Gospel Revival Pics
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William Elliot Whitmore Reminds Me What Music Is
I saw William Elliot Whitmore last week do an in-store at Cactus Music and then later that night at Fitzgeralds. This guy is in the full swing of his craft… I haven’t been moved by music like this in a long time. I think it’s because his writing style is so vastly different than those that I love more close to home.
Right after the in-store I shook his hand, left and sat in my truck for a few minutes trying to collect my thoughts. Not many words would surface, in fact the only words I could write down were:
I closed my eyes to block out all the visuals… to let his music hit me like it’s meant to… what I felt, hit me like a freight train blowing down the rails
that about sums it up..no other words will do. He was raised an Iowa farm boy that’s not too far from what we see here in Texas. Maybe that’s why I like his writing so much. It’s different enough to be new, but close enough to be real.
His songs give me hope for America. For life. For people. For me.
Check him out of you haven’t… it might be what you need to be refreshed.
“There Is Hope For You” by William Elliot Whitmore
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“Midnight” by William Elliot Whitmore
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144 Hours
For 6 days in January, some of the best music out of Texas (and more) descends on Steamboat Springs, Colorado for The MusicFest. It’s the best 144 hours you will spend with great friends, amazing music and beautiful skiing.
I’m so excited about this year I can hardly stand it!
[The Classics] – What happened to me at Sidecar
6 years ago, sometime around October of 2005, there was a show that happened at the Sidecar Pub in Houston. Stoney LaRue and Bleu Edmondson were playing an acoustic songswap, which resulted in some of the most moving stories that I’ve ever heard come out of any show. There was something spiritual in the air that night that changed the course of just about every person in that show. I know this because it’s taken me 6 years to find and talk to everyone that was there to hear their stories.
That show was a marker in time that most people reference like a wedding date or birth of a child. There were people at that show from out of state that moved cross-country, to Texas, because of what happened there. Some people found a new love for music they thought was dead and gone… and some made a career change to become musicians, right there in that room. Story after story has filled my ears about that night and they are all incredible.
In 6 years I’ve never told anyone what I’ve taken away from that show, but tonight as I listened to the bootleg audio, I thought it was time to reveal a little about my story. That night I learned how music can hit you square in the face and not allow you to lie to yourself. It peels back the layers until it’s just you, the song and the truth. No wiggle room and no putting on false faces.
If Bleu Edmondson would have been to afraid to cover one of his heroes, Bruce Springsteen, I don’t know where I’d be. Bleu covered Highway Patrolman off the Nebraska album and it spoke right to my soul. In a single moments time I had set myself on a journey I’m still on today with music… with my life… with my family.
If you have family… Trust me, you want to hear this song. – Bleu Edmondson
This song has become one of my favorite songs on the planet and while I love Bruce’s true original, it’s Bleu’s version that I go to most often. So for me, that night was about discovering what music can do when it connects to you in a very real way… a way that no written words can, or should, ever be able to convey.
So, enjoy the song.
“Highway Patrolman” performed by Bleu Edmondson
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P.S. – I’m not posting the lyrics like I usually do because I think you just need to listen to it.
What would you do for a million bucks
Just watched an interview with Vanilla Ice and they were talking about all the lies that came out, about him, early in his carrer. Charles Koppelman (CEO of EMI) was brought in and the following conversation went down:
Ice: I’d go in there saying that there’s no way you’re gonna make me do this. I don’t do slow songs.
CK: We made choices that were good for my company. And what’s good for my company was good was the artist.
Ice: I came out of his office with a million bucks and he had his slow song.
For Vanilla Ice, success was measured in money. I mean One Million Dollars… that’s a lot of money. Like a WHOLE LOT of money. Enough that we’d probably all consider selling out a little bit for that kind of money.
Turns out, he later tried to commit suicide with 30 million in the bank because he could never get back to making music the way he wanted.
Money puts a roof on your head, but it’s never success.
Is that Old Dog Tray?
Along with most of Texas, I love the movie Tombstone. It’s probably one of the most quotable movies of all time and there’s a scene that reminds me of the uphill battle Texas Music fights weekly with Country Music Fan. You know the scene…
Everyone is drunk and Doc is playing a piano in the corner… the guy that played Lowell from Wings staggers up to him and slurs…
Billy Clanton: Is that “Old Dog Tray?” It sounds to me like “Old Dog Tray.”
You know, Stephen Foster.
“Oh, Susannah,” “Camptown Races.”
Stephen stinking Foster!
Doc: Ah, yes. Well, this happens to be a nocturne.
Billy Clanton: A which?
Doc: You know, Frederic Fucking Chopin.
Brilliant.
I was in this bar a few years back when this guy drunkenly interrupts the show by yelling out that he wants some old country, “…play some old country… play Trace’s Every Light in the House is On!!!”
Dang. Old country indeed. The song he interrupted… “The Fightin’ Side of Me”.
You know, Merle Fucking Haggard.
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What It Takes
It takes buckets of blood and sweat and fucking work to get there. That’s It. To get good… to get competent. And then once you become competent, then maybe you have it in you to become an artist. Maybe you don’t. Before you get to a place that you can make art, you have to master these basics.
Joel Bukiewicz, creator of “Cut Brooklyn“, is a knife maker and through and through an artist. He’s had to power through hard times to create a line of knives, personally handmade out of Brooklyn, that are insanely popular because of the quality, the design and the heart he puts into each one. Just listening to his story, you get the feeling that this guy knows what it means to create or die. We should all strive for this level of commitment.
If you want to hear more of his story you can check out the short that Made By Hand put together on him.