Podcasts about Allsup

Have a comment or question? Click this sentence to send us a message, and we might answer it in a future episode.Welcome to Season 5, Episode 15 of Winning Isn't Easy. In this episode, we'll dive into the complicated topic of "Allsup, and Filing Concurrent Social Security Disability and Long-Term Disability Claims."Join attorney Nancy L. Cavey, a leading expert in disability claims, for an eye-opening discussion on the intersection of ERISA Disability insurance and Social Security Disability benefits. If your Long-Term Disability carrier has suggested using a third-party service like Allsup to handle your SSDI application, you're not alone - but is that really in your best interest? In today's episode, we're pulling back the curtain on what Allsup promises versus what you may actually experience. From the fine print in your ERISA policy to the strategic timing of your SSDI application, we'll explore why many claimants are required to apply for Social Security Disability - often before their Long-Term Disability claim is even approved. Whether you're just starting the claims process or re-evaluating your options, this episode is packed with essential guidance to help you make informed decisions, avoid common pitfalls, and protect your financial future. So, let's get into it.In this episode, we'll cover the following topics:One - Did Your ERISA Disability Carrier Suggest That You Use Allsup to File a Claim for Social Security Disability Insurance? Why the Four Claims That Allsup Makes About Why You Should Use Them to Handle Your Social Security Disability Don't Make SenseTwo - Is Allsup Really Interested in Helping Me or the Disability Insurance Carrier When the Carrier Recommends I Use Allsup to Apply for Social Security Disability Benefits?Whether you're a claimant, or simply seeking valuable insights into the disability claims landscape, this episode provides essential guidance to help you succeed in your journey. Don't miss it.Listen to Our Sister Podcast:We have a sister podcast - Winning Isn't Easy: Navigating Your Social Security Disability Claim. Give it a listen: https://wiessdpodcast.buzzsprout.com/Resources Mentioned in This Episode:LINK TO ROBBED OF YOUR PEACE OF MIND: https://mailchi.mp/caveylaw/ltd-robbed-of-your-piece-of-mindLINK TO THE DISABILITY INSURANCE CLAIM SURVIVAL GUIDE FOR PROFESSIONALS: https://mailchi.mp/caveylaw/professionals-guide-to-ltd-benefitsFREE CONSULT LINK: https://caveylaw.com/contact-us/Need Help Today?:Need help with your Long-Term Disability or ERISA claim? Have questions? Please feel welcome to reach out to use for a FREE consultation. Just mention you listened to our podcast.Review, like, and give us a thumbs up wherever you are listening to Winning Isn't Easy. We love to see your feedback about our podcast, and it helps us grow and improve.Please remember that the content shared is for informational purposes only, and should not replace personalized legal advice or guidance from qualified professionals. 

Recorded live at our AGM [Annual Gratitude Meeting] 2025 with elders Kate Dean Allsup and Julia Scott, along with Anthony Delaney.

Rise and *BURP* shine! The crew is all ready for a great Saturday morning show but Bobbo seems a bit off. Turns out him and the neighbor Danny had a bit of a wild night! From spaceships to drunken karaoke, the dynamic duo could be heard from across the ranch, but I think Bobbo might still be feeling a bit fine from the wine. Luckily, neighbor Danny knows just the cure!   Thanks for joining us for this week's #JCWPodcast #JCWArchive. Please don't forget to Like, Share, and most importantly, Subscribe--to make sure you get the latest John Clay Wolfe Show materials as soon as they're released! So keep an eye out for that Allsup's...and we'll see you Saturday

United Natural Foods Inc. had a robust finish to fiscal year 2024. Wawa has taken the No. 1 slot in the inaugural American Customer Satisfaction Index Convenience Store Study 2024. And convenience-store chain Yesway has opened eight new Allsup's locations.

A recent study shows that up to a quarter of non-citizens may be illegally registered to vote in the United States. Rich discusses that with James Agresti, president and co-founder of Just Facts. Then, a look at social security reform with Jim Allsup, founder and CEO of Allsup.com, which provides disability representation and other SSA services. Plus, can summer sequels rescue the movie business? We talk entertainment with Dr. Andy Draper, co-host of the podcast Off Script Film Review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Florida State is going to need a miracle, or a total ACC collapse, to be able to join either the Big Ten or the SEC.While nobody likes the Seminoles, Carson Beck foretold the story of the Stadium of the Damned, better known as Jordan-Hare to those like Jackson Arnold, who are not in the know just yet. At the end of another lost highway, but sure to hit Texas with a good, old-fashioned Horns Down, because that is allowed in the SEC.As Paul Finebaum wants to be done with ole what's his face Lincoln Riley, wake me up when September begins. Cody Williams (Senior Editor, FanSided.com) might be on holiday, but John Buhler (Staff Writer, FanSided.com) will walk a lonely road, the only one that he has ever known, for the sake of your entertainment.False Start is the brain child of two American idiots anyway, so enjoy the blonde-haired one like Mike Dirnt flying solo like a cup while pumping gas at an Allsup's. Buhler had the time of his life doing this episode, but he's got a Frank Reich brain stew going now, baby! I have no belief in this walking contradiction of a man...

Sherrie Allsup is an international speaker, educator, and subject matter expert with lived experience. She speaks on topics such as sexual assault, sexual abuse, trauma, and suicide. Sherrie is a survivor of long-term sexual abuse, trauma, and suicide attempts. After much hard work and healing she became the founder and CEO of Courage Starts With You. For victims, Courage means telling someone and reaching out for help. For law enforcement, Courage means looking beyond the traditional victim interview technique to recognize how and why victims of assault may act differently than victims of crimes.  She purchased a cemetery plot, purchased the outfit she wanted to be buried in, and made the decision that morning was going to be the day Sherrie Allsup no longer lived to endure the pain she lived daily throughout her life. Yet, those were not the cards that she was dealt. That was the moment that she began to take her power back. Sherrie Allsup's journey took a profound turn when faced with the contemplation of ending her life, she instead chose to reclaim her power. She now travels and shares her story to shine a light on the lifelong challenges that sexual abuse and trauma leave behind.Her pieces of training are centered around shining a light on the dark epidemic of sexual abuse and assault. She is also a member of RAINN (Rape, Abuse, Incest, and Neglect Network). She says, “Trauma victims almost live plan to plan or we wouldn't survive.” Embracing Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) psychotherapy, Sherrie embarked on a new chapter. In her own words, “This sentiment encapsulates her life, where she navigated each moment with a flickering flashlight, battling the pain that haunted her daily. Determined to break free from the past, she decided that the grip of her father's years of abuse is not going to define her”.Find SherrieWebsiteFacebookLinkedinFind The Suffering PodcastThe Suffering Podcast InstagramKevin Donaldson InstagramMike Failace InstagramBuzzsproutApple PodcastSpotifyFacebookTikTokYouTubeThe Suffering Podcast FamilyToyota of HackensackPoPl Discount code TSP20The Oakley KitchenCubita CafeSupport the showThe Suffering Podcast Instagram Kevin Donaldson Instagram TikTok YouTube

National sardines day. Entertainment from 2011. Barbed wire invented, Texas Rangers created, Only unsolved airplaine hijacking in US history. Todays birthdays - Zachary Taylor, Tommy Allsup, Pete Best, Amanda Wyss, Dawn Robinson, Katherine Heigl. Freddy Mercury died.Intro - Pour some sugar on me - Def Leppard http://defleppard.com/The sardine song - Charlie Chapman We found love - Rihanna Calvin HarrisSparks fly - Taylor SwiftBirthdays - In da club - 50 Cent http://50cent.com/That'll be the day - Buddy Holly & the CricketsMy lovin' (never gonna get it) - En VogueRadio GaGa - QueenExit - It's not love- Dokken http://dokken.net/ https://coolcasts.cooolmedia.com/

How to know what to charge? + Dive into the heart of Western fashion with Ashley and her special guest, Emily Gleason, renowned as the Camo Cowgirl. Join the conversation as they explore Emily's inspiring journey from the medical field to becoming a full-time social media manager and content creator. Uncover the secrets of successful brand collaborations, learn the art of making money on social media, and gain valuable insights into Emily's unique approach to content creation and brand pitching.Discover the fusion of style and passion for the outdoors, as Emily shares her experiences in the Western fashion industry and offers a glimpse into her upcoming projects. From hunting adventures to cowboy boots, each episode unveils the authentic lifestyle behind the scenes of a Camo Cowgirl.Tune in for engaging discussions on fashion, hunting, and rural living, and get ready to be inspired by Emily's authenticity and confidence. Whether you're a fashion enthusiast or a budding influencer, this podcast promises valuable tips, stories, and a behind-the-scenes look into the dynamic world of Western fashion.Join Ashley and Emily as they navigate the intersection of fashion, lifestyle, and the great outdoors in this captivating podcast. Subscribe now for exclusive insights, entertaining stories, and a dose of the Camo Cowgirl's unique charm.Podcast Summary: Western Fashion Behind the Scenes with Emily Gleason (Camo Cowgirl)IntroductionHost: AshleySpecial Guest: Emily Gleason (Camo Cowgirl)Duration: [00:00:00 – 00:02:00]Getting to Know Each OtherAshley welcomes Emily and highlights the importance of connecting in the digital age.Emily shares her journey from the medical field to becoming a full-time social media manager and content creator.Duration: [00:02:01 – 00:06:30]Social Media JourneyEmily discusses her transition into social media after college and her passion for Western fashion modeling.Talks about her corporate job at All Supps and the decision to pursue freelance full-time.Duration: [00:06:31 – 00:12:15]Successful CollaborationsEmily shares recent collaborations with Rock and Roll Denim, Liberty Black Boots, and Old Gringo.Highlights the significance of authenticity and passion in content creation.Duration: [00:12:16 – 00:18:00]Making Money on Social MediaEmily discusses her approach to making money on social media with a modest following.Emphasizes the importance of quality content and tailored pitches to brands.Duration: [00:18:01 – 00:24:45]Learning and ConfidenceEmily shares her self-taught approach to social media marketing and pitching.Discusses the confidence derived from her background in hunting and conservation.Duration: [00:24:46 – 00:31:30]Collaboration StrategiesTalks about pitching to brands, tailoring pitches, and sharing her media kit.Encourages resilience in the face of rejection and the importance of not taking it personally.Duration: [00:31:31 – 00:39:20]Upcoming ProjectsEmily discusses her current Christmas-themed photoshoot and future plans for 2023.Expresses excitement about growing her platforms and working with dream brands.Duration: [00:39:21 – 00:45:00]Personal Background and MarriageAshley inquires about Emily's background, growing up, and meeting her husband in college.Emily shares her love for hunting and the outdoors, emphasizing her passion for conservation.Duration: [00:45:01 – 00:50:30]Fashion and LifestyleEmily details her outfit for the day, featuring American Hat Makers, Platini, and Punchies from Stephenville.Duration: [00:50:31 – 00:53:15]Closing RemarksAshley thanks Emily for being on the podcast and commends her as a role model in the industry.Emily mentions her role models, Shaley and Marika, and expresses gratitude for the conversation.Duration: [00:53:16 – 00:57:00]Contact InformationEmily provides her contact details: email (emilywebttu19@gmail.com), Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and website.Duration: [00:57:01 – 00:58:30]Outro and SponsorshipAshley concludes the episode, encourages sharing the podcast, and mentions the Pony Express email from the Boot Babes.Duration: [00:58:31 – 01:02:00]End of PodcastShow Notes:IntroductionHost: AshleySpecial Guest: Emily Gleason (Camo Cowgirl)Topics CoveredEmily's journey from the medical field to social mediaSuccessful collaborations with Rock and Roll Denim, Liberty Black Boots, and Old GringoMaking money on social media with a modest followingPitching to brands and collaboration strategiesUpcoming projects for 2023Emily's background, love for hunting, and recent marriageFashion and lifestyle: Emily's outfit detailsContact information for EmilyOutro and sponsorship: Pony Express email from the TheBootBabes.comContact InformationEmail: emilywebttu19@gmail.comSocial Media: Instagram, TikTokWebsite: https://emilywebbttu19.wixsite.com/websiteSponsorshipThe episode is brought to you by the Pony Express email from the Boot Babes.Additional InformationEmily expresses gratitude for role models Shaley and Marika.Ashley encourages listeners to share the podcast and mentions the Western Fashion BTS email for submissions

Natalie Allsup-Edwards grew up in a toy store In an environment of creativity and entrepreneurship and it still shows! She owns multiple businesses (Hand Drawn Photo Booth, Local Artist Sticker Machine) that foster community, connection and sharing art! This is a fun episode!  Please join us! Ebay auction link: https://www.ebay.com/usr/goblina http://lennondesignllc.com/wp-content/audio/cre8tivity/cre8tivity-ep180.mp3 Hand Drawn Photo Booth: Website […]

Natalie Allsup-Edwards grew up in a toy store In an environment of creativity and entrepreneurship and it still shows! She owns multiple businesses (Hand Drawn Photo Booth, Local Artist Sticker Machine) that foster community, connection and sharing art! This is a fun episode!  Please join us! Ebay auction link: https://www.ebay.com/usr/goblina http://lennondesignllc.com/wp-content/audio/cre8tivity/cre8tivity-ep180.mp3 Hand Drawn Photo Booth: Website […]

Come along with us and get to know Jim Allsup, founder of Allsup Employment Services and the Ticket to Work program for individuals who qualify for Social Security Disability benefits. Individuals who qualify are offered Vocational Return to Work services free of charge. In this episode, Yvonne and Rafael talk to Jim about the Ticket to Work program and what he says is a little-known benefit for individuals who qualify for Social Security Disability benefits. Learn more about the Ticket to Work program here: https://www.allsupemploymentservices.com/Check out Jim Allsup's expert services for individuals seeking Social Security Disability benefits. They offer nationwide assistance, and their representatives are available and ready to provide help: https://www.allsup.com/¡Muchas Gracias! Thank you for listening. We would appreciate you sharing our podcast with your friends on social media. Find Yvonne and Rafael on Linked In or follow us on Twitter @deconstructcomp

Since its beginning in 2015, Yesway has focused on collecting and understanding first-party customer data. The brand focuses on building relationships with its customers through in-store interactions and its rewards programs. Through understanding its customers' interests, Yesway continually seeks to add value to every transaction. For that reason, Yesway acquired the Allsup's brand, integrating its beloved food program. The brand also developed its Stack and Save program to help its customers stretch their wallets during times of inflation or high fuel costs.Mark Johnson, Loyalty360 CEO, spoke with Darrin Samaha, Vice President of Marketing at Yesway, about the brand's customer loyalty efforts, its acquisition of the Allsup's brand, and how it seeks to use its rewards program to create value for both the member and the brand.

Aaron Lacombe swings by The Lake House on Eagle Mountain Lake for Texas Tailgate Mondays. He chats with DJ Dugan about growing up in Michigan, moving to New Mexico, and his fondness for the delectable treats deep fried by Allsup’s. Powered by Smith Music http://smithmusic.com/ Listen to our playlist: https://smithmusic.ffm.to/texastailgate Listen to Texas Tailgate Radio: […] --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/texastailgate/message

Becky Allsup is the owner of Becky's Custom Interiors, which in turn holds  Niche Design House   and Rebecca Windsor & Associates.  Niche is primarily an upscale commercial and residential design center, and Rebecca Windsor provides national-scope design, procurement, and installation services - especially for rapidly growing retail franchise operations.Her business journey was a joy to uncover: Young interior designer sees opportunities everywhere, attracts a team of smart, loyal, and dedicated people to bring those opportunities to fruition, and they stick around! Becky's special sauce is her strong sense of team and family, and intuitive sense for opportunity, integration, and smart business.Enjoy this conversation with an inspiring woman in business!Episode Sponsor: InMotion, providing next-day delivery for local businesses. Contact InMotion at inmotionnoco@gmail.com

We discuss Suicide Prevention Month with the Director of the Senior Life Solutions at Adair County Health Systems Dianna Allsup.

Valentine loves her big heart. Carrie has a difficult opening. Sarah takes a moment of silence. Carrie is feeling the oppressive heat in TX and Sarah asks Carrie to talk how she's feeling. Carrie educates the listener about Allsup's Convenience Stores. Carrie and Sarah talk about feminine broccoli farts. Carrie won't be in TX long. Sarah tries to protect her fun energy and won't do things that aren't fun. Sarah doesn't want to do much this summer if it isn't fun. Sarah cancels conferences and Carrie likes a niece conference. Carrie points out YP vs. MP as a useful boundary setting device. Carrie talks about her shifting relationship with her niece. Sarah moves on when her nieces and nephews don't like her. Sarah states that life is hard because it keeps changing. Carrie uses Sarah as a pawn in her plan to be the best aunt. Sarah is in her gay Blanche Devereaux period. Carrie asks Sarah if she wants to update the listeners about her status about town. What we are loving this week: Sarah is loving June in DC because it is the gayest month, and she went to a burlesque show on a date and hosted a patio party. Sarah wonders about Blanche's dating life. Carrie says it's possible that Blanche went out every night. Carrie is exhausted from sitting on the patio two nights in a row in the TX heat. Carrie thinks about how when she's high people don't laugh at her jokes. Sarah establishes her 3 favorite things to do while high: walk around museum, sleep, and fuck. Carrie recommends doing these all at the same time. Sarah says she's not about that prison life. Sarah is feeling connected and affirmed; it's liberating to not have to deal with her inner conflict anymore. Carrie talked about how she didn't feel like herself when she dressed in a way that was more authentic to her. Sarah supports the small embodiment of self. Carries loves her press-on nails and is into it. Carrie loves a cheap and pretty nail. Sarah realizes, in this moment as she writes the show notes that she put the picture on the previous week's episode. Sarah loves Carrie's nail-ventures. Carrie likes the combo of pretty nails, eyelash and with masculine clothing aesthetic. Sarah doesn't know her color names. Sarah remembers watching kids fight on the playground and getting her period. Carrie got her period a little later and now does not get a period because of her IUD. What We Love About Each Other: Carrie and Sarah have BFF crop tops. Sarah describes the crop top: nude color with white pasties. Carrie's phone thinks it's explicit content. Carrie says the new sign off is Blorp FF. Sarah loves the vibes and the weather of the day on pride. Sarah loves that Carrie is fucking things up just by her sheer presence in spaces. Carrie's therapist labels the “performance” of being in non-inclusive spaces as shuttling. We love each other! Blorp FF! Erica, Katie, Zoe and Melissa are responsible for all of our future decisions. Music by Miseryslims. Art by Windy Valley Creative.

We discuss Mental Health Awareness Month with Adair County Health Systems Dianne Allsup.

