Music Lover
Joined: 04 Apr 2009
Posts: 190
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Virginia City, Nevada
Standing here on C Street with Kat, Donna and Michael Patterson. Donna
lived in Dayton, Nevada, which is near here, but she still was not totally
at peace this weekend with the lack of oxygen at a mile and a quarter
high. Bill Gavigan took all of these C Street photographs in Virginia City.
It was his birthday, so we let him portray the real us. Now, let’s see if he
tries that again.
Located 23 miles south of Reno and very high, 6,300 feet, Virginia City
was the site of one of the largest silver strikes in history,the Comstock
Lode, which was the real reason that Nevada entered the Union as early
as it did. Miners dug down into the earth 3,000 feet, or, in other words,
deeper than Mount Tamalpais is tall. Mining was very dangerous then. No
electricity. Candlelight and 120 to 160 degrees down there. No wonder
Sam Clemens decided to write, and become Mark Twain, instead of dig
for silver, which was his original idea. I mean, mining is not easy. Here is
where Richard Rogers lies now. He began life in Cornwall, and maybe
even spoke Cornish.
Lilibet Rogers is 23 here. She was born on the Isle of Man in 1842.
She sang at the Piper Opera House where Richard Rogers saw her
and fell in love with her. The true spirit of Virginia City. Hail to you,
Lilibet, from your fellow performers in another age.
In Roughing It, Mark Twain tells us that he was robbed in Virginia City on
10 November 1863. He lost his watch, valued at $ 300, a lot of money for
the time. Turns out it was a practical joke played on him by his friends to
give him material to write about for his own Forum in The Virginia City
Territorial Enterprise. But, really, to be absolutely truthful, Mark, Sam,
wasn’t as thankful for the “material” as he maybe could have been.
There are maybe 150 year round residents in Virginia City today, and in
1860 there were 2,300 or 30,000 depending on what day you were
counting. Hoss Cartwright and the Bonanza family lived here and so did
Errol Flynn in a film called Virginia City, but so did a lot of real life people
who were far more interesting. Sue and Loren live here, and they own
The Red Dog Saloon, a 130 year old establishment where Big Brother
and the Holding Company played in 1966, even before we had Janis in
the band, and then we played there once with Janis too. Here Loren is
out in front of his place.
On 19 and 20 March, we came to this magical land and played once
more. Tom Finch came with us! An expressive, very knowledgeable
guitar player who truly enjoys himself and everyone else too. I love
playing with Tom. He’s creative and he always strives for that Aquarian
ideal of peace, freedom and happiness. Yes, that, and his outrageous
guitar playing, such as here on Ball and Chain. Can you hear him?
A Bill Gavigan photo of Tom and me outside The Red Dog. Tom’s shades
match my guitar pick.
Kacee Clanton came to sing with us. Her family lives in Placerville,
another mining town, which is nonetheless quite far away in California. I
kept billing Kacee as a “local,” and I’m sure the Virginia Citians were
thinking, “Oh, well, he lives in San Geronimo, so what does he know?”
Here is Kacee with her beautiful mother, her dad, whom she resembles
not a little, and her friend Kim who looks like Sue of Sue and Loren, to
me, at least. Kacee sang for Joe Cocker and she sang for me too, in
Love, Janis, San Diego version and many other versions too. She’s
always enthusiastic, happy, cheerleaderish (oops, I didn’t say that),
professional and just a great team player. Kacee peels the paint off the
walls and chews up the furniture. I mean, the woman is downright
destructive.
Sam Andrew
Big Brother and the Holding Company |
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