Jason Boland & The Stragglers

If you blog too much you'll go blind

2009-06-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

Yeah yeah yeah, I’ve got enough death threats wanting to get some blog action. Folks, it was the most exciting hockey playoff season I’ve witnessed in years so I blame them. Congrats to the Chicago Blackhawks on reaching the Western Conference Finals with the youngest team in the league, and to the Pittsburgh Penguins for winning Lord Stanley’s Cup and keeping the dirty hands of the Detroit Sucks dead wings off the beautiful cup. And not that I care about the NBA but with only baseball, the updates will be easy. Then again, ‘Weeds’ is starting back up on Showtime….blast!

‘Alright’ has been sitting at number 2 for a couple weeks now, only behind Jacking Ram and his Big pr Machine. Not sure we can catch the Ram, but for an unsigned band, 1300+ spins is damn decent.

Back track WAY back to Shooter’s in Gainesville. Leave outta Woody’s early afternoon, nap most of the way there and load in upon arrival. Fairly uneventful day leading up the show, Ryan Beaver opening up the show. Right before JB&S plays, Roger asks me for tape as he wants to put a sign on the bus door.

What happened was Roger went to the gym and had to get a taxi to get back for the show. Roger only had a $20 bill, the cab driver claimed to not have change for the $6 cab ride. However, he promised Roger he would return with his change. What happened next, well, I’ll save that for a video blog.

Besides the show, the $20 created quite a bit of excitement. So much that I went to sleep as soon as we got to the hotel. I was plum tuckered out. Wake up as we roll the next morning to Mt. Pleasant. Can’t load in until 4 so we hit the hotel first. Thanks to my buddy Karen with Sisk Motors for letting us borrow a car for the day. The venue is 13.7 miles from the hotel, saved us lots of headaches. Now KFC has grilled chicken and maybe it was just Mt. Pleasant’s store, but it wasn’t pleasant. Not bad, but not near as good as the rotisserie chicken they had back in the mid 90’s.

Head for the venue at 4, they aren’t ready for us. Putting in a new outdoor stage area and they are behind schedule. Once JB&S finally gets to load in and sound check, it’s way late for two support acts. Ryan got added a couple days before and he just eventually pulled out of the gig without paying. Gina Walker did play and minus the amps cutting in and out, sounded good. JB&S didn’t experience any (or as much since I’m no sound man) problems, although I did use the bug spray quite heavily for myself. Always be prepared.

Get to bed and wake up in Fort Worth to pick up a box of merch I carelessly left in my garage. Head for Austin and arrive about noon. Reckless Kelly is about to kick off their sound check as he load in. Set up and take Greg to hotel, guys are finished with their sound check by then. Shower (on site, bad ass) and at merch for the doors at 6. Ryan, same beaver, plays his set, then JB&S and then Reckless Kelly. I’m a huge fan of Reckless but only got to see parts of their show. Sold a lot of merch and one of my best friends, who is gonna be moving to North Carolina (sniff sniff), hung out when I wasn’t so busy. Times flew and before I knew it, loading up and heading home. With of course a stop at Czech Stop in West.

Start off the next week in Little Rock, think I’m gonna have to slip you off, take a chance tonight and untie the not, there’s more to life than what I got….Sorry folks, the ghost of Reba’s career still gets to me every now and then. Leave out of Woody’s at dawn, arrive in Little Rock to get the bus and trailer washed up first. Sadly, once we get parked at Rev Room, the passenger side of the bus and trailer was spotless. The driver side didn’t even look like it’d been touched. No wonder they keep the lighting so dark in the wash bays.

Load in and sound check, head to Sticky Fingerz to get some fingerz for myself. Quick shower and nap before some of the last few hockey games before heading in. Unfortunately, the Rev Room was empty. Not completely, but usually enjoy a good early crowd there. Come to find out that Wakarusa, some big hippie festival, had moved to Ozark, AR, and was that weekend. That and a Thursday night in a town where most people have to wake up and go to work by 8 am, tough call. Show was good, I didn’t miss any of it being busy….haha.

Loaded out and went to bed, woke up parked next to Wayne & Layne’s in Sulphur. Played there once a while back, what a fun place. First off, Wayne is crazy, but in the good way. The whole staff is just so nice and courteous to the band, and the deli sandwiches are wicked good. Standard day, most of the guys go eat crawfish after sound check, Brad and I to hotel til they show up. Back to venue, nap, doors at 8 and off to selling koozies. Not sure why, but a beer just sounded good. Thankfully, it tasted just as good. The second one, was even better! The third, well it was about like the first. Then the shot of whiskey, par for the course. The tequila was terrible, but it was tequila. The jager, no thanks. I wouldn’t take a shot of jager for $1000 at this point in my life. However, I drank enough for the next few months so I don’t have to worry about it.

Didn’t get drunk enough to not do my job, but for the socializing after the show, I was not up for. I did wake up with a grand headache so my lesson was learned for now. Only a few hours drive to Brazoria so I took a handful of advil and went back to bed once we hit the road. Usually I wake up as the bus is pulling into venues to help determine parking situation, maybe I slightly od’d on the advil. I was the last to wake and we were completely parked when I got up. Armadillo Ballroom, it HAS to be a bar in Texas.

Load in and set up, once we’re done with sound check take trip 1 to the hotel. Most times there is only one runner to get us back and forth, so we take two trips. This allows for almost any vehicle to act as the runner, plus only having 4 people at the hotel means everyone has a place to sit. For instance, trip one is almost always me, Brad, Roger and Aaron. An hour after we are dropped at hotel, Jason, Noah, Mikey and occasionally Grantpa will come to the hotel. Trip 1 is returned to bus, trip 2 is picked up about an hour after their drop off. It’s logistics people, one of only 3 classes I made an A in during college.

So the preceding scenario works for Brazoria, and back to the club. I go in about 9:30, late crowd, lots of calls. The opening band did mostly covers and I hate to say it, I wasn’t happy with their song selection. Not saying they weren’t good, they were a good band. Not many country bands can play the ‘Cupid Shuffle’ or that song where the guy just says ‘cyclone’ over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Oh, you hate those songs too? And the stupid ‘Chicken Fry’ song. Yes, I know a lot of people love it and I know the writer wasn’t comparing a chicken fried steak to the brave men and women of our armed forces fighting for our freedom. But that’s EXACTLY what it says. Just wears me out, if chicken fried steak is an integral part of your life, and you’re not cooking them for people for financial reasons, I don’t know what to tell ya.

I don’t really remember much of the show, I drank a lot of brain cells away the night before. I do know we left and I woke up 15 times between Brazoria and Fort Worth by way of Austin. But it was nice to arrive home on a Sunday and not have a gig til Friday. Thursday gigs are SO overrated…except on pay day.

No gig but scheduled a rehearsal for Thursday evening in Austin. Once we get to MusicLab and set up, I go run around. Got caught in a wicked storm that came through town, that was nice. Guys worked up some new songs and a new (finally) set list. Oh you wanna hear ‘No Reason in Being Late’, ‘Bottle By My Bed’ and ‘Down Here on Earth’ live? Now you can.

Friday is a short drive to Schulenberg and the newly reopened Senglemann Hall. And old hall that’s been renovated and modernized. Other than the elevator load in, the place is nice. They were feeding us after sound check while Weldon Henson sound checked. Go see this guy, great old school country sound. If you don’t like him, you don’t like chocolate cake.

Stragglers start on their brand new set, I missed the first 3 songs as I went to the bus to see the last 1:17 of game 7. Although I’m no Pittsburgh fan, watching the dead wings on the ice without the cup was the next best thing to see the Hawks with the cup. Get back to catch ‘No Reason’ and so on, slow merch night til the end so I got to hear what seemed to be a pretty new show. Afterwards, back down the elevator to load out and to the hotel. Sadly, I went to the Whataburger next door, even though I said I probably never would again. However, this Whataburger not only got my order correct, but it was tasty and very fast.

On to College Station the next day. I don’t know how many times I’ve been to Wolf Pen Creek Amphitheater but I can never remember how to get there. Even with the gps, got lost. Finally make it, finally back in, finally set up my merch right by the moat around the front of the stage. Warm today, warm yesterday, warmer today….temps didn’t hit triple digits but at times it felt like it. Kudos to the amphitheater for building a sweet new green room with showers. Spent most of the afternoon in there just relaxing and not being on the bus.

Gates at 6, Paula Nelson on a little after 7 and then some delay came in, not sure why. Band of Heathens goes on a little late, plays a little late (but they are good, it’s okay) so JB&S on a little late. Extended the soft sound curfew to a late on and play on. Although there were a couple casualties from the new set in the shortened set, it worked well. It’s nice when someone comes up to buy a cd with “the song they just played” and I have to think of which one it is. Load up and head home, arrive in Fort Worth just in time to drop the trailer, grab a shower and head for the ice rink. Stick/puck at 8:00 am sounds nuts, but it’s cheaper than therapy...Til next week, I miss you pro hockey!

Patrick Ewing needs to lay off the Snickers

2009-05-27T23:10:00.000-07:00

"Alright" is up to number 6 on the Texas Music Chart, thank you and please keep requesting!

So my interweb service at home as left me, apparently my next door neighbor moved out. Damnit, hate to not blog but this will be short and sweet…..and not sweet without pics. If you wanna keep up with pics while we are on the road, follow the band on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bolandstraggler. I do the uploading from my phone, makes it easy to remember all the funny stuff we see.

I missed last week, hectic times with festivals, playoffs and some games of my own. But back a couple weeks we left for Big Texas South and stopped along the way in Austin to get the guys, then to radio in Houston before making it to Webster. Regular day, hotel across the street, no opener, I brought my own food for the run. Typical Thursday Houston show, good crowd and they hung in pretty good til the end.

Short travel up to Conroe so Jason can get on the radio again Friday morning, then on to Big Texas North. Again, club’s convenience rating for proximity to food/hotel is very high. Roll into the club early to catch the Josh Ward Band, haven’t played with these guys before but heard a lot about them through my friend Josh Norman. The Joshes stick together like swine flu. Josh Ward plays some pretty traditional country which of course you don’t see in Texas as much as you’d think. Plus it was his birthday, I believe his 29th again is what he said. I was right by the speaker stack but didn’t listen to much of the JB&S show cause it was so loud I couldn’t hear it, if that makes sense.

Afterwards, just sleep as I’m reading “Invisible Monsters” by Chuck Pahlinuk. Become a HUGE fan of his work, I’m busting through all his novels at a rate I’m not accustomed to. Fall asleep and wake up in Austin at Jason’s house, monsoon has fallen upon us. The initial plan was for the guys to follow bus to Burnet and have standard load in/sound check, but after the show they could leave directly. With pending weather problems, just told them to stay home until further notice.

Got to Burnet and the Weather Channel is playing games. While it’s raining on us, there is a 40% chance of rain at that moment. However, the storm is moving past us with nothing behind it, yet a 70% chance of rain a few hours later. Held off loading or doing anything until about 6 when it looked as though all weather was gonna stay away. The Austin boys arrive about 7 and start the ‘festival’ set up behind the stage. David Ball, yes that David Ball, goes on about 8:30 and plays for 90 minutes. Yes, played “Thinking Problem” and “Riding With Private Malone” but I’ll be damned that I forgot “Look What Followed Me Home.” Great country singer but really folks, in the age of music video how did he ever get a number 1 hit? Not taking away from him, but did the Na$hville brass forget to man the stations for a few months? Bless you David Ball, you may be the last of your kind.

After the show, just load up and head home. A few days off before early am bus call for Memphis. Work until time to leave, take half an ambien while trying to finish off “Snuff”, another Pahlinuk book. Now Pahlinuk is a crazy writer and this book is about a woman trying to set a world record for sex. The book isn’t about the act as much as it is about 4 characters. Well as I’m (happy) finishing the book and the ambien is kicking in, I don’t know what I’m reading versus what I’m chemically induced creating in my mind. Let’s just say my dreams were more than their average fright fest. Thus, I had to wake up and reread the last 20 pages.

Sorta wake up about 6, Brad’s calling to tell me he can’t meet the bus has he’s come down with a stomach virus or food poisoning. Later in the day he’s better so plan changes to just have him drive to Pittsburg. Get to Memphis and go to the hotel first, Newby’s is a late load in/late doors. Get there about 5, load in and while the guys soundcheck, I grab some bad ass Chinese right across the street. The bad ass sub shop isn’t open yet, hit that later.

Doors at 9 and opener on at 10, Kingbilly. Folks, you read it here first if these guys make it big. Six member band, tall blonde singer that doesn’t play an instrument, very tight band, well choreographed show. Give them a video and watch what happens. JB&S after that and it’s not a big crowd to say the least, school just let out, Memorial Day weekend, lots of factors against us.

Played through the show, got loaded out and everyone hit the big sandwich shop next door.
Head out at 6:00am for Pittsburg, KS, and arrive in town about 12:30. The GPS says the club is downtown, the iphones say it’s on the north edge of town when in fact, it’s way north of town. Look for the big cow with the band’s name on it. Get to the club, load in, sound check, hotel to clean up, I head back to watch some of the Hawks/detroit sucks game. Ended up winning in overtime although I was working long before the game went that deep. Brian Lumley and Red Dirt Underground opened, go check these guys out. Tight band, a lot of originals and when they do covers, it’s good stuff. I was super slow at merch until JB&S went on, then it picked up until the bar closed at 2. Okay, until the bar threw people out at 2:25.

Another night to bed and wake up at the venue the next morning. At the new Heartland Amphitheater at the Sac & Fox Casino in Shawnee, this place has great potential as a venue. Again the rain looked rainy so the guys set up and sound check on the nice big covered stage but I delay my merch under a tent just in case. And wouldn’t ya know it, doors at 6 and rain storm at 6:04. Didn’t last long though and was up and running by the time Shawna Russel took the stage at 7. Missed most of her show running Jason around for meet/greet and back/forth to merch in the meantime.

JB&S on around 8:30, gotta love casinos and their early shows. Although Heartland has great potential, the show didn’t go off that well. First, they don’t have a liquor license yet and honestly, JB&S fans like to drink. Second, Memorial Day weekend in Oklahoma, if you’re not by a body of water (lake or river), you may be by yourself. So the number of people was light but they had fun, pretty much hung out with them all after the show til it was time to leave. Get bus parked at hotel and watch “Dazed & Confused” for the umpteenth time. It’s over and it’s only 12:30, usually still on stage at that point on a Saturday.

Roll into Eufaula about 7 on Sunday morning, Motorcars beat us to the place but other than that we got prime parking. Again threats of rain throughout the day but Eufaula is a dead zone for network data so no one’s iphones or wireless cards worked for crap out there. The other bands start rolling in through out the morning, get merch to the merch tent to be counted in and sold. Not much for a merch guy to do when they have sellers, which worked out well at first since the Hawks were playing. Other than some of the worst officiating I’ve ever seen, the Hawks did themselves no favors by playing a terrible game. Beyond that, no comment.

Rain comes in and out throughout the day but I think they still had something like 9,000 people at the show. JB&S show was good and the weather was perfect. Gary Allan was next and it rained through most of his show. Stopped in time for Ragweed to finish off the day, so what does that tell ya? God likes Okies more than Californians. Watch part of Ragweed’s set but mainly just dried out on the bus. The band left so leaving the gig was just Mikey, Aaron and me, truly a crew bus for possibly the only time we’ll ever have it.

By the way, don’t eat the Sonic in Eufaula, nice case of food poisoning I got the next day. Quick recap, I feel like the 15 minute version of Sportscenter. Except, this actually has hockey included….

catching up....

2009-05-11T17:55:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother’s Day, love ya Mum!

Congrats to Jason on the Gruene With Envy Songwriter of the Year Award….www.gruenewithenvy.com

I’m a little late, hard to follow a 4/20 blog plus it’s playoff season. Therefore, slack is needed.
Going skip back to the morning of 4/29, heading to Austin to get Jason and Noah then to Houston for an acoustic show. Started the day off great by losing the trailer down the incline of Woody’s parking lot and coming within 3 feet of it going through the side of the old Loews Theater. Once I decide to stop screwing off and trying to wreck equipment, get on the road and arrive at Pub Fiction about 2. Park in the adjacent (and convenient) paved parking lot right in front, but that’s valet only. So move the bus to the not adjacent gravel lot, where it proceeds to sink in the rain soaked ground. Barely get it out before finally getting settled and “loading” in. Acoustic shows that means I set up merch and then go get Jason’s guitar.

Pub Fiction is hands down the trendiest bar I’ve been in for quite some time. I would say the median cost of a pair of jeans in that place was well over $200. I thought I may get kicked out cause my shirt didn’t have a cross on it but they let me stay in. Also, if you make it to Pub Fiction, get a drink called “Pub Fiction”, it’s made with grape soda. Man, I would be an alcoholic had I know about these when I was 8. I had to have a drink after someone stole merch off the rack sometime before I got there. Douchebag.

From where I am, don’t really hear the show that well although they have a still camera on Jason and Noah throughout so I can see them sitting there. After the show just load up the merch and guitar and crash out. Wake up for a few minutes in Fort Worth to run some merch to the post office, once everyone else is loaded head for Cain’s.

Pull in and it’s raining, seems the “April” showers are waiting for May so the flowers should be late also. Typical load in to the greatest venue ever, almost catch a nap before last minute guests are remembered for the list. Doors at 7 and start selling, Hazzard opens and then JB&S. Again, typical Cain’s show so I’m fairly busy and about the only part I really got to pay attention to was JB&S doing “Tulsa Time” for the first time in Tulsa. Pretty damn cool to hear everyone sing along.

Besides the zippo and shot glass getting stolen (douchebag #2) and one drunk guy feeling the need to ‘shh’ people trying to buy merch, pretty good night. Load up and get bus out of the back “gate” area, then just hit the sack after snacking on TONS of goodies received that day. Sack out until I wake up outside of Kearney (pronounced Carney), apparently a huge difference in 2023 1st Ave and 2023 EAST 1st Ave. But make it to Shooters, park in the alley to unload and then get parked. Standard load/sound check, hotel to shower, no nap as doors are at 7 and the bar is half full by 7:30. Settle in at merch, Wild Wind opens and pretty much an old school country cover band, so yeah, I was singing along.

JB&S goes on around 10 and no more dancing on the drinking floor. Major credit to Shooters, not one single fight and this was a drunk crowded bar. Lots of signatures which keep Jason at merch for 15 minutes after closing time, finally get loaded out and headed back to Oklahoma.
Remember my little accident? Yeah well it trashed the jack for the trailer so when we get to Stillwater and everything, I MEAN EVERYTHING, is wet or mud. Taking the show inside but can’t back bus/trailer to Tumbleweed’s ‘north’ stage so we unhook after a trip to Atwood’s to buy a new jack. Park bus by outdoor stage and put trailer by the dance floor stage to make load in as simple as it could be. Not simple, just as simple as it could be. While Aaron and Mikey wait for production to get situated (from moving pa inside) I take Greg to hotel, pick up some Chick Fil-A for the kids and back to the bar. Check in merch (venue sells) and wait out a sound check. Jason heads out with his dad, the rest of us head for hotel to clean up.

Back to the bus to double check everything, merch is ready and the bands fire off. I missed them all, watching the Hawks dismantle the Canucks in game 2. He may not admit it, but I think Jason is starting to enjoy hockey. He’s very inquisitive and understands the game quite well for a rookie. Hawks pull off a great game and the timing couldn’t be better as I have to make a couple re-stocks to merch and then catch some of Aaron Watson’s show. Really hope to do another tour with those guys, they are all top notch.

Once they finish, change out the stage and then put JB&S on stage to a packed house. So packed, they even opened up the outdoor area since the rain had stopped for the day. Same thing happened a couple years ago, but it was only 60 degrees outside instead of 82 degrees, which meant it was only 80 degrees inside (with 90% humidity) instead of 95. And no crickets this time…

Show was good, strange not selling and standing on the side of the stage. Once the gig closes Jason signs autographs on the side stage and never quite makes it to merch. By the time I get back over to check up, the bar is closing and inventory is getting counted. Finally get all merch done and loaded, get trailer hooked back up to bus and officially we’re off the clock.
Normally I’m home working and resting, but instead I went to Chicago to catch my first ever Hawks’ playoff game. Unfortunately, they didn’t win. Even worse was the migraine I got in the middle of the 1st period and barely made it back to my hotel before getting sick to my stomach. But at least I was there, right?

Fast forward to this week, shortened week and first time we’ve done 3 inside bars in 3 nights in quite some time. It’s nice not to have to watch the weather forecast all week long. Leave out of Ft Worth about 9, sleep til Beaumont and get parked in front of Dixie Dancehall. Crockett Street has changed a lot since the last time we were down this way. Antone’s is gone, Bobbie McGee’s is gone, the sandwich shop is gone, the Mexican restaurant has changed names but it’s still good. Guys get to the hotel leaving the tv alone to play some Hawks hockey, to which they played quite the lame game until 2:44 left when Martin Havlat finally tallied to tie the game. I didn’t get to see the over time as I went in to sell and listen to Two Tons of Steel (TWO TONS TWO TONS!). Before long my phone blows up with texts as the cardiac comeback kids in Chicago score early in OT again to win the game.

Back to the show, Two Tons is awesome. I couldn’t SEE them but I could hear their whole show. Just love that old school country or rockabilly when it’s done right; Two Tons, John Evans, 4020, Eleven Hundred Springs, etc. JB&S on and play the show, I snuck out to catch highlights a couple times and steal some cookies. Once the show is over and we get loaded up, just call it a night and get some sleep.

I broke my phone a couple weeks ago, for the umpteenth time. This time I broke down and got an iPhone. If you don’t have one, there’s probably an app to get one. Anyway, the best part of the iPhone is the Maps function. Bus stops, I hit a button and know exactly where we are. That way if we aren’t at venue I can just stay in bed. Yes folks, for no other reason than that, the iPhone rocks.

I wake up knowing we’re close to Dallas and gotta get Jason to the Wolf for a radio interview. Jason played a new song that’s yet to be titled, should’ve aired last night on the Front Porch Show for those listening. After that, to the Drunken Mule in Commerce. Bus driver Greg is from Commerce so he rolls us right into town, parks in the middle of the street while we unload and even chats up with the local law enforcement while we load in. The Mule isn’t that big and I don’t mean by capacity. The ceilings are all pretty low and not a lot of moving around room. You can tell this place is older than OSHA. Greg gets us some Italian from the local place, we use his car to go to the hotel 15 miles away (local hotel won’t rent to bands anymore, guess someone thought they were Elvis) and back to bar around 8.

Slowly fills up, no opener so JB&S goes on about 10. Okay, one complaint: from 8 til 9:45 the dj only played Texas country and some old school stuff. I’m not a fan of all the music in this scene but it beats most of the crap on the radio. Then with 15 minutes before a COUNTRY band takes stage in a COUNTRY bar, out comes the hip hop. I do not understand it, not in the least.
JB&S onstage and you got half a dance floor of standers and half dancers. I’m just hanging out on the side, watching the show, watching the clock. Bar closes at midnight so Roger and I plan on driving back to Fort Worth after the show to sleep in our own beds.

Wake up about noon when the bus gets to Woody’s, everyone gets their cars and head to Billy Bob’s. Get trailer unhooked (safely) from trailer and to my truck, then get everyone parked and bus situated so that the satellite still works. Yes, it’s more difficult than you would think, haha. Load and count merch, settle up the guest list and meet/greet radio winners, grab some Jack In The Box (how did we live off that back in the van days?) and a quick nap. The show room to Billy Bob’s opens at 9, the same time the Hawks game5 starts. So as I’m selling merch I keep the play by play updates on my phone. As most of you know, the Hawks came back AGAIN to win the game and take a 3-2 series lead. Game six starts in 37 minutes so I’m desperate to finish this blog…haha.

Cain’s and Billy Bob’s, two places I never see the show that pays my rent. Wasn’t as busy, maybe cause we’ve serviced the DFW area quite a lot this year. Did run into some entertaining customers….

Eventually show is over, Jason signs all the stuff I sold, ran into a guy I used to play hockey with 12 years ago, count out merch, hook up the trailer and head for home.

Another week, another blog…..

Putting up some new shows and updates, plus “Alright” is doing Alright on the Texas Music Chart so just keep calling your stations.

Almost game time, gotta run!

sorry for the delay

2009-04-29T17:14:00.001-07:00

Running late as usual, short week came in since I'm in Houston with Jason and Noah for their acoustic show. And I finally killed my cell phone so I lost some cool pics from the shows, a lot of contacts and the annoyance of having a crap phone. I went super phone though, so all should be back to normal.

Started at Larry Joe Taylor Festival, the premier camping/music/chili festival around. Lots of other good ones, but LJT is the best. Bus goes to Austin to pick up the south crew, Roger and Jason went out Tuesday so that leaves Brad, Grantpa and myself driving out Wednesday afternoon. Roll in about 10 minutes before bus, get parked, go see my mum at her camp site and then back to load some of our gear. Gourds finish up and then we load as quick as we can, only supposed to have 15 minutes to change stage but that's not happening. Fire off the 75 minute set and then break neck getting gear off stage. With 10 stage hands helping I snuck out of load out to watch the Hawks play. Great game although they lost, but set up for some drama later in the series.

Once the game was over, I took off for home, beats getting up at 6:30am to drive. As I'm leaving, stop by the camp fire to check out a little Roger, Noah, Grant jam but take off before getting suckered in.

Picked up the next morning, slept til we got to Lufkin for Jason's radio interview. Back up to Nacogdoches to Banita Creek, load and sound check, hotel and food run. Got inside to catch the tail end of Curtis Grimes' set, sell some stuff and catch most of the show. Funniest thing I've seen in a long time, some guys somehow stuffed some toilet paper in a guy's back pocket with about 2 feet hanging down. The unsuspecting guy didn't realize it until it was on fire and burning up the back of his leg. For some reason he didn't think it was as funny and out the door they go to fight. But no fight, just in each other's faces. Pretty lame, but the fire was good.

The rest of the show was just some two steppers and songs. Load up and head to hotel, don't roll til later in the morning since we don't have far to go. Get to right as we arrive in Bossier City, which if you didn't know, is just outside of Shreveport. Encore Night Life is a cool joint, but the parking and load in sucked. Elevator load in which sure beats stairs, but with them building a Courtyard Marriott next door so construction ruined parking. Load in and set up, go grab a steak and potatoes au gratin at The Cub, totally kicked ass.

Back to bar, get Brad a ice cream birthday cake from Cold Stone and then head in to bar about 9. Some confusion about set times for the 3 bands but finally resolve, too many heads and not enough brains I guess, and yes I'm including myself. David Deaton starts off, playing some originals and then breaks into a crazy medley that includes Bon Jovi and Tool. Not what I expected to hear at all.

Next up, Mo Robson. We used to play shows quite often with Mo but I think he went MIA for a bit. But he's back and sounding great, he's also got a new live album they recorded at Adair's in Dallas. Check it out for sure, it's a good time. Now for your last act of the night, Jason Boland & the Stragglers. Quality crowd in town and man did they drink. I think they ran out of most if not all domestic beer, remind me of the old days of the Bricktown Brewery. Show was good, didn't watch a lot of it cause of the blind corner I was in. Once we got packed up, gotta hit the road early to get to the Freer Rattlesnack Round Up.

First off, I don't like snacks. Second off, I don't like rattlesnacks. Third, I hate snacks. So as I advanced the show I made sure there was not gonna be random loose snakes that people would "round up" for prizes. I mean you can do that with a calf scramble but how many people have died from being bit by a calf? When has a calf ever snuck in your feed room only to hide behind a feed sack waiting for you to move it and then jump out at you. Exactly, calves are way better than snakes in all aspects.

Get in to Freer about noon, get parked by the stage. Being an outdoor show been watching the weather channel and by "windy" they didn't say 35-40 mph with dust blowing ALL day. This was the windiest and dirtiest show I've worked. Most of us just stuck in the bus all day but at 7 I went out to set up merch. Normal day takes maybe 12 minutes and 32 seconds to set up the merch booth. With the wind, took almost 45 minutes. I almost said to hell with it, let Kyle Park and Jackson Taylor sell koozies.

But I'm greedy and I have bills to pay so I get the job started. About every 20 minutes I'd go to the bus to wash the dirt off my face and blow the dirt out of my nose. Folks, it really was ridiculous, I think I'd rather had no wind and set up by the snake pit....maybe. Tried to watch Kyle Park and Jackson Taylor's shows but really I just kept my head down as much as possible. JB&S plays, same deal although the wind did let up to probably 33-37 mph. I can't believe there was still dirt, I would've figured it had all been blown away by then. The saving grace was updates to my then working phone as the Blackhawks finally made a statement by dominating the Flames in Game 5.

Finally the show and wind storm was over, got paid and got to the hotel to rinse off before heading home. Had all intentions of going to sleep directly but someone found "True Romance" on the cable so I know several of us ended up watching it in our bunks. Something funny would happen and you'd hear everyone laughing even thought lights were out and curtains were closed. Fell asleep with the credit and woke up in Fort Worth, get that trailer home and get to some merch work....okay, I just went back to sleep.

Sorry for the non-multimedia update, hopefully we'll back to "now with pictures" next week once I get this new phone worked out.

Happy 4/20 Blog, man...

2009-04-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

Happy 4/20 to the potheads! Had to come up with their own holiday and 4-20 is the only date they can remember. Welcome to the pot holiday edition of the diary….man.

Man, speaking of remembering, shows started out in Austin this week. Dude, Hill’s Café, done it several times before and it’s about the same every vibe every time. We ran a little late to load in but other than that, not much changed., man. John D. Hale opened the show, you should recall them cats from our show at Granada not long ago, man. Dude, where I set up merch which was different from before, I couldn’t hear anything for their show. Man, it sucked cause I like them boys. Just some straight up honky tonk, man.

Dude, so JB&S goes on and plays about an hour to a live broadcast, I’m sure it was marvelous. Then in the second half of the show, some dudes got all not cool like and wanted to throw some hands. Man, that’s totally not cool dudes. But cooler heads prevailed til some girls got all not cool and wanted to go. Jason had to calm the crowd, they weren’t being very dude-like. Very un-dude if you will.

Man, afterwards we just loaded up gear and parked at the hotel. Took a trip to the store to get some late night munchies before retiring early. Dude, those radio shows are so early it’s like we’re in bed before we usually get out of the bar most nights. Man, that’s cool though, get a good night of sleep before waking up in Abilene to some sweet rain. Dudes, I gotta tell ya, sleeping when it rains is totally righteous. What’s not so righteous is having to get up man and go to work. Work in the rain sucks man, but gots to be done. So we roll up out of the bunks and get to work, the day goes by pretty norml. Eventually get to the hotel and some grub, the Taco Bueno by the venue is no Bueno. Man, I hate to say it but that place is banned man. Dude, I even wrote to the man on the interweb about their service.

Dude, remember when I told you I couldn’t hear John D. Hale the other night? You don’t remember that? I just said it man, pay attention. Anyways, the played again and totally checked out their show this time. Much better band when you can hear them, my head was a cooler place to be. Or my merch place was, something like that. They rock as I ’watch’ the Blackhawks come back to win their first playoff game in 7 years. Man, that’s a long time but dude, it was worth the weight. I was so stoked, totally.

Man, JB&S goes on around 10 or so, I think. The Lucky Mule closes at midnight so we got another early night to burn some midnight oil or something man. Crowd was a little light but that just leaves more for the rest of us, right? Yeah, man, that’s right! You know it!

So dude, we all left Abilene early for Waco cause Jason had to go do a radio interview so we’re all at the venue at like 11:15 in the morning still. Man, I just can’t get out of my bunk that early with all the rain. Dude, I’m not complaining though cause we need the rain for our crops and tree and grass and stuff. And dude, check this out, the hotel was RIGHT by Wild West. You could totally walk there and not even get very wet even while it rained. And they totally let us check in early, kudos to the hotel staff.

Dude, do you like Kudos the granola snack? Yeah, me too. But man I found the worst snack ever and here it is:

Man, don’t waste your money on that, get Kudos instead. Speeaking of kudos, you should totally give me more kudos for these blogs on the myspace. Sincerely, that would be righteous.

Dude, where were we? Oh yeah, we were all in the parking lot waiting for the manager to open the bar so we could totally load in and sound check. And we did, after they showed up. Man, I almost forgot to tell ya that by the bar is right next to Wing Stop. Dude, wings rule like you don’t even know!

Man, do you always read these things? Cause I think I wrote bout this dude Ryan Beaver not long ago. If not, this dude Ryan Beaver is pretty righteous. Sincerely, he’s cool and he played at Wild West with the Stragglers. I was stuck in the back but I got to hear the show and his intro music had my head spinning a bit but after that it was marvelous. He totally played at Willie’s Place the night before, dudes you KNOW what that means. Right? Right?

Dude, I can’t lie to you dudes and mans. I didn’t watch much of the show. I was all in the back, hanging out with Ryan for part of the night, totally just keeping to myself except for the cool cats that bought some merch. Which was cool, cause those boxes are all heavy and easy to move with less stuff in them. Totally like making it easier when possible. But check this out, and I may have just been paranoid or something but there seemed to be a lot of tweakers in the crowd. Totally dude, but keep that between you and me cause the man is listening. He’s always listening….

Man, remember when I talked about early shows and stuff and how cool that was? Yeah you know what’s not cool, early load ins. Argh, dude they suck, total buzz kill. So we all leave Waco in the middle of the night to go to Oyster Bake in San Antonio. It’s all on a college campus with limited parking and stuff, we totally played it two years ago on 4/20! Yeah, like today is 4/20! Wooo!!!!

Dude, I roll out at like 6:30 in the am (yeah, the morning am!) and all navigate Greg beyond that trusty GPS that totally tells the man where you are. Just like the iphones dude, you’ll never get away! But so we get on the grounds and wait it out. Total storms all coming over top of us, like heavy rain man. Which is cool, cause we need the rain for our crops and tree and grass and stuff. But for outdoor shows, man total kill sometimes. Man, I’m still tired so I sleep a little longer until 9:30 or so when our stage dudes (dudes that help load gear and stuff) are ready. The forecast is totally bunk, we don’t know what’s up on some rain quite yet. Man, decisions have to be made!

Man, it looked like maybe another round of rain fall so we totally gave up on a sound check. Instead, we humped all the gear, not like that man!, to the stage and put it under these awesome new blue tarps. They’re all water proof and blue. Wish we had green ones, that would be totally killer. Dude, we get all the gear safely station and then Aaron, Mikey and me grab up a ride to the La Quinta, Spanish for the Quinta.

Dude, as luck would have it the rain stayed away the rest of the day. So I all vegged out on the couch and watched some playoff hockey for the afternoon, people watching. Man, some crazy cats in town:

That's not all, Grant all saw this dude with a funny hat and said, "check out this dude with a funny hat!" but I couldn't see so I just said, "is it the Pope?" and he said, "no, probably not." Then I went and put up our merch bout the time No Justice goes on. You seen these dudes, the No Justice? Man, we’ve played tons of shows with them and they rule. Sincerely, I’d buy them cookies man if I had money for the vending machine. Totally cool show.

Man, did you think that’s all? No man, I ain’t gonna do ya like that. Brandon Rhyder ALSO man! It’s all like Buddy Lee Attractions just said, “dude, here’s all our dudes for your show man.” So Brandon totally played a killer set, with some new songs while I chowed on a turkey leg for the first time in years. Man, I totally remember why I don’t like turkey legs.

So dude, Brandon’s all done and he’s hanging out for awhile afterwards while JB&S plays. I’m totally freaked out cause the Hawks fall down 2-0 in the first period but check this out, they all scored 3 goals in the 2nd period to take the lead and won like that. Oh it was so righteous, you don’t even know. I mean, you may know man, I don’t know.

Man, so the JB&S dudes totally played out for a show. I was right by the speakers so it was so loud, my head was not a cool place to be after that man. We all sold merch until the crowd was gone, then loaded up our stuff on fork lifts and those John Deere Gators. They aren’t really gators though, man that would be cool though. We could put amps on them and then say, “see ya later alligator” and then they would carry our stuff to the trailer. Dude, that would rule!

Dude, I was so tired and then some dude that was supposed to be getting our driver all went home and didn’t so we had to wait around and stuff. But finally got on the road and I totally passed out, woke up in Fort Worth and it turned all cold and looked like it would rain. No rain though, but hopefully they got some cause we need the rain for our crops and tree and grass and stuff.

On a more serious note, we lost a member of our extended family this past week. To the family of Larry Moore, you are in our thoughts and prayers during your tough time.

RIP Larry Grant Moore

WARNING: Orange Threat Level

2009-04-14T22:36:00.001-07:00

Watch out ladies and gentleman, we are in ORANGE! But that was last week.
In case you didn’t know, the Chicago Blackhawks Hockey Club finished the regular season with the 3rd best record in the Western Conference (4th side due to divisional leaders) and will now face the Calgary Flames in the first round of the playoffs. Wish them luck, and thank you.

So last week starts a little strange, I took off on a mini-vacation and the guys meet up early Thursday for rehearsal. Got all components to the new in-ear monitor system so they showed up at Rockin’ Rodeo early (after Jason’s appearance on KSCS) and worked through the new system. On the other side of town, I flew in, had an appointment to design some new hats for JB&S and a few other bands, then went home to pack up some merch and clean clothes and head for Denton myself. I arrive about 5 and the band is done working up a new song, plus all the monitors are tip top. Seems pretty exciting.

