Stone City 3/17/19 It Has Been A While

Songs played

All Along The Watchtower
Sundown
Greenback Dollar
Go Out And Get It
Everybody's Talking

Steve Black Wolf-sings background on Everybody's Talking

(Tony Potter: Photo Credit)

I haven't played guitar since the Kevin Moore MC'ed Checkers Jam due to work and being stuck with the walking flu but I managed to overcome the coughs to put together a somewhat decent five song set.  Since I played last night in the Boy Scout Hippies, I had no desire to go into town and deal with a massive crowd at Rumor's to see Crankshaft but Julie and Ryan went for my absence.  But they were going to go anyway.

The songs were safe and I still knew how to play them and the crowd liked them.  Plenty of folks were there, Maki Dervo, Ray Larson, Bill Schlatter, Dave Bonham and Sharon, Danny Dias, Steve Black Wolf and Rocky Smith joined in, and later Ron and Fran popped up before I decided to leave.  I guess it's not working out with the new drummer and tho' I have hoped that the new guy would fit in, Ron was basically begging me to keep open dates on for the weekend.  He admitted that I was the best drummer that played his music in the state, which I thought was quite nice of him to say that. Ah, all in the day's work.  So, I gather, I'll be continuing to be a part of their Saturday gigs for the time being.  After all, Ron has delivered in giving me at least a 100 dollars in anything that we do.  As long as I'm having a good time and as long as the drums hold up, why not continue.


The Wapsi River is flooding all over Stone City and they took down the flag that laid on the old Railroad trestle next to the General Store.  It's a shame that the railroad moved elsewhere but I can't recall ever seeing the railroad tracks across Stone City, that may have been before my time.  The Wapsi haven't fully engulfed the area but it is quite high and some roads are under water. The way it goes.

I let Dervo use my guitar since he forgot to bring his, otherwise I would have been long gone, off to Wally World to pick up more cold meds and grab a Pizza at the BP station.  But I spend a long while talking drums with Rocky and it was great to see Steve back into action.  It's been a while since I talked to him since he discovered his cancer has returned.  He's doing as well as he can but Steve did play a couple of songs I thought about doing.  I could have done them but I don't think we needed a part two of Knocking On Heaven's Door.

Boy Scout Hippies/Aces N Eights 3/16/19

Just when I think I'm gone and moved on to the next chapter of this rock and roll rollercoaster...

(The head Boy Scout Hippie)

I'm still dealing with the walking cold and spent most of the day washing three loads of laundry and then taking another nap before waking up to hear Ron frantically calling about me playing at Aces n Eights after all.   Thankfully he caught me before I decided to head into town to do my nightly grocery shopping.  Otherwise they would have to cancel the gig.  Well, they would have moved on without a drummer but I was too happy not to pass up another 100 dollars and four hours of playing music.

(Cali Jean Blake and Crabby and the amazing moving drumset)

Aces n Eights has a concrete floor, which meant the drumset would be moving and it moved through the whole time I played.  Nick came around to play harmonica for the final set and did his best to convince me I should go help him play for spare change at St Patricks' Day at Czech Village.  I told him sometime in the future when I'm feeling better.

As always, I always encounter somebody that wanted to play drums and impress their woman.  But this time this woman came around touting her boyfriend's drum talents and we decided to give Brian a trial by fire, the version of Can't You See to which it speeds up and ends the song on a train wreck ending.  For a first time, Brian did quite well since he never played with the guys before.  And on that, got all the women to dance with him through the gig.  It might have pissed off his woman but I'm sure they kissed and had make up sex later on.

Fran, Ron's wife shot a couple videos: a good version of Midnight Rider and then Hard To Handle.  I still cannot get over the fact that I look like I rather be somewhere else besides playing but the rhythm was quite good.   I'm adding more of the fire and fury of the Tyrus years once again but for the most part I'm throwing accents and drum fills through the songs anyway.  I was getting tired of pushing the drums back into place after each and every songs it seems and even the hi hat stand was moving away from me.   I dropped the drumsticks a few more times that I would like tho.  Plus I got another war wound on my knuckle and can't remember what song I did that on.

