http://willdudley.com/news.html Will Dudley: News Jannis' PHPRss class - http://www.jannis.to/ Mon, 06 Feb 2012 02:09:23 -0800 http://willdudley.com/news.html#92 https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/109432]]> http://willdudley.com/news.html#92 Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800 Spread a Little Hope - Will Dudley - News http://willdudley.com/news.html#90
Tonight I'll be thrilled to be singing for some girls field hockey all stars. A huge part of the beauty of singing for my supper is never knowing who's going to be there. I keep hoping to sing for Natalie Portman on a weekend getaway, but it hasn't happened yet. Still, it might be a Tennessee politician or a California businessman on a weekend getaway with his wife. It might be my next best friend, who's to say?

Last night I was happy to holler for some folks from England. We cooked out, they ate chicken and potatoes and ranch beans, they drank wine while I sang, and the more they drank the better I got. Kids ran around in circles with the kid's counselor Elizabeth. They save a plate for me if I ask, and it's always a treat to eat the reheated beans at midnight and save some chicken or steak for the Sunday lunch. It's a nice day in Wickenburg, Arizona. Warm and dry. Tomorrow's Helen's birthday, and the last day of the Scorpio astrological sign. Happy Birthday, Helen, wherever you are, and adios Scorpio, see ya next year.]]> http://willdudley.com/news.html#90 Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800 Spread a Little Hope - Will Dudley - News http://willdudley.com/news.html#89 A train whistle blows at 9 a.m., and a big milk truck pulls into the McDonalds that sits just down from the Dunkin Donuts on highway 60. Further west is the Mojave and into Blythe, (where the hell is Blythe?) California. The Joshua Tree resides in these deserts. If you follow the bypass to Las Vegas, you’ll miss the Gold Miners and the Gila Monster sculptured along the pedestrian walks and the living tortoise which resides nearby, waiting for the sculptured monster to move.
The milk truck leaves and an octogenarian on a moped, wearing a highway worker’s heat and light reflective vest and a bicycle helmet rides in and almost runs over the surprised sixteen year old skateboarder.
For the next few hours, desert 4 wheelers go by, Budget rent a trucks and Fed Ex trucks come and go along with motorcycles and assorted bicycles and pedestrians, police officers and little old ladies walking little bitty dogs out into the rock garden and around the covered wagon. Beware the cactus.

So it happens than noon rolls around and the afternoon highway patrol coffee clatch occurs between the subway and the dunkin donuts. There are punctuations of afternoon sirens and the occasional old man lost at the grocery store moments that tend to occur in McDonald's parking lots in towns with large populations of retired folk, but the sun shone down on my Arizona home, and as it slowly sinks into the west, leaving me at the mercy of the light of my laptop and a candle, I am reminded that every day above ground is a good day. Bodda bing, bodda boom, ba da ba.]]> http://willdudley.com/news.html#89 Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800 Spread a Little Hope - Will Dudley - News http://willdudley.com/news.html#88
I'm in Arizona for the winter, and trying like hell to not stop working. Tehachopi, California looks like a go, and I've already played in Tucumcari and Tonopah...

I'll be in Tucson pretty soon, too, I expect. Karma will tell...

I'm finishing up a book and if I'm the only one excited about it, then my name's not John Kennedy Toole. Just kidding.

It's an obscure joke, but a bad one just the same.

I went to the grocery store and picked up one of those little plastic hand baskets; I hadn't put anything in it yet, and like a dumbass, I let it rest in my palm, and swung it hard. It was just a goofy reaction, like biting my tongue... a dumb thing that happens without thinking. Muscle brains at work, and the damn basket hit my elbow right on the funny bone. There was a bank in the store, and the teller saw me do this, and laughed right out loud. I had to admit, it was funny, but it hurt. That's humor, I guess, bound to hurt someone.

I'm looking forward to California.

Bad news tends to find its own way to people, but I have to speak a little about a friend of mine for thirty five years. We wrote songs together, their titles were 'Champagne', 'The Reverend Lincoln Moses,' 'The Judgment Day Blues' and '100 Miles from Memphis On the Left Hand Side of the Road' and 'Queen of Spades' among others.

His name was Taz DiGregorio, and he was killed in a car accident on his way to the tour bus. He was Charlie Daniels piano player, and had worked with him for over forty years. I knew more about Taz than I did about my own brother, and he meant as much to me as my closest family.

