Monday 30 September 2019

Thoughts From The Townedger-September Edition

It's been a very busy month of record hunting and jams.  I got to play at strip bar basement then off to Whittier the next night. Still can't rid of my coughing issues but I have come to find that Flornaise has helped a lot more with the mucus issues than cold meds.  Still I'm certain I will get nailed with this crap twice more before the year is out.

Art Willard was my best friend Steve's brother and he was a very helpful guy.  Worked for many years at Menards, Pancreatic cancer finally took him.  He was 57.

My ex-girlfriend  Nicole turned 42 on Thursday.  Next to Clarice, she was the 2nd longest GF that I had in my life.  We remain good friends and still talk.  She was known as the Brat, a affectionately nickname that she didn't care much for.  Her birthday present was that I decided to retire that nick name and set her free from that name.  Nicole was the closest person I thought about marrying.  When she moved down here, it was a real learning experience.  It was a relationship with high and lows.  I do think she found a better guy after she moved back home.   In 2000, we met at the Mingles get together, nine years later returned to St Louis and fell in love together, and in on the night of the Super Moon 2012 it was over.  The biggest regret, she never saw me play live.

20 years ago, I was seeing Olivia and went up to Portland to visit her in a six month fling.  She came out here in before the new Millennium and us and Russ and Deb celebrated New Years' in Galena.  Fun times.  She still looks mighty fine last time I have seen her.  That's because she is not with me anymore.

I haven't done much with Julie since both of us have been sick,  I did play percussion for her and Ryan earlier this month but we have not had much contact together.  I rather not get blamed for getting her sick and vice versa.  I'm not 100 percent over the Vertigo issue that happened in February and the way it sounds it will happen again in the future.  Being sick, I have no thrill of playing guitar and singing of late.  I've been playing drums most of the time, but maybe once I get to feeling better I may start hanging more at Stone City than Rumors.   I have a great rapport with Terry McDowell and been on good graces with him and the Rumors jams.  In the case of Julie, I can't call her anything else but a good friend, not girlfriend.  I encourage her to carve out her own sound and music and go with that.  She blends in well with Ryan Paul, with me, it's a bit more complicated.  She hates being surprised when I show up unannounced.  To me, it doesn't make a boyfriend/girlfriend pairing.  Which is the way it goes.  I'm not looking for anybody new and any rumors connecting me with anybody else in down is just that. Rumors without merit.  I love Julie in my own way as she does with me, but when we're together it's for a finite time. I tend to wear out my welcome within a matter of minutes.  That was made known Friday Night at CRL.

Kimberly Trevellion is a blues shouter and has the voice that can cut through anything.  She talked about looking a new band and new chances to make it around the area.  I love helping her out on drums.  Told her to be careful about hanging around Bob Dorr during the Parlor City Blues Jam or joining any band of his.  I do think she's perfect for blues singing.  More so than rock.

Another month gone by and nothing new to report about any Townedger recordings.  Too much going on in this life, and too lazy to embrace streaming for the next recording.  I'm sure Terry Bainbridge will be knocking at the door to get something in the can before the year is out.

John Hernandez was kind enough to invite me to be one of the Eastern Iowa Musicians from The Past To Present, tho my history is focused around the jams and half assed attempts to start bands when I came back on the scene in 2015.  I am interested to connect the past bands to the present.  But the bands I was in, in the 1980s were so insignificant.  Hardly anybody knew about the Stone Garden Band being revived in 1985, but for three weeks Rick Novak and Virgil Hanson tried and then had a big falling out, killing that band, and Virgil and Mike Swearingen formed a country band soon afterwards.  Mike Swearingen was my inner connection to the CR bands of the 1980s but outside of Paraphernalia-Tyrus, I was a unknown that didn't associate with the musicians back then, I was too shy and not able to come out of my shell if I didn't know people.

On a whole, the past 4 years, I have more going on in that time, than I ever did 35 year prior.  And the interaction with fellow musicians and being good enough to hang with them has helped me greatly.  I'm not the crash and bash drummer of Mike Serbousek, or the hard hitting Pat Geisland or Wildcat Spratt himself.  Randy from Rare Earth has been very instrumental of getting me to relax more on stage. He sez I have done quite well in the past couple weeks of playing, He had to slow me down twice in the past three weeks of Rumors jams, so maybe I'm learning how to play in a relaxed mode.  I'm still gung ho when Russ Swearingen comes around and a couple others.

