Iris & Emmlou "Our Town"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HELEN!

And many more!

Happy Birthday Helen

Another Birthday up in flames!

Ok. Here's the deal

My friend, Misisipi Mike Wolf (he's from Biloxi, and can spell it any way
he wants), is putting together a Shel Silverstein tribute for the 24th, at
a local club. The band will be him, me, and my bassist, pedal steel guy, and drummer from
Gayle's band. Essentially, it's Misispi Mike and the Hired Hands, And each of a bunch of our friends from the Bay Area alt
country scene will take a shot covering their favorite recordings of Shel
songs. And the songlist gives an amazing picture of Shel's scope
as a writer. Here's what we've got so far:

Boy Named Sue (Cash, of course) - Stephen Grillos from Hang Jones
The Unicorn (Irish Rovers) - Gayle Lynn
In the Hills of Shiloh (Judy Collins) - Bhi Bhiman
Cover of the Rolling Stone (Hook) - Mike and Cree from Misisipi Rider
Queen of the Silver Dollar (Buck Owens) Maurice Tani from 77 El Deora
Stoned and I Missed it (Hook) - Cree Rider
One's On The Way (Loretta Lynn) - Gayle Lynn
Freakers' Ball (Hook) - Me and Cree
Couple More Years (Willie Nelson) - Mike Wolf
Ballad of Lucy Jordan (Marianne Faithful) - Denise Funari of Yard Sale
Marie Lavaux (Bobby Bare) - don't know the singer yet
True Love - Me doing the version I put together 40 years ago.
Michaelangelo (Hook) - Me
Jennifer Johnson and Me - (Robert Earl Keen) - Paul Oguin

We had a rehearsal of just the band last Tuesday and it was way more fun than it was work.
Next Tuesday we schedule in the singers, a couple at at time, due to space limitations, and firm the thing up, and we unleash the thing on Saturday. I have homework to do. Pray for us.

This just in from Tom:

I think this video has some connection to Hoyt Axton, but I'm not sure. Tom will need to explain all once he's officially in.  For some reason, I can't get the video to load, so in the meantime here's a link:

http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=96998f5c5f04f3cdaf63

Welcome Tom!

I will now go sit in a corner and write; " I will not try to fix things that aren't broken" 500 times!

Huh?

The Adey Brothers

City Blues Band

Another Paradox connection:

http://www.60sgaragebands.com/citybluesband.html

Also for Bob and Helen

The Blue Marauders

Out of the mist they come
on wings of Ice blue fire and steel
crested helmets gleaming in the first rays of dawn

Screeching searching seeking
the unsuspecting regiment
still lying in the trenches
in deep morning slumber

The attack comes swift now
nowhere to run

nowhere to hide

And in the end leaving a landscape
littered with the spoils of war

Only shells remain of the
gallant soldiers that once were

And once again an uneasy stillness
creeps over the land
and all is quiet on Little Walden Pond

For now

What happened to our cheerful green site?

For Bob and Helen

New Addition to the family

I've been in music retail for almost 20 years now, and I'm pretty much immune to gear lust. I really do limit buys to what I need professionally, and I quit collecting guitars when I retired from rockstardom... In fact, about 10 years ago, I got real about what I play, and what I'm just keeping around because it's cool, and I sold off most of them. But, about three months ago, Martin shipped us this OM-28V for store stock, and I couldn't believe how good it sounded. And on closer inspection, I could see that it had an Adirondack spruce top, which Martin usually charges you an extra $650 for. So we had this $4000 guitar that we could sell for $3300. And I tried to sell it. I really did. I put it in the lap of every serious player that came in. But, while everybody oohed and aahed over it, nobody bought it.

After a month of that, and after playing the thing so much myself that I'd had to restring it twice, I said what the hell and made plans to sell off almost everything else I had that was worth playing (keeping the Taylor for stagework, of course). And on the day I applied for Social Security, I went back to the store and asked Alan, my friend and boss, if I could buy it, and he gave me the greenlight. That meant that I could buy the finest Martin to come through Bananas in 15 years, and he wouldn't make any money on it. Folks, this is the nicest guitar I've ever owned. Period. I get up in the morning, and I can't wait to play.

Long Labor Day Weekend

What's new with me? 

I asked Bob and Helen if I could spend the Labor Day weekend with them, they said yes, so my daughter and I drove down.  Michael Ray was recording with Dave Hall this week so he was already here.  So Gary, Ralph, and Steve -- bless their hearts -- decided to drive up, too.  Gary cooked amazing meals.  The rest of my family -- Ginny, Linda, Cat, and John -- all came for dinner.  Dave and Tara and Steve Skaff ate with us for at least one night, too.  Nice musical totally spontaneous weekend was had by all.  Even Daisy had a good time, although we tired her out with all our comings and goings.  Wish you and Norma could have been here.

So What's New With You?

Hey! There's got to be more to life than reminiscing about times gone by. I'm kind of assuming we all have lives these days. I heard a rumor that there was some Michaelray recording being done. Whassup with that? Bob had a heart scare, and has a Dobro. Diane writes books and bought a trailer. Steve is managing to get booked in Europe. I would assume that the Girton clan is up to some musical something or other. But little of that shows up here. What's happening?!?!

Norma took Helen's lead and got a Jitterbug phone. She's had a cell phone for the last 5 years and never used it because it did too much stuff, and did a mediocre job of it. And when it was necessary to use it to make a call, she'd have to get out the manual. It was a waste of her money. The new phone is intuitive, sounds great and is as easy to use as our landlines. And not only is the sound quality superb, but there's a booster button to really get the volume up. The biggest surprise is what a cool looking and feeling piece of hardware it is. She got a red one, BTW.

I finally got a cell phone myself. But I sprung for an iPhone because I've been a Mac guy since 1986. And I've used it more as a camera, calendar, note pad, and pocket recorder, than as a phone. I'm just not a phone kind of guy. The pic of Norma is by way of my iPhone, which is a better camera than my camera.

Gayle and Tom are back from Kentucky, and we're booking gigs again. And the BananaJam went down so well that we're gonna do it again. I'm knocking off for two weeks and heading north to Portland and Seattle to visit friends at the end of September, and am presiding over the wedding of two dear friends on 10/10/10. I'll go from saying the words to playing lead in the band. The groom is my bassist.

What's new with you?