St. Louie Blues
Traveling 300 miles down the Mother Road from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, a traveler reaches both St. Louis cities and their rich musical histories. Both? Separated by the Mississippi River, the metropolitan version in Missouri (St. Louis) and the much smaller city in Illinois (East St. Louis) are toss-ups in developing national-class musicians and venues in the 1930s and onward. St. Louis was home to famous radio stations, recording studios, and record labels. East St. Louis provided an outsized Black club circuit – Club Manhattan, Riviera, Cosmopolitan, Ruby’s, Holman’s Hole, Hornbergers, Mildred’s, the Paramount, the Blue Note, and Ned’s[...]
Chitown 1926 Digs Music
Chicago signpost shows point-zero of Route 66 Chicagoans bustled by street crews, putting the finishing touches on the new road sign designating ground zero for Route 66. Perched above the sidewalk at Michigan Ave and Adams Street, across from The Art Institute of Chicago, on November 11, 1926, the crew watched men in fedoras and ladies in long, wool overcoats cruise down the concrete, likely unaware of the historical moment. Perhaps some thought about the music headed their way that night. The music scene was robust in their city. It was the middle of the Prohibition Era. But[...]
The Winding Road of Music on Route 66
Well, here’s the thing. The Mother Road from east to west has long been a melting pot of people, places, and, of course, music. As long as there have been radios in cars, venues along the route, and musicians determined to play, travelers have listened to sounds of different genres from Chicago to Santa Monica, whether they stop for the night or pass on by. This series has encapsulated the essentials of the diverse musical history over the 2,500-mile adventure. Seven cities provided unexpected nuggets. Some were complete surprises to the author – Amarillo and Albuquerque. Some were not –[...]
Blanche in the Rearview Mirror
My weathered Minnetonka moccasin hammers my car's throttle, leaving Tulsa, Oklahoma, rolling north in August 2008. I am precisely fifty-nine-years-old. The summer heat shimmers off the Highway 75 asphalt as I steer towards the colder Scandinavian region of my youth and my parent’s cabin on Lake Blanche in West Central Minnesota. I relish this annual vacation that takes me eight hundred miles over two-lane ribbons of familiar roads. As the stress of Tulsa fades, lake memories flood my consciousness. When Dad drove us to the cabin from northwest Iowa, we always stopped at the Dairy Queen in Pipestone, Minnesota; we[...]
Farmhouse in South Dakota
(A braided essay) At dawn on a Saturday morning in July of 1958, our nuclear family loaded up for a trip to spend the day with Mom's uncle, Albin Matson. We lived on the Missouri River in Sioux City in northwest Iowa. Uncle Albin lived on the other side of the Missouri in southeast South Dakota, fifty miles away, down two-lane roads through rich, black dirt fields. Uncle Albin's dwelling was the same farmhouse his family built when they immigrated from Sweden in the early 1900s. With sleepy eyes, we piled into the Chevy. Dad always bought Chevy station wagons.[...]
Just David
People say I'm crazy doing what I'm doing Well, they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round and round I really love to watch them roll No longer riding on the merry-go-round I just had to let it go Watching the Wheels, John Lennon, 1981 (posthumous) Homelessness in America is a simmering cauldron of thousands fending for themselves. Some are not old enough to receive social security checks. Some don’t know how to apply or are mentally ill or addicted to chemicals that rob them[...]
Playpen Delight
Sometimes, friends talk about their earliest memories, perhaps the first memory. Over the years, I have always responded with the same answer. How could I know this happened, they'd ask. "Really? Oh, come on now!" they'd remark. "No, honest, I can still see it." I stand my ground. My parents brought me home from the hospital to a two-bedroom house on Garretson Avenue in the enclave known as Morningside within the city limits of Sioux City, Iowa. When I return for class reunions, I often take a tour of the three homes of my upbringing. On[...]
Wunnerful a Wunnerful
Lawrence Welk was quite popular with the viewing public during his show's original run and continues to have a nostalgic fan base even today. The Lawrence Welk show was a smash hit for the older demographic of Americans who tuned in each week to hear Welk’s big band in the 50s and 60s on the new home appliance called a television. It was a splashy LA production featuring easy-listening music of polkas and tunes suited for his dancers to glide around in front of the band, wearing sailor suits or the like, smiling and whipping their heads around to face[...]
Here, Kitty
She sits alone in the loft of a coffee house called The Rookery. Concentrating on her job at hand, she is oblivious to the group of like-aged twenty-somethings opposite her, gazing at their laptops. Comfortably situated on a worn, green fabric sofa beneath two four-paned windows that provide light for her writing, the focused woman pays no attention to the gable ceiling with cedar rafters, the repurposed barn siding, or the reclaimed wood beams. An orange thermos, a coffee cup, a plate with a half-finished donut, and a balled-up napkin rest within arm's reach on the[...]
Make it a Double
1 Skylark A stoop-shouldered man with sparse hair stumbled into the Skylark bar from the bright, blue skies of October in Chicago. He perched on a bar stool and grinned at Mike White, the barkeep, “Make it a double.” “Heck, yes,” Mike said, slapping the bar, “I thought you’d never ask. Hey, how are you doing this morning? Hope you had a good night, Bill," Mike said. The gentleman, Bill Porter, waited for the drink to arrive. He surveyed the room of his daily social club, where he distracted himself from his disappointments. He looked over[...]
Traveling 300 miles down the Mother Road from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, a traveler reaches both St. Louis cities and their rich musical histories. Both? Separated by the Mississippi[...]
Chicago signpost shows point-zero of Route 66 Chicagoans bustled by street crews, putting the finishing touches on the new road sign designating ground zero for Route 66. Perched[...]
Well, here’s the thing. The Mother Road from east to west has long been a melting pot of people, places, and, of course, music. As long as there have been[...]
My weathered Minnetonka moccasin hammers my car's throttle, leaving Tulsa, Oklahoma, rolling north in August 2008. I am precisely fifty-nine-years-old. The summer heat shimmers off the Highway 75 asphalt as[...]
(A braided essay) At dawn on a Saturday morning in July of 1958, our nuclear family loaded up for a trip to spend the day with Mom's uncle, Albin Matson.[...]
People say I'm crazy doing what I'm doing Well, they give me all kinds of warnings to save me from ruin I'm just sitting here watching the wheels go round[...]
Sometimes, friends talk about their earliest memories, perhaps the first memory. Over the years, I have always responded with the same answer. How could I know this happened,[...]
Lawrence Welk was quite popular with the viewing public during his show's original run and continues to have a nostalgic fan base even today. The Lawrence Welk show was a[...]
She sits alone in the loft of a coffee house called The Rookery. Concentrating on her job at hand, she is oblivious to the group of like-aged twenty-somethings[...]
1 Skylark A stoop-shouldered man with sparse hair stumbled into the Skylark bar from the bright, blue skies of October in Chicago. He perched on a bar stool and grinned[...]
