Freda and the Alamo

My favorite table at the Alamo Lounge was up against the west wall, just under a small framed Freda and the Firedogs poster. It was the late 70s in Austin, Texas. The Alamo Lounge was the bar on the ground-floor corner of the old Alamo Hotel on West 6^th Street, and I wanted that poster. 

To me, the Firedogs poster represented the beginning of the progressive-country music explosion in Austin, and the artwork was by Micael Priest, my favorite Armadillo World Headquarters poster artist.  In the early 70s, Freda and the Firedogs were an important part of the beginnings of a new music scene in Austin; a longhaired, country-rock, cosmic cowboy sound that was just getting cranked up. Described by the press at the time as “freaks” and “hippies” the Firedogs moved confidently into country music with their own style that incorporated rock “n” roll, folk, blues and Cajun elements.  The band consisted of Marcia Ball, John X. Reed, Steve McDaniels, David Cook, and Bobby Earl Smith.

Freda and the Firedogs by Micael Priest, 1974

Freda and the Firedogs played gigs in the local bars and honky-tonks like the Split Rail, Dry Creek Cafe, and Soap Creek Saloon, as well as opening for Freddie King at Armadillo World Headquarters and frequently backing up Doug Sahm. They were the first “hippie” band to play the legendary Broken Spoke on South Lamar. When big-time music promoter for Atlantic Records, Jerry Wexler, came to town he wanted to sign them as well as Willie Nelson and Doug Sahm, but the Firedogs decided against signing with Atlantic and the band broke up after the second Willie Nelson Forth of July Picnic in 1974.

Freda and the Firedogs, Dry Creek Cafe 1972, photo by Burton Wilson

www.fredafiredogs.com

Although Freda and the Firedogs were no longer together by time I found the Alamo Lounge, the individual band members, including Marcia Ball, who had been dubbed “Freda” because it sounded good with “Firedogs,” were still playing music around Austin and The Alamo Lounge was rockin’ with music almost every night. I looked at that poster covetously each time I came in, examining the screws that held it to the wall and wondering if it would fit under my coat, but I left it there – not out of a sense of honor, but out of fear of getting thrown out of the coolest music venue in Austin.

The bar at the old Alamo Hotel, 6^th and Guadalupe, had been renamed the Alamo Lounge in the early 1970s. The hotel was a funky old 1920s, five-story brick building, full of dusty old hangers-on, and down-and-outers including Sam Houston Johnson, LBJ’s black-sheep brother.  It had seen better days of politicians, conventions, businessmen, and travelers but now it was pretty rough around the edges and so were its tenants. They say that Tom Waits stayed there once, and later on Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard filmed part of their video for “Pancho and Lefty” in the hotel and lounge. 

Alamo Hotel postcard c. 1940s

The heyday of the old hotel was long past, but the Alamo Lounge gained a new life in the decade after 1972. The room was long and narrow with a beautiful old wooden bar and a small stage at one end.  The tables and chairs were worn and scuffed and there were a lot of memories of one sort or another hung on the walls. At night the room pulsed with sound as musicians like Townes Van Zant, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, Bill Neeley, Lucinda Williams, Robert Earl Keen, Lyle Lovett, and Steve Earle played on the tiny stage for pass-the-hat money. 

I remember one particular evening at the Alamo when a newcomer to Austin, Mandy Mercier, was playing fiddle and accompanying Blaze Foley. Listening to that lively young woman tearing up that fiddle made me forget all about the Freda poster.  Mandy Mercier is still playing amazing fiddle music, but sadly, Blaze Foley went to his rest in his duct tape-covered coffin a few years later.  The the Alamo Lounge closed its doors in 1981 and the Alamo hotel was bulldozed in 1984 to make way for a parking lot, and later, another bland Austin high-rise.   The furnishings of the hotel were sold at auction, but I never saw the poster again.

Marcia Ball continued to play music around town, singing and playing that boogie-woogie, bluesy piano – keeping time with one long leg crossed over the other. She went on to a highly successful career that has included more than a dozen albums as well as Grammy nominations.  As the years went by, I would ask younger folks in the audience if they remembered Freda and the Firedogs. “No?” I’d say, “Well. that’s Freda, right there. Yep, Freda and the Firedogs!”

It’s been a bit over thirty years since I sat in the Alamo Lounge under the Freda poster, but at the Austin Book and Paper show last weekend I was fortunate to find and purchase an original 1974 Firedogs poster.   There’s Marcia – big glasses and too-tall cowboy hat – and there’s Micael Priest’s signature, almost lost in his classic cross-hatching.  “Freda and the Firedogs.  Every Sunday at the Texas Opry House, behind the Terrace.” 

After I got the poster safely home, I wanted to email a few old friends, especially my brother-in-law Joe Specht, our family’s very own music historian, and tell them about my find.  But I wanted to have my facts straight, so I googled Freda and the Firedogs and found that Bobby Earl Smith, Firedog bass player and vocalist, is now an Austin attorney as well as a recording artist, and he maintains a Firedogs website at: http://www.fredafiredogs.com/index.html

You can order a Freda and the Firedogs CD consisting of the 12 original cuts the band made on a demo tape for Jerry Wexler in 1972.   The website has a terrific history of the band written by Joe Nick Patoski, as well as photos, poster art and reviews.  The music cuts cover traditional country tunes like Hank Williams’ “Jambalaya,” Loretta Lynn’s “Fist City” and on to Taj Majal’s arrangement of “EZ Rider,” and a couple of original tunes by Bobby Earl Smith.

Freda and The Firedogs:

Marcia Ball – piano and vocals

John X. Reed – guitar and harmony vocals

Bobby Earl Smith – bass and vocals

Steve McDaniels – drums

David Cook – steel guitar and rhythm guitar

Recorded August 10-12, 1972, Robin Hood Studios, Tyler Texas

Produced by Jerry Wexler, Recording Engineer – Robin Hood Brians, Mastered at Terra Nova Digital Audio by Joe Gracey and Jerry Tubb, Photos by Burton Wilson, Art by Micael Priest, Layout by Joe Gracey

The CD is a reasonable $15. Be sure to ask Bobby Earl about his own CD, “Turn Row Blues” – “9 new original songs and four old favorites,” and featuring James Burton, Lloyd Maines, John X. Reed, Casper Rawls, Freddie Krc, Eric Smith, Warren Hood and Bobby Earl Smith.

The longed-for poster will soon be on my wall, and the original sound of Freda and the Firedogs floats to me through the air from 1972; life is good – go out and hear some music you will remember. 

You are the music while the music lasts.

T. S. Eliot

Note:  There was a brief reunion of the band with all the original musicians at Soap Creek Saloon in 1979, for the recording of an LP, "Live from the Old Soap Creek Saloon Austin, Texas," (Big Wheel Records) with special guest Sir Doug Sahm, but finding a copy of that LP will be a lot tougher than finding a Firedogs poster.

Wanta hear some '72 Freda and the Firedogs?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlGUMJ0ojRY

Or Marcia Ball a little more recently?  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ri8FMzc3Yt8

More about Micael Priest:  http://www.austinchronicle.com/arts/2006-10-06/408173/

The “Pancho and Lefty” Video with images from the interior of the Alamo Hotel and the Alamo Lounge:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxzJAF1BxP4

A good 2002 essay by Nancy Meredith about some of the eccentric tenents of the Alamo: http://2merediths.com/Nancy/rememberingtheal.html

Site with 1981 Alamo Lounge photos by Dana Kolflat:

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Austin-Songwriters-(Alamo-Lounge-Spellmans-EmmaJoes)/5654813

LINCOLN SLEPT HERE 25¢

Recently, after seeing the movie, "Lincoln," I was reminded of a postcard that I purchased a few years ago.  

