Sea kayaking entry 4: Burgers and Skeeters

Fourth in a series...

For those starting here but needing to backstroke to the beginning:

• First entry
• Second entry
• Third entry
  

The crew rose at 6 AM, and we were on the water by 7AM to be greeted by a stunning sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean waters.

We stopped at a duck blind after a few miles to re-group and ensure all were together as a crew. Someone spotted a good-sized crab in the shallows. Right away, the crab took his defensive posture with open claws ready to snag anyone who came near him. One of our clown scouts came near him - and yes, he got snagged. He got a lesson - the rest of us got a laugh. Someone then had a good idea to lift the crab on a paddle where everyone could get a better look at him.

During the row, many kayakers were mesmerized by the dozens of pelicans who often flew in single-file groups of 3 or 4. They floated seemingly without effort and gracefully just inches above the water surface as they searched for a meal in the water. Also, a few scouts and their dads had the good fortune of having porpoises surface and swim right by their kayaks.

The main objective of the day was to row several miles back across the Pamlico Sound with crosswinds and beach for a rest on the U.S. mainland - or so all but one scout understood.

On Tuesday evening, the idea was discussed of stopping briefly at an island apparently known to locals as ... um ... uh... ahem ... Bird Shit Island. Our guides tried to clean up the name for the boys by calling it Bird Crap Island. As a compromise, we all agreed to call it BSI.

Once we began rowing, however, our guides realized the waters near BSI were very shallow. They suggested we stay in deeper waters, bypass the Island, and row hard to reach a beach area at mainland.

After a hard, extended row in crosswinds and choppy waters, we all landed at mainland. Well all but one. One of the scouts still thought we were stopping at BSI. He made it there first - only to realize no one else stopped!. One of our guides rallied a local man to use his boat to go search for him. It didn't take long to find him, and he returned to a hero's welcome by his fellow scouts. He was promptly nicknamed "Gilligan", and his kayak was re-christened as the SS Minnow.

Once he re-joined the group, we were ready to head for our Wednesday night stop. Our guide knew a local marina/ferry slip where we could camp. More important, he knew the marina had an air-conditioned diner! We paddled another mile or so to the ferry slip and beached our gear.

What an oasis the marina restaurant was! The place was air-conditioned, and we got a great meal of burgers, fries, and cold drinks. We drank the place out of iced tea and lemonade, and several scouts put a serious dent in the Mountain Dew inventory. Having a nice place to relax, eat a fun, hot meal, wash our hands in a legitimate bathroom, play cards and shoot some pool was a nice break from the hard 3 days up to that point.

The woman who ran the place told us her life story. She wanted a car when she turned 16. Instead, her dad gave her a shrimp boat and told her to earn a living so she could buy her own car. She told us about her ex. She told us about her teenage son who now has three boats of his own - a shrimper and two others for group fishing and duck hunting trips.

Because most of her customers are fishermen, shrimpers, or just boaters, we guessed she rarely got to tell the stories because everyone in that area has lived basically the same life. Having fresh ears in the restaurant was good for burger revenue and good for story telling.

The restaurant closed around 3:30 which left us several more hours to deal with the sun. Fortunately, the manager allowed us to hang out on the deck of the restaurant overlooking the sound. We were also allowed to pitch our tents on the knob of land between the restaurant and the ferry slip. The building also acted as a nice wind block so we could easily use our camp stoves to prepare dinner.

As relaxing as the afternoon and dusk were, things suddenly took a turn for the bizarre as soon as it got dark. Seemingly out of nowhere, swarms of mosquitoes immediately made their presence known. Folks were running around trying to avoid them, sprinting to the bathrooms and back to tents, SMACKing their hands inside and outside of tents, and shouting OUCH! GET OUT! STOP IT! WHERE'D THEY COME FROM? and QUICK-GET IN THE TENT!

There was absolutely no problem in ensuring everyone was quickly settled in their tent for the night. But the fun wasn't over. The last thing I saw as I zipped my tent was lots of lightning bolts to the west. They were headed our way.

TMC

Sea kayaking entry 3: On to fish camp

3rd in a series...

