After finishing my blog this past Wednesday, I met one of my oldest and best friends for lunch at Swett’s, which is a popular “meat ‘n’ three” in Nashville. Swett’s has been serving southern food cafeteria style since 1954 and is the place to go for good ol’ southern homestyle cookin’… and I do mean cookin’ instead of cooking. A “meat and three” restaurant is exactly what it says… a choice of one meat and three sides. The choices at Swett’s are too many to list, but check out their website and when you’re in the mood for a great homestyle meal… go to Swett’s.
Out of respect for my friend and his company’s privacy, he shall remain nameless. I’ve known him since the mid-seventies and there is no one I respect more for their knowledge of the music business, including the current state of the music business and where it is heading. We discussed many aspects of the business today, including the Music Modernization Act and future changes in the economics of streaming as it relates to the artists’ share of the revenue.
When you’ve been in the music business as long as he and I have been, you’ve seen a lot of changes and how those changes affect the people involved in the industry. As for artists, the gap between the “haves” and the “have-nots” has never been wider. There is a small percentage of artists making enormous amounts of money and a larger than ever amount of people that can’t make a living at creating and selling music. Even with that being said, I think the opportunities for artists to remain independent and find a path to their fans is better than ever.
As the meeting wrapped up and we talked about the past and the artists we had worked with and seen, he played me a song from a new band a friend of his manages and asked me if I had heard of them. He told me how they were creating a real buzz in the business and are reminiscent of the rock ‘n’ roll bands of the ’70s. The band is Greta Van Fleet and the lead singer makes you think of Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin. He asked me to watch the band’s video from their appearance on the Tonight Show in late July. He told me their shows are selling out and their merchandise sales are unbelievable. Their single, When the Curtain Falls shot to number one on the iTunes rock chart the same day the band released it. They received a standing ovation from this performance on the Tonight Show.
The discussion at lunch gave me much to think about in regard to this blog and the plans to create a podcast. I truly believe podcasts are the future for all types of programming and where people will go for entertainment and information. It also made me think about how great it was to see my old friend so excited about the new band Greta Van Fleet. It gave me an idea for this weeks blog and the food at Swett’s was a wonderful source of inspiration for me to ask Donna Britt to create some recipes from… nothing brings me comfort like listening to music I love and a southern homestyle meat ‘n’ three meal.
Donna Britt’s meat ‘n’ three Recipes:
Chicken Fried Steak
2 pounds of cube steak
Salt
½ cup all purpose flour
Canola or Peanut Oil for frying
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup whole milk
½ cup all purpose flour
2 Tablespoons corn meal
Pinch garlic powder
Pinch onion powder
½ teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
Big pinch dried parsley
½ teaspoon black pepper
More kosher salt
For Gravy:
Drippings from the steak
2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
3 cups whole milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Sprinkle kosher salt all over steaks and let sit for a few minutes. Heat about ¼ inch of oil in large, heavy skillet (such as cast iron). When oil is shimmering and water droplets dance when sprinkled into the oil, it’s ready for frying.
Place ½ cup flour in a shallow bowl. Mix eggs and milk together in a separate shallow bowl. Mix flour, meal and spices together in yet another separate shallow bowl. Dredge each steak first in plain flour, then dip into egg/milk mixture and then dredge in flour/spice mixture.
Place steaks into hot oil, only as many at a time as can fit with room to spare and fry for several minutes on each side. Drain steak on paper towels and keep warm in oven while you fry the rest of the steaks. Reserve the oil while you keep the steaks warm.
Once all steaks are fried it’s time to make the gravy. Stir flour, salt and pepper into the reserved drippings over medium heat. Slowly stir in milk and cook and stir until gravy is the consistency you desire.
Fried Okra Salad:
Rinse as much okra as you want to use and cut horizontally into thin slices. Roll okra slices in flour. Fry floured okra pieces in hot oil until nicely browned. Drain on paper towels. Dice onion, sweet red or green pepper and tomato (equal amounts) and as much as you want to mix in with the okra. Mix everything together in a large bowl. Serve warm or cold.
Greens with Onions & Garlic:
Serves 4 (cut recipe in half if you want to only serve 2)
4 bunches of greens, your choice – can be mixed or just one kind – mustard greens, turnip greens, kale, beet greens, Swiss chard
Clean greens, remove the center stems and slice the leaves into small ribbons.
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 large yellow onion, sliced thin
4 cloves garlic, sliced thin
Salt and pepper
1 ½ cups chicken broth
Heat olive oil over med-high heat in large pot or Dutch oven. Add onion & garlic and sauté until tender and fragrant, 4 or 5 minutes. Season with salt & pepper. Add greens in batches as they wilt down (if using Swiss chard, do NOT ADD yet).
Pour broth into pot and cook 15 minutes. THEN ADD SWISS CHARD if using.
Cover and simmer five more minutes. Taste … season more if desired.
Bacon Bleu Cheese Green Beans:
We always had a big garden when I was growing up and I despised picking green beans! But I DO love to eat them and this is one of my favorite recipes. Depending on your taste, you can cook the beans less or more to get your favorite texture. Southerners typically prefer ‘cooked to death’ green beans while my Pacific Northwest friends like al dente.
Serves 4 to 6
½ pound bacon, cut into small pieces
1 – 2 Tablespoons reserved bacon drippings
1 pound fresh green beans, washed and trimmed
¼ to ½ cup water
1/4 cup Bleu cheese (or Feta)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Fry bacon until crisp in large skillet or wide pot. Drain bacon on paper towels and set aside.
Leave a Tablespoon or two of bacon drippings in skillet and add ¼ cup water.
Turn heat to medium and add green beans. Cover and simmer until beans are crisp-tender, adding more water if necessary to keep beans from sticking to skillet.
Sprinkle cheese on top of tender beans … turn heat off and cover until cheese melts.
Stir melted cheese into beans and serve. Serves 4-6.
** You can easily double this recipe; you’ll just need a bigger skillet/pan to accommodate more green beans.
As I planned for this blog and reflected on my music history and how music had influenced me, I realized it all started with rock ‘n’ roll. As I have written on these pages before, I was born in Lubbock, Texas and my family home was only a few blocks from Buddy Holly’s parents home. We used to listen to Buddy Holly and The Crickets rehearse in the garage and their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1957 had a major impact on me. It was living proof to me that a guy from Lubbock could make it to New York City and appear on the biggest show on television.
The Ed Sullivan Show was something I had watched with my family every week and my first memory of it was seeing Elvis Presley sing Love Me Tender and Hound Dog and all the hoopla over seeing him below the waist or not. From that first memory of Elvis and then seeing Buddy Holly perform Peggy Sue and That’ll Be the Day, which were songs I had heard him sing in his parents’ garage, I realized how much music influenced me. By the time I was in junior high school, The Beatles had changed the music scene forever. They appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 performing twice on the same show and singing several songs, including All My Loving, Till There Was You, and I Want to Hold Your Hand.
The Ed Sullivan Show became the barometer for me of what was happening in the music world. After making Elvis, Buddy Holly, and The Beatles household names, the most popular television show of the day did the same for The Rolling Stones, who performed numerous times on the show. The Doors were banned for life from the show after Jim Morrison sang the line “Girl, we couldn’t get much higher” from their #1 hit song Light My Fire in 1967 because the show’s producer felt like the word “higher” referred to drugs. The music and Cultural Revolution was on…
In 1967 an album titled Are You Experienced by The Jimi Hendrix Experience was released and it changed everything we thought we knew about music. The songs Purple Haze, Hey Joe, Foxey Lady and The Wind Cries Mary screamed to us about what music could be and then The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded their last album together Electric Ladyland in 1968, which went to #1 and included Bob Dylan’s All Along the Watchtower, which became an anthem to our feelings of escaping the establishment for our own thoughts and beliefs.
Listening to Jimi Hendrix in ’67 and ’68 and watching Janis Joplin perform Raise Your Hand on Ed Sullivan in early 1969 was a open window to see how things were different than what you were led to believe. I had never seen anyone like Janis Joplin before. Her performance and knowing that Ed Sullivan wouldn’t book Jimi Hendrix on his show made me determined to go to Woodstock in the summer of 1969. I tried to hitchhike from Lubbock to New York, but only got as far as Memphis before turning back because of all the news about the rain and crowds in New York… not to mention my feet were killing me and at the pace I was going I wouldn’t make New York before Halloween. I’ve often regretted that I turned back, but it is what it is.
The Beatles broke-up in 1970 and then my musical taste embraced singer-songwriter albums like Carole King’s Tapestry and James Taylor’s Sweet Baby James. But there was always a pull to rock ‘n roll and after discovering “The Little ol’ Band from Texas”, ZZ Top, which combined blues and rock music. My discovering new and different music became a true passion of mine. That thirst for music that included words and melodies that moved me is a quest we all are on in finding music that is meaningful and everyone has his or her own taste.
All through college and beyond I was engrossed in attending concerts and listening to music from ZZ Top, Derek & The Dominos (featuring Eric Clapton), Led Zeppelin, The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles and many local bands in Austin. I couldn’t get enough. My first business venture after college involved making t-shirts to sell at concerts, which eventually led to being a booking agent in Austin and then co-owner of a recording studio, as well as, a management and production company. Austin was the place to be and the local talent was outstanding. There was an artist named Rusty Wier who was as talented live as anyone I ever saw. He had a voice that was passionate and demanded attention. In fact, a few years after I left the agency that booked Rusty to join the management and production company, I remember hearing Bob Seger’s song Night Moves on the radio in Los Angeles and thought Rusty had made the record. It’s such a thin line between becoming a superstar and an “almost made it” artist.
Aw hell, I’ll just include a sample song list that I encourage everyone to listen to. It’s one of the reasons that the whole streaming platform is good for music. There are a lot more artists and countless other songs, including the artists who sang the Blues, Soul, and R&B that had a major impact on me. But, until I got to high school and had friends that listened to records and the radio, the best way for me to discover music was to watch The Ed Sullivan Show. The artist from those genres of music that I discovered in my youth on The Ed Sullivan Show and still listen to today are James Brown, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, and Michael Jackson.
Here’s a Playlist in chronological order of Rock ‘n’ Roll artists and songs that influenced me and again until the late sixties, most were from the Ed Sullivan Show.
1. Elvis Presley – Love Me Tender, Hound Dog
2. Buddy Holly – Peggy Sue, That’ll Be the Day, Oh Boy
3. The Beatles – All My Loving, She Loves You, ‘Til There Was You, I Saw Her Standing There, I Want To Hold Your Hand
4. Rolling Stones – Around and Around, Let’s Spend the Night Together
5. The Doors – Break On Through (To the Other Side), Light My Fire, The End
6. Jimi Hendrix – Purple Haze, Hey Joe, Foxey Lady, The Wind Cries
7. Janis Joplin – Raise Your Hand
8. Creedence Clearwater Revival – Proud Mary
9. Led Zeppelin – Good Times, Bad Times, Dazed & Confused
10. Allman Brothers – Trouble No More, Black Hearted Woman, Whipping Post
11. Lynyrd Skynyrd – Free Bird, Simple Man
12. Bruce Springsteen – Blinded by the Light, Spirit in the Night
13. Bob Seger – Beautiful Loser, Nutbush City Limits
14. Fleetwood Mac – Over My Head, Rhiannon, Say You Love Me
15. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Breakdown, American Girl, Anything That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll
As my conversation at Swett’s with my close friend continued on about the eventual change in the revenue from streaming, we talked about how people are listening to more music than ever and streaming services allow you access to millions of songs. I encourage people to make Playlists and share them with family and friends. It’s how musicians get paid and how to discover new and old music. The change in power has shifted from the record labels to the digital streaming services and device manufacturers. The main reason Apple is the first American corporation to be valued at a trillion dollars is that Apple makes the hardware and software for the devices and operating systems we have come to use and need like we need air.
Apple is also incredible at marketing their products and determining how we use them. It’s why the company Anker and its subsidiary Soundcore are growing at such a rapid pace in the world of wireless charges and headphones. Apple has determined that we don’t need wires to connect our headphones to their devices and Anker has proven they can make wireless chargers of the highest quality and Soundcore’s headphones with a quality level very near the quality of headphones priced five or six times Soundcore’s pricing.
After making the Playlist above, it occurred to me that 1976 and 1977 were remarkable years in the annuals of rock ‘n roll. George Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas night in 1776 and probably would have done it listening to rock ‘n roll on headphones if he could have fast-forwarded 200 years. I made a list of what I feel were the most influential albums made in 1976 and threw in a “baker’s dozen” (plus one) from 1977 just to further my point about that special time in rock history. The plus one is the 1977 debut album of Joe Ely, titled Joe Ely. Many of the songs recorded on that 1977 album are being released this Friday, August 17th on The Lubbock Tapes: Full Circle, which is a compilation of two recording sessions, one in 1974 and one in 1977.
