FOR WHIT (AND GABBY)

I was in the kitchen, pouring coffee and minding my own business. For some odd reason, George Jones's "The Race Is On" came into my head and I started sort of singing it. Then it wouldn't leave my head. Neither would Whitney, a dear departed friend who turned me on to the song many years ago. He was a roots guy. Blues, country and western and rockabilly were his bag. And he was a baddass guitar player with a bitchen old Ranchero, '61 if I remember correctly. The type of guy who would see a cast iron pan you might like at a garage sale, take it home, clean it and season it, and then just drop by and lay it on you. I DJ'd a few times with him and it was always a gas. He loved turning people on to shit, be it music, or the flipped out photo of Muddy Waters from the inside cover of Electric Mud, which he had hanging on his wall. He liked George Jones enough that he got himself an almost flat top, in the eighties.  Here's a photo right in an early incarnation of the Paladins, circa 1982, when they were a four piece, Whit's on the right. (Photo by Harold Gee.)

So, these are for Whit, and Gabby, the cute as hell bartender who would always request "The Race Is On" whenever we DJ'd.

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
George Jones - The Race Is On mp3 at David Fullmer
George Jones - White Lightning mp3 at Rocky-52
Video:
George Jones - The Race Is On (Hee-Haw) at YouTube