Artisan: Scaring Away Folks With My Love Songs

The Highway Is For Dreamers 

Girl From The Other Side Of Town

Correspondence 

Logic And Lies

Be With Me

Been Down So Long

Phil Koening (Guitar) and Freddy Jones (Harmonica) on Been Down So Long

I was listening to More Rodney Smith And The Townedgers album on the way over and the first two songs came off that album.  Both made their debuts.

Ron LaFleur was there with Fran but he had to go to bed early so he left right before my performance.  Which he usually does.  Kimberly Sphr opted for Karaoke music and left during Logic And Lies.  I gather she doesn't like my love songs for Julie.  She was welcome to sing on Gold Dust Woman, but she opted not to speak to me.  I suppose it's the conservativeness of them and perhaps they didn't want to hear my tribute to Rush Limbaugh, with a vocal only Oh Death.  Somehow I didn't sang that one.

Dave Bonham was there and closed the show.

Brian Bries, from Blues Rox, played three songs with Freddy helping out on one.  I don't know why Brian gets nervous of playing solo.  Hell, I have done this and conquered my stage fright.  Maybe the next time I will get Brian to help out on a song that I play.  

We had enough jammers to not have a jam session but Phil Bo and Freddy helped out on a cover of the Doors' Been Down So Long, a song I haven't played in a while. Both can adapt to my oddball arrangements.

The Artisan is moving back to Cedar Rapids.  After four years of being there, the place was sold and I guess there'll be another realtor or office building replacing the Sanctuary in Marion.  I considered it home for the past four years and there have been special memories of playing there.  The Blues Jam of last year, Julie's Benefit last January, the Maury Baker Jam next door at the Famous Mockingbird (a distant memory).   The hope is to return one more time and share the stage and go out with a bang. The new place is across from Coe, which used to be an office furniture store. In fact I worked there in 1987 doing key entry for about a week.  I will miss the old place but look forward to be playing a newer and perhaps a more open stage.  We'll see what Jim will have in store. 

Idle Times

It has been a big month of suck here.  If it ain't 20 below, then we are dealing with 6 to 8 inches of new snow.  It's been that way since January.  On a bright spot, we are half way through winter but on the down side we got Artic Siberia weather.  Even  Anchorage Alaska   is warmer than here.  And it's snowing again.

I've been stuck at home for four straight days.  To which I have been going through the archives of the Townedgers/Route 66 albums for songs to do for the acoustic adventures showcase later in the year.  For this month Blues Rox has two gigs coming up this month and next Saturday another artic blast will make the Norway show not a lot of fun.  Oh we'll get paid but I wonder if the frostbite will be worth it.

Just like that, the Norway show is RSCD.  Too cold to play.

(Redwing lineup early 80s?  Binger, Case, Dewitte, Krause) 

Doug Case's passing ends Redwing, the CR Country rock band of the 1980s, no relation to the Redwing band that recorded for Fantasy Records in the 70s.  Ron DeWitte and Don Timmons passed in 2019.  Turk Krause is the only living person.  The other guy was G Barry Blaise Binger who played bass and got into fights with other people.  He died in police custody in 1992, suffering a aneurysm and heart attack.  The booze controlled him.  We saw them play Kitty's in 1984 to which Binger called the crowd assholes to the point that our guitar player was ready to jump the stage and kick his ass.  But it was just Barry being his lovable self.  We crossed paths a couple times but I don't remember much of them.  He might have worked at Carma Lou's House of Music but the memory is fizzled.  I know one night we were there and the guy accused us of stealing things to which I told him you have to have something to steal and what you have isn't worth pissing on.   That got me banned for a while there, but I don't think it was Barry that chatised us.  If I remember much of Binger, its from some of the tales that I heard from others.  Fellow EGADs member Tim Nemec said that he and Barry would make obnoxious phone calls late at night from playing.  Randy Hartwig, our sound guy wanted to punch Barry in the face after seeing them play.  But there was something about Binger that I had to be on my caution.  In 1992, he tried to break into a woman's trailer screaming that somebody was trying to kill him.   Turns out his inner demons killed him.  Redwing always had a great lineup of musicians but there was something magical with Doug Case and Ron Dewitte playing and Binger and Timmons a steady rhythm section. All are missed. 

 

Jim Jacobmeyer is moving the Artisan Sanctuary back into Cedar Rapids sometime in March.  It's bittersweet for me;  I really wanted to get back to play on the outdoor stage in uptown Marion just like we did back in September.  For the past four years, the Artisan stage was where I crafted my music and songs to a appreciated  folks and dedicated musicians.  On the down side, it was a small and cramped stage.  I do believe I will support Jim and the new location.

The past couple months, I reconnected with Olivia  Mallard, who I saw out in Portland in 1999-2000 and helped me celebrated the new year in style back then.  Then she found somebody closer and we drifted apart, only to reconnect in 2008, which became the theme for Pawnshops For Olivia and then said goodbye to her in 2013.  We have hello a couple times and have shared a few laughs along the way, but these are different times.   She lives out on the west coast with her teenaged daughter.  When she came out in 2000, she developed walking phenomena that lasted for about five months.  No way, she's moving out here, the weather would kill her.  , Julie and me have been together for just about four years, and like most people we have our share of ups n downs. There's always temptations but anybody that knows me is that I am very loyal  and faithful when I'm with somebody.  And that goes back as far as when I wasted my high school years waiting for Jeanette to return, which she never did. I have a strong love and Julie is my love. 

For being a hobbyist gigging, I've always put the music first.  I don't date even when I could: I enjoyed coming and going and hanging at record stores to find music.  I have dated a few times, got lucky even less but I stressed that anybody I share the bed with, I would have to be in love with them.  It's been a while and I have to admit I'm a bit shy about going the next step further with Julie.  I do want that to be a great experience for her if we do take it further.   Julie is quite attractive, time has treated her great.  More so than me. 

I have heard  rumors about Checkers starting up the acoustic jam but due to COVID epidemics going around, it won't happen for a while longer, till we get vaccinated.  I'm in favor of that, so is Julie.  There is expressed interest of seeing the Acousta Kitties reunite, I would love to see that happen.  I am not so certain that Cathy Hart will sign off on the deal but I know Lorie would be in and I'm sure Julie will say yes to that too.   But like everything I write, there's a wait and see and most of the time they don't pan out. Just like Tyrus/Paraphernalia, it's more talk than action but Russ and I have now back together on stage again with Blues Rox.  If it wasn't for the Acousta Kitties and their involvement, I would still be playing drums only.

Our idiot Governor  COVID Kim has lifted the mask mandate and limited public gatherings so that everybody can catch the COVID or flu when you go bar hopping.  For the most part most of the bars and restaurants still have their social distancing and wear a mask rules.  For myself I will continue to wear a mask, continue to social distance and continue to be careful in this time of crisis.  For the Boy Scout Hippies (Ron and Tommy) and other defiant folks, they'll continue to do their own thing and I'll respect their wishes. But at the same time, my commitment to staying safe while about and out will remain so.   I have promised Julie that I wouldn't be bar hopping till things get better.  Which means the Sanctuary will be my only place of playing at for now.  For Blues Rox, I have drums and that will social distance me from everybody.  Better safe than sick.

So, it's been a quiet 2021, no thanks to COVID and shit weather.  but I'll be keeping busy playing and writing up new music.  Plus I still got 11 more episodes of The Untouchables to watch if I get too bored.

 

Thoughts From The Townedger-January 2021 Edition

When I turned sixty on Sunday, I had a bittersweet attitude about turning the big SIX OH.  The past ten years shot by, like a shooting star.  When I turned 50, I still looked 10 years younger and still felt like that I had something to give.  10 years ago, I wasn't playing and spending way too much time on the couch watching worthless cable tv and getting involved with a woman that I was friends with on a singles dating site and trying to change myself to accommodate her.  And spending countless hours fighting once she did moved here. 11 months, I returned her back to her state, being done with the dating scene.  I swore I wasn't going to go through the hassles of trying to win somebody over and, if she had kids, win them over.  I guess I wasn't that bad of a person.  I kept in touch with a few of my past love interests.   I remain surprised that they wanted to be plutonic friends.

Songs were written about the train and error of my ways.  To the point that the majority of the albums were one topic, the failure of love.  I didn't figure about playing live, till Forthcoming Trains was recorded and Diggy Kat, my good friend and adopted son promoted We All Sleep Alone and it became a number 1 internet radio hit.  Somehow his encouragement got me thinking about playing live in the Cedar Rapids Music scene and in July of 2015, at age 54, I clumsily got back on the drum kit to play a couple songs offbeat.  I really needed to get back into playing shape.   It took me a while (two years actually) before I got to playing how I used to play in the 80s and another year before I really begin to play my best drumming ever.     With the help of the Acousta Kiddies, the acoustic adventures started up a year later.

40 years ago, I got a Zickos drum set with the hopes of playing drums and making loads of money, a fucking dream upon itself.   And perhaps getting my share of girls as well, another myth.   Playing drums was easy, getting the girls not so much of and in the 1980s I had long dry spells, usually the wrong kind. They did make songs about my EXP with them, the fantasy and wild dreams but the reality was I kept going after the wrong ones.  When Tyrus broke up, I stayed on my own dream of writing original songs.  I came a long way but I was too shy to peddle the songs outside of a few trusted friends. 

The scrawny 19 year old, has since became a seasoned and cynical sixty year old, alternating between The Townedgers, Blues Rox, and the Acoustic Adventures.  It hasn't hit me that I have turn into six decades, but then again it didn't hit me when I turn 50 or 40 for that matter.   When I returned to play, I felt that I had to at least make an attempt to see if I was any good at playing drums or guitar and singing.  There has always been stepping stones along the way.   Wrigleyville, Rumors, The Wiley Kats, The Egads, FB and Company, Stone City, Artisan Sanctuary, Blue Scratch, Boyscout Hippies and now Blues Rox.  

I met and jammed with a lot of the musicians in town.  Most of them have been gracious and kind and encouraged me to keep playing.   I have a couple that disowned me due to my liberal point of view (tho I'm more conservative than I appear) , a couple others that would say you're the best when you play in their band one week and then the other get ignored.   And one other that annoyed me so much with his criticism that I finally had to block the idiot, plus he always promised to show up for jams and never did.   The kind of folk I can do without.  When i share the stage, I own nobody and when I sit in for other bands  I expect the same in return.  I took a look at the band situations and based judgment.  With  The Boy Scout Hippies, I had the chance to play with them fulltime, but given my preference for working evenings, I told Ron that I'll sit in on the weekends or fill in.  I credit him for his patience and granting that wish, but I also knew if I committed full time, I would have to be 100 percent in for them and not nobody else.  I have missed phone calls about playing in other bands or filling in, till COVID is finally solved, I think I'll stick with selected open mic venues.  Guess which ones.  And yes Shelly Foley, I do miss seeing you at Rumors. We'll meet again. 

COVID did ruin my 5th Anniversary celebration.  I haven't done Waubeek nor Whittier since March of last year and the latter may be gone forever.  I don't foresee the return of Waubeek till April at the earliest.  At the moment Maki Dervo still doesn't think the time is right to start things up again.  Till at least we get vaccinated. 

When I came back to play again, I wasn't looking for love or a quick romp in the sack.  There's not a lot of choice out there when you hit my age and I'd be dammed if anybody under 39 is gonna take a look at my way.   Upon the Honey Badgers Rumors August 2015 jam, little did I know that I would capture the fancy of one lucky woman.   Let's face it, I'm not a romantic guy at all, I'm very set in my ways for going out to find old records and CDs and fill up the house with more hoarding crap.   But I have always been a record hunter for 57 of these 60 years.  And then Julie came into this life.   And almost four years after meeting her, after the ups and downs and thinking it was over and done with, I have finally won her over.

