My Sunday Feeling-Office Lounge With Broken Rubber Band/Boy Scout Hippies

As I sit here watching part of the Pats/Chiefs game (to which NE won in OT BOO HISS) I just got done playing a double bill with Dubuque's Broken Rubber Band with The Boy Scout Hippies, the band of Ron LaFleur and Dakota McWhorter with Callie.

(Boy Scout Hippies,  Ron, and Dakota, Callie is the one in the middle)

Somehow this got to be a double booking, with The Broken Rubber Band being originally slated, but the owner booked the Boyscout Hippies by mistake. Thankfully, they were kind enough to lend us their bass player and PA system.

Ron was wondering about how the Cajoe would sound in a unplugged setting, so I took up there and added a snare and convinced him that it would worked perfectly.   I couldn't find any music site for the Broken Rubber Band, Mike Glenn is the leader of the band,

A 2016 photo of Broken Rubber Band.  Josh is the acoustic bass player, Mike is the vocalist, not sure who the banjo player is tho"


Boy Scout Hippies do not employ bass players and drummers are on a part time basis.  I have been on loan to the BSH till the end of March and so far I have enjoyed providing the beats for them.  Josh was very quiet, kept to himself, more like me who tends to shy away from the crowds but I took a liking to him.   Nevertheless he did agree to play bass for us today.

We have great bass players in town, but even tho' Josh never played on stage with us before, he knew where the breaks were at, where to start and where to finish.  Of course he's a music major, but he was professionally smooth and didn't over play.

Broken Rubber Band def' has a bluegrass/folk country sound to it but I hear elements of the Grateful Dead. They did a couple songs that we usually played, Can't You See and I'm On Fire.

For the unplugged set, I used the Cajon and snare drum and on set one played the Impulse 16 inch, but on the 2nd set, used one of the Paiste 602 14 inch cymbal as a ride crash.  It sounded better, but I think in future unplugged sets, it's best just to use small splash and crash cymbals.

So they did the first and third sets and we did the 2nd and last set.  Their percussion player (Mike Christensen?, I'm terrible with names) played on a couple.  For a finale  Micheal Glenn joined us on stage on harmonica and sang part of All Along The Watchtower.  It was a nice ending to a double booked gig that everybody won out in the end.   And was worthy of a spaghetti dinner, tho' Ron and his wife Fran offered supper at the Chinese place, to which closed at 7, which pretty much left everybody on their own (Ron and Fran decided on Shooters, Dakota decided to go home and me off to Diamond Pi for my solitude supper).  I thought they were going to go down there but  it was chilly and nobody really wanted to wait around I guess.  If we got done before 6, I had thoughts about catching the last of the Stone City Acoustic Jam but the gig finished around 7:15.   Rumor's had the Sonya Adair Birthday/Pajama Bash in town but I missed that.   There'll be other jams.

PS;  Mr. Glenn, after we got done, said we did a fine job and that I could go to Nashville and fit in with the musicians down there. That's saying a lot.   I had some great compliments coming from Julie, Tommy Bruner, Greg and Brenda Mein,  Craig Erickson and Dan Johnson and a few others.  Not bad for somebody who came out of retirement just to see what he could do three and a half years ago.   I have come to the conclusion that I'll never be rich playing music and probably would starve had gone after the dream.  The Tom Giblins, the Janey's  Dan Johnson are rock n roll hall of famers for the fact that they were good at what they do and they were playing on the scene for many years.  Myself, had I applied myself better I could join them in the hall of fame.   But I'm happy and satisfied at my results and how I help bands sound better.  Drumming is tough, and takes a toll on the body.  I have shoulder pain and carpel tunnel issues, documenting this on blogs don't help much.  But I have always blazed my trail, most of the time alone and self imposed too.  But as long as this is fun, why not continue.  To play for three hours and take home enough money to put gas in the car, you have to love playing or be a hobbyist.   If and when Ron and Dakota make it to the next level, I won't be there but I'm here for the moment to help them before I return back to my acoustic guitar playing ways.  Or if Julie and Ryan decide to move on with other percussion players, I'll understand.   I'll remain true to myself and the music of the Townedgers, since that band was the only one there that wanted me around.  Of course, I formed that band so they can't get rid of me right?

Maybe in my life it took me 35 years to finally find my voice and music as well.  Perhaps I should have been more active after the demise of Paraphernalia/Tyrus?  But I chose this road and continue to drive on.  I got lazy and quit playing for a while, and I remember the time of playing a blues jam with Mike Swearingen singing and me that haven't touched a drumset in six months and dragging the beat back around 1993 thereabouts.  At that time, Julie was in Lucious Green playing at Big Dogs and me and Mike playing at Attitudes, an old dive bar that is a distant memory. I swore I wouldn't let that happen again....and then retreated back on the couch.

But 25 years down the road, I'm back on top of the game, adapting to the other musicians and interacting with them and making them sound better.  At the twilight of my music career, I do have admit one thing...and that's I have never played better before than now.

And I thank each and every one of musicians that I played alongside for making me that much better.

(Olivia today)

(Olivia then)

20 years ago, I had a long distance relationship with Olivia.  She lived on the west coast, thought about moving out here, came out here, didn't like the weather and returned back to the west coast.  She was the inspiration and helped me write the 2008 album Pawnshops For Olivia and we kept in touch for about five years before reality set in and moved us in different directions.  She still looks as beautiful as when we first met.   This old troubadour wishes her the best.