Song List for January 28th, 2020

Theme: "Down the Track" from Wayne Schmidt's CD "Waiting for Evaporation"

1. The Bootlickers - Goodbye Booze
2. Dick Kimmel (with Bob Bovee) - I'm Walkin' Through Your Town in the Snow

3. Richard and Mimi Farina - Dandolien River Run, Pack Up Your Sorrows

4. Bee Balm Fields - Sunshine

5. Doc Watson - Open Up Those Pearly Gates for Me, Wabash Cannonball, The Preacher and the Bicycle, When the Work's All Done This Fall

6. Milo Bobbins and the Budget Boys (Pete Steiner with Ron Arsenault and Dave Pengra) What God Thinks of Money

7.  Odetta - Poor Little Jesus, Bald Headed Woman, Motherless Child, I Know Where I'm Going

8. Michael Jacobs - The Sacred Way

9. Miriam Makeba - The Retreat Song, Suliram, The Click Song, Umhome

10. Steve Cloutier - Flying

11. Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks - You Gotta Believe, Walkin' One and Only, O'Reily at the Bar

12. Josh White (with Josh White Jr., and Beverly White) - Outskirts of Town, I Know Where I'm Goin', Foggy Dew, House of the Rising Sun 
13. Bee Balm Fields - James and Jane

14. Karla Bonoff - Lose Again, Home
15. Nancy Griffith - Across the Great Divide
16. Hillbilly Jazz - Sitting on Top of the World

Questions, comments, requests for future shows?  Leave them at Bruce Davis Folk Scene Etc. on facebook or email to dbdavis@hickorytech.net.


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Song List for January 21st, 2020

Theme: "Down the Track" from Wayne Schmidt's CD "Waiting for Evaporation"

1. Dave Landreth - Big Ol' Wren
2. Gail Heil, Bob Bovee, and Pop Wagner - Didn't He Ramble
3. Laurie Lewis - Bowling Green, The Cowgirl's Song

4. Nick Drake - Bryter Layter, Fly, Poor Boy

5. Bee Balm Fields - James and Jane, Lonely Wolf

6. Peter, Paul, and Mary - Stewball, All My Trials, Don't Think Twice

7. Janice Joplin and Full Tilt Boogie - My Baby, Me and Bobby McGee, Mercedes Benz

8. Tom Paxton - Rambling Boy, Can't Help But Wonder Where I'm Bound, When You Shook Your Long Hair Down

9. Kate Wolf - Hurry Home, Some Kind of Love, Who Knows Where the Time Goes

10. Tom Waldo - The Lamb Sleeps, the Lion Weeps
11. Whole Wheat - Song for the Highway
12. Spider John Koerner and Willie Murphy - I Ain't Blue

13. Kate Wolf - Green Eyes
14. Nick Drake - Northern Sky, Sunday

Questions, comments, requests for shows?  Leave them at Bruce Davis Folk Scene Etc. on facebook, or email to dbdavis@hickorytech.net.

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Song List for January 14th, 2020

Theme - "Down the Track" from Wayne Schmidt's CD "Waiting for Evaporation"

1. John Hartford - Kentucky Pool
2. Bob Bovee - Reckless Tex
3. Henry Barnes - Goin Downtown

4. Adam Granger - Storms are on the Ocean
5. Curtis and Loretta - When There's Good to be Done You Must Do It.

6. The Frye - Joe Tougas and Ann Rosenquist Fee - Son of a Preacher Man
7. The Ericksons - Turtle Dove
8. James Klueh - Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream

9. Bee Balm Fields - Red Chevy Truck
10. Sister Gin - Know, Bobbie

11. Sunny Terry - Fine and False Voice
12. Brownie McGhee - Lovin' Mama Blues
13. Sonny and Brownie - People Get Ready, On the Road Again

14. Curtis and Loretta - I Had But Fifty Cents
15. Cam Waters - Big River
16. Allison Krause - How's the World Treating You?

17. Tony Rice - Home From the Forest
18. Bee Balm Fields - Old/New Song
19. Johnny Cash - Hurt

20. Neil Getz - Nelly Blye
21. Ann Reed - Getta Outa My Kitchen
22. String Planet - Lady Madonna

23. Mary Klueh (with Whole Wheat) - Strange Occurance
24. The Brass Kings - Northbound, Insurance Adjuster
25. Curtis and Loretta - The Parting Glass (Go see Curtis and Loretta this Saturday night at the Bothy Folk Club, look for the poster on Bruce Davis Folk Scene Etc.)

Questions, comments, requests for future shows?  Leave them at Bruce Davis Folk Scene Etc. on Facebook or email to dbdavis@hickorytech.net

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Scud, Sweet Willie, and the Dynamite Girl - copyright 2020 by Bruce R. Davis

Scud, Sweet Willie, and the Dynamite Girl - A Song/Short Story by Bruce R. Davis   copyright 2020

If you please, let me bend your ear with a tale,
a true story, based on a mysterious legend.
The names are the same, the facts have been changed to exaggerate the ordinary.

