Georgia Gazette

Here listening to Georgia Gazette on Georgia Public Radio, I'm Emily Bush. In this half hour, news from the Georgia Legislature, a group of Athens seniors who are walking their way to many riches, and the art of Norwegian and Vardmunch will have all that and more, so stay with us. It was another short week for state lawmakers, but a busy one nonetheless, as they tried to beat an important deadline that determined which bills died for the session and which ones lived on to fight another day. James R. Groves is with us again here in the studio to discuss the Cummings and Goings

at the Gold Dome this week. Now James, first of all, legislators met only for three days, so why did they take a couple of days off? Actually, they took a couple of days off this Emily for the Easter and pass over holidays. It's something they haven't done in quite a while because usually they're finished by now. This session is now reaching into April and we've looked it up. It's the longest session in over three decades, so this is something new for them, usually they're out well before St. Patrick's Day, so they're just taking a couple of days off for the holidays and to recharge the batteries because they had a very long day on Tuesday that was cross over day and what that basically means is any bill that's been introduced this session has until that day to clear at least one chamber, which means it has to clear either the house or either the Senate, wherever it was introduced. If it does it, it's technically declared dead for the session, so they met the house met until almost midnight on Tuesday.

The Senate met till about 6 p.m., so they passed probably 30 or 40 bills in the first couple of days of the week, so they were just going to take a few days off to recharge the batteries and as I mentioned for the holiday. You mentioned that Tuesday was cross over day, so what really got accomplished there? Really several high-profile bills waited until the last day to make it through one chamber and interestingly enough, three of those bills were introduced by Governor Barnes. He's been very successful during his first three years in office and getting his legislation through the General Assembly in a timely fashion, but he's had some trouble this year beginning with the predatory lending bill, which almost didn't make it out, and that's a bill that basically protects citizens who have gotten into these high-cost loans where they charge them exorbitant interest rates for some home repair work that they want, and they end up losing their homes because they can't keep up with the payments, and if specific people are targeted, elderly homeowners, people with bad credit, poor homeowners, they're all

targeted, and they want them to enter into these loans because they can eventually take control of the house, these predatory lenders, and that bill passed on the final day in the afternoon, the house debated it for over three hours before finally sending it on to the Senate, and what they did, they added 11 amendments that essentially gutted the bill. The governor was not very happy with what they did. They added some amendments that the banking industry, which has gone on record as opposing this bill, they added some amendments that the banking industry wanted, but late in the week, the Senate committee took many of those amendments out, so on Monday or Tuesday when the Senate debates this very same bill, they're probably going to pass something closer to what the governor wanted, and that setting up a very intense fight at the end of the session over which version of the bill is going to pass, and I'll make a prediction right now, that will be one

of the last bills passed this session. We still don't know what form it will be in, will it be the weaker version passed by the house, or the stronger version passed by the Senate. The governor has a lot of influence, so the guess is it'll probably be a little closer to the Senate version of the bill, and what it does is it prohibits, it caps the interest rate that some lenders can charge poor customers for a loan, so right now it would be a 13%, anything above a 13% interest would be considered a high cost loan, and it would have all these other triggers that would kick in. It prohibits flipping in which they continually refinance a loan with the borrowers knowledge, but they don't really understand what's happening, and that allows them to hide some more fees. So that's going to come down to the wire. The house also took steps to address the teacher shortage in Georgia. We're supposed to have 20,000 teacher shortage by the end of the decade, and the house voted to let retired teachers come back and teach in the classroom full time under the current law. If you've

got 30 years and you can retire with full benefits in Georgia, but if you want to teach, you got to come back and teach only full time, and what's happening is in the border towns and communities, many of the retired teachers are going across the border into Alabama, South Carolina, and Florida, and Tennessee, and teaching full time. So Georgia is losing many, really good teachers to the neighboring states. So under this bill, even if you are retired, you can come back and teach full time at a full salary. There were some people who were concerned about the cost of the state, but the house voted to do that. It looks like the Senate is going to pass that as well, just a couple of other things. The Senate passed the governor's identity theft bill that makes it a kick-send some fines for people who steal someone's identity. It makes it a felony. If you're caught twice trying to sell false documents, that's three to ten years in prison and a $25,000 fine, victims can sue the people who steal their identity, and it makes businesses responsible if they don't

