Friday, September 02, 2016

#14 RBBB


5 comments:

Chic Silber said...


Well over 20 musicians

I can still recall live

circus music

4pawfan said...

And the smell of a canvas tent with fresh cut grass.
p.j.

Roger Smith said...

Boom-Boom Browning, Bubba Voss, Ramon Escorcia, and Merle Evans himself all told me of the annual battles in Winterquarters over the placement of the bandstand for the coming season. Evans wanted it beside the performer's entrance, so he could more easily see all 3 rings and the acts in the air. He usually was spotted in the blues, but in this case, his band was split by an aisle, the musicians in front of two sections of the audience. Incredible that a legendary bandleader was given no better respect than this.

Chic Silber said...


Your mention of fresh cut grass

PJ reminded me of Red Hartman

using a decrepit gas push mower

to whack ring 2 before putting

up the arena & being a 2 cycle

engine he would add too much

oil in the gas which resulted

in a tremendous cloud of smoke

that filled the big top better

than I ever could have with my

theatrical smoke machines & so

that obliterated the canvas smell

Roger Smith said...

Twice in '64, the lawn mower fritzed, and a simple whisper got around to Buck Nolan, our Side Show giant. At least by the next town, we'd look up and there came Buck, cheerfully pushing a new one, liberated from somewhere downtown. A gratuity silenced the occasion, until next time.