"When I Go Away" by Levon Helm

May the sun shine through the shadows. Tears of joy indeed...

Levon Helm's Midnight Ramble

I consider myself blessed to have attended 2. Just Easter weekend we were discussing taking Mom to one...

RIP: Levon Helm

Levon Helm passed this afternoon. A legendary musician but, more importantly, a good soul.

Thank you, kind sir. You meant a lot to me & my family and we nearly named our youngest son after you. As the song goes:

"He shall be Levon

And he shall be a good man."

Thanks for the music. And for being a good man. Please rest in peace. And boy did that heavenly choir just get a lot better....

Someone posted this on Garden & Gun's tribute, and I thought it a nice remembrance: "I hope he went peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, with an old dog at his feet and a hint of whiskey on his breath. For that is the death befitting the last of the true Southern gentlemen."

Mourning JoePa

Mourning JoePa, a photo by Guzilla on Flickr.

watched some of the memorial service this afternoon. Tremendous eulogy by Jay Paterno. And the lone Blue Band trumpet player playing "Hail to the Lion" as a mournful funeral dirge... Well done Penn State. I know I speak for my Dad too when I quote one of the student signs that lined the funeral procession path, "WE ARE because YOU WERE." God bless Coach... and thanks.

RIP: Nicol Williamson

Goodbye Merlin.

"Do nothing. Be still. Sleep. Rest in the arms of the dragon. Dream.... "

RIP: Coco Robicheaux

New Orleans hoodoo bluesman Coco Robicheaux collapsed at his favorite haunt the Apple Barrel on Friday and died. To say I knew him is to way overstate it, but we did spend some time together on multiple occasions. The Apple Barrel is one of my favorite haunts as well and I have a tendency to either get there very early, or very late. Or, when the moon is properly aligned, both. One of the benefits of this is that I would often see Coco at the bar or on the bench outside and we'd get to chatting.

One time I had arrived in New Orleans a day or 2 before Charity and found myself at the Apple Barrel once again. I don't recall if it was way early or way late this particular evening, but I did notice Coco sitting at the end of the bar and said hello. We ended up talking & buying each other drinks. He had just flown in from playing a few shows in Germany and so was out of sorts with jet lag so thought he'd adjourn to the Apple Barrel.

And he kept sharing story after story with me. We talked for a very long time. And kept buying each other drinks. Finally I asked the bartender for a pen & some paper and looked at Coco and said, "Man... I'm not a reporter or anything, but I have to write some of this stuff down. Because I want to remember it tomorrow." And I still have that piece of paper that is titled "Notes With Coco" - it resides in my Soul Box.

The story I most clearly remember was when he, Jim Morrison & Jimi Hendrix were drinking an afternoon away in a San Francisco blues bar. And hippies would walk by and taunt the 3 of them by yelling, "Alcohol's an establishment drug!" Oh to have been sitting at the bar with him then...

Safe passages, Coco. In an often phony & superficial world, you were authentically & delightfully different. I am grateful for the time we spent together and at least I still have your music to go with some great memories. As the Times-Pic obituary article said:

Known for an especially gravelly voice, a swamp-blues guitar style and a fascination with subjects of a spiritual and/or mystical nature, Mr. Robicheaux lived an especially colorful life, even by the standards of a New Orleans musician.

Yep. Well done, Coco... You will be missed & I wish I could head down to your Second Line on December 12th. Am sure it will be a proper send-off for a New Orleans original.

Another good feature on Coco located HERE in which they discuss how Coco got to be featured in the lyrics to Dr. John's "Walk On Gilded Splinters."

And just stumbled across this nice remembrance site too which tells the story of how Coco hexed the bathroom door at the Apple Barrel.

"Goin' to make trouble wherever I can."

DISASTER!

My son (whom I love) broke my hard drive with all my music. OK, but most was still on my iPod. My feeble attempts to back the iPod up on new hard drive... crashed my iPod.

The world may not end Saturday, or even on 12/12/12 but... this is a terrible, hollow, awful feeling.

RIP - Pinetop

fortunately was able to see him a couple times. a true legend...

Pinetop Perkins 1913-2011. Last man standing of the old Blues legends.

A Mentor, In a Manner of Speaking

It is so rare to find, and therefore so hard to lose, someone who sees - and believes in - The Real You.

(And just as I was typing this post... what song comes on? "Standing With Angels" by Anders Osborne. Tremendous... I like that you're still DJ-ing for me, my friend...)

"Standing with angels now

you didn't go gently in to the night

but you're standing with the Maker now

you're gonna rage against the light
standing with angels now

things 'round here don't change

still trying to do too much

without you it ain't the same

but it helps to know that you're watching us

yeah, you're watching us"

WRIP Indeed

The station's call sign takes on a whole new meaning today... WRIP indeed...

Guy Patrick Garraghan

The angels in heaven just got themselves one HELL of a morning DJ...

RIP - Les Paul

Nothing can be said that others won't say better than I... Thanks for the electric guitar, multi-track recording, and all of the music.

I am so pleased I was able to see Les perform a couple years ago... Even in his 90's then, he could still lay it down. An innovator, an originator, and one hell of a musician. Heaven's gonna have one hell of a jam session tonight!

Obituary HERE.

Ho (the good kind)

With all of the media uproar over Imus' brand of "ho's" and the shocking tragedy at Va. Tech, the departure of a quiet entertainer from this earthly luau has gone largely unnoticed.

Don Ho, famous & nearly indistinguishable from his happy hit "Tiny Bubbles" passed away on April 14, 2007 of heart failure.

as my parents took a very young Guzilla to see Don Ho perform when we went to Hawaii (and might technically be considered my first concert - thereby starting the musical odyssey that has become "The Life Guzilla") I thought a farewell message was appropriate for the quiet crooner who couldn't escape his love for his native Hawaii and became an icon of that tropical paradise.

Don, may you have smooth sailing, glorious sunsets & tiny bubbles indeed...

E pili mau na pomaika`i ia `oe

A hui hou