Riverfest

I had a very lengthy narrative of my Riverfest experiences drafted, but after reading it, the detail and minutae couldn't be of interest to anyone but me. Let's go with capsule reviews of the acts that I saw ---

Brave Combo - brought back fond memories of seeing them several times while I was in law school. They've won Grammies for "Best Polka Album", but to call them a polka band is a misnomer. I WANT THEM TO PLAY AT MY FUNERAL. They were as good as they were twenty years ago, if not better.

Robert Randoph's Family Band - best performance I saw all weekend. This guy should be a major star. He channels Jimi Hendrix through a steel guitar. He has charisma, chops, and a top notch band (Everyone in the band can apparently play everyone else's instrument credibly). I want to see him again.

Richard Thompson - I'm no Johnny-come-lately to Richard Thompson. I've had a copy of "Shoot Out The Lights" since the mid-80's and it is one of my favorite albums of all time. That being said, the "folkie" crowd that turned out for his show were a pretentious bunch who obviously turned their nose up at all other acts at Riverfest. On top of that, Thompson's guitar tech was an obnoxious prick who verbally abused the sound crew. This greatly diminished the experience for me.

B.B. King - this was the 3rd or 4th time I saw Mr. King. In the past, he stood up, but now, due to age and diabetes, he has to sit. No matter. He was as engaging and sly as ever and the huge crowd loved every minute of it. There are a few guitarists whom you can identify after just a couple of notes. He's one of them.

Trout Fishing In America - I've always heard these guys were great, but I never made it over to see them in the past. This duo has been together for 29 years! They are more known for children's music, but that isn't all they play. I truly enjoyed their performance and I was very impressed by their level of musical expertise.

Rose Hill Drive - I had never heard of this young rock band, but I thoroughly enjoyed their music. As I listened to them, the best comparison I could come up with was "Rush meets Silverchair."

Seether - I didn't really enjoy Seether's generic brand of hard rock. When the best song that you play is a Deftones cover......Anyway, maybe it was my mood; I was in the middle of the mosh pit trying to actually enjoy the music, unlike the little assholes behind me. A few well placed punches during their slam dancing outbreaks and crowd surfing and the message got across that they needed to avoid our area. Of course, the crowd went apeshit when Amy Lee came out to sing the duet on "Broken" - I kind of figured that she would probably show up....and that part was pretty good.

Black Crowes - I was looking forward to the Black Crowes. I had a revelation during their 3 or 4th song ---- I don't really like them that much!!!!! The band recently reformed; you would think there would be new energy, but they already seemed tired and bored. I left after 7 or 8 songs and headed back across the river to catch a few tunes from .....

Hank Williams Jr. - admitting that I kind of like some of Hank's stuff is almost as embarrassing to me as admitting that Skynyrd actually had some okay songs. The only other time I went to see Hank, he was drunk and he sucked. Not so this time. He had a huge, rabid crowd who knew every word to every song. I got to hear "Whiskey Bent" and "Family Tradition" and he played Aerosmith's "Walk This Way", ZZ Top's "La Grange" and even some Skynyrd. One line from one of his new songs was "the world don't revolve around Toby Keith." Amen. Hank is sort of like the country Ted Nugent - as long as he keeps his mouth shut and just plays, I'm okay.

Joe Nichols - a country singer from Arkansas with a few hits under his belt. He was authentically country, the girls went crazy over him, and his cover songs were well selected - a Hank Jr medley, a Steve Earle tune, Charlie Daniel's "Long Haired Country Boy" (actually, maybe Charlie Daniels is the country Ted Nugent) -- he even played a bit of "Back In Black." This guy can only get bigger.

R.E.O. Speedwagon - I didn't see -- the sky was getting black, it was a long way back to the truck, and a long way back to Crossett, and I've seen REO -- I was looking forward to it, but I decided to pass. They get no respect; they were one of the corporate rock bands of the 70's that CREEM and Rolling Stone loved to dump on, but they have a handful of tunes that I enjoy. Maverick rock critic Chuck Eddy once said REO's "You Can Tune A Piano, But You Can't Tuna Fish" was a better album than Nirvana's "Nevermind." While I don't agree with that (and he caught a lot of crap for that), I have moods sometimes where I would actually rather hear REO or Foreigner blasting than Stone Temple Pilots or Pearl Jam. And then other times, I want to hear Limp Bizkit's "Break Stuff" as loudly as possible......

I had a good time. Thank you, dear wife, for realizing that I needed to fly solo this weekend.

Rejected

Since I am frustrated about having my submissions to my own band's damned web site rejected by fellow band members, at least I have this outlet. The rejected Top 10 List follows. My proposed band bio was also rejected, apparently because I didn't actually play the role of Grady on "Sanford & Son." The following bad grammar, etc is intentional.......


