Thoughts From The Townedger-August Wind up

The month showed promise with the Two Babes And The Crabb Acoustic Adventures on the first Sunday but Kimberly proved to be a no show.  She was there in Marion for the open mic but when she saw Guitar Dave there, she took off.  The No Limits Blues Band turned out to be a bust.  I think we did well when we shared the stage but I doubt if I would see anything more come out of this.

This is the month that our morning glories come out and stay out longer than usual.  A sign that winter is coming fast and I will lose these by the end of the month.

The shitstorm we had three weeks ago changed the towns forever.  We lost about 80 percent of the trees in CR/Marion and other places didn't fare as well.  It also tore a hole on the roof over at Brian n Kristopher's place in Norway.  Blues Rox does have a garage sessions going on this Saturday.  It might be the last time we get together.   In my case bands that I have played in usually last a year at best, but with the Corvid 19 virus going on and now the Shitstorm that came up, we have not had much for gigs, and promised blues get festivals were canceled.   So we may cut our losses and move on to other things.   Regardless, I still remain committed to Blues Rox.

I think the lack of blues jams have been the cause of less satisfying performances.  Kristopher has a lot of potential and promise in the future and I enjoy watching him shred from the stage.  I hope there'll be more Blues Rox  in the future.  I usually leave bands after a while but not this one.  Even I gave up when Tyrus/Paraphernalia went stale. 

I'm happy to see Julie is back playing again, she and Guitar Dave have reunited for some acoustic dates.  The Dreams Of Arcadia project?   Not this year.   She did ask about wanting to sing for Blues Rox.  That's why I love her.  The best voice in this town.  There are some good ones in Amanda Marshall, and Karie Skogman, but as far as I'm concerned, when Julie's on, nobody tops her.

Our governor is a fucking idiot.  Kegger Kim Reynolds has fucked up the music scene since March and she fucked up the Shitstorm.  And still kept the schools open.   Iowa is number 1 for Corvid cases.  Fine job you're doing Kegger Kim, have another beer or three.

Kanye West, if you thought Trump was dumb, Kayne just made him smart by running for President.  It's a circus and another bad reality shit star and worthless rapper, trying to steal the election for another four years of the bad reality star.   Social media has bought out the worst in people and made stars out of cesspool vermin that should remain in the sewer.   We are seeing the world being torn apart and Trump and West are fuel to the fire.  I'm not a fan of Creepy Joe, but I'm not going to waste a vote on somebody that doesn't give a fuck for you or me.  That includes Mr. Autotuned Chipmunk.

If we don't get the blues back to the bars this year, we won't have them ever again.  The likes of Daddy O McMurrin, Skeeter Louis and Kevin Burt will be silenced.   I hate that.  The lack of the blues jam is just cause why our band hasn't done much of late.  Daddy O hasn't been in the best health of late, and the way 2020 is shaping up, he may not be long for this planet.  Or maybe even myself.  We all are getting old, we don't have that much time left either.  I just wish we can better weather and not all this climate change crapola that is killing us all.

I can still play with anybody on stage, nobody talks politics at jams.  I have hard core Left wingers, I have hard core Right Wing Trumpers, but as long we keep silent on that, the music will go on.  In the case of Kimberly, I don't hold out any hope of being in her band, but if she wants to sing on the open mic days, I won't say no. 

The Cabin Jam was postponed, Bill Elsner had eye surgery, the shitstorm took out their place in town and the Corvid threat was too great to overcome.   It was a shame tho.  the weather on Saturday was perfect.

I think I finally found a decent personal CD player to replace the Discman that died last month.  I pray that this one will last a while.  I got a lot of cds to catch up on.  I think next month we'll finally wrap up the new Townedger album.  Till next month.

Stone CIty-Karl Hudson Presents

Songs

Fox On The Run
At The Crossroads
Never Trust A Sleeping Train
Every Mothers' Son
Willin'
Jet Airliner

(Phil Bo, Diana and yours truly practicing social distancing, Diana Conwell-Koening: photo credit)

Karl Hudson hosted the Stone City Open Mic.  I'm always glad when he does for he has a great PA and Monitor system that really sounds good.  I fell into a trance on the final song Jet Airliner, tho I didn't break out of A D E pattern that much.

Danny Trumm n his wife was there, so was Bill Sclatter, Maki Dervo, Mike Fredrick and Freddy Jones.  Tommy Bruner stopped down said hello.  Don't know if he played tho.  There were a couple others but by then I was off to Anamosa to walk around the track field before sundown and supper at Los Tres Agaves, after I was done, they shut the lights off.