It's a cute love story.  The Honey Badgers Rumors bash, losing her bestie a month later and on his tribute I never gotten the chance to say my condolences.  And then four months later, at another Rumors' jam she sat with me.  Out of all the EXP musicians in town, she picked the stranger at the table.  I supported her band and with the Acousta Kitties, going up there after a Waterloo bargain hunt in Independence and she offered a ride back to my car.  Somehow she found an attraction to me, but I always found myself in awe when she sang and I hanged around like some goofy groupie.  I couldn't get myself to ask her for a date, so she did that in 2017, after wondering aloud about if I was ever going to ask her.  So on Memorial Day, we went out for a burrito and a movie.  And on Dec. 2, she sang her way into my heart with Walking After Midnight.  Like everybody in relationships we have our ups and downs and there were times I thought it was over.    She has a love like no other, a woman that can sing her way into my heart and fights like hell to keep me.  There's a romantic side of her I would love to touch into.  And gives the best kisses.   I don't know how she loves me like she does but I'm happy she's here in my life.

Which poses the question.  I have remained on friendly terms with my former love interests if there would be a chance to reconnect.  The answer would be no.   I have a great woman with me and if something happened to her, I'd be heartbroken and tho I would never say never, chances are it would be a great long time if I wanted somebody else in this life.  I've been a patient person with Jules, and the patience is finally paying off.  Besides, her furbaby approves of me.  Can't let the ole boy down.

I don't foresee February being a busy month.  In fact, outside of the Open Mic at the Sanctuary, there won't be much gigging for me.  I just may stay in the Jacuzzi all fucking month!  

Till then.

 

More Townedgers Albums from the Archives.

 Back in the 1990s and 2000s I didn't play in any other bands outside of The Routers, a band that featured Dave Dobler and Greg Nutter and the late Paul Stynenski  (Mike Swearingen appeared in the 1992 version of the Routers) in 1991, which got me back into music again.    We made an live album which I cherry picked the best songs but never saw fit to reissue it.

For the most part, the official albums are still remain the ones that I reference when I want to play the songs again.   However, I did compile albums that had the alternative versions and songs that didn't make the original album themselves.   A Long Time Forgotten, started out with sessions with Garth Richardson produced in 2004 but the masters have been misplaced.  Most of the songs resurfaced on LTF, but these were electric and not acoustic.   I may have stumbled upon the original CD master copy while going through the archives but to be honest only Nevada Streets was the best of the batch.  What's missing is Rolling And Tumblin, which came out on a best of that got shelved. Which means I will have to try to find that best of, I don't think it's been thrown away.

The master tape of 20, the 2003 album is sadly misplaced.  And sad to say, that the 2000 tape masters of There's Nothing Left and Road Less Traveled are ruined.  Somehow the old 4 track we used,  and tapes had an expiration date.  Terry Bainbridge took a listen and shook his head, cassette tapes lost the fidelity. So, I have the studio CDs finished but they will have to be the source for me to go to while compiling best ofs or outtakes.

But anyway, Searching the divine archive of The Townedgers/R.Smith, most of the CDs dubbed from the original finished tapes have managed to stay fairly clean.  A couple attempts to revisit them later on, were polished up, but by removing the tape hiss, some of the songs lost their creative soul.   Anything from the low fi years (1983-1988) were recorded from cassette player to player, but one of them played the tape faster than the others which proved to be a painful listen.  Getting a four track, we managed to correct the speed and removed the excessive tape hiss but the anything goes of Tales Of The Red Caboose, all we could do was compress the tape.  It still sounds ugly but at least we have managed to scoop half the mud and hiss to make it listenable.  

As mentioned before, the echophonic years (1976 to 1982) are pointless to revisit so all have fallen out of print.  There was talk about putting together the best of that time, but it's not needed.  The Power Of Positive Thinking (1981) would be considered reissue material over the 1980 and 1982 albums but then again the 1980 original CD doesn't play at all.  The 1976 Beautiful Renditions is interesting for the overdubbing used back then but I couldn't play or sing very well.  Good intentions but it was more jazzing around with Dad's reel to reel players. 

The past few album I did add a cd of outtakes or cover versions.  There's a CD that contained the 2013 outtakes from No Exit/30 but I can't bring myself to issue that.  The performances are ragged, the covers are not that great and most were grandiose failures.  I may use that as a title if I want to add it as a official reissue but who knows.  

Stories From The Road is the first best of The Townedgers and it covers from 1983 to 1999.  I tried my best to include the best songs from the albums of long ago and far away. However, I did use the long version of Walk A Thin Line and live versions of It's So Hard and All Over Now.  Observations From The Forefront was part greatest hits and part oddities but somehow that album worked better.  The original sources of the original recordings could be all over the place. 

New Found archives albums.

Stories From The Road-The Best Of (2000)

More Rodney Smith And The Townedgers (2001)

New Bottles For Old Wine

Even More Rodney Smith And The Townedgers 

Sing Along With The Townedgers Or Highway Music 

Mixed Blessings (2006)

7/7/7 (2007 Live album)

Solon (2007 Live in the studio album)

Acoustic Favors 

the 2013 Leftovers album (not issued)

The 2007 albums came quickly.  At that time I started winning and buying Paiste cymbals off Ebay and had quite a collection when I did both albums. Both album had the RUDE lineup for those albums. Over time, those albums kept getting lost in the stacks of CDs in the house.  Over time,  both 777 and Solon turned out to be a pretty good idea of how the TEs would sound live.

More was actually a comp of the best outtakes and one off singles.  Most came from the 1996  Light At The End Of The Tunnel outtakes.  New Bottles dives deeper into the archives, with a 1996 drum remix of some of the lesser known tracks from the 80s, to which Running In The Rain was used for the greatest hits.   Some songs were redone later for other albums, Somewhere Down The Line for example.   Summertime Dream has sadly out of tune guitars that make it painful to listen.

Highway Music was our answer to karaoke.  Instrumental tracks, and if you knew the words, good for you. Most came from Modern Problems album.   I tend to find the album without lyrics to be somewhat boring.  

Acoustic Favors was a bunch of acoustic numbers done one night and made a CD of it, but that has disappeared as well as Even More RS/TE.  That was recorded straight to CD one day.  Wish I could find that CD, it did paved the way to my acoustical adventures playing live as well.

Mixed Blessings was found. It was recorded on CD RW, which doesn't play on the regular player.  It includes the majority of the Garth Richardson produced aborted album.  I might try to record from CD player to recorder in the near future but it's not one of the best albums I have done.

The 2013 Leftovers album contains the rest of the NO Exit recordings but without The End, to which I thought about naming that album The End.  Martin Daniels mixed up a reference copy to which I believe this is that.  

It wasn't uncommon for me to mix up a comp of songs that didn't make the original album.  The companion 2009 Country was outtakes from Pawnshops For Olivia.  The Eminent Dormain album was the companion to Logic And Lies, and the Leftovers from No Exit/30.   Elegy basically the scrapings of the bottom of the barrel plus a few things from the 2020 TE album.

The Townedgers Archives have been in disarray for many years.  This week, I am trying to make sense of it all and to see if any of these albums have some sort of value.  Solon is the best of the two 2007 live in the studio albums.  Hopefully if I can find a computer with recording these cds so I can get them back into print.  

 

The albums of the Townedgers (Official)

So Much For That (April 1983)

Town Edge Rock (June 1983)

Living In The Twilight Zone (Sept 1983)

Love Sucks (aka hey you) (Dec 1983)

Infinite Loop (June 1984)

Rock And Roll Made Me What I Am Today (April 1985)

Rodney Smith And Route 66 (July 1985)

Wapsipinicon Dreaming (Sept 1986)

Every Hour On The Hour (Dec 1986) 

Tales Of The Red Caboose (June 1987)

Postcards From The Edge (Dec 1987)

Travelogue (October 1988)

State Fair (March 1989)

Moonlight Chronicles (Aug 1989)

Floodlands (November 1989)

Purseyors Of The Truth (Aug 1990)

Nice Weather We're Having (October 1990)

Diamonds In The Skies (November 1991)

Drive In Blues (June 1992)

The First And Last Reunion (March 1993)

Modern Problems In Reflected Living (June 1993)

Weather On The Nines (November 1994)

These Things Must Past (June 1995)

Light At The End Of The Tunnel (March 1996)

The Art Of Deception (November 1998)

Land Of Abandonment (Dec 1999)

There's Nothing Left (March 2001)

The Road Less Traveled (March 2002)

Observations From The Forefront (2002)

20 (July 2003)

A Long Time Forgotten (2005)

The Highway Home (2007)

Pawnshops For Olivia (2008)

Townedgers Country (2009)

No Exit/Thirty (2013)

Forthcoming Trains (2014)

Fitting Finales (2015)

Jubilee (2016)

The Wapsipinicon Dreamers (2017)

Logic And Lies (2017)

Eminent Dormain (2018)

The Townedgers (2020)

Elegy (2020) 

Artisan Sanctuary With Phil Koening

Songs.

Fox On The Run

At The Crossroads

One More Time

Keep On Walking (Blues for Samantha Fish)

Cannery Row

Good Time Charlie Got The Blues

Solitary Man

Dear Lisa

The Last Time

Logic And Lies

Won't Get Fooled Again

Baby What You Want Me To Do

Please Send Me Someone To Love 

Blind Eye

Lay Down Sally

No Expectations

Honky Tonk Woman

Cinnamon Girl

With:

Phil Koening (10-18)

Phil played lead guitar

Jim Jacobmeyer, Freddy Jones, Jeffrey Brown and Diana Conwell-Koening showed up.

Notes:

I did three songs from the No Exit/Thirty album and brushed up on some of the favorites and song  I don't need a cheat sheet to play.  Only Phil Bo was the only other performer.  Freddy Jones did add some harmonica on Phil's set.  Phil joined me at the beginning of Logic and Lies.  For a first time run through he did well.

The spike in COVID cases kept the participants down to a minimal.  Had I not shown up, it would have been Phil's show.  

I've sat down to play again.  I prefer standing but since we didn't have anybody there, I could just sit and thumb through the book and pick songs to play.  Usually for the jam part, Phil Bo takes over but Freddy had other plans so we shared the stage.  We were done by 9 15.  

Jeffery requested Won't Get Fooled Again, so me and Phil played it for him.  I think we did very well, including that infectious scream at the end of the song.  

Last time I played Lay Down Sally, Cyndi Mahoney was in the audience.  She has disappeared since our falling out.  Not that it matters much. 

With Stone City starting up the open mic there in two weeks, it might help me get my collective groove back, tho the social distancing and wearing a mask will still be in play.  I'm not too keen to start up, if we are all enclosed in the same place.  I haven't signed off about playing at Rumors once that gets going.  I may wait till I get the COVID vaccine.

