A leisure trip has been overdue for a long while, so we took advantage of the holiday weekend in July to visit a friend in Huntsville, Alabama. While he is an accomplished engineer, he also has excellent taste in music and cars. He also knows how to find some pretty cool open mics. These are from a cute, dark hole-in-the-wall downtown venue called the Voodoo Lounge. The pics in the gallery (linked here) are the best we could grab in low light with the in-camera flash. Next time, we should probably bring the fancy flash apparatus. Most of the musical fare was heartfelt cover tunes and some impressive originals that I wish I had heard more of. All in all, it was a pretty fun and interesting first night in Huntsville. Over the weekend, we explored the rest of Huntsville, a medium-sized city that occasionally vibes like a small town in interesting ways.
Oh, and before I forget, I want to recommend his international Lego group on Facebook. If FB is one of your vices, and you appreciate imagination, creativity, and Legos, you should check this out.
There were a lot of highlights that weren’t recorded, like the fireworks on the mountain and the tail end of the parade downtown, because we were too busy taking it all in. But Alabama is a big music state. There is the Muscle Shoals recording studios that will have to wait for another trip. But we did manage to visit one of the masters of hardcore freeform jazz, the master of outer space freeform jazz, himself: Sun Ra.
If only we had been aware of Ra when he still walked the earth and mesmerized the planet with his vibrations, but alas, we were late in discovering his music. Now we are all in, but we still need to see the Arkestra soon, especially on their limited touring schedule. But visiting Birmingham, especially the signage advertising the Magic City put everything into perspective. Visiting Ra in the cemetery was a profound experience. Along with the visit to Albert Ayler’s grave, this is the closest we may get to making pilgrimage. And there will be others.
Until next time, be kind to yourselves and listen to more Outer Space Jazz.
RadioMike, 16 August 2026