Don't shoot the piano player

Hey Sports fans,

I used to be more of a sports fan myself but when the Houston Oilers left town it made me realize how much of a business it is. Now when I see professional sports, I see millionaires that will be millionaires even if there team loses. They aren't gonna be worried if I am broke so it is hard for me to worry about them winning or losing.

In other news a spider bit me on the ass. I don't have that much of an ass to go around so I don't really appreciate it. I used to be more towards the catch and release policy with spiders in the house but now I have an urge to stomp on them. I did resist the urge this morning. There was one walking acroos the living room floor and I put it in the back yard. It may find it's way back in to the house and bite me but I just don't enjoy killing things. Even spiders.

This past Sunday at the Gravity Bar was a little different. There is a guy named Carl Smith who plays piano at various bars on the strand and he brought one of his pianos to the gravity bar and now plays there from time to time. He came in on Sunday at noon and played while I was setting up from noon (opening time) to about 1:15 when I started. He plays a real piano, Not electric keyboards. I had never heard him before but I enjoyed what he was doing. He played some Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Tunes and even though he didn't have a PA system he did a good job on the vocals. He really has the Jerry Lee Lewis vocals down.

The Gravity Bar has very big doors all the way across side that faces the sidewalk where poeple are walking by and Carl had his piano at the west side on a small raised area where there are some couches. It is right next to the sidewalk. My stage area is about 15 or 20 feet west of that also near the strand sidewalk.

They had all the doors open this past Sunday since it was pretty nice weather. Carl had offered to sit in with my one man band so after I played a few songs in my first set, I invited him to play along.

It was kind of cool to have two separate stage areas with music coming from two directions. I also like the fact that it was a traditional piano which gave a kind of honky tonk sound and a little different type of effect on the vibe.

I started at about 1:15 and ended up staying until about 8pm. I started out by playing a few tunes, Then Carl joined in and then Carl played a tune or two by himself and then I played a couple of tunes and then Carl joined back in and so on. I liked being able to mix it up where it was really three different types of presentations rolled into one.

Carl ended up staying until 8 pm also and he seems like a cool guy. He told me he would be back next Sunday and I told him it was cool with me if he wanted to do it again.

"Show some Respect"

Loyd's comment on the last post about Benny Valereo made me think of something.

Benny Valereo Passed away back in January of 2006. I had posted something on this blog right before the funeral.

Benny was a Texas Blues Guitar player & he regularly hosted blues jams here on the west side of town. That is how I knew him.

I wrote out a post about him about the time he died & he is someone that I find myself thinking about from time to time.

Benny was the kind of guy who would not hold back when he talked to people. There was nothing phoney about him. Not from my perspective anyway. Whenever I played at his blues jam it would usually be Danny Velereo, Benny's brother playing bass. It was always a cool feeling if Benny would walk up to the stage in the middle of the set and pick up his guitar and start playing along. Hanging out with him & Danny was always a good feeling. They would sometimes play a game of pool & they seem to be pretty serious about it.

Speaking of Pool, There was one time when I first started my One Man Band that I had a one-time kind of gig at a place called Forgetabout it II. It had previously been called the Landing Zone and before that "The Horseshoe" I think it was the first place I met Benny & his band.

When I first got the the gig, There were a group of pool players sitting in the spot that was going to be the stage area for me so I let them know and they moved there chairs a little bit. I brought in the rest of my equipment and went ahead and asked them if I could go ahead and set up. The pool tables were right behind the stage area and they were there for a pool tournament.

There was one guy that was more vocal than the rest but as a group they made it known that they didn't care for live music during thier tournament. After I played and took a break they started being a little nicer. The one guy who was giving me a hard time came up and told me that he thought I was going to be too loud and he didn't really apologize but he started talking to me and being a little more friendly. It turned out that his daughter had been one of the musicians who I knew from Benny's jam and I had jammed with her several times.

Benny had showed up at this gig and was pretty quiet for the most part. He drank a couple of beers and kind of stood off to the side and just watched. During my break I told him how the pool players were being rude to me and then they seemed to warm up a little after I started playing.

He told me that he had had a word with them. I asked him what he said to them & he said that he had told them to "show some respect".

I think that was the only time he saw my one man band but it meant a hell of alot to me that he had taken the time to stop by & also that he was gave enough of a shit to look out for me at my gig.

Toad Herder

Hello,

I have been kinda busy lately so I haven't been keeping up my blog entries and I know that the masses and throngs are going to revolt and tear down the castle walls if deprived any further.


I saw two butterflys yesterday and I liked that since it seems like butterflys have not been around that much for several years until last year. This is not a scientific report, just what I noticed.

The other thing I have scientifically deduced is that the toads are back again also. I don't know where they went but last year I started seeing them again and this year I have quite a few in my yard. It makes it kind of time consuming to mow since I don't want to chop them up. I try to mow in a pattern where I start at one side and work towards the side where they have somewhere to go.

As I mow, I have to watch for them hopping and usually just see the grass moving so I know to look out for them.

Toads seem like peaceful creatures and I wish them all the best.

Last night I stopped over at the Abbey Pub to listen to John Richardson, Larry Evans, Dennis Clapp (Applehead), Robert Taylor play the opening set of the Blues Jam. I didn't sign the list and wasn't feeling like playing since I had several other things to take care of. When I walked in they were on stage but not playing. Larry told me that his bass amp was out and asked if I could let them borrow mine. I live about a mile from the Abbey Pub so headed home real quick to get my amp but according to the DPS officer that was stationed near by, I was a little too quick. Actually I went into the light on a yellow and it turned out to be a fast yellow. It was a close call but technechally I did run the light. I was hoping that he would see my driving record and give me a warning but I didn't want to argue with him since I knew he was doing his job. He let me know right away why he pulled me over but he then made me stand back behind my van while he walked around front and looked in it with his flashlight. He then went to his car and pulled me up on the computer. It isn't fun to stand out in front of a police car with the lights flahing and the headlights shining on me but I don't think the guy was trying to treat me bad or anything. It just sucks to get a ticket.

I have to go see Judge Yoeman before December and I am hoping that he will give me a break but I have no plans to make up any stories or call the cop a liar. I have been to Judge Yoeman's court before when he performed a marriage ceremony that I attnended.

I went on home after the ticket and grabbed my amp and carefuly drove back up the Pub.

After that I went back home ate a bowl of Cheerios mixed with grape nuts and then went to bed. I think I had some dreams but I don't know if I remember them. I think you are being a little nosey at this point. You don't need to know all my business.


Long Live the Toads!

George Martin

I caught the end of Little Stevens Underground Garage last Sunday night on the way home from Galveston & Then they had a broadcast of a David Gilmore (Pink Floyd) Concert and some interviews. David Gilmore was talking about his approach and how he tried to keep it fairly simple musically & focus on the vibe. That isn't exactly how he said it but it was something like that.

I was driving along today listening to 93.7, The Classic Rock station and they played Eleanor Rigby.

I have heard the song quite a few times but for some reason it struck me how good it is. The song itself AND also the the arrangement. Paul McCartney came up with most of the song but George Martin ("The Fifth Beatle") did the arrangment for the strings and it is very good.

I was noticing that he used the approach that David Gilmore seemed to be talking about. Not that the arrangment is overly simple but it is just very good. Really perfect for the song.

Stay Grounded

Last week I was setting up for my gig on Thursday night and I noticed my 15 watt Fender Tube guitar amplifier was not comeing on. I fooled with it a little bit and then I decided to go with plan-B and use my back-up amp.

When I got home I took a look at it and realized the plug was not any good. I replaced the plug with one from Wal-Mart ($2.97) and the amp worked fine.

The very next night, Friday, I was again setting up and this time I noticed that the amp I use to power my PA was not coming on. I got a screw driver and took a the plug apart and found a loose wire and re-connected it.

I also found that the ground wire had come loose and re-connected it.

That explains why I have been getting shocked by my microphone lately.

"Aqualung my friend"

Back when I was in 6th grade, I heard one of the other students was repeating the lyrics from the song "Aqualung" and talking about the record so I went to the record store near Westbury Square called Evolution Records and bought it. Evolution Records was a Hippie type shop and I thought it was one of the coolest places in the world at that time. They always had a hippie dude working behind the counter and insense burning. That and all the Rock records (now classic rock) displayed on all the walls. They had some black lights and lots of posters which they sold also.

I listened to it quite a bit and when the band "Jethro Tull" came to town about a year or so later I went to the concert. It was in the Sam Houston Coliseum which was right next to the Music Hall in downtown Houston. It is the same place the had Houston Wrestling with Paul Bosch, The guy from the I W marks commercial who wears the earing and says "If I.W. Marks can make my ears look this good..."

