Chuck Berry: A party time real 'Rocker!'

I felt great today so I just had to give a listen to the mighty man, Chuck Berry. There is no doubt this man knows how to rock out with some kickin' so "hip" music. And his guitar style is so electrifying he makes you want to get off your butt and dance yourself crazy just over and over. I used to have a lot of fun in that great music town, Athens, Georgia and believe me Chuck Berry and the powerhouse music man James Brown were big parts of the soul experience going on here in the magnificent rockin' state that is Georgia. Today, I listened once again to Chuck Berry do songs like 'Johnny B. Goode' and 'Reelin and Rockin' and man let me tell you people...All was right with the world. Let's all give a good shout out for this great Friday.. Let's enjoy our memories of the magical music men James Brown and the one and only Chuck Berry.

A Truly Big Happy Father's Day!

A giant Happy Father's Day to all the Dads, Big Daddies, Fathers and all the guys out there. This is a tremendously important day in this country and especially here in Georgia.

I have been thinking about my Daddy today. He was a guy who ran a store. That was his thing. For a while he was in the jewelry business, then he got into picture framing and then finally he was in antique furniture and picture framing together. He was an incredibly hard worker just like all the men in our family. He inspired me over and over because of his very strong work ethic. He taught me the importance of what we southern people call blood. There were echoes of the wisdom of Faulkner and Caldwell in his comprehensive mind set. Faulkner and Caldwell had soul. I remember as a kid watching the customers and I had a tear in my eye because I could see the real respect they had for my father. They knew he would treat them right.

There is something extremely beautiful about the culture of the men of the south. My Daddy was a believer in having a lot of heart and a lot of passion in everything that you do. He maintained this fascinating sense of a guy with a good heart right up until the end when he finally passed in a nursing home in 2007. I know how to love life and enjoy my blessings because of all the meaningful and loving experiences my Daddy gave me. He made me feel good about myself and he made me feel great about the fact that I am a man from Georgia. Take care all you Dads, Sons and Daughters out there!

'Harry Brown' filled with wild emotions

A new film in my area has compelled me to express wonder at how such virulent realism can be so artfully brought to the screen. Michael Caine is the lead in 'Harry Brown' which is a story filled with a tough, edgy harshness that virtually overwhelms members of the audience. In this tale Michael Caine plays the part of an older British man (Harry Brown) on a pension and the most beguiling thing about this cinematic production is the strong-minded way Caine's character copes with his very harrowing environment. There are numerous tough youths who lurk in his area. The saga starts up vigorously when one of Caine's old-guy friends, Leonard Attwell, is done away with. The police start an intense investigation checking on the indefatigable Harry Brown and others. A good duo of acting pros, Emily Mortimer (as D.I. Alice Frampton) and Charlie Creed-Miles (as D.S. Terry Hicock) brought a lot of heady, gritty good realistic zest to the picaresque story. In the way that the film focuses on older people and how they deal with the horrors of modern life the sense of being intensely mesmerized is quite prevalent. Indeed this thing is not just the average story. The feeling one has is that this is sort of like the hard-toned film that was Clint Eastwood's achievement in 'Gran Torino' and yet in so many ways this British artistic work is much more of a profound statement about anguish and difficult and tough ways to deal with the complex realism that confronts us all in modern life. Amazing is the only way to adequately describe the fine-etched dramatic fervor that Michael Caine's performance as Harry Brown represents. Emily Mortimer produces a characterization of infinite compelling dramatic style that is so scintillating for the cinematic enthusiast to get engulfed in. The harshness of contemporary society is interpreted with great skill in this work. The director, Daniel Barber, has put together quite a panorama of performances in this film because much like great British theatrical works (witness John Osborne's, 'Look Back in Anger' for example)there is a tough mood of emotional rawness that is obviously the same kind of creaking muscles that all of us possess trying to deal with the myriad of rigorous realities that comprise the complexities of our difficult modern circumstances. I had an eery feeling watching this film for there seemed to be some of the difficult sensual and vile dramatic fabric that some of the early tough writings of Truman Capote possessed. Again, 'Harry Brown' is quite a film and the top appeal of the story is the well-honed performance of the very clever Mr. Michael Caine.

