Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Hey y'all~

There are great stories inside great stories inside ZERO, NORTHWEST FLORIDA.

This blog, ZERO, NORTHWEST FLORIDA, will never go commercial but when we get started using your correspondence for our new enterprise, you'll have to write off all YOUR rights on ANYTHING you've ever contributed to this BIG COUNCIL FIRE , including text & images.

BEST.
r






image courtesy of
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/border_security/air_marine/marine/marine_asset/safe_boat.xml

Interceptor Class 33-FT. SAFE Boat

(11/03/2009)
Air and Marine utilizes a 33-foot Secure-Around-Flotation-Equipped (SAFE) Boat, with fabricated marine-grade aluminum hulls and polyethylene closed cell foam collars. This characteristic provides the stability and the buoyancy of a ridged hull inflatable, with an unmatched durability and safety factor. These features make it ideal for performing law enforcement missions in rough seas and in areas congested with waterborne debris. The protective cabin area of the SAFE Boat has heat and air to protect the crews from the elements.

Air and Marine uses the SAFE Boats for the pursuing and boarding (inland and offshore) of vessels transiting in rough waters and locations with extreme weather conditions. The SAFE Boat two person (minimum) crews work in conjunction with DHS, DOD and other and other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to combat maritime drug smuggling and protect U.S. ports from acts of terrorism.

Performance and Weights:

Features:





Dallas Griffin Thanks to Captain Andersons and the Patronis family for showing their community support for the Treasure Ship employees today. The food was great and there was a great turnout of locals also. Thank you all who participated today, whether with hands on work or donations. It is great when everyone pulls together!!!




"CHER!"




All of the Hard Times

They’ve been a School for you

YOU’LL SMILE AGAIN

WITH HOPE IN YOUR HEART

YOU’LL SMILE AGAIN BELIEVE ME MY FRIEND

YOU’LL SMILE AGAIN

WILBUR WALTON JR

Click on the link below to purchase Wilbur's first recording in 35 years
http://playgroundrecordingstudio.com/_wsn/page2.html

http://playgroundrecordingstudio.com



Or click below to download Wilbur's four new tunes
http://www.digstation.com/AlbumDetails.aspx?albumID=ALB000018284




all three images courtesy of http://myspace.com/playgroundrecordingstudio


Jim Lancaster @ PLAYGROUND put a new Wilbur video on the Internet called
YOU'LL SMILE AGAIN
http://tinyurl.com/bvkwom


image courtesy of http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=454959216

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

This pilgrim cannot imagine a 5 lb shellcracker ! They must fight like Gurkhas. . . To this day I carry in my head a 1959 tape of a shellcracker I caught on Cane Creek up in Walker County. The water was clear, and I flipped a small white Shyster onto a boulder on the bank, a technique I had read about in Field & Stream. I was using a Wright & McGill 6 foot ultralight rod, the first one Hall Brothers in Jasper ever sold. I saved my 50 cent a week allowance and paid about $10 for it. Field & Stream had taught me about ultralight tackle, too. The reel was an open face Airex Mom got for me with S&H greenstamps. The Shyster slid off the boulder into the creek like natural food, and the hand sized shellcracker rose to take the bait when it landed in the water. The critter was a rainbow of color. I caught a mess of fish that day and fed the family. Acting on our world, exercising an internal locus of control.
And so it goes.

E



GAY SHELLCRACKER
image courtesy of
http://donjordanoutdoors.com/pages/recordfish.htm

Amos M. Gay and his new all-tackle world record redear sunfish (shellcracker) from Santee Cooper Diversional Canal, caught in August, 1998. The fish weighed 5 lbs. 7.5 ozs. and topped another fish from the same fishing hole by 3.5 ozs. The fishing hole where Gay caught this fish has produced at least three redear over 5 lbs. It is located where the canal meets Lake Moultrie. The area was intensively sprayed to remove vegetation, and the resulting bare bottom became the perfect home for an unnamed species of Asiatic shellfish. The shellfish are, of course, dinner for shellcrackers, and redear feeding in this area experience phenomenal growth and weight gain. If the shellfish are the infamous zebra mussels, redear appear to offer a perfect solution to control. Reduced zebra mussel expansion and big redear in one package!

