Checker's Halloween Acoustic Party

Songs:

Oh Death
Spirit In The Sky
I Fought The Law
Baby What You Want Me To Do
Love The One You're With
Gold Dust Woman

Julie Gordon: Lead vocals on Gold Dust Woman, backing vocals (Baby, Love)

Can't Find My Way Home
Missing You
Wooden Ships
Suite Judy Blues Eyes

Glen Gardner: Lead vocals and guitar
Dave Bonham-guitar and vocals
Donna Jo and Julie: backing vocals
Mike Lint: Congas on Can't Find My Way Home
The Reaper played percussion on Missing You
I played congas on the other two songs.

Mike Lint and Carl Meiners also played and sang.

(Julie Gordon: Photo Credit-The Reaper)

My first batch of songs played on guitar and I trying to fit in with the spirit of Halloween.  It was the first time in about a month that I played a weeknight jam

Other songs of consideration:

Death Has No Mercy
Killed By Death
Grim Reaper Of Love
The End
See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
Glad To See You Go
Knocking On  Heaven's Door
Hellbound Train
Sympathy For The Devil
Long Black Veil
Two Hangmen
Five Minutes To Go

Well you get the picture now.

KISS meets The Phantom 2018  (Mike Lint, Ryan Paul as Starman, ? as the Reaper)

(Donna Jo as Mystery Woman, I'm in the background)

(The Reaper backing up Glen Gardner on Missing You-His long fingers actually kept a better beat than me)

Since Steve Black Wolf was sick, we didn't play Last Kiss.

Oh Death was in truncated form.  And done without guitar.  For some reason Spirit In The Sky was next. It was something I thought up on the spot.

I didn't tell anybody I was coming.  I was not sure about our situation at work, we had things to do and thank goodness I got back there to sort out a big mess before third shift came in.  Turns out one of our temps left some documents in the slitter that were not slitted and the batch they were in, was already scanned.  This season has been a cluster-phobia of student tests either not slit or the scan tracks got hacked off. A big no no in our company. Thankfully I got that sorted out before the Wicked Witch of 3rd Shift came in.  Otherwise we would have heard about it the next day.

A very small crowd tonight at Checkers but Mike Lint joined on congas.

Dave recorded it.  Julie's vocals came out great, mine didn't.

I borrowed Dave Bonham's guitar on the songs that I did play. Julie helped out and we concluded with Gold Dust Woman.  Love The One You're With made it's debut.  Not bad considering that I couldn't remember the words and trying to sing though a mask. I tried singing in a lower voice.  Three and half weeks later, I was a bit rusty but even with a small crowd and jammers I had a good time and sounded better than expected.

So did this guy.

Various Jams 10/28/18

Rumors Jam

With
Al Hendricks-Lead Vocals, Guitar (Trouble, Gone, Josephine, Bye Bye Johnny)
Tommy Bruner-Guitar and vocals
Mike Clair-Slide guitar and vocals
Billy Bourbon-Guitar and vocals
Dan Hartman-Guitar and vocals
Rick Clay-Lead vocals and guitar (Cheap Sunglasses, Dreams, Jesus)
Jeff Craft-Vocals (3 Songs)
Bird-Bass
R. Smith-Drums

Terry McDowell got new cymbals for us to pound on.


Songs (that I remembered)

Trouble In Mind
Gone To Chicago
Hello Josephine
Bye Bye Johnny
Spooky  (Jeff Craft: Lead Vocals)
I have Been To Chicago  (Jeff Craft: Lead Vocals)
Who's Been Talking (J.C.Vocals)
Cheap Sunglasses
Dreams I'll Never See
Jesus Just Left Chicago
Superstition (TB vocals)
Tomorrow Never Knows (TB vocals)
Little Sister  (Dan Hartman lead singer)
Black Magic Woman (Billy Bourbon; Lead Vocals)
Going Down (Bird: lead Vocals)
Knocking On Heaven's Door (Billy: Vocals)

(Dreams Of Arcadia, Ryan was Paul Stanley, Julie is the Witch, Pat Geisland is Batman and I'm not sure Rich Bryan dressed up as.  I arrived later.  Pat and Rich were the special guests)


With Dreams Of Arcadia-The Grove Bar in Scotch Grove 10/27/18

I played  Stop Draggin My Heart Around on Guitar,  Julie sang the song.
I broke a guitar string in the process

Then played drums for the last half hour.

My Halloween costume;

Notes:

A rare occasion that I did dressed up. I found a couple things at Halloween Express that changed things, An Invisible mask and some plastic skeleton fingers and transformed myself into the Grim Reaper.   Took me about 20 minutes to put the plastic fingers on but I shocked everybody at the Grove Bar.  Neither Julie nor Ryan knew how I was.  But then I sat in Julie's blind spot through the second set.  Ryan eventually figured me out by the way I walk that it was me. *sigh*.

I had no intentions of playing but Julie wanted me to play  a song so we settled on Stop Draggin My Heart Around.   Halfway through the song I broke a guitar string, but still played along.  Then I spelled Pat a while on drums.  It was the first time I played guitar live in about a month.

Sunday:  Only Herm Sarduay was the other drummer at the Rumors' Jam so I filled in for just about an hour it seems with at least 16 songs (although I might missed one or two).  81 year old Al Henricks did the first four songs including My Girl Josephine.  I was kinda rusty on the Gone To Chicago song, very sloppy on Going Down. But as far as I'm concerned I did a pretty good job.  They tend to play Superstition a lot slower than I play it.  I think this goes back to Tom Giblin saying not to play songs too fast.   Eventually I have to find their own groove to settle to.

Jeff Overly was in town, so I visited him and Karl Hudson playing at Bo Mac's before going to the Grove later on.  What was forgotten was that Cedar Rapids has the 2nd annual Halloween parade so it took me 40 minutes to find a parking spot and navigate my way down to Bo Macs.  Ended up having a small pizza that was okay but my waitress forgot about giving my change back for about 20 minutes.  I know she was busy with other customers so I still left her a tip.

Terry continues to switch over to Paiste, he had a 24 inch 2002 ride, a 18 inch crash and a 18 inch power crash and 15 inch soundedge hats, still has his 10 inch Zildjian A Splash though.  The 2002 sound better than the Rude's and blended in with the guitars and vocals. I still have mine but I still like the K's overall.   Perhaps I should break my Paistes out soon. I know Terry don't have sizzle cymbals like mine.

Rick Clay came down and of course we jammed to Dreams I Never See and Cheap Sunglasses.  The extended jam between him and Tommy and Bear was quite great.  Bird mentioned he did record the whole thing.  Perhaps it's worth hearing, including the mistakes made on Superstition and Goin Down.  Also great to see Andi Clay and the lovely Tami Soukup as well.  I know Tami caught a couple videos, likewise Shelly Foley.

Lisa Fox was supposed to sing a song but she opted out and went home soon afterwards.  We talked about helping her band out but she didn't like my arrangements of trying to work the weekends for this to happen.  I didn't turn down her band invitation, just told her I had to work around other music commitments.

One of the longest songs and setlist I have done in quite some time.  Might be the longest I ever done without being a host drummer.  Plenty of fun.

Checkers Jam-Kyle 3.0 Jam

Songs;

Come Together
What I Like About You
Tush

Julie Gordon sang and played harmonica
Ryan Matthew Paul played harmonica as well and some keyboards
Bart Carfizzi played Keyboards on What I Like About You And Tush
Tommy Bruner played lead guitar
Billy Bourborn-ditto
Dave Bonham played Bass
I played drums

I guess we were part of the Mad Dogs segment.  I replaced Mike Serbousek on drums
Terry McDowell-humble host
Kyle Oyloe was there in spirit.

Taylor Chessel: Asshole

NOTES:

Alice Cooper was in town so we lost a few jammers over that.  Pat Geisland came down to say hi. Joel McDowell sat with me for a few seconds then went home.  Mike Serbousek and I talked music for a while.

Kim Hovenstat recorded about five songs from various players and songs.  Of course most of them featured D J, who's now back in her life again. I was in the ending of Come Together but she didn't post the one Ryan wanted.  What I Like About You.


Plenty of drummers galore and a more slant toward punk rock and metal.  Stu Fondle and I talked about doing Silver Machine, the Hawkwind number but we never got around to it.  He was part of Kyle's old band a Motorhead Tribute band. and they did a few numbers.  Nobody could hear the singer.

I was part of Julie And The Mad Dogs segment replacing Mike as mentioned above.  We did some extended versions of the songs at hand.  Ryan was having a ball jumping around the stage.

It was a good time.

Kyle remains missed.

Dan Hartman got his blue tele guitar back with some help from friends who snooped around the Springville/Anamosa area and found it and got it back to him.  However, Dan was playing a candy apple red telecaster.   The guy who took got arrested and is in jail.  I'm sure a slap on the wrist and the douchenozzle  will be out stealing more guitars for his meth habit.

I did check out the last half hour of Four Day Creep Friday Night.  I didn't guest star on drums since I got there late.  I also checked out four bands the next night.  Billy Bourbon and the Country Boys, 5 Of Hearts, Boot Jack Band and Sky Pilot.  I probably should have said hi to Doug Spinler while up there but I really don't like bothering musicians when they play. Boot Jack Band is new country, the drummer actually played Soultone Cymbals. Or I think he did.  They had a nice deep crash to them.

Troy Harper is a better drummer than bass player.  Which means he's pretty bad ass on drums.  He makes playing drums so easy.

I think Herm wanted to talk to me after The Country Boys got done playing but I had aspirations of moving on to the next place to check out the band.   There might be talk about maybe spelling Herm for a night if Billy wants a replacement.  But I can be had at the right price or if I have a night off.

Thoughts From The Townedger-The Busy Season Upon Me

Since I'm at my real paying job I haven't been playing anywhere since last Sunday dueling drummers jam at Rumors and backing up Blue Scratch the night before.  I really enjoyed playing alongside Kim, Jay and Jorgy and maybe hopefully will be able to do that again.  Hopefully with more patrons dancing the night away.

Bob Thurness passed away Saturday.  He was the head coach of the Marion Indians when I was a senior in high school.  To be honest, I didn't care for Coach Thurness. Since I wasn't a jock or went out for sports I ended up being in his American Studies class, during the worst time of my life,  A senior, having to work at a shit job washing dishes and trying to balance six classes in a effort to graduate with the class of 1979.  I was pretty good at Social Studies, but he flunked me, so I ended up going to the alternative class of social studies and opted not to get stuck in Bob's class only to get another failing grade.   I remember a conversation we had during a lunch break and he asked me how I was doing in the other social studies class.  I told him, I was doing the same thing like I was doing in your class, only this time I was getting a B grade rather than F.

That said, Coach Thurness would be a regular at Naso's Pizza and we would exchange pleasantries and be kind to one another. He wasn't a bad guy, if I went out for football he would have looked at me differently  We just didn't see eye to eye in his social studies class.  But back then, I wasn't exactly a pleasant person to hang around with.  40 years ago, I just wanted to get the hell out of dodge but somehow kept spinning my wheels in my life.  I didn't date very much, only Penny Willard was the one I went out with and I didn't exactly treated her like a queen.  I remember her waiting patiently for me for a homecoming dance that my wonderful place of employment wouldn't let me have the night off. The nightmare date from hell, and I was done dishwashing, reeking of stale pizza and greasy hair to fry a thousand eggs, Penny and myself went over to her brother's to watch movies and have fun being together.  That wouldn't last.

I don't look at my time at a high school-er to be the best years of my life, rather they were the worst of times. The constant getting into fights with just about everybody, I couldn't play or sing to sing my soul but at the same time me and my best friend would picture ourselves on stage.  The Quill Show which I saw Lon Washburn tear up a couple of Ted Nugent songs and setting the stage for me to start learning how to play.  It's a shame that I couldn't do that back then.

I gave my heart and soul to a girl that lived up in Michigan and never really got to date anybody outside of Penny.  There was Janice and she had a crush on me in my Sophomore year,when I forgot to take American Studies 1 and ended up having her in my class.  The day, she actually sat on my lap on a dare. I don't think we were made for each other but she made the attempts to wanting to go out, wanting to do things. I guess this is where I continue to mess up with other girls and women 40 years onward.  I was flattered that she looked my way, I just never followed through on asking her out or at least make some educated effort about learning how to date.   Eventually she did find the right guy and has been with that guy for thirty plus years.  Me, I never got out of the record store.  I never reconnected with Janice, it was too late but I did with Penny a couple times. But  it was never the same.

It's not for me to take away the passing of Bob Thurness as sour grapes.  Football players really loved him and those who took notes on his coaching went on to long football coaching careers.  It just seemed to me that the cards were stacked against me when I did take his Social Studies class.  I'm sure he would have made a difference in my life had I reached out to him for help, but in my thinking, I still think had I taken his class all over again, I would have limped out with a D minus or worse being held back a year.  I wanted no part of the class of 1980 since Janice was part of that class.   He's a hall of famer coach and worthy of it, I was a second rate dishwasher.  He will be missed by those who was influenced by him.  In the end a good man.

I suspect these are the things that have  ruin my relationships from day one.  The feeling of being in love one week and then the longer you know the person you begin to see who they are and vice versa.  And then the constant fighting and promises to do better only to do the opposite.  There are guys that will leave one for somebody new the next day.  I tend to go through months and years before I decide on a new date.  I always had good girlfriends.   But I always been a lone wolf.


There's not very many pictures of Julie  and me together on stage.  The best one is the one that  she never posted and I never got the photo of us dressed up and singing Gold Dust Woman. And I guess we'll never see that one ever again.  I'm not too keen on the ones that were taken last december. I had fifteen hairs standing straight up.  I could never get any decent pictures of myself.

I have now outlived Bruce Stanley in this life.  I miss his musical knowledge and talking music.  Since working, I haven't done much practicing songs of late.  I'm sure I'll pick it back up soon, for now, I just going back to my solitude.   It's nobody's fault really.

Dan Hartman had his blue Fender Telecaster stolen from his truck Saturday Night after a gig in Springville, out of all places.  Here's hoping he can get it back soon.

I haven't spoken to Lisa, my long distance GF back in 1999-2000 in five years.  But I have seen recent photos and she hasn't a changed a bit, she still has that long flowing red hair and that infectious smile.  I enjoyed our time together and wished it could have been more but  it wasn't meant to be.  I found out thru my life that going back to X girlfriends do not work.  Lisa doesn't like the winters out here anyway.  Our memories together, tho' brief, are fondly remembered and missed from a distant time.  But I wasn't the right one for her.

I have Julie still around, we're still working on being together.   Ryan is more suited for her, he's more of what Kyle is, except for his extreme right wing views.  I think they have more in common, I am never sure who I am, outside of being an introvert loner who tends to go way off the beaten path in music and life.  There's nobody else I'm looking for.  I did thought about asking somebody out, that was a jam friend but she's now engaged and basically dumped me as a FB friend.   That's out of my control.   Life is short, we move on.  The friends that care the most will be there in the long run.

That's all that matters.

Rumors Jam and Blue Scratch At Della Viti

We've been stuck in a rainy pattern to the point that I have gotten stuck with the flu virus for the past five fucking days.  And just in time for the fall peak processing season as well.   I recall last year at this point I got sick as well.  Bad enough to cancel my  appearance for the Rubies Bar Benefit part two.

I am not sure who gave me this shit.  It could have been Shawn during the Artisan Open Mic,  it's could have been Julie when she was hacking and coughing and had the fan on when we did the Office Lounge gig, or it could have been a thousand other folks that I met at the Wally World.   I did take two days off to go up to Madison to look for records but felt like crap and decided to stay closer to home.  Namely Dubuque to where some old dude had a big record sale.  So I bought a few but he forgot to include the two quarter records from the Impalas and Platters.  But I figure no big deal.

Friday, I felt worse and managed to drop a bunch of unwanted CDs and got 47 dollars for my trouble and bought a bunch of nyquil and cold meds and proceeded to take a six hour nap only to wake up and finding that Jay Dean from Blue Scratch was in desperate need of a drummer for a Saturday Night gig at Della Viti, a wine bar.  So I decided to help him out and took about five vitamin C pills on a two hour basis and Day Quil and did feel well enough to go out in the crap ass rain to play a three hour set.   So I took a crash course on You Tube to hear the songs I wasn't familiar with.  And then took another hour nap to get ready.

(Blue Scratch Band including the special guest drummer: Kim Trevellion photo credit)

I have jammed with Jay, Jordy and Kim at other jams but never as Blue Scratch.  I knew they were more blues than rock.  I usually call these gig, Raw gigs, because I wasn't familiar with their songs so I had to follow Jay on where the breaks were.   I think I did pretty good despite not knowing how to end the songs.   I would have enjoyed the gig better if I didn't drop my fucking drum sticks four times.   I got new drumsticks and they were kept sliding out of my hands.  Thankfully the songs were straight four four beat.  I have never had dropped my drum sticks that many times in one setting so that kinda pissed me off for the rest of the evening.  I should invest in a drum rug.  The drum set kept sliding on the wooden floor as well. When you have no control over dropped sticks and a moving drum set it does make a bummed night.  Jordy was kinda quiet most of the night, I don't think she enjoys having acoustic drums and cymbals, she prefers electric drums.  Whatever the case may be, I told Jay if he needs a fill in to give me a call.  For a fill in, they could have done worse.

(DJ and Sir Bob)

The Rumor's Double Drummers Double Your Fun Jam

8 Songs total  including (short term memory loss, if I remember them I'll post them later)
You Can't Always Get What You Want
Bettie Lou Getting Out tonight
Knocking On Heaven's Door
Rumors Instrumental jam
Beast Of Burden
Gimme Shelter
I Drink Alone
She Loves My Automobile



With:

Tommy Bruner-Guitar and Vocals (1, 5.6 he sang lead)
Billy Bourbon-Guitar and Vocals  (2,3,7,8 he sang lead)
Bird-Bass First four songs
Bonnie Harrison-Drums on the first four songs
Steve DeForest-Bass on the last four songs
Judy Cady (Dusty)-The other drummer on the last four songs
Shelia (the strange woman from Tipton area)-Percussion
D J Hovenstat-Percussion
Sir Bob Miller-Percussion
Mitch Smith-Saxophone
Tom Listenbarger-Keyboards
Bart Carfizzi-Keyboards on Knocking On Heaven's Door

(Dusty on drums)

NOTES:

So I opted not to do the Savoy Brown concert and therefore spent most of the night at Rumors and played drums on both Bob Miller and DJ's drumset.  Both Bob and DJ played percussion through the jam.  Terry McDowell was playing elsewhere and decided to go with Bob and DJ.  Both Bob and DJ had been around the area the past week and playing at various venues and sounded very good.  I managed to get paired with up with Bonnie on the first set and then another older woman called Dusty on the second.  For the most part I let Dusty dictate the beat even tho' she was dragging on Gimme Shelter. But we eventually settled on a collective groove on the set that she played alongside me.  It's tricky to pair up drummers you haven't played with but Bonnie did a stellar job and Dusty likewise.

This time out I didn't drop my drumsticks. A win win for me.

A thank you note from Blue Scratch.

A big shout out to Rodney Smith for sitting in with us last night with no prior practice and very little notice. A great drummer and a wonderful friend.

Checker Jam 10/3/18 Acousta Crabby's Last Stand

It's October already.  Every day, things go by a little more faster.  It's strange how the the summer came and gone.  The World Naked Bike Ride, The Cabin Jam. It seems like it's all done in a blink of a eye.

I'm not a fan of growing old. As I look upon myself on performance playing the past three years and seeing more gray, less hair and the usual two or three good pictures and the 10 bad ones.  Somewhere in those pictures lie the real me, and I'm not sure who I am now, Or maybe I ever did.


And now,  the Parlor City Blues Jam.  Ryan Phelan hosted and of course in usual fashion threw out a few blues shuffles and soul songs plus a be bop number that had me playing jazz for a rare time.  Two other percussion players, including D J Hovenstot backed me up and Jon Wilson, an excellent drummer himself sat in on Bass for Some Kind Of Wonderful,which Adam Dinsell played guitar and sang  Sir John Miller played percussion and keyboards. .  Bryon Stevens played bass for the number that Ryan played.  Tom Giblin played keyboards.  After the first song he took me over by the shoulder and said he loved the way that I played and how I'm slowly settling into the groove.   Needless to say I did take Tom's advice at heart and adjusted to that I played along with the other guys.   Gibby is a great guy and  I'll miss jamming with him on the Tuesday Night Blues Jam.

Also two horn players showed up and shared the stage.  They're part of Adam's band.


Checker's Acoustic Showcase:  Julie Gordon and Karl Hudson Hosts

Set List:

Baby What You Want Me To Do
Never Been To Spain
Peace Love And Understanding
Sundown
Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover
Samson And Delilah

Julie Gordon, played percussion on Never Been To Spain, Backing vocals elsewhere
Ryan Paul played percussion on Can't Judge A Book By It's Cover and Samson And Delilah
I played guitar and sang lead vocals

Then I played four songs with Steve Black Wolf and Sofia Chesney

I'll Be Leaving Soon
Jackson
Daydream
Turn The Page

Steve Black Wolf: Lead Vocal and guitar
Sofia Chesney: Lead Vocal on Jackson, I'll be Leaving Soon and Daydream
Donna Jo-Backing vocal on Turn The Page
Ryan Paul-Keyboards on Turn The Page

Then.

Right Back Where We Started From

Julie Gordon-Lead Vocal and percussion
Ryan Paul-Keyboards

I played congas.

In attendance:

Carl Meiners
D J Hovenstat
Sir Bob Miller
Rose Slaymaker
Tim Nemec
Kim Hovenstot
Pam Herrington
Craig McCune
Donna Jo Elsner
Karl Hudson
Sofia Chesney
Steve Black Wolf
Julie Gordon
Ryan Matthew Paul


NOTES:

For the first time  in quite a while Ryan played keyboards on Turn The Page and shared the stage with Steve Black Wolf.  I was very surprised to see that happen.  And in a good way.

After the breakup with Tommy, Kim is back with DJ again.  They been spotted in the last couple times I went to jams.  D J has been playing alongside Bob Miller as a triple percussion threat.  At least five other people played percussion tonight outside of me.  Even Julie was pounding on the congas.

Most of the songs went well although I stumbled once again on Peace Love And Understanding. Julie and I talked about playing the Jimmy Reed song that I led off the set.  It was the first time I attempted it.   Julie did Gold Dust Woman with Karl playing it earlier in the evening. I think it was the first time somebody other than myself played since the Mad Dog days, but I'm sure she sang it at the Rumors jam when she appeared there.

I don't lay claim to the songs played, I try them and see how they go.  Peace Love and Understanding continues to fuck me over with the damn chorus when I mistake the G to D to E range and my fingers go with the C chord.   Never Been To Spain was attempted for the first time and not practicing it, messed me up.  It's always best to rehearse the damn songs and then keep up on it.  I still haven't quite figured out how to end Peace Love And Understanding, even with Julie doing the backing vocals.  But that song was spur of the moment.

It's best to try new things and see what happens.  Certainly Julie can pick and choose songs with other folks.  For Baby What Do You Want Me To Do, I think I surprised her by leading off with that song. For future jams, I'll let her sing it in the style of Etta James. I think that song fits her perfectly.

It was a long lunch for me so I couldn't hang around and missed seeing Tim Nemec and Rose, the guys from The EGADS.  With DJ and Bob there playing percussion I'm sure they made the night go quite well.  But I had to get back to work and I was fighting a bad case of being bloated, so I wasn't much fun.

Ryan does play pretty good percussion and I don't mind using him on my songs.  Julie as well.  I think I would rather have it that way anyway.  We make a good sound together all three of us, but Dreams Of Arcadia remains their band, their project.  But with the next six weeks coming up, I am not going to have time to play jams on week nights.  But The Townedgers will remain a studio band, I'll continue to play jams and parties but if Ryan or Julie is looking for some kind of percussion and I'm not busy, I will help out.