R&R & R&R

this has nothing to do with rock & roll, but has been my obsession since after the sat night show up north. all went well, but then a fight broke out after i left. (sing: "it was a knock-down drag out, you gotta find a place to hide!!") cattie looked great & i whooped it up by having a puff off a cherry-flavored cigar after our set. then home along dark 99 (though the moon was full) to dog & kitty and the next day i did nothing but eat crepes with wonderful chestnut spread (pictured) & surf for music on amazon.com, not capable of much else, & grateful i had the luxury of a sunday off to R&R. even today, i feel a little groggy... guess educator hours & musician hours don't jibe 'less you're hearty as a sailor, and that ain't me! cool bands i heard... 16 horsepower & detroit cobras... also liked a few cuts on "blastered," a tribute to downey's finest, plus dock hobbs, cleo brown, big joe durkin (thanks for the tip, vince!).

cattie show 5/21; blablablablabla

cattie's bd party will be this sat, may 21, in fresno ca usa at club fred. (go to www.cattieness.com for a flyer) ... cattie ness & the revenge (i'm a revenger for this show) will play with deadbolt and the graveside rockers. it's a rock- & psychobilly show, except our set also will feature some honky-tonk (i get to be don rich on vocals -- yippee!!), a fats domino new orleans roll, and a bit of jerry lee, if my hand doesn't explode from the keyboard pounding. i play through the pain!! the music overrides the suffering usually, anyhow. :)
fun yesterday going down to smellay to practice with the southland branch of the band (fabi, jose, & their conversations about roosters and chickens) at a lock out in monterey park, right by one of those majestic clay-colored bridges in that part of town. rode down with cattie & john, listening to jimmy & johnny, ernest tubb, warren smith, stuff like that. we didn't get to eat at phillipe's, but to bypass dodger stadium traffic drove by union station , so my memories of lostangeles kicked in anyway and i was ok with plain old whatever-we-could-find road food. (not too hard these days, with the influx of suburbia eliminating the blank spots along I-5 from sta clarita to bkfld!) memories-- sometimes memories (different from fantasies or pipe dreams) are nearly as good as the real thing, i think.
a few weeks back, i got a beringer keyboard amp/PA for what seemed a bargain, so now if i can get my hands on a semi-decent mike (mine was stolen a few years back), i'll be in bizness. hard for me to be portable, and i've been called a "luddite" where gear is concerned, but i sure like this new piece of equipment and the idea that i don't have to rely on others for sound.
but don't ask me about how it works and all that! there seem to be two schools (gearheads and non); i'm just not into 99% of gear and probably never will be. however, i do like the look of the fender rhodes (action's not so good, though, i hear) and i used to have a wurlitzer that i could kick myself for trading... though i hear the blazers are currently using it, which certainly means it's being well used!
for me, too much gear can be a cover-up for lack of ability... i speak from experience here! i've had my own lack of ability disguised plenty of times with effects! really, though it's better to go bare, since you never know what equipment will be available, plus is seems somehow more honest -- also, there's the portability issue! (that said, i have to add that the "slap back" effect is purty cool.)
in an earlier band, i tried playing bass for a while (easier to carry than an electric piano), but the music just wasn't happening for me. it's much better now, playing the music i've always loved. so, all fired up from yesterday, i say if any musicians read this and live in the california latitudes between bakersfield and ventura, email me! let's play some music sometime. it's fun to play with different people and i just love playing, not a lot of talking, just music and energy. it's part of what makes life worth living, in my book.

a blast from the past: i need to put some band pix up! even if they're over 1 year old! since our website died this past summer, there are few old shots left. this was at a show in fresno with our old bass player, who could be a load of laughs. note brian p's elvian jacket. this was drummer #74, i think.

another blast from the past: i always liked this shot. maybe because i'm the only one in focus. maybe because i don't look the "f" word. me, me, me, me, me. this was drummer #70, i recall. brian p wore an animal-print shirt, but fortunately no big game hunters were in the crowd that night.

this is that picture described below, out front of sun.

