I'm about 70 pages into a book on my required reading list. Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How it Changed America by John M. Barry is about...well...you guessed it. So far, Old Muddy has been examined, explored, mapped, bridged and talked about. Seems the whole question of levees, outlets and/or jetties and so on and so forth began with a couple of men with one who thought he was in a (pardon the expression) pissing contest.
Andrew Atkinson Humphreys. Not exactly the kind of engineer you want on the job. Additionally, I just finished a passage detailing his pitiful leadership qualities during the Civil War. I'm not talking sides here. I'm just talking about a man who didn't have any regard for the lives of the men he was chosen to lead. He seemed to have a force field around him on each battlefield that protected no one but his highfalutin' self. I'm not so sure that I would trust him to build me a box, much less engineer the mighty Mississippi. Well, maybe he'll grow on me. But I doubt it.
Anyhow, you can see how I needed a break from everything serious, and Atlanta's Jerry Reed has been on my mind today. I've been hoping that my road trip doesn't involve old Smokey or contraband, but I wouldn't mind a little Jerry Reed on the radio and a furry Fred riding with us.
Jerry and Elvis got together in Nashville's legendary Studio B prior to the '68 Comeback Special (the one with Elvis in black leather) for some "Guitar Man" sessions. Here's Elvis singing Jerry's song first.
Here's Jerry's performance of "Guitar Man."
For some reason, I couldn't get the following video from YouTube to post above, but it's a funky 1977 version of "Guitar Man" where Jerry Reed performs live. Let his pickin' set you on fire. Over and out.
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