St. Louis.

Many thoughts and images come to mind when I hear the name St. Louis.

I think first about the St. Louis Cardinals.  No, not the ones playing on the west coast right now during baseball season which has allowed us for much better hotel rates near the Scottrade Center and downtown St. Louis with those Cardinals out of town.

I still think about the St. Louis Cardinals playing football in the old Busch Stadium that was a part of cookie-cutter stadium history.  Round and used for football and baseball for a time.  Jim Hart is still the quarterback.  Jim Otis and Terry Metcalf still run the ball.  J.V. Cain and Jackie Smith play tight end.  Pat Tilley and Ike Harris and Mel Gray are receivers.  Conrad Dobler and Dan Dierdorf play on the O-Line.  Jim Bakken is still kicking straight-on.  I better stop…my apologies to Roger Wherli.

How pathetic is that?  Forty years ago, that is how!

Thank God for music.  Tonight my dear wife, Carrie, and I are walking over to the Scottrade Center to take in a concert by Hall and Oates…and more importantly, for us, the group Train.  Their song Drops of Jupiter is an acquired taste.  For a long time I, like many, thought the song was overplayed.  I did not like it.  When it came on the radio I turned it in a hurry.  In 2013 Carrie and I saw Train live at Virginia Beach on a whim.  We were in the neighborhood and she was studying furiously for an exam she was about to take.  I thought she needed a break.  I looked at Ticketmaster and scored some sweet seats for a price that seems archaic now.  Anyway, that night I heard Drops of Jupiter for the first time like I needed to.  That in large part, is why we are here.  That and many other good songs too.  To share this with Carrie is priceless.

St. Louis?  Dred Scott.  Unreal slave gets his freedom story.  I never tire of hearing the result even though it is hard to take.  Still is a story that so shows the resilience of the spirit and the showcases a time that is hard to fathom.

Scott eventually got his freedom.

Below, this was on a building here in town.

Where did that go?

Lincoln had the house divided thing right, you know.

You looked around lately?  Wow.

St. Louis…

I think about Fred G. Sanford on Sanford and Son.  He used to talk about growing up in St. Louis.  “Back in St. Louis…” he would say.

My dear wife, Carrie, and I have been fortunate enough to travel many places.  St. Louis has not been a place we have frequented.  Music brought us to town in September of 2015 to hear Justin Hayward play in a hall that seats about 700.  Tonight there will be that many folks standing in line to use the bathroom at any given time.  NHL Hockey Arenas are big places.

That’s the Spirit!

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

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

I once read, while I was a junior in high school, that a highbrow is someone who looks at a piece of sausage and thinks of Picasso.  Wow.

Well, I looked at a piece of steak I was cooking Wednesday and thought about a teacher and a class and a student that said a few things I will never forget.  If I could only remember the student’s name.  I could find him these days.  I know I could.  I don’t, however, remember his name.  It was a college speech class…pardon me…Public Speaking class.  The classmate I reference was always complimentary of my speeches.  I liked him.  He was a plain-speaking, upbeat, positive youngster.  How I wish I remembered his name.  Twenty-seven years and being more worried about my grade than his will cloud things.  I did get an “A” in the class.  In fact, we were competitive.  There were about twenty-two of us in the class.  My point total at the end of the semester was 2nd to a girl from Clarksville.  Her last name was Overton.  I don’t remember what she looked like.  I just remember her last name over the top of mine.  It was a close race I can tell you.

The student whose name I can’t remember worked at a Ponderosa Steakhouse.  His demonstration speech was how to cook a steak.  My strip steak I cooked Wednesday faintly have the criss-cross sear marks my classmate told us about and took a great deal of pride in.  I turned this piece of beef over and thought about my old classmate. I thought of Rick Jones, our teacher.  We became friends.  We lost track of each other years ago.  He liked The Moody Blues too.  I have written about him on these pages before.  He was a great teacher.