adequately destroy personal information. And finally, one other thing, if you're caught driving while under the influence of alcohol with a child in the car, that will be an aggravated misdemeanor on a bill that cleared the Senate. And that would be 120 days in jail and a $5,000 fine felony on the second offense. So that's another bill that just made it out under the wire this session. Were there any other important bills that beat out that deadline? Well there was another good one of cell phones while driving. That has been a big topic in the session this year, and the Senate at the last minute passed a bill that would add two points to a driver's license and a $50 fine if they have an accident while they're talking on a cell phone. Now there was a cell phone bill that did not beat the deadline, and that's a bill that bans the use of handheld cell phones entirely while driving. So that's

one of the bills that did not make it in. There are a couple of others. The so-called Tweety Bird bill did not make it in under the deadline. And what that does is that gives local school systems the right to relax. There's zero tolerance school weapons policies. What they're trying to do is eliminate cases like one that occurred in Cobb County last year where a girl brought a key chain with a Tweety Bird doll on the end of it, and they considered that a weapon, and they suspended her under the zero tolerance policy of that school system. So the bill that was introduced this year and did not make it would have taken into account cases like that. So unfortunately for many educators who wanted that bill did not get through. So the oversight of Hart's Field Airport Republicans wanted the state to take over the operation of the airport because I think it's being mismanaged. That didn't make it through. And neither did a

bill that requires taxi cab drivers to undergo background checks. So those are just a few of the bills that didn't make it out. With just a few days left, what's next for the general assembly? Well, now that crossover day has come and gone, what will happen is each chamber will vote on legislation already passed by the other. The Senate will vote on house bills and the House will vote on Senate bills. And that's designed to just give final approval to things to wrap everything up before the end of the session and get everything done. That's what they'll be doing for the next week or so. What we're hearing right now is that the House and Senate will meet every day next week. And then there's a rumor as to when the last day will be. One rule of thought is that they will meet on Saturday and signing die then or they may take the following Monday off and then signing die or in the session a week from Tuesday. So we have about a week and a half left in this

session one way or another. Well, thanks so much for coming in and giving us all that information from under the gold dome this week. James Argroffs. Thank you, Emily. You Much like kids out hunting Easter eggs, a group of retirees and Athens exudes the same joyful sense of purpose when they walk around town. Patricia J. Priest brings us this story from the Azalea line streets around the University of Georgia. There's a lot of old money in Athens. Claude Williams knows just where to find it. At least once in a month I find coins in the pay telephones. You've ever played the slot machines which I seldom would ever do but I know

what it sounds when you press this in the coin to drop it. You know there are those people who play, let's walk this way. Claude Williams, who is one year shy of 80, co-founded what he calls the Athens chapter of the Street Money Clubs of America. He admits there are no other such clubs yet. It's a fun loving group of about 120 people who meet for supper once a year to pull the money they've found and exchange stories about coin-finding bonanzas. At their annual meeting at a local restaurant, retired interior designer Carol Duval tells the crowd about searching for coins with the wife of her retired pastor. And I guess our biggest haul this year was when the fraternity members had discarded a sofa and so I got up on it and bounced and Virginia would get out the money and you would not believe how much money we sold. The oldest member of the group, 90-year-old Fred Birchmore, gets up at 5 a.m. to walk three miles every day, Rainer Shine with his wife Willadine.

We pick up hundreds of ballpoint pins and folding money and pennies. I will, my wife picks up the pennies. I don't pick them up but I pick up quarters and we get anywhere from 50 to 100 dollars. Maybe you don't want to tell me but what's the luckiest spot? In front of the girl's dormitories, they just build a money and of course they don't bother to pick it up. And I would feel bad when we find $20 bills except that Reverend John Appleton and his Baptist Deacons will double it and that's $40 to go to some poor person who needs it more than those rich girls who have $20. Have you found $20 often? Around the day or two before Christmas holidays. I'm giving away my secrets. They share their secrets and stores of coins because the money goes to a good cause.

The coins and additional donations from the group's members and Deacons at the First Baptist Church provide funds for faith-based charities. The total raised in the eight years the club's been active is a whopping $10,000. In addition to their good works and good cheer, these folks seem to have found the fountain of youth. This youthful vigor is especially notable in Claude Williams. The one who checks for coins and payphones on his daily johns around Athens. Well I started walking regularly for exercise in the early 60s when John Kennedy was president and the health of our young people came to his attention that so many of them could not qualify

physically for the military and I am walking about 1,200 miles a year. Now so many people use treadmills today. Well my wife has one she rides it and I tell her that I was trying to get over with treadmills all my life and I don't like it. I like to get out, see people, fresh air. About a mile into his walk at a pretty fast pace I might add he rounded a corner to cut across the parking lot of a modest department complex. Look at this. This is what is called of the mother load if it's more than 25 pennies which this is going to be one two three four five you can't. Last year Williams found 900 pennies lots of other coins lost trinkets and a $20 bill all told about $60. Much to his wife Shagran he even digs up coins lodged in concrete.

All this from a man some call the Ted Turner of Athens because he got his start and outdoor advertising and later invested in radio. He launched the city's local morning paper and founded a couple of banks in Georgia. We've hit the mother load. Why somebody would drop that many coins and not notice it is just amazing and I'm sure these young people have come in and are this apartment early today. Now there's another penny right there. Where? Oh. There's an ophthalmologist who has turned back here who has confirmed it. I think my site has improved because I'm using my eyes and I see there's one. Yes it looks like maybe. You know we're doing great. This is epic. What? Do you remember a time when a penny bought something? Oh yes a penny could buy a great deal. You could have a good time when I was in the late 30s

in early 40s with 25 cents. Well what could you do with the penny? Pack a gum or a penny. I remember you could bowl a game for five cents. I would cope with a nickel. William shrugs at the notion that people might think him eccentric. I don't mind. See if we find a quarter now with the green slam code. We've got a nickel, diamond, plenty of penny. He never did find that quarter along the four miles we ranged around Athens but picked up a nickel two times 52 pennies and took a sip from the fountain of youth. Patricia J. Priest teaches broadcast riding part time at the Grady College of Journalism at the

University of Georgia. The story teller Barry Stewart-Man knows what it means to dress up a hot dog. Sarah Lynn's mother put a hot dog in a plain bun with some chips on a plate. If you want anything on it you can get it yourself. I have to get ready to go. Sarah Lynn stared at her lunch. It'd be okay with something on it she thought to herself but she was too lazy and bored to get up so she picked up the hot dog and took a bite. Meanwhile in the refrigerator everyone was a guest. It's an insult cried the mustard. We've got to save that child from a lifetime of un-garnished unaccompanied mediocrity. The ketchup was red with rage and immediately called an emergency meeting of the Condimental Congress. We can't keep these feelings bottled up, the relish said

sweetly. She's got herself in quite a pickle. They sent the steak sauce to stake out the situation and when he returned they grilled him with questions. The vinegar whined sourly. We've got to do something. The dressings all dressed for action. The horse radish saddled up and everyone loosened their lids and popped their squirt tops. Remember, called the mayonnaise, don't spread yourself too thin and so began the spicy salty assault. It was a ghastly, grisly, greasy scene. Sarah Lynn was caught completely off guard amidst the seasoning onslaught. The hot dog in her hand smothered in savory color. In an instant there were sauces everywhere, tartar on the tablecloth, barbecue on the brake front, soy on the ceiling. How they flowed and dripped, chutney from the chandelier, curry from the countertop, salsa from the window-sills into the olive oils slick around Sarah Lynn's feet. Suddenly she heard her mother returning and everything was still. As she looked around Sarah Lynn saw brighter colors than she had ever seen before. The glowing gold of the chandelier, the juicy red

