I hate to say anything good about Coach K

So I won't. But if you watch any cable sports, you're likely to see the Larry Linville lookalike on an advertisement for DePuy USA, maker of joint replacements, including the new hip he got a few years back. I'm a big fan of prosthetics (my ex's life is much improved, thanks to knee replacements).

But what's really cool about this ad is that the older guitarist you see gyrating around the stage is the great Roy Gaines. Dude played with T-Bone Walker when Roy was 11 or 12. He's now in his 70s, and he still does this.

Back in the day, I became a fan of Gaines thanks to Gary "the Wagman" Wagner at KLON. Bought a couple of CDs and then saw him live twice in Vegas at the Railhead.

The shows were dynamite. Plus, he was signing CDs between sets and I got a chance to speak with him briefly. What a sweet guy.

I know blues musicians don't make a lot of money, so I'm guessing the residuals he gets from these commercials will help pay the bills. Good for Roy and good for De Puy for featuring him.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Feedback welcome: As you may have noticed, I've added a comment link. Let me know if you have trouble with it ... and all comments will be valued! Unless, of course, they tick me off ...
Read more
Shameless self-promotion I made my debut as a food critic in the Rocky today, sampling a neat little place near LoDo. If you're stumbling around there late night and need a protein/carb infusion, the buffet's open midnight-3 Friday and Saturdays. This will not become a regular gig, but it's fun.
Read more

Newspapers, 1690-2009?

OK, I have a personal stake here, because the newspaper I work for may fold in a few weeks. But this may be the year that a number of medium-size and larger cities lose their dailies, at least in the form of a paper-and-ink product delivered to the customers' front door. Name your reason for the demise of the daily -- Craigslist surely accelerated a trend that was well under way -- but there are plenty of reasons to be scared scatless when general-interest newspapers disappear. This op-ed from The Wall Street Journal sums up a lot about the challenges "citizen journalists" trying to cover local events will face, at least initially. Over at The Corner , Mark Krikorian has echoed these thoughts. There may be people who are passionate enough about local affairs (and who have lots of time on their hands) and are perfectly willing and capable of attending public hearings and reporting what happens. But before bloggers or other online-only media can replace newspapers, they
Read more