The tale starts late winter/early spring 1975.
I was doing radio in the middle of Nebraska, waking folks up in the morning spinning country tunes.
I had a buddy and in our spare time we were jamming on a regular basis and eventually we wound up forming a band with a drummer from Wahoo named Lou.

After a couple of trips around the Hastings - Grand Island - and Kearney circuit, Lou from Wahoo thought we were ready for the Big Time.
Lou had a cousin who had a little country bar in Fridley, Minnesota, just outside Minneapolis...  We thought this would just be a couple of steps on the stairway to heaven (country music-wise that is).

So we loaded our Shure Vocal Master PA system into Lou from Wahoo's van with the complete 8-track Merle Haggard collection and drove all night heading for the land of Frostbite Falls and Dylan.

We got a few gigs - Lou's Cousin's place, then a bowling alley in Anoka, then we went one round on kind-of-a resort circuit... Mr. Spuds in East Grand Forks, and the Legion-Muni in Crookston, and the Rusty Nail in Tuff-Rubber-Balls.

Mostly though, we were hanging out, driving Lou's cousin and his wife crazy, waiting for that first gig in the Big City.  there was a booking agent talking about a Sunday night fill-in gig at Mr. Nibb's when the bottom fell out of a country band's world and the Big D... yeah, the disco craze hit.  It was a very dark time.  Country pickers were jumping off the Foshay Tower with their Martin Herringbones.

As they say, the pressure got the best of us...  Lou's cousin kicked us out.  A semi-promising relationship with Francine from Fridley fizzled and the Triple-A Labor Pool no longer let me sleep on their chairs... so, on a cloudy Friday afternoon I took the last 15-dollars I'd made that day working at the Lutefisk warehouse, went and had a burger at the Artist's Quarter, then walked over to Interstate 35 hoping to start back to Nebraska.

A Minneapolis Squad car was the first vehicle to happen by, but maybe officers Hans and Gunnar were in a have-pity holiday mood, cause all they did was give me a ride to the southwest part of town, dropped me off by Highway 169 and said good luck.  Tousen Tak I replied.

I was too depressed to just stand there and wait for a ride, so I started walking. Highway 169 was just a two-lane then. It was cold, and there was a light drizzle.

It wasn't very long when things began to get sort of strange.  Fewer and fewer cars were going by and it was getting foggy, and not just a plain old fog, but kind of a glowing neon green fog.  Then all-of-a sudden I noticed it was real quiet.  It was just me and the fog and the drizzle and it seemed like the next Highway 169 sign I passed was weeping.

Then the silence was broken slightly by a far-off familiar sounding motor-whirr... it faded out a couple of times like it was coming around a bend or behind a hill.  But finally I could tell it was coming my way and getting closer.

I almost didn't turn around to stick out my thumb, but I did so at the last second.  Out of the green fog the sound burst into the form of a light blue Volkswagen Bug and I just about yelled out loud for joy when the brake lights lit up after it passed me.

I came up to the passenger window the aroma of sandalwood came out and a friendly voice said "hop in, we're headed down around St. Peter."  The door opened and a woman with long blond hair got out to let me in.  She had to push the front seat forward so me and my guitar could squeeze into the back.

As I ducked in, I glanced at the driver.  He had dark hair and a mustache and a straw hat with a wide hat band.  For a second I didn't think I'd fit in the back because somebody else was already in there, but somehow me and the guitar fit in, and that familiar VW engine whir started winding up again, and I tell you it sounded so good now that I was inside.

As I got used to being inside I was was scrunched over thinking it would be crowded in the back seat of a VW Bug, especially after I noticed there was also two guitar cases, an autoharp case, a PA system, and a couple of beat up suitcases, and somehow it all fit, and somehow it didn't feel crowded, and on top of all that there was a real warm feeling of well being about it all.

I found myself speaking up first, introducing myself, I was so grateful to be warm and dry again.  For a VW on a cold night it sure had a great heater.  "Kokesh is my name, although they used to call me "speedball" in Nebraska."  The woman introduced herself as Marcie, and told me everyone else's name... the driver was Sweet Willie Smith and the fellow I was sitting with was Bruce Davis who's nickname was "Scud".

As I told them my story we went around a couple of curves and over a bridge and through Shakopee.  They told me they were on the way to The Blue Moon Saloon in Kasota, down by St. Peter. The night and the fog drifted by outside the car as we passed the sign for Jordan.

At Belle Plain we pulled into a restaurant parking lot very briefly. Scud went in to get coffee for everyone and when he came out there was a dude with him who looked shockingly like Jimi Hendrix, which shook me slightly, but after we got rolling everything seemed fine again.  In fact, Willie asked Jimi to drive so the three of them could do a little last minute practicing.

And although it was contrary to all physical laws, there we were, four of us in a semi-circle in the back seat of a Volkswagen. Sweet Willie opened up a little black case that contained about a dozen harmonicas.  Scud started finger picking one of those new fangled round back guitars.  Marcie strapped on her autoharp and started singing.  Scud leaned over and said "now you'll see why we call her "Dynamite Girl".  The music was so good that I thought I could see lights coming on in the windows of the farmhouses we were passing as if they picked up on the sound and woke up to see if they could tell where it was coming from.

Then in what seemed like either ten minutes or two hours we pulled over and dropped Jimi off in Le Sueur.  He said that he and The Green Giant were going to tune up the water tower for a midnight rendition of "Little Wing".  

We were back on 169, Scud was driving and Willie was softly blowing on his harp.  I could see a pair of radio towers in the distance.  We were driving in and out of the mist now.  169 was curving widely and smoothly through the river valley next to the western bluffs.  We came around one long bend that ran right along the river when very suddenly were were at the outskirts of St. Peter. We passed what must have been a boat dealership with a couple of rows of aluminum fishing boats parked in the darkness.  But as we got closer the boats became canoes and my eyes were seeing teepees and campfires and many solemn figures standing around.

But I blinked again and we were into the town on a big wide avenue rolling past blocks of grand old homes, then into downtown St. Peter and a couple of misty green traffic lights.

Scud looked back at me from the front seat of the Volkswagen and said I must be hungry.  He said that he and Willie and Marcie were going across the river to Kasota, and although at first I was content to travel along, the thought of something good to eat took over my mind, so I didn't protest when they pulled over about halfway through town.  Willie said there was a place called the Chestnut Tree Cafe a block over on Third Street and he urged me to get a bite before I tried to catch another ride.  They said to say hi to Tom and Lisa who ran the restaurant.

So I got out with my guitar, waved goodbye and watched the tailights and listened to the VW motor heading south toward the end of town where they turned left to cross the Minnesota River.

I easily found the Chestnut Tree and got some food, and I was halfway finished with my soup when I remembered to mention the musical trio that had dropped me off to Tom and Lisa and that Marcie, Scud, and Willie said "Hello".

Neither Tom or Lisa said anything, but Tom looked a little pale as he glanced at Lisa.  They both pulled up a chair and asked me to tell them a little more about the ride.  Then Tom rubbed his chin and a sad grin came to his face.  He waited until I was just about done eating, then he told me about a sad event that had taken place ten years ago that very night.

The night after Thanksgiving a regionally popular trio was on their way to a gig in Kasota when the Highway 22 bridge, which had been weakened by flooding that Fall collapsed.  The band never made it to the gig and the all that was ever found was a VW Bug taillight floating on top of an empty guitar case near Blakely.
It was my turn to go pale.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that this night changed my life.  I ended up staying in St. Peter, and getting a job at the local radio station. A few years later I won a big lottery prize and ended up buying the Blue Moon Saloon.  And every year, the day after Thanksgiving I post a sign - "Appearing Tonight - SCUD, SWEET WILLIE, AND THE DYNAMITE GIRL".

The End
by Bruce Davis  copyright 2020.

Address questions and comments to Bruce Davis Folk Scene Etc. on facebook or email to dbdavis@hickorytech.net.

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Song List for January 7th, 2020

Theme: "Down the Track" from Wayne Schmidt's CD "Waiting for Evaporation"

1. Kaivama with Arto Jarvela - Hoppavalssi
2. The Broken Brogues - Nancy Spain
3. Curtis and Loretta - Black Velvet Band

4. Lonesome Ron, King of the Valley Yodelers - Molly, Dear Molly (Lonesome Ron performs Sat. Jan. 11th 1-3 pm at Busters
5. Aileen and Elkin Thomas - Life is a Misty Vapor
6. Pushing Chain - Love You More

7. Peter Ostrouschko - Back Home in Northeast Minneapolis, Red Dancing Shoes, B-O-R-S-C-H-T

8. The Divers - Legend of the Hamburger Eating Woman
9. Bee Balm Fields - Sunshine (BBF will be a part of Mankato Acoustic Showcase Friday January 10th at Busters starting at 9:30 pm.
10. John McCormack - May You Never

11. Galactic Cowboy Orchestra - Biscuit Breakdown
12. Van Morrison - Motherless Child
14. Kate Taylor - You Can Close Your Eyes

15. Tim Hardin - Misty Roses, Rocky Road
16. Mamas and Papas - Dancing Bear

17. Trapezoid - Memphis Shakedown, Scotland

18. Scott Marrs - Saturday Morning, Amelia
19. Joel Raphael - Dharma Bums
20. Peter, Paul, and Mary - Love City (Postcards to Duluth)

21. Curtis and Loretta - Gone Forever (Curtis and Loretta play the Bothy Folk Club January 18th.)
22. Buffy Sainte-Marie - The War Racket

23. Wayne Schmidt - Celtica
24. Cathy Jordan - The Jordan Jig

Questions, comments, requests for future shows?  Leave them at Bruce Davis Folk Scene Etc. on facebook or email to dbdavis@hickorytech.net

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