1. Joo joo eyeball
2. Hair down to his knee
3. To be a joker
4. Toe jam football
5. Monkey finger
6. To be free
7. Walrus gumboot
8. Ono sideboard
9. Feet down below his knee
10. Early warning
11. Muddy water
12. To be good looking

I've been thinking a lot about Steve Earle lately.

He's been one of my favorite musicians from the get go. Actually got to meet him a couple of times back when I worked at WNCW. He was always a real nice guy.

Anyway, Steve has been part of the Nashville music scene since 1975. He was 19 when he first got there and it took about eleven years for him to break through with Guitar Town in 1986. It's a fun record that kicks off with the following words:

Hey pretty baby are you ready for me
It's your good rockin' daddy down from Tennessee

Check it out.

Fast forward 21 years. A lot can happen to a good rockin' Nashville guy in that time: wives, kids, drugs, politics, more wives, jail time.

The upshot is that throughout all the drama Steve has made the most honest and well-received music of his career. Classics, I'd say: Copperhead Road, El Corazón, I Feel Alright, Train A Comin', and Jerusalem -- just to name a few.

Then in 2007 Steve made a record called Washington Street Serenade. Having lived in New York City with his seventh wife, singer Allison Moorer, for a couple of years had an intense effect on him.

The first song on the record, "Tennessee Blues," begins as such:

Sunset in my mirror, pedal on the floor
Bound for New York City and I won’t be back no more
Won’t be back no more, boys, won’t see me around
Goodbye guitar town

And then the kicker:

Fare thee well I’m bound to roam
This ain’t never been my home

Have a listen.

This ain't never been my home. Wow, man. Strong words.

I gotta say that I know how the guys feels. Life can change you profoundly. It can make a man whose life and music were synonymous with Nashville kiss the town goodbye and realize that it had never really been the place for him.

Sometimes you figure that out quickly, other times you go to hell and back several times before you do. But when you do figure it out and you take action you end up happier than you've ever been. Steve is living proof.

Goodbye guitar town, indeed.

Patti Smith, from the book Just Kids, after having visited the Museum of Art in Philadelphia for the first time at the age of 12:

I knew I had been transformed, moved by the revelation that human beings create art, that to be an artist was to see what others could not.

Just Kids is the story of Patti Smith, one of the greatest performers in music, and Robert Mapplethorpe, one of the most significant and controversial photographers of our time.

This book, however, chronicles their lives before the fame and recognition. Patti and Robert are two fledgling kids living in New York City and full of a longing to live a creative life full of unconditional love and support.

   I was particularly moved by the drawing he had done on Memorial Day. I had never seen anything like it. What also struck me was the date: Joan of Arc's feast day. The same day I had promised to make something of myself before her statue.
   I told him this, and he responded that the drawing was symbolic of his own commitment to art, made on the same day. He gave it to me with out hesitation and I understood in this small space of time we had mutually surrended our loneliness and replaced it with trust.

I was listening to the new Gusatvo Cerati album last night and was reminded of how I get so excited about listening to music, new and old. I’m thrilled that music still moves me as much as it does.

Sometimes it even works its way into my photographs.

© Armando Bellmas

© Armando Bellmas

© Armando Bellmas

© Armando Bellmas

© Armando Bellmas

© Armando Bellmas

© Armando Bellmas

© Armando Bellmas

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And by the way, the new Gustavo Cerati album is really good.