Coffees and herbal teas, as well as a fascinating collection of knives and swords are among the amenities at the coffee and book shop.(Photos by Owen Stayner.) (click for larger version)

 

I’ve always been curious about the occult world, mostly because of my grandmother. Though a devout Baptist, she had a mild flirtation with metaphysical culture. My grandmother claimed to have seen her mother’s ghost wandering around the backyard on a few occasions, and had personal clairvoyant readings performed by famed psychic Edgar Cayce, who operated a photography studio in Selma, Alabama, (our home town) from 1914 to the early 1920s. She even owned a silverware pattern that featured what appeared to be the head of a pagan deity on each piece. Whenever her grandchildren spent the night at her house, she would set aside her National Enquirer and assorted Hollywood tabloids after dark and pull out a deck of tarot cards to read our fortunes.

So when I heard about a “psychic fair” at a Southside coffeehouse and bookstore called Books, Beans, and Candles (“Alabama’s largest Metaphysical Coffee shoppe”), I couldn’t resist a Saturday afternoon visit. Inside, a half-dozen psychic readers were set up on both floors of the shop divining (fortune telling is the more familiar phrase) via several methods: spreading tarot cards, throwing runes (wooden or stone objects with ancient alphabetical letters on each), reading auras, doing past-life regressions, or performing geomancy (a method of divination that involves interpreting patterns formed by tossed stones). I had two readings done, one each with tarot cards and runes. The special fair price was $10 for 15 minutes. Both readings had eerie similarities, and the rune tossing mentioned a recent inheritance (I had recently inherited my grandmother’s mystical-looking silverware).

A few days later, Books, Beans, and Candles shop owner Mitchell Hagood sat down with me to expound upon metaphysical culture. He was quick to point out that the capacity to divine psychic readings is not as selective as one might think.

“What’s amazing is everybody has the ability, but some people are more gifted,” Hagood says. “It’s the ability to tap into it, to let things go and understand that there are so many different things that we just don’t understand or why it works. There’s a conscious energy out there and one can tap into it, but it takes a lot of studying.”

Jackal-headed Egyptian deity Anubis is prominent throughout the shop. (click for larger version)

 

Books, Beans, and Candles opened in 2007 next to Zydeco, on 20th Street South. A year later it moved up the street to its present location at 1620 Richard Arrington Jr. Blvd. South. The swords mounted on the shop’s walls are from Hagood’s personal collection. A few are for sale. “I love swords. I love medieval antiquities,” he admits. “In our group, most people are pulled to the medieval concept. It’s sort of ‘get back to your roots,’ but I do like indoor plumbing. Some people go, ‘Oh, cool! It’s a castle.’ I don’t want to live in a castle.”

Statues and images of Anubis, a jackal-headed god associated with mummification and the afterlife in Egyptian mythology—here dubbed the “patron god of the shop”—are scattered throughout. The coffee- and bookshop has a community vibe, as a place where regulars gather to discuss a broad range of topics. “It was not the intention. That was not my plan,” Hagood explains of the “gathering place” nature of the store, where psychic readings are performed for a fee throughout the week. “I planned on going home at seven o’clock every night, not sometimes one or two in the morning. But because of that, it’s definitely been more fulfilling. We all have our callings, I guess.”

Hagood says that the psychic fairs that Books, Beans, and Candles holds twice a year are designed to give curiosity seekers a taste of what a metaphysical store has to offer. “Psychic fair readings are quick. Most readings [typically] last 30 minutes to an hour,” he says. Some seeking readings become emotional during the process. “People sometimes cry. One thing I do with my readings, when I see something bad that they’re about to go through, my whole point is to tell them, ‘You’re doing this so you can change,’” he explains.

The shop draws an eclectic clientele interested in exploring various forms of spirituality. “Everyone comes to the [metaphysical] community in different ways. Everyone has their own path, their own set of beliefs,” the shop’s owner says. “How you grow up ends up shaping you, what you believe and how you believe it. Some people have these epiphanies, this enlightenment. Mine started when I was five. Certain events made me start questioning things. It wasn’t until much later that I knew there was a term for it, whether you want to call it Wicca or witchcraft or paganism. I’m part Cherokee, so I got really in touch with my Native American heritage. Nature always seemed predominant in everything I did, that connection, that feeling I get when I’m in the woods and things.”

Hagood also embraces Celtic tradition, which explains why “the shop has a little more flair to that side.” Besides pagans, the store attracts Hindus, Christians, Muslims, and even atheists. “You can walk into our shop and ask [patrons] what they believe, and you’ll get a different answer from every single person in here,” he says. “Here, we’re very much about individual spirituality. The beauty of our shop is that everybody is welcome. We’re intolerant to intolerance.”

Hagood describes tarot, which employs a deck that usually consists of 78 cards, with some depicting “virtues, vices, and elemental forces,” according to most definitions. “What seems to be random is not really random,” Hagood explains, referring to the patterns that emerge from a spread tarot deck. “If one believes there’s an order to the universe, then things happen for a reason. Or could it be our brains trying to view things in an orderly fashion? How do we know?”

Dragons—also the mascot for UAB—adorn the shop. (click for larger version)

 

He explains the tarot divination process: “After the deck has been shuffled [by someone receiving a reading], the cards are laid out and the pattern of the spread cards gives a pertinent reading,” Hagood says. “And you know what? Sometimes I miss. And if I’m off, I’m off, man. Sorry. I don’t always charge you for it, because I missed it. But it’s rare. I’d say, probably in four years, [I've missed] twice. But integrity is extremely important. Our psychic readers are phenomenal. Everybody who reads [tarot] here gets tested. My reputation’s on the line. When someone walks in and they get a reading, I want to know that it’s a good reading.”

