Photos From The Wess Side Jam 7/30/17

Kevin Simnacher really went to town on taking some choice photos of Sunday's Jam.  Every photo comes courtesy from him and he's damn good at capturing the moments. Such As

1)

Kenneth John Webb and Ryan Matthew Paul blowing some harp on the manic version of Crossroads. For that rare time, the manic beats had to force Ken to play single bass notes rather than the funky stuff he's famous for.  All shows that he can play punk rock as well.

Julie Gordon with Pat Geisland and Tim Wiley on Wicked Game.

The Dreams Of Arcadia Duo of Julie and Ryan with Ken on bass. Julie and Ryan are perfect for their music adventures.  I sometimes add percussion when ever needed or when I crash their gig. Which is once in a while.

I'm sure with Tim Wiley and our history together he tends to put me into overdrive which the songs go a bit faster than usual, we might have our differences but I always said that I will always make it a point to jam with him if the situation arises.

Crossroads again.  I know Kevin was pining for a close up and somewhere in a video he got me smiling away.  And I became the raging crazy drummer of yesterday playing the song ultra fast.  I should consider not drinking so much sugary drinks on a empty stomach. While I enjoyed rocking out this hard, I would later pay dearly with a aching back and a couple of muscle spams.  My body reminding me that I'm no longer a 26 year old crazy drummer.  But a 56 year old losing his hair and his mind in the process. I'm destined to go down the great decline in body, but in spirit I remain true to rock and roll. Without music, life is not the same.  I'm sure you'll agree dear reader.

Paying Ronnie James Dio a tribute, I'm with co worker Kathy Runnels, we usually sit together during jams and chat about work.  There's that look again that I'm getting ready to do my thing on stage.

Let's see. Adam Dinschel with Terry McDowell.  Adam and I along with Barth Walter would do a impromptu version of Use Me but couldn't find nobody to sing it.  He was talking about the song with the funky beat breaks but I'm not sure if he's referencing the Bill Withers version, or Lenny Kravitz with Hootie And The Blowfish or John Scofield. But with Barth holding the actual rhythm down we managed to have a bit of fun improvising on the spot.  Adam is a hell of a guitar player.

And then there's Kenny Webb.  The man really can cook on bass, and I usually follow him, the sole exception was Crossroads to which all of a sudden it became something different than the Cream version.   I still say it sounded like Keith Moon kicking Ginger Baker off the drum stool and take it up a notch.   While I enjoy playing alongside different bass players, Kenneth lives for the groove, he's so modest too, but in reality he remains my favorite jam buddy on the 4 or 5 string. Very disciplined too, he has to be when I tend to get into my sloppy garage rock mode.  Usually he will reel me back into how the song is played. Great guy, super bass player!

(With: Kenneth John Webb, Ryan Matthew Paul and Tim Wiley)

Finally, with a full drum set, I can really express more of myself on drums and Terry managed to load his set up with no less than 8 cymbals, half of those were splashes.  It was fun to do the splash accents on Use Me but for the overdrive that was Crossroads, I tend to ride the crashes more often than not, more a nod to the departed Keith Moon than anybody else.   My main influences remain Dave Mattacks, Jerry Shirley, Al Jackson, Earl Palmer and Sandy Nelson.  Of course the main shout out is to Lonnie Washburn for being the local hometown dude who got me into playing drums, and still doing this to this day.  For the ones in town still playing tireless gigs, Terry McDowell remains the best overall and how he manages to keep doing that without falling apart (like myself) is the mystery of life.  Troy Mitchell and Mike Serbousek are the other ones that stand out too but I also enjoy Mike Lint and Trevor Worcel as the up and coming kids to playing drums.  There are no shortage of great drummers out there, each and every one has their own style and playing.  As people can tell, I got my playing learning from records and the hard way of self teachings. I wouldn't know paddle diddle from diddly daddy but the main thing is to get people dancing on the floor.  I rarely go over the top with crazy playing.  If not careful I may end up having that stroke or heart attack on stage but that would be a nice way to leave this world wouldn't it?

In knowing Ryan Paul, he's a bit of gypsy, a minstrel wondering from town to town as mentioned earlier is a perfect partner to Julie Gordon, they do blend in together. Both of them sure a pure love of music, in fact music is her boyfriend, and music is his girlfriend.  The way they hang in there playing to a handful of people at wineries I admire them for their efforts. But Ryan has helped me in a way to rediscover how to do songs in different keys, we never did Ball And Chain before but managed to pull that off for the first time last week. And now doing Sundown in E chord which I may have to use his arrangement for the next project.  We may not agree on politics but we all share a love of music on stage to which personal political differences are put aside in favor of rocking the house. A super nice guy.

To which, since I have been very busy documenting the highlights of the jams that I partaken in this month there will not be the End Of Month Thoughts From The Townedger.  But next month I have to post the lyrics to the songs off the new Logic And Lies album  as well the jams that I will be at.  Special thanks to Kevin Simnacher for taking the photos and he really didn't have to do that.  But I need some promo pictures of myself and I knew he'd be filming.   This is him on guitar with Joe Hutchcroft from the Fossiltones.

Rumors Jam 7/30/17 That Is Rock And Roll

Rumors Jam

Terry McDowell is the humble host.

The featured jammers on my segment

Adam Dinschel-Guitar
Barth Walter-Bass
Special Thanks To Joe Hutchcroft

Use Me

Tim Wiley-Guitar and Lead Vocal
Kenny Webb-Bass
Ryan Matthew Paul-Harmonica
Julie Gordon-Backing Vocal

Blues Jam In A
Crossroads

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWAHCDSCzdk
Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7a8JA0D9vY


And then I tried to kill myself on drums on the final number.

It was 40 years ago this month that I recall that during a fair in the square in downtown Marion that Janice Berns had a crush on me and somehow along with her friend got me to join them on a tilt a whirl ride. I suppose looking back that perhaps I should at least made some sort of effort to go out on a date with her. I think 40 years onward she did find a decent hubby and had some children of her own.  With me all she would have gotten was a ton of records and bunch of drums to deal with.

Ben Bernard is selling his Yamaha Drum set to which he let me use when the Wiley Kats were trying to get going and it really is a nice drum set although I didn't care much for the cymbals. For 1400 dollars it was a complete drum set with cases, mufflers for drums and cymbals and hardware.  It's tempting to get but I have two drum sets and don't see a need for another set.  Nor cymbals.

To what to make of this weeekend?  Friday was the Long Branch Acoustic Jam, Saturday was 319 Fest and Dreams Of Arcadia in Solon and back to Aces And Eights to catch the final set with The Fossiltones and chatted with Joe and the bass a bit.  I think I have seen about 20 bands in the four hours I was there, some good, some so so but I think they did the best they can.

So I was paying for last night when I bopped into Rumor's for today's jam to which just about everybody showed up (the few exceptions were playing at Cooters and Karl Hudson and Jeff Overly were finishing up their set at Beavercreek) including a wide variety of folks.  For the first song Joe Hutchcroft surrendered the drums over to me and with Barth and Adam we thought up Use Me, the Bill Withers song, but nobody sang it so it was basically a jam.