Kevin Wymer has done his best to try to get me into Full Circle and I think I have a good ally with and John Hernandez, but it seems Vic tends to be a bit going through drummers quite a bit.  I don't have the time to do a full time band, I cannot give up my night time job just to starve myself for a 100 dollar gig every other week.  Kevin is a HOF guitar player and I'm honored to jam with him if and when the time allows.  Notes From The Underground, I enjoy my time with them as guest drummer.  The question remains where were these dudes at when Tyrus was being put on ice?  Then again, I wasn't exactly looking for a new band either.  I had this idea of world domination as a solo artist or with Route 66/Townedgers LOL.

For technique and fun, Kraig Spratt is fun to watch.  On his 65th birthday he might have done the coolest version of Wonderful Tonight as he improvised and added a F bomb and other naughty lyrics.  It's hard to say who's the best drummer in town, and even have a list of 10 best drummers doesn't do the scene justice.  Hardest working remains Terry McDowell and he manages to share time to chat with.   I put up a list of fave musicians but I'm always going to forget one or two.

The hardest thing to drum has to be playing a slower tempo.  I have to come down from that speed punk trap and learn how to slow it down.  Nobody plays Bad Motor Scooter faster than me, for Mississippi Queen Rick Clay had to count out how fast he wanted it, which was twice slower than I play.  Rushing the tempo may have something to do with me trying to take over the band and get the folks dancing.  Only this year with Randy Burgendorf reminders of keeping it slow has it finally dawned on me to do a slower beat.  Gibby as well.

If and when Russ and Dewayne get back to playing, I have to go with a list of people that I enjoy jamming with.  I haven't jammed onstage with Russ in four years and Dewayne three.

Finally, my list of fave musicians.  I know I'm missing a few but these folks hold special meaning to me.

Favorite Female Vocalists:  Julie Gordon, Belinda James, Kimberly Trevellion, Amanda Marshall, Karie Skogman, Cathy Hart, Lorie Parker, Donna Jo Elsner, Dawn Sedcelek, Lisa Fox

Fave Guitar Players:  Craig Erickson, Daddy O Murrian,  Tommy Bruner, Kris Briles, Brook Hoover, Tony Nickels, Kevin Wymer, Dakota McWhorter, Phil Koening, Greg Mein, Rich Toomsen

Fave Keyboards:  Tommy Giblin, Tom Listenburger, Brenda Mein, Ryan Paul, Jeff Taylor,

Fave Male Singers:  Kevin BF Burt, Dave Pedersen, Joe Hutchcroft, Ryan Phelan< Ernest Bynum

Fave Bass Players:  Randy Burgendorf, Dan Johnson, Tim Canfield, John Hernandez, Jess Toomsen, Mark Awad, Ken Webb, Dave Bonham, Bill from Notes From The Underground.

Fave Harmonica Players:  Tom Berdo, Nick Lnenicka, Bob Gleason, Frederick Jones

And these folks are in the CR area.

Till next month.  It's humid as hell at the moment but come friday we will be wearing a coat.  Welcome to fall.

All around players: Maki Dervo,  Billy Bourbon, Jeff Craft, Bryce Janey, David Lam, Carl Meiners.

Fave guys to hang around;  Steve Black Wolf, Ground Chuck, Nelson, Al Hendricks.



Sunday 29 September 2019

Wildcat Spratt 65th Birthday Bash/Stone City Acoustic Showcase

Rumor's Jam

Joe Hutchcroft-Lead vocal on Simple Man
Tommy Bruner-Guitar on Simple Man
Randy Burgendorf-Bass on Simple Man
Billy Bourbon-Guitar on Simple Man, Bass on the rest of the songs (Vocal; Wonderful)

Then
Dangerous Dan Hartman-Lead Vocals and guitar (Two Bottles, Six Days, Standing There)
Guitar Dave Bonham-Lead guitar and vocals (Watchtower, Red House)
R.Smith-Drums

Songs:

Simple Man
Two More Bottles Of Wine
All Along The Watchtower
I Saw Her Standing There
Red House
Six Days On The Road
Some Kind Of Wonderful

Terry McDowell-The Main Man

Stone City Acoustic Showcase Batch Of Songs:

Fox On The Run
Sundown
Long Black Veil
Summertime Blues
If You See Her
Cinnamon Girl

Lane Gaffney, Bart Bock-Hosts

With: Amanda Marshall, Kimberly Trevellion, Carl Meiners, Phil Bo King, Angie Marie Cox, Mae Johnson, David Pedersen and others.


