It rained last night and is continuing this morning. Scurrying through a downpour we entered the SPLC’s Civil Rights museum.

This is an organization that Marlina has supported for the last 35+ years. It’s nice to see where some of the donations have gone.

It is a beautiful building with a gracious staff. The rain was helpful in that we had the place almost to ourselves.

This is a place to honor some of the people who were killed by the KKK. It tells the story of what happened to them.

Often the killers were never pursued let alone caught or prosecuted.SPLC made it their mission to seek justice for many of them.

To read more I would recommend the book The Lynching. It shows the persistence that SPLC used to track down the killers.

We spent a good amount of time reading each of the accounts, you feel as if it is the least you can do,by reading each of the accounts. You might think of it,As draining,I come away with admiration for each of these people and keep asking what would I do? These are ordinary people, who just want to do well, who want to get to work,who want their children to go to a good school, who want their fellow citizens to be able to vote in a safe atmosphere. You can pass all the laws you want, you can get all the Supreme Court decisions in the world, it doesn’t matter a tinkers damn,if it isn’t implemented, that is what these citizens were doing, they were doing the ground work to get these laws implemented when they were killed.

The tactics they used were non violence Julian Bonds quote below summarizes it very well

In the afternoon we went to the Equal Justice Initiative’s ,Center for Peace and Justice and their National Memorial for Peace and Justice. This memorial is dedicated to all the victims of race based Lynching in the US.

I’ll write more about this tomorrow. InBryan Stevenson’s excellent book,Just Mercy he explains very clearly, how ,so frequently Black men, women and children were victims of a very racist and corrupt judicial system.

Recently 40% of all executions IN THE US by death penalty were from Alabama ALONE.

Alabama makes up less than 2% of the US population

Until tomorrow

Paul

Yesterday we started the day by going to The Muscle Shoals Recording Studio also known as the home of the Swampers.

1st let’s back track. In the late 1950’s a guy named Rick Hall starts a company called Florence Alabama Music Enterprises or the FAME studios.

He gathers a group of young( less than 24 yrs old) musicians.All are from this rural Alabama area.Were talking these guys lived on farms and lived in 1-2 room houses.When Jerry Wexler( A god like musical producer ) convinces Aretha Franklin to leave Detroit and come to rural Alabama, we’re talking farm fields outside the studio doors. She is extremely skeptical.

When she walks in and sees these lily white young college age guys,you can picture her with one foot out the door. UNTIL

They hit the first notes,soon enough she realizes the power ,rhythm, and finesse these guys play with. At that session she cuts I Never Loved A Man,The Way I Love You.

Her career takes off.

Paul Simon decides to record there because he likes the soulful sound.

He gets to the studio,the guys are hanging around he says he is glad to meet the office staff,where are the musicians? Once again the first notes and Paul has a conversion experience.

Eventually Rick tries to make the musicians take a pay cut,like 30% pay cut.

They are out of there and start their own studio called Muscle Shoals Recording Studio,their choice of building, a casket show room.

I was surprised at how small these areas are.

We’re talking hillbilly decorating.

Using styrofoam blocks to help stop the sound from bouncing off the block walls.

Using burlap cloth to deaden the ceiling reverberations and to stop the rain from leaking in the room.

When Leon Russell was recording his album Carney a cricket had gotten into the burlap and they could not get rid of it.

Leon wrote a song about the cricket,when they did the recording the chirps are in time with the song. Yes you can hear it on the record.

The above bill included writing time. This story is told in Keith Richards great autobiography “Life”. The stones were running out of time before they had to leave.Keith wanted to finish this one song.

So to get some privacy he locks himself in here

He is there for 2 hours,writes Wild Horses ,they cut the track and off they go.

Lynard Skynard is cutting an album.They are having trouble with a song and are stuck. They leave to go to lunch,the roadie starts “noodling around” on the piano while they are out.

They return and he tries it out on them.

The song, Freebird.

Roadie becomes an immediate band member,the roadie,it so happens,was a classically trained pianist!

One of the things that Terrell the excellent guide repeated over and over,was how humble these guys remained,they were the top dogs in the cage and they insisted that it was nothing, would talk with you just like you were from next door. To be in this room,to sit at the piano that so much had been composed on, To sit in the chairs where Bob Segar, Paul Simon, Wilson Picket, Otis Redding, Lynda Ronstadt, Aretha all had sat in was unbelievable.

I’ve been to NotreDame in Paris, I’ve been to St Peters in Rome, I’ve climbed the steps Brunelleschi trod while building the dome in Florence,but this felt so much more meaningful. Music is a powerful thing we get to enjoy

It was like every story he told and every minute I was there, just kept filling me with energy.

I sincerely hope each of you gets to go there,especially Pacifico.

A great introduction is to watch the 2015 film “Muscle Shoals”.

If your trying to decide which tour to take the Muscle Shoals Recording Studio is miles better than the FAME Studio Tour

Tomorrow we meet a miracle worker

Good night

Paul

Yesterday we drove out to the Natchez Trace Parkway. This Parkway runs for over 400 miles from Natchez Mississippi to just south of Nashville Tenn. It is a wide two lane road surrounded by trees and greenery.No buildings except for picnic sites , or park service buildings and bathrooms .

There are exits where you can get off and find cities and services. Bucolic is an apt description.

In Marlina’s research she found a site near us called Tom Hendrix’s wall. To get there you follow the mileage markers and then directions and you come to a driveway. In the underbrush you will see areas of wall.

Tom’s heritage includes part Yuchi,an tribe of native Americans in NW Alabama.

He grew up hearing about his GreatGreat Grandmother who was named Te-lney. The name means woman with dancing eyes. She has dancing eyes because as a child there was a lightening strike very near her. So close that it singed her garments,but she was unhurt.

The other thing it did was it gave her eyes a color that appeared to sparkle.

Her grandmother was a Lachan,which is a healer.She saw In Te-lah-ney the qualities to be a healer also and she began to teach the young girl how to be a healer. Some time later the teaching was interrupted because Te-lah-ney and her sister were forcibly removed via the Trail Of Tears to Oklahoma. This was part of Andrew Jackson’s forced Indian removal.

Do we really want him on the $20.00 bill?

In their native land in Alabama,they lived near the singing river,that we call the Tennessee River.When the girls were born their “birthing cords”were put in the rive,thereby connecting them to the river for all time.(Since the river has been dammed,it is harder to hear it sing).

When they are forcibly marched to “The Indian Lands”,what we call Oklahoma.They end up near a river,but it does not sing. Te-la-ney searches all over for a year but she cannot hear it sing. At an age of less than 15 she decides she is going to walk back to her singing river. It takes her 5 years to return to her river,but return she does.She becomes a famous healer.

This wall that Tom built is a 30 year labor of love and honor to his great great grandmother, Te-lah-ney

He used over 2 million lbs of stone that he and his son collected

I

Tom wrote a book about Te-lah-ney and the wall called “If the Legends Fade” I’ve just started it and am enjoying the read.

We met Toms son and he told us many stories about Tom and the various generations of the family. This is a wonderful find, thanks to Marlina.

Next time we’re gonna talk about “The Swampers and their magic,that everyone of you is familiar with.

Good night,Paul

On Thursday we spent the day at various areas on Lookout Mountain.

This is a mountain just south of “Nooga”. (Slang for Chattanooga)

It was pivotal in the Civil War as who ever controlled it had control of the city.

To look at it from the city you see a completely forested mountain. One of the attractions of the is the very steep railway that goes up the eastern side.

At certain places the angle is 72 degrees.

Here we are looking down

Our freeway is somewhere out there.

Now we’re looking up at the station.

From there we drove to a place called rock city. To get there we drove many neighborhoods on small twisty roads. I don’t know how they zoned this mountain, but from below you would not think any homes were there except a few on top.

I imagine in the heat of the summer those trees are very welcome.

This place is literally a rock garden,we ain’t “talkin” pea gravel.

Here’s a look at the waterfall from the top

I love how this was built from the bottom up!

From there we went to Huntsville, Al. Also known s rocket city

Their great Space and rocket museum is very good.

It really takes you back.

Their exhibit on the space race and the moon landing is very good.

I’m still astounded at the size of the Saturn V rocket.

They have a whole building dedicated just to that rocket.

We are now in Muscle Shoales and tomorrow will be going to the Fame and Muscle Shoales studios. In 2013 there was a great movie made about these studios.Check it out for a great history of the music that was made there.

Until later

We left the home of our friend Nancy in Asheville after a very nice stay.

As we headed to the parkway it was overcast and misting. We were not sure how the views would be, but we got lucky with the sun occasionally breaking through and getting panoramas like this.

There is a definite reason they are called the Blueridge Mountains.

As you can see from the second picture the colors are changing. Two days later the change was even more dramatic.

We stopped at Cherokee, the home of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee and toured their museum.

It is very well done and by the end you have a good start in understanding the history of the Cherokee, after they start to encounter the Europeans .

The rains started that evening and continued throughout the night.

Driving through the patches of fog drifting in, while on the parkway was very dramatic and beautiful.

The next day, we drove East into Tennessee and are staying just outside Chattanooga ,or as some say “Nooga”.

Quite a nice city so far.

We drive to an outer part of the it you and get on a free electric bus to get around.

Seems as if the drivers know all the passengers and it makes for a “small town feel” in the middle of a city.

In the civil war,”nooga” was a pivotal place because who ever controlled the city controlled the Mississippi River, and the major rail lines through much of the south.

Finally in 1863, Grant was given command and he took the city. It was a major turning point in the war.

The river runs through the middle of the city so there Is a north and south sides.

The first day we were on the north side.

The day before there had been the 5 bridges marathon so we say a number of people limping around.

Below is one of the window displays.

Check out the runners names!

some of the streets were decorated with these directions.

Or as Nerd Duncan would have called it in the 70’s

Paul’s mad dancing. Might still be so in the 2019’s

Just wouldn’t be complete without this one.

We visited the Hunter museum of art.

I really liked this piece out of Aluminum

The next day we went to a place called Songbirds

combination night club and guitar museum.

Not just any guitar museum, one room alone, called the vault was insured for $250 Million.

This amp was not even in the vault, it was in an outside room. It’s called a Dumble Amp. Hand made. You bring your guitars and you play for Mr Dumble.

He listens to you ,then decides how he is going to build your amp, based on the music you play and how you play.

oh, the price tag if you have to ask……..$90,000.00

No I did not misplace the decimal point.

This was a guitar that Jimi Hendrix saw George Harrison playing and decided he had to have one also. It’s a behemoth, weighing in at about 12 lbs.

Now for the story of 2 sisters

These guitars belonged to two sisters, one right handed and the other left handed. The guitar on the right is 1 of 13 ever made by Leo Fender in a certain year. These were custom made for the sisters.

The collector finds out about it and buys it from the family after the lady had died.

As he’s walking out the door the daughter says you might want to talk to my aunt because she has the left handed twin to it.

So he looks up the aunt and talks to her to get her to sell it. she’s having none of it.

She wants to keep it in her family and doesn’t want it to be sold and resold.

He’s offering 10’s of thousands of dollars.Nope

So for three years he sends her Christmas cards ,each time asking her to reconsider.Nope

He then explains that he has a museum,
and that he will keep it next to her sisters guitar in perpetuity. Nope

Months pass when she calls him,saying she’s interested IF, he will do as he said and keep them in the case next to each other.

He grabs tons of cash and heads over.

The deal is made, he started to hand over cash,and she stops him.

“I said I don’t want any money”

He leaves with the guitar, and here they rest next to each other.

One last thing, when he went to the sister’s house, he had $100,000.00 on him.

In the last drawer he showed us, these were in there

These are the 1st two prototypes built by Leo Fender, of the Fender Telecaster, called The Broadcaster ,until Leo Fender lost a copyright law suit to Gretchen.

Did you know that Leo Fender was not a guitarist?

Ya do now.

Until later.

Paul

When we were in Raleigh we went to the NCMuseum of Art and saw some interesting pieces.

The piece below was done by Ellsworth Kelly.

The idea came from a plastic lid.

I get feelings of fun from it.

Description of above tunic.

• 

Wouldn’t it be nice to have this in your backyard?

This was part of the garden we were in several days ago.

We have now gone to Asheville NC to the Grove Park Inn. Below is one of two fireplaces in the lobby.

Above is the view from the terrace bar.

If you enjoy craftsmanship then Asheville is a must visit, wood ,stone, textiles,metal, glass, on and on.

You’ll want to check this out.

Until later.

Paul

Yesterday we visited Greensboro North Carolina, Where on February 2 1960, 4 college freshmen decided to sit down at a segregated lunch counter. This action taken by young men ignited the modern civil rights movement.

There is an International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro. They have preserved the original lunch counter and developed a place where people can learn the history of slavery,Jim Crow, and the non violent solutions that were successful in helping oppressed people. They did a very good job in demonstrating how horrific and institutionalized the violence was at that time.

I’d strongly recommend this museum and tour. By the time your done, is is as real as can be without having been there in those years.The people who lived through,struggled against and survived , are such a good example are real hero’s.

This is the third attempt to write a post on this web site

We are traveling for 5 weeks checking out Civil Rights sites, Botanical Gardens, Book stores, friends and more

We started by stopping in a Denver for Lunch with our friends Charlotte and Rae

Home

Thank you Charlotte for a delicious lunch, a nice visit and my beautiful journal.

We then flew onto Raleigh NC.

Let’s see if this posts

Paul

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.