Whole notes and half marathons

Shhh, quiet! The baby is in the guest room sleeping.  We'll be waking her up soon but right now she's tucked away safely in her crib.

We stumbled into a favorite old guitar shop yesterday and it happened. Again.  We didn't really even have a chance. How they must smile when they see us walking through that door. Luckily this time we brought in a few others and a clean swap was made with no cash exchanged.

We think you'd enjoy hearing what our newest member of the family has to say so we'll be working to rig up some sound this weekend.  No promises, though.  Everything is a work in progress...

First we have to get ready for today's main event. Let's see:

Cooler?  Check! Ice? Check! Beer? Check!  Vodka? Check! Bloody Mary Mix? Check!  Pickles, olives and pickled okra? Check, check, check!

Our family has tailgates for just about everything short of funerals, so join us (if only in spirit) at today's Minnesota Half Marathon, where we'll be rooting for bib No. 2509. Go Jess!

A country boy can survive!

Late last year we learned that Tim McGraw's "Something Like That" was the most popular song of the decade, so it wasn't all that surprising to hear this week that McGraw has also been declared the Artist of the Decade.

According to Nielsen, which tracks these things, McGraw's music received an astounding 7,965,000 radio spins between January 1, 2000 and December 31, 2009, most of any artist from any genre.  Nearly a half-million of those were for "Something Like That," one of four chart-toppers off his 1999 album A Place in the Sun.  Snoop Dogg and Usher, pay attention.  Country rules!

When we saw McGraw's noteworthy performance in "Blind Side," which won an Oscar for Sandra Bullock, we figured the country boy had given up music for the silver screen.  No chance of that.  He are some  U.S. tour dates before he heads to Australia:

Aug. 21: Louisville, Kentucky State Fair, Freedom Hall
Aug. 28: St. Paul, Minnesota State Fair
Sept. 3: Syracuse, New York State Fair
Sept. 4: Bangor, Maine Bangor Waterfront
Sept. 10: Dallas, Cowboys Stadium

We're thinking that keeping wife Faith Hill happy while he's doing all this other stuff, well, he has our vote for Multitasker of the Decade as well.  We can't wait to see how McGraw and Gwyneth Paltrow do in Country Strong, now scheduled to hit theaters in December.

Favre tells Sanctuary he'll return

Tweet that.

Brett Favre told us by not telling us, if you know what we mean. And people in these parts know exactly what we mean.

What a fun time! Cut and paste this link into a new browser to get the perfect musical accompaniment for today's discussion.

Old friend Doc Holliday is squirming right now over Favre's latest waffle job.  As much as we enjoy this happening to a Minnesota-bred Vikings fan, we like Doc too much to keep him on the hook any longer. Besides, he has venison in the freezer and wine grapes ripening on the vine.

Loosen up, Doc. The Sanctuary absolutely guarantees Favre's return to the playing field.  Our margin for error is 0.00 percent. It's going to happen.  What we can't predict is exactly when our once-favorite football player will self-destruct.  But that will happen as well, we promise.

Packer fans know Brett better than Brett himself, and way better than Vikings followers who are still learning the ropes. Some numbers:  In a Minneapolis Star-Tribune poll 68.6 percent of more than 21,000 respondents said they don't believe Favre is done, while here in Milwaukee at jsonline.com an overwhelming 82 percent among 13,500 respondents say he'll be back for another season. 

You're fooling yourself if you don't believe it
You're kidding yourself if you don't believe it
Get up, get back on your feet
You're the one they can't beat and you know it
Come on, let's see what you've got
Just take your best shot and don't blow it

And when the smoke cleared...

Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette
Puff, puff, puff and if you smoke yourself to death
Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hates to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigarette

If they were writing songs like this back in 1947 why has it been such a struggle to create a smoke-free society?  Wisconsin didn't impose its smoking ban until this summer. Wisconsin, which adopted its state motto "Forward" back in 1851, took until 2010 to become the 27th state to outlaw smoking in its workplaces.  Is is possible that 23 states still allow smoking in restaurants and bars?

