A whaling song and a good guitar" are not the ONLY THINGS
I understand but, they are amongst the three or four things I
do understand.......and here and there......while considering
all the above... I have had the opportunity to play a few good
guitars, as well as write a few good songs and quite a few bad
songs. And......this is difficult to write.
My introduction into the music business began in 1973 when
I started working in radio. These were the halcyon days of radio
and I was fortunate enough to work at stations that had to play
everything to make sure they could make money. These were small
market stations that were, in my opinion of the time, real radio
stations. There was very little automation, everything was live,
and when mess-ups happened, these moments became historically
significant, especially if they had been recorded.
This was back in the days when radio WAS the internet, records
were vinyl, you "cued" songs with your fingers and real
artists...actual human beings.... showed up on the doorstep of
the radio station with free records to play, interviews to give,
and sometimes something called payola. "Let me start out
by saying" Robert Mercer, from Fantasy Records in those days,
did not offer me any payola for playing his records...just a lot
of good friendship since then....Bob actually helped me get started
critically looking at the music industry and he was seasoned in
it and I always learn a lot from him. At the time we met, 1973,
I was working in a little radio station in north Idaho. This guy
amazed me! He had his picture in Billboard! And by the late 1980s,
he was prophesying stuff to me about little digital records that
would make vinyl and tape fill a billion discard boxes at Salvation
Army stores. Since then, he'd helped me with publishing from his
Right Hemisphere publishing group which published Buzzards of
Steel...that was even viewed by a President!
and was entered into the Texas Library of Music and Film and
was aired on television a few years back.
I have been writing lyrics and music since the early 70s and had
my "first break" with a song called Pentecostwhich was originally written for a readers theater for my
friend Dean Ball in Wenatchee. Then, the song was recorded by
United Artists Country Music Star Judy Lynn. That first published
song went to Don Daily and Glad Music Company in Houston, Texas.
and since then I've been honoured to know and work with so many
very fine people in the music business. It was an amazing experience
for me, an apple orchard kid from Wenatchee to get invited to
perform for the LA Alternative Chorus for Len Chandler and Jon
Brahanney....once at the Improv and also at the LA Variety Arts
Center. I even stayed in the Hollywood Hills! (There are deer
up there in those hills that hang out by the sign). My genre is
folk music and I have had the honour to share music under old
oak trees where Sam Houston sat, for the Texas Folklore Society,
and on occasions with some special people in the (folk) music world like
Fr. Joe Frazier (Chad Mitchell Trio), Travis Edmundson (Bud and
Travis), and Dale Kesey (Grateful Dead). In 1974 I won the Helen
King Award for my song "A Change of Heart" I've won
two awards in the Nashville Song Festival for folk music and have
had a Christmas song, Christmas Eve On Highway 83 in the top ten
on inde labels. I'm a member of BMI own a micro publishing company:
Nighthawk Mountain Music, and presently have releases on Sunshine
Records in Manitoba, Canada: (Christmas Eve On Highway 83, 18 Wheel Millennial
Blues, Bound For Home). You can hear my music on the Dave Nemo Show on XM Radio, or listen to Gear
Jammin' Gold . .
I've been honored to have some amazing people hear my music, and
work with some incredible musicians. But for me my regular job
gives me an audience almost everyday of very special people, my
students. I'm a professor at Eastern Oregon University where I
teach Physical and Cultural Geography and do a bunch of podcasts. And..sure.....I sing a few songs
to my students...and yes....they listen, whether they like it
or not....they're good students! Finally if I were to think about
influences in my music and just having fun with it....I would
have to say my family, has always been the real inspiration for
me. Especially, my kids.....my daughter is a great writer and
poet and mother....and as far as music goes...the one person who
stands out to me, the very most, and has taught me along the way...so
much....is my son Tim. Who along with his sister, played the sleigh
bells in Christmas Eve On Highway 83, way back in 1992......and
has become a wonderfully creative writer, and producer and can
digitize everything from the kitchen sink to a glass of apple
juice, and write a song about it. Timothy played saw with me on
the The Four In the Okanogan and also produced this song. Thanks
Tim, especially for the great lava lamp for Father's day.
