The Wonderful Biscuit Woman

More memories today. Another story about my grandmother on my daddy's side. When I was about 10 years old living with summertime in my home town of Cairo, well let me tell you the heat was so strong it was hard to believe. That's how Southwest Georgia is. I would get up some energy some mornings about noon time cause I knew she would be cooking up some lunch. When I walked in the front door I could smell that GREAT AROMA....the smell of her fantastic biscuits was a terrific eating treat. After a little while my cousin Emmett (he loved her cooking, too) would show up and us boys and my grandmother and the great one my grandfather..well we would sit down at the old kitchen table and we would eat and eat and eat. Soon, the great lady brought out the mighty fine fried chicken and we would all gobble the delicious stuff down. But most wonderful of all were the biscuits. I have never seen a person know the meaning of downhome Southern culture like my delightful grandmother. It makes me a happy Georgia man indeed thinking of my heritage and meditating on the marvelous blood line that I come from.

My Grandmother.....her inspiring music!

Another blog on my grandmother on my daddy's side.....The tiny woman told me so many stories about how she played the old-style music on the ancient organ in her little church out in the country. I could just hear the vibrant organ music sounds coming from this so talented woman who played by ear because she could not read music. I know the reason I grew to love jazz and big blues music was because of this lovely little woman and her huge musical influence on me. It makes a person feel so good when a person of your blood really loves you....the really young boy. That's what this dear woman of my clan was to me. A lady who taught me how to have loads and loads of passion. That's why I care so much about life and art and music now. Let us all now praise the wonderful women of our lives.

My Grandmother...Bless her Soul!

Gonna write some blogs about my grandmother on my daddy's side. Here we go with one. Listen, the woman was very, very short and you better believe she spelled Southern culture with a big "C" and she was full of energy and lots of fun. I had no brothers and no sisters, cause I was one of those "poor things" in other words I was known as what the old folks called an "only child." In the summertime I went to visit my tiny grandmother a whole lot down in that old house in my home town of Cairo, Georgia which is believe me way down there in the southwest part of my state of Georgia. When I would walk from my daddy's store and go to visit the feisty old lady I suppose I was about 10 or 11. We'd sit out there on the old front porch just sweating like old pigs or hogs out there in that roughhouse scalding hot Southwest Georgia sun. The heat would just about slice a soul up cause it was rough as bloody crap. But I loved it because my grandmother would tell me old stories about how she ran off at the young age of 16 and married the thin man known as Thomas William White Sr. She told me wild stories about the crazy winter of 1899 when it was maddening and eerily cold for a town so deep down in the Georgia countryside. My grandmother on my daddy's side was a big believer in God and good gospel music. She'd get me to sing even when I was a little kid...and singing one of her favorite hymns...'The Old Rugged Cross' always made me smile. I realize now that I am a crusty veteran of many life experiences that I learned a lot sitting there on that wild hot front porch there in Cairo, Georgia. Lord,I figure I got swimming strong in such a deep tasty recipe of true Southern culture I was probably overwhelmed. Lots of times now the memories of my passionate grandmother well up in me when I get to thinking about this tiny woman who raised six big strong sons....well these kinds of memories are powerful indeed!

Slam Stewart, Red Garland: Good Jazz Guys

This is a tasty fun day so I listened to some old-style jazz swing guys. The man who brightened my day was the elegant bassist, Slam Stewart. In his career his style had such delicious exactness that it enchanted most everyone. I heard his rendition of the good tune called 'Manhattan' and things were so right! Also I heard the very grand jazz piano work of the marvelous Red Garland today. The man's a bit more of a modernist but the guy can make a keyboard come delightfully to life. Enjoyed the Red Garland work on the feisty tune, 'Billy Boy.' The great jazz work of Slam Stewart and Red Garland has made me truly smile today.

Brooke Anderson, Samantha Harris: Great!

Brooke Anderson and Samantha Harris are two of the most delightful new souls on entertainment news culture television. When I watch Samantha Harris on ET on the good ABC it just pleases me so much. The same is true for the marvelous Brooke Anderson on the HLN Showbiz fine show. It is good fun to keep up with the mighty shenanigans of pop stars on the two marvelous entertainment shows. There is something so sparkling and just incredible and super "hip" about viewing the incredible Samantha Harris and Brooke Anderson. They are two refreshing new shining light television stars, indeed!

Erskine Caldwell: A Georgia Author Giant!

This is a blog on a cultural Georgia treasure. Way back in late 1903 there was a man born in Coweta County, (now in metro Atlanta) Ga. by the name of Erskine Caldwell. The fellow great up to be a writer who had plenty of book sales savvy and much cultural impact on the distinct ethos that is the Deep South experience. He worked in Atlanta, Memphis, New Orleans and Lord knows how many other places. In 1925 he came to Atlanta and became a reporter for The Atlanta Journal. Years ago, I met a man who knew Mr. Caldwell quite well and he said E. Caldwell was a fascinating intellectual who truly understood the people of the Southern region of this country. In 1932 Erskine Caldwell came out with the mighty book called, 'Tobacco Road' and this work proved to be a remarkable literary juggernaut. It got deep into the souls and the raw passion that is the primal core of so many great Georgians. In 1933, Mr. Caldwell came out with another giant book success, 'God's Little Acre.' This thing gained the strong Mr. Caldwell even more success! 'Little Acre' is a wild story of a Georgia dirt farmer and all his people. It is full of a raw vigor that just vividly overwhelms the reader. In the late 1930s, Caldwell was a news correspondent in Spain, Mexico and Czechoslovakia. Two more Caldwell big novels came out soon. One in 1940 called, 'Trouble in July' and one in 1943 called 'Georgia Boy.' The fascinating aspect of Mr. Caldwell's work is the fact the man so beautifully earned his place as a great regional writer, a gentleman who could encapsulate the complex layers of the Deep South emotional experience and then bring this marvelous deep cultural world to life. Caldwell did for Georgia what the marvelous William Faulkner did for his area, the soulful 'Ole Miss' region. I stand amazed today knowing that I am a product of the very same beautiful state of Georgia, the place that produced a tremendously great man like Erskine Caldwell.

Paul Hemphill, an Atlanta Treasure!

Once upon a time there was a great writer in the Atlanta area, a man named Paul Hemphill. The guy came out of Alabama but he really seemed to dig the metro Atlanta area. He became a columnist for The Atlanta Journal and developed quite a following. Like me, my mother enjoyed his material also, saying he was like a blend of Caldwell, Faulkner and even Scott Fitzgerald. I remember the main thing that delighted me about the charismatic Mr. Hemphill was the fact he was able to capture the constant change that was happening in the Atlanta area and also for that matter the entire Deep South. I loved his books, also. Especially the material on baseball, Nashville and even later his great work on the mighty Hank Williams. It was a marvelous deal also that he snared the essence of great Atlanta Watering Holes like the magnificent Manuel's over on North Avenue and Highland. Paul Hemphill helped make The Atlanta Journal an interesting newspaper giving such great prose over and over to the Southern people.