The song, “Thunder Road,” is sung by the late, great tough-guy actor actor Robert Mitchum, who starred in the movie of the same name.

For fans of singer and former coffee diva Sally Walker, here’s a re-edit of some video shot of her during a performance at Oak Grove Pavilion in 2006.

Damn, I miss Cafe del Sol.

The Floyd Radio Show, which takes a break for the summer after its show on the first Saturday night of May, has brought an interesting collection of performers to the state of the Country Store — many of them new faces to the Floyd area.

Carol Elizabeth Jones closed out the April show with a cover of Roger Miller’s classic “King of the Road.”  Give it a look and listen.

Levon Helm

When Levon Helm and The Band performed at the Mississippi River Festival at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville in 1969, it put the fledgling summer musical gathering on the map because an old friend walked on stage for an unannounced cameo appearance.

Crouched in front of the stage, shooting pictures for a newspaper, I saw the figure in a big, round-brimmed hat emerge from the wings and muttered: “Son of a bitch! That’s Bob Dylan.”

And it was, Dylan decided to surprise the group of musicians who backed him up for the legendary “Music from Big Pink” album.

Backstage afterward, Helm lit a cigarette and laughed.

“This business sure is full of surprises,” he said.

Helm, more than anyone else, appeared surprised of the success of The Band, a group formed by he and Robbie Robertson from musicians who played for Ronnie “The Hawk” Hawkins.  Hawkins, a tough taskmaster, expected long hours and hard work from his musicians but didn’t believe in paying.

But Robertson and Helm wanted their own band and and sat in a bar one night and decided to form one.

“I asked Robbie, ‘what do you want to call this new group of ours?’  He laughed and said, ‘why don’t we call it The Band?”  I thought for a second and said ‘catchy name.  I like it.” That’s how we became The Band.”

“Hell, everybody always just called us ‘the band’ anyway,” Robertson added.

Arkansas born Helm became the only non-Canadian in the band and the lead singer on many of the group;s big hits.  When the band decided to end life on the road after more than 20 years on the road, their last performance was memorialized by director Martin Scorsese in “The Last Waltz” in 1976.

The breakup proved fatal for some.  Rick Danko died from drug-related heart failure in 1990. Richard Manual killed himself in 1986.  Helm was diagnosed and treated for throat cancer bet appeared for recover and formed his own band which featured his daughter and which appeared at FloydFest two years ago.

But the cancer returned and he went back into the hospital.  Two days ago, they took him off life support.  He died today.

(The video above is from Helm’s appearance at FloydFest in 2010)

They call it “The Wall of Death,” a throwback to the old carnival thrill shows when motorcyclists ran along a circular wooden, vertical wall that looks like the inside of a barrel.

Also known as “motor drome,” the Wall of Death is kept alive nowadays by The American Motor Drome Company, The Wall of Death came to Blue Ridge Bike Fest in Roanoke this weekend and easily drew the largest crowds of any feature in the annual gathering of bikers at the Roanoke Civic Center.

My mom and dad dabbled in motor drome riding in the 1940s right after World War II.  My dad was from Gibstonton, Florida — winter home of carnival workers — and some set up their “wall of death” rides in their yards to practice and perfect.  My parents would practice with the carney regulars but never went on the road with the show, choosing instead to appear sometimes in local shows in and around Tampa.  Sometimes, mom would ride with my dad. Other times she would ride herself.

My mother took a break from motor drome riding when I came along in 1947 but rode in the shows for a few more years after my dad died in an industrial accident in 1948.

In 1950, she met 18-year-old Margaret Coffman, the daughter of motorcyclists from Sarasota.  Coffman was interested in motor drome riding and later became Cookie Crum, the “Queen of the Daredevils” on the stunt show circuit for several years.  Margaret Gast, known as the “mile-a-minute girl” on bikes, also rode the circuit for a while.

Mom stopped motor drome riding after we moved from Florida back to her home in Floyd County in 1953.

Three speakers appeared Tuesday night for a public hearing on what was left of the county’s six-year secondary road improvement program. All wanted to talk about roads not in the plan.

Given all the rain that’s falling this weekend, it seemed like a good time to post a video of Dale Cash singing “Big River” at the Johnny Cash Birthday celebration last month in Floyd.

No, Dale is no relation to Johnny.  He just likes to sing the man in black’s songs.

The wooden pavilion shook from the pounding of the dancers –some with moves that consisted of just jumping up and down on the floor and sending shock waves through the structure.  This translated into lots of vibration for the two tripod-mounted video cameras so it took a lot of work in Adobe After Affects to remove most of the jerkiness and obtain a more or less stable image.

An enthusiastic but inebriated fan pounded the front of the stage, jostled the tripods, knocked the field recorder off the edge of the stage three times.  Ah, the problems of live shooting of rock music.

Still, good music and a good time for the first show of the season at the Pine, courtesy of restaurant owner Reed Embrey and promoter Tom Ryan of The Republic of Floyd.

Here’s a clip of “The Music Never Stopped.”  More to come when I have time to edit.

Master guitar builder and picker Wayne Henderson of Mouth of Wilson wished Doc Watson happy birthday Saturday night during the Floyd Radio Show’s March broadcast.

Watson turned 89 Saturday and, according to Henderson is still looking good and still pickin’.  He honored Watson by picking one of Doc’s tunes, “Nothing to It.”

Highlights of the Floyd County High School Lady Buffs victory over Radford in the opening round of the Region C tournament on Wednesday, February 22, 2012.

In the semi-finals Friday night, the team plays Glenvar for the fourth time this season and a win there sends them to the final Saturday night in Radford.