The Tale of Capt. Salt As told by Patterson Hood In 1972 a band called Sailcat put out a record called "Motorcycle Mama". It was a concept album that told a rather utopian story about a lone biker and the woman of his dreams. A sort of  Easy Rider with a happy ending. ("and baby makes three-o")    The title cut was a particularly catchy song. It went to number two in the nation. In a bizarre turn of events it was later covered by The Sugarcubes.    Lead vocalist and main songwriter Johnny Wyker took his money from the record and bought a houseboat.  He lived for the next ten years or so on the Tennessee River. Another one of his songs "Baby Ruth", became a hit single for Delbert McClinton.   Wyker was part of the whole Muscle Shoals thing. I was just a kid but he never treated me like one. When I was twelve I once got to hang out with him all day on his houseboat. He told me stories about Duane Allman and Keith Richards and livin' and workin' with Eddie Hinton. He played me records by Taj Mahal, Jimmy Cliff, and Steelers Wheel. I sang him all my new songs that I had written while nearly flunking out of sixth grade. He told me I could write. No one but my Grandmother ever had. Wyker told me his real name was Captain Salt. I still call him that. You can throw stones and say that Captain Salt was a bad role-model. You can say that early adolescents shouldn’t be influenced by self  proclaimed pirates. But Captain Salt changed and possibly saved my life. Wyker has recently come out of what he refers to as his "self imposed exile". He still writes really good songs and can spin a yarn like some river-worn cross breed of Furry Lewis and Dennis Hopper. Patterson Hood The DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS