Good morning from Whiskey Creek, where absolutely NOTHING has changed since the last time I stroked that into my Mac.
I reiterate, this column IS NOT an ad for Facebook, the social media site that has more members than the majority of countries recognized by the United Nations have population; however, if you do not check out what’s on Facebook routinely…let’s say a couple times a week…after you’ve read today’s Welcome, I will have failed. And that’s because, as far as I know, checking in every now and again is the only way you can get the required dosage of vitamin P, a narrative supplement guaranteed to keep bluegrass and old country junkies awake and alert. I refer, of course, to the writing of Randy Pitts.
I remember the morning I logged onto my computer and checked my FB “notifications”…Hmm, I thought aloud, a friend request from Randy Pitts, an old pal of mine who lives back in Nashville with another old pal, Chris Lewis. My aloud “hmm” is a half-conscious technique I use to try to remember to DO SOMETHING with something that I’ve just read or heard or seen. In this case the something was to immediately accept Randy’s request and then write him an FB message asking if he’d consider writing for cbaontheweb.org. Randy would be a huge catch if I could snag him, and there are several reasons for that. First, he’s a fount of information about what’s happening in Nashville; second, imagine a fount five times as big about pretty much everything bluegrass; third, before Randy and Chris made the long trek back to Music City, they were both mainstays of the early days of California, and specifically Bay Area, bluegrass; and fourth, the guy’s a good writer who can be funny and informative at the same time…imagine that.
Well, my old pal was just as quick to FB message me back and decline the invitation to join our merry band of writers. He said he was too busy to make such a commitment, especially because of his latest venture, a FaceBook page from which he could broadcast his pretty much daily writings. I responded that I understood but asked if I could just swipe (and attribute) stuff I liked, he said sure, and that’s just what we’ve been doing the last several months.
So then, why all the fuss? What’s so good about Pittism’s anyway? Rather than try to tell you, I’ll show you with one of his longer Facebook posts, this one about making it to the IBMA Awards Show where he was nominated for his work writing liner notes for the latest James King album…
“The lure of hearing my name read out loud at The IBMA Awards Luncheon–and tickets to the Awards Show– proved too strong to resist, so Chris and I went to Raleigh this past weekend with some trepidation, and I’m happy to say, had a wonderful time. Many highlights, beginning with having a drink in the hotel bar with Jim Rooney, musician, promoter, producer, author, wit, bon vivant, and raconteur; a man who has been in the room when it happened more than most, and a man who has forgotten more about traditional music than most of us will ever know; he was in Raleigh to honor his longtime partner Bill Keith ,a man who despite accepting a Distinguished Achievement citation for a lifetime of great and innovatve music, belongs in the IBMA’s Hall Of Fame. In the same bar, later that night, I caught up with my main competition in the liner notes category–he won–Neil Rosenberg, who not only wrote notes for the very successful and groundbreaking album of Noam Pikelny’s interpretations of Kenny Baker’s versions of Monroe tunes but also was inducted into The IBMA Hall Of Fame Thursday night. Although Neil is a Berkeley boy and was a founding member of Berkeley’s first bona fide bluegrass band (The Redwood Canyon Ramblers), his love of bluegrass and banjo playing has led to a life filled with academic and literary success–he wrote the definitive history of the music–and he too, has been in the room when it happened many times. I told him I figured I had scant chance of winning for my liner notes against the likes of him, and he pretty much agreed, but in a nice way…just a kiddin’…Neil was a gracious winner as always…and on Thursday humbly accepted his induction into the Hall Of Fame. I was particularly moved to hear him mention the importance of some who had been kind to him along the way, including Big Mon himself, but also people whose names wouldn’t mean much to a lot of people. He mentioned Roger Smith as being particularly kind to him in his formative years. Chris and I got to know Roger in the 90s, and he was a fabulous, though largely unheralded musician during the early years of bluegrass. He was a fixture at The Brown County Music Park when Neil worked there and ran the place for Bill Monroe for a time–and was in the house band with Roger and Vernon McQueen, among others.
The original Seldom Scene was also inducted into the HOF, Original members Tom Gray, John Starling, and Ben Eldridge (the sole surviving member of the original group still active in the band) also joined the other current members of the band in an affecting version of Herb Pedersen’s “Wait A Minute.” THAT was a highlight, for sure, especially hearing John Starling sing the song once again…Choreographer Eileen Carson Schatz, an old friend, told me when we ran into her in a restaurant that we’d better be in our seats early for the awards show the next night, because her latest version of Footworks was going to open the show. We were, they did, and they blew the roof off the joint; great to see that her energy and innovations remain undiminished.
More later…”
And there WAS a lot more later. Besides Randy’s mostly random ramblings, his followers are treated every couple days with Randog’s Daily Pick, three-hundred or so word record reviews. Since beginning his stint on Facebook Pitts has written about the likes of The New Lost City Ramblers, Vern and Ray, Jerry Lee Lewis, Norman Blake and Tony Rice and…well dozens of others.
Randy’s Facebook posts are nearly always brief, typically pithy and generally fraught with opinion. Oh, and he’s known for his inability (or is it unwillingness) to suffer fools, or more accurately, people adjudged to be fools by, who else, Randy.
You know, I just realized that I do not know if folks without Facebook accounts can read junk on FB. Can’t check myself being the owner of said account. But if the answer is YES, I suggest you bounce over to facebook.com and do a search on Randy Pitts. He’s an interesting guy with an interesting perspective and an interesting way of telling you just what he thinks.
That’s all for now…tomorrow the revered Bruce Campbell will serve up another healthy heaping of heartfelt homilies.