The testing of readers is done yearly by Hagood and his wife, Willow (the name she uses to give readings). “When I test somebody, I hand them the cards and say, ‘Go.’ I just sit here, no facial expressions, nothing. And the reader has to do a complete reading for me,” Hagood says. “And if you get it right, good. And if you don’t, go back and practice more. And I don’t mean get it close. They have to get it perfect. If they don’t, they don’t read. Everyone here has been perfect, freakishly on the money. Then you get up and do it for my wife, and she’s probably harder [on readers] than I am.”

All readings are confidential. “Readings are very private. It’s weird. I won’t say we’re therapists, but we treat divination in a lot of the same ways,” Hagood says. “When I do a reading for you, I don’t talk about it to anyone else. Trust me, I’ve had readings like, ‘Boom boom . . . you’re having an affair.’” There are certain areas into which he will not allow his readers to inquire. “We’ve had people ask, ‘My son’s committed suicide, is he in heaven?’ That type of reading will not be done here because that person needs professional help to deal with this anguish.”

A reader known as Skagi reads tarot a couple of nights a week at the shop. He came to the psychic world trying to prove a friend had been misguided by bogus tarot readings. He soon changed his opinion. “I was trying to call b.s. on the guy but the more I looked into it, the wider the scope became and the more things made sense,” Skagi admits, then adds, laughing, “and I’m still trying to prove that he’s full of b.s” A reader for nearly 20 years, he discussed the awkwardness of sharing divinations that carry a gloomy forecast.

Objects affiliated with psychic culture enhance the store’s metaphysical aura. (click for larger version)

 

“Each client is different and part of the skill is knowing that difference and understanding it and providing it in the most compassionate way,” he says. “In all the years I’ve been reading I’ve never seen: ‘Oh my goodness! You’re going to die next week.’ But there are times when I look at the cards and I have to go, ‘OK, this is not going to end the way you want it to end. Sorry. Let’s see what it has to tell us about how to manage that.’ I don’t believe in destiny in the sense that a lot of people think of it. If you see a card in a position of final outcome, well, that’s not the final outcome, it’s a potential outcome. It’s basically a way for folks to look within themselves and to either handle what may be coming or to prepare for it, or to make changes so that it doesn’t.”

Lilith has been giving readings for friends for a decade. “I didn’t start doing it more publicly until maybe five years ago, unless you want to count what I was doing in high school. I had some playing cards and I just took the face cards out and told some people a few things based on whatever they drew out of it.”

Tarot readings and other forms of sortilege have become popular as entertainment for groups seeking fortune-tellers, including clientele as diverse as the McWane Science Center, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Talladega Superspeedway.

“One of the main requests we’ll have is, ‘I want a psychic reader,’” Hagood says. “At [a recent gig at] the McWane Center, I was thinking it’s going to be teenage girls. Ha! There were more women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s there seeking readings.” A NASCAR race was the oddest location ever requested for a divination, Hagood says. “A lady called me and said there’s a corporate event at Talladega looking for a tarot card reader,” he recalls, laughing. “She offered a price and we accepted. Suddenly, I realized, ‘That’s a freakin’ race! Are they insane? That’s 100,000 people drinking? They’re nuts!’ My wife Willow is really good. I sent her but I basically went along as her bodyguard. I was worried about her safety, so I took my gun with me but they confiscated it and gave it back when I left. They had a tent set up, it was done very professionally. I was shocked at how many people were receptive to it. This was the day before the big race, but there were still cars racing on the track. Willow would let the cars go by and then start talking again.”

Books, Beans, and Candles offers psychic readings throughout the week. (click for larger version)

 

“I always tell those who hire us for events, ‘You understand that we will give real readings, we will not give out lies. We’re not going to give fluff out.’ Now, we’ll do our best to make it positive if we can. But if we see it, we call it,” Hagood says.

Hagood says he feels blessed to be where he is, doing what he loves and believes in. “I truly love to come here to the shop. I love the people and I love the conversations. And I mean, you talk about some weird conversations,” he says, laughing. “Society dictates what’s normal and what’s not. The shop’s a special place. You’ll get some flaky people, but who doesn’t? That just adds another persona to the shop.” &

Books, Beans, and Candles, 1620 Richard Arrington, Jr., Blvd. Open Monday–Saturday, 11 a.m.–9 p.m., Sunday, noon–7 p.m. Details: 453-4636, www.bookbeancandle.com.

	Tom Bosley (click for larger version)

Tom Bosley (83)
Actor Tom Bosley, best known as the patriarch of the Cunningham clan on television’s “Happy Days” beginning in 1974 and as the title character in “The Father Dowling Mysteries,” was a portly fellow with a warm stage persona. A Chicago native, in 1950 he opted for the stages of New York City instead of going to Los Angeles to launch his acting career, because he feared he was too short and fat to make it on the big screen. His first major role was on Broadway as populist New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia in the production Fiorello! He also appeared in dozens of popular television shows, including “Get Smart,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Bonanza,” and “Bewitched.” In 2004, Bosley made the Top Ten on TV Guide’s list of the most popular television fathers. In an interview with the publication, he recalled a hilarious anecdote from his earliest days on stage. He had a small role in a play that included Shelley Berman and Geraldine Page, and was busy going over his lines backstage on opening night when he became confused and walked on stage too soon. Page turned to Bosley and said, “Do you mind? We’re doing a play here.”—Ed Reynolds

Stephen J. Cannell (69)
His last name rhymes with “channel,” which is appropriate, because it would have been difficult, from the early 1970s until the mid-1990s, to scan cable or broadcast television without running across a crime drama produced, created, or written by Cannell. His output is daunting: 450 full scripts, production of 1,500 episodes, and about 40 TV series creations or co-creations. He formed his own production company in 1979; in 1986 the prolific writer and producer boasted six shows in prime time on two different networks that year. “The Rockford Files” was the gold standard for smart dialogue and superb ensemble casting. “The A Team” was that mystifying phenomenon in which a stunningly bad, cheaply executed carnival attraction becomes a prime-time success.

