muscle shoals

Interesting short documentary about the past & present of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Both the city & the sound.

Best quote: "It's not where you're at, it's the determination you have."

Radio: Harping the Boontling

Down in California's Anderson Valley hops country (or Alsatian wine, if that's your thing), there's a homespun dialect—spoken primarily by menfolk to mask filth talk—called Boontling.

Although based on English, Boontling's unusual words are unique to Boonville, California. Scottish Gaelic and Irish, and some Pomoan and Spanish, also influenced the vocabulary of the language. Boontling was invented in the late 1800s and had quite a following at the turn of the century. It is now mostly spoken only by aging counter-culturists and native Anderson Valley residents. Because the town of Boonville only has a little over 700 residents, Boontling is an extremely esoteric dialect, and is quickly becoming archaic. It has over a thousand unique words and phrases. [thanks, wiki]

Ginna Allison produced a piece on Boontling a handful of years back. It's cool to hear a regional dialect that time and modernity is ripping to shreds. Thank god we have radio as an aural time capsule.

Listen to Harping Boontling (starts at about 5:47)

Film: Off the Grid

Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa is a messily beautiful film about a bunch of misfits living on 15 miles of land in godforsaken New Mexico. Lots of guns, dope, and fire-setting. But there's also a strong, albeit, unstable sense of self-righting community.

"Can you come out here and make a film about a bunch of fuck-ups living in the desert if you want to. You know? That's freedom."

Stream it on Netflix.

voices of lynchburg

The "Voices of Lynchburg" lp was released in the early 1960s. It archives the lives of folks in Lynchburg, TN, the city where Jack Daniels is distilled.

Each track on the album tackles a different Lynchburg-centric topic. Here's what's covered:

SIDE ONE
1. "Around the Square"
A "get acquainted" stroll around the one block business district with Herb Fanning, Mr. Tom Motlow, Mrs. Reagor (Jeanne Garth) Marlow, and Mr.. J.B. Murray.

2. "Moonshine - and other Natural Phenomena..."
Personal reminisces of whiskey-making in Moore County - both legal and otherwise. Herb Fanning, Tom Motlow, Lem Tolley, and Clarence Rolman.

3. "Goin' Fishing"
Everone in Lynchburg fishes. And those who don't like to talk talk about it: Jack Hobbs, Bill Fanning, Lem Tolley, Connor Matlow, Garland Dusenberry, Irvin Crutcher, Clarence Rolman.

SIDE TWO
1. "Whittlin'"
Herb Fanning and Connor Motlow discuss the techniques and philosophies of therapeutic whittling, Lynchburg style.

2. "A Country Banker"
The Personal legend of Mr. Tom Motlow, recorded in his ninety-first year, and shortly before his death.



The record was released by a Jack Daniels-related private society called Tennessee Squires Association. Wikipedia describes the Squires this way:

A Tennessee Squire is a member of the Tennessee Squire Association, which was formed in 1956 to honor special friends of the Jack Daniel's distillery. Many prominent business and entertainment professionals are included among the membership, which is obtained only through recommendation of a current member. Squires receive a wallet card and deed certificate proclaiming them as "owner" of an unrecorded plot of land at the distillery and an honorary citizen of Moore County, Tennessee.

The record is a special relict of a town that is now certainly changed. Its population is up from 400-odd to 5,740. And being home to Jack, it's surely gotten radically corporatized. Of course, I can't say for sure, but it seems like a hunch I'd throw money on.

Here are the folksyfolksy liner notes, for your reading enjoyment while you download: Voices of Lynchburg (.zip)

These “Voices of Lynchburg” are real voices, belonging to real people. What they say is spontaneous and unrehearsed. What they say—and how they say it—is reflective of both their peaceful surroundings and their quiet life-style in this middle Tennessee town, nestled in the foothills of the Cumberlands. Lynchburg was settled shortly after the Revolutionary War, and has never grown beyond about four hundred inhabitants. The present population seems to include as many lively, vita eight-year olds and it does live, normal teen-agers. Numbers notwithstanding, there is no ‘communication gap’ in Lynchburg. Ever one is neighbor to every one, and most families are distantly related to each other.

Lynchburgians love to talk, once they get to know you. Nothing seems to be all that important but what it can be postponed long enough for a chat on the courthouse lawn, or on the sidewalk benches in front of the Lynchburg Hardware and General Store, or the feed store, or the drug store, or the old Farmer’s Bank. A spirited conversation is always underway in the whittlers’ chairs up at the Price brothers’ service station.

There are calm, good-natured, humorous people—intensely loyal to each other. Their reserve with strangers is tempered by a quick and friendly hospitality. They are strongly independent, candid, and forthright in their beliefs, and reflect a quality of pride and patience which only thrives where people roots are many generations deep.

“The Voices of Lynchburg” is no ordinary listening experience. It is not a record to play as background to conversation. It is conversation...with some of the warmest, wisest, possibly wittiest, and certainly most unforgettable people we have ever met. It is an unqualified pleasure to introduce them to you.

The material on this record was selected and compiled from more than thirty hours of recorded conversation with citizens of Lynchburg, Tennessee. The original tapes cover a span of some twelve years. They were variously recorded, on diverse equipment, and in “studios” ranging from the subjects’ kitchens, front parlors, and porches, to sidewalk benches and other public meeting places in town.

We hope that you, as a Tennessee Squire, will enjoy this documentary glimpse of a fading facet of our traditional heritage and culture. Your host for the record is Mr. Herb Fanning.