To catch up those who may just now be starting here:

• First entry
• Second entry

The crew planned to rise at 5 AM on Tuesday and hit the water by 6 AM. However, a big thunderstorm served as our alarm clock in the early morning hours delaying our departure by about an hour. The tents took a pounding from the wind, sand, and rain - but they withstood all their challengers.

The crew quickly learned about multi-tasking: haul personal gear a couple of hundred yards back to the sound side, load it in the kayaks, dress in life jacket and spray skirt, and re-assemble paddles - all while trying to eat breakfast on the go with the occasional free hand.

We spent much of the day hopping from one duck blind to another up the sound to ensure everyone was doing OK and keeping up.

During one rest stop, I stepped out of my kayak in shallow water to drag it to marshy grasses. Almost immediately after exiting the boat, I sunk in silty muck up to my mid-calf. The muck decided it wanted my right sandal more than I did. The muck immediately snatched it off my foot and carried it below the murky waters. The sea bottom re-settled itself, and the shoe was never heard from again.

The armada paddled almost 10 more miles to land at Davis Ferry Fish Camp - including a row through a "shortcut". As it turns out, the waters in the shortcut were so shallow many scouts and adults had to tow their kayaks during a long stretch of it. The trip was a bit more scenic because of the twists and bends and the tall grasses, but it was strenuous to navigate.

Once again, we secured our kayaks on the sound side and hauled personal and crew gear several hundred yards to the beach side for another night of camping. The heat was searing, and the winds and sand were as bad or worse than the first day's stop. But... this stop had an unexpected and welcome addition - a bath house with showers! Everyone took at least one shower, some took a couple, and one of our scouts set the crew record with SIX SHOWERS in a 10 hour span.

The camp also had potable water. Just because it was potable, however, doesn't mean it was tasty. No one could quite put their finger on the taste, but almost all agreed it had a certain non-desirable "twang" taste to it. Because we needed fresh water to replenish our sources for the next day, everyone made the best of it. Many tried lemonade or fruit punch powder packets to help mask the taste.

Shelter to avoid the sun was at a premium. A few scouts and dads took turns hanging out on the porch of the shower house with two other troops kayaking near us. In addition, the screened-in porches of a couple of fish cabins were made available to us. This gave us relief not only from the direct heat but also from the incessant attack of green-headed biting flies.

The crew elected to prepare and serve dinner on the sound side under a small pavilion cover. Not only did it provide shelter, but much of the high winds and blowing sand were avoided as well. Our meatballs and pasta marinara dinner was superb.

A fellow dad and I made cups of coffee by experimenting with a couple of different, portable, brewing systems. Despite the heat, the hot cup of caffeinated joe tasted tremendous after a long 2 days without it.

One of the kids used beef jerky in a bag to catch some small fish. He and a couple of his buds then used the jerky to catch an eel about 10" long. While that slimy thing looked pretty nasty, it was pretty cool they were able to catch it. And here I thought you could only catch hypertension on beef jerky.

The boy and his old man - its crazy how fast he's growing up.

We watched the sun set on the western horizon of the sound side.

As the sun set, many of us once again powdered down in our tents to shed as much sand as possible. For me after two days of this ritual of using a ton of the stuff inside my tent, I began to feel like a white doughnut trapped in a cellophane bag!

TMC

Sea kayaking entry 2: First day on the water

2nd in a series...

The hospitality shown by the church we stayed in Saturday night was raised another notch Sunday morning. Instead of eating a heat-lamp biscuit at yet another fast food restaurant, several scouts and leaders from the church's troop prepared a pancake breakfast for our crew – regular and blueberry pancakes, sausage, fresh fruit, milk, juice, and hot coffee. What a great send off for our crew as headed for Pamlico!

For reasons still unclear to me, we were unable to do our pre-arranged self-guided tour at USMC Camp LeJeune. A visitor desk woman pleasantly suggested we should have arranged our visit with public affairs. I told her we'd been directed to a coordinator for youth activities, got parking passes from her, secured mess hall privileges for 2 meals, and was told we could take a self-guided tour of the base.

Her response? "Umm, well we haven't offered maps for the self-guided tour since September 11, 2001." Yes - 9/11 - nine years have passed and apparently someone hasn't bothered to update what visitors can/can't see while on base. Oh well, I guess their hands have been full taking care of things in parts of the world I have no desire to visit much less defend.

