Linky Friday: For the 116th Time…

15 thoughts on “Linky Friday: For the 116th Time…”

1. RIP Roy Clark. Hee-Haw was an important part of my childhood and his enormous smile is one of the primary things I remember. He was also a talented musician and a great ambassador for country music.Report

   1. I obviously re-did the links last night to feature him, I’m not sure how many people know or appreciate just how talented a musician he was, far beyond just country music as well. Could play anything. I didn’t know either, as a kid he was just the guy on Hee-Haw, but as I got older realized more of his musical side. I’m not even the biggest country music guy, but when things like “great guitar players” and such get thrown around there was a contemporary group that Roy was a part of with Jerry Reed and Chet Atkins that seem to get left out and pigeoned-holed as “country” sometimes and don’t get the wider recognition they deserve.Report

      1. You’re absolutely right. Country song writers probably get the most amount of attention due to cross-over. When I was playing bluegrass there was a huge appreciation for the technical side of things, but somehow country never gets the love.Report

      2. I seem to recall that there was an interview with Jimi Hendrix once where he was asked who was the greatest guitar player in the world, and Jimi answered, “Roy Clark.” Glenn Campbell should also be on your list of underrated country players — he started out in LA as a much sought-after session player, part of the Wrecking Crew, with studio credits ranging from the Beach Boys to Elvis to Sinatra.Report

         1. Absolutely. Glenn was another that people know him for the “Rhinestone Cowboy” type stuff but could do and play anything.Report

         2. I think a lot of non-country fans also don’t realize just how good of a guitar player Willie Nelson is. Also, Brad Paisley and Zac Brown.Report

            1. I got an inkling about Willie when I was in grad school in Austin in the 1970s. Occasionally I splurged and ate at one of the more up-scale local chili places. Over in the corner of the place was a guitar and stool, and local musicians were allowed to pay for their meal by playing a couple of songs. One night Willie was there. He hopped up on the stool and tuned the guitar, then ran through an impressive set of warm-up exercises. Then gave us all a couple of songs, and a story that we could use for decades.Report

               1. I was raised on Outlaw country and obviously Willie was a big part of that but I had no idea about his guitar talent until I saw him on Sessions at West 54th back in 2000. Holey moley was I blown away.Report

      3. I loved Hee Haw as a kid, too.

         But what I came here to say was to take note of that clip where he does “Take the A Train” with Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. That’s jazz, straight up, with a little country trappings. And it cooks like nobody’s business.

         I have often remarked to my children that “musicians like music, full stop.” The whole siloing of genre’s is something the audience does more than musicians do. Most of the ones I’ve known or met will have very big ears. For instance, members of the Grateful Dead could be seen attending the SF Opera. They will focus their act on particular sounds and genres because the business works better that way, but they love music.

         Roy Clark loved music and it shows.Report

         1. “I have often remarked to my children that “musicians like music, full stop.”

            I love that and I’m going to steal it for sure.Report

2. Co7: No one’s asking whether the Republicans would rather have Pelosi, to use as a target in 2020, or someone inexperienced exercising the Speaker’s powers in the nearer term. According to the CRS, the custom is that the Speaker requires a majority of the members-elect present minus the number who vote “Present” rather than vote for a person. If Pelosi has the votes of a majority of her caucus, the Republicans can make her Speaker if enough of them vote “Present”. (If someone else has a majority of the Dem votes, I expect Pelosi would step aside, then play her seniority card to chair whichever of the major committees she wants.)Report

   1. The thing about Pelosi as a target is that, for this to be an argument for Democrats to favor someone else, we need to assume that there is some viable alternative who wouldn’t be a target. So who is this magical Democratic politician whom Republicans will treat respectfully? No one, of course. Whoever it is will, we will be told, turn out to be the most radically radical Leftie radical in the House, who will strive tirelessly to let Those People violate our womenfolk. This is absolutely a given.

      I suppose that there is a discussion to be had of the difference between having someone the Republicans have to start demonizing anew versus someone they have a head start on, but this is, in my opinion, more than answered by the objection that we ought not give the Republicans a veto on Democratic leadership, as well as the pragmatic observation that Pelosi has historically been very good at the job, and this contributes to why Republicans hate her so much.Report

      1. With my Democratic hat on, I can’t think of anyone I would prefer to Pelosi as legislative manager in the House. For assorted (obvious, IMO) reasons, I’m not happy about the notion of her being the “face of the party” for the next 18 months.Report

      2. but this is, in my opinion, more than answered by the objection that we ought not give the Republicans a veto on Democratic leadership, as well as the pragmatic observation that Pelosi has historically been very good at the job, and this contributes to why Republicans hate her so much.

         The other day I read one of those short comments that successfully trivialize complexities while being perfectly accurate. “If Hillary had beaten Obama, we’d have ended up with the ACA. If Harry Reid wasn’t Sen. majority leader, we’d have gotten the ACA. If someone other than Pelosi was Speaker, there would be no ACA.”

         I don’t like the fact that she’s 85 years old with a ton of political baggage and all that, but I’m pretty convinced that she’s the best political leader the Dems have had in ages (almost up to McConnell’s level, who continues to expose Schumer as a politically incompetent doofus) and that there’s no one with her skill set waiting in the wings to take her place.Report

3. Co4 – we really need to change the order the of sucession so that number 4 (or, number 3 afte the Prez themself) isn’t merely the oldest person of the majority party in one chamber of congress.Report

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