Happy birthday George! (that’s my brother)
Well, last night was kind of rough. Thursday night we went out to the Off Broadway to play their open mic, only to find that their open mic had moved. Normally I’d be cursing myself for not having called ahead, but things turned out just fine when we found that the open mic (the Chippewa Chapel) had merely moved down the street to the Stable.
And so we wandered down the block, signed in and jammed out at the relatively disinterested locals. As usual, there was something scary hanging from the ceiling (in this case, a woman’s skeleton glaring at us). We played hard, stuck around and played again – I’ve been trying to find a good musical partner in St Louis and that’s at least one of my objectives as we’re hitting these open mics. We get to play with the Duck Tape Duo Trio and they’re a LOT of fun, but I want a solo artist that I think would make a good opening act for us. We haven’t found it yet and JUST as I was relating that thought to Rowan, someone came up on stage that made me think “SHE’S the One!” Sarah McCracken is powerfully-voiced, a great guitar player, a good writer… I went up and introduced myself and found out that my new St Louis friend was from Brooklyn, NY. Sigh.
Epic fail. Sigh.
Pappa Bear beating the Hell out of his two djembes to a whirling, dancing audience at the Church on the Rocks at the Hideaway Saloon in Louisville, Kentucky. The bass player in the background is playing a left-handed banjo bass that he built himself – he’s also the infamous banjo-bass player who introduced me to the wonders of moonshine.