I buy, sell and collect antique postcards as a hobby, and I particularly like cards with interesting messages on the back. Most of the messages run along the lines of "I'm fine. How are you?",  "I hope Grandma is feeling better," or "Wish you were here," but occasionally you find something more interesting than that.  This blog post is about a card that came out of a dealer's twenty-five cent sale box at a postcard show, and about the card's surprising message.

York, PA postcard show 2012

Postcards in sale boxes are usually common or damaged, but there are always customers for them.  Beginning collectors often start their collections from the sale boxes, and artists buy them for collage work or ideas. More advanced collectors and dealers also go through the sale boxes, looking for a "gemstone" in the "gravel."  They might find a card that the seller didn't recognize as valuable, or a damaged copy of a card that will suffice until a better one turns up. Often the find is just a postcard that appeals to the eye, or reminds one of another time or place. 

I go through sale boxes at a fast pace.  There are often hundreds of cards in each box, and I count on a very quick look to tell me when to pause.  The card that is pictured below appealed to me on two levels:  first, it was an early Japanese postcard with an attractive reproduction of a watercolor; and second, some older Japanese cards have significant value.  The edges of the card had a little wear and it had been written on and postmarked in 1948.  These changes were acceptable, but unfortunately it had a rough place on the back where some of the surface of the paper was missing — perhaps where a sticker or a piece of tape had been removed.  Collectors of this type of foreign art postcard want cards in excellent condition.

Are you still with me?  Remember that I mentioned Lincoln?  We're getting there -- just had to set the scene.  Some buyers would lose interest after seeing the card's poor condition, but I am always hoping that the message tells a good story... 

The message on this was neatly written in ink and, while the card was mailed in 1948, my guess is that the card was produced between 1900 and 1910.  Glancing at the message I saw that the name "Lincoln" appeared several times.  That got my attention of course, and here's the payoff:

Message:

8-4-48.  The card you mailed in the Mailomat at Chicago shows a Lincoln statue in Lincoln Park.     

Any Lincoln card is always of interest in this household, especially to Mrs. Matthews.  Her father used to sleep with Abraham Lincoln.  Her grandfather, Joshua Wagenseller, and Mr. Lincoln were long time friends, beginning when Mr. Lincoln practiced law in Springfield and Pekin, Illinois.  Whenever Mr. Lincoln came to Pekin for a term of court, he was always entertained at the Wagenseller home as long as he stayed in Pekin.   

Mrs. Matthews spent the first twenty-two years of her life in that big Wagenseller home so full of Abraham Lincoln reminders.  Thanks for the fine cards.  

Sincerely, Will C. Matthews, 2310 Fort St., Omaha, Nebr

Some Internet research reveals that Joshua Wagenseller was a successful Pekin, Illinois businessman,  an ardent abolitionist and a good friend of Abraham Lincoln.  In fact, President Lincoln offered Mr. Wagenseller a cabinet position, but Wagenseller declined due to his extensive business interests.  

Lincoln also had strong ties to Pekin, Illinois and in 1862 he gathered a group of men there to establish the first council of the Union League of America to promote patriotism and loyalty to the Union during the Civil War.

So, the postcard message seems to be legitimate and it tells a Lincoln story that may not be recorded anywhere else. But of course it gets better doesn't it?  The message says that Mrs. Matthews' father "used to sleep with Abraham Lincoln."

In recent years there has been some speculation that Lincoln might have been bisexual, based in part, on the fact that, as a young lawyer in Springfield, Illinois, he shared a bed for four years with Joshua Speed, a local businessman.  This postcard gives us another instance of Mr. Lincoln sharing a bed with a male – Mrs. Matthews' father, the son of Joshua Wagenseller. 

It's an interesting bit of history, and open to speculation I suppose, but in the 19th century it was quite common for people of the same sex to share a bed.  In many instances bed space was scarce or expensive, and a comfortable sleeping space was not to be wasted.  In fact, when necessary, unmarried house guests of the opposite sex sometimes shared a bed. In such cases a wooden plank called a  "bundling board" was often set between them to make sure no "accidental" touching occurred during the night.  

