Camp Mi Casa, Old Route 66, Carthage, MO,. (Jon Sall photograph)
Like a broken needle in a compass, selling my camper van left me lost in the slipstream. The blue converted 2015 Ford Transit van was the subject of 2018’s “The Camper Book (A Celebration of a Moveable American Dream)”with fine photographs from Jon Sall and a great foreword from actor-Detroit Tigers fan Jeff Daniels.
The van became a 10-year chapter of my life.
While looking back at the book and photos we took along the way, I arrived at the “what was I thinking?” moment. The van was likely a whiplash response to the passing of [...]
New Morells music! From left, Lou Whitney, D. Clinton Thompson, Ron Gremp and Maralie. Photo taken in Columbia, MO.
Musical archeologist and retired mapmaker Glenn Steinkamp first heard the Morells in 1980. The Morells-Skeletons were one of the great American rock-punk-soul-country bands of that era.
They were based out of Springfield, Mo. They are featured on a beautiful mural in downtown Springfield. They made such an impression on me that we had to make a full-length documentary on them.
The Morells radiated the joy that everyone is searching for today.
In 1982 the Morells released [...]
“Doubles on Ice is a previously unheard Lou Whitney composition and I always wanted to use the image of a figure skater in a celebration of Lou.
A couple of years ago recording engineer Eric Schuchmann was doodling around The Studio, the beloved recording space on the outskirts of Springfield, Mo. He stumbled across a DAT tape marked “publishing demos 98-99.” Schuchmann had been long-time right-hand man for the brilliant bandleader-bassist-singer-producer Lou Whitney.
Whitney was also the spiritual force behind the great American rock n’ soul bands The Skeletons, The Morells, and the seminal [...]
The Historic Red Rooster as the Hillsboro Hotel in the early 1900s.
We are privileged to have our “Beacons in the Darkness: Hope and Transformation Among America’s Community Newspapers” book party become the first public event at the Historic Red Rooster Inn in Hillsboro, Il. The town of Hillsboro (pop. 6,100) is a town of wonder and it is about an hour’s drive south of Springfield, Il.
The Red Rooster building turns 120 years old on Nov. 21. It opened as the Hillsboro Hotel and the initials were carved into the anchor post of the lobby staircase. They can still be seen today. The free event begins at 7 p.m. on Nov. [...]
