“But I can't touch you where you are
There you stood, dressed up like Nebraska
Plain as Day "
- Dressed Up Like Nebraska/Josh Rouse
I've spent so little time in Nebraska it doesn't even feel right saying I've been there, just one quick dip in and out. I don't know much about the place. I know that my wife, Kendra, and her sister, Kim, were born there, as was Studio Jeff's wife, Julia, so it obviously produces fine women. I know that Omaha is where the College World Series is held and that Warren Buffett still lives there in his modest little house. Omaha is also where my favorite pitcher of all time was born and raised, St. Louis Cardinal, Bob Gibson. Oh, and as to fine women, our dear friend Vickey was an air traffic controller in Omaha, as well. That's what I know off the top of my head.
I checked out some things and learned that Nebraska is responsible for a few distinctive American culinary delights. Sometime in the 1920s, a Lithuanian grocer in Omaha invented the rueben sandwich. A Nebraskan named Steven Hensen came up with ranch dressing. In 1927, a man from Hastings named Edwin Perkins engineered the formula for Kool Aid juice drink. In 1952, a Swedish immigrant living in the state named Swanson, conceived the idea of the frozen TV dinner. And there you go, a murder's row of middle to lowbrow cuisine, thanks to Nebraska.
A favorite author of mine lives in Chadron in the northwest part of the state. He's not from Nebraska, but his vagabond life landed him there. How to describe Poe Ballentine? He's a writer who has spent most of his life drifting around the country, taking menial, low pay cooking jobs to make just enough money to get himself somewhere else. When he'd get there, he'd do the same thing and then move on to the next place. He lived this way in order to write about his experiences. I know it sounds like the most aimless, ambition-less existence imaginable, but it's his chosen life and he's produced some immensely enjoyable stories and prose from his wanderings. Reading him reminds me that if I pay attention, there's a story to be had from even the most mundane and dreary aspects and events of life. Well, in the hands of a gifted writer and raconteur, anyway. He's written a few fiction books but his non-fiction work is where he shines. What I Like About America, Guidelines For Mountain Lion Safety and 501 Minutes to Christ are some of those collections.
The book that won him a modest amount of national recognition is Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere - a combination personal memoir and true crime mystery. He tells two intersecting stories. One is his life in Chadron and the challenging marriage he's in to the mercurial Cristina, a Mexican woman who speaks almost no English, and the son their union has produced, the young autistic, Tom. Interwoven is the mysterious, bizarre and unsolved death of a mathematics professor at the small college there in Chadron. Whether it was murder or suicide, you will have to decide for yourself. I've received no disappointing reviews from those I've recommended it to.
On to music:
Best Band: Bright Eyes, is the band founded by Conor Oberst in Omaha in 1995. They have been dependable purveyors of indie, folk rock for the majority of years since. Oberst has had his own successful solo career, but Bright Eyes is where he made his name.
Best Solo Artist: Matthew Sweet - Sweet was born and raised in Lincoln where he played in various bands before graduating from high school. He moved to Athens, GA to attend the University and fell in with the bourgeoning alternative music scene that was percolating there in the early 80s. He was signed to a record deal and his third album was an artistic breakthrough, Girlfriend, released in 1991. It was widely praised with all kinds of great reviews and hosannahs and it made him an alternative, power-pop darling for a time. I've spoken of him before - how in the mid-90s I went to see him at the New Daisy in Memphis and he never spoke a word to the audience and changed guitars every song, a ridiculous thing. It still sticks in my craw. His solo career leveled out and in 2006 he teamed up with the eternally lovely Susanna Hoffs of Bangles fame for three albums of covers, all well received. Along the way, he gained a significant amount of tonnage (boy got big, now) which may or may not have contributed to the dibilitating stroke he suffered in 2024. He and his wife have lived back in Nebraska since 2014 where he continues to rehab. Here's wishing him well. He made some fine music, he just wasn't much on the chitchat and banter.
Wildcard: Back in the late 90s, they used to sell those compilation CDs at places like Starbucks. Some would be for “World Music” which I never fooled with, but some would be collections of up-and-coming artists in the folk and alternative world. I was a sucker for those. It was how you could learn about new acts back in the pre-internet Paleolithic age. One such CD I purchased had a track on it that I liked a lot. Dressed Up Like Nebraska by Josh Rouse. I'd never heard of him. Well, he was born in Oshkosh, NE in 1972. He started writing songs when he was 18, moved to Nashville, got signed to a record deal and his first LP was released in 1998 with the track I mentioned. He's put out fifteen albums since then. Good for him.