That leads us to today’s Top Ten List.  My Top Ten Teachers.  My parents notwithstanding, I must give them credit, I give you today’s list that comes to mind.  Tomorrow the list may be different.

#10  Mrs. Bridges…my kindergarten teacher.  She sent a note home telling my folks that I was “all boy”.  I don’t know what that means but I appreciated it.  She was a great teacher.

# 9  Mr. Jim St. Clair…He taught me a media class at IUS.  We just flat had an understanding.  He loved what I had to write and I loved the way he ran the class.  He was so complimentary and demanding in his own understated way.

#8  Mr. Larry Martin…He taught me Social Studies in the 7th grade.  Had him the last period of the day and it was dream of a way to end the day.  Even those damned “get out a clean sheet of paper and number it down the left margin 1 through 10.”  The pop quiz.  Did you pay attention?  We found out quickly on those days.

# 7  Mrs.  Patty Miller…She taught a course called Sports Literature when I was a sophomore.  Maybe they were trying to get rid of her.  It worked.  She didn’t know if a ball was filled with air or stuffed with feathers.  It was second semester and the Baltimore Colts moved their stuff via Mayflower moving trucks to Indianapolis.  She too was complimentary of my writing.  She helped me a great deal the day she grabbed my yearbook and wrote the words “You are an excellent writer.”  That helped.

# 6  Dr. Dick Brengle…One of my professors at IUS.  Talking Chaucer and Beowulf with this man was an extraordinary experience.  He played baseball for Columbia University and one the teams they played was Yale who had a player named George H.W. Bush.

# 5  Dr. Nancy Cunningham…Dr. Cunningham taught a course at the University of Louisville whilst I was working in my M.Ed.  She was so smart.  She was such a great communicator.  Class wasn’t class…it was an experience.  Time flew.

# 4 Dr. Bill Sweigart…He was my expository writing teacher and this class did me a world of good.  He knew what I was trying to do with my writing and pointed me in directions that made things better.  He guided.  He did not interject.  He too gave me confidence in the craft and helped me edit things in ways I did not think I had the patience or time for.  Translation:  This was valuable time.

# 3  Mrs. Betty Englehardt….This lady taught my senior English class.  She was tough.  She was kind.  She was about 4 foot 9 inches tall.  She was much larger than that to me.  If there was someone in the building I did not want to disappoint beyond my Dad, it was Mrs. E.  My Dylan Thomas speech was a highlight that senior year.  I worked as a helper for her with other students that struggled a bit.  We were a heck of a team.

#2  Mr. James Stewart…So he was my boss.  We worked together all of three full years.  The first two went so well that after I left and took a job somewhere else he called me two years later when his guidance counselor retired and offered me the job.  I told him I didn’t have a counseling license.  He told me I would get one.  I did.  We worked together one more year.  Then he retired.  He was a friend.  He was my chief.  That is what I called him.  The best school man I ever knew.  I miss him.

#1  Dr. Millard Dunn…I called Dr. Dunn yesterday to ask for help with something I am working on.  It is a piece of writing.  I emailed him some things later and included this passage:

In the fall of 1991, I walked into a class room and met a man that changed my life.  G207.  Grammar and Usage.  Dr. Millard Dunn was the man.  What he did was the difference that has allowed me to utilize the English language in multiple forms and be somewhat successful at it.  He met me where I was.  He had to stoop for sure to reach me.  Stoop he did.  And with great strength and cause and care and desire and knowledge and maybe some pity…he stayed there with me until I graduated in 1995.  Whether he knows it or not, I have taken him every step of the way since.

