By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. In honor of the Class 2A state title, I added a verse to “Go Big Red,” the song I started writing on a team bus 49 years ago.My teammates started singing and chanting on the way home from road games, all of which we won during my …
Category: Music
Unbeknownst to Blue Hose, they won one for Mojo
Mojo Nixon's head still bobbling at 6:08. (Monte Dutton photo) https://www.sadlerhughes.com/ Oh, what a night it must have been at Templeton Center. It may have been the best night of the season for Presbyterian men’s basketball, at the very least since the season opener at Vanderbilt, and this was in the Big South. The SEC …
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Back in the Saddle Again
Clinton, South Carolina, December 4, 2020, 11:17 a.m. Java Cafe, Mt. Holly, NC, 2009. One never knows how an audience will respond. When I played music and told jokes at last night’s Christmas gathering of the Laurens County Cattlemen’s Association, I worried that I was overrehearsed. I spent so much time considering songs to play, …
Another Ken Burns Masterpiece
Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, October 1, 1:10 p.m. I had to write about Ken Burns’ Country Music series of documentaries, which ran their course last week. I just haven’t had the time until now. I love them all, but Country Music is right down Broadway, the one in Nashville where I have spent many hours. …
Suddenly a Song
Clinton, South Carolina, Tuesday, July 2, 2019, 11:20 a.m. For about a month now, I’ve thought that next year, when I vote for the first time, it will also be the first time I walk into a poll unsure of my choice. The more I think about, this is natural. It’s likely that if I …
Playing Music Through the Years
It all started with a book, my last non-fiction to date. As I traveled around the country, writing about NASCAR, I started doing interviews with favorite musicians on the side. Robert Earl Keen in Newberry, S.C.; Tom Russell in Berkeley, Calif.; Pat Green in New Braunfels, Texas; James McMurtry, and Slaid Cleaves in Austin, Texas; …
Sittin’ Around, Feelin’ Groovy
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, April 19, 2017, 9:33 a.m. It seems as if life is back to normal. For instance, take now. This Is Spinal Tap is on TV. I switched over from The Andy Griffith Show (how’s that for contrast?). The writing of Lightning in a Bottle both strained and inspired me for three …
You Can Hear the Music Burning Down Copperhead Road
Clinton, South Carolina, Monday, January 30, 2017, 6:59 p.m. It was about ten years ago, at Robert’s Western World in Nashville, where I was working on a chapter of a book called True to the Roots: Americana Music Revealed, and the subject of the chapter was Jesse Lee Jones, who owned Robert’s. I was sitting …
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It Happens Every Winter
As I don’t have a heap of money – and it’s been a while – a limited number has constituted the recipients of my Christmas gifts this year. Therefore, I feel obliged at this time to do something modest to express my appreciation for what you’ve done for me this year. No telling how many …
How I Got Here Musically
I remember when I first heard of Don McLean and "American Pie." It was a little over forty-four years ago. I was in the library of Bell Street Middle School, reading Time magazine. At about the same time, maybe even the same day, I read an article about James Taylor. I still tell people …
Nightrider's Lament 