Working for Universal and NBC during the 1970s, Cannell knocked out scripts for “Adam-12,” “Ironside, “Baretta,” and “Columbo,” for which he was paid the minimum Writers Guild fee. Thanks to a stipulation in his contract with Universal, however, Cannell could earn a small fortune writing pilot episodes for new series. Along with being a lucrative arrangement, his work in scripting pilots had him consistently thinking in terms of “the new.” Very soon he was simply creating shows from the ground up. “The Rockford Files”, “Wiseguy,” “Silk Stalkings,” “21 Jump Street,” and “The A Team” were among his most successful endeavors.

Although his colleagues (“Hill Street Blues” and “L.A. Law” creator Steven Bochco; “The Sopranos” creator David Chase) reference Cannell’s clever dialogue and prolificity, the most truly remarkable aspect of his career is that he suffered from a serious case of dyslexia. Indeed, Cannell’s personal history was the payoff to one of Paul Harvey’s “The Rest of the Story” entries; television’s most prolific and gifted crime-drama writer struggled daily to spell and read. He was obviously more befuddled than troubled by his condition; that’s him with a twinkle in his eye at the conclusion of each of his shows, tearing a sheet from his old IBM typewriter and tossing it into the air just before the page morphs into a logo for Stephen J. Cannell Productions.—David Pelfrey

	Dixie Carter (click for larger version)

Dixie Carter (70)
A former daytime soap opera actress and stage and cabaret performer, Dixie Carter achieved prominence as one of the four stars of hit TV series “Designing Women.” Her character on the show was an outspoken liberal, offering monologues from that point of view. In real life, however, Carter was a conservative who disagreed with her character’s commentaries. As a result, she made a deal with the producers that she would be allowed to sing a song in a future episode for each liberal diatribe she was forced to deliver. As have several other celebrities, Carter confessed to maintaining an appearance that belied her age by using human growth hormone, known for its anti-aging properties, as well as plastic surgery.—ER

Gary Coleman (42)
A diminutive fellow with a perpetually childlike face that made it difficult for him to find acting jobs later in life, Gary Coleman’s adult life was the typical nightmare that many child stars endure. He suffered from congenital kidney disease, which stunted his height at four feet, eight inches. He underwent two unsuccessful kidney transplants by age 14 and was forced to undergo daily dialysis for the rest of his life.

He was 10 when he landed the role of Arnold Jackson on the TV sit-com “Diff’rent Strokes” in 1978 after having been spotted in TV commercials as a 7-year-old by a talent scout for TV producer Norman Lear. Coleman costarred with troubled child actors Todd Bridges and Dana Plato on the show. (Bridges later served time on drug and weapons charges, and reportedly physically bullied Coleman on the set. Plato died of a drug overdose at age 34 in 1999.) The show was about two black brothers adopted by a white Manhattan millionaire after their mother, employed as a housekeeper by the millionaire, passed away. Plato played their adopted white sister. Coleman’s famous catchphrase was repeatedly asking his TV brother, “What you talkin’ ’bout, Willis?” The show was so popular that former First Lady Nancy Reagan appeared in a cameo to make an antidrug pitch. “Diff’rent Strokes” was canceled in 1986. At that time, Coleman was 18 and reportedly worth $18 million. He soon discovered that he had been cheated out of millions and successfully sued his parents and business advisor in 1989 for mishandling his finances when he was earning $100,000 per episode. He was awarded $1.3 million. By 1999 he filed for bankruptcy, and his life further unraveled as he became increasingly bitter.

Desperate for money, Coleman appeared on a celebrity dating show, worked as a corporate pitchman, and wrote an online advice column. He was eventually forced to take menial jobs. In 1999, he was working at a Los Angeles mall as a security guard. A woman asked for his autograph, whereupon Coleman became outraged and struck her. He pleaded no contest to battery. In 2003, he sought the office of governor of California, finishing eighth, just behind Hustler publisher Larry Flynt. In a frantic grab for a quick payday, Coleman sought public resolution of his 2007 marriage on the TV show “Divorce Court” a year later.—ER

Robert Culp (79)
During the film and TV spy-thriller craze of the 1960s, the James Bond franchise filled theaters, and programs such as “The Avengers,” “Get Smart,” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” dominated television. A familiar face among television’s international men of mystery was Culp’s character Kelly Robinson, a secret agent masquerading as a tennis player, resolving matters of espionage with his partner, Alexander Scott, who posed as his trainer. Scott was played by Bill Cosby, which made “I Spy” the first American TV series starring a black actor. When Culp learned that Cosby was to be cast as his co-star, he balked at the notion—not because Cosby was black (Culp was a civil rights activist, after all) but because he wondered how audiences would respond to a nightclub comedian playing a spy. Because both actors at the time exuded a kind of debonair cool, it was never an issue.

