For the last eight years I've used a little bulletin board called West Virginia Home www.wvhome.com/cafe to post my thoughts on just about everything. It's hometown feel and sense of community made us feel less isolated than we are up here in the middle of nowhere.
I wasn't a favorite of the power structure and was always pointing out the corruption and double deals. I've told all my fans and enemies that this is where I'll be posting from today on. So, excuse the patchwork of ideas and places...but know they all relate somehow to raobrothers.
Besides, I'm going to be giving a play by play of the local elections and players and this is a safer place to be.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Moaning in Elkins, West Virginia
Monday, February 25, 2008
RAO versus THE CITY OF ELKINS
This post is about a lawsuit that never happened. I attempted to become the mayor of the City of Elkins, a small town in the mountains of West Virginia. My filing was refused. They said I was too late. That's when things got interesting.
Here's my formal announcement for the office of Secretary of State delivered during the public comment period at an Elkins City Council meeting.
| |||||||||||
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
CROSBY STILLS NASH AND ME
I was going to write a book about us, but our mutual friend and manager, Gerry Tolman warned me not to "tell tales out of school". Good advice. Tabloid sensations are a dime a dozen. I told Gerry I wasn't going to dish dirt, though there was plenty, but make it a scholarly piece.
I first saw them perform in San Diego just after Woodstock. They had Neil along. The louder the overhead landing jets screamed, the more they twisted their volume knobs to 11. I couldn't hear for days. Being a novice guitar builder, I was more interested in their axes than the fringe jackets and hair.
Ten years later I had a chance to meet Stills at his home high on Mulholland Drive. I was hired on to appraise his collection of a 125 guitars. An enjoyable three week project stretched into a few months. He had so much repair work needed, I could have stayed a year. I was already booked to go on the road with the Beach Boys and tend to Carl Wilson's guitars and set the stage.
While in Boston, I called Stills' house looking for his manager, but got Stephen instead. He asked what I was doing. I told him. "With those guys?...you've got to be kidding. Get your ass back here. You're going to work for me". I hemmed and hawed, and told him I'd see him the next day. That day was the start of a four year stint that taught me the true nature of sleep deprivation.
Stills was the ultimate workaholic. He never stopped. If he wasn't writing, performing, or traveling...he would be working on his golf game. At the time, he was doing his solo gig, using the California Blues Band to polish the tunes set for a new album. Columbia Records sent down the edict that, for the first time in his career, he would have to have an outside producer. It was settled that Barry Beckett, of Muscle Shoals Sound, would be the one.
Barry worked with the cream of the rock world and arrived in LA with a leash. He made it clear the project wouldn't be the usual marathon, but recording would only last three weeks. One week to mix in Alabama. An album in a month? We all laughed, but were pleasantly surprised as Stills became the definition of responsible. Never late, always prepared and following orders. The album was finished just as Beckett predicted.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
MOUNTAINS DON'T GROW ON TREES
Hello. I'm one of the many Rao Brothers scattered from our hometown of Pittsburgh. I'm writing this from the mountains of West Virginia.
West Virginia used to have a slogan on our Welcome signs proclaiming..."Welcome to Wild, Wonderful West Virginia". Our present Governor Joe Manchin has changed it to "West Virginia, Open for Business". He should have posed with coal dust on his face.
Coal has dominated here for a hundred years and isn't leaving. It wasn't until recently that Big Coal went over the line. Mountaintop removal mining is spreading like a plague. Over 1,000 miles of streams have been buried by the giant "valley fills". A fill occurs after the top 600 feet of the mountain is blasted to bits and the tiny seam of coal is dragged and shipped. All the rest is bulldozed down into the valley.
Don't take my word. Google image, Youtube video, or ask anybody in our southern coalfields if mountaintop removal doesn't really suck.
I formally announced my candidacy for Secretary of State at an Elkins City Council meeting weeks ago. Both the print and radio media were there, but chose not to cover a hometown boy going for a statewide office. Being a member of the Mountain Party must not make me legitimate.
My long and sometimes technically boring announcement is posted elsewhere, but I'll try to upload it here. In the meantime, it can be read at www.wvhome.com/cafe
Once at wvhome, click "In the News"...scroll down to "RAO ISN'T WORTH THE INK"...then go to page 3..if you don't want to wade through the preliminaries.