Instead, we moved on to a moving, walking tour of USMC memorials near LeJeune. The stop included memorials for those lost in Vietnam, September 11 terrorist attacks, and the 1983 USMC barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon.

"The other wall"

And the poem for it.

A beam from the fallen World Trade Center in New York City

Names of the dead etched in glass at the Vietnam War Memorial.

One of our older scouts was clearly bored. He thought he was too cool for anything, slurped from his 2 liter of Mountain Dew, and ass-dragged in and out of the vans wherever we'd been the last 48 hours. Rather than appreciate the memorials or try to develop any level of comprehension for the sacrifices they represented, he instead bitched about the heat and his general boredom. He quipped as we re-loaded the vans: "So where do we have to go next to dilly-dally around?"

You ever had one of those conscience-crisis moments where you really want to backhand someone but know you'll have hell to pay if you do? So I took a slightly higher road, glared at him and retorted "Well I'm sorry you are so bored friend. Perhaps you should complain a bit louder so all these Marines can awake from their graves and fight a little bit harder for your freedom to utter such crap." He looked at me with his half-closed eyes and yet a fully-opened jaw. I think he got my point.

Our base parking passes allowed us to visit other nearby USMC bases. We stopped at Camp Geiger Marine Corps Air Station to see if they would allow us to look around. An MP in a visitor office told us we could drive around the base provided we didn't get out of our vans. Once we got back in the vans we realized we weren't sure which security gate to pass through (there were several). I put the van in park and walked towards a guard shack while wearing my scout uniform. A Marine exited his post and walked towards me at a quicker pace than I was approaching him. He had his M16 machine gun across his chest. My encounter with Booger in Clyde NC suddenly didn't seem so bad.

But he didn't shoot me, I lived to see another day, and we passed through security just fine. We got to see several Ospreys parked on the tarmac and stopped at the airstrip fire station where the attending Marines gave the scouts an overview of their equipment and procedures for fighting fires involving burning aircraft.

A couple of hours later, we arrived at Pamlico Seabase. We were shown our tents where we'd camp our first night and were assigned our boating gear – kayak, paddle, splash skirt, and dry bags. Within an hour, we were at water’s edge to learn kayaking basics. We paddled for approximately 90 minutes rowing together, rolling over, exiting the kayaks, and re-entering them.

Later in the evening, our troop gathered additional supplies: breakfast and lunch items for the days at sea, group meal supplies for evening dinners, cook gear, tents, stakes, and fresh water containers. Only the most nutritious ... Tasty offerings were available for breakfast and lunch - Pop-Tarts, Cheez-Its, Honey Buns, Slim Jims, etc.

After breakfast Monday morning, the scouts loaded the kayaks onto trailers and boarded vans for a 2 hour trip to put-in at Harkers Island at the Camp Lookout National Seashore.

Here is Tony - a member of the Pamlico staff, van-driving / kayak-hauling / head-banging madman, and dreadlock-grower extraordinaire. That's 10 years worth of dread growing folks.

Right before we launched, everyone took a chance for a final bathroom stop in the cleanest restrooms we'd find for the next five days. As we were making our way back to our gear, one scout - my son's best friend - wanted to tell me something. He stopped me to say his dad texted him telling me thanks for taking him on the trip. He said his dad also mentioned he had a six-pack of beer as a gift for me when we returned. The first comment humbled me. The second part provided a tangible goal for me to get through the week successfully.

The crew launched in a ferry slip at Harkers Island. We rowed about one mile to a shallow, muck-filled marsh for a lunch break of summer sausage, Ritz crackers, hunks of cheddar cheese, bags of Cheez-Its, and Nutter Butter cookies. Junk food never tasted so good it seemed.

We rowed another couple of miles to our first camp stop for the day - Pavilion. The boats were secured with rope and various knots to dock pilings on the Pamlico Sound side of the island, and everyone hauled their individual gear to the other side of the island facing the Atlantic Ocean.

The beach front winds were remarkable, and sand strafed everyone's arms, legs, back, and face.

Once camp was set, most scouts played in the surf for about 4 hours until it was time to prepare dinner. The winds and rip tide currents were remarkable. The kids hit the ocean and within a matter of about 10 minutes were carried 300-400 yards northward.

