Nothing But The Blues
Nothing But The Blues #51
This week a Watermelon Slim special featuring tracks from his albums (including "Escape From The Chicken Coop") and clips from an interview conducted when he headlined the Cambridge Festival at the beginning of August.
Hey y'all, this is Watermelon Slim from Oklahoma City. If you really want to hear the blues, tune in to "Nothing But The Blues" with my friend Cliff. See you later. Okay, Steve. I got a little bit of rain on my glasses, I tried to help me. I got free, big o' empty asphalt lane, freshin' out in front of me. I got my cattle to the metal that I'm watching the light, looking on in Arkansas. But there's no one on my front door and I'm using my brakes. Got one hair out for the mall. I got a half cabin rubber made through my gut, a black drip straight champion. And when I hit that old, my home, I lied and ruined. I'll be waving my head at the greater, contradictory driver of everything. Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Can I ask a trucking question? Well, the first track, Cassapilla Wine, what's the Cassapilla? Because I think of the Cassapilla as like a tank track or something. Well, a caterpillar, my reference is indeed the caterpillar tractor company is a corporation. Right. That engine is one of the most popular of large diesel engines that goes with trucks, especially trucks like this. This truck certainly had a cat in it. It's a Kenworth truck. This truck in here. I'm dumb. I'm dumb. This truck has a big Peter belt. They call it a large condo, right big sleeper here. And it's got a cat engine in it. About 550 horsepower. All anything you want. Pull a freakin tree down if you want it to. Well, that makes sense of the song. And the caterpillar wine, as you've heard, that was a masterstroke by Miles. He actually went out and stood by the side of a major highway and recorded about 20-some various trucks going by at first mixed some together to make the sound. And then eventually chose one of the trucks going uphill at accelerator down, hammer down. And that's why it's the caterpillar wine. The wine itself is the supercharger that's running. Well, welcome to Nothing but the Blues with me, Cliff. And it's a very special edition. It's the Watermelon Slim Special that I mentioned a few weeks ago. I interviewed Slim when he headlined the Cambridge Festival at the beginning of August. And because I went on holiday, it's taken me a while to put the show together. So this week's show features clips from the interview, plus tracks from his albums, including his new one Escape from the Chicken Coop, which was launched just after the festival. And that opening track, though, was Caterpillar Wine on the new album. And you heard Slim explaining that the cat was to me. Let's get back to the interview. A bit of your past, I'd like to touch on, but mostly I'd like to talk about the music if that's OK. Oh, get after it. Yeah, OK. You went to college on a fencing student ship, scholarship? No, no. Journalistic, that's a new one, by the way. It was a new urban journalistic myth. I was indeed a fencer. I was quite a good fencer. I was tall and spindly and awkward, but lightning passed. And I did go to the National Championships in 1968. Is it another journalistic myth that you dropped out to enlist with Vietnam? No, that I did. That you did. Pretty idealistic things you do at the time when most of your peers were coming? No, no. I mean, it was idealistic in a way. But there were two other reasons why I dropped out of college and joined the Army and volunteered. First of all, there was family history. My family has not to mince words about it in the illustrious military history. Both grandfathers were veterans. One of World War I and the other one of the Spanish-American who were artillery behind Teddy Roosevelt at San Juan Hill. Am I right? OK. My father was the most illustrious of all. And if you go to the Royal Naval College in Greenwich and you go into Pending Hall from the north side, and you up the stairs and you turn left, you will see a white marble monument to 20. I understand a couple more have been added since then, for maybe 21-22. Young men who left the United States before the US entered the war and went and joined the Royal Navy. My father was in Cottonboy escort in the North Sea with the Royal Navy. Amazing. He was a little aggravated when he came back to the US once we got in the war and got sent to the Pacific. They made him an ensign again. Although he was lieutenant junior grade by the time he went back. And so my father's greatest distinction was that he received a