Florida Condo Collapse Has Lessons for Us All: Don't Ignore the Signs

When the 136-unit  Champlain Towers South collapses on June 24, the news media announced the incident as a death with an unknown, but large, number of people unaccounted for. A few days later the Washington Post and other media reported that there were now 4 dead and 159 unaccounted for. Today that confirmed death toll is 12 with 149 missing, and most people are already fearing the worst.

A major part of this unfolding story has revolved around the question, "How did this happen?" along with the corollary, "How many other seaside properties are at risk?"

Many news outlets have been noting that there were all kinds of warning signals being flashed these past few years. The condo owners, when informed, were not made to feel endangered. As we often do, we put things off and distract ourselves with "more urgent" concerns.

Today's Wall Street Journal has a story titled, "Miami-Area Condo Failure: Years of Warnings, but Mixed Signals." It notes how that an engineer's report states that "the building's design was flawed from the start." This is probably something not readily observable from a layperson's perspective.

The title of the piece notes that the signals were there but unclear. When leads me to the thought I had after reading about this tragic event during the past week. 

My first thought had to do with a publisher who suddenly found himself in the hospital for nine days and recovering for weeks from a health issue. I saw him at a writer's workshop shortly after he was recovered and asked what he learned from his experience. He said, "Don't ignore the signs."

Those words have rattled through my head for two years now. The applications are many. In my case, I think of my health. And most interestingly, the WSJ article compared this building collapse exactly to that. Or rather, someone they interviewed did. 

Jiann-Wen Ju, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles who specializes in construction defects, likened it to someone who has a slow-moving, underlying chronic condition, that then suddenly manifests as something serious, such as a heart attack.

“That person at some point just collapses,” he said.*

I believe the event has still broader applications. Marriages, cars, businesses and even nations flash signals for years before the singular moment that makes the doom permanent. Collapse doesn't happen overnight.

How's your health? Have you been ignoring signs that you might need to look into? 

How about the health of our nation? Solzhenitsyn's massive multi-volume series The Red Wheel details the decline and fall of the Russian empire from which the Soviet Union emerged. The two decades preceding WWI revealed a foundation with plenty of cracks. 

Events in recent years have been flashing warning signs about the health of our own nation today. How alarmed ought we to be? 

Such were my thoughts this past week. And so it goes. 

* Miami-Area Condo Failure: Years of Warnings, but Mixed Signals, Jon Kamp, Scott Calvert and Deborah Acosta, Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2021.

More Photos from the Nevada Bob Road Show

Last week I shared a bit about Nevada Bob's journey to Nashville and his travels to points of interest in the Deep South, documented by photographer Gary Firstenberg. They two have been to so many interesting places since that I decided to share more photos "from the road." (The other reason is that I have been working on some longer pieces that take more time to assemble, time which I've not had available due to other commitments.)

Hard to say, but it may be that Bob is on a Never Ending Tour of his own.

 

LINKS
TO MORE PHOTOS

Come Along and Ride Nevada Bob Gordon's Long Train to Nowhere

Nevada Bob Gordon Is On the Road Again

Gary Firstenberg's Turning Negatives Into Positives

A Rewarding Visit with Charlie McCoy, A Hero of Nashville's A-Team

Charlie McCoy

What do "Desolation Row", Blonde On Blonde, John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline and Dylan's Self Portrait have in common? Charlie McCoy helped each of these come to fruition as a session musician in the Sixties. 

What do Elvis Presley, Simon & Garfunkel, Perry Como, Roy Orbison, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Ringo Starr, Tanya Tucker, Nancy Sinatra, Gordon Lightfoot, Manhattan Transfer , Jerry Lee Lewis, Waylon Jennings, Chet Atkins, Ray Stevens and many others have in common? Charlie McCoy played harmonica on one or more of their recordings.   

He's also played bass with Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Bobby Goldsboro, Charlie Rich and others.... and guitar work with many more, not to mention many other instruments with countless others. And most remarkably, he's still working in the music business, now more than 60 years.

In addition to all this session work with other artists, Charlie McCoy has recorded dozens of albums of his own -- 44 or 45 in all -- including his 1972 Grammy winner The Real McCoy. A member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, his resume includes an 18 year stint as Music Director for the syndicated TV show "Hee Haw".

