“Good, better, best. Never rest until good be better and
better best.”– Mother Goose Rhyme

“Just write. Don’t worry if it’s good, or bad. Just write.”–Kerry Wendall Thornley, poet, philosopher, mad man speaking in Coffeehouse: Atlanta’s Underground Poets a film by Geoff Beardsley

This woman messaged me at 3 a.m. on Facebook, and asked me if I was, “connected to Al Pacino in any way?”

I asked her why she was asking, and she said that she was just wondering.

I told her that I had just watched the movie, “Frankie and Johnnie,” and that was as close as I had ever gotten to him. Like Hunter Thompson once said, “When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.”

My name Mikel, and I am a Recovering Music Journalist.

Scarlett and I went to see The Wayside Riders in Tucker, Ga. at The Moonshadow Saloon, last night. Danielle Strickland, and her possee from Albany were there, as usual, grooving to the hypnotic sounds of The Riders, and rooting for their main man, lead guitar player, Shell Stamps, who is also from Albany.

“They sound a little bit like The Allman Brothers,” said Scarlett half way through song one. I smiled at her, thinking to myself that she would see that The Wayside Riders travel a wide spectrum on their musical journey. The Wayside Riders sound like many bands, but in the end they sound like The Wayside Riders, a very original, intelligent progressive band.

There are four vocalists in this band, each one contributing to the writing of The Wayside Songs, and two drummers. Standing near Preston Holcomb, and Rick Welsh,the drummers, you get the feeling of what it must have been like to have gotten beaten up by Mike Tyson back in the day. The only other percussion unit that I have felt such a powerful energy from are the percussionists in the aforementioned Allman Bros., who I experienced full on while working as a rock n roll stage hand, a few years back. The stage hand job that I was assigned to that day had me standing just off stage, while The Allman Brothers played, at what was then called Hi Fi Buys Ampitheatre.

The Wayside Riders show, last night, was incredible as are all Wayside Riders shows.
The Wayside Riders:: powerful, mesmerizing, intelligent.

When the going gets weird dept…Charles Manson was recently caught with a cell phone hidden under his California state prison bed. Who the hell would call Charlie, and who the hell

would Charlie let his murderous little fingers do the walking to on the phone? This is crazy. Can you see him dialing out…”Hey, baby, it’s Charlie would you knock off Madonna, and Sean Penn for me?”

Charles Manson had a cellphone?

I often talk to my animals, and, today, as my black cat, Jaggar, was meowing loudly on the kitchen floor below me, rubbing up against my leg, and begging for a treat, I found myself asking the cat if he, “Had earned it?”

Just what did I mean by this. I think that it is some weird throwback to my childhood, when my father would constantly grind into my head that you, “Had to earn things in this world.” My kids

are, basically, grown so I guess my cats, and dogs will, now, have to put up with my wisdom being imparted onto them.

To my dogs Bundy, and Morisson: “Get a job!”

Often, I leave talk radio running in the house for the dogs, cats, and turtles when I leave the house. Someone asked me if the animals like listening to the radio; I honestly don’t know because they can’t speak to me in so many words.

I recently, moved my television, and VCR in front of my bed, because I just started getting dvd’s in the mail. My bed is near the front door, so, today,I left the movie, “Love Field,” running for my furry friends,while I went to buy some groceries. I’m not sure if the dogs, cats, and turtles like movies, either, but there is the nice side benefit of having human voices in the house, as well as my half lab, half rottweiler dog, Bundy, when I’m gone, and the crack head shows up, kicks our door in, and wants to leave with one of my laptops, as he did about two years ago, when I was living in another location.

One of my computers is completely down, and the other two need tweeking; so where do I go; to the high priced Geek Squad, no, I head over to see Wayne Myers, the computer genius, who fixes computers at a reasonable price. Wayne works out of his home in Midtown; if you are nearby, and need computer help, I suggest that you contact him at his Facebook page:

Wayne Myers

Check out The Wayside Riders at these links:

Waysiderides on Reverb Nation

Wayside Riders

Peace and Love.
Peace and Love.
Peace and Love.

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Mikel K (58 Posts)