BioWillie

On the Road Again” means something new for Willie Nelson these days — a chance for truckers to fill their tanks with clean-burning biodiesel fuel.Nelson and three business partners recently formed a company called Willie Nelson’s Biodiesel that is marketing the fuel to truck stops. The fuel, called BioWillie, is made from vegetable oils, mainly soybeans, and can be burned without modification to diesel engines.It may be difficult to picture the 71-year-old hair-braided Texas rebel as an energy company executive, but the singer’s new gig is in many ways about social responsibility — and that is classic Nelson.“There is really no need going around starting wars over oil. We have it here at home. We have the necessary product, the farmers can grow it,” said Nelson, who organized Farm Aid two decades ago to draw attention to the plight of American agriculture. Nelson has a long history with the combustion of naturally grown organic products, so this should be a natural.
Most people don't realize it, but the diesel engine was originally designed to run on some form of natural vegetable oil -- not petroleum-based diesel. Unlike a gas engine -- which uses a spark to ignite a highly volatile mixture of fuel and oil -- diesels rely on extreme compression and heat to ignite the fuel. This is why vegetable oil -- everything from soybeans to strained grease from a fast-food fry pit -- can be used to power a diesel engine, often with very few (or even no) modification to the engine itself. Willie uses the fuel himself -- for both his personal vehicles as well as his diesel-powered tour bus. Soon, you might be using it, too -- especially at $1.79 per gallon! It's cheaper than regular diesel because homegrown soybeans are less expensive than Saudi Arabian crude.
Click HERE for more info on Willie's company.
If you don't mind getting your hands a little greasy, you can do Willie one better -- and fill your tank for free. All you've got to do is scrounge up enough waste vegetable oil,strain it of loose fries and bits of General Tso's -- and motor on. Many restaurants already have contracts with companies to pick up this used oil already. So you might have trouble finding a large enough supply. Not to mention digging up your back yard to install the storage tank and other needed equipment.Most any diesel engine can be run on waste vegetable oil with a few modifications to the fuel lines/storage tank to prevent congealing in low temperatures. The only downside is the down and dirty nature of the fuel -- and the fast food fry pit smell that will blossom out of your vehicle's tailpipe.This may also lead to you being pulled over by a hungry traffic cop.
Read more about this process HERE

Friday Nite Retro - Michael Martin Murphy

Welcome to Friday Nite Retro! Tonight, I got to learn all about Michael Martin Murphy; who recorded three songs that I was aware of. As it turns out, I wasn't all that aware! Murphy has performed everything from bubble-gum pop to folk to country to cowboy-western. Murphy was born in Oak Cliff, Texas in 1945, and grew up in Dallas. His love of the outdoors began at an early age when his parents took him and his brother Mark on regular trips to the country to visit relatives. When he was six years old, Murphy started riding horses on his grandfather's and uncle's ranches. Years later he would remember sleeping on his grandfather's porch under the stars listening to the older man's stories and cowboy songs. He also enjoyed being around these men of the land as they went about their work. These experiences made a deep impression on the young boy.

His early influences included Hank Williams, Bob Wills, and Woody Guthrie. At seventeen he took his first "professional" music job, playing western songs around the campfire at a Texas ranch. By the early 1960s, Murphey was playing the clubs in Dallas, performing country music, folk music, and rock music. He won over the conservative Texas audiences with his charm and talent, and soon formed a band that developed a significant following in the Dallas area.

After high school, Murphy moved to California, attended UCLA, and made a name for himself in the Los Angeles folk music scene. By 1964, he formed a musical group with an old Texas friend, Michael Nesmith, and John London and John Raines, under the name the "Trinity River Boys". Nesmith, who became one of the Monkees, asked Murphey to write them a song for the next Monkees album, and Murphey composed "What Am I Doing Hangin' Round."

What Am I Doing Hangin' Round?


In 1971, Murphy returned to Texas and became part of the so-called "Outlaw Country" movement, playing alongside other maverick performers such as Willie Nelson and Jerry Jeff Walker. He created a unique sound that combined his country, rock, and folk influences. It was during this period that Murphy wrote "Geronimo's Cadillac," a song about Indian rights that later became an unofficial anthem for the American Indian Movement in the early 1970s.

Geronimo's Cadillac


In 1975, he released his seminal album, Blue Sky, Night Thunder, which contained the hit "Carolina in the Pines" and what is perhaps his masterpiece, "Wildfire", a sentimental song about the ghosts of a woman and her horse. As a boy, he first heard the story of a ghost horse rescuing people in the desert from his grandfather. Years later, Murphy had a dream about this ghost horse and wrote the words and music the same day with songwriter Larry Cansler.

In May 1975, "Wildfire" reached No. 1 on the Radio and Records charts, No. 3 on Billboard's Pop Chart, and No. 1 on all Adult Contemporary Charts, giving Murphy a new level of commercial success and exposure. The song's success was due, in large part, to the unique harmonies supplied by Jeff Hanna and Jimmy Ibbotson from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and the beautiful piano introduction based on a classical piece by Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, played by master jazz pianist Jac Murphy.

Wildfire


In 1982, Murphy signed with Liberty Records and produced two original albums, Michael Martin Murphy and The Heart Never Lies, and a compilation of re-recorded versions of his A&M, Epic, and Liberty hits. During the early 1980s, Murphy had significant commercial success with hits like "Still Taking Chances," "Disenchanted," "Don't Count the Rainy Days," "Will It Be Love By Morning," "Radio Land," and the No. 1 hit "What's Forever For" which also reached No. 19 on the Billboard Pop Singles Chart.

What's Forever For


Still Takin' Chances


In 1983, Murphey was voted Best New Male Vocalist of the year by the Academy of Country Music. In 1985, his rerecorded version of "Carolina in the Pines" reached the Top 10.

Carolina in the Pines


In 1990, Murphy released the album Cowboy Songs — a project he'd been working on for several years. This was a pure labor of love, since no one had recorded an album of authentic cowboy songs in more than twenty years. The album contained Murphy's versions of old cowboy songs from the public domain such as "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," "The Old Chisholm Trail," the beautiful "Spanish is the Loving Tongue," the classic "The Streets of Laredo," and his tip of the hat to Roy Rogers, "Happy Trails." The album also contained Murphy's own "Cowboy Logic."

Cowboy Logic


Michael Martin Murphy has had a successful music career that has spanned four decades and included such musical genres as folk, country, rock, popular, western, and cowboy music. As a singer, songwriter, and producer, he has contributed some of the best-loved songs of his generation. His songs have been recorded by Kenny Rogers, John Denver, Cher, Lyle Lovett, Flatt & Scruggs, Claire Hamill, Hoyt Axton, Roger Miller, Bobbie Gentry, Michael Nesmith, and the Monkees.

Murphey played a major role in the resurrection of the cowboy song genre, recording and producing some of the most successful cowboy music of the past forty years. His album Cowboy Songs inspired a whole series of albums. For his accomplishments in the Western and Cowboy Music field, Murphey received five awards from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, formerly known as the National Cowboy Hall of Fame) in Oklahoma City. His name is now synonymous with Cowboy Music.

Drop by his official site to see what he's up to today!

Local college producing bio-diesel

Last March I wrote an article about Willie Nelson and his bio-diesel production. Turns out that even a local college has jumped onto this bandwagon! My thanks to Dr.Phil for getting this story to me. From Manchester College:

Students who
eat veggie-fried foods help the environment, College - honest!

What
started curiously with a “What if?” is fueling student lab work,
lessons in environmental science – and Manchester College lawnmowers, a
maintenance van and leaf blowers.

What
if the College converted that used vegetable frying oil from Chartwells
dining service into biodiesel, wondered Jeff Osborne, assistant
professor of chemistry. “The concept of taking a waste product, such as
vegetable oil and converting it into something useful is what I like,”
the scientist noted.

