Rumors Jam-I'm So Glad You're All Here With Me Tonight

Rumors Jam Wess Side Halloween Bash

Hosts: Terry McDowell, Mike Clair,Dan Johnson, Tommy Bruner

Special guest stars: Greg Mein, Brenda Hoskins-Mein, Julie Gordon, Ryan Matthew Paul, Tim Canfield, Ian Jacoby, Mike Lint, Rob Haskell

Plus: Tami Soukup, Brenda Snow, Ann Mishmash,Richie the black guy, Mike, the bar regular, Sonya Adair, bartender extraordinaire and the Rumors crowd.

(Photo: Tami Soukup;  Jeff Overly, R.S., Dave Bonham)
The Band:

Mike Clair-Guitar
Dave Bonham-Guitar and vocals
Jeff Overly-Bass and vocals
Bob Gleason-Harmonica
R.Smith-Drums

Songs;

Keep Your Hands To Yourself
All Along The Watchtower
La Grange
Hey Joe
Roadhouse Blues

I really didn't think I was going to play all three nights.  Hanging with Dreams Of Arcadia on Friday and Saturday Night and actually playing a lot of songs on guitar in Anamosa and Solon really wiped me out for Sunday.  Even if I didn't do the whole 200 mile trek like Julie and Ryan did on Friday, I still really was feeling the effects, especially Saturday Night and the usually reliable Mexican place in Solon ended up giving me Montezuma's Revenge and a splitting headache afterwards.  Despite that the Solon D.O.A. duo became a improvised return of the Acousta Crabby.

Nevertheless the flu bug has taken over most of the jammers this month.  Both Julie and Ryan were still fighting the cold, Karie Skogman had to miss the Rumor's Friday night gig and while I still had sinus problems and still feeling sluggish from all the fun of the past two nights, I was feeling much better than the past couple weekends.  The debate about doing Stone City came up but once Jeff Overly was still in town, I'd would go help him out.

Usually in band playing, I back people up by playing drums.  In the case of Jeff, he was that rare performer that I actually played more on guitar than drums so this was a rare occasion. Second of all, this marked the first time that I jammed with Dave Bonham in months, we go back to days of Wrigleyville that we were regulars on that jam scene, which now seems so long ago.  Since the hosts of Tommy and Dan were playing and needed a break, Dave would spell Tommy and Jeff would give Dan some time off too.  Mike came back up to help out the our set.

All Along The Watchtower was the Hendrix version although I did incorporate some Dave Mason type of beats there, Ron LaFleur does a nice version of that song although he could never get the words right.  Jeff commented that he blew some lyrics in one of the songs we did but for a jam and not performing them I don't think anybody knew the differences.  Hey Joe was very sloppy on my part, more like a Keith Moon bit of cascading and rolling drums and bashing cymbals but if I had my own set of drums and cymbals it would have been more bombastic.   Jeff and Dave traded off vocals and while Dave wanted me to sing Rocky Mountain Way, I told him somebody would have take over on drums for me to do that. So we concluded with Road House Blues, like La Grange done in that Texas two step shuffle beat that drives me crazy.  But it wasn't that bad.  Despite dropping a drum stick at the end of Keep Yo Hands To Yourself and picking another stick up from the drum, I didn't miss a beat.

I wasn't the only one that dropped a stick.  Terry did on one song at the end and so did Rob Haskall, but Rob was one of the highlights playing a improvised set with Tommy and Dan on Sunshine Of Your Love which turned into Crossroads.   Greg and his wife popped up later to do some Tom Petty songs much to Ryan's dismay.  I really wasn't that surprised that Julie and Ryan did show up around 6:30 and came up to do a couple songs with the host band before the jam concluded with Comfortably Numb which turned out to be one of the best versions that they have done.  Ryan adding some keyboards and Terry mixing it up on drums.  It really did end things on a great note.

NOTES: There was actually a good sized crowd for the jam, although notable no shows was Trevor Worcel not playing on drums.  Which enabled me to play a couple more....I managed to share the table with Tami Soukup, who usually takes videos and pictures of musicians playing....Brenda Snow also showed up as well...Richie, the black dude that I became friends with during the Wrigleyville jams was there but somehow he got into a disagreement with somebody and I really don't know how that started, probably a misunderstanding...Upon going to Rumors, I did managed to do a bit of walking around New Bo area and managed to get back to the car before the rain started up around 4:30...The drummers that did show up and play was Rob, Me and Mike Lint, Jesse Carruthers was there but didn't hang around to play...Mike Clair did play bass on the songs that Greg and Brenda played with Mr. Lint on drums.

Crashing The Dreams Of Arcadia Party (Both Nights)

The weather has gotten colder and more bitter as we reached the end of October.  Not a surprise really but since my regular job has been keeping me busy, I haven't been able to show myself at any jams.  The three week layoff did affect me when I played for the first time since The Artisan Sanctuary Showcase.   I missed out helping Four Day Creep at Jus Coz Friday Night but decided that since The Dreams Of Arcadia was in Anamosa, I owed them a visit since passing the last time they played at Knuckleheads.

Anamosa for a small town has some of the more bizarre folks I have met and that was no exception.  Ryan Paul back in town to help Julie's cause, The Dreams Of Arcadia did a double gig swing, starting in Cedar Falls and then down the snowy and windy path to Knuckleheads to which I thought I would make the the final hour set of there, only to find that they continued to play up till pass the 2 AM cutoff date for bars

Songs (with Julie Gordon-Lead and backing vocal) Knuckleheads-Anamosa 10/27/17

Gold Dust Woman
Cinnamon Girl
For What It's Worth
Kansas City Blues

Ryan should know by now but once he hangs with Julie is that he'll be expected to go the full mile.  For somebody who drove 200 miles to gig, Julie was in fine singing form.  Since I didn't practice much since being idle and sick for most of the three weeks, I had a hard time trying to remember the words to For What Its Worth  but whatever line I missed Julie picked up.  And of course there's always something special when she sings Gold Dust Woman, that did make some of the handful of people at the bar smile and nod in approval.  I did not expect to participate outside of hand drums and such, but Julie finds ways of getting me to play something.  I thought about doing Won't Get Fooled Again, but since I didn't have the words to that, I just thought up of Kansas City on the spot and went with that.

The crowd I could count on one hand but as the night progressed on, a few women dressed up in various outfits came up to dance and flirt with a couple guys for about an hour or so before they disappeared into the night and an older guy popped in around 2 AM to wonder if anybody knew how to play Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground (Willie Nelson) and cursed himself when he couldn't get the chords just right.  That's how it goes when you have not played the song in a while.

Special thanks to Bambi Dahlhauser for being a cool bartender.

(Photo courtesy of Dreams Of Arcadia.  The EYE glasses were a hit, Julie and Ryan dressed up as the Pirates Of The Caribbean gang, Ryan a dead on version  of  Captain Jack Sparrow)

Setlist:

Gold Dust Woman
What's Up
If I Were A Carpenter
For What Its Worth
Good Lovin/La Bamba
Floodlands*
I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better
Everybody's Talking

Jules Gordon: Vocals
Ryan Paul-Percussion on Feel A Whole Lot Better

*debut

(3 AM after getting back home from Solon, just in case nobody had any pics of me playing live)

It was Halloween weekend and everybody packed the Legion Hall for a night of music and fun.  Julie and Ryan dressed up as the Pirates Of The Midway and the only thing I did was to find a pair of eyeball glasses to go with my shirt and people loved that cheap 7.99 eyeball sunglasses that I found at Halloween Express. I actually dancing with one woman when DOA was doing Wagon Wheel.
Certainly it was fun, but I didn't expect to go home with anybody and just like the script went, most of them went home before the midnight hour.

(Ryan and a friend-Kayte Kintz Photo credit)

As you can tell Julie and Ryan are very gracious of giving me some much needed stage time to reacquaint myself with the song that I did play although Julie did notice I was getting too comfortable using songs with D chord opening for the songs, so at that point, I went into Floodlands, an original song from 1989. And the object to stick with more uptempo and uplifting songs, not that I have  a deep song list of uplifting songs, so I dusted off Good Loving and threw La Bamba in as a medley.  And they let me close the whole gig down, by then most of the dancers and folks went home.  For the most part Ryan has mentioned time and time again that's he's not a Tom Petty fan so I was trying to think of some song to cohort him into doing  and I came up with I'll Feel A Whole Lot Better, which in reality was done by The Byrds but Tom Petty did a cover off Full Moon Fever.  I smiled after the song and said Congratulations Ryan, you just did a Tom Petty song.  To which he wanted to kill me on that one but I explained in theory we did the Byrds version.  I could have been more evil and played Listen To Her Heart instead.

I was surprised to see how many songs that I actually did tonight, it was as many songs as I would do at Whittier or the Long Branch.  Since I didn't have a capo I stayed into a comfort of sorts to which Julie noticed, but it seems that most of the stuff I do is based in D chord.  Again this was due to still trying to get back into the swing of things after being away from it for 3 weeks.   With Ryan returning back to the East Coast next week this will put their duo on hold for a couple months.  I think in November that I will be making more showing up at various jams and gigs, I do have a week's worth of vacation time and now the growing season is over I really have no plans of going to Davenport or Madison till next year.

Still dealing with aftereffects of the cold flu, I haven't been 100 percent, and I'm sure Julie and Ryan go through that when they catch the cold.  It didn't help when I got Mexican food for supper and ended running to the toilet when I got to the Legion.  And ended up getting a migraine in the process, so I tended to be a bit wiped out.   In chemistry I have mentioned time and time again that Julie and Ryan do work great together.   I tend to work off the cuff and improvising on the spot, I rarely play a song the same way.  Julie would like to  have a more polish and set arrangements of songs.  I enjoy spontaneity and a jam band mentality.  Make no mistake, I love her to pieces and she forever own Gold Dust Woman when it's time to play that song with anybody in town.  And I do think Ryan could do just a good job, if not better to play Gold Dust Woman.  I can't wait to hear how he would play this song in the future.

And she has played with the best, from the late Kyle Oyloe to Brook Hoover and The Mad Dogs and Luscious Green, and there's a gypsy spirit between her and Ryan that propels D.O.A.  With me, there's a different sort of contrasts, a clashing of the spirits so to speak. What does she think about me playing around the riffs and around her vocals, does it work for her or does it not?  I look out on the floor and see people dancing and singing along to the word and think to myself that I love having her singing the songs.  But I'm not going to push her into any projects or bands that doesn't fit her style.  And besides, I'm the one that has a regular job and have to restrict myself to play on jams or weekend gigs, if any of that comes up.   I support  her band efforts in what she does and watch over her from afar.   I can still work with her on anything if need be. But in the meantime, D.O.A is her priority and once Ryan returns again, they'll be out and about.

Rumor's Jam-Kyle Oyloe Two Years Gone

It's a dark and dreary day.  I'm not sure if it was this way two years ago when Kyle died suddenly and left us behind.   In the time that passed, the acoustic side of me got going, and I'm starting to play more guitar rather than drums.

It's also been the first time in two weeks that I have played at a jam.  The big Rubies Benefit part two had to be canceled due to me getting the flu and I stayed home.  It also made me missed the Whittier Acoustic Showcase too.   The problem of getting the flu is that it has made me not pick up the guitar and playing anything. I just kinda fell out of favor of doing songs of the moment.  We're busy at work so getting the night off will not be easy. The guess is that the next time anybody will see me will be at Artisan Sanctuary.


Rumor's Jam 10/22/17

With:
Julie Gordon-Host Singer
Terry McDowell-Host Drummer
Mike Lint-Vocals-Neon Moon
Mike Clair-Guitar and Vocals on Working Man Blues
Buddy Aschbremmer-Lead Guitar
Kenny Webb-Bass on Neon Moon and Working Man Blues
Steve DeForest-Bass and vocals on She Loves My Automobile

Songs;

Neon Moon
Working Man Blues
She Loves My Automobile.

Kyle's memory still lives on as a capacity crowd of jammers came into play.  I missed out on a chance to jam with Stu Fondle on Hawkwind's Silver Machine (I was talking to Julie's friend from Hawaii when my name came up and I didn't hear it in time).  Terry was gracious enough to find me a spot to play for three songs towards the end of the jam, I got to jam with Steve DeForest, who was in Hostage.  It was a abbreviated version of Automobile.

But dammit, I could have played on Silver Machine.  However, Julie was singing along to the lyrics while chatting with her friends nearby.

Notes:  Ron LaFleur Band did play a five song set with Trevor Worcel on drums.  Brook Hoover later did a song in tribute to Kyle, called Kyle and had the Meekat's drummer backing him up.  Brook then gave away a bunch of old Meekats CDs to some lucky patrons.  Mike Lint won the Just Jules Karaoke Contest Saturday Night and I backed him up on the Brooks n Dunn song Neon Moon.  Only Kevin Michael from the Mad Dogs was missing in action today. Mike Serbousek was there.  While Ron wasn't not well liked for his comments about the Rubies Benefit, he did get along with the musicians there and was cordial throughout.

Rumors Jam-Tighten Up Y'all

Wess Side Jam at Rumors 10/8/17


With;

Tommy Bruner-Guitar and vocals (Outskirts, Beast)
Ryan Phelan-Guitar and vocals on Tighten Up
Jeremiah Murphy-Bass
Terry McDowell-Host Drummer


Songs:

Outskirts Of Town
Beast Of Burden
Tighten Up.

This was special for me getting to jam with Ryan and Jeremiah on one of the songs that they do as Dr Z's Experiment, a version of Tighten Up.  Ryan also does this song with Daddy O and at the Parlor City jam.  I really wish I can really jam out better with these guys, I tend to be too much garage rock to fully fit in with them.   Tommy sang on the Louis Jordan classic and of course the usual Rolling Stones number.  Always fun to jam with Tommy if and when I can.

As for the Stone City Jam, I didn't make it to that one but my brother informed me that when they were go up there to check the acoustic jam there, they couldn't find a parking spot. Oh well, maybe next time.


UPDATE: Ten Days Later.10/18/17

I ended up catching the flu/cold crap on Thursday so I couldn't take part of the Rubies Bar Benefit Part Two and the Whittier Acoustic Showcase Of The Month, which ended the Logic And Lies summer/fall tour at various jams in town.  Really not much I can do about the situation, especially when some co worker gave it to me at work two days before the show and I was too contagious to play.  So I stayed home, overdosed on Benedryl and Nyquil and just sulked.

We're busy at my regular place of employment so I'm not playing anywhere  for the rest of the month.  There's a 2 year tribute to Kyle Oyloe coming up this Sunday at Rumors and I'll do what I can to stop by and share the memories, maybe play drums for the usual two songs.  Geoff and Martin, I told both of them to go do their own thing, I have no Townedgers projects going on at the moment. If anything comes up, I'll be doing the acoustic solo route if and when I get a night off.  The best guess is Thursday Nights at Artisan Sanctuary since things are the most positive there and I can do more original songs.  But since I've been sick the past week, I haven't touch my guitar and am a bit rusty.

For now, I can catch up putting up the lyrics to the songs off Logic And Lies during my idle time.  There's talk of the guys at Artisan Sanctuary to put the album out on with their help, we'll see.  I had a FB friend talk about setting me up with somebody at XL Recordings but that was dismissed with suspicion.  This is a major company with Radiohead, Jack White and Adele as artist, what are they going to do with reclusive eccentric 56 year old garage rocker  from Cowpie Iowa?   It's fun to dream I guess of what could happen. But reality tells me, it's just a dream.

It's been fun to document the happenings of my performances and maybe some day it might be of some worthwhile reading to forthcoming rock and rollers.  Two years onward, it's a blur and thankfully I did write things down to remember them, the good and the bad. And the unbelievable. I hope the good times can continue.

I still remain a drummer by trade, but the singer songwriter guitar player is beginning to take over.

Update: 10/19/17

While my cat Callie has been now gone for three months, Steve Black Wolf found his missing cat, a month and a day later after Pete bolted out the door and lived a vagrant life among the wildlife. Sometimes miracles do happen.  Great to hear of the reunited cat. :)

Artisan Sanctuary Acoustic Showcase

Songs

Ever So Much
Baby Wanna Dance
Get It Over With
Let It Go
Logic And Lies

Jim Jacobmeyer: Host and photographer
Patrick Lower: Sound

For the first time, my set was all original songs, and although I could have played a bit more I really don't want to go overboard and take over everything.   I enjoy doing these acoustic get together for te fact that original songs are encouraged

And everybody was singing along to Logic And Lies!

Not a lot of musicians, and there was a blues band playing next door so this session was a bit shorter than usual.  I basically went with the songs that I didn't need cheat sheets with and then played Let It Go.  Jim and the gang then called out for Logic And Lies, the song, so I closed my set.  Demetrius then closed the evening with some of his songs made up on the spot.


Jim was talking perhaps doing a acoustic players showcase sometime in November and I told him I was up to the idea, especially if it's a paying gig.  That would be nice.

Acousta Crabby At Checkers 10/4/17

Checker's Tavern Wednesday Night Acoustic Get Together

Hosts: Julie Gordon/Greg DeGood

Songlist:

Won't Get Fooled Again*
Midnight Rider
Please Send Me Someone To Love
In The Midnight Hour
Summertime Blues

Part 2:

Get It Over With
Light My Fire
Tulsa Time
Everybody's Talking
Gold Dust Woman**
For What It's Worth**

Encore:

Seven Bridges Road

*debut
** Julie Gordon: Lead vocals and tambourine

with

Carl Meiners
Mike Frederick
Greg DeGood
Julie Gordon

"We can cut it in any key"  Chicago-intro to What's This World Coming To?

The usual going on.  Mark Randolph moved back to Waterloo and has given up music once again, leaving The EGADS! to figure out the next step.  My place of employment getting busy for the fall processing season and this week figures to be the final week of playing jams and gigs.  It's strange how I go into these jams thinking I'm not going to do anything and then all of a sudden I dig down deep inside and pull off one of the best gigs I've done solo.  I thought the Vinton benefit was a highlight, the March jam at Checkers when Russ was there was a highlight and a few other gigs but tonight might have been even epic for me.  We can blame it on the harvest full moon.

Still I had things to do before getting to Checkers', namely a 349 dollar muffler bill to replace a converter on the old car.  Russ thinking I need to get a new car but then again Russ thinks I'm made out of money and Corsica is still in good shape to drive, not bad for 25 year old car.  So, if it runs, I'll drive it till it either rusts out or blows up. Which ever comes first.

Right off the bat, was the debut of Won't Get Fooled Again by The Who and I know Pete Townsend did a acoustic version of it way back in 1980 and it actually came out quite well and not a lot of mistakes, pretty nifty for a first time debut.  I have a gravely voice so I basically played around with Please Send Me Somebody To Love and Summertime Blues, something short and simple and leaving room for other jammers to come back on stage to reprise some of their songs.

I think Julie took plenty of pictures of me hamming it up on Get It Over With or Light My Fire. Carl wanted to hear Tulsa Time so I did that one. I had one guy out there in the audience singing away on Light My Fire and For What Its Worth, the man was floored on how Julie could sing Gold Dust Woman. Yes she can sing it and yes she remains the best that can sing Gold Dust Woman when she's on. She said she might have messed up but I didn't hear it.  I tended to throw her off guard with oft chords and melodies on that song but she did all right.  She ended up taking the lead on For What Its Worth with the guy in the background singing away.  I enjoy having people sing along, this is what makes music fun and exciting.

Like the Friday Long Branch Acoustic Jam there wasn't many musicians out there, which meant more songs for those who showed up. I didn't think I was going to do this many songs, I had an idea for about 5 songs at the very most and what Julie wanted to do, Gold Dust Woman for sure, anything else was up to her. I find it a bit amusing that Greg didn't know the song but if given time to work with her, Greg could do a nice job of it for the next time they get back together in two weeks.  By then I'll be dealing with a regular job and trying to get along with co workers, temp help and the Creature from Third Shift working OT.

Nevertheless, I think I did a pretty good job and with minimal mistakes.  I might be getting somewhere in my acoustic adventures.  Carl has been practically begging me to check out the Stone City Jam on Sundays, perhaps I have to take him up on that.  I rarely get too relaxed on my sets, the stage fright might have something to do with that, but I was quite relaxed.  I must have been otherwise I would have not attempted Won't Get Fooled Again.  I hope to be this relaxed when I do the Artisan Sanctuary Acoustic Showcase tomorrow night.   It may be a while before I get back to jamming on the weeknights.

But if this was the last Wednesday Night Jam for a while, then  I think I did a pretty good finale.