Willie G. Moseley

It's a palm pedal, invented by a Nashville guitrarist and tinkerer named Dean Porter. Only two originals were ever made; the other one went to Grady Martin. Some of the parts are plumbing hardware. Gibson made a limited edition Jerry Kennedy model that also had the gizmo.

Nashville icon player and producer, died Wednesday at age 85. Got his start in Shreveport alongside James Burton. He played guitar on Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman", Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" and played dobro on "Harper Valley PTA" (Jeanie C. Reilly). Won four Grammys. Produced Roger Miller's and the Statler Brothers' hits in the '60s and '70s. Was the head of Mercury Records' Nashville operation from 1969 to 1984. Was a member of the inaugural group of musicians (including Scotty Moore) inducted into the Musicians' Hall of Fame. Later, the Museum named that facility's onsite theater after him. Attendees at the ceremony included Ray Stevens, Ricky Skaggs and Steve Wariner. Owned some classic instruments that played on classic songs. All three of his sons are in the music business in Music City. The oldest, Gordon, owns John Sebastian's 'Burst, and was a member of Christian rock band Whiteheart. Later, Gordon used to gig regularly with Peter Frampton. Jerry was a consummate professional. And I never tire of listening to Lester 'Roadhog' Moran and His Cadillac Cowboys--Live at the Johnny Mack Brown High School. That album, now over 50 years old, still gives my tear ducts a workout because I'm laughing so hard. In particular, "The Saturday Morning Radio Show No. 2" should be mandatory listening for any musician who grew up listening to small-town country bands.

And here's a T-20 bass from that era in Frost Blue metallic. That angled pickup with the built-in thumbrest is still eye=catching.

RE blue finish: Earliest price list I can find on which a blue finish was available on the Dyna-Bass was November 1986; finish named Teal Blue, and the one I owned wasn't a metallic finish. That said, I really liked Frost Blue and Sunfire Red. The search also meant that my original post here is erroneous as '87 apparently wasn't the first year for the model. There were a couple of earlier price lists in '86 but no blue finish on a Dyna-Bass was listed

Found a decent image of the blue example I used to own. it would have looked so much better with chrome or gold hardware. YMMV

Yeah, the emphasis was on vocals but their backing band was crackerjack. That third album, Captured Live at the Forum, was all covers but was entertaining

So I got through earlier than expected at the doctor's office on Tuesday morning, and had about 43 minutes to kill before all of the steam tables of the lunch buffet at a favorite Chinese restaurant would be loaded. I opted to spend the wait at a pawn shop with whom I had done a decent amount of business back when I was collecting. Was just expecting to chew the fat (mostly reminiscing) with the owner for a brief time. And I walked out with this: '87 Peavey Dyna-Bass, peari white with gold hardware, first year model, as played by Leon Wilkeson of Skynyrd during the '87 reunion tour. Near mint, fully original except a replacement pan pot knob. The kicker is that it came with a Fender hardshell case (?) and I bet some dealers that might want to purchase this instrument might be even more interested because of the case. Always thought the Dyna-Bass was a great utility bass, with practical and easy-to-understand active electronics. I use to own the blue one on the cover and spine of The Bass Space. But that color didn't look like it "coordinated" with black hardware.

I didn't last long trying to watch A Complete Unknown. As boring as watching paint dry.

Sensible video. Wonder if and where Lemmy might have ranked if he was still alive (considering his standard vocal stylings over the decades (notice that I'm not referring to him as a "singer"). He did note that Motorhead wouldn't go on until they were over the hill and embarrassing themselves, and while that's the way it happened, it didn't happen like the band thought it would, I'd think.

^^^This. I won the Dead's first album in '67 in a bet with a friend about the final episode of The Fugitive (starring David Janssen). I'd never heard anything like Viola Lee Blues" and ws immediately hooked. Garcia later acknowledged that back then, "...everybody thought Weir was a girl." Few bands became massive institutions, but the Dead succeeded in a unique manner, which is particularly notable since they didn't have many bona fide hit songs...but they weren't seeking to be pop stars.

^^^It may be a synth bass (hard for me to tell with these small computer speakers) but the bass line on "All She Wants Is" has one of the slipperiest (and memorable) hooks I've ever heard. I'm not a Duran Duran fan, but I used to sneak it into a bass solo when I played in a bar band.

The way things evolved, the first thought I have if Randy Newman's name comes up these days is how much I enjoyed his soundtrack to The Natural, just a good ol' (and relatively authentic) All-American movie.