In my opinion these reported sleeping arrangements for Mr. Lincoln are only evidence that even the great Abraham Lincoln needed a good night's sleep like other mortals.  Rest in peace, President Lincoln. 

So, that's the 25¢ Lincoln story.  If you look closely, you can see the price written lightly in pencil on the back of the card.  I'd say it was a bargain and a good example of the small treasures that are out there if you keep your eyes open.

BTW, see the Spielberg movie, "Lincoln" as soon as you can.  Daniel Day-Lewis is a close as you will ever get to the real Lincoln. Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field are both terrific, and James Spader almost steals the show.  Keep in mind, however, that the true story is always more complex than a movie version.

To see a broader view of people who influenced Lincoln, like Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison and Harriet Beecher Stowe, you might want to check out the PBS documentary, "The Abolitionists."  Here's a link to a review of it written by Mary McNamara of the LA Times:  
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-abolitionists-20130108,0,1215367.story

For more information about postcard collecting and shows, here are a few links:

http://www.ctxpc.org/
http://www.metropostcard.com/
http://postcardcollector.org/forum/index.php

No Angel: A Seaside Mystery

Here's something I collected a while back, and a mystery I hope you can help me solve.  In 1996, my son, Ned, was in the Marines and stationed in Hawaii, and his sister, her husband and I visited him on Oahu for a week.  During the trip we took a flight to the "Big Island," the Island of Hawaii, for a one-day volcano tour, and near the end of the tour I snapped this photograph not too far from Hilo. 

The photo shows the top of a low stone wall at the edge of the beach where someone had spelled out, "I'M NO ANGEL," with small shells in the mortar on top of the wall, and signed the message, "Mae."

When I travel, I photograph monuments, cityscapes, and scenic views like everyone else, but I also look for the small traces of individual lives and ephemeral moments – window displays, graffiti, folk art, odd things left behind, hand-crafted details, and other things that catch my eye, or connect me to someone else who passed that way.  The note left in shells on this wall was certainly intriguing, and worth a shot.  "I'm no angel?" One could imagine a number of stories that could be hidden in that message – lost love, despair, repentance, renewal – who knows?  

The mystery of the message seemed to float into my mind whenever the subject of Hawaii came up, and a few years later, on a whim, I searched the internet for that message and to my surprise I found that Mae West had made a movie in 1933, titled, "I'm No Angel,"and her co-star was a young Cary Grant.  Mae West was a box office sensation at the time, and this ribald, satirical comedy about a woman from the wrong side of the tracks was a big hit.  West wrote both the story and the screenplay. The movie also included the title song, "I'm No Angel."

Here's a link to a recent review of the movie, written by Tricia Saiki, for the Honolulu Media and Culture Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/review/tricia-s-retro-film-reviews-i-m-no-angel

Is it possible that Mae West visited Hawaii and put this message in the mortar at the time this wall was built, or did a movie fan do this?   Our guide that day told me that he had never noticed it.

My friend Charlie grew up in Hawaii near Hilo on the Big Island, but lives in Connecticut now and I see him once a year or so when we take a kayak/canoe trip with other friends.  I asked him about this message from "not-an-angel," but he knew nothing of it.  He goes home to Hawaii every year and on his next trip he did a little bit of looking for this rock wall, but without success.

The problem is, I can't pinpoint exactly where I took the picture.  It was a black sand beach.  There was no one else on the beach when we visited and no boat docks nearby.  It seemed to be semi-isolated stretch.  

I have searched using Google Earth and following the roads we drove that day, and my best guess is that the site was near Keaukaha Beach Park, Hawaii, but it's only a guess.  I recently sent Charlie a scan of the photo and he passed it along to his relatives in Hawaii. Their best guesses so far are Hilo Bay or the old Pu'umaile Hospital site at the end of Kalaniana'ole.

Did Mae West put this inscription on the wall?  It seems unlikely – I find no reference on the internet of her ever visiting Hawaii.  If she didn't write it, who did, and why?  We may never know, but it a fun little puzzle to work with.  I would be quite happy if someone else could identify the spot and take a current photo of it, if it still exists.  There have been a number of strong storms that struck this area throughout the years, including a tsunami in 2011, so it's possible that the wall no longer stands.

