Geek, Nerd, or Doofus?

Ok, It has happened. The official time is 1:42 pm Tuesday December 23rd and I am typing out this post when I actually have nothing to say except some trivial details from my life.

I switched my day off from work this week since I was playing tonight at the Vintage Bar which is located inside the loop from the Galleria. The problem with playing there on a Friday is Traffic. The 8:30 start time is early for that part of town but the Vintage Bar shuts down at midnight. It takes me about an hour to set up all my equipment and tune up and I like to take a break after that so I can be in the right frame of mind for the "show". If I leave my house and get stuck in rush hour traffic, The whole thing can turn pretty hectic. I find that it is better to just leave early and miss the worst of the traffic, Get set up, and then just hang out and relax until the start time.

Since it is right before Christmas, I am not really sure what kind of turn-out to expect. Last year I played out on Mason Road at Dukes Tavern on December 23rd and quite a few people showed up but it is a completely different kind of venue. Plus it was also "Dollar Beer" night.

I am kind of looking forward to tongiht since my nephew, Trevor, Called me yesterday and told me he is planning to be there. He is a working musician as the bass player in the "Levi Smith" band out of Big Spring Texas. He is also a guitar player, but most of all he is Trevor and I am hoping that he can make it out.

I also have had a few friends tell me they were going to try to show up also & I would enjoy that also.

The Vintage Bar is a very intimate setting and the tables are right around the stage. You can actually play a gig and at the same time catch up with old friends between (& sometimes during) songs.

One thing that I have learned over the past two years is that you can never predict what the gig turn-out will be & you just have to focus on playing 100% either way.

I did a gig at an Ice House last year. The place had just opened up and didn't really have much of a customer base so it was about 18 or 20 people at the busiest point of the night. I played 4 hours and it was a weeknight & everybody pretty much left around 11:30 except for this one dude who only spoke spanish & he was only hanging around because he wanted to pick up the bartender (who happened to be married)

He was sitting at a table close to the bar and was facing the bartender. I asked him from the stage if he would prefer to hear blues, country, or classic rock? but he never even looked up at me.

Being and Icehouse and an open air venue, I just tried to focus on playing to Nature or the Universe. I played for the remaining 30 minutes until midnight and then started loading up my equipment.

Right next to this particular Ice House on the other side of a wood fence is a three story motel. The doors open to the outside and they have the metal fence along the balcony/hallways.

As I was loading some stuff into my truck, This dude came walking up to me in the parking lot and told me he was in from out of town and him and his wife had listened to me playing from thier balcony. He hit me with some kind words and handed me a tip also.

The reason I had got this gig in the first place is because I was doing a full band gig down the street about a month before that and had gotten into a disagreement with the drummer. I felt like he was kind of slacking off & he said he was tired but I was mad because I thought he should have shown up ready to play or just fake it and look happy. I told him that if someone walked in for 10 or 30 minutes or what ever amount of time, That would be the only opinion they would probably ever have of our band.

When we finished playing, a lady (the Ice House owner) walked up and spoke to the drummer and asked him how much we charged for a gig. He told her to talk to me about it. It turned out that it was out of her budget but she did hire me to do my "One Man Electric Band" show. I ended up doing about 8 gigs there and she ended up selling the place.


I have to go now so you will have to figure out the moral to this story on your own.


Take Care

Cranes finish 7-state, 61-day trek

A flock of whooping cranes and an ultralight aircraft fly over Dunnellon Municipal Airport on Tuesday.(STEPHEN J. CODDINGTON/ST. PETERSBURG TIMES)December 13, 2005

The whooping cranes followed ultralights from Wisconsin to Marion County.Robert Sargent Sentinel Staff Writer Posted December 14, 2005

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-whoopers1405dec14,0,5789243.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-state

DUNNELLON -- Nineteen gangly young whooping cranes completed a 61-day journey across seven states Tuesday to become the newest graduates of an experimental program to save one of the world's most threatened species.The birds reached their destination about 80 miles northwest of Orlando, following the lead of four manned ultralight planes buzzing through the brisk blue sky.

They touched down in a secluded grassy area in Halpata Tastanaki Preserve in Marion County that will become their new winter home for the next several weeks.Experts hope they will take what they've learned and join dozens of other whooping cranes this spring to complete a 2,500-mile round-trip migration back north to Wisconsin.And if all goes well, they will grow up and follow nature's other calling -- to find a mate."The best two words to describe this is exhilarating and humbling," said Liz Condie, spokeswoman for the nonprofit group Operation Migration. "It really moves you."In the past four years, Operation Migration has helped train 41 other captive-bred whooping cranes to make a migration that otherwise would be instinctive to birds raised in the wild. They are part of a huge project to reintroduce whooping cranes in the eastern United States.Since 1993, state and federal wildlife officials also have relocated nearly 300 more whooping cranes to secluded spots in Lake, Osceola and Polk counties without teaching them to migrate.About 70 have survived. The rest died from disease, predators and other causes.Rapid development also threatens the birds' survival by encroaching on their prime habitat of wetlands and pasture.Last week, the Orlando Sentinel reported that massive development in the offing for 6,000 acres along the Lake-Sumter county line could jeopardize an important whooping-crane breeding ground.All the cranes in Florida were raised at facilities in Maryland, Wisconsin, Texas and Canada. Combined with a wild population of whooping cranes that migrates between Texas and Canada, fewer than 500 of the endangered birds are left in the world."This is our best effort at saving the species," said Steve Nesbitt, a crane expert with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission."We're still not sure they're going to be able to survive without a lot of intervention on our part," Nesbitt said.Fossil records date whooping cranes back millions of years, according to the International Crane Foundation. In the late 19th century, the number of cranes was estimated at 1,400.Hunting and habitat loss dwindled their numbers to only about 15 by 1941, according to experts.Adult cranes reach nearly 5 feet tall. They are the tallest bird in North America, the only place they exist.Known for their loud whooping calls, they can live up to 25 years in the wild and usually do not breed until they are 4 or 5 years old.The cranes in the migration program typically are hatched at the U.S. Geological Survey's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center in Laurel, Md. Biologists wear baggy white outfits to minimize the bird's familiarity with humans.After about 45 days, the young cranes are transported to Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin, where they are conditioned to follow an ultralight aircraft.The migration starts from Wisconsin in mid-October with four aircraft leading the birds up to 200 miles a day depending on the weather. Altogether, the trip to Florida covers about 1,200 miles.In past years, the cranes were led to Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in Crystal River.But this year, biologists are keeping them nearby -- at least temporarily -- at Halpata Tastanaki Preserve in Dunnellon to avoid conflicts with older migrating cranes.The migratory program is expected to continue for several more years."We have a ways to go yet, and we've come a very long way," Condie said.Robert Sargent can be reached at rsargent@orlandosentinel.com or 352-742-5909.

Train of thought

Left:
John Campbell http://www.devilinmycloset.net/john_campbell_home.htm

Wednesday night I played a gig at the Corner Pub in Downtown Conroe. It is a fairly new venue and I had never been there before. I had met the manager, a very nice lady, last summer when I was playing a gig in midtown and she had told me about it before it was opened but seemed pretty excited about the venue. It was a good gig but I don't want to use this blog thing to do reviews of my own shows. That seems kind of lame. It kind of gets on my nerves to read a web site and see a musician going on and on about the crowd at a venue when all they are really doing is trying to blow thier own horn. But I do have to admit that the folks at this particular venue really know how to appreciate a good one-man-band when they see one (JUST KIDDING).

When I first walked in, I really liked the comfortable feel of the place and also the high ceiling. The acoustics turned out to be very good. I also had a mind flash of the first venue I ever had a gig at which was Yakofritz Coffee House in Down Town Nacogdoches some time around 1982. Both places are located in Historic Town Sqare type settings but what really reminded me of Yakofritz was the general shape. It was much smaller but had a high ceiling and was long and narrow. The Corner Pub is not as elongated, more of a rectangular cube shape.

