House band music director/Hammond B3 player Michael Ramos and guitarist Charlie Sexton summoned so many players for this so-called “Gathering of the Tribes,” by the time they all came out for. McMurtry and Adcock are friends who’ve hung out together at Austin’s Continental Club. And McMurtry is a fan of Adcock’s 2004 album, “The Lafayette Marquis.” “I really like the sound.
Adcock Games by: Austin Adcock: Home All Games New Games Blog To choose a game simply pick one from the home page or from the drop down menu! To choose a game. John Adcock (1) A.E. Coppard (1) A.S. Cripps (1) Aklo (1) Aklo. (1) Alan Griffiths (1) Alan Lee (1) Alan Miller (1) Alan Odle (1) Albert Seymour Graham (1) Alison Lurie (1) Allison & Busby (1) Allison V. Harding (1) Ambrose Bierce (1) An Adventure (1) Angela Carter (1) Anglo-Eastern Publishing Company (1) Annie Howard (1) Aubrey.
Cary, NC — The latest legislative update from the blog of NC Representative Gale Adcock.
A Short Session Faced with Pandemic, Unemployment and Public Protesting
The legislative short session kicked off on April 28, a date specified when the long session adjourned on January 14. When we adjourned in January there was every reason to anticipate a typical short session: budget wrangling, the passage of a few remaining bills, and adjournment with plenty of time to campaign for the November election.
But in the intervening 15 weeks, the world dramatically changed with the discovery of a novel coronavirus in a single Chinese province. Its global spread was rapid, soon reaching the definition of a pandemic. The first US case was diagnosed in Washington state in late January; NC documented its first case in early March.
The usual routines of schools, businesses and families have since been incredibly disrupted. Unemployment is at a new high. The need for online learning has laid bare the geographic and socioeconomic divide in the availability of broadband internet. Serious health disparities for people of color and those without access to health insurance (acknowledged as longstanding problems in our state before COVID-19) are the cause of higher rates of infection and death for these populations.
Fifty years after the civil rights movement, our country is facing protest marches, rioting in many cities, and widespread public outcry for criminal justice reform after the latest episode of extreme force used by police officers against people of color, particularly black men.
These are the conditions in which the General Assembly has engaged in a short session like no other.
The House Convenes Virtually, Making History
With health experts urging statewide actions to ‘flatten the curve’ of new COVID-19 cases and the resultant ‘stay at home’ executive order (now a ‘safer at home’ executive order), the House made history when the short session gavelled in, using Zoom to convene committee meetings and live-streaming floor sessions on YouTube with proxy voting allowed by new House rules.
In addition to protecting public health, an upside to this new world order is that citizens can easily tune in to committee meetings that previously required travel to Raleigh. House and Senate floor sessions can be viewed rather than just heard (although audio-only is still available). Access to each day’s legislative calendar; committee links with meeting times, agendas and documents; and video and audio links for each Chamber are available here.
April 28-May 2 was devoted to unanimously passing two COVID-19 response bills which Governor Cooper quickly signed into law. Session Law 2020-3 sets education, economic support, health and state operations policies. Session Law 2020-4 appropriates $1.4 B of the state’s federal CARES Act funds. Read the specifics on the NCGA webpage under Session Laws.
Major Bills Passed Recently
Some of the most noteworthy bills passed in recent days include:
The Second Chance Act (SB 562)
After 13 months of legislative inaction, the Second Chance Act passed the NC House unanimously on June 10 after passing the NC Senate unanimously in 2019. The Second Chance Act is an important step in improving expunctions in North Carolina. Expunctions help people who committed crimes a long time ago clear their records and improve their opportunities for jobs and housing. Some of the improvements include:
- Provides automatic record clearing for charges dismissed or disposed of as “not guilty.”
- Allows expunctions for people whose convictions are treated as juvenile offenses under the Raise the Age law.
- Expands eligibility for expunctions for people who have been convicted of multiple nonviolent misdemeanors.
Read more about the bill in this WRAL.com article.
The ‘Gym’ Bill
HB 594 as originally written pertained to HOA bylaws when it passed the House in 2019. It was sitting dormant in a Senate committee when an Alamance county senator decided to strip the original language and use the bill as a vehicle to reopen gyms and fitness facilities. Stripping bills is a common occurrence in the short session since to be eligible for action most bills must have passed one Chamber in the long session.
The ‘new’ bill contained rigorous requirements for screening and distancing of employees and participants, for equipment cleaning after each use and for thorough daily facility cleaning, among other stipulations.
As a nurse practitioner, I understand and value the physical and mental benefits of regular exercise and wellness activities. In addition, many health & fitness facilities are small women-owned businesses.
I looked forward to voting for this bill and supporting the health & fitness industry and these small business owners.
New Language Would Strip Authorities from Governor and DHHS Secretary
Unfortunately, the same senator bill sponsor decided at the last minute to add verbatim the language of the recently vetoed bar bill – and new language that I could not support because I am a health care provider with a background in public health. The new language stripped the governor of his executive authority to close newly reopened bars if COVID-19 trends make it advisable to do so. It also stripped the Secretary of DHHS of her authority to close a business that threatens public health through its business practices (declaring it an ‘imminent health hazard’).
Music Zapadcock Games By: Austin Adcock Basketball
The new language required that the governor’s decision to close bars and a DHHS decision to declare a business an imminent threat would be ultimately decided by a vote of the 9 member Council of State. The Council of State are politicians elected statewide, including the Attorney General, the Commissioner of Agriculture, the Secretary of State and the State Auditor. They are all elected to do important jobs, but none involve issues of public health. Stripping away the power of the governor’s public health team would limit their ability to respond to illegal mass gatherings and to respond to changing COVID-19 conditions.
The new bill never received a House committee hearing; no amendments or changes were allowed on the floor. I was very disappointed to have to vote against it.
The bill passed 69 to 50 and now heads to Governor Cooper for his signature or veto.
Elections Bill Offers Safe Options for Voting
With health officials expecting the coronavirus to keep many people away from the polls this year, it was important for the legislature to act quickly to make sure that county boards of elections are prepared for more absentee ballot requests. While the bill was not perfect, it safely expands access to voting while making this year’s election more secure.
HB 1169 will make these changes for the 2020 election:
- One witness instead of two for completed absentee ballots
- Flexibility in the filling of positions for precinct officials
- Allowing completed absentee ballot request forms to be emailed or faxed to county board of elections
- Providing an additional two weeks for county boards to approve requests for absentee ballots
- Requiring the State Board of Elections to create an online portal for submission of requests for absentee ballots by September 1, 2020
Task Force Created to Address Racial Inequity in the NC Criminal Justice System
Governor Roy Cooper signed Executive Order No. 145 on June 10, forming the North Carolina Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice. The task force will recommend solutions to stop discriminatory law enforcement and criminal justice practices, and hold public safety officers accountable.
Led by Attorney General Josh Stein and North Carolina Supreme Court Associate Justice Anita Earls, the task force will convene a wide range of stakeholders including: community policing advocates, state and local law enforcement agencies, justice-involved individuals, representatives of the judicial branch, individuals from marginalized populations and more.
The task force will develop and help implement policy solutions to address systemic racial bias in criminal justice and submit legislative and municipal recommendations on or before December 1, 2020.
The Executive Order also creates a Center for the Prevention of Law Enforcement Use of Deadly Force within the State Bureau of Investigation to track statistics and improve training related to the use of force.
Also last week, Secretary of the Department of Public Safety Erik Hooks directed law enforcement agencies under the purview of the Department of Public Safety to ensure each division has a ‘duty to intervene’ policy in place. He also directed that divisions conduct policy reviews on use of force, deescalation techniques, arrest procedures, cultural sensitivity training and internal investigation processes. Executive Order No. 145 directs cabinet agencies and encourages non-cabinet state agencies with sworn law enforcement officers to do the same.
Read the full Order and FAQ.
National Data Speaks Volumes
Communities of color are disproportionately affected at each stage of the criminal justice system. National data is sobering:
- Black adults are 5.9 times more likely to be incarcerated than white adults;
- Hispanic adults are 3.1 times more likely to be incarcerated than white adults;
- Black drivers are approximately twice as likely as white drivers to be pulled over by law enforcement for a traffic stop;
- Black defendants are more likely to be jailed before trial than white defendants;
- The murders of white people are more likely to be solved than the murders of black people;
- When black men and white men are convicted of the same crime, black men receive a prison sentence that is 20 percent longer;
- Black women are imprisoned at twice the rate of white women; and
- Black men are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement than are white men; black women are 1.4 times more likely to be killed by law enforcement than are white women.
- Individuals interested in serving on the task force can visit the Governor’s website to apply.
DHHS Shares Health Guidance to Re-Open Public Schools
State education and health leaders have announced the StrongSchoolsNC Public Health Toolkit (K-12) health guidance for resuming in-person instruction in NC public schools. The toolkit provides a baseline for health practices to be followed to minimize the risk of exposure to COVID-19 as North Carolina resumes classroom instruction.
Re-opening plans will be determined by the status of COVID-19. Schools may reopen according to three scenarios – Plan A: Minimal Social Distancing, Plan B: Moderate Social Distancing, or Plan C: Remote Learning Only.
Governor Cooper and health officials have warned that people must continue to take COVID-19 precautions to ensure schools can resume in-person instruction.
The Strong Schools NC Public Health Toolkit (K-12) was developed using the most current CDC guidance for schools and includes requirements and recommendations for eight areas: Social Distancing and Minimizing Exposure; Cloth Face Coverings; Protecting Vulnerable Populations; Cleaning and Hygiene; Monitoring for Symptoms; Handling Suspected, Presumptive or Confirmed Positive Cases of COVID-19; Communication and Combating Misinformation; Water and Ventilation Systems; Transportation; and Coping and Resilience.
For example, the Toolkit requires students and others to be screened for illness before entering school and requires floor markings to help maintain social distance. It also includes sample screening symptom checklists in English and Spanish, a flow chart protocol for handling suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19, and a checklist of infection control supplies schools may need. The Toolkit will be updated as new health guidance is released by the CDC and additional resources are made available.
Questions regarding the Toolkit in English or Spanish can be directed to StrongSchoolsNC@dhhs.nc.gov.
Music Zapadcock Games By: Austin Adcock Baseball
Toll Free Numbers for COVID-19 Questions
- Text COVIDNC to 898211 to get state coronavirus alerts.
- Call 1-888-600-1685 to connect families in need of childcare options.
- There is a Hope Line at 1-866-578-4673 for older adults experiencing isolation due to social distancing.
- The Small Business Administration Customer Service Center can be reached at 1-800-659-2955.
- A helpful FAQ for small businesses is here.
The Short Session Continues
The state expects a significant shortfall when revenue figures are reported after the (new) July 15 income tax filing deadline. A proposed two-year budget bill that passed in spring 2019 was vetoed by Governor Cooper (the House passed a veto override in September; the Senate never took an override vote). Because of this, the state has been operating under the FY 2018-2019 budget with some spending increases as the result of small targeted appropriations bills.
It is likely in the coming weeks that a series of mini-budget bills will be filed instead of a single comprehensive budget bill. Just like many of you, the legislature is figuring out how to conduct business under new and uncertain conditions.
I will send another update when the short session adjourns. In the meantime, I hope that you and your loved ones remain healthy. Reach me at gale.adcock@ncleg.net or call Suzanne Smith in my legislative office at 919-733-5602 if we can assist you in any way. Thank you for staying in touch with me and for allowing me to represent the people of District 41.
Gale
From the blog of NC District 41 Representative Gale Adcock. Photos by Cary’s Hustle Fitness Studio and the public Facebook of Governor Roy Cooper.
A week in the life of James McMurtry
By Jim Caligiuri, Fri., Feb. 13, 2015
James McMurtry makes up stories and sets them to music. New album Complicated Game, his first studio album since 2008's Just Us Kids, breaks fresh ground sonically and finds the 52-year-old Austinite digging deeper than ever into relationships and the human condition. After a week of local shows, we met.
Saxon Pub (Friday)
McMurtry shows up 15 minutes before the scheduled set time carrying two acoustic guitars, one six-string and the other heftier at 12 strings. He uses the latter for most of his 90 minutes onstage. It's louder, allowing him to cut through the shoulder-to-shoulder din of long-haired regulars, the recently retired out for an early evening, and a few fresh faces obviously in awe of the Texas songwriting great.
The South Austinite's now-standard fedora covers some long black curls while patches of gray in a runaway beard offer the only hint he's over 50. Leaning heavily on tunes from Complicated Game, the songs roll over the audience in big waves. McMurtry offers a few quips to punctuate their origin, explaining where he's coming from or joking about a turn of phrase contained in a song.
Music Zapadcock Games By: Austin Adcock Jr
Mostly his stories seem to mystify. Sure, there are familiar tunes from his earlier days: 'Saint Mary of the Woods,' what he calls 'the Robert Earl Keen song I wrote' ('Levelland'), and the now obligatory 'Choctaw Bingo,' dedicated to 'the First United Crystal Methodist Church of Oklahoma,' with an added new verse.