The big cypress knees @ Hightower Springs

The Mouth of The Source for Merritt's Mill Pond


SHELLCRACKER (Red eared Sunfish)

Hightower Springs


I observed mosquito fish, suckers, bream, big schools of mullet in the creek, bass and one spotted gar.
First time I can remember in my life seeing a big shellcracker pick a snail up off the bottom and crack it sending a cloud of sand & shell that completely covered the front of its body.
Hightower Spings has 5 foot high cyprus knees!
Any uv you cats need a down home music video location,
check out Hightower Springs on Holmes Creek between Vernon and Ebro!

Fishing

By Victoria Malmer | August 12, 1986
SUNFISH RECORD. A 17-year-old from Marianna has been credited by the International Game and Fish Association with catching a world record-sized redear sunfish, a state official said. Joey Floyd caught his 4-pound, 13 3/4- ounce sunfish March 13 in Merritt's Mill Pond. The 202-acre pond has produced Florida's previous seven record-sized redear sunfish and the last world record redear sunfish.




Merritt's Mill Pond

This is a unique 202-acre spring-fed impoundment with crystal clear waters near the city limits of Marianna. The lake is accessible off US 90 in Marianna by taking SR 71 north 1.1 miles to SR 164 for 1.8 miles and then south on Hunter Fish Camp Rd. to the ramp. Merritt's Mill Pond is renowned for its trophy redear (shellcracker) fishing. The pond currently holds the State record for redear at 4.86 pounds and until recently held the world record fish. Fishing far from your boat, on cloudy or rainy days or when there is a ripple on the water may produce the best results when fishing in this clear water pond. Due to an extended drawdown in 1994-1996 for dam repairs, bluegill and redear populations suffered, however, largemouth bass populations capitalized on the abundance of food in the pond.

Special Regulation: Redear sunfish (shellcracker) daily bag limit: 10.
Redear sunfish less than 10 inches in total length must be released immediately.

WORLD CLASS SHELLCRACKER FISHING IN SOUTH CAROLINA!
Located between Sandy Beach and Henderson Guerry Landing, the Russellville flats area of the north shore of Lake Moultrie offers some very picturesque paddling opportunities. In addition to several islands there are two swamps as well as numerous shallow bays and a way ditch back to the black water canal that parallels the dike system. This area varies from sparse cypress swamp with several types of flowering water lilies and plant life to heavily forested high ground. Many species of wading birds as well as alligators, whitetail deer and numerous species of small game and songbirds inhabit the area. For the paddling fisherman, this area offers some of the best bluegill and red eared sunfish (shell cracker) fishing to be found anywhere. The current world record red eared sunfish of 5 pounds 7 and a half ounces was caught in this lake very near here and this area has produced many excellent examples of this fish.




Furtrader,

I can close my eyes and see thousands(yes,thousands)of bedding
shellcracker in the Ray's Lake,Lewis Lake,Fishpond Drain area
on Lake
Seminole.

Bud


Lana & her Daddy after tearing up the shellcracker on Lake Seminole in their air boat

We are in the last stages of the transportation museum. I am need your help to answer a question about Croxton's raid. Were men in Croxton's cavalry previously POW's at the Tuscaloosa prison? I have read something like this before, but can't find a source to verify the claim.

Thank you,

John


Tell ya what, John,
That's a super question & all ya have to do is find the roll of Federal prisoners who were held here & compare them with the rolls of the 2nd Michigan Calvary, the 6th Kentucky Calvary & the 8th Iowa in April of '65.

A more important question to me is why the Yankees were so HOT to burn the University. They didn't burn UVA.

Could it be that our students were responsible for killing more Yankees than anyone could think possible?
I think so.




Do you have record of what happened to Felicite (Elizabeth) was born 10 July 1837 and married Charles Keyser January 1860 in New Orleans LA by justic of peace (page 65).
I am researching the Keyser family, who were shipping merchants from PA and were into lumbering in Pensacola, FL. They came from Germantown, PA before 1817 and trying to connect the Charles Keyser above to the Christian Funk Keyser family. But they moved up and down the coast and rivers with their business. His sons are listed below and most are buried in the St Michael's Cemetery in Pensacola.
There were brothers John H (died 1822), Charles Conrad (died 1817), Joseph C (died 1835) and Jacob Conrad and the youngest my ancestor Samuel C. Keyser all living in Pensacola area. I think Joseph C (1795-1835) spent time in LA as his son Joseph (1825) settled in Nachagotus and widow Elodiscia Deletre Centina lived in Louisana. She is a sister of Laura Maneuella Centrina listed in heading above. So the two shipping familys are intertwined.
John was on the city council in 1821(he died in 1822) in Pensacola along with John Innerarity. And John Innerarity bought land next to or from Samuel C Keyser (1804-187?) in Santa Rosa county nw of Milton. There was a Charles C Keyser who owned land nearby (30W2N 9 & 14 & 27N 3 23). My Samuel Keyser ran the Ferry at Ferry Pass and was into lumbering (as was his son Joseph C) and cousin WIlliam J. Keyser (son of John above).
Have you run into any Keyser connections in your research?
William C Keyser
(Great Great-grandson of Samuel C Keyser)
I grew up in Pensacola and will be going back for a visit in a week.

William~

Always glad to hear from someone who is interested in one of my heroes, James Innerarity.
James put together the greatest real estate deal in American History, The Forbes Purchase, in 1804 near my childhood home in Dothan. James also was instrumental in providing General Andrew Jackson with the intelligence he needed to hold Mobile & to defeat the British, Indians & Negroes @ Ft. Bowyer (now Ft. Morgan). All of this led to the victory @ The Battle of New Orleans.


Nedra Innerarity is the one who is the expert on this stuff ( powderpuff911@yahoo.com )
She posted the following @ http://www.ancientfaces.com/research/photo/398902




Children with Laura Manuella Centeno

Born: 1815 in: Pensacola, Fla.
Died: November 01, 1845 in: Mobil, Al.
Burial: unknown
Father: Baltazar Senteno
Mother: Ysabel Shouen
Other Spouses:

ChilDREN:
1 Name: Sylvestre Innerarity
Born: in:
M Married: in: Mobile AL
Died: in:
Burial:
Spouse:

2 Name: Frank (Francoise) Innerarity
Born: 1832 in: Florida
Died: in: Slidell, LA
Burial:unknown
Married: 24 May 1855 in: Mobile, AL
Spouse: Elizabeth Morris

3 Name: Laura Innerarity
Born: October 04, 1835 in:
Married: in:
Died: in:
Burial:
Spouse:

4 Name: Felicite Eliza (Elizabeth Felici) Innerarity
Born: July 10, 1840 in: Mobile Al
Married: 18 Jan 1860 in: New Orleans, LA
Died: 12 Nov 1917 in: St Tammany, LA
Burial: unknown
Spouse: Charles Keyser


5 Name: Louis Octave Innerarity
Born: Abt. 1841 in: Mobile, AL.
Died: 1865 in: At Shiloh
Burial: unknown
Spouse: unknown

6 Name: Charles Innerarity
Born: 28 Dec 1844 in: Mobile Al
Died: unknown in:
Burial: unknown
Married: 16 Sep 1877 in: Harrison, TX
Spouse: Laura Ellen Williams

best,
Robert Register

http://magnolia.cyriv.com/GreeneAlgenweb/Military/CSA/SipseySkirmish.asp

http://www.aotc.net/selma-rep.htm

Darryl Rhoades Even if it usually doesn't work this way, if a woman sang this to me like this she could take me away in a straw:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6aqf52yfQQ

Monday, May 10, 2010

Hey y'all~
Top of my list rite now is sharing some Lewis Grizzard wid ya.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Grizzard
This passage comes from DON'T BEND OVER IN THE GARDEN, GRANNY, YOU KNOW THEM TATERS GOT EYES:

I won't bore you with any intimate details of my early sex life, such as it was. Those first-time stories are generally overdone, and who wants to hear them in the first place?

What I will say, however, is that sex was on my mind a great deal when I was a child, and don't think if you have children they aren't the same. In fact, they probably think about sex even more than I did because I didn't have cable television, commercials discussing "maxi-pads," and music videos that could stir up youthful hormones in five states.

About all I had was the Sears, Roebuck catalog, the dictionary and the aforementioned occasional sex novel someone pilfered from his father's socks drawer, and the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC.

As soon as the new Sears, Roebuck catalog came, my grandfather and I would sit down and look at the pictures of shotguns and garden tractors.

As soon as he tired of looking at shotguns and garden tractors, I would promptly return to the scuppernong vines- my personal den of iniquity- and turn to the ladies' underwear section.

Most of the women who posed for the catalog, by modern standards, were ugly and a bit overweight. But I had my imagination. Later, I would have the opportunity to go into bars where young ladies danced in the absolute and glorious nude, but there is truth to the idea that sexiness is best accomplished with a tease.


For Some Reason You Don't Hear About The Massacres Anymore

The news of the conduct of the Indians scattered and the settlers began to make preparations for protection of the whites. The men of the settlement formed a company and on March 13 (ed. note: 1818 in Old Texas~ Monroe County, Alabama), plans were discussed at a muster for the defense of the settlers against attacks of the savages. The red men seeing the movements of their opponents at the company muster, took it as a bad omen.

While returning from the company muster, William Ogly met with Elias Stroud, who was on his way home to Claiborne. He had his wife and child with him. They spent the night with the Ogly family and after the children had been put to bed and the adults sat around the fire, their attention was suddenly attracted by the tramp of warriors.

Springing to their feet, Mr. Ogly seized his gun, ran to the door, calling to his dogs, but he was shot down before he could fire on the enemy. Mr. Stroud and his wife and Mrs. Ogly leaped out the front door between whistling bullets and approaching savages. Mrs. Ogly, protected some by a fierce dog that fought for her life, which enabled her to escape to a nearby ravine, hid herself in the switchcane. From here she heard the screams of Mrs. Stoud attempting to make her escape and who was tomahawked and left on the ground as dead. The house was entered and the shrieks and cries of the children were heard as they were torn from their beds.

When every person in reach was killed, the Indians marched triumphantly away.

Early the next morning the settlement was aroused with the news of the massacre and upon visiting the area found six persons dead. Mrs. Stoud, who had been tomahawked the night before, was not dead, but had managed to crawl into the house and pick out her little infant from the other mangled bodies in the room. She had lost her mind and was found stuffing her dead child's skull with leaves.

From the Ogly family of eight, Mr. Ogly and four of his children were killed. His wife and two small daughters, Elizabeth and Mary Ann, were still alive although the two children had been scalped and tomahawked and left for dead.

The dead were all buried together in an old wagon body under the oak tree near the cabin. The living were cared for when Col. Dale sent an escort from Fort Claiborne and started with them to Monroe County.

Mrs. Stoud died on the way and was buried by the side of the road. Mary Ann died after reaching Claiborne.

Through the kind treatment of Dr. John Watkins, the first senator of Monroe County, Elizabeth recovered from injuries received at the massacre, gained her right mind and lived over two score years. She died during the War between the States.

story is courtesy of The 1966 Centennial Edition of Monroe Journal, Monroeville, Alabama


My old treehugger buddy, John Earl, has done it again with his latest image.