Chartwells was happy to
provide the cash and to part with its grease for education, and for
stewardship – of the environment and the College’s fuel resources.

Osborne found plans for an
“Appleseed reactor” on the internet. The name is for the spirit of the
reactor: that people should spread the recycling word like Johnny did
his appleseed and make their own non-profit, biodiesel contraption.

The process is fairly simple:
Osborne and a student researcher mix methanol and lye (sodium hydroxide)
with the vegetable oil in an 80-gallon water heater for three hours,
then pump the mixture into a separation tank. In the tank, the biodiesel
rises to the top and glycerol, which forms during the reaction, sinks to
the bottom with other by-products and is drained out. Then, the
biodiesel is washed with water, turning it the color of honey – and not
smelling a bit like diesel.

They are creating fuel so
safe a curious animal could swallow a taste or two without harm. The
fuel also is very difficult to ignite with a match. And the biodiesel
actually can clean deposits out of the fuel tank.

Manchester
is using its biodiesel in lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and some vehicles.
The fuel requires no alterations to the equipment, said campus mechanic
Cornelius “Corny” Troyer. An engine that runs on diesel will run on
biodiesel, too, although he is quick to note there are cold-weather
challenges and that Manchester is far from fueling all of its vehicles
with the grease concoction.

Test runs began a year ago,
when January Session students in Osborne’s Chemical Science class first
poured their experiment into an engine. Troyer is still pretty sneaky as
he oversees the biodiesel fueling of MC equipment. He doesn’t tell
machine operators they are running biodiesel so they won’t form
preconceived notions about the fuel or how it affects their engines.
He’ll arrive at work at 5 a.m., just so no one sees which fuel he is
pouring into the tanks.

So far – nary a complaint,
although mower Carl Strike is quite certain he’s whiffing French fries
as he crisscrosses the campus mall.

Amanda Patch ’08,
a biology-chemistry major from Otterbein, Ind., is assisting Osborne –
and helped demonstrate the project at what students say is one of the
neatest convocations ever, with fireballs, a huge mower on stage, a
boots-clad executive, explosions and fire extinguishers at the ready.

Patch has medical school in
her future. “I’m doing this because I have to give back to Manchester
somehow and this is a great way to do that while learning about
chemistry and the various solutions to energy,” she said.

What’s in it for the College?
A constant reminder of the possibilities of biodiesel to students,
faculty and staff as they see mowing and leaf-blowing on campus. Good
training in environmental science for students participating in the
grease-to-diesel conversion. An environmentally cleaner campus and less
landfill waste.

With assistance from its
students, the College’s Biology and Chemistry departments can produce
about 100 gallons of biodiesel per month. (Each batch is 50 gallons.) To
supply the College’s need for 1,750 gallons a year would require larger
equipment and a funding/staffing shift from the laboratory to the
maintenance department.

And, of course, there’s the
math:

The college spends $2.60 to
$2.80 per gallon for diesel. (Some already is manufactured biodiesel,
Troyer notes)

The biodiesel costs 80 cents
a gallon to make in the lab during the school year, for a maximum output
of 900 gallons. That’s a potential $1,800 savings for the
College.

“Biodiesel is not the
answer,” admits Osborne, who is quick to note that MC academics are not
getting into the fuel business. “But we have to do something different
to help protect the environment.”

Tyson to go "bio"

I've blogged about the use of bio-diesel here several times; Willie Nelson and his bio-diesel lifestyle, Manchester College creating their own fuel, and Daryl Hannah and her bio-diesel El Camino. Here's a new entry into this category:

According to an article in today's WSJ, Tyson Foods and Syntroleum Corp are announcing plans for a $150 million plant which will use fat by-products from Tyson's plants to produce 75 million gallons of fat-based fuel per year. Finally we know where those trans fats that have disappeared from their products has gone.

Seriously, what a great idea. Hats off to these guys; let's hope many other corporations follow their fine example.

