Stonehenge, & Other British Mysteries

Stonehenge: 

and Other British Mysteries

The video, "Stonehenge, etc" is a short intro to the ancient phenomena of stoneworks: standing stones, stone circles, stone rows and such that you may find all over Europe. In fact you may find such things all over the world — the pyramids of Egypt and Mexico, for instance, would fit my definition. Shapes, circles and debris that have some sort of cultural significance, yet now perhaps exist in a ruined form. I mention Stonehenge in particular because most can relate to it, have heard of it, even if they don't know what it is, exactly. Turns out nobody knows what it is exactly. The Cerne Abbas Giant is less secretive; it is quite obviously something to do with fertility. We present you with a remote circle of 19 boulders in Torhouse, Galloway, Scotland and some white horses on Wiltshire hillsides. The horses are related to the Cerne Giant in Dorset, a remnant that broadcasts its meaning far and wide. You needn't go far from the giant before you discover somebody whose life has been forever altered by association. 
Anyway, here's just a sampling, enough for us to have followed up the travel film, "It's Great! Britain" with one called "Etched in Stone: Scotland to Provence" which draws more attention to the stone artifacts strewn across centuries of civilization since the Stone Age. There's plenty more where this stuff came from, and we'll be getting to lots of it yet. I think it's the Celtic blood.

Song: Would You Fly? (Bonnie & Clyde Song)

The song, "Would You Fly" was the first of our Louisiana songs. 


For Marsha, I wrote "We found ourselves in Louisiana/ We had been searching many years/ Now our lives are intermingled/ It's like music to our ears." 
It seems a little bit appropriate for Bonnie and Clyde, who treated Louisiana as a safe zone until . . . that fateful day in 1934.

The song was very lucky for us. We put it on the flip side of "Cajun Christmas" (when people made records and they had flip sides) and it somehow made its way to the Off-Broadway play, "Steel Magnolias." Then both songs got into the movie: "Would You Fly" is very unobtrusive, some gentle bluegrass music from a radio under a car. "Cajun Christmas" makes a grand entrance when Julia Roberts flips a switch at Dolly Parton's hairdressing salon. "Down in Louisiana we have a Cajun Christmas, etc." 

Marsha & Monty, Children's Stage at the
Red River Revel, Shreveport.

 We were lucky with musicians, too. We had befriended the "Watkins Family" band at various concerts and festivals — Luke and Gene and their kids — and I played their LP on the radio. They laid down the accompaniment for "Would You Fly'" 

The lives of Bonnie and Clyde ended abruptly on May 23rd, 1934. They were driving south on Route 154 near Mt. Lebanon, Louisiana, when a team of lawmen shot the hell out of their stolen Ford V-8 which they had purloined in Kansas City, Missouri. The lawmen included a former Texas Ranger, Frank Hamer, and three Texas State policemen; plus the local Bienville Parish Sheriff Henderson Jordan and one of his deputies. It was a classic ambush: Bonnie and Clyde were betrayed by a gang member so that the lawmen waited in the bushes and opened fire when they drove into range.

Bonnie at a happier moment.

The car after the shooting.

The car, along with the bullet-riddled bodies of the outlaw couple and a stash of arms and ammunition they'd assembled, was taken to the nearby town of Arcadia. A large crowd gathered during the day. 

The bodies were taken to Conger's Funeral Home which doubled as a furniture store which also sold records to go with their console radios (pieces of furniture). Conger's had connections, via Bienville's own Grigg Family Band, to the Victor Recording Company over the past few years. The Griggs had auditioned for record producer Ralph Peer at Conger's in Arcadia, and their records were a popular item at the store. 

Lawmen responsible for gunning down Bonnie & Clyde.
Front row C, Henderson Jordan, R, Frank Hamer.

 

Song: Dancing Cajun

It's biographical: the story of our love for Cajun culture told through "Grandpa" from somewhere up north. He loves Cajun music and moves to near Lafayette, Louisiana The song "Allons à Lafayette" is a Cajun Classic and many songs in the Cajun repertoire feature town names in their titles. For instance "Eunice Two-step," and "Crowley Waltz;" Other songs are named for musicians linked to them, like "Bee's Blues" and "One-Step d'Amedée."
There are lots of references to Cajun Life in the video — the Liberty Theater in Eunice and its Friday night shows; Marc Savoy's Music store and his Saturday jams; Fred's in Mamou where there's a party every Saturday morning; the ghost of the Blue Goose. This song is dedicated to all Cajuns. The song begins with a "country" feel but gradually segues into full on Cajun. The fiddler was the late great Rufus Thibodeaux and the accordionist was Gene Savoie. Charlie Moore plays steel guitar. Scott Ardoin production & electric guitar; Eston Bellow, drums on sound and video.