i believe these four pix are being displayed in reverse order, so screen down and work up for proper order. this is part of the window display for tater red's on beale street in memphis. they sell kitsch, mardi gras, music, voodou, & all sorts of stuff, maybe a bit like tesoros in austin mixed with wacko in LA. the proprietor, leo, was real nice, as were the folks at a schwab's, an amazing 3-story 19th century general store where i got a religious candle, souvenirs for friends/family, and some fancy shaving cream for Dad. that night we ate at blues city cafe, where president bubba (& his saxophone, i suppose) eats when he's in memphis.

ha! are the kids on the right recoiling in horror? here's the apparently terror-inspiring brian b inside the actual sun studio, where surprisingly little was said of charlie feathers. musicians can still record here--only $75/hr. i stood right by the old house piano & got chills imagining the fingers that had worked those rails. the musician-guy guide mimicked a neat trick johnny cash once did. JC was going on the opry, which wouldn't allow drums (too much like "race music"), so he wrapped a dollar bill around the neck of the guitar to make that click-a-click sound you hear on "i walk the line." we had learned something, so we were happy. then we went in to "sun cafe" and bought malts. in walked steve buscemi in disguise shades & hat, but no one looked two times at him--just like we were in LA, or something!

this, of course, is out front of sun studios at 706 union in memphis. i hope i had jetlag, cause this ain't a great pic! oh well. memphis is historic american music ground zero, & folks showed us much southern hospitality. it maybe has usurped austin as my favorite american city. not that it matters to anyone but me. that was a big day: graceland, sun, stax, AND rock & soul museum.

recently we flew to atlanta to drive back in an ebay van brian b had bought. we were supposed to go with the band, but oh well: saw a bit of the south, anyhow. georgia, alabama, mississippi, tennessee, arkansas, oklahoma, texas, new mexico, arizona, then home: lots of rain, snow, wind, a little sun, & flowering land from east to west. this is from our visit to graceland. the "big elvis" suits had arms akimbo, so you wouldn't notice how large he'd gotten toward the end of his life. didn't matter. he was still the king. the place was amazing & we were moved, as you'd be or already have been.

count the days i'm gone

we're learning 13 new songs! well, one of them is actually two -- one old, one new (hint: see picture) -- with similar around-the-horn progressions. i'm happy cause one of the other "new" ones is a hank ballard tune. one of my prized musical possessions is a dupe of a concert h.b. did with the blasters from way back when. i'm glad we were doing "let's go, let's go, let's go" when mr. ballard passed away. it seemed respectful to already have that in the repertoire... art fein posted something i wrote at www.sofein.com, so go there to read musings from me and the fellow who wrote "the la musical history tour"!... i visited my dear friend donna in laverne & my friend ruben from the blazers last weekend... he is busy playing blues down in long beach and rehearsing with a new rhythm section and for a new LP... i am out on the latest cattie ness show (with big sandy)--on rehearsal day, my grandma had a birthday, and grandma comes first! oh well... just being able to tickle the ivories (or plastics) again is good enough for me! i'm sure cattie and co will have lots of fun at their fresno show with big s. go to www.cattieness.com for more information!

kismet

we went to go house hunting in the slide areas of ventura last weekend, then to dim sum with stepson in downtown smellay... on the way home, stopped off at aron's, one of the greatest record stores there is, and there it was--the third boxset i saw--the COMPLETE ELVIS 50s SESSIONS BOX SET!!! one down, one to go (box set wise, that is...). i heard our drummer's paw is healing (he broke it), so it will be fun to practice SOON!!! i had injured my hand, too, but it's had a full month to recover and so certainly is ready to go do the messaround, i thinks.

to paraphrase the alien in the great movie "the hidden," "i want this record." there are a thousand more, but i have a pic of this one. the others i seek are everyday yet out of print: gene vincent capitol box set (i'm too cheap to order it from england) & the elvis complete '50s boxset. 

