It was the hottest September in recorded history here in New Orleans. It’s still fucking hot: we had record highs the first four days of October. I complained about it in the Bayou Brief the other day so I thought I should here as well. We’re allegedly getting some relief next week but I’ll believe it when I see it.

We went to an event at the fancy new-ish Picvocate/Gambit HQ to see local pundits and Adrastos friends Clancy Dubos and Stephanie Grace. I considered heckling but Dr. A wouldn’t hear of it. They talked local and statewide elections. I’m still having a hard time deciding who to support for State Rep since there are 4444 candidates running in our district.

They only took questions via Twitter so I was unable to do my Eddie Rispone impression on the live stream: “Hi, I’m Eddie Rispone. I’m a conservative outsider and Trump supporter.” It’s their loss, y’all.

For the non-Louisianans out there here’s one of Rispone’s ads:

Moderator and Paul Drake fan Kevin Allman moved the questions to the Tweeter Tube because he did not want to have long-winded questions. A wise choice since I was in the audience. To placate me, he asked one of my tweeted questions and Clancy dropped my name so I guess I’ll survive.

Here’s the video of the live stream:

This week’s theme song was written by Hank Williams in 1952. We have two versions of You Win Again for your listening pleasure.: Hank’s original followed by the Grateful Dead. I discovered this and many other classic country song because of them. Thanks, Jerry

Let’s pay a visit to Disambiguation City and meet up with singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter. Her You Win Again was written and recorded in 1990:

Guess what? There’s also a 1987 Bee Gees song with the same title:

Now that we’re three-time winners, let’s jump to the break again and again and again.

We kick off our second act with Neil Young’s ode to American music:

Was that a touchdown or should I have taken a knee instead? My Saints didn’t score any touchdowns last Sunday in their victory over the Dallas Cowboys. It was a throwback to the Jim Mora era with Teddy Bridgewater as Steve Walsh and Will Lutz as Morten Andersen.

It’s extra weird that the Saints are a defense first team right now and the LSU Tigers are all offense when it should be the other way around. Welcome to Topsy Turvy Town:

Hey Sailor: My old buddy Troy Gilbert has another winner at the Bayou Brief. It’s a piece I read before publication because he needed fresh eyes. He was clearly desperate.

All kidding aside, Troy takes us back to the 19th Century to tell the fascinating story of The “Negro” Captains and Crews of the Post-Civil War Gulf South. It’s a story so good that not even my suggestions could fuck it up.

Surf Nazis: We stay on the water with this segment. It’s an excerpt from Daniel Duane’s surfing memoir. It focuses on the right wing beliefs and superstitions of the surfing set. It’s a far cry from the innocence of the early music of the Beach Boys, but it could explain the wingnuttery of Mike Love and Bruce Johnston. The former is one of the biggest assholes in rock history and the latter isn’t far behind. Oh, the malakatude.

Repeat after me:

Lets travel from Southern California to Nashville where the cats “play clean as country water.”

Documentary Of The Week: You’ll be shocked to learn that Ken Burns’ Country Music is this week’s documentary. It’s 16 hours of goodness complete with big hair, great music, and nice musicians. I thought Marty Stuart and his hair won the day with Brenda Lee’s ‘do in second place because I’m unclear if it’s real or a wig. Boy howdy.

I thought this was Burns’ best popular culture documentary perhaps because I know less about the subject than Jazz or Baseball. I particularly liked the focus on songwriters. It’s all in the songs, y’all, it’s all in the songs.

Here’s the trailer:

I give Country Music 4 stars, an Adrastos Grade of A, and a hefty hillbilly thumbs up.

The last word of our second act goes to the great Dwight Yoakam:

We begin our third act with our favorite stolen feature.

Separated At Birth: The country music theme continues with this pairing of a young Rodney Crowell with Billy Boyd as Pippin from Lord of the Rings trilogy:

More big hair. This post is full of big hair: from country big hair to fantasy big hair, we cover the waterfront. It’s a hairy waterfront.

Time to come back to earth with a Rodney Crowell tune featuring Bela Fleck on banjo:

The Weekly DC: Then California Governor Ronald Reagan discussed his worst movie with Dick Cavett in 1971. It’s NOT Bedtime For Bonzo but it does come up.

It turns out that Ronnie liked being upstaged by Bonzo the Chimp. Go figure.

The Movie List: Like Ronald Reagan, James Cagney began as a liberal Democrat and ended up a conservative Republican. But he was a much better actor.

My Top Ten Favorite Jimmy Cagney Movies:

1. The Roaring Twenties
2. White Heat
3. One, Two, Three
4. Angels With Dirty Faces
5. The Strawberry Blonde
6. City For Conquest
7. Love Me Or Leave Me
8. The Public Enemy
9. Yankee Doodle Dandy
10. Shake Hands With The Devil

Let’s mosey on down to Texas. Arlen, Texas, y’all.

Saturday GIF Horse: Dr. A and I were avid viewers of King Of The Hill. The ultra dorky propane and propane accessories salesman Hank Hill always slayed me. Here he is watering his head instead of his lawn. Silly Texan.

You’re all wet, Hank. Yup.

Weekly Vintage Music Video: I’d never seen this Ricky Skaggs video before viewing the Ken Burns film. What’s not to love about a video that shows bluegrass deity Bill Monroe dancing on a New York subway train?

That was freaky but not half as freaky as this bluegrass cover of a Hot Chocolate song.

It’s time to escape the subway and move to the slammer. I hope they don’t send me to solitary for taking Bill Monroe’s name in vain. Mr. Monroe was known to be a mite tetchy.

Saturday Classic: Johnny Cash’s career was in the doldrums in the mid-Sixties. Then he cut this hit album and all was right with the country music world again.

That’s it for this week. I’m going to repeat last week’s closing meme because it doesn’t get any better than Mother Maybelle and the Carter sisters with Chet Atkins.