Judd's Juke Joint: Were good people go and the good times always roll

My car's wheels crunch and pop as I drive up the long, twisting dirt road that leads up to my luxury log cabin. The driver's side window is down all the way and my arm is hanging out of it, bent at a ninety degree angle. The sun is shining and blue skies are all I can see. An early Saturday morning warm, summertime breeze is filling up the car. The stereo is turned up loud...very loud...and "King Harvest" by The Band is keeping me chooglin' along.

I park the car at the top of the drive and start to get out; King Harvest is still playing. Never kill the engine before a great song's time is done. You never want to waste a great tune...especially one by The Band. I let the song play out and then get out of the car. My two dogs race up to greet me. I walk through the house and make my way to the kitchen. I look out the window and see my wife playing with our two kids in the backyard. I wave and flash a wink. She blows a kiss and smiles. She lets the kids know that Dad is home and they wave, too. They wave so hard I swear their hands are going to fall right off their skinny little wrists.

I need a quick snack before I start to collect the days playlist material. I slice up some cheese and grab a hand full of crackers and head off to The Vault. The Vault is the soundproof room I had built in the back corner of the house. The Vault is where I store my entire music collection...all 2,100 albums of all different formats: CDs, Vinyl, Digital. I have four back-up hard drives to store my stuff. I lost it all once and it took forever to rebuild. That will never happen again.

The Vault also houses all of my memorabilia, mementos and keepsakes I have gathered up throughout the years. Yes, some of it is a bit overkill (like the horseshoe I found in a field at an Allman's Brothers show in the Summer of '93. How could I not pick it up as a sign of good luck? After all, they did play "Ain't Wastin' Time No More" that day...the only song I cared about hearing). Overkill or not, it is all part of the music and the stories that live within it and that are part of my experience with it.

The Vault is soundproof because it needs to be. I spend lot of time in here listening to music. My wife used to question why I needed to hear the same Neil Young song ("Cowgirl in the Sand" off of Live at the Filmore '71) over and over again...at such a "nauseating" volume. "Because it cleans me out," I would say. "It clears my head and keeps me thinking straight. I get lost in the sound and when I find my way out. I feel refreshed and ready to rip". It took her a while to understand this, but once she did, she knew full well what I meant. Warren Zevon is her cleanser now.

I can go into the vault and play Neil or Keef or The Wolf at bone rattlin' volumes at any time I want...and I do quite often. It is not an isolation tank, but I am usually the one who goes in here. I do have another place for listening to music. It is a place where sharing music is a priority and where the good times roll. It was something I always dreamed of having. I always envisioned having a place where all my friends and family could come to relax, enjoy each other, enjoy letting it all hang out and most of all, enjoy the experience of the music. You can see it out through a window in the vault, off in the distance in the back of the house: Judd's Juke Joint.

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Judd's Juke Joint is a shack I built in the backyard. It was built to look like an old Mississippi Delta style juke joint: mismatched chairs and tables, a few booths, a stage area in the corner, a bar on one side and a wall's length of "elbow-shelving" for people to lean on and rest their beers. It can fit around 40 people at max capacity. It is unassuming and humble. I built it sturdy though. Thick planks of pine line the walls and floor. There is a small bathroom...one for the men and the ladies. There are dartboards, cribbage tables and a pinball machine. Half of the front wall of the Joint opens up horizontally and gets propped up by two posts on the lawn outside. This serves two purposes: it creates a mighty nice breeze in the hot summer months as well as a make-shift roof to put some lawn chairs underneath.

Inside the Joint I have all kinds of old memorabilia hanging up...posters, t-shirts, album covers, wagon wheels...all kinds of stuff. No real rhyme or reason to it all...if it feels right, we put it on the wall. There is sawdust on the floor and a big barrel over by the bar that is filled with shelled peanuts, of which you can throw the shells anywhere you please. People have their own mugs stored on a rack that hangs over the bar. The bar is a thing of beauty. I purchased a monstrous piece of oak and placed my ticket stub collection on top of it (we're talking over 300 stubbs). I layered a half a dozen coats of shellac on top and used it as my bar top. If we were ever to run out of things to talk about at Judd's Juke Joint (highly unlikely), the bar top would be an excellent place to find some stories. Each one of those concerts I attend has it's own unique tale to tell.

I have four kegs on tap at all times. I like variety and I like craft beers and I also like to keep it real down-home, too. Right now we have Sam Adams, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, Long Trail and crowd favorite, Pabst Blue Ribbon, on tap. There is also a selection of wines and whiskeys on hand. If you want anything else, you can bring it yourself and throw it in the fridge. Oh yeah, there is also a bottle of homemade hooch under the bar. We call this "The Midnight Special" because that is when it usually comes out. Anyone can go behind the bar and pour a beer. A few of the guys like to stand behind there for hours on end, living out their bar-keep fantasies. I also have a tap on the outside of the Joint (we run only PBR off that). This makes it easy for the horseshoe players to get a quick, cold refill.

Outside of "The Tripple J" we have a two regulation horseshoe pits. Horseshoes is the game of choice at JJJ and we play it throughout the day and into the night until we have to turn on the flood lights. At night, we usually head over to the burn pit. This is were we have our bonfires where all sorts of stories are told and singalongs ring out into the night. I don't play any instruments, but I have never heard a song I didn't think I knew all the words too. Usually someone is on hand who picks up a guitar or a harp and starts things off. Singalongs are where we let it all hang out. More often than not, you'll hear someone say, "I love this part of the night". Singalongs bring us all together.

We also have two very large BBQs out back. No good summer weekend party is complete without a BBQ. On the big occasions, I feed everyone. Otherwise, people are free to bring some vittles to grill up whenever they get hungry.

The glue that keeps this held together is the music. Music is the reason the Juke Joint was created in the first place. I have music playing constantly no matter what I am doing or what time off the day it is. I am a fan of the blues...Delta, West Side Chicago...artists from Chess, Cobra, Delmark, Ace...you name it. The Blues figures heavily in every rotation. I am also a fan of the real country music: Willie and Waylon, George and Merle and the patron saint of the Juke Joint...Johnny. I'm a Memphis soul man, too. All the gang at Stax, Muscle Shoals, Goldwax, Atlantic...we love that stuff at the Joint. (Have a look at this link. The entire Judd's Juke Joint collection is there).

The music is what matters most. It is the fuel that keeps Judd's Juke Joint running.

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While in The Vault I fill up a milk crate with an arm full of choice vinyl. I usually start off and end the Jamboree with vinyl. Up front I am setting the scene and standing at the turntable playing choice cuts and setting the pace for the party. In the middle of the gig, I let one of mankind's greatest invention...the shuffle feature in iTunes...take over. When you have 2,000+ albums of music stored digitally, the shuffle keeps you guessing, keeps you spread thin and keeps you looking for the next best thing. It also allows you to walk party and make sure everyone is having a good time. At the end of the night, when the "old faithfuls" are left, I go back to the vinyl. We all shout out tunes and I spin 'em; there ain't a dry eye in the house at this time. We are usually all back-slapping and hugging and enjoying the scene and the sounds until the wee-wee hours. My favorite "next morning" scene is seeing album covers strewn about the Joint (with the odd friend sleeping in a booth).

I head out back with my cheese, crackers and stack of albums. I kiss the wife and kids and walk down to the Juke Joint which sits about 50 yards in back of the house. Today is a big day. Today is our annual "Judd's Juke Joint Jamboree". One day each summer we invite people over to the house for a celebration of friends, family music and good times. This year is our seventh one and is sure to be our best; they get better year after year. We got RSVPs from just over 50 people. We keep the crowd intimate and important.

People will start to show up around 11:00 am and stay until they like. The first band starts at 1:00pm. Local favorite, The Peter Parcek Trio kicks things off. Peter never lets us down or wanting more. He's been a friend of the Juke Joint for many years and many more to come. We have two other bands who will play today. When the last band finishes, the real performances start...time for the singalongs. The Horseshoe tourney starts at 3:00pm and we fire up the BBQ at 4:00.

We only have two rules at Judd's Juke Joint. Have respect and Have fun. If you are in the neighborhood, stop by and have a beer, make some friends and sing along your favorite tune.

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