Stone City Acoustic Showcase 3/25/18

Setlist:

Act Naturally
Tulsa Time
Teri My Love
Everybody's Talking

With

Aaron Call-Fiddle


Plus:
Lane Gaffney
Bart Bock
Lenny Drake
Bill Schlatter
Glen Gardner
Jay Devore
Mike Fredericks
Rocky Smith
Maki Dervo

(Aaron Call with Glen Gardner)

Somewhat a short set, but I figured since I extended Tulsa Time and Teri My Love and have Aaron play fiddle on the songs at hand.  Still dealing with the aftereffects of being stuck with the flu and my wonderful situation at work so I kept things simple and people liked the songs.  In terms of theory Aaron was the star of my segment.


We got buried in a foot of snow Saturday but the roads were fine once you left the mud roads in Viola.  And Dubuque didn't see any of the snow.  However, since I was up there, I decided to spend an hour at Moondog Music and sort through the 45s that he had up there. The old hippie did have five boxes of CDs he invited me to check out, but mostly were country and hair metal.   I did buy 10 45s, plus 2 Apple records, a Mary Hopkin Que Sara Sara and Wing's Juniors Farm but gave those two back to him in exchange for California Sun by The Rivieras.  A fair exchange I think.

Lane had to make a run up to Waterloo to help his wife, who locked herself out of the car at the Wally World up there and he was gone for a couple hours.

Long Branch Acoustic Showcase 3/23/18

Set list:

Cars (Improvised)
U Can't Touch Dis (Improvised)
The Long Branch Three Chord Blues Rock Thingy With Tony Nickels
Let's Work Together
You're My Best Friend
In The Wind Tonight
I'd Rather Not Cry/Everybody's Talking
Fox On The Run
Stop Draggin My Heart Around
Behind Blue Eyes
The Last Time
Sundown
All Along The Watchtower
Logic And Lies

With
Tony Nickels
Joe Doyle

I hate my job.  There's always one person that continues to be a burr under my saddle, namely the big DODO Brain.  Once again, the dodo brain complained to the boss about me talking to a coworker.  I hope I can hang for another couple months and make it 30 years of being there but I'm sure the fucking dodo bird brain will find another way to write me up.  That;s why I play mad drums.  I have to take it out on something.

But the sooner they let me go, the sooner I can get back to playing more weeknight jams.  Disgusted and pissed off (my nerves were so shot, I ended up throwing up my dinner), I went home and vented and then went off to The Long Branch to blast the blues away.

It was the first time I played the Long Branch this year.  Imagine my surprise that nobody was there.  The big winter storm drove everybody away but it didn't arrive till after 11 after everybody packed up.  Me and Tony messed around with the Gary Numan song and then I messed around with the Hammer song and then we did a 10 minute improvised song on the C D G chords. Then Tony and I jammed to Let's Work Together.

After that, he gave me free rein of the stage and since nobody was there I tried a  new song, You're My Best Friend, the Don Williams version not Queen.  And then did Sundown in the Gordon Lightfoot style.  I went from I'd Rather Not Cry to Everybody's Talking just to see if it worked.  And then did Stop Draggin My Heart Around without a female vocalist.

Things were done by 10 oclock, and I made it home before the Thundersleet took over and buried everything in white.  Winter is not done yet.

NOTES:  Tony and I were the only ones remaining after Joe and his friend left.  Glen Gardner and Ed Butler were in Iowa City to watch Graham Nash play.  Steve Black Wolf stayed home due to the weather.

It was the first time that I played at the Long Branch since Black Friday, four month ago.  And had the same turnout of people.  Just me and Tony.

The Snowagreddon that we had was the most snowfall of this winter. A foot of the wet shit.  It will be all melted and flooding things in five days.

Checkers' Jam 3/21/18

Setlist:

I'd Rather Not Cry/Gold Dust Woman
Act Naturally
Woman (Sensuous Woman)
She Belongs To Me
Let's Work Together/Jet Airliner/Turn On Your Love Light
Summertime Blues
Knockin On Heaven's Door/Helpless

With:
Julie Gordon: Lead Vocals (Gold Dust Woman)
Dave Bonham: Guitar (Knocking On Heaven's Door)
Ed Butler: Lead Vocals (Helpless)
Donna Jo-Percussion (Knocking On Heaven's Door)
Carol: Guitar (Knocking On Heaven's Door)

And
Kimberly Trevellion
Tommy Bruner
Glen Gardner
Mike Frederick
Mark Randolph
Steve Black Wolf
Pam Herrington
DJ Havenstot
Rick Wynger

This might be my last Checker's Jam.  Pam had issues about me ordering water and I got frustrated with her on that.  I told her I wanted no caffeinated drinks, she suggested bottled water and I said the hell with that, so we settled on Sprite and Chicken Strips.  And choked on the strips through my performance.

Since Tommy and Kimberly were there, Julie and I decided to be the first to do Gold Dust Woman right off the bat.  Originally I started out doing an original I'd Rather Not Cry but Julie thought it was the intro to Gold Dust Woman, so I basically went into the melody of the latter.

For some strange reason I was playing around Let's Work Together before going into Jet Airliner and then added Turn On Your Love Light as the finale.  Something different.  And for a final song, Dave suggested a short song and somebody requested Summertime Blues.  So I ended my segment with that song.  I do requests.

The encore was Knocking On Heaven's Door with Helpless thrown in as a medley too by Ed. Which gave me and Julie some cuddle time on stage as we sang backup and did percussion.

And after that it was over, the place emptied out and everything was torn down and ready to go home before 10:15.  The fastest load out that I've seen.

The Weekend Jams 3/17/18

Guest Star with Four Day Creep at Aces And Eights-St. Patrick's Day

Rick Clay-Guitar and lead vocals
John Baughman-Bass
Amanda Marshall-Vocals
Troy Mitchell-Drums (picture below)
Kyle David Miller-Guest guitar player and singer on Can't You See

Dreams I'll Never See Again
Cheap Sunglasses
Can't You See

Tami Soukup took videos of the songs that I played on.
Frank Smith took photos

"Lets make this a good one!"  Rick Clay yells into the microphone on the start of Dreams I'll Never See Again.  And this actually turned out very good despite me not doing the drum roll into the song.  While I tend to play on feel, I let Rick let loose on guitar.  He really kicks ass on the lead.  I do admit that I do a very driving beat and I have come a long way from the crash and bash of Paraphernalia Tyrus of years ago.  I still do a lotta cymbal accents and counterbeats, but I don't do much drum fills on the songs, my playing has gotten more simpler.  John Baughman does a fine job of keeping me withing the confines of the beat.  Good players will do that.  Right after Dreams, Rick goes right into Cheap Sunglasses which kinda caught me off guard but recovered and for the next six and half minutes we jammed out to the ZZ Top classic.

I later rejoined John with Rick's friend from Indiana, Kyle on guitar.  First time I ever jammed with Kyle and he did a soulful version of Can't You See.   Man, that was fun.

Stone City General Store 3/18/18

Songlist:

Act Naturally
Woman (Sensuous Woman)
She Belongs To Me
Lynch Party
When Will I Be Loved
Fox On The Run
Let's Work Together
Everybody's Talking

Aaron Caryl: Mandolin on Everybody's Talking
Sandy; Drums elsewhere

With:
Lane Gaffney
Glen Gardner
Bill Schlatter
Maki Dervo
Mike Moran
Corey Baker
Ray Larson
Dan Springer
Julie Gordon
Dave Bonham

Before doing my set, I didn't drink any caffeinated products and settled on water only.  That helped a lot as I did a very long 8 song set despite having some of the finest bluegrass folk country folks in attendance.   Aaron Carl joined on mandolin on Everybody's Talking to which I gave him an extra few bars just to jam out.  Sandy played percussion and drums and was very good. In fact he mentioned that he did percussion work with Jerry Lee Lewis back in the past  He played in a duo, (i didn't get their name) which the lead singer sounded a lot like Raul Malo or Roy Orbinson.  He was actually very good.

The crowd enjoyed the songs to the point that Lane granted me a few extra songs in the process. Julie and Dave came later, but Julie had car trouble and had to leave it behind.  I made a couple trips to get my brother to take a look at her car and after that it was decided that I would take her and Dave home.  Julie and Dave closed out the jam with their set at around 9:15.

Notes;  Act Naturally was debuted and went better than the blotched attempt at Whittier a week ago. I did go over most of these songs before heading out.   All the songs were done solo, that rare occasion that me and Julie didn't play together, but I guarantee you next time she'll be up stage with me.  I did worked on Stop Draggin My Heart Around earlier in the afternoon but didn't play that one at Stone City.  Julie did chat with a few of the musicians so I let her sit back and enjoy herself.

The Stone City General Store has the best burgers and comfort food out in the boonies.  With the car issues,I decided to pass on going to Anamosa for Mexican food and ended up grabbing French Dip Beef Sandwich and of course the Stone City Sundae, including the famed fried brownies that make it a treat to eat.  Julie and I split one together.

In the end, it was a good week of jams.  I went from hard rock to acoustic folk rock and didn't miss the beat, and ended up having another drummer back me up. I could get used to that.  Sandy was a true professional,he even managed to cover up some of the mistakes that I made on a couple songs.   He made me sound 10 times better Sunday.

Whittier Acoustic Showcase 3/10/18

Songlist:

Act Naturally (False Start)
Keep On Trucking
Woman (Sensuous Woman)
She Belongs To Me
When Will I Be Loved
Lovesong
It's My Time
Everybody's Talking
Love's Made A Fool Out Of You

Notes: Only six people showed up to play guitar and sing. Rich, the percussionist was the chosen one to get sick with the flu.

Allen McGrew managed to hang around for almost two hours tonight.

My performance was subpar.  Spent most of the day playing records and then went over a few songs.  But blew Act Naturally and couldn't get into Keep On Trucking.  I made another attempt to cover Lovesong from The Cure but again, that's Julie's song, and she sings it better than I could.  Julie opted to stay home and in reality she didn't miss much although I missed her vocal presence.

Out of all the jammers, I didn't bring a guitar amp and used The Blue Brat as the guitar of choice tonight.

Weekend Jams In My Neighborhood-Waubeek And Stone City

First up;

F B and Company-Waubeek Ia 3/3/18

Songlist:

Woman, Sensuous Woman
Everybody's Talking
Summertime Blues
For What Its Worth
The Last Time

David Lam-Guitar
Kirksey-Guitar and vocals

With:

Big Mo
Jay Devore
Phil Bo King
Maki Dervo (Host)
Steve O
Rocky Smith
Lenny Drake
Dionne Koening
Nick Lenicka

There was a big record sale going on at the Octopus in Cedar Falls so I thought I would put another 200 miles on the car just to go up to Waterloo/Cedar Falls and get disappointed again.  Good to know that there's a lot of record collectors scouring the boxes of vinyl and it was a full crowd but I hate big crowds and small bars and after sorting through a box of overpriced juke box 45s I decided to cut my losses and move on the thrift stores   I wasn't in a very good mood after hitting the town and having to deal with 15 straight red lights and the NASCAR drivers on the interstate.  While going 80, I was being passed left and right by idiots in SUV's and pick up trucks going 90 or more.  If the world ends tomorrow, that'll be fine with me.

Once my wasted Waterloo trip was done, (my car went over 90,000 miles) I high tailed it from Independence to Waubeek around 7 :45.  I would not leave the bar till 2 AM

I played drums part of the night, Rocky Smith did the lion's share of drums and one jammer requested him.  Which was fine by me.  I chatted with Nick and he was talking that when he went to Rumors last Sunday, there wasn't much of a crowd.  I told Nick, I was doing more jams closer to home and fell more into Stone City and once the weather gets warmer I'll would be back more often there.   Or maybe not.

I backed up Phil Bo King on his set, then Rocky Smith came up and played guitar and sang an original called Chili Queen.  First time I ever heard him play guitar and sang, but he certainly was playing killer drums.  I took over when Lenny popped up to play Rollin In My Sweet Baby Arms, but this time he kept it to 3 minutes rather than the lengthy 6 minute romp we did back in December.  It was a fairly good crowd, till I got on stage and it was once again a musician's crowd and I was frustrated over that.  David Lam stayed late and helped me with my set along with Kirksey who I let sing part of For What Its Worth.  I wished Rocky would have stayed and played drums and Phil Bo King ended up getting a blister on his guitar playing finger so he opted out. Both Rocky and Phil Bo helped out Maki Dervo on a instrumental and I wanted them to help me continue that song while singing Turn On Your Love Light.   Perhaps I should have done that while they were playing.

With Phil Bo done for the evening, Kirksey did the lead guitar work while David played rhythm.   My set concluded with The Last Time and I backed Kirksey up till closing time.  For being a good sport I gave Maki my heat activated drumsticks which have been in the car most of the winter and I didn't like playing much.   Perhaps he'll use them sometime.

Or not.

NOTES: The Checkered Flag in Independence, a place for bands to play closed up shop.

Julie wasn't feeling well so she stayed home.

The Springville Girls basketball team won the 1A Girls Basketball title winning 60-49 over Newell-Fonda. It was Springville's third straight title.

I did find Mohair Pear, Cedar Falls shop for off the wall things. They do a so so job of stockpiling local artists CDs and some vinyl but in reality I wouldn't call them a record store of note.


Stone City Acoustic Showcase; 3/4/18

Songs:

Keep On Truckin'
Woman (Sensuous Woman)
When Will I Be Loved
Fox On The Run
Turn On Your Love Light

With:

Lane Gaffney (Host)
Glen Gardner
William Schlatter
Ray Larson
Dan Springer
Ed Butler
Maki Devro
Mike Moran
Debbie Swearingen
Russ Swearingen

Russ and Deb came out to help me celebrate my birthday in a late fashion.  They did buy me dinner and gave me a couple of T shirts for my band excursions.

Glen came back quickly from hip surgery and did a few songs.   Ed Butler came up from Coralville to play a few songs as well.  Maki, in usual style played a 10 string mandolin as I was leaving.  I think he recovered from last night better than I did.

Two new songs were debuted.  Keep On Truckin and a rocking Turn On Your Love Light to which I jotted down the words as I was making my way out the door.  The latter song was inspired by last night's jam at Waubeek.

While Russ was there, we did discuss about getting together to play again.  If it's a power trio thing with John Field that could work out.  I'm not exactly sure if I want to sing and play drums at the same time, I rather play guitar if need be.  The thing is I will have to make time for that.  The Townedgers will have to take a back seat but then again The TEs only make it to the recording studio anyway.

I'm three months into dating Julie.  I love her when we're on stage together playing songs, and I love spending quiet moments with her.  She looks much much younger than her age and she has her stage presence on, she's a pinup dream.  Like anybody being together we still are trying to get through the growing pains of being together.  I do encourage her to get out more often, play the jams and be visible.  As for Ryan, something tells me he's not done yet with Dreams Of Arcadia, he's more mainstream to the songs that Julie likes to play than myself.  I'm too eccentric, eclectic and erratic (the 3 E's of me) but I'm more than happy to share the jam stage with her. She does add a extra amount of vocal prowess and mystery to the songs we do together.  That's something that I don't ever want to lose.  We're the closest thing to a Richard and Linda Thompson in this area.

Ed's Setlist:  Price Tag; Save the Cavendish; Carmelita; Iphigenia’s Bachelorette Party; Nothing Compares 2 U

Checkers Jam featured Tommy Brunner and Kim Trevellion doing their version of Gold Dust Woman and Tommy played a few originals. Steve Black Wolf and Donna Jo also helped.  Julie and Dave hosted.  I was at work and couldn't make it.