Born in Lubbock, Texas, on September 7, 1936, Charles Hardin  Holley (he later dropped the "e"), after both grandfathers    the fourth child of Lawrence Odell "L.O." Holley and Ella Pauline Drake.    older siblings were Larry, Travis, and Patricia Lou.    nicknamed Buddy from a young age, and it stuck with him throughout his life.    Oddly enough, the newspaper announcement claimed that Buddy was actually a little girl. “A daughter weighing 8.5 lbs”, the Lubbock evening journal wrote. He was also only 6.5 pounds. And a boy. Buddy's family was mainly of English and Welsh descent and had some native American ancestry. During the Great Depression, the Holleys frequently moved residences within Lubbock; 17 in all.    His father changed jobs several times.    The Holley family were a musical household.  Except for Buddy's father, all family members could play an instrument or sing. His older brothers frequently entered local talent shows, and one time, his brothers signed up and Buddy wanted to play violin with them. However, Buddy couldn't play the violin.  Not wanting to break little Buddy's heart, his older brothers greased up the strings so it wouldn't make a sound. Buddy started singing his heart out and the three ended up winning the contest!  When WWII started, the U.S. government called his brothers into service. His brother Larry brought back a guitar he bought from a shipmate, and that guitar set Buddy's off. At 11 years old, Buddy started taking piano lessons.  Nine months later, he quit piano lessons and switched to guitar after seeing a classmate playing and singing on the school bus.    His parents initially bought him a steel guitar, but Buddy insisted he wanted a guitar like his brothers. They bought him a guitar, a gold top Gibson acoustic, from a pawn shop, and his brother Travis taught him to play it.  By 15, Buddy was proficient on guitar, banjo, and mandolin. During his early childhood, Holley was influenced by Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Snow, Bob Wills, and the Carter Family.  He started writing songs and working with his childhood friend Bob Montgomery. The two jammed together, practicing songs by the Louvin Brothers and Johnnie & Jack. They frequently listened to Grand Ole Opry's radio programs on WSM, Louisiana Hayride on KWKH (which they once drove 600 miles to okay just to be turned away), and Big D Jamboree.  If you're not familiar with the Grand Ol Opry, it's a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on Clearchannel's WSM, which first hit the airwaves on October 5, 1925. Its the longest-running radio broadcast in U.S. history.    At the same time he was practicing with Bob, Holley played with other musicians he met in high school, including Sonny Curtis and Jerry Allison.    In 1952 Holley and Jack Neal participated as a duo billed as "Buddy and Jack" in a talent contest on a local television show.    After Neal left, he was replaced by his buddy Bob, and they were billed as "Buddy and Bob." By the mid-'50s, Buddy & Bob played their style of music called "western and bop ."    Holley was influenced by late-night radio stations that played the blues and rhythm and blues. Holley would sit in his car with Sonny Curtis and tune to distant “black” radio stations that could only be received at night when bigger stations turned off local transmissions.    Holley then changed his music by blending his earlier country and western influence with Rhythm and Blues. After seeing the legendary Elvis perform, Holly decided to pursue his career in music full-time once he graduated high school. By mid-1955, Buddy & Bob, who already worked with an upright bass player (played by Larry Welborn), added drummer Jerry Allison to their lineup. After seeing Elvis Presley performing live in Lubbock, who Pappy Dave Stone of KDAV booked, Buddy really wanted to get after it. In February, he opened for Elvis at the Fair Park Coliseum, in April at the Cotton Club, then again in June at the Coliseum. Elvis significantly influenced the group to turn more towards Rock n Roll. Buddy and the king became friends, with Buddy even driving Elvis around when he was in town. Eventually, Bob Montgomery, who leaned toward a traditional country sound, left the group, though they continued writing and composing songs together. Holly kept pushing his music toward a straight-ahead rock & roll sound, working with Allison, Welborn, and other local musicians, including his pal and guitarist Sonny Curtis and bassist Don Guess. In October, Holly was booked as the opener for Bill Haley & His Comets (Rock Around the Clock), to be seen by Nashville scout Eddie Crandall. Obviously impressed, Eddie Crandall talked Grand Ole Opry manager Jim Denny into finding a recording contract for Holley. Pappy Stone sent Denny a demo tape, which Denny forwarded to Paul Cohen. Cohen signed the band to Decca Records in February 1956.    In the contract, Decca accidentally misspelled Holley's surname as "Holly," From that point forward, he was known as "Buddy Holly." On January 26, 1956, Holly went to his first professional recording session with producer Owen Bradley. He was a part of two more sessions in Nashville.    the producer selected the session musicians and arrangements, Holly became frustrated by his lack of creative control. In April 1956, Decca released "Blue Days, Black Nights" as a single and "Love Me" on the B-side.    "B-sides" were secondary songs that were sent out with single records. They were usually just added to have something on the flip side. Later they became songs that bands would either not release or wait to release.  Jim Denny added Holly on tour as the opening act for Faron Young. While on this tour, they were promoted as "Buddy Holly and the Two Tones." Decca then called them "Buddy Holly and the Three Tunes." The label released Holly's second single, "Modern Don Juan," along with "You Are My One Desire."    Unfortunately, neither one of these singles tickled anyone's fancy. On January 22, 1957, Decca informed Holly that they wouldn't re-sign him and insisted he could not record the same songs for anyone else for five years. The same shit happened to Universal and me. A couple of classics, like "Midnight Shift" and "Rock Around with Ollie Vee," did come out of those Decca sessions, but nothing issued at the time went anywhere. It looked as though Holly had missed his shot at stardom.  Holly was disappointed with his time with Decca. inspired by Buddy Knox's "Party Doll" and Jimmy Bowen's "I'm Stickin' with You" he decided to visit Norman Petty, who produced and promoted both of those successful records.    Buddy, Jerry Allison, bassist Joe B. Mauldin, and rhythm guitarist Niki Sullivan pulled together and headed to Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico. The group recorded a demo of the now-classic, "That'll Be the Day," which they had previously recorded in Nashville. Now rockin' that lead guitar, Holly finally achieved the sound he wanted. They got the song nailed down and recorded. Along with Petty's help, the group got it picked up by Murray Deutsch, a publishing associate of Petty's, and Murray got it to Bob Thiele, an executive at Coral Records. Thiele loved it. Ironically, Coral Records was a subsidiary of Decca, the company Holly had signed with before. On a side note, a subsidiary is a smaller label under the major label's umbrella. For instance, Universal signed my band to Republic, a subsidiary of Universal Music that dealt primarily with rock genres, like Godsmack. Norman Petty saw the potential in Buddy and became his manager. He sent the record to Brunswick Records in New York City. Thiele saw the record as a potential hit, but there were some significant hurdles to overcome before it could be released.  According to author Philip Norman, in his book Rave On, Thiele would only get the most reluctant support from his record company. Decca had lucked out in 1954 when they'd signed Bill Haley & His Comets and saw their "Rock Around the Clock" top the charts. Still, very few of those in charge at Decca had a natural feel or appreciation for Rock & Roll, let alone any idea of where it might be heading or whether the label could (or should) follow it down that road. Also, remember that although Buddy had been dropped by Decca the year before, the contract that Holly signed explicitly forbade him from re-recording anything he had recorded for them, released or not, for five years. However, Coral was a subsidiary of Decca, and Decca's Nashville office could hold up the release and possibly even haul Holly into court.  "That'll Be the Day" was issued in May of 1957 mainly as an indulgence to Thiele, to "humor" him. The record was put out on the Brunswick label, more of jazz and R&B label, and credited to the Crickets. The group chose this name to prevent the suits at Decca -- and more importantly, Decca's Nashville office -- from finding out that this new release was from the guy they had just dropped. The name “The Crickets” was inspired by a band that Buddy and his group followed, called “the Spiders” and they initially thought about calling themselves “The Beetles”, with two E's, but Buddy said he was afraid people would want to “squash them.” So, they picked “The Crickets.” Petty also became the group's manager and producer, signing the Crickets, identified as Allison, Sullivan, and Mauldin, to a contract. Unfortunately, Holly wasn't listed as a member in the original document to keep his involvement with "That'll Be the Day" a secret. This ruse would later become the source of severe legal and financial problems for Buddy.    The song shot to #1 on the national charts that summer. But, of course, Decca knew Holly was in the band by then. So, with Thiele's persuasion and realizing they had a hit on their hands, the company agreed to release Holly from the five-year restriction on his old contract. This release left him free to sign any recording contract he wanted. While sorting out the ins and outs of Holly's legal situation, Thiele knew that Buddy was far more than a one-hit-wonder and that he could potentially write more and different types of hits. So, Holly found himself with two recording contracts, one with Brunswick as a member of the Crickets and the other with Coral Records as Buddy Holly, all thanks to Thiele's ingenious strategy to get the most out of Buddy and his abilities. By releasing two separate bodies of work, the Crickets could keep rockin' while allowing its apparent leader and "star" to break out on his own.    Petty, whose name seems fitting as we go through this, acted as their manager and producer. He handed out writing credits at random, gifting Niki Sullivan and Joe B. Mauldin (and himself) the co-authorship of the song, "I'm Gonna Love You Too," while leaving Holly's name off of "Peggy Sue." at first. The song title, “Peggy Sue” was named after Buddy's biggest fan. Petty usually added his own name to the credit line, something the managers and producers who wanted a more significant piece of the pie did back in the '50s. To be somewhat fair, Petty made some suggestions, which were vital in shaping certain Holly songs. However, he didn't contribute as much as all of his credits allow us to believe. Some confusion over songwriting was exacerbated by problems stemming from Holly's contracts in 1956. Petty had his own publishing company, Nor Va Jak Music, and Buddy signed a contract to publish his new songs. However, Holly had signed an exclusive agreement with another company the year before. To reduce his profile as a songwriter until a settlement could be made with Petty and convince the other publisher that they weren't losing too much in any compensation, buddy copyrighted many of his new songs under the pseudonym "Charles Hardin." So many names!   The dual recording contracts allowed Holly to record a crazy amount of songs during his short-lived 18 months of fame. Meanwhile, his band -- billed as Buddy Holly & the Crickets -- became one of the top attractions of the time. Holly was the frontman, singing lead and playing lead guitar, which was unusual for the era, and writing or co-writing many of their songs. But the Crickets were also a great band, creating a big and exciting sound (which is lost to history, aside from some live recordings from their 1958 British tour). Allison was a drummer ahead of his time and contributed to the songwriting more often than his colleagues, and Joe B. Mauldin and Niki Sullivan provided a solid rhythm section.   The group relied on originals for their singles, making them unique and years ahead of their time. In 1957-1958, songwriting wasn't considered a skill essential to a career in rock & Roll; the music business was still limping along the lines it had followed since the '20s. Songwriting was a specialized profession set on the publishing side of the industry and not connected to performing and recording. A performer might write a song or, even more rarely, like Duke Ellington (It Don't Mean A Thing), count composition among his key talents; however, this was generally left to the experts. Any rock & roller wanting to write songs would also have to get past the image of Elvis. He was set to become a millionaire at the young age of 22. He never wrote his songs, and the few songwriting credits he had resulted from business arrangements rather than writing anything.   Buddy Holly & the Crickets changed that seriously by hitting number one with a song they'd written and then reaching the Top Ten with originals like "Oh, Boy" and "Peggy Sue," They were regularly charging up the charts based on their songwriting. This ability wasn't appreciated by the public at the time and wouldn't be noticed widely until the '70s. Still, thousands of aspiring musicians, including John Lennon and Paul McCartney, from some unknown band called "The Beatles," took note of their success, and some of them decided to try and tried to be like Buddy. Also unknown at the time, Holly and his crew changed the primary industry method of recording, which was to bring the artist into the label's studio, working on their timetable. If an artist were highly successful, they got a blank check in the studio, and any union rules were thrown out, but that was rare and only happened to the highest bar of musicians. Buddy Holly & the Crickets, however, did their thing, starting with "That'll Be the Day," in Clovis, New Mexico, at Petty's studio. They took their time and experimented until they got the sound they were looking for. No union told them when to stop or start their work, and they delivered terrific records; not to mention, they were albums that sounded different than anything out there. The results changed the history of rock music. The group worked out a new sound that gave shape to the next wave of rock & Roll. Most definitely influenced was British rock & Roll and the British Invasion beat, with the lead and rhythm guitars working together to create a fuller, more complex sound. On songs such as "Not Fade Away," "Everyday," "Listen to Me," "Oh Boy!," "Peggy Sue," "Maybe Baby," "Rave On," "Heartbeat," and "It's So Easy," Holly took rock & roll's range and sophistication and pushed it without abandoning its excitement and, most importantly, it's fun. Holly and the band weren't afraid to push the envelope and try new things, even on their singles. "Peggy Sue" used changes in volume and timbre on the guitar that was usually only used in instrumental albums. "Words of Love" was one of the earliest examples of double-tracked vocals in rock & Roll, and the Beatles would jump on that train the following decade. Buddy Holly & the Crickets were extremely popular in America. Still, in England, they were even more significant; their impact was compared to Elvis and, in some ways, was even bigger. This success was because they toured England; Elvis didn't. They spent a month there in 1958, playing a list of shows that were still talked about 30 years later. It also had to do with their sound and Holly's persona on stage. The group's heavy use of rhythm guitar fit right in with the sound of skiffle music, a mix of blues, folk, country, and jazz elements that most of the younger British were introduced to playing music and their first taste of rock & Roll. Also, Holly looked a lot less likely a rock & roll star than Elvis. He was tall, skinny, and wore glasses; he looked like an ordinary dude who was good at music. Part of Buddy's appeal as a rock star was how he didn't look like one. He inspired tens of thousands of British teenagers who couldn't compare themselves to Elvis or Gene Vincent. (Be Bop A Lula) In the '50s, British guitarist Hank Marvin of the Shadows owed his look and that he wore his glasses proudly on-stage to Holly, and it was brought into the '70s by Elvis Costello.  Buddy may have played several different kinds of guitars but, he was specifically responsible for popularizing the Fender Stratocaster, especially in England. For many wannabe rock & rollers in the UK, Holly's 1958 tour was the first chance they'd had to see or hear this iconic guitar in action, and it quickly became the guitar of choice for anyone wanting to be a guitarist in England. In fact, Marvin is said to have had the first Stratocaster ever brought into England.   The Crickets became a trio with Sullivan dipping out in late 1957, right after the group's appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, but a lot more would transpire over the next year or so. The group consolidated its success with the release of two L.P.s, The Chirping Crickets, and Buddy Holly. They had two successful international tours and performed more in the United States. Holly had also started to have different ideas and aspirations than Allison and Mauldin. They never thought of leaving Texas as their home, and they continued to base their lives there, while Buddy wanted to be in New York, not just to do business but to live. His marriage to Maria Elena Santiago, a receptionist in Murray Deutsch's office, made the decision to move to New York that much easier. By this time, Holly's music had become more sophisticated and complex, and he passed off the lead guitar duties in the studio to session player Tommy Alsup. He had done several recordings in New York using session musicians such as King Curtis. It was around this time that the band started to see a slight decline in sales. Singles such as "Heartbeat" didn't sell nearly as well as the 45s of 1957 that had rolled out of stores. It's said that Buddy might even have advanced further than most of the band's audience was willing to accept in late 1958. Critics believe that the song "Well...All Right" was years ahead of its time.   Buddy split with the group -- and Petty -- in 1958. This departure left him free to chase some of those newer sounds, which also left him low on funds. In the course of the split, it became clear to Holly and everyone else that Petty had been fudging the numbers and probably taken a lot of the group's income for himself. Unfortunately, there was almost no way of proving his theft because he never seemed to finish his "accounting" of the money owed to anyone. His books were ultimately found to be so screwed up that when he came up with various low five-figure settlements to the folks he robbed, they took it.   Holly vacationed with his wife in Lubbock, TX, and hung out in Waylin Jennings's radio station in December 1958. With no money coming in from Petty, Holly decided to earn some quick cash by signing to play the Midwest's Winter Dance Party package tour. For the start of the Winter Dance Party tour, he assembled a band consisting of Waylon Jennings (on bass), Tommy Allsup (on guitar), and Carl Bunch (on drums). Holly and Jennings left for New York City, arriving on January 15, 1959. Jennings stayed at Holly's apartment by Washington Square Park on the days before a meeting scheduled at the headquarters of the General Artists Corporation, the folks who organized the tour. They then traveled by train to Chicago to meet up with the rest of the band. The Winter Dance Party tour began in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on January 23, 1959. The amount of travel involved created problems because whoever booked the tour dates didn't consider the distance between venues. On top of the scheduling conflicts, the unheated tour buses broke down twice in the freezing weather. In addition, Holly's drummer Carl Bunch was hospitalized for frostbite to his toes while aboard the bus, so Buddy looked for different transportation.  Buddy actually sat in on drums for the local bands while Richie Valenz played drums for Buddy.    On February 2, before their appearance in Clear Lake, Iowa, Holly chartered a four-seat Beechcraft Bonanza airplane for Jennings, Allsup, and himself, from Dwyer Flying Service in Mason City, Iowa, for $108.  Holly wanted to leave after the performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake and fly to their next venue, in Moorhead, Minnesota, through Fargo, North Dakota. This plan would allow them time to rest, wash their clothes and avoid being on that crappy bus. The Clear Lake Show ended just before midnight, and Allsup agreed to flip a coin for the seat with Richie Valens. Valens called heads, and when he won, he reportedly said, "That's the first time I've ever won anything in my life" On a side note, Allsup later opened a restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas called Heads Up, in memory of this statement. Waylon Jennings voluntarily gave up his seat to J. P. Richardson (the Big Bopper), who had the flu and complained that the tour bus was too cold and uncomfortable for a man of his stature. When Buddy heard Waylon wouldn't be flying with him, he jokingly said, “I hope your old bus freezes up!” Then Waylon responded, “well, I hope your old plane crashes!” The last thing he would ever say to his friend. Roger Peterson, the pilot and only 21, took off in pretty nasty weather, although he wasn't certified to fly by instruments alone, failing an instrument test the year before. He was a big fan of Buddy's and didn't want to disappoint, so he called a more seasoned pilot to fly the trio to their destination. “I'm more of a Lawrence Welk fan.”  Sadly, shortly after 12:55 am on February 3, 1959, Holly, Valens, Richardson, and Peterson were killed instantly when the plane crashed into a frozen cornfield five miles northwest of Mason City, Iowa, airport shortly after takeoff. Buddy was in the front, next to the pilot. He loved flying and had been taking flying lessons. The three musicians were ejected from the plane upon impact, suffering severe head and chest injuries. Holly was 22 years old.   Holly's funeral was held on February 7, 1959, at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Lubbock, TX. It was officiated by Ben D. Johnson, who married the Hollys' just months earlier. Jerry Allison, Joe B. Mauldin, Niki Sullivan, Bob Montgomery, and Sonny Curtis were pallbearers. Some sources say that Phil Everly, the one half of The Everly Brothers, was also the pallbearer, but he said at one time that he attended the funeral but was not a pallbearer. In addition, Waylon Jennings was unable to participate because of his commitment to the still-touring Winter Dance Party. Holly's body was buried in the City of Lubbock Cemetery, in the city's eastern part. His headstone has the correct spelling of his last name (Holley) and a carving of his Fender Stratocaster guitar. His wife, María Elena, had to see the first reports of her husband's death on T.V. She claimed she suffered a miscarriage the following day. Holly's mother, who heard the news on the radio in Lubbock, Texas, screamed and collapsed. Because of Elena's miscarriage, the authorities implemented a policy against announcing victims' names until the families were informed. As a result, Mary did not attend the funeral and has never visited the gravesite. She later told the Avalanche-Journal, "In a way, I blame myself. I was not feeling well when he left. I was two weeks pregnant, and I wanted Buddy to stay with me, but he had scheduled that tour. It was the only time I wasn't with him. And I blame myself because I know that, if only I had gone along, Buddy never would have gotten into that airplane."    The accident wasn't considered a significant piece of news at the time, although sad. Most news outlets were run by out-of-touch older men and didn't think rock & Roll was anything more than to be exploited to sell newspapers or grab viewing audiences. However, Holly was clean-cut and scandal-free, and with the news of his recent marriage, the story contained more misery than other music stars of the period. For the teens of the time, it was their first glimpse of a public tragedy like this, and the news was heartbreaking. Radio station D.J.s were also traumatized. The accident and sudden way it happened, along with Holly and Valens being just 22 and 17, made it even worse. Hank Williams Sr had died at 29, but he was a drug user and heavy drinker, causing some to believe his young death was inevitable. The blues guitarist Johnny Ace had passed in 1954 while backstage at a show. However, that tragedy came at his hand in a game of Russian roulette. Holly's death was different, almost more personal to the public.     Buddy left behind dozens of unfinished recordings — solo transcriptions of his new compositions, informal jam sessions with bandmates, and tapes with songs intended for other musicians. Buddy recorded his last six original songs in his apartment in late 1958 and were his most recent recordings. In June 1959, Coral Records overdubbed two of the songs with backing vocals by the Ray Charles Singers and hired guns to emulate the Crickets sound. Since his death, the finished tracks became the first singles, "Peggy Sue Got Married"/"Crying, Waiting, Hoping." The new release was a success, and the fans and industry wanted more. As a result, all six songs were included in The Buddy Holly Story, Vol. 2 in 1960 using the other Holly demos and the same studio personnel. The demand for Holly records was so great, and Holly had recorded so many tracks that his record label could release new Holly albums and singles for the next ten years. Norman Petty, the alleged swindler, produced most of these new songs, using unreleased studio masters, alternative takes, audition tapes, and even amateur recordings (a few from 1954 with recorded with low-quality vocals). The final Buddy Holly album, "Giant," was released in 1969 with the single, "Love Is Strange," taking the lead.   These posthumous records did well in the U.S. but actually charted in England. New recordings of his music, like the Rolling Stones' rendition of "Not Fade Away" and the Beatles' rendition of "Words of Love," kept Buddy's name and music in the hearts and ears of a new generation of listeners. In the States, the struggle was a little more challenging. The rock & roll wave was constantly morphing, with new sounds, bands, and listeners continuously emerging, and the general public gradually forgot about Buddy and his short-lived legacy. Holly was a largely forgotten figure in his own country by the end of the '60s, except among older fans (then in their twenties) and hardcore oldies listeners. Things began to shift toward the end of the '60s with the start of the oldies boom. Holly's music was, of course, a part of this movement. But, as people listened, they also learned about the man behind the music. Even the highly respected rock zine Rolling Stone went out of its way to remind people who Buddy was. His posing images from 1957 and 1958, wearing his glasses, a jacket, and smiling, looked like a figure from another age. The way he died also set him apart from some of the deaths of rockers like Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison, musicians who, at the time, overindulged in the rock in roll lifestyle. Holly was different. He was eternally innocent in all aspects of his life. Don McLean, a relatively unknown singer/songwriter, who proudly considered himself a Buddy Holly fan, wrote and released a song called "American Pie," in 1971, catapulting him into the musical ethos. Although listeners assumed McLean wrote the song about President Kennedy, he let it be known publicly that he meant February 3, 1959, the day Holly died. Maclean was a holly fan and his death devastated him when he was only 11. The song's popularity led to Holly suddenly getting more press exposure than he'd ever had the chance to enjoy in his lifetime.     The tragic plane accident launched a few careers in the years after. Bobby Vee became a star when his band took over Holly's spot on the Winter Dance Party tour.  Holly's final single, "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," hit the British charts in the wake of his death and rose to number one. Two years after the event, producer Joe Meek and singer Mike Berry got together to make "Tribute to Buddy Holly," a memorial single. But, unfortunately, rumor has it that Meek never entirely got over Holly's death, and he killed himself on the anniversary of the plane accident.   The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame included Holly among its first class in 1986. Upon his induction, the Hall of Fame basked about the large quantity of material he produced during his short musical career. Saying, "He made a major and lasting impact on popular music ." Calling him an "innovator" for writing his own material, experimenting with double-tracking, and using orchestration. He was also revered for having "pioneered and popularized" the use of two guitars, bass, and drums by rock bands. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1986, saying his contributions "changed the face of Rock' n' Roll." Along with Petty, Holly developed techniques like overdubbing and reverb and other innovative instrumentation. As a result, according to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, Holly became "one of the most influential pioneers of rock and roll" who had a "lasting influence" on genre performers of the 1960s.   Paul McCartney bought the rights to Buddy Holly's entire song catalog on July 1, 1976.   Lubbock TX's Walk of Fame has a statue honoring Buddy of him rocking his Fender, which Grant Speed sculpted in 1980. There are other memorials to Buddy Holly, including a street named in his honor and the Buddy Holly Center, which contains a museum of memorabilia and fine arts gallery. The Center is located on Crickets Avenue, one street east of Buddy Holly Avenue.  There was a musical about Buddy. Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, a “pioneering jukebox musical which worked his familiar hits into a narrative,” debuted in the West End in 1989. It ran until 2008, where it also appeared on Broadway, as well as in Australia and Germany, not to mention touring companies in the U.K. and U.S.   In 1994 "Buddy Holly" became a massive hit from the band Weezer, paying homage to the fallen rocker and is still played on the radio and whenever MTV decides to play videos on one of their side stations. Again, in ‘94, Holly's style also showed up in Quentin Tarantino's abstract and groundbreaking film Pulp Fiction, which featured Steve Buscemi playing a waiter impersonating Buddy.   In 1997, Buddy received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. He was inducted into the Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, as well. In 2010, Grant Speed's statue of Buddy and his guitar was taken down for repairs, and construction of a new Walk of Fame began. On May 9, 2011, the City of Lubbock held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Buddy and Maria Elena Holly Plaza, the new home of the statue and the Walk of Fame. The same year, on why would be Buddy's 75th birthday, a star with his name was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.   There were two tribute albums released in 2011: Verve Forecast's Listen to Me: Buddy Holly,  featuring Stevie Nicks, Brian Wilson, and Ringo Starr plus 13 other artists, and Fantasy/Concord's Rave on Buddy Holly, which had tracks from Paul McCartney, Patti Smith, the Black Keys, and Nick Lowe, among others.  Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens released his own Holly tribute album in 2009. Universal released True Love Ways, an album where original Holly recordings were overdubbed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 2018, just in time for Christmas. That album debuted at number 10 on the U.K. charts. Groundbreaking was held on April 20, 2017, to construct a new performing arts center in Lubbock, TX, dubbed the Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences, a $153 million project in downtown Lubbock completed in 2020 located at 1300 Mac Davis Lane.   Recently, on May 5, 2019, an article on gearnews.com had a pretty cool story, if it's true.   The famous Fender Stratocaster played and owned by Buddy Holly that disappeared after his death in 1959 has been found, according to a new video documentary called "The '54".   Gill Matthews is an Australian drummer, producer, and collector of old Fender guitars. According to the documentary, he may have stumbled upon Buddy Holly's legendary guitar. The film is The '54 and tells the history of one particular 1954 Fender Stratocaster Gil purchased two decades after the plane crash that claimed Buddy's life. Experts cited in the film say there is a good chance that the guitar in Matthews' possession is indeed Buddy Holly's actual original '54 Fender Stratocaster. If this is true, it is possibly one of the most significant finds in guitar history. You can watch the video at gearnews.com and see all the evidence presented during the film.     Sources: A biography on allmusic.com written by Bruce Eder was the main source of information here with other info coming from the following Rave on: The Biography of Buddy Holly written by Phillip Norman   Buddy Holly : Rest In Peace by Don Mclean "Why Buddy Holly will never fade away" an article on The Telegraph website written by Phillip Norman   Various other articles were used and tidbits taken from wikipedia.   And Adam Moody   Consider becoming a producer of the show. www.accidentaldads.com www.iconsandoutlaws.com       