Liner Notes The Four In The Okanogan It was a Tuesday evening 10 July 2001 when I was downtown
Omak, Washington and watched an incredible fire plume come up
over the hills to the northwest. It was an ominous cloud, and
in seeing it I remember how I commented to myself..."man
that is a bad fire!" And for some reason, from that moment
on, I just could not get it out of mind. When I was younger I
used to fight fires in that neck of the woods. I was a member
of the Loomis Hot Shot Crew with the Department of Natural Resources.
The Okanogan is a wild place to fight fires. It's hot, it's steep,
it's "snakey". I remember one fire I was on at Nighthawk
mountain in particular. We were hugging the terrain late at night,
waiting until morning to get up and around a 45 degree slope on
which the other side glowed liked the sun from a hillside of burning
ponderosa. As we moved toward the fire, rattlesnakes were exiting
the scene in waves. Needless to say you hiked carefully.
Later that evening, my premonition was confirmed. Four firefighters
lost their lives that day. Young people, as young as I was when
I was up there, as young as my son and my daughter is now, and
my son Tim was on a crew for awhile. You think that way when you
are a parent. It hit me and would not let me go. Then in a day
or so the paper came out with the names and the faces. Tom L.
Craven, 30, of Ellensburg; Karen L. Fitzpatrick, 18, Devin A.
Weaver, 21, and Jessica L. Johnson, 19, all of Yakima. What for?
All because of a campfire? Smokey Bear has been growling at people
to wake up to their campfire responsibilities for for over 50
years. Ah....but "Smokey is for kids." But these were
kids, young people, and doing something very responsible........something
very adult and they died doing it....needlessly? The Thirtymile
Fire, The Chewuch River Fire, has become one of the most publicized
of all fires. It's a fire
storm in itself of politics, and posturing and lots of pain,
for the families of those lost, and for their friends. So how
can the death of four innocent people become, not needless?
For me, my music has always been a way to get whatever, good or
bad, out of my soul. This was burning me up inside. Maybe somewhat
amazingly, the first lines of the Four In The Okanogan came out
of me like those snakes coming out of that fire. As I wrote, the
fire's towering plume was visible on the horizon from the window
of our little house north of Omak. In the shadow of that cloud
monument, towering to God, before it dissipated and dissolved
into atmospheric history, I wrote the rest of the song and got
it out of my soul.
It was a narrow canyon that they were trapped in. There was no
way out and the fire took a turn as if to suggest it had taken
on a demonic life of it's own. It came after them. Yet there were
survivors! There were miracles! There were some rescued, and of
course heroes made that day. Although the song was a means of
personal emotional release for me, what happened after that was
an inadvertent honour.
At the Yakima SunDome my family and I sat together and held
hands as we watched thousands of yellow shirted firefighters from
all around the country file in and find their seats for the memorial
service of these four heroes. Their fallen comrades. Then, on
the public address speaker was the song. It was surreal. I'm glad
someone else found some solace in something I've written. That
to me is one of the greatest honors of a writer. But as I have
had the chance to talk with some of the family members of those
who lost their lives in this fire, one theme prevails, DON'T FORGET.
Maybe in some little tiny way this song can help by keeping the
memory alive and by reminding a citizenry of how every year a
group of fine firefighters from all levels of the industry, public
and private, put it all on the line. Maybe it can help in some
small way to remind those involved with the administration of
fighting these fires that there is a continued need for solid
fire research and good science so as to put together the best
strategies and equipment design to protect the people, the young
people, who go out there helping Smokey. The song now is played
in USFS
circles, and I am happy about that.
It is an amazing number who have died and for more information
on the thousands of firefighters who have lost their lives in
the line of duty please visit Last
Alarm. Although there are many, another good site that discusses
wild land fire is WILDLANDFIRE.com.
For a discourse on the 30 Mile Fire, John Norman
Maclean's book, "The 30 Mile Fire" is just in the process
of being released. It is highly acclaimed already and is doing
much in the way of keeping the remembering and thinking processes
continuing on about this fire and others. The book is available
from Henry
Holt Publishing.
For insight into one of the gracious, energetic young people
we lost on that scree slope seven years ago, read Angel Promises
by
a parent to Karen FitzPatrick, her mum, Kathie. Available
from Pleasant Word publishing,
the book is a collection of poetry, writing, art and imagery from
this amazing young
lady. Even after she has left this earth, she continues to
be an inspiration, a beacon who seems to be saying, "please
don't forget."
Finally I offer my song below. If anything, I would hope it does
something to keep us remembering, "...... and all who fight
the wildfires are the heroes in this poem." A podcast interview
of these two authors are available from Acoustic
Space.
Thank you for listening. Dr. M
13 June 2007 5:51 a.m.
La Grande, The State of Oregon, USA
Tomorrow When You Cry In the early 1990s I had a chance
to visit the Alamo. It is indeed a shrine; a place, where it seems,
some sense of its metaphysical character invades whoever might
visit there... whether they like it or not. In the line out the
door I noticed loud people waiting to get in. Somehow, instantaneous,
their countenance stilled as they walked through the arching Spanish
style doorway of this amazing place. Kids, out of control outside,
were under control by their parents inside, and hats were taken
off in the silence of the main room. This was quite an experience
for a northern boy whose visual exposure of the Alamo was limited
to a black and white television screen and the interpretations
of Walt Disney and some middle school textbook editor. Needless
to say, I had a coonskin cap when I was a kid, and once again
I could feel it's tail on my shoulders as I moved from room to
room listening to the historical accounts of what happened in
this iconic place of history.
For me, visiting the Alamo was almost on the same perceptual plane
as my seeing Old
Faithful erupt for the first time or
walking across the battlefields
at Gettysburg. There is something there.
And in one museum case, I heard it speak to me.
During the siege on the mission, William
Barrett Travis, so the story goes, gave a ring he had received
from a sweetheart to a little child held up in the Alamo at the
time of the attack. Agelina
Dickinson's name would of no doubt later
popped up in the history books if only for the fact that she was
one of the many children in the Alamo on that early spring day
in March of 1836. But as it was, William Barrett Travis, the Texas
commander at the Battle of the Alamo, changed all that.
The museum had its share of dioramas,
old guns, buckskin and examples of 1830s farrier technology but
then, as I rounded a corner in the interpretive area of the Alamo,
in a glass case was a ring. What I observed was what was reported
to be the actual ring that Travis gave this little girl. This
was not just a representation of something that was at the siege,
it was a piece of material evidence. But not only was this artifact
about a moment in history, but also a moment in heart felt humanity;
ironically in the heat of what humans seem to do well at wherever
they are, producing hell on earth. Perhaps Travis knew hell was
coming? Was he considering that if he were killed in the battle,
a ring captured from his finger would serve the enemy with propaganda
to gloat about? Or maybe he thought if it came to what indeed
it was shaping up to look like it might come to, and Mexican forces
killed him and took the ring from him......something meaningful
to him....... would simply become one more thing cast into the
meaningless spoils of war. Whatever the case, he gave the ring
away. Not to an adult but insightfully (?) to a 15 month old child,
a representative of the future. What was he thinking? What was
this moment like?
Could it somehow be the molecular embedding of the vibrations
of cannon fire, the explosions of muskets, the moans of dyeing
people, that no doubt little Angelina heard all around her those
days, that I, now over one hundred and fifty years later, was
hearing reverberating from that ring as I stared down at in its
glass tomb? Whatever it was the story spoke to me, the ring, like
a circuit of silver from a time machine was channeling me into
the past. And I listened. Conversely this song came from that
experience. This was not just inspiration, not just introspection.
This is the song of William Travis, his ring, his love, his tears,
and the future he left behind. Visit the Alamo
on line at The Alamo.org site. And for
information about the historical figures surrounding the Alamo,
check this
page from Texas A&M University.
Thank you for listeningThe Story on Christmas Eve On Highway 83
Although folk music is my genre...which does not necessarily
require the traditional country music southern accent to ones
voice, by default, Christmas Eve On Highway 83, is played
on country music stations and I am trying my northern hardest
to provide that southern sound. Kevin Bomar first recorded the
song at his studio in Bryan, Texas....now he has Southcoast
Recorders. We put it on a cassette. I was a Ph.D. candidate
at Texas A&M at the time in geography so I had access to the
map library on campus. At the library I obtained an atlas of the
radio stations in North America. So, using the atlas, I found
stations physically near or had a signal that made it into or
along side of Highway 83. We could do this with a GIS system today,
very easily. I mailed a cassette to every one of these stations.