TOP 10 THINGS WE’VE LEARNT FROM 20 YEARS OF PLAYING

1. Don’t accept a booking to play outdoors on a lake bank in December.

2. Don’t accidentally invite your wife and your girlfriend to hear you play on the same night.

3. If she looks like she’s got a moustache even in a dark club, then don’t go home with her…..

4. Make sure that the cup you pick up to drink from is your cup and not your guitar player’s spit cup.

5. If someone gives you $100.00 to play "Sweet Home Alabama", chances are they are drunk and will ask you later if they can have it back.

6. If he was really a powerful agent who could make things happen for your band, he wouldn’t be drunk at some dingy bar in Lake Village, Arkansas at two in the morning.

7. Don’t agree to follow a male stripper act. Those women didn’t come to hear you play.

8. No bass solos.

9. If you yell "Show us your tits!", be sure they are tits that you actually want to see.

10. Eating a cigarette will not actually affect the results of a breathalyzer test. Putting a penny under your tongue doesn't work, either.

Computer Moron Attempts To Post Picture

Emma Claire with Great Great Uncle Paul


I think I did this right.....

Self Promotion

Our band now has a website; although it is up and running, it is still very much under construction. I haven't had much to do with it; my ideas for it have been rejected. For instance, I submitted a Letterman-style Top 10 list of things that Midnite Sun has learned over the years. While all thought it highly amusing, it was rejected by other band members due to mild profanity and sexual suggestiveness. WELL, IT WAS ALL BASED UPON TRUE EXPERIENCES AND IT ISN'T LIKE WE PLAY CHURCH SOCIALS!!! Anyway, the site is www.midnitesun.org. Today, it features pictures of several middle-aged horndogs pawing all over Krisi Ballentine, the model who was recently on the Sports Illustrated reality show on NBC. We played a party this weekend that was in her honor, or in memory of her late father, or something. I was never clear on the actual concept. We had a good time, though. They didn't want to hear any country music, which was a blessing to hear, so we played every 70's and 80's classic rock song we could think of. Many of them we had never tried to play before, but it was fun. I have the best times with the band when we throw the playlist out the window and improvise -- sometimes the song disintegrates into disaster, but often we get a surprising new addition to the playlist. Fer instance: we had never, ever played "Word Up" before, but it went really well. To the best of my recollection (which is not reliable - it was hot, and there was a lot of beer....), we took a shot at Grand Funk's "Some Kind Of Wonderful", Aerosmith's "Dream On" and "Come Together", GnR's "Used To Love Her", Van Halen's "Runnin' With The Devil", "Jump", and "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love", and, as much as I hate to admit it, Kansas' "Dust In The Wind." It may not have sounded good to the audience, but, man, we had a great time!

Announcement

Be it hereby known that tonight, I, at the ripe old age of 41, became a great great uncle - Emma Claire was born tonight at 8:18 p.m. to my great niece and her husband. All are doing well.

In a previous post ("Tribute", back in January), I explained how I have nephews and nieces that are in my approximate age range. One of those nephews had a daughter in 1983; she, in turn, had a daughter tonight.

This makes my mother a great great grandmother, my sister a great grandmother, and my nephew (who is two months younger than me) a grandfather.

I suddenly feel the need for a walker and an AARP card.

To steal Gaye's trademark of ending each post with an applicable song title:

"I'm My Own Grandpa" by Homer & Jethro (or Ray Stevens....)

Another Quick 'Un

I'm still very pleased with my 120 gig external hard drive that is filled to capacity with MP3s, BUT I saw a 300 gig drive by the same company last week at Best Buy!

I want that one instead.

Maybe if I sell the 120 gig drive WITH all of the music still on there, I could get enough $ (or close to it) to buy the 300 gig drive....

Might be legal and/or ethical problems there, though.

Quick 'Un....

From viewing Toby Keith's performance last night on the ACM Awards "live from a military base in Iraq", one might be led to the conclusion that there are no African American soldiers in Iraq.

Clueless

Perhaps even at my age I should be "cool" enough to understand.

Perhaps I should at least be able to answer the question via the lyrics.

But I'm not and I haven't.

So, I pose the question, "What does it mean to be a hollaback girl?"

My daughter and I would like an answer.

Get This!

Found an old cd at the office that I burned about a year ago - the theme of the cd was "odd cover songs." So, while listening to Hayseed Dixie cover Aerosmith and Kiss bluegrass style, Dwight Yoakam cover Cheap Trick, Johnny Cash cover Soundgarden, and Pat Boone massacre Ozzy and Deep Purple, I came across a track that I had forgotten about -- Luther Wright and the Wrong's bluegrass cover of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb."

They didn't just cover that track - Luther & Co covered the entire "Wall" album start to finish, bluegrass style. They called it "Rebuild The Wall" and it is insane. I managed to find most of the tracks online. I recommend it.

Now a remake of Outkast's "Ms. Jackson" is on, and I can't remember who this is --Ride or Blur or the Vines or someone.....

Midnite Sun worked up an amusing bluegrass cover of Ludacris' "What's Your Fantasy", but due to lyrical content, we can't play it very often and have probably forgotten how....