Today a gentleman was in the building to speak of a scholarship he is the benefactor of for an IUS student.  I told him about me talking to Millard yesterday.  I told him that little did we know when we both walked into that class room 27 years ago that we would still be in touch and he would still be my teacher and me his student.  One of those rare occasions when things align the way they should…for the best.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

At this writing I am listening to Elton John’s 1984 album “Breaking Hearts”.  It was not the prolific songwriter/performer’s most memorable effort.  One thing you can give Elton credit for, good or bad, he has never allowed much moss to grow.  One record after another.  Many not very good.  Some, though, unforgettable.  For me, “Breaking Hearts” is an unforgettable release.  When I was a junior and senior in high school, I wore a cassette tape of this release out.  The melancholy tune, the album’s namesake, “Breaking Hearts” is a great song.  The haunting chorus with its soaring harmony takes me places.  It did then.  It does now.  Whether I am sixteen or fifty, I hear and feel the same stuff when I listen to this album.  That is how you know it became and continues to be a part of your life.  This one, for whatever reason, resonates with me more than most all these years on.

Am I a Pirate?  I feel like one.  I am listening to this album on the world wide web on a common website.  That is all I will say.  I couldn’t tell you how many times I have been to used record/cd shops all over the country East of the Mississippi River looking for this album on CD.  There is plenty of Elton to procure.  But I can’t find this one.  My tape is long gone.  I feel like a heel listening to this without paying for it.  I suppose I will order it properly this weekend if I can find it.

Does Elton need my six dollars?  I doubt it.  I donated to see him in concert many years ago.  It was worth every penny.

During baseball games at North Harrison High School, I can be found in the press box announcing the game and playing the same old tunes in between innings.  The picture above was taken this past week in an NH home game against Heritage Hills.  What I love about this pic is catcher Brett Rudolph, sans his catcher’s mask, looking as the ball sails out of play.  Brett was the subject of some good pictures I posted here during football season.  His Dad was a senior when I was freshman and now and again I was lined up against him during practice scrimmages.  His Dad, Jeff, was like a piece of steel.  To me, Jeff Rudolph will always be the greatest North Harrison Cougar of them all.

Listening to Elton’s 1984 album “Breaking Hearts” for the first time in decades, I can tell you it is even better tonight than I remembered.

On facebook last Saturday I posted the following…

There are still some non-believers out there thinking I am in Cleveland today for The Moody Blues induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I am at home where my old “breakfast of champions”, a Canada Dry Ginger Ale, has been replaced with coffee in a Moody Blues Hall of Fame cup thanks to Dan Goins. On this gloomy, “Moody” Saturday morning in Southern Indiana, I am back where it started for me in 1983…and that old cassette still works 35 years later. First time I have played this tape in at least 2 decades. Sounds wonderful!

That original Days of Future Passed cassette.

So The Moody Blues finally made it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I am ready to visit the place now.  I want to go one time.  This year will be the time to do that.  I have never been a great fan of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  I got a copy of this year’s induction ceremony program.  There were multiple errors in the section that spoke of The Moodies.  No Moodies fan is shocked by that.  We all had the Moodies in a more important Rock and Roll Hall of Fame many years ago….our hearts.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

I am here to type these words.

I was asked today why I had not posted anything lately.  Gone is my excuse of doing those 50 post in 50 days…that ended near a month ago.  It was a priority and a sense of duty to take care of it.  You know, to deliver the goods…or at least deliver well, something.

Test season is here in the State of Indiana.  I am not sure why we Hoosiers think we are so important that we need to make things so difficult for students.  Things don’t have to be this complicated.  Look at some other states and how they go about things and you’ll find that, in some cases, Indiana spends too much time with the T-square and the compass and the protractor trying to chart the course.  Test them all, they say!  They do.

I was not a good test taker in high school.  I can empathize with kids about this.  The older I got, the better I got at it.  When I took something called the GRE to get into my grad school program, I was certain they gave me someone else’s results.  I took them home and smiled.  That only lasts so long.  There is still work to do.

The latest graduation proposal beginning with the Class of 2023 in Indiana high schools is not a very good one.  Too many moving pieces and parts.  The verbiage is weak in places and seeps of elections to come may very well change a thing or two here.  I hope so.  We can do better.

