12/27/13

Hickoids at Antone's, Austins semi home of the blues. Someone bought it again and they are shutting down for a few months to change things up. It's been a rough go for that place and now a bunch of people are gonna be out of work for the new year... ouch.

We were invited to play with the Old '97's for two of their three NYE shows. So we did this one and we will be doing NYE proper in Dallas at the House Of Blues. Hickoids are getting fancy on ya...

The first act was Sealion from Dallas. The had some sweet poppy tunes and a chick bass player! Always great. One of the guitar players had one of those reissue Fender '68 Princeton amps (I had an original, but it got too old to play out.) He said he picked it up when they were on their way to Austin. It sure sounded sweet with his Tele, no real shocker there.

We were next and did the Hickoid thing. It's always nice to play to a crowed club but a BIG crowed club is even better. There were a ton of people ready for fun and we gave it to them. You could tell that most of them had never heard of us up until then, we should stick in their brains after last night.

'97's were next and since pretty much everyone that was there was there to see them the place went a little nuts. They delivered the Americana Rock and the crowd wanted more, so they gave it to them. It's a very simple formula, but it seems to work every time.

I'm looking forward to Dallas on Tuesday.

Year End Wrap-up!

Shit, I've been busy! Hickoids played a ton and the Ladies and I really started to get things rolling (I really love this band!) We even had three Bigfoot Chester gigs! That's more than we had in the previous five years!

The Hickoids have two shows left this year, both with the Old '97's (Antone's in Austin on the 27th and House Of Blues in Dallas on NYE), and that will wrap things up, about 20 minutes before midnight, for this year.

On the Horizon for 2014, The Ladies and I are headed to the studio in late January (after Wiley has some surgery!). I'm not really sure what I'm gonna do with the recording, no plans yet for ANOTHER record, I just really want to get us on tape so I can hear it for myself!

Hickoids are headed for Europe again! June(ish) we will be hitting the continent (and possibly the UK). Right now everything is TBA, so stay tuned for details.

And as I mentioned here, South Filthy is booked for a festival in Mississippi for October. I am really excited about playing with Jack and Jeffry (and Walter) again. Hopefully we will knock out another record. We are making the drive after all...

That's it for now!

12/6/13

I am a week late on this one...

Hickoids made the drive to Houston and loaded our gear up those goddamn awful stairs. Good thing Rudyard's is such a good club. We were "Headlining" (last) on a cold and wet Friday night. The forcast kept screaming for ice and/or snow. It was gonna ba a long night. 

The drive there was easy and we loaded up and said our howdys. I got a falafel from next door and went back for the rock.

Shinta was up first. I love a band with a Lady! Good tunes and some screamin guitar. Bring it on! Barkin At Nothin had a splendid trio of songs about love, but their standout was "Get The Hell Out Of Texas". A brilliant piece of stupidity.

We went up and did the Hickoid thing. Finished and loaded back down the stairs... I hate those stairs... Started the drive home and everyone but me wanted food (damn falafel!) So we stopped at Denny's and watched some drunken Houstonians make fools of themselves. 4 AM, Friday night, it's a guaranteed good time.

The drive home was uneventful. The weather was kind and I stayed in the back and slept. Made it back home and into bed at 6:50. I was up for work at 8:45... Saturday was rough as hell. 

12/1/13

It was a driving kinda weekend. After I got home from Ft Worth I cleaned up, had a beer and went to sleep around 4. I woke up at 1 and lazed around til 5 then I drove to SA.

HIckoids at Sam's. It was a benefit for our buddy Jerry. There were a bunch of cool bands on the bill, but I saw no more than two minutes of two of them. This weekend I am that asshole....

We had a decent set. Nothing amazing, but nothing awful. The crowd was a little on the sparse side (in a room that big you need a hundred or so people to make it not look empty) but they were spirited and fun to play for.

We finish up and I hung out for a little bullshitting with some folks. Then I hopped in the truck and headed home for some more sleep (after a beer).

11/30/13

The Ladies and I made the drive to Ft Worth. Draya was up there visiting family so it seemed like a good time to go and do a little playing out of town. Traffic was awful. 35 was a post holiday parking lot. It took us over four hours to make the drive, easily the worst part of the trip.

Finally make it to town and head to Fred's Texas Cafe. We are playing three sets and we learned a bunch of new tunes to fill things out. Four of my old ones (two have never been played by a band) I wrote two new ones and we snuck in three covers. We rocked that place.

One of the new ones was inspired by Otha Turner via Walter Daniels. After a Bigfoot show he was talking about doing a drum and fife thing but playing harmonica instead of the fife. I stole that idea in a heartbeat and threw some words on top. Suddenly I'm playing harmonica again. It felt really good, but I am extremely rusty and my mouth hurts like hell. There are many hours of practice in my future...

I won't get in to a blow by blow here, but Fred's is great. The crow was ready to have fun. We got people up dancing in no time and a lot of folks stayed for all three sets. The staff kicked ass and we got fed, free booze and paid. Thank you.

At the end of the night the Ladies and I came to the conclusion that we should play Fred's as often as possible. Before we tried it we were all a little nervous about playing three sets (I haven't done that kind of thing since I lived in Knoxville) but by the end it felt like we were the kind of band that's made for it.