* * *

I was introduced to Charlie McCoy by means of Nevada Bob Gordon who last year recorded his album Long Train to Nowhere in Nashville with Charlie as one of the session musicians. When I learned earlier this year that Nevada Bob was returning to Nashville to record a fifth album, I asked if he would again be working with Charlie McCoy. He said yes, so I asked for a favor. 

One of my favorite Bob Dylan books is Daryl Sanders' That Thin Wild Mercury Sound, which I read twice this past year. This book is rich with detail about nearly every aspect of the making of Blonde On Blonde. I would suggest that Sanders' book was the trigger that made me want to reach out to McCoy if he were accessible.

The interview, a mid-day phone conversation, took place on June 14 at 1:00 p.m. McCoy set the time and I privately created a loose agenda. After a brief greeting he set the tone with these opening lines: "I’ve been blessed. I’ve met great people. I still have my health, am still working until the man in the mirror says it’s time."

Nevada Bob @ the Burger Bar
Bristol, Tennessee

Charlie McCoy was born in Oak Hill, West Virginia. "The New River Gorge is there," he said, following up with, "Hank Williams died here." 

(EdNote: Photographer Gary Firstenberg and Nevada Bob have been taking a road trip through country and blues history these past few weeks. This photo of Bob Gordon was taken Thursday at the Burger Bar in Bristol, TN where Hank Williams's driver bought a burger. Hank Williams refused the food but continued popping pain pills in the back seat of his Cadillac. Williams died an hour later at Oak Hill up the road.)

I turned the conversation to Daryl Sanders' book.

“Daryl worked hard on that book,” McCoy said. "When it came to the making of Blonde On Blonde Bob didn’t know what to expect.” With John Wesley Harding Dylan “was more confident and ready. The session times were very efficient. The entire album was cut in nine and a half hours."

We turned our conversation to some of Charlie's career highlights and whom he considered some of the best people to work with. Elvis was mentioned first in conjunction with what he labeled the "Memphis Marathon." 

Charlie McCoy, 2021

"We recorded five albums in one week. Mostly movie soundtracks. Every song was his choice," McCoy said. "Normally he had a regular group that played with him. Unfortunately, the movie company changed the schedule and the regulars were booked on other projects," he explained. "Me, Kenny Buttrey and Pig Robbins got the call. We went in not knowing what to expect."

"What was Elvis like?" I asked.

"When Elvis entered a room, he commanded attention. He had a 'presence'... The first thing he did, he walked to each of the musicians and shook hands. 'Thank you for helping me,' he'd say."

McCoy said that Elvis considered the studio his safe place. Outside on the street he was too harried and harassed by fans.

The conversation shifted to McCoy's life in music. “I’m way overeducated musically for this music. I went to the best music school in Florida," he said. 

His life philosophy could be summed up with these words of wisdom: “Apply what you know to the problem at hand.”

We returned to the work he did with Dylan. I mentioned that I was surprised at how stripped down the John Wesley Harding album was. "Very stripped down," he said. "It took only 9 ½ hours to record that album. Dylan was a lot more laid back."  

 

McCoy in Normandie, France, 1990.

"Who were the most interesting people whom you worked with?" I asked.

After some thought Charlie replied…. "The Statler Brothers… more goofing off and more great work. Some, like Marie Osmond, never said a word.  Some really didn’t need a producer. Johnny Cash was totally in charge. Paul Simon was another who was totally in charge. When you look back at his career, he was right."

* * *

“A great musician got his break to Nashville.”-- Charlie McCoy on Dylan 

The story of "Desolation Row" begins with Bob Johnston. I’d always believed Bob Dylan came to Nashville because of  Charlie McCoy’s involvement in the making of "Desolation Row." But McCoy deflected any efforts to credit him for Dylan’s choosing to record in Nashville. "Bob Johnston made that happen," he said.

McCoy provided a little background saying Johnston’s career began as a writer, writing songs for Elvis movies. He pitched some songs to Columbia and he was asked “Did you produce these?” Johnston replied yes, having produced “Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte” which had been nominated for an Academy Award. Columbia asked him to come to New York. Shortly after his arrival someone said, “Come over to Studio B. I’d like you to meet someone.” It was Bob Dylan.

McCoy only briefly commented on the making of Desolation Row. “Eleven minutes of acoustic guitar. The whole time I kept thinking, 'What would Grady Martin do?'” 

(Martin, for those unfamiliar, was a veteran session guitarist on Nashville’s A-Team who played on hits such as Loretta Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and Marty Robbins’ “El Paso.”)

Charlie McCoy (L) with Nevada Bob

I asked McCoy what’s been happening today in Nashville. “There are so many fine studio musicians here now. I don’t care that I’m not working with mainstream artists now. Still having fun. We did a whole album with a fellow in Germany. Another with an artist from the Czech Republic."

He wasn’t afraid to make a few critical remarks about today’s music. “What troubles me is that the Internet allows anything of the poorest quality to get made. I want to hear people with a pulse and talent.”

In a wry curmudgeonly manner he took a poke at rap. “Rap music? I don’t use those two words in the same sentence.”

Another change in Nashville is this. “Construction is out of control. The side effect is traffic.” One reason for this growth, he said, was that there’s no state income tax.

McCoy moved to Nashville in 1960. 61 years later and he’s still at it. When we did this interview he was getting ready to fly to  Provence, France to do session work with the #2 recording artist in France, Eddy Mitchell. 

Related Links

That Thin Wild Mercury Sound by Daryl Sanders Turns Readers into Blonde On Blonde Insiders

Website of Charlie McCoy

PHOTO CREDITS
Gary Firstenberg: Nevada Bob Gordon at the Burger Bar and Charlie McCoy with Nevada Bob
Roland Godefroy: Charlie McCoy in Normandie, France. Creative Commons.

Psalms, Proverbs and the Dylan Archives

Over the course of a lifetime there have been years in which I would start my day by reading a chapter from the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament. There are 31 chapters, which is pretty convenient. You can read a chapter for each day of the month -- chapter one on the first, 2 on the second, etc.-- and in six of those months you will get all 31. (Or you can read that tribute to the "wife of noble character" as a bonus track on the other six months.)

This periodic ritual was recently brought to mind when I attended portions of the recent TU Institute for Bob Dylan Studies in May. On the first morning several people presented aspects of the kinds of research Dylan archivists were undertaking. Nathan Blue talked about the bags of fan mail that had never been opened and what they were revealing about fan culture in the 60s. (The title of his talk was, appropriately, "Don't Send Me No More Letters, No.") 

The next presenter was Michael Kramer. His talk was titled, "One Should Never Be Where One Does Not Belong: The Elusive Magical Mysteries of John Wesley Harding." 

Kramer opened by noting that Dylan was immersed in the counterculture yet repudiated it. John Wesley Harding became a pivot point in his early career, from high profile ultra hip to reclusive mystic. 

"Dylan has always been private," Kramer said, "But here his privacy is revealed. His archives show him doing what we might expect." His diaries during the JWH period show him to be re-thinking where his music should go. It was a new style in that he didn't speak "for" his generation but rather "to" his generation. It was also a new style that drew from history and was not distancing itself from it.

Kramer then shared how Dylan was doing a lot of Bible reading during this time, quoting the Bible extensively in his journals. This was all taking place against the backdrop of a war in Vietnam, post motorcycle crash. Dylan was "looking back to look forward," Kramer said, "beyond sex, drugs and rock & roll, looking back to foundations."

* * * 

The next speaker, Shawn Latham, continued with this deeper dive into Dylan's notebooks. Latham, who had done serious study of James Joyce's archives, noted that studying a man's archives while he is still alive is most unusual. 

Latham's focus was on the notebooks of 1966-1969. This was a period in which Dylan was sorting his life. He used different colors of ink throughout. One challenge was that many entries are undated. 

A recurring theme in this period was Dylan trying to decide what he wants to be and his relationship to the world. For what it's worth, my forty years of journals have had periods in which I've wrestled with the same thing at various junctures. 

Latham, too, pointed out Dylan's fascination with the Bible. There are lists of Bible verses, with much interest in the Psalms and Proverbs, and the role of the prophets. He was asking himself, "What is my responsibility toward being prophetic?"

He was fascinated with Old Testament Messianic passages. Psalms were also a strong interest, a source of primal songwriting material. On one of the pages it seemed like a rough draft of a song, grabbing words from I Samuel, another Old Testament book. 

He was also intensely interested in the present current events... the riots, the serial killer Richard Speck. You can even see the start of the Never Ending Tour. His '66 to '69 notebooks are a significant piece of music history. 

