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Joe Waters + Trio FREE BLUES CONCERT at the Wandering Griffin!

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🎶 Live Blues with Joe Waters + Trio at our Ugly Sweater Holiday Party🎶

Celebrate the Christmas/Holiday season at the Wandering Griffin’s Ugly Sweater Holiday Party, featuring a live Blues concert 💙

Join us as local legend Joe Waters takes the stage with his award-winning trio, bringing you raw, soulful blues that have earned him 1st place in the 2024 International Blues Challenge and the 2022 Telluride Blues Challenge. 🎸✨

📅 Date: Saturday, December 21

🕕 Event Starts at 6 PM | Joe Waters Trio from 7:30–9:30 PM | FREE ENTRY

📍 Location: Wandering Griffin, Beavercreek, OH

Bring your friends, family, and your ugliest holiday sweater for a party you won’t want to miss!

#UglySweaterParty #WanderingGriffin #SupportLocalMusicians #BluesNight #BeavercreekEvents #WPAFB #DrinkBeerMadeHere #FairbornFun #CraftBeerLovers #LiveBlues #PetFriendlyEvent #FreeConcert #FreeEvents #BluesMusician #LiveBluesMusic

Artist of the Week: Jennifer Taylor

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 Jennifer Taylor at K12 Gallery and TEJAS.

Jennifer is a teacher and administrator in addition to being an artist herself. Behind her you can see the work of some of her elementary school students. Jennifer recently became project manager of the HAALO program, where at-risk teens participate in projects like painting murals.

Jennifer is also a photographer, so she’ll be taking photos for K12 and posting them on social media. When she’s not working Jennifer photographs Dayton’s music scene. You can see some of her work on her facebook page and on instagram @jennifertaylor.photographer

Jennifer also directed a documentary I would love to see. It’s called “The Fall League” and it’s about Dayton’s senior slow pitch softball leagues. That may seem far removed from her work with music, but I understand that music is an important part of the film.

 

Get to know Oddbody’s Music Room

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12545390_968398669894547_77413996_nIn my early years of going to see live music in Dayton, I went to many memorable shows at McGuffy’s House of Rock in east Dayton, off Burkhardt Ave. It’s always been a great general admission venue, which is so much more fun than seated shows. In the last few years, the line-ups just weren’t calling to me, and it fell off my radar.

In 2014, the venue was sold to new owners. Now named Oddbody’s Music Room, I was cautiously optimistic about the venue’s future. When I first met with the new owners, Neilson Hixson, Skip Murray and Richard Eckhardt, I knew this historic space was in good hands. I was so impressed by their professionalism and dedication to bringing not only great sounding shows, but a more diverse offering of musical acts.

In the last couple years I can attest that have done a simply fantastic job bringing our former stomping grounds to new heights. What’s new? Well other than a fresh coat of paint, the sound and light system has been revamped and cranking! It’s definitely one of the best indoor venues in the regional area.

I got a chance to catch up with Neilson about his thoughts on taking a chance on the venue, the local music scene, and how to keep up with this exciting spot:

1. What inspired you to open a music venue? What an exciting venture!
It’s really simple. I think we’re crazy. This is a tough business, make no doubt about that. So many highs and lows. I’ve been promoting shows for well over 20 years and we had an opportunity to maintain this iconic Dayton stage. We took a leap of faith and did it.

2. Let’s say someone hasn’t heard of Oddbody’s Music Venue. How would you describe it? What differs it from other venues in town?
We look like a classic mid cap rock club that you’ll find scattered around the country. The room might not be fancy but what we really have going for us is our stage and production capabilities. And that’s really what matters doing what we do. The stage and the team we have running it. We put it on a pedestal to honor it. The production of a concert is hands down the single most important part in all of this. And I think the patrons, the fans, who come and see these artists really feel that.