Big show this week. Chance & Travis talk Allsup's burritos, Regional track meet, State track meet, Vikings, red dirt music festivals, and doctors. If you want to buy us a cup of coffee. Click on the link  Buy a Cup of Coffee

On this edition of the podcast, we’re going to talk about Medigap - one of the most important types of Medicare insurance, and perhaps one of the least understood. For people enrolled in traditional Medicare, Medigap is used to cover out-of-pocket costs, and caps your total out-of-pocket liability.Traditional Medicare offers much more flexibility in how you access care when compared with Medicare Advantage plans, which typically use managed-care provider networks. However, Advantage plans come with a built-in cap on out-of-pocket costs--a feature that you won’t find in traditional Medicare. Some traditional Medicare enrollees receive supplemental gap insurance as a retirement benefit from their former employers to cover some of those out-of-pocket costs. And low-income seniors get help from Medicaid. But for everyone else, it's important to understand the ins and outs of Medigap--when to buy it, the plan options, and how to go about selecting a plan.I spoke recently about Medigap plans with Bethany Cissell. Bethany is an expert on Medigap at Allsup, a company that provides fee-based assistance with Medicare plan selections. Fee-based help is one way you can get guidance on Medicare plan selections of all types. The most common choice is your State Health Insurance Assistance Program, or SHIP. These are free counseling services that you’ll find in every state, and I’ll provide a link alongside the podcast that can help you find yours. I spoke with Bethany about the choice between traditional Medicare with a Medigap, versus Medicare Advantage. We also discussed all those notorious Medigap letter options you can choose, and how plans are priced.Click on the player icon at the top of this post to listen to the interview. The podcast also can be found on Apple Podcasts and Stitcher.More Medigap resourcesHow to evaluate Medigap coverage - my latest column for Morningstar.com.Overview of Medigap plan options- a table created by the Medicare Rights Center.Financial advisors step it up on Social Security techFinancial advisors have long understood the importance of Social Security in their clients’ retirement plans. Now, an increasing number are using sophisticated strategies for optimizing those benefits and turning to software for help.The trend is evident in the substantial increase in market penetration of Social Security optimization software, which jumped to 45% of advisors last year, up from 17% in 2020, according to the T3/Inside Information Advisory Software Survey. Some of that growth reflects Social Security features bundled into mainstream financial planning software, but use of stand-alone solutions is growing as well.Learn more in my latest column for WealthManagement.com.What I’m readingSenior communities add tech assistance as a perk . . . The system still fails small 401(k) plans . . . Young women are saving for retirement sooner than previous generations. Subscribe at retirementrevised.substack.com

Vadym finally has a friend over! This week local artist and just great human Neeka Allsup stopped by to share her wild and interesting life story, discuss what our past says about us, doing art for a living, and butt stuff. Along the way, there are numerous tangents about other things, such as other art-related things and Russian language/culture.

A bonus episode that continues our conversation with Jonathan D. Allsup, a Chicago area-based theatrical production manager who's moved twenty times in his life. 

 In the third episode, we visit with Jonathan D. Allsup.  He's a wise old(er) soul, and a Chicago area theatrical production manager who's moved twenty times in his life.

Welcome to West of 98. This inaugural episode outlines the podcast to come and the topics to be covered: rural revitalization, public policy, history, literature, music, Theodore Roosevelt, native grasslands, and more. Subscribe now and be ready for upcoming episodes on city pools and Allsup's burritos. Email me at westof98@substack.com. Subscribe to my writing at westof98.substack.com, and find me on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Comedian and Co-Creator of the Everything Now show Alex Allsup FINALLY stops by the pod to discuss his favorite vacation spot from his youth, The Glamis Sand Dunes! Alex perseveres through shingles to tell us about his experience riding ATVs, why playing Pokemon in the car is the best thing you can do on the way there, and the incredible memories of the vast, sweeping landscape of Glamis with his whole family. Everything Now! Show: https://www.twitch.tv/everythingnowshow Alex's Twitter: https://twitter.com/AllsupAlex Alex's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/loose_angeles/ We Made a Mistake (Bull Sperm): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aOSj935NDY&ab_channel=BuzzFeedMultiplayer Show Twitter: https://twitter.com/myfavepod Show Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myfavorite_podcast/ Your Local Government Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ylg.world/ Your Local Government Youtube Page: https://www.youtube.com/user/yourlocalgovernment It's On the List" Social's and Show Links! Twitter: https://twitter.com/ItsontheListPod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itson_thelist/ Show Link! (Spotify): https://open.spotify.com/show/5M5XRImTNqpJbgGbnb7fJJ?si=hiUk-V2JTHC5v2X3sRzvTg Show Link! (Apple Podcasts): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-on-the-list-podcast/id1482991828 Show Link! (Stitcher): https://www.stitcher.com/show/537429

In this week's episode of the Good Growing podcast Ken, Katie, and Chris chat with Illinois Extension horticulture educator Kelly Allsup about pollinators. Their conversation starts with monarch butterflies and community science projects geared toward studying monarchs and all pollinators. Plus your questions: What seed mix should we plant around our new beehive? What are some good late-flowering fall plants for migrating monarchs? Is it possible to have a butterfly garden without bees? Should I clean up my leaves and yard in the fall? What's the best thing for pollinators? Community (Citizen) Science projects for pollinators: Monarch Way Station Project https://www.monarchwatch.org/waystations/ University of Minnesota Bee Lawn https://www.beelab.umn.edu/learn-more/beelawn University of Illinois I-Pollinate https://ipollinate.illinois.edu/ Illinois Extension Pollinator Pockets https://extension.illinois.edu/cfiv/pollinator-pockets Illinois butterfly monitoring network https://bfly.org/ Monarch larva monitoring project https://monarchjointventure.org/mlmp Check out the video version at https://youtu.be/VzbCNJFFXZg

Government programs such as Social Security provide essential services for people with disabilities.  But navigating through the bureaucracy can be a nightmare. That's why there are companies such as Allsup Disability Insurance Services and people like Mary Dale Walters - to help us make sense of it all!  Listen as she gives us a great start to the conversation and provides resources for where to find out more. https://www.allsup.com/  

Salt Lake City-based artists, Molly Mostert and Natalie Allsup-Edwards, join The Poundcast this week and chat with Doug and Brent about, you know, the usual: prison penpals, first boners, and Shm00fi3zZ. You know how it is. Follow Molly and Natalie on Instagram: @natalie_cae @blobbosoft @shm00fi3zz And for extended episodes and video, go to: www.patreon.com/poundcast The Poundcast is also on Instagram: @thepoundcast See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The infamous #Killstream airs every weeknight at 9:30PM EST on DLive. ⭐Support Links⭐ ✅Patreon: http://patreon.com/theralphretort ✅StreamElements: https://streamelements.com/colorfulralph/tip ✅NewProject2: https://newproject2.com/theralphretort/ ✅Merch: http://shop.theralphretort.com/ ⭐ Contact ⭐ ✅ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRalphRetort ✅ Telegram: https://t.me/theralphretort ✅ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRalphRetort ✅ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theralphretort ✅ Gab: https://gab.com/theralphretort ✅ Email: theralph@theralphretort.com ⭐Podcast Links⭐ Podcast Home: https://killstream.zencast.website/ iTunes: https://apple.co/2Kdq3RC Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2KCLm0o Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/killstream Castbox: https://castbox.fm/channel/Killstream-id1395459 Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1128890743/killstream PlayerFM: https://player.fm/series/2421381 Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/theralphretort ⭐Crypto Support⭐ BTC: 3H7EKnw4xBwmsNTHVVJbUY4UkWQYBrvYcT BCH: qrykmnjejydm7k5sglf6qvael3u3puen7cw6rpcrlv ETH: 0x044076535672e1604bb79A5889b437D1D54D67f8 LTC: MUbzTnQjZ3RqVFC5HPxo1q9vE5quZ74TX8 ⭐Mailing Address⭐ Ethan Ralph PO BOX 42183 RICHMOND, VA 23224-9183 ⭐Panelists⭐ Gator: https://dlive.tv/Gator https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRtNudly-aGCMT0rwnXsLKg https://twitter.com/TheGatorGamer Bibble: https://dlive.tv/Bibble https://twitter.com/bibble_holy Flamenco: https://dlive.tv/FlamencoTRS https://www.youtube.com/FlamencoGaming https://www.twitch.tv/flamencotrs https://twitter.com/Flamencotrr RandBot: http://bj.afreecatv.com/randbot2020 https://twitter.com/Randbot20202

Vaush & Destiny set aside their political disagreements to take on a common foe, a nationalist team consisting of Striker & Allsup.

Since acquiring Allsup's convenience stores in November 2019, Yesway has jumped more than 20 spots in CSP's annual Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by number of retail outlets. On this episode of At Your Convenience, CSP editor Brett Dworski chats with Tom Trkla, CEO of Yesway, on how the company has reached this growth and the strategies behind its acquisitions and store-development.

Join the Good Growing crew as they answer your insect questions. Ken, Katie, and Chris welcome special guest Kelly Allsup, horticulture educator with the University of Illinois Extension. Kelly's passion is insects and shares her knowledge with the podcast to answer your insect questions. Following are the questions we discuss in this episode: 1. Brussels sprouts never get very big, what can they do get bigger sprouts. 2. A high school greenhouse is seeing aphids, whiteflies, and gnats. How do they save their plants? 3. How do I get rid of house centipedes? Do they bite? 4. How do I get rid of giant spiders in the house!? 5. How do you get rid of Japanese beetles Links to follow Kelly online: Blog https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/flowers-fruits-and-frass Facebook https://www.facebook.com/MidIllinoisMasterGardener/ Resources mentioned during the episode: Guidelines for Purchasing and Using Commercial Natural Enemies and Biopesticides in North America https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in849 Relative Susceptibility of Woody Landscape Plants to Japanese Beetle https://webdoc.agsci.colostate.edu/bspm/JapaneseBeetle/Held2004.pdf Email us your insect or any home gardening and landscaping questions: Chris cenroth@illinois.edu Ken kjohnso@illinois.edu Katie keparkr2@illinois.edu Check out our blog chocked full of articles on home gardening, landscaping, conservation, and so much more! extension.illinois.edu/blogs/good-growing

Hi, my name is Cody Allsup and I’m a baseball coach. I will be speaking with numerous coaches about their journey into coaching, their philosophies, and why they choose coaching.

