Breakfast With Paul, Drinks With Dan

8/19/07

Yesterday proved noteworthy. I met up with southern writer Paul Hemphill at Manuel's Tavern. At 11AM, at the corner of North Avenue and North Highland--located near Atlanta's Virginia Highlands neighborhood--the temperature read 98 degrees--a couple of hours later, the thermometer read 104. Hotlanta, indeed. Hemphill's been a regular at Manuels for 40 years and we decided to meet up for my upcoming article on him.

Hemphill's 15 books stand as an indelible body of work which encompasses portraits of the south we are not likely to see again. Hemphill's work--always revolving around southern backdrops or characters--includes inimitable stories on baseball, football, music, roller derby queens, stock car drivers, moonshiners, evangelists and morticians. His latest work, a Hank Williams biography--Lovesick Blues--serves as a fine book on the Godfather of country music, and Hemphill growing up the son of an Alabama truckdriver (the 18th was his father's birthday).  Hemphill's book Long Gone proves one of the greatest fiction baseball stories in literature. If you ever get a chance to check out the film (TV) version of Long Gone, do yourself a favor and watch it.

Hemphill was diagnosed with throat cancer in April. After a torturous summer, he is now cancer free. I also had the pleasure of meeting his wife Susan. The breakfast was formidable, and there's no doubt Hemphill intends on telling a few more stories. I look forward to seeing the Hemphill's more often. Look for my article on Paul Hemphill soon.

Later, my old friend Daniel Hutchens of Bloodkin stopped by to discuss me writing some liner notes for the upcoming 6 CD Bloodkin collection of unreleased recordings. I pulled out alot of old pictures when Danny, Eric and I used to live together in Athens. Those pictures brought grins to our faces and old reminders of our collective past. Much has changed in the last 17 years...but some things will never change...

Daniel Hutchens is a fine southern songwriter in his own right. Widespread Panic covers at least one of his songs (they cover almost a dozen) on any given night as Danny and/or Bloodkin continue hitting the road. We discussed old times, our Fandango Brother recordings and other potential upcoming amusements. To be continued...

James Calemine
JCalemine@swampland.com

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