Doc Stevens

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. 

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.

Posted in business, busking, economy, money, music, poverty, showmanship, street musicians, success, survival

Tondeleo: Doc was so very excited that at the mini car show at the party he and the band played at last weekend, no one made fun of his car. He is self conscious about the old paint and faded lettering on it. It looks fine when he is at home and among other rural people, but when he takes it to the suburbs or the city, people point at it, and sometimes they take pictures of it, and he is not certain what to do.

Doc: Tondy, those people at that party was first class. Like I told you, I was gonna park my poor old truck back in the back after we got it unloaded, but the man whose house it was came out and told me I could park it right out there in the same line as the nice cars and hot rods that was bein’ shown off there.

I could not believe it! There was all kinds of cars that you could tell was big money. All of ‘em was well built, and looked good inside an’ out. Shiny rims, good chrome, and motors that you could eat off of, if they didn’t mind you getting’ a little ketchup or barbecue sauce on ‘em. But my Chevy Panel truck looks like somebody already got ketchup and barbecue sauce on it. Well, somebody DID get ketchup and barbecue sauce on it.

They was a silver ‘53 Studebaker, and a couple ‘48 Chevys what sat right on the ground. A ‘36 or ‘37 Chevy, a 55 or ‘56 Plymouth, a 32 Ford… I can’t remember them all. But they was all beautiful.And had good paint on ‘em too!

And then there was my poor old Chevy panel truck! It was dirty and dusty, and the motor ain’t never been cleaned and it ain’t never been waxed, neither! 

But they let me sit it out there just the same! And the other guys what had nice cars came over and talked to me about it, just like I was their equal!

One guy even could tell I need a new radiator! He could tell just by lookin’! That radiator what is in it is from about 1955, and is getting’ green on it here and there. That’s how he said he could tell. He said I need a ‘luminum one and it would run more than $500! Well, guess who AIN’T gonna be able to get a new ‘luminum radiator? I’ll give you one guess, and his name is none other than Doc Stevens!

Posted in cars, music, poverty, trucks

Tondeleo: It has been a few months since I have been able to post a blog for Doc. I have been busy with work and travel. 

Last week, I was able to get a few days in the Washington, DC area, and visited Doc and Marilyn. As you may know, Marilyn got married last September to David, and they moved to the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

Fortunately, she was visiting Doc when I was there for a few days.

Doc: Tondy, we just played a few jobs where there was people with a lot of money and nice cars and they was real nice to us. 

One was a lady’s 80th birthday party. Her grown kids threw it for her. They had a car show at it and everything. When we pulled up in my old Chevy panel truck, I saw all those nice cars with pretty paint and shiny rims and chromed out motors and thought, “Uh oh. They are gonna make me park out in the back!”

But once we got all the ‘quipment outta the back, the guy whose house it was asked me to park my old truck right out there with all those nice hot rods! I was really surprised, cause this truck ain’t never been waxed and only washed maybe twice in the last couple of years. But he let me pull it right out there in the line with the nice cars! And people took pictures of it, just like they did the other cars!

Then when we was settin’ up, I found out there was a good handful of guitar players and musicians there, too! All I had brung with me was the homemade guitars. I don’t know why. I brung my two favorites, which I made a long time ago, and two smaller ones what I keep in the truck. You need smaller guitars when you’re playing out on the streets, or travelin’. You ain’t got room for full size ones. 

It’s cheapest just to make ‘em yourself outta old parts and boxes. I keep the one what is made from a tackle box in regular tuning and the other little one in a open tuning for slide guitar and blues. The lady who lived there took pictures and sent them to us in a e-letter. 

I figured those guys with all that money was gonna laugh us off the property when they saw those old home made guitars what was made outta trash. But NO! They was real nice about it. People was even takin’ pictures of ‘em. That made me feel real good.
We had Marilyn down for the weekend, and Buttermilk Wade was on the lead guitar, and Lump was on the harp and K.I. on the drums. That is pretty much our line up these days. We are lucky to have a good handful of musicians to pick from and who can be available. 

The people there was real nice and it was a good party and we all ate a lot of food. They had a little bit of everything there. Nobody got too drunk, and there was no fightin’ which is always a mark of a classy party.

But we was all amazed that people kept asking about those guitars and takin’ pictures! Well, I know this: If we’d had nice guitars and good equipment, and nice clothes, ain’t nobobdy woulda been takin’ pictures!

Oh yeah – the other thing is that when they see those crappy looking guitars and old amps, they figure we’re gonna sound like garbage. So when we don’t sound like garbage, they all are surprised and then they think we are good. Those guitars sound GOOD though, Tondy, they was just cheap to make, that’s all.

Posted in creativity, poverty, showmanship, street musicians, survival, trucks

Posted in acoustic music, America, church, economy, food, guns, hunting, music, Pentecostalism, religion, survival, zombie apocalypse

Tondeleo: It’s been several weeks since I’ve been able to post. Work has been interfering with my life. Currently I am back in America for at least a fortnight, and I hope to be able to record some interesting interviews with Doc and Marilyn and their friends.

I printed out some of the emails I’ve received from Americans trying to profit from the general fear that is in the world. Many of them are transparently selling fear, and then selling products that should alleviate those fears.

With many people deciding that the world will come to an end in May of this year, because the Mayans said it would, the intensity of the emails and product sales for survival is in quite a flurry.

I figured this would be a good topic to talk with Doc and Marilyn about. It turned out to be pretty much what I expected, with them interjecting their thoughts and questions every few seconds, and derailing any train of thought before it even got going.

Here we go:

Tondeleo: Doc, now that I’ve read to you all these emails about the world coming to an end in May, which is only a few weeks away, what do you think?

Doc: Who said it was coming to an end next month, Tondy? What was those peoples’ names?

Tondeleo: The Mayans. They said so. They had it on their calendar that the end of the world was coming in May 2012.

Marilyn: Well WHO is the Mayans? I ain’t never heard of them…

Tondeleo: The Mayans were a group of people who lived in Central America…

Doc: Ohio?

Tondeleo: No, Central America is down south of Mexico…

Doc: South of Mexico… and they call it central America? Ohio and Indiana and Detroit is central America, Tondy.

Tondeleo: OK, well, the Mayans lived there a long time ago, like in 2500 B.C. They were brilliant and had a highly developed civilisation. They…

Big Dave: I know who those people were. Buncha white trash. Learned about ‘em in eighth grade, Tondy.

Those S.O.B.’s would play football usin’ the head of someone they killed.Used it for a football!

They sacrificed virgins to their gods. That ain’t civilised. You’re s’posed to protect virgins, not kill ‘em.

Doc: You can’t kill virgins! They’re a dangered species! Other n’ Marilyn and some of the girls down at the church, I ain’t even SEEN a virgin in what… maybe ten years!

Marilyn: Tondy, those people killed VIRGINS??? That ain’t right!

Doc: Well, that’s it. I ain’t buyin’ it.

Tondeleo: You’re not buying WHAT, Doc?

Doc: Their calendar. I ain’t buyin’ their calendar. What’s it got, only five pages? January, February, March… uhh, April, then May. And that’s it? I ain’t buyin’ it. I got plans for the Summer. We got a lot of gigs this Summer.

Big Dave: Yeah, I don’t want their calendar either, Tondy.

Tondeleo: But, it isn’t like that… not at all…

Marilyn: Tondy, you ought to buy Doc’s calendar. He’s got the whole year on his, and there are a lot of gigs we’re playin’, and they’re all marked on his calendar…

Doc: I ain’t sellin’ my calendar, Marilyn. Then we’d miss all our gigs.

Big Dave: Yeah, forget the Mayans. The Mexicans killed ‘em all. They had it wrong, anyway, Tondy.

Tondeleo: You can’t know that, Big Dave.

Doc: Well, I can. The end of the world already came for them folks, and they wasn’t expectin’ it! And now they’re all dead and in hell. Hmph! …Playin’ football with a man’s head. Killin’ virgins… That’s a bunch of sinner mess, right there. Nothin’ but sinner mess. 

Posted in America, apocalypse, end of the world, History, mayan calendar, mexicans, religion, survival