FREE SAN DIEGO ROUBADOUR Alternative country, Americana, roots, Tfolk, gospel, and bluegrass music news July 2004 for Lyle Duplessie Vol. 3, No. 10 what’s inside MARK Welcome Mat………3 O’CONNOR Mission Statement Contributors THE MAN CAN PLAY Lyle Duplessie Full Circle..…………4 Rose Maddox, Part 3 Recordially, Lou Curtiss Front Porch…………6 Stellita and Dave Lindgren Ray Charles Robert Edwards Classic Bows Meghan La Roque Parlor Showcase...…8 Mark O’Connor Ramblin’...…………10 Bluegrass Corner Zen of Recording Hosing Down Radio Daze Highway’s Song... …12 Postcard from Nashville Olaf Wieghorst Western Heritage Days Of Note.……………13 Steve Collins Christopher Dale GipsyMenco Robert Edwards Berkley Hart ‘Round About .......…14 July Music Calendar The Local Seen……15 Photo Page San Diego Troubadour • July 2004 welcomewelcome matmat q In Memorium r SAN DIEGO ROUBADOUR Alternative country, Americana, roots, Lyle Duplessie: Keeper of the Vision Tfolk, gospel, and bluegrass music news MISSION CONTRIBUTORS hen Ellen Duplessie present- SERVICES FOR LYLE DUPLESSIE ed the idea of starting a A memorial will be held on Sunday, To promote, encourage, and FOUNDERS Wnewspaper to her husband in July 11, 3 p.m., at Hospitality Point provide an alternative voice for the Ellen and Lyle Duplessie on Mission Bay, located at the end of great local music that is generally the summer of 2001, a publication overlooked by the mass media; namely Liz Abbott that would be devoted to local music, Quivira Way. You are welcome and the genres of folk, country, roots, Kent Johnson she expected Lyle to resist in a devil’s encouraged to bring your acoustic Americana, gospel, and bluegrass. To instruments (no electricity there) to PUBLISHERS advocate kind of way. Instead, he entertain, educate, and bring together thought it was a great idea and almost play music following the service. In Kent Johnson players, writers, and lovers of these instantly began writing the mission lieu of flowers, please make donations forms; to explore their foundations; and Liz Abbott to: Derek Duplessie Scholarship Fund to expand the audience for these types statement for what was to become the c/o Mount Soledad Presbyterian of music. EDITORIAL/GRAPHICS San Diego Troubadour. This statement Liz Abbott lives in the masthead of every issue. Church, 6551 Soledad Mountain Rd., For advertising rates, call 619/298- La Jolla, CA 92037. For further infor- ADVERTISING/DISTRIBUTION On June 17, the San Diego 8488 or e-mail [email protected]. mation, email [email protected] Kent Johnson Troubadour family received tragic news San Diego Troubadour that Lyle Duplessie, while enjoying a or write to San Diego Troubadour, P.O. Box 164 PHOTOGRAPHY day at the beach with his children, P.O. Box 164, La Jolla, CA 92038. La Jolla, CA 92038 Millie Moreno suffered a heart attack and died. E-mail: [email protected]. Lyle Duplessie, 1953-2004 WRITERS Nobody could have prepared for Sandra Castillo something so shocking, so terrible, band, a caring father, and a brother to especially so soon after losing his wife, SAN DIEGO TROUBADOUR, the local Lou Curtiss his co-disciples, he was a man of char- Ellen, just four months earlier. There source for alternative country, Emily Davidson acter and integrity. They say the meas- was no warning. Lyle was here one Americana, roots, folk, gospel, and Lyle Duplessie ure of a man’s real character is by moment, gone the next. There is no bluegrass music news, is published Phil Harmonic what he would do if he knew he why. monthly and is free of charge. Letters Paul Hormick would never be found out. Lyle To envision a future without Ellen to the editor must be signed and may Mark Jackson Duplessie was a man with conviction, be edited for content. It is not, howev- and Lyle seems almost unbearable. So a man who would always choose to Frederick Leonard er, guaranteed that they will appear. genuine and loving, Lyle’s strength was e do the right thing. His sensitivity and i s Jim McInnes s e in his reserve. He was a quiet man interest in others nurtured strength, l All opinions expressed in SAN DIEGO p Sven-Erik Seaholm u who had a lot to say. He did not waste D TROUBADOUR, unless otherwise stated, courage, and a finer quality of life in n José Sinatra e l words, but chose them carefully. Lyle both himself and in others. Most l are solely the opinion of the writer and do E D. Dwight Worden : o not represent the opinions of the staff was a man of questions, not answers. important, however, he was a best t o h or management. All rights reserved. John Philip Wyllie A true warrior — God’s warrior per- friend. P ©2004 San Diego Troubadour. haps — he was fair and kind in every We love you, Ellen and Lyle. And Cover photography: Erica Horn way: in kind words, which inspired we’ll meet again. Happy times: Kent Johnson, Liz Abbott, and confidence; in kind thinking, which Lyle Duplessie at son Derek’s eighth grade inspired love; and in kind giving, Liz Abbott and Kent Johnson The San Diego Troubadour is dedicated to the memory of Ellen Duplessie, Publishers, San Diego Troubadour graduation ceremony last year. whose vision inspired the creation of this newspaper. which inspired charity. A loyal hus- WRITE TO US! We’d love to hear from you! Send your comments, feedback, and suggestions by email to: [email protected] or by snail mail to: San Diego Troubadour, P.O. Box 164, La Jolla, CA 92038-0164. 