. . . But Look Who Checked Out . . .

When I titled my last post somewhat randomly, I had no idea that it would have led so well into the very appropriate and not-so-random title of today’s post some 13 days later.

Oh Tell Me Good Cap-Tane

 
The first news of the death of Captain Beefheart reached me yesterday on my facebook news feed via my friend Mark from Syracuse. The news prompted me to spend some time on YouTube looking for some more videos. I had already added I’m Gonna Booglarize You Baby and Upon The My Oh My as favorites on my YouTube channel. I have since added the haunting Further Than We’ve Gone and the J.J.Cale tune Same Old Blues.

Rest In Peace good Captain.

Wished I’d-A

 
And that bit of news reminds me that I had always planned on having a Share The Stage sequence covering artists who are deceased – sort of a Wish I Could Have Shared The Stage With. I guess now is the time to embark on that. Captain Beefheart will be the first entry.

Who else? Let’s see. I would pick

• Jimi Hendrix – need I say more?
• Janice Joplin – she could really belt out the blues
• Jerry Garcia – almost met him (I think)
• Link Wray – inventor of the power chord – met his band once
• Bob Bogle – yes, of Ventures fame
• Duane Allman – saw him with Derek And The Dominoes
• Stevie Ray Vaughn – whew!
• John Lennon – just imagine
• George Harrison – played some great licks
• Mike Bloomfield – a great bluesman
• Roy Orbison – the Voice of all time
• Ricky Nelson – he was so cool as a teen
• Bobby Hatfield – a Righteous Brother

 
I’m gonna let that end the list for now. I’ll probably do another set at a later time.

Sundays

 
Played the last two Sundays at church. I have this week and next week off, then it’s every other Sunday in January, starting with the first one. I love these opportunities. Last week I got to play with one of our other lead guitarists and had a great time doing that.

Biscuits

 
Still no gigs in sight for Cold Biscuit Band until next month at the Barbecue In Blue Jeans event.

We did have an informal practice with a few of us the other day and it was good to do that again.

All In All

 
That’s it for now. More later.

Nameless

Sorry about that! I couldn’t think of a good title for this post and I really didn’t want to put it off until a title came to me. At least be thankful I won’t pull this little trick again.

Although I may just pull a new little trick just like it some other time.

More Nameless

So let’s just slather the shellac on the shingle.

Biscuits On The Q.T.

Man! The last gig the Cold Biscuit Band played was October 30th, and we don’t have anything booked (AFAIK) until sometime in January. Guess I’ll be pretty well rested up by then.

Back in the day in Syracuse the local morning newspaper ran a comic strip with no name. It was an odd little strip, offbeat. Anyway, I still remember opening the paper one morning and reading this comic. The first frame showed a fish who was lamenting the sad state of his stream. As the frames progressed he was talking about things like fishermen muddying up his stream. In the last frame he’s holding a banjo and says “Thank goodness for my banjo!”

I don’t know for sure why I brought that up, other than to remind myself that there’s always something to be thankful for.

Meanwhile Around The Corner In James City

Got to play at church again yesterday. Thank goodness for my banjo – er – guitar!

Meanwhile Back At The Ranch

So I finished updating my main site. I’m quite proud of the banner image – a fine collage if I do say so myself.

And I started touching up my techno site. If you compare the two side by side you’ll see some obvious similarities. I’m thinking about how to spiff up the banner image on that site.

Although this isn’t the proper place for it, I think I’ll mention that I’m a step closer to preparing my entry for the Roland Guitar Synth Challenge. I now have one of those silly Cyclopean thingies peering at me from the top of my monitor.

I’ve discovered or been discovered by a few more old Syracuse area friends on facebook recently. Hopefully I’ll be doing an STS post soon and listing some of these good people.

And Speaking Of “Share The Stage”

The thought occurred to me the other day that there’s a side to my STS posts that I haven’t yet touched on. Let me remedy that right now.

Since the whole STS thing is me lifting up my ego and listing famous and not-so-famous musical artists who I feel should Share The Stage with me by inviting me to have a guest spot in one of their concerts, I don’t want to leave you with the impression that I haven’t already shared the stage with some fine musicians.

It’s always taking a chance when you mention some people that you will forget to mention others. So we usually don’t take the chance. However, since I have now (thanks to Jim’s friend Duffy) been diagnosed with CRS (Can’t Remember Stuff) I can list who I remember and blame any I forget to mention on my CRS (a condition which I just barely remember having).

