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.