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Upcoming shows at Oddbody’s Music Room

3. You have been involved in the Dayton music scene for a long time. How has the scene changed over the years? Thoughts about it’s current state?
When I got started doing all this stuff I was primarily booking and promoting metal. That’s always where my heart has been. And the metal scene is still pretty solid around here. Great local artists and when we bring in these larger touring bands generally the attendance at the shows remains good. In the last two years I’ve learned a lot about other music scenes in Dayton. Some are extremely strong, others hit and miss. But there remains a lot of extremely talented local talent. Bottom line is the bands and the people actively attending shows will change over time. Change is constant in the music business. But if you book the right bands at the right time people will come out to see them. You absolutely can’t take anything for granted though. Just simply booking a band and expecting people to buy tickets will run you out of business as quickly as you started it. Getting butts in the seats remains hard work. And if you are not willing to do the work this business is not for you. That sure hasn’t changed much.

4. What advice would you give to musicians? Regarding promotion and/or professionalism?
Decide who you are. Are you doing it for fun or is this a business? Are you just happy being a local band playing some gigs here and there or are you going to try to “make it”. Are you willing to put in the work? Look it’s just as crazy being a young touring band as it is a venue owner. But it’s what we do. It’s in our blood. Practice your instrument, develop a sellable product, invest in your product, and fully commit to your product. Build a team to help you sell your product. It’s like running any other business. It’s not easy, you have to take some leaps of faith. You will still probably fail. But you only live once. And who wants to go through life thinking you never tried to do anything. In a matter of minutes venue owners and stage managers can see what choice you’ve made. Think about that too.

5. You have some amazing shows coming up. What’s the best way for way for people to keep up with the schedule?
www.oddbdoys.com or www.facebook.com/oddbodys would be the best two places to check out the always changing musical calendar! (Editor’s Note:  You can always check the DMM Calendar for upcoming shows as well.)

How to go? Located at 5418 Burkhardt Ave, Dayton OH 45431 

An easy 10 min drive from downtown Dayton, via US-35 East

Get out and support the Dayton music scene!!

The Theater Of The Strange

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Comedian Dow Thomas Reminisces About The Dayton Comedy Scene

12/15/10

            It’s very rare for someone to be able to meet any of the people that were instrumental in warping the needle on their moral compass. For example, in the future, the odds are astronomically against my kids ever meeting up with Snooki, the creator of Grand Theft Auto or any or the Real Housewives of Poughkeepsie. I, however, was able to talk with one of the people who were instrumental in changing my vision and giving me the ability to see the world through laughing eyes: Dow Thomas. Dow is a musician, comedian and actor, who was, at one time, a script writer and musician for the notoriously wonderful local program shown on channel 22 and hosted by Dr. Creep called Shock Theater…a show that I was an avid fan of when I was a kid.

I was able to speak with Dow recently from his Floridahome. The first question I asked was whether or not Shock Theater was his introduction into the world of comedy.

“No. I was actually doing comedy in 1972, but at that time there weren’t any comedy clubs, so I was just doing comedy along with my music. I got with Dr. Creep in the late seventies when it was called Saturday Night Dead because they had him on after Saturday Night Live, so it was kind of a neat spot.” Dow reflected on the first time he was on Dr. Creep’s show, saying, “I wrote The Ballad of Dr. Creep and went on there with my girlfriend at the time, Astrid Socrates. I remember some of the early stuff. It was juvenile jokes and stuff, but that was what they (the television station) wanted because they wanted everything clean, stupid and quick.”

If there were no comedy clubs, what venues did he perform in? Dow told me that he would just play in the local bars, places like the Trolley Stop, The Bar and The Iron Boar.

“I would get hired as a musician/entertainer and just add in the comedy in between songs. I would always put on masks and stuff…I just can’t help myself from clowning around. I’d have the gig and eventually I had bands, but when I clowned around, everyone clowned around with me. What was always part of the show was me being stupid.” Dow said. “Sailcats was one of the early comedy songs I wrote which got people to throwing plates at me and that just started it all. We used to sing The Wonderful World of Toilet Paper and we used to TP all the clubs like Clancy’s and the old Wiley’s, which was The Iron Boar originally. But comedy was always a thing with me.”

