1/14/24

 Patrick sent me a file with nine tunes in it the day before I was gonna help them out. No rehearsal just get up and do it. I’d heard a few of them but never played any of them. This is my normal now. 

We were at the Polish Home Club for a benefit but upstairs in the big room and I’d never even seen up there before.  Huge. It is massive. No wonder they have big stuff like this up there and keep the blues jam out of it. We’d get lost up there and it would look empty. 

This was a memorial for a fella that I never met. A music scene guy that was semi- homeless and a fixture in the Fells Point scene. From the way he was described to me, if you hang out in any music scene you already know someone like him. Similar my buddy Lawrence from Austin that we lost a few years ago. Total mess of a person but a fried all the way. I can still hear his voice, “I love you fool!”  Miss that dude all the time. 

We went up early, my buddy Larry has been in this group for a while and I was grateful for him bing there. I needed a guide at a few points in the songs since I never played them. Larry would hold his guitar neck up so I could see where he was headed, probably made his arm tired by the end for having to do it so much. 

All in all it was pretty great. I was standing between the drummer and percussionist and those dudes were dead on. And I mean DEAD ON. They were so solid they were practically holding up a sign to give me the spot where I put my notes. Incredible and needed!

We did abut a half hour in total, nothing too crazy. I was just happy to learn some new stuff, play with some new folks and to be a part of the scene. 

9/3/17

Late...


It was Lawrence's tribute at the Hole and there were a ton of folks there to celebrate his life. It was the type of night you'd expect to bump in to him... yeah.


Originally I wasn't on the bill at all, I was just gonna go see the Fishermen but Bigfoot got added on at the last minute so I got to rock for the Lar Lar one last time.


We'd practiced the day before. We were joking around about how we had twenty minutes so we only needed to practice six or seven tunes to fill the space. Got seven down and went home. At the show we were told we had a thirty minute set... rock in the big city.


I stuck around for most of the lovefest. It was a good night, but someone was definitely missing.

RIP Lawrence Heads

We lost a good one the other day. Lawrence Heads died from some heart related complications after decades of being one of the biggest live music fans in Austin.

During the original run of the Hole in the Wall he would bounce between the Hole  and the Showdown (now the Local) drinking/music circuit and that's where I met him. It was after one of my early solo shows he walked up and started asking me about my act. Direct and serious questions that were incredibly well thought out, from a guy who was obviously soaring on a head full of something. We were pals almost immediately.

Over the next few years he'd seen me play several hundred times. No joke. If I was at the Hole doing anything, Lawrence was there. The man was gold.

The Hole closed then reopened a couple of years later, Lawrence was at my first show. I was thrilled he was out, even though I'd kinda expected it. After the set he came up to me and I jokingly said "Oh man, Good to see you, I didn't think you liked my shit anymore". He looked me dead in the eye and said "Fool, I love you."

I loved him too.