When I went to the concert I thought it was absolutely the coolest thing in the world. I went with a Junior High School friend named Paul Coke. One thing that struck me at the time was how much the band sounded like the record. Very good sound quality compared to other rock concerts. It was the tour associated with the next album after Aqualung which was called "Thick as a Brick"

Ian Anderson is a great songwriter and musician and I still feel like those are the two best Jethro Tull Albums. Not that the others aren't good but they don't have the same feel. To me anyway.

The song "Bungle in the Jungle" was a pop hit at the time but it didn't sound like what I expected Jethro Tull to sound like. The later albums are very good also but they are more Ian Anderson as a Solo Artist compared to the early Jethro Tull which sounded more band oriented to me.

Aqualung was big album as far as impact on Rock. It had sort of a metal sound but also was folky at the same time. There is alot of Acoustic Guitar and each song is very strong on it's own. The whole album seems to fit as group and there are quite a few refences to the church and how they got it wrong. It was sort an early attack on the "moral majority" mentality.


The reason I was thinking about Jethro Tull & Aqualung is that I was driving home from a gig last week and they played the album at midnight.

I still have the record. Not the original one from when I was a kid but I bought another copy at a used record store about 10 years ago.

It is my Internet Album Pick of the week.

Musical Musicians

There is a pub down the street from my house where they have a blues jam every Tuesday. Last night I stopped by & listened to the guys play for a little bit.

I find it very relaxing to listen to live blues & even more when you know the people playing it.

"Applehead" was jammng for a while with the band & then brought up a young guy that they call "Sparky" . Applehead and Sparky are real people by the way. That is just what everybody calls them & they don't seem to mind. They are some young guys and both excellent musicians.

About that time the band took a break and they cranked up the Juke Box. It is a sports bar and they normally have the Juke Box pretty loud & they had some hip hop sort of stuff coming out of it so I decided to go ahead and head back home.

As I was walking out, Larry Evans walked by and said "come on lets play" So I went ahead and grabbed my guitar and set up.

When I jammed, Larry Evans was playing bass. John Richardson was on drums. Sparky was playing guitar also.

On about the second tune or so I looked back during the middle of the song and there was John Richardson playing Bass and Larry was playing drums. They had switched without me even noticing.

The jam continued & then John & Sparking switched & John started playing Guitar & Sparky was playing bass. The amazing thing is that the music really was steady on each different configuration. Blues isn't the most technically dificult music to play but they also kept the feel going which is the big deal.

It was a hell of a good time

My hands are clean

The other day I was in an eating establishment grabbing some coffee & a breakfast sandwich on my way out to Galveston to play a gig.


I placed my order at the counter and then I decided to use the restroom.


I was washing my hands and noticed that there were not any paper towels but they did have two of those air dryers.

There was a dude at one of the air dryers so I used the other one.

I really didn't pay much attention to the guy but then I noticed something seemed strange.

Seemed like he was kind of lingering. His hands should have been dry but he kept waiting.

We didn't speak and I didn't look directly at him but I knew he was up to something.


Then I figured it out.


The door to the batroom opened inward and someone need to grab the handle to open it.

He wanted me to open the door and get germs on my hand and then he was going to get to walk on through without having to touch the door handle.


One problem for him was that he didn't know who he was dealing with. I kept on drying my hands & then the dryer ran out of time so I pushed it again.


At that point he was just standing there waiting so I quit drying my hands and just stood there also.

He had washed his hands first so it was up to him to open the door. That was my thinking.

We stood there for several seconds and he finally accepted defeat and just walked on over and grabbed the door handle.


Besides that, Not much else to report.

The Bo Diddley Beat

Week before last I was at Guitar Center on my day off from work. I was browsing in the Percussion section & found a pair of small maracas fo $10.

When I got home I tried to figure out a way to play a maraca along with my one man band. I really wanted to figure out away to use my hand since that would give the natural sound.

I experimented for a while and really couldn't come up with a way to hold it and still be able to play gutiar. I took one of them and sawed the handle off and put some tape on it to make it easier to hold & it was much better.


I have played two shows now using the additional sound and I am very happy about it.

I am able to hit percussion sounds on parts of the beat that I was not able to hit with my bass drum/snare drum configuration.

I think this is a biggest one-man-band break through than I have had since maybe adding the Bass Drum.


Thanks for tuning in.

The Hightailers / Gravity Bar

This past Saturday Night I did a gig with the Hightailers. I know Little Screaming Kenny from the Shakespeare Pub Blues jam and set up the gig with my good friends at the Gravity Bar in Galveston.

It was a great gig. Everyone in the band was very cool. They also have a group of friends that came the show also & they were very cool also. Basically they are a bunch of hippies. I mean that in the best sense.

At about midnight I was sitting at a table off to the side kind of relaxing and listening to the music & they all were out on the dance floor. It was like going to church. You would have had to have been there.

They play every Thursday at the Last Concert Cafe. Check em out. The poeople are nice and the music is top notch.

Update

The guitar seems to sound good. Better than it did before it broke in two.

About like it used to before I dropped it the other time.

Red Guitar

Whats up Dog?

I posted this picture over a year ago. Nickel (the boston dog) came to work with Sean who used to work at the Vintage Bar where I used to play. They had a fire a few months back and now they have shut down. I spoke to the owner, Tina, a few weeks ago. She has always been very kind to me and never turned me down for a gig when I needed one. I wish her the best.

About a year ago, I taped an electric guitar pick-up in the red guitar in the picture and started using it in my show.

I bought the guitar over 20 years ago from Rockin Robin on Shepherd. It was in a washtub of discounted items. It had a crack in the neck so I glued it back togeather with Epoxy. I use it to play slide guitar and sevaral other tunes in my live show. I used it to record a couple of the songs on my CD also. "The Houston Bars" and also Robert Wilkin's "Rolling Stone". I like the Guitar. At one point it was the only guitar I had.

Last Sunday at the Gravity Bar in Gavleston I played for about an hour & then I played a couple of tunes on it. WHen I went to put it back on the Guitar Stand, The whole stand fell over and the Gutiar Cracked in two in the same place. The break was on the HeadStock right where it was originally cracked about 20 years ago.

I had noticed lately that that the guitar was not sounding quite the same so I am pretty sure it was already cracked or weak or whatever. I have dropped guitars before and not broken them & am pretty sure it was already needing to be worked on.

It did kind of throw me off when it happened. It took me a while to get relaxed again but I did stay pretty well focused at the time. It did shorten my list of songs. There are some songs that I can play on Electric that I normally play on Acoustic but there are several that I really needed the Acoustic. Originally, I was hired to play for 4 hours at the Gravity Gig but as the weeks went by I started playing longer each time and now play about a 6 hour gig.


Yesterday I went to Home Depot and bought some small nuts and bolts and washers. The Bolts are one inch long and are the skinniest ones they have. I drilled some holes through the Headstock and then appliedCarpenters Glue and bolted it togeather. The Elmers Carpenter Glue Label says to let it sit 24 hours before using.

I am going to string it up when I get home but it looks like it worked pretty well and I am hoping that it will work out OK. I think it will since the break was on the Headstock and will not affect the fretboard or the spacing of the frets from the nut.


This post is officially over.


Bye!

One Man Yoda Band

My friend at work, Arnold, Gave me this today. It was a model of a stage set up for KISS but I converted it to a One Man Band and put it on my desk.

What a cool thing it is.

Thanks Arnold.

Austin City Limits

I usually dont watch Awards Shows but I am relaxing here at home watching the Grammys. They just gave the best pop vocal album to John Mayer.

I am not going to watch the whole show since I got stuff to do. I am thinking about heading over to the Shakespeare Pub to check out the Blues Jam with my old friend "Spare Time" Murray. We don't hang out or anything but he has been hosting that blues jam for quite some time now. I think it was around 1994 or 95 when I first went over there and checked it out. I didn't really have much experience playing in front of people and he was always cool about letting me get up and jam.

But back to the Grammys.

I can't figure out why the sound is so poorly done. When the Dixie Chicks sang the mix was terrible. Seems like they are trying to capture the feel of the big room and making it sound like there is an Echo.

They need to get who ever does the sound for Austin City Limits. I remember when Tracy Chapman was on that show. That is the way sound should be done.

Well, Thats my beef for now.


Later

Get in the Road

I always liked that song. It may be called "in the Middle of the Road" The Pretenders were one of my favorite 80s bands & that song in particular. I love the lyrics and also the delivery.

Come on Baby
Get in the Road!
Oh yeah baby
in the middle of the road

Then she does the meow & breaks into the Harmonica Solo.

It is not a blues song but at the same time it is. To me anyway.


Last night I got to meet another cool person. Tre Ridings came out to the show at Molly's Pub to do what he does. He is a professional Photagraper & he is (professional). He had a job to do and it wasn't his first time to do it. When they want pictures of the big Rock Stars, He is a guy that they call. They also called him to take pictures of me.


The story and the pictures are for a "local bands" feature but I don't think he would have done it much different if I was a major rock star.

