“Take Me Back Home (Mother Road)” February 16, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music.add a comment
Here’s an apparently new song about Route 66 by musician Eric Dwayne. It’s so new, he hasn’t posted it on his MySpace page yet.
I haven’t found out much about Dwayne, other than he was relocating to Missouri in late 2011, according to his Twitter account. Maybe moving to the Show-Me State inspired him to write about its most famous road.
Singer-songwriter leading a Route 66 tour February 5, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Events, Music, Road trips.6 comments
Fred Eaglesmith, a veteran singer-songwriter whose tunes have been recorded by Miranda Lambert, Toby Keith, Alan Jackson, and other musicians, is the headliner for a Route 66 Tin Can Caravan on the Mother Road in September.
A few details about the tour from the website:
An eighteen-day road trip down Historic Route 66, from Chicago to LA with roots rock icon Fred
Fred Eaglesmith
Eaglesmith at the helm. Fred and his band in their bus. A chartered motorcoach for Fredheads and friends. Others in vans, campers and vintage vehicles. And – if sufficient demand – a full-fledged Nashville tour bus for fans desiring the Fantasy Tour experience! Folks coming for the whole tour or part. Guest musicians hopping aboard for a few days. At least one show daily -public or private- in every state traversed by Route 66. Be a part of it. It’s going to be wild.
Among the guest musicians participating include Robbie Fulks, Audrey Auld, Jon Dee Graham, Mary Gauthier, and “maybe more.”
A full journey down the Mother Road with Eaglesmith’s gang will cost nearly $4,300, and partial trips range from $989 to $1,289. The fees include admissions, one meal a day, lodging — the whole works.
And the Route 66 tour looks like is going to be the real thing, and not a fly-by-on-the-interstate operation. Here are the things planned:
- Visits to the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame & Museum and the Pontiac Car Museum in Pontiac.
- Lunch at the Palms Grill in Atlanta, Ill.
- Visit to Henry’s Rabbit Ranch in Staunton, Ill.
- Barbecue and private show at the Elbow Inn in Devil’s Elbow, Mo.
- Light-night jam at a fire pit at the Munger Moss Motel in Lebanon, Mo.
- Dinner and private show at Cafe on the Route in Baxter Springs, Kan.
- Visits to the Coleman Theater in Miami, Okla., and Afton Station in Afton, Okla.
- Lunch at Clanton’s Cafe in Vinita, Okla., and visiting the Blue Whale of Catoosa, Okla.
- Lunch at either Russ’ Ribs in Bristow, Okla., or Rock Cafe in Stroud, Okla.
- Visit to the Devil’s Rope Barbed Wire Museum in McLean, Texas.
- Lunch at the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, Texas.
- At late-night song circle under the neon sign of the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, N.M.
- Lunch at the Landmark Grill in Las Vegas, N.M., before a show later in Santa Fe.
- A tour of Acoma Pueblo.
- Tour of the Painted Desert National Park.
- Dinner at La Posada’s Turquoise Room in Winslow, Ariz., with a private concert there.
- Tour of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
- Stops at Grand Canyon Caverns and Hackberry General Store.
- Visits to Goffs Schoolhouse in Goffs, Calif., and the Bottletree Ranch near Oro Grande.
That’s only the partial list. Credit needs to be given to the organizers for putting together a remarkably comprehensive road trip.
For those traveling in their own vehicles, organizers also strongly recommended buying the “Here It Is!” map series, Jerry McClanahan’s “EZ 66 Guide,” and Drew Knowles’ “Route 66 Adventure Handbook.”
UPDATE: I got this message from Charlie Hunter at Roots on the Rails, which is organizing the event:
In the next week, we’ll be putting up single-day caravan tickets (generally $59/day, $49 if people type in “CARAVAN” in the code block) for the whole trip (the link to them will be off of the rootsontherails.com website.
This is good to see January 25, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music, People.3 comments
Something I wasn’t sure we’d see again … Harley and Annabelle Russell recently performing in their home base of Erick, Okla.