Saturday Night-Guest Star drummer for Four Day Creep

Mississippi Queen
Movin On
Cheap Sunglasses

With: Amanda Marshall, Rick Clay, John Baughman and Troy Mitchell and Jeffery Brown

Friday Night: having fun with Notes From The Underground

I did seven songs of note including Let's Work Together, Wooly Bully, Good Lovin,  can't think of the rest.


Notes:

A very busy weekend of catching bands and having fun one last time before I return back to my regular job.  Dreams Of Arcadia opened for Toxic Blonde at CRL Friday Night, Lisa Harbit was the percussion player that night.  Between sets I popped over to Checkers to have fun with Tom Berdo and Notes. Toxic Blonde was loud, and Terry McDowell's drums were like a earthquake.  He makes it rock good.  Sad to say Dawn lost her voice before the Fresh Fighters took the stage.  A big surprise seeing Ron and Fran Lafleur at CRL.  He wasn't impressed with the Whole Lotta Love jam part.

Ryan Paul didn't even noticed I was there especially I was teasing him with Tom Petty shout outs.   However, Julie did see me and we popped over to say hi to Franklin and dropped her back to CRL.  Then I was off to catch Notes From The Underground at Checkers and Tom Berdo put me to work.  The regular drummer Mike had some foot issues so I did about seven songs before they concluded the set with Piss Up A Rope, a song that I had no idea of how to do.  So I conceded the drums back to Mike.  I enjoy sharing the stage with these guys, they are so much fun, the most odd band I have been involved with but they're all my brothers.

Saturday,  Cathy Hart was playing at Walford with Royal Liar, so I went out and hung out with her and David Spina plus Jeff Gage and his wife for two sets.  It turned out to be more of a Wooden Nickel Lottery reunion as well at they played half a set and Rich Toomsen helping out Cathy and Royal Liar for a while.  At that time, we got hit with a big thunderstorm so I decided to hang there longer than usual.  Once the rain stopped, I went to Aces N Eights to say hi and guest starred on three songs, two with Amanda singing.  I've never done Mississippi Queen and Movin On for them, and then with Rick singing Cheap Sunglasses.  The first time that we didn't play Dreams I'll Never See Again.


Sunday:  I played Stone City for the first time since the beginning of the month and played it safe with six songs that I have been playing.  Kimberly and David popped up after my set so I couldn't play Gold Dust on guitar for her.   Kind of a small crowd but since I made the obligation to go to Rumors, I led the beginning of the jam.

Rumors:  It was the Wildcat Show and he belted out a ten minute long drum solo, just as Tim Canfield popped in.  Kraig turned 65 and he still can put out a overdrive double bass beat.  Hard to top that but Joe Hutchcroft held his own while helping Barb Francisco (formerly Myers) on Rain, Roll Over Beethoven and couple others.  Joe and I traded places as he sang Simple Man.   Terry had a full drum set with about 14 cymbals to choose from, including my favorite 7 inch Z Bel.

It was the first time I've seen Dave Bonham since Stone City, and he was at Rumors so I backed him up on a few songs.  He have been ill of late.  He didn't stay long after his set and was off and running someplace else.

The Royal Liar gig at Wild Hogs was supposed to be the Everlou gig but Cathy left that band and had to find folks to cover this gig.  That's where Rich and Jess Toomsen came in, Rick Gallo, Cathy's son was part of Royal Liar.  I didn't make it to the Shellsburg gig so I opted to see them in Walford. 

The acoustic gigs I have been playing it safe, usually the songs that I know best.  I seem to be in a comfort zone of doing the same six or seven that don't need the book.  If Kimberly was there, I would have had her sing Gold Dust Woman.  I think they got there too late at Rumors to play anything else.  Another drummer Tommy replaced me when Dee Vieman came to close the jam out. He was a bit clueless on Folsom Prison and did a different beat for the Gold Dust/Chain medley that I didn't play tonight.  I think the five songs, that I played on, were fairly long themselves.   The Wildcat did sang on a few songs including Wonderful Tonight to which he added a F Bomb here and there.  Terry n I looked at each other funny but for 65 years old Mr. Spratt is certainly one of the top all time drummers in town.

