#cemlurk

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While spending time in Tennessee, my priority is usually record hunting. However, Paul’s influence has not been lost on me, and I couldn’t resist pulling into Spring Hill Cemetery, knowing it was the resting place for the likes of Roy Acuff, Jimmy Martin, Earl Scruggs, and, of course, John Hartford.

My initial interest in John Hartford (December 30, 1937 – June 4, 2001) was rooted in the many dollar bin sightings of his albums I had over the years. At some point I took a chance and scooped his 1968 effort, Housing Project, an off kilter not-quite-country-not-quite-bluegrass-not-quite-folk album that gets a bit goofy and even leans into some psychedelic directions at times. Actually, that pretty much describes much of Hartford’s music career, a massive potpourri of everything Americana. His eclectic approach to music is probably what prevented him from becoming a household name, but his musical genius was recognized by his peers (folks such as Chet Atkins, Kris Kristofferson, and Mickey Newbury) and the music industry, as evidenced by his three Grammy awards.

Hartford started off as a banjo player and was heavily influenced by the playing of Earl Scruggs. He was also influenced by life on the river and seems to have been a kind of Mark Twain type of character, even going as far as earning his steamboat operator’s license. Over the course of his career, Hartford became adept at guitar and fiddle and often appeared live as his own one man band. Hartford’s main claim to fame is his song “Gentle on my Mind”, one of the most covered songs in country music history. Glen Campbell made it into a major hit, and the likes of Elvis Presley and Waylon Jennings also recorded their takes. Fortunately for Hartford, his rights to the song made him thousands of dollars every year and helped bankroll his free spirit lifestyle and musical explorations.

When the Byrds decided they were going to go full dive into making a country album, Sweethearts of the Rodeo, the band came out to Nashville to record and enlisted the services of Hartford. He can be found all over the album, playing guitar, banjo, and fiddle. His playing is pretty integral to the band’s sound.  I can’t imagine his appearance on the record won him any new friends in Nashville. After all, the Byrds were vehemently derided by the city’s establishment for their forays into country music.

John Hartford was never considered one of country music's outlaws, but he was certainly one of Nashville's rebels. And while Hartford was quite untraditional, it was done with a respect for, and a nod to, Nashville traditions. Before he died of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2001, he was a mover and shaker at Opryland and worked hard to keep the spirit of Americana alive through his music, something you can hear in his work for Ken Burns’ Civil War.

The dollar bins aren’t as full of John Hartford as they used to be, and I’m hoping this is indicative of growing interest in his music. His work deserves the extra chance to be solidified into our country’s music lore.

- Mike Mannix (guest writer. Mike is a high school teacher and graduate level record collector, who was recently honored as teacher of the year in West Contra Costa Unified School District and once upon a time ran a record label called Ellington Records.)

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I meet my old friend Thrasher- Miguel Angel Cortes- at the end of el Chopo, Mexico City’s youth market. A punk band is playing, and remnants of this market's "tianguis" beginnings can be seen here. Against a backdrop of electrical lines, vendors sell Anarchist zines, DVDs, patches. People carry books and records to sell or trade. Thrasher helped start this market in the 80’s, and it has gone through many transformations since its informal barter and trade exchanges, to the Doc Martens, imitation Joy Division hoodies, and skateboards sold under the tents today. It is unlike anything I’ve seen anywhere, but as Thrasher tells me, it’s boring today, so we decide to go to the closest cemetery. He brings a few people from el Chopo and we walk in the rain.

  Thrasher takes us to the cemetery for famous people, La Rotonda de las Personas Ilustres. He used to come here when he was 15, sit and read Lovecraft at night. It was quiet then, but it's even more desolate now. The government built this cemetery in 1872 as a museum for people who have made significant cultural, scientific, military or civic contributions to Mexico. But then, Thrasher told me, the neighborhood got dangerous, drug addicts and homeless people scared the tourists, so now it's empty. The only other people at the cemetery are guards and some junkies outside the gates. Few people visit, and some of the most famous people from Mexico’s history go unnoticed, like Benito Juarez.

  Benito Juarez was important during the U.S.- Mexican War, in the mid-1800’s. He was Zapotec from peasant origins and became the president of Mexico for 5 terms- but a time interrupted by war, fleeing cities, fighting Napolean, resisting and then expelling the French occupation. Considered father of Mexico’s liberal modern civil society and as a progressive reformer, he is remembered for his fight for democracy, equal rights for indigenous populations, antipathy towards religion and the Catholic church in particular, and being market-driven, a freemason and remarkably short. We sit around his tomb for a while, and then decide to go get some food.

  The cemetery is just up the street from Centro, cars and people, and the sounds of the city are blaring just outside of the empty square. The cemetery feels out of time and space, it definitely is a place to rest.

- Nina (guest writer. Nina played in a band called Rings, organized for Occupy Wall Street, and is working on a film about jainism. Author not pictured.)

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"One of the main reasons I came back to Mexico is because I've found freedom and democracy here, something I never found in the United States. I was branded a Negro in the States and had to act accordingly. Everything I did, including playing ball, was regulated by my color. They wouldn’t even give me a chance in the big leagues because I was a Negro, yet they accepted every other nationality under the sun."

