The Weekend - Rongo and Easter

hidy ya'll
Well, we got thru the weekend....and it was a real barn-burner....so to speak....it was still snowing yesterday so maybe a burning barn would warm things up.

I’ll start with sat nights show at the rongo. we had a really good crowd (thanks ya'll, for coming out). The band was pretty hot and reasonably tight, although there was that nagging issue of broken guitar strings. I can't seem to keep G strings on my guitar ( insert your own joke here).

The previous week we had some pretty good media exposure so we were easy to find.
We played a couple of sets, then played another, then called it a night.

Sunday was Easter, and Jon and Terry have a traditional party so we were pit roasting chickens ( yes, it was snowing). There was lots of food and almost everybody I know here showed up...Eric and Diane Aceto stopped by and he had his fiddle so we played a bit....there were lots of players and I’ll write more about that in detail when I get home next week......I’m spending today getting ready for my trip to nyc, so I don't have much time.

Before I leave ya'll till next time though, I want to thank Harry Aceto, Al Hartland, and Chad Lieberman for playing with me last week.....it's a real pleasure to work with so accomplished a group. It’s as close to effortless as anything is....

ok then
till next time
adios

Me and Britney

hidy ya'll
Well it's Friday....and I have tonight off so I think I’m heading down to Ithaca and check out
a rockabilly band that Al Hartland is drumming with tonight.
Al was the drummer for me last night in Syracuse....good guy, major whip on that snare drum too.

Anyway, about that Syracuse show.

we were booked cold into a place called downtown manhattans, so about 5:30 yesterday afternoon I de-camped from hall road and drove down to Harry Acetos place in Ithaca, where I connected with Eric, Harry, Chad, and al....we dumped the rented pa in Eric's van and took that and the rental car up to the gig.

The drive up took about an hour and a half, and it was still snowing pretty good and that lasted till at least 3:00 am.

Anyway we made the club and got set up...started our first set to maybe 4 people.
The bartender told she was expecting more later and the manager there said we had received a pretty good write-up in the previous week’s entertainment section of the local paper. All in all I was still fairly optimistic.......but I got past that.

The band sounded pretty good and we were starting to get our groove on in spite of 2 dead channels in the mixer which shorted our vocals a bit, and an occasional weird honking sound that emitted from the speakers.

We got fired up ,and ran the show top to bottom and there were some people coming in, but we weren't having very much in the way of impact ( I kept thinking about that Asleep at the Wheel video, where the band is playing at a motel conference room, and there are like 2 people in the house kind of staring blankly at the band, Ray Benson wraps the song up and looks around and says "man, who booked this gig" )

I t all came home to me in a blinding flash when we took our first break. The house sound system starts pumping out Britney spears and all the young dudes and dudettes start grooving to it. I was vaguely reminded of the time I was playing a gig down in the warehouse district and the back stage door wasn't marked...I accidentally walked into the young gay bull riders for Jesus support group (no offense to any young gay bull riders out there)

I felt as out of place as a station wagon on a NASCAR track.
anyway we muddled on thru it, and the bar staff was nice, as were the young dudes and dudettes....they didn't get us, but they were nice about it...we started our last set and I tried to swamp it up a bit, but sadly I just don't have lots of pop like tricks in my bag...anyway we still had a pretty good time so a great big thanks goes out to Peter at the club and the guys at Hollerback Productions (thanks anyway guys, and the 50 bucks is in the mail).

well it's still snowing a bit here so I think I’ll head on into town.
I’ll try to catch up Sunday or Monday....we're playing the Rongo tomorrow night
so I won't have far to crawl.

Till next time, adios

Waiting in the Snow

Hey ya'll
its Thursday April 5th 2007 and writing this from Interlaken New York
I’ve been here since Monday afternoon, but not much of note has happened yet.
I had rehearsals Tuesday and wed. with the band guys here. And besides that
I’ve mostly sat around and waited.

One funny thing did happen....it snowed here this morning...now that's a funny joke
ha ha .

I did an interview Tues. with Jim Catalano...we were in one of the offices at the
Ithaca Journal, and we were chatting it up, and he's asking me some questions and I’m answering them...when the fire alarm goes off. The building empties and everybody troops outside, and the fire dept. shows up.....but there didn't seem to be a fire (and anyway I had an alibi) so we all troop back inside....I finished up the interview and walked over to the lazy dog cafe
where I got to check out djug django that's one of the bands with the Acetos and Chad Lieberman....really fun band to watch...I’ll have to remember to check with Eric on whether or not they have a website.

Jim Catalano told me he played in a group that was kind of a jam country thing and told me I should come out later that night and check em out...they play lots of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens (you know, you really can't go wrong with that). They were playing about 9:30 and I had intended to walk over and hang out for a while but then the jetlag landed on me pretty hard and I figured wherever I wanted to wake up was where I better get to pretty quick so I reluctantly took a pass and headed for Hall road.

ok that's all for now
I’ll update tomorrow. Right now I’ve got to get my boots on and get to Syracuse
I have a show there in a couple of hours.

Adios