New York - June 24 2006: Day 4 (wedding day for patrick and jenny)

man saturday morning, i woke up way too early, took some aspirin and another blue one and konked out for another couple of hours. i could hear people moving in the house a few hours later, so i got up and wandered into the kitchen. jon was up and moving, i didn't have any idea where jack was, julie jordan was still down for the count. so me and jon got some coffee goin, jon told me that terry had one of those 10 squared hangovers. all i could do was feel sympathy...because outside of death or getting drunk again....well nothing cures those. unfortunately for terry.... the bride.... jenny was coming over to get her hair done...as julie jordan pointed out later it's a good thing we've all learned to do our work drunk. me and jon were sitting out on the deck, hell it must have been 3 hours later, when jenny and her friend hilly drove up( i remember hilly's name because as she pointed out....it's billy with an H.) poor terry she did a terrific job with the brides hair, all the time feeling like death eating a cracker. so the wedding was at 2:30, and i was holding off on my breakfast beer because wedding gigs can go any different number of ways....i figured clear-eyed was the best way to approach this (in real life i was pretty calm as i had already met jenny and hilly when jenny came to get her hair done) once again my respect for terry tripled she came thru like a champ. i had told her that if she was feeling too bad she could burn off after the ceremony and jon could come back for me.....i wasn't sure what my slot times were... i knew i was contracted from about 3:30 till about 8:30, and 5 hours is a long time when you're hungover, and not drinking. it turned out to be no biggie as terry managed to mount a rally.
we got to the park where the wedding was being held, and i had a look around, there was another musician booked, his name was todd and i never did get anymore than that. he had a sound system set up and was kind enough to let me use a couple of channels on it, so i didn't have to screw with the one i had brought. we sat around for a bit talking to people we didn't know, that's how i met adri ( i hope i spelled that right) i'm not sure of their legal status but he was with hilly, it was really cool meeting all these great people from holland who knew as much about texas music as i did. in between waiting and smoking, jon pointed out the groom (patrick) to me...so i went over to thank him for inviting me to his wedding, this next part is classic....his first words to me were....and i swear to god this is the truth "oh, glad you could make it....i need a beer"
so the ceremony started ( at this point i want to say that the bride was breathtaking) and we all formed a circle and the official who i believe said she was a poet laureate somewhere, did the service and it was very touching, and i was in a pretty good space standing at parade rest and watching the newly weds.....then it was done and everybody started drifting in the direction of the beer keg.
todd was going to play first, which suited me fine, as he already knew some of the people there.....at this point i have to say that weddings are my least favorite things to play, because it's hard to know what to do.....everybody's attention is on the bride and groom (and rightly so) but it leaves you out of sync as to what to do....it's not like a club date, where they want certain songs or a particular style of music....you're backdrop....which is cool except it's a hard line to walk between being engaged and being over-engaged......i found out really fast that i was thinkin too much....i started and everybody....including pat and jenny were into the stuff i was playing....damn it was like a clubdate.... well i may be just another dumbass cowboy from houston....but when people want a storyteller.......hey, i'm up for that. man it was so much fun....and the coolest thing was that i was playing all this obscure stuff, the kind of stuff i play for my own enjoyment, and the folks knew all of it. i played about an hour and a half then took a break.....that's when i met mike (yes, another mike) and tamra. they were friends of patricks and really rockin. they were both into gram parsons and byrds stuff, and i could play that for the rest of my life and be happy, but i had taken a chance and done "cheese enchiladas" and they seemed to like it. i hung out on my break with them, and found out that they got the PATRON reference and they had been drinking patron the night before, which made me wish i had met them about 14 hours earlier.
i was in the middle of a break when julie jordan showed up, and since i'm always happy to see her, this time was no different.....but....she.....had a message for me. it seems that the band that was supposed to play at the rongo that night had cancelled and mike barry wondered if i would be interested in doing a couple of sets..........WELL SURE........what time, and i was told about 9:30.....not a problem i'll see ya'll there.
i was really stoked about the rongo show, but i still had a set to play for pat and jenny. todd was just finishing his set, but he had to motor and now i didn't have his sound system.....i had the one i had brought, but it seemed like more trouble than it was worth to spend an hour setting it up, just to play 45 minutes or so...anyway.....i did what i used to do back in houston when the power failed..... i bunched everybody up and played a true acoustic set....no electricity. i played till i was in danger of missing my sound check at the rongo....then we packed up and hauled ass...... i made it to the rongo with almost 2 minutes to spare.......more on that later.