Stone City/Rumors: Jeff Taylor Is Going Back To Boston

Stone City Song list:

Logic And Lies
The Life We Lead
Fox On The Run
Good Time Charlie
Let's Work Together
Ring Of Fire
Gold Dust Woman

Sharon sings backup on Ring Of Fire
Kim Trevallion-Lead vocal on Gold Dust Woman


Rumors' Farewell To Jeff Taylor songlist:

Me And Bobby McGee
When Will I Be Loved
Squeeze Box
Dixie Chicken
Proud Mary
Folsom Prison Blues
Have You Ever Seen The Rain

There was another song that I played but can't remember it.  Maybe it'll come to me before bedtime.

Dee Vieman, Kelly Cedrel,  Billy Bourbon, Tommy Bruner, Terry McDowell, Bird, Jeff Overly, Nick Lnenicka and Jeff Taylor figured into the equation.



NOTES:

The Rumors get together is interesting for me playing something not even close to Richie Hayward and when Billy sprung it out on me, I have no fucking clue, so I played a strange beat close to a song I used to beat on a tin drum playing harmonica.  The triplett New Orleans R&B Shuffle was beyond me.  I need to really figure out that song for the next time.  I am beginning to believe that getting older is beginning to affect my drum playing, especially in triplets.   Jeff Taylor's month long vacation in Iowa is over. He returns back to Boston on Monday.  Pictures were taken, I missed the photo op.

I enjoy jamming with Randy Burgendorff, our favorite Rare Earth musician but even my advanced age, I'm still playing a bit more faster than I should.  We do our breathing exercises to mellow out and then I'm back to 90 in a 70 zone beat again.  I tend to stare a hole through him in order to pick up what he is putting down.  It's a tough job but I have to focus on him on these songs, tho I tend to disagree on a couple.  But I do try to play it his way, he's been doing this for many many years and he knows music.

Despite a metal fest going on at Otis Tailgator's there was a fairly good crowd of jammers and I got to see and talk to Jeff Overly for about 5 minutes before he had to leave back home.  School's ready to start and he won't be doing much jamming but he has been dedicated to Karl Hudson's cause.  Afterwards, Nick came up and said he was missing a mic from the Artisan Sanctuary open mic a couple weeks ago.  I told him to look up Jim Jacobmeyer, I have no control over people lose their stuff, I have trouble remembering my own.

I knew I did seven songs and it took me taking out the garbage and recycling the plastic bags when that elusive song came to me.  Squeeze Box.   UGH.

Tom Berdo was there.  I sat in for Notes From The Underground, playing drums last night.





The Solon gig was quite nice and despite a short practice most of the songs did work, tho' I sped up Running Down A Dream a lot faster than they wanted it.   It was a fun time, tho' Tom did ask me to quiet things down on drums on the second set.  I was playing the thinnest of the drumsticks that I did have.on hand.  I can't say if I had more fun with them then when I was with Boy Scout Hippies, I was a temporary fill in and I was happy the way I played with both NFTU and BSH.   I enjoy the 7-10 slot when Tom and the guys played.  Which meant after the tear down, I was home before 11:30

I started in  Stone City this afternoon and had Kimberly back up to sing Gold Dust Woman and she sang it better than last week.  I wish I could do more songs with her but my songbook is limited and she doesn't know most of my stuff anyway.  I'll see what we can do in the near future; she's been hanging around Stone City and doing songs with Lane Gaffney as well.   It's not that Julie has full rights to the song, I love playing the song with her since it was one of the reasons why we started dating off and on, but Kim has her own spin on the song.  And once again today, the audience gave a nice applause.  I do need to find more material to have Kim sing on.  She can sing anything she wants.

Darryl from the Cedar River Wailers stopped in to say hi.  Dakota came down and announced that he and Ron were going to do a set.  Ron showed up a half hour later but for some reason something pissed him off and he went home.  In fact, when I was making my way back to Cedar Rapids, Ron was in front of me and he did go home.

I don't think he's a big fan of the jams and showcases since they don't play (Except the Tyler And Downing acoustic jams last Wednesday of the month), and he's never happy when Dakota shows up to play, he gave Dakota the business for the participation of the Waubeek Jam in June.  I'm certain Ron didn't want me to play drums for at least one song when the BSH and Cali Jean played in Waubeek in May.  I cannot and will not fault Ron for the things that he does, he might take himself way too seriously as head Boy Scout Hippie   It's been his band and only he is the absolute leader, but I noticed that former drummers don't have him as a Facebook friend either.    I told Ron, that he's always free to come talk to me  and if he needs a temp drummer, I'd be ready for him.  I smile and wave at him but whatever comes of that remains up to him.  I do keep up with the latest BSH stories and gigs, I tend to laugh out loud at some of the things he says.  There might be a photo of me with them, and I have him in my music site of pictures of us playing together.  He can deny it but I managed to help him get through the winter in the handful of gigs I played with him.  I could have quit my job and remain in the band, but I need to interact with other musicians, he may want to control Dakota but he'll never tame me in my ways.    I'll help him still in the future but a little of him does go a very long way.    Sorry I didn't acknowledge his presence tho' I did tip my hat to him and smile while chatting with Bill Schlatter after my set.

It was a fairly good crowd at Stone City but the Goddamn flies are fucking nuts out there.  That place needs about 10 fly swatters to combat them.  Darryl said there was no flies outside the deck.  I'm sure they were but we had way too many of them indoors.

Mike Swearingen did go the funeral and it was the first time I saw him in about four years.  The greatest lead singer we ever had, time has really a toll on him.  He no longer sings or does the Karaoke at Checkers anymore.  He now uses a cane to get around.  Tho' we did chat briefly at the reception we didn't get into deep talking, and his sister avoided me for some reason.  Last time I've seen her she had black hair, now it's all gray.   And I recall there was a time she could stop a clock.  But then again I'm not that sociable either.   Life goes on.

The weekend jams were dedicated to Russ's dad Russ Swearingen who passed away last Saturday at the age of  93.  He was buried in a Cardinals uniform and got full military honors and a 21 gun salute at his funeral.  It remains true that when you came into Dad Swearingen's house you were now part of the family.  I'm not proud of going over there and cuss out the Cubs when the Cardinals were kicking their ass all over Busch Stadium but Dad got a kick out of that.  When I saw him at Hy Vee he always asked about my mom.  I think he tolerated me and Russ' band playing but our music wasn't his kind.  But he did support the band.  93 years is a long time and Dad Swearingen fought in the war, came home and went back to school and then was a part of Collins Radio for many many years before retiring.  His grandkids was his life.  I regretted not to spend more time with him but I do cherish the times we went to ball games while growing up.

RIP to my other Dad.  You are missed.