8/30/19

Memphis last night at The Rock ‘n’ Roll cafe.  It’s a semi cheesy place near Graceland that has some of the kindest folks we’ve encountered yet on the tour. 

Unfortunately it was dead as hell when the trio got up. And it stayed that way for the Hicks. We did twoish hours between both bands for a dozen folks. They all stayed for the whole show and they really liked us. But no one else showed up...

Oh well, they fed us and took care of our drinks. And as I said before they were really, really nice to us. Hopefully they want us back!!

8/29/19

Last night it was the Hicks and DiNOLA se dba in New Orleans. It was kinda dead down there. The Saints has a preseason game and it was the Thursday before a holiday weekend. It wasn’t just dba, all of Frenchman Street was similar. 

DiNOLA was first. The sound is really good there and I was in to it in Houston, but this is how you should see them.  That music just flows through them. 

Our set was solid even though the crowd was thin. Smitty was back and happy to be there. It wasn’t as spectacular as we’d hoped, but hell, we got to play New Orleans again!

8/28/19

Pretty great/bizarre show last night in Houston at Under The Volcano. It’s mostly a bar restaurant but on Wednesday nights they have bands. Some really cool bands! The quality is high when you get to be that selective. 

The trio got up and we played pretty great. All of us are still tour lagged and jet lagged and we haven’t played since the last show in Spain, four days ago?  I honestly don’t remember. Anyway the trio kinda killed it. 

Hickoids were supposed to be next but one of Smitty‘ s brothers died unexpectedly when we were playing Madrid. Fucking terrible. And tomorrow is his funeral and Smitty needed to be there and he didn’t want to cancel the show, so...  we did a little Hickoid karaoke. 

This dude, David got up and sang four tunes. He’s been a huge fan since way before I joined the band. He makes every hick or swish show and he’s enthusiastic as hell. He hopped up and shoved the mic down his pants and the room went wild. It was incredible. He’s not a singer and he’s never been in a band as far as I know, but he more than made up for it with his enthusiasm. It was truly awesome. 

So we kept asking around for someone to sing some of the covers and Sue from Dinola hopped up and killed!! I mean absolutely killed on Benny and China Grove. We’ve got to get her up more in the future. And the Hickoid family expands. 

Speaking of... Harvey sang Burnin Love to close out a surreal as hell night. It was pretty awesome. 

Then Dinola got up... oh right!! We are playin with them the next two days!!  As always, fucking awesome. And we get to see them on their home turf tomorrow at dba. And Smitty will be there for it.   

8/24/19

Well the last day of this segment of the tour was at Bar Ailioli in Jimera De Líbar. It’s a tiny section of the town that’s down by the railroad tracks a couple of kilometers from the actual town. Southern Spain in a nutshell there. 

We played outside in the square, both bands and it was pretty terrible....  there were only two mics so when the hicks went up I just played bass. Believe it or not it’s harder when I don’t sing. I know that seems weird but it’s true. 

It being our last show on this bit and all of us riding so high from the night before it was almost inevitable. That’s how shit goes. 

8/23/19

Great night for both bands in Aracena. It was a sold out show at Anunnaki’s Club! It’s a small place that was packed with folks ready to party. And they are up everything we could give them. 

The trio had people dancing. The Hicks has people dancing. The beer and mojitos were flowing with abandon. After we finished playing it was hugs all around. Everyone was incredibly kind and kept asking for us to come back!  Uhhhh ok!!

And there was a fiesta in town. It went all night. As in around noon the next day there were brass bands walking through the streets  Crazy and cool as hell. 

9/22/19

Last night we were in Madrid. What a beautiful place. I had a great time getting lost multiple times before we went up to play. One of my favorite things to do when I’m in a new place. 

It was both bands at the Wurlitzer Ballroom. The trio went up first. Pretty solid set even though we haven’t played in a couple of weeks. The crowd really dug us. There weren’t that many folks but they were right up front with us. 

The Hicks set was pretty solid until the end when the alcohol crept in and semi tanked us. It happens. Especially when we get two cases of beer in the band room. But the crowd couldn’t tell and they ate our bullshit right up!  Fun night! 

8/21/19

We spent the last couple of days recording in Barcelona. We had a couple of days and Mike Mariconda has a couple of days open at Studio Sol De Saints. Well alright, let’s do this!

We’d been kicking around a couple of new tunes for a while now that haven’t been played live or recorded. A couple that Smitty’s been sitting on and two covers. That was enough to do some work with. 

I’ve never worked with Mike like this in the past. He’s mixed a few Bigfoot things I’ve been on and I think a South Filthy thing. It was great having him do all the front end stuff with us. Great tracking session. 

We got most of the tunes finished. Some overdubs and mixing will be coming soon. But we will be doing that back home!!