Heard back from Heather Webb and she is available. Awesome. So looks like the one-off solo thing may happen after all, heh. Have no illusions about how busy Adrian and Heather are (Adrian and the Sickness, Adrian also plays full time w/Hell's Belles), or how busy I am. But there is a narrow window of opportunity to give it a shot so why the hell not? Line up for Danny G's OCEAN OF STARS: Myself (duh), Adrian Conner (guitar), Heather Webb (bass), and Michael McDaniel & Richard Lamm from ETB (saxophone/drums, respectively). This could be really fucking cool. Have sax to cover some guitar melody lines and free up a rhythm part, and sure he has his own ideas.
Thinking of the following for a setlist, no order:
Ocean of Stars
Hammerfoot
Dig That Hole Deep
Laguna Madre
Great Divide
Sidewinder
First three tunes from "Ocean of Stars", last 3 from "Red River Day Care". Check my Facebook page to stream them, link to the right. Didn't want to do anything too musically out there due to time constraints. Getting excited about finally playing some of this stuff, but also keeping in mind this could easily not happen at all, at least this time around. This will also be my first time as a full-on band leader... Fingers crossed!
So Sunday lounged around house. Deanna had Erin over and they cooked breakfast enchiladas, who brought her 4 chihuahuas over. So in addition to Dooley (D's big Lab), Ginger (D's little poodle), Trixie (D's 19-YO chihuahua), Nacho (my chihuahua) and Brutus (friend's goofy young black pit mix) there were 8 dogs total of varying size (mostly small) running around the house/backyard. Was like a goddamn circus, heh. Good times.
San Angelo w/ETB on Friday went GREAT. We will def be back soon. Yeah, rained at first but cleared up for the drive. Until we got there and had to load, then the skies reopened with apocalyptic clouds that seems really confused as to which way they all wanted to go. Crazy. And no, turns out we were not on the bill with Amplified Heat, they were evidently playing another venue in town. Well shit, went on Facebook and made the correction.
Drive was a blast, had Mariah the merch girl in tow. Lots of stupid fun with her, Richard and I. Stopped at Cooper's BBQ in Llano after Tessmer raved about it whole drive up. Oh man, it was indeed awesome. Grabbed a sticker and bought a coozie.
Riding in Boss Hoss
Scenery > TV x 1000
Cooper's BBQ
Uh oh...
The venue (Steel Penny Pub) was cool, had this weird square-ish stage that was actually deeper than it was wide. No big deal, we all fit! Not a huge crowd but the people there totally dug it. Must have signed 10 CD's during set break, kudos to Mariah for being on top of it and making sure to track down every wayward band member when something needed to be signed.
Then had a total rockstar moment before second set. Stage was about 2 feet high with a chair in front to act as a step (for us older guys). Stepped onto chair. Ankle buckled, as did the chair. I fall forward onto the stage, banging my R shin something fierce. Impact w/shin caused me to pitch sideways and spill off onto the floor. So I did about the only thing I could do in such a situation: threw my arms in the air in a triumphant "TA-DA!" and took a deep bow. Then managed to get back onstage without busting my ass again. 3 days later I still have an ace bandage on it (my shin, not my ass). Livin the dream.
Great sets and great show, then the all-night drive. Got back into Austin Saturday morning around first light, drove Michael back to South Austin. Slept as much as I could but still seem to always wake up around 9:45-10am-ish. Weird. Took another nap before driving to Zilker Clubhouse for the wedding The Mother Truckers were playing that day. Hot as hell at 3pm for load-in/soundcheck (playing outside) but by 7pm it would be nice, and it was. Got in another nap when we broke for dinner.
The wedding was cool, the first gay marriage I'd attended and hopefully *NOT* the last (not-so-veiled political statement). Kinda weird being at any kind of wedding as a recent divorcee, but was a blast. Sun went down behind a thunderhead, then reappeared briefly underneath the anvil sending an awesome crimson splash across the much-changed downtown skyline. Shoulda brought my camera. Got done, got paid, tore down and said my goodbyes before hauling ass to Antone's for the later ETB set.
Which was great but a hurry up an wait situation. Big jam with Pinetop Perkins, WC Clark, Marcia Ball and other big names. Crazy seeing so many Grammy winners onstage doing a big blues jam. Which was awesome and all, but we didn't know if we'd actually have time to PLAY when it was over. But Antone's was going to pay us whether we played or not, so that was awesome. Like subsidized farmers getting paid to NOT grow corn, heh. Then Tessmer was invited onstage to play some guitar among all the greats, that was fucking awesome and good for him! Hopefully some people would stick around for us, heh.
This was also the night of the Baxter Memorial show at Headhunter's, marking the 2-year anniversary of his death after a motorcycle accident. I didn't really know him personally, but he was a good friend to the Red River Community. Wish I could have been there, as many close friends are still deeply affected by it, Deanna specifically as they were dating and very much in love at the time. So I tried to steal away and at least make an appearance, but Tessmer said we could go on in 15-minutes, an hour, or not at all. Well shit.
But we finally did go on, and threw down a pretty solid and quick set. Had some very loyal and hardcore fans who stayed all night (and evidently were giving some of the other players a good-natured hard time, heh). Things got a little hazy after the 2nd or 3rd round of shots appeared to the stage, heh. Def feeling the love.
All in all, was a very good and very profitable weekend. May have the money for new bass speakers by end of the month if not sooner, and may actually be able to pay my rent IN FULL beginning of June.
ETB at Friends Monday, Maggie Mae's on Wednesday, then the Truckers fly to Florida to play another wedding. Should be a blast, staying in condos and using rented gear. And to think this is a "business" trip, ha!
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