high Royal Naval decoration for diving into the sea and saving a Nazi pilot who had crashed. And as his biographer notes, probably most of the British sailors he was serving with were just as soon as I let the Nazi ground. But my father saved him, which was very much like my father anyway. So the other reason, besides family history, that I had to join and volunteer for the war was that I was a stupid 90-year kid and did it out of emotional. And I found out very soon that I really wasn't cut out from military life. I did not finish a full tour of enlistment with the Army. I was honorably discharged, that's all I will claim. I didn't so much as receive a good conduct medal in addition. But given the family history, I can see what you mean by big shoes to fill? Yes, precisely. You have hit it. That is exact. I'm very insightful. Not everybody understands why that record is name-pointed is, but it is dedicated to my father who is gigantic shoes. I could never fill. No matter how many handy awards or whatever I did, I could never fill the shoes of a truly great band like my father who was one of the greatest attorneys, any country, any venue of the 20th century. It was really fascinating chatting to Slim. We spent about pushing on for two hours just chatting, and I've had to edit it down fairly strongly for the show. But I also want to get some music in. And this is a track from the 2006 album, Watermelon Slim and the Workers. This is Dumpster Blues. I got it over side, Dumpster. Front the back and rail to rail. I got this great big over side, Dumpster. Front the back and rail to rail. And it starts and coincides with it. It throw me underneath the jail. Yeah, I'm taking it all down the back road. Don't want to be no state control. I'm taking this road all down the back road. Don't want to be no state control. Yeah, this is but my tire is real good. But when I've sat this box, watch me roll. [music] I'm from the 7,000. Many nymphs of my front end. I'm from the 7,000,000. Yeah, it jerks up my front end. Oh, I'm like my 22nd wish boy. At the Dumpster operator's friend, you know my loaded rock. Smells just like the devil's bottom hole. Oh, that's nobody's rock. Smells just like the devil's bottom hole. Yeah, but I got it rowing up at the landfill. Just stay by just by your soul. [music] And I'm just still undaunted. I can't make it back 'cause I don't know when. I'm not undaunted. I can't make it back 'cause I don't know when. But when I'm making it back and making it way back up to the side again. Dumpster blues from the 2006 album, Mortimer and Slim and the Workers. I got to ask him to slim about his health. The big turning point, if you like, was the heart attack in 2002? It wasn't a turning point at all. I'd say the turning point was probably after the heart attack when, since you mentioned the heart attack, what that did. I had already recorded the big shoes to build sessions with Mr. Sobol Brown producing that I just talked about. I had him come down to Oklahoma to produce this stuff. He hated being in Oklahoma, of course, he was entirely too hot for him. He's really a New England Knight. But all that the heart attack did was focused me a little bit more. I'd already had a stroke in 1998, which came out all right. I had already broken my back as it turns out in 1995 as a truck driver. I fell 13 foot off the load. I never saw a doctor. I just picked myself up off the ground once I determined that I was not paralyzed. I eventually got back up in the truck and I drove the load home and then I drove it to the side the next day. I never missed a day of work and I found out last year while I was recording the record we're going to talk about. I had three compressed vertebra in my thoracic area of my back. The chiropractor told me, "You may be 60 years old or 59 at the time, but you've got the spine of a man in his 70s. We can never rehabilitate you because you let it go for so long. But with regular chiropractic care we can keep your mobile and motion pain free." Which is what I am right now. I'm mobile and motion pain free. I'm lucky to be alive and glad he is. Let's have some more music. This is the title track from the 2007 album. This is The Wheelman. [music] When I was younger I could crash by a range, yet bear a man on the planet. No great man suits threatening to clear war or monster with the maintenance of granted. I spent years waiting for the deal to go down and making sure the boss got paid. But there was one fake boy I could wear the crown for my reputation was made. I was the wheelman. I'm the wheelman. [music] If you want me to play hours you pick up my ass. But I'm doing my best when I'm making tracks. I'm the wheelman. I'm the wheelman. [music] I'm but I'm not invited to be a robber still. There never been an easy score. There'd be a good hand with me. I am the wheel when I sat in the loaf and door. I said blanks but no brakes. I didn't think I was sick, possessed of you and your friends. All the while I wasn't putting my job at how I could talk straight men. I worked the wheelman. [music] I'm the wheelman. [music] If you want me to play hours you pick up my ass. But I'm doing my best when I'm making tracks. I'm the wheelman. Oh, I'm the wheelman. [music] Ow! [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] I jumped clean before my life of Scotland. I was ashamed I could never break. The games I was playing, you know they was paying. But anyone could make a mistake. I was never yellow. Just too good hearted to stand my whole mind outside the mall. But there was one thing I carried from the underworld. I'm the best that you have to solve. I'm still the wheelman. [music] I'm the wheelman. [music] If you want me to play hours you pick up my ass. But I'm doing my best when I'm making tracks. I'm the wheelman. [music] I'm the wheelman. If you want me to swing off, you'll strut my stuff. But I do my best work when the road gets rough. I'm the wheelman. I'm the wheelman too. Oh, I'm the wheelman. And you know that, mate. I'm the wheelman. [music] I'm the wheelman. I'm the wheelman too. See, I'm the wheelman and you know that. Oh, boy, I'm the wheelman. Tell me I'm the wheelman. I'm the wheelman. Oh, I'm the wheelman. [music] Mm-hmm, the wheelman. Featuring Magic Slim. Back to the interview, I think. I think I've started taking notice of your stuff in any serious way with that one. Yeah, well, this is the thing. As I said, the heart attack only focused me. After we had, after I did big shoes to fill, then I released up close and personal. Some of which double brown also produced. Have those same sections. And that's where I met Chris Hardwick. I was getting around to where the turning point was. Mr. Chris Hardwick, my manager, met me through a college station DJ in support of the Blues. And Chris produced the rest of up close and personal and took me off to Memphis for the International Blues Challenge. Where I did not win. Me and my group did not win. But we made an up of an impression that Brad Litwin, the President of Northern Blues in Ottawa, decided to sign me. And the first record that Northern Blues put out was this record which you've grown out here. And you've done pretty much one a year since then, yeah? Pretty much. Exactly. You've got a law don't you look bad? Yeah, for the set. You write most of the songs. Yeah. So you obviously found writing easy? Well, as I pointed out, I designed the curriculum. From the time that I went back to school, seriously, in 1984, I went through my graduation and hooding in 2000 with lots of truck driving and got my brain in between. I designed that curriculum in order to make me a writer, a truly a writer. I'd always been a writer of sorts, but now I'm actually a trained writer. So yeah, I find it easy. I sit down and I can walk you out of sun. You heard what I did downstairs. I just started speaking a hand at Pentameter. I can like it. What's his name said about Shakespeare? You know, this beer shaker can blast out a bunch of blank birds as good as anybody. I paraphrase. Stick a slide guitar on and you've got a song? Oh, I don't even need the instruments. I do my usual process, though sometimes it goes the other way around. It's to write the words and then put music with the. Who decides the cover versions that you do? Is it the producers that try this? Oh, you do. One nice thing about Northern Blues is that I've been given all of the artistic head that I want to have. Okay, so you choose Fred MacDowell and Big Joe Williams and things like that? Yeah, I choose all that stuff. Yeah, and Laura Ninerum? Oh, yeah. I've been singing that song since before I was in Vietnam. Right, and you do almost acapella, you use the harmonica on that one? I did that one with, merely with the harmonica. So yeah, I choose all that stuff, okay? This is that Laura Ninero cover. It's from the 2008 album No Paid Holidays and When I Die. I'm not scared of dying, and I don't really care if it's peace to find and die in. Well, then let the time be near. It's peace to find and die in, and if dying time is near, just bundle up my coffin causes. Go way down there, you know. It's go way down there, crazy code, way down there. And when I die and when I'm gone, there'll be one more child in this world to carry on, to carry on. Now troubles are many, and they're deep as a well. I would swear there ain't no heaven, and I pray there ain't no hell. For there ain't no heaven, and I pray there ain't no hell. But I'll never know by living, only my dying will tell, only my dying will tell, only my dying will tell. And when I die and when I'm gone, there'll be one more child in this world to carry on, to carry on. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪ Give me my freedom for as long as I breathe ♪ ♪ All I ask of me being is to have no chains on me ♪ ♪ All I ask of me being is to have no chains on me ♪ ♪ And all I ask of dying is to go naturally ♪ ♪ All I want to do is go naturally ♪ ♪ Well, here I go ♪ ♪ Hey, hey ♪ ♪ Here comes the devil right behind ♪ ♪ Look out children ♪ ♪ Here we come ♪ ♪ Here we come ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Don't want to go by the devil ♪ ♪ Don't want to go by the demon ♪ ♪ Don't want to go by Satan ♪ ♪ I don't want to die uneasy ♪ ♪ Just let me go naturally ♪ ♪ And when I die ♪ ♪ And when I'm dead and gone ♪ ♪ There will be one more child ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ To carry on ♪ ♪ ♪ And when I die from no paid holidays, I have slim about a couple of the other tracks on that album. There's a funny mix of stuff, I think, especially on this one. There's a track I really, really like Max the Baseball Clown. - Oh, okay. - Yeah, it's fabulous, I think, yeah. - Thank you, thank you. - Does he, did he exist? - Yes. - Okay. - It's Max Patkin. - Right. - Was exactly what I had said, the clown prince of baseball. Some people will say it was all a fact, but all a fact only performed in major league parks and he only, in his career, only, it was dwarfed by Max Patkin's career. Max was baseball clowning from the 1930s, all the way through the '80s. I, a clown for sixty-some years in nothing but minor league ballparks around the United States and Canada. And I was fortunate enough to see him twice. He came to our ballpark and asked for the North Carolina twice. And he was an incredibly talented fella. But I think, I think, the very most talented thing, you know, knowing baseball as I do, the very most talented thing that I ever saw him do, he had this, this air gun, a compressed air gun that would shoot baseballs and shoot them a long, long, long way. - Right. - And he would shoot baseballs up in the air far, far, far beyond. Any place that a man could hit or throw a baseball, hundreds and hundreds to feed up. And somehow or other, way into the dark, and he'd always throw it at night, way, way, way hundred to feed past the lights. And somehow, he would know where that ball was going to come down and he had a huge pocket on the back of his clowny pants. He had a baseball clown in the past. And he would look up and, somehow in the world, that ball would come down and he would catch it in his back pocket. - Amazing. - It was, I've never seen anything like it. I've never heard of anybody doing anything like that. Statistically speaking, the highest anybody has ever hit a baseball was something over 200 feet. I'm quite sure that Max Pat can shot that ball two or three times higher than that. Because there was a football stadium up the hill from our baseball stadium. And he'd be shooting basically, he'd demonstrate the thing first, to do it twice, and he shot that baseball way past that football stadium. So it actually had the power to shoot a baseball half a mile anyway. - The speed it must have been coming down after that. - Yes, the speed is actually 169 miles an hour. That's the terminal velocity of an object in lower atmosphere area. What happened to you know that? - I don't fancy standing back to something that's coming down that first step. - Well, but he was so completely remarkable. Max Pat can, I know I was lucky to have seen Max the baseball clown. - If you could get to Big King by making people out. Max Pat can wear the crown. - I would giggle to my side, just let in half every time that he came around. And the old grandstand would fill up with fans and the cheers come rolling down. - From my belly to the night I'm really star gel. - And Max the baseball clown. - I was just a little boy in North Carolina. - 11 years old, I think. - To young to go out and raise in hell with a girl and to young to take a drink. - But I wasn't too little to watch him go ahead a home run in a minor league town. - And watch a funny man in old baggy pants. - Max the baseball clown. - If you could get to Big King by making people out. - Max Pat