Episode seventy-four of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “It Doesn’t Matter Any More” by Buddy Holly, and at the reasons he ended up on the plane that killed him. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Chantilly Lace” by the Big Bopper.  Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/—-more—- Before I get to the resources and transcript, a quick apology. This one is up more than a day late. I’ve not been coping very well with all the news about coronavirus outbreak (I’m one of those who’s been advised by the government to sel-isolate for three months) and things are taking longer than normal. Next week’s should be up at the normal time. Also, no Mixcloud this week — I get a server error when uploading the file to Mixcloud’s site. Erratum I mention that Bob Dylan saw the first show on the Winter Dance Party tour with no drummer. He actually saw the last one with the drummer, who was hospitalised that night after the show, not before the show as I had thought.  Resources   I’ve used two biographies for the bulk of the information here — Buddy Holly: Learning the Game, by Spencer Leigh, and Rave On: The Biography of Buddy Holly by Philip Norman. I also used  Beverly Mendheim’s book on Ritchie Valens. There are many collections of Buddy Holly’s work available, but many of them are very shoddy, with instrumental overdubs recorded over demos after his death. The best compilation I am aware of is The Memorial Collection, which contains almost everything he issued in his life, as he issued it (for some reason two cover versions are missing) along with the undubbed acoustic recordings that were messed with and released after his death. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript   Before I begin, this episode will deal with both accidental bereavement and miscarriage, so if you think those subjects might be traumatising, you may want to skip this one. Today, we’re going to look at a record that holds a sad place in rock and roll’s history, because it’s the record that is often credited as “the first posthumous rock and roll hit”. Now, that’s not strictly true — as we’ve talked about before in this podcast, there is rarely, if ever, a “first” anything at all, and indeed we’ve already looked at an earlier posthumous hit when we talked about “Pledging My Love” by Johnny Ace. But it is a very sad fact that “It Doesn’t Matter Any More” by Buddy Holly ended up becoming the first of several posthumous hit records that Holly had, and that there would be many more posthumous hit records by other performers after him than there had been before him. Buddy Holly’s death is something that hangs over every attempt to tell his story. More than any other musician of his generation, his death has entered rock and roll mythology. Even if you don’t know Holly’s music, you probably know two things about him — that he wore glasses, and that he died in a plane crash. You’re likely also to know that Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper died in the same crash, even if you don’t know any of the songs that either of those two artists recorded. Normally, when you’re telling a story, you’d leave that to the end, but in the case of Holly it overshadows his life so much that there’s absolutely no point trying to build up any suspense — not to mention that there’s something distasteful about turning a real person’s tragic death into entertainment. I hope I’ve not done so in episodes where other people have died, but it’s even more important not to do so here. Because while the death of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper is always portrayed as an accident, the cause of their death has its roots in exploitation of young, vulnerable, people, and a pressure to work no matter what. So today, we’re going to look at how “It Doesn’t Matter Any More” became Buddy Holly’s last single: [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, “It Doesn’t Matter Any More”] People often talk about how Buddy Holly’s career was short, but what they don’t mention is that his chart career was even shorter. Holly’s first chart single, “That’ll Be the Day”, was released in May 1957. His last top thirty single during his lifetime, “Think it Over”, was released in May 1958. By the time he went on the Winter Dance Party, the tour that led to his death, in January 1959, he had gone many months without a hit, and his most recent record, “Heartbeat”, had only reached number eighty-two. He’d lost every important professional relationship in his life, and had split from the group that had made him famous. To see how this happened, we need to pick up where we left off with him last time. You’ll remember that when we left the Crickets, they’d released “That’ll Be the Day”, and it hadn’t yet become a hit, and they’d also released “Words of Love” as a Buddy Holly solo single. While there were different names on them, the same people would make the records, whether it was a solo or group record — Buddy Holly on vocals and lead guitar, Niki Sullivan on rhythm guitar, Jerry Allison on drums, Joe Mauldin on bass, and producer Norman Petty and his wife sometimes adding keyboards. They didn’t distinguish between “Buddy Holly” and “Crickets” material when recording — rather they separated it out later. The more straight-ahead rock and roll records would have backing vocals overdubbed on them, usually by a vocal group called the Picks, and would be released as Crickets records, while the more experimental ones would be left with only Holly’s vocal on, and would be released as solo records. (There were no records released as by “Buddy Holly and the Crickets” at the time, because the whole idea of the split was that DJs would play two records instead of one if they appeared to be by different artists). And they were recording *a lot*. Two days after “That’ll be the Day” was released, on the twenty-seventh of May 1957, they recorded “Everyday” and “Not Fade Away”. Between then and the first of July they recorded “Tell Me How”, “Oh Boy”, “Listen to Me”, “I’m Going to Love You Too”, and cover versions of Fats Domino’s “Valley of Tears” and Little Richard’s “Ready Teddy”. Remember, this was all before they’d had a single hit — “That’ll Be the Day” and “Words of Love” still hadn’t charted. This is quite an astonishing outpouring of songs, but the big leap forward came on the second of July, when they made a second attempt at a song they’d attempted to record back in late 1956, and had been playing in their stage show since then. The song had originally been titled “Cindy Lou”, after Buddy’s niece, but Jerry Allison had recently started dating a girl named Peggy Sue Gerrison, and they decided to change the lyrics to be about her. The song had also originally been played as a Latin-flavoured number, but when they were warming up, Allison started playing a fast paradiddle on his snare drum. Holly decided that they were going to change the tempo of the song and have Allison play that part all the way through, though this meant that Allison had to go out and play in the hallway rather than in the main studio, because the noise from his drums was too loud in the studio itself. The final touch came when Petty decided, on the song’s intro, to put the drums through the echo chamber and keep flicking the switch on the echo from “on” to “off”, so it sounded like there were two drummers playing: [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, “Peggy Sue”] Someone else was flicking a switch, too — Niki Sullivan was already starting to regret joining the Crickets, because there really wasn’t room for his rhythm guitar on most of the songs they were playing. And on “Peggy Sue” he ended up not playing at all. On that song, Buddy had to switch between two pickups — one for when he was singing, and another to give his guitar a different tone during the solo. But he was playing so fast that he couldn’t move his hand to the switch, and in those days there were no foot pedals one could use for the same sort of effect. So Niki Sullivan became Holly’s foot pedal. He knelt beside Holly and waited for the point when the solo was about to start, and flicked the switch on his guitar. When the solo came to an end again, Sullivan flicked the switch again and it went back to the original sound. [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, “Peggy Sue”] It’s a really strange sounding record, if you start to pay attention to it. Other than during the solo, Holly’s guitar is so quiet that you can hear the plectrum as loudly as you can hear the notes. He just keeps up a ram-a-ram-a quaver downstrum throughout the whole song, which sounds simple until you try to play it, at which point you realise that you start feeling like your arm’s going to fall off about a quarter of the way through. And there’s just that, those drums (playing a part which must be similarly physically demanding) with their weird echo, and Holly’s voice. In theory, Joe Mauldin’s bass is also in there, but it’s there at almost homeopathic levels. It’s a record that is entirely carried by the voice, the drums, and the guitar solo. Of course, Niki Sullivan wasn’t happy about being relegated to guitar-switch-flicker, and there were other tensions within the group as well. Holly was having an affair with a married woman at the time — and Jerry Allison, who was Holly’s best friend as well as his bandmate, was also in love with her, though not in a relationship with her, and so Holly had to keep his affair hidden from his best friend. And not only that, but Allison and Sullivan were starting to have problems with each other, too. To help defuse the situation, Holly’s brother Larry took him on holiday, to go fishing in Colorado. But even there, the stress of the current situation was showing — Buddy spent much of the trip worried about the lack of success of “That’ll Be the Day”, and obsessing over a new record by a new singer, Paul Anka, that had gone to number one: [Excerpt: Paul Anka, “Diana”] Holly was insistent that he could do better than that, and that his records were at least as good. But so far they were doing nothing at all on the charts. But then a strange thing happened. “That’ll Be the Day” started getting picked up by black radio stations. It turned out that there had been another group called the Crickets — a black doo-wop group from about five years earlier, led by a singer called Dean Barlow, who had specialised in smooth Ink Spots-style ballads: [Excerpt The Crickets featuring Dean Barlow, “Be Faithful”] People at black radio stations had assumed that this new group called the Crickets was the same one, and had then discovered that “That’ll Be the Day” was really rather good. The group even got booked on an otherwise all-black tour headlined by Clyde McPhatter and Otis Rush, booked by people who hadn’t realised they were white. Before going on the tour, they formally arranged to have Norman Petty be their manager as well as their producer. They were a success on the tour, though when it reached the Harlem Apollo, which had notoriously hostile audiences, the group had to reconfigure their sets, as the audiences didn’t like any of Holly’s original material except “That’ll Be the Day”, but did like the group’s cover versions of R&B records like “Bo Diddley”: [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, “Bo Diddley (Undubbed Version)”] Some have said that the Crickets were the first white act to play the Apollo. That’s not the case — Bobby Darin had played there before them, and I think so had the jazz drummer Buddy Rich, and maybe one or two others. But it was still a rarity, and the Crickets had to work hard to win the audience around. After they finished that tour, they moved on to a residency at the Brooklyn Paramount, on an Alan Freed show that also featured Little Richard and Larry Williams — who the Crickets met for the first time when they walked into the dressing room to find Richard and Williams engaged in a threesome with Richard’s girlfriend. During that engagement at the Paramount, the tensions within the group reached boiling point. Niki Sullivan, who was in an awful mood because he was trying to quit smoking, revealed the truth about Holly’s affair to Allison, and the group got in a fist-fight. According to Sullivan — who seems not to have always been the most reliable of interviewees — Sullivan gave Jerry Allison a black eye, and then straight away they had to go to the rooftop to take the photo for the group’s first album, The “Chirping” Crickets. Sullivan says that while the photo was retouched to hide the black eye, it’s still visible, though I can’t see it myself. After this, they went into a three-month tour on a giant package of stars featuring Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Paul Anka, the Everly Brothers, the Bobbettes, the Drifters, LaVern Baker, and many more. By this point, both “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue” had risen up the charts — “That’ll Be the Day” eventually went to number one, while “Peggy Sue” hit number three — and the next Crickets single, “Oh Boy!” was also charting. “Oh Boy!” had originally been written by an acquaintance of the band, Sonny West, who had recorded his own version as “All My Love” a short while earlier: [Excerpt: Sonny West, “All My Love”] Glen Hardin, the piano player on that track, would later join a lineup of the Crickets in the sixties (and later still would be Elvis’ piano player and arranger in the seventies). Holly would later also cover another of West’s songs, “Rave On”. The Crickets’ version of “Oh Boy!” was recorded at a faster tempo, and became another major hit, their last top ten: [Excerpt: The Crickets, “Oh Boy!”] Around the time that came out, Eddie Cochran joined the tour, and like the Everly Brothers he became fast friends with the group. The group also made an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, with Holly, Mauldin, and Allison enthusiastically performing “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue”, and Sullivan enthusiastically miming and playing an unplugged guitar. Sullivan was becoming more and more sidelined in the group, and when they returned to Lubbock at the end of the tour — during which he’d ended up breaking down and crying — he decided he was going to quit the group. Sullivan tried to have a solo career, releasing “It’s All Over” on Dot Records: [Excerpt: Niki Sullivan, “It’s All Over”] But he had no success, and ended up working in electronics, and in later years also making money from the Buddy Holly nostalgia industry. He’d only toured as a member of the group for a total of ninety days, though he’d been playing with them in the studio for a few months before that, and he’d played on a total of twenty-seven of the thirty-two songs that Holly or the Crickets would release in Holly’s lifetime. While he’d been promised an equal share of the group’s income — and Petty had also promised Sullivan, like all the other Crickets, that he would pay 10% of his income to his church — Sullivan got into endless battles with Petty over seeing the group’s accounts, which Petty wouldn’t show him, and eventually settled for getting just $1000, ten percent of the recording royalties just for the single “That’ll Be the Day”, and co-writing royalties on one song, “I’m Going to Love You Too”. His church didn’t get a cent. Meanwhile, Petty was busy trying to widen the rifts in the group. He decided that while the records would still be released as either “Buddy Holly” or “the Crickets”, as a live act they would from now on be billed as “Buddy Holly and the Crickets”, a singer and his backing group, and that while Mauldin and Allison would continue to get twenty-five percent of the money each, Holly would be on fifty percent. This was an easy decision, since Petty was handling all the money and only giving the group pocket money rather than giving them their actual shares of the money they’d earned. The group spent all of 1958 touring, visiting Hawaii, Australia, the UK, and all over the US, including the famous last ever Alan Freed tour that we looked at recently in episodes on Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. They got in another guitarist, Tommy Allsup, who took over the lead role while Buddy played rhythm, and who joined them on tour, though he wasn’t an official member of the group. The first recording Allsup played on was “It’s So Easy”: [Excerpt: The Crickets, “It’s So Easy”] But the group’s records were selling less and less well. Holly was getting worried, and there was another factor that came into play. On a visit to New York, stopping in to visit their publisher in the Brill Building, all three of the Crickets became attracted to the receptionist, a Puerto Rican woman named Maria Elena Santiago who was a few years older than them. They all started to joke about which of them would ask her out, and Holly eventually did so. It turned out that while Maria Elena was twenty-five, she’d never yet been on a date, and she had to ask the permission of her aunt, who she lived with, and who was also the head of the Latin-American division of the publishing company. The aunt rang round every business contact she had, satisfied herself that Buddy was a nice boy, and gave her blessing for the date. The next day, she was giving her blessing for the two to marry — Buddy proposed on the very first date. They eventually went on a joint honeymoon with Jerry Allison and Peggy Sue. But Maria Elena was someone who worked in the music industry, and was a little bit older, and she started saying things to Buddy like “You need to get a proper accounting of the money that’s owed you”, and “You should be getting paid”. This strained his relationship with Petty, who didn’t want any woman of colour butting her nose in and getting involved in his business. Buddy moved to a flat in Greenwich Village with Maria Elena, but for the moment he was still working with Petty, even after Petty used some extremely misogynistic slurs I’m not going to repeat here against his new wife. But he was worried about his lack of hits, and they tried a few different variations on the formula. The Crickets recorded one song, a cover version of a song they’d learned on the Australian tour, with Jerry Allison singing lead. It was released under the name “Ivan” — Allison’s middle name — and became a minor hit: [Excerpt: Ivan, “Real Wild Child”] They tried more and more different things, like getting King Curtis in to play saxophone on “Reminiscing”, and on one occasion dispensing with the Crickets entirely and having Buddy cut a Bobby Darin song, “Early in the Morning”, with other musicians. They were stockpiling recordings much faster than they could release them, but the releases weren’t doing well at all. “It’s So Easy” didn’t even reach the top one hundred. Holly was also working with other artists. In September, he produced a session for his friend Waylon Jennings, who would later become a huge country star. It was Jennings’ first ever session, and they turned out an interesting version of the old Cajun song “Jole Blon”, which had earlier been a hit for Moon Mullican. This version had Holly on guitar and King Curtis on saxophone, and is a really interesting attempt at blending Cajun music with R&B: [Excerpt: Waylon Jennings, “Jole Blon”] But Holly’s biggest hope was placed in a session that was really breaking new ground. No rock and roll singer had ever recorded with a full string section before — at least as far as he was aware, and bearing in mind that, as we’ve seen many times, there’s never truly a first anything. In October 1958, Holly went into the studio with the Dick Jacobs Orchestra, with the intention of recording three songs — his own “True Love Ways”, a song called “Moondreams” written by Petty, and one called “Raining in My Heart” written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who’d written many hits for his friends the Everly Brothers. At the last minute, though, he decided to record a fourth song, which had been written for him by Paul Anka, the same kid whose “Diana” had been so irritating to him the year before. He played through the song on his guitar for Dick Jacobs, who only had a short while to write the arrangement, and so stuck to the simplest thing he could think of, basing it around pizzicato violins: [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, “It Doesn’t Matter Any More”] At that point, everything still seemed like it could work out OK. Norman Petty and the other Crickets were all there at the recording session, cheering Buddy on. That night the Crickets appeared on American Bandstand, miming to “It’s So Easy”. That would be the last time they ever performed together, and soon there would be an irreparable split that would lead directly to Holly’s death — and to his posthumous fame. Holly was getting sick of Norman Petty’s continual withholding of royalties, and he’d come up with a plan. The Crickets would, as a group, confront Petty, get him to give them the money he owed them, and then all move to New York together to start up their own record label and publishing company. They’d stop touring, and focus on making records, and this would allow them the time to get things right and try new things out, which would lead to them having hits again, and they could also produce records for their friends like Waylon Jennings and Sonny Curtis. It was a good plan, and it might have worked, but it relied on them getting that money off Norman Petty. When the other two got back to Texas, Petty started manipulating them. He told them they were small-town Texas boys who would never be able to live in the big city. He told them that they didn’t need Buddy Holly, and that they could carry on making Crickets records without him. He told them that Maria Elena was manipulating Buddy, and that if they went off to New York with him it would be her who was in charge of the group from that point on. And he also pointed out that he was currently the only signatory on the group’s bank account, and it would be a real shame if something happened to all that money. By the time Buddy got back to Texas, the other two Crickets had agreed that they were going to stick with Norman Petty. Petty said it was fine if Buddy wanted to fire him, but he wasn’t getting any money until a full audit had been done of the organisation’s money. Buddy was no longer even going to get the per diem pocket money or expenses he’d been getting. Holly went back to New York, and started writing many, many, more songs, recording dozens of acoustic demos for when he could start his plan up: [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, “Crying, Waiting, Hoping”] It was a massive creative explosion for the young man. He was not only writing songs himself, but he was busily planning to make an album of Latin music, and he was making preparations for two more projects he’d like to do — an album of duets on gospel songs with Mahalia Jackson, and an album of soul duets with Ray Charles. He was going to jazz clubs, and he had ambitions of following Elvis into films, but doing it properly — he enrolled in courses with Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio, to learn Method Acting. Greenwich Village in 1958 was the perfect place for a young man with a huge amount of natural talent and appetite for learning, but little experience of the wider world and culture. But the young couple were living off Maria Elena’s aunt’s generosity, and had no income at all of their own. And then Maria Elena revealed that she was pregnant. And Norman Petty revealed something he’d kept hidden before — by the terms of Buddy’s contract, he hadn’t really been recording for Brunswick or Coral, so they didn’t owe him a penny. He’d been recording for Petty’s company, who then sold the masters on to the other labels, and would get all the royalties. The Crickets bank account into which the royalties had supposedly been being paid, and which Petty had refused to let the band members see, was essentially empty. There was only one thing for it. He had to do another tour. And the only one he could get on was a miserable-seeming affair called the Winter Dance Party. While most of the rock and roll package tours of the time had more than a dozen acts on, this one had only five. There was an opening act called Frankie Sardo, and then Dion and the Belmonts, who had had a few minor hits, and had just recorded, but not yet released, their breakthrough record “Teenager in Love”: [Excerpt: Dion and the Belmonts, “Teenager in Love”] Then there was the Big Bopper, who was actually a fairly accomplished songwriter but was touring on the basis of his one hit, a novelty song called “Chantilly Lace”: [Excerpt: the Big Bopper, “Chantilly Lace”] And Ritchie Valens, whose hit “Donna” was rising up the charts in a way that “It Doesn’t Matter Any More” was notably failing to do: [Excerpt: Ritchie Valens, “Donna”] Buddy put together a new touring band consisting of Tommy Allsup on guitar, Waylon Jennings on bass — who had never played bass before starting the tour — and a drummer called Carl Bunch. For a while it looked like Buddy’s friend Eddie Cochran was going to go on tour with them as well, but shortly before the tour started Cochran got an offer to do the Ed Sullivan Show, which would have clashed with the tour dates, and so he didn’t make it. Maria Elena was very insistent that she didn’t want Buddy to go, but he felt that he had no choice if he was going to support his new child. The Winter Dance Party toured Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, through the end of January and the beginning of February 1959, and the conditions were miserable for everyone concerned. The tour had been put together with no thought of logistics, and it zig-zagged wildly across those three states, with gigs often four hundred miles away from each other. The musicians had to sleep on the tour bus — or buses. The tour was being run on a shoe-string, and they’d gone with the cheapest vehicle-hire company possible. They went through, according to one biography I’ve read, eight different buses in eleven days, as none of the buses were able to cope with the Midwestern winter, and their engines kept failing and the heating on several of the buses broke down. I don’t know if you’ve spent any time in that part of America in the winter, but I go there for Christmas every year (my wife has family in Minnesota) and it’s unimaginably cold in a way you can’t understand unless you’ve experienced it. It’s not unusual for temperatures to drop to as low as minus forty degrees, and to have three feet or more of snow. Travelling in a bus, with no heating, in that weather, all packed together, was hell for everyone. The Big Bopper and Valens were both fat, and couldn’t fit in the small seats easily. Several people on the tour, including Bopper and Valens, got the flu. And then finally Carl Bunch got hospitalised with frostbite. Buddy’s band, which was backing everyone on stage, now had no drummer, and so for the next three days of the tour Holly, Dion, and Valens would all take it in turns playing the drums, as all of them were adequate drummers. The shows were still good, at least according to a young man named Robert Zimmerman, who saw the first drummerless show, in Duluth Minnesota, and who would move to Greenwich Village himself not that long afterwards. After a show in Clear Lake, Iowa, Buddy had had enough. He decided to charter a plane to take him to Fargo, North Dakota, which was just near Moorhead, Minnesota, where they were planning on playing their next show. He’d take everyone’s laundry — everyone stank and had been wearing the same clothes for days — and get it washed, and get some sleep in a real bed. The original plan was to have Allsup and Jennings travel with him, but eventually they gave up their seats to the two other people who were suffering the most — the Big Bopper and Valens. There are different stories about how that happened, most involving a coin-toss, but they all agree that when Buddy found out that Waylon Jennings was giving up his seat, he jokingly said to Jennings “I hope your old bus freezes”, and Jennings replied, “Yeah, well I hope your ol’ plane crashes”. The three of them got on the plane in the middle of the night, on a foggy winter’s night, which would require flying by instruments. Unfortunately, while the pilot on the plane was rated as being a good pilot during the day, he kept almost failing his certification for being bad at flying by instrument. And the plane in question had an unusual type of altitude meter. Where most altitude meters would go up when the plane was going up and down when it was going down, that particular model’s meter went down when the plane was going up, and up when it was going down. The plane took off, and less than five minutes after takeoff, it plummeted straight down, nose first, into the ground at top speed, killing everyone on board instantly. As soon as the news got out, Holly’s last single finally started rising up the charts. It ended up going to number thirteen on the US charts, and number one in many other countries. The aftermath shows how much contempt the music industry — and society itself — had for those musicians at that time. Maria Elena found out about Buddy’s death not from the police, but from the TV — this later prompted changes in how news of celebrity deaths was to be revealed. She was so upset that she miscarried two days later. She was too distraught to attend the funeral, and to this day has still never been able to bring herself to visit her husband’s grave. The grief was just too much. The rest of the people on the tour were forced to continue the remaining thirteen days of the tour without the three acts anyone wanted to go and see, but were also not paid their full wages, because the bill wasn’t as advertised. A new young singer was picked up to round out the bill on the next gig, a young Minnesotan Holly soundalike called Bobby Vee, whose first single, “Suzy Baby”, was just about to come out: [Excerpt: Bobby Vee, “Suzy Baby”] When Vee went on tour on his own, later, he hired that Zimmerman kid we mentioned earlier as his piano player. Zimmerman worked under the stage name Elston Gunn, but would later choose a better one. After that date Holly, Valens, and the Bopper were replaced by Fabian, Frankie Avalon, and Jimmy Clanton, and the tour continued. Meanwhile, the remaining Crickets picked themselves up and carried on. They got Buddy’s old friend Sonny Curtis on guitar, and a succession of Holly-soundalike singers, and continued playing together until Joe Mauldin died in 2015. Most of their records without Buddy weren’t particularly memorable, but they did record one song written by Curtis which would later become a hit for several other people, “I Fought the Law”: [Excerpt: The Crickets, “I Fought the Law”] But the person who ended up benefiting most from Holly’s death was Norman Petty. Suddenly his stockpile of unreleased Buddy Holly recordings was a goldmine — and not only that, he ended up coming to an agreement with Holly’s estate that he could take all those demos Holly had recorded and overdub new backing tracks on them, turning them into full-blown rock and roll songs. Between overdubbed versions of the demos, and stockpiled full-band recordings, Buddy Holly kept having hit singles in the rest of the world until 1965, though none charted in the US, and he made both Petty and his estate very rich. Norman Petty died in 1984. His last project was a still-unreleased “updating” of Buddy’s biggest hits with synthesisers. These days, Buddy Holly is once again on tour, or at least something purporting to be him is. You can now go and see a “hologram tour”, in which an image of a look-not-very-alike actor miming to Holly’s old recordings is projected on glass, using the old Victorian stage trick Pepper’s Ghost, while a live band plays along to the records. Just because you’ve worked someone to death aged twenty-two, doesn’t mean that they can’t still keep earning money for you when they’re eighty-three. And a hologram will never complain about how cold the tour bus is, or want to wash his laundry.

