Song of Scampy
Although I loved Lil and Tom, I was somewhat discomfited when they insisted I meet Scampy, a displaced squirrel who recently had relocated to their back yard. How could they know small rodents made me uneasy? However, since it seemed important to them, I accompanied Tom onto the patio. A Bruno Walter phonograph of Beethoven’s Pastorale Symphony Number 6 played on the turntable in the den. It was a personal favorite of the...
The Art of Integration
In late February, the Alabama State Council on the Arts employed award winning Livingston, Alabama songwriter Jacky Jack White to work with students at Robert C. Hatch High School in Uniontown, Alabama. Their mission was to construct an original musical play using the techniques of “arts integration.” The deadline was May 16. Jacky Jack White with student. Diana Green of the State Council explains that White and Hatch teacher Darren...
Pointing Dog Social Club
The Pointing Dog Social Club is a 30-minute outdoor/musical variety show produced through a collaboration among lilDRAGON Entertainment (creative team of the Joey + Rory Show), Marshall County Community Theatre, The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, and Spotted Dog Productions. 🎥 The show is filmed at the famous Dixie Theatre, a classic 1930’s venue located in historic Lewisburg, Tennessee. The premise of the show is the...
Music Man — Rick Clark
Anyone who has ever listened to a CD from the Oxford American Magazine’s annual Southern music issue has probably thought, “The guy who picks this song list is a genius!” It turns out THE GUY is Rick Clark who lives in one of our favorite towns, Columbia, Tennessee. Here’s a recent article about Rick: http://validitymag.com/2013/12/tennessee-music-from-the-heart-of-columbia/...
Big City, the Bus Driver, and Merle
The fine music writer Marc Myers recently wrote a great story for the Wall Street Journal about how Merle Haggards’s classic, Big City came about:http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304302704579334773204348540
Dinah Washington — September in the Rain
The most popular black female recording artist of the 1950s, “The Queen of the Blues”, died young at 39 in the arms of her seventh husband. Although she is most associated with the Chicago music scene, she was born Ruth Lee Jones in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. She changed her name just before joining Lionel Hampton’s band in 1943. She had a string of top 10 R&B hits from 1948 through 1961. September in the Rain is...