on the curtains, the tasty turquoise and the landscape painting over the brake front and the scintillating smiles and the family photos on the wall. Come on, honey, let's, her mother was a ghast. They're sat Sarah Lynn silently with a few crumbs on her plate and a vivid mess of yellow, red and green around her mouth. But she was wearing a big smile because she had eaten her lunch with relish. Storyteller Barry Steward-Man lives in Atlanta. Storyteller Barry Steward-Man lives in Atlanta. Norwegian artist Edvard Munch is best known for his painting, The Scream. That ghost-like figure with its mouth wide open and its hands over its ears has been replicated in posters,

key chains and other merchandise all over the world. A few years after making The Scream, Munch suffered a breakdown and withdrew from the European art scene. But he continued painting and now the high museum of art in Atlanta is exhibiting the later works. Emily Copp spoke with exhibit curator Carrie Prisbilla. Carrie Prisbilla, who curates the exhibit, called After The Scream, The Late Paintings of Edvard Munch, said Munch knew death at an early age. When he was four, his mother died of tuberculosis. A few years later, his sister died. In his early years, Munch was something of a prodigy. He received a scholarship to study art abroad. In his late 20s, Munch painted The Scream. It seemed to capture the angst people felt then about modernization and technology, feelings that are still around today.

Prisbilla says while he was away from his home country, he lived a wild life. He falls in with a very bohemian crowd and starts living this very fast life that's fraught with the sort of hanging out in nightclubs, staying up really late, drinking heavily involved with all sorts of romantic liaisons that one of which proves to be, you know, quite dramatic in which there's a gun that figures in and there's a struggle over the gun and one of Munch's fingers is partly shot off. In 1908, Munch had an emotional breakdown. He entered a sanatorium for eight months and when he came out, he moved back to Norway, bought a home, called Eccaly, and made paintings, prints, and photographs there until he died. Munch is known for these kind of anxiety-filled subjects, but he, in fact, does these really rich, luscious landscapes. He does self-portraits. It's one of those sort of checking in with himself, self-scrutinies, he called them, and there are

a bunch of self-portraits in the exhibition. These depictions of life at Eccaly. Most Americans have never seen these works. Only three of the 62 paintings in this exhibit have been in the United States before, says Prisbilla, but they are as revealing as the scream. Two self-portraits hang side-by-side in the first room of the exhibit. Munch painted them in the early 1920s. In the first one, called the Nightwanderer, Munch stands off-center. He's staggered looking with dark circles under his eyes and wild hair. That's the Munch we know, Prisbilla says, unlike the man in the other painting. This is Munch's banker, I say. It's the sort of portrait of the man about the house. Munch loved well-made clothing painted in, you know, custom-made suits, and here he is wearing that custom-made suit, hands in the pocket. The tonalities are much lighter. It's the same place. It's exactly the same place that he's standing in the house,

and yet he looks much more of the well-to-do, affluent, comfortable, not just comfortable physically, but comfortable psychologically, and actually rather powerful sort of man. These aren't the only self-portraits in the exhibit. There are other ones of Munch standing with anonymous women. Munch never married. His newfound austerity extended to his personal life. The exhibit is organized chronologically and thematically. Norwegian landscapes feel most of the other rooms. One of Prisbilla's favorites is called Starry Night. This is looking off in the distance, and you can see the lights of Oslo, but you see this kind of beautiful snow reflecting the light, and yet these sort of strange dark shadows that you can't quite tell. There's a profile here. Is that a figure there in these long dark shadows? But I can almost feel it stepping out on

the veranda of his mansion, that echoey, standing out there and breathing that air and that the way cold night winter air in the north feels. You can almost feel it as you look at these paintings. It seems Munch wanted his art to do more than merely represent nature, Prisbilla says. He wanted his paintings to experience it. We have photographs of it and here in the exhibition of him standing outdoors in the snow like knee deep in snow painting. He liked natural light on his paintings, and he also liked the effects of weather on his paintings. So he would leave them sitting out in the snow for months, and they'd sit there maybe through the spring thaw or maybe from fall into the first snow. And so they've been really stressed by the weather. And he liked that effect in terms of the kind of age on the canvas, but it's made a lot of these paintings very fragile so they can't travel a lot. And that's why this exhibit is so rare. Most of these

paintings stay at the Munch Museum in Oslo. One of the paintings that has been in the United States before, however, is the clock in the bed. It's another self-portrait completed two years before his death. In it, Munch stands in his bedroom in front of his paintings and between a grandfather clock and his twin size to bed. And by placing himself between those two, it's that sort of, you know, we know where life begins, we never know when life is going to end. And then surrounding himself with what is essentially his family, his paintings. And the look on his face is one that's kind of stricken. And in fact, he's about the same size as the clock, which becomes very coffin-like. Munch died in that bedroom in 1942. The year the knot seeds invaded Oslo. One night, an explosion shattered the windows of his home. Soon after that, Munch contracted bronchitis and died. The exhibit, after the scream, the late paintings of Edvard Munch will be at the high museum

in Atlanta until May 5th. I'm Emily Kopp. You're listening to Georgia Gazette on Georgia Public Radio. Still to come in this edition, Piano stories from around the state, including a tribute to Johnny Mercer. Stay with us. Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janice Ray is the book that has been chosen by the

Georgia Center for the Book to encourage reading and discussion in the state. With poetic layering of memoir and environmental study, themes of family in place, and concerns for our disappearing long-leaf pine ecosystem, Ecology of a Cracker Childhood brings Georgians into a world shaped by the past but committed to the present. Joining me by phone today is Janice Ray. Thanks so much for spending a little bit of time with us. Thank you, Emily. Well, how nice is it to have your book to be the one book that every Georgian should read? Well, of course, I'm tickled that some committee has found enough wisdom or joy in the book to recommend it to the people of our state. But more than that, Emily, I think that people are recognizing that it's time to pay attention to the landscape. In the South, you know, we've been famous for a sense of place. It's all through

our literature. But because of poverty and mostly outside industrial influences, we haven't been so kind to the land. That's a change in. So that's what I'm most proud of. Now, you grew up in a junkyard that was outside a long-leaf pine forest or what once had been a long-leaf pine forest, an ecosystem that's nearly disappearing in this part of the American South. That's of real interest to you. Yeah. In fact, I didn't set out to write a memoir, although the book has gotten the most attention for that. I wanted to write about, I'm a nature writer and I wanted to write about this disappear in ecosystem, which once spread across 93 million acres from southern Virginia all the way to East Texas, the entire hip of the South Eastern United States. Not in the lowland areas, but in the uplands. It was all this mono-species forest of pine. And in 1995, an ecologist with the National Biological Service was studying endangered ecosystems and he found that long-leaf pine

that old, not old growth, but mature stands of long-leaf pine were 99% gone by 95. That's a terrific loss. What I try to do in the book by alternating chapters of my personal history with natural history is to show that our culture is tied to the landscape. Anybody, no matter where you're from, and that I think it will be an abominable loss to our culture as we destroy more of the landscape in the South. I've always said that I don't care about money and I don't care about fame, that for me, I will gauge success by the changes I see in how we relate to the landscape. I do think that there's great, great hope. Maybe we should take just one step backwards and talk about the long-leaf. And can you describe for me what a long-leaf looks like while most Georgians recognize it? An old growth long-leaf. Its limbs don't grow forever and forever up. They

start to true back toward the ground. It becomes kind of flatten at the top. After probably 50 years, its needles are much longer than any other pine tree in Georgia. 12 to 16 inches long. Its bark is often red-titched. Once somebody identifies a long-leaf to you, you'll be able even in passing to say that's long-leaf, that's slash, that's loblolly. Long-leaf have very large homes to famous for these great big pine cones. The Georgia Center for the Book picked you and your book. What do you pick when you want to read something? I love Kormak McCarthy's novels. I keep aside my bed, Mary Oliver's poetry, Windleberry's poetry, books of wildflowers. I read a lot of nature writing. I read all the southern writers, Flannery O'Connor and Eudora Welty and Rick Bass. I love Barbara King's Hour. You know, it's just funny because I just love to read. We were raised

without television. We had a really fundamentalist religion when I was growing up and we were very isolated. We lived on this junkyard so we were allowed to go to the public library and check out great stacks. The books were the gate, the portal into this great glorious world that we have. And they still are for me. I love literature for the places that it takes you. I think a lot about what it means to be human. And I know this is fairly philosophical for a person right till a junkyard, but I do. And I think an essential part of our humanity, yours and mine, anybody is that we are inextricably tied to the landscape, wherever we are, to the flora and fauna, the cycles of seasons of rain. I think that this current culture we end, this thing we call civilization, removes us from that or tries to. But no matter what, we are tied to it.

