Blues Rox In Norway-Rumors Sunday Funday Jam

Blues Rox made their debut at Prairie Creek Bar And Grill in Norway.  It's a small Iowa town, not much goes on, it does a baseball hall of fame for their famous Norway baseball teams of long ago and far away.  A grain elevator, a Convenience store and perhaps a bank somewhere in town.  There is a junk shop two blocks away but outside of that, it's a out of the way town that was out of the way but we had a gig to play.

We had a good crowd, not much for dancers but a few viewers who weren't watching the Rams/49ers or Iowa beating Cincinnati in basketball.

So begins another jam weekend.

Rumors Sunday Funday Jam

With

Billy Bourbon-Vocals on Caress, Before You Accuse M, Hey Bartender-Guitar
Russ Granklen-Vocal on Can't Get Enough and Margarativille
Randy Burghdorf-Bass
Tommy Bruner-Guitar on Before You Accuse Me and Caress Me Baby
Ron Lafleur-Vocal (Sweet Home, Mustang,Don't Let Me Down, Gimme,Watchtower,Sunshine
Dakota McWhortor-Lead vocal (Drive) lead guitar elsewhere
Tom Berdo-Harmonica on Before You Accuse Me, Caress Me Baby
Morris-played guitar throughout the set.
I played drums
Terry McDowell-Hosted the event as always

Songs we  played

Can't Get Enough
Margaritaville
Before You Accuse Me
Caress Me Baby
Hey Bartender
Sweet Home Alabama
Mustang Sally
Don't Let Me Down
Drive
Gimme One Good Reason
All Along The Watchtower
Ain't No Sunshine

Notes:

The Rumors jam was a long set of songs that extended for about four or five minutes and The Boy Scout Hippies debuted Don't Let Me Down.   Dakota sang Drive, and Ron really rocked the house. I'm very surprised how much he gets into the music.

Another small crowd and more drummers than musicians.  Al Hendricks got paired up with Tim Kaufmann and wasn't too happy with the results.  Poor Tim couldn't figure out some of the songs and the shuffle of Josephine was lost.  I tried to help him with the breaks to How Blue Can You Get.  I can't fault Tim for trying his best but if you can't shuffle or fake a decent shuffle, you'll be lost in the crowd.

I loved my time on stage but once again yet another fucking Spinal Tap moment happened when I was leaning over to unplug Dakota' amp after he got done playing and spilled ice all over the back of the stage.  I would love to have one day, one jam which some outrageous stupid bullshit didn't happened.  Thank our lucky stars that I didn't have pop but I felt bad enough to give the guys a 10 dollar tip.  In the meantime, I haven't helped Julie with her salvaging or cleaning up the house fire that she had Monday.  Tho' friends have helped along the way, my clumsiness would have fucked things up even more.    Even when I'm think I'm doing good, I'm not.

Saturday night was the Blues Rox debut and Kristopher amazed folks by his guitar playing, channeling his inner Stevie Ray Vaughn on the songs Texas Flood, How Blue Can You Get and two long excursions of Voodoo Chile, including a encore that went over 12 minutes including a long guitar solo towards the end  to which among gobs of feedback, he took off his hat and proceeded to walk through the crowd, playing lead guitar behind the back and even I was amazed how well he played that without missing a beat.  And the way he calmly put his hat over his head to end the show. That couldn't be topped.  I threw my sticks up in the air after that.

If the illusions of a shitty year was a reality most of the time, it was the gigs and jams that pulled me out of my dark and ever expanding depression for a brief moment, basking in the glory till some stupid shit puts me off.   When I stuck with the walking flu most of the year I managed to keep the beat rocking for Boy Scout Hippies and in reality I enjoy playing alongside Ron n Dakota.  Just as much as I enjoy helping Julie and Ryan out in DOA.    But out of all the band this year, the Blues Rox Saturday Night show was the most fun, the most intense and most thought provoking I have ever been a part of.  When Brian asked me to play percussion for the first time, I figured I give this a shot and see where it leads.  At my age, my time is now back in the past, Kris' future is so bright he might consider to wear shades.

A rite of passage?  Oh to be thirty five years younger and knowing what I know now and take it back with me.    This year I have learn so much from Bird in how to play with authority  but with passion  and knowing when not to rush things.  But then again, it's interacting with people and constant playing to their tempos and rhythms.  It's one thing to play slow with slow blues like Texas Flood but knowing not to drag behind.  Kris' improvising on Voodoo Chile is why I believe he has a good future, he knows where to let loose, when to hold back and has become a good leader of letting us know where the breaks are at.   I do believe he's on to bigger and better things given over time.  His Stevie Ray Vaughn influence is a positive, and to a certain extent we saw the ghost of SRV in between feedback and a crowd taking notice.   Where did that come from, I can't say.  But I do believe our first gig at Prairie Creek Bar N Grill was a very good start.  And perhaps of things to come.   I hope it makes some sort of a promising 2020.

Other things:

There was this one guy who asking me who the guitar and bass player was at Rumors this afternoon.  I told him it was Billy Bourbon and Randy Burghdoff, of the Billy Bourbon Band.  Not sure who this guy was but he was playing air drums on when I played drums.  I wonder if he was a drummer but I think he texted Billy about playing a special gig later on.

It looks to be a brown Christmas this year.  Temps got into the late 40s this afternoon and I managed to do a bit of Christmas shopping and some walking around while the sun was out.  Once it the sun set it got quite nippy but by then I was on my way to rumors.  Weather is supposed to still be nice for the time being.  Let's us enjoy it.