Episode seventy-four of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "It Doesn't Matter Any More" by Buddy Holly, and at the reasons he ended up on the plane that killed him. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Chantilly Lace" by the Big Bopper.  Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/----more---- Before I get to the resources and transcript, a quick apology. This one is up more than a day late. I've not been coping very well with all the news about coronavirus outbreak (I'm one of those who's been advised by the government to sel-isolate for three months) and things are taking longer than normal. Next week's should be up at the normal time. Also, no Mixcloud this week -- I get a server error when uploading the file to Mixcloud's site. Erratum I mention that Bob Dylan saw the first show on the Winter Dance Party tour with no drummer. He actually saw the last one with the drummer, who was hospitalised that night after the show, not before the show as I had thought.  Resources   I've used two biographies for the bulk of the information here -- Buddy Holly: Learning the Game, by Spencer Leigh, and Rave On: The Biography of Buddy Holly by Philip Norman. I also used  Beverly Mendheim's book on Ritchie Valens. There are many collections of Buddy Holly's work available, but many of them are very shoddy, with instrumental overdubs recorded over demos after his death. The best compilation I am aware of is The Memorial Collection, which contains almost everything he issued in his life, as he issued it (for some reason two cover versions are missing) along with the undubbed acoustic recordings that were messed with and released after his death. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript   Before I begin, this episode will deal with both accidental bereavement and miscarriage, so if you think those subjects might be traumatising, you may want to skip this one. Today, we're going to look at a record that holds a sad place in rock and roll's history, because it's the record that is often credited as "the first posthumous rock and roll hit". Now, that's not strictly true -- as we've talked about before in this podcast, there is rarely, if ever, a "first" anything at all, and indeed we've already looked at an earlier posthumous hit when we talked about "Pledging My Love" by Johnny Ace. But it is a very sad fact that "It Doesn't Matter Any More" by Buddy Holly ended up becoming the first of several posthumous hit records that Holly had, and that there would be many more posthumous hit records by other performers after him than there had been before him. Buddy Holly's death is something that hangs over every attempt to tell his story. More than any other musician of his generation, his death has entered rock and roll mythology. Even if you don't know Holly's music, you probably know two things about him -- that he wore glasses, and that he died in a plane crash. You're likely also to know that Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper died in the same crash, even if you don't know any of the songs that either of those two artists recorded. Normally, when you're telling a story, you'd leave that to the end, but in the case of Holly it overshadows his life so much that there's absolutely no point trying to build up any suspense -- not to mention that there's something distasteful about turning a real person's tragic death into entertainment. I hope I've not done so in episodes where other people have died, but it's even more important not to do so here. Because while the death of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper is always portrayed as an accident, the cause of their death has its roots in exploitation of young, vulnerable, people, and a pressure to work no matter what. So today, we're going to look at how "It Doesn't Matter Any More" became Buddy Holly's last single: [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, "It Doesn't Matter Any More"] People often talk about how Buddy Holly's career was short, but what they don't mention is that his chart career was even shorter. Holly's first chart single, "That'll Be the Day", was released in May 1957. His last top thirty single during his lifetime, "Think it Over", was released in May 1958. By the time he went on the Winter Dance Party, the tour that led to his death, in January 1959, he had gone many months without a hit, and his most recent record, "Heartbeat", had only reached number eighty-two. He'd lost every important professional relationship in his life, and had split from the group that had made him famous. To see how this happened, we need to pick up where we left off with him last time. You'll remember that when we left the Crickets, they'd released "That'll Be the Day", and it hadn't yet become a hit, and they'd also released "Words of Love" as a Buddy Holly solo single. While there were different names on them, the same people would make the records, whether it was a solo or group record -- Buddy Holly on vocals and lead guitar, Niki Sullivan on rhythm guitar, Jerry Allison on drums, Joe Mauldin on bass, and producer Norman Petty and his wife sometimes adding keyboards. They didn't distinguish between "Buddy Holly" and "Crickets" material when recording -- rather they separated it out later. The more straight-ahead rock and roll records would have backing vocals overdubbed on them, usually by a vocal group called the Picks, and would be released as Crickets records, while the more experimental ones would be left with only Holly's vocal on, and would be released as solo records. (There were no records released as by "Buddy Holly and the Crickets" at the time, because the whole idea of the split was that DJs would play two records instead of one if they appeared to be by different artists). And they were recording *a lot*. Two days after “That'll be the Day” was released, on the twenty-seventh of May 1957, they recorded "Everyday" and "Not Fade Away". Between then and the first of July they recorded "Tell Me How", "Oh Boy", "Listen to Me", "I'm Going to Love You Too", and cover versions of Fats Domino's "Valley of Tears" and Little Richard's "Ready Teddy". Remember, this was all before they'd had a single hit -- "That'll Be the Day" and "Words of Love" still hadn't charted. This is quite an astonishing outpouring of songs, but the big leap forward came on the second of July, when they made a second attempt at a song they'd attempted to record back in late 1956, and had been playing in their stage show since then. The song had originally been titled "Cindy Lou", after Buddy's niece, but Jerry Allison had recently started dating a girl named Peggy Sue Gerrison, and they decided to change the lyrics to be about her. The song had also originally been played as a Latin-flavoured number, but when they were warming up, Allison started playing a fast paradiddle on his snare drum. Holly decided that they were going to change the tempo of the song and have Allison play that part all the way through, though this meant that Allison had to go out and play in the hallway rather than in the main studio, because the noise from his drums was too loud in the studio itself. The final touch came when Petty decided, on the song's intro, to put the drums through the echo chamber and keep flicking the switch on the echo from "on" to "off", so it sounded like there were two drummers playing: [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, "Peggy Sue"] Someone else was flicking a switch, too -- Niki Sullivan was already starting to regret joining the Crickets, because there really wasn't room for his rhythm guitar on most of the songs they were playing. And on "Peggy Sue" he ended up not playing at all. On that song, Buddy had to switch between two pickups -- one for when he was singing, and another to give his guitar a different tone during the solo. But he was playing so fast that he couldn't move his hand to the switch, and in those days there were no foot pedals one could use for the same sort of effect. So Niki Sullivan became Holly's foot pedal. He knelt beside Holly and waited for the point when the solo was about to start, and flicked the switch on his guitar. When the solo came to an end again, Sullivan flicked the switch again and it went back to the original sound. [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, "Peggy Sue"] It's a really strange sounding record, if you start to pay attention to it. Other than during the solo, Holly's guitar is so quiet that you can hear the plectrum as loudly as you can hear the notes. He just keeps up a ram-a-ram-a quaver downstrum throughout the whole song, which sounds simple until you try to play it, at which point you realise that you start feeling like your arm's going to fall off about a quarter of the way through. And there's just that, those drums (playing a part which must be similarly physically demanding) with their weird echo, and Holly's voice. In theory, Joe Mauldin's bass is also in there, but it's there at almost homeopathic levels. It's a record that is entirely carried by the voice, the drums, and the guitar solo. Of course, Niki Sullivan wasn't happy about being relegated to guitar-switch-flicker, and there were other tensions within the group as well. Holly was having an affair with a married woman at the time -- and Jerry Allison, who was Holly's best friend as well as his bandmate, was also in love with her, though not in a relationship with her, and so Holly had to keep his affair hidden from his best friend. And not only that, but Allison and Sullivan were starting to have problems with each other, too. To help defuse the situation, Holly's brother Larry took him on holiday, to go fishing in Colorado. But even there, the stress of the current situation was showing -- Buddy spent much of the trip worried about the lack of success of "That'll Be the Day", and obsessing over a new record by a new singer, Paul Anka, that had gone to number one: [Excerpt: Paul Anka, "Diana"] Holly was insistent that he could do better than that, and that his records were at least as good. But so far they were doing nothing at all on the charts. But then a strange thing happened. "That'll Be the Day" started getting picked up by black radio stations. It turned out that there had been another group called the Crickets -- a black doo-wop group from about five years earlier, led by a singer called Dean Barlow, who had specialised in smooth Ink Spots-style ballads: [Excerpt The Crickets featuring Dean Barlow, "Be Faithful"] People at black radio stations had assumed that this new group called the Crickets was the same one, and had then discovered that "That'll Be the Day" was really rather good. The group even got booked on an otherwise all-black tour headlined by Clyde McPhatter and Otis Rush, booked by people who hadn't realised they were white. Before going on the tour, they formally arranged to have Norman Petty be their manager as well as their producer. They were a success on the tour, though when it reached the Harlem Apollo, which had notoriously hostile audiences, the group had to reconfigure their sets, as the audiences didn't like any of Holly's original material except "That'll Be the Day", but did like the group's cover versions of R&B records like "Bo Diddley": [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, "Bo Diddley (Undubbed Version)"] Some have said that the Crickets were the first white act to play the Apollo. That's not the case -- Bobby Darin had played there before them, and I think so had the jazz drummer Buddy Rich, and maybe one or two others. But it was still a rarity, and the Crickets had to work hard to win the audience around. After they finished that tour, they moved on to a residency at the Brooklyn Paramount, on an Alan Freed show that also featured Little Richard and Larry Williams -- who the Crickets met for the first time when they walked into the dressing room to find Richard and Williams engaged in a threesome with Richard's girlfriend. During that engagement at the Paramount, the tensions within the group reached boiling point. Niki Sullivan, who was in an awful mood because he was trying to quit smoking, revealed the truth about Holly's affair to Allison, and the group got in a fist-fight. According to Sullivan -- who seems not to have always been the most reliable of interviewees -- Sullivan gave Jerry Allison a black eye, and then straight away they had to go to the rooftop to take the photo for the group's first album, The "Chirping" Crickets. Sullivan says that while the photo was retouched to hide the black eye, it's still visible, though I can't see it myself. After this, they went into a three-month tour on a giant package of stars featuring Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Paul Anka, the Everly Brothers, the Bobbettes, the Drifters, LaVern Baker, and many more. By this point, both "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue" had risen up the charts -- "That'll Be the Day" eventually went to number one, while "Peggy Sue" hit number three -- and the next Crickets single, "Oh Boy!" was also charting. "Oh Boy!" had originally been written by an acquaintance of the band, Sonny West, who had recorded his own version as "All My Love" a short while earlier: [Excerpt: Sonny West, "All My Love"] Glen Hardin, the piano player on that track, would later join a lineup of the Crickets in the sixties (and later still would be Elvis' piano player and arranger in the seventies). Holly would later also cover another of West's songs, "Rave On". The Crickets' version of “Oh Boy!” was recorded at a faster tempo, and became another major hit, their last top ten: [Excerpt: The Crickets, "Oh Boy!"] Around the time that came out, Eddie Cochran joined the tour, and like the Everly Brothers he became fast friends with the group. The group also made an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, with Holly, Mauldin, and Allison enthusiastically performing "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue", and Sullivan enthusiastically miming and playing an unplugged guitar. Sullivan was becoming more and more sidelined in the group, and when they returned to Lubbock at the end of the tour -- during which he'd ended up breaking down and crying -- he decided he was going to quit the group. Sullivan tried to have a solo career, releasing "It's All Over" on Dot Records: [Excerpt: Niki Sullivan, "It's All Over"] But he had no success, and ended up working in electronics, and in later years also making money from the Buddy Holly nostalgia industry. He'd only toured as a member of the group for a total of ninety days, though he'd been playing with them in the studio for a few months before that, and he'd played on a total of twenty-seven of the thirty-two songs that Holly or the Crickets would release in Holly's lifetime. While he'd been promised an equal share of the group's income -- and Petty had also promised Sullivan, like all the other Crickets, that he would pay 10% of his income to his church -- Sullivan got into endless battles with Petty over seeing the group's accounts, which Petty wouldn't show him, and eventually settled for getting just $1000, ten percent of the recording royalties just for the single "That'll Be the Day", and co-writing royalties on one song, "I'm Going to Love You Too". His church didn't get a cent. Meanwhile, Petty was busy trying to widen the rifts in the group. He decided that while the records would still be released as either "Buddy Holly" or "the Crickets", as a live act they would from now on be billed as "Buddy Holly and the Crickets", a singer and his backing group, and that while Mauldin and Allison would continue to get twenty-five percent of the money each, Holly would be on fifty percent. This was an easy decision, since Petty was handling all the money and only giving the group pocket money rather than giving them their actual shares of the money they'd earned. The group spent all of 1958 touring, visiting Hawaii, Australia, the UK, and all over the US, including the famous last ever Alan Freed tour that we looked at recently in episodes on Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. They got in another guitarist, Tommy Allsup, who took over the lead role while Buddy played rhythm, and who joined them on tour, though he wasn't an official member of the group. The first recording Allsup played on was "It's So Easy": [Excerpt: The Crickets, "It's So Easy"] But the group's records were selling less and less well. Holly was getting worried, and there was another factor that came into play. On a visit to New York, stopping in to visit their publisher in the Brill Building, all three of the Crickets became attracted to the receptionist, a Puerto Rican woman named Maria Elena Santiago who was a few years older than them. They all started to joke about which of them would ask her out, and Holly eventually did so. It turned out that while Maria Elena was twenty-five, she'd never yet been on a date, and she had to ask the permission of her aunt, who she lived with, and who was also the head of the Latin-American division of the publishing company. The aunt rang round every business contact she had, satisfied herself that Buddy was a nice boy, and gave her blessing for the date. The next day, she was giving her blessing for the two to marry -- Buddy proposed on the very first date. They eventually went on a joint honeymoon with Jerry Allison and Peggy Sue. But Maria Elena was someone who worked in the music industry, and was a little bit older, and she started saying things to Buddy like "You need to get a proper accounting of the money that's owed you", and "You should be getting paid". This strained his relationship with Petty, who didn't want any woman of colour butting her nose in and getting involved in his business. Buddy moved to a flat in Greenwich Village with Maria Elena, but for the moment he was still working with Petty, even after Petty used some extremely misogynistic slurs I'm not going to repeat here against his new wife. But he was worried about his lack of hits, and they tried a few different variations on the formula. The Crickets recorded one song, a cover version of a song they'd learned on the Australian tour, with Jerry Allison singing lead. It was released under the name "Ivan" -- Allison's middle name -- and became a minor hit: [Excerpt: Ivan, "Real Wild Child"] They tried more and more different things, like getting King Curtis in to play saxophone on "Reminiscing", and on one occasion dispensing with the Crickets entirely and having Buddy cut a Bobby Darin song, "Early in the Morning", with other musicians. They were stockpiling recordings much faster than they could release them, but the releases weren't doing well at all. "It's So Easy" didn't even reach the top one hundred. Holly was also working with other artists. In September, he produced a session for his friend Waylon Jennings, who would later become a huge country star. It was Jennings' first ever session, and they turned out an interesting version of the old Cajun song "Jole Blon", which had earlier been a hit for Moon Mullican. This version had Holly on guitar and King Curtis on saxophone, and is a really interesting attempt at blending Cajun music with R&B: [Excerpt: Waylon Jennings, "Jole Blon"] But Holly's biggest hope was placed in a session that was really breaking new ground. No rock and roll singer had ever recorded with a full string section before -- at least as far as he was aware, and bearing in mind that, as we've seen many times, there's never truly a first anything. In October 1958, Holly went into the studio with the Dick Jacobs Orchestra, with the intention of recording three songs -- his own "True Love Ways", a song called "Moondreams" written by Petty, and one called "Raining in My Heart" written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who'd written many hits for his friends the Everly Brothers. At the last minute, though, he decided to record a fourth song, which had been written for him by Paul Anka, the same kid whose "Diana" had been so irritating to him the year before. He played through the song on his guitar for Dick Jacobs, who only had a short while to write the arrangement, and so stuck to the simplest thing he could think of, basing it around pizzicato violins: [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, "It Doesn't Matter Any More"] At that point, everything still seemed like it could work out OK. Norman Petty and the other Crickets were all there at the recording session, cheering Buddy on. That night the Crickets appeared on American Bandstand, miming to "It's So Easy". That would be the last time they ever performed together, and soon there would be an irreparable split that would lead directly to Holly's death -- and to his posthumous fame. Holly was getting sick of Norman Petty's continual withholding of royalties, and he'd come up with a plan. The Crickets would, as a group, confront Petty, get him to give them the money he owed them, and then all move to New York together to start up their own record label and publishing company. They'd stop touring, and focus on making records, and this would allow them the time to get things right and try new things out, which would lead to them having hits again, and they could also produce records for their friends like Waylon Jennings and Sonny Curtis. It was a good plan, and it might have worked, but it relied on them getting that money off Norman Petty. When the other two got back to Texas, Petty started manipulating them. He told them they were small-town Texas boys who would never be able to live in the big city. He told them that they didn't need Buddy Holly, and that they could carry on making Crickets records without him. He told them that Maria Elena was manipulating Buddy, and that if they went off to New York with him it would be her who was in charge of the group from that point on. And he also pointed out that he was currently the only signatory on the group's bank account, and it would be a real shame if something happened to all that money. By the time Buddy got back to Texas, the other two Crickets had agreed that they were going to stick with Norman Petty. Petty said it was fine if Buddy wanted to fire him, but he wasn't getting any money until a full audit had been done of the organisation's money. Buddy was no longer even going to get the per diem pocket money or expenses he'd been getting. Holly went back to New York, and started writing many, many, more songs, recording dozens of acoustic demos for when he could start his plan up: [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, "Crying, Waiting, Hoping"] It was a massive creative explosion for the young man. He was not only writing songs himself, but he was busily planning to make an album of Latin music, and he was making preparations for two more projects he'd like to do -- an album of duets on gospel songs with Mahalia Jackson, and an album of soul duets with Ray Charles. He was going to jazz clubs, and he had ambitions of following Elvis into films, but doing it properly -- he enrolled in courses with Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio, to learn Method Acting. Greenwich Village in 1958 was the perfect place for a young man with a huge amount of natural talent and appetite for learning, but little experience of the wider world and culture. But the young couple were living off Maria Elena's aunt's generosity, and had no income at all of their own. And then Maria Elena revealed that she was pregnant. And Norman Petty revealed something he'd kept hidden before -- by the terms of Buddy's contract, he hadn't really been recording for Brunswick or Coral, so they didn't owe him a penny. He'd been recording for Petty's company, who then sold the masters on to the other labels, and would get all the royalties. The Crickets bank account into which the royalties had supposedly been being paid, and which Petty had refused to let the band members see, was essentially empty. There was only one thing for it. He had to do another tour. And the only one he could get on was a miserable-seeming affair called the Winter Dance Party. While most of the rock and roll package tours of the time had more than a dozen acts on, this one had only five. There was an opening act called Frankie Sardo, and then Dion and the Belmonts, who had had a few minor hits, and had just recorded, but not yet released, their breakthrough record "Teenager in Love": [Excerpt: Dion and the Belmonts, "Teenager in Love"] Then there was the Big Bopper, who was actually a fairly accomplished songwriter but was touring on the basis of his one hit, a novelty song called "Chantilly Lace": [Excerpt: the Big Bopper, "Chantilly Lace"] And Ritchie Valens, whose hit "Donna" was rising up the charts in a way that "It Doesn't Matter Any More" was notably failing to do: [Excerpt: Ritchie Valens, "Donna"] Buddy put together a new touring band consisting of Tommy Allsup on guitar, Waylon Jennings on bass -- who had never played bass before starting the tour -- and a drummer called Carl Bunch. For a while it looked like Buddy's friend Eddie Cochran was going to go on tour with them as well, but shortly before the tour started Cochran got an offer to do the Ed Sullivan Show, which would have clashed with the tour dates, and so he didn't make it. Maria Elena was very insistent that she didn't want Buddy to go, but he felt that he had no choice if he was going to support his new child. The Winter Dance Party toured Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, through the end of January and the beginning of February 1959, and the conditions were miserable for everyone concerned. The tour had been put together with no thought of logistics, and it zig-zagged wildly across those three states, with gigs often four hundred miles away from each other. The musicians had to sleep on the tour bus -- or buses. The tour was being run on a shoe-string, and they'd gone with the cheapest vehicle-hire company possible. They went through, according to one biography I've read, eight different buses in eleven days, as none of the buses were able to cope with the Midwestern winter, and their engines kept failing and the heating on several of the buses broke down. I don't know if you've spent any time in that part of America in the winter, but I go there for Christmas every year (my wife has family in Minnesota) and it's unimaginably cold in a way you can't understand unless you've experienced it. It's not unusual for temperatures to drop to as low as minus forty degrees, and to have three feet or more of snow. Travelling in a bus, with no heating, in that weather, all packed together, was hell for everyone. The Big Bopper and Valens were both fat, and couldn't fit in the small seats easily. Several people on the tour, including Bopper and Valens, got the flu. And then finally Carl Bunch got hospitalised with frostbite. Buddy's band, which was backing everyone on stage, now had no drummer, and so for the next three days of the tour Holly, Dion, and Valens would all take it in turns playing the drums, as all of them were adequate drummers. The shows were still good, at least according to a young man named Robert Zimmerman, who saw the first drummerless show, in Duluth Minnesota, and who would move to Greenwich Village himself not that long afterwards. After a show in Clear Lake, Iowa, Buddy had had enough. He decided to charter a plane to take him to Fargo, North Dakota, which was just near Moorhead, Minnesota, where they were planning on playing their next show. He'd take everyone's laundry -- everyone stank and had been wearing the same clothes for days -- and get it washed, and get some sleep in a real bed. The original plan was to have Allsup and Jennings travel with him, but eventually they gave up their seats to the two other people who were suffering the most -- the Big Bopper and Valens. There are different stories about how that happened, most involving a coin-toss, but they all agree that when Buddy found out that Waylon Jennings was giving up his seat, he jokingly said to Jennings "I hope your old bus freezes", and Jennings replied, "Yeah, well I hope your ol' plane crashes". The three of them got on the plane in the middle of the night, on a foggy winter's night, which would require flying by instruments. Unfortunately, while the pilot on the plane was rated as being a good pilot during the day, he kept almost failing his certification for being bad at flying by instrument. And the plane in question had an unusual type of altitude meter. Where most altitude meters would go up when the plane was going up and down when it was going down, that particular model's meter went down when the plane was going up, and up when it was going down. The plane took off, and less than five minutes after takeoff, it plummeted straight down, nose first, into the ground at top speed, killing everyone on board instantly. As soon as the news got out, Holly's last single finally started rising up the charts. It ended up going to number thirteen on the US charts, and number one in many other countries. The aftermath shows how much contempt the music industry -- and society itself -- had for those musicians at that time. Maria Elena found out about Buddy's death not from the police, but from the TV -- this later prompted changes in how news of celebrity deaths was to be revealed. She was so upset that she miscarried two days later. She was too distraught to attend the funeral, and to this day has still never been able to bring herself to visit her husband's grave. The grief was just too much. The rest of the people on the tour were forced to continue the remaining thirteen days of the tour without the three acts anyone wanted to go and see, but were also not paid their full wages, because the bill wasn't as advertised. A new young singer was picked up to round out the bill on the next gig, a young Minnesotan Holly soundalike called Bobby Vee, whose first single, "Suzy Baby", was just about to come out: [Excerpt: Bobby Vee, "Suzy Baby"] When Vee went on tour on his own, later, he hired that Zimmerman kid we mentioned earlier as his piano player. Zimmerman worked under the stage name Elston Gunn, but would later choose a better one. After that date Holly, Valens, and the Bopper were replaced by Fabian, Frankie Avalon, and Jimmy Clanton, and the tour continued. Meanwhile, the remaining Crickets picked themselves up and carried on. They got Buddy's old friend Sonny Curtis on guitar, and a succession of Holly-soundalike singers, and continued playing together until Joe Mauldin died in 2015. Most of their records without Buddy weren't particularly memorable, but they did record one song written by Curtis which would later become a hit for several other people, "I Fought the Law": [Excerpt: The Crickets, "I Fought the Law"] But the person who ended up benefiting most from Holly's death was Norman Petty. Suddenly his stockpile of unreleased Buddy Holly recordings was a goldmine -- and not only that, he ended up coming to an agreement with Holly's estate that he could take all those demos Holly had recorded and overdub new backing tracks on them, turning them into full-blown rock and roll songs. Between overdubbed versions of the demos, and stockpiled full-band recordings, Buddy Holly kept having hit singles in the rest of the world until 1965, though none charted in the US, and he made both Petty and his estate very rich. Norman Petty died in 1984. His last project was a still-unreleased "updating" of Buddy's biggest hits with synthesisers. These days, Buddy Holly is once again on tour, or at least something purporting to be him is. You can now go and see a "hologram tour", in which an image of a look-not-very-alike actor miming to Holly's old recordings is projected on glass, using the old Victorian stage trick Pepper's Ghost, while a live band plays along to the records. Just because you've worked someone to death aged twenty-two, doesn't mean that they can't still keep earning money for you when they're eighty-three. And a hologram will never complain about how cold the tour bus is, or want to wash his laundry.

