"Slappy" Dix

For Madge, who said, '...yer soakin' in it!'

About Me

This site is dedicated, of course, to the real "Slappy" Dix (a distant cousin, I'm proud to say!), a great troubadour and a hero to guitar pickers everywhere. Slappy passed away in the spring of '93 after a protracted, yet courageous battle with his loans officer at the local credit union.Slappy always said, "If it don't fit in a pine box, then it won't fit in yer heart!" Though typical of Slappy's pithy aphorisms, some people found the comment troubling. His wife, Krenell, always said that Slappy's passing filled her heart with a mixture of sadness and relief. It was true that in later years, Slappy's music mutated, a darker tonality became evident; a tinge of moral relativism began to creep in. Listen closely to his last big hit, "There's A Deviled Egg In My Lunch Box". The sacred and the profane begin to merge together, blurring Slappy's true intent, an intent so obvious and "in yer face" a decade earlier, that he triumphantly proclaimed himself to be, "Raisin' Cain While I'm Still Able". Still, the modulation into a minor key at the end of "Raisin'..." may not have been spotted by the casual audiophile. The almost inchoate dithering of that last fading chord signaled, to some of us, that change was manifesting in Slappy's world.This change gained momentum as the final chapter in Slappy's heavily blogged life meandered to a close. He fought it as best he could. Two weeks before his passing, Slappy released his final paean to a simpler time, "Parking My Pickup In Your Reserved Spot". Some consider this his best work - others just shake their heads and mumble that "Twitters & Pickles", the album on which PMPIYRS is the opening track, deserves to be shelved on a discount rack labeled "Vanity".Time will tell.
I edited my profile with Thomas Myspace Editor V3.6 !

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 8/14/2006
Band Website: cowjazz.ca
Band Members: ***Jack Walker - vocals, resophonic guitar, lap steel, guitar***Jim Dix - vocals, battered Guild, Gretsch Duo Jet, keyboards, harmonicas, resophonic guitar***John Merchant - vocals, bass, guitar, mandolin***Honorary Members: *Kenny Neal Jr. - various percussion wizardry (live and electronic), engineering and production smarts* Robert Reid (Bob, that's my job)*Paul Babiak - live performance knob twiddling, rehearsal engineer and "be over there now" Buddha* Better Halvas - Susan , Rosie (Mrs. Goldfish), and Lynda - three amazing women. What are they doing with three addled derelicts such as ourselves?, it's beyond all understanding.*Engineers: Kenny Neal Jr., John Merchant, Paul Babiak
Influences: Jim's (Slappy's) musical influences: David Wiffen, McKinley Morganfield, "Hock" Walsh, Lack Styles (Jack Walker), Cliff Reid, Doug "Duke" Lang (Norway House Concert, Victoria, 1978), Willie "The Lion" Smith, Wilbur Dix, who did a good imitation of Willie's stride piano, John Merchant, Tom Waits, Dylan, Climax Jazz Band, Freddy King, Phoebe Snow. As a child, drifting off to sleep listening to my father playing Hoagy Carmichael tunes on a piano that forty years later ended up in my living room. Both my brothers: George for his esoteric jazz discs, Steve for introducing me to Captain Beefheart at age fifteen. Weird sounds drifting up from the ravines behind our house. Charlie Christian. The rapturous cawing of a murder of crows at the first spring melt, cicadas at the peak of the summer heat. Gary Creighton and Frank Nakashima. Treeplanters singing on the line - a thousand trees a day in the worst slash and the lousiest singers in the world whooping it up at day's end as they gnawed on ginseng, grew bottled bean sprouts, and gargled whiskey. The Great Farini. My mother's violin, which sat for forty years, unplayed, in a mouldering case until the sad day that she pawned it. My oldest daughter Genevieve and the beautiful tone she gets from her constantly played violin. My youngest daughter, Elizabeth, who at age eleven announced solemnly that she had joined a rock band and would I please rent her a bass guitar and amplifier? My two uncles, Wes and Mel, in rare musical sessions with my father. Daryl Glanville, for introducing me to Reid. Joni Mitchell, Thomas Tallis, four lads from Liverpool, and The Mills Brothers. Hunter S. Thompson for pointing out that "the music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs." Yeah that's true, but this ain't about the music business......this is about music.
Sounds Like: them wave files...MP3 files; the digitized and impossibly difficult to play Harmony guitars of the audio world where we all float, slightly strung out, half an inch higher than we should, twitching expectantly above the ever so slightly twisted fretboard.
Record Label: i.r.diculous productions
Type of Label: None

My Blog

Reflecting Back

Who took the girlAway from all the things she loved?Reflecting back the sunNow that something's caught her eyeShe sees the moon & stars are always on the runWho took her eyes?She used to see, but ...
Posted by "Slappy" Dix on Tue, 13 May 2008 10:01:00 PST

The Glance

The Glance                   I'll cast these tangled nets of thought And let your currents smooth them Restore beli...
Posted by "Slappy" Dix on Thu, 25 Jan 2007 06:19:00 PST

drinkers & dogs

One of my favourite writers... this from a Granta burble.I Have Heard You Calling in the NightBy Thomas Healy'I had been sober for most of that summer. An occasional slip now and then, but nothing com...
Posted by "Slappy" Dix on Sat, 16 Sep 2006 06:05:00 PST

I keep a close watch on this dog of mine.

QMy dog has just killed another squirrel Third one this yearEver watch a squirrel run up a tree?They travel in a jerky spiral If humans tried to catch one, we'd always be scraping our noses on bare ba...
Posted by "Slappy" Dix on Thu, 24 Aug 2006 06:54:00 PST

The Mooch

The "mooch" has wandered in through the back door of the machine shop, having spent the last half hour lurking in the loading dock area. He's an employee in another district of the campus, always on t...
Posted by "Slappy" Dix on Thu, 07 Sep 2006 10:59:00 PST