He took photos in two settings. Quite a few of me doing the One Man Band Show and also some out by the Street. That was his suggestion. Right next to the street in fact. He told me to bring a guitar and had me sit on the curb & also took some standing up. He told me where and how to stand and sit and also where to look. Being Saturday Night, Westhemier was busy and I really liked the idea of being out in the road. That is what the Blues is sort of about anyway. Or maybe not so much what it is about but it just kind of fits.

Again, I am not going to lie, It was cool experience.

Look for the pictures in the Feb 22nd Weekend Preview Section of the Houston Chronicle and also on thier Web Site. I will post a link when they get it on there.


Adios Amigos!

Don't make friends with the band

I can't remember the name of the movie but I did like it alot. It was about a high school aged kid who became Rock & Roll reporter for Rolling Stone Magazine. One of the things that one of the other Reporter Dudes told him was "Do not make friends with the band" but he ended up kind of breaking that rule.

I always thought that would be one of the coolest jobs in the world.

Yesterday I met with the hip and cool Sara Cress who covers the live music scene for the Houston Chronicle. She recorded the interview and she told me that there will be a PodCast whre people can hear it on the Chronicle's Handstamp Website. The print portion will be in the Preview Section of the Thusday Paper on Feb 22nd. I will get back to you with the details as the become available.

I am not experienced and being interviewed and I was a little nervous about it but she seemed to know what she was doing. We shook hands and sat down at a table and she turned on the recorder and started asking questions.

It would have been what many people consider the perfect date. We just talked about me. Actually I did most of the talking and she never interupted. Seriously though I could tell that it wasn't the first time she had done this. I already knew that but it did make the whole process alot easier to have a real Rock & Roll Reporter asking the questions.

I am not going to lie. It was a cool experience.

Endangered cranes also victims of Florida storm

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/03/whooping.cranes.ap/index.html

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (AP) -- All 18 endangered young whooping cranes that were led south from Wisconsin last fall as part of a project to create a second migratory flock of the birds were killed in storms in Florida, a spokesman said.
The cranes were being kept in an enclosure at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge near Crystal River, Florida, when violent storms moved in Thursday night, said Joe Duff, co-founder of Operation Migration, the organization coordinating the project.
The area of the enclosure was unreachable by workers at night, and all the birds were found dead, Duff said.
"It's very traumatic to the whole team who put so much time and effort into these birds," he said Saturday.
He speculated that a strong storm surge drew the tide in and overwhelmed the birds or they were electrocuted from lightning strikes reported in the area. The official cause of the deaths was not immediately known.
The thunderstorms and at least one tornado that hit central Florida caused widespread damage and killed at least 20 people.
For the past six years, whooping cranes hatched in captivity have been raised at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in central Wisconsin by workers who wear crane-like costumes to keep the birds wary of humans.
Ultralight aircraft are used to teach new groups of young cranes the migration route to Florida. Then the birds migrate north in the spring and south in the fall on their own.
Duff described the loss as an "unavoidable disaster" for the whooping cranes project. Ironically, for the first time in six years, an entire group of young birds reared at the Necedah refuge had made it to the Florida refuge without the loss of a single crane.
The various groups and agencies working on the project had seen the size of the flock grow to 81 birds with the latest arrivals, but the loss of the young cranes drops the total back to 63, and there may have been additional losses.
Operation Migration is part of the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership. Partnership officials and Duff said the work would continue. Chicks are expected to hatch in two months, he said.
The whooping crane, the tallest bird in North America, was near extinction in 1941, with only about 20 left.
The other wild whooping crane flock in North America has about 200 birds and migrates from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast. A non-migratory flock in Florida has about 60 birds.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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B.B. King Released, Back to 'Old Self'

By MONICA RHORThe Associated PressSaturday, January 27, 2007; 10:09 PM


HOUSTON -- B.B. King was discharged from a Galveston hospital Saturday following treatment for a fever and was "back to his old self," a spokeswoman for his management agency said.
The 81-year-old, Grammy-winning bluesman was "feeling fabulous," said Tina France, vice president of Lieberman Management of New York.

King had been scheduled to perform Thursday at the Grand Opera House, but was admitted to The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, said Paul McCarthy, a hospital administrator.
King still plans to perform Tuesday in Fort Worth, France said. Concerts that had been scheduled before then in Galveston, Orange and Tyler will be rescheduled for June, she said.
King, who has a history of diabetes, had a 100.4-degree fever following a bout with the flu, and monitoring was required because of his age, said France. Doctors treated him with antibiotics, she said.
He was kept in the hospital's elderly acute care unit as a precaution, said John Koloen, a spokesman for the hospital in Galveston, about 50 miles southeast of Houston.
With his trademark guitar that he named "Lucille," King is one of the nation's most influential and best-known blues musicians. His long list of hits includes "The Thrill is Gone," "Every Day I Have the Blues" and "You Upset Me Baby," and he was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987.
He has become a spokesman in the fight against diabetes, and in December President Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

BB King

I played the gig last night & it was real busy.

I did a warm up set at 7 pm and we had quite a few poeple come in that were early for the BB King Show.

I played until about 10 til 8 & then I was going to wait till 9:30 & do my normal show & try to make sure I was playing when the BB King Concert ended so I could get some of those folks to come in. We had the doors to the club open so they could hear the music on the way to the parking lot.

After I played my warm up set, I walked over to Grand just to check out the scene & there was dude there holding a guitar. I asked him if he was going to get BB King to sign it and he told me that they had just taken Mr. King to the hospital. I checked the news today and am hearing that he is in good condition & they are expecting him to get realeased soon.

But at that time, It was kind of a drag. A real downer.

I went ahead and decied to go ahead an play some more since all the people were there and the place got packed. I did my best to put on a good show and be professional but I had this wierd kind of feeling. I normally am pretty happy if the house is packed but in this case it was hard to be happy when knew the only reason it was so croweded was because BB King was sick.

The other thing that kind of wierded out the vibe was that the a good portion happy Hour Crowed was still hanging around & I don't think they really appreciated the club being so busy. The happy hour folks (at any bar) can be kind of lould after a couple of hours of being happy and these folks were no exception. They provided a wall of noise that was not the exact backdrop of sound that I was looking for. I don't like to play loud and it kind of takes away the part of the show where you are able to bring it down and to more intracate things or play a slowers song with feeling type of thing. Still, They were spending money so I couldn't complain.

When I first drove up to the venue BB Kings Bus was parked in front of Whisky's Pub and the door was open. I was going to ask the dude standing there if he could get Mr. King to autograph the album cover I brought (Live at Cook County Jail) but he kind of gave me a look that made me feel like he wasn't in the mood to be aproached. I realize now that if BB was sick they probably didn't want to be chatting with folks. I can understand that. I want to be clear. It wasn't anything unfriendly but he just wasn't making eye contact when I looked at him & I didn't want to bother anybody just to get an autograph. I had been secretly hoping that with me being there all afternoon setting up that the opportunity might come up.

I did get to briefly meet James the Blueshound and his lovely wife Colleen. He came up the stage and gave me sticker & I did get to say hello and shake hands but I was pretty busy trying to do the show. They are nice folks. I know them from my email contact mostly. I had talked to James on the phone before. They do the concert caledar for KPFT and list all my shows as well as anybody elses who sends them in. They are really cool about it and do a great job. In the past three years I have come to really appreciate the work that they do. You can hear thier show "Howling the Blues" every Sunday from 2-4 on 90.1 on your fm dial or 89.5 in Galveston.

I did see a couple of other famiar faces in the crowd also.

The thing that hit me the most was the guy who brought the guitar to be autographed. He had a look of real disappointment on his face when he was telling me that BB King was sick. BB King is truly a blues legend. A guy that can bring more than just a blues show. He is a salesman of the blues and also someone who can reach out to people and get through. He makes em feel good.


I know he is 82 years old but I am hoping that he is out touring the country playing blues for several more years.


I wish him well.

BB King

Everybody knows who BB King is. He is known as the "King of the Blues".

I am not going to try to do some kind of review on him since it would be lame.

Tomorrow I will be playing next door to his gig. He is at the Grand Opera House in Galveston and I will be right next door at Whiskys Pub. I don't think there will be any competition since he is afterall BB King. Poeple have lined up in advance and bought tickets for his show.

His show starts at 8pm so I am hoping some of the blues fans will stop in and check out my show also since I will be playing until about 1:30.

I am going to bring the record jacket for "Live at Cook County Jail" Just in case I get the chance to ask for an autograph but I doubt I will get one since I am not big on bothering people. I know they get people coming up to them all the time telling the same things. Not that I wouldn't want to meet him but if I get the chance I will wave or say hello. That would be cool enough. BB King is now 80 years old and he is still traveling around the country doing what he enjoys doing. He is a true traveling blues man. I will probably bring my camera so I can take a picture of his bus.

