Monthly Archive

I went to an estate sale this morning on the south side of Ypsilanti.  It was an old cool house filled with old cool things.  I went in and asked if their were any records.  They said they thought there were a few lying around somewhere.  I looked everywhere.  No records.  I picked up a few antique instruments, thought about buying them.

Then I went downstairs.  I was about to leave when I saw on top of a cabinet in the corner there were a pile of old walking canes.  Intrigued, I took a closer look and found the truth stick.  It looked like a cane, but there were hand painted pictures and symbols, Native American style.  It was incredibly worn and aged, it looked like it was 80 years old.  The price was 6 dollars.  I paid for it and left, no longer caring about the records.

My friend Gerard has a truth stick.  He was approached by a street vendor in Jamaica who tried to sell him a bunch of hand made jewelry and other stuff.  He said no thanks.  The vendor looked at him and said, “Ah, I know what you want.”  He went to his truck and came back with a hand carved stick made from a hard, lightweight wood found in Jamaica.  There were pictures and symbols carved in the side.  Gerard happily paid the $20 for the truth stick and thanked the vendor.

Gerard took the stick up North to the Farm for the Campfire.  My dogs got into a vicious fight over a piece of deer carcus they found in the woods.  They never fight, but they went at it like they were going to kill each other.  We tried throwing our beers on them, yelling, but nothing was working.  They started to draw blood, and Gerard grabbed the truth stick and was able to pry them off each other and we grabbed each dog and stopped the fight.  Then we sat and listened to the Bob Dylan theme time radio hour all night, listening to old Bob talk about truth and play songs about the turth while the truth stick sat wedged into the sand by the fire pit. 

I wanted one bad after that, but I wasn’t really thinking about it until I found this one.  It feels good in my hand.  It’s short, it’s meant to be held when sitting down.  Truth sticks are used in the Native American and other cultures when discussing the truth.  People sit around the campfire in a circle and pass the stick around and contribute something to the community truth.  In American cultures, a few people know about truth sticks, and it apparently is used in the same way, although usually with the help of mass consumptions of alcohol.

I wish I knew the story of my truth stick.  But I’m sure whoever owned it before me, in that old house in Ypsi, is glad that I have it.

After doing that last post, I felt like posting some truly great gospel music.  Here Detroit’s Rance Allen Group, from their second, self titled album on the Stax subsidiary Gospel Truth. 

Sometime I will do a post on the Rev. CL Franklin family.

My morning conspiracy theory:

I have a record called Teach Yourself to Play Folk & Rock Guitar.  The cover is quite awesome.  The guy on the front is from Farmington Hills, Michigan.

But nowhere is his name listed.  Who is he?  The lessons are quite good.  .

Next to this record in my collection (in the awesome cover section) is probably my gem.  Father Frank Perkovich and The Perkatones with Joe Cvek and The Polka Mass-Ters Orchestra.

Oh yes.

His hands come out of the accordian like Jesus’s.  The back cover talks of converting beer halls to church halls. 

Father Perk proclaims, “Of course, I’m an old jitterbug from way back.”  Yes, father, you are the man.  But who is your sidekick there, Joe Cvek, pictured here on the back cover?

It’s the Robin to Batman, the Bunny Wailer to Bob Marley, the….Mystery Man from the Beginner Guitar Record!

From the back cover of Beginner Guitar

Look more closely:

Yes, Joe Cvek, the jig is up.  We know who you are.  You recorded “Teach Yourself”, the record flopped and you skipped town to join the Perkatones.  In any event, here is song , from Father Frank, the Perkatones, Joe Cvek and the Polka Mass-ters Orchestra:

In a previous post about Ann Arbor revolutionist John Sinclair, I mentioned his book, titled Guitar Army, and how the name was taken from a Rationals song.

To me, what the Rationals were saying was that it’s going to take music to move us.  And you gotta feel it in order to move.  The opening line (which you won’t be able to hear-the clip is mostly the instrumental portion of the song), he says, I ain’t talkin’ bout, burnin’ down, I’m just talkin’ bout gettin’ down…Us folks talkin’ about, a whole different thing…Got to get up off your feet, and start movin’…

John Sinclair talked a lot about the concept of movin’.  On the back of the Ann Arbor Blues and Jazz Festival 1972 record, he says:

…please have a good time with this record, take it into your lives and let the music reach you like the musicans intended to when they made it, OK?  And then maybe we can start to get somewhere, like off our asses, on our feet and moving as far as the music can take us.

Power to the People’s Music

All Power to the People

I’ve also mentioned how I had a conversation with Robert Jr. Whitall, founder of Big City Rythym and Blues magazine, who used to hang out with John Sinclair.  He said, “back then, we were all listening to the blues.  We got our inspiration from blues music.  People don’t understand that punk music came from the blues.”

