Trying To Tease
The Tie That Binds, Tasty Tri-Tips, Tommy Emmanuel, Terry Tyler, Tipping Truck
Welcome to my weekly newsletter. This week’s issue includes great guitarists, Kent Haruf’s first novel, seven Santa Barbara-specific sandwiches, a guitar master, a Titan of the Titans, and a bridge too short. I hope you like the picks and pics.
In this issue I am trying two Ts in each topic in the headline. Twas too trying — two had three and one had one. So let me once again try that:
Tenth Trio
Sunday, March 10th was the birthday of our twin daughters Tracy and Kathy (37), and our granddaughter Sommer (4). Like me, they were all born in our favorite month of the year: March Madness.
If you enjoy Fave Five, I would greatly appreciate it if you would take a moment to share it with your friends who also like books, food, music, sports, or humor. To do so, just click the button below.
Fave Five 76: Trying To Tease
Haruf’s Holt (The Tie That Binds), Tasty Tri-Tips (South Coast Deli, Jeannine’s, Best BBQ, Creekside, Shalhoob’s, Santa Barbara Chicken Ranch, Cold Spring Tavern), Australian Acoustic Artist (Tommy Emmanuel), Terrific Titan (Terry Tyler), and a Tipping Truck.
Fave Five Lists: Three Lists of Favorite Acoustic Guitarists
On Saturday, we got to see two of the greatest acoustic guitarists in the world, Tommy Emmanuel (often called the best) and Trey Hensley (2023 IBMA Guitar Player of the Year). I love watching and listening to the acoustic guitar when played by accomplished artists, so Saturday’s concert was a special treat. Here are three lists of my favorite performers.
Bluegrass/Flatpicking
(The late) Doc Watson
(The late) Tony Rice
Folk/Rock/Country
Tommy Emmanuel (this week’s Marvelous Musician)
(The late) Clarence White
Fingerstyle/Violent Acoustic
(The late) John Fahey
(The late) Michael Hedges
Doc’s Guitar/Black Mountain Rag by Tommy Emmanuel & Billy Strings
Book Best Bet
The Tie That Binds by Kent Haruf
I have read all of Haruf’s novels: The Tie That Binds (1984), Where You Once Belonged (1990), Plainsong (1999), Eventide (2004), Benediction (2013), and Our Souls at Night (2015). I loved them all and was said when he died ten years ago.
From Amazon: From the bestselling author of Eventide, The Tie That Binds is a powerfully eloquent tribute to the arduous demands of rural America, and of the tenacity of the human spirit.
Colorado, January 1977. Eighty-year-old Edith Goodnough lies in a hospital bed, IV taped to the back of her hand, police officer at her door. She is charged with murder. The clues: a sack of chicken feed slit with a knife, a milky-eyed dog tied outdoors one cold afternoon. The motives: the brutal business of farming and a family code of ethics as unforgiving as the winter prairie itself. Here, Kent Haruf delivers the sweeping tale of a woman of the American High Plains, as told by her neighbor, Sanders Roscoe. As Roscoe shares what he knows, Edith's tragedies unfold: a childhood of pre-dawn chores, a mother's death, a violence that leaves a father dependent on his children, forever enraged. Here is the story of a woman who sacrifices her happiness in the name of family—and then, in one gesture, reclaims her freedom.
Kent Haruf
From Wikipedia: Alan Kent Haruf (born February 24, 1943 in Pueblo, Colorado; died November 30, 2014 in Salida, Colorado) was an American novelist. Before becoming a writer, Haruf worked in a variety of places, including a chicken farm in Colorado, a construction site in Wyoming, a rehabilitation hospital in Denver, a hospital in Phoenix, a presidential library in Iowa, an alternative high school in Wisconsin, and colleges in Nebraska and Illinois. He also taught English with the Peace Corps in Turkey.
All of Haruf's novels take place in the fictional town of Holt, in eastern Colorado. Holt is based on Yuma, Colorado, one of Haruf's residences in the early 1980s. His first novel, The Tie That Binds (1984), received a Whiting Award and a special Hemingway Foundation/PEN citation. Where You Once Belonged followed in 1990. A number of his short stories have appeared in literary magazines.
Plainsong was published in 1999 and became a U.S. bestseller. Verlyn Klinkenborg called it "a novel so foursquare, so delicate and lovely, that it has the power to exalt the reader." Plainsong won the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Award and the Maria Thomas Award in Fiction and was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction.
Eventide, a sequel to Plainsong, was published in 2004. Library Journal described the writing as "honest storytelling that is compelling and rings true." A third novel in the series, Benediction, was published in 2014.
In the summer of 2014 Haruf finished his last novel, Our Souls at Night, which was published posthumously in 2015. He completed it just before his death. The novel was subsequently adapted in 2017 into a film by the same name, starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda.
Kent Haruf, Acclaimed Novelist of Small-Town Life, Is Dead at 71 by William Yardley of The New York Times
Kent Haruf pulled a wool cap over his eyes when he sat down at his manual typewriter each morning so he could “write blind,” fully immersing himself in the fictitious small town in eastern Colorado where he set a series of quiet, acclaimed novels, including “Plainsong,” a 1999 best seller. Mr. Haruf often wrote a chapter a day, most recently in a prefabricated shed in the backyard of his home in Salida, Colo., where he died on Sunday at 71.
Punctuation, capitalization, paragraphs — they waited for the second draft. The first draft usually came quickly, a stream of imagery and dialogue that ran to the margins, single-spaced.
The ring of the return oriented him, as did the world he saw in his mind’s eye: the community he called Holt, a composite of towns in Colorado where he had lived as a boy. His father was a Methodist minister, and the family moved often.
Restaurant Recommendations
Tasty Tri-Tips
In the previous two issues, I wrote about six stops on the taco trail and six stops on a food crawl. This week I feature seven versions of a Santa Barbara staple: tri-tip. Unlike the previous two weeks, I did not visit all seven of these in one day. Rather, I have sampled them over the past few months. Last year I provided details on the tri-tip we enjoyed at Creekside Restaurant & Bar, which is included again in this roundup.
In addition to these seven sandwiches, I also asked for tri-tip to be added to the Santa Barbara Local scramble (three eggs, house-made tomatillo salsa, bacon, diced tomatoes, cheddar cheese, avocado, and optional tri-tip) at Farmer Boy. The result was outstanding. The moral: everything is better with tri-tip.
South Coast Deli 3534 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105
Tri-Tip & Salsa: sliced house roasted tri-tip w/ our own chipotle mayo, and South Coast Deli salsa
Jeannine’s Restaurant and Bakery 3607 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105
Tri-Tip: Snake River American Wagyu style Beef, Grilled Onions & Tomatoes, Provolone, Au Jus
Best BBQ 716 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Tri Tip Sandwich
Creekside Restaurant & Bar 4444 Hollister Ave., Santa Barbara, CA 93110
Santa Barbara smoked tri-tip
Shalhoob’s @ The Market 38 W. Victoria Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
Oak Smoked Tri-Tip Sandwich: House BBQ Glazed Tri-Tip, Pico de Gallo, Garlic Aioli & Garlic Bread
Santa Barbara Chicken Ranch 149 N Fairview Ave #2304, Goleta, CA 93117
Grilled Tri-Tip on a Toasted French Roll with Mayonnaise, Guacamole, Cole Slaw and Tomatoes
Cold Spring Tavern 5995 Stagecoach Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93105
Original Cold Spring Tri-Tip: oak grilled tri-tip thick sliced with a selection of our house made bar-b-q, apple horseradish, or fresh salsa, served on a French roll
The top three tri-tips from this list:
Cold Spring Tavern
Creekside
Santa Barbara Chicken Ranch
Marvelous Musician
My radiologist/guitarist friend David Osher raved about Tommy for years. I finally saw Tommy for the first time on Cayamo 2019. He was the hit of that cruise, and he turned up to play with almost everyone on board. Barb and I saw him in Santa Barbara on December 14, 2019 and on March 9, 2024. As we walked out after the 2019 show, a man stopped me to exclaim that there is no one else in the whole world like Tommy Emmanuel. I agreed.