Hopefully it will not be raining. The last three gigs I have done have all been on rainy days. It didn't keep the people from coming out Saturday Night but Sunday was slow and once again I found myself loading and unloading my equipment in the rain. I learned a couple of years ago that I need to bring extra clothes, socks, & Shoes so I can have some dry clothes to change into. A couple of years ago I was doing a gig at a place called Sports and More on Barker Cypress & I got wet when I was unloading my equipment for the gig and I ended up getting sick and staying sick for several weeks.

Looking at the clock I see that our time is up for today.

Thanks,

Marc

Weather Report

Currently we have rain and drizzle with a a chance of catching a cold.


There is a low pressure system moving our way bring some cool air and a chance of continued precipitation. As the front moves in expect the moisture coming up from the Gulf to destabelize the atmosphere.

There is a 47% chance of rain for next Tuesday but we have no Idea if it is going to rain tonight or not.

Also, If you want some very important news that may save your life you need to tune in tomorrow at 4:00.

If you have to work tomorrow at 4 then it is just too bad. You are going to die.


Just remember that our News Team Cares about Texas. We love you.

Hollywood Marketing

Have you ever been watchng a movie at a friends house & then all of the sudden they get to the Sex Scene. To me it is kind of wierd. You gotta pretend like everything is normal I guess.

Why the hell do they have to have the sex scene anyway?

Why don't they show when Angelina Jolie takes a dump?

Do all the Movie Stars use some kind of new colonics or something where they never have to take a dump?

How can you possibly just sit through a movie where the stars are not allowed to crap?

That is just cruel!

Whooping cranes make a strong comeback

http://www.physorg.com/news86461276.html

The yearly migration of the whooping cranes has returned them to Texas's Aransas National Wildlife refugee with 237 of the birds returning.


These numbers combined with the number of birds currently in captivity brings the total population of the birds to a record 518, making it the first time in 100 years that their population has totaled more than 500, The Washington Post reported. The whooping crane is the tallest bird in North America and was on the brink of extinction 70 years ago when they numbered 20. U.S. wildlife officials call the birds' new population a comeback story that shows has a good conservation effort can save a species. "The whooping crane continues to mirror the success of endangered species recovery when man sets his mind to it," said Tom Stehn, the national whooping crane coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Copyright 2006 by United Press International

2007

Well, it is 2007 & it still feels about the same to me as 2006 except it is a little cooler.

Last Gig of the Year

Tomorrow I will be headed out to Galveston to play at the Gravity Bar.

I am there from 2 to 8pm & then they have an open mic night.

I am hoping it will a busy sunday since the weather is supposed to be nicer & it is a 3 day weekend.


Who knows?

I will find out tomorrow.

keeping up with stella

My guitar amp was sounding kind of weak. I thought it was being drowned out by the bass amp that I just started noticing the high notes were sounding really weak so I decided to swap out the tubes.

Not all the Tubes. Just the two power tubes which in this case woud be Groove Tube EL84s. It is a small amp and just has two power tubes and I think 3 pre-amp tubes. I left the pre-amp tubes alone but I had a set of Groove Tubes with a 5 rating. I had been using 4s but they were out last time I went to buy some so I went with the 5s.

They rate them between 1 & 10 with 10 being the cleanest. The lower numbered ones break up easier and provide a little better blues tone. The heavy meatal players would like the higher rated ones.

Groove Tube is a company buys a bunch of tubes and tests them and matches up the sets. I have been using the EL84-S version. They have some that are called R's also which are made in Russia and I like them in my Pre-Amp Section of this amp. The Russian made ones are a little cheaper but since I have been happy with the sound, I have been trying to stay with the same tubes.

I try to buy a set as soon as I replace them so I will have a back up set in case one goes out.

I know most people aren't going to be that interested in my tubes but so what. I got nothing else to talk about right now except maybe my bass amp cabinet that I just put togeather.

My Carvin 15" 600 Watt Speaker came in the Mail (UPS) and I put in in a Speaker Box. I had an old Radio Shack 15 inch PA Speaker but it was worn out so I decided to make a bass cabinet out of it & see how it s0unded.

I did put some strips of 1x2' wood in it to reinforce it and break up the midrage coloration & I also stapled some fiberglass filler on the walls to deaden it a little. I have a book about making speaker boxes that I bought at Radio Shack several years ago. It has all kinds of formulas for figuring out box and port size but I just decided to try this out and see how it sounds. If it doesn't work I can always build another box.

It sounds pretty good at home & I will find out how it works at the gig this weekend. I will keep my other bass cab sitting on top of it and experiment by switching back and forth to see how they compare & also try using both at the same time. The Gravity Bar is an open air type place so I can get away with it being a little louder at the source and still not blowing everybody way.

I am also experimenting with using my other Twin Reverb as a guitar amp & have been experimenting at home usine a dual amp set-up. I can use both amps or either one by itself and I like having the extra options but I may not do it at to many show since I already have alot of stuff to haul around. I will know more how I feel about it after I play a few gigs.

I wish my Blues Junior had the tilt back legs like the Twin Reverb. I am thinkin about making a stand for it so I can tilt it back. They sell em at the Guitar Store but I don't want to spend any more money than I have to right now since I have had to buy several things lately.

Is all this keeping you on the edge of your seat?

I didn't think so.

It is not good for your back anyway.

Well, I just made some pop corn so I think I will eat it now.


Keep the faith.

More Amazing News

That's what you want so that's what you get.

The first big news is that I built a cart.

Excieted?

Well, There is more.

It is collapsable. The walls will fold down so I can load it in my truck.

Keep your cool here. I know that is alot of news but Somebody has to live in my world.

It should make it much easier to load up my equipment and since I used hinges for the sides, I can more easily fit it in my truck.

I started thinking about it when I played at the Balinese and the actual club is a long walking distance (Relatively) from where I Parked (on land).

I bought one of those furniture movers with four caster type wheels. They swivel and roll. I took the wheels off and put them on some 2x4s and put a piece of plywood on top of that. Then I used hinges from Home Depot to connect the side walls. I connected the front and back walls with hinges so that when you fold the side walls down then the front walls fold down on top of them.

I will keep you updated on this exciting information. Email me if you have questions.

Since I had bought a more powerful bass amp I decided I needed an additional Speaker Cabinet for it & I purchased a 600 Watt Speaker from Carvin (carvin.com) I am going to put it in a PA speaker box that I already have and see how it sounds. I will probably use it and the speaker box that I already have. At least in bigger venues anyway. My current speaker is rated at 400 watts so I will be a little less worried about the 600 watts speaker getting fried by the 450 watt amp. Probably wont happen but if it did I would be dead in the water and you know we don't want that.

I also stopped by Radio Shack and bought some connectors to make a new speaker cable. I already have some speaker wire so I will probably solder that tonight depending on how I feel.


There you have it. Enough Exciting news to keep you going for weeks.

I am playing my third anual Eve of Christmas Eve (Dec 23rd) Concert this Saturday night at the Stag's Head Pub. Stop on by if you get tired of the corporate hype and have an ale or soda pop. They make some good food also. It is an authentic English Pub with barstools and everything.

Return Policy

Hey,

It's me again.

Marc.


I took it easy today except for unloading my equipment and also driving over to Guitar Center.

Last night at the Balinese in Galveston my new bass amp went out again. Just went dead.

Luckily it was when I was setting up and checking my sound so I had time to go out and get my back-up amp. It is a guitar amp but I can use it to power my bass cabinet in a pinch. And I was in a pinch. I was playing as part of a presentation that included a Photoagraphy Slide Show by Jon Steele and also a live performance by Herb'nPipeline, a rockin Reggea band from Corpus so I had set slot of time and no time for major equipment failure.

I have really only heard good things about the GK amps but after the same thing happening two times in less than 3 weeks, I decided to return it and get another brand. I went with a Behringer 4500 which is a 450 watt model. More power than I need but hopefully not more power than my bass cab can handle.

I will keep you up to date on how it all works out.

The gig at the Balinese turned out to be a good one. They moved at the last minute to the Casino Bar which is where there used to be a casino and I think Howard Hughes even hung out there.

Everybody was very cool. Jon Steele is a very positive guy and did a great job putting the event togeather as well as bring a hell of a slide show of his photagraphy. He travels the world and takes pictures of Surfers and waves. His work is featured in the Surfing Magazines.

The band Herb'nPipeline turned out to be some cool guys also. The bass player even offered to loan me his amp when he found out that mine had just gone kaput.

They played good music and all were very supportive.

It was an overall great event and I thank Jon Steele for inviting me to participate.

The only drawback to playing at the historic Balinese Room is that it is a long way from the Seawall out to the end of the pier where the clubs are. It is a long hallway or you can take the outside route and walk just above the crashing waves. It was foggy out there last night and too wet to go outside.

I need to build a cart that I can carry my stuff with. I used a furniture mover cart last night and just set a large plastic tub on it and threw stuff in that.




