His name was Eustacious ...Really ...
Eustacious Braun, a musician from North Dakota, and his wife Becky moved to Twin Falls in the 1950s in order to make a living playing Cactus Petes and other Jackpot casinos ... Musty, as he understandably preferred to be called, eventually landed a permanent gig at Club 93 six nights a week ...
Musty rigged a stage for his three sons in the basement of their Twin Falls home, and eventually the boys formed a rock 'n roll band called The Syndicate, which played teenage dances ... Eventually, they switched to country and western.
One of the brothers, Muzzie, struck out on his own, traveling the West in his Champion Motor Coach accompanied by his wife, JoAnn, and their children ... It soon became a family country swing act, and wonder of wonders, ended up on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" - twice - after a talent agent spotted them playing at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nev ...
A wider stage eventually launched the boys on their own musical careers ... Cody and Willy moved to Austin, Texas, and hooked up with other musicians as the honky-tonkin' band Reckless Kelly ... Younger brothers Gary and Micky followed soon after and formed a group called Micky and the Motorcars ...
And Musty? ... Well, he never really left Clayton, Idaho, where he and JoAnn, raised the boys, except for gigs around the region ... The couple now runs a bed and breakfast there ...
But every August, the clan gets back together for a musical reunion ... This year's edition starts Thursday in Challis ...
It draws about 7,000spectators to a town of 850 people ...
This year, the reunion will include Robert Earl Keen, the Texas singer-songwriter with a string of Nashville hits to his credit. ... He'll perform Friday at 9 p.m....
Reckless Kelly will play Friday at 10:30 p.m., Micky and the Motorcars on Saturday at 9:15 p.m., Cross Canadian Ragweed on Saturday at 7:45 p.m., George Devore on Friday at 7:45 p.m. and Pinto Bennett on Saturday at 3:45 p.m. ...The Brauns are scheduled to perform en famile on Saturday at 6:30 p.m., and the Randy Rogers Band at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday ...
A free street dance and barbecue, with music by the Brauns and Randy Rogers, will start things off Thursday at 8:30 p.m....
Tickets, available at the gate, are $40 a day, and $15 for children. The event usually sells out, so plan to arrive early ...
Motley Crue co-founder Nikki Sixx, who grew up in Jerome and Twin Falls in the early 1970s as Frank Ferrana, has a new book out, called "The Heroin Diaries" - the actual diaries in kept back in the day when he was a one-man drugstore ... More about the book next week, but I thought you'd be interested in an except from 1987 ...
"I've been thinking about last Christmas Eve when I picked up that girl in a strip club, brought her back here on my bike, took her home the next day, then had Christmas dinner all by myself in McDonald's ... I haven't made much progress, I see."...
For the record, Sixx - who will turn 50 in December -has graduated from rehab, launched his own clothing line and is working with the charity Covenant House, which provides for teenage runaways in 21 big cities across the country ...
But the rebel isn't completely gone: He's dating tattoo artist Kat von D, of TLC's "Miami Ink" and "LA Ink." ...
Former KMVT-TV reporter Rhonda McBride has been named rural advisor to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin ...
McBride, who worked for the Twin Falls station in the early 1980s, will serve as the principal liaison between the governor's office and rural communities, as well as Palin's chief advisor on issues affecting rural Alaska ...
McBride has been working in TV journalism in Alaska since 1988, most recently with the Anchorage NBC affiliate, KTUU-TV. Besides KMVT, McBride worked at KOLO-TV in Reno., Nev., and KTNV-TV in Las Vegas ...
Steve Crump is the Times-News opinion editor.
Show and tell
If it's quirky, funny, odd, poignant, weird or new in south-central Idaho, I want to hear about it.
Call me at 735-3223, or write to me at scrump@magicvalley.com.
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