can wear the crown. - I would giggle to my side, just let in half every time that he came around. - And the old grandstand would fill up with fans and the cheers come rolling down. - From my belly to the night I'm really star gel. - And Max the baseball clown. - Now kids grow up and people get old. - And the hair goes gray all in your head. - And it's taking me this many years to ask myself to see a live or dead. - But I wouldn't change a minute of the way that it's been for a second time around. - And I know I was lucky to have seen. - Max the baseball clown. - If you could get to Big King by making people out. - Max Pat can wear the crown. - I would giggle to my side, just let in half every time that he came around. - And the old grandstand would fill up with fans and the cheers come rolling down. - From my belly to the night I'm really star gel. - And Max the baseball clown. - From my belly to the night I'm really star gel. - And Max the baseball clown. - But what you then do is follow it up with the Bloody Burmese Blues, which is a kind of complete sort of having got us all nice and happy with Max. - Yes. - You kind of chop the legs from under us without sort of thing. - Yes, I will tell you about the Bloody Burmese Blues. - September the 27th, 2007 I was sitting in Sydney, Australia in a hotel. And that was the day that the paper reported the Burmese authorities shooting their Buddhist monks in this great. You know, because you've heard this all. I started as a journalist who also is a historian who also was a musician in the poet. I started writing that song underneath the headline of that Sydney Herald, the first line of that song where in this slightly hotel looking down at a war zone was a quote from two English tourists who were sitting looking out of a hotel. Several chords up in Rangoon and watching it happen. And so, you know, if you ask me about the process of my blues writing, you know, part of it is a form of journalism. ♪ ♪ We are in this lovely hotel looking down on a war zone. ♪ ♪ We're in this lovely hotel looking down on a war zone. ♪ ♪ We saw it all breaking down soldiers and the people they were firing on. ♪ ♪ Now I wonder, I wonder what the US press thinks of this. ♪ ♪ I wonder what the American press will do with this. ♪ ♪ I wonder if they're even this man. ♪ ♪ Or if they're just doing custom merry business. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Two completely contrasting tracks that are from no paid holidays. That was the Bloody Burmese Blues and before that Max the Baseball Clown. Well, next we got talking about the new album. Oh, the new record. Let me get it out for you. I will show it to you. You haven't seen it have you. I've seen so Michael McLuhan sent me some MP3's. I haven't seen the record in so long. Yeah, this is called Escape from the Chicken Coop. And that is me in a large 18-wheel truck talking on the CB. I'm going to open this for you. Let me show you the beautiful work that, well, you already know what Northern Blues does. This is my reading classes. All right. It just opens and opens and opens on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on like that. Brilliant. Uh-huh. Yeah, that is. They do really work at Northern. This is the man called Wycroft, is it? Yeah, the man called Wycroft, yes. Lovely. And as you will see, I have one song on here. Well, I have two that reference England, but one in particular reference to England because it was the story of an incident that occurred in Nottingham last year. That was should have done all. The song is called Should Have Done More. Right. I met a beggar on the street. We were there preparing to do a gig in Nottingham. And there was this beggar. One tooth in his head. No meat on his bones. Uh, begging. Hello sir, Chinese spare something for me please. The beggar's faded. Patient boys began. I was only in town for half a day and I declined. And he greeted another stranger with the same refrain. Well, as it turned out, the man had a wound that had to be practically gangrimious. Down to the bone, you could see the bone on his leg. And my response should have been when I saw this to say, "fellows, the gig can wait if I'm late too bad, but I've got to get a cab and take this man to a hospital and turn him over to the English National Health System because his life's in danger." And it was about an hour and a half before we were supposed to have a stage time. They didn't do it. I thought, you know, especially with Mr. Newbury there, I thought, well, they're all going to bitch at me for a lack of professionalism if I don't, if I don't just