Since this was predating the eighties comedy boom, I wondered how the comedy scene evolved inDayton. After talking with Dow over an hour, I got a sense of how paradoxically brutal and liberating the process was.

“I was doing The Iron Boar only on Sundays and Wiley had hired me to do it by myself and so I basically got rid of the band…but I still had jam sessions. I was primarily a single act and that’s when I went almost strictly comedy. Back then, I had to do five hours, like from nine to two in the morning, so you had to have a lot of material.” Dow added a couple of memories from the early days ofDaytoncomedy, saying, “We had a comedy night on Tuesdays…and people still bitched about the dollar door charge! It was just crazy. I remember D.L. Stewart came in and did a little bit one night and then wrote an article about the experience.”

Since he had seen the whole evolution of the comedy scene, I wondered whether he felt that it had become too rigid, too structured.

“Yeah…yeah I do. Back then I could have Emo Philips come in and do twenty minutes and then I’d get a chance to go to the bathroom. Then maybe Judy Tenuta would come in and do twenty to thirty minutes…and then I’d get a chance to go to the bathroom.” Dow related that, “For me, I thought it should go on all night because I had been out to the Comedy Store and all of these places. I mean, I had moved out toL.A.in 1983 and I spent a couple of years out there going to different clubs. Back then, nobody closed their bar after the show. A lot of times, we’d all be up doing improv.”

Dow was not a native resident of Dayton, having moved here to attend Wright State, but he quickly adopted the city as his own. He became a habitué of the Arcade, the local bars and the dinner clubs ofDayton. I asked when he had moved from Dayton to his current residence inFlorida.

“Uh…let’s see (yelling to his wife)…Kay! When did we move down here? What year was that? 1997.” Dow the related a funny anecdote. “After we moved, aDaytonnewspaper im

 

mediately voted me the funniest man inDayton…then they did it again the next year. They voted me the funniest man inDaytonfor two straight years and I wasn’t even living there!”

The paper in question used to be called The Dayton Voice…then Impact Weekly…and now it is known as the Dayton City Paper. Maybe we were just still pretending that our Uncle Dow hadn’t left our fair city.

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Droopy Drew Donisi: El Dago Diablo

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“Droopy” Drew Discusses Donnie Baker, Motor Boatin’ And Fun

Hailing from the deep south (somewhere around the Franklin, Ohio area), “Droopy” Drew Donisi takes the stage brandishing a guitar to play his own originally warped southern rock tinged tunes. Drew’s approach to comedy is open, engaging the audience with his sincere bouts of storytelling interspersed with original melodies.

“I don’t want to complain and I don’t want to get on stage and bitch about anything.” Drew said during a recent interview. “I just want to tell a story that I may have made up, but it’s going to be a funny ass story.”

Headlining at Wiley’s brings this local comedian full circle as he had originally started his comedic career performing open mic sessions there.

“I did the open mic thing there on Sunday nights, trying out new material and ideas that I had and that’s where I came up with all my songs.” Drew reflected. “You know those open mic nights were just having fun.”

Fun seems to be the watchword of Drew’s performances. He seems to be more concerned about giving the audience a brief respite from their daily concerns and allow them the just let loose, have fun and possibly sing along to one of his many original songs. Some of his could be seen as purely sophomoric, but again, they are purely just for fun. I asked him about the process of writing the songs, whether the melody comes first and the words are hung upon it or if the tune is written around the words…and where did he come up with the ideas for the songs?

            “Well, like that Motor Boatin’ song.” he said. “I saw somebody with big (globular mounds of flesh found on the chests of females)…I know you can’t write that in the article, but…and I was like, ‘Holy smokes!’ and I just started thinking that there are a lot of things that I like to do, but that is one of the things that I love to do, so I just made the whole song about things that I like to do, but the one thing I love to do is motor boatin’.”