Billy played more bass this time out than usual.  I'm sure Tim Canfield could have joined in the fun, but he usually more of a watcher than player.  Can't say I blame him for that.

Will Terry go full drums any more this year,  it depends if somebody special has a birthday coming up.  I don't expect him to go full drums when my birthday comes up but I wouldn't say no if he did.

Finally-Joe Hutchcroft says.

"Always nice to do songs with someone that knows what they're doin."

(in reality Joe can hold his own with anybody on drums but I'm honored to play behind him when asked).

Wednesday 25 September 2019

Country Night At Rumors

Songs of note:

Dead Flowers
Heart Broke
Long Black Veil
Oh Lomesome Me
Teddy Bear
He'll Have To Go
Dirty Water
Long Haired Country Boy.

With
Dan Hartman-Guitar and Lead Vocals, 2-5,8
Tommy Bruner-Guitar and Lead Vocals 1, 7
Randy Burgendorf-Bass and Lead Vocals  6
Terry McDowell-Host Drummer
Rodney Smith-Guest Drummer

It was country night as you can tell.  Terry estimated the crowd to be around 30.  Two Drummers were on hand as well, Mike Lint and Tommy The Drummer.  Kimberley showed up later to close the set and we chat about forthcoming band projects.  I also chatted part of the night with Terry about the upcoming event with Wildcat Spratt playing drums on Sunday.  It should be interesting to see what happens.

Sunday 22 September 2019

Rumors-Al Hendricks Birthday Bash

Songs:

Me N Bobby McGee
Proud Mary
Born On The Bayou
Gold Dust Woman/The Chain


Dee Vieman-Lead vocals
Billy Bourbon-Guitar and backing vocals
Tommy Bruner-Guitar
Randy Burgendorf-Bass
R.Smith-Drums
Skeeter Louis Hughes-Saxophone On Gold Dust Woman/The Chain

Terry McDowell-Host

With:
Al Hendricks, George Melichar, Quaker Dan, Drum Shop Mike, Joe Hutchcroft, Brenda Snow, Ann Mishmash, Greg Nost, Jeff Overly, Nick Lnenicka, Kraig Spratt, Herman Sarduy, Scott Sanborn and his lovely wife, Sonya Adair, Cha Cha, Della McWhorney, Tim Canfield  Jeffery Brown, his daughter, Tami Soukup and others.

(dedicated to the memory of Art Willard)


Notes:

It was Al's show as he played for about 50 minutes with the band featuring a clean shaven Scott Sanborn playing drums.    With plenty of drummers at the place, I ended up helping out Dee and her usual song selection.  I have no complaints about my drumming tonight. I think I'm beginning to play to a slower song level.

While I didn't talk to Brenda (Joe did come over to say Hi), I did catch them dancing on a couple songs that were played.  Joe took over for me after my set.  Kraig Spratt entertained the gang with a couple of drum solos.  At that time Tim Canfield joined me for a few.  We did look at each other funny when the Wildcat decided on a slower speed on Crossroads and One Way Out.  Even his interpretation of Sunshine Of Your Love was very un-Ginger Baker like.  Tim likes to pop up to check on what's happening but he seldom plays live.  I knew he wouldn't hang after I got up to play.

Jeff Overly was there but had to cut out due to school tomorrow.  He was supposed to play along with Karl Hudson at Aces n Eights but that got rained out.  

Scott Sanborn went to Nashville on vacation and said while Nashville has some pretty good musicians, that this area has some of the top notch players in town and he was amazed on how I can play guitar and sing and drums as well.  Scott is a good guy and a very interesting drummer.  I told Scott if you can follow the musicians and see who is doing what that you too can be like me.  I agree with him that this area has some great musicians but also plenty of places to jam at.  I wouldn't think of quitting my job to play all over again but as long as I have fun with this and keep the beat and make people dance and the musicians happy then it's all worth it.

There was a guy outdoors playing guitar but didn't get to play.

I did wish Al a happy birthday and tho we didn't get to play (and nobody bothered to take a picture of us as of this writing) but we got to chat a while before he went on stage.  Skeeter Louis played sax most of the night, Jeff Overly did till he had to leave at 6.  