“What is a test score without civility?”  I said that at meeting recently with other education folks from the county in the room.  We were there putting our heads together for the good of the cause.  It was meaningful dialogue.  That is not always the case when there is a power-point, snacks on the table, and multiple building levels in the same room trying to make sense and make nice.  It worked.  I was proud of that.

Test scores.  I’d rather have someone in the room I can depend on than a test score that looks nice.  Now….don’t get me wrong.  Test scores are important.  They can measure what needs a yardstick now and again.  But the notion of a one size fits all measuring instrument is, well, archaic.

The need to make that point is why I type these words today.  I think I could be a little more effective for my school talking to kids more and chasing down test logistics less.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

This evening we will know who the Masters Champion for 2018 will be.  We have a good one to look forward to I think.

I told my dear wife, Carrie, I doubt some of the organizers for this grand tournament could sleep much last night.  A close leader board and an improved weather day sets greatness in motion.  Think about it.  The place would still be what it is regardless.  If there was a golfer sitting ten shots ahead of the rest, the tension would be off.  The excitement would not really be there.  But, look at the leader board, there is plenty to be excited about as the last two fire off at #1 before 3 PM.

I hope Patrick Reed can hang on.  I really do.  Rory McIlroy is looking immortality in the eye if he were to become just the 6th golfer to complete the “grand slam” which means you won all four of golf’s major championships.  The last to do that was Tiger Woods in 2000.  The first was Gene Sarazen in 1935.  If Rory wins my feeling won’t be hurt.

Look out for Rickie Fowler.  He’s like a gnat a good barbecue, he just won’t go away.

I enjoy watching golf on television.  My two favorite events of the year are two majors.  I like The Masters and the British Open…or am I supposed to call it The Open?  You can depend on the tradition and scenery of the course in Augusta when they play The Masters.  The British Open is such a contrast in course and in when is it going to rain, how cold, and how windy, and how am I going to find my ball in high weeds?

This was my tee shot at the 170ish yard blind over the hill #7 at the now grown over New Salisbury Golf Course.  This fights another par 3 I played at Old Capitol as the closest shots to a hole-in one that I have managed.  One day perhaps I will hit one.

My old friend Gus Stephenson and I used to play quite often.  We walked the behemoth of a course that is Old Capitol in Corydon with regularity.  Mick Rutherford once said, “It ain’t a game if don’t walk.”  Well, that was a few years ago.  In fact, he and I were about to walk the Corydon course when the lady in the clubhouse questioned our sensibilities on a 100 degree day.  These days, we are riding.  The walking friendly New Salisbury is closed.  That is sad.

Left to right:  Mick Rutherford, Kelly Samons, and Gus Stephenson.  We were playing the Corner King Classic at New Salisbury.  This was the tee shot at #8.

Carrie and me in the Harbor Town lighthouse with the 18th fairway behind us.  The lighthouse helps to frame the TV shot when the golfers are making their way to the final green.  Hilton Head New Year’s Eve in 2014.

These days the most golf I play is with Carrie’s cousins and extended family and friends when we get together at Lucas Oil Golf Course in English, Indiana.  Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day weekends mean the golf outing.  We always have fun with it.  Above is the tee box at #1.

One of the best golfers of all time.  So good she can take her purse with her on the course!  We can’t all get away with that!  Putting near the shore of Lake Erie last summer in Ohio.  Look that stance!  Take lessons.

The Shot.

I wish I had a photo to go along with it.  Brother Tim Petty and I played a few times at New Salisbury.  One day he hit a tee shot over the fence at #4.  That means nothing if you have not been there.  I was and it was a beauty.  The hole was not a dog leg right. It was a right angle!   Okay, here it is below:

# 4 was 335 yards.  What you don’t see here is the fence.  It was along the right angle at the turn of the fairway.  I always felt good if I could get it around the end of the line extending from the tee box to the fairway around the corner.  I didn’t always do that.