Saturday, I stopped to see the Skeeter Davis All Stars with Nate Hines, Eric A Douglas and Dan Johnson helping.  First time I've seen Skeeter since March.  Later on, ran into Phil Bo and Diana at Bo Macs for the Newt And Zoot duo.  Then had my ears tortured by Trophy Dads at the Chrome Horse.   You can tell a band stinks when they are loud.  The louder they are, the worse they sound.
Still, they are playing and any band that score a paying gigs in these times are doing something right.

The T Ray Memorial Tribute Jam At The Chrome Horse

The Shitstorm didn't help much but a very disappointing crowd came out to bid farewell to Thomas Ray Robertson at the Chrome Horse.  Brad Zimmerman and Dan Hartman along with Mark and Rocky Smith were there.  Rick Clay and Jeff Brown put up the sound system, Ian Jacoby came along, and we laughed and bullshitted ourselves.  Ian joked about the ideal of playing Mustang Sally, and I told I wouldn't be surprised if that would be the first song I played.

Turns out I was right.

I got paid 50 dollars for bringing my drums and leaving them out in a steady drizzle and got to play two songs,  the aforementioned Mustang Sally and Don't Be Cruel before they went on break and then eventually canceled the rest of the tribute jam.  Hardly anybody showed up.  Kevin Sinmachner and Jeff Langenburg popped in and Dave Bonham came later after we all packed up.  But a lot of no shows, probably due to the CORVID issues and a couple had band gigs.  So it was a paying gig but perhaps the biggest disappointing event that i have been involved with.

I didn't plan to do anything more but to show my respects but the original drummers backed out at the last moment (Patrick did have a gig later on but so did Rocky and Dan Hartman).  T Ray's ex didn't show up either, strange how that goes.   Rocky got me just before I was thinking about going somewhere for bargain hunting.   I was going to do that after the Tribute jam but I spent the afternoon helping Julie and her yard projects.  I haven't been much help for her when the storm messed up her yard n house so this kept me away from the thrift stores.

The connection with me and T Ray is that he was the first musician along with Dave Bonham and Dan Hartman at the Wrigleyville jam in 2015, and since then I continued to participate in various jams and got to hang with the best and the up and coming.  He was very country and western by the time I got to know him but he was one of the 80's and 90s super players in town.  It was a shame that the turnout wasn't better, Blues Rox played to bigger crowds. 

The jam was supposed to start at noon and end at 5 and tear down for the next outdoor band at the Chrome Horse.  The outdoor stage was quite roomy and perhaps I should have used the trailer since it had a roof over it and I wouldn't get rained on, as it would happen later on.   I think we started around 1 and played about an hour, but I don't think anybody had their heart in it.  Brad Zimmerman did bring a couple guitars.  I did like the outdoor stage, it had carpeting but I didn't have the drums set up very well and they kept moving, much to my annoyance. 

Given the haphazard state of things, I made my promise to show and support and I did that. Too bad the rest didn't  bother to go.  But then again, as we were playing, the tree removal people were picking up the remelts of the fallen trees across the road and I can see the torn off roof of St Wencalaus Gym from the stage.   I bought a very abbreviated drum set, two cymbals and a three piece drumset.  Rocky always said that the Paiste Signature and Innovations cymbals used sounded fine.  But then again we didn't need any power crashes given the songs.  We did the best that we could and playing two songs for fifty dollars?

That will never happen any more.

Appendix:  Stone City Set list 8/23/20

Songs:

At The Crossroads
Lay Down Sally
Just To Satisfy You
Let's Work Together
Midnight Rider

Chuck Savage: Harmonica on Let's Work Together
Phil Bo King, Lenny Drake, Katy Merrifield: Background vocals.
And Carl Meiner for support

Bub Johannes provided the sound and MC.

Lost my F**king guitar pick at the beginning of Lay Down Sally so I basically had to finger strum for the rest of the set.  I was going to do four songs but Bubs let me do one more for fun and games.  A very hot afternoon and the fucking flies and jiggers sucked.  And one mosquito bite as well.  I must be doing something right, I covered my mistakes up all right.

It was the first time I have seen Chuck and Lenny since Waubeek.

Anne stole the show with her amazing fiddle playing.  She backed Katy up on one song.

Donna Jo and Lorie Parker showed up later to do three songs with Phil Bo on guitar.

Dave Bonham was there and did four songs.

Artisan Sanctuary-New Kids On The Block.

Songs:

Willin'
Lay Down Sally
Drift Away
At The Crossroads
Curio
Pawnshops Are No Place For A Wedding Ring.