And no, if you don’t know what motor boating is, I’m not going to tell you. That’s what the Internet is for. While this and some of Drew’s other songs are riddled with sexual innuendos, a lot of his material is extremely accessible by all audiences. His humor and prowess with the guitar even caught the eye of the Bob and Tom camp. Drew has opened for Donnie Baker on several occasion (the most recently being in Indianapolis in April) and has appeared on the Bob and Tom Show. I asked Drew to fill in the details on how he came to meet Donnie Baker.

“I featured for Dwight York at Wiley’s last year and Donnie came in and did two shows. Dwight moved down to feature and I moved down to opener.” he related, “which, as you know, when they bring somebody big in, the opener usually gets dropped. So Rob (Haney, owner of Wiley’s) kept me in the rotation. So, I hit it off with the band and Donnie was really easy to work with.”

            Drew’s direct approach and unpretentious acceptance of what he wants his comedy to convey has made him a favorite son of not only Wiley’s, but many other venues around the country. His good natured demeanor reflects in the honest answer that he gave me pertaining to what he wanted audiences to take away from his shows:

“All I’m trying to do when I’m doing my comedy is to give the audience the chance to forget about the crap outside the doors.” he said. “When they come in, it’s just stupid humor. It’s nothing that you have to think about. It’s nothing that you really have to know any politics. It’s just a good time out with your friends and a guy that will make you laugh.”

(Writer’s Note: Sadly, Drew passed away suddenly on March 10th, 2012. You will be missed by many “Droopy.”)

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Turn By Turn

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The Life and Music, Thus Far, Of Art Garfunkel

“I sit here thinking of memories we knew
Life rushes by so fast
We all are blind, and we stumble through our days
As the future turns to past”

Private World

Artie Garr

The digits I had dialed traversed the six hundred miles or so from my home to Art Garfunkel’s New York. The call was answered quickly by the friendly, warm voice of Art saying, “Hi J.T. Just let me close the door of my office… hang on.” The candid and familiar tone set my nerves at ease, somewhat. The sound of silence was finally broken when he picked back up and said, “How do you feel today?” There was such an actual genuineness in his tone that all of my apprehensions faded quickly away.

Our conversation wended its way through politics, global warming, the environment, the disingenuousness within the recording business, apathy and the role of technology in making us even more apathetic. There were fascinating twists and turns, none of which were covered on my meticulously prepared list of questions. We did however get around to his current project, Some Enchanted Evening and the subsequent tour to support it. Some Enchanted Evening is an eclectic collection of Tin Pan Alley style songs by the likes of Johnny Mercer, Jimmy Dorsey and Rogers and Hammerstein, which is wholly engaging in its selection as well as its execution.

It was daunting to interview such an iconic figure, a man whose achievements ranged from a masters in mathematics to all of the songs, music, prose and poetry he has created. Were there other worlds that he has not able to conquer and things that he still wished to attain?

“I still haven’t gotten to sing as good as I can, so the first thing your question makes me think is right down the mainstream, the middle of what I do. I’m a singer first and foremost. I can sing better than the world knows me to sing.” he stated flatly, while in my mind, his soaring counter tenor rang through Bridge Over Troubled Water, and I found no flaws whatsoever. “I’m still in the process of getting my full act together, being maximally effective. I don’t look outside of music when you ask me a question. …I am a singer. Have I really done it all? No.”

I disagreed with him, tactfully of course, telling him that the sheer silkiness of Some Enchanted Evening was just astounding. The selections from America’s songbook, containing classics such as I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face, Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars (Corcovado) and the album’s namesake, Some Enchanted Evening, were all expertly arranged and the singing had such a melodious quality to it, you could feel the relaxed sense of release within him.

“I’m smiling because, you know, I’m quite pleased with it. I know you’re not supposed to say this, but after a bunch of albums, I’ve been convinced to put the vocals way up front finally, very palatably…don’t show off as a singer. Don’t make them go, ‘Look at the singing!’ Just tickle their ears. Serve the listener aurally. So I’m trying to be a servant of delight in this album with the vocals way up front and I thought the phrasing came out good.”

With his background in mathematics, I wondered if he ever saw the musical form as an elegant mathematical process.

“Well, I certainly see Bach and his fugues that way. I calibrate, very carefully with great precision…I am precise. When I’m singing, time and the exactness of rhythm and the solidity of the groove, something that Creedence Clearwater was so brilliant at, is just total, solid time. When you feel that solid time, the mathematician such as I, likes to play with it and surge just a little ahead, a little behind. The precision of the exactness, of feeling it, allows you to play games with it and you pull your listener into such a sensitivity when you play these games. Now you can grab the next word, and just a little ahead of the beat, and it has an effect, an urgency. Or, you slip back, the same thing you do with crescendos and de-crescendos you do volume-wise, you do with little pushes and surges in the rhythm when you’re just mathematically precise about what you do. But, maybe I’m just describing a musicians’ precision.”

Emerging onto the music scene, as well as becoming aware of the sheer breadth of the world, in a time of a convoluted evolution of political and social structure, Art Garfunkel has seen the seams of what holds America together. He has toured across the land, having walked across the country as well and has a keen sense of the changing landscape. How does he view the new technology and the inherent anonymity of the computer age, especially in deference to the changing face of the music industry?

“I very happy to say, I don’t quite get it.” he admitted without regret. “It’s a moving target, it’s shifting sands. I don’t have to get it. All I have to do is sing. Can I find a venue to sing? It may not be the record business, but maybe it’s only the stage.”

“I like this motto. It’s a very important guide to living, in my opinion. ‘Never underestimate the massive quantity of human shyness.'” he said, pausing slightly before expounding on the statement. “People’s ability to be shy is massive and it explains so much. The computer world feeds into people who don’t want to be face to face with anybody, and that shyness, that living through your terminal at a distance, more detached from everybody, getting your entertainment with an increased amount of detachment it’s about feeding into shyness. It’s exactly what the community of the human race does not need. How to superficially pretend we’re in touch with each other from a farther distance with more detachment.”

“W.H. Auden has this little short poem, which tries to preach accepting for whatever is…’Try and embrace whatever is going because these are our lives and we love being alive/ Bless what there is for being/Which has to be obeyed, for/What else am I made for?/Agree or disagree?’ Art finished with a flourish. “Short and sweet. That’s what there is for me. If it’s here, if it makes up our world, try and embrace the whole funny, contradictory, ridiculous picture.”

“It’s a tough age. I’m not partaking of it. I’m proud to be old fashioned in many ways…I don’t own a cell phone, I never got with computers. I don’t own one. I don’t know how they work. It’s costing me.” he stated, somewhat defiantly. “I have personnel to help me, but something tells me that I don’t want to learn to communicate in a zippier way. These are the elements that make quality of life so I don’t want to find shortcuts when it comes to the quality of life.”

With the record industry circling their wagons to try and contain their self-inflicted, short sighted losses, it was apparent that this was a whole new species than the artist friendly record companies of the sixties and seventies. To see the progression from the organic structure where art was appreciated to the mechanical behemoth that manufactured music for the masses must be quite a sad scene indeed.

“I’m on the inside of the record business and I’m an artist and I can tell you that royalty statements and everything have gone…disappeared in the last year. The structure of the whole business and getting paid has gone somehow into somebody’s sub-basement in some building and no one can find it. In other words, we lost our record business, we the artists have. The royalty payments, the structure, the whole way the business worked, it checked out in ’07. So we’re in a state of real vigilantism. Rules are gone…who is making up the new rules? What kind of grabbing is going on? These are the questions.”

One of the questions I so dearly wanted to ask, but was afraid to, suddenly came up in conversation so I ventured forth. Was his upcoming tour going to include selections from the Simon and Garfunkel repertoire in its set list?

“I’ll sing Kathy’s Song near the end of the show.” he said, much to my relief. “It’s a beautiful, nostalgic love song. I like say it’s Paul Simon’s number one love song. I’ll do some Simon and Garfunkel stuff because it’s coy to leave it out and I’m an entertainer and I want to give the audience Scarborough Fair and I love doing these things.” he proclaimed, quite animatedly. “I have orchestra charts that enhance them and it’s not like I’ve done them thousands of times and am bored. I’ve done them a hundred times. That’s enough to know how it goes and enough to enjoy it.”

I glanced in panic at the clock. I was only supposed to have interviewed him for fifteen minutes and thirty-five had elapsed. My page of prepared questions had almost been wholly forgotten as I had gotten lost in conversation with one of the most prolific originators in modern memory. Too soon, our conversation ended with a poetical phrase that Art had said earlier, summing up not only the last half-hour, but the essence of our existence as well…”Our lives are love and a continual goodbye.”

As a welcome addendum to the original story, Simon and Garfunkel have announced a singular date where they will be performing. The pair will take the stage at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival on Saturday, April 24th, 2010. Simon, a veteran of the festival, said in a released statement that “Over the years I’ve always enjoyed performing at Jazz Fest. Everyone connected with the Festival, and in particular Quint Davis (director of Jazz Fest), has created an atmosphere that is both musical and enjoyable. I am looking forward to the opportunity to perform with my old friend Art Garfunkel at this year’s Festival.” This will be the first time since they performed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th Anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in October of 2009.

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The Rickey Medlocke Interview

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The Guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd Speaks Out

May 9th, 2007

During a recent telephone interview, I caught up with Rickey Medlocke, one of the three lead guitarists in the current Lynyrd Skynyrd line up. Rickey was one of the original drummers for Lynyrd Skynyrd back in the early seventies who eventually went on to form the southern rock band Blackfoot, so named due to his American Indian heritage.

J.T.: Now, if I remember right, years ago you were in Skynyrd, but you were playing drums.

Rickey: Yeah, I was one of the original drummers, yeah.

J.T.: Do you ever miss being a little more in the background?

Rickey: No! No! No! No! Ha ha! Well, of course not! I was the lead singer and lead guitarist for Blackfoot. I mean, I love to play guitar, I love to entertain people. I just wasn’t…I guess I was a good enough drummer, but I wasn’t a great drummer.

J.T.: How is the current tour holding up. Everything still going good?

Rickey: Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah! Everything is going real good, man. We’re just taking it one day at a time, and so far so good. The crowds have been great, it’s a good package. I mean, Hank (Williams Jr.) has a little bit older fans and our fans are a little bit older, but we also get Lynyrd Skynyrd girls from fifteen to fifty-five now, so I think it works out O.K.  The deal is, it’s going good, the crowds are great, they’re all pumped, you know. Hank is Hank and Lynyrd Skynyrd, you know…(Laughs)…what can you say, what can you say!

J.T.: Now, with the younger audiences, do you think your bringing something new to them as well as the presenting the extensive history of Lynyrd Skynyrd?

Rickey: Well, I think so. Last year, we had Three Doors Down out there with us and that was phenomenal. Like I said, the audiences range from fifteen to fifty-five, so, uh, what can you say?

J.T.: With some of the collaborative stuff you guys have been doing with younger artists as well as some of the tour billings with, like you mentioned, Three Doors Down, does that change Skynyrd’s direction at all?

