Down On The Corner

By Paul Moffett

• We hope you all made it through Derby Week with a minimum of bad things happening to you and a lot of good. Of course, if you were betting on the ponies, most of you lost but that's the way gambling goes, no matter what.

Louisville's Lost and Found. There is some news of note this month, notably that Marvin Maxwell has finally managed to pry the many masters out of the storage room at the old Allen-Martin Studios, which was known at the time as Sambo Studios. The details of how that happened are known only to Marvin and a couple of other folks, but no matter. What does matter is that they will be getting some airplay soon, on a new weekly WFPK show called "Louisville's Lost & Found," beginning Thursday, June 1 at 8 p.m. Duke Meyer and Maxwell will host the show. Weekly interviews are scheduled with related guests, including Lonnie Mack, Paul Penny, Ray Allen, Hardy Martin, Cosmo, members of Soul Inc., Company Front, Elysian Field and as many more as Marvin can dig up.

Having been given a tour of that roomful of masters some years back, I can testify that there are a lot of recordings. Maxwell is facing a monumental task, trying to save as many as he can, since most are in questionable condition due to age. When he acquired and copied off his old Elysian Fields and Soul, Inc. tapes, he said that they had one chance to get the copy: as the tape was passing through the machine's read heads, the metal oxide came off the Mylar substrate in a cloud. He said he's looking for financial aid for the project.

Anyway, all you Louisvillians who were here in the Sixties and Seventies, tune in: you'll hear things you haven't heard since.

• Louisville Music News' website is now located at www.louisvillemusicnews.net, though you'll still be able to get there via www.louisvillemusic.com, www.louisvillemusicnews.com and www.louisvillemusic.net, thanks to the wonders of the redirect file. The reason for the change? It's a tiresome story involving three different webhosting services, and common decency demands that I not inflict it upon you.

The site has been redesigned and some features added, particularly the genre pages, so you can find your favorite music more quickly. We have been adding material from the archives as rapidly as possible, though that was delayed by the problems with the webhost. (Such geek talk.) There's also an `Editor's Blog,' which means I have to scribble some more...

Any comments or suggestions you might have can be sent to me at editor@louisvillemusicnews.net. I'd appreciate any feedback.

• Attention, Front-end Boomers. How's that for a euphemism for `older'? I appreciate that myself as I are one: an older boomer - or, to be precise, a pre-boomer, having arrived on the planet a year before the official start of the Baby Boom. I bring this up because I have recent undertaken something I should have done years and years ago - make a fully produced record of my tunes. As a songwriter, I've knocked out a fair number of demos, from rough to rougher to the occasional studio recording, but only of the `vocal-guitar' type recommended for songwriters interested in pitching songs.

Having rolled past the big Six-Oh Lord, it began to sink in that if I ever wanted to have these tunes slickly produced, I'd have to do it myself, or at least, arrange for it to be done. So I have, and, as an unrepentant writer, I am documenting the process on a blog, just in case any other aging soul might like to see what pitfalls and pleasures I encounter in the process. I have to thank Wil Freebody and Michael Thomas at Long Island Recording in Lexington for agreeing to help me in the process, bless `em.

You can read the whole backstory and the ongoing story at www.firstrecordatsixty.com. It's only just begun, so wish me luck. You can add comments, there, too.

• The Louisville Youth Orchestra's Supersummerstrings camp for young string players is set for July 24-28 at the Oldham County Arts Center in Crestwood. The camp is for players with two to three years experience and who can note read simple pieces of music. Cost is $65. Contact Melody Welsh-Buchholz at 502-896-1851 or log onto www.lyo.org for an application.

• Alan Rhody’s holding a songwriters’ workshop at the Creative Workplace, 2001 Frankfort Ave., Upstairs on June 10, 10 a.m.- 3 p.m.(lunch break 12-1 p.m.) Send $35 to Alan Rhody Workshop, P.O. Box 121231, Nashville, Tennessee 37212 or call 615-298-4286 alan@alanrhody.com

CODAS

• Bayer, Margie Camille, 89, died in Louisville on May 15, 2006. She was a member of the Louisville Federation of Musicians and performed with the Mellotones

• Humphress, Herbert Ray "Herb," 76, of Jeffersontown, died Thursday, April 27, 2006. He was a member of the Louisville Thoroughbred Chorus, including terms as Vice President in 1966 and President in 1967, during the period when the LTC won four national championships. He also sang bass in the Fishers of Men Southern Gospel Quartet.

• Stutzenberger, Lucille Haeberlin, 93, died in Louisville on May 9. She was a longtime music teacher in Jefferson County Public Schools and a member of the McDowell Music Club.

• Thirlwell, Sherrill, 90, died in Louisville on April 27, 2006. She was a singer, songwriter and musician.

• Zuberer, Dr. Donald Lee, 73, of Clarksville, Indiana, died on May 9 in Nashville, Tennessee. He was a professional trumpet player.