A Southern Missive

I’m here in the beautiful city of Hot Springs, but so far it’s been almost totally work.  The pace rages from pitifully slow with nothing to do at my table to a mad, frantic pace, talking constantly to those who pass by my table.  I’ll post some photos of my trip soon.

Here are the lyrics for a new song I’ve written. They were inspired by the books I read about Townes Van Zandt, To Live’s to Fly and A Deeper Blue.

“Where Are the Songs?”  by Rickey Pittman

Where are the minstrels,
The Masters of pain and rhyme,
Who created poems of magic
For the memories of time?

The ghosts of the Old Quarter
Now gather somewhere I know,
To drink and joke and cut up some,
When did they decide to go?

Singing for the sake of the song,
For the women who broke their hearts,
For the darkness they felt inside,
Breaking them apart.

It wasn’t about the money,
Certainly not the fame,
Only the highs and the music,
Dreams others called insane.

The songs of Americana
May have to start over again
With new places and new crowds,
New melodies and plans.

The road may lead to Nashville,
Or to Houston or LA
But it will start with the songs inside,
And will always be that way.

Where are the songs I want to write?
What muse will send them in the night?
Where are the songs that I need to sing,
Where are the songs?
They’re living in my dreams.

I just finished my read of Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris. This was #5 in the Sookie Stackhouse series, featured in the HBO series, Trueblood. There have been very few series I’ve enjoyed in the years of my reading, but Harris’ books have definitely been one of them.  The series goes to 8 and 9, and those I intend to get on audio books to listen to while I drive this fall, when I have an intensive schedule building. Already I have 30 book signings set up. I’m going to fill in with schools, libraries, and other events, and I expect this to be the busiest fall of my career. Back to Harris: This read focuses on the shifters and their killers, lots of action taking place to the general population of “normal” people, but for the vampires, weres, fairies and others of the unseen realms, a very real problem.  A great read if you’re into vampires and the unseen realms.  Here are a few of the many quotations I underlined in my read:

“Only willful ignorance could ignore the charge of magic in the air. Only a group lack of imagination could account for people not wondering what went on in the dark around them” (11).

“Most peoples’ minds don’t bear reading. Their thoughts are boring, disgusting, disillusioning, but very seldom amusing” (11).

“I knew so many secrets, but almost none of them were my own” (54).

About vampires: “Or maybe it was centuries of conditioning that made the difference, decades of disposing of people as they cose, taking what they wanted, enduring the dichotomy of being the most powerful beings on earth in the darkness, and yet completely helpless and vulnerable during the hours of light” ( 227).

Once again, I find myself staying at my parents’ house in Kemp, OK and writing in the Sherman Panera’s. I am attending the 30th Anniversary Season of the Oklahoma Shakespearean Festival. This is the 4th season I’ve been able to attend.  Friday night, I saw Shakespeare’s 12th Night. I found it to be a very good interpretation of the play. Directed by Aaron Adair, the setting was South Louisiana and surprisingly, the setting worked and flowed with the language of the play. Every time I see a Shakespeare play, I’m reminded of how many common quotations come his plays. I also come away with quotations to look up. For example, I had not realized that the famous quote “Be not afraid of greatness; some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them” came from this play.  I also noticed some quotations regarding Puritans that I intend to study further. (ominous, considering what the Puritans did to theatre in those days).

Last night, I saw Honky Tonk Angels, directed by Paul B. Crook, a theatre instructor at LA TECH.  This is a play by playwright Ted Swindley, who also gave the world, Always . . . Patsy Cline.   The three-woman cast was well chosen, and like Always . . . Patsy Cline, the music was woven into the theme of the dreams and lives of women as affected by Nashville, an influence underated and underestimated by anyone who doesn’t understand the women of the South.  The cast was comprimsed of Natalie Weaver (as Angela), Anastasia Trammell (also from LA TECH as DArlene) and Tiffany Craig (as Sue Ellen).  I felt the songlist and cast to be well chosen and this was a play that I greatly enjoyed.  The Oklahoma Shakespeare Festival site is here: