Monday, August 18, 2014

Summer Jukebox Song #12...Alabama Pines.

TheLongAndWinding
RoadVille

C, E, e and I have been on the road for the last two weeks.

In the land of US Americans.

And we have had a great time.

Seeing old friends, and busking, and swimming, and body-surfing, and eating a lot of ice cream and all that..

Bigger E. bought a ton of used books in a great little independent store tucked away in downtown Eureka CA while littler e. did not get her new copy of 'On The Road' in  City Lights in the City. Instead, e. bought a copy of Kesey's most famous book instead of 'Sometimes A Great Notion' and that really famous book from Harper Lee (and/or Truman Capote).

And while we've stayed at a few nice places, including a couple of beach rentals, we've stayed at a few roadside motels as well.

Only one of which was a Super 8, located in Ukiah, way off the beach in Mendocino County in forest fire country.

With a sodium glare, bright-light parking lot.

Which was OK with us, because the little pool was clear and cold in the sweltering heat.

And that was exactly what we wanted.

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After he got his life back from the bottle, Jason Isbell wrote and recorded one heckuva rave-up called 'Super 8' in which he made it clear that he didn't want to bottom out in one.

In a Super 8 motel, I mean.

But in the time before he started writing all of his Southeastern redemption songs Mr. Isbell also penned a helluva lament about how it felt to be sliding toward that bottom under the glare of the parking lot light glare far, far from home, both literally and figuratively.

The name of the latter tune is 'Alabama Pines'.

Here's my cover, recorded in a little cabin on the edge of the dunes in Florence Oregon...



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You can check out Mr. Isbell's stuff, for real....Here.
Entire set of Summer Jukebox tunes can be found...Here.
Please note: In the first iteration of this post I indicated that littler e. actually did buy Road in Mr. Ferlinghetti's shop in North Beach...I was mistaken...(and I was taken to task for said mistake, in the comments, her e'ness...In my defense, she has been reading the edited version of the teletype roll for the last week or so).


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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Correction: I bought On the Road last year in a used book store on commercial drive. At City Lights in the City I bought to kill a mockingbird and one flew over the cuckoos nest.
-little e.

RossK said...

Oh Boy...

Sorry e.

Will fix.

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(Please note...I have now lost all my established credibility with my own family)

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RossK said...

Thanks Anon--

Had missed that.

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