We had a crowd most of the night, tho' it wasn't as packed as Waubeek was last week but we had plenty of dancers.  Everybody was in good form tho' there were a couple missteps (For What Its Worth was started and then faded off before we went into a part 2 of that song).  I think I played better this week than the Waubeek gig but I was beginning to drag before the closing of the final set.
It also didn't helped that we had yet another fucking snowstorm that dropped three inches of snow on the cars and getting snow on the drums on the load out and on the way home.  But at this point, the weather has warmed up to the point that the roads weren't bad and the snow would be all melted this afternoon.  

And so it was decided that I would return to help them out next week at Whiskey River in Monticello as the other drummer tries to get over what he has.  But the impression that I got was the guy didn't do a very good job at CRL Friday Night.  So I agreed to help Ron and Dakota one more time and one more Saturday Night.  Maybe then, the new guy will be able to perform better.  All he has to do is to know when to rock out and when to make it mellow and not go all out.  Somehow I have seemed to be the only one that can read Ron's cues better and adjust accordingly.

But I'll be back again.  Cuz I'm the world's greatest drummer in town.

(All photos:  Fran LaFleur)

Boy Scout Hippies at F B Company Waubeek 3/9/19

(Cali Jean Blake, Ron LaFleur ,Mr. Smith, Dakota McWhorter.  Or Ron and the Hired Help Band)


I have been stuck with walking phenomena ever since Sunday.  I got a shot for that and my arm is sore as hell.  I'm also dealing with issues at work.  Everybody has been bitchy and we have been up to our ears in work but the F B Company show was planned three months in advance.  I have to hand it to our main boss for working double shifts to get the work out and I have never seen our place of employment to be this chaotic.  It didn't help being sick right off the bat.

I just rather sleep the day away if I can stop this motherfucking coughing.  When you only get 25 minutes of sleep, you tend to really get annoyed at the slightest thing.  Nevermind our senior bitching and clock watching and then gets her clock cleaned out for taking too many smoke breaks.  It's not the best of times and it's only week one of Spring Processing.   So to be an excuse for making the 10 oclock news the wrong way.

I've been trying to promote this gig on various Facebook music sites and getting the the usual indifference and ridicule from the ignorant.  This time out from some double chinned fool from Pennsylvania

"Come see Boy Scout Hippies play FB Company in Waubeek Iowa this Saturday from 7-11"

Whoever Dano Grille was/is made a few unflattering remarks about location and maybe reaching the six children of the corn,  And somebody called him being Mr. No Cool over that. Thanks Dan Artuni tor trying to explain the rules to the clueless.

So I was going to copy and paste the exchange but somebody at Cover Bands Central decided to take the promotion off.  So we won't be getting the Children of the corn coming to tonight's show after all.  And I left that group.  They're weren't helping at all.  They probably hurt the cause more tho'.

I'm not a big fan of the Facebook band promotions anyway.  Tho' DJ and Bob Miller did show up to play the Waubeek Jam, I hardly get anybody to show up to any of our gigs.  Of course the weather has been shit all year and I'm dealing with yet another fucking rain storm for tonight, and having walking Phenomia doesn't help either.    But Ron wanted me to finish tonight's show and I hope I don't let him down.  But the anger fueled from dealing with Dano Grille's Adam Sandler's antics on the promotion. might make this something to remember me by.  We'll see.

Notes;

Nick Lnenicka joined us for some wild harmonica playing and he did return the microphone that David Lam was looking for last week.   For the first time since the Ok Lounge Tyrus Dec 7th 1984 show, I played with reckless abandon, to which both Ron and Dakota were quite surprised of the results that we seen.  The cheap ass freebie cymbal stand that Uncle Ike's threw in on that Tama set that I bought a few years ago, would not stay tighten and the cymbal fell three times in one set.  I managed to have a drumstick get stuck in one of the S Cymbal's hole which drew a few laughs and giggles.  One of the cymbals got revenge on me and slash my finger but I survived, it was the first time this has happen since coming out of retirement.    However, we had a great crowd, and most of them stayed till the end.

I played great despite being stuck with the persistent cough and sweating and Ron went through four shirts, he sweats more than anybody I've seen.  For not practicing for three weeks thanks to my wonderful place of employment and being sick with walking Phoenomia we sounded good. I kinda wish that they would have held off on Can't You See till the end but still the people were so much in awe of what they seen.

For three hours we gave it our all.  The trick is to hang on to what Ron was putting down on the groove and let things work itself out.  After which we all hugged each other and thanked them for allowing me to hang with them during the worst three months of winter ever on record.  They got a new drummer for next week at Aces N Eights and while I'm happy for them to continue to play on, this gives me time to go back to my regular suck job and try to help a sinking company.  For now, I'm not playing jams due to work issues and being sick doesn't help either.

But I give Ron credit for being honest and up front.  He treated me great and like a member of the band and he came through the with the payouts.  And he was flexible for me to practice when I could.  This is probably not the end of my tenure with them and the door is always open.  Great drummers will leave an impression to always waltz back into the drum chair.  I do hope that Ron considers me to be one of the best drummers to ever play his music.  I knew about three years ago when he showed up at Rumors that we would cross paths in the future.  I have no arguments with him and consider him to be a friend. The Boy Scout Hippies will continue to get better and with a new drummer a new chapter will evolve.

But in my temporary position with them, I think I left a lasting legacy.
Probably longer than Dano Grille.

Waubeek Jam With David Lam 3/2/19

Songs:

Knocking On Heaven's Door
Let's Work Together
Old Time Rock And Roll
Rock Me Baby
Dead Flowers
Ever So Much (Attempted)
I Won't Back Down
For What Its Worth

With:

David Lam-Bass
Nick Lenicka-Harmonica
DJ Hovenstot-Drums
Bob Miller-Drums
Sharon-Backing vocal on Knocking On Heaven's Door
Dave Bonham-Guitar


Notes:

It was the first time I got to host a jam.  Maki Dervo had to work early so he couldn't stay the whole five or six hours, however, we didn't have many jammers and it was all over before midnight.  I didn't plan on singing anything, but once Dave Bonham got done with his set, we still have about an hour left, so I came up and did my best to do songs that I remember the words to.  Alas, the drummer, can't think of his name, couldn't play Ever So Much, so I had to abort that one song.  And I Won't Back Down I haven't practiced in about two months.  David Lam, helped me out on bass and Nick stayed a while to play harmonica up to Rock Me Baby.

It was nice to  see DJ and Sir Bob Miller come out from Cedar Rapids to help play drums.

I only played drums on

Kiss An Angel Good Morning
Sweet Magnolia Blossom
A Thing Called Love
Stairway To Heaven

David Lam-Guitar and vocals (the first three)
Dave Bonham-Guitar and vocals (stairway to heaven)

I did bring the drums but we had four other drummers besides me, DJ and Sir Bob so everybody got to play my drums.  A rumor's vibe so to speak.  Unlike last month, when I played three and a half hours.  I played more using David's guitar on the final songs we played.  David had a beautiful Martin guitar.  It worked fine for me.

No shows included Ron and Dakota,  Phil Bo King (mainly his wife's getting into trouble last night has kept them away)  Chuck, Lenny and Nelson  were not there either.  Steve O's been gone for the past three months it seems.   Greg and Brenda Mein were in sunny Georgia, and away from the crappy weather.  Surprisingly, it didn't snow like it has been the past five weekends.  The major snowstorm stayed south of here for a change.

Meanwhile Julie and Ryan soldered on with Lisa Harbit and played Bo Macs, in front of a pretty good crowd.  They made more money than I did hosting the Waubeek Jam, David just gave me a twenty for gas money and putting up with other drummers using my kit.  After paying the waitress for root beer and two maid rites, my pay was 3.20.   Hardly a money making deal but I had fun and mingled with the crowd.   Yeah I would have made a few dollars more with Dreams Of Arcadia, but David was first in line and I figured I'd help him out.  Perhaps another return to Bo Macs will have me behind the congas but I don't pressure Julie or Ryan on this. I benefit from dating her. I think.

I don't look at my music and drum playing as a money making venture but an extension of my hobby. If I get paid, fine, but most of the jams I show up and play a couple songs and go home.  This time, I loaded the drums in the car, got there at around 6:30 and set the drums up, and grabbed a couple maid rites and took things in stride.  I had some goofy guy asking if this was a karaoke bar, told him it's karaoke with real instruments.  He wanted to sing Amos Moses by Jerry Reed but nobody knew it and he and his gang moved on about an hour later.

