He was sitting in his kitchen listening to a mix CD when we arrived.  Chomping at the last bit of his cigar Captain Luke welcomed Aaron and I into his home.  Since it was memorial day we all sat in his living room retelling crass jokes we’ve heard in our lives; all while we drank a little moonshine.  Friends of Luke passed through on and off saying hi and stopping by.  Captain Luke recalled jokes that Whistlin’ Britches and John Dee Holeman had told him.  Above Luke’s head I noticed two VHS cassettes sitting on top of the television: Triple X starring Vin Diesel and Hard To Kill.  Captain Luke graced us with a rendition of Lou Rawl’s You’ll Never Find Another Love Like Mine and told us that his next batch of songs he’s working on will be of the lovely romantic type.

Captain Luke and Sam McMillan

The morning had moved to afternoon, and so the three of us traveled over to Sam “The Dot Man” McMillan’s place.  His store is noticeable for it’s tall fence, but what’s more fascinating were the painted items Sam had set up in the front of his store.  Sam’s folk-art consists of bright vibrant colored  items and dots.  Sam is a storyteller that never has an ending, it was later in the day and none of us had eaten lunch.  Captain Luke had nodded out on the dotted bench, while we talked to Sam about the issues that the world had.  Sam had been trying to sell us his art since the moment we walked in the door.  We told him we had little cash on us and so we couldn’t meet his price range.  Eventually I settled on a ten dollar dotted eagle, and Aaron got a thirty painted cigar box.  In the favor of pushing his art’s exposure Sam gave us more than we had payed for, I left with an extra belt and Aaron had an extra walking stick.  Before we left Sam had also replaced Luke’s old walking stick with a new one, for a new paint job.  Sam had also given Luke a cowboy like hat and so the Captain sang a bit of Bon Jovi’s Dead or Alive.

— Mike Capodiferro