Beds and Blue Jeans Story in Present Day Nashville

Beds and Blue Jeans - available on Amazon. This is a realistic romance about a young man and woman who find they have to get to know each other, after they have got together. They have a baby, then then grow to love each other. They come to learn that love is about learning to compromise, working out the best way to do things and growing to love each other.

Buddy Holly Part II

Buddy was eager to do more with his talents, and his songs were doing well in the charts. He was happy in his marriage. 1n 1959, he set off on a winter “Dance Party” tour, playing all over the country. Because his tour bus was unheated and had broken down, he decided to charter a small plane, to fly to the next gig. He and the others wanted to get to their next gig and have time to have their stage clothes cleaned. Waylon Jennings agreed to give up his seat to the Big Bopper who was travelling with Buddy - because the Big Bopper had the flu. Richie Valens and Tommy Allsup, the guitar player, flipped a coin for a seat on the plane and Valens won the toss…. But the weather was bad and the pilot was not qualified to fly on instruments only. They crashed shortly after take off. All 4 – Buddy, Valens, the Big Bopper and the pilot were killed. He is buried in Lubbock, Texas. Buddy had a sweet voice and a singing style that used falsetto. In spite of the shortness of his career, he was a major influence on rock and roll. The Beatles were big fans. But to me, he always seems to belong very much to the 1950s America....He is memorialised in Don Mclean’s song American Pie, which refers to the “day the Music died".

Buddy Holly Part I

Buddy Holly was born in Lubbock Texas, in 1936. He was named Charles Hardin but the nickname Buddy stuck. Being born in Texas, he heard country music and it was an influence on him. He listened to the Grand Old Opry and the Louisiana Hayride on radio. At school, he learned to play guitar and began to take part in talent contexts. When he left High School, he was determined to pursue a career in music. He was beginning to mingle his country style with Rhythm and Blues. In 1956, he got a contract with Decca Records... He was moving towards Rock and Roll. He recorded a demo of That’ll be the Day, and formed a new band, with the name “The Crickets”. In 1957, “That’ll be the Day” was released and began to climb the charts. Buddy began to make TV appearances and had another hit with “Peggy Sue”. In 1958, he and the Crickets were becoming more and more successful, and toured Hawaii, Australia and the UK. He met Maria Elena Santiago, whom he asked to marry him on their first date. Norman Petty, his manager didn’t like Buddy’s getting married as it was felt that this would put off his female fans. So the marriage was kept secret. Buddy also had ambitions to work in films and wanted to study acting with the Lee Strasberg Studio. Buddy had problems with his manager, over royalties and money issues, and over his marriage. He became friends with Waylon Jennings, who was then a DJ in Lubbock and who wanted to go into music production.

RIP Ray Sawyer

Ray Sawyer has just died after a short illness. He did a farewell tour a few years ago because his health was declining - and his voice had roughened a good deal. However, he was still a wonderful performer and a real trouper Ray was born in Alabama, and always wanted to be a musician. He went to blues clubs as a kid and in the 1960s, he and some other Southerners put together a band, the Chocolate Papers. He had a serious road accident which caused him to lose an eye and suffer other injuries. But he returned to singing and became the “face” of Dr Hook, because the eyepatch made him noticeable. The name of the band was chosen because of Ray’s resemblance to Captain Hook. Ray was not the lead singer, but his voice was good, it had a country twang and he had a Southern accent. He supported Dennis Locorriere… He also sang lead on some songs. He had a good deal of success in the 1970s but they ended up bankrupt. They continued to work and tour. However their songs changed from rock and country style rock, and also a lot of novelty songs penned by Shel Silverstein….to a more commercial sound, mainly pop ballads. These records were best sellers and solved their financial problems. Dr Hook as a band loved to do crazy things. They once dressed up as their own support band, only revealing it at the end of a concert - On another occasion, they dressed as the Bay City Rollers when playing in Britain and mimed to a tape. Their surreal banter between songs, and on chat shows made them popular, not to mention the bizarre dancing of Billy Francis. Dennis has a melodious and excellent voice which was well suited to love songs. Some years later, in 1983 - Ray decided to leave the band, to embark on a country singing career. He moved to Nashville. By then, he was married. He had a son, Cayce. He brought out a country LP, called Ray. He also returned to his boyhood love of the Blues. Later, he began to tour as Ray Sawyer of Dr Hook, performing some of the band’s big hits. He was supported by his son Cayce who was a drummer and also, he worked with Billy Francis, who had been the keyboard player in Hook. Billy had long legs, and liked to do amazing dancing… Ray was a fun eccentric performer, often holding a drink or cigarette during his singing…He kept on working until his late 70s, and while his voice had roughened, he was still fun to watch. It is sad to hear of his death, and I wish I could see him perform again.

Damon Runyon

Damon Runyon was born in Kansas in 1880… His father was a newspaper man, and he was attracted to that profession. In 1898, he enlisted in the US army to fight in the Spanish American war. He then became a sports writer and moved to New York in 1910. His first name was Alfred, and he dropped this when he started off in New York, and he was known by the racy and unusual Damon. He wrote about sports, for the Hearst Press, and this interest led him into gambling. He was also a heavy drinker but quit, because of his first wife’s dislike of his drinking habit. He began to write short stories set in the underworld of New York, about the “guys and dolls” who are involved in show business, gambling and gangsterism. Like O Henry, many of his stories have a twist. His writing style usually involves only using the present tense, and never using contractions such as “can’t” or “wont”. Several of his stories were adapted into a musical, Guys and Dolls, by Frank Loesser. There was a film version made in the 1950's - starring Marlon Brandon, who couldn't sing, and Frank Sinatra, who could.

Sylvia's Lovers Part I

Sylvia’s Lovers is one of the later novels of Elizabeth Gaskell. It was published 2 years before her death. She then started to write her masterpiece, "Wives and Daughters" which was not quite completed when she died. Sylvia's Lovers is a historical novel, set in the era of the Napoleonic Wars. Mrs Gaskell visited Yorkshire and researched the town, Whitby, where the novel is set. The plot involves the work of the Press Gangs which took men to serve in the Navy, during the Napoleonic wars… Gaskell described it as the “saddest story” she ever wrote. It is perhaps the most Bronte- like and tragically emotional of all her novels. Some literary critics have felt that it is melodramatic. It is also set among simpler working people, rather than either the upper classes or the Mancunian working class. Sylvia’s father is a farmer, a man of little education..and she herself is not very clever. Like her father, she is barely literate and her passionate emotions rule her, more than her brains. She is 17, when the novel starts. Her cousin, Philip Hepburn, who is in sympathy with the Quakers, works in a shop. He is in love with her and wants to marry her. Sylvia finds him dull and prosy, a little like Edgar Linton. She herself enjoys being a farmer’s daughter, spinning, housework, and helping to tend the animals. She rarely dresses up or even wears shoes. She is irritated when Philip who is better educated and eager to set up his own business, persuades her mother that he should teach Sylvia. She falls in love with Charlie Kinraid, who works on a whaling ship. He is adventurous, passionate, wild and fond of women, and Philip is furiously jealous of his new rival.

Beds and Blue Jeans on Amazon By Nadine Sutton

A story of beds, music and learning to get along.... Sam and Pattie move in together have a baby and grow to love each other...
 http://www.amazon.com/Beds-Blue-Jeans-everyday-mayhem-ebook/dp/B01370SMFO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1443265304&sr=8-2&keywords=nadine+sutton