So here in New Bern let me give mention to a number of people I have been blessed to make music with over the last dozen or so years. I list them here in alphabetical order (by last name). Bobby Acker. Dennis Albertson. Jennifer Alcock. Fred Bisel. Cheryl Bowen. Chad Brewer. James Brothers. Caleb Brumbaugh. Jared Brumbaugh. Mike Brumbaugh. Dave Cooley. Jake Corley. Jim Durham. Barry English. Bernie Farkus. Dickie Fraser. Mitch Galloway. Brian Geer. Jim Grant. Joe Haynes. Jessica Hopkins. Doc Horner. Herb Humphreys. Marty James. Pete Jenkins. Jon Johndrow. Carson Koonce. Clay Lassiter. Bob Lohr. Tony T-Bone Martin. Bill McKinney. Jimmy Merritt. Mark Millard. Andrew Miller. Ricky Nipper. Rhonda Nobles. Dana Outlaw. John JP Parker. Jesse Rains. Dail Reed. Chuck Reynolds. Danny Rogers. Ray Rouse. Julie Schilens. Jeff Severt. Chris Stilley. John Stilley. Carolyn Smith. Mike Thorsby. Sara Thorsby. Andrew Webb. Wendie Webb. Kevin Webber. Rhoda Webber. Ervin Whitehurst. Joy Whitehurst. Donica Wright.

Those of you who should be on this list but aren’t – please have mercy. CRS, you know. [And if anyone sends me names I’ll add them in.]

And I’d like to thank Planning Center Online for helping me to list pretty much everyone I’ve played with at New Song since we came back.

I’ll list some Central New York people another time.

All In All

That’s it for now. More later.

SyntheSizing Spiders

It’s been a long year this week!

SyntheSpider

 
I finally got around to revamping the SyntheSpider website. As mentioned in an earlier post, I set up the SyntheSpider Stuff blog to document my progress in the Roland Guitar Synth Challenge. That blog is an offshoot of the SyntheSpider site, and the site was in sore need of a facelift and update. I also took the opportunity to begin moving the gear pages I used to have on the SoaringSpider site over to SyntheSpider. I’ve been a busy little spider bee.

In His Service

 
The Lord was gracious. He allowed me to play at church this morning. With all that’s been going on recently (a lot of which I don’t share with the public) I really needed that this morning. There is something about playing in a worship service that you don’t get playing at an event like last week’s chili festival.

Sally From Syracuse

 
Back in 1998 we sallied forth from Syracuse (and you probably thought I was going to talk about the famous song by Stu Nunnery!) and ended up here in New Bern. As much as I don’t miss dealing with the bitter cold and the snow and especially the slushy mush that’s in the streets and driveways and parking lots so often during the winter, I truly do miss old friends.

So in my copious spare time the last week or so I’ve been tracking some of those folks down on facebook. It’s been a lot of fun. And I see I’m not the only one who’s been through a lot of stuff through the years.

I mentioned earlier that my Share The Stage series may have some of the Syracuse folks in it. I’ve been keeping a list and have several names from Central New York to add in.

And speaking of STS, it’s become obvious to me that I won’t be able to devote a separate post to each artist. I’ll be doing them in batches of from 1 (which I guess ain’t really a batch) to some number larger than that (sorry if I’m not being vague enough).

All In All

 
That’s it for now. More later.

That Was The Chili That Was

That’s right, folks. The 2010 Havelock Chili Festival is now a tasty part of history.

Yesterday’s Chili

 
And Cold Biscuit Band had a great time. Friday’s four hours went really well. I had to attend to some very important business Saturday and missed the first two hours, but really enjoyed the last hour.

And Tomorrow’s Biscuit

 
The next gig is the 30th at the VFW in James City.

And we’ve been told that we’ll be doing the Chili Festival next year. Cool Beans!

And More Faces

 
I’ve been strolling down Memory Lane for a few hours today, looking up musician friends of mine from back in the ‘Cuse. It’s been great touching base with the Kane boys (current members Lou and Mike, and past members Harold, Tony, and the road crew), the Morrissey brothers, Mark D., and a few others.

All In All

 
That’s it for now. More later.

Wetness and Faces

It’s been a wet week here in the east.

Thursday Night Drive

 
My drive home from work Thursday night was a little out of the ordinary. I drove through over a dozen spots with standing water completely covering the road, and a couple where the water looked like it was flowing across. It took me over a half hour to drive some five miles or so along roads with very little traffic. Maybe you have a pickup or an SUV but I have my little pirate car, a Toyota Yaaarrrr – is!

Our street had water across it in a couple of places, one just a couple houses away. Later in the evening when the rain finally tapered off to a misty drizzle, some folks were splashing around in the water up there. Our dog, Susie, who normally won’t even walk on wet grass, decided to wade through the driveway next door. Our little girl is growing up!

By Friday most of the standing water was gone from the parts of New Bern I usually see.

43 and 55

 
So we went for a drive this afternoon, heading west on state 55. Over in Fort Barnwell I took a right, thinking on heading through Vanceboro and taking 43 back to New Bern, but ran into several roads that were still marked as closed. We decided to ride down one and verified for ourselves that the road was totally impassable to wheeled vehicles. We did eventually hit 43 and drove through Vanceboro, but it was just a challenge to get there.

Our prayers go out to those whose lives have been affected by the flooding. A little standing water on your street doesn’t seem like much when you see houses that have been sitting in what amounts to a small lake for a number of days.

On The Band Front . . .

 
I decided after our two weeks of YouTube stardom (our three videos have seen about 140 plays in that time) that it was time to do Facebook. So you can now write on our wall. We have a couple of pix up there from a gig we played at the local Harley-Davidson dealer back in the summer. Hope to get more up there soon.

All In All

 
That’s it for now. More later.