self-aggrandizement

hello to all. here's a song written by count smokula (melody unbeknownst to me & maybe to him!). we were talking about shared love of mad magazine & dr demento (with whom he worked, turns out!) & i said oh no, i'm no hipster, just a life-long nerd. so he sent this along, & it's a bit big-headed for me to post it, but wouldn't you? what a compliment.
JENNY IS A NERD by Smokey Miles
Have you heard the word?Jenny is a nerd! have you heard the word? Jenny is a nerd! best news I ever heard / anything else would be absurd / she shakes but is not stirred! / oh that Jenny is a nerd!
Have you heard the news? / Jenny's got the blues! / have you heard the news? / Jenny's got the blues! / she plays and pays her dues / she wears her rockin' shoes / she shakes it through and through / but Jenny's got the blues!
Have you heard the tale? / Jenny sure can wail! / have you heard the tale? / Jenny sure can wail! / she looks a little frail / but she's rippin' up the rails / rock'n'roll she hails / yeah, that Jenny sure can wail!
Have you heard the word?Jenny is a nerd! / have you heard the word? / Jenny is a nerd! / best news I ever heard / anything else would be absurd / she shakes but is not stirred! / oh that Jenny is a nerd!

at the elvis show last night, we got off to a rocky start on big hunk of love, but it didn't last too, too long and the audience response was heartening (maybe the mirrored shirt helped!). the lineup was eclectically enjoyable and the show, a fundraiser for the red cross, was said to be "tremendous" by art, who knows his stuff, i thinks. we were happy and fortunate to be a part. you can read all about it at www.sofein.com.

this is count smokula, art fein and i at the elvis birthday show. art was looking styling in his western jacket, and i'm looking gee-whiz dippy. :) smokula works with troma films & wished a happy bd to the "kink." other especially friendly or interesting folks i spoke with that night were pianists skip edwards and rip masters, russell scott and his folks, ray campi, the blasters (especially my friend jerome the gentleman drummer), evie sands, linda kay, tommy sands (who hung out in the dressing room with us), rod of the tonemasters, levis and beautiful bernie dexter, the groovy rednecks, barry holdship, fur & steve, patricia sweet, as well as the staff of the henry fonda, who were un-hollyweird nice to the very last one.

elvis show sat jan 8

happy new year!! the elvis show is upcoming... jan. 8, 5-9:30 pm, henry fonda theatre... i just learned the blasters will be there, too! wonder what song they'll do? whatever they do, don't matter, it'll kill. hope ours will sail -- "Big Hunk of Love" -- it's just such a terrific and fun song, so i hope we do it up right. don't know the rest of the night's lineup, but i imagine art fein will have it soon on his website at www.sofein.com ... last year was lots of fun. fred willard (fred willard!! ruben and i were grinning like chimps!!) had on a flashy suit that would've made little richard blush, and i think he told us it was from that store in memphis where elvis would shop for duds with carl perkins and others. most memorable for me musically last time was candye kane belting it out, the tonemasters, rip masters, ray campi, then russell scott doing the most soulful version of "feel so bad (good?)"... dang -- it's the one chuck willis song that says "sometimes i want to leave, then again i want to stay."... i just read an entertaining little potboiler (needed a quick vacation read on roadtrip to colorado) marginally about the King, in fact called "The King is Dead"--got it at the dollar store! go out and get it! the comma splices put me off for a bit, but it's definitely worth a buck--a seedy, lively mystery full of outlandish but fun characters, and it's set in tupelo with lots of incidental info about southern pop culture and elvis (the mad murderer is obsessed with EAP), so it's educational, too, you see.

here's the two brians at fishlips in bakersfield (mr paxton seems to be mid-chew). mr. briggs was rather  popular with the gals at the blasters show that night--made him a little nervous, i think! 

this was the second show we did with art, where i stupidly said we'd love to cover "think" by the hollywood flames (instead of the five royales)... duh... they wouldn't allow pix in the studio, so here we are outside afterward, looking like we're about to be killed by industrial ladders, then it was on to barbecue chow in the valley at dr hoggly-woggly's... sweet potato pie.... (insert homer simpson drool sound here)

this is from the first art fein poker party show we got to do. art is hosting the elvis bd show jan 8 in hollywood. this was the day i learned red lipstick doesn't match a pink dress. brian p learned not to chew gum on camera. jason had been playing with us for five whole days when we did the show--not bad!

oh, oh, oh, this is me with phil alvin... he recited some poem to me and kissed my hand. i was so gaga, i can't tell you more than that. a big day for me, nothing at all for him, i imagine, and that's just fine.