Musings

I love Howlin’ Wolf because everything that comes out of his mouth, whether it’s singin’ or talkin’, sounds like the truth. What an incredible human being.

Here’s a cool new Christmas classic! I’ve been working a lot with Grey DeLisle this year, on her own stuff and a batch of kids-oriented tunes with Eddie Clendening under the band name “The Roughhousers.”

Charlie Gracie was a force of nature. You wouldn’t know it by his best-known songs (“Butterfly” and “Fabulous,” which were pop hits), but he was one of the true originators of the style that became rock ’n’ roll music.

Sad to hear that Dino Danelli, the explosive drummer of the Young Rascals, has passed away. What an incredible drummer he was!

I had a nice tour of the RTI record pressing plant in Camarillo this morning. I took some of my lacquer disc cuts in to Dorin, their metal plating manager, to see if they looked good enough to be metal plated.

TODAY’S THE BIG DAY: Sixteen Tons: The Merle Travis Story is officially released!

I’m very sad to learn of the death of Graeme Thomas, my good friend from Australia who was the brainchild of Preston Records and Preston Studios.

I’m not really in the market for anything, these days, which is nice. But every now and then an orphan will pop up that needs a home. This Standel acoustic guitar popped up on Craigslist the other day and I got it for 250 bucks.

For years, there has been a debate in the rockabilly world: Who played guitar on the Johnny Burnette and the Rock and Roll Trio recordings? This debate can go on for days among the guitar geeks of the modern era.

Had a nice afternoon visit with the guys from the Phantom Surfers to visit Cecilia Meneau and her husband, Ryan. I met Cecilia back in the 1990s when she booked a European tour for the Untamed Youth. What an amazing place!