Portable Man profile picture

Portable Man

Chock full o' hits!

About Me

Blue collar scholar, singer/songwriter, truck driver, deltiologist. Have worked in a previous life as a typesetter and layout person, best gig ever was building all the signage for two music museums in Memphis; archived and labelled items from Sun, Stax etc. which included de-briefings of characters such as Calvin Newborn, Rufus Thomas, Billy Lee Riley, Booker T and the MGs, Isaac Hayes, Gatemouth Brown, Jessie Mae Hemphill. As a songwriter, I've had the good fortune to have a tune covered by Curtis Salgado, one of the greatest voices the world has ever heard. Believe it or not, the tune is titled "Portable Man." You can hear it on his Soul Activated album (Shanache Records).DELMARK GOLDFARB: Up To My Neck

Renegade hipster with deep, rumbling vocals, snappy guitar-slinging and a wayward way with words. "Best new writer of good-time music," says Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Famer John Sebastian (Lovin' Spoonful).

My Interests

Music, history, photography, music history, my granddaughter Violet, vintage post cards, volcanoes.

I'd like to meet:

Randi Rhodes, Thom Hartmann and Joseph Campbell acolytes.

Music:

Chet Atkins, Josh White, Mose Allison, Kweskin Jug Band, Junior Brown, Greenbriar Boys, Paul Butterfield, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Gatemouth Brown, Willie Dixon, Kathy Mattea, Joan Armatrading, Fiona Boyes, Bill Ellis, Joseph Spence, Lovin' Spoonful, Toots Thielman, Eddie Lang, Bill Monroe.

Movies:

East of Eden, The Last Waltz, all Coen bros, Jarmusch, Scorcese.

Television:



Books:

Kurt Vonnegut, James Lee Burke, Upton Sinclair, Hunter S. Thompson, Kinky Friedman, Elmore Leonard.

Heroes:

Saul Steinberg, Sol Alinsky, Shel Silverstein and Molly Ivins.

My Blog

Hoboes, Clowns & Kings: Cruisin' with Skelton

It was 1982. For a moment of surreal midsummer serendipity, a larger-than-life American humorist lands in the passenger post. Originally published in the Southeast (PDX) Times. - - - - - - - - - - - -...
Posted by Portable Man on Sun, 03 Sep 2006 09:17:00 PST

Black Cat CD: the ROOTSY stuff!

This is the place to visit, my good friends in Georgia, Black Cat CD even if you don't know what you're looking for.
Posted by Portable Man on Tue, 25 Jul 2006 08:18:00 PST

B'festin'!!! Pt. III: We Hear Dead People

For nearly twenty years Portland's downtown riverside park becomes a Brigadoon of the Blues with a city that rises for one weekend each summer. Hundreds of thousands of people have been awash in epiph...
Posted by Portable Man on Sat, 01 Jul 2006 07:06:00 PST

B'festin'!!! Pt. II: Johnnie Shines Fixes Breakfast

It was good and not so good in the days when we first ran the festival on no money and mostly wistful intentions. I put two extra telephone lines into my living room and would mostly answer the phone ...
Posted by Portable Man on Wed, 28 Jun 2006 07:03:00 PST

BLUESFESTIN'!!!

GETTING GASSED WITH JOHN LEE HOOKER That first year lots of folks insisted that no one would show up for a summertime blues festival alongside the Portland riverfront. The park was used mostly fo...
Posted by Portable Man on Sun, 25 Jun 2006 11:03:00 PST