Episode seventy-four of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “It Doesn’t Matter Any More” by Buddy Holly, and at the reasons he ended up on the plane that killed him. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on “Chantilly Lace” by the Big Bopper.  Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt’s irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/—-more—- Before I get to the resources and transcript, a quick apology. This one is up more than a day late. I’ve not been coping very well with all the news about coronavirus outbreak (I’m one of those who’s been advised by the government to sel-isolate for three months) and things are taking longer than normal. Next week’s should be up at the normal time. Also, no Mixcloud this week — I get a server error when uploading the file to Mixcloud’s site. Erratum I mention that Bob Dylan saw the first show on the Winter Dance Party tour with no drummer. He actually saw the last one with the drummer, who was hospitalised that night after the show, not before the show as I had thought.  Resources   I’ve used two biographies for the bulk of the information here — Buddy Holly: Learning the Game, by Spencer Leigh, and Rave On: The Biography of Buddy Holly by Philip Norman. I also used  Beverly Mendheim’s book on Ritchie Valens. There are many collections of Buddy Holly’s work available, but many of them are very shoddy, with instrumental overdubs recorded over demos after his death. The best compilation I am aware of is The Memorial Collection, which contains almost everything he issued in his life, as he issued it (for some reason two cover versions are missing) along with the undubbed acoustic recordings that were messed with and released after his death. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript   Before I begin, this episode will deal with both accidental bereavement and miscarriage, so if you think those subjects might be traumatising, you may want to skip this one. Today, we’re going to look at a record that holds a sad place in rock and roll’s history, because it’s the record that is often credited as “the first posthumous rock and roll hit”. Now, that’s not strictly true — as we’ve talked about before in this podcast, there is rarely, if ever, a “first” anything at all, and indeed we’ve already looked at an earlier posthumous hit when we talked about “Pledging My Love” by Johnny Ace. But it is a very sad fact that “It Doesn’t Matter Any More” by Buddy Holly ended up becoming the first of several posthumous hit records that Holly had, and that there would be many more posthumous hit records by other performers after him than there had been before him. Buddy Holly’s death is something that hangs over every attempt to tell his story. More than any other musician of his generation, his death has entered rock and roll mythology. Even if you don’t know Holly’s music, you probably know two things about him — that he wore glasses, and that he died in a plane crash. You’re likely also to know that Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper died in the same crash, even if you don’t know any of the songs that either of those two artists recorded. Normally, when you’re telling a story, you’d leave that to the end, but in the case of Holly it overshadows his life so much that there’s absolutely no point trying to build up any suspense — not to mention that there’s something distasteful about turning a real person’s tragic death into entertainment. I hope I’ve not done so in episodes where other people have died, but it’s even more important not to do so here. Because while the death of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper is always portrayed as an accident, the cause of their death has its roots in exploitation of young, vulnerable, people, and a pressure to work no matter what. So today, we’re going to look at how “It Doesn’t Matter Any More” became Buddy Holly’s last single: [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, “It Doesn’t Matter Any More”] People often talk about how Buddy Holly’s career was short, but what they don’t mention is that his chart career was even shorter. Holly’s first chart single, “That’ll Be the Day”, was released in May 1957. His last top thirty single during his lifetime, “Think it Over”, was released in May 1958. By the time he went on the Winter Dance Party, the tour that led to his death, in January 1959, he had gone many months without a hit, and his most recent record, “Heartbeat”, had only reached number eighty-two. He’d lost every important professional relationship in his life, and had split from the group that had made him famous. To see how this happened, we need to pick up where we left off with him last time. You’ll remember that when we left the Crickets, they’d released “That’ll Be the Day”, and it hadn’t yet become a hit, and they’d also released “Words of Love” as a Buddy Holly solo single. While there were different names on them, the same people would make the records, whether it was a solo or group record — Buddy Holly on vocals and lead guitar, Niki Sullivan on rhythm guitar, Jerry Allison on drums, Joe Mauldin on bass, and producer Norman Petty and his wife sometimes adding keyboards. They didn’t distinguish between “Buddy Holly” and “Crickets” material when recording — rather they separated it out later. The more straight-ahead rock and roll records would have backing vocals overdubbed on them, usually by a vocal group called the Picks, and would be released as Crickets records, while the more experimental ones would be left with only Holly’s vocal on, and would be released as solo records. (There were no records released as by “Buddy Holly and the Crickets” at the time, because the whole idea of the split was that DJs would play two records instead of one if they appeared to be by different artists). And they were recording *a lot*. Two days after “That’ll be the Day” was released, on the twenty-seventh of May 1957, they recorded “Everyday” and “Not Fade Away”. Between then and the first of July they recorded “Tell Me How”, “Oh Boy”, “Listen to Me”, “I’m Going to Love You Too”, and cover versions of Fats Domino’s “Valley of Tears” and Little Richard’s “Ready Teddy”. Remember, this was all before they’d had a single hit — “That’ll Be the Day” and “Words of Love” still hadn’t charted. This is quite an astonishing outpouring of songs, but the big leap forward came on the second of July, when they made a second attempt at a song they’d attempted to record back in late 1956, and had been playing in their stage show since then. The song had originally been titled “Cindy Lou”, after Buddy’s niece, but Jerry Allison had recently started dating a girl named Peggy Sue Gerrison, and they decided to change the lyrics to be about her. The song had also originally been played as a Latin-flavoured number, but when they were warming up, Allison started playing a fast paradiddle on his snare drum. Holly decided that they were going to change the tempo of the song and have Allison play that part all the way through, though this meant that Allison had to go out and play in the hallway rather than in the main studio, because the noise from his drums was too loud in the studio itself. The final touch came when Petty decided, on the song’s intro, to put the drums through the echo chamber and keep flicking the switch on the echo from “on” to “off”, so it sounded like there were two drummers playing: [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, “Peggy Sue”] Someone else was flicking a switch, too — Niki Sullivan was already starting to regret joining the Crickets, because there really wasn’t room for his rhythm guitar on most of the songs they were playing. And on “Peggy Sue” he ended up not playing at all. On that song, Buddy had to switch between two pickups — one for when he was singing, and another to give his guitar a different tone during the solo. But he was playing so fast that he couldn’t move his hand to the switch, and in those days there were no foot pedals one could use for the same sort of effect. So Niki Sullivan became Holly’s foot pedal. He knelt beside Holly and waited for the point when the solo was about to start, and flicked the switch on his guitar. When the solo came to an end again, Sullivan flicked the switch again and it went back to the original sound. [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, “Peggy Sue”] It’s a really strange sounding record, if you start to pay attention to it. Other than during the solo, Holly’s guitar is so quiet that you can hear the plectrum as loudly as you can hear the notes. He just keeps up a ram-a-ram-a quaver downstrum throughout the whole song, which sounds simple until you try to play it, at which point you realise that you start feeling like your arm’s going to fall off about a quarter of the way through. And there’s just that, those drums (playing a part which must be similarly physically demanding) with their weird echo, and Holly’s voice. In theory, Joe Mauldin’s bass is also in there, but it’s there at almost homeopathic levels. It’s a record that is entirely carried by the voice, the drums, and the guitar solo. Of course, Niki Sullivan wasn’t happy about being relegated to guitar-switch-flicker, and there were other tensions within the group as well. Holly was having an affair with a married woman at the time — and Jerry Allison, who was Holly’s best friend as well as his bandmate, was also in love with her, though not in a relationship with her, and so Holly had to keep his affair hidden from his best friend. And not only that, but Allison and Sullivan were starting to have problems with each other, too. To help defuse the situation, Holly’s brother Larry took him on holiday, to go fishing in Colorado. But even there, the stress of the current situation was showing — Buddy spent much of the trip worried about the lack of success of “That’ll Be the Day”, and obsessing over a new record by a new singer, Paul Anka, that had gone to number one: [Excerpt: Paul Anka, “Diana”] Holly was insistent that he could do better than that, and that his records were at least as good. But so far they were doing nothing at all on the charts. But then a strange thing happened. “That’ll Be the Day” started getting picked up by black radio stations. It turned out that there had been another group called the Crickets — a black doo-wop group from about five years earlier, led by a singer called Dean Barlow, who had specialised in smooth Ink Spots-style ballads: [Excerpt The Crickets featuring Dean Barlow, “Be Faithful”] People at black radio stations had assumed that this new group called the Crickets was the same one, and had then discovered that “That’ll Be the Day” was really rather good. The group even got booked on an otherwise all-black tour headlined by Clyde McPhatter and Otis Rush, booked by people who hadn’t realised they were white. Before going on the tour, they formally arranged to have Norman Petty be their manager as well as their producer. They were a success on the tour, though when it reached the Harlem Apollo, which had notoriously hostile audiences, the group had to reconfigure their sets, as the audiences didn’t like any of Holly’s original material except “That’ll Be the Day”, but did like the group’s cover versions of R&B records like “Bo Diddley”: [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, “Bo Diddley (Undubbed Version)”] Some have said that the Crickets were the first white act to play the Apollo. That’s not the case — Bobby Darin had played there before them, and I think so had the jazz drummer Buddy Rich, and maybe one or two others. But it was still a rarity, and the Crickets had to work hard to win the audience around. After they finished that tour, they moved on to a residency at the Brooklyn Paramount, on an Alan Freed show that also featured Little Richard and Larry Williams — who the Crickets met for the first time when they walked into the dressing room to find Richard and Williams engaged in a threesome with Richard’s girlfriend. During that engagement at the Paramount, the tensions within the group reached boiling point. Niki Sullivan, who was in an awful mood because he was trying to quit smoking, revealed the truth about Holly’s affair to Allison, and the group got in a fist-fight. According to Sullivan — who seems not to have always been the most reliable of interviewees — Sullivan gave Jerry Allison a black eye, and then straight away they had to go to the rooftop to take the photo for the group’s first album, The “Chirping” Crickets. Sullivan says that while the photo was retouched to hide the black eye, it’s still visible, though I can’t see it myself. After this, they went into a three-month tour on a giant package of stars featuring Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Paul Anka, the Everly Brothers, the Bobbettes, the Drifters, LaVern Baker, and many more. By this point, both “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue” had risen up the charts — “That’ll Be the Day” eventually went to number one, while “Peggy Sue” hit number three — and the next Crickets single, “Oh Boy!” was also charting. “Oh Boy!” had originally been written by an acquaintance of the band, Sonny West, who had recorded his own version as “All My Love” a short while earlier: [Excerpt: Sonny West, “All My Love”] Glen Hardin, the piano player on that track, would later join a lineup of the Crickets in the sixties (and later still would be Elvis’ piano player and arranger in the seventies). Holly would later also cover another of West’s songs, “Rave On”. The Crickets’ version of “Oh Boy!” was recorded at a faster tempo, and became another major hit, their last top ten: [Excerpt: The Crickets, “Oh Boy!”] Around the time that came out, Eddie Cochran joined the tour, and like the Everly Brothers he became fast friends with the group. The group also made an appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, with Holly, Mauldin, and Allison enthusiastically performing “That’ll Be the Day” and “Peggy Sue”, and Sullivan enthusiastically miming and playing an unplugged guitar. Sullivan was becoming more and more sidelined in the group, and when they returned to Lubbock at the end of the tour — during which he’d ended up breaking down and crying — he decided he was going to quit the group. Sullivan tried to have a solo career, releasing “It’s All Over” on Dot Records: [Excerpt: Niki Sullivan, “It’s All Over”] But he had no success, and ended up working in electronics, and in later years also making money from the Buddy Holly nostalgia industry. He’d only toured as a member of the group for a total of ninety days, though he’d been playing with them in the studio for a few months before that, and he’d played on a total of twenty-seven of the thirty-two songs that Holly or the Crickets would release in Holly’s lifetime. While he’d been promised an equal share of the group’s income — and Petty had also promised Sullivan, like all the other Crickets, that he would pay 10% of his income to his church — Sullivan got into endless battles with Petty over seeing the group’s accounts, which Petty wouldn’t show him, and eventually settled for getting just $1000, ten percent of the recording royalties just for the single “That’ll Be the Day”, and co-writing royalties on one song, “I’m Going to Love You Too”. His church didn’t get a cent. Meanwhile, Petty was busy trying to widen the rifts in the group. He decided that while the records would still be released as either “Buddy Holly” or “the Crickets”, as a live act they would from now on be billed as “Buddy Holly and the Crickets”, a singer and his backing group, and that while Mauldin and Allison would continue to get twenty-five percent of the money each, Holly would be on fifty percent. This was an easy decision, since Petty was handling all the money and only giving the group pocket money rather than giving them their actual shares of the money they’d earned. The group spent all of 1958 touring, visiting Hawaii, Australia, the UK, and all over the US, including the famous last ever Alan Freed tour that we looked at recently in episodes on Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. They got in another guitarist, Tommy Allsup, who took over the lead role while Buddy played rhythm, and who joined them on tour, though he wasn’t an official member of the group. The first recording Allsup played on was “It’s So Easy”: [Excerpt: The Crickets, “It’s So Easy”] But the group’s records were selling less and less well. Holly was getting worried, and there was another factor that came into play. On a visit to New York, stopping in to visit their publisher in the Brill Building, all three of the Crickets became attracted to the receptionist, a Puerto Rican woman named Maria Elena Santiago who was a few years older than them. They all started to joke about which of them would ask her out, and Holly eventually did so. It turned out that while Maria Elena was twenty-five, she’d never yet been on a date, and she had to ask the permission of her aunt, who she lived with, and who was also the head of the Latin-American division of the publishing company. The aunt rang round every business contact she had, satisfied herself that Buddy was a nice boy, and gave her blessing for the date. The next day, she was giving her blessing for the two to marry — Buddy proposed on the very first date. They eventually went on a joint honeymoon with Jerry Allison and Peggy Sue. But Maria Elena was someone who worked in the music industry, and was a little bit older, and she started saying things to Buddy like “You need to get a proper accounting of the money that’s owed you”, and “You should be getting paid”. This strained his relationship with Petty, who didn’t want any woman of colour butting her nose in and getting involved in his business. Buddy moved to a flat in Greenwich Village with Maria Elena, but for the moment he was still working with Petty, even after Petty used some extremely misogynistic slurs I’m not going to repeat here against his new wife. But he was worried about his lack of hits, and they tried a few different variations on the formula. The Crickets recorded one song, a cover version of a song they’d learned on the Australian tour, with Jerry Allison singing lead. It was released under the name “Ivan” — Allison’s middle name — and became a minor hit: [Excerpt: Ivan, “Real Wild Child”] They tried more and more different things, like getting King Curtis in to play saxophone on “Reminiscing”, and on one occasion dispensing with the Crickets entirely and having Buddy cut a Bobby Darin song, “Early in the Morning”, with other musicians. They were stockpiling recordings much faster than they could release them, but the releases weren’t doing well at all. “It’s So Easy” didn’t even reach the top one hundred. Holly was also working with other artists. In September, he produced a session for his friend Waylon Jennings, who would later become a huge country star. It was Jennings’ first ever session, and they turned out an interesting version of the old Cajun song “Jole Blon”, which had earlier been a hit for Moon Mullican. This version had Holly on guitar and King Curtis on saxophone, and is a really interesting attempt at blending Cajun music with R&B: [Excerpt: Waylon Jennings, “Jole Blon”] But Holly’s biggest hope was placed in a session that was really breaking new ground. No rock and roll singer had ever recorded with a full string section before — at least as far as he was aware, and bearing in mind that, as we’ve seen many times, there’s never truly a first anything. In October 1958, Holly went into the studio with the Dick Jacobs Orchestra, with the intention of recording three songs — his own “True Love Ways”, a song called “Moondreams” written by Petty, and one called “Raining in My Heart” written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, who’d written many hits for his friends the Everly Brothers. At the last minute, though, he decided to record a fourth song, which had been written for him by Paul Anka, the same kid whose “Diana” had been so irritating to him the year before. He played through the song on his guitar for Dick Jacobs, who only had a short while to write the arrangement, and so stuck to the simplest thing he could think of, basing it around pizzicato violins: [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, “It Doesn’t Matter Any More”] At that point, everything still seemed like it could work out OK. Norman Petty and the other Crickets were all there at the recording session, cheering Buddy on. That night the Crickets appeared on American Bandstand, miming to “It’s So Easy”. That would be the last time they ever performed together, and soon there would be an irreparable split that would lead directly to Holly’s death — and to his posthumous fame. Holly was getting sick of Norman Petty’s continual withholding of royalties, and he’d come up with a plan. The Crickets would, as a group, confront Petty, get him to give them the money he owed them, and then all move to New York together to start up their own record label and publishing company. They’d stop touring, and focus on making records, and this would allow them the time to get things right and try new things out, which would lead to them having hits again, and they could also produce records for their friends like Waylon Jennings and Sonny Curtis. It was a good plan, and it might have worked, but it relied on them getting that money off Norman Petty. When the other two got back to Texas, Petty started manipulating them. He told them they were small-town Texas boys who would never be able to live in the big city. He told them that they didn’t need Buddy Holly, and that they could carry on making Crickets records without him. He told them that Maria Elena was manipulating Buddy, and that if they went off to New York with him it would be her who was in charge of the group from that point on. And he also pointed out that he was currently the only signatory on the group’s bank account, and it would be a real shame if something happened to all that money. By the time Buddy got back to Texas, the other two Crickets had agreed that they were going to stick with Norman Petty. Petty said it was fine if Buddy wanted to fire him, but he wasn’t getting any money until a full audit had been done of the organisation’s money. Buddy was no longer even going to get the per diem pocket money or expenses he’d been getting. Holly went back to New York, and started writing many, many, more songs, recording dozens of acoustic demos for when he could start his plan up: [Excerpt: Buddy Holly, “Crying, Waiting, Hoping”] It was a massive creative explosion for the young man. He was not only writing songs himself, but he was busily planning to make an album of Latin music, and he was making preparations for two more projects he’d like to do — an album of duets on gospel songs with Mahalia Jackson, and an album of soul duets with Ray Charles. He was going to jazz clubs, and he had ambitions of following Elvis into films, but doing it properly — he enrolled in courses with Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio, to learn Method Acting. Greenwich Village in 1958 was the perfect place for a young man with a huge amount of natural talent and appetite for learning, but little experience of the wider world and culture. But the young couple were living off Maria Elena’s aunt’s generosity, and had no income at all of their own. And then Maria Elena revealed that she was pregnant. And Norman Petty revealed something he’d kept hidden before — by the terms of Buddy’s contract, he hadn’t really been recording for Brunswick or Coral, so they didn’t owe him a penny. He’d been recording for Petty’s company, who then sold the masters on to the other labels, and would get all the royalties. The Crickets bank account into which the royalties had supposedly been being paid, and which Petty had refused to let the band members see, was essentially empty. There was only one thing for it. He had to do another tour. And the only one he could get on was a miserable-seeming affair called the Winter Dance Party. While most of the rock and roll package tours of the time had more than a dozen acts on, this one had only five. There was an opening act called Frankie Sardo, and then Dion and the Belmonts, who had had a few minor hits, and had just recorded, but not yet released, their breakthrough record “Teenager in Love”: [Excerpt: Dion and the Belmonts, “Teenager in Love”] Then there was the Big Bopper, who was actually a fairly accomplished songwriter but was touring on the basis of his one hit, a novelty song called “Chantilly Lace”: [Excerpt: the Big Bopper, “Chantilly Lace”] And Ritchie Valens, whose hit “Donna” was rising up the charts in a way that “It Doesn’t Matter Any More” was notably failing to do: [Excerpt: Ritchie Valens, “Donna”] Buddy put together a new touring band consisting of Tommy Allsup on guitar, Waylon Jennings on bass — who had never played bass before starting the tour — and a drummer called Carl Bunch. For a while it looked like Buddy’s friend Eddie Cochran was going to go on tour with them as well, but shortly before the tour started Cochran got an offer to do the Ed Sullivan Show, which would have clashed with the tour dates, and so he didn’t make it. Maria Elena was very insistent that she didn’t want Buddy to go, but he felt that he had no choice if he was going to support his new child. The Winter Dance Party toured Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, through the end of January and the beginning of February 1959, and the conditions were miserable for everyone concerned. The tour had been put together with no thought of logistics, and it zig-zagged wildly across those three states, with gigs often four hundred miles away from each other. The musicians had to sleep on the tour bus — or buses. The tour was being run on a shoe-string, and they’d gone with the cheapest vehicle-hire company possible. They went through, according to one biography I’ve read, eight different buses in eleven days, as none of the buses were able to cope with the Midwestern winter, and their engines kept failing and the heating on several of the buses broke down. I don’t know if you’ve spent any time in that part of America in the winter, but I go there for Christmas every year (my wife has family in Minnesota) and it’s unimaginably cold in a way you can’t understand unless you’ve experienced it. It’s not unusual for temperatures to drop to as low as minus forty degrees, and to have three feet or more of snow. Travelling in a bus, with no heating, in that weather, all packed together, was hell for everyone. The Big Bopper and Valens were both fat, and couldn’t fit in the small seats easily. Several people on the tour, including Bopper and Valens, got the flu. And then finally Carl Bunch got hospitalised with frostbite. Buddy’s band, which was backing everyone on stage, now had no drummer, and so for the next three days of the tour Holly, Dion, and Valens would all take it in turns playing the drums, as all of them were adequate drummers. The shows were still good, at least according to a young man named Robert Zimmerman, who saw the first drummerless show, in Duluth Minnesota, and who would move to Greenwich Village himself not that long afterwards. After a show in Clear Lake, Iowa, Buddy had had enough. He decided to charter a plane to take him to Fargo, North Dakota, which was just near Moorhead, Minnesota, where they were planning on playing their next show. He’d take everyone’s laundry — everyone stank and had been wearing the same clothes for days — and get it washed, and get some sleep in a real bed. The original plan was to have Allsup and Jennings travel with him, but eventually they gave up their seats to the two other people who were suffering the most — the Big Bopper and Valens. There are different stories about how that happened, most involving a coin-toss, but they all agree that when Buddy found out that Waylon Jennings was giving up his seat, he jokingly said to Jennings “I hope your old bus freezes”, and Jennings replied, “Yeah, well I hope your ol’ plane crashes”. The three of them got on the plane in the middle of the night, on a foggy winter’s night, which would require flying by instruments. Unfortunately, while the pilot on the plane was rated as being a good pilot during the day, he kept almost failing his certification for being bad at flying by instrument. And the plane in question had an unusual type of altitude meter. Where most altitude meters would go up when the plane was going up and down when it was going down, that particular model’s meter went down when the plane was going up, and up when it was going down. The plane took off, and less than five minutes after takeoff, it plummeted straight down, nose first, into the ground at top speed, killing everyone on board instantly. As soon as the news got out, Holly’s last single finally started rising up the charts. It ended up going to number thirteen on the US charts, and number one in many other countries. The aftermath shows how much contempt the music industry — and society itself — had for those musicians at that time. Maria Elena found out about Buddy’s death not from the police, but from the TV — this later prompted changes in how news of celebrity deaths was to be revealed. She was so upset that she miscarried two days later. She was too distraught to attend the funeral, and to this day has still never been able to bring herself to visit her husband’s grave. The grief was just too much. The rest of the people on the tour were forced to continue the remaining thirteen days of the tour without the three acts anyone wanted to go and see, but were also not paid their full wages, because the bill wasn’t as advertised. A new young singer was picked up to round out the bill on the next gig, a young Minnesotan Holly soundalike called Bobby Vee, whose first single, “Suzy Baby”, was just about to come out: [Excerpt: Bobby Vee, “Suzy Baby”] When Vee went on tour on his own, later, he hired that Zimmerman kid we mentioned earlier as his piano player. Zimmerman worked under the stage name Elston Gunn, but would later choose a better one. After that date Holly, Valens, and the Bopper were replaced by Fabian, Frankie Avalon, and Jimmy Clanton, and the tour continued. Meanwhile, the remaining Crickets picked themselves up and carried on. They got Buddy’s old friend Sonny Curtis on guitar, and a succession of Holly-soundalike singers, and continued playing together until Joe Mauldin died in 2015. Most of their records without Buddy weren’t particularly memorable, but they did record one song written by Curtis which would later become a hit for several other people, “I Fought the Law”: [Excerpt: The Crickets, “I Fought the Law”] But the person who ended up benefiting most from Holly’s death was Norman Petty. Suddenly his stockpile of unreleased Buddy Holly recordings was a goldmine — and not only that, he ended up coming to an agreement with Holly’s estate that he could take all those demos Holly had recorded and overdub new backing tracks on them, turning them into full-blown rock and roll songs. Between overdubbed versions of the demos, and stockpiled full-band recordings, Buddy Holly kept having hit singles in the rest of the world until 1965, though none charted in the US, and he made both Petty and his estate very rich. Norman Petty died in 1984. His last project was a still-unreleased “updating” of Buddy’s biggest hits with synthesisers. These days, Buddy Holly is once again on tour, or at least something purporting to be him is. You can now go and see a “hologram tour”, in which an image of a look-not-very-alike actor miming to Holly’s old recordings is projected on glass, using the old Victorian stage trick Pepper’s Ghost, while a live band plays along to the records. Just because you’ve worked someone to death aged twenty-two, doesn’t mean that they can’t still keep earning money for you when they’re eighty-three. And a hologram will never complain about how cold the tour bus is, or want to wash his laundry.