On this day, Brother Tim Petty took it upon himself to aim over the trees and over the fence and go for the green.  The next photo gives a representation, of where the fence was and the flight of Tim’s ball.  It was the best shot I ever witnessed at New Salisbury.

It was amazing.  Thank you for that memory, Brother Tim.

My best shot?

5 pars and 4 bogeys.  I was playing by myself.  But I did it.  Under 40 for nine holes at New Salisbury National.  Best thing was making par on the final hole to seal it. Yes, I circled my pars.

The Masters is going to fun in a couple hours!

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Carrie and I were not at church this Easter morning.  We were having our own worship service in the car hurtling from Charleston, WV to Depauw.  We made it safely.  On the trip Carrie and I talked about Easter traditions from our childhoods.  Seeing folks miserable in ties and fancy shoes.  Having Easter egg hunts.  Listening to the choir sing “Up From The Grace He Arose!”  That is still one of my favorites.  Also a lady at the church getting on a couple of guys for eating all the deviled eggs.  No, I was not one of the guilty ones.  Neither were they, they liked their eggs.

I miss it.  I think I miss childhood Easter services and the things that surrounded those times more than any other particular holiday.  Easter is special.  Death and Resurrection.  That is Amazing Grace like no other.  Thanks be to God.

Our world needs some grace right now.  That seems to be at premium these days.  Blame is quick.  Grace is hard to find.  We’re on the wrong side of history.  I don’t know how else to explain it.  If it doesn’t get better for us, the ones reading about it in a hundred years will be glad they learned from our mistakes.  I have no doubt about that.

On the way home from the coast, my dear wife, Carrie, and I stopped in Mt. Airy, North Carolina.  The Andy Griffith Playhouse now holds the Andy Griffith Museum.  We took some photos and enjoyed the visit.

This is a photo of a place about ten miles south of Mt. Airy.  It is Pilot Mountain.  Of course we know that Mt. Airy is where Andy Griffith was from and was the place that was his the inspiration for Mayberry.  And Pilot Mountain, is, of course, Mt. Pilot on the show.

These are the actual signs that were affixed to the doors on the show.  Sheriff and Justice Of The Peace.  Pretty darn cool.

This is one of Andy’s uniform shirts he wore on The Andy Griffith Show.  What is the flaw?  The top button should not be buttoned, of course.

The phone, the chairs, and other stuff from the original set.

One of two TV Land Statues dedicated to The Andy Griffith Show.  The other is in Raleigh.

And…

While sitting next to the Atlantic, I read this book about the 1967 Indiana University Hoosiers Football Team.  It is the only Hoosier team to make it to the Rose Bowl so far.  The year before they were 1-8-1.  In 1967 a miracle season happened in Bloomington.  This book chronicles it very very well.  It was a meaningful read.

Thanks to the author Michael S. Maurer for caring about this place in time enough to share it in earnest.  I will read it again one day I know.  Probably before the season.  This book gives another reason to believe…something I began doing the day IU named Coach Allen to the position of Head Coach.  I said it here.  I have seen the Rose Bowl stadium.  The Hoosiers will be there in the next five years.  The sooner the better.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

That sounds like the name of a soap opera.  As The Coffee Brews…my apologies to As The World Turns.

It is morning in Surf City, NC.

I took this picture a few minutes ago.

Time flies.  It is Thursday already.  I’m not shocked.  It happens every time we come here.  You turn around a couple times and it is time to pack the car to head back.  I’m not complaining.  I am thankful we found this place and come back for a visit when we can.

Though we missed Pastor Duke at Faith Harbor on Sunday, he is in Raleigh now, Pastor Jodi gave a fine Palm Sunday message.  Always nice to worship there.

Yesterday, as the tide was coming in and the light was nice, I told my dear wife, Carrie, I was grabbing my camera (phone these days) and walking down to the pier for some pictures.  It was a wise move.

