The Piedmont Report

08/04/2025

08/03/2025

https://www.earlyblues.com/Essay%20-%20Tracing%20The%20Origins%20of%20Dying%20Crapshooters%20Blues%20-%20Intro.htm

Essay - Tracing The Origins of Dying Crapshooters Blues - Introduction

07/27/2025

https://mudcatblues.com/podcast/?name=2024-07-31_best_of_hoopoe_6.mp3

Specializing in music, past and present, from the Piedmont region, along with tips for vegetable gardening and sustainable living, with your host Mudcat.

07/27/2025

07/27/2025

Jontavious Willis first Piedmont Report appearance !

Specializing in music, past and present, from the Piedmont region, along with tips for vegetable gardening and sustainable living, with your host Mudcat.

07/27/2025

Tinsley Ellis!

NEW EPISODE!

Piedmont Report #141 featuring Tinsley Ellis
02-13-2024

LINK: https://mudcatblues.com/podcast/?name=2024-02-13_piedmont_report_141.mp3

** Jontavious Willis – The World is in a Tangle / Spectacular Class 2019 produced by Keb Mo
** Cora Mae Bryant and JJ – No No Blues / Born with the Blues [Music Maker]
** Tinsley Ellis – Alcovy Breakdown
**Cootie Stark – U-Haul / Raw Sugar [Music Maker]
** Ross Pead – Trouble When it Starts / Trouble When it Starts
** Chicago Bob Nelson and Ross Pead – Bad Boy / Live at Fat Matt's 2009 / Tell Me Mama [Music Maker]
** FARM REPORT ** Tinsley Ellis Story (with Silver Mountain)
** Tinsley Ellis – Window Pane / Easter Song / Tallahassee Blues / Horseshoes and Hand Grenades / Devil in the Room
** Ed Bell – Mamlish Blues
** Ed Bell – Shake Me Like a Dog [Recorded for Paramount in Chicago 1927; Ed Bell was born in May 1905, in Fort Deposit, Alabama on the Davis Plantation, the third of seven children. In the early 1920s, Bell did a little farming and a lot of playing and travelling, honing his technique with a small group of seven to ten friends and acquaintances, of which only he and Pillie Bolling were recorded.]
** Elizabeth Cotton – Aint Got No Honey Baby Now / Freight Train and other North Carolina Folks Songs and Tunes Folkways 1958
** Tinsley Ellis - Zeppin

07/27/2025

Blair Crimmins!

NEW EPISODE!

Piedmont Report 144 (with Blair Crimmins)
08-08-2024

LINK: https://mudcatblues.com/podcast/?name=2024-08-08_pr_144_blair.mp3

Bessie Smith – Send Me to the ‘Lectric Chair (Columbia – 14209-D 1927) [Cornet: Joe Smith / Piano: Fletcher Henderson / Trombone: Charlie Green]

Bertha ‘Chippie’ Hill – Georgia Man / Trouble in Mind (Recorded on February 23, 1926 in Chicago, IL. Okeh – 8312) [Piano: Richard M. Jones / Trumpet: Louis Armstrong]

Blind Willie McTell – Dyin’ Crapshooters Blues (Atlanta 12 String, recorded in Atlanta 1949, released as Atlantic – SD 7224 in 1972)

Pink Anderson – Chicken (Medicine Show Man, Prestige Bluesville – BV 1051 1962)

Perry Bechtel – Now Is the Hour (The Banjo Style of Perry Bechtel, RCA Camden – CAS 871(e) 1965)

Blair Crimmins Live at Hoopoe Acres – After You’ve Gone / Mean Mean Man / Little Red Train / Sell Something

Farm Report

Blair Crimmins – Story / Old Man Cabbage / I Love You That’s All / It’s All Over Now

Johnny Mercer and Richard Leonard - An Evening with Johnny Mercer (92nd St Y March 1971 for Lyrics and Lyricists Series)

Abner Jay – Beautiful Dreamer (Live from Stephen Foster Center, Brandie Records – B 12842 1977)

Joe Thompson and the Carolina Chocolate Drops – I Shall Not Be Moved (Carolina Chocolate Drops and Joe Thompson Music Maker Recordings – MMCD 101) Recorded live April 25, 2008 at Merlefest in Wilkesboro, North Carolina

07/27/2025

Vegetables to sow now (Zone 7b),

you can sow seeds for cool-season vegetables like beets, carrots, radishes, lettuce, spinach, kale, and broccoli now for a fall harvest. These vegetables thrive in the cooler temperatures and shorter days of fall.

You can also start seeds indoors for cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts to transplant later.

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

Direct sow:
Beets, carrots, radishes, lettuce, spinach, and kale can be sown directly into the ground now.

Start indoors:
Cabbage, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts should be started indoors now to be transplanted later.

Succession planting:
You can also do succession plantings of some of these crops, like radish and lettuce, to extend your harvest.

LETTUCE
Cool Season Crop:
Lettuce prefers cooler temperatures and thrives when the weather cools down, making fall a great time to grow it.
Direct Sowing:
Direct sowing means planting seeds directly into the garden bed, which is ideal for lettuce.
Timing:
Aim to sow about 6-8 weeks before your first expected fall frost.
Preparation:
Prepare your garden bed by removing weeds, raking the soil to a fine, crumbly texture, and making shallow rows.
Sowing:
Sow lettuce seeds thinly, cover them lightly with soil, and keep the soil moist until germination.
Additional tips:
Succession Planting: To ensure a continuous harvest, sow lettuce seeds every few weeks.
Shade: In warmer climates, provide some shade during the hottest part of the day to prevent the lettuce from bolting (going to seed prematurely).

Harvesting:
Remember to harvest any remaining warm-season crops like tomatoes and peppers before the first frost.

07/24/2025

Hi there, this is Kathryn, the wildlife biologist. Danny has asked me to say a bit today on how to know when to harvest your watermelons, a duty he has handed over to me in our garden.

Knowing exactly when to harvest is definitely an exercise in patience. You watch with pride when the fruit first appears, and then it gets to the point that you’re certain it will explode if you don’t pluck it and cram it into your refrigerator right away. However, unlike many other fruits, watermelons do not ripen any further once they are separated from the vine. There are a few key tips to ensure your melon will have a deep red color and sweet flavor once you slice it open.

Don’t even begin to think it’s ready until the small tendrils on the vine that are closest to the melon have completely shriveled up, turned black, and died back. Once this occurs, then you can check the second stage of ripeness – the belly. The portion of the melon that is in contact with the ground should have a rich creamy yellow color, with no visible stripes or spots, depending on the variety of watermelon you grow. Be careful when you lift it up to check so that you don’t accidently pull it from the vine. Once you have shriveled, black tendrils and a creamy belly, it’s time to thump your melon. You should hear a nice hollow sound the entire length of the melon. Don’t thump with your finger, but rather rap it with you knuckles. One of the simplest comparisons to know when it’s ready is thump your chest, and then thump the melon. If the sounds are similar, it’s time to harvest! If it sounds more like a thump to your forehead or chin, it needs more time.

But don’t worry if you plucked your melon too early. You can slice it into big chunks and toss the entire fruit off into the far edges of the garden area. Rabbits, squirrels, opossums, birds and turtles that you’ve been fighting to keep out of your garden will gladly partake of the unripe melon and leave many of your other crops alone. But if you can’t stand having waited so long, only to be disappointed at harvest, there are numerous recipes for watermelon rind pickles. Because these pickles don’t require the pulp of the melon, you can still share with the wildlife while partaking of the fruits of your labors.

Happy thumping!

07/19/2025