OK . I am starting to ramble.

The time has come to be gone.

Howdy

Hey,


I don't know who is reading this but I hope you are doing fine.

It has been a while since I typed antything out and posted it here. I have been busy mostly with stuff & also some things. Not to mention other stuff also. So you can see how busy I have been. Right?

I went and saw the Casino Royal James Bond Movie. I liked it OK. It is a good movie but I was disapointed that they didn't have that many gadgets. They had a car but didn't really show too much in the way of cool buttons or switches. Also they didn't have a cool watch or a briefcase. No special Shoes. Nothing like that.

My new bass amp that I wrote about in the post just below this one went out on me about a week ago. Last Sunday, I played one song at the Gravity Bar and then it just died. No smoke, Sparks, or anything else dramatic. It just went dead. The light would not even come on.

I went over to Guitar Center on Monday and found Jeremy, the dude who sold it to me, and he swapped it out for another one. I think it was just a fluke. Everybody says that Galian Kruger makes good products so I am just thankful that they were cool about it. I had bought about 32 days ago and the return policy listed on the receipt sad 14 days. It does have a 2 year warranty but I would have had to buy another one while warranty work was done and then I guess just return that one. Luckily I had an extra Twin Reverb that I used as a back up and it worked very well. I am not sure that it doesn't sound better than the GK but I don't want to use it for a bass amp. I like having it as a back-up for my guitar amp, bass amp, and PA. I had hooked it up to my Bass Speaker Cab and there was no problem.

I am headed over to Mollys Pub later tonight and then tomorrow I am playing a set at the Balinese Room in Galveston as part of a Presentation by Jon Steele, a Well known Surfing Photographer. I am not sure what to expect but it should be fun. I am opening for a Reggea Band called HerbnPipeline (Urban Pipeline) which is somewhat of a rocking Surf type band. I will find out more when I get there.



Thats about all the news I got for now.

Except last night I was outside on my driveway and the geese were flying over. It was foggy so I couldnt see them but they were low and honking quite a bit.

If I only had a Brain

I decided to practice a little last night for the One Man Band Show & I went to turn on my Bass Amp & It made a clicking noise but no sound. It would work for a second right when turned on but then something inside it would click & it would go dead.

I can't afford to worry about things not working so I decided to buy a new amp to replace it. I can still use the Cabinet from my Carvin Amp but will power it with this thing I bought today at Guitar Center. Jeremy over there in Guitars at the Westheimer Location helped me and was real cool about everything.

I took it home and plugged it in and it seems to sound pretty good. It has a button to push for active pickups & I like that & it has more tone controls than I had before. It also has a direct out that I can run to a PA System if I play in in a large venue that has it's own sound.

From what I could tell today, It does sound better than my Carvin. The Carvin was a good amp though. I bought it 3 years ago and it has seen quite a bit of work. Nearly 200 gigs & also used it to practice on also. It was a good value and I am not mad that it wore out. I may send the chassis to them and see if they can repair it.

The new amp is also slightly more powerful & has more effects. I don't know if I will use them but it basically has more features and was a good match to my existing speaker Cab.

Thats all I got for now. I will know more better how it sounds after the gig Saturday but I am pretty optimistic at this point.

2 votes for Kinky

I had the day off today from work so I decided to go ahead and vote early.


I heard the Repulican Radio DJs all talking about John Kerry but for some strange reason I didn't see his name on the ballot.

It felt good to vote so we celebrated by heading over to Katy Mills Mall and buying a couple of slices of Cheese Pizza. I have eaten there a few times before going to the movies & I know the trick is to ask them to stick it in the oven for an extra minute or two and burn the cheese a little.

We went over the the Movie Theater but I didn't see anything that was starting anytime soon that I wanted to see. We walked around the mall & went into the SPCA and looked at some cats & that was about it for our voting celebration festivities.

I also took a few minutes to fill out my KPFT listener ballot to elect board members. That was a little less fun. They had a statement from each canditdate and it didn't sound like any of them are hugely big on music.

All that voting has made me tired.

I guess I better take a nap.

Maybe I will eat a peice of chocolate.

No, I think I will wait til after I wake up.

Maybe I could have one peiece now and one when I get up.

Now you know what it is like to be wired into my brain.

If you gotta know all my business, I am planning to practice a little & then load up the equipment for tomorrow's gig in Conroe.

The Space that Belongs to Me

Hey,

I opened up a MYSPACE Bands Page.

I never thought I was a MYSPACE kind of dude but they allow songs to be posted for free & I thought I would try it out.

If you want to check it out go to www.myspace.com/marctwymanonemanband


I have four songs on there from the CD if you want to hear em.

OK,

Now get back to work!

The Positive Side

"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." (Dr. Hunter S. Thompson)

I got that quote from the Blog for the Gavleston Music Scene web page. I don't know if it is completely acurate but I like the way it sounds.

This past weekend was a good one on the Strand. First of all, my old artist friend (that I am not really friends with) walked by and stuck his head in the Gravity Bar when I was playing. I spoke to him but he seemed a little shy to say anything back. Still it has been a while since I saw him and it makes me feel good to know he is still out there doing his thing.

Got a chance to chat with some of the other local regulars also & that was cool also.

There were a brother and sister that showed up right when I started playing & they ended up hanging out for about 4 hours. Roger & Lisa. They are from East Texas and Lisa told me that she had just lost her husband a month and a half ago & Roger brought her out to the island to help them relax. Seems like a pretty decent thing for a brother a brother to do but I got the impression that they enjoyed hanging out togeather anyway. They turned out to be "Good People" Roger had a few drinks along the way & was making quite a bit of noise & I think quite a few people actualy came in since it sounded like a real party. After about 4 hours he seemed like he had enjoyed a fair number of beverages and he started getting even rowdier. When ever someone would leave he would yell at them to "Tip the Band" at one point he went out in front of the bar and started hawking or whatever it is they call it when carnival people advertise on the street. He was actually giving people hell if they didn't come in.

He was trying to help me do good. I guess it is his nature. I never met him before and I really don't know him but I was touched by what he did. Not because I wanted him to harrass customers but becuase for whatever reason he was trying to do something to help me. It was cool thing to kind of hang out with these folks and it made me feel good that I could make them feel good for a few hours.

I was glad to have a good gig since last week was real Cloyster Fork if you know what I mean. I was playing downtown at a place that I will call the Dancing CockRoach & someone that was sitting at a table with the owner requested that I play a particular song & since I didn't know the song and never want to learn it I responded with some of my well test marketed humor. They didn't get it I guess and by the next song they told me to get the hell out & were extremely rude about it. I was scheduled to start at 10 and by 10:25 the show was over.

Instead of not paying me, They wanted to make the Phuc U official by telling the manager to pay me $5.

The funny thing is that these people loved to do news stories about how they were helping the New Orleans Musicans.

I guess they don't feel the same love to Houston Musicians.

Still they had been drinking & maybe it was just the liquor talking.

I did get to meet a very nice guy named Oscar who works there. He worked in the Kitchen and he gave me a tip and also offered to make me some food. He seemed upset that I didn't take him up on it. I really wasn't hungry at the time but what a hell of a nice gesture.


This my friends is why I lam on this Quest. I don't actually have a destination that I know of but I am loving the journey.

Out here there are no stars.

This is the land where the Pharoh died.

LC & KW

I normally don't watch the smooth jazz show that comes on channel 11 sometimes but I had it on earlier with the sound down & I noticed they were featuring guitar players.

I turned it up and it was Larry Carlton & Kirk Whalum doing a song called "Cold Duck"

I have a couple of Larry Carlton LPs but I would have never recognized him. He used to have long hair & now it is short and gray. I always thought he was a good guitar player but I never realized how he could really rip it up. He was doing some strong shit. It was a funk jazz kind kind of sound coming from the bass & drums. They had a keyboard player also but Larry was playing some serious blues riffs and his technical ability is amazing. Very Clean but still mean.

Kirk Whalum was wailing also but I didn't turn it up in time to hear most of what he did.


Thats all I got right now. Got work to do.

Memorial Drive

I stopped by the Shakespeare Pub Sunday night for a couple of hours. Not a whole lot of customers but there were a few musicians. I played a few tunes with the house band members but it was not the House Band set. Little Screamin Kenny was showing me a guitar that he is thinking about purchasing & he wanted to play it so he sat in. Spare Time Murry is also the host of the jam was playing bass guitar and MC, Matt, was playing drums. A dude named Flash came up after a while and played keyboards.

It was kind of a fun jam. I started out with a Screamin Kenny Standard, "Too Tall to Mambo" I had never played it before in a band setting but I knew the words from hearing him do it quite a few times over the years.

It was louder than what I would normally play & there was no monitor so it was kind of hard to hear the vocals but I am better at dealing with that than I used to be. It is just kind of wierd to have to imagine what something sounds like instead of actually hearing it.

I was playing through my 15 watt Fender Blues Junior & it wasn't really cutting through real well with all the other bigger amps but there was planty of music coming from all the other guys that it wasn't a big deal. It was probably louder than it sounded to me since I was standing in front of the drums.

There was a dude who played before me that just plugged his guitar into the house amp with out turning any dials or tuning it up. It was kind of funny that he almost didn't play becuase he couldn't get his guitar case open. Thats the kind of entertainment you can get at these jam sessions. I find it better than TV.

Even when a jammer is really bad. It can be entertaining. It is more entertainment if the are really bad or Bad enough to be good.

I know when I first started going to the Jam Sessions over 12 years ago, I probably provided some of that type of "good" entertainment.

I have seen some pretty good players show up at Jam Sessions. Over the years at the Shakespeare Pub I have seen Chris Duarte, Michael Williams, Carollyn Wonderland, Joe Guitar Hughes, & quite a few other notables.

OK I gotta go.

Carvin Amplifier

My fellow Earthlings.

How do you do?

About 3 years ago in December I sent off for a Carvin Bass Amplifier. It is a relatively small amp. 100 Watts and a 15 inch speaker. It has been a good value and I have gotten good use out of it. I use it to practice and have used it for all fom my live One Man Band Shows & also about a dozen full band gigs also.

The bass guitar that I use has active pick-ups. I didn't plan to have active pick-ups or even think about it. It just happened that the Bass Guitar that I ended up with has em. There are some electronics inside the guitar and it uses one of those square 9 volt batteries. I think it is becuase of the active pick-ups that I get feed back when the bass guitar is close to the amp. It wouldn't be as much of a problem if I played the regular way. At least I don't think it would. To deal with this problem I have to place the amp at a certain distance and it seems to take care of it. The problem with having the amp off at a distance is that I can not reach over and adjust the volume or tone during the song. & even between songs it doesn't really work to have to get up, walk over, and make adjustments.

It is what is called a "Combo" amp. It has the amplifer and the speaker in one unit.

I decided to build a box tha would hold the amplifer part and run a speaker wire to the speaker. It will allow me to place it on the stage and be able to reach over and make adjustments much easier during the gig.

Today I went to Home Depot and bought a board, some wood glue and some screws and made a box and it seems to work like that just fine. I haven't painted it yet. I was thinking of painting it black but I am not sure I want to take it apart and paint it.

It will be a big help at certian times. One exmaple would be when I start playing & the venue doesn't have alot of poeple but then a crowd starts to build up.

People actually have a big effect on the acoustics of a room/venue. They actually absorb some of the sound or deaden it a little & some situations there is a lot of chatter. In a situation like that I would need to turn up the volume on all the instruments.

I guess the other situation is if I run all the customers off and need to turn it down.

Tuesday night Blues Jam

Seems like they should call it Tuesnight.

Something about the Day/Night combonation.

It doesn't seem to work for Sunday. The Sun/Night clash is obvious so the rule of common sense would apply. I like FriNight & WedNight (pronounced WesNight) but Monday is still going to have to be Monday Night.

I willl see if I can organize group of scholars to make it official.


They have had a blues jam on Tuesday nights down the street at the Abbey Pub. It used to be called Jeff's Sports Bar but he sold it and the new owner re-designed it and tore out the bar and a wall and made open all the way accross the bar is on the side instead of the middle.

I got there after 10:30 & I think what was the House band was still playing but a jammer or two sitting in. There was a dude in the middle of the stage playing bongos but I couldn't really hear him. They had him miked but I think the bongos were not close enough. I found myself watching him play and imagining what it would sound like.

I didn't know the drummer but I met him and he was a nice guy. Larry (from all the House Bands) was playing Bass. He is really good. That is about the best way I know how to say it. The young guy they call AppleHead was playing guitar and Orq Hisown Self was also playing Guitar. I don't know Orq but I am a fan of his music.

Barry Felt was there, a drummer dude I have know for maybe 7 or 8 years from the Blues Jams. I think I met him at the Shakespeare Pub but he used to also hang out the Jam Sessions that the 420 Band hosted in NW Houston.

I got to play a few tunes with Barry & Larry. It was great fun. Barry is really getting good at the blues shuffle on drums & Larry is an absolutely fabulous Bass Player. He has played with some of the best acts around town.

There were a couple of other "Jammers" there. They got up and played guitar & Harmonica & sang several tunes & then it was over.

The Flapper

The other day I noticed that our toilet was running after it was supposed to stop. It is the same age as our house and is about 14 years old has been a good toilet. The only mechanical problem I had ever had with was when the arm inside the tank broke a couple of times. It is the one that connected to the flusher handle. I had replaced it a couple of times & finally broke down & bought the metal one instead of the plastic and it has held up great.

I looked inside the tank and realized that it was time for an overhaul. It had one of those bulb type floats hooked up to a wire arm & the part that is supposed to close up when it gets full had a worn out rubber washer/gasket. I went to my local Home Depot yesterday and purchased a kit with a new type of flapper and float design.

I started taking it apart and when I took a good look at the new kit, I realized that it didn't have enough parts and the ones it did have were not compatible with my old parts. Still, I went ahead and took the tank off and took it outside and washed it out with the hose.

Today I went back to Home Depot to return the kit I had purchased and get a more complete one that had all the parts. I was waiting to speak to the Home Depot associate and there was a lady who had a clogged toilet and was discussing what type of Drano to buy. The guy was trying to tell her that nothing he had was really good for the type of clog she was talking about but I don't think he wanted to say anything bad about the products they had to offer. She kept asking basically the same question over and over and he wasn't really coming out and telling her what he was trying to say so I spoke up and told the lady that a liquid plumber probably wasn't going to do the job & She could try putting a garden hose down the toilet and then get someone to turn it on while she had it crimped & let the pressure build up in the hose and give a few blasts and see if that worked. The Home Depot dude said that sounded like a good thing to try so she finally left.

I got the complete kit and returned the other one and when I got home from work today I was able to complete the toilet overhaul and am now back in business.

My life may not be completely in order but my toilet sure as hell is.

Saturday Day

I haven't seen "Gus", The old artist dude for several weeks now. I hoping all is going well for him. I don't know if he was an actual rent payer so he may have been run off by the powers that be on the strand. Some of the artists actually pay rent to shopowners and have a spot reserved every week. I will be back out there Saturday October 28th. If he is not out there, I will probably ask around a little & see if anybody has seen him. If I do see him, I probably won't talk to him all that much but since I may not be out there on the Strand until next summer, I may spend a few extra minutes bothering him. He seems to not mind the attention as long as he doesn't have anybody looking at his art.

It was my first time to play on a Saturday. Parking is free on Sundays so I assumed it was on Saturdays also. There were some folks putting money into the parking meter receipt/pass dispensor & I told them it was free on the weekends. The guy pointed to the sign that said "Mon- Sat" & I stood there and looked at it like the Dumber Dude from Dumb and Dumber. Then I went ahead and got me a ticket.

It was a good day for the Blues as far as customers during the day at the Gravity Bar. They had a band called D.R.U.M (Devine Rhythm & I don't remember what the other two letters stand for). They set up while I was breaking down. They were playing on the stage at the other side of the Gravity Bar where the actual stage is located. I was set up in an area closer to the strand sidewalk so there was no problem getting in each others way. I heard them do a sound check & They did Bob Marley's "War" & they sounded very good. I would have stuck around but I was exhausted & Still need to drive home.

Thats all for now. I have to run a few errands & get out and about & enjoy the nice weather.

Howdy

Good Morning, Good Afternoon, Or whatever the case may be.


It is a nice morning here in Katy Texas. The humidity is down a little bit and it feels good outside.


I just got my CD order back from Dallas. It is pretty much the same CD as I had before but I had a little mastering work done by Rock Romano & I also took one of the songs off that didn't really sound that good to me. I had recorded it using just the guitar only & it just didn't flow. Not that it was bad because it didn't have the bass & Drums. I just didn't get into the smooth rhythm. Maybe I wasn't tapping my foot & feeling it or something but I know it will be better when I do it next time. Besides, If a person is going to record a Robert Johnson song or song of his style, It really needs to be right. I th ink it was towards the end of the day when we did that one & It may have been that I was getting a little tired.

Brandon Shannon had really done me a huge favor and spent an entire Sunday setting up and recording back in December of 2005. He has now moved to Hawai and I need to drop him an email to see how he is doing. I met him when he was the sound man for the Armadillo Palace and he really is a good guy to know & hang out with.


The other cool thing that I had mentioned some time back is that when I contacted a local company here and asked about pricing of Duplicating/printing the physical CD itself, I got an email in response and it turned out to be from an old friend of mine from Dallas. It was complete fluke. I had been in contact with Marvin Shapiro from time to time but probably hadn't talked to him in a couple of years. He was a college friend of mine & we drank alot of beer & also did quite a bit of fishing at the local cow ponds & area lakes in East Texas.