Artisan Sanctuary: Behind The Mask

Setlist:

Buckingham-Nicks

Solitary Man

Drawn In The Dark

Knock On Your Door

She Belongs To Me

Not Fade Away/

Logic And Lies

For What Its Worth 

If You See Her

Stepping Razor

The First Cut Is The Deepest

Cinnamon Girl

Jam Band Encore:

Broke Down Engine Blues

I Put A Spell On You

So Sad (the world is in a tangle)

Phil Koening-Lead vocal and guitar

Freddy Jones-Harp

Marijane Euchner-Guitar

R Smith-Guitar

So begins the first outing of 2021. A return to the stage and the return of the Acoustic Adventures.  A small and very supportive folks  (Jeff Brown, Patrick's Girlfriend and Jim Jacobmeyer were the only other folks there).  With Just Phil Bo, Patrick and me sharing songs, I could balloon up the songs and not picking up a guitar for the past couple weeks have really diminished my playing.  Knock On Your Door was played in the wrong capo placing and Not Fade Away really out of order, but it lead into Logic And Lies.   While the gang thought different, Stepping Razor was debuted and Solitary Man was dusted off.  Five songs were off the new Townedgers album. 

Phil Bo took over singing on the encore numbers.  M J and Fab Five Freddy Jones came up to play some guitar and harp, concluding with Canned Heat's So Sad (the world is in a tangle).  An odd choice considering we could have played Let's Work Together, but it's nice to play something different.  I think out of the musicians that I have shared the stage with Phil Bo remains one of the more graceful performers ever.   I hope I have time to go jam with him and record songs for a future project.  That would make my day.

Last time I had supper at Ramsey's nobody was there on a Thursday Night.  They have announced that they are closing January 16, so I thought I better grab one more Taco Salad before the doors close.  Tonight, the place was busy, but at least I found a table.  I will miss that place, a good place to hang and play acoustic music, tho I only graced the stage a couple times. 

When I went home, I was thinking about Tommy Patterson, how he managed to play on stage one final time before passing away.  That would be the way to for me.  Or even better yet pass away on stage, the final bow.   

(pardon the mess, guitar genius at work) 

As I'm approaching sixty, I am beginning to think that I'm slowly coming the end of my musical adventures and probably life itself.   I have become more tired of late, even taking naps two hours after waking up.  My blood pressure has been elevated to the point that I'll never get it back to normal.  I have been dealing with loss of hearing from my left ear and countless tinnitus as well.  The process of aging gets everybody.  Up till I turned 50, I looked younger for my age but as each year passes on, the hair on top of my head gets thinner, the body hair thicker.  Music still makes me feel vital n younger but there are days that I'm really beginning to feel my age.   It's a shame we can't stay young forever.  I wish I had my musical talent 40 years ago.  These acoustic adventures seem to be one last victory lap before it's all gone.

For the past few years, I have laughed at the face of morality, but things are evening out.  The day of reckoning is coming sooner than I think.  The trick is to at least make it to Sixty, and then after that, we'll take things one day at a time.  I try not to talk about death in front of Julie, she's seen enough of that from her life.  Death has spared me for another year, but I have a suspicion that it might be different this time.  

Carma Lou Beck, was the owner of Carma Lou's House Of Music back in the 70s and 80s.  If I needed some drum sticks or replacing drumheads, that was the place to be (as well as West Music, Hiltbrunners and Music Loft).  She was a true professional, tho I did have a run in with one of her smart assed help, (somebody accused me and Russ of stealing things, which I replied you gotta have something to steal first Dipshit).  That's where I got the replacement Pearl Snare for the old Zickos set (to which I still play that Snare on the new Townedgers album) and a 18 inch Zildjian Medium Thin Crash which might have been the best cymbal I ever had prior to the K Session Crash).   She passed away on Monday (1/4).  Before Guitar Center came and killed the music stores, Carma Lou's was probably the best place to get music instruments.  I might have bought a couple of the Ludwig Hercules cymbal stands that I still use too, but they need to be retired.  Thank you for the memories Carma Lou.   We will miss you.  

https://www.cedarmemorial.com/Obituary/2021/Jan/Carma-Lou-Beck/?fbclid=IwAR1gLtRigCPoHKn3jy11f5Y3TolsZIBowmr_DEjBIJQFKSq7Wts_eeV6LMo

Also, Billy Bourbon's wife  Shelley passed from cancer on Jan 6.   Billy never mentioned her at all, and I never asked.  But he's in my thoughts as well.