One good turn deserves another. Old Man J went solo on the last show, and it looks like The Funk Doc’s going to be hogging most of this one. The Old Man was away in Scotland for a few weeks, and since I returned to Germany during his absence, the onus for Show 8 fell on me.

This is unfortunate, because that means another podcast without the two of us being able to feed off each other or engage in our normally witty and thoughtful banter. But where dynamism might be lacking, hopefully we’ll make up for it with an interesting yarn. Plus our banter is neither thoughtful nor witty, so who cares.

This week’s show features a short story about a recent trip I took with my brother down in the American South. Both of us had never been anywhere near it really, except for one brief stay in Virginia eons ago. So when my brother told me he was planning a trip down to the Deep South, I booked myself a flight back to San Francisco lickity split. I flew back at the beginning of August and we took off in a Toyota Corolla a few days later. Spirits were high until we hit the Ozarks...

Clarksville, Arkansas, in the foothills of the Ozarks.

Yikes.

Somewhere in Oklahoma.

The music this week features a few bluegrass and other folk tunes, and while they are the opposite of funky, I think they appropriately accompany the reading. I also figured it’s high time to give some of our country’s whiter musicians a bit of exposure, and what better way to do that than to strap a fiddle or a mandolin to a high-pitched Southern gentleman?

The first and last tracks were by Bill Monroe titled “Roanoke” and “Goodbye Old Pal” respectively. In the middle I threw in the famous “Dueling Banjos” for good measure. So bust out your favorite Kentucky bourbon, a jug, and a banjo if you got one, cuz we’re about to hoe this mutha down.

And if any other Yanks out there, or Euros for that matter, got any Southern stories, let us hear ’em.