It was great to have Marvin be involved in my CD & he really took care of me this time & I really appreciate his help but mostly it was cool just to have a reason to call him a few times and work on something togeather. If I ever get the money to make a DVD, I am going to ask him to do the camera part of it. It will probably be kind of expensive since I will need a sound recording dude and also the filming part and then have to get the sound part mastered and then edited to get the best parts. I really think that will be the best thing to use to show what I do so people can see the one-man-band aspect but also get to hear studio quality type sound.





Thats all for now.

Politics

I don't really watch that much sports anymore. I was Houston Oilers fan for a long time but when they up and moved it made me realize that it was really a business and the team didn't belong to the city or the fans. It kind of made me think about being a sports fan a little differently.

I was still rooting for the Houston Astros have another miracle comeback this season & I still will watch the rockets from time to time but it just isn't the same.

Yesterday, One of the NFL Players for Tennesse stomped on an oposing players head with his shoe and they had to give the guy 31 stitches. To punish the guy they suspended him for 5 games. http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/cp_f10029A.xml.html


I heard about the story on the news this morning and the newscaster dude said that it was a shame that children had to see stuff like this. I thought it was funny that alot more children were going to see it being re-played on the news in slow motion. It is kind of sickening to me when news people try to talk about caring about children or caring about Texas. They don't give a damn about anyone. If you think they care about you, wait til you are newsworthy & see how much they care. Do you want a news camera there pointed at you when you are being wheeled into an ambulance? Why do poeple need to see that anyway. Isn't it good enough to know someone got smashed up and may die or do you need a picture?

Speaking of caring about children. What about Congressman Mark Foley? He was on a committee to protect expoited children. I am sure he went to church every Sunday. Seems like the people who pretend to be the most moral turn out to be the wierdos.

Thats is another reason to trust Kinky Friedman. With a name like "Kinky" it is almost impossible that he will ever turn out to be a depraved pervert & even if he did he probably wouldn't be breaking a campaign promise.

Henry Ford

After an exhuastive research endeavor at the Entermazement Labratories, I have come up with an inovation to dampen the sound coming out of my Fender Blues Junior Guitar Amplifer.

Don't let the name fool you. It can still get pretty dang loud.

It is a tube amplifer. With tube amps you tend to get a better tone by turning them up at least a little bit.


I am using a dampening device that has polyester fibers tightly meshed into a flexible rubber backing. I place the fiber side towards the speaker & prop it up with the vocal mic stand.

It is hard to tell from the stage but it seems to be doing the job.

Another great thing about this device is that it also works well as the passenger side floor mat on my truck.

Warm WInd

If you hadn't noticed, It is pretty dang windy today. Not the cool breeze you would hope for at this time of year either.

Yesterday, I stopped by Bennos on the Seawall to get a Fish Poboy & the wind was coming in from the water pretty strong. It was sunny and not alot of clouds but all of the sudden it started pouring down rain. I have most of my stuff that really can't get wet in the front of the truck but I do keep the PA speakers and a my bass amp in the back but I put them in 55 Gallon Trash bags. I just slip the bags over the speakers & then I put a plywood sign over that. I specifically made it to use as a cover and a sign both.

I still don't like the thought of anything getting wet so I keep a Tarp in the truck also incase it is really bad. I ran out and started putting the tarp over everything and by the time I was done, It had stopped raining.

It tured out that one of the guys working in the kitchen was one of the dudes that I wrote about in my blog a couple of weeks ago that had come in late to Whiskys Pub. I think his name is Marino. He is a musician also and has a gig at the Balanese Room tonight.

It was good Po-boy. I was really just trying to order the sandwich but I guess it normally comes with French Fries, Cole Slaw, & Hush Puppies so I guess I got my carbos for the day in one meal.

On my way out to Galveston yesterday, I stopped by Rock Romano's Red Shack Recording Studio and picked up my CD. He had done kind of a Budget Remaster & eliminated some of the hissing noises, Cleaned up the begining and endings of songs & Did some minor EQ adjustments & took out some of the real low end bass. He also adjusted the levels of all the songs so that they are equally hot. The other thing I wanted to do was change the order of the songs on the CD so that there was a little more variation between tracks. I had all the slow ones togeather last time & I realized it needed to be changed.

It is mostly stuff that most people wont notice but it really does make the CD easier to listen to as a whole & I am really happy with it. There are a couple of songs in particular that it really made a huge improvement. Particularly the cover of "Wi nd Cri es M ary" It had a lot of hissing noise and he took it out using his super computer Pro Tools Skills.

I am not going to put Rock's name on the CD credits when I get more copies made and make a new CD Insert. It would look good to have the name of a known reputable studio on there but it is not really fair to Rock since he was doing just a couple of hours work & not really dong what would be considered "Mastering" the CD & it would not reflect what he could do on a proper budget.

I had given him the Green light to do 2 hours work on it and use his own judgement on what to do instead of me sitting down with him and doing it with him since I figured with the limited time, I would probably end up getting in the way and not much would get done. I am pretty sure he spent alot more time than 2 hours on it since I know just listening to the CD just one time would take up about half an hour alone. He did me a favor and I definitely owe him for that.


Thanks Mr. Romano, You Rock!

Smile

For the past couple of weeks, I have been video taping my shows. I was originally thinking of making a video presentation tape to try to use as promotional propaganda.

I bought the video camera when I fisrt strated the one man band but I didn't like the sound quality of the microphone. It was the cheapest one they had at Wal-Mart. It uses the smaller VCR tapes. The biggest problem is that it didn't seem to pick up the bass guitar sound.

I figured out recently that I could run the sound out wire through my mixer and then into the VCR & that does improve the sound quality a little bit. I can EQ it a little & take out some of the high end sounds & kick up also turn up the bass end a little. I am also placeing the camera closer to the bass amp so that it picks it up better. It would be nice if it had a Microphone input so I could hook up a better mic. One that is designed to capture sounds from the entire room.

It is a little more work to haul one more piece of equipent, set it up, and change the tape but it is very helpful to actually watch the tape & see/hear things from a different perspective.

I just wanted to keep you up to date on the lastest scientific methods here at Enermazement Management, Inc.


Happy Trails (to you)

Week Number 12

Well, Next week will be my 13th week playing the Sunday gig at the Gravity Bar in Galveston. We are kind of taking it week by week to see how it goes but it has lasted longer than I originally expected.

Today was kind of wierd though. I was out in front of the Gravity Bar putting up a "Live Blues" sign and a dude walked up and told me that it was a violation of the Sign Ordinance & I could't put it up. I asked him in what capacity he was telling me that & he said he owned two businesses on the Strand & one of them is a club down the street. He said a group of business owners had complained to the city and I was going to get cited. I told him that since he was the only one talking to me about it that it looked like he was the only one that had complained. He said that the sign didn't fit in and looked bad, etc. I wasn't feeling like really getting into it with him so I didn't confront him with the fact that his bar also features live music at the same time as my gig.


Wierd thing #2: There was another bar down the street (going east) that was having some kind of Bike Run. Not Motorcycles but actual bicycles. They got a group of people togeather and rode from bar to bar along the strand and surrounding area and stayed at each place for a little bit and then moved on. They had very loud whistles that they were blowing as they rode down the streeet. The Gravity Bar wias the last stop and when they got there they were pretty well liquored up & were very loud and were also blowing the whistles inside the bar. The whistles were peircingly loud table by table everybody else (all the paying customers) that was there before they came in, basically exited the bar. Several of the people in the bicycle group were wearing T-Shirts from the bar down the street & It almost seemed like a scene from Cheers where the poeple from Garys bar were visiting. There was this one guy in particular that was extremely rude. I remember thinking that he was the single rudest customer I had ever seen at a bar since I started playing live music. He was coming up by the stage and holding his hands over his ears and making a face and saying something about how my harmonica was too loud. The wierd thing about that was that it was about a tenth as loud as the whistles they had. After they cleared out the bar & were leaving, the one rude dude came right up to me and yelled a derogatory comment at me at the top of his lungs. He had been drinking but I had really had enough of his crap & I just looked right at him & I think he picked up that I wasn't going to take any more shit & he turned and walked out the door. I later found out that this dude was the owner of the bar sponsoring the bike run thing. His bar is called Poor Michaels. What an Asshole. I don't know what he was pissed about. Maybe it is becuase I was playing blues music & his club is supposed to be a blues bar. There is no possible way that a guy who owns a blues bar could possibly be a cool guy if he is out harrassing blues musicians just because they are playing at a bar down the street.


I really am amazed that on the same day, the actual owners of the two closest bars on strand street that feature live music both gave me shit & in such a direct way.

I guess it is thier way of letting me know that they have noticed that my gig has gone well. Thanks Guys.



