"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.