Tondeleo: One thing that it doesn’t take long to find out is that it takes a fair bit of business sense to be able to live cheaply and survive well on very little money. That is true in the UK where I live as well as everyplace I have lived or traveled to in my life.
It’s no different in the States. There are MANY, many poor and needy people there. Some are newly poor, having lost their jobs because of downsizing, being laid of or the business where they worked closed down, due to the worldwide bad economy.
Then there are those who have been poor all of their lives. For them, even though they are used to poverty, it is tougher when there is less money floating around amongst the middle class. So they have to hustle more, and find more ways to maximize their meager resources.
Doc: Yeah, Tondy, it’s definitely tougher out there. Use to be, we could make enough money by hustling a few odd jobs, doin’ a little body work and playin’ in the streets for tips. But now we gotta step it up a notch. We’re havin’ to hustle more gigs so we can keep the lights on.
One thing that helps is having Marilyn in the band. Heck, we didn’t use to have to have a band! Money was flowin’ enough I could make it on my own. Now we gotta have a band! Imagine that!
It takes a handful of us to get decent gigs. Havin’ Marilyn is a big help, too.
Tondeleo: Why exactly is that, Doc?
Doc: Well, first off, she’s easier to look at than the rest of us. Ain’t nobody want to LOOK at a bunch of old guys playin’ music! They hear us and want to LISTEN, but they ain’t wanna look! But with Marilyn, bein’ a girl and all that, they wanna look. And if they look, they will stay an’ listen.
Another thing is it makes us look not so rough. We are not a pretty bunch of guys. We ain’t those little skinny boys with pretty hair and nice shiny instruments. We is all workin’ men and none of us is pretty and none of our instruments is shiny and pretty. We gotta have SOMETHIN’ that looks good!
And then there is this, Tondy. It means we can sing more songs. Like, I can sing “Stand By Your Man,” but it’s kinda creepy if you think about it. Well, not really, cause the words ain’t about ME standin’ by my man, it is just about a woman needs to stand by her man, but you get the idea. When MARILYN sings “Stand By Your Man,” it’s a different story. She sings it like she means it, and she belts it out way prettier than I do.
Same with “Your Squaw is on the Warpath.” That’s a old Loretta Lynn song about her husband cheatin’ on her an’ then comin’ home drunk and wantin’ more of what he’s already had. Well, I ain’t singin’ THAT one! But Marilyn can. They’s a lot of songs what is better with a girl singin’ them. She does “Your Cheatin’ Heart” better.And a lot of the Patsy Cline songs better, like “Walkin’ After Midnight.”
It works better for back up singin’ as well to have a girl voice in there. An’ Marilyn plays harp and flute what she learnt at school band and a little bass guitar if we need it. Mostly when I am playin’ bottleneck.
Havin’ it not be all white people is good, too. That adds a little flavor to it. We always been a mixed band, and that helps a lot. We all grew up poor and moving around from place to place, and we all learnt from blacks and whites when we was growin’ up. Now when it all comes together, it is better. We always had a black drummer. We got Welch Simmons from Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. We also got K.I. who comes from up to Pittsburgh. He pays drums, sax and is good on bass, too.
On lead guitar we got Buttermilk Wade who looks like a black man but is Asiatic. Least he tells people that. You can ask him if he is really from the far east, and he will tell you his people is from Eastern North Carolina, and if you go any further east than that, you will drop off in the ocean, so what can I say?
Back to havin’ a girl, it just adds somethin’ 
good to the group that ain’t there when it’s just the men. The ladies don’t think we’re as scary. They stand around more and listen, and the men stand around more, too.
good to the group that ain’t there when it’s just the men. The ladies don’t think we’re as scary. They stand around more and listen, and the men stand around more, too.
The old ladies like her and I think they kind of feel sorry for her with all these old men, so they take her under their wings. They sing along more when she is singin’. That makes it a better show, too. Helps to have a girl. If you ever get a band, Tondy, get a girl in it. Helps a lot.