Spook Jones

I just wanted to thank you for putting me in touch with John Curry. He called me on Friday and we talked some. It was so nice hearing stories about my dad from someone that knew him way back when…he even remembered me as a baby! I am not sure what you might want to use on your blog? My dad used to get his guitar out and play some but after moving to Clinton, TN when I was in the first grade, he stayed so busy he just didn’t play much. He was responsible for his brother in law and two of his nephews deciding to learn to play the guitar. (I think I can get more info on them as they are all pretty good) Besides being a good football player (he originally went to Tuscaloosa, AL on a football scholarship and was fortunate enough to be coached by Paul “Bear” Bryant), he was an avid outdoorsman. He loved the lakes and woods! We spent most of our summers on Norris Lake in Tennessee and he even took me coon hunting with him once. He was a self-employed contractor. He built the main building on the grounds of the UT Arboretum in Oak Ridge, TN and the groundskeeper’s house there, also. Let me know if any of this is what you had in mind…as for stories about the band…all I know is what I have been told by mom and Mr. Curry. I am sure hearing him play even before I could remember it is the reason I enjoy listening to the Ventures, Johnny Rivers, CCR, etc. J I am attaching the only pic I have of my dad playing guitar. I have asked my mom if she can find more.

Thanks again,

Karen


REMEMBERING EDDIE HINTON & THE SPOOKS

BY JOHN CURRY
reprinted with permission from OLD TUSCALOOSA COUNTY MAGAZINE # 31 [1997]

I was asked to write about my memories of Eddie Hinton and a band I had, known as "The Spooks". These thoughts take me back in time when things were a lot simpler, when life was full of sweet youth and Rock n' Roll.

The Spooks existed around 1961 or ' 62, the exact date has faded from my memory. Glen "Spook" Jones, the band's namesake, and I were college students at the University of Alabama. Spook got his nickname by being born on Halloween. We had a simple little group that played a few old John Lee Hooker tunes, the Ventures, Buddy Holly and others.

Our first gig was at an old abandoned sharecroppers house on the Aaron Christian farm. We put the word out that there would be a party there every Saturday night and "The Spooks" would be playing. Huge crowds soon developed and we received our pay by passing the hat.
People who chose not to put money in the hat were usually refused tractor help if their cars got stuck in the mud or in a ditch, so participation was pretty good. A.D. Christian was in charge of the hat and the tractor, so things went pretty smoothly.

Early band members were myself on drums, Spook Jones on lead guitar, Revis Guy on rhythm guitar and Ray Thomas on bass. Ray sang a few Elvis songs as our only vocalist. For a brief time, Dale Layton played rhythm guitar, but his duties on the Alabama Track Team prevented his staying with us. Dale is the brother of famous Alabama sportscaster Doug Layton.

The Spooks went through several evolutionary changes as most bands do. David Reynolds joined the band early on as bass guitarist and added greatly to our talent and sound. But we really needed a vocalist, and this is where Eddie Hinton entered the scene. Somebody had told us he was pretty good, and he lived on University Boulevard. Spook and I figured that the best way to find him was he'd take one side of the street and I'd take the other. So we did.

We started down around the University Club and knocked on doors asking if Eddie Hinton lived there. We got a lot of "no's" until we got down to near where Hamner Realty is located today. At a house there Spook hollered from across the street, "Got 'im!" So I went over there and we introduced ourselves to Eddie.

He was about seventeen at the time. He said,"Well, y'all are crazy. I don't sing. I just hang around bands and maybe one time or another I jumped up on stage and tried to sing- but I don't sing. Y'all don't need me!"

We had just gotten a new bass guitar player, Ray Thomas, and he was learning how to play on the job, and we said, "Hey, we've got one guy learning how to play bass on the job. We might's well have someone learn how to sing on the job."

Somehow or other we persuaded him. We invited him to come and do a couple songs with us at some gigs. He was pretty shy at first. He'd actually turn his back on the audience, kind of cupping his hand over the microphone which covered his face, and sing. He literally learned how to perform on the job. At the time he didn't play as instrument.

We got some good breaks playing for fraternity parties and started to make some big money. Somewhere in that process, Eddie began to pick up a guitar and played rhythm. After a while Spook married and moved to Huntsville, although he continued to play with the group.

The biggest break of our career was when we got the Homecoming Dance at the University of Alabama. We were the only band hired to play and we were set up outside the Stufent Union building near the Soup Store. We were ready to play. The pep rally was over and we had probably seven thousand people standing out there in front of us. And there was no Spook!
We kept waiting for him to show up from Huntsville. The crowd started stomping and clapping with impatience. I ran in the Soup Store and called Spook's home to ask his wife when he left to come to Tuscaloosa. Spook answered the phone in Huntsville. I said, "My gawd! What're you doin' there?"