Next week, it's the Wildcat's birthday bash.  He's turning 65 next Sunday and Terry mentioned about bringing out the full drums and cymbals on that jam.

Finally, Greg Mein had to go to the hospital for Sepsis.  I hope he gets well soon.  I miss jamming with him and Brenda.

Sunday 15 September 2019

Rumors-The Big Bash

Songs:

Promised Land
The Bottle Let Me Down
Oh Lonesome Me
Back To Chicago
Truck Driving Man
Nadine
Wonderful Tonight
Chains
Ain't No Sunshine
Born On The Bayou
Simple Man
Walking After Midnight
Bring It On Home To Me
The Twist
Got My Mojo Working
Suzie Q
Proud Mary
Folsom Prison Blues
Dreams
Gold Dust Woman/The Chain


Al Hendricks-Lead Vocal and guitar on songs 1, 2, 4-6
Dan Hartman-Lead vocals on 3, 9, Guitar on 1-9
Randy Burgendorf-Bass on all tracks, lead vocal on 9
Billy Bourbon-Guitar on 7-20, Lead vocal 8
Dee Vieman-Lead Vocal 10-12, 16-20
Nick Lnenicka-Harmonica on various tracks
Ernest Bynum-Lead vocal-13-15
Tommy Bruner-Guitar on 10-20
R.Smith-Drums all tracks
Terry McDowell-Host

With;
Ann Mishmash, Tami Soukup, Tom Berdo, George Menichar, Sonya Adair, Tim Canfield, Glen Balkman, Della McWhorney and the rest of the Rumors crowd. And Tim Kauffman too.

Notes:

Some days you have drummers, some days you don't.  Terry was very liberal about giving me plenty of jamming time with the Mandela Effect and of course Bird giving out advice and coaching me along the way.  In fact Terry would have like for me to play a few more songs with Al on stage but Al plowed into two more songs before he could get off the stage.  Tim Kauffman was the only other drummer beside Terry and myself.  But I basically gave Terry the night off.  God bless him for the ample time and the songs.

Of course Billy had to do Wonderful Tonight.  I think he did another song that I didn't include but can't think what it would have been.

Ernest popped up later and of course we had to do his songs and of course the place came alive with The Twist, Ann and Della were both twisting with Ernest on those songs.  I don't know what it is with Ernest but he always brings a smile to my face when he sings.

I still cannot get into how slow they do Proud Mary or Susie Q,  It's always been quite fast for me when I play it, but then again I'm not in my late 60s either.  I have to really lean on Bird to let me know if I'm dragging or speeding it up.  Usually it's the latter.  Tim says he prefers a drummer that plays fast than a slowed down drummer.  On the problematic Wonderful Tonight I fighting to keep awake that slowed beat.  Bird really helped me in finding my way to play a slower tempo and stay on the ONE as he always reminds me.

Al did do about ten songs tonight, four with Terry and six with me.  He says he is getting used to me after all this time. LOL.

There really wasn't much jammers there tonight.  Kimberley and David opted to go to Stone City and Belinda stayed home.  I thought Belinda would join us but since she played Whittier last night she was resting up.  I thought if I got done early I could join the Stone City faithful but Terry said if I wanted to hang around and play some more that would be fine.  So I did that instead and finished with 20 songs that I know of.   The record was 22 last December.

With ACT week, there will not be any week night jams.  I need to start working a full week and get a full check.  I've been part time since late June and while the bills have been paid, there's a bit of strain on the finances.  I did get paid for Friday and the Waubeek jam but 100 dollars for both gigs don't go a long way anymore.  Especially when I have stuck with the GD coughing issues this summer.

Once we do get busy, I will focus on other things.  I'm sure Billy and Tommy wouldn't complain too over that.   Being sick, my guitar playing has taken a hit.  I barely did the job last night.  I wasn't too sold on Stone City tonight so I didn't bring my guitar afterwards.  

To be honest I enjoy playing alongside Tommy N Billy but they probably think I'm too undisciplined for them, I don't play it by the record.  But I love jamming with Bird, he knows what rocks and what doesn't and is not afraid to reel me back into a slower groove.  I don't know if I will accomplish that before I'm dead and gone but I am making some strives into playing a slower groove and not rush.  Hard to do but it can be done with a bit more discipline.

For today, I ended up getting a Shingles shot so I don't get that virus anytime soon.  My shoulder did get sore after the first set but it didn't alter my playing.  But it did make me feel tired through the whole jam.

