Thoughts From The Townedger-March Edition

For the first time in over 25 years I managed to make a debut with a brand new band, playing drums for The Wiley Kats, a band that features Timothy Wiley on guitar and vocal and leader and Ben Benton playing bass.  It was at the Popcorn Jam last Sunday.  We practiced a couple times during the week and we played Voodoo Chile and Jailbreak before ending it on a Blues Jam with Tim Duffy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zavBZEGzogo

It was rough but judging by the video it wasn't that bad. Tim had a bit of nerves going on but he did a fairly decent job, since he had to sing the songs.  Ben did well and I think I kept the beat, although my tempo dictated things on a more faster side.   I can't explain it, when I play live I play faster than the actual song itself. Probably why I don't get gigs.  Another factor, a evening job, and it pays the bills.

It's Easter weekend and we all can't seem to pull a time together to rehearse.   It was bad enough to after the gig, I went out and did my walk around town and grab some supper and took the long way home to come to an irate brother mentioning Tim called twice.  We agreed to do something on Saturday but Ben is out of town but can do it on Easter.  No can do, that's family time and I won't be doing the popcorn jam either.    My evening work hours conflicts with Ben's day hours and Tim goes to junior college but gets evenings off to do acoustic jams or get together with Ben.  And it leaves me to be the odd man out, the weird hours.  Only options would be to settle for morning weekend practice gigs and I'm not a morning person, I did wake up early to practice last week but Ben works days.   It may have been the first and only time The Wiley Kats made it to a gig, the best option for Tim is to find a drummer with evenings off.  This is why I restricted myself to the jams on weekends and an occasional weeknight.  The actual musicians in town (Dan Johnson, Dennis McMurrian, Craig Erickson, Tommy Bruner) are well known enough to sharpen their craft almost every night.   In my case, I'm a hobbyist, I could never make enough money to maintain my lifestyle   Having a full time job, pays the bills and I have health insurance.  Even The Townedgers became a hobby band, and seeing sales of my albums (?) I can't quit my job anyway.  I get played on Lucky Star Radio and a couple others and that's it.  Plus I'm extremely lazy, although I have been practicing on the drums every day.  That has paid off. 

I told Tim right off the bat of my job situation and to his credit, he's done his best to work with me.  Ben have mention he can get gigs, provided if we get better.  They may have to go on without me.  There are no shortage of  good drummers out there. I'm sure Tim can find one with no problem. I just have too much on my plate right now with work and spring procession in full swing.  I'm not going to get many weekends off anyway. At least till June when things wind down.  I give him credit for accommodating my messed up work nights plans while he and Ben sort the songs out. 

The one thing I noticed when Tim leads the band that he's doesn't do four bars of a repeated riff.  On Voodoo Chile he went into the lead after the third riff introduction.  When Geoff Redding played Voodoo Chile he did the full four.  Same thing with Jailbreak, he repeated the riff three times before singing.  Perhaps he's more comfortable doing the songs that way.  It just sounds weird. I just chalk it up to nerves, we did alright considering two practices and a 10 minute showcase.  We gotten further that week in my other two bands of the past 20 years.  That says something.

Promoting Fitting Finales is done.  Martin Daniels is producing The Night Flowers (a band that Mark Glarington was one of the TEs, has joined up) and The TEs are on hiatus.

If I can't make this a go with The Wiley Kats, I'll stick to the jam sessions.

I'm not a fan of shaving, but I fucking hate whiskers, I always seem to get a stray hair caught in a zipper or worse, in my headphones.  I'm also aware of my ever growing bald spot on my hair.  Growing old is a bitch.  That's Kathy Runnells next to me, Bart Carfizzi and his wife Cathy are in the foreground. Bart is a prima donna,  I guess he finally cracked and quit playing and sold his keyboards  Kathy has been a great supporter of my music efforts.  Her birthday was Thursday and was celebrated at Rumors.  Of course I had to work that night.  Happy belated birthday Kathy.

I have dreams of living next to the railroad, be it in Rochelle or Kingman and even along highway 30 where the UP goes past towns such as Mechanicsville or Lowden or Clarence, where Rod Albaugh lives at.  I would love to fall asleep to a Train's Lullaby.

Not a fan of Donald Trump.  I don't think this country needs to be run by a failed reality TV star.  Cruz is even more scary.  Kasich probably keeps things honest but he damn near ran Ohio into the ground.   You can't imagine how many musicians I know that love Trump.   And I jammed with a few of them.  They don't know shit.

