Thursday, February 12, 2009

Head in my Shell


Oh, yeah. Life is hard. And tiring. But these are important and true lessons that have been gifted me as a result of Scot’s passing. Soon, it won’t matter what we’ve got left to do. Sorry about the glitch yesterday. I tried. Hopefully my little system for this memorial blog will become more streamlined.

The music you are about to hear is courtesy of Carlyn Lindsey & Snakedoctor. OK, I know, the name. Scot was always after Carlyn and Tim Haas, her husband/drummer/band manager, to change it. They never would. Carlyn is from Kentucky. Down there, they call Dragonflies--Snakedoctors, and that’s what the name is about, not the waggiling, heavy metal, acid kings the name might call to mind.

Scot met up with Carlyn and Tim in 2003. Carlyn had apparently been singing like a canary around the house. One day, they got the idea they should form a band, and lucky for the world they did. From her first performances Carlyn's gift was drop-dead obvious. She has the kind of voice that Janis did--one that drenches vulnerability with everything else she does.

Today’s track is a recording of Janis Joplin’s classic, “Turtle Blues.” This is a live recording made January 16, 2004, at the now defunct Encore Café, here in Bloomington. Shortly after this time, the song got re-arranged into more of a voodoo stomp; which was nice, but I would always yell out, “Play the slow version of “Turtle Blues.” My requests were always ignored. So today, I get my revenge.

Scot was Snakedoctor's bass man. Carlyn called him, "The Miracle Man." The cool organ is provided by Larry Vessily and the wailing flute is by Dave Witherd.

3 comments:

tim mcfate said...

look how far you have come from last year when we were taking scots computer to the shop because no one knew the password! i am so proud of you robin. this blog is great. it puts tears in my eyes. good tears, wish you were here or i was there . i would give you a big hug
tim

Unknown said...

Robin - this memorial blog is quite beautiful. I was so sorry to hear about Scot - I have such fond memories of both of you from SF. Please stay well - and I'm with you on the slow version of Turtle Blues - nice -
Paul Wise

Robin Halpin Young said...

Paul,So good to hear from you.rhy