Saturday 14 September 2019

Whittier-With Belinda James And The Rain

Fox On The Run
Ring Of Fire
What's Up
Sundown
Fever
Good Time Charlie
Wagon Wheel (Dave sang it)
It's Been A While

Blue Eyes Crying In  The Rain
For What Its Worth
Already Gone (Dave sang this one too)
Come Together
Cinnamon Girl

Desire 

Belinda James sang on What's Up, Fever, It's Been A While, Come Together
Steven Lam-Guitar on Desire



(Julie and Franklin-saying hello)

Friday Night-Played congas for Dreams Of Arcadia opening for Zamtrip At The Underground CR

It was the first time that I saw Julie since the Monticello gig,  I've been stuck with a summertime cold, she was stuck with various ailments and hip problems.  Despite that and being tired, she and Ryan put on a great show.  Afterwards I got to meet the band from Zamtrip, the guys were quite nice and I chatted a while with the bass player.  Very cool guys.

The Underground is in the basement of the Lumberyard, a hard core strip joint, where you bring your own booze and keep your cell phones out of the way for bouncers would take them away.   In order to go to the bathroom, you had to go upstairs and onto the stage area.  The trick was to move fast before some dancer would come over to take your money away.  Downstairs, The Underground was full of black lights and it was quite dark, but they are starting to book bands down there.  I wouldn't mind playing there again.  Julie and Ryan did sneak out, but I stayed for the whole show for Zamtrip.  I figured since they supported us as the opening act, I would hang around.  They were quite loud and thank God I bought earplugs but for a band out of Wyoming, they were as hard rock as Four Day Creep.  Afterwards, Ryan, Julie and myself did a bit of jamming before we all ran out of energy and called it an early morning.  Didn't get home till 3 AM.

The Whittier acoustic showcase had plenty of people including our neighbor Rick, who plays in Rugged Cross, a gospel bluegrass band that plays across the street at the church during special events.  He played bout five gospel numbers to which I actually found it was quite easy to follow him since they were mostly D G and A.  Belinda came later with Dave and Andrew Knight and we did the usual songs, tho I couldn't play Blue Bayou in her key and started It's Been A While on a lower key, it sounded more closer to the Staind grunge version but it was too low for Belinda so I moved the Capo up to third fret.  A newcomer sang Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain in D, G and A as well.  I may incorporate this song into my set list in the future. The songs that we did were a bit ragged, we haven't played together in two months and I couldn't remember Come Together till afterward.  

David Lam sang on Six Days On The Road and Greenback Dollar.
Belinda's friend Dave sang Wagon Wheel and Already Gone.  The latter song is easy to play in G D C range. Probably the one Eagles song I would play, tho Ol 55 and Outlaw Man are in the song list.

Tonight, we had storms going through the area.  Northeastern Iowa (Dubuque) had five inches of rain the past couple days and the rivers are running high in that area.  We haven't gotten slammed that hard yet.  I do know last year we had floods in our area.  On a positive, the weather has stayed warm, but the negative is that the leaves are falling off the trees and all over the car and they get in between the stripping and the window.  Looks like the car going have to get powered washed from now till the last leave falls from the tree. 

Overall performance tonight was better than I thought it would be despite the long layoff and not practicing the guitar.  I did go over a couple songs before heading out to Culvers for a mushroom burger and then the usual paying for it at the toilet 10 minutes later.  Good thing Whittier has a toilet waiting for me when I got there.  The problem of being stuck with a cough that won't go away and all the cold meds had made me a zombie for the longest time.  But looking back at the archives, I have been ill quite a bit the past couple years.  Julie is very good at performing while under the weather, she had to, but when I get nailed, I don't play.  There was talk about canceling the Friday Night opening for Zamtrip but thankfull it wasn't and people liked what they heard.

By the time I finished the jam with Cinnamon Girl, most of the players packed up and went home, even David Lam was nowhere to be found.  His brother and I played around with Desire (the U2 song) to close the whole thing and packed up and made it home before the next rains came around.  The Grant Wood Festival is tomorrow in Stone City.  We'll see if the rains will be done by then. 