I think my set was the most rocking. At least we had some people dancing.  Since I didn't have my notebook of music, I relied on songs that I somewhat knew the lyrics to. With Captain Kirksey not there, it gave us a chance to close up the jam early.  I was home about fifty minutes later.

Very unlike the usual Waubeek Jam.

This concludes my jamming for a while.  I had two gigs left with Boy Scout Hippies but they decided to find another drummer.   I really didn't have the time to sit and practice with them.  I think Ron did treated me with respect and did his best to accommodate me with practice time, but I said in the beginning this was a temporary fill in role and surprised I made it this far.  And he did pay me very well. I wish them the best of luck and perhaps when I get time I'll make it to one of their gigs in town

And for the first time all year, We had no snow on Saturday or Sunday.  .

Checker's Acoustic Showcase Finale

Host: Kevin Moore

Songs:

I Know You Rider
Sundown
Go Out And Get It
Turn On Your Love Light
Stop Draggin My Heart Around
Switch Board Susan
If You See Her
Logic And Lies
Dear Lisa
Dead Flowers
Jet Airliner/Summertime Blues
Little Sister (Attempted)

All Along The Watchtower
Bobby McGee
Good Time Charlie
Ole 55
For What It's Worth

With

Mark Awad-Bass  (All Along The Watchtower  through  For What Its Worth)


Notes:

Since the revamped Checkers Acoustic Showcases, the jammers have been very minimal.  Tonight, it was just me, the host Kevin Moore and Mark Awad who showed up to play bass.  There were extended bass solos on All Along The Watchtower and For What It's Worth. An earlier than usual bass solo on For What Its Worth,  I couldn't remembered the second verse till later.

Julie was sick with the cold so it was Kevin's show.  And he bought some nice speakers and monitors and I finally got to hear myself up close and personal.  Kevin prefers doing solo songs but he did use Mark on Ain't No Sunshine as I was returning back to work on a long lunch break.  With spring processing coming up next week, I will not able to take leisurely lunches like I have been this month.

It will be interesting to see who shows up next week when Julie returns with Ryan.  I do wish them well and would love to be there to help out, but the weather has been terrible and cold and nobody ever goes out in this weather.  And the weather is supposed to stay record cold for next week, tho' no big snowstorms are in the forecast.   Still, the lack of musician support has been a casebook in frustration and nothing I can do about it.  The promotion on Facebook has been limited at best and the crowd that supported Lorie and Cathy are not there for Julie.    But there'll be no Acousta Kitties reunion, that bridge has been burned.    Julie does her damnest to get the word out, but Facebook doesn't do shit for getting people to jams.  I know that all the well.

Tommy Bruner made a cameo but didn't play.  Ed Butler played Fairfield instead.

A note from Checkers'

Thank You so much Rodney. We appreciate all you do and thanks for sticking by us all along the journey - we hopefully still have some life in this Wednesday jam we just need some more great music lovers such as yourself to stop out and support it. Talk is cheap, Participation is Priceless.

Rumors Sunday Funday Jam-Snowmaggedon Again

Songs played:

Tomorrow Never Knows
Roadhouse Blues
Born On The Bayou
Dreams
Bobby McGee
Proud Mary
Dyer Maker
Sweet Jane
Carmelita
Come Together

Tommy Bruner-Lead guitar and Vocals (Tomorrow Never Knows)
Randy Burgendorf-Lead guitar and Vocals (Roadhouse Blues)
Mark Awad-Bass (Tomorrow Never Knows, Roadhouse Blues)
Jeff Reeder-Guitar (Tomorrow Never Knows, Roadhouse Blues)
Tim Canfield-Bass on rest of the songs played.
Steve Stratton-Drums (Tomorrow Never Knows, Roadhouse Blues)
Dee Vieman-Vocals  on (Born on the bayou, Dreams, Bobby McGee, Proud Mary)
TroyTietge-Drums (Bayou, Dreams, Bobby McGee, Proud Mary)
Ed Butler-Guitar and Lead Vocals (Dyer Maker, Sweet Jane, Carmelita, Come Together)
DJ Hovenstot-Drums (Dyer, Jane, Carmelita, Come Together)
Nick Lenicka-Harmonica on where needed
Sir Bob Miller-Drums provided
Terry McDowell-Ditto
I played drums on the songs listed

(Richard Edward Butler, Or Ed as he's better known)

Notes;

For the second week in a row, Stone City General Store decided to cancel the acoustic jam, so I fought the wind and white out conditions to play again at Rumors.  Bob Miller provided an extra set of drums.  So I got to sit on about six songs matching wits with Steve Stratton.  He's improved a lot since becoming a regular jammer and playing in Blue Scratch.  Kim Trevellion sang Gold Dust Woman, Further Up The Road and I'm A Woman with her bandmate drummer.