And when we divorce ourselves from it, we diminish our humanity. Part of the auspices of the Center for the Book is to encourage discussion. And what do you want the people of Georgia to begin discussing upon reading your book? I would like them to look around at the land around us in Georgia. It doesn't matter where you go. What you see is five-year-old trees, ten-year-old trees, pine plantations, trailer parks, clear cuts. You're a very hard press to find any piece of natural forest. And that's a terrific loss to me. I'd like for us to learn something about how the wild community functions around us. And to see how we can live more in synchronicity with that, that live more kindly. That's really what I'd like people to get out of it. And also, the other thing Emily is about imagination. You know, books have the

power to change people's lives. We know that from our trees, Dalmond Douglas, riding river of grass in the 40s, and now we see the Everglades being restored. We know that they do. So what kind of possibility are we opening by having people read, not even the same book, but any book? Like, what kind of thing in our imagination might get fired by that? And what could be possible? What could we create as a people in Georgia from that? Janice Ray, author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood. Thanks so much for spending a little time with us today. Thank you. Yeah. I had to ride with a vending machine repairman. He said he's been down as road more than twice.

If you live in Middle Georgia and you own a good piano, chances are you've met the man who is the subject of this next story by Ed Grissa Moore. By Ben Manley's calculations, if you placed every piano he has tuned in to in, the line would stretch from Macon to Barnesville. I've tuned them from Cordell to Monticello to Tomiston to Eastman, he said. I've probably been in more than half the churches in Middle Georgia. He has tickled the ivory on baby grounds and fixed beef flats from Gray to Greston. I still tune about six or seven a week, said Manley, who will turn 80 this month. I've been doing this for 61 years and I'm going to keep going until I can't. He not only knows a piano's 4,000 moving parts like the back of his hand, he knows them with the back of his hand. His fingers and his ears are his main tools. Ben Manley is blind. He has moved through life and shade than total darkness. He was born with congenital cataracts.

When he was young, he could distinguish some features and even colors. I have seen the moon, he said, but I have never seen the stars. His two brothers are also legally blind. Manley attended the Georgia Academy for the Blind in Macon, where he learned the art of tuning pianos. He graduated in 1940 and worked the trade in Orangeburg, South Carolina and Atlanta before returning to Macon in 1942. At first, he was employed by a wholesale piano company and lived in the back of the store. When the company went out of business, he stayed on and started his own business. Although he cannot see the pianos, he tunes. It usually takes Manley only a few minutes to make his diagnosis with his superbly trained ear. He relies on his hands to be his eyes. There is great familiarity with the 88 keys, the more than 220 strings and every moving part from the hammer to the pedals. He has helped get some famous folks back on key from the Almond Brothers

band to classical pianist performing at local concerts. Years ago, he was responsible for tuning the pianos at Wesleyan and Tiff College as well as the Grand Opera House. He once spent the night at the Douglas Theatre in Macon. He had to wait until after a late show was finished before he could get to work. He makes house calls too. You can't exactly carry a piano to the repair shop, although he did tune a piano once in the back of a truck. Because of his reputation and experience, he doesn't have to advertise. No business cards are necessary. He sticks his calling card to the bottom of every piano bench. His wife Laverne recently went to live in a nursing home. Together, they raised three sons. I ask him if he played the piano. He admitted that he only knows a few hymns and one Christmas Carol, Silent Night. I'm not a musician, he said. Then he left. I've been invited back to tune pianists. I've never been invited back to play one.