Songs rewritten for Boomers

• Herman's Hermits - Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Walker
• The Bee Gees - How Can You Mend a Broken Hip
• Bobby Darin - Splish, Splash, I Was Havin' a Flash
• Ringo Starr - I Get By With a Little Help from Depends
• Roberta Flack - The First Time Ever I Forgot Your Face
• Johnny Nash - I Can't See Clearly Now
• Paul Simon - Fifty Ways to Lose Your Liver
• Commodores - Once, Twice, Three Times to the Bathroom
• Marvin Gaye - I Heard it Through the GrapeNuts
• Procol Harem - A Whiter Shade of Hair
• Leo Sayer - You Make Me Feel Like Napping
• The Temptations - Papa's Got a Kidney Stone
• Abba - Denture Queen
• Tony Orlando - Knock 3 Times on the Ceiling if you Hear Me Fall
• Helen Reddy - I am Woman, Hear me Snore
• Willie Nelson - On the Throne Again
• Leslie Gore - It's My Procedure and I'll Cry if I Want To
• The Angels - My Boyfriend's Dead
• The Outsiders - Time Won't Let Me Do Anything
• The Box Tops - Bend Me, Shake Me Out Of My Coma
• Pete Seeger - This Land Is Your Land, Thanks to My Will
• Steppenwolf - Magic Carpet Cleaner
• Betty Everett - The Droop Droop Song
• The Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Feeling In Your Left Leg
• Elvis Presley - Can't Help Falling Down The Stairs and Breaking My Hip
• Nancy Sinatra - These Slippers Are Made For Keeping My Feet Warm When The House Gets a Little Chilly
• Van Morrison: My Gallstone Girl
• Eric Clapton: It grows hair, it grows hair, it grows hair.....Rogaine
• The Stones: Time Is Not on My Side
• The Stones: Get Off of My Lawn
• James Brown: Papa's Got a Brand New Colostomy Bag
• Tony Bennet: I left my heart in... Uh... Where was I?
• Moody Blues: Lovely to See You Again...with these new bifocals
• Simon & Garfunkel: Hello Darkness My Old Friend (now how will I find my Depends?)
• Going to the Chapel (And We're Gonna Get Buried)
• The Box Tops: The Letter--not one of those newfangled emails!
• "Predecease Me" by Kitty Wills
• Predecease me (you die first)
  'cause you're the one who'd feel the worst
  to think of me without a friend
  Predecease me...and let me love again
• Amazing Grave (How Sweet the Mound)
• Paul Simon: Call me Al (Zheimer)
• The Beach Boys: Be True To Your Stool; Good Vibrators; Help Me, OnStar
• The Beatles: Dear Prunejuice; Drive My Golfcart; Got To Get It Into My Wife; I Am The Wal-Mart; I Should Have Known Betty
• The Rolling Stones: 90th Nervous Breakdown; {I Can't Get No) Sam's Club Action; Let's Spend The 401K Together
• Janis Joplin: Me and Wobbly Knee
• Creedence Clearwater Recovery: Who'll stop the pain
• Pete Seeger: Where Have All The Hours Gone?
• Bob Dylan: Blowin’ (I’ve Got Wind)
• Beatles: "Will you still need me..." When I'm Seventy-four
• Van Halen: "Hot Flashes for Teacher"
• Little richard: Fruity Tootie

The Appalachia Effect

I've read a couple of interesting posts regarding this section of the country, and the election results there. Check them out here and here. Looks like Hillary has a base. . .a base that looks much like the front row at a Willie Nelson concert - 200 feet, and 3 teeth:

The ethnic and cultural character of this part of the country has been more static since the 19th century than anyplace in America. Outside of some of the new growth areas north of Atlanta or Huntsville, or in some of the college towns, most of the people in Appalachia trace their heritage back to immigrants from the borderlands of Northern Britain who began settling the region over 200 years ago. Outside of the Northern part of Appalachia—Pennsylvania in particular—relatively few Eastern or Southern Europeans from the great waves of immigration that started in the 1880's have moved in to the area. It's the most homogeneous region in America