My son and another couple of scouts prepared a hot dinner of chicken and rice in two cook pots over small propane burners with metal shields to minimize the risk of the wind blowing out the flame of the burners. Other than unintentionally but unavoidable sand seasoning, the hot meal was fantastic.

The scouts were then introduced to a game called Crazy Stick. Each player raised an oar over their head, looked straight up, turned around quickly 20 times, dropped the oar in the sand, and then attempted to jump over it. One of our boys jumped; however, he jumped sideways and corkscrewed headfirst into the beach filling his hair with sand. Everyone roared.

Many others took their turn - some falling before 20 turns, some missing the oar, and some completing it successfully. In the back of my mind I was thinking: This clearly didn't originate as a scout game. It had all the makings of a freshman fraternity rush event played with prodigious amounts of beer.

As the sun set, everyone headed for their tents. I took Tony's advice and patted down with generous amounts of baby powder - something I hadn't used I'm guessing since my mother used it on me when my age was stated in months rather than years. The powder had the great quality of shedding sand from the day. It worked!

TMC

Sea kayaking entry 1: the trip to NC

First in a series...

Today starts a series of blog entries recapping a sea kayaking scout trip I organized. Thirteen boy scouts (including my son) and five adults left for the coast of North Carolina for a 10-day trip on Friday, July 16. We were headed for Pamlico Seabase.

Leaving middle Tennessee, we had good driving weather…until. Monstrous thunderstorms greeted us as we hit the North Carolina state line. Rain was pounding as we approached the National Guard armory in Clyde, NC where we were scheduled to spend the night. The parking lot was full of cars. All doors were locked, however, and no one seemed to be in the armory. I left voice messages on every number I could reach but still no luck. We were in a tough spot - in the rain - 10:30 at night - 2 vans loaded with teenagers - without a planned alternate place to stay.

We drove to a local gas station to ask for suggestions. Employees were as nice as they could be (I love small towns). They suggested we try the local fire hall a few doors down and offered us a hot cup of coffee as we pondered our situation.

The hall was an unmanned volunteer department so a Plan C evolved. We found Clyde Municipal Building – home to city hall and the police department - another block or so down from the fire hall. Once again - and as expected I guess at 11:00 PM on a Friday night - no one was in the building.

My co-pilot in the van spotted the end of a cigarette on a porch behind city hall. The rain had begun to taper off a good bit, and he jogged over to talk to them. Turns out Chuck and Margaret were enjoying the evening with a cig and late night beer. They knew the police captain personally, called him on his cell phone, and then told stories about doing maintenance and repair work on the police department's vehicles.

Within a few minutes, Captain Mike arrived. After telling him our dilemma, he phoned the Clyde Chief of Police and received permission for us to stay in city hall.

Captain Mike had his K9 dog with him who answers to the name of “Booger”. He brought the dog into the room with the scouts where he wagged his tail, panted, and enjoyed everyone scratching behind his ears and patting his back.

The Captain then took him into the hall to show us how well trained he was. Booger is trained to respond to single word commands spoken in Dutch. With just a single word, Booger immediately was before me barking fiercely, snarling, and seemingly on the edge of ripping me to shreds. I tried to remain as calm and collected as a Ken doll. Inwardly, however, I was quivering and on the verge of forming a puddle around my shoes. I can't exactly remember, but its possible I may have even uttered "mommy!" under my breath.

One additional command and the intimidation was over. Immediately, Booger came to me, wagged his tail, pranced full of life, and wanted me to pet him once again. Captain Mike and Booger left us, and the crew settled in for the night. We had a long drive facing us Saturday.

The next morning I couldn't help but be amused by the mayor's name.

Luchenbach. Clyde. They're probably both about the same, right? Considering the thunderstorms we'd endured Friday night in the rolling Appalachian mountains of eastern North Carolina and looking at the name plate of the town's chief executive, Hill Country Rain by Jerry Jeff just seemed right.


Saturday brought a lot more road miles including a stop for a barbeque lunch at The Pit in Raleigh. The place was recommended to me a day or two before we left. I found the restaurant on Twitter, told them our crew size, and asked if they were ready. The manager soon tweeted back with "Yeah bring it on."

So we did. The service was great, and everyone enjoyed their meal – ribs, pulled pork, Carolina Q, turkey, etc. Our server told us he too was a scout when he was a teenager.

