For whatever reason...

...I recalled a song this morning - one I hadn't listened to in a very long time. It was written by John Hiatt and this version was on Willie's 40th studio album. May God bless and keep an American original, Willie Nelson.

Link

Meanwhile we sit and await our fate at the hands of hurricane Florence.

KLEM FM

linky

What a great melody! It's a fine example of how just two years after tragedy, a band could remain standing and triumph. According to Wiki, "Jessica" -- written by guitarist Dickey Betts -- is a tribute to guitarist Django Reinhardt, in that it was designed to be played using only two fingers on the left hand.

Dickey Betts and son Duane show how the song is played:

Hmm, I counted more than two fingers involved on the fret board.

Again according to Wiki:

Betts named the song after his daughter, Jessica Betts, who was an infant when the song was released. She had bounced along to the song's rhythm, and Betts attempted to capture her attitude with the song's melody. He invited fellow guitarist Les Dudek over to collaborate on the song, and Dudek formed the song's bridge. The song's arrangement was crafted in prior to recording the song, which took place at Capricorn Sound Studios in Macon, Georgia.

KLEM FM

An eight piece lounge act from Austin, Texas covers one of my favorite old Black Sabbath tunes:

Link in case the video doesn't play

Actually, they're pretty good. I'd pay money to see that.

Here's a great (1970) version of the original:

 link

Black Sabbath's guitar player, Tony Iommi, was very original and inspired. But he nearly quit playing as a teen after losing two fingertips in an accident. A coworker urged him on, playing a Django Reinhardt recording for him:

My friend said, 'Listen to this guy play,' and I went, 'No way! Listening to someone play the guitar is the very last thing I want to do right now!' But he kept insisting and he ended up playing the record for me. I told him I thought it was really good and then he said, 'You know, the guy's only playing with two fingers on his fretboard hand because of an injury he sustained in a terrible fire.' I was totally knocked back by this revelation and was so impressed by what I had just heard that I suddenly became inspired to start trying to play again.  link