We've had tons of questions from you guys in the last few months.  Unfortunately, deer season is so, so busy and we feel like even when we replied, we didn't do appropriate justice to some of these great questions!  So in this podcast we talk birds first after Tyler's trip this past weekend and turn to the questions.  We talk things like, what public lands we hunt, scouting, video equipment, arrow setups, tuning bows, peak rut dates, hunting new properties, Allsup's burritos, scoring deer, traveling to hunt, weather patterns, boots and other gear, and much more! vvvv (watch) vvvvv BIG IOWA PUBLIC LAND BUCK!  ^^^ (watch) ^^^   Watch GIANT GILA BULL ELK! Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of our public land adventures and watch our intense product reviews! The Element YouTube Public Land Chronicles (PLC) eLement eVals   Sony FS700 Footage: WATCH "Rock Trolls"! Sony A6300 Footage: WATCH "Nameless"! Sony Ax100 Footage: WATCH "OTC DIY Colorado 6x6 Elk"! Sony A7S2 and FS700 Footage: WATCH "Hooked"! Sony A7S2/Duck Hunting Footage Discussed: WATCH "On Fire"! Follow along as we go through the season, by watching our #SZN playlist ---> CLICK HERE!   We were one of the first to have a look at the new Sitka Fanatic system for deer hunting!  Check out the video by clicking HERE! Social Media: @theelementpodcast (Facebook) @theelementpodcast (Instagram)   New Shirts available in our store at: www.theelementwild.com/shop   The best map app there is. Find Access to YOUR public lands with OnX Maps. Know where you stand. OnX   Be Mobile. Stay Mobile. Heads Up Decoy   Make sure the brands you support are supporting you! We wear Sitka Gear because they stand for conservation and public lands. Sitka Gear    To find out more on Texas Public Land opportunities, visit the Texas Parks and Wildlife website. TPWD   Go check out what The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership is doing on the front lines for clean air, clean water, and wildlife! TRCP  My new tree steps: https://www.amazon.com/Primal-Tree-Stands-Strap-V-Treestep/dp/B073S9VGYT/ref=zg_bs_3413761_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=D7KKQA7TGTWRSCE9Q94A    Rock out with Tyler and the Tribe! 