Please check out the Archive section of Joe Ely’s website and see how many of the iconic artists mentioned in this blog he has performed with, including the Rolling Stones, the Clash and Bruce Springsteen.
It’s remarkable to realize the numbers of artists from that time who are still relevant and making music today… and those who have died are as relevant today or more so than when they were alive.
The first album listed wasn’t a rock ‘n’ roll album, but it’s worth mentioning because it was released on January 12, 1976 and became the first Country Album to sell one million copies and changed Nashville and country music forever:
1. Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser – WANTED: THE OUTLAWS
2. Peter Frampton – Frampton Comes Alive!
3. David Bowie – Station to Station
4. Bad Company – Run with the Pack
5. Lynyrd Skynyrd – Gimme Back My Bullets
6. Genesis – A Trick of the Tail
7. James Gang – Jesse Come Home
8. The Doobie Brothers – Takin’ It to the Streets
9. Elvis Presley – The Sun Sessions
10. Kiss – Destroyer
11. Judas Priest – Sad Wings of Yesterday
12. Wings – Wings at the Speed of Sound
13. Santana – Amigos
14. Thin Lizzy – Jailbreak
15. Led Zeppelin – Presence
16. Three Dog Night – American Pastime
17. Boz Scaggs – Silk Degrees
18. Joe Walsh – You Can’t Argue with a Sick Mind
19. Rush – 2112
20. Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band – Live Bullet
21. The J. Geils Band – Blow Your Face Out
22. The Rolling Stones – Black and Blue
23. Ramones – Ramones
24. Jethro Tull – Too Old to Rock ‘n’ Roll: Too Young to Die!
25. AC/DC – High Voltage
26. Bob Marley & The Wailers – Rastaman Vibration
27. Todd Rundgren – Faithful
28. Joe Cocker – Stingray
29. Elvis Presley – From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee
30. Aerosmith – Rocks
31. Warren Zevon – Warren Zevon
32. Billy Joel – Turnstiles
33. Blue Öyster Cult – Agents of Fortune
34. Steve Miller Band – Fly Like an Eagle
35. Sammy Hagar – Nine on a Ten Scale
36. Steely Dan – The Royal Scam
37. Jeff Beck – Wired
38. Rod Stewart – A Night on the Town
39. Alice Cooper – Alice Cooper Goes to Hell
40. The Marshall Tucker Band – Long Hard Ride
41. REO Speedwagon – R.E.O.
42. Jefferson Starship – Spitfire
43. Grand Funk Railroad – Good Singin’, Good Playin’
44. Boston – Boston
45. Eric Clapton – No Reason to Cry
46. Hall & Oates – Bigger Than Both of Us
47. Electric Light Orchestra – A New World Record
48. Black Sabbath – Technical Ecstasy
49. Styx – Crystal Ball
50. Frank Zappa – Zoot Allures
51. Bob Seger – Night Moves
52. Led Zeppelin – The Song Remains the Same
53. Kansas – Leftoverture
54. Patti Smith Group – Radio Ethiopia
55. Lou Reed – Rock and Roll Heart
56. Robert Palmer – Some People Can Do What They Like
57. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
58. Kiss – Rock and Roll Over
59. ZZ Top – Tejas
60. Eagles – Hotel California
61. Queen – A Day at the Races
62. Blondie – Blondie
1977 – My Baker’s Dozen (plus one):
1. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
2. Linda Rondstadt – Simple Dreams
3. Eric Clapton – Slowhand
4. David Bowie – Heroes
5. Talking Heads – Talking Heads: 77
6. Pink Floyd – Animals
7. Elvis Costello – My Aim Is True
8. Steely Dan – Aja
9. Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols
10. Billy Joel – The Stranger
11. Bob Marley & The Wailers – Exodus
12. The Clash – The Clash
13. Ramones – Rocket To Russia
(plus one) Joe Ely – Joe Ely
Those were exciting times for me and as I reflect back on the many memories and impact music had on me then, I’m grateful music is still a major part of my life today. I’m happy to have been a witness and participant of both the rock ‘n’ roll and sexual revolutions. I also feel fortunate to live during the time of the various technological revolutions, which without you wouldn’t be reading this on the Internet, able to watch the digital video above, or stream all the songs mentioned herein on your laptop or cell phone.
So, thanks George for leading the biggest revolution of them all!
(I need someone to email me a Photoshoped picture of George Washington crossing the Delaware wearing a pair of wireless earplugs while holding an iPhone and wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset.)
Witt Stewart 