At first blush, new tunes like 'Carlisle's Haul,' concerning an illegal nighttime fishing expedition in Virginia, and one about an Oklahoma transplant now residing in the shadow of New York City ('Long Island Sound') come across as dense with graphic ideas and wordplay that goes by too quickly. That's something remedied by repeat listens to the new album. Complicated Game ultimately reveals McMurtry's true gift of storytelling.
C.C. Adcock
'I'd run out of tricks,' explains McMurtry. 'Everything I learned from [John] Mellencamp, Lloyd Maines, Don Dixon, and all the guys I've worked with, I retained a certain amount of knowledge from watching them work, but I used it up – over and over. I was repeating myself stylistically, so I thought it was time to bring in somebody else.'
Fans, critics, society at large have come to expect the glimpses of modern America that Complicated Game supplies, but musically, it's brand new. After producing the previous three albums on his own, he turned to Louisiana rocker C.C. Adcock for assistance. Adcock supplied guitar to Just Us Kids.
'He was around and I liked the way his records sound,' says McMurtry bluntly.
Over the course of last year, the two worked together with engineer and co-producer Mike Napolitano in New Orleans. McMurtry recorded basic tracks, just vocals and acoustic guitar, and left Adcock and Napolitano to add their voodoo. The results sound like McMurtry's past work, but with a lot more flavor.
His son Curtis McMurtry, a hot new Austin singer-songwriter in his own right, contributed banjo, as did journeymen Dustin Welch and Danny Barnes. Benmont Tench of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers played keyboards, while Derek Trucks applied slide guitar. New Orleans royalty Ivan Neville showed up for harmonies.
'I didn't care for that doo-wop thing [on 'She Loves Me'] when I first heard it,' admits the boss, 'but I got used to that. There's still a couple of parts I'm not real keen on, but that's par for the course. I've never made a record where I thought everything was perfect. At least the ones that I produced.
'All in all, though, it's a damn good record.'
One song sure to be talked about is the almost-rap of 'How'm I Gonna Find You Now,' which comes complete with a movie-type video partially set in a bar in the swamps of Louisiana. The track's rapid fire lyrics describe a desperate situation – with a sense of humor: 'I've got a mad coming on and it's gonna be dreadful/ Now I'm washing down my blood pressure pill with a Red Bull.'
'It's more like a speed-freak rock song,' offers its author. 'I don't know how it turned into hip-hop with a Danny Barnes banjo. That's a different animal.'
Behind compositions such as 'We Can't Make It Here' and 'Cheney's Toy' from the Bush presidency, the Texas-born, Virginia-raised McMurtry grew a reputation as a protest singer. And yet those songs were the only ones overtly addressing politics. Social commentary remains his forte.
Complicated Game turns on the restlessness and unease of 21st century living common to many Americans. 'I Ain't Got a Place' covers that notion most completely. Sung in a dry, disenfranchised voice, it recalls Guy Clark at his feisty best:
The skies are taller in Louisiana.
The skies are wider in New Mexico.
The skies in Texas kinda split the difference.
They don't suit me no matter where I go.
'That one was the last song I wrote, and it wasn't even supposed to be on the record,' recalls McMurtry. 'There was another song we had that we couldn't find a way to fix. I was staying upstairs at the R Bar on Royal Street in New Orleans. I had flown in to check on the mixes one more time.
'Their damn computer wasn't working and I was burnt out, so sick of the whole process. I was up in the R Bar, half drunk, half pissed off, and that song just fell out of the ceiling. Maybe twice I've been able to write a song in 15 minutes and that was one of 'em.
'I hear about it happening though.'
Music Zapadcock Games By: Austin Adcock Football
Continental Club Gallery (Tuesday)
McMurtry's not quite sure when his residency at the Continental Club Gallery started. Sometime after the midnight Wednesday gigs downstairs began, and that was 2002. Some, if not all, of the songs on Complicated Game got a tryout in the living room atmosphere above the main Club.
The show's nearly identical to the set at the Saxon, with the same jokes and similar quips. The more intimate space of the Gallery makes the songs roar in a way they hadn't before, however. The audience, a mix of townies and tourists, demonstrates a greater appreciation and McMurtry's a pinch looser.
'The San Jose hadn't opened yet, or it was still a crack house when I started the residency in 2002,' he relates later. 'I think the Austin Motel had just been renovated. It was transitioning from the old South Congress to what we have now. So the crowd was different.
'Very early on I had a frat crowd, because some of those guys read the backs of Robert Earl Keen records and saw that I wrote 'Levelland.' So they showed up for a while. Then they all grew up and got jobs, and the next round of frat kids didn't care or didn't hear about me.
'Over the course of time, the hotel scene has built up, so there's always travelers. I think that most of our crowd right now is travelers. There's definitely some value to continuing to do it. People go to the Continental Club just to go there. They wander in and sometimes they haven't even heard of me. That residency has done a lot for me.'
Of the two nights so far, there's been no merchandise or music for sale. It's a one-man operation. According to McMurtry, he didn't feel the need for a new album until revenue from touring – and he tours relentlessly – started to slack off. He's not one to write unless there's a deadline on the horizon, so the whole enterprise remains relatively fresh.
That comes across in performance. His big acoustic guitar at times pleads and coaxes. Slashing and burning stays home on new tunes of the heart 'You Got to Me' and 'These Things I've Come to Know.'
Complicated Game
Writes C.C. Adcock in an email: 'James is one of the very few artists out there who's every bit as good as he thinks he is. He is, without a doubt, one of the great American voices of his generation. With James, you have the luxury of leaving behind songs that your average writer/artist would die for.
'Early on, I suggested he focus on songs of the heart, which yielded some exquisite material on the poignancy of relationships ... and a few about deer hunting and fishin' (James' fondest affection). We even managed to get a couple of sweet new ditties out of him that clock in succinctly at under three minutes – maybe a McMurtry first!'
Where generations are concerned, James is in the middle of one destined for greatness. There's his Pulitzer Prize-winning father Larry and now his son Curtis, who burst on the scene in 2014 with his own highly touted disc, Respectable Enemy.
'I didn't have to encourage him,' he says of his son. 'He just kind of picked it up. From about 16 on he really latched on to it. He studied it and listens to everybody. He knows theory. I have a hard time [playing] with him because he's got so much more intricacy to his approach.'
That familial creative streak began where you might expect, according to the middle McMurtry.
'My father's the first writer that I know of in that line. McMurtrys didn't read for pleasure. They read for information. He broke the mold. He made it much easier for us to be artists. We didn't have to fight anybody. We already had an example. I kind of thought Curtis would be a lawyer. He has a sense of justice in him.'
Continental Club (Wednesday, midnight)
Jon Dee Graham and James McMurtry have been slugging it out onstage at the Continental Club every Wednesday night they're in town for more than a decade. Aficionados of loud electric guitars, unbeatable songcraft, and good whiskey have surely had the rest of a week ruined by that combination on occasion. Graham leads with a set that's equal parts bearish and heartrending, closing with a raunchy rendition of ranchera classic 'Volver, Volver.'
McMurtry and his three bandmates – Cornbread on bass, Darren Hess on drums, and Tim Holt – take the stage to a respectable, mostly younger crowd that's there to boogie. 'How'm I Gonna Find You Now' takes a funky turn with a band behind it. Ephraim Owens joins in with his trumpet and solos on the nearly 13-minute rant of 'Choctaw Bingo' that sends the assembled into spasms of delight.
McMurtry claims he hasn't tired of what's become his signature song yet. Lagunitas Brewing even got him to write a new verse and re-record it. That version was never used for the promotion it was set up for.
'Within a year of recording that song, all the places I mention in it had disappeared,' reveals McMurtry. 'Pop's Knife and Gun was gone; Choctaw Bingo is now Choctaw Casino and takes up about 50 acres. That smoke shop isn't there. The lingerie store moved to Joplin, Missouri.
'There's other weirdness that's popped up in its place including Red River Rehab. Playing it is always pretty fun.'
Enoteca Vespaio Patio (Friday)
Outwardly, McMurtry appears ornery. Once one understands that his songs are filled with characters he's created – speaking their minds in character – it's clear appearances are indeed deceiving. That makes asking him about success, satisfaction, and happiness feel a little less dangerous.
'Is anybody really satisfied? I'd like to make more money. We're starting to get old, and you need more money when you get old.
'Happy? I'm happier. I was pretty mixed up in my 20s and 30s. I wouldn't say I've got it together, but I've made some progress.'
CD release: Wed., Feb. 25, Continental Club, 12mid. Jon Dee Graham first, 10:15pm.