                    - Willie "El Diablo" Wells to Wendell Smith, 1944

Willie Wells was nicknamed "El Diablo" for his relentless play, but his relentlessness wasn't limited to play on the diamond; he spent his entire career doggedly pursuing the pay and respect he deserved. The Devil chased the game all around North America, eventually earning him a unique Triple Crown of sorts - Wells was eventually inducted into the Mexican, Cuban and American baseball halls of fame. Bill James deemed him the 2nd best shortstop to play in the Negro Leagues, and the 86th best player in the history of baseball.

FACTS: Wells played in the Negro Leagues from 1924-1949, winning numerous batting titles and setting the single-season home run record at a time well before shortstops were supposed to hit for much power. He spent his winters in Latin America, starring in the Mexican and Cuban Winter Leagues for 30 seasons. In 1946, Wells found himself snubbed for selection on a Negro all-star team touring Venezuela for a rookie named Jackie Robinson, and the following season, as Jackie transitioned to second base (the Dodgers already had Pee Wee Reese at short), Willie was brought in to tutor him on the art of turning the double play (another nickname for Willie was "Shakespeare of Shortstops"). LEGEND: Wells claimed to be the first to wear a batting helmet, donning a construction helmet to the plate after being hit in the head with a pitch; Wells replaced racist and fellow Texan Rogers Hornsby as the manager of a Mexico ball club, following Hornsby's demand that no black players play for a club that he managed.

El Diablo got his start with the Austin Black Senators (1923-1924), a little-known minor Negro League team that lasted from 1910s-1950s. To celebrate the local history, Austin artist Tim Kerr painted a mural of Willie Wells next door to Wells' boyhood home in South Austin. On a recent visit to Austin, I had the honor of visiting Wells' grave along with Kerr and his wife Beth. Wells was originally buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Austin after his 1989 death before being reinterred in Texas State Cemetery in 2004; he was inducted into Cooperstown in 1997.

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Iosu Expósito was the guitarist and back-up vocalist in Eskorbuto. The greatest band to come out of the Basque country and the reason I got into Spanish punk. They are one of the most influential bands in the Spanish and Latino punk scene. Their lyrics were crude and political.

When I found out Criaturas would be playing in Pais Vasco I made our driver E-dooh take me to his tomb. When we got there I made sure to leave a Todo Destruido sticker along side all the other graffiti written on the glass of his tomb and pour one out. 

Iosu began a treatment to get off heroin and got really weak because of it. After years of being addicted to heroin he finally got clean but died a year later of a heroin overdose. The anniversary of his 1992 death is at the end of this month, May 31.

Here's a heroin PSA he did while trying to get clean.

- Dru (guest writer. Check out her band Criaturas)

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Have a Drink on Sally... These words are inscribed into a drinking fountain found at the Ferry Building in Sausalito, and they forever memorialize the truly indomitable spirit of Sally Stanford. Let's start out by looking at some numbers: Sally Stanford went by 25 different names, beat 17 arrests, survived 11 heart attacks, was married 7 times, took 6 attempts to get voted into Sausalito's City Council, and adopted 2 children as infants. She was also one of San Francisco's most famous madams and later, the mayor of Sausalito, California.

Sally was born Mabel Janice Busby in 1903, dropped out of school in 3rd grade, did a couple year bid in Oregon when 16, and then began to amass wealth as a bootlegger in Ventura, California during her first few years of adulthood. At age 21, she moved to San Francisco, and ran brothels around the city for the next 25 years - hosting many politicians and of course entertaining numerous entertainers. She recalls fond memories of visits by Errol Flynn and Frank Sinatra, but had to give Humphrey Bogart the boot for acting the fool. Stanford was fancy, stylist and unapologetic.  After the United Nations founding conference was held in SF in 1945, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Herb Caen wrote "The United Nations was founded at Sally Stanford’s whorehouse."

After the good ol' days ran their course, Stanford moved across the Golden Gate Bridge into Sausalito and bought a waterfront restaurant called the Valhalla Inn.  She remained a member of high society, and was loved and celebrated by (a lot of) the community.  She ran the restaurant for years, and as mentioned above, eventually became mayor of Sausalito.  Flags were flown at half mast in town when she died in 1982.  

Oh, a couple things I forgot to mention above - one day she randomly picked the name Stanford after hearing a Stanford Cardinal football game, because she thought it had a nice ring to it. She wrote an autobiography called The Lady of the House in 1966, which was made into a tv movie of the same name in 1978. Read more about her wild life here and here and here. 

Sally is buried in a magical cemetery in San Rafael, CA called Mt. Tamalpais Cemetery along with other notable folks such as Quicksilver Messenger Service's Dino Valenti, Hall of Fame baseball pitcher Lefty Gomez, and Indian classical musician Ali Akbar Kahn. Domestic animals are barred from the cemetery, as all wild animals are protected.  I found deer poop all over the place, and scored a deer antler as well. The staff was very helpful when I called ahead to ask for locations of specific graves, and even put a cute package together for me with maps of the plots I needed to look in. 

- Paul