We’ve posted several versions of Stack O’Lee/ Stagger Lee here on the TweedBlog, so I’d like to give a little information on the true story behind one of American music’s more enduring songs. Lyons and Lee were real people and, according to news reports of the day, ‘Stag’ Lee really did shoot Lyons in an argument over a hat.

The St. Louis Globe Democrat, 1895

“William Lyons, 25, a levee hand, was shot in the abdomen yesterday evening at 10 o’clock in the saloon of Bill Curtis, at Eleventh and Morgan Streets, by Lee Sheldon, a carriage driver. Lyons and Sheldon were friends and were talking together. Both parties, it seems, had been drinking and were feeling in exuberant spirits. The discussion drifted to politics, and an argument was started, the conclusion of which was that Lyons snatched Sheldon’s hat from his head. The latter indignantly demanded its return. Lyons refused, and Sheldon withdrew his revolver and shot Lyons in the abdomen. When his victim fell to the floor Sheldon took his hat from the hand of the wounded man and coolly walked away. He was subsequently arrested and locked up at the Chestnut Street Station. Lyons was taken to the Dispensary, where his wounds were pronounced serious. Lee Sheldon is also known as ‘Stag’ Lee”

Lyons died the day after Christmas, 1895. Missouri has a searchable database of Coroner’s records. If you want to see the page for Lyons, visit Missouri Digital Heritage. You can even order a copy of the coroner’s report.

There’s more on the song and the legend here: Stagger Lee

The intersection of 11th and Morgan doesn’t really exist anymore. Morgan in that stretch has become Convention Plaza. Here’s a Google map of the crime scene:

View Larger Map

Related posts:
Mississippi John Hurt playing Stack O Lee Blues
The Down Home Boys singing Original Stack O’Lee Blues

I loathe jewel cases, the ubiquitous plastic cases that house most compact discs. They’re heavy, bulky, and fragile. My collection of CDs, while not huge, had totally outgrown whatever space I had to house it. Even after a rather draconian purge, there still wasn’t enough space for the discs I wanted to keep. The solution was to banish the hated jewel case from my home.
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If you lived in Champaign Urbana in the early 1990s, you likely remember Driver Has No Cash, a trio featuring amplified ukulele, toy drums, and the melodious vocals of Frank Gill. If you feel like spending a few moments wallowing in the gloriousness of that time and place, you’re in luck. Driver Has No Cash are reuniting this weekend.

From Bill’s blog, the Williwaw Endeavor:

driver has no cash - francis bradley gill, robert rising & the artist somewhat rarely known as williwaw - have, like the Great Phoenix, risen from the ashes.

SUNDAY MAY 25 8 PM
THE HIGH DIVE
51 MAIN STREET
CHAMPAIGN USA

there will be much roaring, much whimpering, cowering even, from the mighty rock. can you handle such rock? no, you can’t. but you’ll try, oh how you’ll try, to carry on. there are tickets. there will be no t-shirts. no, don’t cry, there will be other trinkets. there will be other bands. so many bands. so much rock. you, you really should stay away. you, you’re just not ready. stay home. yes, the sofa. that’s the place for you…

A few days ago, I posted an MP3 of an old 78rpm record by a group called Mike Shaw’s Alabama Entertainers, about whom I know nothing. Fortunately, my copy of Tony Russell’s masterful Country Music Records: A Discography, the Rosetta Stone for fans and scholars alike, arrived in the mail this week.

Here’s what I learned:

• Unknown fiddle
• Unknown guitar
• Unknown kazoo on 1

Glad I could clear that up for you.

Actually, I did learn a few useful things: the record was recorded on the 10th of December, 1930, in Atlanta, GA. This would place it over a year after the Narmour and Smith recording of Carroll County Blues. It was issued as part of OKeh’s seminal 45000 country music series, with a catalog number of 45518.

If anyone knows more about the group, please drop me a line. Their entire recorded output seems to consist of four sides for OKeh cut at the December 10, 1930 session.

This piece from Meat Puppets drummer Derrick Bostrom serves as an excellent companion to The Problem with Music, Anatomy of a Record Contract, and Sage Words from Dick Dale.

Perhaps it’s beating a dead horse by this point. Everyone knows major labels are evil. They’ve spent most of this decade releasing unlistenable crap and suing nine-year-olds. Nevertheless, Bostrom is in a unique position to look back and reflect on the wreckage of the 1990s. It’s an ugly story of a collision between art & commerce, of how a band can produce a gold record and still come out in debt. And, because of how the game is played (you’re always playing with your own money), the more accommodating you try to be, the deeper in the hole you get:

As the weeks went by and demand for us increased, we found ourselves continually whisked this way and that, back and forth across the country, constantly busy, constantly tired. And all the while, we piled up recoupable expenses for promotion and tour support at a rate of around fifty grand a month. When the dust settled, we were into Polygram for nearly a half a million dollars.

Read the full post at meatpuppets.com

I am not alone in thinking that a rock and roll band called The Embarrassment from Wichita, Kansas, is among the finest this country has ever produced. When that band splintered, the gentlemen continued to make great music with other bands. Guitarist Bill Groffier played in a great rock and roll combo in Boston called Big Dipper, who made some very good records with many of the same qualities that make Embarrassment records perpetually endearing. Not least of these are Bill’s thoughtful guitar playing and soaring harmony vocals.

So it’s a pleasant surprise to hear that Big Dipper are getting back together for a handful of shows to celebrate the release of a 3-CD box set. From RockTownHall.com:

Big Dipper is indeed reuniting for a handful of shows in April 2008 and the release of a 3-CD set. The release will include a 12-page booklet with liner notes by Scharpling and, most importantly, songs from the band’s first 3 long-out-of-print albums along with the requisit rarities, unreleased tracks, and even the original video for “Faith Healer”. I’ve been waiting a long time for this day, and I’ve been waiting a long time to have more than this grainy, 12th-generation clip that’s been floating around YouTube for some time as a visual record of the band.

Earlier this week, I had my iPhone set to random play, and Big Dipper’s gorgeous song Ron Klaus Wrecked His House popped up. I then briefly amused myself by singing ‘Ron House wrecked his Klaus’, in honor of the Ohioan who aspired to have a band ‘as big as, but not bigger than the Embarrassment.’ It all made the 45 mph headwind blowing through downtown Chicago a wee bit more bearable.

I saw the Meat Puppets this week when their reunion tour made a swing through Chicago. Seeing the Meat Puppets at the Newport Music Hall in Columbus in August 1987 was one of the transformative events in my life. It was as close to a religious experience as one can have at an event that ends in the crowd being pelted with cold cuts from the band’s deli tray.

Our live shows are external combustion and a lot of drool. Curt Kirkwood .

You can download a 1987 Meat Puppets show via the Meat Puppets website, which will give you a pretty good idea of what it all sounded like. You’ll miss the visual component, though, things like the Kirkwood Brothers looping their belts together and somersaulting across the stage, or giving each other piggy back rides while playing, all while playing like demons and singing like Grover being strangled.
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Onstage magazine has a short article that is very helpful in understanding the effect that speaker placement has on live sound. Monitor placement is particularly important for acoustic bands that have a large number of sensitive condenser microphones on stage. To achieve the best-sounding results and avoid ear-splitting feedback, you should understand the most effective monitor placement for the type of microphone you are using:

Purists will note that supercardioid mics like the venerable Shure Beta 58A have a very narrow front-pickup pattern, but they achieve this by sacrificing some of the rejection pattern directly behind the mic. Supercardioid mics are designed to work well with either a pair of floor wedges split 15 degrees off the center rear of the mic, or a single floor wedge slightly offset from the rear of the mic. If you point the back of a supercardioid mic directly at a monitor speaker, it will feed back more easily than if you offset it by 15 degrees or so.

To read the full article:
Location is Everything Courtesy of Onstage Magazine

Previous posts:
Know Your Mic, Part III
Know your mic, part II
Know your mic, part I
Plugging in