What a week so far!! ...... We rolled in to Texas on Monday morning with a sick amp. A brief stop in Dallas got her up and running good as new, thanks Category 5!! We continued down I-35 to Austin, but Taylor Streiff decided not before we make a stop...a Czech Stop! Kolaches and sausage rolls!! After Taylor and Nick Fane were sufficiently sated, we continued or pilgrimage to Austin, well Buda, TX to be exact.. The Ragsdale ranch was our home for the next 4 nights. My good friend Guy Ragsdale and his family graciously took us in to their home, complete with the pre-requisite Horses, chickens, and of course a swimming and tree climbing goat!! After getting a good nights sleep, Nick Fane and I headed to the home of Malavita Barese and Wes Starr to help finish the cooking and preparations for that nights festivities...you see, I was to be a guest musician at the South 1st Food Court where Mal has Mama Mals Italian food trailer, and we were to serve my Mamas Chicago style Italian Beef sandwiches!! Wes, Fane and myself had a ball shopping for peppers and bread and coming back to the house and cooking the peppers and preparing the Juice for the beef sandwiches. Mal had cooked the giant piece of roast the night before as I had instructed, so when we took it from the refrigerator it would be easy to slice. Wes set up the brand new Deli slicer and the roast was so big it had to be cut into four pieces to be able to fit on the slicer! With all the work done and the house smelling like a Chicago Beef stand, fane and I went home to clean up and grab Patrick Seals and Taylor Streiff and head back down to the food court! When we got there Wes was already setting up the stage for music and Mal had just served up the first two beef sandwiches of the night to two Chicago transplants who said the sandwiches complete with sweet peppers and Giardiniera mix took them back home! The music kicked off at 7pm sharp with Wes on drums, Johnny Bradley Bassist extraordinaire and myself on guitar. Hook Herrera showed up and sat in playing some killer harp and singing a few, and some of my band even filtered in and did a couple numbers. Music and the smell of Chicago beef was in the air that night in Austin, TX!! Mals sold out of sandwiches and we all felt a sense of pride from a job well done! The next night, was Wednesday and me and the boys headed to the airport to pick up Michael Ledbetter who had gone home to be with his new baby daughter for a few days and our tour manager Scott Cramer who was flying in from Portland, OR. We all then went straight to Evangelines Cafe for a bite and a show from the Peacemakers. Some of the fellas had some chicken fried Gator, and I chose the red beans and rice, after dinner the music was about to begin featuring; Greg Izor, Corey Keller, Mike Keller, Willie Pipkin and Johnny Bradley. These are some serious ass blues players, Willie and Mike are about as good a guitar player as there is and brother Corey Kellers shuffles are as smooth as can be next to Bradleys thick upright bass lines! Greg Izor can flat out play. His lines are traditional without being copied straight from a record note for note, they are his but feel like youve heard them before...thats hard to do people! There was a packed crowd in Evangelines to hear these fellas play and a few got up to jam later on like Hook Herrera, Jason Corbiere, Michael Ledbetter and myself. Then Joe King Carrasco, Pat Whitefield and some more Austin talent got up before it was all over. A great meal and killer music was the perfect way to re-unite for NMB! Thursday night was our show at Lamberts BBQ, but not before we took a tour of Austins fine music shops and record stores. The good people at Austin Guitar House even helped fix one of Michaels guitars, and Scott Cramer found the mother load of 78s at Antones Records! We then hustled over to CBoys to catch a set by legendary blues man Paul Oscher! The band included those hard working Keller brothers and Sara Brown laying it down on bass! Paul played some deep blues and showed of playing harmonica, guitar and piano all at once exclaiming 3 on 1!!Lol!! Ran into Hook again at Pauls show,(man you get around Hook!) and then headed to Lamberts for our show. By the time we started we had a lot of our Austin musical brothers in the house; Nate Boff, Hook Herrera, Greg Izor, Josh Fulero, Mike Keller, Jason Corbiere and some of our Austin NMB fans. It was good to,play with the guys again after the four day break, and the jam at the end of the night with our guests was the cherry on the Sundae! Yesterday we left out of Austin, a little bit of sadness as we pulled up our stakes from the Ragsdale Ranch. It was time to head to Houston, where we would play at. Dan Electros Guitar Bar. Load in went smooth, as well as soundcheck with the help of our man of many talents Scott Cramer! The show kicked off without a hitch, and we all had a ball playing for the good folks of Houston, TX. It was good to see some long time fans,and Taylor had some family attend the show too! Tonight its the Aztec Theater in San Antonio with Tab Benoit and Guy Forsythe! Tomorrow its Ft. Worth at the world famous Keys Lounge...dont YOU miss the next show near you!!
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 13:36:48 +0000
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