Well October sure lived up to the name Rocktober this year. My wife and I thought we would just be chillin’ with Abbey off at college, Madison working in San Francisco, but no, October was rockin’ busy. First off, Halloween is a national holiday at our house so that was a lot of fun. Second, it was the MAMA Awards. This year was really something special. Modesto finally took its proper place as one of the roots of Rock ‘n Roll and the Birthplace of Rockabilly.
K.C. “Don Juan” Maddox returned to Modesto for the first time in decades to be honored, along with his family, the Maddox Brothers and Rose for their role in the invention of Rockabilly at the 2013 MAMA Awards. It was truly amazing and heartwarming to see the applause and respect given to Don from our music community. He was treated like the true musical legend that he is and in return, he gave it his all and performed and played his fiddle for three nights in a row, showing every second what a true showman is. Amazing. I was honored to be his host and I am more fired up than ever to make sure that this history is celebrated and that we tell the world about who we are and welcome visitors from around the world to share our music and American Graffiti history. This is who we are and it is good.
Civic pride comes from within and that is what we showcase every day and every month in ModestoView Magazine. It is easy to throw rocks or expect other people to be the ones to create change, but it is up to us to do it. Watching our musicians play with Don Maddox, or jam with Deke Dickerson or perform for Robert Ulrich on stage or see their artwork for sale or perform in their first play is inspiring. We have to create more opportunities for Modestans to shine. That’s why I am so very proud of the writers we have here at ModestoView. They are featured here because they celebrate and share what they love and do. That is why ModestoView is different and it loaded solid with total goodness each month.
Please be our friend on Facebook.com/modestoview and you will be treated to the same goodness upon every visit to our site. Follow us on Twitter.com/modestoview and you will be up to date all day long with the positive events and happenings here in Modesto. We all are the change, we are all creative and we all make a difference.
We welcome a special guest writer, former Modestan and GLEE casting director, Robert Ulrich to ModestoView this month as he brings his talent and time back to Modesto to give back to inspire the next generation. We can all do this. We can create events like ModShop that change the way we look at local artisans and show this can be a strong economy. Everyone can do it and by picking up this copy of ModestoView, you are doing it to and hopefully you will take away something new and good and spread the word.
Thank you very much Chris Murphy Publisher and Founder, ModestoView chrism@modestoview.com
