When an article about Jim ‘Kimo’ West appeared in Guitar World magazine’s April 2023 issue, parts of his story sounded real familiar. It occurred to me that I just might have talked about him some in a previous From the Vaults, so I started backtracking through my index of titles. I was just beginning […]
Sing the following to the tune of My Way (with apologies to Old Blue Eyes): Flat Tires, I’ve had a few, everywhere from Melstrand to Timbuktu . . . Okay, I have had more than a few and I have never been to Timbuktu, but I have had a flat in Melstrand. The last […]
“Okay,” my father said, “Push in the clutch, pull out the choke, turn the key, and step on the starter pedal.” When the engine came to life, he had me adjust the choke until the engine was idling smoothly and then continued: “Now put the shift down into first like I showed you. Give […]
The late Tom Hartzell and I were having a discussion about the Pacific Northwest in the lunchroom one day. Tom mentioned he and his wife would be vacationing there in the near future, so I took the opportunity to ask him a little favor. I said, “Well, if you happen to find an ashtray […]
You probably recognize the last name in the title and are thinking, “Hey bud, you got the wrong first name. Don’t you mean ‘Micky Dolenz’?” You are half right – I am talking about the former lead singer and drummer of The Monkees, but we will get to the ‘Michael’ part in a bit. […]
Canadian guitarist Randy Bachman is probably best known as a founding member of both The Guess Who and Bachman Turner Overdrive. While most music fans are not as familiar with the band he formed between those two mega album selling groups, Brave Belt was a bridge between them. Bachman’s roots ran deep in all three […]
Cartoons have been one of my life-long obsessions. I don’t mean ‘obsession’ as in ‘I collect them’, I just love reading them. Since the first days I picked up the Marquette Mining Journal, my habit has been to start with the comic page. In the past, I have mentioned that the MMJ comics were […]
Yes, go ahead and finish the lyric begun above; “are made for walking, and that’s just what they’ll do, one day these boots are going to walk all over you.” Some may hear Nancy Sinatra’s voice singing her No 1 hit from 1966. It was written and produced by Lee Hazlewood and entered the […]
Surfing music sites as I do on occasion, I ran into a series of interviews done by ‘The Professor of Rock’. PoR’s site (real name Adam Reader) has quite a back catalog and judging by the five and six digit number of views accumulated by many of his clips, he has been at it […]
The name ‘Micky Braddock’ not ringing any bells? His father was a film star probably most widely known for his portrayal of The Count of Monte Cristo. His mother was also ‘in the business’ but stepped back from her career to raise Micky and his three younger sisters. It was her Irish background that […]