One of them was KWKH, Shreveport. LA where Elvis has his name
on the wall. A little while later I got a call from KWKH. they
were playing the song, and they wanted to interview me. Through
that contact I met an incredible DJ and wonderful man, Larry Scott....he
was playing the song....and low and behold, I got my first royalty
check from BMI that year!
In 1997 Christmas Eve on Highway 83 made it to the number 4
position on the national air play charts for holiday songs on
independent labels. This was the first song I ever had played
on the radio and it was an amazing experience.
Although the song is a fictitious tale of a truck driver....Highway
83 does exist. US
highway 83 begins at the border of Mexico at Brownsville,
Texas and ends north of Minot,
North Dakota at the Canadian
border. The highway continues into Manitoba,
Canada as Provincial Route 83 and ends at Swan River, Manitoba.
Today, this highway is a vital link in the evolving NAFTAprogram.
This song is a story about a close
encounter of the reindeer kind. However, one person in the
Dallas area who heard the song on KSKA, wrote to say that one
snowy winter, a similar circumstance happened to her and she was
rescued by someone in similar fashion to the truck driver in the
song.
As a result of the release of Highway 83, I have had the honor
to come in contact with some amazing radio personalities and talent.
These folks on radio have really helped this song along. When
the song was originally released (initially in 1993) I was a Ph.D.
student at Texas A&M. Larry
Scott (Country
Music Disc Jockey Hall of Fame) was working at KWKH in Shereveport,
LA., they received the cassette (yes it was in a cassette format!)
and started playing it. I couldn't believe it! I was singing on
the station that started the Louisiana
Hayride! I talked with Larry and was interviewed on KWKH,
and I was honored to hear that he thought 83 was a great truck
driving Christmas song! Larry
is all over the airways these days and working with historic
Texas Swing music.
A few years latter, Highway 83 was released in CD format on
Pristine Records, an independent out of Waco, Texas and received
airplay all over the world. Then, in the winter of 2000, while
I was working as a professor of geography for UTPB in Odessa,
TX I ran across another incredible radio talent.
I was on a geology field trip with students in the Horse Rustler
Hills in west Texas sleeping in the back of my truck and tuning
in my radio when I ran across WWL (New Orleans, LA) and Dave
Nemo's Road Gang Show. Dave was playing an great mix of music,
folk, country, everything, and I thought, maybe I should send
him one of the new CDs for the up coming holiday season. Well
I did and a little while later, one night my wife was getting
ready for a long winters nap back home in Omak, Washington, and
to much to her surprise, on KSL Salt Lake City, she heard the
old man on the radio singing her to sleep! Dave is another incredible
radio talent with an amazing history. From network AM radio, Dave's
show has now gone to XM Satellite. I am happy to say that
Dave took Highway 83 with him, and he was the first to launch
my song into the satellite
age. So if you really want to hear Christmas Eve On Highway
83, the way it's supposed to sound, (from outer space) you just
might hear it during the holiday season on Dave's show. The Dave
Nemo show can be heard on XM
Satellite Radio Channel 171. 6 am to 11 am every morning.
You can also hear Christmas Eve on Highway 83 and lots of other
great truck driving songs at: VIRTUAL
TRUCK ROUTE sponsored by my friend Brian Stein in Edmonton
Alberta Canada. Brian's company Summit
Soloutions operates thissite that features truck driving music and information about truckdriving media.
I have to mention the musicians playing with me on this song.
These folks really make this song roar! Listen to the awesome
dobro of Steve
Palousek, the great drum work of Kevin Cooley, and solid bass
with Steven Humphreys; not to mention my kids on the sleigh bells.
This song introduced me to an amazing musician, Steve
Palousek. Steve just happened to be around at the recording
session of Highway 83 with his dobro. It's his awesome work on
the Dobro that make this song amazing to listen to on a cold snowy
night. Since then Steve has become a good friend and has played
steel and lead for me on a number of songs. He now has Awesome
Works Recording Studio in Holland, Texas
Myles Marian Mustoe