Under the pier.

The tide coming in.  Brother Tim would probably say all tides roll!

And this is the shot I will sign off with as the coffee is finished and calling my name.  I must say I am delighted with this picture.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Hello group.

It has been a good while since I put on a post.  That 50 posts in 50 days was fun…but…it was not a picnic.  I am delighted that I did it.  If I am smart I will terminate this site around the 11th month after turning age 59.

My dear wife, Carrie, and I are in North Carolina for the week.  I can say this…it has been chilly for sure.  The last two days we have taken advantage of the cooler weather to go out and do some looking to the North of home base and looking to the South of home base.  It has been good fun.  Tomorrow the temperature is to climb high enough to spend the day comfortably on the porch to read.  The next day we will probably be sweating.  If a sun burn is to be had, it will be then.

Our old Buddy Carl is with us.  Here we are climbing a bridge to Cedar Isle where you can put your car on a ferry boat and ride to Ocracoke.  Carrie and I did that many years ago.

This is the bridge we were about to climb.  At the top we stopped and it was so windy I thought my car door was going to come off it’s hinge.  There was no one else around so we stopped and took a few pictures.

As I said, the wind was unreal.

On the way back from this excursion, a 103 mile trip to as far as we could go without continuing by boat, they call it the southern Outer Banks, we stopped by our favorite fish market and did quite well.

The folks at Thomas Seafood never disappoint.  This is a new sign.

We always get flounder and shrimp.

The fifth tub down has the flounder in the bag.  They pull out a fillet and you say  “we’ll take two.”  They are huge.  We get the large shrimp.  Jumbo shrimp is just too oxymoronish for me.  Large shrimp is bad enough.

The fillets are snipped into smaller pieces.  Yes, that was two fillets.  And there is a modest amount of shrimp.  Carrie does not eat them.  But man can she prepare them!

Oh my yes!  With apologizes to Alton Brown, there are good eats!

Just the two of us are here for this stay.  We are in an old missile tower.  Tower 5.  We are in the first two floors of the white structure.  It was used in the 1940s as one of the towers used to observe missile testing off the shores.  You could look it up.  Project Bumblebee is what it was called.  The first guided missile testing in American History was here.  This place changed the history of aviation and warfare.  Solid fuel boosters began here and eventually found their way to the Space Shuttles.

There is one room on the lower floor that acts as living room and kitchen.  Upstairs is the bedroom and nice balcony to look out at the ocean and read a book or write a song.

Today we went to Wilmington.

This is the courthouse that was used for the exterior shot of the courthouse for the TV show Matlock.  I can hear Andy Griffith’s character now as he raises his arms…”And all the time, you knew better.  You knew that….”

Me and Carrie with the Battleship North Carolina behind us.

Camp Lejeune is not far away.  These Ospreys made quite the noise flying overhead in Wilmington and were neat to look at.

The River Walk in Wilmington.

It is cool and cloudy today.  The forecast is better!

Speaking the rights from the North Carolina Shore…

Danny Johnson

Feels odd not making this post 50 years in 50 days…those days are gone.

I just listened to the SET LIST of a LIFETIME….

My dear wife, Carrie, made me a set list of songs by some of the artists we have seen over the years and put them on 2 cds.  She had a little help from her friends.

Carrie and I have been fortunate enough to witness a great deal of live music over the years.  Folks may think I am only a Moody Blues fan…this will dispel that.  All these songs are important to me.

