Stone City/Rumors: Words Of Wisdom From A Hall Of Famer To A Hobbyist

At Stone City General Store:

Never Trust A Sleeping Train
Fox On The Run
I Fought The Law
Sundown
Good Time Charlie
Let's Work Together
Everybody's Talking

With Danny Dias, Bill Sclatter, Maki Dervo, Lane Gaffney, Bart Bock, Ken Becicka, Greg and Brenda Mein, Mike Frederick and others.

(Tony Potter: Photo)

Rumors Jam:

Terry McDowell: Your Host
Randy Burgendorff-Host bass player

Songs:

Feel Like Making Love
Margaritaville
Blister In The Sun
You Shook Me All Night Long
Call Me The Breeze
Two More Bottles Of Wine
Little Sister
Jailhouse Rock;

Vocals:

Russ Glackin on Feel Like Making Love And Margaritaville
Brad Smith on Blister In The Sun and You Shook Me All Night Long
Dan Hartman-Guitar and Vocals on Breeze, Wine and Little Sister
Billy Bourbon-Guitar and vocals on Jailhouse Rock

Tommy Bruner-Lead guitar all songs
Mark Awad-Bass on all songs
I played drums.




Notes:

Terry McCauley has been instrumental in trying to get me to sing songs from memory rather than the lyric book that I have been taking to jams.  Brenda laughs and says unlike him playing the songs in the same key.  Tho' I took a couple of lyric sheets up there on the music stand, I really didn't need them and for the first time made it through Sundown without any looking at the cheat sheet.  I'm beginning to develop a style to keep playing certain songs till I got the chords and words right.  This would have never happen even when I did return to play after retiring.   Even in playing live with The Townedgers I had sheets of lyrics to cover my ass when I couldn't remember the words.  This is still fairly new to me to sing from memory.  And somehow I can remember Never Trust A Sleeping Train but still dealing with memory loss on If You See Her.    It does help to practice and go over songs before leaving.

My performances are like peaks and valleys.  Once I reach the bottom, I think about hanging it up but continue to sing n play.  Musicians will always do that, even the hobbyists out there. I wasn't mad at Julie for giving advice after the Checker's debacle a couple weeks ago, but I knew where I went wrong.  And if I feel like I'm bored on stage, chances are people out there will be bored too.  Even if there's only 4 people at the bar watching ball games on TV.  I vent my vitriol at Jim for forgetting me for the picnic in the park festival but in the long run, forgave him after Julie couldn't make it and gave me the 1 o'clock slot with his blessings.  And in the process, gave my best overall performance ever. And in the process getting 100 dollars for playing that hour in the park.

So I'm back up around the peak again, playing my best be it guitar and vocal or drumming with the Rumors Sunday Funday Band.  I did take the lyrics to Sundown and Tulsa Time but chose not to sing the latter and on the former went through the song and remembered all the lines.  Never Trust A Sleeping Train got played first and then Fox On The Run.  Usually Fox On The Run has been the lead off song but I have found that keeping the songs under three minutes I can actually do more songs and move on to the next without any problems. Thankfully the crowd actually liked my songs that I played.  For some reason I didn't include Cinnamon Girl, I decided to close with Everybody's Talking.   Later on, Greg and Brenda Mein surprised me by showing up and playing that song with the right Drop D tuning and even the tag ending that Neil Young did on the original recording. Greg Mein is very underrated on guitar.

I would have gone to Rumors sooner had the Meins not show up but I did get there at around seven and Terry was gracious enough to let me finish the jam.  Russ came up and did his usual songs of note and I'll leave Margararitaville with him. Tommy did a fine job as always on guitar and instead of Bird playing bird, Mark Awad was in town and he was my bass player of note.  Brad Smith came up and we did Blister In The Sun, a song that I rarely play and You Shook Me All Night Long.  Then Dan Hartman did three uptempo numbers and Billy Bourbon ended things with a short Jailhouse Rock.

(vintage photo of Al Hendricks in the 1960s, that might be Del Shannon to the left, From Dan Johnson's archives, enhanced)

Before I left, Al Hendricks paid me a cool compliment by saying I was one of the four best drummers that he's ever played on stage with.  I'm guessing for the Rumors' Jam, Al has been playing music since 1953 and I could spend all night hearing him talk about the bands he played in.  I can only hope when I turn 80 that I can play as well as he can.  He was part of The Good, Bad And Ugly bands, Danny And The Juniors. When Al complimented me, I was floored.  It really means a lot when I have a hall of famer telling me that I'm one of the best that he's played in.  He then made a suggestion that I should sing and play guitar more often.  I just smiled and winked.  Told him I might take up his suggestion to do that.

As for the Rumor's jam, I got there late and most of the crowd thinned out, I replaced DJ Hovenstot on the final numbers and figured that Terry will call me up and play a few numbers.  He did let me finish the jam.  Four different vocalists sang and the songs were the usual classic rock number tho' Blister In The Sun and You Shook Me All Night Long I rarely play.  I got to chat with Ben Smith afterwards and told him I was surprised he didn't sing Take Me To The River.  My guess was Tommy sang it earlier.

Randy, in preparation for his Rare Earth summer tour, took it easy while Mark Awad played bass.

Carl Meiners went bike riding.  He's still suffering from the Summertime cold so he wasn't at Stone City.  Neither was Steve Black Wolf, he was probably recovering from playing yesterday in Marion.

Billy Bourbon took this photo of Tommy Bruner and myself.  Cheers Billy!