be at the gig, but I should have done more, I could have done more. I should have reached out to my brother in his time of need. That's what I should have done in Nottingham. ♪ ♪ He was hopping along on the streets of Nottingham. ♪ One sparkling English, mid-summer day. A one tooth in his head, no meat on his bones. In the unforgiving flow of life he was swept away. ♪ Hello, sir, can you spare something for me, please? ♪ The beggar's pasting plain and boys began. I was only in town for half a day and I declined. And he greeted another stranger with the same refrain. I should have done more, I could have done more. I should have reached out to my brother in his time of need. I could have done more, I could have done more. Because I know he would have done the same for me. ♪ I'd walk to myself if I feed every homeless wanderer. I'll have nothing for myself, one of these days. I watched him cross the street, hopping like a bird with a broken wing. Now I wish that I had to help him on his way. I should have done more, I could have done more. I should have reached out to my brother in his time of need. I could have done more, I could have done more. I know he would have done the same for me. ♪ ♪ ♪ And he had a friend on the streets of Nottingham. They embraced and I could see he was happy then. But he lifted up his pants and he showed a wound down to the bone. And I knew my chance to help wouldn't come again. I should have done more, I could have done more. I could have reached out to my brother in his time of need. I could have done more, I could have done more. ♪ But I know he would have done the same for me. ♪ But I know he would have done the same for me. ♪ You dedicated the album to Dave Dudley? Yes. Six days on the road? I'm going to make a home to life. Absolutely. I always thought he wrote that, but when I did some looking up... I didn't write it. He wrote some of his songs. But as I've come to understand, it's very traditional and almost expected in Nashville. He had co-writers and other people writing for him. At first I balked about writing anything with Gary Nicholson or anybody else. Hell, I'm a trained writer, I can write songs about anybody I know. I'm saying to myself, but they expect this thing. They expect people to come in and submit to the process. So I'm going back and writing a couple more in September with Gary Nicholson. Down in the reception when you started talking, it put me a mind of friends on the porch, which you do as a monologue. Why didn't you put music to it? Oh, I've got music that can go to it. Right. But Chris Hardrich and Fred Littwin both said, "Why don't you just recite that one?" Which is another unheard of technique on a country, less than record. Nobody just reads poetry on it. Not even when it's real autobiographical poetry. That's a real experience that occurred in about the year 2001. I was sitting on this porch looking west. Another band I was playing with called Another Roadside Attraction, a rock and roll band. A large alternative rock band of which I was old enough to be the father of everybody in it. The utility musician I played a lot of harp, played quite a lot of tambourine and percussion, sang some backup, played guitar on one or two. I was still in tracks. But I had a certain cache that all the funny somethings that were in the band didn't have. So you did actually see birds flying across? Yes. So the whole song of the song is, again, the song is a piece of journalism that was turned into a recorded band yet. There's a jet plane heading west in the evening sky and two birds circling in a falling sun. There's folks on the front porch just getting by and talking about the music we once have done. And the jet plane's going and the people in there don't care what's down below. And these birds keep flying, no thought of crying, silhouettes in the sunset glow. And I look at the con trail, the birds and the grass and the front porch I'm sitting on. My friends and I know that we can't fly and we'll be here when they're all gone. But there's horses for courses and a time for everything and I know that applies to me. And I'll wait for my plane and someday I might even grow wings you can wait and see. And the sun's all gone down now. And the plane's out of sight. The birds have gone home to their nest. And I'm still on the front porch, my buddies and I. And I guess that's the place that's the best. But the sky can get lonely and sometimes it gets cold. At night you can sure lose your bearings. But right here I have found a quiet place on the ground. Makes me sure that friends are for sharing. Friends