* * * 

A number of commentators have noted that John Wesley Harding is filled with Biblical references. It's not surprising that these spiritual influences continued to re-emerge throughout his career, in subtle and not so subtle ways. 

Here's a Proverb that he must have read many times over the years. Followed by a song that may have been birthed from this seed.

If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor
he, too, will cry and not be answered
--Proverbs 21:13

What Good Am I?

What good am I if I’m like all the rest
If I just turn away, when I see how you’re dressed
If I shut myself off so I can’t hear you cry
What good am I?

Full Lyrics: https://www.bobdylan.com/songs/what-good-am-i/

For more about the TU Institute for Bob Dylan Studies visit:  https://dylan.utulsa.edu/ 

Flashback Friday: Contemporary Artists Frank Baker Holmes and Jill Mackie

Frank Holmes & Jill Mackie

I met Frank Holmes through the fine arts program at Ohio University in the early 70s. His paintings were impressive, so much so that he won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1973.

A few years ago we re-connected, sharing a backwards look at our mutual careers. It seemed that his path as an artist had many valuable lessons for other artists with their lives ahead of them, so I wrote a couple blog posts in which I shared his story and his paintings. 

When I visited his home and studio in Narrowsburg, NY I met his wife Jill Mackie, an artist in her own right, who has had paintings displayed in the National Portrait Gallery in D.C. 

Here are some links to my interviews with these two impressive painters whom I am grateful to have known.

Veteran Painter Frank Holmes Discusses His Prix de Rome (Part I) 

Veteran Painter Frank Holmes Discusses His Prix de Rome (Part II) 

A Most Unusual Portrait: The Sarcophagus

Frank Holmes's Personal Agony and Ecstasy: The Ohio Theater 

My 2018 Studio Tour

A Jill Mackie Interview

Jill Mackie Studio Tour

Backstory on The Big Date

* * * 

"Dusk Call" An example of three-point perspective.

Ernest K. Breton: A Story of Creativity and Innovation in Business

I learned a lot from this son of a 
gold prospector.

I met Ernie Breton the year that he was on the Board of Directors for the Chromaline Corporation circa 1990. Chromaline was primarily a manufacturer of high-tech photostencil emulsions and films. I believe he came to Duluth to do work of some kind at the Natural Resources Research Institute. His reputation as an innovative thinker contriibuted to his being tapped for the company's board. 

At the time I was managing our company's advertising and PR, serving in the sales and marketing department. I don't recall how Mr. Breton and I first met, but I believe we both sensed some mutual vibes about thinking differently and outside the box, if I may use an overused expression.

For years I have been intending to share his story as a setup to share a few additional things I learned from him. Though I have no notes, and memory can be faulty, this is pretty much what he shared with me.

* * * 

Ernie Breton's father was a gold prospector. He spent his life going back and forth across the mountains of North and South America seeking evidence of potential gold veins. He understood geology and recognized the clues of potential lodes.

I don't know if he had a home somewhere or not. I got the impression that he was always on the hunt, and his son Ernest travelled with him. Ernie obtained an education in a rather unconventional manner. He was home schooled in the Rockies and the Andes. 

If I recall correctly, it was just he and his father. And when the time came for Ernie to attend college he did so via examination. Once accepted he continued his education in that more traditional manner.

Photo by Chromatograph on Unsplash

After receiving his bachelor's, he obtained a master's degree and followed up with a Ph.D. in chemistry. Dupont picked him up for their Research & Development arm, one of the largest and most advanced in the world at that time. (1950s)

Because of his unconventional upbringing, he was also an unconventional scientist or chemist in the lab. For example (and I wish I could recall other examples) he was mixing this goo in a large heated mixing bowl and decided to take a handful and run it through his hair to see what would happen. The next day his hair was all crinkly and nearly everyone wanted to know how he did it. 

He became something of a sensation, creating more new products than nearly anyone. Within a couple years Breton was head of Dupont's entire research and development team. 

When the 60s came along, he was invited to teach a master's level class at Columbia University on creativity . The students were all from various corporations that sent top employees to this private Ivy League school to learn practical applications of creativity in R&D. 

The class met once a week, and a funny thing happened. By week three, half the students didn't show up. Week four was the last he saw of any of the students.