So, if you blog readers find anything, have any ideas, or know the answer – "... come on up and see me sometime" –  well, at least by email.

"It's better to be looked over, than overlooked." – Mae West

7/2/12 Note: As you can see by the second comment below, it appears that there is a good chance that Mae did visit Hawaii in 1934, the year after the movie.  Did she leave us this note?

blue

Sometimes an image and a title is all a poem needs.

Winter on the Blue

This postcard was sent in 1909 from Emma in De Witt, Nebraska to Mr. Harry Witte, in the same town.  


De Witt is on the Big Blue River in Southeastern Nebraska.  Kudos to the unknown photographer.

DADY & BABY

On October 14, 1908,  an oilfield roughneck sent a real photo postcard from Petrolia, Texas to Lorman, Mississippi with this message: 


"This is a picture of the rotary well machine on which I am working.  Those are the bits marked dady (sic) and baby.  The large is the one we stidit (sic) with & the small one finishes up the hole.  P. K."  


An later note on the card says, "Pressley & his work."  Pressley may not have been able to spell very well (no pun intended) but he left us a detailed view of his job on an early rotary drilling rig in the West Texas oil patch.   I think that must be Pressley in the foreground next to the "named" drill bits.

If you look closely you will see the smaller bit, "baby" sitting on top of the large "daddy" bit. The men have stopped work for a quick snapshot and you can see both fatigue and pride in their poses.  We can see the photographer's shadow in the foreground, and the hand tools, the other drill bits, and the rotary rig itself are clearly visible on the wooden rig floor.

In 1901, a rancher in Clay County, just below the Texas-Oklahoma border, was attempting to drill a water well but struck oil at 263 feet, thus opening the first oilfield in North Texas. A small shantytown, known as Oil City quickly grew up in the area, but in 1905, most residents moved to nearby Petrolia, which was located on the new Wichita Falls and Oklahoma Railroad. By late 1905, Petrolia boasted a hotel, bank, drugstore, barbershop, livery stable, dry-goods store, hardware store, furniture store, meat market, lumberyard, ice house, two oilfield-supply stores, and a cotton gin.  Despite these amenities, the town was still a rough oil boom town, and both gambling and prostitution flourished.
  
In 1908, cable tool rigs still dominated the drilling process and this rotary rig was the new technology.  The drilling crew on a rotary rig was generally five in number, driller, derrick man, motor man and two floor hands.  All of them except the driller are usually referred to as roughnecks.  In this photograph perhaps the man in the background with cleaner clothes is the driller, and the photographer is the fifth crew member.


In the scan of the back of the postcard you can see that Pressley left an oily thumbprint just above the Petrolia cancellation mark. Small details like that thumbprint, the lack of hard hats, and the greasy overalls and gloves tell us a lot about a roughneck's job, but they don't convey the cold winters and blazing hot summers of the Texas-Oklahoma border nor do they tell us of the long hours and the dangers of work on an oil rig.  In that fall of 1908, I hope P. K. went home with good money in his pocket, and to someone he could spend it on.

No man is born into the world whose work
Is not born with him; there is always work
And tools to work withal, for those who will....
~James Russell Lowell

What's Up Doc?

I love old real photo postcards (RPPCs to collectors) that have a lot of detail – sometimes the details answer questions, but sometimes they bring up new ones.   Here's a great image of two young women in the Creighton, Nebraska Bakery.  The card is postmarked 1909, and addressed to Miss Carrie Chappell in Spirit Lake, Iowa.  The message, written by Etta Travis, says:

Dear Friend, 

Your card rec'd. Many thanks for same.  Will send you a postal of the "Bakery."  No. 1 is Miss Clytie Scott, and No. 2 is Miss Emma Brice, both of Creighton.  My mother's folks live in Leon and Sparta, Wis.  It is north of Madison.  Hoping this will please you and to hear from you soon, 

I remain your E. C. E. Friend, 

Etta S. Travis

Okay, she gives us a bit of story – it looks like she exchanges postcards with her friends, but what is an E. C. E. friend?  I'll bet some of you know.   The other thing I'd like to know is, "What's up (Doc) with that rabbit?"  The card was mailed two days after Easter, perhaps he just decided to just hang around.