They used to have a night, I think it was Tuesdays, where they would bring in three separate perfomers/bands and each one would play 45 minutes. I played there three times and got paid $20 each time. Even though it was my first paid gig ever, what was more significant to me was that was where I first saw John Campbell play live. He was doing an acoustic set on guitar and dobro that blew me away. He did alot of slide guitar in open tunings. Robert Johnson type stuff but different also. I remember one song he did was TV Doctor which Johnny Winter did on his album "Nothing but the Blues". I also remember him doing a Lighthin Hopkins tune, Mojo Hand & one about a Gyspy Woman. This was about the time that Stevie Ray was doing the Texas Circuit and not yet signed to a label. I saw Stevie 3 times and he was my Guitar Hero but John Campbell had just as much impact. There are not guys like him living in every town. He had toured as Freddy Fenders Guitar Player but he had run into some bad experiences in the business end of the music business and was living in Nacogdoches. I think he was taking some classes at the school. He also played with the College Jazz band for a short time (The Swinging Axes). He also had an electric band called John Campbell and the Blues Connection that played at the local bar where Stevie Ray would play when he buzzed through town.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that I became friends with John Campbell. It was more that I was just a huge fan and would go up and talk to him at every show & also when I would run into him on campus or around town. Looking back on it, I know that I probably could have gotten on his nerves. I was always asking him questions about guitar/blues/music & he was kind enough to tolerate me. I think he probably appreciated that I was picking up on how huge a talent he was.

I remember one time he was sitting in with a sort of Country Bluegrass type band made up of old college proffessors. It was an electric/acoustic band with a drummer and a bass player & they had mandolin, fiddle, & several acoustic guitars. They were playing a old standard and when John Campbell took his solo it was right along the melody line but he also interjected some really mean sounding licks. There were probably about a hundred people there and I was sitting off to the side of the stage. John played his solo & then he looked up at me and made eye contact. He could literally see that I had my jaw dropped down & he just kind of looked down and smiled. He knew I was completely blown away but I also knew that he was looking over to me to catch my reaction for his solo which at the time meant a great deal to me. Hell, Even today, It means a great deal to me. For me it was a "moment"

I posted a link to a site about John Campbell up above under his picture.

He died about 13 years ago.

He was the kind of guy who would not give a predictable response in conversations and also liked to do things his own way.

There is a list of his recordings on the web site also. I think The last CD on the list, or at least part of it, was recorded here in Houston at Sugar Hill Studio and was released by Justice Records. A guy that worked for Justice actually gave me the CD about 10 years ago and it is a compliation of several different artists doing songs to benefit the homeless.

One of them is Odetta doing "Brother Can you Spare a Dime" which is an excellent recording of her voice. John plays Dobro Slide Guitar on that tune & I think Dr. John plays piano.

bon appétit

I decided to try cooking Salmon Patties on my George Forman Grill.

I basically used the same recipe that my mom uses but did change it a little bit also.

Here is the way that I did it:


Open on can of salmon and put it in a mixing bowl & pour some lemon juice on it.

Then chop up some onion, maybe a tablespoon or so & also add about 3 spoonfulls of canned corn (drained). You can leave the corn out but if you do use it, Salmon patties seem to go well with corn so you can use the rest as a side.

Break on egg and stir it up and mix it in with with the salmon and a little tobasco sauce also. Not too much or it will overpower the flavor.

Then crunch up about 5 saltine crackers & mix them in also.

If you want to make more just double everything but one can should make about 8 patties.

Spray some non stick cooking spray in your pre-heated Goerge Forman Gill and put & em on.

I sprinkled some Paul Prudhomes Magic Sasoning on them and shut the grill and let them cook. When they were about done, I turned them over and sprinkled some more seasoning on the other side.

I like the salt free seasoning since I can add the amount of Cajun spice flavor & then use however much salt I want which in this case was none.

I found the (Paul Prudhomes Magic) seasoning blend by the Gumbo File at my local HEB grocery store.


They came out pretty good.