Bluegrass Road Trip - MACC 2013 - Columbus, Ohio

When I left on my road trip on July 14, I really did plan to check in here several times before returning home - but a combination of a laptop crash, the limitations inherent in using the blogspot software via an iPad, and sheer end-of-the-day exhaustion combined to make that impossible.  So here it is, six travel days and four concert days later, and I'm finally back in touch.

Before moving on to the music I so thoroughly enjoyed, I will mention a bookish thing or two: I read three books in the twelve days I was out (two memoirs and a novel) and even got to visit my favorite bookstore in the world, Square Books on the way home (which is in Oxford, Mississippi).  As a result, I now have six books stacked up for review - that's a first for me - and catching up will take some hard work.  

Here, though, is a taste of what the Musicians Against Childhood Cancer music festival is all about.  All the performers donate their time and talents for the event and net proceeds are earmarked for St. Jude's in Memphis.  This is a 1,200-mile drive for me, but I'm hoping to make it a regular July event.

This video marks the very first song ever performed on stage together by Doyle Lawson and Larry Sparks, each of whom now has 50 years in the business, so avid bluegrass fans were thrilled to witness it.




And this video vividly demonstrates the pure musical magnificence and talent of the bluegrass musicians who performed during the four-day event. This is Michael Cleveland and Nathan Livers performing the classic instrumental "Jerusalem Ridge." Michael is, in my estimation, worth the price of admittance all by himself. I have seen this one performed several times now, and it still blows me away.  (That is also Michael on fiddle in the first video.)

 

On the Road Again - Finally

Tired as I am right now, I will still go to sleep a happy man tonight because, for the first time in several months, I am on a music festival road trip.  For several years, I met some good friends up in Owensboro, Kentucky, for an annual bluegrass festival held there every June, but that event (for us) seems to have died a natural death.  The atmosphere of the ROMP festival took a real hit in 2011 when the decision was made to both appeal to a younger, rowdier element and - bad mistake - to ignore their obnoxious behavior.  So, so much for ROMP.

Since then, I've attended several festivals within 200 miles of Houston but nothing farther away.  Until now.  I'm on my way to Columbus, Ohio, a distance of almost 1200 miles from home to attend the annual MACC (Musicians Against Childhood Cancer) festival held there.  I left home this morning about six a.m. and, almost thirteen hours later, I sit here within a stone's throw of Memphis, a distance (the way I did it) of about 650 miles.  So tonight I am officially a little over halfway there.

Because I have all the time in the world these days, I always set a goal of making the entire trip without spending any more time than is absolutely necessary on an interstate highway.  So far, so good.  I did the first ten miles on Interstate 45 because I live only three miles from that one, but that is it.  I have actually driven more miles on gravel roads today (12) than on freeways.  To say the least, my navigation system continues to surprise me by routing me on some very obscure backroads.  

Of course, a trip takes a lot longer this way, but I see places and lifestyles I would never have otherwise seen.  Which made me wonder...does Dollar General dominate all the small towns of America or only those in the South?  Those ugly little stores are everywhere, even in tiny towns that don't have much else around.  (I'm going to have to look into buying some stock in those guys, I think.)

She Left Me the Gun

For most, it is difficult to imagine the lives our parents lived before we were born.  We (with a bit of luck) bonded with our parents when we were children, and no matter how old they live to be, to us they largely remain the people they were when we were growing up.  We are forever their children, they our parents.

Although her mother sometimes hinted at some rather dark secrets in her past, She Left Me the Gun author Emma Brockes was never curious enough to press her for details.  Paula, her mother, only offered the occasional hint, immediately shutting down the conversation if Emma asked even the most innocent question - and Emma never pushed her hard enough to learn anything new.  She did know that her mother had immigrated to England from South Africa in 1960 and maintained only limited contact with her South African family and friends from her new home.

Then, when Emma was 27 years old, her mother died and she was surprised to learn that her father did not know a whole lot more about her mother's past than she did.  Determined to learn the truth about her mother's first thirty years, and regretting that she had not insisted that her mother tell her more before it was too late, Emma decided it was time to visit South Africa.  What she would learn there turned out to be more tragic than anything she ever imagined.

Emma Brockes

She Left Me the Gun (subtitled My Mother's Life Before Me) is the story of a dysfunctional South African family whose family-dynamic seems to have crippled the emotional lives of at least two generations.  Old grudges seem to die hard in this family, and Emma’s relatives were generally eager to share the worst tales of the family's past with their British visitor.  Unbeknownst to Emma, her mother was still somewhat of a hero to the rest of the family, someone who, after displaying the courage to fight the pure evilness that was such a part of her daily life, had the equal courage to begin a new life for herself thousands of miles away from everything, and everyone, she knew.

Bottom Line: one gets the impression that, despite learning that her mother had lived two very different lives, Emma still has a hard time emotionally connecting that first life to her mother.  To Emma, Paula will always be the British mother with whom she grew up.  To her, it is almost as if her mother’s first thirty years happened to someone else.  Fans of frank, unusual memoirs will want to take a look at this one.

(Review Copy provided by Publisher)

Immediate Reaction to Philipp Meyer's The Son

Despite being well into my seventh year here at Book Chase, I believe this is the first time that a book has moved me to write something about it almost as soon as I turned its final page.  That book is the new novel (only his second) by Philipp Meyer called The Son.

I will, of course, be writing a formal review of The Son in a few days but I don't want to wait that long to help get out the word about this one.  I won't pretend that it is for everyone, because I can't imagine that any book is, but for those who enjoy multi-generational family sagas, I can confidently predict that you will love The Son.  

Meyer tells the story of seven generations of a Texas family, beginning in 1836 and ending in the present day, but he concentrates on only three main characters and lets them tell their individual stories in alternating chapters.  Male readers will probably be most taken by Eli McCullough, born in 1836, who calls himself "the first male child of the Republic of Texas."  Female readers might be more drawn to Jeanne Anne, born three generations later in 1926, who despite her sex kept the family fortune together until her death.

I will be very pleasantly surprised if The Son does not top my 2013 Fiction Top Ten list at the end of the year - because that means I will have discovered another great book.  It will take something very special to move The Son from my top slot.

New James Lee Burke/Alafair Burke Video-Interview

James Lee and Alafair Burke, via this brand new Fourth of July video shot by Burke daughter, Pamela, discuss their latest books, Light of the World and If You Were Here.  I've already read (and raved about) Light of the World and I have Alafair's new one on my mountain of a TBR list.

I figured my fellow Burke fans would enjoy this:

The King's Deception

The King’s Deception is author Steve Berry’s eighth book in the popular Cotton Malone series - but, even if you are still unfamiliar with the series, don’t let that number keep you from jumping right into it with this title.  As I have discovered, only having read books seven and eight myself, Berry includes enough of the essentials of Cotton’s backstory in each novel that new readers are soon up-to-speed on the central character’s personal history.  Then, it’s only a matter of holding on tight for the wild ride ahead.

This time around, Cotton and Gary (his fifteen year-old son by a recently broken marriage) are headed to Cotton’s Danish home to spend a little healing time together.  But, as a special favor to his former Justice Department boss, Cotton agrees to deliver a teenage runaway to authorities in London before continuing on to Denmark with his son.  The man should know better, however, because nothing in his life is ever that simple - and it never has been.

In a matter of hours, Cotton, Gary, and the British fugitive are all on the run for their lives because Cotton has stumbled into a major diplomatic clash between the secret services of the United States and Great Britain.  More than hurt feelings between the two countries are at stake; people are dying on both sides – and Cotton has to figure it all out quickly if the Malones and the British boy are not to join the list of the dearly departed.  But whom can he trust?  Nothing is as it seems, and even some of the “good guys” are willing to change teams when one least expects them to do so.

Steve Berry

The King’s Deception is a very good political thriller but what gives it its special edge is the real-life historical rumor about the reign of Queen Elizabeth I that is central to the book’s plot.  That said, I am not going to reveal what that rumor is because the novel’s official description (as it appears on the book jacket) does not go that far even though details became an open secret among avid readers even before the book was published.  What I’m going to do, instead, is add a link to a Steve Berry appearance on an MSNBC talk show in which the author reveals all.  After I viewed the interview, I knew I had to read The King’s Deception – and knowing the “secret” before beginning the book did nothing to lessen my enjoyment of Berry’s story.  But you can decide for yourself.

Bottom Line:  The King’s Deception is a first rate thriller that will be particularly enjoyed by history buffs – especially those at least somewhat familiar with the long reign of Queen Elizabeth I.  

(Review Copy provided by Publisher)