Notes:

A solo performance. instead of having a special guest star.  Freddy Jones played with Phil Bo King, Dave Bonham And Lee Kohl.  Kimberly showed up but then left when she saw Dave coming up beside her.   Had she stayed, she would have been the special guest star.

For the most the new kids that came later stole the show.  A white kid rapped to two spoken pieces, a black guy channeled his inner Leon Bridges/Johnny Legend.  A couple girls did a couple songs that they wrote.  And one girl stole the show with a version of I've Been Everywhere.  Very surprising.

When I came into Marion, I saw the destruction on the old Marion train  depot building, but in front of the building, Lee Kohl was practicing away.

Willin was the only song that got played before, the rest made their debuts but the highlight was getting people to sing along to Drift Away.  There's something about that song that makes people smile and sing away.  That song was dedicated to the couple that requested it at Stone City on Sunday.  I found that using Capo 1, I can actually play the song.  The sole original was Curio, from the No Exit/30 album.  Easy to do in G to D and then to A.

The surprise was Pawnshops, a long, droning slow song from Whiskeytown and one Ryan Adams. It has only verse and one chorus and repeats three times. I shortened it but it still felt long.  Not exactly a fitting end to a setlist that surprised the audience.   If I play it again, it will be in the middle of a set.  I do believe that starting out with Willin' was a good start.  Dave Bonham usually does that song but I traded Everybody's Talking with Willin with him.

Overall, I think I did well even with my perfectionist standards.

Stone City-After The Storm

Songs:

Fox On The Run
Cheating Songs
Ring Of Fire
Jet Airliner
Running In The Rain
Logic And Lies
Everybody's Talking
Rock Me Baby
Cinnamon Girl

Richard Budde-Played drums on all songs

With:
Guitar Dave, Maki Dervo, Mike Frederick, Bill Schlatter, Bart Bock and Danny Trumm

Monday's Shit Storm wiped out the livelihood of many people in the CR Marion area.  My band mates Brian and Kristopher's house had part of the roof torn off and still without power for the past week.  Julie had the same fate with no power.  And my parents as well.  This shit storm is the worst event that I ever lived through.

Stone City didn't suffer much, like where I was at.  We lost power for 18 hours but got it going on Tuesday Morning.  I didn't have to work till Friday.  And Sunday they had the Stone City Acoustic Showcase, tho we only had seven performers.

For the most part, I stayed with the familiar and had Richard played drums behind me.  I heard I did one of the best blues song in Rock Me Baby and I will take them at their word for it.  Dave Bonham was in tow (Julie opted to stay home with her furbabies) and we had supper at the Las Tres Argaves in Anamosa.  The service the usual.

I'm surprised I did nine songs.  But I could have stayed for an encore.  But to be honest, I really had nothing left.  I did get a kick out of having a caterpillar on my guitar for Ring Of Fire.

Interesting to say the very least. 

Townedgers new album and songs to consider

With Stone City's acoustic jam canceled today and Rumor's on hold, it was time for me to get back to revisit and review the songs from the new album.   In typical fashion, 23 songs were recorded, and I had about 15 written down for potential.

When you are a musician, you take your music very seriously. I do that with my recording projects. It means little to the rest of the world since hardly anybody looks forward for new music. But with Stone City not having the jam, I finally got around listening to the two tapes of 23 songs that were recorded. I started out in April working vigorously on it and then came May and June and then laziness occurred

And then this month I added four covers as a reference. I'm not sure if the world needs another six days on the road or another run through of Just To Satisfy You. When You're having writers block, you'll try anything to break it. Perhaps I might have relied too much on covers this time out. So I'm sitting here, listening and taking notes and trying to finalize a track list that will meet my standards.

One of the songs I recorded and forgotten was something called Take A Walk With Me, inspired by a Waylon Jennings song perhaps? Buckingham-Nicks was something that came out of the blue, that is a keeper, the followup Who Are You, not so much, It's From A Motel 6 with different lyrics, same chord progression, stick with the original. My producer thinks we need to write a couple more originals to balance out the album. But I'm trying to keep the Cd around the 35-40 min. mark. Ain't No Grave, was listened to, and critiqued and I might revisit that song for later analysis. Diggy Kat requested Jeannette fifteen (now 45) years later. It actually sounded better this time out, then when I recorded it on June 2 this year. Another song to consider is Rainbow In The Dark, done unplugged. This one goes back to when Dreams Of Arcadia did it unplugged. Certainly Julie sings it better, on my version there's a moody jazzier feeling. On Slippin' Away It sounds like the Status Quo than Jean Shepherd.

