On Tuesday Facebook reminded me that Buddy Guy was playing locally Wednesday evening. My wife had to work early Thursday AM so she was not interested in attending. So I went alone.

Buddy Guy was freaking amazing. The dude turns 87 in July and he still shreds. It was my first time at the Carpenter Theater in Richmond. It's a very cozy 1800 seat theater that is pushing 100 years old.

This morning I had a blues radio station playing on YT Music, and a banging tune titled Poor until Payday came on. I stopped what i was doing to listen, then favorited the tune so I could investigate further over lunch.

Over lunch, I pulled up the band's profile on YT Music, Reverend Peyton and the Big Damn Band. The band title is a bit of a joke I think, since they are a trio playing vintage instruments, including a washboard. Anyway, Poor Until Payday is the title track from their 2018 album, so I played it. The entire album bangs. I then went on to their 2021 album, Dance Songs for Hard Times. It also bangs. Then I went way back to 2012 to their debut album. It's another banger.

The genre is officially country blues. They also have some rockabilly vibes with gospel influences. What ever they are, they bang.

That is a lot of words to say I bought two albums today from a band I had never heard of at 8 AM this morning.

Espresso Old Fashioned

Add all the ingredients to a mixing glass. Add ice and stir until cool. Strain the drink into a rocks glass over large ice cube. Garnish with a few coffee beans.

In our first attempt, I used 1/2 oz. of the Demerara Syrup, per the original recipe. However, we both found that to be a little too sweet. It was so good that we did decided to make another right away, this time reducing the sweetener. That change allowed the espresso flavor to shine even more. If you like your espresso on the sweeter side, the extra sweetener may suit you.

I made the espresso a short time before mixing the cocktails and it was still warm when I used it. In the future I think I'll brew it in advance to reduce the dilution from the ice while mixing.

I used George Remus Bourbon to make the cocktails. I thought the 94 proof bourbon was enough to be noticeable over the bitter espresso. A lower proof bourbon may not suffice. However, I have no doubt we'll experiment with both lower and higher proofs in the future.

Cheers!

This article about a 50 year old GE radio that still works isn't really about the radio. It's not even about the fact that nothing we use today will still be functional in 25 years, let alone 50. It's about how a piece of technology can connect across 3 generations of a family that used that radio to listen to baseball or get the early morning school closing report.

It reminded me about something I did about 22 years ago, also involving baseball and radios. Streaming the radio feeds of baseball games was technically possible in the 90s. It made Mark Cuban a billionaire when he sold his streaming radio company to Yahoo. Sometime around 2002 MLB started streaming the radio feed for WEEI from Boston. 2002 was well before we all had super computers in our pockets. So I built a FM transmitter from a kit and plugged it in to my PC. That enabled me to sit on the porch with a drink and a radio and listen to the Red Sox on WEEI, in Virginia. It was a big deal at the time. Today I just take my phone to the porch.

I do still own a traditional AM/FM radio. I keep it in the camper. It's useful for weather updates when camping somewhere with no cell signal. Also, when camping I just like to find a local rock radio station and listen throughout the weekend while I'm camping in the neighborhood. I've got a couple of hundred hours of music on my phone, so I'm not hurting for musical entertainment when away from the Internet. We listened to the radio when camping 40 years ago, and I still like to do it today.

Sometimes the old ways, if not better, are at least just fine.