Country Porn

With no intention of “life in a dorm” on the Sonoma State campus. A room-4-rent advertisement led to an exciting introduction to Sonoma county. The room was in a house at the border where old Petaluma meets country, up Sunnyslope Road, just off D Street. Eggs for sale a couple doors down, but two blocks away, Sunnyslope Road intersected with ‘D’ Street, a tree lined street of older, beautiful homes that represented the old Petaluma. ‘D’ Street to the right headed down to Petaluma Blvd., the main street in town, or left and out to the coast crossing the Sonoma-Marin County line and to Point Reyes, Inverness, and Drake’s Beach.

Bob, who owned the house with his wife Pamela, worked for Safeway to pay the mortgage, but dedicated most of his time to music. An accomplished bass player, he also played banjo, harmonica, and seemed to easily learn most any instrument he picked up. Bob was the bass player for the band ‘Country Porn‘, a talented country band that substituted the standard country lyrics with X-Rated verses. As a blues guitarist, I jammed with Bob often and occasionally joined him playing with local musicians across Marin County. A chance to see Country Porn play was one experience that words can’t easily describe. The band would warm up with a couple country standards before introducing Nick ‘Chinga’ Chavin, and then in between his repertoire came the paradies of country favorites. Most folks sitting at a table or along the bar were caught in their unawares … ‘Truck Driving Man’ chorus wasn’t ‘another cup of coffee’ but was ‘benies and beer’, and ‘Okie from Muskogee’ changed to ‘Asshole from El Paso’. But other songs were more graphic, they were, as the name described, ‘Country Porn’. A San Fransisco poll listed them as number #202 in a poll of most favorite bands, ahead of ‘Mumblin’ Jim’ listed at #204.

Kinky Friedman, probably a better known name than Nick Chavin, ‘Beaver’ Bob, Country Porn, or maybe even Petaluma for that matter. Possibly the next Governor of Texas, as he is in the running at the time of this writing. Kinky actually got his nickname in college from buddy Nick Chavin. ‘Kinky’, yes I know what you’re probably thinking, crossed my mind at first too. But nope, the nickname was associated to his hair – it was kinky according to Chavin. Friends since college, there was however one feud over who actually penned the lyrics to the Merle Haggard parody; ‘Asshole from El Paso’, at least each wanted credit until Haggard sued Friedman, and Chavin kept quiet. Good luck on the campaign trail…at least his platform slogan of “Why the hell not?” is more honest than most.