Wednesday 11 September 2019

Rumors-Rocking With The Briles Part 2

Songs:

Tore Down
Texas Flood
Blue On Black
I Want A Word With You Baby

Kris Briles-Lead vocal and lead guitar
Brian Briles-Rhythm guitar
Tim Canfield-Bass
Rodney Smith-Drums

Terry McDowell-Host
Aided by Billy Bourbon and Tommy Bruner

With Lisa Fox, Mike Lint, Greg Nost, John Hernandez  and a few others




Notes:


Another trip to the doctors, this time getting the good drugs, Sudafed D, which they hide behind the counter thanks to the methheads that abused the system and made  you get a doctor's note to get the GD things.  The coughing will not stop.  They still haven't prescribed the Fenatyal yet.

Making two trips into town and changing cars, perhaps I stayed home but since I get to go back to work next week, I figured I better get my jams in before it's too late.  Like last night I got to jam with Kris Briles again, this time Brian played guitar.  Not being host of the jam, it felt like I was supposed to do the deciding of thing, especially Billy yelling at me what amp Brian was going to use.   How the fuck do I know, I growled back, and told Brian, he could use Billy's amp.    Am I'm getting paid to do this shit?  I'm getting deaf by the day, ask them!

Being a youngster, Kris did toyed around with Tommy's amp and made the mistake to turn it up too loud on Blue On Black to which, I took a look and Tim was suffering through the loud guitar.  I looked at Tim and he said the guitar player is playing too loud and to turn it down,   I then, looked at Kris, motioned him to cut the volume in half and he did it.  And still managed to play the lead pretty good without the loudness.  Yeah, we're getting old and it shows, in our playing and our hearing.

With the Rumors Jam, and without Daddy O or Dan Johnson around, it was a new environment for Kris to play in, tho he has played there before on a couple Sundays.  There's a difference between the style of Dan  and Tim, who can be imitating if you haven't jammed with him.  Took me a while to adapt to Tim's style but with him, I can keep the beat simple.  I had some problems trying to do too much but thankfully nobody paid much attention to them.  Both are Hall Of Famers, I do think DJ is better suited to Kris' style of playing.    Tim is 100 percent classic rock and oldies.

Earlier in the day, I went to the Second Wednesday get together at Checkers with Dan Johnson, Mike Eganhouse, Scott Welsh, Tom Krejci, Nate Hines, Greg Hauser and Kraig Spratt. It was a hour and half get together of trading stories but Dan was doing most of the talking and such.  Afterwards I thought about driving to Marshalltown and checking out a record store but was dealing with coughing issues and the usual run to the toilet.  I figured it was better to go to Urgent Care and see if they can find a wonder drug for this crap that I have had all fucking year. It's the congestion D drugs this time out.  I hope this works.  I'm so tired of this shit.

Tuesday 10 September 2019

Parlor City Blues With Daddy O

Songs;

Got My Mojo Working
Give Me One Good Reason
Tennessee Whiskey
Tore Down

Kimberly Trevallion-Lead Vocals (1-3)
Kris Briles-Guitar (all songs),Lead Vocal (Tore Down)
Stacia Riccio-Slide Guitar
Dennis McMurrin-Lead and slide guitar
Dan Johnson-Bass
This Blogger-Drums

Jon Wilson/Ryan Phelan; Hosts

Mark Awad, Frederick Jones, Robby, Brian Briles and a few kids figured into this as well.



(Brian Briles: Photo credit)  L to R-Kimberly, Stacia, Daddy O, Crabby O, Kris, Dan Johnson

The Monarch Migration has begun.  There's a couple of trees next the Bottlewerks Apartments that have been full of Monarchs ready to move south.  To me it is a thrill seeing 100 Monarchs in the trees and even grabbing onto a leaf and have four or five of them on it.  I even touched one of them but it didn't fly away.  It has made my week to see these butterflies, and it also tells of a forthcoming fall and winter that will soon arrive sooner than we would like.

For the jam itself.  Tom Giblin was on vacation so Ryan Phelan was the MC, but it was Dan Johnson putting together this lineup that I played in which was the highlight of the evening.  Kimberly was in top form, singing the blues and even putting a different spin on Tennessee Whiskey.  She might have stolen the show.  But Stacy and Kris played some notable guitar leads on these songs.

And then there's Daddy O, Dennis McMurrin, the legend of Cedar Rapids, so laid back he makes J J Cale sound wild.  He added some leads here and there to help the youngsters play. I only jammed with Daddy O twice but these two times, it was one of the best performances that I have done during the blues jam at Parlor City.  If only, I can be like Daddy O.