	Robert Culp (click for larger version)

With a glint in his eye and barely smirking, square-jawed features, Culp was a natural as the charming, smarter-than-average playboy, whether on screen in the 1969 sexual mores comedy Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, or in real life at the Playboy Mansion’s poker tables, where Culp held court with his own carefully chosen league of distinguished cads and close friend Hugh Hefner.

In spite of his naturally appealing demeanor (or maybe because of it), Culp often cleverly chose roles in which he could reveal—and revel in—the dark side of the charm offensive. As a corrupt city official, conniving murderer, or all-around jerk, he displayed a casual air of superiority, privilege, and calm exasperation with the fools he was forced to suffer, most notably in three different roles as a suspect in the TV series “Columbo.”—DP

Phil Gordon (94)
Who got the hicks sounding so authentic on “Green Acres”? Give some credit to Alabama’s own Phil Gordon, who—in addition to acting in several episodes—was also the show’s occasional dialogue coach. The Mississippi native was also a recurring presence on “Petticoat Junction” and “The Beverly Hillbillies.” The latter show had Gordon appearing as traveling salesman Jazzbo Depew, who became the first character in TV history to invoke the mythical name of Hooterville. All this was in the aftermath of the jazz musican’s frequent work with TV pioneer Jack Webb, who cast Gordon in both -30- and The Last Time I Saw Archie—both truly classic films that remain unavailable on DVD. CBS later decided to purge itself of all its popular cornpone comedies, and Gordon left Los Angeles for Mobile—where he passed away in June.—JR Taylor

	Edward Kean (click for larger version)

Edward Kean (85)
He had a brief showbiz career, with his main writing and production credit beginning in 1947 with the pioneering TV kiddie hit “The Howdy Doody Show.” That was also when Kean began his career as a songwriter. First, he used the popular tune “Ta-Ra-Ra-Boom-Dee-Ay” for the theme song of “It’s Howdy Doody Time.” People of a certain age can still recite the lyrics by heart, and he lived to see the song used on the big screen for both 2008′s Revolutionary Road and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Kean managed a few more important milestones while writing more than 2,000 episodes of the daily TV show. Howdy Doody, for example, became the first TV character to campaign to become president of the United States. More enduringly, Kean came up with the character of Chief Thunderthud, whose greeting to the kiddies was originally spelled as “kowabunga.” The phrase is now commonly spelled “cowabunga,” of course, and has gone from surfer rallying cry to part of the American language—freshly renewed in the 1980s by both Bart Simpson and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.—JRT

	Art Linkletter (click for larger version)

Art Linkletter (97) was a fixture of daytime television during the 1950s and ’60s, having pioneered unrehearsed audience-participation talk shows on radio and at the dawn of television. The most popular incarnation of this spontaneous format was “House Party” (1952–70), an anything-goes (but resolutely family friendly) program for which there were no scripts. During the “Kids Say the Darndest Things” segment of his show, Linkletter interviewed school-age children, eliciting candid responses (read: unvarnished truth about Mom and Dad) and consequently mining a rich vein of TV gold. The segment quickly emerged as a Linkletter trademark, fostering a series of best-selling books and decades later providing a forum for Bill Cosby. Linkletter was generally associated with kids, having invested in the Hula Hoop, acting as the spokesman for Milton Bradley (that’s Linkletter’s face on The Game of Life’s $100,000 bill), and famously hosting the grand opening of Disneyland in 1955.—DP

	Solomon Burke (click for larger version)

Solomon Burke (70)
“King Solomon” was many things, but shy wasn’t one of them. A massive man, he performed sitting on a throne with a scepter and robe (before James Brown used the latter). Ordained a minister at age 12, he grew up performing gospel music and was recording it, as well as R&B, in his teens. But because R&B was anathema in church, he coined the phrase “soul singer” to describe himself, thus naming a genre he helped define with hits like “Cry to Me” (1962; covered by the Rolling Stones), “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love” (1964; covered by the Stones and the Blues Brothers) and “Got to Get You Off My Mind” (1965). Interestingly, his early 1960s recordings were mostly country, and these influenced Ray Charles to go in a similar direction. In fact, Burke’s “Just Out of Reach (Of My Two Open Arms)” (1961) led to his accidental booking to sing at Ku Klux Klan events by a promoter who didn’t realize he was African American. Burke recalled: “They called the doctor and had him cover my face in bandages and made it look like I had an accident,” and the show went on. He recorded more than 30 albums, acted in The Big Easy, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame in 2001. The man also knew how to hustle: between sets at the Apollo Theater, he would sell food backstage, and he owned a chain of funeral parlors and other businesses (as he fathered at least 21 children, this may be understandable). He also headed Solomon’s Temple: The House of God for All People, a denomination with 40,000 parishioners in almost 200 churches across North America and Jamaica.—Bart Grooms

Captain Beefheart (69)
Once you’ve heard Beefheart, it’s hard to wash him out of your clothes. It stains, like coffee or blood.—Tom Waits

Musicians are often the most eccentric of artists: Little Richard, Sun Ra, David Byrne, George Clinton, Tom Waits. But let’s be honest; the truly insane engineer on the crazy train to Wig City, or the mad pilot flying music’s mystery plane to an even madder planet—that would be Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart.

