I don’t really know where this will go, but it is an observation I have recently come to. Before it has been more of a fluke to me, just rock ‘n roll burnouts that did’nt make it…failing their way to what some may call, the easy route.  I’m talking about the rougher, scratchier, tougher looking dudes that now seem to be the heart of good, ol fashioned country music.  When I think of country music, I don’t think of the microwaved, rubbery tasting, machine made, T.V. dinner version of what used to be amazing, bluesy, sad steel pedal country music.  Today it sucks, and sucks even more that they call it country music. I feel guilty or have to explain myself when I say that I play blues and country music.  Most of it is a traveling party show that talks about tailgates, black tops, pasture parties and the size of the tires on the Chevy half-ton.  Who gives a shit about that, who cares….oh yea, the idiots that buy those records and do have big tires and drive country road black tops with their red dixie cup full o beer….well, that actually sounds pretty good….the backroads and dixie cups full of cold beera.

With all this fake country goin on, I am starting to see a lot of the guys that when they were younger, probably made fun of what the old country sound was, the more metal rocker looking dudes.  They are starting to emerge as the country sound.  I know it got pretty cool to like Johnny Cash, Waylon and Willie about 15 years ago, but when they were in their prime, it was rare to see any Rock n Roll guys appreciate it.  I think it is because then those guys were outlaws, and the outlaw in music these days are these metal guys that are leaning towards country.  Its kinda how ya don’t really appreciate something until its gone, its going away now and more people are starting to try to bring it back.  Country music that I like, doesn’t need to be sang by a Cowboy, I do’nt care if they are from Texas, Tennessee or the south…just play me some bluesy country, please have some steel pedal in it, and just sing the truth…thats all it takes, I already know about the BBQ stain your T shirt and how she is killing you in that mini skirt….bring on the Metal Country boys, its good stuff.

-Paul

Matt Woods

Hank 3

Joe Buck Yourself

Dale Watson – One of the last real country bad asses!

Wayne the Train

Whitey Morgan

I had a lot of interest in these fun drawings being turned into a series of prints, the action has been taken! Check em out!
http://paulpuckettart.com/available-prints-etchings/

So…I don’t typically write or talk about things that would be considered political, or heavily weighed one opinion or the other, but I don’t know what to think about this PFA, the Pro Fly Angling Tour.  In the last few years, the competition fly fishing circuit has grown pretty large, and I have always seemed to get a negative, who cares about it approach.  While working at The Fish Hawk in Atlanta, GA while the movement was on the rise, I met a lot of the guys that were involved with it, and they seemed to be very enthusiastic and excited about, so I leaned towards why not.

As the tourneys started to be slated for rivers and streams all over the east and southeast, I never seemed to see them coming up in typical western streams, streams that were challenging, waters that if you actually caught a fish, you could deem yourself a damn good angler.  No, they were being held in DH waters, stocked rivers and rivers that always had a pretty good reputation for being easily fished.  Also, you fish based on beats, river sections that are divided up into areas where anglers are assigned.  So, when you get assigned a beat, who knows what kind of water you are going to get…the frog water, the foot deep section with no level changes, the pocket water, the great runs…who knows, you have no say in the matter.  Are you really the lesser fisherman if you get the crap water?, are you a better fisherman if you get the good water?

The main fishing technique used in these circuits is the Czech nymphing, or high stick nymphing…where technique is a must, it is still nymphing.  Are you a great angler if you win after nymphing all day, all year??  It all bugs me so much, I don’t know why…I ask myself often, and it still bugs me, i cant shake it.  I guess if you took these tours out west and put them in a challenging situation with a dry fly and technical water I would have a better appreciation of whats going on.  Also, the best anglers in the world are guides, shop crews, the carpenter that builds houses in the winter, the bartenders that work after they get off the water, and the guy that travels the world on his own airplane going from New Zealand to The Seychelles…but you never hear about them in the tournaments.  So, I guess you can have a Pro Fly Angling Tour, but there will not be pro’s in the event, there just won’t be.  There is no such thing as a professional fly fisherman anyway.

This is just my microscopic opinion, it is as important as that little piece of dust in the wind, it is just something that I dont think fly fishing needs…in the end, it’s competition fishing, not really Fly Fishing.

Drawing for a company to use for a repeat pattern, excited to see how it turns out!