I still can't bring myself to buy electric drums.  Kim Bean has been kind enough for me to pound on them during Popcorn Jams but for me, I will stay with acoustic drums.

I have been getting  lazy on guitar once again.  But I did work up Sunshine by Jonathan Edwards and would like to play that in the next acoustic jam session.  I know Julie Gordon would like to see more of me at Checkers but once again work beckons.

There is talk of a Townedgers Greatest Hits since we haven't had one out since Observations From The Forefront 14 years ago.   I'm trying to simplify it to a reasonable 12 to 14 songs. I think we'll keep the songs from this century rather than the other.   But then again that could change.

My good friend Peter Stark from The Dunshee Moon has switched over to Paiste PST5 cymbals.  I asked him how they sound. Much softer than the Zildjians he originally used he says.  Which means he likes them.

So does Cecie, his wife.  She also takes great selfies.  And one of the best female vocalist in town. She kinda looks like Olivia.

Our cable company continues to subtract channels and add one more rates so I told the landlord he can cancel anytime.  I've been back to watching old time shows I grew up with.  Can't beat Perry Mason, the final season.  To which I won't get done till around Fall way things are going.  Or Dragnet.

Till next time.  Hoppy Easter.

A New Band Project A New Direction

I've been jamming on a regular basis for 9 months now.  I'm finally beginning to get the feel and somehow returning to the old days of partaking into playing in bands and musicians that I could feel comfortable being around with.   As you know, working evenings really curtails any big band projects but if there's somebody out there that can work around me then anything is possible.

There have been some feelers out there about filling in for someone but nothing came of them.  At this stage in life I can pick and choose what I want to do.  The Townedgers have been my band, my vision.  But the past year I really wanted to return back to just playing fun songs and just play a live gig without the hassle.  After all The Townedgers is first and foremost a band that does originals or the oddball cover. Even so, I felt that The TEs are a fish out of water here in the Eastern Iowa area and a hobby band.  Sales of The Townedgers albums are nil and are given to net radio stations to play.  With the departure of Geoff Redding and Martin Daniels doing more music production I just did not see the need for new replacements.  And I really thought that I have taken The TEs are far as I can go.  Actually Fitting Finales is basically a Rod Smith solo album under the TEs banner.

This past weekend, I went up to Rumors to jam on a few songs with The Saloonatics who came back to host and while I heard the electric drums okay from behind the kit, the crowd thought I was air drumming, they couldn't hear the drums outside the cymbals and snare drum.  But Barth Daniel was up there on bass to help along.

Tim Wiley, I have jammed off and on through the 9 months of my return, he talked about getting a band going before but I really didn't know much about him and since I didn't know him very well, I didn't sign off on the idea.   Tim was the main guitarist on when I played up there and we fumbled through a couple Santana numbers and that was it.  Or so I thought.   Perhaps I made an impression on him, he once again pitched an idea about a power trio band.  This time he said he knew of a bass player out in Norway Iowa that had his own drum set and perhaps we should fancy a jam together and see where it leads?   I told him about I do have a regular night time job and I'm not about to give that up but however if you can work around my working evenings and if there's a connection to the songs and such, perhaps I can help out.  None of this Free Bird stuff that we got burned out...back in 1984.

Cedar Rapids is full of drummers, lots of great ones and a few good ones. I basically play just for shits and giggles and trying to keep in shape.  Tim is heavily into Stevie Ray/Jimi Hendrix and mainstream blues and of course certain classic rock songs.  We have crossed paths in both electric and acoustic jams but we really sat down and really talk at length of what to do for songs.  I guess when we did jam together I made somewhat an impression and he chased me down and told me of his vision of a band.   So I told him to pick a date and we'll get together.

My take:  Tim is a very good guitarist and is capable of playing certain songs, the Hendrix, The SRV.  He's not flashy, very businesslike, tends to go by the recordings at hand, whereas I'm more into improvising.  The Townedgers (when I had guys in the band) could improvise, so did Open Highway and Paraphernalia Tyrus for that matter. The latter we couldn't play to the record, we were not good enough but we could improvise with the best of them.  I didn't seek to play any other band after Tyrus went on hiatus, I didn't want to do Bon Jovi or hair metal or country but rather originals.  Nor did I want to deal with drug addicts or drunks or egotistical leaders of certain bands.  Outside of The TEs, the last band I worked with was the I/O project with my best friend Russ in 2008.  Blue Scratch was high on the list, Julie Gordon influenced them enough to consider me.  But I really didn't think that in the end, I be giving the nod to Tim Wiley on a power trio format.  Tim knew a bass player that had his own drum set!  That meant I didn't have to lug mine out.  A win win situation for me.

