So, the "leaf guy's" (not us) finally came by and my house no longer resembles a garbage bag igloo. My house seems to be at some sort of "Bermuda Triangle" point that draws all of the leaves from surrounding areas into my yard, typically the day after I rake them up. Ahhh, the joy of owning a home! It has been really great to have some time off to reflect (intellectual term for sleep, watch tv, other unproductive things....) for the last few months.... but we have also been busy, so do not fear. Writing a ton of music, revisiting some old stuff, some interesting projects have come our way, and getting ready for the shows that we have on the calendar! Which brings us to...
Ships 'n Dip...
I have to say that it was a blast! I had a great time! A big "Thanks!!" to the BNL guys for having us! I met Ed and he was a riot and really nice too. It was fun seeing him run up on stage a sing a verse of a song with Guster, Sarah Harmer, etc... you just never knew when he might show up. Not to mention that their shows were great! I thought that the Guster shows were really good too.... in fact they were amazing, considering the Brian wasn't even there! Tyler did a fantastic job on drums. Joe was great as well, great guitar (and everything else) player.
It was fun to reunite with the guys from Great Big Sea and Gaelic Storm as well... it's been too long. Great friends and fantastic music. We spent the better part of our time with Steve, Patrick, Sean and Allen.... lets see, collaborations include...
Steve and Patrick + us on Come Together (first show)
Sean + us on Hanging Johnny (second show) i love this tune.
us + Gaelic Storm + Jack Daniel's (GS show 2)
us + GBS + Griffin House on General Taylor (GBS show 3)
us + Gaelic Storm + GBS (= Great Big Gaelic Leaf) on Tell Me Ma (GS last show) this was the best, hope some of you guys were there!!
Also, getting together with Sean and Allen to write a song together. Maybe someday you guys will hear it! This was really fun for us, as we have never tried to write with anyone else.
Our shows... We were really lucky to get to play all of our shows outside (2 night, 1 day). I think that my favorite was the second, don't know why... just felt great! This was the show where Barry decided that he would come over as the mood struck him and tell me to play parts of random songs that i didn't know... over chord changes that didn't fit. Barry - "hey, play that Los Lonely Boy's song"... me "uhhh, err" ... Barry "hey, play twinkle, twinkle little star"... me "uhhh, errr". I guess I need to work on that! I did forget to mention that the heavy winds during our first show made it look like a Bon Jovi video, also turning my coat into more of a cape and giving me a real superhero kind of vibe! They were all fun and we were always amazed at how many people would come out. It was so nice to see so many familiar faces! Thanks to all of you guys who came on the boat and helped spread the word!!! You guys are the best! Sorry we missed bingo, we'll get it next time.
Other fun boat stuff.... I have figured out the secret to gambling, use someone else's money... that way you don't lose anything! It's simple, just wait until Terry isn't really paying attention and ask for 20 bucks! The only thing that I can bet on and be sure to win is that I will lose all of my money.
My Jamaican tour with Terry "Bob Marley" Clark. Having risen a bit too late to make it to the artist party, I set out to take in all that Jamaica had to offer with Terry, Jason and our respective others. Terry had been out late the previous night and consumed a fair amount of various fruity drinks and a bottle of rum that had been liberated from GBS's manager.... in fact, he very much resembled that wonderful character Jack Sparrow... all that he needed was the hat. So, off we go. We catch a cab to a local shopping area. The first place that we go, the owner suggests that Terry sample some of his best rum's.... shazam! Captain Jack is back!! As we start walking around, we notice that Terry is attracting a LOT of attention.... and the indigenous folks all call him Bob Marley...ahh, the hair. The "hair braiders" are chasing him everywhere... i believe that it would cost @ 1 trillion dollars to give Terry braids and would take longer than it would to walk to Mars. We hit the "market" and grab a beer, at which point I notice that Terry seems to now have a Jamaican accent, and is heading deeper into the tarp village and bartering for a carved wooden fish about the size of a VW Bug. After buying 6 bracelet's, 2 necklace's, a Tshirt, a wooden turtle, more beer, and more bracelet's we drag Bob away and on down the road. At this point Captain Bob has figured out how to deal with the people who keep asking him if he wants to buy stuff, he starts trying to sell the things that he has bought back to them... which is fairly amusing to watch. After meeting a ton of interesting people, we call it a day and start to walk back to the boat. A fun stop!
That night we decided to go out to the open mic night! After waiting for @ 2 1/2 hours we hit the stage... Jason, Jordan, Rianna (Jason's girlfriend, hope that i spelled that right), Geoff (our friend from Rainmarket, etc), and me bringing up the rear. We are going to attempt "What's going on?" (4 non Blondes)... which Jordan and I have never played. They give Geoff a guitar that sounds like it was last tuned before we were born by dropping it down a mountain... he gives it a quick tune and off we go! Believe it or not, we get it right and Rianna sings her butt off!! The crowd cheers for an encore! We proceed to play a Meter's tune, and a sax player comes out of the woodwork... i had forgotten that the guitar amp was invented so that you could hear us over the sax, i will not forget this again! it was fun and descended into chaos and we called it quits. Thanks to the guys from Oakhurst for hosting the jam!
Debarkation (getting off the boat to us).....
Always one of the most exciting times! I have to say that I don't travel light on band trips, my gear is not light... that said, i imagine i resemble a Sherpa packed to head to the summit of Everest with Barry as my Sir Edmond Hillary. So, standing in a line is not a good thing.... so there is a snag with "artist" debarkation, so we end up in line with everyone else to pass through customs. This is fine, unless like me, your are hauling roughly the weight a 3 refrigerators. So, I pick my line and watch as everyone in the other lines pass my like I'm standing still (oh wait, i am!).. Terry ( who is wearing sunglasses, as he stayed up all night and looks like someone hit him in the face with a frying pan), is moving like he is on one of those conveyor belts at the airport... and gloating accordingly! But as fate would have it, the Customs officer took one look at him and sent him to the land of the rubber gloves and microscopes! Goodbye old friend, you will never walk the same again. I breeze through with little trouble and get to go outside and put my gear down! After about another 30 minutes Jordan and I notice that no one else has made it out (Buford, Barry or Terry)... it would seem that due to a glitch in the system, Buford is now in the back too! We finally get everyone to the bus and head out.... whew, what a trip! Hope to see you soon...