Our initial dinner plan for Saturday evening was to eat in the mess hall at Camp LeJeune US Marine Corps base. However, we arrived in Jacksonville, NC too late, too tired, and too full from lunch to go to the base. So we settled in at a local church, played a bit of frisbee, rested a bit in the A/C, unpacked gear, etc. A couple of hours, the kids who were then hungry again demolished a buffet of food at Golden Corral and earned hundreds of tickets on video games at Chuck E. Cheese.

Shortly after entering the GC, it was apparent the place was a popular Saturday night dining experience for many Marines. Suddenly, I noticed one wearing a Schaefer beer shirt! For those who read Bench Racing from the Volunteer State, my racing-themed blog, you know I'm a founding member of the Schaefer Racing Hall of Fame. I approached the Marine (mindful of my experience with Booger the night before) and told him I was proud of him - both for his service and for supporting Schaefer.

I clearly caught him off guard. This Marine who is trained to be a fighting machine wasn't quite sure how to react when I complimented him on the shirt. I asked him to sit tight for a moment so I could get my camera. A picture of a US Marine in a Schaefer shirt - it was as good as posted on my Bench Racing blog. By the time I got back though, he and his buds were already gone!

Not to worry. Life is lived in Plan B - we were reminded of that truism just 24 hours earlier. After dinner while the kids were racking up skee-ball tickets at the Mouse House, I made a trip to Wal-Mart for a couple of last minute supplies.

And there I found it. My own Schaefer shirt! God bless the United States Marine Corps. I'm so grateful for the protection and defense they provide. But when it comes to Schaefer swag, it was comforting to know I was in control of my own destiny.

Next: on to Pamlico and our first day on the water.

TMC

The Silos - Flipping The Bird

I don't remember exactly how I first learned about The Silos. Maybe the distinctive cover from their self-titled second release (and only one on RCA) caught my eye at Turtle Records in Chattanooga, TN. Or maybe I read a review of it in Tower Records' Pulse magazine. Those are the two most likely scenarios.

Either way, I'm really glad I bought the CD. It was and remains a fantastic album. Its certainly in my top 5 or so albums that cemented my interest in Americana music. The disc still rotates through my truck CD player and iPod earbuds with a high degree of regularity. One of my favorite lyrics - from all music - is from I'm Over You from the album:

Today I'm gonna be
Driving down Highway 441 with the windows down
A beer in one hand, the radio blasting
My old needs I won't recognize
I'm over you

RCA ended its relationship with The Silos after only "the one with the bird on the cover" release. Long since out-of-print, I consider myself fortunate to have two copies of the sho-nuff, official release. Once I really started digging "The Bird" CD, I wanted more. I sought out their second release Cuba and found it at the now-gone Tower Records store near George Washington University in Washington, DC. I have no idea why I remember that bit of trivia.

The sound of these first two CDs is just fantastic in my opinion - a balance of electric and acoustic, of drawn-out bluesy ballads vs. drum-thumping and power chords, of concise yet often complex lyrics.

The success came from a collaboration between Walter Salas-Humara and Bob Rupe. Following the RCA "Bird" release, however, the band's members and sound changed significantly. Rupe and most of the rest of the band moved on. Salas-Humara replaced them with new musicians (and has done so many times since), and has tweaked the sound of the band a bit with each subsequent release.

I've continued to purchase every Silos CD, a couple of Walter's solo and side project discs, and material by other bands produced by Walter. All good stuff in their own right, but those first two CDs are still my favorite releases even after all these years.

It took the better part of two decades, many band members, different musical and lyrical styles, and six or seven releases before I finally got to see The Silos live. I've since seen them twice more. Not only have live shows been rare for me, but getting my hands on quality boots has been equally challenging.

But as Jason & The Scorchers sing, good things come to those who wait. Recently, my mailbox welcomed an unexpected surprise - a 3 CD set of soundboard recordings of The Silos titled Flipping The Bird.

The CDs are a compilation of live recordings from multiple tour dates in 1990 as the band supported "The Bird". They were sent by a fellow fan of the band in the hopes I could find a way to share the tunes.

I'm particularly excited because the compilation includes a few tracks recorded at Nashville's iconic Exit/In - right here in my own backyard. Sadly, I didn't make the show back in the day - but hey at least Nashville made it to the final press!