3 July 2004 • San Diego Troubadour fullfull circlecircle by Lyle Duplessie and Roy Nichols. She tried her hand in Branson, Missouri, which was a very popular spot for recycled hillbilly stars at part 3 the time. Once there, however, she found that the only ones who made any money y the early ‘70s the complexion of Queen of Hillbilly Swing were the club owners. In a further life had rapidly changed for Rose. attempt to make ends meet, she sold off B Brother Cal had died from a heart all her Nathan Turk cowboy outfits, along attack and her mother Lula soon Rose Maddox with those of brothers Henry and Cal, to followed. She was divorced from Jimmy hillbilly hotshot Marty Stuart. Brogdon. Now in her mid 40s, Rose had In October 1992, brother Fred suc- to modernize her image to look more few were as rootsy as Rose. slipped into a coma, cumbed to heart failure. Now Rose was female country vogue. It became neces- Rose’s career was in the midst remaining unconscious for all that remained of the family band. sary to reinvent herself since popular of a revival, though well out of the next three months. Though she loved Fred, as she did all her tastes in country music had changed. the mainstream, as it took on When word leaked out family, she had learned long before to The image of the hillbilly swing queen underground cult status. about her condition and the reach for the future and not hide in the was long gone. Out went the flashy Annie Rose’s born again vitality fact that she had no health past. In short, she pushed ahead — Oakley cowgirl outfits, replaced by mini- resulted in more compilations insurance, the country skirts and slinky gowns. Rose even that’s all she knew how to do. Again she being reissued by Bear Family music community in changed her short, dark tresses to a teamed up with former Desert Rose Band and even Columbia. California and elsewhere highly coiffed platinum blonde. Outward members and fiddler extraordinaire During this renaissance a began holding benefits on changes came, but her inward soul and Byron Berline to record her 1994 CD $35 series of disasters struck. her behalf as a means to grit still remained. and a Dream. This autobiography, set to Though not yet 40, Donnie suf- By this time country music was music, was nomi- fered a heart attack, which increasingly controlled by marketing n nated for a Grammy o t required open-heart surgery; y agents, lawyers, and corporation execs, a in the Best l additional by-pass operations C most of whom had little interest in coun- z Traditional i would follow. Then in u try music as a form of American expres- R Bluegrass Album December, 1981, Rose suffered y sion. The days when artists dealt directly o R category. : t with colorful cigar- r On April 15, 1998, A chomping talent brokers Rose Maddox and regional scene boss- passed away at the es were over. Though no age of 72 in longer a headliner, Rose Ashland, Oregon. continued to get plenty of Though awarded a work in small lounges and square in the honky tonks up and down Country Music Hall the West Coast. From this of Fame’s Walkway point on Rose would con- of Stars, she has tinue to record, but only yet to be enshrined for a succession of small as a Country Music independent labels like Hall of Fame mem- Starday, Cathay, Takoma, ber and probably and Arhoolie. never will be. Though the opportuni- Certainly this honor Cover of Rose’s 1967 Starday album. ty for renewed stardom Rose, “the walking miracle,” back in action nine months after her 3-month coma, 1990. has eluded her for had eluded her, Rose still several reasons, all put her all into every per- of which can be formance. She had a traced to her own legacy that reached back feisty independ- decades and legions of ence. Her music fans still showed up when Maddox Brothers and Rose on the Adams Avenue Roots was pure California she performed, and these Festival poster from 1999, a year after Rose’s death country, owing little or folks she couldn’t disap- nothing to Nashville’s point.