Later on Julie and Ryan popped in and so they did a few songs with Pat Geisland on drums for two songs.  I tended to think that his drum work on Wicked Game was a tad bit too heavy sounding, but Pat is a very hard hitting drummer, guaranteed to give you a headache if you're not too careful.  He's certainly one of the better grunge and modern Nu Metal drummers in town.  Trevor Worcel then took over for two songs including These Boots Were Made For Walking to which Trevor slowed the song down to a blues shuffle, not exactly Nancy Sinatra.  But jams are like that, an chance for drummers to do different songs for different people.  Trevor is a great drummer, he might not know how Boots was done but he did a better job on Rhiannon.

Since Kevin Simnacher was doing the video for the jam I decided to have some visual fun.  By then Tim Wiley was the main vocalist and Kenny Webb was playing bass.  It's odd how Tim will pop up at these jams especially when I was talking about Benton selling off the drum set. Coincidence? More like irony.   Tim was very busy talking to other musicians about being in his band, and of course I said I'm working evenings and not able to really give a 100 percent to the cause.  After all, I have The Townedgers, Acoustic Jams to go to and rather not try have him fumble yet through another version of Voodoo Chile.  This time out we kept it simple, a blues song using the Ray Sharpe Linda Lu riff.  And then off to do Crossroads but it was played so ultra fast that even Kenny Webb couldn't keep with my manic drumwork and yes I played it way too fast.  It might have been Cream influenced but with Keith Moon rather than Ginger Baker playing drums.  When Kenny Webb is playing single notes to a song, you know it is too fast (sorry about that).  But I think it was the spur of the moment, the recklessness, the feeling of like driving down a dead end street at a 100 miles an hour and no brakes.  It was a trainwreck but to me this is the spirit of rock and roll.   Up to the end to which Ryan Matthew Paul was trying to play harmonica through the chaos.  I think he did well.  But I don't know, there's something about Riley Kat that makes me throw things into overdrive.  Perhaps it was the failure of that band, I really don't mind him. But I will constantly throw him more challenges than he's used to.   In some ways I do feel bad,  perhaps it was a complete drum set with 8 cymbals to chose from, or 4 too many root beers.  I should had let Kenneth keep things in tow with  his bass playing.

For the great ending I decided on a double bubble bass petal excursion to which was concluded with a double cymbal crash and drum snare pound, only to lose my balanced and fall on the the floor.  I think I planned it all right but for a moment I did get dizzy and couldn't off the floor, but holding my hand up and saying I'm all right.  In the process, hurting my back and getting back spams later on.  I came close to go out of this world the way I wanted to, on stage and to a standing ovation.  But failing to realize that I'm 56 years old and doing such over the top hi jinx is not good on the body.  So I'll be paying for this for the next week.  But I think I gave Kevin some video footage he can use about the jam today.

As for Herm blaming me for messing up the drums, Nice try. The only thing I change was the Hi Hat.  You changed the snare stand , I didn't.  Terry can yell at you for that.

Thank you Terry McDowell.  I owe you.

Side Note: Tim managed to convince Trevor Worcel and his dad to join the new Wiley Kats.  I wish Trevor lots of luck.  He's going to need it.

From Kenneth John Webb on the hi jinx of the jam.

Hey. Hope you are ok. That was a highlight of the jam. Playing that song so fast was actually very cool.

Long Branch Acoustic Jam 7/28/17- If You Show Up I Will Show Up

Songs:

Mystery Girl
Logic And Lies
First Cut Is The Deepest  (Mike Nickles-Mandolin)
All Along The Watchtower
The Life We Lead
Fever (Belinda James: Vocals)*
Come Together (Belinda James: Vocals)
Knocking On Heaven's Door (Dave: Lead Vocals, Belinda, Jeff, Rose, Tim: Backing Vocals)
Wagon Wheel (Dave: Lead Vocals)
Ain't No Sunshine (Belinda James: Vocals)
Hot Rod Lincoln (Jeff Overly Vocals and Bass)*

Encore:

Simple Man (Jeff Overly: Vocals, Tim Nemec-Bass)*
Ring Of Fire (Jeff Overly: Sax and Backing Vocals, Tim Nemec-Bass)

With

Jeff Overly-Vocals and alto saxophone
Belinda James-Vocals
Dave-Guitar
Mike Nickles-Percussion and Mandolin
Tim Nemec-Acoustic guitar, bass and vocals
Rose Slaymaker-Vocals

Going to jams this past couple weeks it seems to be that people would rather be doing something else.  I mean the weather is nice and such but the turnout have been disappointing.  That didn't the very few who showed up make the best of it and had a good time.  Even the bartender took a break and did some funky bass riffs for a while.

I had to stop down to New Bo to catch The Fez, a Steely Dan Tribute Band play there and they were quite tight and to the point,  Jeff Overly was in town helping out Karl Hudson at The Shack and when I told him about the Long Branch jam he decided to show up.   He lives in Fort Madison and it's a two and half hour trip up here but he found a Motel 6 to spend the night.  Since he was going to be at the Long Branch I decided that the acoustic jam would be the first priority.  Belinda was up in Waterloo helping out Julie and Ryan Paul's Dreams Of Arcadia this afternoon, and after that gig, they would hurry down to The Frog to do the second show.  Kind of a long haul but it seems that they pulled that off without any problems.  Steve Black Wolf was videotaping their show so he couldn't make it to the jam. I probably will do my best to catch up on Dreams Of Arcadia this weekend, if they play Aces And Eights in the afternoon or at Solon tomorrow night.  Problem remains the 319 Festival is in Czech Village and that will be an all day affair.  I'll do my best to support the Dreams Of Arcadia if and when I can.  And I did stop by to support them and play a bit of percussion in the process with Steve Black Wolf, Abigail Bunker and Belinda James singing songs as well.

As I mentioned before, like the Julie Jules and Ryan Matthew Paul Checker's Jam, the turnout could be counted on one hand but amazingly everybody did a fine job.  While things are up in the air about any future practice sessions with The Modern Rock and Folk AARP Group, Belinda, Tim and Rose were there.  Julie and I continue to drift apart with other projects and happenings.   We still have a good working relationship on stage, that's all that matters right?  To be honest, I don't forsee the recording project become nothing more than talking about it but can't decide if and when to do this. Perhaps it's not in the cards.  She's fun to be on stage with, music is her best friend and I still love her to pieces.   If nothing else, Mark Randolph did managed to get a complete version of Gold Dust Woman but as of the moment that song remains in the archives for another time. If Ever

So if Julie is not around, what to do?  Belinda has stepped in and done a fine job with the songs that we do play.  Certainly my version of Fever differs from Mark's, mine is more moody and a bit more rocking than the light pop jazz swing and there's a contrast of styles.  In terms of songs Julie still owns Gold Dust Woman but when it comes to Fever, Belinda has her own  way of making the song hers.  On tonight's jam, for the first time her voice and my guitar came together to do Fever.  And just like a true professional, she nailed it against my primitive guitar work. Then I basically teased her with a few riffs of Gold Dust Woman before going into Come Together.  I think she prefers to do that song anyway.

For my set, I started things off with two songs from Logic And Lies, Mystery Girl and the title track. And then First Cut Is The Deepest and made a couple of attempted jokes it was not the Sheryl Crow version, nor the Rod Stewart version. After The Life We Lead, Belinda joined up to do Fever and Come Together, to which Jeff Overly, fresh from helping out Karl Hudson at The Shack joined in on the fun. For the encore, Me and Tim helped Jeff play Simple Man (first time I played guitar to it and threw a couple EGAD chords in the process) and then the jam ended with Ring Of Fire, which was one part Johnny Cash and one part Social Distortion but in essence had more to do with the Man In Black this time around.  With no Mike Roc and his comedy routine, things ended at 11, the shortest jam at the Longbranch we had since I've been there.  But still a good 4 hour jam if Mike started it at 7 PM. I didn't show up till around 8:30.

A few surprises and 100 percent fun.   That's all that matters.

Checkers Jam- 7/26/17 Benediction Two

Checkers Acoustic Jam 7/26/17

Host: Julie Gordon
Surprise Guest: Ryan Matthew Paul


Songs;

It's Been A While (Belinda James: Vocal)
Independence Day  (Belinda James: Vocal)
Blue Bayou (Belinda James: Vocal)
A Thousand Miles From Nowhere (Steve Black Wolf: Vocal)
Knocking On Heaven's Door (Steve Black Wolf: Vocal)
Last Kiss/Stand By Me/This Magic Moment (Steve Black Wolf: Vocal)
Lion Sleeps Tonight (Abigail Bunker: Vocal)
Let It Go*
Does It Matter (Belinda James: Backing Vocal)
Everybody's Talking (Donna Jo Eisner: Backing Vocal)
For What Its Worth (Donna Jo Eisner and Steve Black Wolf: Backing Vocals)
Jet Airliner  (Donna Jo Eisner and Steve Black Wolf: Backing Vocals)
The End/
Ring Of Fire (Donna Jo Eisner and Steve Black Wolf: Backing Vocals)
Turn The Page (Steve Black Wolf: Lead Vocal)
Sundown (Ryan Matthew Paul: Lead Vocal)
Ball And Chain (Ryan Matthew Paul: Lead Vocal)*
What I Like About You (Julie Gordon: Lead Vocal)

*debut

With
Julie Gordon
Ryan Matthew Paul
Belinda James
Steve Black Wolf
Donna Jo Eisner
Buddy Archbrenner
Abigail Bunker

And that was pretty much it for jammers.

I'm not sure the reason why there wasn't many folks tonight, it may have been yet another thunderstorm going through the area, or just plain indifference   While Julie is making plans to finish up her Dreams Of Arcadia dates before her knee replacement, the surprise guest was Ryan Matthew Paul back in town.  And we actually jammed on a few new songs namely Ball And Chain, which in a simple D A G chord progression was easy to play along.  I still rather play drums or percussion but for a first time sharing the stage playing actual guitar, I did all right.

Mark Randolph was not there so basically Belinda relied more on Ryan and Buddy playing guitar, although I did follow her off stage on It's Been A While and kept teasing her on the riffs to Fever.  And for Blue Bayou there's a chord that I cannot figure out but she sings it in off kilter key.  Somehow she managed to sing the chorus to Does It Matter, an original of mine.

For my set, I really was gasping at straws so I decided to go with an improvised version of Let It Go from the new Logic And Lies album and playing it in a more blues style. I didn't have my cheat sheets so I had to rely on similar sounding words and hoped for the best.   I was kinda hoping for a bass player to show up to do For What Its Worth but Skip didn't show and neither did Mark but at the final chorus it became a call and response from Donna Jo and Steve  (everybody looks what's going down to which it became I sing Going and they responded with Going  too.  It was extended and everybody had a good time.  Also the 12 year old wunderkind Abigail Bunker joined us on stage for an extended version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight.

I don't know, I really didn't venture out much out of the songs that I have been doing. I didn't plan on The End but Belinda requested that so I did that one and went into Ring of Fire to which Steve and Donna Jo return to sing backups.  Later on, Ryan wanted to do Sundown and he does it in a whole different chord, probably more easier than the version that I do. Ryan wanted to do Ball And Chain from Social Distortion so we did that one for the first time ever.  And we concluded the whole thing with What I Like About You with Julie doing the lead vocal and harmonica solo.  She really does a good job on that.

After the jam, I talked to Donna Jo and her husband about their cabin and how it sits near the Wapsipinicon River and wondered how they were faring.  He mentioned that the road leading to the cabin was six feet under water and where they had the stage at, it would have been initiated by flood waters but he did mentioned that the river is receding.   However, had the jam been this weekend it would have been postponed.  While the Wapsi has had the flooding rains that cause the floodings, the Cedar River basis managed to avoid the 10 to 12 inches of rainfall and has risen slightly but not enough to flood things. So we're good.  For now.

LOGIC AND LIES-Album Notes

And away we go.....


Maier Records presents in association with  The Townedgers Music Emporium

LOGIC AND LIES By The Townedgers.

Side 1

Logic And Lies (Part 1) 3:24
Let It Go  3:30
The Promise Flower  2:03
Mystery Girl  2:40
Highway 94 Revisited  2:58
Lately  3:29
Love's Guessing Game  2:45

Side 2

Drawn In The Dark  3:50
The Way Love Used To Be  2:14
Distractions  3:27
It's Just A Notion  3:38
All We Are  3:35
I'm On The Right Road Now  2:41
Logic And Lies (Part 2)  2:40


Songs written and credited to by R.Smith/G.Redding except
3,10,13 R.Smith
5 R.Smith/J.Orbit
6, 9 R.Smith/M. Strobie
Lyrical content by R.Smith
Copyright Control
Songs (C) 2017 Townedgers Music Emporium

Produced By Rodney Smith And Terry Bainbridge

Album recorded at The Junkyard somewhere between Springville and Anamosa IA
From April 19 through July 12, 2017

Recorded by Martin Daniels, Terry Bainbridge, Rodney Smith
Richard Dennanbaugh helped on Lately and All We Are
Mixed by Martin Daniels and Rodney Smith at The Hoarder House Of Hits

A&R: Diggy Kat

For the most part The Townedgers continue to be:
Rodney Smith:  Lead Vocals, guitar and drums
Geoff Redding: Assorted guitars, mandolin, 12 String Guitar, Vocals
Martin Daniels:  Bass player and vocals
Mel Strobie: Bass Player when M.D. had to do production work for other bands.

The Promise Flower was inspired and is dedicated to Julie Gordon.

Thank you's
To the ones that been there at the beginning. My parents, my brother Rick who has to put up with the noise and such. Russ Swearingen who's been around for close to 5 decades now and thought enough of me to be the drummer in what would be known as Paraphernalia/Open Highway/Tyrus/I/O etc etc, Diggy Kat, who supported the music by playing it on Lucky Star Radio and has been our biggest fan since 2002.  Donna Will, a woman that likes sports and the Grateful Dead.  Sonya Madden who provided the shoulder to cry on when things were not going so well for me this past spring and hubby Jason (Booyah Bitch!) Madden as well.  Nicole Passmore figures into this as well, a shame that she never heard me play live when she lived down here.  The difference now is that I do not watch TV anymore and practice playing guitar and drums on a regular basis.

The present:  Rod Albaugh somehow got me to pick up his guitar and sing a few awkward originals about two years ago after work and this really got me started back into playing live again.  Terry McDowell for letting me practice on his drums for a couple songs at Rumors on Sunday Afternoons, Wooden Nickel Lottery and the guitar wizardry of Rich Toomsen as well as his lovely wife Jess, Delayne Stallman for talking drums and otherwise, Rick Gallo too.  Four Day Creep, especially Rick Clay, who I love to jam Dreams I Never See with him singing it.  And Troy Mitchell, excellent drummer. Jon Wilson, smoothest drummer out there.  Brook Hoover who might rival me with the most eccentric choice of songs out there. Cathy Hart and Lorie Parker, as well as the aforementioned Julie Gordon who somehow coaxed me upstage to play guitar one cold December Evening which jump started my acoustic guitar solo career, before then I played live to an audience of one.  Now it varies from 10 to 20 on a given night. Who else?  Steve Black Wolf, Tommy Bruner, Kenneth John Webb, Mark Awad, Make Fredericks, Jay Devore, Tony Nickles, David Lam, Kevin Sinmacher, Kathy and Bart Carfizzi, Tiffany Z (I cannot spell her last name but she's the drummer for 50 Shades Of Rock and she does rock), Tom (T Bone) Giblin who somehow got me to play a lot more quieter on drums on blues jams when I show up, Tony Brown, Dan Johnson, Tim Duffy, T Ray Robertson, Dave Bonham, Cecie and Peter Stark, Ryan Matthew Paul, Louis Koehler, Donna Jo Einser,  Buddy Archbremmer, even Tim Wiley.  And to Checker's Tavern and Rumors for supporting my efforts to play music.

Dennis Lancaster and DeWayne Schminkey and Randy Hartwig, the other guys in Paraphernalia Tyrus that made that band a legend in our own minds.  Mike Serbousek, who bashes the drums just as hard if not harder than myself but like Troy Mitchell will let me sit in on a few numbers when his band is in town.  And when The Townedgers play live here, my drummer of choice.

Finally, Mark Randolph and Belinda James, two people with genuine hearts of gold.  I befriended Belinda a year or so ago and we jammed out to Fever,  Mark would later show up and I'd back them up on occasion.  from time to time we play in a new band collective, for over 50 year old somethings like us, they can rock out to just about anything.  I have heard some fine vocalists out there but the way Belinda can sing a blues song like Stormy Monday you have to hear to believe it.  Without their encouragement and support I would have retreated back into the basement, never to be heard from again.  I'm sure I'm missing a few but if I did you can put your name here ________________

If you read this far, this is where I say that Logic And Lies is my best album, but then again I said that for Fitting Finales and Forthcoming Trains and so on.  We have to believe that anything new we do is our best album, if it's not why even try?  And there's a chance any album could be the last album so at least we'll make the valiant effort to put out a great album, even though corporate radio will not play it, nor getting any sort of record deal.  My object is to document the events that led to the recording of the new album.   And here it is, warts and all, a blood stained love letter before your very eyes and ears.  At least this record ends on a high note.  To which we can go to bed and sleep well knowing that we did our best.  And hope that it will stand the test of time 10 or 20 years from now.  If I planned it right, this recording will outlast me.  Like the rest of the albums.

Dedicated to the memory of Jack Orbit.

Maier Records catalog number  MRK-25563
(C) 2017 Townedgers Music Emporium, under license to Maier Records.

Longbranch Acoustic Jam 7/21/17-On The Way To Yesterday I Passed Today

Acousta Crabby Jam-Hosted By Tony Nickles

At The Long Branch Supper Club-Marion Iowa

Songs:

All Along The Watchtower*

There May Not Be A Next Time*

Logic And Lies

Does It Matter/Everybody's Talking

The End

*Debut

For the third straight day we had to contend with more storms, more tornadoes, more monsoons, more flooding in a never ending cycle. The way it goes, especially if I decide to partake in acoustic jams.

I have to hand it to Tony Nickles and the staff at the Long Branch Supper Club.  The acoustic jams that I have seen the past two weeks, we managed to keep it going past 11 and with Mike Roc's after jam comedy routine (which he got into a shouting match with a couple of hecklers, who left after 10 Minutes) which ended about 10 after midnight. 

For a small group of jammers, we did have plenty of songs to sing and play.  Shawn Ster has been going to these jam sessions on a regular basis for the past two weeks.  Belinda and Mark were there along with Andrew and his bride, still in love and managed to do a song together. Sofia Chesney sang her Hallelujah song and Dream A Little Dream Of Me.  Jay Devore and Mike Fredericks were there, so was Tim Nemec and Rose Slaymaker.  Most of the New Folk and Rock AARP Group was in attendance too.  

Usually at this point I can experiment with new songs and originals that nobody has heard.  All Along The Watchtower was slowed down to almost late night blues riff before I returned it to the garage rock that could be heard on the 2013's 30 album by The Townedgers.   I think it was done better than the rag tag May Not Be A Next Time, which I did a trial practice run before taking it upstage and screwing up the damn chords.  And for another surprise Does It Matter went into Everybody's Talking.  For the record May Not Be A Next Time came from Fitting Finales and I always wanted to do that song live.  It did get some airplay on Lucky Star Radio but it made its debut at the jam Friday Night.   I can't say if I would reprise three originals at Checker's next Wednesday Night but I may take a deep long look at some of the new songs from Logic And Lies   And then to conclude the whole set list was another attempt of doing The End, to which I managed to get most of it right.  And Belinda requested that song.  I have to say I admire her for her support of the music that I have been playing and having an open mind to request some of the more darker numbers.  But in the past week of fighting depression and uncertainly of things going on, it's tough trying to keep a smile on your face when you feel like going home, locking all the doors and just simply hide from the rest of the world, especially when things go wrong.  But in the end all you can do is simply do your best.  Your best friends will continue to be there for you, the fair weather ones, not so much.  You can't change them, they are who they are.  

And so am I.

The Rumors Jam-Peter Stark's Birthday Party

With-Terry McDowell host and the Dunshee Moon host band

Jay Devore-Guitar and vocals
Mike Fredericks-Banjo
Adam-Bass
R.Smith-Drums

I usually play guitar along with Mike and Jay but this time out I played drums. I knew two of the three songs that Jay plays, the uptempo song and the last song but I don't know the titles.  I was surprised that these guys showed up at Rumors rather than Stone City, which was closer.  This time out there was a full drum set with 8 cymbals, Peter Stark provided two of the crashes but since I was playing country I really did not go full tilt.  A pretty good crowd including Mike Serbousek who needed to get away from his family for a while.  He has mentioned he now plays in Smokin Guns and Cocked And Loaded along with the Mad Dogs, so I have to give him grief on that.  Good to see him when he does show up. 

Acousta Crabby Jam 7/19/17 Broken String, Broken Heart

At Checkers: July 19, 2017

Hosts; Cathy Hart/Lorie Parker

Songs: (Debut*)

Mystery Girl
The First Cut Is The Deepest
I'm Waiting For The Man*
Logic And Lies
Everybody's Talking
For What Its Worth
Keep Yo Hands To Yerself**

Skip Richards: Bass
Cathy Hart-Lead Vocals**
Mark Awad-Bass**

Along With:

Shawn Ster
Lorie Parker
Cathy Hart
David Arnold
Mike Fredricks
Jeff Gage
Terry McDowell
Tim Canfield
Peter Stark
Mike Spina

(Photo: Cathy Hart)

There might be some sort of division between the jammers when it comes to host the Wednesday Night Jam.  Cathy and Lorie have their following, Julie has hers  and some of us go to both if need be.  Julie remains more special to me, but I love all three of these girls.  I have cut back on my time on social media, especially my own FB site. It's pointless to post political crap, when you have both pro and anti Trump, pro and anti Hilary going back and forth with pointless banter.

For the fourth straight Wednesday Night we had to contend with more severe storms in the area.  We were spared but McGregor and Prairie Du Chein got nailed big time with straight line winds. Somehow the storms avoided us.  But I'm sure there's always tomorrow.

Not a big crowd again tonight, I'd say the turnout was probably the same as last week, with some different faces and missing other ones. At least this time out I didn't have to deal with the Mike and Miss Butchie.  Two songs from the new album got dusted off, a ragged Mystery Girl and not having my coke glasses I winged it though Logic And Lies.  Terry McDowell and Peter Stark were in attendance along with Tim Canfield.  Skip helped me out on the majority of songs till Mark Awad showed up later to help out on Keep Your Hands To Yourself, to which I broke a GD guitar string in the process and had to improvise on the spot.  Since that song was A,D,E, I cheated and used the two low strings played like a bass.  Since I didn't bring a spare set of strings, after that song my guitar playing was over and I switched over to congas and helped out Shawn Ster on a few of his songs. It was the first time we jammed on stage since the OK Lounge show of December 7, 1984.  Shawn has had some health problems lately, but he's slowly getting back into playing live again.  He also did the Rumor's Jam on Sunday as well as last week.  I don't know if he'll get back to the stage of hosting the jams or going out as a solo artist, but I think we are all worse for the wear as we get older.  I know I do.

The only new debut was the Velvet Underground's Waiting For The Man, a song I never played live and Skip managed to figure out where the chords were going. And Everybody's Talking and For What Its Worth continued to be repeated most of the time.  I can remember the words to these songs a lot better than others.  Plus  playing these songs every other time, I can polish them into a more listenable level.  I kinda burned myself out of playing total love songs, Listen To Love is one of them. It's one thing when you're in love with somebody, then the song gives special meaning,  I look at love songs, especially original ones come from the heart and to have your girlfriend smile and melt in front of your eyes is worth singing the song. That's why I sing them I gather. To someday make a love song that would forever casts a spell upon her heart and gives you a nice hug and a kiss after you sing it.  And we could go home happy, in a world of rainbows and unicorns to which everybody can  live together.   In peace and harmony, and no wars to speak of.  An impossible reality.

I'm always learning new songs but sometimes I don't feel some songs are ready to be played.  Another reason why Cuts Like A Knife hasn't been attempted yet.  Or I Have To Say I Love You In A Song.  But dusting off First Cut Is The Deepest makes more logical sense, that it is a love song upon itself and the hope that maybe I can try to love again.   Just one week ago, I couldn't attempt doing that song without falling apart, but it has taken time and effort but as you can tell I did pull it off. When I play a song I try to live it, and sometimes that's not the way to go, especially if it's a sad song.  I haven't attempted to do For Shame Of Doing Wrong either,  it's not as smooth as Tennessee Whiskey (Which was played twice tonight) and even more bleaker.  To sing I Wish I Was A Fool For You Again will not get the crowd to sing along.

So basically it's a pick and choose although Ring Of Fire has only been done twice all month.  I may or may not dust it off next week when Julie hosts the jam.  I know Belinda will request it, but I just haven't been in the mood to sing it much.  My depression has been hitting me hard the past week and sometimes I have difficulty to get through the day.  However a good jam, and my depression subsides for a few hours.  An overactive mind will play havoc too and my mind has been doing just that. I can't sleep half the time with impulsive thoughts and stupid dream nightmares that put me in a sour mood when I wake up.   It seems that the only two songs that do make sense, Everybody's Talking and For What Its Worth are the ones.  And they seem to get the crowd going too.

So I do the best I can with what I got.  For the final analysis, tonight's presentation of the songs were mixed.  But I could have rather done without my guitar string breaking on me. The fifth  straight Spinal Tap moment in as many gigs, beginning with Mike and Dyke show last week, forgetting my guitar on Friday Night, tripping over and pulling out Rich Toomsen's guitar plug in and dropping a drum stick at the end of Hit Me With Your Best Shot on Sunday.   I'm hoping things will go as planned the next time I play.

But then again, I'm more inclined to believe in Rainbows and Unicorns are real too. F.M.L.

More Photos From The Wapsi Jam

1) Delayne Stallman

2)  Mike Fredricks with Mark Awad

3)  Steve Black Wolf.  When I was thinking about quitting jamming he kept my spirits up and got me to keep playing, returning on Friday Night and then the Wapsi Jam

4)  Rich Toomsen

5)  Rich and Mark.  Their dueling guitar and bass solo on For What Its Worth was worth the price of admission alone.

6)  Later on, I took over playing drums for Delayne for a few songs.  A rare photo of your's truly with a big smile on his face.

Photo Credit: 1,2 by Barb Myers
3-5: Sofia Chesney
6:  Rich Toomsen

I'm sure there's more pictures out there from various sources, if I come across any, I will be happy to post them and give credit to those who took the pictures.

The Wapsipinicon Dreamers Debut

The Jam On The Wapsipinicon River Hosted By The Eisners And Wooden Nickel Lottery


Featuring The New Wapsipinicon Dreamers

Rodney Smith-Acoustic Guitar And Vocals
Rich Toomsen-Lead Guitar
Mark Awad-Bass Guitar
Delayne Stallman-Drums

Songs:

Does It Matter
Everybody's Talking
Let's Work Together
For What Its Worth

(Mark Awad on bass. Sofia Chesney took the photo)

I started the day out celebrating my best friend Russ' birthday at the Cancun.  Then spent an half hour watching some local talent trying to do rap (and failed) and hearing some girl sing a nice ballad.  The highlight was finding 7 dollars in the street before making my way up to Troy Mills up to Donna Jo's Cabin on the Wapsi for the annual jam featuring Wooden Nickel Lottery.  The cabin is located in a remote part of the county, taking a few gravel roads into a access into a world that cellphones don't work since you can't get a signal out there and the toilet is an outhouse but if you really want to get away from it all, you couldn't find a better place.  The majority of the jammers that made the acoustic jams from Wednesday were there, and I think it was the debut of the Sirenz, which is Cathy Spina and Lorie Parker with Barb Myers joining as a trio. Mike Fredrichs was there as well as Jay Devore and for the first time and with a decent PA system I could actually hear what Jay was saying. He does have a pretty good voice.  Of course I did back up Steve Black Wolf on some of his songs.  Delayne was the primary drummer but he was nice enough to let me sit in on his drumset on a few songs including a very sloppy but rocking Can't You See with Darren Furrster (?) subbing for Rick Gallo for Wooden Nickel Lottery.  He also did Hey Jude, which I never played drums in the first place. And of course a couple of Rich Toomsen lead guitar instrumentals done in a country style.  In my opinion, there's plenty of great guitar players out there but to me, Rich is the best of playing lead.  He's never flashy, never over the top and have a nice clean sort of lead aka Stevie Ray Vaughn.   To which the our finale was Sweet Home Alabama to which Mr. Clumsy Feet managed to trip over some guitar wires and cut out Rich's guitar leads.

(Rich Toomsen (left) and Mark Awad behind me. Sofia Chesney: Photo)

Delayne's drums are DW. Cymbals are Zildjian and he favors the darker K crashes, somewhat the type that I like to play and his ride was a nice and clean ride.  Delayne is a much more disciplined drummer than me, I'm throwing oddball double time and Keith Moon inspired drum rolls to Can't You See to which Darren asked if I was playing double time, and I told him, not really just playing for feel I guess. Sloppy but fun.  Steve Black Wolf then proceeded to do his medley of Stand By Me/This Magic Moment/Las Kiss to which I did more of a backbeat.

For my setlist, I started the whole thing off with Does It Matter since I couldn't remember anything else but I could remember the words and I started out having Delayne and Mark Awad on bass.  Mark  is becoming a regular on the jam circuit, and he picks up things quite quickly.  He never heard Does It Matter before but in a simple A,D,G pattern I did pick it up, as with Delayne.  He can play like Jaco Pacious, the former bass wunderkind for Weather Report and Word Of Mouth, he's very good at funk and soul style songs but my songs are not that way. He's really really good.  I rate him in the top five bass players in town.

For the first time, I used a strap and played standing up rather than sitting down. I don't know if it made any difference but I seemed to sing a bit better after each song.  And while Everybody's Talking was a bit too loose I did managed to remember most of the words and managed to give a few bars to Mark to play a bass solo.  But we really got going on an extended version of Let's Work Together to which Rich Toomsen joined in on the fun and a few more bars were granted to Rich's excellent lead guitar work.  I could have gone with five songs but I decided that For What It's Worth, would be a work out between Mark and Rich and before the final verse the song became a exchange of solos between Rich and Mark.   I really didn't have to do much, I was sitting and smiling at what I was hearing and seeing.  To which after that, there was no need to do any more songs.  I couldn't top that anymore than I could.

So I did managed to stay around the whole jam till it ended and Wooden Nickel Lottery did do two of their songs, The Open Road and Down The Line to wind things up on a high note. While Delayne was packing his drums away, he had a cicada breaking out of its shell on one of his hand drums which the cicada wasn't there at the start.  So we had a good chuckle out of that.

The past three days I have rode the emotional roller coaster, from the highest highs of the Sunday Jam with Wes Side Jam, and into the low valley of the Checker's Jam when Mike Williams' girlfriend managed to make my snare sound like shredded wheat, to which I still trying to get a decent sound from that snare two days later. But the Friday jam and especially Saturday Night, with the debut of the Wapsi Dreamers. firmly gave my faith in playing music does make you feel better and anything you can overcome.  It sure beats staying home and being depressed all the time.

PS. Over 30 years ago I wrote the album called Wapsipinicon Dreaming, which came from the Wapsi River.  In my 50 years of living, this river has played a major part in my life in my walking the trails and fishing upon it.  This is the second time that I have jammed along side the river.  The first time was in 1990 at Matsell's Area. The Wapsipinicon River goes through Independence on down to Troy Mills, Central City, Stone City and Anamosa.  I do love this river.

(Below photo credit: Barb Myers. This is Mark)

Appendix: Rumors Jam Hosted By Terry McDowell

This week's guest musicians

Kim Trevallion-Lead Vocals
Bart Carfizzi-Keyboards
Matt on Guitar
Dave Walerius-Bass
John Hernandez-Bass
Kenny Webb-Bass on Sweet Home Chicago

Songs:

Sweet Home Chicago
Hotel California
Hit Me With Your Best Shot

This Sunday's jam was double bass players (to which Mark Awad was not part of, but plenty were on hand.  Kenny did play on Chicago then made way for Dave, a big guy who I know I jammed a long time ago when I first came back on the scene.  Kim played last night with Blue Scratch somewhere but she managed to sing a few when I played drums.  Like her and after playing two straight nights I was feeling a bit tired on the drums and did an okay Sweet Home Chicago and did Hotel California against my will.  But everybody loves that song and want to hear it.  And then I drop my drum stick on the final of Hit Me With Your Best Shot and improvised playing drums with one hand.  I hate that when that happens.

Longbranch Acoustic Jam 7-14-17

Long Branch Acoustic Jam-Hosted by Tony Nickels

Songs:

Jet Airliner
Does It Matter
The Life We Lead
Get It Over With
Ring Of Fire

With:
Steve Black Wolf-Backing Vocals on Ring Of Fire
Belinda James-Backing Vocals and Funny Girl
Mark Randolph-Playing his guitar when I left mine at home

Tony Nickels is a fine guitar player who managed to score a gig hosting a Friday Night Acoustic Jam at the Long Branch and the guy has a nice PA system, even percussion on hand.  I didn't figure upon going, but since Friday Night we didn't have much work and I really didn't want to deal with our senior complaining about doing scanning work (Hint: you can save it for the next shift).

It's been a rough two days.  I really thought about just giving up music altogether after dealing with the female hog drummer on the Wednesday Night jam and  went to bed Thursday Night depressed as hell and crying half the night.  I've been dealing with the demons of my life and my overacting mind playing games with me.  And beginning to wonder about things.

Wondering about being consumed with all the emotions that went with the making of Logic And Lies.
Or spending way too much time on the social media outlets such as Facebook.
Wondering if I will ever get that second date with Julie
Wondering if I will ever get another date...with anybody.  After all it took five years to even go out on a actual date.
Wondering if I can ever have a conventional relationship with anybody.

I don't think I ever had this type of a roller coaster type of emotions that I have had these past three months.  Why is it so difficult to express myself and my feeling to somebody that I had no problems playing music with her?   Just be yourself they say.   It's one thing being good friends, another if you do start dating.  And you try your best to support their music, their bands, their gigs and not try to interfere with them while they're doing their job of mingling with other people.  Julie is a positive people person, she loves and tries to love everybody.  Myself, I am just a loner that somehow she floored me with her smile and grace. I long to be just like her.

What would be the perfect date?  I have no answer.  The sense of belonging matters a lot.  The deepest wish I do have?  To have a slow dance with somebody when a ballad comes on.  I'd welcome that.

Upon this afternoon after reflecting, there's a song called Just What I Need that nailed it for me.

Last verse:

It could be that I'm losing track of my senses from many years of
Walking on Fences  and waking at night tired and pale
Coming unglued, I'm coming un-nailed
Wondering if I already failed.

(Just What I Need-Big Back Forty 1997)

And I wonder if I did.

Upon this afternoon, I tried to work up The First Cut Is The Deepest but I couldn't sing the verses without tearing up.  In reality, it's nobody's fault.  We live on emotions and driven by some sort of emotional gib to try to convince somebody that we are worth taking a chance upon.  I know I do.   And when the slightest thing goes wrong, it sends me into back my inner shell  I use Facebook for the fact of posting music news and so on, but to keep in touch.  But I tend to think I spend too much time here on the internet  and seldom get anything done in real life. That's why I don't have a smart phone.

Steve told me about Tony hosting the Long Branch Jam on Friday Nights and was trying to get a crowd going.  So after seeing Full Circle for about a half hour, I went over there just to see what it was all about.   I didn't bring a guitar, I didn't figure on playing but Steve offered me his guitar.  Eventually Mark and Belinda showed up and I got to use Mark's guitar for my songs.    It felt nice talking to Steve, Mark and Belinda, I really need some sort of solace and assurance that I wasn't going out of my mind and for a couple hours I managed to lose my depression and ragged thoughts. Being in this state of mind, it wasn't the best of performances, I forgot the second verse of Jet Airliner and my fingers and mind were not on the same page on Get It Over With.  Since I knew the words to my songs I ended up singing them.

For the most part we all laughed and have a good time.  on Ring Of Fire, Belinda made a funny about Taco Bell and we are roared.  Tony Nickles really did a fine job hosting it although the crowd was the regulars that frequent the Wednesday Night jam.  Perhaps getting the word out will get a few more jammers.  The Long Branch is a nice place to play at.  And it really helped that the gang was there, it made me feel a 100 times better.  But now the depression has set back in as I end this document of tonight's happenings.  

And I feel it's going to be another long night again.

Checker's Jam: 7/12/17 Benediction

Checker's Jam-

Hosts: Julie Gordon/Steve Black Wolf

Songs:

Branded Man*

Logic And Lies

Jet Airliner

Everybody's Talking

No Expectations/For What Its Worth

*debut

With:

D.J: Backing Vocals on Jet Airliner and Everybody's Talking

Skip Richards: Bass

Belinda James: Backing Vocals

Mark Randolph: Lead Guitar on No Expectations/For What Its Worth

Started today out by replacing the drums on the first version of Drawn In The Dark with a different take and it sounded better.  Then had enough time to run through versions of Southern Pacific and I Don't Need No Doctor but I think we have enough songs to compile the covers album.

The big question was if anybody was going to show up to the jam, since Bart decided to have a rival jam down at Rumors but I committed myself to the Jules And Wolf showcase.  Friends helping out friends, I bought a snare drum but didn't play that much, and certainly not after Mike Williams and his lovely companion showed up. To which she proceeded to take off most of the drum rings and didn't bother to put them back on the drum after she finished them.  Then she complained about how they sound, which really made me disgusted with her.  The rules are simple, if there's any sort of percussion at a jam, make the best of it.  If you don't like how they sound, don't fucking play them, get your own drum. But it was kind of her to provide her own drumsticks to which they made the snare sound like crap after that. 

Despite that, there was a decent crowd, a bit more people than last weekend.  Lorie Parker showed up and did her Boobieful song and I thought Steve and Julie did a very good job.  As promised Belinda and Mark showed up and helped out a lot too. Skip Richards also popped up to play bass during my segment and while I didn't debut Southern Pacific as originally threatened, I went with Branded Man, the old Merle Haggard song.    Donna Jo aka D.J. as she would like to be known helped me out on Jet Airliner and Everybody's Talking.  And the improvised No Expectations going into For What Its Worth seemed to work, especially with Mark Randolph adding lead guitar.  

Of note was Lorie Parker coming to the jam.  That does speak volumes and perhaps that might lead somewhat of the Acousta Kitties returning to play together again.  I remain hopeful, just like the rest of the folk do.

Whittier Acoustic Crabby Jam 7/8/17-Two Years On

Whittier Community Center 7/8/17  David Lam: Host

Songs

Logic And Lies*
Listen To Love
Knockin' On Heaven's Door
Ring Of Fire
Everybody's Talking
The End*
Come Together (Belinda James: Vocals)

*debut


Also:

Recording songs at Hoarder House Of Hits-Jordan's Grove IA
Producer: Rodney Smith/Terry Bainbridge
Recording: Terry Bainbridge

Logic And Lies (Acoustic Version)
Distractions

Plus drum recording on 20 finished tracks.

And so begins the task of recording the drum parts to the finished songs from Logic And Lies but somehow I wanted to do an acoustic version of Logic And Lies, so basically I took care of that.  It just simply me doing the songs myself.  Distractions is a drum solo that might find its way on the new album.  I haven't done one since Pawnshops For Olivia almost 10 years ago.  Basically, Distractions was us trying to adjust the drum settings in preparation to record the finished tracks.  Once that got done, I started adding the drums to the cover versions.  A lot of them sounded good, others not so much.  In essence the best tracks from the covers will fine their way on a bonus CD once Logic And Lies the album gets finished.  Upon listening to the finished songs, some just got destined to the cutting room floor, or the part of the recorded tape to pass over.


It's July and there was plenty of bands playing around the area and therefore, the Whittier Jam didn't have too many people.  And I led things off with playing Logic And Lies for the first time and people seem to like it.  And for the first time The End was debuted, although it was very rough sounding and I didn't practice it in a while.  It was kinda of a cold take but it went over okay with the folks.  By then we lost most of the jammers and the ones that remained were Mark, Belinda, Steve and David the host. So for an encore Belinda sang Come Together. It was also Belinda that requested Ring Of Fire. And I managed to blotch the second verse.  There isn't much to the song  but dammed if i could remember how it went. so it was back to Love Is A Burning Thing.   The Taste Of Love Is Sweet,  When Our Heart Meet goes the second verse but I couldn't remember that damn lyric. Outside of those small flubs and forgotten lyrics I thought the jam went well.

I didn't dress up for the occasion since I was recording drums all day so I threw a pair of pants over my shorts and went unshaven.  Julie was in Davenport with Bart doing their show since Ryan moved back to the east coast to take care of his ailing grandmother


Rumors Jam- Terry McDowell host

With:
Bart Carfizzi-Vocals
Tommy Bruner-Guitar
Mike Clair-Guitar
Kenneth John Webb-Bass
R.Smith-Drums

Songs:

I'll Be Around
I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You
Superstition

Steve Black Wolf mentioned that Julie got back into town and he was going to visit her.  I probably would have not gone there had I not seen his bike but I chatted with Julie for about an hour. If I could play lead guitar I could have replaced Ryan Paul but I don't know.  I tend to think if we did something together I would have to forgo playing lead guitar, I really don't play lead.  I can barely play guitar on my own.  She was trying to figure out how to play Gold Dust Woman, and she plays it in a different style.   I got to play Kyle's Martin Acoustic, it's has a more full bodied sound than mine but then again Martin Guitars are top of the line acoustic and Kyle went in style all the way.  Now if I could play like Kyle, then it would be a go.  But I have things to work upon in order to impress her, first and foremost to work on cutting back on my F bombs while driving when we did go out together.  I did promise her that next time I will do better in controlling that sort of profanity. I want to be a positive spark for her, not the negative angry person, but that's going to take a lot of time and effort.  But I'll do my best to impress her.

For the Rumors Jam, I backed Julie's partner Bart Carfizzi on some of the songs he sang.  And the process gave everybody a headache on the final drum shot on Superstition, including myself.  But I never pass up on jamming with Kenny Webb when he plays bass.  He's the baddest.

This week marks my second year of being back on the music circuit, something that I didn't think would still be going on.   From the humble beginnings of T Ray Robertson, Dave Bonham, Ted Reily and Peter Stark, plus Terry McDowell doing the Wrigleyville Thursday Night Jam (which was later moved to Tuesday Nights and then ended) to the more recent Rumors jams featuring the likes of Tommy Bruner, Mike Clair, Ken Webb, Bart Carfizzi, Terry McDowell again.  Along the way I managed to hang around various projects with Julie Gordon and seen her in action.  And the aforementioned of having a movie date night. Somehow she managed to get my acoustic guitar playing career a kick in the ass  I've only played the acoustic stage for a little over 8 months, but she managed to get my confidence up to the point of playing live.  I owe her that, plus Lorie Parker and Cathy Spina and the fine folks at Checkers and then I branched out to the Whittier Acoustic Jam.  I have started band collectives with Tim Wiley and Ben Banard which didn't work out but a new band collective featuring my long time jam buddies Belinda and Mark from the acoustic jams seems to have a better chance of playing live.  Russ has talked about John, the guy that we jammed with 12 years ago is moving back in.  I'd be happy to jam with them again.  Of course, I would welcome doing a band project with Julie.  Dream big and perhaps something will come of it.

But at the end of the night, when everybody has gone back home and reality, I still remain committed to making music by The Townedgers since it's the only thing I can lay claim to.  There will be more jams to go to, more acoustic showcases to improve and expand the songs that I can do and of course the Rumor's Jam where I can bash on the drums for three songs and then grab a pizza on the way home.  I'm happy to sit in on a few songs when my fellow drummers need a beer or potty break.  I might be older, and ache more and after a few songs needing a nap but still I have fun playing drums whenever is possible.

And so it goes.  Two years on and the future remains unwritten.  Where the road goes I'll continue to travel, be it with a companion or go it alone.  There'll be songs to write, songs to play and my emotional roller coaster will go way up and then all the way down again, like it has been.   And that will the be way till I'm dead.

To be continued......

Friday Night I did stop to see Tiffany and her band 50 Shades Of Rock for a few songs and managed to chat for a spell.  Fellow drummer Mike Serbousek is now drumming for Cocked N Loaded and he was playing at CRL Saturday Night, to which I couldn't make it due to the Whittier Acoustic Jam commitment.  Frank Smith took this picture of Mike wailing away on the drums.

Checkers Jam 7/5/17

Songs:

Jet Airliner (With Lorey Parker on Backing Vocals)
Everybody's Talking
Get It Over With
No Expectations/For What Its Worth
Midnight Rider

Hosted By Cathy Spina/Lorey Parker

With:

Shawn Ster
Carl Meiners
Jeff Gage
Donna Jo Eisner
Mike Fredrichs
David Arnold
Mark Awad
Jay Devore


It was the first time I actually got to talk with Shawn Ster after so many years.  He mentioned that he was thinking of showing up more in future jams.

I've been battling tooth pain, and looks like the one that I had a cavity is beginning to annoy me. May have to get that looked at although my dentist mentioned since it's the far tooth in the back he may have to yank it out.  Not exactly news to these ears.

Still, tonight's performance went pretty well, and I decided to segment the ending of No Expectations right into For What Its Worth, something out of the ordinary.  The jam started out slow but as the night wore on a few more folks showed up, Jay has a new job so his jam appearances have been few and far between.  Get It Over With managed to sound pretty good since I played the right chords and not mess that up. Afterwards I did chat with Cathy for a spell and she did said that she still loves Julie and hope things are fine with her.  There might be hope that they can share the stage together but for now Barb Myers has settled in with Cathy and Lorie and the name is called Sirenz.

Despite it all, we were missing a few folks, namely Belinda and Mark and Steve Black Wolf.  And Skip Richards as well.   Of course it had to rain at the end of the jam.  The third straight time it has rained.   So it goes.

But on a good subject it looks like Penny and Karl have kissed and made up. He took her to Texas this week to meet the relatives.  The Townedgers wish them all the best and make it their love last.

Rumors Jam-7/2/17 Wicked Willie

Rumors Wess Side Jam Hosted By Terry McDowell

With:

Willie Wells-Lead guitar and vocals
John Hernandez-Bass
R.Smith-Drums

Songs:

Redhouse Blues
Long Train Running
Voodoo Chile

(Willie Wells and friends, Willie is the one with the hat, Photo courtesy of W.Wells)

I'd never jammed with Willie Wells before so this was going to be a first.  We kinda stumbled around for a few minutes before going into Redhouse Blues and a very fast version of Long Train Running. It was almost speed metal.   Another few minutes of wondering what to do before I suggested Voodoo Chile and this was the highlight of the jam.  The song was about 8 minutes long and Willie did just about everything imaginable using his assortment of guitar effects.   Except when he hit a wrong switch and the guitar amp went up to 11, he really got into playing lead, including playing a bunch of sound effects that sounded like invaders from outer space.    John Hernandez from Full Circle helped out on bass.

Good to see my former co worker Brad Milner popping in. I was surprised to see him up there so we chatted for a spell. He mentioned if I ever want a job, they're always hiring up where he's at in Le Mars.  He also said they do a lot of firing too. Eventually Brad got canned too.  He's now working in Orange City.

Side Note: Willie Wells had a 1996 album of metal songs out that I saw in the 2 dollar section at Half Priced Books.  Always amazing how these guys looked like they used a half a can of hairspray back then to show off their metal side and then later changed into a mountain man look.


Appendix:  Blues Jam at Parlor City 7/4/17

With:
Tony Brown-Vocals and guitar
T Bone Giblin-Keyboards
John Heim-Bass
Jon Wilson-Drums

Songs:

Can I Change My Mind
Baby What You Want Me To Do
Green Onions
She Caught The Katy.

The blues jam is a whole new affair.  More on blues and soul rather than rock and roll.  Leave it to Tony Brown to dust off Can I Change My Mind, the old Tyrone Davis song, and it done a bit more faster than the record.  I know the guys do a different arrangement of She Caught The Katy and I didn't get with the breaks of the song till the end.  Jesse Carruthers, fresh from the Rumors jam also played drums but Dr.  George Hanna, the dentist playing drummer decided to go home early, which was a good thing.  Had he stayed I probably would have done 2 songs tops.  I wasn't into fireworks so that what my fourth of July was.