did “Doghouse”, a song I wrote that David slapped another verse on... I had:
Somebody turned the doghouse over….
Made Mama mad and it upset Rover
Somebody peed in the swimmin’ pool
Got in trouble for skippin’ school
It was me! it was me! Cuz I’m a little shit!
David chimed in with:
Somebody pooped in their new blue jeans
Filled’m up nearly split the seams
Somebody sat on Grandpa’s hat
Nearly squshed the damn thang flat
It was me! it was me! Cuz I’m a little shit!..

We also did “Hairnet”, mostly David’s best I remember:
She was a purty little waitress at the doughnut store…
When I got to the place
She was moppin’ the floor…
The floor was greasy and wet, it had coffee stains
So I lifted up her hairnet..
And pulled out her brains…
Yeah..I lifted up her hairnet
lifted up her hairnet
lifted up her hairnet
lifted up her hairnet
lifted up her hairnet….and pulled out her brains…
This one went crazy that night because we did it to the tune of The Eurythmics “Would I lie to you?”
“Billie” was a song about my mentally challenged Aunt Billie. The verses accused her of being in the FBI and the music was funky as shit!
David did his Smokey impression, singing “Being with You” in the tune of “Beast of Burden”( not too far of a stretch if you think about it).
David also did “Purty Little New Wave”:
Purty little new wave with the chopped up hair
What are you doing standing over there
Purty little new wave with the chopped up hair
What are you sayin’ with the clothes you wear…
“Dreamboy’ is a song I wrote about Larry Craig loooong before I’d ever heard of him. So you’ll enjoy the words to this one when that Woods box set hits your doorsteps:
I caught his eye in a bathroom through a hole in the stall
That dreamy eye just kept starin’ at me
As I looked back up at the wall
Well you can dream on little dreamboy
I know you like what you see
But you can dream on little dreamboy
…if you’re dreamin’ of me

7th grade

Ya know, I AM old enough to have grown up in segregated schools and I was in the 7th grade at Charles B. Aycock Junior High before I was ever in class with black people. I became really good friends with this one guy named Jerome Abrams but there was this other guy named Ronnie Byrd that always tried to bully and intimidate me. He wasn’t as tall as me but he was a lot rounder, and rolled with a posse. So every day for a while there he’d come up to me and say “Gimmenickel”. “Huh?” I asked at first. “Gimmenickel” I slowed it down in my 6th grade edumakated brain and figgered it out, he was saying “Give me a nickel” “Oh shit, you need a nickel, well…OK” Next day, same thing. “Gimmenickel” This went on for about three or four weeks, and because I was giving him my nickel for milk every day I wasn’t getting any. So I was beginning to get not only calcium and Vitamin D depleted but very pissed off! Finally, I was sitting at the top of the bleachers in the gym one day when he came stomping up to where I was and I knew what was coming. “Gimmenickel, man” Well, I gave it to him, five toes connected to my foot in his chest with a mighty heave-ho. As he tumbled down in slow mo, head cracking off each seat of those wooden steps all the way to the bottom, I imagined every scenario of him and his buddies kicking my ass and breaking my glasses. But it didn’t happen. He walked half way back up the bleachers and just stared at me. I was shaking inside but didn’t let on to him that I was. He finally turned away and never asked me for a nickel again.
Oh! Then there was this other time in 7th grade when we were in Mrs. Roebucks class and someone turned the heat all the way up to 200. Well, she didn’t like that and made us stay after school ‘till almost dark in that hot-ass room until somebody confessed, which nobody ever did. She was kind of a kook. Once, instead of giving Al McGraw (star of the football team) a spanking she told him that he could pick anyone in the room to do it instead of her. So of course you’re gonna pick your best bud from the team, right? So he picks Russell, a BIG ‘ol boy but someone who had the temperament of never being able to hurt a fly. Al bends over among the snickers in front of the class when about that time Russell swings like the bases are loaded, its full count, bottom of the ninth in the seventh game of the World Series in Yankee Stadium. He laid the wood to his ASS! Al’s face turned the color of his hair, beet red. We were all in shock. Russell went old school on his ass and really let his best friend have it. Al started tearing up but tried to stand tall. Then Mrs. Roebuck says “OK Russell, he gets one more” You could feel the air being sucked out of the room by each and every one of us. OMG!
Maybe it’s a good thing we don’t have paddling in classrooms anymore.

House of Prayer

 

On my bike ride yesterday over to my dad’s house I finally stopped and took a picture of the House of Prayer, parked directly across the street from Bunn elementary school. I was a bit disappointed because there are usually more placards of scripture out front and the crazy lady usually comes out and screams at you in a white KKK type get-up. Speaking of the Klan, I watched this thing on the History channel about’m Saturday night and was really surprised to find out that they had more than 3 million members at one point. They started up in the ‘20’s as more and more immigrants were entering the country.
I was sadly reminded of the time I went to a Klan tent at the North Carolina State Fair. I guess I was about 8 or 9 years old when my dad and his friend happened inside with me in tow. The “preacher” ‘bout scared the shit out of me talking about “them damn (insert N word here)!” I knew even at that very early age, they was WRONG for that! They was just IGNUNT! I must admit the experience left a bit of a scar and disturbs me to this day.
So let that be a lesson parents, don’t take your kids to no damn Klan meetings!