He said, "What do you mean?"

I said, "We're all set up out here and ready to go...and no lead guitar player! What happened?"

"I thought it was next week," replied Spook.

This screwup is what brought Eddie Hinton into the spotlight. All we could do was go out and take our best opportunity that we'd ever had and make do. Eddie at that time was playing just enough to be dangerous on his guitar and somehow we faked our way through that concert. While the performance didn't help us, it didn't kill us, either. But it was the first time Eddie Hinton really stepped out to the front.

Spook left the band and we picked up a fellow named Larry Chiz. He was a red-headed, freckle-faced boy, Jewish by faith, from Shaw, Mississippi, which is in the depths of the Delta. Larry always used to say that if blacks had soul, he had twice as much because he had to be a red-headed, freckle-faced Jewish boy from Shaw, Mississippi, and really knew what the Blues were. Even though he will never be a "name", Larry may have been one of the greatest lead guitar players to come out of the era of the ' 60s. He was doing licks that were unheard of from white musicians.

Looking back, I think that was the best band we ever had. Eddie had continually grown in his musicianship and his singing abilities. We were very much in demand and we often had more jobs than we could easily do. Down deep each of us dreamed of becoming a famous rock band. We were tight. Dave Reynolds on bass, Larry Chiz was lead guitar, and Eddie played second guitar. I played drums.

Eddie learned how to play a harmonica and his guitar playing was good enough to beat anyone out of a lead guitar job except for Chiz. He took the lead on many of the breaks and he and Chiz would go back and forth. It was really some great work, and Eddie's singing had evolved.

In the Spring of ' 65 an opportunity developed for the band that changed us and Eddie forever. There was a club down on Panama City Beach called the Old Dutch Inn. It was the college hangout. All the hot local bands and a lot of regional and national bands wound up being featured there from time-to-time. We were rehearsing one day when Eddie showed up, all excited. He said,"Aw, man, this is it! They want us to be the house band for the summer. They're going to pay us one hundred dollars each per week and give us free food and lodging! This is our break, guys! We're fixin' to bust out of here!"

Well, Chiz had just graduated and was also married and had a son. He had to do a tour in the army and was to report to Ft. Jackson as a second Lieutenant in August, having been in the ROTC. Viet Nam was also heating up. As for me, I had graduated in ' 63, gotten married, became a father, and we had just opened Curry furniture store that spring. We couldn't take the job no matter what.

Eddie was real disappointed and he said, "Well you just can't do this to me. I'm going to go down there and figure out something. I'll be back in the Fall." Fall was our "season". We played fraternity parties and clubs and we had booked a great number of jobs already for the coming season.

Well, Eddie went down to Panama City Beach and put together a band and took the job at The Old Dutch Inn. He called the group the Five Minutes. He never came back to the Spooks. Our band went through it biggest transition. David Reynolds moved to lead guitar, Mike Spiller was added as singer-keyboard player and Gene Haynes played bass. Later we added Jimmy Butts as vocalist and horn player Fred DeLoach.

I'm not too clear on the chronology of Eddie's career from this point, but I know that for awhile he worked at Boutwell Studios in Birmingham as a recording engineer and studio musician. It was under his tutelage that we did our only recording session. He let us come in after midnight and we worked until the sun came up.

He moved up to Muscle Shoals and was part of the great Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. He appeared on albums by Wilson Pickett, Boz Scaggs, Aretha Franklin and many others. Elvis even requested his blazing mastery on the guitar. He penned one of Percy Sledge's biggest hits, "Cover Me."