His real name was the same as mine, William. Nobody ever called him that, though. Some of his family called him Joel, cause that was his middle name, but I never knew him as Joel. I just knew he and I carried the same spirit inside and lived for the sake of the muse that drove him and still drives me.

Musicians don't live straight lives, we live on the road. We carry around little guitars or big drums or giant pianos and bang on them, hoping the world will hear whatever message we are compelled to bring. Don't ever ask a musician why they do it, because most of us don't even know. We're gypsies, usually strung out and tired, coming or going and sick of eating truck stop chile.

I ain't nobody, but Taz was at least as ornery as me, and fully capable just about capable of any damn thing, good or bad. He rolled a few cars, and got in and out of trouble better than anyone I knew, landing on his feet when people around him fell on their asses. A lot of people loved him, a lot of people didn't, and that's the way it was. He never compromised when he struck the ivories, and I have seen him play piano for eight hours straight. I was the idiot banging on the guitar, and the results were some of the songs we wrote together. I don't know Charlie Daniels all that well, but my heart grieves for him and Charlie Haywood, who worked with him longer than I knew him. I don't even have words to express my proper condolences to his wife and family, but I can't cry about losing this friend. I was so blessed to know him that I ain't sorry at all. He died on the road, living the life he chose, and going to the next gig. We should all be so lucky.]]> http://willdudley.com/news.html#88 Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0700 Spread a Little Hope - Will Dudley - News http://willdudley.com/news.html#86 http://willdudley.com/news.html#86 Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700 Spread a Little Hope - Will Dudley - News http://willdudley.com/news.html#83
RIDE THE TRAIN

If you want to ride in style, ride the train.
See every passing mile, ride the train.
Have a drink and relax as you roll on down the tracks
If you want to ride in style, ride the train

2. If you want to see the country, ride the train
California clear to Maine on a train
If you want to see a canyon
Take a ride out to a grand one
on a train, ride the train ride the train

Break: Take the kids and the wife for the trip of their life
Ride the train, ride the train, ride the train

You don’t have to drive the car on a train
Have dinner with the stars on a train
Let the wheels go round and round
While your body slows down
On a train, Ride the Train Ride the Train

3. Go see Colorado by rail, or look out on the Appalachian Trail
Fred C. Dobbs saw Mexico, don’t that make you want to go
Ride the train ride the train ride the train

4. If you want to see the mountains, ride the train
Ride out through the forest or the plains


Break: People are born on the train”¦.
People die on a train”¦
And when the wheels hit their stride,
There’s no better way to ride
Than to ride all the way on a train
Ride the train, ride the train, ride the train.]]> http://willdudley.com/news.html#83 Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700 Spread a Little Hope - Will Dudley - News http://willdudley.com/news.html#82
The colors in the mountains are beyond spectacular; the view from the mountaintops down onto the prairie or over onto the western slope is not even taken for granted by those who live here and see it every day.

I am making plans to record this winter, and I think tomorrow is my old friend Buddy Harmon's birthday. His dad drummed for Elvis and taught his son well. Happy B'day, Buddy, maybe I'll see ya down the road in the next year or two. Hope so.]]> http://willdudley.com/news.html#82 Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0700 Spread a Little Hope - Will Dudley - News http://willdudley.com/news.html#80
The La Veta Hotel will book me on Thursdays through September, and the Dude Ranch season has closed gracefully on a somewhat flat year for the ranches, although there are bright spots across the board, for there were no serious setbacks or injuries on any of the ranches where I sing, and the haying is in and the fields are looking good up in Gunnison.

September at the Dude Ranches and Guest Ranches in Colorado is the best time to see the fall colors as they begin to change. I encourage all to visit, and of course there's no better time than now. The colors up in the Gunnison Valley and the fishing at the North Fork and the Rainbow Trout and over at the Tarryall is an adventure just waiting for some kid from Baltimore and his dad and mom.]]> http://willdudley.com/news.html#80 Sun, 28 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700 Spread a Little Hope - Will Dudley - News http://willdudley.com/news.html#79 ]]> http://willdudley.com/news.html#79 Tue, 23 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0700 Spread a Little Hope - Will Dudley - News http://willdudley.com/news.html#78
The trip to Tennessee has yielded two new songs. We're not as productive this year as last, but the songs once again are different from anything I've ever done. We wrote a rock and roll song called "Champagne," and then a very blues song that we're calling "Where's Mine?"]]> http://willdudley.com/news.html#78 Sat, 12 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0800 Spread a Little Hope - Will Dudley - News