Ever go for a long bike ride and get more than you expected? Yesterday was such a case for me. I took a trek up through Malibu Canyon. There’s a great trail that goes up past the main park up into the hills and past the site where M*A*S*H the TV show was located for it’s outdoors filming. I recently learned that they didn’t do all the filming out there. I guess I’m easily duped by old television. I’ve seen lots of M*A*S*H in reruns, but I didn’t figure that one out. How did I learn that? Well B.J. Honeycut’s Mike Farrell wrote an autobiography called “Just Call Me Mike” and it was given to me as a gift by his daughter Erin. It’s even autographed!
He’s a facinating man that has led an amazing life. Well beyond the character on a hit TV show. Anyway, if you haven’t heard of the book I recommend picking it up and reading it. No, it’s not all about M*A*S*H. He’s got a lot more depth than that. Be warned it’s a good read.
Back to my point. It seems everytime I get out to one of my favorite mountain bike trails to ride, something about the surroundings change. This is especially true of the ride up past the old M*A*S*H site. If you’ve never been there, the area sure looks a lot bigger on TV. The helicopter landing area is still there, as are a Jeep and a truck. The vehicles are severly rusted from an obviously long time of exposure to the moisture and sun of Southern California. The truck is usually encased in overgrowth of weeds and bushes. Yesterday it was different, the bushes and weeds had been decisively cut back and removed. Thus the truck which was normally difficult to see, is currently as of this writing, in plain view.
Usually my ride goes up beyond the site towards Mulholland which is probably no more than a half mile past that point. However, on occasion I venture up what is known as Bulldog Mountainway or Bulldog Road. It’s a long trek of a fireroad cut in the hills that gets very steep in some sections. There’s only ever been one time where I made it all the way up Bulldog without stopping or getting off my bike. Yesterday was not that time. I was determined to do the full ride, and do it I did. However, I had to stop two times as the heat started to get to me. There was also a spot where I ended up catching a rock wrong and slipped off my pedals on a particularly steep part, that’s not fun when you’re going up hill.
Eventually I made it to the top. As I crested there was a couple standing there taking in the view from their hike from another direction that appeared to be a bit less steep. I said hello and pulled off the side of the fireroad to sit and catch my breath, relax, eat a snack, drink some water and chill. As they finally got back on their way the girl turned as said have a nice day and be careful on your way back down. That’s a very sweet gesture of words from a total stranger. I thanked her and told them to be careful on their way down as well.
As I sat there snacking, a lizzard crawled on the rock next to me and sat there surveying the scene. It was interesting watching him, watching me. I got up and looked around for a bit then put my helmet and water pack back on and grabbed my boke. The lizzard never flinched. I then took off and road back down Bulldog. It takes over an hour, maybe two to get up it. Coming down takes probably 10 minutes. There are some nice turns coming down though. Over all the round trip is roughly 11 to 12 miles from where I started. A good workout.
That whole story really had nothing to do with the song. I should ask you to close your eyes prior to seeing the album cover. Chances are it’s probably already too late to do that. It would be ideal to listen to this song with your eyes closed mostly because you wouldn’t be putting two and two together with the voice and the body that it comes from. There’s been another artist that I featured previously where that was also the case (Marc Broussard). This time around it’s James Morrison.
Musically I’m thoroughly diggin the retro vibe. The electric tremolo piano sound is one of my new favorite instruments. I use it quite a bit myself and I’m a guitar player, go figure. James has a voice that is full of smokey goodness. I remember a voice growing up in New York that it reminds me of, unfortunately I can’t put a name on that voice that it sounds like. Oh well. James is not from America though, he’s a U.K. boy and makes him even more cool than all the soul he’s already oozing with. This is the kind of music that you can wrap yourself up in and it will never seem to go out of style. Don’t you think?
You’ve now heard of James Morrison, if you don’t add it to your collection there’s probably a broken speaker that you’re listening through or something.
(** Disclaimer: If James’ label decides to give me something I don’t like, I’ll have to give the audio up from the server. The post will remain to show that I sometimes give random stories. **)