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Well now, seems like things might be heatin’ up a bit at that there Z Ranch. Perfect timing for us to pull up stakes and head off to Long Beach, CA for the Comic Con Expo, right?
Don’t worry, we still plan to get the next page up on schedule as usual. The Expo is one day only and Long Beach isn’t all that far from our homestead; but hey, if anyone’s going and wants to stop by and say howdy, maybe I’ll tell you what happens. Or maybe not, but you can at least get a picture with our scale model Cam-Bot. I still happen to think it’s pretty neat, myself.
Besides the Expo, this week I’m all about the grass. Bluegrass, that is. You might recognize my blog title as a line from a little ditty name of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”, made famous by the Charlie Daniels Band. I’m not sure if TDWDTG counts as pure bluegrass, but let’s not split hairs here: it’s close enough, and more importantly, it’s a rockin’ song. Click here if you want a listen. Not the best recording, but you’ll get the gist.
There’s something about bluegrass that gets my toes tappin’ and my hands clappin’, despite being a city slicker. Maybe it’s my Irish side, genetically hearkening back to the immigrants who developed it out of traditional Scotch-Irish-English folk music, but I think I just find it… FUN.
Yes, this is the stereotypical “hillbilly” music. This is the kind of music that you might remember from Deliverance, and so it has an unfortunate association with… *ahem* non-consensual romance. Nevermind that the perpetrators of said act actually were nowhere near the kid who plays one-half of the “Dueling Banjos” duet with one of the city folk. That duet is actually a great scene where two people from wildly different walks of life find a moment of common ground, while everyone else is fumbling around trying to communicate.
I know who the real culprits who instigated this sudden resurgence of my interest are, though, and that’s Billy Hill and the Hillbillies, otherwise known as just “The Billys”. This last weekend Dawn and I went to Disneyland, and being faithful Zombie Ranchers we figured we’d catch a show at the Golden Horseshoe Theater over in Frontierland. Dawn had seen The Billys play before, but it was my first time, and man, it might have been only about 20-30 minutes but they put on a heck of a show. You didn’t get any of that sense of forced cheerfulness other Disney park performers often exhibit: The Billys are genuinely glad to be there, and genuinely impressive to watch perform. They are FUN. And they play bluegrass, which is FUN. So the FUN is squared. And the square is danced.
I checked out their website and, to be honest, it’s not as pretty as it could be, but then again neither are The Billys. But if you have any interest in this sort of thing at all, do like I did and pick up one of their CDs. I got mine at Disneyland, but they have it at places like Amazon.com as well. Here’s hoping they’ll be fiddling around still for awhile to come.
Late edit: I completely forgot to include a bit of bluegrass styling I’ve loved for many a year. It’s a cover of a Snoop Dogg song, so as you might imagine it ain’t all Safe For Work. But if you ain’t at work (or don’t care), you best give this a listen. Gin & Juice!