Sharing thoughts about Taylor Hicks and concert travels and other musical musings!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Finding a Cure for the Taylor Hicks Blues

After an aggressive 2007 spring and summer tour for Taylor Hicks, I can certainly understand his need for down time to not only write and record a new album, but to also recharge his musical batteries. The week-end travel for me certainly took its toll and I’m almost twice Taylor’s age! Youth, that’s the only way anyone would be able to survive a musician’s life-style!
With all the free week-ends of late, I’m starting to feel the need to roam, to take a road trip to nowhere, to find some sort of musical release, to see and hear Taylor Hicks in concert again! Even my physician wants to know when I will be on the road again. (I really think she’s a closet-Taylor Hicks fan and this is how she’s able to find out where Taylor Hicks will be performing!) I must look miserable when I’m in her office and her only advice is to go find a concert or a new CD or new musician! Anything, because not even “two aspirin and a call-me-in-the-morning” do any good! Unfortunately, there is no pill for the Taylor Hicks Blues. Oh please help me find a cure for the Taylor Hicks Blues!



I’ve resorted to cleaning my own house (the housekeeper was just in the way!). My many in-progress scrapbooks are getting caught up. My cats pester me when I’m on my laptop – go away, the keyboard’s warm and cozy. Books have been read. Facebook, Multiply, MySpace, and all the Taylor Hicks boards and blogs are scoured daily. I’m now so organized from boredom, that I’m considering running for Congress to straighten them out! I tell you, these Taylor Hicks Blues are really getting me down!

So what’s a fan to do! Bury my head in my hands? Continue to search and scour daily? Peak into my personal vault of pictures and old blog posts? Daydream a concert scenario? Think every tall, slim gray-haired male is Taylor Hicks? I ask you, I implore you, how can I cure this bad case of the Taylor Hicks Blues!

Well, as that old song says, “I’m just gonna sit right down and write myself a letter….”

Dear RagsQueen:

I hear you are suffering from a really nasty case of the Taylor Hicks Blues. As you’ve no doubt already discovered, there’s just no cure for this rapidly spreading ailment. It’s characterized by twitching side to side throwing back the head and shoulders and yelling out ‘woos’ or ‘wooo hooo’ at the most inappropriate times, such as hearing that familiar voice over a Wal-Mart music system.

Why, I saw a woman just the other day, obviously suffering from the same malady burst into tears, running around grabbing every young gray-haired guy and asking for his autograph and picture. The pain and suffering she was experiencing must have been so awful that she was later seen rearranging the CDs trying to make sure every front slot had a “Taylor Hicks” CD. She was last seen running behind a black SUV with tinted windows screaming……. (I wonder if Fox 6 in Birmingham might have video since this was the store in Hoover, just outside of Birmingham).

So I understand your need to find a cure for the Taylor Hicks Blues. It’s just about to become a national epidemic among the Soul Patrol. We’ve all heard that Taylor is busy writing and gathering music for his next CD. There’s “Whomp at the Warfield”, the long-awaited DVD from the San Francisco stop to be released soon – too bad Comcast doesn’t carry HD-Net.


And what’s this I hear: you’re taking up golf? I knew you took golf in college, but I thought you learned your lesson when it took 25 shots to putt the 2-inch ball into the 4.25 inch hole! But then I did hear you played on your new employer’s team with the head partner before you ever started the job which must have taxed you to your very core! Alas, when Taylor Hicks takes to the charity golf games, at least you will understand what’s going on.

That said, I guess you better just go check out some stuff on the internet that I understand have been know to lessen the Taylor Hicks Blues symptoms.

  • Go straight to the source for your Rx, Taylor Hicks’ own home site for a small membership fee, Taylor Hicks Head Quarters or Taylor Hicks’ personal MySpace for free information

  • I hear The Taylor Hicks Community in conjunction with The Whomp Swamp and Taylor Made Online has quite a collection of media including pictures and video.

  • Taylor’s Angels blog is known for having some great interviews and video as well.

  • If you need a shopping spree, the solders that benefit from the Proud of Our Troops Drive would undoubtedly enjoy some CDs or inspirational books, such as “Heart Full of Soul”.

  • Even The Soul Connection newsletter is doing a campaign to raise funds for a bronze star with Taylor Hicks’ name that would benefit from your extra change.

  • Then there’s always the Blooming Proud blog, Taylor Hicks My Idol, that’s known for its video and stories about Taylor. Check it out. Someone found a temporary cure there.

  • Don’t forget Alan at The Official Soul Patrol, affectionately known as TOSP, has agreed to put up a picture of himself if the next year’s operating funds are raised

  • You can always Keep the Boogie Alive with the Boogie Board

  • Perhaps help out the mothers of the Kid One kids with Mother’s Day cards through KOPS, or Kid One Patrol of Soul

  • Your New England sisters can surely use a dose of something to help ease their symptoms as well

  • And don’t forget those ladies of the soul, Taylor Made Soul, they can use some of this remedy as well

  • A couple of new spots for pictures have sprung up where you just ‘right, click & save’ or for some new takes on old media, there’s Taylor Hicks Fan Video

  • Plus a couple of new forums for those times when you feel the need to commiserate on those terrible Taylor Hicks Blues symptoms like SQR Soul Patrol Forum or The Real Deal

  • If all else fails, you might consider updating “RagsQueen & the Traveling Circus” or at least go back and review your old musings for a trip down memory lane.