1. Centerfield…John Fogerty.  We saw John twice in 2016.  He was amazing.  This song was a hit when I was in high school.
2. When You Say Nothing at All…Allison Krauss.  We have seen her a couple of times at the Louisville Palace.  She opens her mouth and magic comes out.
3. Small town…John Mellencamp.  He may not like to sing it…but we like to hear it.  Wish he and Seymour would make nice.
4. A Love as True as Mine…George Strait.  Saw him in Louisville on The Cowboy Rides Away Tour.  Glad we made that one.
5. Drops of Jupiter…Train.  We will see in Train in May in St. Louis.  I cry when they play this tune.  It reminds me of my Granny.
6. My Heart Goes On…Celine Dion.  In 1999 Celine was HOT!  Great show in Cincinnati.  One of the best concerts I have ever been to.
7. One Kind of Love…Brian Wilson.  Doing the 50th anniversary of Pet Sounds.  Brian had Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin with him.  Unreal.  Great song from his latest album.  Greatest love song I have heard in thirty years.  I was a mess listening to this live.
8. And I Love You So…Don McLean.  Heard him sing on the football field at Providence High School.  Talk about a great fund raiser.  He is an American icon and I got his autograph that night.
9. He Went to Paris…Jimmy Buffett.  Saw him at Deer Creek in 1999.  Great fun and great show.
10. Be…Neil Diamond.  Glad we saw Neil last April.  He is no longer touring.  Great song.
11. You Found Me…The Fray.  Saw the Fray at SPAC in Saratoga and at Bridgestone Arena opening for Train.  Great group…great song.
12. Do you Believe In Love…Huey Lewis and The News.  Carrie and I saw Huey in Vegas in 1996 at the old Showroom on our Honeymoon.  I was so glad to see him.  We saw him a couple more times later down the road.
13. Your Song…Elton John.  Listening to Elton was like listening to the soundtrack of a generation.
14. The Wind of Heaven…Justin Hayward.  I heard this last February in Lexington.  I took my dear Carrie and my Mom and Dad to the show.  As usual, Justin did not disappoint.  And I got to see my friend Julie Ragins perform.  She too is awesome.
15. Roll Me Away…Bob Seger.  After never thinking we would ever see Bob Seger, Carrie and I saw him in 2006, 2011, 2013, and last September.  He is an American Treasure that gets treated like a comfortable piece of furniture.  He is the American Rock and Roll.
16. Love is What We Do…Clint Black.  He did a great show at Deer Creek in 1996 with Trace Adkins and The Kinleys.  Beautiful song.
17. New Horizons…The Moody Blues.  I played the Red Rocks Live version of this at a friend’s funeral in 1997.  It was the right thing to do.  A special song made more special.
18. Thinking Out Loud…Ed Sheeran.  I think I am getting a message here.  This is the only artist on the set list we have not seen.  I think Carrie is telling me something.
19. You’re My Home…Billy Joel.  Saw Billy and Elton John on the same stage.  Surreal times.
20. Not sure of the title…Mike Dawes…As soon as I hear the guitar licks, I knew it was Mike Dawes.  That is the important part.  Like Julie Ragins, he plays with Justin Hayward and does an AWESOME job.  Look at Mike Dawes in Youtube.  Hold your jaw before you start watching.
21. This Girl is On Fire…Alicia Keys.  Saw her in Greensboro on the way home after Spring Break a few years ago.  Smartest thing I did that year.  Wow.  My kids at school thought I was much smarter when I told them that.
22. I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends…Pat Monahan (Train) Matt Mathanson, Isaac Slade (The Fray)…Maybe the greatest live performance of one song I have ever witnessed.  They gave it all they had and loved it so much you could tell they did not want to song to end.  This was in Nashville in July 2015.  Wow.
23. Nights in White Satin…The Moody Blues.  My dear wife is smart lady.  She too enjoys The Moodies.  She knows what is important!  This is a timeless classic.
24. Maybe I’m Amazed…Paul McCartney.  I remember the noise she made in 2002 the first time we saw Sir Paul when he played this song.  I thought she was going to faint.  Who could blame her?  We saw Paul four times.  I doubt we see him again.

That is the set list of a lifetime.  Thank you, Carrie.  I was shocked to find this collection.  I Love You!

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson