Nor did the 7 below temps.
Probably not the 10 dollar admission price.
But I thank Lisa Fox, Katie Skogman, Curtis Strahan and his wife, Dylan, George and everybody else that did show up.
Four Day Creep-Rick Clay, Amanda Marshall, John Baughman and Troy Mitchell, who always lets me play his drums. When I die, Troy gets my drums.
Jefferey Brown for running the sound.
Dylan Groharing won the big prize.
I got there early, so early that the damn place was not even open, so I have a find a way to waste 45 minutes and spent talking to the owner of the grocery store in Swisher and bought some stale blueberry Pop Tarts that I haven't seen in a while. The expiration date was 2017.
Kevin Sinmacher managed to brave the cold and take a few pictures of Dreams Of Arcadia, with plenty of shots of the guest drummer. This was more of a promotion of Julie and Ryan, I'm just doing this part time. I think he goes for the abstract and spur of the moment, some turned out fine, some didn't. Here are the highlights.
1) Dreams Of Arcadia. Ryan and Julie, made for the stage. The lights were very bright, usually they have one set, but there was about three or four of them, two on both sides of the stage.
2) The Unicorns was Ryan's idea and they were plenty of them. I did play Troy's drums through the two sets that DOA did (Four Day Creep played the rest of the way without any breaks). However, since DOA was unplugged and playing acoustic guitars, I either played hot rods or tapped around the snare using a lighter pair of drumsticks.
3) I've been told that I look like I'm pissed off at the world but that's not the case. I'm very locked into the groove not to notice around me. Not being smug or anything like that. To be on the storied stage that is the Dance Mor Ballroom, I'm having the best time. My looks in pictures can be deceiving.
4) See, I told you I'm having fun on stage!
5) Stealin' Time....Julie has wrote this song and rewrote and reworked it and every time she reworks it, the song takes on a different style. Recently, I have discovered that this song works great in a reggae setting. That takes skill to write such a song but when she did the riffs, to me I started doing the one drop beat which is perfect for this song. Julie takes full credit of the lyrics n music. I just altered it into something unique.
6) I'm guessing Tuxedo Junction on this one. Or Stray Cat Strut. Probably the latter.
7) Kevin placed a camera in the background to get some candid shots of me. I'm not used to having that many pictures taken of me, even as a guest star that may have a bit too much. But I think this is the best of the working drummer pictures that he did taken. I am interested to see what he used as a video. I know Ryan paid for the photo and video but I did slip Kevin ten bucks as well. He really does a good job with these videos and photos.
8) Bobby McGee, which was our final song. In typical Kevin Sinmacher fashion, he managed to find a picture of me and my big mouth in the background. About as rock and roll as we got that night.
9) As always, I give credit to those who helped my cause and Troy Mitchell was kind enough to lend me his drums for the performance. When I first came back on the scene, I was the new kid on the block, even 35 years removed from the music scene. I knew a few things but I also played with reckless abandonment which got me in trouble when I used their sets. Not so with Troy. Like Terry McDowell, Troy plays rock hard and he's amazing what he does. He's always been gracious with me when I sat in. Of course, he doesn't mind it, when I do play with Four Day Creep on Dreams and Cheap Sunglasses, it's a bathroom break for him. Usually when we do those two songs they averaged about 15 minutes per performance.
Afterwards, Four Day Creep took over and I guest starred on the usual songs and Lisa Fox came on stage to sing Rocking Into The Night. Karie Skogman took photos of Four Day Creep's performance.
Julie did take a video of Dreams I'll Never See Again. To which it was a bit more slower than the one we did during the Big Birthday Bash two weeks prior. That one was a bit more playful, this version a bit more edgy. Cheap Sunglasses was played but nobody took videos of that one that I'm aware of.
A) Amanda and Rick.
B) John Baughman
C) Rick again. Baddest Southern rock guitarist in town.
D) Troy Mitchell. Super drummer and all around cool guy. Has DW drums and his cymbals are a Zildjian 20 inch medium ride and four Sabian cymbals of varying degree. The 18 inch cymbals sound a lot like the K session crashes that I use on my set. On the DOA sets, they were a bit overpowering but on the Four Day Creep songs they blend in greatly. Another fact, that all of his drums were miked up. Usually mine isn't since I tend to overpower my bands, plugged in or not.
In the end, I can now say that I managed to play the famed Dance Mor Ballroom stage, even tho' it will be the only time I'll ever be on that stage. I only wish the weather was a lot better than it was. But then again, I've never had a January gig that didn't either, snow, ice, get below zero or all of the above.
I don't foresee that changing anytime soon.
PS. Ryan informed me that the video was ready and I took a look at it. Kevin was very generous of giving me a lot of playing time on the video and even a couple of inner sets with me. I really need to work on my face when I'm playing. I'm not used to seeing myself and all the facial expressions that go with it. A lot of snippets of songs, but most of Me And Bobby McGee is in tact. Since Ryan funded the video, it was just DOA only.
Strangely, I had no stage fright on this night, nor the Sunday gig, even if the lights did blinded me, I still could look out on the crowd. A few folks did take the unicorns home but I did notice Kevin riding one of them on Wagon Wheel. Julie may have bothered by the lights and sound, but watching the video, she hid that well. Ryan did good too. I just "filled in the blanks" and kept the beat flowing. Thought I did fairly well too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nyCgziEaLs&fbclid=IwAR2rGzhM0WWzjmc6LsfOD-Sf_ah8fZjShOG56RbKjwbi7y5j_XUAfvYbMpU
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