The CDs were accompanied by "liner notes" written by the taper, Joe Chinnici, who was the sound man for The Silos during the tour. Here are excerpts from Joe's notes he compiled in 2000.

...Roughly 11 years ago (1989)...I was working in a local recording studio on Long Island in New York...Then along comes a band via the studio owners connection. It was "The Silos". A band that was on the verge of being signed to RCA Records, but needed to record some final demos. I had a blast, but thought nothing of it, as every band I worked with was "on the verge". Well, a year later they got signed, recorded a record, and asked me to go on tour with them as their Sound Man.

I had never done live sound before, but felt up to the challenge and needed a break from the recording studio thing, so I accepted. It was a two month whirlwind tour, but it was a blast. For the most part everything is a positive memory. And even the things that were not, now just seem funny, not bad...

...here it was 10 years later... so I decided to go through my recordings from the tour, and cherry pick the best performances. Keep in mind, this was a very tedious task, as I had the entire tour recorded on cassette...plus a dozen shows prior to the actual tour of 1990...Plus the tapes are 10 years old. I was surprised at how well they held up. I wanted to compile the best versions of each and every song. This does not necessarily mean that these are the most flawless versions. I had to take the performance, energy, sonic quality, and attitude into consideration, not to mention that some of these songs were only performed on tape once, so I had to go with what I had...

Okay, so now it was time to come up with a title for this compilation. I began thinking about the RCA album with "The Bird" on the cover...Although the songs were great, the true essence of the band was lost in the translation. It was kind of sterile. I suddenly realized just how much these live performances captured the sound of the band. They were so raw, tight and powerful in person, they showed their flip-side. Hence the title "Flipping The Bird".

Now I realize that Walter has carried on "The Silos" name. I've heard much of the later material, and must admit that some of it is really good. However, in my eyes, "The Silos" was, is and always will be Bob, Walter, Brian and Graham, with me behind the board of course. No other line up, combination, or song list will ever add up to what was captured on this tour. It was truly magical... ~ Joe Chinnici

Perhaps without much surprise, many of the songs included in the set list in 1990 remain staples of set lists today for the band - despite the myriad of artists who have shared the stage with Walter since then.

Disc 1

Tennessee Fire (1)
Caroline (2) (MP3)
She Lives Up The Street (1)
Shine It Down
For Always (1)
Commodore Peter (2)
Take My Country Back (2)
(We'll Go) Out of Town (2)
Start The Clock
You And Your Sister (3)
Susan
Let's Work Together

Disc 2

Only Story I Tell (2)
Now That I've Lost You
I'm Over You (2)
Anyway You Choose Me (2)
Just This Morning (1)
Going Round (1)
Heart & Soul
Memories (1) (MP3)
Find Someone
Margaret (1)
Picture Of Helen (2)
Porque No (2)
How's The Road
Get Back My Name (1)

Disc 3

Honky Tonk Man (Johnny Horton cover)
It's Alright (1)
T-Bone (Neil Young cover)
All Falls Away (1) (MP3)
Don't Talk That Way (2)
band introductions
Here's To You (2)
A Few Hundred Thank You's
Maybe Everything (1)
One After 909 (Lennon-McCartney)
Mary's Getting Married (1)

(1) from Cuba
(2) from The Silos / "Bird"
(3) from the Vulgar Boatmen's 1989 You and Your Sister release. WSH was in the band pre-Silos and produced their Y&YS album. Walter sold me the VB tape via a snail-mail and personal check transaction. I've never heard this song live until now.

If you are a big fan of The Silos, you should really enjoy these rare tracks. If you are a casual fan or just a noob, download the songs - you won't regret it.

Edited 2014-03-06: This post continues to get so many visits. Thank you! Here is an updated set of links to the FTB set. Take a track, or take 'em all.

• Disc 1
• Disc 2
• Disc 3
• Artwork

TMC

Kevin Salem

The last few years I've found myself enjoying bootlegs, rarities, show rehearsals, etc. about as much as officially released material. One, its cheaper because most fans/tapers share their recordings freely. Two, I like the roughness of a lot of the material - the lack of recording perfection demanded by studio production crews is a nice change of pace. Three, I've been able to experiment with artists with whom I'm not as familiar - far easier to listen to a downloaded boot vs. forking over $15 for an unknown official release.

Recently, a friend of mine sent me a CD of some demo tracks recorded by Kevin Salem thinking I'd enjoy it. I'll admit I didn't know anything about him and really still don't much. But as I say, I enjoy the roughness of these kinds of recordings - not to mention the element of surprise. It was a bit like opening a Christmas present in the middle of summer.

Once I listened to a few of the tracks, I started enjoying it. Hey Mikey! He likes it! Now that I've played it a few times, I figured others might enjoy it as well. So its offered here to you for the low, low price of free.

From what I can gather (i.e. Google this, Wikipedia that, e-mail this and that 'un), this record was made, mixed and mastered in the early 1990s. But Salem then apparently shelved it thinking he might get greater exposure if he worked with a "name" producer. His first official record, Soma City, was released in 1994. Some of the songs featured Syd Straw on background vocals, and I have heard of her. These demo tracks, however, never were included on his three solo releases.

Kevin has a website, and I've now learned he was quite the hired gun for some artists/bands with whom I am familiar. Some of his recording cred includes:

• Mary Lee's Corvette - From New York City. One degree of separation here: Konrad Meissner, the drummer for a fave band of mine, The Silos, also plays drums for MLC.
• Walter Salas-Humara's Radar - WSH is the frontman for The Silos. And hey, I've had this solo CD from him in my collection for years.
• Todd Thibaud- From Boston, MA. Another find for me over the last couple of years thanks to some suggested tracks by Pandora.com. I bought Todd's Favorite Waste of Time because of the tracks I streamed on Pandora. So with Walter's solo CD and Todd's FWOT CD, I had some Kevin Salem material in my possession and never realized it!
• Emmylou Harris - I think she may be one of those promising, up-and-comer, country artists. I wish her well and hope she has a prosperous career. [/tongueincheek]. Are you kidding me? Emmylou?! Nice.
• Dumptruck
• Freedy Johnston
• Yo La Tengo

The CD of demos also included one track by another artist - Mary Lorson. Again, she was a songwriter not familiar to me. In the early 90s, she fronted a band called Madder Rose. Does that help? No? Well don't feel bad because I hadn't heard of them either. But a web search for her landed me on Trouser Press. There I learned Madder Rose's debut was produced by...Kevin Salem. So now I think I know why this demo was included with the Salem cuts. The final two tracks of this set were Lorson's first attempts at songwriting and from her first recording session.

Track list:

• Drag The River
• Unfaithful
• Shot Down
• Remain
• Privileges
• Blue Candles
• Tears To Ice Water
• Late Night Prayers
• Borderline
• Mary Lorson's 1st two demos

Download here from Box.com

TMC
Edited August 13, 2014

That dusty old box of vinyl records

Every September, our department goes to a state park for a week of golf...team-building...drinking...training. Every year is a different theme. Some of our themes have been centered around sports, old TV shows, movies, game shows, and a cruise ship.

This year, I'll be attending my 14th edition of these things, and I am pretty much over it. But I give full marks to the handful of folks charged with planning and executing the week. They do a helluva job with a limited budget and a ton of creativity and resourcefulness. They can't get 140 people to enjoy the same food menu - much less make them happy with training choices and themes.

The theme for this fall apparently involves music. We've all been required...cajoled...requested to introduce ourselves to the rest of our co-workers via a video about our favorite band, first concert, memorable song, etc.

I went old school and dug out some vinyl LPs from deep in the dark corners of my closet. Trolling through those old albums reminded of Todd Snider's great song Vinyl Records:

At the risk of spoiling the surprise to any co-workers reading this entry, I'll refrain from mentioning my featured albums, songs, concert experiences, etc. at this time. In digging through my LPs, however, I found some interesting but somewhat forgotten albums. Because the box was open and my camera was nearby, it seemed only appropriate to share them...now...with you...here...because I care...about you.

How about this winner? Elvis sings Flaming Star. They say 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong, so I'm hoping they all will agree with me that this LP likely really sucked. I'm not sure if you can tell or not, but it looks like I used a blue pencil to give the King some evil eyebrows and a pencil-thin mustache/goatee combo. I'm not sure why I would have done that...unless the LP really sucked...which it probably did.

Pat Travers - Crash and Burn. This one caught my eye simply because I've seen some bootlegs of the band surface recently.

I'm pretty sure I bought this one at the time because of the single Snorting Whiskey (and Drinking Cocaine). Just the whole sound of it sounded cool and rebellious to me - much more so than the simplicity of Clapton's one-word Cocaine. (Disclaimer: For the record, I've neither snorted whiskey nor drank cocaine. A long weekend with Schaefer beer? Well, that's a different discussion altogether.) That was a great southern rock hit back in the day - and it remains so today mainly because its not nearly as overplayed as the obvious ones by Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet, The Allman Brothers, etc.

Night Ranger - Midnight Madness. I bought their debut, Dawn Patrol, on cassette tape because I liked a couple of cuts and because they opened for KISS. Figured if they were good enough to open for Gene and the boys, then they deserved $7 of my high school earnings. I should have stopped there, but instead I bought their follow-up on vinyl.

What caused me to pull this album out of the box and blog my embarrassment was the sticker still on the protective plastic wrap. In my youth, KDF 103.3 was the rock station of Nashville. None could touch it. Great music. Great radio personalities. Chatty Patty Murray - man oh man, did she have a sultry voice to excite every young male in middle Tennessee. (Until you had the chance to meet her in person and realize dejectedly that her voice was about her most thrilling asset.)

From the mid 70s through about the mid 80s, just about every young person's car either had this decal in the back window or had a similar license plate on the front.

My first ride was a 1965 Dodge Dart given to me by my grandmother. First thing that went in it? A Craig AM/FM/cassette stero. The second modification? Applying my right-of-passage KDF sticker to the rear glass.

About a decade or so ago, the station's format changed to country. Boring country. Stale country. Hat-act country. Useless "personalities". The end of KDF for me...forever.

Roger Miller - Golden Hits. This perhaps was the one album my father had that I appreciated at the time. Over time, I've learned to appreciate the significance of many others he had such as Cash, Roy Orbison, Hank Sr., Charlie Pride, Sam the Sham & The Pharohs, etc. But with Roger Miller - I got it. I loved when he played this album on his Zenith stereo, and I got my own copy in high school when I got my own stereo. As an adult, I've replaced it with a 3 CD set of Miller's greatest hits.

Jason & The Scorchers - Lost and Found. A college roommate introduced me to The Scorchers. Because of my clinging to my fading interest in arena rock bands, I missed Jason & The Nashville Scorchers (as they were originally named). But my roommate got my attention quickly when he played songs such as Broken Whiskey Glass and Harvest Moon. Pretty soon I had to claim my own copy rather than bum a listen of his.

College life in the dorm my freshman year got me into a lot of Bocephus, Hag, David Allan Coe, etc. I bought Waylon & Company in my university bookstore because it featured some great duets between Waylon and artists such as Hank Jr., Emmylou, and Jerry Reed.

After college, I moved to Chattanooga, TN and quickly became a frequent Friday night visitor to Yesterday's - a long-since-gone club featuring primarily cover bands. Occasionally, regional bands with their own songs such as Mobius Strip and The Hammerheads played the place. And a Chattanooga original - 37 Targetz - packed the house when they played. Their cover of June Carter's Ring of Fire won MTV's Basement Tapes. This is one album I'd really like to convert to digital. Anyone wanna loan me one of those USB-powered turntables?

I'll close with a couple of oddities. First, Meet Richard Petty. Yes, this was a Petty-narrated album from 1970 accompanied by about a 20-page booklet of various pictures. I ordered it from Darlington Speedway in the late 1970s. I still have the booklet to go with it.

The final one I laughed at when I spotted it was a recording of my high school concert band. Living in Nashville, there is only about one or two degrees of separation between you and someone in the music business. One of our band parents - no recollection of whom - likely was at the second degree and had one of our concerts pressed to vinyl.

We didn't sell a half-million copies to earn Gold record status. Matter of fact, I'm willing to bet we didn't sell any. I think they were just given us as souvenirs from a proud band parent. So while we didn't earn gold, I am the proud owner of an old yeller LP.

This trip through my platters was fun. Maybe next I'll tackle my two to three hundred cassettes to see what interesting things surface.

TMC