Thoughts from The Townedger-September Edition

Greetings.  It was 30 years ago, that I released Wapsipinicon Dreaming.  It had a flood of hits so to speak.   This is the Wapsi with a 24 foot crest at Paris this week.  The floods have been a big story.  The Cedar River in town managed to creep up to almost 22 feet.  Lot of people went out of their way to sandbag and move their things to higher ground.  Wasn't as bad as the 2008 one (and I hope we never see that much water again) but the floods did put a stop to the Rumor's Popcorn Jam on Sunday and the Parlor City Tuesday Night Blues Jam.  BTW, I didn't take this picture up above, but Lisa Stick did while scoping out the floods along the Wapsi.   I should point out that this is the first time in the fall ever, that we got this much rain from up north to play havoc down here.  Climate change is not fun.   Usually on a decent day, Sutton Road, where the Paris bridge lies at is always seem have lots of water around all year around.  I noticed the musty moldy smell of mud river is always in the air down there.  But The Paris Bridge is a beautiful bridge.  Below is how it looks when the river is in it's banks.

I think originally the cover art of Wapsi Dreaming was supposed to have the Red Bridge but we never got around taking any pictures of it back in 1986.  Brian Mullahan had a cabin next to the river that we recorded some of the songs at, but a couple years later it got flooded out.  We trying to get a vibe like playing out by the river and I think we almost had it right.  Alas, the recorder we used sped things up so when it was time to overdub, each playback the songs slowed down.  CD technology managed to correct that to somewhat better effect but the WOW and FLUTTER ratio was real bad.  Like most of the early stuff, there are great songs and there are good songs and there's a couple that didn't turned out as planned.   I thought about doing a new album of Wapsi Dreaming Revisited but there is a couple songs I really don't want to redo.  They should remain in music history.  The below picture with the band in front of the bridge would have worked wonders.

I didn't do much popcorn jamming this month, outside of the 2 Beatles songs that I did with Tommy Bruner, Craig Erickson and Dan Johnson.  Smokin Guns hosted one jam and they had electric drums and I passed.  I like jamming with John Shaw but the drummer didn't want anybody playing his real drums so he bought his electric drums instead.  Or maybe Herm did.  By the time I got there, the songs I knew they already did and Herm got called back up stage a second time.   Too nice of a day to waste so I went elsewhere.

I did get a used Tama Rockstar set for 200 dollars for jamming purposes or getting gigs around town.  As of the moment, there's been no real offers to get into a new band.  Best case scenario would be with my best friend Russ again.  I did run into Wiley Kat at the Parlor City Blues jam on a rare Tuesday Night off and he and Ben, the bass player are in the Kirkwood Jazz Band.  We had a cordial chat but didn't jam together.  By the time I got up there, he was long gone.

October will find The Townedgers working on a new album.  Working title still remains KROD and still going through the archives to see what song we can improve upon. Over 200 songs to choose from and only 12 spots open on the CD.    It will be a push to complete it before the year is out.  But I've done it before in time.

I love Brook Hoover and his song selections.  He plays with the Flaming Camaros and the Surf Zombies to go with his solo career.  He's a very eccentric and quirky guitar player somewhat like Geoff Redding. With two bands and a solo acoustic career I don't know if he'll have the time to do any projects with me.  I think my evening job has killed off a few chances of playing live but I have to follow the money.  I love playing live and jamming with the folk but it just doesn't pay the bills as well.  That said, I can forsee doing something with Brook if the stars align just right.

Julie And The Mad Dogs are getting back around the bar circuit.  They will be down in Anamosa at Knuckleheads on Halloween weekend (Friday), and then will figure into the Popcorn Jam that Sunday on the one year passing of Kyle Oyloe.  I'd love to sit in with them once again.

With parts of Cedar Rapids underwater, (the Bo Town area), there's talk about doing a benefit for the folks at Tornados and Kick Stand and Mad Art Gallery who got left out of the HESCO Barriers when the Cedar River spilled over.  Kinda of a sore subject but knowing how Ron Corbett and the CR City council works, I think they been trying to buy the land off the owners.  I did put in a word to help out anybody looking for a drummer for a makeshift band but I am not holding my breath at all if I will participate.  Even in the flood years of 1993 (when it was Kacers (sic)) and 2008 that area always gets flooded.  Once the Cedar recedes, something will come of it for a concert and proceeds helping out the businesses affected by the flood.  In the old Ma's building, they have been refinishing it and I heard it's supposed to be a pizza place.  In my time down at New Bo/Bo Town, I never ate at Tornados, but I promise next time they open I'll try out their burgers.  But by then, they should be hopping with people too.

I know Martin and Geoff have said that I've taken record collecting more seriously then The Townedgers and of course I've seen Martin roll his eyes at some of the 45s I bought, but I always said that record collecting has been my favorite hobby and perhaps if I had played drums like I collect records, I'd be in the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.  Sad to say it don't work like that.  I'll continue to play my usual Keith Moon type of drumming and hope people enjoy it.  So far they have. But in reality, The Townedgers don't sell a lot of music and originals don't go over very well with the bar crowds wanting to hear Free Bird.

Did somebody mention Stone City?  They got flooded too, although the General Store made out okay. The Wapsi only made it just under the first floor.  I'm guessing the basement got a bit of water though.  The TEs have covered Stone City Rock And Roll, originally done by Billy Janey, but we threw a couple of lyrics to make it rocking.  Billy wasn't impressed.

If they didn't have 10 other bands to contend with, I would ask Tommy Bruner and Dan Johnson to form some sort of a band collective and Brook Hoover too.  I betcha we would stump each other with all the music that we know.   That probably won't happen either.

Losing Bruce Stanley hasn't totality sunk in yet.  I always keep thinking that I will see him at the pawnshop and we can talk of tunes and bullshit a while.  I also know I'll run into Tim Hotz at Half Priced Books soon.  I usually do.  It was nice to run into Jerry Scott at Bruce's funeral and I did give him my phone number if The Merles 2, his band was looking for a drummer.  Heard that story a couple times. Don't forsee it but it could happen.  Heard his son is a guitar wizard.

Unlucky in love, yes I am.  Out of all the ones that I dated, Nicole helped me write a couple songs.  I did credit Amy for Moonlight And You on Town's Edge Rock since she was the inspiration for said song but she didn't write the words.  Nicole helped on Goodbye Doesn't Mean Forever and Place And Time.  Clarise liked the albums that I did when we were together.  The rest washed their hands of the band.

That's it for now.  Stay dry everybody.

The Townedger Final Thoughts On Bruce Stanley and Popcorn Jam 9-11

Funny how the skies are so perfectly blue this time of year.

Today I paid my final respects to Bruce Stanley, who died last Thursday at age 57, at the Hall Of Memories at Cedar Memorial.  There was so many people there, including a couple of classmates that didn't talk to me, or knew I was there, one of them unfriended me a while ago.   I think wearing sunglasses may have kept my I.D. secret, but I do admit I didn't go out of my way to say hi to either of them.

Bruce's casket was there but it was closed and probably better for that way.  I saw of the more metallic rockers out there crying.  Tim Hotz, my record and CD collecting buddy from many years ago, who I would stumbled upon going to Half Priced Books was pallbearer, he was quite shaken by Bruce's passing.  I thought I would humor him for a bit by telling the new Descendants album rocks. We hugged each other, something I thought would never happen.  And for the first time in many years I got to say hi to Jerry Scott, the original Relics Records owner as well as Carol Becker.  She's always been very emotional and we also said hi and hugged each other too.

I guess there was more to Bruce than what I knew about.  He was a St Louis Cardinals fan but he never mentioned it much around me, since I rooted for the Chicago Cubs.  I looked at him as one of my top five friends but I was never asked to be pallbearer, Tim was one, Troy Mitchell was another and even Barb Myers was one.  Barb was a lot closer to Bruce than I was, perhaps some day I'll have to quiz her on about Bruce and of his life and times.  I would have loved to get to know the man better, but I never did find out where he lived at, nor ever been there.  I only knew him from my times at the pawnshop, at Relics, at 16th Avenue Music.  And sometimes going to a concert at Gabe's or CSPS.

The celebration of life was like any funeral you go to.  There were hymms, there were prayers and there was some laughs.  Billy Heller did an acoustic version of Amazing Grace and then they did a version of Hallelujah, the Leonard Cohen song that John Cale's version became the better known, never mind Jeff Buckley's version. Thankfully the organ hymns were absent.  But still there were plenty of tears, plenty of sadness but for myself, I kept it deep inside, basically I did my crying the Friday Night of the previous week.  After all death is not the end but a new beginning.  And somewhere Bruce is now pain free and jamming with the boys in the great beyond.

I heard he could do it all,  Like me, he started out playing 45s and then taking up the drums and then guitar, only difference was that he caught on playing drums and guitar a lot sooner than I ever did. He had the right guitar riff for the right song, or the right drum fill.  Even in the days of 16th Avenue Music little did I know that Bruce kicked ass as drummer and while I was messing around the DW set hooked up in the studio at 16th Avenue Music, that he was playing double and triple time drum rolls and not missing a beat.  He could go places where I can dream about.  Being his friend Bruce did go out of his way to chat with me awhile and I loved him like a brother, still I always looked at myself as the outsider looking in, even with the major musician friends that he knew and jammed around town.  I got to the party too late.

Before the funeral started, I stood at Bruce's casket and place my hand on it to say goodbye one last time.  It wasn't what I wanted to witness, I wanted to visit him at the pawnshop last week but got caught up in errands and other assorted things.  Later on, before I said goodbye to Jerry, he mentioned that his band might be looking for a drummer for a jam or two, and I did give my number.  Jerry son's play alongside him in the newer version of The Merles, the band that Bruce used to play in before Bruce departed.  I'm not certain that I'll be a part of Jerry's band, I inquired about playing for them 2 decades ago but they had Bill Neff playing drums and he was once part of the Bent Scepters and nothing came of it or fell on deaf ears.  It is a step up from The Wiley Kats and it is a cool thought that maybe we could play in the near future.

But for the moment while I sat thinking about this scenario, the funeral wagon left for Fairfield and Bruce's final resting place and I'll have to look him up in the future.  But Bruce will always be a part of me, especially when I play the acoustic guitar or the Les Paul Gibson that he sold me years ago. His memory will stay alive when I create new music from them.

Goodbye Bruce.  Wished I knew you better than I did but I'll always cherish the memories of the times we shared together at the pawnshop or music stores.

Love
The Townedger

(Photo Credit: Barb Myers.  L+R  Terry McDowell, Jeremy Jacobs, Craig Erickson, Tommy Bruner, Rob Haskill, Dan Johnson)

Popcorn Jam 9-11-16 Lineup

Steve Bray-Vocals
Craig Erickson-Guitar
Tommy Bruner-Guitar
Dan Johnson-Bass
R.Smith-Drums

Songs of the Beatles;  Ticket To Ride and  Revolution Blues. 


I don't think I was on stage but for about 5 minutes, tackling a couple of Beatles songs.  Jeremy Jacobs is Barb Myers' son and he tore up some excellent leads with Craig Erickson on Red House Blues, Voodoo Chile and All Along The Watchtower, with OTT  drummer Trevor pounding on the   drums.  That might be a good name for Trevor.  Trevor OTT as in Over The Top.  Blame it on the youth.  Rob and Craig have played together and Rob plays it super cool and not over the top.   I was paired with my good friend Steve Bray on the two Beatles numbers, I always enjoy sharing the stage with him, which we did earlier in the year.    With 8 drummers showing up, the chances to do songs didn't extend past two songs which everybody got.  Herm got paired with Belinda on Fever and really it wasn't the same as the way we did it a couple weeks ago. Herm has a much different style than mine, more straight forwarded although the finger pops at the beginning with an interesting choice.  But since working with Belinda on that song a couple times there's more of an inner groove interplay between me and D.J and Tommy.  Certainly Herm is a professional enough to adapt to the song, perhaps the next time it might go better. A good effort but wasn't much chemistry this time out.   Barb Myers closed the jam with Mercedes Benz, to which she dedicated to Bruce.  She did a great job.