on the porch from escape from the chicken coop. And before that the should have done more. The song about the beggar he met in Nottingham. Terrific stuff. Well I asked her about a song on the new album called Three Hundred Miles. Back to the album. Three Hundred Miles. Yeah. My favorite song on the album by the way. Yeah, Fred says you were in tears at the end of this or something. The song is about doing the job. But it's also about getting too old to the job anymore. I know I can't take it. I'm just trying to make it the best way I can. Though I'm getting up in years. And I had actually, by that point I'd actually retired from driving. When I wrote that song, that song is, I think I wrote that one. It '06, so I was a year and a half, at least, beyond my own commercial driving career. I was still driving a lot of miles. As the workers, '05 through '08, I think I probably drove. I'm going too hard on 15, 300,000 miles. My mama was a Christian. She had good intentions. I know that she wanted the best for her son. But she died and I grew up getting my daddy's full hauler. A heart-ranking, hard-driving son of God. And I'm down at the fuel stop with the bed bugs and the reefers. I'm drinking my coffee and waiting 'til when. I'm back on the dig road with the low boys and the hotbeds. It's 300 miles before I'll stop again. I got five on the low side and four on my high side. A little silver-boo dog is leaning away. A big truck, 300 more miles before I'll rest today. I'm rolling from the boy in St. Paul, Minneapolis, Miss Ula Montana, and on to Spokane. I got my pedal to the middle, hammer down and hop on in. I'm strapped to these wheels for machine band band. And I'm rolling down to parry with my front end of bumping. I'm leaning in the terminal and dropping down gears. I know I can't shake it, I'm just trying to make it. The best way I can, though I'm getting up in years. And I'm down at the fuel stock with the bed bugs and the reefers. Drinking my coffee and waiting 'til when. I'm back on the dig road with the low boys and the hotbeds. It's 300 miles before I'll rest again. 300 more miles 'til I'll rest again. 300 miles from Escape from the Chicken Coop. Well, this has been Nothing But the Blues with me, Cliff. And the website is www.nothingbuttheblues.co.uk. I hope you've enjoyed this slim special. I had a while of the time talking to him. He's a fantastic guy, very generous with his time. As I say, we spend about two hours just chatting at times about how he'd spilt wine over various things and all sorts of topics that you don't really want to hear on the radio. So I'm going to leave you with another track from the new album. It's another trucking song. It's called "18, 18 Wheeler". And I'll let Slim have the last word anyway. Regardless of anything else that I had said, God has blessed me. Or be with you and with thy spirit, you bet you. I'm a confirmed Episcopalian, which means Anglican. And I just want to say hi to all the Vickers and Rikers and Churret and everybody in the country of England and say y'all keep on. You know? Well, I did my walk around this morning to kick my tires, shift the gear and go. I'm home. I'm home. I'm home. I'm on this morning to kick my tires, shift the gear and go. I'm roaming on out of a stoyo, Oklahoma southbound of San Antonio. And my 18, 18 Wheeler in any other country is the same. Gotta keep them big wheel rollin' in any other language that's innate. Well, I rode down underneath the channel, had some Paris and London town. They're English, they drive on the wrong side of the road, and I don't know how they'll ever get around. In their 18, 18 Wheeler in any other country is the same. Gotta keep them big wheels rollin' in any other language that's innate. ♪ Well, in England they call it a glory. In America they call it a dry band. I don't know why they're callin' it down in India. And I can't pronounce what they call it in Japan. But it's an 18, 18 Wheeler in any other country is the same. Gotta keep them big wheels rollin' in any other language that's innate. Well, I'm working coast to coast on them highways. Rowin' 3,000 miles a week. I got this old mac in the big hole. If you know what I'm talkin' about it don't have to feed. But it's an 18, 18 Wheeler in any other country is the same. Gotta keep them big wheel rollin' in any other language that's innate. ♪ Why, in 18, 18 Wheeler in any other country is the same. Gotta keep them big wheels rollin' in any other language. In any other language that's innate. Why, in any other language that's innate. Why, in any other language that's innate. ♪ (upbeat music)