Ed Grissa Moore is a columnist with the Macon Telegraph, an author of the book More Griss. And while we're talking about pianos, there's a new piano CD out that celebrates the music of Savannah's own Johnny Mercer. It's called I Remember You, a pianist's tribute to Johnny Mercer. The pianist is the young David Duckworth, who's been part of Savannah's music scene for several years now. He started out as a classical pianist and throughout his career has worked with Ted Libby, Ben Tucker, and many other musical greats. Duckworth recently came to the studios of

Member Station WSVH on Skidaway Island to talk about his Jazzy Mercer tribute. Well, I moved here from Washington DC area, which is where I've spent most of my life. I moved here about 10 years ago. Savannah was really the best place for me to be myself as a musician. I feel like I could, I had visited Savannah before and as most people who visit Savannah, this happens to, they just fall in love with the city. I moved here thinking I was going to be here just to be

myself for a year and I ended up just settling here. I've known Johnny Mercer's teams all my life. I just didn't know they were Johnny Mercer's teams until I moved to Savannah and found out that, oh yeah, this is the guy that wrote all these teams. It was kind of interesting when I first moved here, I was playing at a nursing home out in Tobi Island and we would do sing-alongs and I had these sing-alongs song sheets that I brought from Washington DC and we'd pass them out. We'd be singing these songs and there was this woman there that had a beautiful voice. She was in her 80s and she was singing all these great

tunes along with me and helping me lead the singing and it turns out this was Johnny Mercer's sister, Joanna. Accentually the positive letter was a tune that has a chance. It has some blues elements and it allowed me to kind of do a little bit of blues improvisation without, you know, deviating too far from the mood of the CD. I wanted the CD to have a jazz combo because I just figured that was the best way to present

it. And Ben Tucker was really great about, you know, when you do it, with Mark Cordray. He's a drummer in town. He got his training at Berkeley School of Drama, which is, I think, probably the best you can do. And Ben Tucker, of course, just speaks for himself and he's had, you know, experienced back in the jazz era and he was one of the people that helped create jazz. Well, I took that old black magic, I made that into a somber, which I think a lot of people

might find that out of the ordinary, even though I've heard a very good Lena Horne arrangement of that, Dennis Asamba. But I think the most, maybe the one kind of feature that I've stamped on this is, I've put a lot of double time in my jazz improvisations. I play the rhythms twice as fast as the tempo, which is a pretty common technique that people use in jazz. I think I've just probably did it a little bit more than a lot of jazz musicians do. Laura, it was a tune that has been just one of his very

popular tunes and with, as with any of these tunes, it was a tune that I could feel like I could express myself during the improvisational part of the tune and that had a very recognizable melody that could be recognized even throughout the part where I was improvising. I wanted to have a little bit of peppy tunes, just a couple peppy tunes on a CD that

was, that has a pretty mellow tone to it, but I wanted to just give it enough variety. And that part of my Southern accent was just something that was fun, it was light and just had sort of a fun feel to it. Well, I think people really think of it as a Savannah sign, we had to cross Moon River

coming to the studio here today, which used to be the back river, which is a river where John Immersor lives, used to live, he's got a house, there's a house that's still there that he lived in. But that's the tune that a lot of people recognize. I kind of jazzed it up a little bit, which some people might feel was a little bit of a sacrilege, but I know that it's been a song that has been played and arranged and produced so many times. I wanted to have my own feel to it. A lot of people like John Immersor's music, I like John Immersor's music, and I figure why not

do an album that is both what I want to do and what people want to hear. David Duckworth CD, I remember you, a pianist's tribute to John Immersor, is available through his website, David Duckworth.com. Our program is produced by Susanna Campaluto and directed by Mora Farley, special thanks to Orlando Montoya, Mary K. Mitchell, Neil Priest, Eva Ulmer, Terence McKnight, Sarah Zaslaw, Teresa Sanders, and Member Stations, WSVH in Savannah, and WUGA in Athens.

We welcome your questions and comments, call us at 1-800-654-3038. Join us next week for our monthly consumer call-in edition of Georgia Gazette with James R. Groves. I'm Emily Bush, and from all of us here at Georgia Public Radio, thanks for listening. Thank you very much. .