David's last night

...Bob tells it best. Many of you may see a link to Bobzilla's blog and never go there but he's always out with someone "bigtime!" and it's cool to keep up with. Here's his account of David's last evening...

Dropped the car at the airport and Greg Howard picked me up and gave me a ride home. Dropped my stuff and had just enough time to check for emergency email when Terry called to say he was on the way to the hospital.I jumped in the car and met him there.
Poor Terry's been doing double-duty here recently. Not only is his best-friend-for-life David here at Wake Med, but his dad Carl has been here for 2 weeks for a heart procedure. Carl's in the ICU, so I can't go visit. Only family is allowed, and even then they're only allowed in there for 15 minutes at a time, 5 times a day. Weird.
So, up to David's room we went. I've known David for 27 years, so I knew it was him as soon as I saw him, but anyone who didn't know him well would never had recognized him. David has advanced liver disease, which has the unfortunate side effect of Encephalopathy (google it). He's very gaunt due to the weight loss, and his skin is a peculiar shade of yellow. His breathing is very labored at this point and I'm not really sure he even knows who's in the room with him. Terry and I settled in for the evening, and then Jack Cornell showed up. Over the course of the evening, a few more visitors dropped by. Peter Holsaple, Robert Keely, and Kevin Nunnery all showed up.
Some history here - I first saw a band called The Fabulous Knobs back in 1980, when I lived in Charlotte, NC. They consisted of David Enloe and Keith Taylor on guitars, Jack Cornell on bass, Terry Anderson on drums and Debra DeMilo on vocals. They were one of the most amazing bands I've ever seen – a distillation of everything good about the Rolling Stones, the Faces, Chuck Berry and James Brown. Nuff said.
All of my close friends in Charlotte became friends with everyone in the band. Every time they came to town, we would all go to their shows and throw afterparties at our homes for them.
After they broke up, David, Terry and Jack, along with Dan Baird (from the Georgia Satellites) became The Woodpeckers. After Dan left, the other 3 guys became The Woods. The Woods were the first band I ever worked for. I was hired to be David's guitar tech. Were it not for him, I'm certain I would not have the career I have now.
David was also a great friend. We've been drinking buddies for 27 years. We've shared the best and worst of each other's lives throughout those years. Hell, at one point in my life, I got so tired of driving home to my place after leaving his apartment nearly every night that I rented the apartment across the hall from him. Staggering 10 feet was a hell of a lot easier (and smarter) than driving. He helped me through the big breakups of my life (you ladies know who you are), and I like to think I helped him through his 3 marriage cycles.
One of the things that impressed me most was when he went back to school in his mid/late thirties to get his degree. That was not easy to do.
There are so many stories I could tell, but I can't sit here typing all day. Maybe we can have a drink one night and toast to David over it. I promise I'll tell you some stories then. So, back at the hospital, it was only Jack, Terry and I after about 9pm. Then those two finally split around 10. I bunkered down and wanted to stay until David's brother Mark got there. I'd already decided to go home and get some sleep, then come back in the morning to relieve Mark from his overnight duty. Poor guy's been sleeping in a chair in the corner of the room for a few nights now.
Before I left, I told David that I loved him. I had probably said that to him 5 times tonight – maybe he heard and understood, maybe he didn't – but I just felt like saying it again.
I left about 11:30. Straight home, aspirin for my splitting headache (never ate today), then to bed by 12:15…The phone rang at 3:57am. David's gone. He passed away shortly after 3am.
He was my friend and I will miss him. I am grateful that Terry called me and told me I needed to come home now to see him. And that I could be there for his last night on this earth. And that I told him that I loved him, because people don't seem to say that to each other nearly enough. Mostly, I will be forever grateful that David Enloe had room in his life for me to be his friend.

Rest in peace, my friend.

Not so rockin' New Year's Eve..

Locally on TV, we have anti-tobacco PSA’s all the time that show us the horrors of smoking or chewing the stuff. There’s that lady with the hole in her throat who talks like a robot and then the worst one, the kid who chewed and they had to cut half of his face out because of jaw cancer. Hey! You ain’t gotta convince ME! And if you did, those two spots alone would be enough said. But I saw someone New Years Eve that was in worse shape than either of them two, and as far as I know it was not as a result of smoking.
It was a dude named Dick Clark. If you’re in a foreign country you may not know who he is, but I grew up on the guy. He was famous for not only bringing us kids the latest hits on “American Bandstand” but eventually also for his ability to defy age. We all thought, “This guy’s never gonna get old!” Uuuuhh…WRONG! The time has come. Dick! Dude! Who told you it was OK to be on American TV trying to talk? His mouth never closed and his lips never came together. I was weird. It was like watching a fish talk. “Wah wah wah wah”. Please spare us next year, Dick and I’m serious. I’m REALLY sorry you had a stroke and I’m REALLY glad that you are somewhat functional despite having it. But man, THAT was painful to watch! From now on, stay behind the scenes and let Ryan Seacrest make the money for you. This year’s “Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve” was not so rockin’, and it wasn’t Fergie’s fault (although she didn’t help matters). This time I gotta blame it on you, dude. Stay off my TV, get well…or better. I really hope you do. But again, stay OFF of my TV!