Music is the one universal language we have.  Bob Marley, a fan of punk music himself, said, Who feels it knows it, Lord.  So if you feel it, get movin’! 

I was reading the Ann Arbor News this week when I came across a memoriam of Joe Wagner that caught my eye.  I looked at the photo and I thought, wait a minute, I know that guy.  I couldn’t place where I had met him, but I knew strongly that I had and that I remembered strongly who he was.  I am an Ann Arbor/Ypsi native and so is Joe so I know our paths have crossed.  It turns out we’re very like-minded.

What grabbed me next was the text.  It read like this:

Joe Wagner

1-16-85 to 6-26-2005

I would rather die as a young

man and not afraid

Then to die as an old man afraid.

Life is amazing if you truly

live life so fucking live it-

to live life is to live without fear.

When I die the only thing I

want you to remember of me

is what I say to you now.

Learn.

Learn the truth, and when you

have found truth live by it and

never, I say never back down

from anyone when you know

truth.

If you don’t know truth I will

give you a tip.

Find love and when you find

true love for everything, truth

will be right around the corner.

If you’re not happy within

yourself when you find truth

then you haven’t found real truth.

The only way to find real truth

is to dig, question and seperate

yourself from all evils.

PEACE and LOVE to you ALL.

Joe’s Words-2005.

When I read this, Joe’s words couldn’t leave my mind.  It sounded like a young man who was filled with a passion and knowledge of the truth of the world.  It really stuck with me, I couldn’t just turn the page of the newspaper and carry on with my evening.  I wondered how he lost his life so young.

I carefully cut out Joe’s words from the newspaper and put it downstairs by the computer.  I re-read what was said over and over.  Tonight, I did a google search and found out that Joe was murdered in Detroit, randomly and senselessly.  I remember very well when this happened but I had forgotten all about it.  Joe was a member of BAMN, and spent the last few years of his young life fighting for equal rights, better education and social justice for all people, living and working in downtown Detroit. 

Learning more about Joe’s work has been inspiring for me.  In addition to doing Cousins Vinyl, I work in the education field and am familiar with much of what Joe did and believed in.

To Joe’s family and friends: Thank you for publishing Joe’s words in the Ann Arbor News.  They truly stuck with me.  You’ve reached me.  I knew Joe, and I still do.  I’ll save what I cut out, to remind myself to keep searching and learning the truth, and never back down. 

I’ll also carry Joe’s dream with me as I continue with my own journey.

God bless Joe and his family.

A miracle happened this morning in my basement in Ypsilanti.  I got Lee Osler and Sammy Kaye together to do a remix of Sammy’s song, Makin’ Love Ukulelee style.  The new title is Makin’ Love Ypsilanti Style.  I play all the instruments you hear in the background.  I recorded it, cooked ‘em breakfast, then kicked ‘em out so I could hurry up and post it on cousinvinyl.com.  

listen:

From two seperate collections purchased yesterday, we found two seperate party 45 gems. I ask of you: Which one is sweeter?

The first is an obvious hipster choice. Clarence Jackson’s 1975 Detroit funk track on super-cool Valtone, titled Party Time. B side is Party Time instrumental. Notable British northern soul/funk sites have dubbed this 45 as guarenteed to fill the dance floor.

Simple, celebratory funk, Detroit style.

The next 45 isn’t hipster friendly, upon first glance. A Sammy Kaye on RCA Victor? To the warehouse YOU go! But when we looked closer, one of us uttered a “whooaa” and the other a “no way.” Yes, the title of the song is one of the best ones we have ever come across.

Makin’ Love Ukulele Style.

Wow.

So what to do with these two? I’m tempted to keep them both to have on hand for my next party. I’ll begin the party with Party Time, but end the party with Makin’ Love Ukulele Style.

*Update*: Alert reader Woodshed has a site dedicated to Ukuleles. I highly recommend it.

Somebody gave me an old oak cabinet hi-fi record player a few days ago.  I’d been looking for one to play 78s, and was quite excited when I plugged it in and the old thing cranked up and actually worked.  It’s a Magnavox, the first company to make one like this.

We’ve had some 78s lying around for a while in the back office, and a few thousand in the warehouse, so I dug out a few hundred and brought them to the front for a drafting battle. 

As one of the perks of owning a record store, Justin and I will take some home off most collections we buy.  We call it “drafting”, we’ll go through ‘em all and agree to take the ones we want, sometimes one for one, sometimes five for five, but we have to agree on each deal.  There are many tricks we’ve learned to try to hustle the other out of the good ones.  Yesterday was no exception.  We were at it for a good two hours, arguing, pleading, refusing, agreeing, playing ‘em, and finally ending up with about 20-30 each.

They were mostly blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, and folk.  My favorite was Grandpa Jones and His Grandchildren, Make Me A Pallet on King.  I have a Furry Lewis version and a Mississippi John Hurt version and a few others, but I had never heard of Grandpa Jones.  I also got an early Memphis Slim, a Hootie McShann, a Reverend M. Larry Franklin, and a great song about being a bum on Perfect.  Justin got a very cool Jimmy Rodgers, an early Roy Milton Specialty, the original version of Rock Around the Clock and a bunch of other cool stuff that I tried to get too.  It was fun, and a pretty even match.

My wife and I found out this morning we’re having a girl.  It’s due October 27th.

After I found out, I drove into Cousins and Jah Live was playing.  It was the perfect song to hear.

I’m organizing a pick-up softball game to be played once a week in Ypsilanti, somewhere on the east side or in Willow Run. Please spread the word you influencial Ypsi bloggers and get back to me.

I’m thinking it would be a fun way to get the blood flowing, meet some neighbors, and partake in an old school summer ritual. And an excuse to bbq and drink beer. Who else is down?

Is sitting in the backyard under the trees, drinking a beer, and thinking about the possibilities of summer while I get paid for doing nothing.

Ahh, it’s good to be an educator.

Ypsilanti, do your thing.

The Free Press had a great documentary video posted on it’s website a few weeks ago about Aretha Franklin’s song Respect, on it’s 40th anniversary.  I forgot to post it then, but I’m sure some of you haven’t seen it yet.  It’s great.  It talks about how Aretha put her spin on Otis Redding’s original version.  Ann Arbor’s the Rationals also did a version.

The power of the song, song musically and lyrically, is what captured listeners then and still now today, speaking not only on the behalf of women, but also African-Americans.

We’ve got both versions in our store.

American and Jamaican roots music addict, former 10,000 meter national track and field champion, my brother from another mother, and fellow entreprenuer Gerard Donakowski is in Chicago right now at a furniture expo.  He’s promoting the product from the company he owns with his two brothers, called Zerocaster. 

Zerocaster is a hubless caster designed as an aesthetic upgrade from standard casters which appear on all office chairs.  Gerard is hoping office furniture makers will want them on their high end chairs.  Zerocaster has been in the works for about 8 years, and now the product is finally ready for production.

Please help us in extending positive vibrations to Gerard, his brothers, and Zerocaster.

Gerard in his running prime

Apparently, he lives in Amsterdam, hangs out at his favorite cafe everyday, controls the jukebox, and then hosts an internet radio program.

It’s funny, because his name keeps popping up around me.  First, I noticed an ad for one of his latest blues CDs in Big City Rhythm and Blues magazine, called Fattening Frogs For Snakes, Country Blues Vol. 2.  Then, I read about the White Panther party that he formed and the havoc they caused in Ann Arbor in early 70s, according to a text book about the history of Ann Arbor I found in the school I work at that was written for elementary school students.  The author obviously disliked Sinclair’s work, whipping up a mental picture of long haired hippies turing the city upside down with their far left radical views that threatened the state of good ol’ Ann Arbor the way Allen and Rumsey had dreamed it up when they purchased the original acreage along the Huron River.

I can picture him there at the 420 cafe in Amsterdam, a group of stoned disciples gathered ’round, listening to tales of the good ol’ days of the music of the MC5, overthrowing the Ann Arbor government, and fighting unjust drug laws.

Joihn Sinclair authored the book Guitar Army, named after a Rationals song, that tells the story in his words of what was going on at that time.  It was recently reissued.  I think I’ll check it out, I haven’t read it.

N’awlins Dirty Dozen Brass Band is playing on Monday at the Ark.  For years now, they have been one of The Big Easy’s finest group of musicians, representing and preserving the heritage of the one of the richest, most significant, and unique music places in the world.  New Orleans music is a perfect gumbo blend of blues, cajun zydeco, jazz, and was very influencial in helping create the early sounds of rock and roll.  We are forever grateful to what New Orleans has given us, and our thoughts and prayers are still with the people who lost everything with Hurricane Katrina.

The performance Monday by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band will be an interpretation of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On album that addresses the modern day situation of New Orleans after the hurricane.

The Ark previews the performance:

“A classic reinterpreted for our times“

In a world of war, poverty, ecological disasters, dissent, and rips in the fabric of society, Marvin Gaye found himself asking the heartfelt question “What’s Going On?” in 1971. In 2007, with the same questions looming even larger, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band has borrowed on Gaye’s inspiration to create a crowning achievement in their own career, which spans more than three decades of innovation and leadership in New Orleans music and beyond. Mixing vibrant instrumental pieces with simmering, scorching vocal numbers, the Dirty Dozen have translated the songs from “What’s Going On?” into their own musical language. The new music is infused with the band’s own experiences with Hurricane Katrina, the subsequent massive flooding, and the devastation of their homes and communities. “It’s a timely question,” says tenor saxman Kevin Harris. “What the hell is going on? . . . Things are changing, getting strange.”

What IS going on?  I am guessing that this performance will shed light on the disaster and help aid the healing process.