Music to my ears
So, if you’re a long time reader of my blog you know that along with being a photographer, I’m a big live music fan. Usually when I’m in the studio proofing a session, music is playing in the background. Well, I was surfing some of my fav. music sites the other day and was happy to find that my boy Tony Lucca finally got his stuff out into the universe a little more! You can now find him on Youtube and Itunes.
[Click on the link below and then listen as you read on. Warning...prepare for a sentimental ramble. This is my blog, so I'm allowed!]
Often when I’m listening to music, I picture myself hanging out in what used to be one of my most favorite places when I was back home in Alabama called Judge Roy Bean’s in the city of Daphne. (AKA Judge’s to the regular Mobile and Baldwin County patrons)
Here is a painting of our’s of Judge Roy Bean’s by Fairhope artist Jean McKee.
Judge’s burned to the ground a few years back. Even though the Navy has taken me far away from our beloved Eastern Shore, my husband and I will always remember that place and the good times we had there. (Yes, my dh is also from L.A. …and by L.A. I mean lower Alabama.)
It was more than just a Gulf Coast bar. Judge’s was a southern institution! It was where most of my friends met their future spouses. Judge’s was where we could drop in on any given Sunday and listen to some of the best live music the SE had ever seen. If you were lucky, Jimmy Buffet (a local boy in town visiting his family) would just wander in with his guitar and you’d know you were in for a treat.
The iconic building itself was essentially a rickety old squatter’s shed type of a ransackled barn complete with mismatched wood, hand painted signs and a tin roof. You could tell it had been haphazardly added on to here and there over the years. You’d turn around at the $.25 Oyster bar to find a cat sitting on your bar stool. While you were outside watching a volleyball game played by intoxicated prepsters from nearby Springhill College or the University of South Alabama, a goat would be nibbling on the pocket of your bermuda shorts. (See the goat in the picture above.)
You’d see Mobile’s debutantes dressed in linen and pearls playing pool with toothless and tatooed garden variety rednecks from Silverhill. You’d hear Little Feat or James Taylor’s music playing on the speakers in between the band’s sets. During the hot Alabama summers, you could always count on being served one of the best strawberry daquiris in the county. Judge’s was where you could hobknob with judges, lawyers, retired Heisman Trophy winners, college students and smugglers alike.
Man, I miss that place! I’ve got that print of the old watering hole hanging by my favorite chair in my living room in Virginia.
…And the long winded point to this blog is that whenever I listen to Tony Lucca’s live stuff I’m reminded of that little bar made out of leftover barn material on the Eastern Shore of Mobile Bay. He would have fit right in there! Give him a listen.
[See? I told you that this post was sentimental! I really need to travel home this summer!]
Take care, listen to Tony and enjoy this wonderful weather we’ve been having.
Leslie
July 25th, 20083:27 am at
I heard a rumor that Judge’s had been rebuilt. Is that true? Know where I can find out more. Was supposed to visit in ‘05, but just missed the fire by a few days. Live in Sweden, hope to see it in all it’s glory someday!
/ Daniel,
Sweden
October 15th, 200811:04 pm at
I was searching around to see if I could find anything on Judge Roy Bean’s and I found your description. I didn’t know that it had burned, but your description made me a little sad, I had a lot of good times and good memories there. I was in Point Clear playing polo for 3 fall seasons working for Kenny Mclean, we all ended up at judges many times, ussually after we had hit every other bar around. I can’t remember all of them, but every single day I know I went to Gambino’s for happy hour and then the Jubilee, which last I heard was now called the nineteenth hole, then maybe fishbonez or some bar downtown I can’t remember the name of it its been so long but it had an upstairs and a balcony. Dang I wish I was young again and still had that much fun all the time. Thanks for bringing back some fond memories.