Taylor Hicks was serious on Twitter this week, the Gulf Coast on his mind:
@TaylorRHicks: Hi all! Had a great time with Jax press! Please keep the Gulf Coast in your thoughts and Prayers. Thu 29 Apr 13:05 via txt
@TaylorRHicks: Studying the oil spill. This has not been contained. There is a catastrophic event taking place. Thu 29 Apr 23:04 via txt
@TaylorRHicks: Gulf Shores Al. Putting Boom out http://twitpic.com/1k2jjy Sat 01 May 14:20 by twitpic
The Gulf Coast has long been vulnerable to Mother Nature. Today it waits in the sights of a manmade disaster of mega proportions. Morning news sources describe the situation like “waiting for a slow moving hurricane” as the oil spill makes its way onshore and inland.
Appearing in “Grease” in neighboring Jacksonville, FL, Taylor no doubt was remembering a long history on the Gulf Coast. He has said many times that he cut his musical teeth at the FloraBama roadhouse on the Coast at the Florida/Alabama line. He occasionally reminds us that he wrote “The Deal” on the Gulf Coast.
Early whomp on the water at The FloraBama...
I was on the Coast in 2007 for Taylor’s Biloxi concert.
But my memories go back much further to a vacation trip I took with my family in the 50s when my older brother was stationed at Keesler Air Force Base. For some kids from the Midwest, the Gulf was a pristine vacation paradise.
As I drove the Coast highway from Biloxi to New Orleans in 2007, the devastation from Hurricane Katrina was still evident. Yet, it was still a paradise!
Taylor was back in Biloxi on 9/11/2009 for a sold-out Shadow Tour show at the beautiful Gulf Coast Beau Rivage. His song, “Nineteen,” was a stunning tribute to 9/11 and the nearby military at Keesler.
Taylor at Beau Rivage, 2009.
In his autobiography, “Heart Full of Soul,” besides his many gigs on the Gulf, he recounts partying there in younger days. He returned recently to the Coast to relax in his down time.
The Coast holds special memories for many of us.
Our thoughts are with the Gulf Coast as it waits again. Not for Nature’s test this time; this time it’s man’s.
Taylor rocks the Mississippi Coast Coliseum, 2007:
Beau Rivage photo by raj6; Biloxi pics by San.
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2 comments:
I suppose the world was "pristine" at some point in the past, just as " things were simpler" in the past. As we move forward through the decades and centuries , we discover and develop faster ways of accomplishing tasks, newer ways of prolonging life, more technical ways of "bettering" the human condition and unprecedented ways of utilizing the resources that are found on our planet Earth.
The more complicated the methods used for accomplishing human ends, the more that can go wrong. Accidents happen - the challenge is to recover as quickly as possible with the least amount of damage to all concerned. These things will happen again - accidents are inevitable as are environmental changes.
We don't live in paradise. We live in a world that we manipulate for our own advantage. The results are both positive and negative. We must accept both results.
Because of Taylor's emotional ( and positive by the way ) connection to Katrina and his love of the Florabama Coast as the place where he honed his musical skills , it is no wonder his thoughts go to those places when they are threatened. His heart and soul are in the South.
cath
Seeing the pictures of the oil slick approaching the coastline is absolutely heart-breaking. The anticipated losses, I think, are unimaginable at this point in time. The livelihood of so many people is at risk; the damage to the innocent animals and creatures of the sea; the ecological damage that could take years to recover from somehow tells me that faster and better is not always the best way to go.
There have been so many "bad" things happening all at once this past week; especially this weekend. It really makes one stop and think about all of the things in life that we, so often, take for granted.
Reading Taylor's Twitter posts this week enabled me to see another side of Taylor. He is well informed about news events and, while we all felt that he has a very compassionate side from some of his past endeavours, it is very refreshing for me to see how much he cares about others including the environment.
We can only hope that a brilliant mind belonging to an expert somewhere will minimize the impact of this accident on the Gulf Coast.
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