(Warning: the video contains Harley’s typically bawdy humor … another good sign, actually).
For those new to Route 66 News, Annabelle was diagnosed with ovarian cancer about a year ago. She endured major surgery and months of harrowing chemotherapy. Harley and Annabelle suspended their decade-long act for Route 66 travelers at their Sandhills Curiosity Shop in Erick so he could care for her. The stress of Annabelle’s illness was hard on Harley, too — he lost a lot of weight.
Although she’s improved, she still has to undergo cancer treatments every 10 days or so. Harley and Annabelle still aren’t sure they can see any Route 66 tour groups this season.
But it’s still greatly encouraging to see Annabelle strumming a guitar behind her husband, just like old times.
“Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” January 24, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Music, Vehicles.add a comment
Cage the Elephant, an up-and-coming rock band from Bowling Green, Ky., used a lot of footage from Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, for this music video:
The Nat will become an antique mall January 22, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Businesses, Music, Preservation.add a comment
The Nat Ballroom, a legendary former nightclub on Route 66 in Amarillo, Texas, will be converted into an antique mall that perhaps will eventually include a cafe and movie screen, reported the Amarillo Globe-News today.
The previous tenant’s lease ended in December after nine years. Kasey Robinson, a local business owner, promptly picked up the lease.
According to the newspaper:
Robinson, who owns Nest, with “green goods” of recycled fabric, organically grown cotton and silk and vegan bath and body goods at nearby 2900 S.W. Sixth Ave., has different plans. She wants to turn The Nat into a large antique mall with a museum of old photos of the place’s heyday at the entrance.
The rest of The Nat would be subleased booths to antique owners as well as to artists with paintings, jewelry and other new, used and handmade items. Eventually, she would like to have a small cafe and to use the large construction screen for a Friday night movie screening. [...]
“This is not just another antique mall,” Robinson said. “I plan to support 10 local artists as well. I had hoped to keep it quiet until we were doing the actual remodeling but as soon as one person found out, the emails started coming in, and my phone was ringing off the hook. It’s neat. A lot of locals in the city want to be a part of it.”
The Natatorium, as it is also called, started as a public swimming pool. The pool was covered in the 1930s, and The Nat was converted into a music venue. Acts that have performed there included Cab Calloway, Guy Lombardo, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, the Ink Spots, and Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.
The Nat declined as a performing venue during the 1960s with the arrival of Interstate 40 and the Amarillo Civic Center. It sat vacant from 1982 to 1994, until it became an antique mall by day and a performance venue at night.
A recent photo of The Nat can be seen here.
(Hat tip: Bob “Crocodile” Lile)
The ultimate road-music accessory January 9, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Events, Music, Signs.add a comment
Jess McEntire, a musician and the man behind the Mother Road Music project, is selling charity raffle tickets for a chance to win a custom-made Route 66 electric guitar.
The guitar’s body is fashioned so it looks like the Route 66 shield sign that once graced the Mother Road decades ago. It’s a limited-edition model made by Forrest Custom Guitars in Waverly, Tenn.
Making the guitar even more special is it’s autographed front and back by country-music legend Loretta Lynn. She and McEntire collaborated on the song “Ole Route 66″ a few years ago. (The song can be downloaded for 99 cents here.)
Tickets for a chance to win the guitar are $25 apiece, and can be ordered here. Proceeds from the raffle will be given to the nonprofit Project Route 66.Com Inc. so it can fund a billboard in Nashville promoting Route 66 tourism. The group already has funded a billboard in Hurricane Mills, Tenn., in September.
Here are two close-ups of the body of the guitar, so you can see the handiwork and Loretta’s signature.
I have to admit, I’ve never seen a guitar quite like it.
One of McEntire’s prominent projects is the “Man on a Mission” double CD, which contains a lot of songs about Route 66 and also raises money for the cause.
“Roadflower” January 8, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music.add a comment
This song is by English singer-songwriter Rob Matthew Redhead, aka Gefrin.