When he investigated, he discovered it was not due to his poor teaching. Rather, it was quite the opposite. The companies sending these young thinkers pulled them out because they had such good original product ideas generated that they feared the students might share a multi-million dollar idea with another classmate or the instructor before it had been patented. 

Columbia knew it had a good thing, and instead of Breton being dismissed, he taught this class for several years, always with the same result. The school got paid whether the students finished or not. 

* * * 

Graphic element by Tara Austin

Ernie Breton stayed for one year on our board I believe. There were several things he shared that I've never forgotten. One was the concept of the corporate brain. He observed, over the course of a lifetime, that all too often when knowledge workers leave, all the things they learned and know also walks out the door. This is very bad for companies because in certain kinds of enterprises, knowledge and relationships are all you have. This is your gold. 

He believed that with the advent of computers there had to be better ways to hold on to the knowledge gained through the experiences of employees. There is no reason for companies to have to re-learn over and over again by repeating the same mistakes. 

Here is an example of something I have seen. If you take a house and want to re-arrange how you use the rooms, it can be done. There are some things, however, that if changed or eliminated will weaken the structure. Some walls are just for separating spaces, whereas others are essential for keeping the roof from collapsing. 

Brain drain is a chronic problem in high turnover companies. I know of a guy who was hired to be a regional sales manager for several states. When he asked for a spreadsheet of the customers he was to call on, the products they purchased and who the contacts were, the management did not even know this basic information. I doubt they even exist today.

There were other problems Mr. Breton was wrestling with on a global level that had applications for business. He was an original thinker, striving to simplify complexity to its essential essence. Whether ideas, language or management systems, he'd seen much and offered fresh and unexpected perspectives.  

* * *

When he was leaving the area I asked where they were going next. He said he wasn't sure. He had many invitations. One came from a 26 million dollar company in Kentucky that had been started by one of his students from Columbia who wanted him to become CEO. I wouldn't doubt that there were a lot of those kinds of success stories under his tutelage.

Thank you, Ernie, for the brief times we shared.

Just In Time for Lilac Lovefest: Full Length Dome Car Is New Addition to the North Shore Scenic Railroad

Earlier this month the North Shore Scenic Railroad welcomed a new addition to their growing fleet of railroad excursion cars. The SkyView is a full length Dome Car, a rare treat here in the Northland. And it comes with a story that I will tell in a minute. 

Many if not most tourists to Duluth are familiar with the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in the St. Louis County Depot in Duluth. If not, then I would add it to your list of must stops during one of your visits to the Northland. Trains have played a significant role in our nation's history as well as Duluth's history. You will learn much by seeing the collection here. 

John Loyear (L) examines the SkyView
exterior with Director Ken Buehler. 

The North Shore Scenic Railroad (NSSR) received its first Dome Car from a supporter. The first class railroad car has been quite popular. "Every time it went out it sold out," said Ken Buehler, Executive Director. "The new Dome Car is a 64 seater. It is the biggest thing we’ve ever done,” Buehler said. “This is our first time taking on debt.”

Though nearly 250 Dome Cars with the abbreviated dome were built, only 30 full length Dome Cars were ever produced. Only 23 or 24 are active today, 11 of which belong to a Mr. Ellis. This is the first one to roll in to the Northland. It's name, appropriately, is the SkyView because of the treetop level views in all directions, including up.

The real challenge has been making it ready for service, a job for which Loyear Disaster Restoration has been commissioned. When I met with Ken Buehler and the team from Loyear, the car had been delayed in getting here. It was my understanding that the NSSR wanted the the restoration finished by July 1. Today I learned that they plan to have it ready to go for this weekend's Lilac Lovefest. When you learn the condition of the car, you'll understand why this seemed an ambitious deadline.

The SkyView had been sitting idle in Oregon for the past year or more. Grime covered every surface. The upholstery was so neglected that mushrooms were growing on the seats. To make matters worse, the exterior of the car was tagged twice on its journey from the Northwest through Nebraska to the Twin Cities and here to Duluth.

Example of the kind of grime and debris inside.

John Loyear, who came up from Minneapolis to discuss the project, admitted that this is the first railroad car project for their team, but a relatively easy project compared to the many disaster sites they've restored over the course of several decades. Loyear Disaster Restoration is Minnesota's 2nd oldest disaster restoration company serving Duluth, the Twin Cities Metro and surrounding areas.