From Wikipedia: William Thomas Emmanuel AM (born May 31, 1955 in Muswellbrook, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian guitarist, songwriter and singer who is known for his complex fingerstyle technique, energetic performances and the use of percussive effects on the guitar. Although originally a session player in many bands, He has carved out his own style as a solo artist, releasing award-winning albums and singles. In the May 2008 and 2010 issues of Guitar Player magazine, he was named "Best Acoustic Guitarist" in its readers' poll. In June 2010 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM). In 2011, he was inducted into the Australian Roll of Renown. He was listed by MusicRadar as the best acoustic guitarist in the world.
Classical Gas
White Freightliner Blues, Deep River Blues, and Doc's Guitar (with Molly Tuttle on Cayamo 2019)
Somebody That I Used to Know (with Mike Dawes)
My Playlist
Sports Star
It was not a good year for three men’s college basketball teams I have supported in the past. The Missouri Tigers finished 0-18 in the Big 12 and just blew an 8-point second-half lead to lose in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament. Just last year they were in the NCAA tournament and one of my Fantasy Final Four teams.
Earlier today, The University of Michigan lost in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament. They finished the season 8-24 and 3-17 in the conference — dead last. Coach Juwan Howard has now missed the dance for two straight years.
The University of Detroit Mercy (UDM) Titans were the worst of all, finishing this season with a record of 1-31. As a result, coach Mike Davis was fired. I decided to hark back to a happier time for the Titans, when hometown hero Terry Tyler was a star for UDM when it was still called U of D and it was a national basketball power coached by Dick Vitale.
Terry also played for the Detroit Pistons, another woefully bad team this year. The one local bright spot so far this season: Oakland University won the Horizon League tournament and will go dancing this year. Go Grizzlies!
From Wikipedia: Terry Christopher Tyler (born October 30, 1956 in Detroit) is an American former professional basketball player. A 6'7" forward from Northwestern High School, Tyler signed to play for Dick Vitale at the University of Detroit. Tyler averaged a double-double by his sophomore year (17.2 ppg, 11.0 rpg), and the team would produce an unprecedented run during his time with the Titans (1974-1978). Vitale added future NBA players such as Terry Duerod, John Long, and Dennis Boyd and built a dominating independent program at the Jesuit university. Tyler played forward for the team, averaged 16.4 ppg and 12.6 rpg as a senior.
UDM advanced to the 1977 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament in his junior year, defeating Middle Tennessee in the first round before losing to Michigan in the Sweet 16, 86-81, to end a stellar season, finishing #12 in the polls.
The team was left out of the NCAA in Tyler's senior year, 1977–78, playing in the 1978 NIT, despite a 25-4 record and a #18 ranking. In four seasons at Detroit, Tyler scored 1,649 points, set a school record with 359 blocked shots and was inducted into the Detroit Mercy Titans Hall of Fame in 2001.
After his college career came to a close, the forward was selected by the Detroit Pistons in the second round of the 1978 NBA draft. The move was largely influenced by Pistons Head Coach Dick Vitale, who coached Tyler at UDM before going to the Pistons in 1978. He played seven seasons for the Pistons and averaged a career-high 13.4 ppg points per game in 1980–81. During his time with the Pistons, Tyler would play alongside University of Detroit teammates Duerod, Boyd, and Long. A free agent in 1985, Tyler elected to sign with the Sacramento Kings, spending three seasons with the Kings. Leaving the hometown team was tough and Tyler said, "There were some tough years in Detroit, but I just wanted to make a difference. I wasn't fortunate enough to get a ring but doggone it at least we got it going in the right direction. I wanted the fans to know that when they saw me, I was going to give 110%."
Tyler then finished his NBA career with the Dallas Mavericks for the 1988-89 NBA season. Tyler played 11 seasons (1978–1989) in the NBA in total, averaged 10.2 points and 5.4 rebounds in his NBA career and earned NBA All-Rookie Team honors in 1979. He also participated in the 1986 NBA Slam Dunk Contest, where he finished 8th. Tyler would complete his playing career overseas, playing three seasons in the Lega Basket A in Italy.
Terry Tyler returns to the game of basketball after more than 20 years away
Last year Terry Tyler returned to coaching after being named an assistant at Northern New Mexico College. He previously spent two years as head coach of the men’s basketball program at Eastern New Mexico University and three years as an assistant at Notre Dame.
Picture Pun
Perhaps a wee bit overconfident.
