At Puckett’s Farm Equipment. Looking forward to next year’s.

Gallery

...Jerry Reed died.  You may remember him as “Snowman” in the Bandit movies or as the “bad” coach in The Waterboy, but he was a hell of a good guitar player.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Chet Atkins lately, and Chet played a lot of songs written by Jerry and recorded a bunch of great guitar duets with him too.  When we went to the music store the other day it was to pick up some thumb picks so I could start playing along with an instructional book I bought on Travis/Atkins picking.  A couple of his songs are featured lessons.

Here’s one that’s going to take me three years to learn – “Jerry’s Breakdown”:

A few more:

Jerry plays “Wabash Cannonball” for Porter Wagoner.

Jerry and Chet play “I’ll Say She Does”.

Jerry and Chet play “Baby’s Coming Home.”

Thursday, August 14th will be my last day at Motorsports Authentics. I’ve taken a position at UNC Charlotte with the College Of Health And Human Services. I’ll miss the excitement but the schedule will be a lot more family-friendly. Also, I’ll be able to finally finish my degree (I figure by the time I’m done it will only have taken 18 years). You can expect less posting about NASCAR and more about Mathletes (that probably isn’t true).

Something I’ll miss – Video taken using my camera on the back stretch at Daytona. Josh Willis smuggled me in while we were setting up on souvenir row earlier this year:

Something I’m looking forward to – I’ve got a proper office with a proper window – Beth can’t wait to decorate.

It is located here:

It is a pretty nice building, finished last year.

Wish me luck.

I was listening to Music For 18 Musicians by Steve Reich tonight and went to YouTube to see if there was any video of performances available. I found some rehearsal video and a promo for a performance done by the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble.

Rehearsal:

Promo:

I don’t know how you would practice this; it must take great concentration. More intelligent people than me have written about this work, but I find it really beautiful as the relationships between the patterns emerge.

You can buy it here

Reich’s page

GVSU page