Merle Travis helped revive Tex Williams' career by writing "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke (That Cigarette)," which ruled the Billboard country chart on this day in 1947.  It took a while, but here is what the New York Times wrote about Williams in its Oct. 13, 1985 edition:
 
Country-western songwriter and entertainer Sollie "Tex" Williams, a heavy smoker best known for his tune, "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette," died after a year-long battle with cancer, his daughter said. . . . Her father, who was diagnosed a year ago as having cancer, smoked two packs of cigarettes a day, dropping to about a pack a day before he died. "He tried to quit, but he couldn't," she said.
 

Watch out for that dance

Do you suppose it's just a coincidence that Los Del Rio made it to No. 1 on the Billboard charts with "Macarena" on the exact same day as Delores Del Rio's birthday?

It's eerie, the things that are uncovered by the crack research crew here at the Sanctuary. Delores, of course, never had the opportunity to dance that dance.  Lucky her!  The dazzling Mexican film star whose credits include Flying Down to Rio lived too early (Aug. 3, 1905 – April 11, 1983) to join the fun.

But she probably could have saved the day and the dance, which became all the rage in 1996.  As one source described Del Rio: "She has better legs than Dietrich and better cheekbones than Garbo."  And she did love to dance.

Green Bay Packers fans were some of the biggest "Macarena" culprits, unleashing pent up energy during their team's Super Bowl run that season. In fact there's a website for the "Packarena," which you can imagine was a huge regional hit in these parts.  Click here if you dare.  With all the Super Bowl chatter already going on here we predict a revival of the wacky song this fall (with updated lyrics that substitute key names like Brett and Reggie who are no more). 

This is no endorsement, but we thought you should know.

Farm Aid's coming to Milwaukee

“Just as rock 'n' roll is loud and proud, so is Farm Aid. Farm Aid's greatest accomplishment, I believe, is in the spirit. It's the fact that we represent the spirit of the good fight, to keep something good happening. It just keeps getting stronger and stronger....”

Thank you Neil Young, for channeling that spirit, and thank you Farm Aid for scheduling your 25th anniversary at Miller Park in Milwaukee.

Somehow the event had made it this long without landing in America's Dairyland. It began in 1985 at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois and has crisscrossed the country playing mostly outdoor stadiums and ampitheaters.

Click here for today's live press conference (11 a.m. CDT) announcing details and performers. We've heard that Young will be appearing along with fellow organizers and mainstays Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews,  so we're good to go already. But who else will be coming to Milwaukee on Oct. 2?

They call it Stormy Monday

By Wayne Shelor

Click on the link below -- open in a new tab -- and let it play as you visit the Six String Sanctuary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVR8lg1YLuc

Ahh-h-h-h, yes: it's Sunday, a day that's just right for hymns, gospel music and their cousin, the blues. The blues, you realize, grew from our musical roots, the kind of roots with 12 bars, three chords, three lines of verse and a feeling we call … The Truth.

Such are the blues.

You probably recognize this song -- “Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday’s Just as Bad)” -- from the interpretative organ-and-guitar treatment given it by the Allman Brothers Band:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gDhR1R3S0s&feature=related

But this by T-Bone Walker, a Texas-born guitarist who was one of the first to electronically amplify his fat, sumptuous guitar leads.

An immortal, essential and widely influential song, "Stormy Monday" was the result of a long, smokey record label session with pianist Lloyd Glenn and Teddy Buckner on the trumpet. Never heard of them? Sometimes the best fruit grows on the shady side of a tree.

In "Stormy Monday" you’ll find everything you could say about the blues, wrapped up in this one tidy composition. "Stormy Monday" may not be the Rosetta Stone of rock ‘n’ roll, but it’s certainly a perfectly pristine skull and jawbone found on the shifting sands in the desert of time.

And it’s no stretch to say T-Bone Walker created the modern electrified blues; there's little argument that the man influenced the sound of all post-World War II guitar players. Let me put it this way: Had there been no
T-Bone Walker, you may never have heard of a guy by the name of Riley B. King: B.B. King.

"Stormy Monday" is considered by many to be the ultimate example of the blues. The Allman Brothers knew it for what it was, and they introduced "Stormy Monday" to a whole new generation of music fans.

You know this tune, you've heard this song, and now you're listening to the original.

Relax, it's Sunday. Monday may bring stormy skies, and Tuesday? Well, you know ...

Wayne Shelor, a Florida boy who walks the blues in both his shoes, is a regular contributor to Six String Sanctuary.