Jack put on 6 steel guitar shows between '86 and '88. Some of the other performers were Doug Jernigan, Jimmy Day, Mike Cass, Buddy Emmons, and local heroes Red Rhodes and J.D, Maness, One show consisted of all local unknowns, one of whom was yours truly. All of these shows were videotaped, but I don't know what happened to Jack's tapes.

Actually, all these shows were taped twice, A local player named Al Parrett also brought a video camera and taped them. I recently got copies of Al's tapes, Unfortunately from a technical standpoint they are very poor.

Getting back to the Chalker tape, I asked Jack if I could make a copy for myself and he graciously agreed so the next day I brought my VCR (an old Beta format deck) to the club and copied the tape. This was unedited raw footage, with all the dead time in between the songs. I still have this tape, and I still have the beta deck so I can play it.

The second half of the tape was recorded 2 weeks later at Scotty's Christmas party. Unfortunately, at one point the microphone came unplugged from the camcorder, so about half an hour's worth of music was lost. I'll talk more about that later.

During the Christmas party, Wade Ray played a set, and this material, while not included on the video, is intact and could be made available should there be a demand for it. At yet another point in the evening, various members of the audience got up and sag with Curly backing them up. This material too is intact, but as you can imagine, somewhat less than spectacular.

Shortly after the concerts, Scotty and I traded copies of the tapes. I then strictly for my own pleasure put them together onto a single tape, editing out all the dead time between songs, and all the vocal performances by Wade Ray and the people in the audience who got up to sing. After all the edits, there was 2 hours of nonstop music. 75 minutes from the California show and 45 from Scotty's party.

After Curly's stroke, I approached both Scotty and Bob Maickel form the PSGA about the tape, and we all agreed this would be a great way to help Curly. I had a few hundred copies made and the first moneys that came in reimbursed me for my expenses, and all the rest went directly to Curly.

Scotty's party was recorded separately on audio tape, so there is music to match the silent footage. With today's technology the sound from the audio tapes can be fused in perfect sync to the silent footage. The question is not whether or not it can be done, but whether is not it is worth doing. (This would be a fairly expensive proposition probably costing hundreds of dollars.) There is probably between 15 and 20 minutes of music involved, and we already have 2 hours. Given the expense involved, plus the fact that most blank tapes are 2 hours long, and the video just fits, plus the fact that many of the songs were played twice, once at each conert, my feeling it that it's not worth it. We have a great 2 hour concert on tape. I feel that's enough.

I still have the unedited tapes I got from Jack and Scotty, and the original master edited tape from which all the copies were made. I can have more copies made at any time. As far as I know, Scotty still has copies for sale. But if not, I can always make more.

[This message was edited by Mike Perlowin on 20 July 2001 at 06:19 AM.]

I might be willing to add the sound to the silent footage in exchange for a copy of the two hour show tape.

What kind of tape is the audio on?

I use Adobe Premiere 5.1 for video editing.

Send me an email if you're interested.

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Is this video still available?

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What about them? ARE there any? If so, WHERE!??

The Mike Cass concert was to my knowledge, not videotaped.

The Buddy Emmons concert was something of a disaster. It was actually Buddy and a now deceased famous guitar player, together. I had at the time one of the very first DAT recorders in the country, and I arranged with Jack to hook it up the the PA so as to get digital recording of the concert, which could later be commercially released. Well, as it turned out, the guitar player, who I shall not identify so as not to tarnish his reputation, got so drunk he couldn't play. I thought he was going to pass out right there on the stage.

Buddy did his best to hold it together, but the whole thing was a train wreck.

The tapes, rather than being a treasured document, were an embarassment to all concerned. They were so bad that Buddy asked me to destroy them, which I did. Likewise, if Jack (who was absolutely furious with the guitar player) had videotaped the concert, he too would have destroyed the tapes. The only purpose they could have served was to embarrass the guitar player. Trust me on this, this is one concert that is best forgotten, and the world is a better place because there are no recordings of it.

I will attempt to find Jack's family and see of the other tapes can be found. Meanwhile, I'll also ask Al if he is willing to share his tapes. (He gave me copies, so I can't see him objecting to others having them, but they are his tapes, and not mine to give away.)

second, I have compiled a list of 107 people named "Laux" in Illinois. Chances are some of these are related to Jack. I have names, addresses and phone numbers.

But calling all these people from California would be very expensive. We need somebody from Illinois to contact these people and try to locate the tapes, assuming they are still in existence.