Thoughts From The Townedger-March

It was supposed to be a month full of jams and gigs.  But the Corona V outbreak had put a stop to that.   Blues Rox lost three gigs due to this.  Guess it's better safe than sorry but the music scene is suffering from this.  The strange thing is that this year, I only had two days of being stuck with a minor cold, otherwise this winter has  been my most healthiest in recent memory.  Only health issue I'm having is cold hands. I do swear by B Vitamin Complex, Vitamin C and D and Zinc Orotate.  To which the health store hasn't had any of Zinc O for a while.

When Blues Rox played the Glass Tap for a debut webcast, I wasn't sure if they were going to go through this.  But it did and we managed to get about 1200 folks across the world to tune in.  Which may not be a lot mind you, but if this was a live gig, I would have played to more people yesterday, then in 40 years of playing around the area.  I think the layoff between gigs made things a bit roughshod, but the fun was the last song Voodoo Chile which we let Kris Bries do his thing.   Questions do remain if I should play a bigger role in singing certain songs.  I do my best singing...when I'm playing guitar, playing drums and singing is a whole different chore. It could be done but I would have really compromise my playing to a simple pattern.  If Blues Rox goes by their strengths, it would be a Stevie Ray Vaughn type of power blues rock.  It would be a lot easier just to have Kris wail out on guitar, then us doing the same ole classic rock tunes.

Webcasting is cool but when I finally heard the gig that we did, I found the sound to be quite tinny.  Also confirmed, I do play loud drums. And they were not miked.

Happy birthday to Jane Maxey (3/30).  We grew up together and went to Longfellow School from grades 4-6.  Like most of the cute girls back then, I had a crush on her.  She's born under the same sign as Julie and is as independent as they come.   Which meant she probably have seen through my bullshit and lived life the best way possible.

Happy birthday to Bruce Stanley (3/31) who left us four years ago.  He was the one that sold me my Guild Acoustic that is the one that I play the most when I play acoustic adventures.  He turned me on into off the wall bands, Scruffy The Cat mainly.   Once he died, the pawnshop quit selling CDs.


For the working musician such as my friends Dan Johnson, Tommy Bruner, Terry McDowell and many more, this is where they make their money, their business and not such as a hobby.  They're now talking that April might be another wasted month.  To be honest, that's not what we want, we want to get back to playing again.  Being a legend in my mind musician, I had to seek regular employment outside of music to survive.  I have a contingency plan in place if things get worse.  In the CR Music Scene, I have always been on the outside looking in, an outsider so to speak and has more to do with living in Marion and not getting my name out to play elsewhere once Tyrus/Paraphernalia ended. Shyness and stage fright was a big reason why I dragged my feet for three decades.  Plus I didn't want to do shitty Motley Crud hair metal shit anyway.  I believed that playing my own songs would get me far, which turned out to be a fantasy.  The guys in Tyrus/Paraphernalia didn't want to play originals and to be honest, my songs were not cut out for them.  At that time, I thrill myself to play songs that I could play out in the car.   Dennis Lancaster was not of a fan of what I wrote, but he did give me a set of lyrics and Love Like Backfire was the result.   The odd thing was that when he and Russ gave the green light to my songs, they were the throwaways of the album. Cocaine Train would have been forgotten had Russ n Dennis rewrote the riffs.

Tyrus/Paraphernalia had their time back in the 80s but Dennis is not interested or getting back together, he lives in Arizona, flies for a major airline and is living the good life going to the islands. I think we have gotten further apart as time goes on.  I think he was the bridge between Open Highway and Tyrus coming together.  He was an average guitar player but he was the most reliable of the band members.  One of his sons Joseph plays bass, or at least he did.   Sometimes I wished I could have a son or daughter that could play music.  But that will never come true for me.  Too late to start now.

Looks like our gigs in April are not going to happen.  So I guess it's time to record some new music and see what happens.  Stay safe everybody and wash your hands.