1. The Beatles recorded "Sgt. Pepper on 4-track, not 8-track. A miraculous feat. Of course I knew that, but thanks for keeping me honest, for correcting my brain fart.

2. Only one of Arlo’s kids is in the Guthrie Girls. The other woman is Amy Nelson, daughter of WILLIE! As one reader e-mailed me, if they were on SNL, they’d be household names overnight, they’re just that good.

3. And while I’ve got your attention, I just saw Mary Gauthier. I had no idea. She sang this song about the King of the Hobos that was positively staggering. Without intending to, she left Gaga in the dust. The turn of the phrase, the inflection… Wow!

They’re Arlo’s kids.

I just had the most amazing experience. You see in the wee hours, the 17th, 18th and 19th floor are turned over to these showcases, hotel rooms with players. Last night I was flummoxed, but tonight I got tips.

My newfound buddy from the High Sierra Music Festival told me to show up at 10:30 to hear this guy from the Mother Hips and his wife.

I couldn’t get there right away, I couldn’t find an empty elevator. And when I finally found room in a car the sign said the limit was sixteen, and I counted nineteen inside. Do elevators only plunge in New York City?

But I eventually made it to find Tim and Nicki Bluhm harmonizing as good as any record, with no tricks, just their regular true voices. It was staggering. We remember the glorious background singers of yesteryear, everybody from Merry Clayton to Rita Coolidge. We’ve heard the voices on the albums, so pure. Could anybody replicate those live?

Turns out Nicki Bluhm can.

She’s a freak of nature.

I couldn’t believe she was real.

And then I stumbled into Renee Bodie’s room, where I heard two girls singing:

Knock me up if you love me

Now one was playing a guitar, and the other a uke, as a matter of fact, they were billed as "Folk Uke". And the song was meandering along until…we were hit over the head with this line.

But it only got better!

The song ends and one of them says, we heard we were coming to the FUCK ALLIANCE!

I didn’t think they made people like this anymore. One was wearing a dress, the other a white sweater, there were no tattoos in sight, one looked like she was studying for her PhD, the other resembled nothing so much as a homemaker.

And then they started singing about being hit.

Strip off your belt and give me a welt

Huh?

In a nation of pink ribbons, where domestic violence is just to the left of child molestation, no one even makes jokes about being hit. But like the best of comedians, these women did.

And they finished with a number entitled "Motherfucker Got Fucked Up".

It’s like everything you know is wrong. That SoundScan is obsolete and "People" magazine is an alternative universe.

The action, the mainstream, the hip are on the tippity-top of the Marriott tonight!

I was TRANSFIXED!

I’m still tingling. This is exactly what music is all about. Direct expression from one human being to another, with no committee, no filter messing up the message.

And that’s why we’re living in a new golden age. Distribution has been flattened. Everyone can play. But are you any good?

I now know why the CEO of Guitar Center flies in a private jet. Sure, he’s got to get to out of the way venues, but the point is everybody wants to play, they need instruments to do so, and it might be a lousy time to own a record store, but it’s a brilliant time to be selling musical instruments.

And that’s what Folk Alliance is all about. Players. Making what David Crosby famously called "wooden music".

Folk Alliance is the epicenter for folk music. And it’s making a comeback. It was pushed down by the man, the major labels fighting for hits. But now with hits diminished, all the music pushed down to the bottom of the river is resurfacing. Running around the Memphis Marriott you’d think folk music rules the world.

And maybe it does.

So there’s a plethora of rooms. And during the early evening, curated acts are playing in all of them, half an hour at a time. You don’t sign up and get a slot, Louis Meyers makes sure you deserve the attention, that you’re good.

And what’s funny is there are household names, assuming your house is filled with music. Steve Forbert played. As well as James McMurtry. Jonatha Brooke is performing right now. I can’t wait to see Malcolm Holcombe and Steve Poltz. It’s like being injected with a hypodermic of adrenaline. Eureka, this is it! This is music!

It’s coming from everywhere.

And I’ve seen no plastic surgery. I’ve just seen regular people, Americans. Some with lumpy bodies, some with oversized features. Because that’s what human beings are, diverse. If you can’t accept me because I’m imperfect, I don’t want to know you.

And you know what?

We less than perfect people are inheriting the world. We’ve now got the power.

Now I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. It’s very easy to learn how to play. But it’s almost impossible to learn how to write.

You can spin records, buy books, you can master the notes. But can you rearrange them in such a way that we’re infected?

Very few are able.

But when you can, we pay attention. We’re startled. It’s like your favorite uncle come back from the dead to tell you what it’s like on the other side.

Only great songwriters tell you about this side. Life. Complicated, messy, exciting and even sometimes boring.

No dancing, no melisma necessary.

You don’t even need to be the best player.

You’ve just got to be able to get your message across.

So I go to see this guy Tim Easton. Met him once, liked his music.

And I find I can’t stop paying attention. To the stories, to the words.

And then he starts playing this song "Next To You".

That’s where we all want to be.

And it’s so hard to get there. And stay there.

Sure, hit and run sometimes works.

Then again, so many are afraid to ask, to take a risk.

Can you get up your gumption to be honest, to approach another human being, to get close, to let your bodies touch?

That’s what makes the whole world go ’round, that’s what makes life worth living. Life without intimacy is death.

And Tim’s singing his song, picking the notes, playing his harmonica.

And there’s nowhere I’d rather be.

I needed to tell you.

Spotify link

1

I saw the ducks.

It’s a ritual at the Peabody Hotel. The Duckmaster parades them out of the fountain down a red carpet into the elevator, which takes them to the rooftop, their nighttime abode.

You can miss it, but I was in the neighborhood at the right time, five o’clock. I found out about it from Al Kooper. We live in a world of recommendations.

2

I wasn’t gonna go, to see the ducks, but the retired couple from Rockford, Illinois on the free bus convinced me.

They acted like I had no idea where they were from, but I immediately exclaimed THE HOME OF CHEAP TRICK!

The husband nodded vigorously in acknowledgement.

3

At first I wasn’t sure if the bus was free. So I asked the German girl. I didn’t know she was German at first, but when she answered and I heard the accent and realized we were having a bit of a problem communicating, I understood.

Actually, she understood pretty good. Don’t catch me trying to speak German in Germany.

But I had fantasies I’d get on this bus and be taken to a location far, far away and would be busted as a freeloader. So I got up all my gumption and asked the aforementioned Illinois couple for details.

This was very difficult for me. I’m shy and embarrassed. If things don’t go my way, I don’t brush it off, I feel bad inside. I could never be a salesman, I can’t take that much rejection. Furthermore, my father’s mantra was YOU GOTTA ASK! And we seem to do the opposite of what our parents do. We don’t want to be like them.

But not only did I get this couple’s life story, they told me the bus was indeed free and not only would it take me back to Beale Street, but even on to Graceland.

People are friendly. People want to talk.

I guess my father was right.

4

We went to a soul food restaurant for lunch. For a while, we were the only white people there. And I started to wonder, is this how it’s going to be? Is it only a matter of time before white people become a minority? When we’re the oppressed race?

5

My lunchmates were Blame Sally. Well, not exactly. The drummer for Blame Sally and two women from their record company.

The drummer was a gardener before. The junior label person worked for two years for free before she got hired on for pay. And the big label honcho (honchette?) funded her way to today by being a massage therapist and a barista.

Which may be why the music business is not peopled by the educated and rich. Because they just don’t have the patience. They can’t wait. They need the money now.

And sometimes, the money never comes at all.

6

I can’t stop looking at the Mississippi. Maybe it’s Mark Twain, maybe it’s the bouncing ball spelling out the word in the song in that cartoon. Maybe it’s…

I get that feeling looking at the Pacific, one of possibilities. The big ole’ river keeps rolling, just like John Fogerty sang. You can see it moving. And it’s deep and wide. And on the other side is a whole new state. And the land is so flat…  Flooding is a real possibility.

As Robert Plant once sang, I come from the land of ice and snow. Everything I know about the river is from books and movies. To actually be here next to it blows my mind even more than entering Sun Studios. The river never dies. It keeps on moving. We’re the ones who come and go.

7

Al Kooper was not the only one who referenced the ducks. Thanks to all those giving advice. What I’ve learned is I’ve got to eat barbecue, the consensus is the Rendezvous, even though some people disagree.

And I’ve got to get fried chicken at Gus’s. Everyone agrees with that.

And what I love about this wired world is how we’re all connected, how we’re all in it together, how despite our differences, we all look out for each other.