No longer the Only One

St. John's Catholic Church, Ringling, Montana.

Geoff and I stopped here briefly on our way to the Crazy mountains in early August. This beautiful historic church stands just outside the almost ghost town of Ringling, Montana. It was good see that some effort is being made to restore it. I looked up a web entry for Ringling that gives a little history - yes, this Ringling was founded by of John T. Ringling of the Ringling Brothers Circus - but for a church that is "One of the most photographed historic churches" an utterly dismal photograph of the building. What were they thinking?

And here's the prairie!Utterly gorgeous - although I appreciate it might be a bit too bleak for some tastes.

I was listening to one of the (many) obscurities in my overlarge collection while putting this post together. An LP transcription from a record I picked up in a 1970s cut-out bin, Deke Leonard's "Kamikaze". If you have not heard of either the record or artist you are hardly alone. Leonard was a guitarist in the Welsh sometimes prog, sometimes acid rock, band Man who are hardly a household name these days either.

Anyway, "Kamikaze" while hardly a masterpiece, is a moderately entertainingly slice of Americanophilic British rock of the early 1970s before punk came along and swept all this music under the rug. Living here in the real thing, as it were, I find these slightly off-kilter attempts to appropriate an American feel are both quaint and rather charming. Here's another and more detailed take on the record from another Brit ex-pat living in the Midwest.