Hokum

…until I am eligible to join the AARP. I’m looking forward to the discounts.

Hokum is about to celebrate its third birthday.  The first five months of Hokum posts are lost in the ether, a victim of rampant stupidity on my part (I thought I had backed up everything, but hadn’t, when I switched blogging platforms), but the first Hokum post was April 3, 2006. I’d written other personal blogs and web journals in the past, but I found that this method of blogging — keeping most of the posts short and not obsessing over the outcome like an editor — was the method that took.

Here are the five most popular Hokum posts (one of which was written just this month):

Randy’s smoked brisket recipe

Pastrami, the lazy way

Verizon FiOS vs. Cox Cable: My experiences

The Lone Wolf Harp Delay

Upgrading the home theater

…and here’s my favorite post of the last year:

From St. Paul: Bacon on a stick

I played last night at the opening of a new exhibition at an Alexandria art gallery. When I play in new spaces, I generally bring along a folding table to hold my pile of music junk in case there is no nearby horizontal surface to hold things.

So, here’s what I have here: A sleeve of diatonic harmonicas, two tremolo harmonicas, a chromatic harmonica, two harp microphones, my Danelectro DanEcho delay pedal, my Lone Wolf Harp Tone parametric equalizer/volume control, a cloth whiskey bottle bag that I use to hold pedals or microphones, some business cards, a tambourine and a couple of shaker eggs. Teresita, my trusty Fender Tweed Deluxe clone that I use for most of my gigs, is on an amp stand behind me.

I play there almost every Monday night with The Joe Choicca Band. Here’s some live recordings from this year (including one from last night), courtesy of our friend JohnDC.

This is in response to a Facebook post (and it’s one of those Facebook viral things that I am hesitant to answer), but it makes a nice blog entry and it gets auto-posted to my Facebook account, so here goes. (If you’re reading this on Facebook and never have seen my blog, it’s at http://hokum.randylilleston.com):

—50 ALBUMS THAT MATTER TO ME —

These are in no particular order.Enjoy:

Los Lobos, Kiko

Los Lobos, How Will the Wolf Survive?

Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels On A Gravel Road

Magic Sam, West Side Soul

Lone Justice, Lone Justice

R.E.M. Reckoning

Alison Krauss and Union Station: Lonely Runs Both Ways

Any Winehouse, Back to Black

B.B. King, Live At The Regal

Beautiful Dreamer – The Songs of Steven Foster

Beck – Odelay

Billie Holiday – The Original Decca Masters

Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited

Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run

Bruce Springsteen – The River

Bruce Springsteen – Nebraska

Bruce Springsteen – Born in the U.S.A.

Cowboy Junkies – The Trinity Session

The Beat Farmers – Van Go

The Dave Brubeck Quartet – Take Five

John Coltrane – Giant Steps

John Fogerty – Blue Moon Swamp

Junior Wells – Hoodoo Man Blues

The Band – Music From the big Pink

Little Feat – Waitin’ For Columbus
Michelle Shocked – Arkansas Traveler

Neil Young – Harvest

Nuggets

Paul Simon – Graceland

Social Distortion – Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell

Sonnyboy Williamson—More Real Folk Blues

Southern Culture On The Skids – Dirt Track Date

Steely Dan – Aja

Taj Mahal – Phantom Blues

The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds

The Beatles – Rubber Soul

The Beatles – Revolver

The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

The Beatles – Abbey Road

ZZ Top – Fandango!

Led Zepplin – Led Zepplin IV

The Moody Blues – Days of Future Passed

The Police – Zenyatta Mondatta

Johnny Cash – Live At Fulsom Prison

Johnny Cash – American Recordings

Wilie Nelson – Red-Headed Stranger

Lyle Lovett – Joshua  Judges Ruth

The Who – The Kids Are Alright

New Orleans Party Classics

Nirvana – Nevermind