1/12/24

 Dave is back in town while he and his family pack up their place to move back to central Texas. I’ll take a couple of gigs with him and Skizz if we can sneak them in!

Back at “home” playing 1919. Nichole wasn’t working (kinda poleaxed over that honestly. People I saw a couple of days later asked “where was Nichole”?) and it was a rainy-assed night with wet feet that never got dry. But the room was pretty full and stayed that way all night. 

We did two solid sets and it was the regular kinda fun. When we wrapped I noticed this guy named Patrick at the bar with his wife. He plays with my buddy Larry in “The Latin Band” if you’ve ever been lucky enough to talk to Larry about it. 

We start taking and he says “I need a bass player for a benefit we are playing Sunday, are you available?” But that is a story for another post!

11/12/23

 So late on this one…

This was supposed to be a repeat of the last 1919 show with Drew but at the Cats Eye, he ended up getting sick and we did this instead. What a weird night. 

“Hey Scott, why don’t you me and Tim do a few of my tunes at the top to burn some time before the rest of the Fleet Street guys can make it we finish with a Fleet Street show?”

“Good idea but let’s get a bass player for your stuff then we let Fleet Street take over. Oh and Buddy is gonna play harp with us the whole night”

And that is how I played some of my music for the fist time in Baltimore. Last minute,showing my tunes to the band onstage. 

Honestly it was pretty great. It would not have been my first choice but it was easy to just let things go and have fun with it. Felt good going down the list of tunes for the crowd. “Let’s see we did the one about killing that guy, the one about being naked, the one about boobs but we haven’t played the one about fucking yet”. 

Solid reaction. 

We wrapped that and I switched to bass and from there we just did a Fleet Street show. Lots of fun and I love playing with those guys!!

11/8/23

Back at 1919.  It’s been a minute hadn’t been here since that last show with Dave and Skizz. This time I’m up with my buddy Drew Bassin, with Scott and Tim and another dude named Buddy on harp. 

Decent crowd there, since it is one of the really narrow row houses it is a little like bar/music/toilets sectioned off and it’s a hard place to watch without being right on top of the band. But it has this magic little vibe and it’s crazy comfortable. 

Anyway we were backing Drew who is also a dude from the blues jam (Buddy as well) and we ended up doing abut four hours of playing with one break a third of the way in. I’ve been too used to how it worked back in Austin. 45 minutes and you are done. Hickoid headlining sets could go as long as 90. I did three hour shows back in Knoxville but I lived in Austin too long (I know…) and the single short set became normal.

Good time and playing with people I really dig. I’ll eventually catch up with how long the sets are. Got to admit it does feel good going to bed exhausted from playing. 

10/24/23

This time iI was filling in for Tony with The Fleet St Blues Band at the Cats Eye. Baltimore’s premier live music venue!! Scott and Tim from the blues jam are in this along with Tansu on guitar and Elon on harp and vocals. They’ve got the last Tuesday of every month except this one because of Halloween. Hell I don’t know what’s up… I’m just filling in.  

Three pretty decent sets of fairly straight forward blues. That is not a complaint. I love it and it feels good to play and I REALLY dug playing with these folks. 

First off, all of them are solid as hell players and they love this band/show/club. You can tell it’s a total lovefest there. 

Also Tansu is a lefty!! AND WE STOOD RIGHT BESIDE EACH OTHER!!! I bet it looked cool as hell!!  I know it did from where I was standing.  

This wasn’t the first time I played with them any the Cats Eye. Tony had me sub for half the night sixish months ago to test true waters and I guess I passed the audition!

Tony will be back. And I’ll be there to watch them. 

10/18/23

I haven’t written about the Polish Home Club or the Blues Jam yet. It is time. 

I heard about this from a drummer that was playing with Dave and I figured I’d show up and play some bass while a hundred guitar players fought for solos. It’s ended up being a big part of my musical and social life. 

This is a Polish membership club and I had to ask want the hell that meant my first time in. Being from the south I’ve never heard of this type of thing.  They accept all kinds of folks, it’s a real warm community semi-lead by the bartender Teresa. One of the sweetest and shockingly salty lady in her 90’s. That’s right. Over 90 and still kicking ass. Best bartender ever, name who’s done it longer?

Scott is the main guy/guitar player that holds it all together and scans the signup list for temporary groups to put on stage. And then there is Tony, a total bad ass bass player that is a part of the house band and spent a lot of time down in Mississippi playing all around the delta. This man knows his shit and is Bad. As. Hell. 

Tony is in Europe for a month or so on tour with his old band playing gigs and backing up some Mississippi folks over there ,so the house band needs a bass player. Right place right time. That’s why I’m finally writing one of these up because it was an actual gig not just a jam. 

I show up 20 minutes before start time and my buddy Larry is playing with Terelle and another dude I’ve never met before , I hop in to warm up a little before Larry and I got out to smoke. 

Larry Dennis is one hell of a cool dude, 71 years old and has been a part of the scene up here for 50 years. He is a monster guitar player and generally when you see the two of us there is smoking going on! On occasion he and I meet up at this dude Steve’s house for some Sunday afternoon playing. Load of fun and when Larry says “Rice, let’s go play” Rice wants to go play!

There are three drummers at the jam I love playing with. Tim is the main house drummer and hits like he is trying to kill his kit or at least break it  in half and is one of the nicest dudes in town.  Terelle is a maniac that was trained and can hold down a small, quiet groove that is tight as hell when he wants but is generally changing the groove up every time we get back to the top. Usually he is just trying to mess me up or see what I’ll  come up with, keeping my head in the game. Finally (and not last) is Louis, mostly a jazz drummer and I honestly did not think we would mesh musically as well as we do but we ended up in the same “group” so many times that we are right together with no effort. As you might guess he can swing the hell out of a tune.  

This night only two other bass players showed up and one did not have a bass. When I handed him the lefty he looked at me like I was from another planet.  From “Oh Yeah” to “WHAT THE HELL!” In a half second.

The other fella hopped up for three tunes then took off. So I played the rest of the bass for three and a half hours. YES!!

This is exactly what I want. 

It’s pretty much straight blues but we had a little Chuck Berry/James Brown set with a couple of singers somewhere in there.  This fantastic guitar player Kevin, who has this rhythm/lead style where it sounds like he is doing both at the same time in a really magical way. Unreal. When you are up with him you’ve got to be on it. He always makes the room jump. 

I love it there. Not everyone is an amazing player but most everyone there wants to have fun with no bullshit so it’s always a great time. Also these dancers are there!

This group of 10-20 folks show up every jam to just to shake it. Lot of the same folks but new ones every time. As much as I love playing and being a part of this scene I think I have to admit those dancers may be the best part of the night. It would feel off if they weren’t there. 

To wrap it up I am absolutely thrilled to be involved in this thing. 

9/16/23

Another night at 1919 with Dave and Skizz!! Pretty standard at this point except two things. 

One of Skizz’s bands, Zocko played the night before and they were bad as hell!! All instrumentals and totally on top of their game. First time I’d ever heard Herb Alpert and liked it. And I’ve heard that terrible song a thousand times!! Looking forward to seeing them again and again. 

The other reason this was a little different is Dave moved back to Texas! So that is it for this little combo. At least for now. Dave will be back occasionally and hopefully he doesn’t forget about us. Gonna miss doing these. Every time was a load of fun with like minded people. You don’t get that everyday and I’ll miss it. 

8/8/23

 Dave called me up and asked “do you want to play at a pie place?” One of the easiest “yes’s” ever. Without gear I can walk there!

I made it down just as Rodney was going up. Damn good songwriter! Really enjoyed the 6-8 tunes he threw down at the top of the night. 

Then we went up. Tiny stage between the business and the garage. Pretty cozy and it felt real good. I stood on the floor because there was no space on the stage.  Loved it!

Skizz was with us on a little cocktail kit. He pointed out that you are pretty much on one foot when you play one of those. Got to be some kind of freak of balance to pull that off. 

Pretty cool night! I’ve got to start going there more. It’s so close to the house and I really dug Rodney and Breezy(!) the bartender. It’s good up here!