And down the stretch they come!
Those are some famous words if you know anything about the Kentucky Derby. I am not sure if those words are still uttered in a flutter. I don’t think I have heard them in a few years.
If it were a football announcer, I would know. It is horse racing. I don’t know. I can get to Churchill Downs in 45 minutes from my driveway and I have never been to the Derby Museum. In my environ we are inundated with Derby-Fest activities and news and stuff leading up to the fastest two minutes in sports. I have nothing against the Kentucky Derby. I have been to Churchill Downs twice. I plan to go with colleagues and friends, and my dear wife, Carrie, on June 7th. I am looking forward to it.
Being in Southern Indiana…I am in one of those counites that is separated from Kentucky by the Ohio River…we get our news via the media of Louisville. We are not greatly in tune with Indiana comparatively. It is the nature of where you live.
I am picking Magnum Moon to win the 2018 Kentucky Derby to be run in a couple of hours. Right now I am on the back porch by my lonesome and if the rain at Churchill is like what is falling here, I feel for the folks coming in from all over the country to show off their Derby fashions…they will be under ponchos in many cases.
This past Tuesday evening I sang at a County Hymn Sing service being hosted by Unity Chapel United Methodist Church. I sang two songs. One of them I wrote and the other I co-wrote. I did not write the words to the second one. I wrote the music. That is a first for me. I chronicled this happening of events here a little while ago. My collaborator, Jackie Gayheart, was in attendance and I was fortunate enough to call her out and tell the folks there about how the song was written.
When I saw Jackie after it was over I conveyed the moment reminded me of a line from a movie I had first seen thirty years ago. The movie was “Broadcast News”. The quote was “What do you do when real life exceeds your dreams?” The response was, “You keep it to yourself.” But that is what I was feeling Tuesday evening. I’d say it was a good evening for both Jackie and myself.
Tonight on HBO The Moody Blues will be part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction show that was taped on April 14th. The night of the event, The Moody Blues played four songs and closed the show. They were the final act.
Through the power of television, Bon Jovi is going to be the last featured artist and The Moodies will have three of the four songs they played that night on the broadcast. What else would you expect from a place that kept them out for twenty-five years.
Justin Hayward on the Moody Blues: “I imagine now it’s coming to the end.”
That is a quote from Justin Hayward’s website. I heard him say this in a BBC Radio 2 interview this week. The Moodies have a handful of shows at one venue this fall in Vegas. I told you here before, the concert Carrie and I saw in Nashville at the Ryman last July would be the last Moody Blues concert we attend. It was the perfect place to leave it. Great venue. Great performance. Days of Future Passed in its entirety live. Great fans. The Moodies are going to go out the way they came in and that is riding the wave of Days of Future Passed that gave us Nights in White Satin. I have enjoyed it.
Thankfully, I won’t have to suffer through Bon Jovi’s rambling tonight before The Moodies play…so that slight is a good thing after all.
Will we see Justin Hayward live in a solo show again one day? I think so. As he says, if the flesh is willing he will still be at it.
Me, I am back to writing a few songs myself and finding what adventures I can find up and down the neck of the old six string. It is a glorious journey.
Speaking the rights…
Danny Johnson