Tears for Fears

Steve Haynie has a valid point about the live concerts. I recorded quite a few onto a stereo Beta videotape, then VHS after Beta capitulated in that format war...but Beta sounded better. Dubbed teh audio to cassette and later, cassette to CD-R. They still sound passable. Kept most of the cassettes and recently examined what I still have and how they hold up sonically and musically. Some of 'em ended up as legit concert video releases, like The Cars Live in Houston 1984 (and I'm not sure that's the exact title). Not everything from certain concerts was used. That said, it was fun to process the ones that fit onto a C-90 cassette from the raw videoetape. I used instrumentals to fade out the sides. YES: Edmonton, Aklbaerta-1984 90125 tour (Later released as 9013Live, I think) DAVID GILMOUR: About Face tour, 1984 AMNESTY INTERNATONAL CONCERT: 1986 HUEY LEWIS & THE NEWS: San Francisxo 1984 PAUL SIMON IN ZIMBABWE: 1987 GENESIS IN BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND: 1984 ASIA LIVE IN JAPAN: 1983 (RAW) LIVE AID---transferred to audio cassette but never processed: 1985 AC.DC: St. Louis 1983 VAN HALEN: New Haven 1986 VARIOUS AUSTIN CITY LIMITS PERFOMRANCES: TIMBUK 3, ERIC JOHNSON, STANLEY JORDAN, ETC. ERIC CLAPTON; NEW HAVEN (I think): 1984 (has my all-time favorite version of "Layla" plus a dynamite version of "Badge" that careens into "Let It Rain" ERIC CLAPTON: BIRMINGHAM ENGLAND, 1986 HEARTBEAT '86: Benefit with Moody Blues, E.L.O., etc. TEARS FOR FEARS: London 1984 PETE TOWNSHEND: Brixton HUEY LEWIS & THE NEWS: Los Angeles 1092 ATLANTIC RECORDS 40TH ANNIVERSARY MR. MISTER: The iRitz, NYC GOLDEN EARRING: Holland 1984 (a lot better than might be expected) FIXX: St. Petersburg, 1984 FABULOUS THUNDERBIRDS: London 1985 BILLY JOEL: Nassau Coliseum CSN: New Universal amphitheatre 1983 38 SPECIAL: Nassau Coliseum 1984 I've also got a dub somewhere of a concert featuring the Romantics, Heart, and Huey Lewis & the News (in that order). The Romantics' "What I Like About You" with a segue into "Little Latin Lupe Lu" is stone devastating (Mitch Ryder rules!). Back then it inspired my bar band to come with something similar, and the end result, clocking in at least 20 minutes was "Mony Mony"--bass solo, incl. snippets from the "I Love Lucy" theme, "Danger Zone and "Tequila"--"Born to Be Wild"--"Mony Mony" reprise---drum solo---"Little Latin Lupe Lu". One of our strongest efforts, usually went over like gangbusters.

...and there is no such thing as "reality television." There is no way a person behaves normally in his/her lifestyle if he/she knows a camera is recording him/her. Moreover, in the real real world, persons of numerous races, ethnicities, lifestyles and other demographics don't participate in tokenism-fueled residential experiences. The very moniker of "reality television" is phony. I've never watched a reality TV show, and never will.

....made me want to play electric guitar. I didn't follow through too good. Maybe that' s why I switched to bass.

RE Bing Crosby and "White Christmas", I settled in and watched the movie again for the umpteenth time this week (one station was playing it over and over, a la SyFy and the original Twilight Zone series). I have a policy of viewing it at least twice each Christmas season if possible, and the continuous broadcast of White Christmas is a handy option. What makes this personal ritual worthwhile is that the movie exemplifies how, in those times, many mainstream movie stars had a more-meticulous occupation---they had to sing and dance and act. The choreography is dazzling, and it didn't hurt that Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen were both babes. That movie will always hold up, for me at least.

Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus". Also utilized for Easter

"Fool" was a good song that sounded like it fit his type of vocalization just fine. He sounded soulful without over-emoting, FWMOW Then was the Willie and the Poor Boys project, as organized by Bill Wyman. Yes, it was a temporary oldies-performed-by-all-stars thing but the selections of classic tunes they performed was terrific. Watching Charlie Watts hamming it up was fun, too. I was particularly imbued with Rea's vocals on "Baby Please Don't Go"

Interesting to see what Dennis DeYoung was up to back then (between you and Nickle, wearing the vest/flak jacket) Wouldn't think he could sublimate his own name to play in a combo with someone else's moniker...

My perception is that Morty runs an efficient and popular show (otherwise he wouldn't still be doing it). The one time I was there, he brought in a stack of pizzas for dealers during load-in. Nice touch.

Was listening to the live CD of Donald Fagen's The Nightfly, and it struck me that back in their heyday, it would have perhaps been difficult to describe Steely Dan as being in a particular genre of music--they weren't progressive, weren't blues or hard rock, weren't purely pop, etc.. Yet the stuff was quite listenable. There were numerous other artists around over the decades that defied categorization, and oftentimes their earlier material was the best source of such validation. For me, it would have been Thomas Dolby's first two albums, early Peter Gabriel solo albums, etc. (may add others here as I think of them). The Atlanta Rhythm Section was once pronounced to be "the Southern Steely Dan" and IMO that's valid, although the ARS still had a decent Southern rock foundation. David Bowie? Maybe, but he was more of a trendy chameleon. Others (and why)?

I stumbled across this while doing research for a book on a famous shopping center, of all things. I'd almost completely forgotten about it. It dates from March 1989 in the Montgomery Advertiser. The Harmony guitar that's missing the logo turned out to be a short-lived Stratotone variant called the Roy Smeck model; it dates from 1961. This Missus had just gotten pregnant back then, and that same month I went to the first Atlanta guitar show (at the Omni) figuring my collecting jones was going to be tapering down. But picked up a small tabloid called National Music Trader, and I sent them an article I composed about the Roy Smeck. That tabloid turned into Vintage Guitar Magazine, and the band imploded instead my collecting adventure Almost 37 years later it's interesting to note what was notable about collecting evolved in the ensuing decades. I think most of what I said herein still holds up. Comments?

Age 84. A giant who was not only a musical influence, but validated the notion that someone's color should be irrelevant when it comes to music. And he first took that step in an integrated band in the early '60s, during the glory days of the original Civil Rights Movement. But his proprietary licks and tone were unforgettable. Someone else opined that he could hit one note and you'd know who it was. First guitar lick I ever learned was that immortal twangy intro to "Hip Hug-Her"

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