Raw, hot music makes you a wild one

Music that reaches out and in a raw husky way just grabs you close...well, that's the music one remembers. It amazes me how great blues artists can imbed themselves in your memory. These people create a raw, visceral mood that is so overwhelming. It's almost like you had too many steaks or too many fries. One of these fine, superhuman blues beings is the very memorable Freddie King. His sounds have got a tough-guy smokin' sense of drive that compels one to get dizzy with all the vigor and the intense huge emotions. He was a Texas guy but went on up to Chicago when he was really young. Other famed great ones like T-Bone Walker and Otis Rush had a giant impact on Freddie King and his swingin' style. Eric Clapton liked the power of Freddie King, also. Eric Clapton sure is a mighty artist, himself. I listened to Freddie King doing a bristling, hot version of the old popular powerhouse song, 'Hideaway' today. It was so full of a sleek sense of swing and hard-driving fun. The man, Freddie King, is a truly significant part of the historic blues tradition in this country. And yes, we are all blessed because of the magic of Freddie King.

Blues man Luther Allison socks it to us!

Luther Allison is a somethin' else electric blues master. Oh, my, my. Good grief! What a profound genius. I heard him today and it was so wild, cuz the man honestly blew me away. He has music that's so potent, so powerful. I tell you listening to the feisty Luther Allison in the 'Live in Paris' album was tremendously dynamic. This man from Chicago has an amazing ability to really make the big blues happen. His guitar work and that muscle kind of a voice...well all that blend of joyful music just produces a sensational kind of ribald and I mean whoopee-good gigantic blues experience. My two favorite songs on this particular set were the super song from way back, 'My Babe' and also the incredible and so sly song, a number called 'Crazy Jealous.' What is this mysterious brand of music we call the Blues? It is hard to really encapsulate... all the fierce angst and raw emotion that are part of the good recipe in kickin' and meaningful bold Blues music. But men like the strong guy Luther Allison can certainly get the job done. I figure another icon who has the ability to make us want to jump up and dance the wild thing---the fantastic Buddy Guy---well he also can sure get the job done right. When you hear the muscular, edgy music of Luther Allison and also the sleekly clever Buddy Guy, well then it sends you off on a great kickin' trip into a vivid profound musical journey of good whoop-it-up experiences. Great BLUES can surely fix a soul up just right. It makes the whole core of the human just tingle in a maddening, delightfully superior way!

Happy little things tickle my fancy!

Little things in our contemporary culture are fun. I watch a lot of Italian films. I love the clever cinematic art of Fellini and Visconti. Also I go for certain kinds of esoteric foods. For example, I eat a gigantic amount of SPAM. I went to Japan one time and I ate such a gigantic amount of the stuff. Some folks I was with got chuckling loudly because they couldn't figure why I was not into good old sushi and some of the other "hip' foods, but I said listen I just love SPAM. Oh and another thing I go for happens to be Marvel and DC comics. It strikes me that the wild art work in Marvel and DC represents such a huge amount of laugh-out-loud fun and whoop it up good times. Let's not get into too many hang-ups in our little worlds. Let's have fun, people. OK?

Mr. Burrell, a guitar man with focused style

Kenny Burrell is one of my favorite jazz guitarists. His music literally crackles with excitement and intensity. His sense of style is focused and very sharp and in many ways I derive a big serving of joy delving into Kenny Burrell's music. I feel so great just like I feel when I experience a grand film performance by the dynamic one...of course I mean the one and only Mickey Rourke. Our friend Kenny Burrell flies effortlessly across the bridges of his improvisatory solos and it engulfs my brain in so many joyous remarkable ways. The grand album I heard this evening was one called, 'Then Along Came Kenny.' On this set Burrell was backed up by James Williams on piano, Peter Washington on bass and the sizzling man on the drums, one Sherman Ferguson. I know when I listen to fine jazz my inner soul is touched and entranced sort of like the magnificent feeling I receive when I view a Luchino Visconti or Federico Fellini film. In this fine Burrell set my favorite number (by far) was the fascinating bop classic 'Yardbird Suite' by the genius of the alto saxophone, Charlie Parker.