otis gibbs

i was sitting on a barstool last week at a bar in bastrop, texas. i was asking some fellas if there were any ghost towns near by and after a short while the conversation finally came around to someone mentioning mcmahan, texas. it’s a tiny town that’s been all but abandoned. it’s been around for about a hundred years. the population peaked in the 1960s at 250 people and it’s been on a steady decline ever since. a local rancher started buying buildings as they became available in hopes of preserving the town. he’s now the owner of what’s left of the town and he’s trying to sell it.something about this whole story struck a nerve so i decide to drive out to see it for myself.

after spending about an hour chatting with a fella that runs the local BBQ
joint i started thinking that i might be interested in owning my own town. i checked into it and you can buy the whole town for 215 grand. to tell the truth i think that it might be a little bit overpriced but i’m still interested.

i told amy about it thinking that she would send me to a psychiatrist but she was more interested than i was. who knew?

i like the idea of being boss hog and owning a whole town. we could set up speed traps and live off of the money i get from speeding tickets. i could become a cult leader and set up a compound where everyone would worship gillian welch as the one true savior. we could build the worlds greatest roadside attraction featuring the worlds largest statue of harry dean stanton that would lure weary travelers to us from all over the world. we could open up an artist colony where we could house artist that needed somewhere to create without the distractions of everyday madness. there are way too many options to keep up with. i like the idea of just moving out into the middle of nowhere and just telling the world to kiss our asses.

i’m doubting that we’ll go through with it but who knows. i’ve done dumber things!

thanks to everyone who helped make my trip as wonderful as it was. we made
a ton of new friends and were treated like long lost family members.

the strange looking building on the right is the venue that i was fortunate enough to play. it’s called the “sage gateshead” and it’s an amazing facility. i opened for guy clark and played to a sold out crowd.

the tyne bridge. newcastle and gateshead are seperated by the tyne river.

view of the tyne bridge from our hotel room window.

another view of the sage and the tyne river.

here are some photos from durham, england.

yummy!

cowboy shadows in the sage

i don’t know what in the hell this is about.

i’ll leave you with some random images from the train

“carhenge” alliance, nebraska. we drove a few hundred miles out of the way and risked being late to a gig in omaha just to see carhenge. it was worth every mile. this is easily in my top five favorite roadside attractions that i’ve been fortunate enough to visit!

the nerds among us already know where this was taken but for everyone else it’s riverside, iowa.

church folks protesting an adult film store outside of uniontown, indiana. the man in the second picture yelled at me for about twenty minutes about fire and brimstone. every time i tried to smile and make nice he’d start screaming out bible verses. the woman just stood in the background quietly. he eventually ran out of scripture and asked if i’d like to take a photo.

thanks to everyone that came out to the shows in nawlins. i was fortunate enough to be a small part of a reconstruction effort led by a group of hoosiers that took a week out of their lives to rebuild a house in the 9th ward. there are good folks in this world who are trying their best to help out. now if we can get the white house to do it’s part we might be able to make some headway. individuals can help individuals but it takes a federal government to reclaim a city.

here are some photos of people that i met on the trip

a couple of fellas tryin to beat the heat. the man on the left spent four days stranded on his roof after katrina. he saw dozens of helicopters flying over each day but they never stopped.

he said “my name is stephen as in saint stephen”. i told him that i’ve seen the mummified hand of saint stephen in a cathedral in budapest. he said that it wasn’t his hand and then started talking about the bombing of dresden for twenty minutes.

live oaks are beautiful!

a bible that i found in the wreckage of the lower 9th ward.

this is a photo taken by my buddy todd fox. i think that it sums up the entire experience pretty well. be sure and visit his page at www.myspace.com/toddfoxphotography

here are some random photos of some wonderful street musicians.