well, i can't get the dang pix to upload, so that'll come later...
-> al & laraine hendrix are the nicest people -- met yesterday at trout's 9th annual pioneer days. al will talk your ear off: he's spry (even after recent hip surgery!), kind, & upbeat, & his stories are so interesting -- elvis; ann margret; col. parker; fats domino; bakersfield's wild 50s teenaged r&r band the go daddies! his wife laraine is funny & warm as can be, & everyone at trout's was nice. 3 people knew dad from the historical society (he's pres & the country music museum is affiliated w/it) & they gaped cause i don't look like dad (the astronaut). in addition to the hendrixes, enjoyed seeing/meeting/talking w/don kidwell (annie wasn't there yet, unfortunately), bobby tidwell's (token okie's) wife angel, enid, lynda, & joyce simpson (mrs red, who used to work w/dad). & what a line-up of music!! every "living legend" of the bakersfield sound was there (except merle haggard, who is sick)... lynda took my pic w/mark yeary, whom i finally got up the nerve to go talk to. he smiled in a quiet, impish way & said, "i can teach you everything i know in 5 minutes..." i don't think so!! that's what sue palmer said, too!! these great people are far too modest!! anyways, he motioned me to come up & play, so i stationed myself behind him on the stage & watched HIM play.
-> finally, when al sang "johnny b' goode," which i DO know, mark stood up & there i SAT at a really nice roland, banging away w/hands shaking cause i was following mark yeary -- but i heard people came inside to see "the girl playing the piano." (the trained monkey effect, i say, i hope not derisively; really, i & ones like me are inherently a novelty act to some degree, tho maybe not 200 yrs from now...) after the song, mark said, "that was it - note for note, just like the record!" & al said the JLL comment. talk about generous! then they went into a lloyd price (i think) number, & i thought, i could've (mostly) done that one!! but it was really cool to see how mark voiced chords (everything's 5-fingered!), so i'm gonna call him & get a lesson, i hope. it still kills me how many world-class blues-boogie-honky tonk pianists i've gotten to meet. gee whiz!!!!!!!!!!!!
-> al rocked & the dance floor was packed! he has a great voice, & i hope he gets hemsby & any of the fests that are calling for him now. truly i hope he won't remain "the lost rocker! he said more than once, "jenny, laraine & i truly think the lord sent you to us, sent you into our lives to help us," & more such kind, kind things, & i kept thinking, i don't go for anything unless i love it like mad cause i just can't, & i loved al's songs & singing BEFORE i knew he recorded in bako & was kinda like the dusk devils' grandpa, & yet my corny stage name, the one that used to make me cringe, really seems apt at times when somehow in spite of the raging ego i get to do something nice, & boy am i lucky to get to live to see all of this, & boy is this a lot for which to be grateful & happy. :)
-> after, we all went to dave's bbq & gentlemanly jimmy phillips told some wild & scary stories about being a 15-yr old drummer for the go daddies!! seeing al triggered memories for him, & what jimmy recalled was hair-raising for a boy to have experienced! if i had been his mother, i would've been severely pi**ed, as my cousin would say! "those kinda things happen," he said, "and you can't ever forget them..." i thought how i'd never seen a person outside the fellowship talk so non-gratuitously openly & honestly to strangers. everyone similarly touched me w/their sincerity & plain-spoken kindliness. we definitely were not w/the indignant, cynical, know it all, hipper than thou, or post-anything crowd, thank goodness for that.
-> fri (art's show & r&r pizza), sat (manuel & family), & sun, i/we sure got to be w/a lot of down to earth & big-hearted people, more than ever. ciò è così bella vita. and so it goes.
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