We are sorry to report the passing of our good friend and banjo picker, Jim Whitley, on May 7, 2008. We will miss him sorely, as will his family and the many friends, colleagues, and students he leaves behind.
Read Jim's obituary in the Gaston Gazzette.
Also, Joe Cline wrote a warm tribute to Jim on the BGRASS-L listserv.
On June 4th, 2008, which would have been Jim's 60th birthday, the Charlotte Observer published a salute to Jim.
A click of the chicken
... takes you to
our CDBaby page
, where you can sample and buy our album.
No home should be without a stack.
Remembering Jon Mullis
There is now a MySpace page for this luminary of the Charlotte folk scene and old friend of ours. Our thanks to Dave Long!
Ditch Wizard in the funny papers!!!!
On 07-26-2007, our Derle made his comic strip debut in Gasoline Alley, which is authored and drawn by our good buddy, Jim Scancarelli.
Letters from Mama
When Jim has letters from home, he always shares 'em with us. Here's the most recent one, dated August 13, 2007. Read'em all here.
Birdshot in the news
No, this is not yet another take on Dick Cheney's misadventures. Big Jim recently ran across one of his old Birdshot columns, circa 1969. Read it here. And read all the letters from Mama here.
Ditch Wizard and N8 the Great take it outside.
Ditch went to Wayne Erbsen's Older Than Dirt party last Saturday night, and talented juggler Nathan Johnson, aka N8 the Great, gave Darrell's bass fiddle some inversion therapy.
Flash! Pixtures! Of us! Imagine! What could be more fascinating to certain people?!
You have simply got to see these pictures! The range! The sweep! The sheer panoply of expression! Why, the mere exclamation point loses its power, no matter how many are expended! Even this many! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yea, verily, exactly twice that many! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (You get the idea, surely) And you, dear reader, can view them all, commercial-free, by simply clicking, in the words of the great Jim Warner, Jr., the link "at the bottom of your scream." Of course, in this case, it isn't at the bottom of anything, but right here.
Where did the time go?
Before
After
Louisiana - 1972?
MelFest - 2001
How 'bout them Kowboys?
The ol' chicken ain't been scratching 'round the yard much lately, but Big Jim and the Ditch Wizard can often be seen playing with Cousin Joe Cline in the Kilocycle Kowboys. Check out the KK web site for upcoming dates, other news, history, and some good bluegrass, folk and Celtic music links.
For the determined and attentive, ...
We now have our Chicken-powerful "Legalize Yourself" T-shirts up for sale, plus selected cassettes from the Old Oblivion catalog.
We're offering
both Mole Hill Highlander titles (w/Jim and Mark)
Carl Joyner (w/Jim and Ditch)
Sanitary Cafe (featuring Tommy Malboeuf)
For now, sales are by check or money order only.
You can read the full text of the liner notes here:
There are no pictures of the T-shirts yet, but they say "Legalize Yourself" on the front and have a cool ChickenHotRod.com hatching-chicken cartoon on the back.
... just print out the order form and mail it to our palatial headquarters.
While supplies last. Box tops optional. Ovoid where prohibited. Actual size guaranteed. High grade.
... We've all played around with an Etch-a-Sketch®, and a handful of folks have stuck with it to produce some amazing pictures, but
Sue's creations, usually done on-the-spot, capture something special. Some of these were done at the Bele Chere festival, some at the Westville Pub.
Big Thom uncovered ...
... some old tapes of live performances from the Dim Past of the Chicken, including what we believe is our very first radio show, and some songs we feared were lost forever. As we get them transferred, we'll make the MP3s available here on the site.
The first installment is from the coffeehouse at Bellarmine University, then called Bellarmine-Ursuline College, in Louisville, Kentucky. This is an important document for us, because it includes the very first version of our radio show skit. We basically chose an opening theme and a closing theme, a few songs to go in between, pointed Big Jim at the microphone, and held on for the ride! Have a listen to what we sounded like on Friday, December 3, 1971. Many thanks to fognode, who helped me reduce the size of the sound files. Here's the following night, December 4, 1971.
Greetings to the fine folks we met there, and those of you we didn't get to meet. The Old-time Radio Show was "broadcast" from the stage for the first time in this century. The Rev. Norman Tabernacle was unable to be with us, but our old buddy Poppa Wheelie dropped in unannounced and led the Health and Happiness Boys in a rendition of "Get A Job" that was equal to few and superior to none.
Please to see The Chicken - Guestbook request
The enigmatic PixelPi has signed our guest book. She says 'Hey' to Mama, so we know she was raised right. More importantly, her bloggings reflect a longing to reach beyond the mundane, to pierce the veil and gaze into loftier realms. It is in that spirit, we are sure, that she requests we post a picture of The Chicken on our site.
O, sweet, trusting PPi! -- If only we lived in such a world. That fearsome gaze has eluded capture all these ages, despite the worthy attempts of generation after generation of artists in every medium. We can offer you something, though -- an image you will not find in any museum. Please view with care and proper reverence.
( Actually, these are PixelPi's wondermous exalterations of the ancient image. The iconic tradition goes on! Refresh the page for a different triptych. )
A highlight of the Cedar Hill Festival was reuniting with Jerry Sams. He ran sound for us when we were in Boone about thirty years ago, and he had some old snapshots to prove it.
Do check back from time to time to learn a little about us and where we'll be playing, and to share in the fun.
Email usSign the guest book
Painter Sue and her magic Etch-a-Sketch®...