(Jeff Reeder)

The roll call of players, I'll fill in when the newsletter comes out.   I'm terrible with names but Jeff  Reeder  is a visitor and played some cosmic guitar leads on Tomorrow Never Knows.  I didn't talk to Mark Awad but he was used for a lot of the second set and other players.  Tim Canfield returned when the girl singer and Troy came on stage.   It was easy to play along side Steve and DJ but Troy was a challenge to play  He didn't speed up the tempo on Bobby McGee and stumbled around the rest of the songs.  It was kind of frustrating when the other drummer didn't find the right beat.

Ed Butler has been busy on the scene and our paths have crossed a few times the past couple weeks. He braved the snowstorms to play the Artisan Sanctuary, Checkers and now Rumors.  He went electric on the four songs he did, and Randy thought that his guitar was out of tune.  Which really isn't the case,  Randy is used to doing his own songs and arrangements and is not familiar with Ed's eccentric style of playing.  Randy also thought that Ed's guitar was out of tune, it wasn't, it was a half step down from Randy's comfort zone.    It was a given that Dyer Maker would be the song that Ed would play along with Sweet Jame and an extended Come Together.   Ed might have been too eccentric for Randy to jam with, but he and Tim did improvise to fit the songs at hand.

And I'm still surprised nobody has bothered to play any Rare Earth songs in the tenure of Randy being here.   Maybe that's a no no.  But I hope some day that we'll jam with Get Ready in the future.

It was a good time and there was a good crowd despite the 30 MPH NW wind and snow blown roads. It was the first time I chatted with Kim Trevellion since I guest starred for Blue Scratch in November.  Likewise first time I've seen Mark since he played Checker's in November, alas I didn't get to chat with him.

(Bob Miller)
All photos courtesy of David Price
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Bird, Tim Canfield, Troy, Dee, Tommy, Me)  Ed Butler: Photo Credit

Another weekend, another snowstorm, another cancellation.   Dreams Of Arcadia decided to cancel the Grove gig.  Julie was dealing with tummy issues and another cold and Ryan was burned out from playing in Skin Kandy's Acoustic show at Jimmy Z's Friday night.  In essence, it rained most of the day, which helped getting rid of the 10 feet of snow piled around the mailbox.  The storm took its wrath on Central and Northwestern Iowa, We just got the rain and inch snow fall and the 50 MPH NW winds.

I was ready to play Saturday Night after a week of Vertigo issues. I did think the weather would turn bad after midnight and the winds did pick up about a hour later as well the snow squalls but Julie and Ryan would have to drive from CR to get to Scotch Grove and left that up to them.  In reality it was judgement call and my opinion, a good call just to call it a day and get a make up date.  I was in need of a nap before playing but Julie called me around 4 to mention to scratch the gig tonight. The turnout would have been minimal. 

2019 has been a bust in terms of playing gigs.  The weather has not helped at all.  We had to deal to with icy roads, polar vortex bone chilling cold, heavy winds, heavy fog, more ice and snow storms, and that was in February alone.  The weather fucked us out of a good turnout at Swisher in January and even the dates with Boy Scout Hippies we had shit weather as well.  And when I thought things were going well, I get vertigo and then go through two subpar performances this week and dealing with self doubt and stage fright once again.    I have a handful of playing dates with Boy Scout Hippies coming up, but I may have to forgo the Waubeek show for my regular job.  Ron and Dakota has a Ramsey's date coming up Thursday, but any weeknight gig they get, I can't play.  So this weekend I'll have to get together with Ron and talk about me leaving their band on good terms.  Ron and Dakota don't have regular jobs and can do what they want.  Same with Dreams Of Arcadia, but I do need a regular steady income to pay bills and have health insurance.   Plus I'm not married to a woman that will let me stay home and play music.  I'm seeing a real musician, she don't have two coins to rub together half the time.  But she and Ryan did score more dates to play on the week nights, any Saturday gig, I could help out if asked.  But like Ron's band, they can look for a replacement. 