Still, The whole thing seemed very strange. People are funny animals.

Really, Why the hell not?

http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/

I have noticed that Just in time for the November Elections, Gas Prices are Going Down & The Stock Market is at near an all time high.

I have made it a point to stay out of discussing politics lately but I can't see a good reason not to vote for this dude.

What better endorsement could you need than Willie Nelson.

Unless of course you are a terrorist.

Mose Allison

My friend Eddy gave me a CD yesterday when I played a the Gravity Bar. It was an extremely nice gesture.

I got a chance to listen to alot of it on the drive home from Gavleston & it is some pretty cool stuff.

Here is a link where you can hear parts of the songs on that same CD:






http://www.amazon.com/Allison-Wonderland-Anthology-Mose/dp/samples/B0000033AH/ref=dp_tracks_all_1/104-7534978-1738336?ie=UTF8#disc_1


Mose plays piano and does the vocals. It is some good music. Eddy told me he really like the lyrics and I agree.

I had to listen close to tell excatly what it was but he has this thing he does where he kind of scats along with the piano riffs but it is kind of like a growl (sort of) & is not real loud but it sounds cool as hell.

I looked at his discogrophy page and it looks like he has been recording since 1988.
Check him out for your own self.

If you like it, then you might be hip.

Zildjian

Howdy,

I was out last night to put up some flyers at the Vintage Bar for the show there Next Week. I was kind of excited to see that Hamilton Loomis is going to be doing a show there October 19th. I don't know Hamilton but I used to have his first tape which I won by being the right caller during a blues program on KPFT about 10 years ago.

It would be cool to see him in a setting like the Vintage Bar.
After that I had another errand to run and was driving by the Big Easy and saw Jeremiah Johnson's Truck parked out there so I snapped that it his regular night to play ther so I stopped in but they were just going on break. He has a guitar player and a Bass player plus him on acoustic guitar also & they are doing a sort of unplugged thing. I hung around and chatted with the band and waited till they went back on and listened to about 5 songs. It was good music & it always relaxes me to hear good live music. Jeremiah used to host a blues jam out in the Katy area at Einstiens and I went to it almost every Sunday night for about a year. It was good to see what he is up too and as I told him last night, He does good at what ever setting he decides to use. He does alot of good original tunes & he has one in particular that was very good. I don't remember what the tune was called but it was about what someone feels like after they kill someone. It was sort of a country sounding song ala Thunder Road but has a mix of alternative rock with the vocal riffs also. I am going to have to make it over there when I have more time so I can kick back and relax & listen to more of the show.

Today, I stopped by my local Katy area H&H Music store and was very upset to see that it is closing down. They got bought out and they told me that there is a very good chance that it will re-open after the liquidation.

I went in to get some picks and was planning to get two packages which cost about $4 with the starving musician discount. Most of the inventory is already gone so I had to look around and check the sale prices. I looked for a bass amp & also PA Equipment but most of it was gone. I found the 18" Zildjian symbol that I had been eyeing for the past year. It is a 200 & something dollar item (retail) & they had it for just over a hundred so I had to buy it. I really didn't have the money but I just couldn't pass on it.

I is very excited.

I am now going to go home for lunch and see what it sounds like. I would like to get a chance to practice with it a little before playing at Whiskys Pub in Galveston tomorrow but it really won't matter since I am used to hitting the 14" Zildjian Symbol that I alrleady have. I am sure that it is going to sound great.

The biggest thing I need to figure out is what configuration to use. I may just substitute it for the 14" symbol or if it sounds good enough, I might try using it with my drum stick contraption that I wrote about here a month or so back.

Or just come to a show this month and you can see for yourself. I have been playing alot in Galveston lateley but I do have some September Shows in Houston Also. The Vintage Bar on Thursday the 14th and The Stagshead Pub on Saturday the 23rd. Or come on out to Galveston on Sunday Afternoon and check out the Gravity Bar on the Strand or if you are out on a Thursday, I will be at Whiskys Pub tomorrow & then again in two weeks. Check the schedule on my website. If a gig gets cancelled, I will update it there.

So as Marvin Zindler always says, Good Golf, Good Tennis, or Whatever makes you happy!

Gus the Fireman

After about 10 Sundays in a row at the Gravity Bar, I am starting to get familiar with some of the vendors & artists that work on the Galveston Strand every Sunday afternoon. They probably work out there alot of other days but I am only there on Sundays.

There is one guy who does characatures that always will swing by while I am playing and say hello. The "stage" area where I play is near the entrance and the entryway. There is a metal hand rail type devider. He usually comes up there and leans on the rail and gives a smile and a wave.


There is another guy who lives in an apartment up above the Bar & he sells his art right on the sidewalk. He just leans it on the building near the entrance of his apartment. I don't talk to him that much but he says hello and we have chatted a couple of times. One time his painting fell over and I picked it up & he seemed to appreciate that.


There is another guy who is a bass player that lives up in an apartment. He is usually sitting out on a bench at some point and we chat a little but it is his home so I try not to invade his space too much. He has come in and listend to me play and also come by Whiskys Pub also.

There are also the people that give the horse carriage rides. I have chatted with some of them usually about how business is.

The one guy that I have talked to the most is an old feller & a nice guy. He just sets up on the sidewalk and paints and sells his work. He smokes a pipe and has some pretty thick lenses on his glasses.

Since I had changed the format of my show and been doing the marathon gigs, I have not had a chance to chat with him for several weeks. This past week it was real busy all day but I was able to take a break at about 7pm and walked over and visited with him for a little bit.

It was nice to see him and we talked for a minute and I started to realize that he might have had a drink or two. He was pretty well lit up. He told me that he had played guitar with Willie Nelson & he sang me a couple of old country songs. It was a great time. I really was feeling good about everything and told him I had to get back and play some more.

A few minutes later, He had made his way over to the Gravity bar and I ran into him outside. He had decided that he wanted to play a few tunes and wanted to use my guitar. Not one of my favorite requests to say the least but after 3 years of playing in Bars, Clubs, pubs, taverns, pool halls, Ice Houses, & other premium venues, I have learnt how to deal with these type of situations & handled it about as smoothly as I could.

Overall this past Sunday was a pretty good day for the Blues.

I am thinking next week will be more of a challenge since there will probably not be as many people out on the strand but it is not easy to predict those kinds of things. I am just happy to have the gig. The customers are generally in a good mood and there is a wide cross section of what I like to call Humanity.


I have done extensive market research and figured out that Humanity is my target market.


Oh yeah, I hated to hear that the Croc Dude got killed. I liked that guy.

Tempted

Last Sunday Night, I was driving home listening to Little Steven's Underground Garage. It is a radio program that has been coming on 93.7 fm for the past several years. I think it runs from 8 to 10pm.

Little Steven is in Bruce Springsteens Band and also plays "Sal" on the Supranos.

He is one of my favorite characters on that show & also one of the characters that killed "Big Pussy". It was one of the best scenes ever on that show (Except for the one where Christopher killed the guy in the butcher shop and all the pig's heads were looking at him,) They took Big Pussy out on Tony's boat and Sal, Tony, & a couple other dudes lined up in a row facing Big P & he knew he was about to get done. He started crying a little and asked them not to shoot his face. Then they all pulled out thier guns and started shooting, Maybe about 40 or 50 shots total. They camera shot they used was from the view of Big P & it almost looked like a scene from Dick Tracy. With his hair and make-up Sal looked like a Comic Book Character. The expression on his face was priceless.

If you want to check out his show, Here is the website:

www.littlestevensundergroundgarage.com

I think they have some archived shows to listen to. Check it out of you like cool music. He plays Garage band, Rockabilly & other cool stuff.

One of the songs he played last Sunday was from Marty Stuart, The Country (&Bluegrass) singer/musician. It is called "Tempted" and sounded like a Buddy Holly tune.

It was specifially listening after that to hear who did the song and was surprised when he said marty Stuart.

I had seen him on TV playing mandolin several times and always liked what he did.


Well,


Thats my report for now.


Rock On!

Why the Hell Not?

I am not running for Governer.


But lately I have been trying to push my limits a little bit.

Used to be when I had a 4 hour gig, I would play 4 forty five minutes sets, take 3 twenty minute breaks. I tried to stick to that schedule.


Lately, especially since I started playing at the Gravity Bar on Sundays (for the Summer) I have been playing longer sets. In the past several weeks I have played sets that lasted up to two hours and 10 minutes. I have also started earlier and played from 3 to 8 instead of 4 to 8. I figure if I am going to go to all the trouble of driving to Galveston & do all the loading and unloading, I may as well maximize the exposure.

I started bringing a lunch box up to the stage and if I get hungry, I just eat a banana or something. I pretty much just stop to go to the restroom or replace a broken string.


Thats all I got for now & I know it ain't much but I just wanted to check in and say hello.

Keep the Faith & stay positive.


Than ks