Optimism.  That is a solid commodity.  We still need it.  We need it in the tough times we are in.  Seems like folks are having too much fun putting each other down.  We’re better than that, aren’t we?  I would like to think so.  Strange old times we are living in for sure.

One step up and two steps back.  My business feels like that.  I am an educator.  On a National Level that is embarrassing.   One a state level it is tough.  I was elated, for a change, when Indiana leaders said to other leaders that making a high school senior pass the citizenship test given to immigrants in order to graduate was not a good idea.  Miracles are still with us.  So are tests.  That is what got us here in the first place…this education hurdle.

Give them a Civics test!  That is the answer!  No, it is not the answer.

Our kids are tested to pieces.  Our math and English teachers are chasing a test.  Get those standards in or else!

Civility.  Isn’t that what they are getting at when they speak of a civics test?  No, no, no…I am not just talking about people getting along.  I am talking about the civility we have left behind in the age of testmania.

What do I mean?  Employers are clamoring for workers with a strong work ethic, good communication skills, good attendance, and please be drug free!  Amen.  And God Bless you!

Schools have not been able to help this process for a long time.

You’re old Uncle Dan can remember a time when we did not have the GRADUATION EXAM hanging over our heads.  When we were in English class and there was a time for everyone’s voice to be heard about an issue of the day, be it related to subject matter or not, we went around the room and let folks speak their mind and we respected one another and we LEARNED from each other.  We cleared the air.  We made progress as people.  We did not fear that we were missing a standard we would be held accountable for a few minutes of testing.  We were more interested in being accountable for our lives and the lives of those around us.  That is where education as we know has failed its students.

Is it a money issue?  Testing is a BIGGGGG business.  There is a pile of money to follow somewhere.  We don’t do that though.  There just isn’t time.

Politicians never got it.  They won’t. They don’t care enough about kids.  That is obvious. After all, the ones they impose their will on can’t vote yet.  Their parents are too busy trying to put the bacon on the table and who could blame them?   I don’t.

But I do know there is a solution.  Let kids be kids again…not testing robots.  I know I know…the new graduation pathways set forth by the Indiana State Board of Education seem to be getting the point.  But their answer is so verbose and full of hereofs and therefores that it still looks pretty overthought and pieish.  They don’t get it.  Folks like me are just left to deal with their crap at the bottom of the hill.  Now that is speaking the rights!

Did I plan this rant.  No.  But it needed to be addressed.  The last post I made was March 18th, my 51st birthday.  I think this is my longest hiatus on speaktherights.com.  I don’t regret it.

What I sat down here to talk about was the new bridge at Surf City, North Carolina.  The bridge at the header of my page is gone.   It makes me sad.  But the new bridge is something to behold.

Between the the poles in the channel is where this once sat.

The Bridge is behind us in this pic.

My dear wife, Carrie and I spent last week at our beloved Topsail Island, NC.  It is our second home.  We found it together.  It is our place.  Can’t ya tell?

Hurricane Florence was not kind to this area.  Folks at church and at the fish market we frequent told us that 40 percent of the houses on the island are still looking to get ready for summer.  They are a resilient bunch.  The house to the south of us had to be completely rebuilt.  The one to our north needed work too.  So did ours, but it was minor comparatively.

The morning we left, I took this picture.

We’ll be back.  Hopefully I can say that about the sensibility of Indiana’s decision makers one day.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

My 51st birthday is tomorrow March 18th; I am thinking about music.

When I was a kid all I wanted in music was to be able to pick up a guitar and play lead solos like Ace Frehley or Merle Haggard or Don Rich on Hee Haw.  That was the first sound I fell for, the lead guitar.

It didn’t work out that way.  I was nearly thirty when I picked up a guitar to find some purpose in it.

I may have waited too long.  I wish I would have started sooner.  Regardless, I did get around to it and I learned my musical plot in a hurry.  I am a songwriter first and foremost.  I can live with that.  My voice allows me to pull the songs off and I am glad of that.

It is a mysterious thing, songwriting.  I don’t spend time analyzing  it.  Usually, the song comes to me.  I don’t go looking for it.  That is where the mystery is.  No matter, I just thank the Good Lord He gave me an ear for it.  When I write a song the words and the music are there together as one.  I don’t write words and then wonder what they sound like.

As I look forward to having a third CD of songs, 15 again, properly pressed, I have spent some time revisiting my back catalog.  In more of the songs than not, there is an ethereal presence that moves the words and music to better places, be they bright places or melancholy places.  That constant presence is the keyboard work of one Rod Wurtele.

You may know  him as one of The Wulfe Brothers.  Their musical performances have been putting smiles on faces and creating feet to tap and hips to move for a while now.  Still, they seem timeless.  That is what you want from your music.  Justin Hayward said it best, “People want to hang on to the music of their youth.”  Groups like The Wulfe Brothers have that kind of quality.  They bring a youthful optimism.  They are positive, fun, and just plain sound good.  Those are youthful things, right?

So I have had the good fortune to be blessed with a keyboard whiz like Rod Wurtele to play on my songs.

Last Sunday, I reminded him that we started doing this in 2001.  That is the first time I went into Jeff Carpenter’s Al Fresco’s Place Recording Studio to make a proper recording.  Rod helped with that.  He made it better.  And when I say that I don’t just mean it sounded better.  What Rod brings is more than a pressing of the right key here or there.  He listens intently and takes a pride in delicately forcing something out that gives a song so much more light and shade and breeze.  Rod’s playing does that for a song.

Often it is subtle and in the background, but the mood is truly enhanced.  Other times it is quite different and most entertaining.

On one song we did last week, I had to glance over a few times in between banging on my acoustic guitar trying to keep the pace whilst wondering if Rod’s keyboard had stated smoking.  He was getting it!

I know of one song we recorded in 2004.  He played the most beautiful line that melted me.  In the original mix, his keyboard was much more dominant that the final product after some other instruments were added.  Now and again, I still take out that original track out of mothballs and give it a go.  I love it.

In 2016, Rod and my English teaching mentor, Millard Dunn, and I recorded a love song called Thanks for Loving Me.  I wrote it for my dear wife, Carrie.  It will be on the new CD forthcoming.  It is not the most polished of songs.  I say that on my end, not Rod’s.  His playing is spot on.  What makes this song so special is that it was a work in progress when we came together that day.  I planned it that way on purpose.  I wanted to share some creative moments with Dr. Dunn and Rod.  It worked out.  The coolest thing is that the recording on the CD is the one and only time the song was ever played and sung from start to finish.  What you hear on the CD happened once and no other time.

Rod, Dr. Dunn, and myself working through the song.

Best of all, Rod Wurtele is a good guy.  That is one thing I can say about all the recording I have done with Jeff Carpenter.  Save one little run in I had with someone I have not played with in years, making music with the guys has been nothing but a pleasure.  I want to believe it is a compliment to my songwriting.  I doubt that it is.  These guys are just that awesome to play with.

Thank you, Rod.  You are one of the keys to whatever musical success I have found.

God Bless You and Yours!

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

Wow.  Last Sunday afternoon I was at Alfresco Place Recording Studio in Louisville surrounded by surreal talent on both sides of the glass.  I can’t thank the guys enough.  It was a blessing and a pleasure to listen as songs that started in my head and then were written on a piece of paper and played out in original form with simple chords and melodies that forged themselves into a song.

We recorded a song called Long Way Home.  I wrote that one recently.  The first line of the song hit me and I repeated it over and over.  I knew I had touched on something and I ran downstairs and grabbed a pen and a piece of paper.  The final recorded result is as close to what started in my head as anything I have ever recorded.

Songs change and take on a life of their own when you get four or five or, in our case Sunday, six guys playing instruments at once.  Some songs are unrecognizable to their origins and sometimes that is a-okay.  We recorded one of those Sunday too and it worked out fine.  Dan Trisko heard something in a slow, lonely sad ballad that I would have never considered cos I did not hear it.  He took that song and we made it into an uptempo number.  The contrast of the dark lyrics with the peppy tune is awesome.  I thank him.

I thank all of them.  I am so blessed.

Of course I have mentioned Jeff Carpenter here before.  He is a gem.  He gives us enough rope to hang our musical selves and pulls it back when he knows we are in trouble.  He is an musician’s engineer.  He knows what he is doing.  They all do.  And , after twenty years of doing this, I think I have finally found my musical way home.  It has been a long way home.

It starts and ends right here under the careful watch and ear of Jefferson Carpenter, my dear friend.

For me, this is my most comfortable space in the studio.  My Seagull at hand, a music stand full of songs, and mic to sing away.  I feel right at home in this space.

Playing through a tune for Dan Trisko, the one he changed the course of.

Keeping this lot together, Gene Wickliffe on drums.  Solid as a rock.

Gene, Dan on guitar, and Jason Sturgill on bass.

Play it once for Jason Sturgill and you have money.  An awesome bass player. Thank you, Jason.

Dan Trisko did great guitar work and help produce the tunes to give them a distinct flavor to add to the whole album.

Jeff Guernsey and me in the background.

This is the third album I have made.  Rod Wurtele on keyboard and Jeff Guernsey on fiddle and guitar have been on all of them.  First recording with them was 2001.  They have only gotten better.

If you think you can find a better fiddle player than Jeff Guernsey, I will shake my head as you walk away.  He is the best.

And so it goes.  We are working on the finished product.  I am proud of this work.  I could not have accomplished it without these guys, along with the other gents who worked the 2016 sessions John Burgard, Barry King, and John Hayes.  I wrote about those sessions too.

Thank you, once more, Jefferson Carpenter.  Without you, I don’t have a chance to talk to these guys let alone have them bring my songs to better life.  You’re the man.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

I can’t believe it is March 2019.  How does this happen?  Day after day, I suppose.

Last year as I turned 50 years old, I wrote 50 posts in 50 days leading up to March 18th.  No such luck for 51.  I need to get to this spot more often.

Recently I took a few memorable photographs.

Caught the sunset on the way to school on the Tunnel Hill bridge.  I pulled over and took a photo in a hole between the chain length fence.When the light is right, this can be a nice scene for sure.

I took this photo today.  Down the hill is the Blue River and Crawford County in the other side.  I took this from a basement room where I exercise and watch Moody Blues videos!

Above, the main hallway of the high school is much brighter than it was.  Part of a building and renovation project, this place looks much different from the exterior.  The old gym and this hallway are the only things that resemble the old place.  I have no complaints.

The Seagull and the Godin A6 (center and right) got some new strings thanks to my dear friend Danners Goins.  Saw Danners twice in four days this week.  That was refreshing for sure.  The Fender 12 string is a good piece too.  The Seagull and the A6 have been with me most of my musical journey.  They are like old friends too.

I took this as I did some walking last week. There is something about a high school gym in Indiana.  This is one seats 3000.  Indiana has a love affair with their high school gyms.  I know I have said it here before.  Nine of the ten largest high school gyms are in the Hoosier state.

Got a burger at a place called Grind Burger Kitchen in Louisville.  It was our first venture there.  My dear wife, Carrie, and I both had quality vittles.  I had fries with my burger.  She had some doctored up brussel sprouts that were great too.  I give high marks!

On Thursday, I attended the funeral of Patty Hall.  Her husband passed in 2007.  I went to Mr. Hall’s funeral too.  These are the parents of my dear friend, Barry Hall.

This was Barry and me in November before a Regional game in Evansville.

This was Barry walking across the field before the Brownstown Central-North Harrison game in September.

A life-long friend, that is what I call Barry Hall.  Those are not easy to come by.  I am fortunate enough to have a few of these folks in my life and I am blessed for it.

Barry played football for my Dad at BCHS in the 1970’s.  Dad and I drove up to Clearspring for Mrs. Hall’s funeral.  It was a celebration of a full and wonderful life.  You know those when you are there.  No doubts in the air.  Just plenty of love and respect and some sadness of course.  Sadness does not discriminate.

Patty Hall was always wonderful to me.  Whether she was working the front desk of the elementary school I went to in Brownstown, or taking up tickets at a BC ball game, or telling me and Jerry Brown to straighten up if we needed as 5th graders, or asking me how my folks were doing as she was catching me up on her wonderful family.

Patty Hall had a kind and distinct voice.  I am glad the musician in me allows me to remember all sorts of cherish sounds.  In that, I am blessed.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

The photo above is of me and my Uncle Stanley in 2012.

Not sure of as many things as I thought I was not too long ago.

I don’t know if that is experience or doubt or regret talking.  Maybe it is a combination.

The last time I saw Uncle Stanley Chambers in July of 2017, he was in the nursing home room where he died this past week.  During our visit we went back and forth the best we could.  He couldn’t hear very well.  He couldn’t see all that well.  But I do plainly remember a conversation we had that caught me quite off guard to tell you the truth.  But I can tell you I have not forgotten it.

He looked my way and asked, “Danny, what do you think about Donald Trump?”

I kind of thought I was walking into a bit of a trap.  A frustrated Republican, I thought I knew where this was going.  I was wrong.  Nonetheless, I had to answer my Uncle.

“Uncle Stanley, I have to tell you I am not much of a fan.”

There was a pause.  Then Uncle Stanley spoke.  “I don’t care much for him either, anyone who talks about a woman the way he does don’t deserve anyone’s respect.”

At that moment I was somewhere between relief and sadness.  Glad that we were not going to have to tap dance around our belief systems and sad that we had to be considering having to have this conversation about a, (gulp), leader.

Uncle Stanley was a commercial painter in Forest, Mississippi.  I have no doubt he did good work.  He was 89 when he died.  His wife, my Aunt Reat, was there when he passed.

My mother is originally from Forest, Mississippi.  She had sixteen brothers and sisters.

I have said it before.  Living in Indiana so far away from my kinfolk has been a bit frustrating at times.  I’d say there might have been a time when one of them looked to the North and thought I had it made to be up the road.  I truly don’t know.

I do know that I have never had a cross word with any of them.  The precious time we have spent together over the years has been sheer bliss and a source of great thanksgiving.

This is one of my favorite photographs.  My dear wife, Carrie, and my Uncle Stanley hit it off when they met.  I am so glad they did.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

A couple weeks ago I was at Jeff Carpenter’s Al Fresco’s Place Recording Studio in Louisville, Kentucky.  Jeff and I are working on some new recordings.  It has been a work in progress that began with recording sessions in June of 2016.

For me, recording music is a case of I go when I get the call to do it.  After all, I don’t have a great deal of time to do it.  I have never spent much time chasing down a song.  I am fortunate enough to know that the songs usually come to me.

Why I saw some writing on the wall this time around I am not sure?  I do know I have some things planned for later in the Spring performing wise.  Maybe that helped this along.  I just don’t know. But I do know the time is right.

What else do I know?  I am very blessed to have a friend like Jefferson Carpenter to help me realize my musical prowess, whatever there is of it.  The best part of all of this is that Jefferson and I are good friends.  We have a rapport that is priceless.  He pushes and I pull.  On occasion we push and pull in the same direction and POW we have it!  These are great times.

So it is 2019.  The first time I walked into Jefferson’s studio was in 1999 and I was scared to death.  I made one demo.  It was not very good.  But, it was not real bad either.

Eventually, experience and material came together.  We have produced some great sounds since.

Jeff looking over the console. Jeff takes care of business.

It amazes me how a few words on a piece of paper and the chords scribbled over them can turn into a full blown song full of a wall of sound.

This is my favorite spot.  A place to plug in a guitar and sing along.

Re-singing a tune that was already finished.

On March 10, this will be a crowded place with a full band in the house.

Listening to a playback of something is always “interesting” and on occasion it can be a source of great satisfaction.

My dear wife, Carrie, with Jeff and my old friend Jerry Brown.  Jerry loves music.  He is a visual artist and I am giving him a great deal of latitude in creating the cover art for my new CD that will be finished in April.  It will be CD #3 for me.  Charming.

Jerry behind the drums.

Thankfully, the mics were not on!

Looking forward to making some great music again.  The March 10 recording session is going to be one for the record books.  I can feel it.  Good times, indeed.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

There is nothing like the smell of freshly popped corn in an Indiana high school gymnasium with folks filled inside wanting to watch high school basketball.

Recently I visited three gyms and enjoyed the time.  The results of the games I could have done without.  All three of the games ended with the team I was rooting for being defeated.  Still, it was time well spent.

At the New Albany Sectional last week the North Harrison Lady Cats gave their all against a BNL team that is very talented.  I will say it again and I will say it with conviction, the Indiana High School Athletic Association got it wrong by penalizing a public country school for making two trips to the State Finals without winning the championship.  The IHSAA, in its infinite wisdom, has a success factor rule that is asinine.  Wasn’t class basketball enough?  Now this?  No team south of Columbus is going to matter much to Indianapolis.  It is a fact we deal with down here.

Lilly Hatton and Savanna Rhodes ended their high school basketball careers and they will be both remembered and missed.

Thanks for the memories.

On Friday night, Brother Tim Petty and I sat on the top row of the Ron Ferguson Gymnasium at Marengo’s Crawford County High School.  As usual it was a close one.  When these two teams meet on the hardwood, you can throw out the record books.  It will be a tussle.

It was.  Alas, the Cougars were bested.  It was still a good game.  Props go to the announcers Friday night!  Steve Hanger did a great job as the PA man and young sprite from Crawford did a fantastic job with introducing Crawford County’s starting lineups.

This is a great rival game that is enjoyed each year.

Yesterday, my dear wife, Carrie, and I ventured over to Springs Valley High School to watch the first ever Regional game featuring the Lady Eagles from Lanesville High School.  They took on a powerful Vincennes Rivet team.  The Lady Eagles played hard.  I was most impressed by #23 Gracie Adams.  She is a fine young ball player and is just a sophomore.

When I was a younger fella, I played on a North Harrison junior high summer league team.  I made a shot.  I was fouled.  I made my free throw.  I didn’t have many basketball highlights.

The Lanesville team is coached by my friend and colleague, Angie Hinton.  Angie graduated from North Harrison a few years before I did.  She was a great track and field star and a good basketball player.  She has excelled tremendously as a coach.  She led New Albany to a State Championship twenty years ago and she was on the coaching staff at North when they made two consecutive trips to the finals in 2016 and 2017.

Angie took on the Lanesville coaching gig at the behest of an old friend.  It worked out.  Lanesville had the first winning season in over a decade and won its first girls sectional ever.  They had some good coaching.

The guy on the bench there knows a thing or two about basketball also.

Lastly, a Happy 23rd Anniversary to my dear wife, Carrie.

And me, I never get tired of looking at this picture of us in an empty Rose Bowl. I am a blessed man for sure.

Speaking the rights.

Danny Johnson

I need the Rams to win today and the total points scored equal 64 points.  That is what my guess was the contest on Rock Radio 96.3 WJAA the best radio station in America.

I doubt I will win.  I don’t deserve to.

I enjoy football more than the next man.  However, about Tuesday or Wednesday of this past week, I saw a news program on a television in our home whose sound we muted.  On the screen I saw Jared Goff, the LA Rams quarterback.

Oh my, I thought, the Super Bowl is this Sunday.

About ten weeks into the season I was hoping the match-up would be the Rams and the Chiefs.  ANYONE else…just don’t put the Patriots there again.

The Pats are there.  Therefore, my give-a-crap meter is running low.  I am afraid that experience will win out.  But I also remind myself that Tom Brady was a bit of a tater tot when he won his first one. I am sure the St. Louis Rams were favored that day against the Pats   New England won on a last second field goal 20-17.

The last time the Rams, albeit they were the St. Louis Rams, won the Super Bowl, they were playing the game in Atlanta. That was Super Bowl 34 when the Rams defeated the Tennessee Titans.

The Los Angeles Rams have never won a Super Bowl.  The last time they played in one it was played in my favorite stadium

The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Rams in Super Bowl 14 in 1980 in the Rose Bowl.  When my dear wife, Carrie, were pass a football to each other on the field of the Rose Bowl, I pointed out to her that she just caught a pass at about the same spot that Terry Bradshaw hit John Stallworth with an over the should bomb.  That was it.  She was done.  Our game of catch in the Rose Bowl was over.

