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January 2005
Greetings!
Hunkered down in the Santa Cruz rains, I
already forget how nice the warm nights and spicy cabrito felt. My
month or so in Tejas was a welcome break from damp boots, moldy
clothes, and mud in my eye. It began with a great little tour with
Slaid Cleaves. I was honored to be part of his roadshow
for several gigs, and greatly appreciated the
Cleaves' hospitality. He and his wife Karen took off for Big Bend,
and put me in charge of their cat, which left me plenty of time to
hang out in Austin and explore some of my haunts from the old
days. Old days...feels Jurassic now, but some pickin' buddies are
still around, out of jail, and elder statesmen.... this fiddler
walks into a bar, orders a drink, and the bartender says.."hey I
played in a band with you in 1977"...yikes...turns out it was
Brother Brooks, a fixture at the Hole in the Wall on Guadalupe for
over 20 years, and an old bandmate from the seminal Austin
drinking band The Bourbon Brothers. We got together the next day
at 7am and played some tunes before he opened the joint. It was
the first time I'd played that early, without it being on the back
end of a long night, but well worth it, and parking was easy to
find.
I played a few gigs with my pals Jeff Plankenhorn (www.jeffplankenhorn.com),
and Michael O'Connor (www.michaeloconnormusic.com),
and had some great fun with the fabulous Billy Bright (www.highstring.com).
If you're down in that part of the world, be sure to check 'em
out, and look for Billy's outfit, the Two High String Band, here
in California as part of the San Francisco Bluegrass Old Time Fest
in February. You can also see Jeff playing with luminaries such as
Ray Wylie Hubbard, and Eliza Gilkyson.
One of the big highlights was the New Year's
festivities outside of San Angelo at cousin James' BBQ and Pecan
Palace. Besides being the king of the BBQ, he's a wonderful jazz
drummer and vibraphonist. He fired up the smoker at noon
on December 31st, and didn't stop until 3pm the next year. We ate
ribs, cabrito and some custom boudin sausage from the Cherry
Spring Smokehouse, as well as the obligatory black eyed peas and
potato casserole. Right after watching UT do some smokin' of their
own over Michigan in the Rose Bowl, we had a great session with
some of his hardcore jazzhead pals. I was truly amazed to find
that E-flat is actually still in use, and had to make tiny cheat
marks on my fingerboard to keep up.
In the last newsletter I promised to stop by Crawford and voice
my opinions to George II, but wouldn't you know, I couldn't get
any closer than the old Branch Davidian compound in Waco. I did
pick up some nifty souvenirs, including an authentic "David
Koresh sings Eddy Arnold!" tablature book, with a beautiful
charcoal drawing of Janet Reno on the cover.
So now I'm back at it, producing the next Houston Jones CD (and a
big congrats to them on their first invite to the Fall
Strawberry Music Festival), and working some California gigs in
January. Please do stop by and say hey...I have some leftover
goat hams that need consuming. Here's where you can get 'em.....
Friday January 14 8:30pm
Rancho Nicasio
1 Rancheria
Road
Nicasio,
CA
with Houston Jones
Friday January 21 7pm
Unitarian Universalist Church of Monterey Peninsula
490 Aguajita Road
Carmel, CA
831-624-7404
with Keith Greeninger
Saturday Jan 22 7pm
Flyway Festival
Mare Island
Vallejo, CA
707-649-9464
with band
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