Run around setting up merch and adding more to it, stock the bus, guestlist, update the guys on our preliminary West Coast swing in August (almost confirmed folks, be looking in a few weeks for full details) and grab something to eat. By that time, no time for nap as the club is filling up pretty early. Bart Crow Band opens up and for as long as I’ve know Bart (at least 6 years), never seen him play. Or not that I remember, he may have done a Clubhouse Concert but damned if I didn’t drink most of those away. Living in Fort Worth and having 95.9 The Ranch on in my truck most of the time, I’m familiar with Bart’s music, they play him a lot. As was the crowd, which was cool to see. If you get the chance, ask Bart how many uses he has for protective motorcycle gear….

JB&S on stage around 11, place is as full as I’ve seen it. Kinda like the Wormy Dog the previous week, too full to get around to merch until later on in the show. I watched the Stars overtime game against the Avs when Mike Ribero made a sick move in the shootout. Good thing he made it or the Stars might have lost a valuable point in the playoff race….oh wait. Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SpSb5oiDfs

Once the show finished and Jason got to merch, I got busy and was there til after 2. Sell the last bit I can before shutting down, get paid and load out the merch. Because JB&S is fairly spread out across Oklahoma and Texas, we sometimes have strange logistical obstacles to overcome. So when the trailer is shut and the money is in the safe, I park my truck next to Roger’s. Roger’s truck next to Brad’s car. And Brad’s car next to Grantpa’s. Eight guys had 4 cars and a bus at the show, nice.

Wake up at 11 to go get Greg from the hotel, take the quick hour long drive to Hank’s in McKinney. Get there early but load in and slowly set up. Hank’s is great, parking is right by the stage, hotel is next door, they feed ya, good crowd, what more could you want? We go about our normal duties and the crowd arrives early as Hank’s closes at midnight. Sell merch as best I can, but once again it gets a little too crowded for comfort. Which is fine, I’m way in the back by the smoking patio and the doors to the bathrooms so I still get the traffic. Getting a drink turned out to be problematic for friends of mine though, plus after the show Jason couldn’t get to merch at first. There wasn’t really a set plan to transport him, no easy way so he ends up going all the way around and back through the front door of the bar. As for the show, I couldn’t hear anything back where I was but I’ve seen most of it before.

Jason does his signing and by the time he’s done, Aaron and Mikey got the trailer loaded up and ready for merch. Lock the door and head for the bus. Now there was a bar open down the road for another hour, so Roger, Brad, Noah and some others went. I stayed back, too late for me to start drinking at that point. Somehow we stayed up until 5 am, working on Twitter, watching Youtube stuff, muchie shopping at 7-11, until I couldn’t take it anymore. Load in at Woodystock was at 10am, I should’ve known better.

We stopped back off at Rockin’ Rodeo to get Grantpa’s car (so he could leave as soon as the show was over) although I had no clue. Woke up as we are already parked at somewhat parked at Woodystock and survey the premises. When they said it was on the Red River, they weren’t lying. Literally 10 steps outside the bus you could have your feet on the border. Once we have a plan on dropping the trailer to the stage and re-parking the bus, unload merch out of trailer and onto a forklift, then moved over to the merch tent. And by tent, I mean skeletal building with tarps as a roof….that came in quite handy later on.

On to the hotel and back about 1, there is already several hundred people if not over a thousand already there so I’m straight to merch. Fortunately or unfortunately, from where I was set up I couldn’t hear any of the music. I don’t mean that as an insult to any of the bands playing, it was just the first show in years I haven’t worn ear plugs or spent hours screaming about how the pink shirt fits (for the record, they shrink when you drive ‘em). To compensate for my good fortune, I spent the day breathing all the dirt that the 20+ mph winds blew from Texas to Oklahoma. What I didn’t breathe in, ended up in my merch case.

The weather on my phone said no rain until midnight, which would’ve been after Fowler’s set. However, that was not the case. Right as JB&S starts loading to the stage, a few rain drops but not rain. Once they finally start their show, a slow rain. The stage is covered and it’s not really anything to stop the show, for sure the crowd wasn’t leaving. Throughout the show (or the time they should’ve been playing) the rain would stop and start, sometimes light and a few times come down pretty heavy. Greg texts me with concerns about getting the bus out as there is a steep incline leaving the concert area. Change the plan to get him back around 9:45 and I pack up merch then. The trailer is unhooked so we gotta pull it out and then hook up to the bus, then load merch. This is the point when the rain really started coming down, I ended up soaked but thanks to Justin, fellow merch guy, get loaded up without issue. Bus makes it up hill no problem and we’re off to Denton.

Rockin Rodeo, 3 times in 3 days, to get our cars and everyone splits. I follow the bus to Woody’s and get trailer on my truck and head home. Although I didn’t need the extra help, an Ambien kept me asleep til almost noon. Got up just in time to get lunch before watching Chicago sweep Detroit sucks in the last two games of the regular season. And something I never thought I’d say, I’m rooting for Columbus. At least take Detoilet to 7 games with lots of overtimes and abusive play. If you can’t beat them, beat them up.

Happy Easter everyone, spent the day with my god daughter and painted eggs for the first time in probably 25 years. Damn, I’m getting old….

Do not leave blank...

2009-04-06T21:53:00.000-07:00

First order(s) of business…

Ryan Beaver’s trailer got stolen last Saturday night after his show in Dallas. Here’s what Ryan emailed me, “basically ....Sunday morning @ 5.10 am ish....a dark truck ( I think Toyota tundra based on what little video we saw) rolled in by our stuff and took our trailer...it's a 5X8 - very easy to handle...White single axle Doolittle trailer...It was taken at the Holiday Inn Express Market Center.” Ryan thankfully has some insurance so hopefully some will be reimbursed but that still is a sick feeling.

Happy news, JB&S is now on the Twitter at www.twitter.com/bolandstraggler Maybe it will be a preview to the weekly diaries……. Or diarrheas. Funny shit right there.

Also, something else brought to my attention not long ago. A benefit for a family struck by tragedy and although JB&S can’t attend due to other obligations, wanted to share with you. If in the area, please attend. If you can donate, please do: http://www.millsfamilybenefit.com/

Two bad, one good, better even it out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqMOGjVtHgM
JB&S’ greatest video blog to date. I mean, I’m just glad the Wormy Dog special guest was captured on video.

And now for your feature presentation….

Get down the road a little late, Greg finds upwards of 80mph gusts across I-20, at some points we all thought we were coming out of bunks. Break off the interstate to the 2 lane highways, back tracking due to closed bridges yet find our way into Alpine by 3:30ish. Small little bar, end up setting Mikey and monitor world up behind merch which was a bit weird. I walk around looking for snacks while the guys sound check, noticing a vast array of new Doritos flavors. I love Doritos, the original in the yellow bag but they don’t make single servings of those. Kinda bums me out.

Across the street is a little Italian place called Primo’s Italian. No expectations whatsoever and was astonished by how good it was. Not the most diverse menu you’ll find but enough to keep the masses a.k.a. band happy. Even some pizza pies to go, quality held up throughout. Talked to the manager and asked how good Italian got to Alpine (with the exception of me, since I was only a visitor) and he said his boss has the original place in El Paso, and he’s Sicilian. No compromises on food, and for that we are thankful.

Stick around to open merch early, some of the guys head to hotel, some head to bunks. Brian Milson opens and I meet his mom before their set, looks just like her. I’m digging their show a lot more each time I see it. Already a tight band but maybe they were just cutting a little loose that night. Of course RR Blues isn’t very big so if you’re not sitting, you’re dancing. If you ain’t dancing, you better be at the bar.

JB&S on next and more of the same, lots of dancers. Some guy couldn’t dance with his hat on so he put it down on the stage and knocked over Roger’s guitar at the same time, but hey, he never missed a beat dancing. The rest of the show I missed as Mikey and I just threw things at each other…I mean, when he was strictly paying attention to the show.

Load out and lights out, so tired a train couldn’t wake me up…til 5:30 when we had to get Greg. But then a train couldn’t wake me up, til about 11. Left phone charger at home and needed to stop at Wal-Mart to get a new one, and cereal. Roll over to Priddy after that, get into Melody Oaks Ranch a little earlier than expected but that helped as we had to unhook the trailer to get closer to the stage. Can’t set up merch as it’s very windy and no need in coming back to merch laying on the ground, although come to find it didn’t matter later. Get Greg to hotel and come back with some Chicken Express for the hungry warriors, sent them and their full bellies off to the hotel to clean up while I nap.

Wake up and head for merch, setting up in the dark to not draw attention to the fact I have not set up yet. Get it all smooth and looking ultra fine, start selling and about 10 minutes later the wind takes the whole thing down. Busted light bulbs, the table that was supposed to “stabilize” the racks fell over too, with it’s legs through the grid and making the return to upright incredibly difficult. Thankfully, no one was purchasing at this time. Unthankfully, no one was there to help either. I felt better after I punched it but my hand is still swollen. Lesson learned kids, use zip ties from the get go.

Finally up and rolling as Zack Huckabee fires off his set. I swear we’ve played a show with him before but his crew doesn’t seem to think so. So if anyone can tell me yes for sure, that would make me feel better. Irregardless, they rocked out and the crowd was filling in by the time their set was over. Hard to compete with a tractor pull in Priddy, TX.

JB&S on stage about 10:30 and pretty much the rest of the night I was selling merch, or favoring my hand. Hard to tell how many people were actually there but a lot bought koozies, I know that. A lot drank beer, I know that for sure. By the time Jason’s done signing, Greg is back and all that’s left is to load trailer with merch. Lock it up and head to Comanche, Alsup’s was open and free fryer going. Mmm, Alsup’s burritos are worth every bit of stomach ache and heartburn they bring to the table.

Stop in Fort Worth to drop Grant and Roger at respective vehicles, Brad in Dallas at his car and avoid I-35 and the Texas Motor Speedway at all costs. I roll out of my bunk right as we are pulling into Bricktown and get bus settled. No one at the Dog yet so I get rooms at the new Hampton across the street. Wormy Dog fixed their loading dock and now has a hotel across the street, it’s almost the perfect gig (no Alsup’s). By the time the guys are sound checking, I’m getting picked up from my folks and heading for dinner in Yukon. Ask the Ragweed boys about Poquito’s sometime, they’ll tell ya.

Venue starting to fill up around 7:30 so I’m inside slinging more koozies. I guess the a/c went out because although a cold front came in, the Dog felt like it was in heat…get it? Turnpike Troubadours opened, enjoyed what I could. I’m in a weird spot so it sounds none too good plus I kept busy. When they finished, the swell towards the stage began and once JB&S went on, I didn’t sell anything for about 45 minutes cause you couldn’t get near the merch.

Now before the next story, you gotta watch this Youtube clip from the movie “Glengarry Glen Ross” (beware of language):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-AXTx4PcKI

Ok, still laughing at Alec Baldwin, me too. So as it relates to the night, some guy climbs the stage barricade and dances on the subs in front of the stage. Never got on stage, never really threatened anyone but if one does it, everyone else can. Security gets to him and he repeats, “it was worth it” as he’s high-five-ing people on his way out the door. Thought it was handle til he goes by some guy that stops the security guy and asks, “what the felk did he do?” As the security continues his way, the guy tries to short arm rabbit punch one of the guards. I stop him and ask what the felk was his problem, to which is ask why is it my felking business. I ask him if he wants to leave and he tells to go felk myself and asks who the felk do I think I am (which is a good question because by the guy’s size, he would’ve pummeled me). At that moment two guards walk up behind him, I point to the guy and say, “he just threw a punch, he’s out.” The guards grab him and again he asks, “who the felk do you think you are?”

As he’s being drug away I reply, “that’s who I am.” Closest I’ll ever get in my life to feeling like Alec Baldwin.

Man, with all that adrenaline I was finally slinging some real merch….not really. Still too crowded. But lessoned learned, don’t punch a security guard doing his job. Actually, don’t throw a punch at all.

Show rocks out til Jason does his merch chores, complete with some new Hell Pony tattoos. Minus a few beers being spilled on merch, it seemed successful a night. I guess it’s always successful if you get the credit card machine away from the spillage. By the time I’m breaking down, Mikey and Aaron have half the trailer loaded so we get it locked down quick and get paid. The bus took off around 3, I stayed in OKC to spend more quality family time. Well, for my sake it is, you’d have to ask them if it’s quality or just guilt….haha.

See ya in Denton.

Or McKinney.

Or Burkburnett.

Look, a Cracker Barrel! We gotta stop and get the new Dolly Parton cd!!

2009-03-30T21:36:00.000-07:00

Business at hand:

New shows and some moved around on calendar.
New single, “Alright”, now being pushed to radio, call and request.
Congrats to Jason on the Lone Star Music.com awards for song of the year for “Comal County Blue”

Not sure if Roger is doing a video blog this week. We are currently in plans/preparation for quite possibly the finest blog ever although it’s quite a task. Those at the Wormy Dog this week may be treated to partial involvement.

The Stragglers deliver come rain or shine, but mostly shine. Threatening clouds loomed over head all day while working in San Antonio. Arrive at County Line about 2 in the afternoon and it’s looking good although there’s still that “chance.” Two springs/summers ago, “chance” could be exchanged for “certainty.”

Load in and sound check, then treated to some fine bar-b-que, I recommend the grilled chicken breast, it’s insane. Make a happy plate and grab my back pack, crowd is already forming on the patio. David Fenley opened up acoustic, although I didn’t realize that at first cause I thought there was a beat machine. Apparently, the man beat-boxes. Now had you told me that beforehand, I would not have had an open mind. But he was beat-boxing the entire song, it was more of an accompaniment of some tones, as tasteful as it can be done. I mean really, can it be worse than scatting?

David finishes and there are a few moments til JB&S goes on. In those few moments, dark clouds formed, they circled, the engulfed like a bad horror movie. I kept saying it wasn’t gonna rain and as the boys made their way to the stage, a strong cold wind followed them. Then I said, it’s gonna rain. But the chill lasted about two songs before leaving everyone to their rocking good time. I had to set up behind the stage so I could get electricity from the generator, I didn’t see any of the show. I did see the play-by-play as the Hawks held off the Sharks to win in overtime. Loved it.

County Line is an early show so we’re loaded up by 11 or so, plenty of time to relax and that’s when Roger and I planned the next blog. Rolled into my bunk to revisit “Blazing Saddles”, such a classic. Lights out til Corpus.

Wake up just outside of Corpus, always have to play GPS since Garmin doesn’t know the way to Brewster Street. Back in, load in, sound the check, clean up, grab a chicken sandwich and a nap. So Corpus Christi, the week after Spring Break, 6 days removed from 9,000+ paying $25 to see Randy, Eli Young, Watson and Bart Crow…..I just had a feeling we were gonna be slaughtered. Turns out had over 500 and probably the best quality crowd for Corpus in a long time. The whole front row of the show was kids (all ages venue), something funny about watching kids sing ‘Tennessee Whiskey and Texas Weed.’

Go to sleep watching “Fargo” although I finished it before falling asleep. I think I’m now a huge Coen Brothers fan, more so than I was. And also, for you loyal followers to the Straggler tales of the coast, no generator or bus problems. The streak is over!

Woke up on the suburb outskirts of Houston Friday morning, needed a stop at a Home Depot for some supplies. Rode the rest of the way guiding the jump seat, Firehouse again. I’ve been with JB&S for 8 or 9 years and I think I’ve been to the Firehouse more than any other venue. It’s like clock work now, someone opens bar at 2:30, load in, sound check at 4:30, grab take out Chinese at 4:45, head to the Days Inn to shower, back to venue bout 6:30, nap til 8, merch around 8:30, opener at 9, opener done at 10:30, JB&S at 11 til 1, Jason at merch til last call, pack up, load at around 2:20, get paid at 2:30, drop money in safe at 2:40, finish left overs, in bed by 2:55. I bet this has happened within 15 minutes of these times at least 15 times in my life, at least since the bus.

Only difference this time was got to see my old friend Josh Norman. He’s been on the lamb from the FBI or CIA, whichever one doesn’t like men. We got to catch up like old times, which consists of making fun of each other. Also, Cody Gill Band opened. I’ve know his sister for a few years and they look a lot alike, so that means Cody would make an attractive woman but Cori wouldn’t make a good looking guy….. And someone needs to tell his band if you’re gonna put each other on your shoulders, don’t drop your band mates. Trust me, I know from experience.

Roll out early, head straight for Austin to pick up some merch and then to Taylor. No hotels real close to Coupland Dancehall so we always clean up beforehand. Arrive at venue about 4, load and go. Grab a bite at the adjoining steakhouse after sound check, watch some March Mayhem basketball (them, not me). I find it funny that the Final Four of MARCH Mayhem takes place in April….I guess by the Final Four their doses of lithium and marijuana have all taken control of the mayhem.

Wasn’t sure what to expect with the crowd but by the time I went in at 8:30, it was packed. Now Coupland has a large dance floor and at the time, not a lot of people on it. But when the opener, Kenny Orts, started, that changed. Kenny did mostly covers, but he did some of my favorites. Old school country from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, he was like Time Life had come alive in front of me. Tight band and they also did a couple originals, which blended right in.

Once JB&S goes on, half the dance floor has people watching, the other half has people dancing which finally gives some elbow room throughout the bar. Show was good, that new monitor board we got last week has everyone sounding better in their monitors so they are dealing with less problems audibly, which in turn makes for a better show. I just wish we could get rid of the cell phone interference. Ever have your phone by your computer when a call comes in and you hear the interference through the computer’s speakers? Getting a ton of that lately. I mean, you can’t tell people to put their phones away but for those that have wondered what that cracking is, 90% of the time that’s it.

Or it’s A-Lain blowing out the system. Ya know, or it’s that.

Shows over and pull the bus “around” to load out, go get Greg in Taylor and then back to Coupland. I’m asleep before we really get out of town, only to wake up at 5:30 as we roll into Woody’s. Pretty easy week honestly, sold mostly koozies to the masses. Short week coming up with Alpine, Priddy and Wormy Dog OKC…..and most importantly and hopefully, a great video blog.

Til then,

mR.m

prepare yourself, it's a long one....

2009-03-23T23:56:00.001-07:00

I know, I know. Missed a week of blogs, you might’ve thought I was dead or in a coma. Fortunately (or unfortunately), my demise is not quite the severe. The Blackhawks haven’t played well lately, it pains me and as a result, those around me suffer. I apologize.

