Grandpa Sheeley/James Sheeley, Barry Sheeley (Bigger kid) & Myself (the 2-3 year old) Jason Sheeley. 1981

This is a re-post of a song I did over a year ago. I have included pictures of Grandpa, and one more song from the tape, “Amazing Grace.”

My Grandpa died when I was 3, so I don’t remember him. All I have to go by are the stories my dad tells me most of which are unbelievable. In my mind he has kind of a mythical existence. Some people loved him, some people hated him. My Mom says he had a great sense of humor and was “as nice as could be” but when he was drinking people stayed away from him as he battled the bottle most of his life. I always pictured him as a Hank WIlliams kind of guy. His nickname was “Jeep” because he was said to “go anywhere and do anything.” I have in my possession 2 items that once belonged to him. A necklace medallion that says “Rambler” across it, and a Supro Lexington electric guitar. I assume he is playing the Supro on this recording.

This song came from a tape my Dad, Larry, has and I transfered it to digital. There is about 8 or 9 songs on the tape, this one being my favorite. He calls it “Kelsey Street Loraine” and is a dedication to a woman he said he loved (pictured below). He mentions in the recording to have gotten the song from a Jimmie Rodgers “oldie… I mean OLDIE” which I’ve tried to find. The best I can do is piece it together from a few different songs. The first verse: “She’s long, she’s tall. She’s 6 feet from the ground…” can be found in “Blue Yodel No. 4″ but by Bill Monroe, and not “Blue Yodel No. 4 (California Blues)”. The second and third verses can be heard in “T for Texas” By Jimmie Rodgers.

This was recorded with a handheld recorder/tape player. It sounds to me like he is playing it on one tape player and recording it with another. He adds comments about the song throughout and has some technical difficulties with the tape player. I think there’s even a few dog barks here and there.

This one’s for you Grandpa! I don’t know if you wanted a bunch of people on a computer hearing your music, but they are now.

Note: Loraine was not my Grandma.

Kelsey Street Loraine:

Amazing Grace:

Grandpa & The mean mean mamma herself, Loraine. Probably on Kelsey Street

Sometimes I’m pretty sure that Mat Martin is the only person that reads this dumb blog of mine, but I’ll pretend there may be more than one person checking in and suggest to all two of my readers that they check out his blog, Postcard Elba.
My pick for a particular entertaining entry is his on going Gloria Jones Challenge where he examines all the bands over the years that have thought it would be a good/cheeky idea to cover “Tainted Love.” In most cases they were wrong.
Spend some time looking around because there’s a lot to take in. From cool interviews, to tour diaries of touring bands, to Scotch talk. You may also catch my blog posts under the Various Re-post-ions tag on his blog! Enjoy, and tell them a Skookum Ape sent you.

-Jason

This is one of my favorite songs by one of my all-time favorite bands. Devil In A Woodpile ‘did work in Chicago and held it down on bloodshot records. I’m still a little sad they called it quits a few years back. I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to post a song by them.

These guys go great with a side of beer and a grill, preferably outside.

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***as a side note, Joel Paterson is one of the baddest guitar players I’ve ever heard. Check out his new band Joel Paterson and the Modern Sounds. (Also, he looks just like my friend, Heypenny drummer extraordinaire Aaron Distler. They should find a bass player that looks just like them and start a band!!

This song popped up on my shuffle mix today. I’ve already posted a Hank Thompson song, but for one reason or another, today this song brought back some memories. So Hank gets a second shot. To me, the appeal of this one is because of it’s optimism. The idea that there is life on the other side of heartbreak (hey that sounds like a good country song title…) is very uplifting. This song is sad sounding at first listen, but with a deeper listen the singer seems so relieved and relaxed. Here’s to optimism and new beginnings for ya’ll. There’s always a silver lining. I should forget to remember to forget that every day. What am I even talking about? This song is probably about a hangover and I’m romanticizing about love and love lost. Just listen to the damn song and I’ll shut up. (I don’t know if this song was on “Songs for Rounders but I had to post that album cover because it’s so awesome!)

I’m currently nursing a wicked sinus infection. Good news for me, it hit me on one of the most beautiful weekends so far this year! YES! I even had to miss the first organized-unorganized sunday afternoon softball game with friends. Dammit! Maybe next weekend. I took myself to one of the only Doctor’s offices I knew that was open, which happened to be in a Wal-Mart. So, the Wal-Mart Dr gave me some antibiotics in giant pill form. Hopefully, after I choke down 2 weeks of these things, I’ll no longer have mutagen coming out of my nose.
In honor of my Acute Sinusitis, here’s Roger Miller and a song about Lou and his flu.

Happy Friday! Don’t over-do it this weekend!

I’m on day 6 of no smoking thanks to Chantix. I didn’t think I could quit, but the medicine makes it pretty easy. All you need is a little will power. Now I’m teaching myself how to live without smoking. For example, today I took a break at work and instead of smoking I had some baked doritos. I hear doritos are a hard habit to kick too.
Here’s that classic song about smokin’. Not very creative on my part, but it’s still a cool song!

I Heard this song recently on American Routes radio show and I loved it. Moon was western swinger, a rockabilly, he played jazz and the blues as well. Here he takes his best stab at a little Creole New Orleans Style music. Sure he needs to brush up on his French a little, but it’s one hell of an attempt. Sometimes I miss humor in new music. “See See! Wee Wee!”