So we did our first practice, out in the boonies called Norway (why is I can never a close by place to jam at?) and Ben lived in a trailer that have a few bass guitars and this five piece Yamaha drum set all set up.  Very nice sounding indeed, I guess Wes bought this drumset for a drummer who was too drunk to show up.  He went all out, the cymbals were Sabian AA's a good professional brand of cymbals.   In that two hour span, we worked up a set list of at least 35 decent songs from classic rock era and a few things thrown in.  I suggested Susie Q and Let's Work Together and we ran through a rough version of One Way Out.  And I must say we got more accomplished today than the last couple bands I been in, with the guys spinning their weeds and not coming up with much.   I have to say that Tim and the bass player were very open to new ideas and not so much on the tired classics.  We can play them if requested, (except Free Bird-only at gunpoint) but I think the majority of the songs that we did run through would get people dancing.

Tim is calling this band the Wiley Kats.  And I'm cool with that.  The next step is to see if we can pull this off with the minimal of rehearsal time.  After all, we're restricted to weekends and the occasional day jam before work, but I can get nights off from work to play on a Friday Night or Wednesday or even host a jam session uptown. I'm not doing Arizona this year again. I do reserve the right to continue jamming with Rod Albaugh when he wants to get together in the future.  I do feel that The Wiley Kats might be perhaps the inside track to playing live once again;  if that's the cause, then they will be my first priority.  I'm honored that Tim thought a lot about me to draft me into this project.  And as long as I can hold a beat down I'll make that commitment. As for the songs of the Townedgers, they won't be part of the Wiley Kats. If the guys want to come up with something original of their own so be it.  But The TE songs don't fit the style of this band.

But the days of the crash and bash of Tyrus is long gone, I cannot play in that out of control style anymore,nor want to.   I'm more into keeping the beat to get people on the floor.  I'm too old for drugs, too old for the girls out there, and cannot drink the hard stuff anymore.  I think these guys do have their act together, at least during the first time of getting together and might be dedicated to rocking again.  That could change but at least we had a very good first day of jamming.

We'll see how this pans out.  The way I look at this, it's Tim's vehicle and he's more hungry to hit the stage and play the gigs and to make money at it. I'm sure Ben is the same way.  Martin Daniels has been helping me trying to keep the time and beat with the arrangements that I know.  I think Tim is more by the record rather than improvisation.   That might be a problem.  But if we can work with each other and not let our stubbornness and egos get in the way, we might pull this off.  He might just fire me after the first gig, but I know what I can and cannot do.  So far it's been working quite well during the popcorn jams.  

BTW.  The bass player's name is Ben.  Tim corrected me on this when he called this morning. 

Popcorn Jam Photos

Tim Wiley (Guitar),  Barth Walter (Bass), Yours truly on drums

Live from
Rumors Jam 3-16-16

Olivia

Today is Lisa's birthday.  But she's better known to me as Olivia.

In my lifetime, I seem to make the worst choices in girlfriends.   The worst ones were born under the Gemini sign, they're supposed to be the best for my birth sign.   But then again, I must have picked the wrong birth sign, in the middle of January and dead of winter.   And when I turned 55 on the 24th of January I was sick with the flu.  I'm still pissed about that.

40 years ago I gave my heart to a Gemini girl up in Michigan.  We made the usual promises to keep faithful and in touch, after 1976 I never saw her again and she ended up getting knocked up before she turned 16.  In 1991 I started dating a woman named Christine, she too was a Gemini.  While I thought things were going well, she ended up finding another guy.  When I ran into them at the local bar, she ran into the women's bathroom and wouldn't come out.   Which lead me to write her a note and basically said grow up.  And of course, Isabella, the snake lady from Spokane.  That was a waste of time.  My last GF, might have been the most faithful but we could never live together for more than a couple days.   But I think she's found herself a decent guy, at least I hope she did.

I met Lisa through a dating singles site around 1999.  My best friend actually set us up and we managed to have a good time chatting over the computer and late night phone calls.  But she was a West Coast girl through and through.  And while we talked about having her move out here, I suggested that the winters here are not for everybody, and if you haven't been through a below zero and snowstorm barrage, you're not gonna enjoy it.  Two months after chatting, I managed to scrape some money up to fly out to Portland to see if there was any connection.  And the first meeting there was but I went out there during their rainy season, which was every day.  The only day it didn't rain was when I flew out there the first day.   But we had fun, we saw the sights, she took me to a couple record stores and we spent nights together.  Lisa had a nice sense of humor, she could be witty, she can sarcastic and she did have a temper, she was a redhead.  To my eyes she was the one that could probably help me make it through this life.

She promised to come out during Christmas of 1999 and she did.  The weather was actually above normal, with the exception of the last couple days to which temps did go back to 10 above and a wind chill of 29 below.   But me and my brother managed to get the house all nice and clean.  We spent time going to the pawnshops around town and she managed to pick up a few odds and ends and for New Year's we rang in the new year in Dubuque.  It was the best of times, at least I thought it was. Alas, Lisa got a very bad cold when she arrived back home but I knew from her reaction to the cold and snow that she wasn't coming out here to live.  In fact, she still had bronchitis when I saw her last in March of 2000.  By then things were beginning to fall apart.  We were drifting apart. But then again I wasn't helping things, I was wanting to hit the record stores again.  I don't think she liked that, but she was a good sport and in our time together, we didn't fight at all.   A couple weeks later after I got back home,  we called it a day.  She found somebody closer and eventually did get married to him.

We kept in touch off and on till November of 2013, when even being pen pals wasn't helping the cause and the lines of communication was finally cut once and for all.  Even though Lisa was the inspiration for me of writing songs and I wanted so much to impress her as a musician, the problem is I was a musician.   And I don't think she wanted to date a bedroom recording musician.  When I wanted to play her a song that was written for her on tape, she wasn't interested.   I suppose seeing a drumset with all them cymbals didn't help either.  Or those three guitars staring back at her.  It's not easy dating a musician, we tend to follow a dream that will never be realized outside of the local bar stage.

At times, when I see pictures of her daughter and thinking that could have been mine, I wonder what would have been if we would have been together.  I'm thinking good thoughts rather than the reality.  And the reality was that the odds were against us from day one. But in 2008, she wrote me a note which became the spark that started the album Pawnshops For Olivia, an album of such emotional feelings that some of the songs are hard for me to listen to.  The last song Behind The Sun, was about our last time together, of going to the airport and knowing that she would never return again. A wishful chorus that whatever happens that she'll still be in my heart once and for all. 

Still you'll always will  be in my heart
For the love we share will never part
And maybe some day when everything  said and done
We'll be together, beyond the sun.

Love and loss.  The thrill of infatuation and happiness of being together, full of life eventually is replaced by feeling that one day it will be over and the loss of love becomes tears and sadness. We fall in love, we fall out of love, it happens every day. The ones that want remain together will find ways to overcome the shortcomings of life (Money, kids, paying bills on time, overlooking faults and trying to learn to live together).  While most will give up and move on the next love interest.   As for myself, I gave up on love, for me the only thing remains is music.   I'll post a Happy Birthday message on her social media site page and hope she's doing well or least coping.  She has a beautiful daughter to be proud of, I'm sure her daughter is her life.  The next time I might see her will be in the great beyond beyond the sun.   Hopefully it's a much happier place than here.

Happy birthday Olivia.

The Popcorn Jam-An Hobbyist Gigging?

9 months into returning from a self imposed retirement. I’ve been seen at Rumors from time to time. Usually the Popcorn Jam or making to a late appearance seeing a band’s final set. It’s not easy being middle age and being a musician part time while keeping a steady job in the evenings. I’d managed to be good enough of a drummer to at least get a couple inquiries about playing in bands even in this late stage of life. Not sure if being “the new old guy” is worth anything, but I’ve made some musician friends along the way.

A short history of how we got here-last May my old band staged a reunion at a local sports bar and talked of old times. Usually too much beer and tequlia will get them to talk about playing again (time and time again). So I thought well why not? The next weekend we had our big Spring Peak at work and the other Rod, bought a couple guitars in and since he was into doing original stuff, I managed to pick up a guitar and we jammed out to a couple of thought up on the spot songs. Hey, this is fun. And we managed to get together off and on and jam and redid a few songs from my last project.

Karen Tipton was very instrumental of getting me to partake a jam session in town. Only problem was I didn’t know anybody and I’m not the most outgoing guy to get up on the stage. I needed somebody to grab my hand to get me on stage. So one hot July evening, The Old Crabb returned back on stage to jam with T Ray and Guitar Dave and Ted. Thus the return of me behind a cheap drumset to bash a few tunes.

The Wrigleyville jam now a once a month, there other venues to share music and jam with fellow folks who have regular bands to play in. Cooters has the acoustic Sunday jam to compete with the Rumor’s Sunday Jam. Parlor City has the Tuesday Night blues and Checkers has Wednesday Night Acoustic Jam as well. Working evenings does make it hard for me to appear, but on a rare night off, I have been seen up at Checkers and Parlor City if I’m in town and not buying out thrift stores for scratchy old 45s. But Sundays have found me doing the Popcorn Jam and appearing on a few songs of note. As much as I would like to find a full time band to bash on drums and so forth, I cannot quit my job; although the morale at work is low and we’re getting no pay raises since the CEO said we didn’t meet our goal (while at the same time giving himself a raise) it pays the bills and we have health insurance. And plenty of vacation days to play rock star (unless there’s no fill in role for me during the summer months-which means I might do Arizona for the summer).

I heard complaints from some of the faithful of why they don’t play Popcorn Jam, usually the main one is playing the same old bar band standards that makes playing in bands like being at work. Some musicians don’t get out of that Free Bird or Mustang Sally comfort zone, or Pride And Joy and some stick to that. For those who know me, for 3 and a half decades, I have played with a much wider variety of music than the usual Crazy Train/Sweet Home Anamosa/Brown Eyed Girl, my old band was based on a lot of garage rock, punk rock, alternative rock and even straight line country/folk. And mostly originals. The Popcorn Jam doesn’t even have a scratch on the songs that I do play, a small tip of a iceberg that is deep into the realms of music that has been forgotten a long time ago. And being a music collector I can assure you that there’s much more songs that I would love to do that you would not know.

Rather than draw out a bunch of responses of Face Book Tag. my thoughts is that the Popcorn Jam is there to have fun and to try something different and to interpret the songs in the style of my playing. Even two months later I find it comical to have somebody say that I was playing Cheap Trick’s overplayed Want You To Want Me too fast. That’s the way I have heard it on the radio bro. In my years I cannot play things just like the record, nobody can really. Originality is bringing your own beat to these overplayed classics. If you can get people to like it and compliment you on how you play, that’s the best compliment of all.

I’m one of most shy people that shows up to jam sessions. I have always been that way. Usually people have to come up to me. Being an Introvert can bring out the wrong impressions but if I know somebody well I do open up a lot sooner than later. The first jam I been to, it was the Bacon Jam in 2014 at Checkers, and I didn’t know anybody and spent most of that jam hiding in the background. Now, since I know a few people and they know me it’s more easier to get up on the stage and pound on the host’s drums for about 15 minutes. Popcorn Jams are a collective group of musicians together to try out songs and most of the time there will be mistakes made, there will be lyrics forgotten (I don’t have the benefit of smart phones so I must rely on my memory to remember lyrics) guitar leads might not go as planned and sometimes beats are missed and drumsticks get dropped. And I might be falling asleep on playing Desperado. But I admire anybody that can on stage, even with smart phone in hand and attempt to sing Desperado in front of any crowd. If I’m going to sing anything, I rather have a real band than Karaoke computer generated song. Real musicians for this old Crabb.

I’m not going to beg anybody to please show up to do popcorn jams if they rather do something else or worry if they’re going to be stuck playing Skynyrd again. Which is why I throw out song suggestions on FB. If you plant a bug in somebody’s ear eventually they may get to do a new song (such as Mama Let Him Play, which was in the Saloonatics set-but Dave and myself did that song a couple times at Wrigleyville. Usually you can tell by the jammers what songs they are good at. T Ray has his songs, Tim Duffy has his, Bart Carfizzi his and Dan and Brook have theirs. The Rumors crowd is no bigger than the ones we had at Wrigleyville on a Thursday Night. Some Sundays there’s a good crowd, other’s about a handful. I also noticed there’s a shortage of bass players and guitar players but plenty of drummers show up (usually at least 4 drummers on a given Sunday, one week we had 8-I should have taken up bass guitar). In the 9 months of jamming, I find that the musicians out there are a pretty good support group. Anybody can get up on stage, if I can so can you. And you might have a good time too.

Spring is around the corner, and I’m sure once the weather heats up, more will be coming out of hibernation. Perhaps there might be a new band forming out of jams. I never know myself but as long as it’s fun and it’s a way to support live music by showing up at jams. I cannot play golf, I can play music. If you’re still unsure about not fitting in with the guys at Popcorn Jam, look me up next time at Rumors, I’ll get Tim or Bart to get you up on stage with me being your supporter. I’ve been known to be one of the best drummers to do Rocky Mountain Way..............................