Now what really happened was we left Prevost around 4am on Wednesday the 11th. Maybe 3, maybe 5, it was early. Jason, Roger and I drove over to meet bus, hook up trailer and head up the road. End up taking the short cut through DFW airport but the exiting side doesn’t have the wide lane open. Barely fit through the toll booth and better yet, the restrictor arm would go up all the way so I had to get out of the bus to push it back. Worse yet, the lane was so narrow I couldn’t open the bus door so I had to climb out the window to push the arm back. Worse yet, it was raining while I climbed out the window to push the arm back. Worse yet, it was raining, I crawled out of the window, held the arm back and a toll booth operator told me to “let it go, it will stay up on it’s own.” Oh, thanks, I thought I was doing this cause it was fun. After a few pleasant exchanges, we’re out of the airport and I’m asleep.

Pick up Brad and Grant in Tulsa, I go to the store to get something sweet for myself. Crash as we get back on the road and wake up in Lawrence. Get the bus parked and hump in the gear, driver to hotel, sound check, Buffalo Wild Wings next door (screwed up all of our take out orders), hotel, back to bar. John D. Hale opened and they’ve gotten good. Played with them just a few times, back at the original Snorty Horse as they just started out, much improvement.

JB&S show kicks off around 10:15 and some change, all’s good. Not busy at all during merch but a good friend in town to b.s. with, although he didn’t bring any food, ass. Not much going on besides the drunk guys climbing on stage to be cool. A) you’re not cool. B) No one paid a cover to see you act like you scored a touchdown on stage C) If you still think you’re cool and even if you’re not grossly overweight like the one guy was, don’t ‘stage dive’ into a bunch of girls that are up front. No one is gonna catch your beer and jager sweat soaked layered shirt combo. Have fun, don’t be an ass.

Beyond that, fairly uneventful. Show was good, crowd minus 3 idiots was good. I love Granada cause they always have extra hands to get your gear out. Load in is never THAT bad and I’ll always help out, but man I hate loud out at the end of the night. I help if it’s just Aaron, Mikey and myself but if I can coerce some hands or bar-backs to help out, I’m all about hiding out…haha. Don’t tell them, but I think they know this.

Roll out at 4am or 5am and I wake up in Tolono, IL, with the bus finding the bar and getting parked. Love that. You know what else I love? Walking into a bar that has a private room with our hospitality stuff in it already. We don’t have a lot, ask for water, some colas, beer, red bull and “snacks are appreciated”. No M&M requests, no shrimp cocktails, no fresh sushi on Fridays or vegetarian trays. So when I walk into a club and it’s already there waiting on us, the club starts at 10. Radmaker’s, you guys are at a 10, congratulations, you can only go down from here.

Just kidding, they took great care of us all day. All went by smooth and even dinner was interesting. A small grill in the bar, we all got burgers or some kind of sandwich, all the while the local crazy guy was there talking to everyone. Informed us he sings but doesn’t need a band, he’s a karaoke junkie. At times speaking in a language I’m not familiar with, I finally ask the bar manager what’s the guy’s story. He’s lived in Tolono his whole life, mostly doing odd jobs. Up until recently lived in a shed with no water or electricity. I asked how does he afford the food he’s eating, well apparently he won an IL lottery a couple years back. Not a lump sum, but he gets almost $8000 a month for the rest of his life. Now I ask you, how awesome is that?

Show starts up with a couple opening acts, White Trash Rodeo and Matt Poss. Couldn’t really see them from where merch was, sort of in a different room and with ear plugs (thank you Lord for what’s left of my hearing), the sound is pretty faint by the time it reaches me. Crowd is having fun though, good reaction for the first of the JB&S show which I catch. Then back to my merch, slow and steady like a facet drain. Blood did move faster when a 5 girl fight broke out in the door way to the women’s restroom approximately 8 feet behind me. Folks, I’ll help break up guys fighting but girls, no thanks. Tried it once and just got slapped and kicked in the stomach. Women fight dirty, I ain’t having it. Finally they get separated and then some guy comes in trying to get it going again. I know the last thing the situation needed was more violence, but I wish one of those girls would’ve slapped that guy. He deserved it.

Shows over and back to hotel, it’s 22 degrees but we stop at Wal-Mart. Roger is filming just random stuff for possible future blogs, Wal-Mart security confronts him and tells him to turn off the camera. How awesome is that, they thought we were Michael Moore.

Wake up the next day in Effingham, IL, stopping in to WCRC to see Bill Burry and staff. Meet Bill Burry a few years back, or affectionately known as the “Blue Bus Days”. Bill, without notion from us or anyone but a few fans and his own ear, has been supporting OKOM in middle IL for years. Yes, his station plays your routine top 40 hits but also plays what he wants when he wants. Every band that goes through there should stop, although I believe most do by now. We stayed there over an hour, he played probably 4 or 5 JB&S songs while he and Jason talked between. JJ, Bev, Woody and Sara from the station, plus Randy from town, entertained Grant and I. Strange conversations took place, I’ll leave it at that.

Roll on into Altamont, get situated and unloaded, then parked around the corner from Luke‘s Bar & Grill. Standard affair, get to hotel to clean up and it’s a dump. Not much to choose from in Altamont though, I felt better before the shower. However, I will say we did have the pimpest old school van as our runner. I should’ve taken pics but I didn’t think to. I was pretty pumped about the gig, again I was in another room but there was a tv right above my merch booth. And since we were in IL, I got to watch the Hawks play. However, had to sit through the 2nd half of the Bulls game first, which is less entertaining than watching the Hawks lose. Sadly (although I‘m hardly a Bulls fan anymore), both Chicago teams lost that night. I wasn’t happy for a while, if you can imagine.

This time, I saw none of the show and was quite busy with merch the whole time. Shows over, load up and get on the road. Almost 580 miles to Wisconsin for the next show, I took some melatonin and slept hard. Woke up at PR’s Place, greeted a few moments later by Ted, Jody and Scott, the Minnesota crew responsible for bringing a lot of bands up that. Normal salutations and load in, get Greg to hotel after his long trip and before his longer trip home. Knock out a sound check and head to hotel, food choices are Subway and McDonald’s, both of which I’ve banned. I opt for Subway cause it’s at least a little healthier and how can you mess up roast beef and cheese. Well, they did. I hate Subway, I can make a better sandwich at home. Give me Quiznos, Jason’s Deli, hell even a Deli Express pre-made sandwich from a gas station is better. And the soup sucked too.

Back to the bar and in for some merchandising, a local duo opened up with an acoustic set. Mostly covers but good ones at least. Next up was the Josh Davis Band who oddly enough, we hadn’t seen them either since Snorty Horse. They aren’t county folks, they like that little rock and rolling. Crowd finally warmed up to them bout halfway through their set, full rock mode by their finish. JB&S go on and besides the cracking of part of the PA, I don’t remember much of the show.

I think it’s because of the fights, yeah, that’s it. What sucks is one guy that was with a big group started it, I think. I just saw him throw 4 consecutive punches at a guy before me and a few others got there to break it up. Not sure why he was provoked or if it was warranted, but throw a punch and you’re out. Bars are too small and too crowd to put up with it. But unfortunately, it’s not just him that’s got to go, he’s part of a group of probably a dozen people. As it’s all getting sorted out, from what I could see some girl poured a beer on another girl, BIG mistake. Once the soaked girl realized what happened and who, she tracked the other girl to the stage and rammed her beer bottle right into the other girl’s face. By the time I got there, Grant and Noah are trying to help break it up, bouncers are carrying people out in head locks, a guy on crutches is going crazy hitting me and everyone else in the melee. Finally get everyone pushed outside and they wanna keep fighting there, I said to hell with it and went back in.

That pretty much sums up that show since I don’t really recall anything else that actually happened during the show. Afterwards, get loaded up and start devouring some hot wings Ted had made for us. A little after party on the bus with our hosts, gotta give them credit for all they do just trying to get a few bands up their way. I don’t think people in Texas/Oklahoma realize how spoiled they are if they are fans of this music. About 3, ship the bus on down the road and I retire to the hotel. My plan is to fly home, with a quick stop in Chicago for a Hawks game and land in Dallas about the time the bus will arrive. Hawks lost, I’m pissed, lost my bus pass, etc. Call Greg to see how their travels are and the bus broke down when the stopped to drop Grant and Brad off.

So I land in Dallas around 9 and get picked up by the mother of my god daughter, or better yet, my god baby momma. Hang out over there until the bus arrives at 3, get the trailer and a Roger and head home. Crash in my bed about 11.2 seconds after I was in it.

Wake up a few days later and get ready to leave for Springfield Thursday morning. Interesting gig at it’s a new venue for us and never talked to the guy that runs the bar until we were in town at 3:30 that afternoon. After getting there and playing the show, I get it. It’s a dirty old rock bar and they probably have bands show up late all the time. For years I struggled with that working for a band, I have to have a well laid out plan, organized and put together in advance and everything goes according to schedule. Probably going to work for a group that called themselves “The Stragglers” should’ve required more thought, but I think we got it figured out now. Trust me, there are a lot worse bands out there…….

We finally load in at 5, after much bus maneuvering and quite possibly a few cuss words. Again get Greg to hotel and I’m back to the club getting stuff set up. It’s a small place but that’s good for us. No pre-sale tickets so we’re not sure how it’s gonna go but feel confident it will be good. Through with sound check and get guys to hotel, put them in a cab with a crazy guy, but at least educated and funny. I opt for Jimmy John’s and guess what, kicks Subway’s ass. All it was, ham & cheese. That’s it, the quality shined through in a way Subway can’t. I liked to point out the fact that Jared lost all that weight because really, after two bites who would want to finish a Subway sandwich?

Back to show, line around the block as doors open at 9. Merch never got that busy although the bar filled up fast. Brian Lumley and Red Dirt Underground opened, had never heard of them and expected less than nothing. Thankfully and pleasantly surprised, very tight band. Roger comes in to check out their set and says, “these guys are pretty good” which I had to agree.
JB&S goes on and I just sit up watching the show. Crowd gets to burning money when Jason kicks off “Big Shot Rich Man” and I’m not gonna lie, I don’t want pyro in a 2nd story club with low ceilings. I wonder if my merch cases are fireproof? I do know that aluminum can burn and if it does start, just sit back and watch cause all the magnesium in the alloy makes it a super bright flame and it burns so hot water won’t put it out. I worked in the trailer business entirely too long.

Shows over, move bus back to alley and get loaded it out. Wake up in Fort Worth picking up cars, Jason and I run over to 95.9 The Ranch for some air time. Then to Billy Bob’s, Greg to hotel, count merch, guest list, stock the bus (thank you ZZ Top for playing the night before and leaving us plenty to salvage), run home to pick up some merch, eat (Freebirds, mmm), shower, watch first 10 minutes of the Hawks’s game and then back to bar. Blur, like a flash, fast forward to 2:10 am. I have no idea how the show was or sounded, merch is constant in Fort Worth. So at 2:10 I take a bathroom break and start doing inventory as you gotta pay out a % of your sales at Billy Bob’s. A lot of artists get pissed at that but hey, it’s rent. I can’t just go set up merch at the mall without paying rent. Now a lot of places don’t take a % but those that do and keep it reasonable, I can’t complain. Billy Bob’s treats us very well so it’s worth it to me.
Then again, I get paid on gross, not net, haha.

Sleep in my own bed and wake up at noon, shower and head for Willie’s Place. Man, not only sleeping in my own bed but close enough to drive to the gig? That’s glorious folks. Arrive to Carl’s Corner and the guys are just about to start loading in. Now we’ve played some “artist owned” music venues before and at times you’re like, “really? You know what’s it like on the road and to play dumps but you build this in your own name?” Not Willie’s Place, the room is top notch, great back stage if you need one, great sound. Definitely room for improvements in some places but if one of your favorite bands is playing there soon, be sure and check it out. And it’s BYOB until they secure a liquor license.

Normal run around duties, great chicken fried steak in the restaurant that was worth every penny it cost, quick nap before show time. Found out we had an opener, Larry Butler, when we got there as a couple days before there was not. Some communication faults between club, us and opener, when they arrived no one really told them what to do. We got through it and no one got hurt…much….

One thing strange about Willie’s Place, lots of tables and a dance floor in front of the stage. Now normally people crowd that area but for some reason, everyone stayed back. Once JB&S kicked off, people would walk up, take a picture and then back to their table. I guess once “Rainbow Stew” was played they finally started dancing and although the stage crashers weren’t there, the floor stayed full the rest of the night. I was pretty busy again with merch, which is always nice, although inventory on panties was pretty bleak after the long night at Billy Bob’s.
Sorry it took so long to get ya’ll up to date again. If you’ve made it this far you get a prize, two new video blogs since the last time we spoke:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu0jRP1jl3Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDIDsHLri6s

Something old, something new for ya….til next week!

Respect your roots

2009-03-09T23:37:00.000-07:00

So this week doesn’t begin with the exploits of the Stragglers or the Chicago Blackhawks Hockey Club. No, we’re going OG baby….

That’s Guy Clark. For those that know, the jealous bone is already itching. For those that don’t, what can I say? I grew up listening almost exclusively to Willie Nelson, Guy Clark and one Marty Robbins 8-track. Never saw Marty, seen Willie a lot but it’s been probably a good 15 years since my last Guy Clark show. Which is sad and remarkable at the same time, for the time that passed mostly made me enjoy every second of the show.

Poor David’s Pub in Dallas, possibly one of the few “listening” rooms left (and at times I’m sure it’s not). Get there early, get a side stage seat and anxiously wait for the show to begin. Opener of course, forgettable to say the least. Not meaning to insult, but anyone less than Lyle Lovett wasn’t holding my attention that night. Probably 10 years ago Willie Nelson played a bar called InCahoots in OKC. Got there early of course and watched some opening band. I don’t remember any of their songs, but the lead singer kept talking about how his dad and high school principal kept telling him he’d never get anywhere playing music, well look at him now opening for Willie Nelson. That’s what he said, but really all I heard was my own voice saying, “get a hair cut, get a job and get off the stage so Willie can play ‘Whiskey River’ damnit!”. That band? Cross Canadian Ragweed. I saw them with Jason Boland & The Stragglers and the Great Divide about two years later…eh, not bad.

David, the poor kind, goes to the stage to introduce Mr. Clark and he comes out of the dressing room to flank the stage. The bar, to capacity if not more went from over bearing conversations with orders and gossip, to a rousing ovation to almost dead silence except for the amplified vibrations of 6 metal strings. Respect? Yeah, he commands it. Hell, he demands it without saying. I’ve never seen a room stop like that, or maybe I did 15 years ago but didn’t realize it then. Clark started with a new unrecorded song, which further heightened the silence. No sing alongs, no whistles, no hollars, just gravel and spit and age and a throat worn out more than a shirt and smoke filled lungs in a smokeless bar. It’s like when your granddad catches you doing something and all you can think about is all the beatings your dad told ya about. Guy Clark scares the shit out of me folks, always has, always will.

That being said, I also did something I’ve never done and at times, questioned others doing it….I kept track of his set list:

Hemmingway's Whiskey (new)
LA Freeway
Let Him Roll
Texas 1947
Magdalene
The Coat (new)
Wrong Side of the Tracks (new)
Out in the Parking Lot
Stuff That Works
Driskill Hotel
The Cape
Boats To Build
Home Grown Tomatoes
Some Days the Songs Write You (new)
Desperadoes Waitin' On a Train
Old Friends
Dublin Blues
Pawn Shop Guitar (new)
(Verlon Thompson also did 3 of his own tunes: Joe Walker's Mare, Whisper and a Scream, Caddo County)

Did he play all of my favorites? No. Did he play the “hits”? No. Did he disappoint? Not in the least. I can’t say it was the most moving show I’ve seen, seeing Billy Joe Shaver almost to tears when singing about his son definitely pulled at my heart string, but this was more selfish than that. The expectations I had for this show were impossible to achieve, yet he exceeded them. I’m not good enough with words to tell you how incredible the show was, please just trust me on that.

After the show, head to Arlington to meet up with Roger and the trailer. Guys just did a rehearsal with Brad coming off the IR. Assuming it went well, I was still in a post-coitus glow from the concert. Home long enough to pack a back and get a few hours of sleep before meeting the bus in the am. Was gonna nap on the way to Odessa but just stayed up doing nothing in particular that I can recall right now. Back into Dos Amigos and discover a new deck with a ramp, ah load in is so much sweeter now than it was then. Set up merch, have some nachos and put some ice in the bus’ beer well. Hey Stoney, do you know where the beer is? Well, well, well…
Hotel for a clean up and steal all the cookies, then back to the bar a little early. Go in about 8:30 when Brian Milson and the Short Road Band open up. Inside Dos instead of the outside stage, although I think the weather would’ve held for it. A guy I used to work with at my former life’s trailer company showed up out of nowhere. Apparently (and thankfully) he got out while the getting was good too. Karma to them I suppose. So if I wasn’t selling I watching Brad come back. Rust? Maybe a little but it beats having me play drums. Nice not sitting at merch wondering if someone was gonna steal something of the merch table too….yes, maybe I am spoiled.

I was busy but watched as much of Brian Milson and the Stragglers as I could, both were good shows. Afterwards, Jason does his thing while I sell things with his name on them, 2 for $40? 3 for $60? SOLD! After the show, got a bunch of goodies from our new favorite west Texan Mariah. And I’m not complaining cause the little snack foods are greatly appreciated but man, I think women are starting to notice the wrong bulge...

After show stop at the personally banned Whataburger, I do not leave the bus. Wake up on the outskirts of Amarillo. Running early but go straight the Rodeo, load in that much earlier, sound check that much earlier, go to hotel that much earlier. Guys decide between the Taco Bell (bleh) and the Wendy’s (bleh) of the parking lot, Roger finding the “catch a coin and win game”. You’ve seen these at Taco Bells, you drop a quarter in a water tank but if you catch it on their little flaps you get a burrito (taco for dime, cinnamon twists for a nickel). Well this machine had no water so you could position the flap right below the entry and catch them all day. Roger got 6 burritos, 4 tacos and 12 cinnamon twists for like $2.20. And they just kept letting him win, funniest thing I’ve seen in forever.

But I still went to Wendy’s, Taco Bell sucks.

Back to the bar and in to win about 9:30 or so. Amarillo is a weird crowd timing crowd, never can tell if they’ll be early or late, but they stay til closing I know that. Backed into an acousticly dead corner of the bar so I don’t see or hear much of the show. I really have nothing to report, if someone was at that show and could give a better review, please add to the comment section below.

After the show, load up and get paid, get to the bus and throw everyone off. Everyone including the once thought to be missing Heath Tolleson. But his hugs never die, plus we got a good video blog with him for the future. Did you see the latest with Jackson and his version of the night Jason went to jail? You haven’t, oh it’s right here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRtj9xzgprc

Parental advisory, Jackson Taylor Explicit Lyrics contained…haha.

