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Charles Comer was one of the people fellow Irish music man Chesley Millikin spoke with almost daily until his passing. Chesley, SRV’s first manager and the one who opened all doors, kept up on music biz and consulted with Charles, Sam Cutler, and another NYC music publicist (“Imelda”) regularly and told close friends great bits of their phone calls. The old personalities were more interesting than the current crop of all-corporate, politically correct types of today.

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Do you have a photo of Chesley?

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Dear Michael ~ Thank you for asking. I will check on that. Best person to ask is Widgeon and I would defer to him first. There are some good private ones and a few published ones. Are you looking for one for your book(s)? Have other friends in mind with a few, plus you know several. Loved the Mac article. Ches had much to do with Mac moving to Austin around ARMS, Ronnie Lane, the DiMenno sisters, et.al. Chesley introduced me to Rod Kennedy at the Napa Valley Folk Festival in Ramblin' Jack's tent. Rod invited me to Kerrville and regretfully I've yet to make it.

Best wishes ~ Ted

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I have a pretty good lo-res one for the book, but looking for more hi-res. The jackpot would be Chesley with Stevie or Frances Carr.

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One year it started raining hard during the T Birds set and the big tarp over the top was sagging from all the water like it was about to break. The T Birds decided to pause their show while all of us "townies" were getting drenched. So in line with their latest hit everyone started yelling "Aren't you tough enough" or something like that? Anyways still fun even without the music.

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I was on that Chili Peppers stage, then under, trying to make repairs, then back on top to help secure the downstage. Glorious mayhem.

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Rod Kennedy's 1966 Jazz Fest was my first outdoor Austin music experience. The jazz was great and I later (decades later in some cases) saw almost every act again.

I was not in Austin for the T-Bird festivals, unfortunately.

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