When you are recording in analog tape, and using old recording equipment, you hope that it will last a few more years. I grew up with analog recording and when the digital age came around, I never quite adjusted to that.   It sucks to know that you have to search and search for vintage recording equipment, they don't make them anymore, just like Sony Baloney don't make Car discman's any more.   I don't think we sit down and actually work with new software or disc recorders, mine took a shit ten years ago and lost a couple songs, but West Music couldn't fix it.  I make my music via four tracks, they're been the ideal source for the past three decades.

Songs Of Note:

Buckingham Nicks

Who Are You (From a Motel Six chords with different lyrics, pass)

Cheating Songs (Used a capo and turned it around from the original F sharp version I usually play)

Willin' (Finally did a good version of this, it might be one of the highlights of this album)

Tomorrow's Girl (A revision from the Persayors Of The Truth album, one of those songs that we put down for a first take and was happy with results)

Just To Satisfy You-Originally done on the Fitting Finales album, but slowed down from a version that I heard Waylon as a alternative take.

Satin Sheets-This song we did about 7 takes and still wasn't exactly pleased with the results.  Terry Bainbridge says it's not bad but we do have a lot of cover songs.  So this one might not make the cut.

Stupid The Dog-Something thought up on the spot and we played around with it.  Robby Knowles sings it.

9 Pound Hammer-I used the old Yamaha guitar with a capo on the 7th fret.  Geoff played mandolin. This mirrors the Country Gentlemen's version, all a minute twenty five of it.

Take A Walk With Me-The song without a title that I did a quick take and filed away.  Just me and the guitar and somehow that works fairly well.

Knock On The Door-Trying to come up with a more uplifting song and getting Geoff and Robby to contribute something.  I don't hear drums on this.

Lover Man-A jam of sorts and us trying to come up with something intelligent to say.  Which we didn't.

Distant Early Morning Light-Another acoustic number recently discovered.  Hell, I didn't bother to write down the recording date.  I don't hear drums on this either.

If You See Her-A remake of the 1992 cut from Drive In Blues.  This one is electric.

Stepping Razor-A cover of the Peter Tosh number. It sounded good at the time of doing this.

She Belongs To Me-Another Dylan cover, this version owes more to Augie Meyer's version.

Rainbow In The Dark-Inspired by Dreams Of Arcadia and how Julie sings it.  But from a male's point of view and more of a darker overtone.  Jules looks for the uplifting, I look for the dark.

Jeanette Again-For Diggy Kat.  The third update of this song. 45 years after the fact of meeting her. And knowing I never will see her again.

Send Me Someone To Love-That Freddie Neil Fixation once again, Like Willin, I been dinking with this song for three years.

Six Days On The Road-If Dave Dudley hooked up with Social Distortion, it would sound like this.  I'm not certain this will be on the album.  We have a lot of covers...Too many covers to be honest.

Slippin Away-Jean Shepherd's version, but with a Status Quo boogie riff.

Ain't No Grave-A rough run through of a old gospel number.  And I doubt you will hear it.

At The Crossroads-Mott The Hoople, I love their version of the Doug Sahm number.  And  with an out of tune guitar to boot.  Which wasn't the overdubbed electric guitar.

As it stands, we have 13 covers and 10 originals.  And a dilemma, of making adding a couple more originals, to actually sit down and write something credible    I suspect I need to break away from the thrift stores and jams an getting this finished.

For the most part none of the CR musicians are that interested in my music anyway but this is not about them.  I've been doing this for 40 plus years and the only person I need to satisfy is myself.  I think we'll continue to write and perform more songs for a week and then lay the drum tracks down and finalize a song list.  As it stands, this record would be a first to have more covers than originals.  And I'm not sure I want that.

Sanctuary With Freddy Jones

Artisan Sanctuary Songs:

Satisfied Mind
Six Days On The Road
Floodlands
The Life We Lead
Baby What You Want Me To Do
Let's Work Together
Good Time Charlie Got The Blues

With Freddy Jones on Harmonica. on 5-7

The Artisan Open Mic had plenty of folks keeping it going till 10 30.  This was not one of my better nights.  First of all, I couldn't find the lyrics to At The Crossroads, to which I was working on this afternoon to finish up the Townedgers album, and then found out the main guitar was the one out of tune.  So we'll have to redo that song.

Second of all, it took about 15 minutes from the end of Pat Lower's Karaoke segment and the beginning of my set.  I had a air bubble in my throat that made me screw up the first words to Floodlands so I did a take two.  After The Life We Lead, I invited Freddy Jones to help me salvage the end of my fateful set of songs.  Cyndi, my new friend, said that my set was pretty good.  Which meant that I covered up my mistakes and nobody noticed them much.  At least I didn't break a guitar string.  Lee Kohl did that on his first song.   Ed Butler finished the show.

It did help having Freddy Jones up there on harmonica.  He smoothed things out towards the end.

Pub 1848-Chill Of An Early Fall

Songs:

Ever So Much
Train Goes Nowhere
Running In The Rain
I Rather Not Cry/
Fox On The Run/
Cinnamon Girl

Hosted by Sean Ryan with Mike Brach

65 degree temps at night time made it kinda chilly but for this set, I ended up playing four originals and then turned Fox On The Run and Cinnamon Girl into a medley.  It was then decided that Fox On The Run is better suited as a stand alone song.

Stone City-Mistaken Identity

Stone City Songlist:

Fox On The Run
Lynchin' Party
Ring Of Fire
Just To Satisfy You/
Jet Airliner
Everybody's Talking
Let's Work Together
Cinnamon Girl

2nd Set

(Two Babes And An Crabb)
Kimberly Kirzan-Vocals
Donna Jo Elsner-Vocals and Percussion
Me-guitar and vocals

Gimme One Reason To Stay Here
Gold Dust Woman
Stop Draggin' My Heart Around
Country Roads
Squeeze Box
For What It's Worth
Knocking On Heaven's Door

Kimberly sang on the first three songs.
She also took the Stone City photos.

With:
Carl Meiners, Danny Trumm and wife, Maki Dervo, The two kids from Artisan Sanctuary, David Lam, Katy Merifield  and Morris.

Notes:

A nice clear and cool evening awaited us for the Acoustic get together.  The Rumors Jam was canceled due to a growing concern about the Corvid virus.   It was announced earlier this afternoon so we couldn't celebrate Mike Lint's birthday.  Looks like the indoor jams will not be taking place this month at all.  A lot of musicians are not happy about this, Tommy is ready to fight somebody.  But I did have a sneaking suspicion that some bars would close up shop for another month.  So I might as well do one more bargain hunt in Davenport before staying at home once again.  We shall see.

I couldn't remember how Just To Satisfy You went; I started it out and then couldn't pick up the melody so I went into Jet Airliner instead. I don't think anybody noticed.   I think overall the first set went fairly well.  The newlyweds David and Kimberly showed up later and so she wanted to sing some songs and I would help her out.  She liked my version of Stop Dragging My Heart Around including the power chords at the end of song.  A bit of rust was shown on the Stevie Nicks songs but the harmony vocals on the chorus made it sound awesome.  Gimme One Good Reason was flawless but Take Me One, Country Roads was rough, I missed a few key chord changes but it was the first time I sang it and I took over the vocals for the last three songs.  I hardly play Squeeze Box but I did remember about 80 percent of the words.   Not bad for a first time out.

After I got done playing the second set and sweet looking buxom woman came up to ask if we played any AC DC, I told her I did Shot Down In Flames in practice.  It shouldn't be that hard to learn You Shook Me All Night Long.   Another woman, thanked me for playing mandolin.  But I think she had me confused with Carl Meiners, he played the mandolin with Ken on guitar.  I did let the musician behind me use my guitar on his set since he broke a string on his guitar.  He did a sound job.

(Donna Jo)

The second set wasn't planned but it was billed as Two Babes And A Crabb.  Probably the closest thing to Acoustic Crabbies that we will ever have.  Unless Julie signs up for this.

Friday Night,  Blues Rox played at the JA Tap in North Liberty.  I love the stage, I love the door next to the stage for easy loading and unloading of instruments and their light system but don't like the drum shield.  I couldn't hear nor see Kristopher on the songs.  We started out not on the right page, the first set might have been the worst sets we ever done and I was beginning to wonder if we had anything left in the second set when (surprise) we got somebody to dance to Free Bird, which really did sound fairly well.  My co worker Dan Moyer paid a surprising visit and Freddy Jones came out to hang with the rest of the evening.  We got paid fairly well, which was more shocking.

I decided on this show to use the Paiste cymbal lineup and wasn't that impressed.  The 2002 Medium Crash sounded out of place.  The Signature Mellow China 20 inch was fun.  But I think I'll go back to the K's in future shows.

Kristopher was doing his extended lead break on the end of Voodoo Chile.  And he caught me  when he was wrapping up and I had to dive behind the drums and caught my shoulder on the chain lank fence.  Another Spinal Tap moment..

With not too many folks around, we opted for a more blues focused fourth set, including two Bad Company Brian Howe numbers.   Somehow, the owner of the J A Tap, said he would like to have us back there, if and when things get back to normal.

But that might be a while, way things are going.