Musically, Beefheart is a godfather to Guided By Voices, Public Image Ltd, Pere Ubu, Gang of Four, Sonic Youth, The Fall, P.J. Harvey, Tom Waits, and The Flaming Lips, among numerous others. Culturally, he is an underground patron saint for anyone who marches to the beat of his or her own drum. Actually, make that an invisible drum on which tribal spirits pound out the obscure rhythms of a lost, psychotic civilization whose ghosts haunted Beefheart’s desert home. His unique sound was all of that, plus earth-shattering electric guitar riffs, wild vocals, and other cool stuff you might hear along the Mississippi delta, or at a club where John Coltrane is playing, or on Venus. In many instances the voice was the thing. If Howling Wolf is at one end of the spectrum, and Tom Waits is at the opposite end, we find Captain Beefheart at dead center, growling into a withering microphone, fitfully making indecipherable gesticulations while staring vacantly at a stunned audience.

	Captain Beefheart (click for larger version)

Sometimes the more indulgent and experimental aspects of certain Beefheart recordings resulted in wholly off-putting abstraction and cacophony. In other words, the hype and lore concerning Trout Mask Replica, the third album by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, remains a mystery. It is a genuinely awful record that, although revealing the possibilities of music to generations of artists, rarely offers listeners the possibility of a pleasant experience.

On the other hand, Beefheart could corral his instincts for surreal, avant-garde composition toward challenging but truly appealing songs filled with invention, lyricism, and surprise. In that respect, Clear Spot is essential listening. As for what makes his music so forcefully compelling, mesmerizing, or confounding (often all at once) words tend to fail. But words never failed Beefheart. Despite the surface appearance of abstraction and play, the facts and logic in his writing are fundamentally sound. “Magnet draw day from dark, sun zoom spark,” sounds like pure, fanciful imagination, unless you consider how light energy is affected by the electromagnetic force. A perverse sense of humor lies at the core of his lyrics, and the joke is in his saying something nonsensical that eventually establishes its own perfect logic: “The moon showed up and it started to show,” or “my head is my only house unless it rains.”

There’s something deeply satisfying about the fact that language can even do that, yet it’s doubtful that Beefheart could communicate in any other way. Appearances on talk shows and radio interviews, throughout his life but especially in later years, suggested that his weirdness was no mere persona, but perhaps a condition best explained by new advances in cognitive science. Put another way, the syntax and semantics of his everyday language did not differ greatly from those of his charmingly baffling lyrics. Poet and blues singer, desert mystic, underground pop star, or bipolar/autistic genius? The jury is still out.—David Pelfrey

Fred Carter Jr. (76)
Fred Carter will be remembered for his guitar work with Dale Hawkins, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Levon Helm, among many others. A former guitarist with Roy Orbison and Conway Twitty when the latter was playing rock ‘n’ roll in the mid-1950s before becoming a country star, Carter became an in-demand studio musician heard on classic recordings such as Marty Robbins “El Paso,” Bob Dylan’s album Self Portrait, and Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Boxer,” on which he contributed four guitars, including the finger-picking guitar lines that open and conclude the tune. He was personally responsible for attracting such diverse acts as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Band, Neil Young, and others to Nashville for recording. He also was The Band guitarist Robbie Robertson’s guitar mentor when Carter was touring with Ronnie Hawkins and the Hawks, for whom Robertson was playing bass.—Ed Reynolds

	Hank Cochran (click for larger version)

Hank Cochran (74)
Songwriter Hank Cochran wrote Patsy Cline’s first number one hit, “I Fall to Pieces”—the song often referenced as the common thread that attracted a diverse group of people to eventually embrace country music. He followed that up with Cline’s 1962 smash, “She’s Got You.” The songwriter’s early showbiz career included a band with rockabilly legend Eddie Cochran (no relation) in 1954 called the Cochran Brothers, a duo that often opened for country singer Lefty Frizell. In 1965, Eddy Arnold scored a Billboard hit with what many consider to be Cochran’s signature tune, “Make the World Go Away,” a song that Cochran wrote in a mere 15 minutes.—ER

Ronnie James Dio (68)
He had become a joke for many things, including suing a band called Dios. Ronnie James Dio also once threatened an Atlanta rock critic with a curse that would lead to an ear infection. In his defense, though, Dio never really tried to claim credit for inventing heavy metal’s notorious “sign of the horns” hand gesture.

	Ronnie James Dio (click for larger version)

He was a legitimate rock god who could put on a great show far into his sixties. That was as a solo act, although Dio was mostly loved for his long stint with Black Sabbath. He couldn’t be part of the proper band anymore for legal reasons, but he occasionally reunited with his old bandmates as Heaven & Hell—which was also the name of the group’s best album with Dio.

The New Hampshire native also provided vital vocals for Elf and Rainbow over the course of his very long career. Dio’s solo work pretty much defined melodic metal, often in service to Satan. He would have been pleased to know that notorious homophobe Rev. Fred Phelps held a rally after his death to condemn the rock star. He would have been less pleased to have so many glowing obituaries written for him by rock writers who never bothered to see him in concert. (68, stomach cancer)—JR Taylor

Eddie Fisher (89)
MAD magazine used to run a regular feature called “The Mad Library of Extremely Thin Books.” It included Songs I’ve Sung On-Key by Eddie Fisher. The reliably bland Fisher was one of the recording industry’s biggest teen idols at the start of the 1950s. His run of hits between 1950 and 1956 included “Lady of Spain,” “Oh! My Pa-pa,” and “Dungaree Doll.” The Beatles would have probably killed his career, but Fisher managed to wreck his own success in spectacular fashion. It was a major scandal when he left wife Debbie Reynolds for Elizabeth Taylor in 1959. His popular TV show was canceled, and he was dropped from his record label.

Elizabeth Taylor and Eddie Fisher (click for larger version)

 

Taylor showed some support by giving him a role in her 1960 film Butterfield 8, but by 1964 the couple was divorced. Fisher went on to marry Connie Stevens. He kept working and even managed some chart hits though 1967. After that, he was strictly a lounge act for the oldies crowd. His celebrity offspring include Joely Fisher (with Stevens) and Carrie Fisher (with Reynolds). The latter, of course, became an outspoken novelist who did a lot to make Fisher notorious as a lousy father. Fisher responded by embarrassing Carrie with his own private and lascivious details in his 1999 autobiography Been There, Done That.—JRT

	Dale Hawkins (click for larger version)

Dale Hawkins (73)
A lot of people probably thought Dale Hawkins was already dead. His pioneering swamp-rock is certainly—and appropriately—the kind of primordial genius that makes you believe the songs never had a human creator. The Louisiana native first mixed his local influences and admiration for Elvis to create 1957′s “Susie Q.” (Guitarist James Burton provided the vital riff that would lead to the guitarist working with Ricky Nelson and then Elvis.) Hawkins kept recording, but things really took off for him in 1968. That’s when Creedence Clearwater Revival performed an epic cover of his early classic.

The song had already been done by the Rolling Stones and Johnny Rivers, but CCR scored the (edited) radio smash that turned Hawkins from a one-hit wonder to an important early pioneer. By then, he had become a popular record producer, sounding mod while helming hits like the Five Americans’ 1967 song “Western Union.”

Hawkins worked through some drug problems and began a proper comeback with 1999′s Wildcat Tamer. It was his first album of original material in 30 years. He put on great live shows and made a few more strong albums, ending on a high note in 2007 with Back Down to Louisiana. It was always depressing to realize Hawkins was only a few years younger than Elvis Presley would have been.—JRT

	Bobby Hebb (click for larger version)

Bobby Hebb (72)
Hebb was from Nashville, where he played in Roy Acuff’s band and with other country musicians (rare for a black musician at that time). Hank Williams gave him songwriting advice. Then he cut some R&B in New Orleans, backed by Dr. John and James Booker. His huge 1966 hit “Sunny” (which he wrote, and which featured backing vocals by his friends Melba Moore, Nick Ashford, and Valerie Simpson) led to a tour with the Beatles, to whom he suggested that his friend Billy Preston might be a good piano player (Preston played organ and piano on several Beatles hits). “Sunny” has the number 25 position on BMI’s Top 100 Songs of the Century, and has been covered by Stevie Wonder, Frank Sinatra with Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, the Four Tops, James Brown, and 500 or so others.—BG

Lena Horne (click for larger version)

 

Lena Horne (92)
Joining the Cotton Club as a chorus line singer at age 16 in 1933, Lena Horne eventually found her rising Hollywood career stalled after she was blacklisted during the Red Scare of the 1950s. She was forced to return to the nightclub circuit as a result. A high-profile civil rights activist, Horne refused to appear before whites-only audiences while doing USO shows during World War II, and she once stormed offstage when she performed in a mess hall where German POWs had been seated in front of black American soldiers.

Janet Jackson had been chosen to portray Horne in a TV movie about her life, but after Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction” at the 2004 Super Bowl, Horne requested that Jackson be dropped from the role. Horne tolerated performing for white audiences and was known to curse them beneath her breath as she took her bows to thundering white applause, according to her biographer. Most of her film appearances featured her as a singer in an evening gown leaning against a pillar as she sang, an image that became her on-screen trademark. In her 1965 autobiography Lena, she wrote: “They [Hollywoood] didn’t make me into a maid, but they didn’t make me into anything else either. I became a butterfly pinned to a column singing away in Movieland.” The reason she usually appeared in cameos in films as a singer was so that her scenes could be edited out when the movies were shown in the South, where Jim Crow laws stipulated that blacks not be depicted as other than a lower class.—ER

Marvin Isley (56)
The youngest of the Isley brothers, Marvin joined the band as bassist in 1969 and was a part of their 1970s success (“That Lady,” “Fight the Power”). The younger brothers and in-law Chris Jasper performed as Isley-Jasper-Isley (“Caravan of Love,” 1985) for most of the 1980s; Marvin returned to the Isleys proper from 1991 to 1997, after which he was sidelined by diabetes. He and the other Isleys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.—BG

Abbey Lincoln (click for larger version)

 

Abbey Lincoln (80)
Born Anna Marie Wooldridge, Lincoln was accomplished as an actress, jazz vocalist, and songwriter. A striking beauty, she was made for the big screen, and her films include The Girl Can’t Help It, Nothing But a Man, For Love of Ivy,and Mo’ Better Blues. Influenced by Billie Holiday as a singer, she recorded more than 20 albums with some of the best players in the business (Benny Carter, Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, Stan Getz) and for a time was married to drummer Max Roach. Lincoln’s delivery was striking—she projected with power in a speechlike, dramatic manner that was instantly recognizable; Cassandra Wilson and Lizz Wright name her as a major influence. Though unusual for a jazz vocalist (especially for a woman in that sector of the recording business), Lincoln came to write much of her repertoire, especially over the last 20 years.—BG

Teena Marie (54)
Berry Gordy’s Motown label had a tradition of banning artists—both black and white—from their own album covers if the color of their skin didn’t match the music. Teena Marie scored that questionable honor with her 1979 debut. Wild and Peaceful established her as a protégé of Rick James, who first met her in the Motown label’s headquarters. Then at the peak of his powers, the funk-rock genius—and future crackhead—scuttled a planned album with Diana Ross to work with the 20-year-old newcomer. Their duet on “I’m a Sucker for Your Love” was a hit. Marie followed up with a sophomore album that lacked James’ imprint but made her an international success.

