Suffering The Benz

I’ve never been a big Dylan fan, and my knowledge of jazz is cursory, at best. But I heard a tune during the jazz show on WUOT the other night and made a note to order the CD.

It’s the best thing I’ve heard since Gillian Welch’s “Time (The Revelator)“. Different, of course, but really ethereal and vast.

The CD is “Jewels and Binoculars: The Music of Bob Dylan.” It’s by Michael Moore (no, not that Michael Moore). This Moore is an American expatriate living in Amsterdam. He plays alto sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, melodica, bells.

I really had to fish around on the Internet to find a place to order a copy. Amazon didn’t have it. I finally found it here. It was worth the hunt.

I really like the bass playing of Pittsburgh native Lindsey Horner. Without his bass backbone some of the tunes would fall apart like a jellyfish in the surf. But it all holds together with a delicate, haunting beauty.

I recommend this one highly …

On weekends, I’ve been taking Xena to the lake early to beat the heat. She’s a Newfie and doesn’t deal well with Tennessee summers. On the way back from Melton Hill Lake yesterday morning, I saw a giant tom turkey a few dozen yards up the road from my truck, across from a horse farm that overlooks the Clinch River. The turkey was scurrying up the road, and I slowed to watch. I swear the sucker was as big as Xena. A fence on the left kept it from escaping, and the turkey finally decided the only way out was to take flight. It was like a C-130 lumbering aloft, clearing the fence and landing in the field on the other side.

Those morning hikes are awesome. No one out that early on weekends, and plent of squirrels, rabbits and geese for Xena to chase. Dew in the grass. And a shot of wild turkey …