Rickey: Well, that’s really interesting. We’ve been writing for a new CD right now and we’ve been writing with a lot of different writers. We’re involved with a guy that’s been writing and been involved with Velvet Revolver and people like that. We’re writing with a guy that is the guitar player right now for Rob Zombie. On the other side of it, we’re writing with people that’s been, you know, that’s had hits with…country (artists). We’re involved with a bunch of writers and what I think it does is, whatever we put our hands on, it comes out as Lynyrd Skynyrd. Because I think Skynyrd music has a broad spectrum anyway.

J.T.: Yeah, it definitely crosses boundaries. From rock to blues to country…

Rickey: Oh yeah! Sure does, man.

J.T: I know there was some controversy among Skynyrd fans when you introduced the Travelin’ Man duet, where Johnny VanZant sings along with the vocals from the deceased Ronnie VanZant. Is that still part of the performance?

Rickey: Well, this year…I’m not going to let any secrets out, but we’re doing some really different stuff. You know, that came about back on the Thyrty record, and we introduced that and we’ve used it every once in a while, but we’ve got some other surprises in store for everybody on this thing. You know, they’re going to have to come out and check it out.

J.T.: Along those lines, with the song Red, White and Blue, is there more of a patriotic reaction to that song now then when it was released?

Rickey: Well, I think that it’s about the same, maybe a little bit more.  I mean, the one thing that I do know that’s going on in this world today is everything is so polarized, you know? It’s a damn shame, you know? It seems like our country is being pulled completely apart, and for Lynyrd Skynyrd, we’ve been the American band for all these years…and it’s really sad for us to see how this country is being so polarized and pulled apart. When, in reality, a few short years ago, you couldn’t break this country apart… it’s interesting. Now, it’s like everybody’s losing their damn balls, man, and nobody wants to stand up and do anything. So, you know, that’s the whole thing about it; instead of getting stronger, instead of having some damn balls about ourselves, the country’s getting softer, being weaker. I, for myself don’t like to use the band as a platform to talk about politics, because I think that entertainers should definitely stay the hell out of politics, you know what I mean? Because, entertainers…we got our own kind of gig and a lot of Hollywood, those people don’t know what the hell they’re talking about when they get into politics. I mean, Ronald Reagan was a rare case, you know? Ha! That guy was a very rare case, you know? But the point of what I’m getting at is instead of pulling this nation apart, we should be pulling it together, you know? Whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent or whatever, we’ve got one of the best countries in the damn world, and guess what? It seems like the damn thing’s being ripped in two.

J.T.: Yeah, it’s like everybody is in their own camps and you can’t say anything cause you don’t know if you’re going to end up in a fist fight.

Rickey: Yeah! Right! Also, its like, just think about it…guys have been cracking jokes for years and years and years and everybody kind of took it in stride. Now, you got to be real careful with what you say because you’re going to end up without a gig, your family is going to be broke, you’re going to be homeless, or whatever. It’s like, this country has become so politically correct, it’s sickening.

J.T.: Well, like what happened with the Dixie Chicks. A two-second comment cost them gigs and appearances.

Rickey: Yeah, I mean, I got my own opinions of the Dixie Chicks, man. You know what? We live in one of the greatest countries in the world, and that’s how they can become as wealthy as they’ve become. You know what I mean? By living in a place where they’ve had the opportunity to do that. But you know, man? At the end of the day, when it’s all said and done, we live in a great nation and we should learn to appreciate what we’ve got. People…just take everything for granted, you know, and that’s a damn shame, man.

The prolific powerhouse that is Lynyrd Skynyrd rolls on, playing town after town with various acts such as Saliva, Hank Williams, Jr. and Kid Rock. The group has faithfully released new material, starting with the album Vicious Cycle in 2003 and the most recent edition to their eclectic repertoire, Gods And Guns, was released in September, 2009. While there are those fervent purists who believe that the real Lynyrd Skynyrd perished in a flash of flames in a swamp in Magnolia, Mississippi, the true tradition of Southern Rock has been loyally carried on, with still one more from the road just around the corner.

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