We re continuing our support
of our deployed troops
through our AdoptaPlatoon
Soldier Support Effort. To that
end we have begun planning
for the 5th Annual Adopta-
Platoon Bar-B-Que and Jam
Fest. Our troops are still in
harms way and we will
support them for the duration. Showing off their sunglasses
We are going to add an event to our calendar this spring. Our friends at McCracken Homes are hosting an AdoptaPlatoon Bar-B-Que at Seckman Ridge in Imperial, Missouri. It is going to be a great event and as soon as the plans are finalized, we will publish the details.
One of our priorities this spring will be to collect polarized (Shatter proof if possible) Sunglasses. Summer is coming to Iraq and Afghanistan and sunglasses are a prized commodity for our troops.
What the troops say.
I would like to say thank you for providing us with these sunglasses, they are just what we needed! It's folks like you that make these deployments much easier to handle and get through. I would like to say thank you so much for supporting us the way you do!
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I just received a pair of your shatterproof eyewear. Thank you so much! Eyewear is an extremely perishable item in this environment. They are much appreciated and will be put to good use everyday.
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I would like to thank you and the good people of AdoptaPlatoon for stepping up above and beyond for your soldiers. It pleases my heart to know that we indeed have the support of some of the American people. You are not only supporting us, but you also support our mission when you reach out and contribute to our needs. A million thanks to you and all those that donated these glasses to us.
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Thank you so much, and all of Adoptaplatoon for the Safety sun glasses. They are great, and exactly what we all were looking for. The sand wind and dust goggles, and glasses they issued us at the beginning of our deployment are very scratched up, and are unserviceable. As you more than likely know the military isn’t the quickest in replacing some equipment. The glasses have really helped us all out, thank you so much for your support.
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The World
According to Jake
There's a photo on the back of a long-
out-of-print Jerry Jeff Walker album
that kind of sums it all up. In the
picture, Jerry Jeff is outside an old
roadhouse on a lonesome highway. It's
night, and his collar is turned up
against the chill breeze as he hunches
over to light a cigarette. His guitar is
slung around his back. It's hard to tell
if he's entering or leaving the roadhouse,
but either way you figure he's got many
miles to go before he sleeps.
Somehow, one gets the idea that is how Jerry Jeff has always pictured himself. Even when he was playing screaming cowboy rock 'n' roll to thousands of people, the solitary troubadour was always on the inside, looking out.
Jerry Jeff has lived - and is living again - the troubadour's life. Lots of musicians talk about the road; Jerry Jeff really is the kid who rode his thumb out of his hometown in upstate New York to such exotic destinations as Key West (where he introduced another young musician named Jimmy Buffett to the pleasures of island life)...He really did sing for pennies on New Orleans street corners, alongside Mr. Bojangles...He really did strap his guitar on the back of a motorcycle and go biking across Canada...And he really did sing in the smoky cafes and folk clubs of Greenwich Village, following in the footsteps of Bob Dylan and Ramblin' Jack Elliott.
And that all happened before he became a star. Most folks know that story - how Jerry Jeff moved to Austin, Texas in the early Seventies and reinvented himself as a Lone Star country-rocker. He became, along with Willie Nelson and Asleep At The Wheel, one of the arbiters of the internationally famous Austin musical community. Since then, he has celebrated the music of peers such as Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt, and served as a fountainhead and inspiration to younger musicians such as Robert Earl Keen, Pat Green, Jack Ingram, Todd Snider, and a moderately successful country tunesmith named Garth Brooks.
A string of records for MCA and Elektra followed before Jerry Jeff gave up on the mainstream music business and formed his own independent record label, Tried & True Music, in 1986. Another series of increasingly autobiographical records followed under the Tried & True imprint. The latest, Gonzo Stew, (his 30th album overall) was released in 2001.
He's played for four or five presidents, toured in Lear Jets and bought second homes in New Orleans and Belize (the fruits, in part, of having penned an American pop standard, "Mr. Bojangles"). His band of musicians, known variously as the Lost Gonzo Band and the Gonzo Compadres, have been indispensable parts of the endless caravan.
But even with all that, Jerry Jeff still sees the world with a troubadour's eyes. His songs are the way he makes the world make sense, how he passes on stories of the people he meets, the way he feels on a given morning. He has come full circle, back to his solitary singer-songwriter roots. You might say he was heading this way all along.
from jerryjeff.com