So you see, my dear self, there may be no cure for the Taylor Hicks Blues, but there certainly is a lot of stuff out there to help you take your mind off of the symptoms, much like shot of whiskey for those awful cramps. Try it and see if that doesn’t help you – the sources of relief above, not the whiskey!

Dedicated to Finding a Cure for the Taylor Hicks Blues,
RagsQueen


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Friday, March 14, 2008

A Brick, a Granite Stone or a Bronze Star

We’ve enjoyed the videos, pictures and stories from a special night not too long ago when Alabama Music Hall of Fame’s America’s Music Award was given to Taylor Hicks. And now we have an opportunity to show Taylor just how proud of him we are and say thank you to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Just how do we accomplish these tasks, you want to know!

The Soul Connection, the free e-zine published for the Soul Patrol, is sponsoring a drive to put Taylor Hicks’ name on a brick, a granite stone or a bronze star! The donations made by the Soul Patrol to the Alabama Music Hall of Fame will determine which of these will actually wind up carrying Taylor’s name. Now which would you like to see carry Taylor Hicks’ name!

As Taylor Hicks’ fans, we can now support a meaning­ful and permanent tribute to his talent, his musicianship, his character, and his achieve­ments by participating in The Alabama Music Hall of Fame “I Believe In Music Walk” – a walkway surrounding the fountain in front of the museum that is covered with bricks and granite stones etched with the names of mu­sic stars, music fans, and company names. Thousands of people visit the museum and see these bricks and stones year after year.

Just like we did during his journey to the AI5 crown, we can now join together as his fanbase to honor Taylor with his own stone on the “I Believe in Music Walk.” Here’s how it works!

•We are asking our readers to make a contribution to The Alabama Music Hall of Fame with the goal of supporting Taylor in this manner.
•Depending on the amount of funds donated, one of the following sizes of stone will be purchased for the walkway:


$1,000 donation = 16” x 8” Granite stone
$500 donation = 8” x 8” Granite stone
$250 donation = 8” x 4” Granite stone
$125 donation = Normal size brick
A $5,000 donation = Bronze star imbedded in the floor in the building!


•The AL MHOF is supporting this effort in that all donations will be sent to them and put in a special account for this purpose. If you can join in supporting Taylor in this way, please make a check payable to AL MHOF for your donation and mail directly to:


Alabama Music Hall of Fame
P.O. Box 740405
Tuscumbia, AL 35674



•Be sure to make a note on the check that this is for Taylor Hicks/The Soul Connection so it can be put in the correct account.
•This is a 100% tax deductible donation.
•All monies collected will benefit The Alabama Music Hall of Fame.
•The April 2008 issue of The Soul Connection will carry a status report.
•Email thesoulconnection@yahoo.com if you’d like to discuss your gift.
The campaign is scheduled to run through the month of April!

Taylor’s fans have heard a lot re­cently about The Alabama Music Hall of Fame when it presented an America’s Music Award to Taylor during its February 22, 2008 In­duction Banquet & Awards Show.

By joining together, we can make a perma­nent effort in recognition of Taylor’s musical journey as well as to the future of young musicians in Alabama. No donation is too small. Please join us by sending your check today! Visit alamhof.org to see sample com­memorative stones.

About the Alabama Music Hall of Fame

The Alabama Music Hall of Fame was a dream and goal of the Muscle Shoals Music Association, a Shoals area based professional organization of recording studio owners, producers, musicians, songwriters, and other music profes­sionals. Through their efforts, in 1980 the Alabama State Legislature created a state agency, The Alabama Music Hall of Fame Board, with a mandate to honor all of the state’s great music achievers and to build a facility to showcase these talented individuals and their accomplishments.

In 1987 the citizens of Alabama passed a statewide referendum for the construc­tion of Phase One of the project, a 12,500 square foot exhibit hall - The Alabama Music Hall of Fame. Grand opening cer­emonies were held July 26, 1990 with over 35,000 music lovers on hand to celebrate and enjoy the music provided by many of Alabama’s finest talents.

Each year thousands of tourists, school children, historians, and music fans tour the facility to see, hear, and learn of the many contributions made to music by Alabam­ians.

One of the primary objectives of AMHOF is to encourage young peoples’ interest in music, including focused field trips in the museum to find information about music professionals, an exhibit that travels to area schools highlighting the accomplishments of the many African-American achievers from the state, a special performance pro­gram featuring an Alabama music achiever, and special events like the upcoming Easter Egg-Stravaganza to introduce pre-schoolers, kindergarten, or first graders to the museum.

Visit The Alabama Music Hall of Fame (near Muscle Shoals AL),
617 Hwy 72W, in Tuscumbia AL in 2008!

For more information about this wonderful music museum, visit alamhof.org.

Reprinted with permission from The Soul Connection

Some of My Favorite Pictures


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