“The other day when I was walking through the woods, I saw a rabbit 

standing in front of a candle making shadows of people on a tree.”
~Stephen Wright  

A Return to Vivoin

I found the following two real photo postcards together at a postcard show.  It appeared that they might have been taken in the same place.  Both of them seemed to show American soldiers on the streets of a French village during WWI.  One of the cards had the word, "VIVOIN" written in ink on the front of the card.  There was no other identifying information.   

(click on images for larger view)

Here's a detail from that photo.  Take a look at the French citizens on the left, and notice the young girl with the large white hat with the ribbon on it.

The second photo and a detail scan:

I really like the pose of the automobile driver – everything about him says, "France, 1918." Do you see the girl with the with the white hat again, standing next to her mother?  It seems that the soldiers were checking out the town and the citizens were taking a look at the American doughboys.  Imagine the conversations that took place or were attempted that day! 

The obvious first step toward investigating these images was to look up the name Vivoin.  As I suspected, its a small French village, or more properly in French terms, a commune, in western France in the region of Pays-de-la-Loire.   The town of Saint-Nazarie, which is southwest of Vivoin, became an important unloading port for US troops, especially in the latter stages of the war.

The United States entered WWI in 1917, and American troops began to arrive in France, forming the American Expeditionary Force in June of that year, but did not enter the trenches in divisional strength until October.  Vivoin is located far from the Western Front, but the troops in these photo could have been on their way to or from the front, or they could have been support troops. French, British, Canadian and Russian troops had been engaged in very desperate and bloody battles against the Germans since 1914, and the arrival of the Americans was a much needed morale boost.


To confirm that these photos were indeed of Vivion, France, I turned to Google Earth.  I am still amazed with with this piece of technology.  I can remember standing in the backyard with my Dad in 1957, watching Sputnik cross the sky, and in the 1980s Dad delighted in showing us the navigation uses of his LORAN – a long range radio navigation system. He was a fast learner on the home computer in it's early days and he saw the coming development of GPS, but he never saw anything like Google Earth.  


Google Earth allows earth-bound folks like myself to fly, as if on a magic carpet, and to land wherever one wants to.  I decided that since Vivion was a small community I would try to put myself down in the largest intersection in town, go to GE street view and take a look around.


Here's what I found on my first attempt:

Look familiar?  Here's a slightly different view:

Well, okie, dokie then – some details have changed – but look at the roofs, the dormers, the brick details on the top of the corner building and the placement of windows and doors.  It's the same place.  We are looking north on Rue de Doucelles in Vivoin, France.


I had one of the photo confirmed as to place, and I wanted to see if I could locate the other one. I turned my virtual self 90 degrees east, and here's what I saw:

This is the church l’Eglise St. Hippolyte in Vivoin.   Here are two more views:  

That's it. We're there.  I can't read any patches or insignia on the 1918 uniforms, so we don't know who these troops were or anything about their war experiences or their lives after the war, but 94 years later we can put ourselves on the same sidewalk.   Since the girl in the hat and her mother had moved from one corner to another, we know the photos weren't taken at the same moment, but probably only minutes apart, and that the citizens of Vivoin were following the soldiers as they took in the town.

We've had trip to France and a trip through time, compliments of the person who snapped the photos in 1918, the soldier who brought them home, and the magic carpet of Google Earth.  And, I offer special thanks to the person who took a moment to write "Vivoin" on the photo.


If anyone from Vivoin happens across this blog, I'd be pleased to hear from you.

“I'll just tell you what I remember 

because memory is as close as I've gotten to building my own time machine.” 

― Samantha Hunt, The Invention of Everything Else