In my opinion, Eddie was probably the greatest musical mind that so many people never heard of. He had unusual soul. Eddie Hinton's career was a constant roller coaster of good times and bad times, and bad timing. In 1977 he recorded "Very Extremely Dangerous", a brilliant album, for Capricorn Records. The record label folded when it lost a lawsuit filed against them by Gregg Allman. All the records in warehouses waiting for distribution were confiscated by the court. A number of albums had already been distributed overseas and it became Number One in Scandinavia. I've been told that "Very Extremely Dangerous" is going to be re-release by Polygram records in the near future.

John D. Wyker, who penned the hit "Motorcycle Mama" (and someone ought to write a book about what he's done for the music scene!), helped Eddie to get back on his feet. He produced Eddie's "Letters From Mississippi," which opened eyes all over the world. At one time, John had a well-known band in Tuscaloosa called The Rubber Band.
(Ed. Note: John Wyker has a limited number of the very rare, original vinyl recordings of this album and is offering our readers the opportunity to own one. See the ad for more information. John Wyker says "At one point in Tuscaloosa, during the ' 60s and ' 70s, there were no less than a hundred guys who could blow Eric Clapton away. Today, 1997, Tuscaloosa is musically, the most important city in the South." John Wyker hopes to be able to do for others what he did for Eddie when Eddie was alive, and is interested in finding new artists to work with. You can call this magazine for informaition on how to get ahold of John.)

There is so much. I could write a book about Eddie Hinton. He died July 28, 1995, at his mother's home in Birmingham. Jerry Wexler, retired Vice-President of Atlantic Records and who was pivotal in the creation of the Muscle Shoals sound wrote to Eddie's mother, saying, "When I first came to Muscle Shoals it didn't take very long before I became aware of Eddie's singular talents- as a composer, lyricist, and gifted guitarist- and was touched by his original, offbeat, and engaging personality. Each year I had the feeling that Eddie was about to break out and achieve his full potential, and he would become the world-class Alabama musician. When the great artists came to Muscle Shoals, they would invariably hone in on Eddie- Aretha, Cher, Lulu. Bob Dylan would end up on the back porch of the Jackson Highway studio with Eddie, pickin' guitars and communing quietly in the Alabama evening.

"To this day I still play his records with great enjoyment. He remains unique- a white boy who truly sang and played in the spirit of the great black soul artists he venerated. With Eddie, it wasn't imitation; it was totally created, with a fire and fury that was as real as Otis Redding's and Wilson Pickett's."

When Otis died, after his funeral, his widow asked Eddie to teach Otis Junior how to sing like his daddy.

I always felt that Eddie wanted to come back to his old band members with success in his hands, and say, "Hey, I made it guys." Eddie Hinton was that extension of us. He was that part of us that only a musician that's trying to make it will ever understand- that deepest part of our ego that wanted to be a successful musician in the world.

As long as he was alive doing what he was doing, we could say, "That's Eddie. We started him off and we're still behind him."

Full success eluded Eddie Hinton for reasons we'll never fully understand. But he was the best, and he was Tuscaloosa's own.

I will always miss him.



image courtesy of March McCrory because she gave me the poster. Kudos to J.(Jack) R.(Register) Leigh for sponsoring the gig.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

but I had to let cocaine go...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_FlgLC4mbE&NR=1


image courtesy of
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/border_security/air_marine/marine/marine_asset/safe_boat.xml

Interceptor Class 33-FT. SAFE Boat

(11/03/2009)
Air and Marine utilizes a 33-foot Secure-Around-Flotation-Equipped (SAFE) Boat, with fabricated marine-grade aluminum hulls and polyethylene closed cell foam collars. This characteristic provides the stability and the buoyancy of a ridged hull inflatable, with an unmatched durability and safety factor. These features make it ideal for performing law enforcement missions in rough seas and in areas congested with waterborne debris. The protective cabin area of the SAFE Boat has heat and air to protect the crews from the elements.

Air and Marine uses the SAFE Boats for the pursuing and boarding (inland and offshore) of vessels transiting in rough waters and locations with extreme weather conditions. The SAFE Boat two person (minimum) crews work in conjunction with DHS, DOD and other and other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to combat maritime drug smuggling and protect U.S. ports from acts of terrorism.

Performance and Weights:

Features: