On The Road Again.

(H/T to TBLMISBT for the Willie post pic.)

I posted about Willie a couple of weeks ago. Bored Immigration and Border Patrol agents hassled his crew outside of El Paso. Yet another good reason to get the hell out of west Texas...

Now it's North Carolina's turn to sic Johnny Law on a bunch of musicians partying on their bus.

From the AP, via the (Torrance, CA) Daily Breeze:

Singer and guitarist Willie Nelson canceled a North Carolina concert because of a bum hand about an hour after several band and crew members were busted for possessing moonshine and pot.

Alcohol Law Enforcement spokesman Ernie Seneca said Friday that six members of Nelson's band and crew have been charged with misdemeanor possession offenses. They were cited before the Texas singer was to take the stage Thursday night at the Duplin County Events Center.

Nelson's daughter said on the musician's Web site that the show was called off because his hand hurt too badly to play. The right-handed guitar-picker had carpel tunnel surgery on his left hand in 2004.

Whisky river, don't run dry...

RIP: Snooks Eaglin.

From the New Orleans Times-Picayune: 

Snooks Eaglin, the New Orleans rhythm & blues guitarist known for his dexterous finger-picking and boundless repertoire, died Wednesday afternoon. He was 72.

“He was the most New Orleans of all the New Orleans acts that are still living,” said Mid-City Lanes owner John Blancher.

Mr. Eaglin apparently checked into a hospital last week with high blood pressure, then was released. He returned to Ochsner Medical Center on Tuesday, and went into cardiac arrest, Blancher said.

RIP: Hank Crawford

Another great sax man gone...

From the New York Times:

Hank Crawford, whose fluidly emotional saxophone solos as a sideman for Ray Charles led to a long career as a leader of jazz and soul bands and a lengthy discography for Atlantic, Kudu and Milestone Records, died Thursday at his home in Memphis. He was 74. 

The cause was complications of a stroke he had in 2000, his sister Delores said.

Beginning in the early 1960s, when Mr. Crawford was music director for Charles’s big band and also recorded on his own as a bandleader, he was best known as an alto saxophonist who melded a wailing blues style to the melodic and rhythmic exigencies of modern jazz, funk and soul. He proved an especially flexible musician over the decades as styles of popular music swiveled hither and yon.

Fellow sax great David "Fathead" Newman--another Charles sideman--passed away last month.