The downtime, I could have started working on the next Townedgers album, but I've been a slave to social media and haven't done much outside of going through the songbooks and picking out songs that need a update.  We have about 20 songs from the low fi years (1987-1989) that would work.  It wouldn't take long to polish them up.  The question remains if it's feasible, or if anybody gives a fuck.   I'm not sure if even I give a shit about a new album.  I'm sure it frustrates Geoff and Ken as well.  But if I'm not feeling the song, it won't make a good album.  Even most of Logic And Lies has lost its luster.  Even when I did that song countless times at Artisan Sanctuary, Thursday's version I was suffering trying to keep interest to that song.  So, I may want to take a break from playing and singing a while. The vertigo this week didn't help at all.


Side Note: Ron Lafleur had a pow wow with a deer and cause some damage to his jeep. He says it was the third one in four years he's nailed.  And he just replaced a major crack on his windshield on that jeep. 

Artisan Sanctuary Open Mic-Vertigo Part 2

Setlist:

Get It Over With
Ole 55
All Over Now
If You See Her
Logic And Lies
For What It's Worth/
Cinnamon Girl

NOTES:

Still dealing with dizziness issues and I think my stage fright is back but I managed to survive that and played a better than thought  20 Minute set.  Get It Over With had a different arrangement and the riff to humble pie's I Don't Need No Doctor started out All Over Now.

And to throw a monkey-wrench into the whole set list, I went from the end to For What It's Worth into Cinnamon Girl.  I'm not sure why I did it, it sounded like a good idea and actually got good compliments from the folks at hand.

I have taken 3 sick days from work due to this vertigo issue so I may not be able to participate in any more week night jams anywhere.  God help us if another snowstorm comes along.

Patrick Lower had to have his left index finger removed due to a cancer concern. He's been having a worse year than me, with his junk car problems and now his finger.  He's sez he's doing better.  I hope he is, he's a wizard behind the sound of the artisan jams.

Dealing With Vertigo (Part 2)

From a viewpoint, it felt like stage fright was returning back to me on the Wed and especially Thursday night jam.  I felt strange on stage, not practicing beforehand and went on stage cold.  I had songs picked out but then my mind went blank.  So I decided to throw riffs into the beginning, somehow Get It Over With was done different and not exactly better. I look into the crowd and things are blurry, my guitar is hitting the music stand and I was getting pissed off about that.  Another Spinal Tap moment. All Over Now, somehow I was hearing Humble Pie's Don't Need No Doctor and couldn't remember the words, all of a sudden the All Over Now lyrics came to mind and I remembered about 80 percent of the words

Dave called out the Richie Haven's song Freedom but I opted to go with For What's It Worth, to which Ray and Barry would do their own version when they came up after me.  I thought I would extend the song by going into Cinnamon Girl.  Somehow that song has been cropping up quite a bit the last few times I played.  I'm surprised Julie didn't come up and sing that song with me Wednesday Night. Anyway, after that  I was done.  I had no more to offer and was still dealing with the aftereffects of the vertigo problem and retired for the evening.  Dave Bonham would do his own version of Everybody's Talking.

That night a lot of the jammers played Dylan covers, and of course yours truly had to use that Blonde On Blonde wheeze that everybody laughs at.  Dave did Tangled Up In Blue (A good version) Jeff and Berry did two (Knocking On Heaven's Door and You Ain't Goin Nowhere)  and Patrick sang Just Like A Woman.   Looking back I should have done Spanish Harlem Incident or She Belongs To Me.

Unlike's the last Open mic, we had a few folks there and the show ended right around 10 PM.  Ron and Dakota were not there but Dave and Sharon was.  Dave mentioned that Vance Hanson, the freeloader who ruined Julie's car rummaged through his things and pretty much took all the drugs that was left behind.  It's a sad fact that Julie trusted her car and house to a total junkie halfwit who destroyed her car and almost her place.  You think she would know better by now, but she tries her best to help the fallen and the worthless and I don't think she'll ever change.  She does mean well; it's a shame that the ones she tries to help ends up dumping on her.

We'll see how things go this weekend in Stone City at the next acoustic showcase. But it was a struggle to perform these past two nights.