"The Idiomatically Viable" Rant

Last week the Scotsman was digging through his record collection, listening to a Paul Butterfield Blues Band record, when he came across a mention of Dave Ray in the liner notes. Dave was listed with a number of other white blues musicians, amoung them, also, was Koerner, who were considered "idiomatically viable."
What exactly does this mean? I think it must be a nice way of saying that Dave's OK to play the Blues even though he's white.

Talk about a back-handed compliment. If you're gonna have a narrow, puritanical vision of what blues music should be, have the guts to come out and say it, rather than hiding behind cute pharases like "idiomatically viable."

Personally, I don't feel idiomatically viable to create this web page, or even to get out of bed some mornings,but that's just me. As Flannery O'Connor said, "you write what you can". And as the always-quotable Tony Glover once said, "Don't sit around and wait for somebody to come along and bank roll it. Just get up there and do it." In other words, folks, I don't think Dave Ray has lost a lot of sleep wondering if something was right for his idiom. Leave that to the people who write liner notes (Tony Glover, excepted. We all know his notes are beyond reproach), and web geeks like me who've got nothing better to do than rant about something that was written on an album cover 33 years ago.

Blackburn-Beach Blues Band CD "Blues in my Heart" is here!

Lee's Liquor Tuesdays

The various members of Keorner Ray and Glover take turns showing up in various combinations at Lee's in Downtown Minneapolis.

Blue Wednesdays

Dave Ray plays weekly with the Elgonzos (John Beach on keyboard and Paul Lagos on drums) at Butch's in Chaska, MN.

It is with a heavy heart that that I must report the end of an era. Gary's Place in scenic downtown Carver has closed. For me, Carver has always healed all wounds, yet this was not the case for everyone and alas, Gary had to call it quits as a bar owner. I will always remember Gary's as it was "dammed fun" and I had many special moments there. Forgive me while the screen gets hazy and I lapse into a sentimental flashback montage featuring Russian Brides, mosquitos and the muddy Minnesota River bottom.

While no place can truly take the place of Gary's, Butch's has a few things going for it: angle parking, a statue of Captain Picard, and a tin roof. I fear the first time that "Walking the Dog" is played, for I will be forced to do a shuffling dance, and on that carpet, I might electrocute someone with static electricity. But we all have our problems and I shall try to get some PERSPECTIVE on mine. In the meantime here's a little nostalgia, I wrote a year ago:

The Carver Report
November 4, 1999

Inspired by Gary's handwritten muckraking rag about the goings on in everyone's favorite little town.

 

Email Dave: Click here

 

Stuff Dave has said:

Using Beatnik term to describe smoking: "You gonna beat that weed, er what?"

Regarding the state of a physicists hair: "You look like a truncated Don King."

Regarding the internet: It's part of a government plot to make sure we get nothing done. We're all busy scribing broadsides and spouting polemics, but what THEY haven't told us is none of it gets any farther than our own terminals. Once in awhile, I guess, you can look at something else, but NO TOUCHING!! ."

Regarding the new stadium bill: "it's all a bunch of suburbanites with riding lawnmowers."

Regarding the X-Files: "Not as weird as Twin Peaks. That show gave me a siezure."

Upon asking him what he thought Gary would charge me for his Road Riot 4WD Machine "Well he only got 2 bucks for his soul. It can't be much."

Regarding writing sheet music: "What with the dots and shit?"

and last but not least...

"Turn down that Neil Young!!!"

Daves a funny guy. He'll impersonate your dad and tell you jokes. Sometimes he'll quietly listen to your joke, then go outside and tell it as if it was his own. He also likes to talk like a beatnik, which leads me to the announcement of the Dave Ray Official Beatnik Lexicon, coming soon to a terminal near you.