Sleep til Lubbock, listen to the Hawks drop a game to the East-leading Boston Bruins (my early season pick for the Wales Trophy) and then shower up. Head to the bar and load in the boys are calling for Papa John’s pizza. Guess what, they don’t deliver but I borrow a truck and pick up the pies. We all devour and adjourn to our respective bunks, I get up at 7:30 to go turn in our guest list and guess what I see? Manager ordering pizza online from Papa John’s. Crazy fool, they won’t deliver! He says they have before to which I say that may be the case, but the computer won’t recognize the address therefore won’t send in a delivery order to the nearby store. Well guess what folks, I was putting in the wrong zip code for the club’s address. Haha, all blame to the crappy road manager (but bad ass t-shirt guy) is what you’re thinking. Nope, go to http://www.wildwestlubbock.com/ and scroll to the bottom. See that zip code 79423, that’s not right. It’s 79404 if you want pizza delivered. Such is the life I lead…

Brian Milson opens again. Unlike Dos, not busy in Lubbock so I got to check out most their show. I’m really liking them, hope to see them outside of West Texas soon and if you get the chance, go out to see them. Right as JB&S goes on, a one punch fight breaks out in front of merch, that’s fun. Lubbock is what we call a “late crowd, lots of calls” type town, yet it was a much better crowd than the last show (maybe cause school is in, surprise). They did stick around and party til the end, by the time I got done with merch and it’s packed, trailer is loaded and ready to roll. Took a while for Greg to get his cab so we didn’t leave until 4am (3am without your time change) and I was unconscious not long after. Wake up at Woody’s, bus and trailer cleaned from the Blue Beacon in Weatherford. We got three shows in three new markets next week, gotta look our best even though the weather up there will probably taint the pretty ride as it is.

Confession time, I’m really mad at myself for something. In Amarillo and Lubbock we stayed at La Quintas that both had Denny’s in the parking lots. I was gonna take pics just so I had have them for the blog but forgot.

Oh well, Guy Clark deserves to stand alone.

See ya in the bitter cold this week, I can’t wait.

The hangover is only in your head, man....

2009-03-02T22:05:00.000-08:00

I’m not even gonna try too hard this week. I went to a special acoustic show featuring Ryan Bingham, Adam Hood and Jason Eady last night, brought to you by the fine folks at Galleywinter. Let’s just say thank God for Adam so I wasn’t the drunkest person in the bar. I found the receipt for my bar tab in my pocket and under tip / total I wrote “shit”. I hope I tipped more than that actually.

No pictures, but I hope most of you have been checking out Roger’s new video blogs. The latest may be the greatest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS33r6aq7ys

You know what beats bus calls at 11:00 am on Thursdays? Bus calls at 1pm on Fridays. Short week with only two shows. Jason went to the doc last Monday and so far, so good. The growth has not redeveloped so as long as we keep taking it easy, he should be in the clear. Also, Brad is coming back this week for you West Texas music fans. Blue Cross Blue Shield didn’t know what they were bargaining for….

Wait, back to the story…..Roger, Grant and I ride over to Dallas to meet the bus on it’s return from getting the Austin boys earlier in the morning. Hop on the bus and are in Terrell in about an hour. Load in and set up, easy day. Hotel across the street, food next door (if you wanna call Wendy’s food) so the day seems easy enough. Take a lil’ nap and get up to go in early. Silver Saloon is a big honky tonk, a really long building with the stage in the middle, but it’s not bad at all. Big dance floor for all those that line dance to hip hop now.

I don’t mean to rant but really? Line dancing wasn’t cool then, now rappers are doing it, seriously? And I don’t mean the electric slide, I’m talking about boots with fur and apple bottom jeans, whatever that song is actually called. It’s like a paper cut to my ear drums every time it comes on. Maybe it’s the hangover talking but I think I’d rather be junk punched than listen to those songs ever again.

It’s okay, I just put on some Todd Snider to calm down.

A little confusion over start time has me and Mikey running back and forth, finally start after the “clap clap clap your hands” song….argh. Didn’t do much monitor changes, just kinda sat in my little merch corner and slowly sold all night long. Also “watched” the box score as the Hawks came storming back to force OT with the Penguins but lost on a crappy penalty call. For those that don’t know about hockey, when a player scores 3 goals in a game it’s called a hat trick, and fans traditionally throw their hats on the ice as a salute. At this game, the Hawks gave away 10,000 hard hats from some construction company. So capitan Jonathon Toews scores his 3rd goal of the game and the hard hats litter the ice. But the goal was disallowed cause it went in the goal from a high stick, thus no real hat trick. However, Capitan Serious scored another goal in the 3rd period and again came the hard hats. That was the most fun part of my day.

Show over and sell merch til after 2, weather change kicked up my allergies to headache proportions. Not like today and all my alcohol revenge but Friday night/Saturday morning wasn’t much fun either. Plus, it dropped maybe 30 degrees by the time we load out. I’m not sure if I’m ready to sweat my ass off for the summer or just ready for consistent weather regardless of how hot it is.

No bus moving post show, just load myself into my bunk and fall asleep. Wake up in Victoria at the La Quinta, Spanish for next to Target. Jason and Noah informed me the Xbox was on the decline so I got them a new one before either woke up and it was like Christmas for them. Just don’t tell them Santa isn’t real. We also started to rebuild our once elaborate bus dvd collection with titles such as Blazing Saddles, Caddyshack, Coen Brothers’ collection, Donnie Darko, Tommy Boy and many others. Hang at hotel til time to head to Schroeder Hall, which is now so far out in the middle of nowhere our bus driver got lost getting there….and he grew up in Victoria. In his defense, he hasn’t really been in town for 30 years or so and the gps didn’t really help.

Load in and sound check, Jason’s folks are snow-birding in South Padre so they came up for the show. Took him to radio while the rest of us chowed on Sharon’s chicken spaghetti. Selling merch around 8:30 or so, crowd slowly comes in. Jackson Taylor opened the show and put on a great show, enjoyed watching him have fun without being Jackass Taylor, haha. Stragglers get up and play their set, Jason does his autographs and then a brawl breaks out. Well, I say brawl, as long as it went on you would think so. Apparently it was just some really tough guy that took three huge security guards plus his two friends to pull him off a guy and out the door. Also, his friends “dropped” him on his head going out and broke the steps leading into the Hall. I just remember Jackson coming over and saying “see buddy, I was over here the whole time, I had nothing to do with that.”

While loading out, Roger has the camera out doing more stuff for the video blog, interviews with Casey Lain, Aaron’s brother and owner of the House of Rock in Corpus, but he also ran the Surf Club and Concrete Street for years so we’ve known him forever. And of course, Jackson recalled the night Jason went to jail in Huntsville and explains how in no way it any fault of his. Not sure when these will be online but both are classic.

Wake up in Fort Worth, drop the trailer at my house and drop my head in my bed for a few hours. Hitch hiked a ride to Austin for the Galleywinter show. Kudos to JP and Tank, for not only putting on a great show but for also not throwing my drunk ass out. I finally got to catch a Jason Eady show (although the 2nd half is quite hazy) and of course you don’t go wrong with Adam and Ryan. Also, congrats to Bingham for winning his 3rd consecutive “Most Popular ‘Ryan’ in the Texas Music Scene” award. He’s like the Reckless Kelly of songwriters named Ryan from Texas.

Wednesday night I’m going to Guy Clark at Poor David’s Pub, I’m definitely looking forward to it being a moving and monumental music moment in my life. Until then, I’m gonna go sleep on some ice bags.

keeping you abreast of the situation

2009-02-25T16:46:00.000-08:00

Bus calls at 11am are way better than 6am. I still somewhat sleep in, get to the post office, don’t have to pack the night before, usually no one is late, oh what joy to be had at 11am on a Thursday.

Slept most of the way to Pflugerville, fun with a capital PF. Pull into Graham Central Station, right of I-35 although I’d never seen it before. After scouting out the club and resituating the bus, the rest of the boys start filing in. Load in, set up, sound check and then the Austin kids go home for the evening except for Aaron. We roll to a Chick Fil-A to base out and then nap time after coloring and crafts. Wake up a couple hours before show and head inside. No opener so get to do the Cupid Shuffle six or seven times throughout the night. Jason does his meet/greet about 9:30 or 9:45, show starts at 10:30. I’m tucked away in the back and fairly busy throughout the night so I didn’t watch much of the show. Plus, Cory and Tony were there to bother me and distract me from my job.

After the show, Jason does his deal while I sell my deals. Since the show was done by 12:15 or so, the bar was still open when I was closing. That’s just not a normal occurrence, strange to pack up and load out while booty music is still blasting (although I can shake my money maker and pack up at the same time). Some friends brought us a box of Czech Stop so once Grant and I try to destroy those and then it’s nap time again.

Bus rolls at 8:30 or so but I never moved. Picked up Austin boys at Jason’s house and arrived in San Antonio right before 11:00am. Yes folks, an 11:00 am load in. Usually we load at 1:00 at Cowboy’s but they are having a military luncheon and we have to load and check by 1:30 at the latest. Load in and sound check by 1:00, then we all just sit on the bus twiddling thumbs. The Mexican place we normally eat at has had some issues with the health department so we opted for pizza. Ladies and gentleman, let me tell you something, we found a Pizza Hut that delivered. And another things, found some promo codes online and ordered an astonishing amount of food for 8 people (band, crew, Tony). We all agreed the lasagna was pretty good, of course the pizza was excellent. Plus, the take an order over $50 via cash unlike Dominos. Yes, Dominos is good but Pizza Hut, when they deliver, is the choice of JB&S. And we’re not paid to say that.

Even after pizza, it’s still not even 5:00. Usually in San Antonio someone from Austin will drive down but no one did so we’re all stuck with nowhere to go. Before long, curtains are closed and everyone’s asleep. I get up around 7, shower (at venue) and head into sales lot at bout 8:30. Expecting a big post-rodeo crowd that never really showed up. And that doesn’t mean we had a small crowd, still 1500 people which is our normal but with the rodeo in town I think we all expected another 800-1000. No matter, show was still good and I was pretty busy throughout the night. Merch is the opposite end of the stage area so running back and forth at the beginning on monitors but once they settled in we were all good.

Cowboy’s also doesn’t close at 2, even though they stop serving at 2. So up until 2:30 I’m still selling away, finally stopping then and packing up fast as we gotta roll out at 3. Walk onto the bus at 2:55 with all business accounted for in and safely in my back-pack, a few friends hanging out which I had the pleasure of ushering out the door. I don’t ENJOY it per-se, but I don’t NOT enjoy it. Bus in motion by 3:03 and I’m unconscious by 3:13.

Stop in Fort Worth at first for Grant to pick up his car and to get some extra merch for Mardi Party. The reason we are running around so early is I have some free tickets to the Blackhawks versus Stars game in Dallas. Normally I wouldn’t run off and leave the band to fend for themselves but a) we’ve done this show 6 or 7 times so we all know what to expect, b) already have some friends that are gonna sell merch for me, c) festival style load in so we won’t even break the trailer until 7, d) free tickets, e) why can’t I have a fun day???

Get merch in and set up, acquaint Rance and Loraine with my set up although they’ve covered my merch ass several times before. Once everything is in line for me to leave, my friend Shannon shows up so her, I and Greg head for hotel. Quick turnaround and to the game, great seats courtesy of Gilley’s Dallas. Another reason to love that place. Hawks took a penalty filled 1st period and laid into the Stars in the 2nd, eventually only allowing a single goal in the 3rd. Dallas really stormed back for the last 10 minutes but it was a little too late. More about the game in a bit…

Back to Mardi Party around 4:30 and first thing is check on merch. R&L are doing fine as the crowd is there and sales are good, but it’s still early and people aren’t wanting to carry stuff around yet. Jason has an interview with Justin Frazell for his new website, http://www.txrdr.com/, at 6 and a meet/greet at 6:45 so I load up him, Mikey and Tony into a borrowed Lincoln and motor to the hotel. Another quick turnaround and back to the venue for the duration. Jason does his things and then we start setting up gear for once Casey Donahew finishes up his set. For those that don’t know, Mardi Party is in the Auto Building at Fair Park, it’s a narrow LONG building and has a stage set up at both ends. Bands alternate stage to stage on 60 minute sets, which gives everyone plenty of time to be ready (instead of other festivals that expect you to do everything in 20 minutes and then if you’re 2 minutes late get pissed). Casey finishes and Roger Creagar fires up the other stage, so far away I can’t tell when he’s playing or when he stops.
Our set up is quick with about 10 minutes to spare, the radio guys from the Wolf give us the thumbs up for the intro and show is off and running. Shortened set, 60 minutes of hit after hit. Lots of beads, beach balls, boobs, typical Mardi Party in Dallas. Besides Grant kicking beach balls back into the crowd with a top spin that David Beckham would be jealous of, not much else I can recall that happened that you didn’t see in our Mardi Gras Video Blog. Oh, you didn’t see it yet? Then go to: http://www.msplinks.com/MDFodHRwOi8vd3d3LnlvdXR1YmUuY29tL3dhdGNoP3Y9NDcyOS1QbVQ5V0E= All the fancy camera worked is brought to you by Tony.

Show’s over folks, Eli Young hit’s the other stage while we pack up our gear. Once it’s just down to loading in the trailer, I get a text from Brad Weiss, the man in charge. Tells me Marty Turco, the Stars’ goaltender, is at the show. I call b.s. and he takes me to him. Apparently Turco is a big country fan and was in the midst of his bachelor party with some of the other Star players. I basically tried to not gherm him out and eventually ended up backstage for Gary Allan’s show. Then, I was herded onto a very limited space on the side of Gary Allan’s stage where we were told to remain the entire show. Now I like Gary Allan, but I’m not really one to stick around in a 6’ x 15’ space with 10 people I don’t really know for any gig. However, the Stars were partying out and were very entertaining, and apologizing for “being just some Canadian boys and we aren’t used to this.”

Finally get ushered off during the encore break, immediately make my way to our bus to charge my dead phone and check in. Everyone is hungry and ready to leave as the bus is running the Austin boys home. Bus driver is waiting on a cab so I start packing merch and have trailer loaded by 1. By 1:45, Greg is still waiting on cab so I borrow Shanny’s car to go get him. Halfway there and he tells me cab finally made it so I hit a McDonald’s drive through for burgers and fries. I don’t recommend that for anyone, it’s just what I could get at the time. Bus backed out and headed on, my day is done so I punch my time clock and stay in Dallas. Sunday I flew up to Chicago to watch the Hawks play the best game you could but got beat by a hot goaltender. That’s cool, at least they didn’t play like garbage as they didn’t last night (as I’m writing this Wednesday evening).

Also, best pizza ever in Chicago: Giordano’s. Incredible pizza and you’re talking to a guy that knows his pizza. Okay, enough about me, we’ll see ya next week with a new blog and hopefully another cool video blog. Be watching our bulletins for the youtube links!

If violence isn't the answer, what is?

2009-02-16T22:54:00.000-08:00

Can it get stranger than starting your week in Na$hville? Yes it can, when you head for Tahlequah. But I’m already ahead of myself.

We leave out of Fort Worth at midnight for the 700 mile trip to Music City. Noah and Roger are meeting us there, picking up Grant in Little Rock and Brad still out, bus seems empty. Plus Greg came down with the family flu so we have a sub driver, Mr. Frank. I’ll be honest, I hate new drivers. I’m not used to their bathroom or coffee breaks, their turns or lane changes, so I basically lay in my bunk and wait for trouble. It’s like a new girlfriend, you don’t know if she likes that thing that you really like. What? I’m talking about steaks medium rare. Pervs.

Successfully pick up Grantpa in Little Rock and leave his car, I get a little bit of nap til we roll into town. Hotel first, Roger is already there after a few days at Mardi Gras in NOLA. Jason gets picked up about 12:45 to go be on Sirus/XM while Zinnia who works at Buddy Lee takes me to the airport to pick up Noah. Since he has his fiddle, as we pull up I yell, “hey, are you the guy in Sugarland?” I was amused.

Roll to the Exit In at 4ish, load in and set up. I have bum wheel on one of my road cases and although thankfully I have a spare at the house, the spare is at the house. I never was a boy scout either. As soon as sound check finishes about 6, I conned Sunny Sweeney into coming to get me if I buy dinner. Hit a steak house (MEDIUM RARE) and this is how I know there is a cool element to Na$hville: I almost literally ran into Lyle Lovett coming out of the men’s room. And he’s with a HOT woman. Now I’ve seen a few regular country music stars come out in the town before, but none of them have had a woman that beautiful with them. Lyle, you are my hero.

Thanks to Melissa and Richie for the cookies, hence the only picture of this blog as it deserves the attention.

Back to the bar to be there for doors to open at 8, Jackson Taylor on at 9. Being that our booking agency is in Na$hville, we got a lot of people we work with there. Jon, Zinnia, Ashley, Clay Neuman, Jay Jones, Eric Erbskorn, etc., all come out to two step a bit, good to see the extended family. Through my socializing I don’t really watch much of Jackson’s show, no offense. But then during the set change, something happened that became important later.

As the guys are waiting to walk on stage, Jason is standing by the trailer, which is behind me. As he walks by I think I see something hit the side of the bus so I start up that way. Two kids, dressed and playing the roles of a punk band, walk between the bus and trailer and then I see something splattered all over the bus. So I ask them if they threw something on the bus and their response was basically no and to go do something to myself, and then a invite to fight. I say yes, I’ll not only beat their punk wanna-be asses but I’ll embarrass them as bad as their parents are embarrassed when they come home for the holidays. Beyond a couple other pleasantries, that’s the end of the conversation….until later.

The guys play and I got back to my perch on the merch box. Jon had been talking to one of the guys earlier so I asked if he knew them and he said he had just met them but they in fact were a punk band playing down the street later on in the night. Honestly, I don’t remember the show but the crowd liked it. Jason does his autographs, slowly start loading up our gear when the “punks” return. The owner and sound guy have since been told my story and being that we don’t know them, escort them out of the bar. Once we’re done loading, two of the punks are outside the bus trying to get on cause they know “Jason Taylor”. I told them to go home, got on the bus and found two more of them just hanging out and having a few beers.

Since we have to leave town at 2am and it’s now almost 1:30, Roger asks the two punks and a few others to start making their way off the bus. Before long, one of the four thinks he needs to be Sid Vicious and starts talking trash. Roger tries to reason with the kid(s) and soon enough, all seems to be good as they leave. I’m talking to a couple people about horses when one looks behind me and says, “are they serious?” I turn around to see Mikey facing up with a guy and punches being thrown, although not connecting. Then I see the other three punks coming up and Roger taking off his coat. He looks at me and tells me to get the rest of the guys off the bus. Now folks, I need you to picture this: Mikey is an average size guy and Roger as you know, pretty big guy that is in good shape. These self proclaimed street kids, not a single one weighed over 150 pounds with their studded leather jackets. Roger would’ve taken them all by himself, let alone add Mikey, me and Jason, the only one that heard and heeded the warning. However, again cooler heads prevailed as the aggressive punk was just sad that we didn’t wanna share beers with him anymore. He felt like we rejected him. You know what kid, you’re not Sid Vicious. If you were, you wouldn’t have cried that someone didn’t wanna have a beer with you. You would’ve figured out a way to steal the beer.

Thankfully, Frank had just pulled in to witness the “fight” and fire the bus up. Nothing to see here folks and we hit the road. Wake up about 11 and we are already in Tahlequah, Frank didn’t stop for anything. Get him to the hotel and then lazily begin our day. Whiskey Jim’s is a new club in a town desperate for a good live music venue that will be around next year. And the year after that.

Day seem to be super long since it started early and ended late. Big ol’ lesson of hurry up and wait. But eventually got in early for the sold out crowd when the Turnpike Troubadours started playing and caught most of their set. Full band, seen them once during on of Jason’s acoustic shows about 18 months ago but as an acoustic duo. Walk in during a Hayes Carll cover so you know I’m happy for that. Good selection of covers mixed with their originals, check em out when you can.

Next up, super human himself, Randy Crouch. I can’t begin to describe a Randy Crouch show, I’ve never been able to. You have me in the worst possible mood I can be in and throw him in the room and I’m smiling in a matter of 5 minutes. You know what the hippies said when they ran out of drugs at the Grateful Dead concert? “Man, these guys suck!” You know what the hippies said when they ran out of drugs at the Randy Crouch concert? “Dude, this dude is the man dude!” For a guy like me that thrives in organization, all my ducks are in a row, things have to be in order at all times, then to witness a Crouch show that can be nothing short of musical chaos, you would think it would drive me nuts. But it’s Randy man, the guy is the equivalent of euphoria. I don’t know what else to say, anything else just seems to fall short of what an experience it truly is.

Okay, time for the JB&S show. Beginning goes off, all is good, work a bit of the monitors, sell some merch, etc. Go back to the stage once Jason is on acoustic guitar and Roger switches to steel just to see if any other tweaks are needed and there are two guys standing on the side of the stage. I tell them they need to get off the stage and one graciously accommodates my request. The other, he just stands there. I ask again, then I tell him he can’t be on the stage. His drunk response is asking if I have a lighter. No, I quit smoking last week. Then I don’t ask, I tell him he has to get off the stage or I’ll have security (which is nowhere to be found) have him thrown out. This is when he calls me a bitch. Now folks, I am a bit of a bitch. I’m not strong, I’m not threatening and I’m not much of fighter, mainly cause both my older brothers used to whoop my ass all the time. However, I can take a beating and I’m not afraid to get one. So as he’s putting his cigarette in his mouth, I take it out, throw it down the stairs and tell him his the next thing going down those stairs, either on his own or me throwing him. Honestly, the only reason it escalated this fast was due to the fact he was WASTED and I was in the favorable position of not being one step away from the stairs. I had the advantage in solid ground behind me if it only became a pushing match. Finally he grabs his beers and slowly makes his way down the steps, I look to the stage to see Noah and Grantpa laughing at me. Thanks for the back up fellas. If anyone wants to crash the stage any time soon, I recommend tackling those guys this time….just kidding. Sorta. Maybe.

Don’t know about the rest of the show, pretty much swamped with merch the entire night. After the show was one of Jason’s marathon signing sessions, he was there until well after 2 (bars in OK close at 2...well most bars). Finalize the show and load the trailer, end up hanging out and hanging on til at least 6, you’d have to ask Roger to be sure. Head for Little Rock around 9 and fall asleep hoping to not wake up with the headache I had but alas, no such luck. And no I wasn’t drinking and yes I should’ve been.

Sound system at Rev Room blew a couple sub woofers during the week so load is postponed until they get new ones in. No big deal, Rev Room is pretty systematic at this point. I’m actually finishing up my stuff when the guys start sound check so I hang out to make any monitor changes at that point. Afterwards head to Sticky Fingerz for some fingerz with Voodoo sauce. It’s hot but it’s worth the pain and sweat. Shower, headache, bus, bar, merch.

Again, Randy Crouch opens the show. As bad as my head hurt I still got to smile for about 45 minutes. I don’t know what he’s on, but I’d like to try some. Now something I didn’t touch on earlier because I’d hoped I would have had a better story to provide but it didn’t work as well as I had hoped. When first loaded in, where merch usually sets up there were some boxes with stripper poles. Apparently the Rev Room had some show in a few weeks ago and used the poles as accessories of some sort. So being the marketing genius I thought I was, I put one on each side of my merch boxes in attempt to draw attention to the merch….or more likely to get chicks dancing on them. Neither happened, the were just used for drunks to sit on throughout the night. Some days it doesn’t pay to get out of bed.

However, I did have a front row seat for the JB&S show that happened. Merch in Little Rock is always concentrated towards the end so I pretty much had the best seat for our first sold out show at the Rev Room. Minus a few drunk pushing and shoving episodes, a great crowd was there. Singing along to “Comal County Blue” which still surprises me since it’s relatively a new song. Of course getting Randy and Dave (drums) up for “Mexican Holiday” and “Big Shot Rich Man” were highlights.

Sell some stuff, pack some stuff, get paid for some stuff and get on the bus. Grantpa is taking Randy and Dave home so the rest of us pull out around 2:30 or so. I finally sleep although the bus pulls into the bus yard at 8:30 and time to get up and head home. Strange weekend, unusually almost violent. Folks, for the record, violence is never the answer. However, sometimes you can’t choose what questions you have to answer to. Think about that while I wonder how many sentences I ended in a preposition.

Insert clever title here

2009-02-08T22:16:00.000-08:00

I still didn’t get any good pictures and I had a funny quote for the blog title but I forgot it. However, Grantpa, Greg and I did win a booby beer cover.

After a little departure time confusion, we do leave the bus yard in Fort Worth around 6am last Wednesday morning. I was unseasonably tired so I went straight to my bunk and woke in Fayetteville having acquired a hitchhiking hippie that can play bass. As luck would have it, we needed one of those.

Pull into George’s a little early and slowly wake up the guys. Nothing new here, George’s has it figured out so the place is pretty much the same. Ticket sales have been good so our Wednesday night experiment looks promising. Everyone splits after sound check to find their own food, I venture off the campus and end up at Hastings, get a couple hockey magazines and the new Kevin Smith flick on dvd, “Zach & Miri Make A Porno“. Of course I saw it in the theaters but Smith does something to his flicks that make you watch them, buy them, then buy repackaged versions of them. He’s a lot like Col. Sanders and his chicken.

Good crowd inside when I hit merch, people lined up for the new schwag which appears ample as we haven’t been to town in almost a year. Night is flying by until my credit card machine dumps out on me. The machine won’t roll out paper to print so I’m forced to somewhat manually pull the paper as it prints. This folks, is not good.

Show was really good, Jason got the crowd to “call the hogs”, everyone sang along with “Big Shot Rich Man”, people love them new Comal County hats. Minus the credit card debacle, I say it’s a success and a half. We should get outta town while we’re ahead….

Get to Manhattan the next day early afternoon, finally some parking by the club instead of fighting meters and shop owners next to Longhorns. Unload to the sidewalk and then get the bus moved into it’s gravel laden resting spot. I run to drop Greg at hotel and then find a FedEx to ship out the credit card machine for repairs, status currently pending. Back to club and not much to do, Jason, Aaron, Mikey and I head to Buffalo Wild Wings and no, I don’t like onion rings and yes I’ve tried them and no, these aren’t different.

Got a nice nap and got to listen to the Hawks first period against the flaming Calgarians which became a 5-2 victory for the good guys. Get to the bar and spend the next few hours putting back merch once people find out there’s no credit card machine. Manhattan is a college town, and cards are used a lot during the first of the semester til the folks shut that down. Oh well, still carry a sell out crowd to Longhorns for the umpteenth time since 2000. I’m pretty sure Longhorns was the first non-Wormy Dog bar JB&S sold out on their own and has ever since that first one (minus one show scheduled on the Wednesday of finals week). Standard load out and back to the hotel, where I slept as you can’t pass on a Fairfield Inn bed with 5 pillows.

Short drive to Lincoln, Grantpa and I watched the evolution of axes on the History Channel. Did you know….okay, enough of that. Roll into Uncle Ron’s and clear out a path of ice to drain some water away, where the bus parks is on the dark side of the building where the sun never sees due to the shadow. There’s basically ice til April…or til Noah and I show up. We bust it out, make basically a water canal for the standing water flow away and then clear and safe walk way for the guys throughout the day. Rock and roll I tell ya, who doesn’t want this job?

For my avid readers, remember in Lubbock where Pizza Hut won’t deliver? Neither will they in Lincoln. I like Dominos, but their oven baked sandwiches aren’t as good as the baked pastas., advantage Pizza Hut….I mean if they would deliver that is. However, we survived on Dominos and all took naps. Uncle Ron’s sold their 400 advance tickets so remaining tickets went on sale at 7 and by then, there was a line around the building, so I go in early and began my day at the office. Opening band was Cactus Hill, local guys that we’ve played with a lot in our Lincoln days, mostly covers. What caught my ear was they did some Outkast song, the “Hey Yeah.” I just never thought I would hear it, or “Sweet Child Of Mine” with the guitar parts done on fiddle, so I figured I would mention them, haha.

As I mentioned, Roger got a video camera and he’s gonna fill up the first tape before any edits and videos are attempted. But, the crowd was great so we did the proverbial “follow lead singer’s feet as he walks from bus to stage” clip and I have to say, I shot it quite exquisitely. I’m no Stanley Kubrick but who is? Back to my day job in the back of the bar. Show was a blur, merch post show was too. I just know people kept giving me money and I kept handing stuff to Jason. Staff stopped cleaning to help us load out so while we are waiting on Greg to get back to remove the bus, I helped clean up a little. Sweeping and mopping is almost like hockey for me, but I don’t do windows.

You thought Manhattan to Lincoln was a gas saver, try Lincoln to Omaha (nevermind Omaha to Fort Worth though…). Find the club, Whiskey Tango, and bad news folks, it’s upstairs. Good thing there was an elevator because I ain’t lugging my merch cases up more than 11 steps…..Smith’s Olde Bar taught me that lesson.

Stage set up was also a bit strange, the stage was a 6” rise of the floor in the corner of the room, with rows of chairs directly in front but a dance floor to the side/front. I’ve tried to include a more than crude depiction of the layout.

After a big merch night in Lincoln, I was gearing up doing inventory for another big night in Omaha, being as the show was sold out at 250 and only in/outs would be allowed once the doors finally opened at 7. Unfortunately, I was quite overzealous and ended up not doing a lot of merch, mainly because I was not selling beer and booze. That’s where the real money is at.

Show, for what it was, went off pretty well. The whole half chair seated area/half dance floor was a bit different, but with such a short and small stage it did keep the drunks from either joining the band or worse, damaging equipment. Oh, or damaging a band member. Forgot that has happened before. By the time the night was over, we trudged back down the elevator with gear and up the street to the trailer. Roger hung back in Omaha and should be getting into trouble at Mardi Gras as we speak. The rest of us started the 700 mile trip home (or 900 for the Austin folk) with Comedy Central showing Trailer Park Boys The Movie. If you don’t know about Trailer Park Boys, you should. Best thing out of Canada since my folks.

I took an ambien and walk up a mile from the bus yard, everyone unloaded and headed home. Pretty good week capped by one of the all time best crowds at Uncle Ron’s. Lincoln’s starving for good music, hope more bands from around here haul their asses up there.

Hey, how come some of you haven’t become MilkDrive’s friend on Myspace? Do you not like Noah? Do you not like good music? Do you hate the interwebs? Folks, none of those are valid excuses. Go seek out MilkDrive, as they book new venues they are actually asked, “how many myspace friends do you have?” So if I have to whore them out at every opportunity to get them more friends which for some messed up reason gets them more gigs, I’ll do it. Why, because I’m scared of Noah Jeffries.

walk down amnesia lane

2009-02-03T21:38:00.000-08:00

It was a short week of shows and I didn’t take any pictures. Therefore, I dug up some old funnies from back in the day….

But I’ll start early this week. It was Beckman’s birthday party at Woody’s and almost a reunion for the Woody’s class of 2004. Old ghosts just kept walking in, I felt 28 years old again. But the main distraction besides birthday boy was the acoustic show of Matt Powell, Drew Kennedy and Josh Grider. I forget how big a fan of Powell I am, or was. Whatever, he’s a bad ass and he was also a member of the class of ‘04. All three of these guys are great so all of ya go check them out.
Funny side note, Boland text me when he got to my house and asked if he could have some of my ramen noodles. I said, “sure, you paid for them.” Then I thought, it’s $.30 anyway so maybe that’s why he didn’t laugh.

Get up early on Friday to meet the bus at 8:45, Abilene isn’t far but noon load in and gotta pic up trailer at Zanetti’s Trailer Ranch. If you live anywhere near Weatherford and have any kind of trailer that needs work, this people are the only ones that touch our trailer. In and out of there and down the road, I wake up right as we pull into the Taylor County fairgrounds for ZOPS. Once we figure out where to park and get parked, start to unload. Unfortunately my merch is “outside” the show room which is highly inconvenient these days without a monitor guy. But what ya gonna do?

Afternoon was uneventful, well until I found out that Guy Clark is playing in Dallas in March on a day we have off. Got my tickets, go get yours. Eat some dinner, clean up at hotel, take a nap and go to the concourse for merch. Once it’s the band’s showtime, I go up for the first couple songs just to see if any monitor adjustments need to be made but everyone was pretty good. Fast forward to 12:02am, Jason ends the show and comes to merch. Normal sign and sell, pack it all up and push it back to trailer. Started to get a headache (that lasted 2 days) so I went straight to bed.

Wake up in Fort Worth, picking up Grant’s car and my truck as I’m gonna stay in OK a couple extra days. Running ahead of time so I do some work, head to the post office with online orders and then leave about 11:00. By noon, I’m still in Fort Worth….yeah, traffic on a Saturday afternoon. Ridiculous if ya ask me. Finally break on through to the other side a little after the 12 hour and push past the speed limit. By the time I get to Tecumseh the band is starting their sound check. Park the bus, set up merch, get Greg to hotel and back to JT’s. I figured it was gonna be a long night at Cowtown (last time we played the owner’s house burned down!) so I got a quick nap and went in early. Good crowd already formed and I was busy from the get go. Mama Sweet opened and I gotta say, enjoyed their set. Seems we play with them about once a year and I always dig them. Again, not your typical country band so maybe that’s it.

Show kicks off about 10:30 and I’m at the board making adjustments. Jason goes to start off “Comal County Blue” and has no acoustic. Figure it’s a cord so I go to change it, while sporting my new Ghostbusters shirt, and all I can hear is some guy yelling “who ya gonna call? WHO YA GONNA CALL?? GHOSTBUSTERS!!!”. It’s not easy to change a guitar cord mid-song while some guy is cracking ya up….

Rest of the show goes off without a call for the Ghostbusters intern, lots of pics and autographs after. Being the show was over about 12:15 but bar didn’t close until 2, that stretch of time seemed to take forever. But they fired up the mechanical bull so that gave some laughs. Then a girl rode it topless and as appealing as that sounds, it wasn’t. Then two girls rode it together, topless. And as appealing as that may sound, it wasn’t. Then three girls rode it together, topless. And as appealing as that may sound, it wasn’t.

After that, just got paid and picked up the driver. Sent the bus home and I stayed the night and the next couple days with family and friends. I don’t know if 2 shows a week will pay the bills but man was it enjoyable!

Enjoy the retro photos,

mR.m

new hat:

apologies

2009-01-27T16:21:00.000-08:00

for the stupid script symbols while posting a blog. i write it on a word doc and then transfer it over. not sure how to fix it but after trying for 30 minutes every week I give up. hopefully you can read it without too much problems.

it's the snot that counts....

2009-01-27T16:13:00.000-08:00

I guess I should really get back to working on the blog. Hell, it’s the 3rd day off the road!!

I slept pretty much most of the trip to Bryan, until the GPS got us lost. Why doesn’t the Hall show up on GPSes? That’s the second different one that can’t find it, and it’s not a hard place to find. Pull in behind the Austin boys and load in. Set up and before they soundcheck I run our driver to the hotel and grab a Freebird (monster, cayenne, rice, mix cheese, meat, hot sauce and bad ass bar b q) and back to the club. I hang out while the guys go get food, Jason heads off for radio, I listened to the Hawks play a completely uninspired game against the St. Louis Blews. Time for work I guess, First Beer Of The Year, what a reason to celebrate right? Nope.

I’m not sure what it is, but in a former life JB&S must’ve played football for UT or something. Everyone gears up for a good night and the show was, the crowd that was there was quality. But you know, sometimes you just want quantity. Jason tells the story when the band first played College Station they were playing to maybe 30 people. So they did a Keen song, either ‘Road Goes’ or ‘Five Pound Bass’ and at the end, a guy walks up and suggests not playing a Keen song in College Station unless you’re Keen. I find it funny except when I’m sitting in town doing nothing at the merch booth besides reading a book. Good book though.

After the show just loaded up and went to hotel. My sickness was starting to be full blown at that point so I went straight to bed. Didn’t sleep, couldn’t breath, decided to get up and take a shower before leaving town. Good thing, the steam helped open up my nose….not really. As many of you know, I begged off some meds once we got to Cheatham.

I love Cheatham Street and I’ll tell you why, Kent Finlay cares about the artists he books. We’ve been to other bars, with more history or sound equipment, or more people, or more lights, but rarely do you meet someone like Kent. I won’t name it, but there’s another venue we play not far from Cheatham, grand history, a mecca of Texas music history if you will allow that. But at the end of the night, a sellout night, they just pay ya and file ya out the door. Just another act, just another band, just another day. I’m not saying we need to be pampered, trust me I’ve worked for bands that need it, but a little personality goes a long way.

And come on, Todd Snider wrote on the bathroom wall. With the exception of Cain’s still having the part of the wall that Sid Vicious punched a hole in, you don’t get much better wall décor than that.

Anyway, the show was great. Midnight River Choir opened and they are just on this side of being a 70’s rock jam band. By this side, I mean the side I like. The place filled up, and even though there were some problems with the sound (amp blowing) but I don’t think there were any complaints. After the show I went seeking out the coins I put on the track, got a penny that’s paper thin now. Check it...

