Gary P and Rockport

So I'm sitting here uploading photos from the last 5 days, and catching up on the shows I missed on my DVR, and it seemed only appropriate to blog about life over the course of the last week or so. It was filled with some great highs, a few lows, but for the most part it was one of the more enjoyable weeks the boys and I had in a while, and definitely filled with a couple of 'firsts'.

First time opening up for an established act
Carl, Bill and I felt like we turned a corner last Wednesday by opening up for Texas legend Gary P. Nunn at the County Line in San Antonio. I can't even remember the amount of times I've seen him onstage around Texas, so opening up for him was a real honor. It was really cool show for me because my aunt, uncle, cousin, her husband and 2 children brought out my grandmother who is 83 years young, (all of whom had never seen a performance), and my mom came up from Austin to see it. The weather was able to hold off for the whole night, and the crowd was really into us, so it was truly memorable. My personal thanks to Janice Williams and Marsha Milam for having us out there.

First time with not one but TWO new players
Bill and I had been searching around for a little over a week or so trying to find a couple of subs for our recently departed bass player and Carl who, while sincerely wanting to go, had commitments to his day job he couldn't get out of for 4 days. He was able to get there to the County Line show on Wednesday night, and our friend Charlie Irwin sat in on bass for that night as well, but was booked for the rest of the week. So, essentially we were on our own and Bill and I coached our 2 new fill ins for the next 4 shows with relatively few problems. Of course there's nothing like having 2 stage veterans coaching 2 guys who've never played with us before through 45-50 songs they may or may not have heard before, but we managed...I don't know how, but we managed. :)

First (almost) bar fight
Yeah, it goes with the territory. Playing in bars where alcohol flows a little more freely on some nights, it's just an occupational hazard that you just can't get around in the music business. We played our regular show on Thursday night at the Pickled Pelican, and we always love playing there. At the beginning of the night I was asked by an apparent local musician if he could come up and play bass with us, and of course the answer had to be 'no'. It was hard enough playing with 2 new guys already there, much less someone who we didn't know, and we're pretty strict on who we let share the stage with us. Nevertheless, as the night went on, our newfound local kept drinking while we kept playing. Meanwhile, one of our good friends who owns another place we play at down there walked in and asked if he could play a tune with us, and there was no question that we would have him on. Afterall, he puts us up at his house most of the time when we play down there, but that wasn't the case last week, as he had clients in town. So, instead of leaving us hanging, he put us up at a VERY nice hotel for 3 nights and 3 rooms, most of which were $140 a night. He spent over a grand putting us up, so YEAH - of course he's going to be welcome up to play a tune. :)

Well, no sooner had I walked off stage to watch the guys finish out the jam, did this guy walk up to me and start getting in my face about letting our friend up and not him. Now, I don't know how much time had passed, but I don't think I've ever seen Bill move that fast to get in between me and this guy before anything happened because he was right there making sure nothing happened to me. That's the great thing about Bill - he wears so many hats to keep us going, but his bodyguard hat came on in a flash once he sensed something wasn't right. It didn't get any worse than an overheated conversation about literally nothing, but it was the first and hopefully the last for a while.

And, you know, I think that's really all I can say about that whole last trip. There weren't a whole lot of other significant things that happened that I think that a) the rest of the blog reading world would find interesting or even understand like 'the mancave', babes on the bay or pop a tire and b) the fact that I'm bound by the rules of the road and can't divulge that stuff anyway lest I be thrown out of the club. :)