THROUGH THE HAZE… vol #1 Greetings!
ONE VERY IMPORTANT THING I NEED TO SHARE FROM THE GET-GO… I have no intention of this being a pay to read project. Simply put, there is no expectation for you to do so. If you feel your time is well spent, feel free to donate a modest gratuity. If not, feel free to navigate past that prompt/opportunity link and read to your heart’s content
With that in mind, please enjoy Through the Haze in its weekly format, new episodes up early each Friday morning. Cheers and thanks for taking a peek! Nav
Hi there. Mike Navalinski here.
The intent of Through the Haze is multi-purposed yet shall remain faithful to its goal of presenting my personal journey, experiencing the numerous avenues of opportunity the entertainment world placed before me through six decades of pursuit and enjoyment.
My experiences and thoughts here will revolve around recorded music (I topped out in the 90’s, owning 17 crates of vinyl), 45’s, cassettes, disc, and digital format and yes, even 8 tracks. I have dipped my toes in all styles; from blues to rock, classical to folk, pop to jazz, R&B and soul, New Orleans, African and, yes, punk/new wave, so the bases have all been covered. I also look forward to sharing special moments and performances from the over 600 artists I have been blessed to experience.
I have been fortunate enough to: partake in a stint as a disc jockey of both AM and FM formats; survive musical journalistic endeavors and interviews, manage artists and even have a short-lived adventure as a drummer in a high school band that dreamed of being the next Chicago or Blood Sweat and Tears before we realized getting seven members to practice on a regular basis was Operation Fruitless Endeavor.
In the late 70’s, two buddies with a healthy pirate’s booty of cash enlisted me to help promote four live shows in the Bellingham market featuring front-line artists, including Jean Luc Ponty and David Bromberg, as Half Shell Productions. It took only a year and a half, before we learned the reality it is near impossible to compete on a level playing field with the big boy promoters who tightly control this lucrative endeavor. There are tales worth spinning for all these adventures. I invite you to join in on these social media campfire tales I plan to revisit, told here once more with the intent to leave you with a smile along and time pleasantly spent.
I would also like to share favorite albums you may or may not have missed from the 60’s 70’s and 80’s in short but informative form; bands, and selected favorite shows and moments from those afore-mentioned concert experiences, including my current infatuation with the east coast’s best kept secret, jam band Dogs in a Pile, who have rejuvenated my passion for fresh, exciting music and the reassurance that the future of that genre has a very bright star to check out, especially for those in search of the next ‘big thing’. Damn these lads can play, and at a level most season bands take years to achieve. Here’s your chance to check them out: Dogs In A Pile - 6/8/19 "Look Johnny" - YouTube Dogs In A Pile - 2/17/24 - "My Disguise" ft. Nick Gerlach - YouTube NOTE: This first edition is a fair amount longer than what I plan to present on a regular weekly basis. Hope you come along for the ride. LET’S GO!
My lifelong pathway into the realm of music was inevitable, always exciting and began at quite an early age. Born in March of 1953, I lived my early years with my single mom, grandparents, and aunties in a modest 3-bedroom household in the Southwest Washington redneck logging community of Kelso, Washington. Life as a kid in Kelso back then can best be summed up as a combination of Leave it to Beaver meets Blue Velvet. Fighting, drinking, working in the mills, fighting some more fueled the culture. On the weekends though, just like in the cowboy movies, everyone of age would bathe, dress up, head to one of the thirty or more bars in town to dance, drink, then fight what was left of the evening. What a culture…
My aunties Judy and Kutsie, both in their mid-to-late teens, collected a wealth of pop idol 45s of their generation. Once school let out, their room blared the likes of The Platters, Buddy Holly, Bill Haley, and, of course Elvis. My grandmother played the pipe organ in the local theatres back in the 40’s. From her seat at her Hammond B-3 Broadway classics and ditties such as “Bicycle Built for Two” resounded daily. Her brother, my uncle was Heck Harper, a very popular regional cowboy crooner who wore well-tailored Nudie shirts, cowboy boots and hat had his own weekly country music show on Portland tv. On the weekends Heck would pack em in with country jubilee s and club performances throughout the region. KGW Vault: Heck Harper (youtube.com)
At age 5, while my buddies requested roller skates, footballs, or Red Ryder BB rifles for birthday gifts, my main desire was 45s and a modest battery-powered record player, complete with spindle. My aunties gladly obliged and Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley and instrumental classic, The Guns of Navarone were mine and the fire was lit. I played them endlessly, until needle, batteries and singles wore thin. My passion and thirst to expand my collection-to be exposed to anything with notes and time signatures-was underway.
The next year Kutsie went away to college and Judy found a steady guy. Lucky me inherited their entire cache of rock n roll ear candy. At least fifty beat up, well-worn platters, complete with scratches and fingerprints, were mine.
As the 60’s arrived I grew infatuated with novelty records such as Allen Sherman (Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh), Vaughn Meader’s First Family JFK parody, Ray Steven’s Harry the Harry Ape and Ahab the Arab and Dickie Goodman’s ‘Touchables and Flying Saucer songs-ditties in which he took bits of current pop hits, cut them up to create wacky stories of flying saucers, gangsters, and other assorted oddities. As family legend goes, potential babysitters competed to see who would get paid for the Friday night experience of babysitting lil’ Mike and be entertained by his interpretations of the afore-mentioned classics until bedtime, when their boyfriends clandestinely arrived for a much different form of entertainment.
In ’63, Puff the Magic Dragon hit the airwaves, and my eager ears tuned into folk music. Sunday February 9th, 1964, pursuit ended abruptly.
Just as I had mastered humming along to If I Had a Hammer, Five Hundred Miles and Lemon Tree on a daily basis my musical world, as well as millions of fellow viewers lives, was turned upside down and inside out.
I truly dislike cliffhangers, but this is where we leave off for this edition. To compensate, Through the Haze vol #2 is appearing simultaneously with #1 for this week only. Take a breath, have a cup of your favorite beverage; the fun has just begun! In the GETTING TO KNOW THIS GUY BETTER process I will be providing a link for Spotifiers to enjoy, or at least check out one of the fifty sets of music I have created. I guess I still live by the credo ‘once a DJ always a DJ…’ Anyhow here ya go and thanks for taking time to visit this site. Spotify link of the week: Retro 60s
Great start, Nav!👍👍