In this episode I unpack Allsup and Baxter’s (2004) publication titled “Talking about music: Better questions? Better discussions!” which is a short article that discusses open, guided, and closed questions, as well as a framework for encouraging critical thinking through questions. Although this article is published in a music education journal, I discuss potential implications for computer science educators.Click here for this episode’s show notes.

Join us as we continue our Pathways to Employment series here at United Spinal Association. On today's episode of United on Wheels Barbara Kornblau will talk with Allsup Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Mary Dale Walters. Together they will discuss the great work that Allsup does to help get individuals with disabilities working … Continue reading United's Pathways to Employment: What is Allsup? →

The #Killstream airs every weeknight at 9:30PM EST on DLive.TV/TheRalphRetort ⭐Support Links⭐ ✅Patreon: http://patreon.com/theralphretort ✅NewProject2: https://newproject2.com/theralphretort/ ✅Merch: http://shop.theralphretort.com/ ⭐Contact⭐ ✅ Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheRalphRetort ✅ Telegram: https://t.me/theralphretort ✅ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRalphRetort ✅ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theralphretort ✅ Gab: https://gab.com/theralphretort ✅ Email: theralph@theralphretort.com ⭐Podcast Links⭐ Podcast Home: https://media.zencast.fm/killstream iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/theralphretort/id1128890743 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/killstream Castbox: https://castbox.fm/channel/Killstream-id1395459 Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1128890743/killstream PlayerFM: https://player.fm/series/2421381 Bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/channel/kwCAgQThA1sL/ ⭐Crypto Support⭐ BTC: 3H7EKnw4xBwmsNTHVVJbUY4UkWQYBrvYcT BCH: qrykmnjejydm7k5sglf6qvael3u3puen7cw6rpcrlv ETH: 0x044076535672e1604bb79A5889b437D1D54D67f8 LTC: MUbzTnQjZ3RqVFC5HPxo1q9vE5quZ74TX8

Longtime family friend and a good ol' Beatty boy, John Allsup meets Mining Minds at the face to talk some shop. He discusses his role as an underground electrician in this Northern Nevada area, the road from Vegas to Elko, his love for his family, and his passion for Jujutzu. 

Incest survivor Sherrie Allsup and police chief Wiley Gammon discuss the work with training police, colleges, and other on supporting those who report incest, rape, and other sexual assault. For more information, please visit Sherrie's website at www.couragestartswithyou.com or contact Chief Wiley Gammon at 404-756-4477 or wgammon@atlm.edu

It’s time to dive knee deep back into the 80’s! We kick things off talking about Marty’s recent vacation to New Mexico (0:58) Marty understanding Kris on a deeper level after driving through the expanse of West Texas (1:20) Introducing our guest, singer-songwriter and Kris’s wife, Stephanie Wright (2:10) Comparing notes on Roswell (3:22) Marty adding to his gas station food repertoire courtesy of Allsup’s in Plains, Texas (4:45) Kris and Step visiting the Motown exhibit at the LBJ Library here in Austin (11:38) Marty impersonating the animatronic Lyndon Johnson (13:54) Kris and Steph going to the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas, and Kris blowing our marketing budget on a can of spraypaint (14:35). We then jump into the 1984 year in music according to wikipedia (19:05) Going thru the 1984 playlist (55:00) We then get to Steph’s pick for 1984, The Bangles little known debut, “All Over the Place” (1:03:30). Stay tuned for 1984-episode 2 coming soon!

From Caledonia, Mississippi Cody played baseball at East Mississippi Community College and earned a bachelor’s degree from Mississippi State. He is currently working on His masters at MUW. Cody has been coaching for 4 years, and Is serving as the pitching/catching coach at MUW.

Slightly lighter fare this week (everything being relative) as Daniel tells Jack about how the far-right have seen Donald Trump, from the rise of the romance through to the fall, via the fluctuating feelings of the hosts of the 'Fash the Nation' podcast. As always, warnings apply. Us on iTunes * Show Notes: Cantwell banned from Gab Fash the Nation Fash the Nation interviews Tila Tequila Fash the Nation David Duke Fash the Nation Paul Nehlen Jazzhands McFeels on the Radical Agenda in 2015 Enoch, Jazzhands, Allsup, Sven, etc 2018 Midterm coverage Fash the Nation deletes its archives after Enoch/Dunstant doxxing White Hot Takes "Fash the Nation" (To the tune of Human League "Fascination" Svenpai "Right Wing Death Squads" (To the tune of Live "Lightning Crashes." Spencer/Enoch at Syria protest Trump's Far-Right Supporters Turn on Him Over Syria Strike Brad Griffin talks Andrew Yang at the Political Cesspool, 3/23/19 Yang Gang Explained at Rolling Stone  

Bud Kennedy on Allsup’s Burritos and all things Texas Politics. Avalanche Journal’s Matt Dotray on all things Lubbock. Plus Leeson on why the Teasippers label sticks in Austin

Longtime Allsup’s employee Rick Keefer talks about the history of Allsup’s and its burritos. Plus, Nexstar’s Wes Rapaport discusses the politics of what could be a $5,000 bandaid fix to Texas teachers. We bring the stories, news, views and issues from the #otherside of Texas, weekdays from 5-6pm. Original broadcasts from KRFE AM 580 Lubbock. Streams, podcasts, columns and blogs from othersideoftexas.com. Got stories that need to be told from your side of Texas? Tell us at show@othersideoftexas.com.
Learn more about The Other Side of Texas by visiting our website at:
www.othersideoftexas.com And a great way to keep up with us anywhere that you are is by following The Other Side on facebook at:
www.facebook.com/OtherSideofTexas/


⭐Support Links⭐ Patreon Killstream Merch ⭐PODCAST⭐ iTunes Stitcher Castbox Overcast ⭐CRYPTO⭐ BTC: 3H7EKnw4xBwmsNTHVVJbUY4UkWQYBrvYcT BCH: qrykmnjejydm7k5sglf6qvael3u3puen7cw6rpcrlv ETH: 0x044076535672e1604bb79A5889b437D1D54D67f8 LTC: MUbzTnQjZ3RqVFC5HPxo1q9vE5quZ74TX8 ⭐Panelists⭐ Gator: YouTube Twitter Zidan: YouTube Twitter Ethan Ralph PO BOX 42183 RICHMOND, VA 23224-9183

Chris chats with horticulture educator Kelly Allsup about beneficial insects. They talk about Kelly's start in horticulture and how that led her to insects. The two then dive into how to attract beneficial insects, what plants work best, and what is Kelly's favorite beneficial insect. Plus your insect questions.

This episode features an interview with Mary Dale Walters, the Senior Vice President of Strategic Communications at Allsup - a company specializing in providing disability services. For over 30 years, the company has successfully helped more than 300,000 individuals receive their Social Security Disability benefits. In this episode, she will walk us through a large number of resources and relevant information necessary to have a clearer understanding of the application process for Disability Insurance and other benefits. She advises us to be specific in addressing our needs when applying for disability benefits. "It's not that you have a disability, it's that you can't work because of your disability."   In this episode we discuss: What is Social Security Disability Insurance? Why is it important to apply? Private Disability Insurance vs. Government Disability Insurances Long-term vs. Short-term Disability Insurance How to qualify for Disability Insurance Does having Multiple Sclerosis automatically qualify you to receive disability payments? Proving and convincing an Insurance company of an invisible illness or symptom that inhibits your ability to work. Receiving disability payments while working The payout. How much and how often. Duration of Disability Insurance Online references to determine if you’re qualified to apply for a disability insurance benefit.   Resources mentioned in this episode (clickable links): Filessdi.truehelp.com - SSA Benefits Calculator Truehelp Social Security Administration Social Security Disability Insurance Information This Disability Digest   Where to find Mary Dale Walters: Mary Dale Walters - Truehelp   **Today’s episode is brought to you by: Patients Getting Paid – a new course being developed by FUMS – to help patients find legitimate work from home opportunities and paid patient advocacy gigs. There are all kinds of companies looking for the kind of knowledge you have in living with your disease. You’ve got the disease, you’ve got the knowledge – you should get paid. Sign up now for more information at PatientsGettingPaid.   **Don’t forget to join us on the FUMS Facebook Page and on Twitter at FUMS. Have an idea for a topic or someone to interview? Perhaps YOU?? Send me an email at Kathy@FUMSnow.com.   And remember to speak to this stupid disease as it deserves: tell it FUMS every day!!

Part 1 of a 4 part interview series where Oklahoma Music Maker, Tommy Allsup, recalls, in his own words, his Historical Account, of the Events, with Buddy Holly, leading to Buddy, Richie Valens, J.P. Richardson aka The Big Bopper and the pilot, being killed together, in a plane crash.

Part 2 of a 4 part interview series where Oklahoma Music Maker, Tommy Allsup, recalls, in his own words, his Historical Account, of the Events, with Buddy Holly, leading to Buddy, Richie Valens, J.P. Richardson aka The Big Bopper and the pilot, being killed together, in a plane crash.

Part 4 The final in the interview series where Oklahoma Music Maker, Tommy Allsup, recalls, in his own words, his Historical Account, of the Events, with Buddy Holly, leading to Buddy, Richie Valens, J.P. Richardson aka The Big Bopper and the pilot, being killed together, in a plane crash.

Part 3 of a 4 part interview series where Oklahoma Music Maker, Tommy Allsup, recalls, in his own words, his Historical Account, of the Events, with Buddy Holly, leading to Buddy, Richie Valens, J.P. Richardson aka The Big Bopper and the pilot, being killed together, in a plane crash.

Michael talks with Mary Dale Walters, senior VP of communications at Allsup. It’s hard enough to get a job and if you have a disability, your chances are even worse. A new study found that employer misconceptions and stereotypes contribute to the extremely high (83%) unemployment rate for people with disabilities. The fact that 96% of people with disabilities have an “invisible disability” that’s not readily seen, combined with employer uncertainty on the cost of employing these individuals, contributes to inaccurate stereotypes. In reality, employees with disabilities bring new perspectives to the workplace and may actually save employers money. Telework, the common go-to solution, isn’t as easy as it seems. Almost half (45%) of employers surveyed require a probationary period that prohibits telework. Mary will offer tips for employers to crush these barriers and create a disability-friendly work culture.     Michael can be found everywhere on social media, but especially here and here.  #SHRM18, #CUE2018, #DTHR,

Tommy Allsup considered by many as one of the best guitar players of all time had a long and very productive musical career. But his longevity was the result of a Flip of a Coin. A most riveting story.

What do Allsup's, Caprock Canyon, some bikes a hike, and Dairy Queen have in common with how Leeson serves the public well? Scott Braddock shares his take on 2018 White House Correspondents Dinner and what modern day journalists should be considering. As well as, his thoughts on last week's show with Four Price discussing the Texas opioid epidemic. Lesson asks is, Beto O'rourke changing his messaging? Blue Collar Bill shares with us who his favorite politician is, his thoughts on dirty laundry, and protection of the sacred Man Card.

The founder of Allsup's passed away...and we honor him

Austin Allsup - Let Down Love (LIVE) by KFNY

Austin Allsup - Traveler (LIVE) by KFNY

Join us in our XL inaugural episode where Chris and Shane talk about folklore and legends based in New Mexico. This includes: The Loretto Chapel, the portal to hell in the Urraca Mesa and La Llorona. Plus we generate some compelling theories about Allsup's chimichangas. Music by: https://soundcloud.com/chrisfrainmusic

Join us in our XL inaugural episode where Chris and Shane talk about folklore and legends based in New Mexico. This includes: The Loretto Chapel, the portal to hell in the Urraca Mesa and La Llorona. Plus we generate some compelling theories about Allsup's chimichangas. Music by: https://soundcloud.com/chrisfrainmusic

Today we're talking to my friend and Stamford, Texas attorney, James Decker. As you will see today, there is no one I know who loves Texas. Allsup's burritos, and the law more than James!   James grew up in Stamford, Texas and after receiving his Agribusiness degree from Texas A&M and law degree from Texas Tech University, he returned home and hung out his own shingle. Our main focus today is on settling an estate after someone has passed away. Particularly, we will focus on the probate process and on various statutory alternatives to probate here in Texas. James offers the following advice for all people:  "Die with a will.  It's just easier on everyone."  I couldn't agree more!  We kick off our discussion by talking about intestate succession laws, meaning the applicable statutes that come into play to distribute assets when someone dies without a will.  As you will hear, this can cause significant issues and lead to disputes and added expenses that no one wants to leave behind. Next, we turn to the Texas probate process and discuss what happens when someone dies with a will.  Specifically, we look at how a will generally makes its way through probate and then we look at an alternative method of probate, which James calls "express lane probate," the Probate by Muniment of Title.  As James points out, we are fortunate here in Texas to have a relatively user-friendly probate process and, unlike in some other states, it may be that going through the regular probate process is actually the cheapest, simplest option to settle an estate.   Next, we turn to various probate alternatives.  These include transfer on death accounts, affidavits of heirship, small estate proceedings, heirship proceedings, life estates, and transfer on death deeds.  James walks us through the pros, cons, and requirements for each of these. As always, we close the show by asking for a law that James would like to see changed.  He went with a law that is high up on my own wishlist and said that he would like to see some sort of surface damage act to protect surface owners in Texas when oil and gas production may occur on their land.  As he notes, Texas is basically the only major oil producing state without this type of legislation.  Hopefully one day, we'll see James in the Texas Senate to push this kind of bill through. And finally, I asked for a restaurant recommendation and was given a litany on the best chicken fried steak in Texas, found at Jake and Dorothy's Cafe in Stephenville Texas.  It opened in 1948, and as James points out, they've been making chicken fried steaks successfully for 70 years!  Be sure to have room for the homemade pies when you go!   Contact info for James Decker (Email)  james@sgdalawtx.com (Website)  http://sgdalawtx.com/  (Twitter)  @jamesdecker2006  (Facebook)  https://www.facebook.com/james.decker  (Instagram) @jamesmdecker   Links to topics mentioned on the show - Texas intestate succession statutes (the law that applies if someone dies without a will) - Texas general probate statutes - Texas Muniment of Title statute - Texas Affidavit of Heirship statute - Small Estate Proceeding statute - Heirship Proceeding statute - Texas Transfer on Death Deed statute - O'Colly feature on James Washington

In this episode we talk to Dr. Paul Sutton and Mr. Max Allsup about how they have grown their theatre company www.CandT.org from a traditional theatre in education company to the leading group that extends the applied theatre practice through the incorporation of technology. We hear from them about how they approach technology and how they think about theatre making in the age of digital media.

From 2005, celebrates the life of American guitar legend TOMMY ALLSUP who played for Buddy Holly. Only losing the toss of a coin prevented him being in the plane crash that killed Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper. #guitar #guitarist #rockandroll #buddyholly #tommyallsup

Here is episode 2 of Oh No! Not... The podcast where we discuss people, places and things that have recently ceased to exist. This episode we talk about two musicians, a librarian and a roadside attraction.