I dropped by early last week and and the Loyear team was busy in every area of the car. When I dropped by yesterday I was astonished at how clean everything was looking. They were cleaning grime out of the oven in the kitchen and preparing to address the exterior today and Thursday. Lilac Lovefest begins Friday.

Oil and filter changes are a maintenance regimen for
trains as well as our cars.

While there Tuesday I also talked with the gentlemen who service all the railroad cars on behalf of the museum and Scenic Railroad. I learned that in addition to the very small full time staff they have about 20 volunteers who assist in various. ways in taking care of the museum's needs. The men were giving the big diesel engine an oil change while I was there, after which they started it up. This is not an engine that makes the train go, but rather a power plant for the electricity, appliances and lights that operate in the car. 

Here are more photos showing the work in progress up to this point.

Tools of the trade. They even use toothbrushes.

*

Photo of wall showing before (left) and after in progress.

*

A first class Dome Car needs a first class kitchen.

*

In a Dome Car, it's all about the view. Here we see what 
a difference cleaning the windows makes.

*

All those panels on the ceiling had to be removed. Mildew 
and grime needed to be cleaned in places you can't even see.

*

You wouldn't believe what these seat cushions looked like.

*

The Scenic Railroad's first Dome Car was called the Silver Club and had been used on the California Zephyr. It came to Duluth a couple years ago and has been very popular.

For those who may be interested, the North Shore Scenic Railroad was started in 1992 by Don Shank, then run by the Goldfine family until the Museum took over in 1996. When Ken Buehler became executive director in 1998, 33,000 passengers partook of the opportunity to take a scene ride on the rails. Buehler said that in 2019, "we carried 105,000 guest/passengers, our best year ever." 

* * *

Related Links

Fox21 News story about the Sky View Dome Car

North Shore Scenic Railroad website

Loyear Restoration home page

Nevada Bob Gordon Is On the Road Again

Nevada Bob at the grave of Robert Johnson.

There's something about surviving cancer that not only gives you "a new lease on life" but also a new attitude toward all of your future experiences. Nevada Bob Gordon had two things going for him: a wonderful lifelong love of 58 years and a willingness to do whatever hard work was necessary to make a go of whatever they had to face. 

That cancer at age 31 ought to have killed him. The doctors told him that he was finished. But Bob had other plans. This past year his wife Carol passed and Nevada Bob, who has an authoritative deep baritone voice, wrote a song for her which he recorded on his first album Long Train To Nowhere. "Carol's Song" is beautiful and heartfelt, in a Johnny Cash sort of way.

With the advent of the pandemic he decided also to write a book and is currently in talks with a potential publisher. 

There are some things Nevada Bob has in common with Bob Dylan. After Bob (Dylan) recorded Blonde On Blonde in Nashville, he went back and recorded another, an then another. So, it seems, Nevada Bob has just completed his second album.... in Nashville. 

Come along and ride this train.  

But there are two more pieces of that story. One of the key session musicians of Nashville's A-Team back in the 60s was Charlie McCoy, who played guitar on "Desolation Row" (recorded in New York) and a variety of instruments during Dylan's sessions in Nashville, including that Salvation Army trumpet accompaniment on "Rainy Day Women". Nearly sixty years later, and Charlie McCoy was there in the studio two weeks ago for Nevada Bob's second album, just has he had been there for Bob on Long Train To Nowhere.

There's one more parallel to the Dylan story I will add. No question about it, Dylan was not shy about photographers documenting nearly every aspect of his life. Nevada Bob has a photographer accompanying him, too. Gary Firstenbrg is a first rate photographer who has a passion for all things related to music history, especially the blues. The photos here are just a small portion of the images in my folder from their journey together through points of interest in the Deep South, courtesy Gary Firstenberg.

A lot of history down there.

Studio time.

Hanging out with an old friend.

After hours kickin' back with the boys.

Big mic for a big man.

Everything is bigger in Texas.

Nevada Bob with Charlie McCoy

Jokerman.

These boots are made for walkin'.

Just passin' through, singing the Delta blues.

Tailgating with Dolly Parton.

Ending where B.B. King had his beginning.

If a picture is worth a thousand words.... there's a lot of new stories here. Have a safe trip back to Nevada, Bob.

Links

Come Along and Ride Nevada Bob Gordon's Long Train to Nowhere

Gary Firstenberg's Turning Negatives Into Positives