Betty's home town newspaper pens tribute to her career

Read all about it: Local woman a part of rockabilly history

Jennifer Blue's article is very nicely written AND it gives a plug to some place called Music You (Possibly) Won't Hear Anyplace Else. Please note that I swiped the above photo (by Dave Polcyn) from the Mansfield News Journal piece.

Coming up: a report on my church-musician experience to date (all two Sundays' worth).


Lee

Betty Nickell visits MY(P)WAHE!

Rockabilly Hall of Fame inductee Betty Nickell visited MY(P)WHAE headquarters today, which is (are?) conveniently located at the address Bev and I reside at. Betty's a really sweet lady, and quite sharp, to boot. And she's not without plenty of interesting and fun true-life stories to share from her career, including the time she nabbed first prize on a radio show after one whole day's practice. Not so fun, to be sure, is the memory of making "nothing" from the record that earned her a place in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame (the terrific rocker Hot Dog), though it amazes and delights her to discover that the record is quite fondly remembered after 51 years (to the tune of $380 in a recent eBay auction!). Sometimes, you don't know how famous you are until you Google your name. Or not famous, whichever the case may be.

Update: A yellow-wax copy of Hot Dog went for $500 in an Oct., 2008 eBay auction. Whoa.

Betty gave me a photocopy of a Country Music Digest article about her and her group, The Mystics. Here they are in all their circa-1975 glory:


























More to come!


Lee

400,000 hits on my site counter!

400,000 visits! Far out.

The cats are all very thrilled for me. Here's Elvis:














And Reddy:














Tucker:













And Pete:













As you can see, these guys couldn't be more excited.

Nice to have a four followed by five zeros, but the zero in "0 Comments" has me wondering if I suddenly lost any following. It makes for a puzzling contrast, the five zeros versus one. So, I'm a bit down, frankly. Which is a sign I need to take a vacation. I'll be back. Many thanks to those who have commented, but I need to figure out if these high numbers ultimately mean very much....

Later,

Lee

How to double your visits in the space of hours

Wow--234,000+ visits recorded on my counter. Far out. And the Bell file has been downloaded 1723 times. I just wrote Box.net to see if I can upgrade (in order to expand bandwidth).

And if "Jeremiah Johnson" could e- me in regard to putting my files up on a torrent--what that means, how to do it, etc., I'd be much obliged.

Back to the real (non-cyber) world, I need to cut grass after taking care of some, shall we say, cat products inside the house. Products that were deposited where we'd prefer they not be. You've seen those "color outside the lines" car ads. Well, apparently, they have a "poop outside the box" equivalent for cats. No more TV for the cats....

In other news, I'm experimenting with a new EQ (well, several of them), and the results please me. Let me know what you think. The Whiteman file has some bursts of sound in the tom-tom as a result of too much input, but overall I think it sounds great. The Kelly Harrell (great 1926 country) is pretty worn, but I think I triumphed over the surface noise. More to come, but Box.net is a little sluggish at the moment:

New River Train, Kelly Harrell, 1926. From Victor 78.

Shanghai Dream Man (Davis/Akst, Arr. by Ferde Grofe), Paul Whiteman and His Orch., 1927. From Victor 78.

The flip of New River Train is Rovin' Gambler, and the lyrics include a familiar line: "I hear the train a'comin'...." I'll have it up later today, but for now I hear the grass a-growin'. Better get (achoo!) out there.


Lee

Transfer rate limit approaching!

Just to let everyone know, my Box.net bandwidth is running out fast, probably due to my Bell flexi-disc file and no. of downloads thereof--I'll have to check transfer info at the site, if I can remember how to do so. There's an option that tells me # of downloads, anyway.

I hope nothing is draining my bandwidth beyond that!!

But just to let you know, because when the bandwidth is depleted, no more downloads for the month. (Lady Domi will probably note, "So, how is that a new situation?") Yes, when my files aren't migrating and/or simply refusing to show up, they're depleted. Life gets you coming and going. However, this month is nearly done, and my bandwidth renews with May.

However, I'll have to figure out why I've experienced this sudden, drastic loss. A hole in cyberspace, possibly.

In other news, Ben correctly guessed the model for my Birdcall Invention. Congratulations! His prize is knowing that he gave the correct answer. (This is a low-rent blog, you know.... )

Good job, Ben!

Anyhow, something tells me my bandwidth will be kaput by sundown.


Lee