	Teena Marie (click for larger version)

Her next two albums showed the multi-instrumentalist taking control of her own career. Typically, this led to friction with Gordy. Marie ended up successfully suing Motown after he refused to release her fifth album. She ended up on the Epic label in 1984, and spent the rest of the decade plying a likable mix of funk, rock, dance, and pop. She wisely took a break at the start of the 1990s, and during her absence was widely sampled. her ballads for both labels were also rediscovered as part of a Slow Jams revival.

She couldn’t get signed to a major label that decade, but began a proper comeback with La Doña (2004). Congo Square (2009) showed impressive sales on the R&B charts, even as Marie began to experiment more with jazz. It was a shock when she was found dead by her daughter on December 26. She still lived pretty long, considering her early association with a psycho like James. Marie was smart not to marry the guy after they were briefly engaged. Ike Turner also used to talk about hooking up with Marie for a new variant on an Ike & Teena Revue—another bullet dodged.—JRT

	Teddy Pendergrass (click for larger version)

Teddy Pendergrass (59)
One of the most powerful (and sexiest) voices in R&B, Pendergrass became famous as lead singer with Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes in the 1970s (“If You Don’t Know Me by Now,” “The Love I Lost”) before leaving the group to start a successful solo career that included five platinum albums). He was competing with Marvin Gaye in popularity when in 1982 he suffered a spinal cord injury when his brakes failed and his Rolls-Royce crashed; he was paralyzed from the waist down. He continued to record, but apart from a few brief appearances, it was 20 years before he was able to do shows again.—BG

Billy Taylor (89)
Jazz has not had a better spokesman than Dr. Billy Taylor, and not many better musicians. A brilliant pianist (his mentor was Art Tatum) whose focus on harmony influenced numerous players in the 1950s, he played first with Ben Webster and then as the house pianist at the legendary club Birdland with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis. He was music director of The Subject Is Jazz (1985; the first TV show about the music), was the first black leader of a talk show band (David Frost, 1969–72) and was an engaging, always articulate authority on jazz, whether hosting NPR’s Jazz Alive or appearing on CBS Sunday Morning for two decades.

A tireless advocate for what he called “America’s classical music,” Taylor founded the Jazzmobile in 1964, which began as a series of free concerts “where he basically dressed up a beer float that drove through Harlem and carried musicians who blew bebop at passersby” (Matt Rand) and now embraces two festivals and several workshops and symposia. Among his hundreds of compositions is “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free,” covered by Nina Simone in 1967, and more recently by Derek Trucks and Levon Helm. “I think of myself in some ways as an urban griot,” Taylor said, “because the griot was someone who was a minstrel; he was a teacher, a healer, kind of a part of the collective memory of the people that he related to and served.”—BG

On Tuesday, November 9, the Birmingham Public Library’s “Alabama Bound Presents” series hosts Pat Duggins, a veteran journalist who has covered more than 100 space shuttle missions for National Public Radio. Duggins, who in the past year was named news director at Alabama Public Radio, is an engaging speaker who will enthrall anyone remotely fascinated by outer space. In his latest book, Trailblazing Mars: NASA’s Next Giant Leap, he examines the financial and technological challenges surrounding notions of flying people to Mars. His first book was Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program. Duggins’ inaugural space-related assignment for NPR was the Challenger explosion in 1986. In a September, 2010, interview with Brevard Community College’s Space and Astronomy Lecture series, Duggins addressed the future of America’s space exploration: “The biggest growing pains for NASA in terms of going on to Mars is going to come along with President Obama’s idea of using commercial space capsules in order to take people to the space station.” His criticism focuses on the private sector’s current rush to compete for manned space missions, whereas NASA is accustomed to testing repeatedly to ensure astronaut safety. For those smitten with space exploration, Duggins’ lecture is not to be missed. His appearance takes place at 6:30 p.m. in the Central Library’s Arrington Auditorium in the Linn Henley Building at 2100 Park Place. Details: www.bplonline.org or call 226-3742.

Rosanne Cash Sings her Father’s Favorite Songs

By Ed Reynolds

Singer Rosanne Cash has lived up to the pressure of being the musician daughter of one of music’s most revered icons, the late Johnny Cash. After touring as a backup singer with her father’s band as a teen, Cash studied English and drama at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where she recorded a demo with future husband Rodney Crowell that launched her musical career. In 1985 she won a Grammy and has since racked up 11 number one country hits. She is regarded as one of the giants of the generation of country stars that first appeared in the 1980s.

	(click for larger version)

Cash’s father once made a list of the 100 songs he wanted her to be familiar with as part of her musical education, including Merle Haggard’s “Silver Wings” and Bob Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country.” Rosanne recorded 12 of the songs in 2009 on the CD The List, which won “Album of the Year” at the 2010 Americana Honors and Awards Show in September. Her duet with Bruce Springsteen, “Sea of Heartbreak,” has been nominated for a Grammy. She also recently penned a best-selling memoir, Composed, which tells of life growing up with Johnny and his second wife (her stepmother), June Carter Cash.

Rosanne Cash will include songs from The List when she performs at the Alys Stephens Center at 1200 10th Avenue South on Friday, October 22, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $40–$60; students $20. Details: 975-2787; www.alysstephens.org for details.

“[Ignite Birmingham 2] is to give people in the city a venue to talk about their passions, ideas, and things that make them excited about Birmingham, in general, or technology,” says Henry McBride, the event’s organizer. Speakers representing a broader range of topics than those included at the first Ignite Birmingham showcase, held this past April, have requested to speak at the upcoming affair. “My favorite was one we had on cancer research at UAB,” McBride says of the first talkfest, adding, “most of them were pretty good.” Anyone who has an idea that they’re passionate about is allowed to propose presentations. “My goal is not to have only one subset of people. I don’t want all tech people or all media people,” says McBride. The speakers are selected both a committee and a public poll prior to the event. (The deadline for requests to speak at the August forum has passed.)

Wade Kwon, a local writer and currently a popular blogger whose résumé includes a decade at the Birmingham Post-Herald and a couple of years at Southern Living magazine, as well as being founder of the present Birmingham Blogging Academy, spoke at the first Ignite Birmingham event. Kwon says of Ignite Birmingham: “[It's] a great breeding ground for ideas for the community, and for the world, at large. Last time we had an age researcher, someone talking on economics, someone on government, someone talking on the Slow Food movement, someone talked about Ben Franklin, and other topics . . . The goal is to get the best, most diverse mix list of speakers possible. Each slot is only five minutes long, so you can get 15 speakers in and still have it be a reasonably short evening.”

Ignite Birmingham started in January 2010, though the “Ignite” idea has been around for several years with events around the country. According to the Ignite Birmingham “mission” statement, the notion of “Ignite” was inspired by Pecha Kucha, a Japanese concept “where speakers are given 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds, giving each speaker 6 minutes and 40 seconds of fame.” The first Ignite took place in Seattle in 2006, “and since then the event has become an international phenomenon, with gatherings in Helsinki, Finland; Paris, France; New York, New York; and many other locations.” Wikipedia says that Pecha Kucha is “the onomatopoeic Japanese word for the sound of conversation. The equivalent English term is ‘chit-chat’.” The best element of Ignite Birmingham, as based upon the philosophy of the founders of the “Ignite” notion, is simple: “Enlighten us, but make it quick!” &

Ignite Birmingham 2, Thursday, August 19, 6 p.m. Matthews Bar & Grill, 2208 Morris Avenue. Details: www.ignitebirmingham.com.

Some people like improv music—which could be described as music in real time—though many tend to hate it. Nevertheless, Birmingham is home to two of the most revered artists on the international improvisational scene, Davey Williams (guitar) and LaDonna Smith (violin), who have performed free-expression improv for more than 30 years. In Birmingham the month of August will be devoted to the spontaneous sounds of the 2010 Improvisor Festival, a four-week celebration of 30 years of improv music from the area.

Percussionist/composer Andrea Centazzo, violinist LaDonna Smith, and guitarist Davey Williams. (click for larger version)

 

 

The festival will take place in several cities in the Southeast, with satellite performances nationwide, throughout August. Birmingham will host its share of gigs at various venues, including WorkPlay, Bottletree Café, Pepper Place venues, including the Farmers Market, and Bare Hands art gallery.

“This is really esoteric stuff, very cutting edge,” says Lee Shook, assistant executive director of the Improvisor Festival, though he readily admits that the cacophony of sound can sometimes put nerves on edge and prompt eyes to roll. But he offers a more refined observation: “Improv has a lot to do with the idea of aleatory music [or 'chance music,' according to Wikipedia] that John Cage developed in the early half of the 20th century.” (Aleatory is derived from the Latin word alea, meaning dice.)

Ut Gret, who will be performing at this year’s festival. (click for larger version)

 

 

“Aleatory music is the idea of spontaneous composition where people are literally composing music with no idea or preconceived notion about what the music will be,” says Shook of the basic philosophy behind improv music. “A lot will think, ‘This is a bunch of racket, this is a bunch of noise.’ And some of it can be like that. It depends on the players, it depends on the personalities involved. To some people [improv] can be quiet and gentle and like looking out over the ocean at dusk.”

In the 1980s, Williams and Smith began publishing The Improvisor, a newsletter dedicated to the genre that currently exists only online (www.the-improvisor.com). It established Birmingham as hallowed ground for cultivating improv music, art, spoken word, and dance.

“It began as a little four-page, Xeroxed mailout that went out to fellow musicians and artists in the genre of free improvisation,” says Lee Shook. “Improv is really a remarkable contribution that Birmingham has made to progressive art and music in America.”

Improv is complete freedom of expression. “Like with Davey Williams [who, at age 19, played guitar with blues great Johnny Shines], if he wants to throw in a blues lick, if he wants to quote an old Robert Johnson song in the middle of someone playing a theremin—it’s whatever,” says Shook. “It’s putting together all these interesting combinations of people, which is what we’re doing. We’re going to have Oteil Burbridge from the Allman Brothers playing with Davey and this guy Chris Cochrane. He used to play with Davey in Curlew, one of the great avant-jazz funk bands. Those guys could smoke!”

On Friday, August 6, Grammy Award–winner Henry Kaiser will perform his world–renowned guitar experiments. Kaiser has performed on soundtracks for Werner Herzog films and is one of the key members of the U.S. Antarctica Dive teams that film footage for underwater sea life in Antarctica for National Geographic and Animal Planet. Colonel Bruce Hampton of the Aquarium Rescue Unit will also perform, with the Shaking Ray Levis, who describe themselves as an old-timey, avant-garde synthesizer and drums duo. Shook explains that Hampton might do anything from playing incredible guitar to spoken word, to “riffing on some vocal technique.” Visit www.the-improvisor.com for performance schedules and festival details. &