We headed back out to the Shakori Hills GrassRoots Festival again this spring.
It was good to see everybody, as usual. It was extremely wet by the second day, but a very good time again.

We played on Fri. right after the huge rain storm began, the power even went out once, somehow it gave the whole thing a more communal feel. stomping and shouting and splashing around.

That was cool for the first few hours, then it just got annoying and wet.

We also played the Kraken Bar, which we had never done before. It was a pretty cool time. They allow dogs and we like dogs. I will say their muzzles were all supiciously wet, alcoholic dogs, maybe?

We headed down to Florida, to hit the same old suspects, plus a couple of new spots. Always good to see the folks at the Ale and the Witch and the Belle Isle Yacht Pub and Will's Pub, of course.

We did Bryan Childs 9 Bullets radio show in Tampa, which he claims will soon be called the Sad Bastard Song Club. Then we drank a lot of craft beers with said Bryan Childs at a place called Southern Brewing Company, I believe. Really good beer and neither one of us likes craft beer.

This caused us to be late for our show at the 8th Avenue Pub in Safety Harbor, but I think we still pulled it off o.k., despite having to play the whole night, which means, covers(not my favorite thing) and more work. Luckily our buddy Animal jammed along with us and we made it through.

Thanks to everybody who helped on this run and everybody who didn't can piss off.  Another one's coming soon.

We had a really good time at the Monday parades and got up at 5a.m. to roll out early (don't ask). Right as we were rolling up on the bridge we saw Zulu rolling from the Convention Center parking lot, pretty cool.

The ride home consisted of me being pissed about having to drive first, even though I didn't have to be back, rain, hail and a lot of singing ridiculous songs.

I won't say it was easier travelling with 3 people instead of two, but it did lead to a couple of hilarious situations. I doubt we'll do it again for a bit, but who knows.

Well, we've been having a good time. Brock and I and "the Worlds Worst Merch Girl"  (WWMG from hear on out) headed out and did the whole deal.

We went down to lovely Springfield, MO hung out with a lot of our friends and saw the timeless Jonathon Richman.  What an awesome show. When the show is so good Lou Whitney's standing on a table, you know it's good.

The next night we played with the NightHawks, always good to see those fellows. Also, all the other folks that make up the whole Outland, DugOut scene. It was especially cool to run into our buddy Doug from the Ben Miller Band and various other projects, nobody is quite like that guy. We'll get to see them again at Shakori Hills and just thinking about it makes me happy.
WWMG misplaced the merch $, but I found it, still haven't told her where.

The next day we took off for Memphis. We had never been to, or played the P&H Cafe before, it turned out to be cool. The other band didn't show, but we got a really nice reaction. We played a pretty long set, talked to some people and sold some stuff, then headed out for NOLA that night. I think we may have spent almost as much money playing video mini golf as we made, but man that machine is addictive (thanks Matt Woods).

The drive was fine I did a few hours, Brock did a few hours and I drove the last hour and a half. Maybe my favorite drive in the world, rolling into NOLA with OZ blaring the Brass Band Half Hour. We hit NOLA about 7:30 a.m. and started to drinking.
To Be Continued...

We are getting pretty excited about the next run we're making.
Like listening to Professor Longhair and ReBirth excited.

Louisiana during Carnival season is just something you can't explain.

Talked to our buddy Will Walker the other day and we're booked for 
Orlando again in April, so awesome. Will (Will's Pub) and Dave from the Belle Isle Yacht Pub are in a competition to see who can make us feel most at  home in the city with big (Mickey) ears.


So, keep your eyes on the usual spots and your ears open. We may be right next to you before you know it, in one way, or another (creepy).

We've had a good winter so far, had some fun playing with the cast of characters for the Bocomo Ramble on New Years Eve and playing Steve Earle songs at Mojos. I guess all we have to do is tell people we're not playing our own songs and hundreds of people show up.

We just got back from a weekend spent in Springfield, with our buddy Matt Netzer,  it's always a good time. We also played a really long show for a 417 magazine event called, "Whiskey Fest". 1000's of bottles of whiskey sitting around to be tasted for free. Suprisingly, it was a fairly low key event. We only saw a few stumblers and nobody puked in the ballroom, as far as I could tell. It seems like a dangerous idea to give people tons of free whiskey, but the fairly high ticket price and a classy atmosphere seemed to keep most people under control.

I can't say I was too unhappy to see 2012 go away. It was a tough year on a personal level, but hell, maybe they all are.

We did put the new recording for sale online recently. It only has 9 songs in the online version, for reasons you'll have to ask us about in person, but it's still a good thing to have, I think.

Anyway, we're heading out to do a few shows the week before Mardi Gras in February and we'll be doing another "big long run" in April. Summer should bring some new recordings. The details on that stuff will be here, or on the Facebook page Brock runs, or both.

I've been reading a lot of speculation lately.
This, or that, scene is dead. You can't do such and
such now, etc.

I guess I've heard most of this shit before. I guarantee you
somebody said "Roots Rock" (somebody else's name
and capitalization) was dead when the Long Ryders broke up.

Basically, it goes like this, there are a fair amount of bands, 
duos and solos out here, writing songs and getting in cars
 and vans and driving to shows and playing them.
They're doing it as often as they can and as close to and
far away from home as possible.

Sounds like a scene to me.

We left Columbia sometime in the a.m., around 9, I think.
We didn't have to be in Birmingham until midnight, but
how do you not figure in problems?

We rolled into town at about 10 and proceeded to hanging
out with the bartender and a couple of nice fellows who
were the only inhabitants of the bar.

They were very concerned when we got out of the car and
stood outside for a while. Guess that's damned
suspicious behavior in Birmingham on a Monday night.
Also, I guess anyone who stands outside on a 55 degree
night in Alabama is obviously a degenerate.

We went on around midnight to a small, but highly appreciative
crowd.  Marty rolled in and hung out for the first set. We did a
one condenser mic set-up and it sounded suprisingly good.

After the second set we hung out for a little bit and then started
loading things into the car. A homeless man in a wheelchair rolled
by and started to ask us for money. He then stopped and said"Oh,
you guys are musicians". He didn't ask us for money again. I guess
everyone knows musicians are broke.

We loaded up, said our good-byes and headed for Bradenton.
that's only another 10 hours from Birmingham.

We are definitely looking forward to getting back to Marty's though
always a good time.

All right, we're back up and running.

We just got done doing two shows w/Adam Lee and J.P. Harris.
Always a pleasure. Both bands will pretty much country your face off.

It was a good winter, we played several shows, made our first run to
Chicago and met  a lot of new folks.

In a few days we leave for a run through N.C. and points South.
We come back into Missouri to play our first Blue Note show.
So, lots of things going on.

We are going to be recording a full length, whatever you call it these days, over the summer.
For the first time we will be turning over a lot of the recording control to someone else.

I will be updating this blog throughout these events, although there will
be radio silence during the Shakori Hills Festival.

Come out and see us.