The Grandson Continues The Tradition

Shelton Hank WIlliams is known to most country fans as Hank III. The grandson of the legendary Hank Williams, Hank III is the rightful heir to the throne of king of country music. Of course, Nashville won't admit it and neither will the country music community. In typical "outlaw" fashion, Hank III has been overlooked by the powerful country music scene because he's very vocal about how pop country isn't really country and that Nashville has become too "pretty and perfect". He signed to country music label, Curb Records, as an answer to a court order that stated he wasn't a "real musician" and therefore couldn't supply child support to a child bore from a one night stand. He continued to fight with the label who wanted him to release the standard pop country that has become the norm. He refused and spent many years in court fighting his own label. During that time he started his own "F*** Curb" campaign which included t-shirts and stickers along with shouts from his band of the slogan while performing. He eventually won the right to release the music he wanted to. His last Curb record, which was released earlier this year, charted at #4 on the country music charts. Apparently, he's winning his fight. Hank spends most of his time on the road playing to packed clubs across the country. His show consists of three different sets; the country set of "outlaw country" featuring his respects to all those that came before him including his Grandfather; the "Hellbilly" set which puts a more harder, psychobilly edge on the music; and the "Assjack" set. A straight hard core death metal set. I prefer the first set above the other two but all three are done well and believe it or not, I actually enjoy it all. I was never a hard core metal fan but for some reason, I really like it when Hank III does it. See what you think when you take a listen to a show from February 27, 2004. Here's "Hank III Live at Ground Zero". Enjoy!

Hank III Live At Ground Zero 2/27/04

You Too Can Be A JEDI

Here's something that I find extremely cool. It's an official Honorary JEDI Knight Certificate from the 1983 release of "Return of The Jedi". It states that you are an honorary JEDI Knight! I have one of these that bears my son's name that has been hanging in his room since before he was born! It comes complete with Yoda's signature (although it looks like Yoda never had that much of an education in writing). Click on the image for a full size version. Print it out and hang it proudly on your wall! Enjoy!

Tiny Tim's Duet With Tiny Tim

The Best of The World of Wonder: How Do You Solve A Problem Like Bertrille

Back in November of 2006 I posted this great album by a singing nun. Not "The Singing Nun" mind you but a nun named Bertrille. That's right, The Flying Nun. This album came out during the run of the show and features Sally Field singing various songs as Sister Bertrille. The songs have a great bounce to them and Sally does a great job with them. In fact she even cracked the Billboard Hot 100 with the single, "Felicidad." From 1967 - Enjoy!

The Flying Nun

An Open Letter To Mike Douglas

Growing up in the late seventies and early eighties, I was exposed to a variety of celebrity talk shows. While there are still daytime talk shows on today, they are nothing like the "golden era" of the daytime talk show. With the likes of Merv Griffen, Dick Cavett and Mike Douglas, the daytime talk show was an event. Mike Douglas was one of the more exciting ones due to the amazing guests he would have on. We all are familiar with the entire week he devoted to John Lennon and Yoko Ono but that's just the tip of the ice berg. He never "played it safe" and just had people on that were promoting their new album or movie or tv show. He had people on that he admired and that had a message. And in between all those hip guests, you could always count on Mike to sing a song of his own. Over the course of his career, Mike Douglas would release several albums (including a Christmas one that we posted one holiday season a while back) but my favorite is one entitled, "Dear Mike, Please Sing". I share that fabulous album with you now. Enjoy!

Mike Douglas-Dear Mike, Please Sing

Getting Back to My Podcasting Roots

Well, ELVIS MONTH 2010 is over and even if it didn't go quite as I had planned, it was still pretty successful. Today is the first day of September so I thought I would start off the month with my latest and greatest Wacky Podcast. This time around I didn't do anything special. I just went back to the original way I did the podcasts. The only thing different here is the length. It runs a gigantic one hour and 6 minutes making it the longest podcast, yet. Chock full of goodies from Thurl Ravenscroft, the Breeders, BRAK, the Who, Boyce and Hart, Billy Idol, Elvis, Micky Dolenz and so many more great artists, this is a super fun one! Here it is for you now. Here is Podcast 15! Enjoy!

Dartman's Wacky Podcast #15

ELVIS MONTH 2010: Super 8 Theater Presents ELVIS Live In Chicago

ELVIS MONTH 2010: The King Opts For Moore

1969 saw Elvis' 31st and final acting role as Dr. John Carpenter in "Change of Habit"(his remaining two film appearances were concert documentaries). It was also Mary Tyler Moore's final film until Ordinary People in 1980.When Presley entered Decca Universal Studio on March 5, 1969, for two days to record his final dramatic motion picture soundtrack, what would come to be known as the comeback television special had already been broadcast, its attendant album had been his first top ten LP in four years, and he had just finished the sessions at American Sound Studio yielding From Elvis in Memphis and the top ten singles "In the Ghetto" and "Suspicious Minds" that would cement his resurgence as force in American popular music. He had a month-long engagement at the International Hotel in Las Vegas lined up in August, his first live performances in eight years, and clearly now had turned his career around. A song recorded at American, "Rubberneckin'," would be used in the film and subsequently issued as the b-side "Don't Cry Daddy" in conjunction with the movie premiere. Four songs would be recorded at the soundtrack sessions, of which "Let's Be Friends" would not be used in the film. These four songs were never officially released as a soundtrack album but were instead, released one year later on the compilation album, "Let's Be Friends". It would take another year for the song, "Let Us Pray", also from the film, to be released. It was on the gospel album, You'll Never Walk Alone". Here are those sessions that yielded those classic songs. Truth be told, the songs are really the only good thing about the film and I have a feeling that a soundtrack album might not have been a good choice anyway. As Elvis' career was flying high, any reference to the film would have detracted from sales of the music. But that's my humble opinion. Here is "The Change of Habit Sessions". Enjoy!

Elvis Presley-The Change of Habit Sessions