Monday, June 9, 2008

As you might have seen if you checked dahl.com over the weekend, or as you might have heard from the news or a friend, Mike Murphy, the bass and mandolin player for the Larkin And Moran Brothers, passed away on Friday. He was killed by a hit and run driver while he was out walking his dog. Mike was always very quiet when he was at the studio or at a remote broadcast with the L&M Brothers, but he always had a nice smile and seemed like a great kid. Who would think staying home on a Friday night and walking the dog could end up like that? We will all miss Mike, but I’m glad I got the chance to know him a little bit from his visits on the show.

Legendary bluesman Tony Joe White will be visiting the show on Monday, and Buzz and I are scheduled to jam with him. I have been practicing all weekend, and I’m sure that I’ll still screw it up. Buzz, on the other hand, will waltz in, ask “what key?”pull out the appropriate harmonica and nail it. This is where I would normally make fun of harmonica playing, but since TJW plays one too, I’ll keep the smart-ass remarks to myself. Tony wrote “Rainy Night In Georgia” and “Polk Salad Annie,” so he’s pretty good. He played a set at Blues Fest on Sunday. Sadly, I missed that as I was watching the White Sox give the Minnesota Twins the blues to the tune of 12 to 2.

I also went and saw You Don’t Mess With the Zohan over the weekend. It starts off kind of slowly, but then it really seems to pick up steam as the bits start building and become running gags. Rob Schneider plays a Palestinian cab driver and he is as funny as I’ve ever seen him. Zohan ended up being a really funny movie. Adam Sandler wrote it with Judd Apatow (40 Year Old Virgin) and Robert Smigel (of SNL Da Bears fame). The three of them seem like they worked very well together. I could have done without most of the superhuman strength and abilities bits, since they turned it into a complete farce, but they still made a very entertaining movie. I like it better when the people in the comedy seem like they could really exist.