Shows

Gumbo Hangover

In case you missed it, the 7th Annual Gumbo Cookoff for Ministry With Community was last weekend.  They say it was the biggest, best one yet. From our perspective, it was great as usual.

We tried to keep the tents warmed up while Small Town Son did their thing inside (where it was already warm). I’m not good at estimating, but I would say at least 7,000 people were there and we must have consumed upwards of 10 million gallons of gumbo. (Refer elsewhere for actual numbers.)

Honestly, it was a great day and a lot of money was raised for a really great cause. We were, as always, thrilled to be a part of it. Thanks to Bill Sarkozy for inviting us to the party…again. As long as he keeps inviting us…we’ll keep doing what we do.

Thanks to all of you who donated and attended.

OFB Rehearsal? Really?

Yes…we rehearsed yesterday. I think we’ve rehearsed 20 times in the life of the band. Not nearly enough, but I’m not sure how to get five guys with busy work and family lives to pull it together during normal waking hours. I know there are bands out there who do it. Good for them, I say.

We started to pull things together for the State Theatre show in March. New tunes. Old tunes we haven’t played in forever. It should be a lot of fun. I mean…we’ll have fun. But we’re opening for Tab Benoit at the State Theater. Who wouldn’t have fun in that situation?

Anyway. We’ll be running some new stuff this weekend at the 411 Club. We’re there on Friday night after the Budweiser Blues Series show at the State Theatre. Maybe Kelly Richey will come down after the show. Maybe she’ll bring the Mississippi Heat. That would be awesome…

Until then…I should get back to work.

Another Friday night in Kalamazoo

So I’m getting pretty excited right now about playing tonight. It’ll be nice to play a whole night with just the band…no jammers. Mike Porter always brings something special when we play. I think it’s been a long time since the five of us have played together…so I’m really looking forward.

The sad news today was that Etta James passed away. I feel like a lot of the blues idols have been passing lately. Pinetop Perkins and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith passed last year. I’m very glad that we got the chance to see those guys and actually play with Willie Smith before we lost them.

We’re very lucky in that regard – in the almost 9 years that the band has been around, we’ve been able to meet and play with a lot of pretty big names in the blues. Big and up-and-coming. Tab Benoit. Larry McCray. Studebaker John. Watermelon Slim. Eric Lindell. Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. Bob Stroger. Eddie King.

Anyway. We’ve been lucky. And maybe we’ll get lucky again tonight. Harper and Motor City Josh are great blues artists and it would really be a lot of fun to jam with them. We’ll see…

Bring on the weekend

Enough of the snow already. Bring on the music.

I’m already looking forward to the weekend. Thursday Blues Jam at The 411 and then the unofficial Budweiser Blues Series after party on Friday night at The 411.  I’m not going to lie to you.  The best part might be that I can just leave my rig set up on Thursday night, saving me a few precious minutes I can spend with my head on my pillow.

Motor City Josh and Harper are at the State Theatre on Friday night. I’ve never met or seen either one of those bands play. I can’t believe I’ve never seen Harper. He was at Wonderful’s a couple of times and I think he’s even played The 411 before. I don’t know if it’s laziness or just inconvenient scheduling. Anyway…I hope they come down to the bar after the State Theatre show. I’ve heard a lot of good musical things about both of them.

We’re also looking forward to our own State Theatre gig later this spring. March 16 opening for Tab Benoit. AWESOME! We’re also playing at The 411 Club that night after the State Theatre. Tab’s come down there before…maybe he’ll come down again.  Hmm…