Lost my voice by the end of the night, I know the guys were pumped about that. Barely had it back when we got into Tyler the next day. Our old bus driver Todd and his wife Tara came to see us, I think we are one of the few bands that still have friendships with our ex-drivers. Load in and sound check, hotel was next door so that’s nice and convenient. Bar closes at midnight so I go in “early” at 8ish. Uncle Lucius opened and thank God for two nights in a row of not the same old Texas music. They finished their set with “Trudy”, the Charlie Daniels tune. Can’t beat that song, so don’t try.

I don’t remember much of the JB&S show, I was parked in the back and the place was pretty full. Tyler is a “don’t buy during the show” kind of place, so I just kept to myself. My z-pack showed up though, that was awesome. I still feel like I was ate by a wolf and shit off a cliff, but my headed isn’t so stopped up.

So you wanna know rock and roll? I’ll tell ya. After the show Mikey and I went walking for eats. I don’t like to eat after the show but I was hungry and feel adventurous. Everything within walking distance was closed but Aaron and I took Uncle Lucius’ van with Mike and Josh to Whataburger. Of course I get the call in order from everyone still on the bus and I still remember it:
#1, whatasized with root beer - kevin
#1 whatasized with a sprite - Noah
#6 whatasized with a coke - Mikey
(2) sausage egg taquitos with gravy - Boland
Egg and cheese biscuit - Grant
#2 whatasized with an orange juice - for me
(4) extra orders of gravy, for all the breakfast stuff and fries

Not too bad, it was $43.27. It also took 15 minutes. Now this wasn’t a 4am Whataburger with one cook, there were 4 people cooking food. Nine orders behind mine were finished before mine, no big deal as long as it was right. When it was ‘done’, I checked the bag but no chicken strip dinner. So I politely ask for it, plus the extra gravys. Fast forward in slow motion the next 10 minutes of nothing happening. Finally one of the cooks look at me and I say, “is the chicken strip meal ready?” He slides it through the little opening, it had been sitting there basically the whole time. Now I’m pissed.

They bag the strips and then I still have to ask for my gravy. They have a minute long huddle to which the cashier finally announces, “uh, it will be two minutes on the gravy.” Not so polite, I told them to keep it. Keep the gravy, keep my money, just give me my chicken and let me get out of there. Although I included a few more expletives than that. By the time we got back to the bus (stop for Copenhagen) my burger was crap, the fries were worse. And that folks is why I don’t eat after the shows….

So onto Dallas via Fort Worth so that Roger, Grant and I can get our cars to go our own ways after the show. I get to Dallas right at 1, right as Aaron and Mikey are opening the trailer. It turned stupid cold over night, from 80 degrees in San Marcos to 38 in Dallas. Really, as if I didn’t have the flu already….

Load in and while the guys sound check, take Greg to hotel. The venue has showers which are a road manager’s dream. No worries about getting the guys to the hotel. After sound check, Jason, Grant, Aaron, Tony (from Hill Country Ford, you can’t afford to not go up the hill) and I went to Mattito’s, bad ass Mexican food in Dallas. Back in time for Jason to meet up with Justin Frazell, the man behind the original Front Porch radio show. Now he’s putting together a website that’s not up yet, but doing interviews with artists, lots of behind the scene stuff. Once it’s up and running, you’ll be seeing links on here for sure.

I tried to watch as much of the All Star Game Skills Competition as I could, but the crowd was growing in the bar and I’m a merch whore. I’m not gonna lie, you people know this. We have our own rolling papers, and it was my idea. And I don’t even smoke!

The crowd ended up growing to capacity, over 1400 people in a club I didn’t think could hold 1000 (legal limit is 1500, slow down Mr. Fire Marshall). No Justice opened and I can’t even tell you the last time we saw those guys. Still good, still rocking. The rest of the night was a blur, once we finally got the monitors sorta set (problems on our end this time) and got back to merch, was slammed the whole night until 2:15. I had a ton of friends there that I didn’t get to socialize with, so apologies to you . But hey, talking doesn’t pay my truck payment does it Tony (I couldn’t afford to not go up the hill either).

After the show, the bus is taking the Austin crew home and I’m hauling the trailer back to Fort Worth to save some time. Get all my stuff unloaded and hook up, head to the house. Barely made it home, being sick sucks and driving at 4am doesn’t help. Alas, we all made it safe and sound .

Talked with Brad last week, doctor put him about 4 weeks from playing again, guess he’s out until late February/early March. We also just got a video camera so we'll be doing various video blogs and skits once Roger figures out how to edit. He's smart, shouldn't be too hard for him.

Two shows this week, Beckman's birthday party at Woody's on Thursday. Be there or be a rhombus.

mR.m

Robert Earl Keen did not approve this blog

2009-01-18T21:30:00.000-08:00

Where were we?

Oh yeah, Denver for 4 days. And the Avalanche are on a road trip, can’t even see some decent hockey. Well, catch up on the biz of being in a band I guess. And sleep. And laundry.

Roger and I went to see “Gran Torino”, the new Clint Eastwood flick. Great flick, not life changing but very entertaining and not your normal Hollywood production. I hate going to the movies and the best thing is the white cherry Icee….although who doesn’t love those?

Finally show day comes along, Grizzly Rose, the Billy Bob’s to the north but about 1/3 the size. We are only 20 miles away so we get there about 1 and slowly load in. Slowly set up merch. Slowly sound check. I think everyone is on my ambien hangover or maybe it just seemed that way to me. Side note: we have some bad wheels on some of our cases and there just happens to be a caster store next to the bar. Now when you see us load in and out, we’ll be much happier since we roll much better.

Took a nap, listened to the Hawks game on the radio, finally went into the bar around 9 or so. Several hundred people which is great although still seems a bit empty for such a large club. The stock show is in town so we’re hopeful that at the end of the PBR Finals that night the club will fill up. Sure enough, come 10:30 you see the hats and boots stroll in. Man, if only I had JB&S conchos for sale…..

Don’t remember the show too much, I’m stuck off by the front door where it doesn’t sound much like music. I’ll venture to say I was even a tad bit bored, merch sales were good pre and post, but not during the show. I think my main focus, as was the rest of the band, was post show. At the Grizzly, when you walk off stage they have a surprise waiting for you. Jumbo shrimp and the best hot wings ever. I’m not gonna lie, not a fan of shrimp but I’ll break your hand if you try to take my wings.

Actually, following the show it’s rush out the door time. We got a 750+ mile trip to San Angelo over night so as soon as my merch goes in the trailer, the bus is in reverse. We stayed up a bit finishing off the shrimp and wings (I say again, best of the best) until I actually took an ambien and passed out. Now for you kids out there reading this, I do not condone the use of drugs in any sense. I also know you’re not my kid so your parents can deal with whatever you feel the need to do to get through your day. Everything in moderation, including moderation.

I wake up in San Angelo, the last one to wake up. My haze is intense, man…..I didn’t know 13 hours in a bus could fly by that fast. God bless you Zolpidem.

The hotel is next door to Grahams so I get the bus driver to his room, round of applause for him keeping us safe and on time. Typical load and sound check, then walk next door to Logan’s for dinner on the bar’s tab. Extra appetizers, for sure. Ryan Beaver opens the show, hopefully some of you have heard of him. Cory, our manager, gave me his cd not long ago and I’m gonna tell ya, it’s good. He’s got a single “I Should’ve Kissed Her” which may be the perfect radio song that’s not too ghey. Good lyrics, great melody, good hook, this kid may be a star. And you heard him here first.

Good show for him and much better crowd than last time we were in town. It’s pay day so I think everyone is blowing the grocery bill. Works for me, I need groceries too. A few technical problems on stage and at FOH but it works itself out, always does. About half way through the show I start to get sick to my stomach, I think from the cigarette smoke after being in Colorado and fresh air for two weeks. I just make it through, get packed up and hit the bunk.

Uvalde the next day, Lone Star Saloon debut. Don’t know what to expect, new club new town. The place is really nice, good sound system, good dance floor, Joe, Joe Jr. & Kathy take good care of ya. Still “building” the scene down there and thanks for that. Another typical day, show starts off and play through it. I will bring up a special point now, I met most of Aaron’s family at the show. His dad is a local but his mom, brother, nieces, nephews, etc., all surprised him by showing up for dinner. Much to their surprise is Aaron shaved his beard but left a very impressive “dirt bag” moustache behind. Now we call him dirt bag, it would make Burt Reynolds jealous.

Show itself was good, not a big crowd but they enjoyed it. Beats working for a living or taking our ball and going home like Ryan Adams would do….Looking forward to leaving town, one more show on this 3 week run.

For those that don’t know, nothing that what we do is hard. As I say, you have to work hard at work that’s not hard. We aren’t in the line of fire. We aren’t doing back breaking work. Our checks always clear our accounts. But being in a bus or hotel or condo or whatever for 3 weeks will get to ya. We are a pretty easy going bunch though, we know each other’s buttons and when to and when to not press them. In most cases, it’s press them. So I don’t mean to complain, I’m just ready to be home in my bed and my house and my truck. One more show….

Shooter’s in Gainesville, or outside of Gainesville if by chance you get stopped by a city cop. Not sure what their jurisdiction is but hopefully not that far out of town. Regardless, we are good kids and have nothing to worry about. Load. Set up. Sound check. Nothing remarkable happened throughout the day. Our old bus driver David came by, I had him convinced Brad was fired for about 5 minutes. For the record, Brad is not, he is progressing well into his hated rehab.

As soon as I hit the merch booth I was swamped and stayed that way throughout the night. Not to mention my booth is set up right by the only bathrooms so even if I’m not selling I got people in front of me the whole time. Show, what I saw, was great. I missed a good girl fight apparently though. After this many years I’ve learned to know who’s fighting by watching the guys on stage. If it’s guys, Jason is usually the last to notice or care unless it’s getting out of hand. If it’s bad enough, he’ll stop a song. Grant sees them all, Roger too. Now when a fight breaks out, as you can tell by how the crowd moves (like ripples in a pond), and the guys are all smiling, it’s a chick fight.

Other than that, can’t think of much else. Of course after the show it’s all hip hop and classic rock, like a paper cut to my ear drums. I need those 100 db ear plugs after I learn to read lips. Late load out and finally on the road, short nap to Fort Worth. Jason crashes on the couch and we meet his folks the next morning to get his truck. They are heading to the beach, so much smarter than us.

We’ll see ya in Bryan. Or San Marcos. Or Tyler. Or Dallas.

mR.m

p.s. I love Cheatham Street Warehouse.

Now with pictures, not really

2008-12-28T23:10:00.000-08:00

(before we go any further I tried to incorporate pictures into this blog to make it more enjoyable, but blogger sucks ass. I hate this thing and if you really wanna read through this more efficiently, go to our Myspace page until Blogger.com gets with the times)

Apparently weather changes everywhere, not just Texas or Oklahoma....

But before I begin, I want to start incorporating some media into the blog. You know, a little garnish to brighten up your dish. I actually took my camera this past week, to capture holiday cheer and musical magic but left the damn memory card in my computer. So no pics of the shows, but here's a good one: http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d50/peliti27/jackacm.jpg

That's my old buddy Jacking Ram with his 2007 ACM award. My, what a big award you have there....Okay, so maybe I'm name dropping here but like Willie and Jerry Jeff were telling Waylon one day, name dropping isn't that big a deal and Robert Earl agreed while Guy wrote a song and drank all the booze. But I digress....

Jacking Ram's road manager and I were roommates for a couple years. His name is Drew. He's worked for Jacking Ram, but also Wade, Lost Trailers, ran the Blue Light in Lubbock, etc. That guy went off and got married and is now living in a nice 4/3/2 in suburban Dallas. However, they have lots of stuff and I kept the garage he used for storage until he got settled in. Today was clean out day, as we load up his garage, we come across Jacking Ram's 2007 ACM award.....or should we now call it MY 2007 ACM award..... http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d50/peliti27/mpacm.jpg

Jacking Ram, you don't know where it is and you don't know where to find me. You'll be getting instructions soon enough.

So I have a really short week at home since I'm leaving early for Christmas holidays with the family. Get home from Lubbock and get all merch done before 2 that afternoon. All paper work for the bosses done by 3:30, maybe that really my ACM for road manager/textile technician of the year.

This may be my best Christmas holiday since joining the band, as I actually saw my entire family except for one nephew. I mean all of them, even the adopted families that can't seem to get rid of me. So I was in Tuesday on, the bus leaves Dallas Friday morning with the Texas boys, picks up Jason and I in OKC and off to Wichita.

The Cotillion is collectively one of our favorite places to play. Crowds are always good, they staff is on top of their game and everything is just a smooth evening. So load in is simple with 6 guys helping us, get the driver to hotel, set up merch, order Chinese delivery (food not sex), chow down and hit a nap. I actually don't nap, but I do make a QT run for a tooth brush, Copenhagen and mucinex. Seriously.

Doors are at 7 and a crowd has already formed so I'm in to greet the early birds. The one "fault" of the Cotillion is merch set up. The building is round with a race track concourse. As you walk in the front door you're actually behind the stage, so before you walk around to the front you pass merch. This is good for traffic but not so much for seeing the show. And as I was busy, which I'm thankful, and we're down a man the guys could've used a little tweaking on their monitors but I had no clue. Also didn't know there were a couple girls hop onstage. Oh well, all in good fun.

So the non fun part of the night: beer throwing. I mean I'm not sure I understand the concept, pay $17 to go see a show and then throw a beer can at the person(s) performing for you. Yes, you can't rationalize with a drunk. However, a karma rebate came in almost instantly as the security (did I mention how good the staff is?) found the culprit. He gets drug out of the crowd by his throat and it was mellow until his two buddies tried to pull one guard off him, then all hell broke loose….right in front of my merch area. Now if I fight is ABOUT to start, I'll jump in and break it up, a calming influence can do wonders. But when a fight of 6 or more has already started, I'm out faster than a cold blackjack dealer. So I ushered a few people away from pending danger, watched the security version of a karate kid chop up a would be attacker and heard the overwhelming sound of a tazer gun firing. Yeah, all in the span of about 15 seconds. But what I remember most is the people that were in the middle of the purchase stuck around after the show and bought $130 worth of gear. With today's gas prices, that itself got us to Kansas City the next day.

The remainder of the night was calm, Jason signed his stuff and we loaded up around 12:30. Jackson opened our show then had a 2nd show at another bar but I didn't make it. Roger did and said he had fun, but beyond that I fell asleep watching Raising Arizona in my bunk..."they got a name for guys like you, recidivism...repeat OFFENDER", "Would you shop at a store called Unpainted Huffheins", "mind you don't cut yourself Mordecai."

Wake up at the hotel in KC and get checked in. Remember the weather I mentioned earlier. Wichita, 65 degrees, 80%+ humidity, 40 mph winds. KC, 32 degrees, bitchin' cold wind from the north. Right as we leave for the venue about 4:30 it starts snowing. I love the snow, don't care where or how much. That Canadian blood I guess, nuge.

We played at Knuckleheads in the summer, cool outdoor patio but obviously can't do that in late December and none of us remember an indoor stage. So as we pull up to the venue the first thing I wanna do is check out the stage. It's fine, low ceiling but we've done a lot worse. Can't load in until 7:00 as they have a blues jam every Saturday so we just sit and wait. The snow comes down a little harder but by 7:15 a little dusting as covered the ground but it's stopped for our load in.

Now Knuckleheads isn't a big bar inside, but they do have a tent outside for the smoking lounge. That's the only place I really have room to set up merch so to the outside I go. Have really good friends in KC, so once I'm set up I hang on the bus for a bit but head in around 8 to check out the crowd and see if I gotta be in for sales. The bar is filling up nicely, which add the snow and I believe EYB is in town also so that makes all kids happy. Actually, I got really busy at merch so I just noticed the bar kept getting more full, almost to the point of being uncomfortable. But by the time the boys got on stage (and this time I was there to help monitors out a bit) the place was elbow to elbow.

Jason called a couple fights out before they happened as this was not the place to be a douchebag. Let me just say that nowhere in a public place is it good to be a douchebag. Seriously, be a man and take it outside, don't ruin other people's good nights. Besides that, show went off without a hitch. Even threw out a new/old song that A-Lain hadn't rehearsed yet but played flawlessly. That's about all the show I got to hear, mostly selling or hanging with our buddies from the defunct Snorty Horse……Steve Greene oh where have you gone???

Load out seemed to take forever. Jason signed until long after last call and "we're closed folks, get out." So when I expected us to be on the road by 1 we didn't leave until after 2, then got stuck behind a train that had stopped at our crossing. As it started to get moving again, I went up to put a nickel on the track but the carts had some strange tank on the side that didn't give the normal allowance for that. I hadn't seen before so I'm posting a couple pics to help describe it. Even with it barely moving didn't have time to set the nickel. http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d50/peliti27/traincar2.jpg http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d50/peliti27/traincar1.jpg

I slightly woke as we dropped Jason in OKC, then again as we fueled in Denton. Got to the bus station, ran A-Lain to the plane and the rest of the guys parted ways with an appointment to meet up next week. Pack your thermals and extra undies, we're leaving for 3 weeks come Wednesday morning.

But I leave you with homework tonight. My goddaughter just asked her mother "are ghosts real?", so that's the questions for you. I mean, even if they exist, are they REAL? Think on it and get back to me.

Going to see Todd Snider tomorrow, be jealous.

mR.m

West Textures

2008-12-22T15:29:00.000-08:00

I have no funny intro to this week's blog, so I'll just signal on the applause meter and wait for the crowd to settle in.

Ah....everyone good now? All bathroom breaks done? Good, let us continue.

We left off with me falling quickly asleep after a hard day's night at Billy Bob's. The 5 days off, which is almost unheard for this band barring health issues, was a nice time to relax and not do much. Literally, I really did nothing for 2 straight days. Something else that is unheard of, a new drummer. Not completely new, and not a replacement. As mentioned previously, Brad went to the doctor after hurting his shoulder a couple weeks before we went back on the road. After an MRI revealed extensive damage, Brad's surgery was scheduled for this past Friday the 19th.

The remainder Stragglers and crew meet up and we head out of Fort Worth about 7:30 am on Friday. I get a text from Brad's better half Becky that he got out of surgery just fine and was in recovery. I begged her to have him call me while he's still doped up and about 2:30 or so he does call. You can tell he's groggy but in no way a state of confusion that would offer comedic testing. Thus, I feel we all lose.

But we get into A-town about 1:30 or so, a little early but that just gives us more time to rehearse A-Lain into the groove. Many of you would recognize A-Lain (or Aaron has his mother prefers) as one of the guys getting the stage ready right before the show, or maybe as tall long haired tattooed guy at the sound board. He's also a drummer, did ya know that? As to keep it in the family instead of hiring outside sources, Aaron just slides behind Brad's kit and tries not to miss a beat. Also, it gives us an empty bunk in the bus to store our crap....

I missed sound check, although I wouldn't say I MISSED it Bobs. I was still sorting through boxes of stuff I had to unload from the bus back in July when we were off. By the time that's done, so is sound check and we're off to the hotel and food. Back to the bar about 8, quick nap before heading in.

Really good crowd, Amarillo is hit and miss most times but JB&S hasn't had their own show their in over a year so our expectations were high. The Agave Posse opened and I didn't pay much attention to their set, sorry guys. Our good local friend Chris was there plus we kidnapped Tony from Hill Country Ford to go out with us over the weekend. Tony loves the music biz so I'm trying to teach him the ways. Not my ways, the right ways. He is greatly amused by me.

Now when JB&S started, I did pay attention. Very curious to how Aaron, a drummer by trade, sound man by paycheck, would step in. Brad has only missed 3 shows since I started and I don't believe any before that, so regardless of how good Aaron is, it's different. Now I don't know much about music, I couldn't carry a tune in a guitar case and I have the rhythm of most Canadians, no offense Corb & the Hurtin Albertans. What I do know is how the Stragglers' songs are SUPPOSED to sound. For some reason I can tell if a guitar is out of tune, if a drum fill is missed or not with the bass line. Repetition must bring knowledge.

So with my limited musical knowledge but my extensive JB&S knowledge, I'll say Aaron kicked ass. Yes, two flubs come to mind but the crowd didn't know. I'd say two in two hours after getting NO full rehearsals is not just good, it's remarkable. Hell, Brad can't even do that some nights….just kidding Brad. We know it's all Grant's fault….just kidding Grant. It's all Mikey's.

The show was good, for sure. Bout the crowd I expected and pretty busy with merch afterwards, some old friends to see as Amarillo was one of the first non-Stillwater towns the band would go to. So every now and then, an old Golden Light regular shows up to remind us how drunk we used to get and how good the cheeseburgers are. Ah, Amarillo, someone should write a song.

Back to the hotel and just crash out. Wake up at 8:29 and approximately 17 seconds after I look at my phone to see what time it is, the generator makes a very loud sound and dies. I was gonna just stay in my bed and pretend I didn't hear it but Grant opened his curtain so I couldn't play like I had no idea. Another fan belt popped (what's the deal on that) but I just called the driver and told him. About 30 minutes later he's got it changed and a couple hours later I feel the bus fire up and head for Lubbock.

Go to the hotel first, everyone showers and then off to sound check. At Wild West, merch is set up beside, almost behind the band, I have a full view of Aaron on the kit. I noticed something, Aaron is left handed playing a right handed kit. Which basically means he doesn't cross his sticks. And he has perfect posture while playing. It's hard to describe, since most drummers are all over the place, but his back does not falter. I'm gonna have my camera this weekend to show everyone.

Now I try to stay positive with this diary, I want people to enjoy reading this and have fun with it. I make fun of the guys at times to deflect my own short comings in life, which are vast and well documented. Warning, what is about to follow is negativity and I don't want to bring anyone's spirits down. You have been warned.

Why the hell will Pizza Hut not deliver pizza to the Wild West? Seriously, there is a store 2.24 miles away and they will not deliver. Now I have no problem with Domino's at all, but I prefer Pizza Hut's online ordering process and I refuse to call in pizza orders for 8/9 people anymore. And even a Papa John's (Jason's favorite) 3.5 miles that won't deliver. Dare I say it's bull (profanity deleted).

Okay, pizza rant over.

Started to watch the Dallas Cowboys lose again, but that's only fun for so long. Get into the bar and it's pretty slow. School is not only out, it's the week before the holidays so the kid factor is minimal to say the least. However, once the show started the dance floor filled up and people had a good time. Again, Aaron was solid and the couple mistakes he made didn't seem to deter him. Just smiled and played through it, like a pro.

Now I also have to give props, Mikey has moved from monitors to the FOH (front of house) sound board and his mix is good. So now we have multi drummers, sound men, guitar players….but only one bad ass t-shirt guy. You do the math….haha.

I guess we were in Lubbock so long the weather changed, I think it 22 degrees when we loaded out that night. Either way, crawl in the bunk and wake up at Woody's were it's lower than 22. It was ridiculous cold, to the point one of the locks on the trailer froze up. Finally got it open and it's still in the parking lot of Woody's if you're interested in it. Unfortunately, someone broke into Roger's truck over the weekend. They didn't get anything, as his truck was burglarized earlier this year and he no longer keeps anything it for the most part. But it's the principal. My truck was parked right beside it and not a touch. People are (profanity deleted)holes.

I have no funny ending, so I just bow out and get ready to go have some holiday dinner with my adopted family….

Happy holidays folks, be safe and hug the ones you love,

mR.m

sorry....

2008-12-15T18:15:00.001-08:00

For some reason, the last post I did has all sorts of strange symbols within the wording. Mostly around apostrophes and ellipsis, not sure why but I can't get it to post properly. hope it's not to difficult to read, or any worse than my normal ramblings are.

feel the loves,

mR.m

I'll gladly pay you Thursday for a blog that I'll write today

2008-12-15T17:57:00.000-08:00

So where were we? Oh yeah, we started playing shows again.

Before I start, I want to say I have the greatest iPod ever. Throughout this update I'll be posting the songs that it randomly selects for my listening pleasure. It's okay if you're jealous, I completely understand. I will put the artist and song title in parenthesis since you can't hear them anyway.

(Old 97s - Big Brown Eyes)

Sorry for the nada update last week. I woke up Friday morning with a call from one of my best friends, her dad had a massive heart attack and passed away. I head for the home of my adopted family just to help, leaving the guys to fend for themselves on van rentals, trailers, travels to Houston…but I did leave the credit card for them. Although the shock still stops me at times throughout the day, by Friday afternoon much of the family had made their way to town so I caught the last flight to Houston to join the band.

By the time I get there I'm just throwing merch on the racks and just trying to get distracted….and drunk. A great crowd at the Firehouse that kept me busy enough to not get to pay any attention to the shows. With the late flight I completely missed the Scooter Brown Band but did get to talk to those guys after closing. Jackson Taylor played while I set up and missed his show. For those that have been to the FuegoCasa, merch is beside/behind a wall from the stage. Usually I'm free enough to at least peak and see part of the show, but not this night. I never saw Jason until he was at merch, not sure who's the lucky one….haha.

Show is done and I just take a breather. The 4 or 5 beers I had didn't do the trick, no need to hit liquor that late so I succumb to packing away and getting trailer loaded. What I was told was the trailer lights didn't work, but I built that trailer and I know they do. So we park at the hotel and it's no big deal, not leaving until they throw us out at 11 anyway. (editor's note, the Days Inn down the street from the bar will throw you out at 11 am. Don't even question it, just get your stuff and leave by 10:56).

(Lyle Lovett - Step Inside This House)

The next morning I tried to work on the lights for about 2 seconds but without a power meter it does me no good. So we just hooked up what we had (right hand turn signals, no brake lights) and headed for New Braunfels. Stopped at a Buc-ee's, never been there. I mean, it's no CZECH STOP in West, but it's cool. Sometimes too much is just too much, it was like the Bass Pro Shop of truckstops. Sadly, sometimes I just need fuel, water and bar-b-q Lay's chips.

Get to Gruene Hall and get loaded in. The town is lighting the Christmas lights that night so we have to be done with sound check by 6:00. I take the extra day light to ignore merch and fix the trailer lights. As I suspected, the wiring coming off the rental didn't work except for the hot wire. So I but a female end to it, ran the hot wire to the running lights and abracadabra, we have running lights. Which will at least get us home at night and not in the jail with the Duke boys. Grabbed some grub at Gristmill and back to the bar for the doors opening. The show was sold out when we got there so I'm fully prepped for selling koozies all night long, which I did.

I actually got to "watch" some of the show for the first time since we got the band back together. Honestly, I was shocked to hear the Gruene crowd sing along to "Comal County Blue" and even the other songs on the new album. I just never pictured it as an anthem even as successful as it was a radio single. It was cool though, great show and they've put together a great set list. Old stuff, new stuff, a Merle tune, etc. Normal merch swamp after, Jason and I crammed up (they don't have a lot of leg room in that bar) until the Comal County finest run off the ruffians. Glamorous rock and roll life style kicks in and we load out to our like new van with my electrical tape light spectacular. But hey, we got home with a stop at Czech for $40 worth of goodies….and that was just my share.

(Mac McClure Macersterson - Don't You Say Anything)

My week was spent with the family, which would explain my tardiness in myspace updates and blog denial. But I'm catching up, just answered 93 messages, updating blog and calendars and I didn't even take a nap….yet.

(Willie - Funny How Time Slips Away)

The good news is we got our bus back. The same beautiful black bus we had the last couple months before Jason's surgery. What's not good news is our first show is in Corpus with the bus. For whatever reason, ALWAYS have generator problems in Corpus. I mean I know the humidity wrecks my hair but damn, generators???

(Led Zeppelin - Living Loving Maid)

Bus picks up Roger & Me, the trailer in Fort Worth; Brad and Grant pre-boarded. Didn't sleep that night so I'm ready to crash, wake up as we get into Austin and start rounding up the rest of the kids. Full load, I'm going back to bed and wake up getting into town. For some reason all GPS systems hate Brewster Street, or buses at least. Always tell the driver to go the wrong (or at least not the easy way) way, there is always construction and we always end up backtracking. We make it, even on time.

(Robert Earl Keen - Out Here In The Middle)

We load in right as Stoney and the ArseAnals are finishing up their sound check (and yes I can call them that cause I went on the road with them for a couple months and they love me). I do my normal business of merch, collect water, colas and ice for the bus when I notice our bus driver with the generator/invertor doors open. Yes folks, the generator died again. Actually, the generator was running but was blowing oil out of the exhaust which isn't a good sign. However, the invertor wouldn't switch from bus power to generator power.

(Sunny Sweeney - Lavender Blue)

Come to find out the transfer switch is bad and actually the whole "can" (driver talk to for power converter) was burned up. So we just left the bus running and wasted fuel. But no animals were hurt in the process.

Eat, nap, red bull, merch time. Great crowd although Corpus isn't the sales juggernaut I would like. But watched a lot of the JB&S abbreviated set, then Stoney's….not that I hadn't seen either…burr hurr. One thing I hadn't see at Brewster before, a fight. And a pretty good one from the looks of the crowd that barreled out the front door

(Van Morrison - Bright Side Of The Road)

About 20 minutes into Stoney's show I get a text from Noah saying "the bus power is messed up". Get to the bus and the invertor is erroring out. I reset it, 30 seconds later, error. Shut everything down, start it all up, reset, 30 seconds, error. Check the breakers and fuses, nothing out of the ordinary. Oh wait, could it be the broken belt laying by the alternator behind the bus? Bingo. Find a belt, borrow a flashlight and tools and change it out but still wasn't working right. Bus driver gets back to the bus about 1:30 or so, I had actually fixed it but the batteries had drained so much and not recharged so the invertor wouldn't kick on. High fives to me, please hold your applause til the end.

(Willie - I've Come To Live Here In Your Eyes)

Mikey and Brad are slinging the merch when I get back, so next time you see Mikey tell him you want the new cd and ask him if he takes AmEx. He won't read this so if enough people do that it will freak him out. I'll find it funny.

Load up and get to bed, our after show party life is LAME!! I tried to convince them to have a hip hop party on Stoney's bus but no one was interested. So I just went to bed knowing the true geniuses are never truly understood.

Head for Austin the next morning, no show so I'm heading to my casa to catch up on what was ignored earlier in the week. One more stop at Czech Stop (if you're reading this and don't know, Czech Stop in West, TX. I-35, exit 353, east service road. Trust me for nothing else) and then home. Did some little stuff but mainly just happy to be home and watching the Hawks come back to beat the Avs.

(Steve Earle - Tom Ames Prayer)

Saturday in the big town, my town. Funky Town, Cow Town, etc… I slept in til about 11 only to get up and put together 40 online orders…ouch. No more days off during the holiday. But the post office APC was down so they sat in my truck all but ready to ship. So head to the bar and get set up, bus is a little late but that's okay, plenty of time I guess. Get loaded in and the station up here, 95.9 The Ranch, has a sound check party. Basically winners get to listen to the band sound check which I find very funny. Usually when they start I head to the bus to clean or do paperwork. Some say tomato….

(Hayes Carll - Lover Like You)

By the time I got my inventory counted, guest list done, parking situated, hotel checked in, driver to hotel, coolers stocked, etc, I'm a bit frazzled. Probably just out of road manager shape, as I say it's not hard work, you just have to work hard at it. So my mood turned south pretty fast and I opted for a power nap. Thankfully a friend sent me a great email that turned the day around for the better. When I went to for final prep before doors are opened the bar looked pretty full and that's a good feeling.

(Team America - I'm So Ronery….it's kinda silry, but not reary)

(Goin' Down - SRV) was grabbing a snack

Okay, open the doors, see a blur, fast forward to 1:45 and that's my night. I slung so many shirts I had to get my friend The Monk to help out. The 2nd most merch the band has ever sold in a single night and the best night was even a night it was a festival that I just checked in and let the people handle it. Plus, we got a TON of toys for the toy drive and about $100 in donations/ornament sales, which means I get to do a lot of toy shopping again this year!

Normally after the shows, I get merch counted out and load up the remainder of the trailer, then spend either 3 minutes gathering my stuff off the bus or 30 minutes getting people off the bus depending on what our next day looks like. That night, it was a ghost town. Not one person was on the bus or backstage by the time I got out there, very strange. But the trailer is on my truck and I head to the house.

(Reckless Kelly - Red River Valley)

Bed is so soft, like the hands of angels that just got pedicures. I'm asleep in record time, my knees and ankles are definitely telling me I'm getting old.

Til next week folks,

mR.m

The Return of JB&S

2008-12-08T09:14:00.001-08:00

Again.....you can't keep a good horse down apparently. Unfortunately for Jason, he couldn't keep a good Thanksgiving meal down either.....more on that later.

Wednesday we meet up at Farmer's Market. The band trailer and equipment were in Vian as the guys did a couple rehearsals at Grantpa's house, I came up with all the merch in a repo trailer I've been using the last couple months. Anyone need a nice 10' x 6' x 5' trailer? Anyway, I get there about 4 and have some help loading in the elevator and to the stage. The guys start showing up and setting up their gear. Figured we would load in the day before to get more time for a sound check and one last dress rehearsal. Main topic of conversation was Brad's shoulder. Over the break he hurt his shoulder and went to the doctor. I can't even remember all the things wrong with it but mainly scar tissue and a torn rotator cuff. In a few weeks he will have to have surgery and be side lined for a month or so.

I was busy folding up a lot of new merch that came in that day while Mikey and Aaron tried to figure out why the monitors weren't working. Five months down, equipment scattered from Austin to Fort Worth to Vian to OKC, it wasn't an easy evening. I hadn't eaten all day so I took off right as they started making actual noise....plus I didn't wanna spoil the new "show" for the next night.

Got up the next day in time for our noon dinner that was served at 2:30. Took my nap while the Titans killed the Lions and then headed to the venue. Got there early, just to make sure everything looked good and McClure was ready to party. Of course Mac was ready to party but I digress.

I get a call from Jason about 6:30, asking me how it's looking. He sounds like a disaster, apparently he woke up with a stomach bug and was sick all day. Ain't that about a kick in the jewels, have surgery to fix your throat as a singer and wait 5 months for a show only to wake up day and so sick you can't eat or drink anything. And the hits just keep on coming....
Doors open and people start coming in, of course they are going crazy over the new merch (shameless self plug). Mac and the Mac band start at 9, rock through an hour set. At first his two daughters hung with me at the merch but eventually Mayme took residence on stage, occasionally giving Mac the "thumbs up" or "thumbs down". Marleigh and I worked on our dance moves and I showed her the Van Morrison kick from The Last Waltz and she showed me some break dancing.

I never see Jason before the show but a few people did and asked me what was wrong with him. Evidently green is not his choice color. In the midst of the long day, Jason also left his in-ear monitors at his house so had to borrow mine. Mine are good for ipod, but not for a live show. Aaron and Mikey tried to set up wedges for him but without time to ring them out, feed back nightmare.

But they fought through it, the first three songs or so had the sterilizing feedback problems but soon Jason nixed that idea and just fought along. I'd have to say the majority of the show I got to watch and the guys didn't seem rusty at all. The new songs definitely came out better than what I expected after two rehearsals, neither of which Noah was able to be at due to prior engagements. Jason also got Mac up to do Bob's "Restless Spirit" which turned into Mac playing out the rest of the show.

After the show ended was the first time I actually saw Jason close up the whole day, man I have no idea how he made it through the show. But he sucked it up and even signed autographs for almost an hour, with a bucket close by just in case.

Once we were loaded up, I was starving and drove all the way to Jimmy's Round Up on 59th and Blackwelder to eat. Closed. Yeah, that sucked. IHOP by the hotel, closed. So Texaco sandwich and chips. Only two hotel rooms so I stole one of Grantpa's pillows and hit the floor.

Next day we start the convoy to Cain's, 5 vehicles deep, like the old days. Cain's hasn't changed much, so that means it's still the best venue. This sound check went a lot smoother and the guys decided during Brad's down time that Aaron will take over drums, Mikey will run front of house and we'll figure out how between Mikey and myself to tweak the monitors if needed. Sounds confusing but we'll figure it out.

After sound check the guys split to hotel, I grab some food and get ready for the night to begin. Jackson Taylor is opening and filming a video, so he has people chasing him around all night with cameras. I decided to not make a cameo, didn't wanna ruin anyone else's debut....

Doors open and I'm swamped, which is good since we have no money in the bank and plenty of merch in the garage. The night flew by, I don't remember any of Jackson's set and only the first few songs of JB&S before I was busy again. Before I knew it Jason is at the merch booth and so is the crowd. Including one jolly old soul that decided to steal the hoodie I had on the table for display. No worries though, I hope it fits and he/she has worn it every day since. Mainly because I used it last year and that particular hoodie has wiped up more spills of beer, drinks and regular bar filth than you care to know about. So if you stole it and are reading this (or having it read to you since you're an idiot) now you know why people are giving you looks like you smell really bad....cause you do.

But that was it, packed up the gear and headed home. Got over the few humps and the nerves I guess, helped having to of the best quality crowds you could ask for. You could see it wasn't just people that hadn't seen a show in a few months, it was people the wanted to make sure everything was okay. Jason voice held up as well as you could ask for, it's just the beginning of putting all the pieces back together.

See ya in Houston and New Braunfels, bring toys! (this was originally posted before last weekend so stick around, a new update coming soon)

Pics from Greenland

2007-12-11T14:54:00.000-08:00

Got them posted to our myspace page, check them out at:

http://www.myspace.com/jasonbolandthestragglers

Home

2007-12-07T21:10:00.000-08:00

And I'm going to bed.

Pictures tomorrow or Sunday.