Sunday 8 September 2019

Waubeek/Rumors Jam-Shelley Foley's 35th Bash

Rumors Songs Played

It's Hard To Be Humble
One Way Out.

Billy Bourbon-Lead vocals and guitar
Tommy Bruner-lead guitar
Tim Canfield-Bass
Terry McDowell-Drum provider
This Blogger-Kept the beat


Waubeek All Stars

Ground Chuck
Nelson
David Lam
Maki Dervo
Steve Therault
Captain Kirksey

Notes:

Rumors had five drummers of note.  Waubeek had me and Maki.  I played for five hours.   I worked hard for that forty dollars.

Not a lot of jammers but there were a few hanger ons that kept the music going till 1 30.  Steve did every song that he knew and even Chuck was running low on songs.  However, Kirksey kept it going.

Sunday was reserved for Cedar Rapids Kernels baseball and they came back to score the winning runs after being down 2-1 by forcing another winner take all game tomorrow by defeating Clinton 3-2 and shutting up the fans that came to root for them.  For 685 fans, it was the loudest crowd that I have heard.

With the come from behind victory, I managed to show up at Rumors to close the Sunday Funday jam by playing a cool version of One Way Out and wished the birthday girl Shelly a happy 35th.  She's half my age. *sigh*

Belinda James was there for the third straight week, of course I missed her performance.

Sunday 1 September 2019

Stone City-Dragonflies and Swallows

Fox On The Run
Summertime Blues
I Fought The Law
Cinnamon Girl

With;
Richard Budde on drums

Plus

Long Black Veil
Paradise
Long Hard Road
Your Cheating Heart
Will The Circle Be Unbroken
Rolling In My Sweet Baby's Arms
You Ain't Going Nowhere
Wagon Wheel (pfft)

with

Carl Meiners
Danny Dias
Mike Fredericks
Angie Marie Cox
Richard Budde

I would love to enjoy this time of year, it usually is my favorite time of year.  This year I have been dealing with Bronchitis and Walking Phenomena  on a daily basis.  I can't recall a year that I have to deal with this shit day in and day out.  Once I feel I'm getting better, I catch the fucking crap again and then I'm down for the count.  Today I was out in the garden with the morning glories and watching the sky fill up with dragonflies, the estimate is around 1000 in the area, but also about 30 barn swallows having a feast of their own.  The cycle of life and death.

When your are stuck with this bronchitis shit, you are continuing to hack and cough at any moment.  It plays havoc in playing live and taking copious amounts of cold meds and zinc have not helped.   I haven't seen Julie for fear of having her catching this all over again.  So for the most part, my life is waking up at 11, hang at the computer or go over songs till 2 and take another nap and wake up and get ready to head to Stone City or Rumors if I feel like it.  And for today, I stayed close to home and went to Stone City.

Basically it was a short set.  I did five songs with Carl before doing a very short four song 10 minute appearance with Richard on drums.  That rare occasion that I have another drummer backing me up. That doesn't happen at Rumors, I am usually backing people up on drums.  I really had no general idea of what to play and I had my book of songs but opted not to use them, rather than go with the ones I know, to which they continue to pop up week end and week out.

Dave  Bonham hosted in place of Lane Gaffney and we talked a bit about the chaos of the Cabin Jam. But I told him it's all right.  A lot of folks got drunk and bickered with each other.  Dealing with the usual post nasal drip crap, I wasn't feeling all that well and almost sneezed during one song.  Richard requested something by Ricky Nelson but we settled on Summertime Blues. He did well on the breaks during I Fought The Law and followed according to the riff to Fox On The Run.    Other people did the songs I usually do, Carl did Long Black Veil, Angie on You Ain't  Going Nowhere and Dave took over Everybody's Talking and For What It's Worth. Since I forgo going to Rumors, I ended up helping Angie on her songs, the usual four numbers.  Dave concluded with a half hour set of his songs.

For the Rumors' side of things  Julie and Ryan showed up and the wildcat was there.  There's some videos that she recorded.  Looked like a good time was had by all.  After the Stone City thing was over, I just went home and took more cold meds and gas relief pills, to which none of them have worked yet.

My next drug: Fematryl and Jack Daniels.  I'm serious about  this.  Cure me or kill me.