Go Rams!  And 64 points wouldn’t be too bad either.

Enjoy the game (if you can).

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnson

It has been over a week since I put something here.  That is too long.

If I am not writing here it means I am writing something else.  I can’t be two places at once.

Music has taken my evenings of late to a degree.  I have been writing a few new songs and this weekend I will go into the studio to demo these songs with my friend Jerry Brown in the house.  Jerry is an artist.  I asked if he would design the cover of my new CD that is a work in progress.  I certainly hope we get there.

I saw Jerry and his brother, Harv, and his son, Clay, last week at the Brownstown Central- North Harrison Lady Cat basketball game at BC.

The Brown boys were wrapping up the radio broadcast.  On the right is another dear old friend, Barry Hall.

North Harrison’s Lady Cats went into The Pit at BCHS and dominated the Lady Braves.  It was a great win for NH.

It is always good to enjoy the long drive home.

Before the game I walked out on Brownstown Central’s new turf field for the first time.  The goal posts I kicked on as a kid and teenager were not there, replace by nice new yellow ones.  It was all kind of surreal.  I was out there alone and it was a good thing.  I was kind of speechless.  Between the new stadium going in and now a new field, my boyhood field of dreams is a memory.  North Harrison didn’t beat Brownstown Central 59-0 on that field when I was a junior in high school.  We beat BC on that “space”.  Oh well.  That’s progress for you.

Looking forward to coming back in September to watch the Cougars take on the Braves.

Gulity pleasure.  I wrote this post listening to 1977’s Barry Manilow Live.  I had the LP when I was a kid. Now I have the CD.  Sans the scratches a nine year old kid puts on a record album, this stuff sounds better than ever.  I was all about Weekend in New England over forty years ago and I still love it and I am proud of it!

Now that is truly Speaking the Rights!

Danny Johnson

Jim Mora.  We will never forget him uttering “Playoffs?!” to a media person while he was the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts.

Today the NFC and AFC Champs will be crowned.  Those winners will play in the Super Bowl in Atlanta, Georgia providing there is not a political move to postpone it.  You just never know these days.

In the first game today, the New Orleans Saints host the Los Angeles Rams.  I am for the Rams.  My Granny would not have approved.  I hold a grudge when it comes to NFL and College football.  The Saints beat the Colts in the Super Bowl.  I can’t root for them.

When I was a kid the 49ers beat the Bengals in Super Bowl XVI.  Have hoped for SF to get beat every time since.

If the Saints play the Patriots in two weeks, I might as well watch a marathon of Fraiser.

You can surmise that I hope the Kansas City Chiefs beat the New England Patriots in the second game this evening.  You would be right.  If you know anything of the Indianapolis rivalry against New England in the Peyton Manning administration, you know I will never root for the Patriots.

How cool is it that the two Super Bowls the Giants won with Eli Manning behind center were both against the Patriots.  It is awesome stuff for sure.

Late in the season, I was hoping that if the Colts did not get there, that we would see the Rams play the Chiefs in the Super Bowl.  I will be for the Rams if they get there I think.

Let’s see how things play out.

I am not as avid in my following of the NFL as I once was.  No, it has nothing to do with the National Anthem.  The game has changed and I don’t like it as much as I did.  I remember an article in a magazine in 1979 that led with this: “It’s Bombs Away in the new NFL”.  The reference here was a nod to the Air Coryell offense of the San Diego Chargers.  In 1978 the Chargers quarterback, Dan Fouts, threw for over 4000 yards in the first sixteen game season.  Joe Namath threw for 4007 in 14 games in 1967.

Still, the forward pass was gaining momentum.  Roger Staubach pulled out the shot-gun offense when they needed a big play.  These days most quarterbacks don’t even know what their center’s backside is about.  Maybe that is a good thing.  And, a QB throwing for 5000 yards is no one’s front page news now.

I suppose my heroes are gone.  I root for Eli Manning now.  He won’t play much longer.

At least we have some good games to look at today.  I am going to enjoy them.

Speaking the rights…

Danny Johnsojn