My poor little car has begun to shimmy and shake, groan and click. Have you ever looked under your car? I mean up on a lift with a super steroidal flashlight? Kinda scary, I must say. You know, I drove my car down to Austin from DC, so it has been categorized as a "northern car." Rust abounds. So, I Googled service stations and came up with a local place today, and brought it in and we took it for a test drive. The place is called C&M, and right next door there is a C&M Liquor, which has a sign on the wall that lists all kinds of food items for the quick pit stop, or for camping out while you car is being repaired. I am loving the idea of a car shop with liquor and food. Kinda like the place where we shot the Paul Burch interview when he played Jammin' Java in Vienna, VA. We did it in the old school hardware store next door, Stalcup, with fresh Amish produce imported daily! Love Love Love.
And love Paul Burch and the WPA Ballclub, who calls his website Home Plate. I picked this up there: SPECIAL GUESTS FOR 8 NIGHTS OF ROCK! Starting sundown on Friday, December 11th, the first night of Hanukkah, PB & WPA Ballclub will stream a new song for 8 consecutive nights featuring special guests, with a free downloadable EP of all 8 nights available for 24 hours only on 12/18. Confirmed guests include Laura Cantrell, the Waco Brothers, the Mekons, and members of Superchunk, Lambchop, and Calexico. Here is "Please Send For Me" from the stage of Jammin' Java this past summer.
It was a rainy day in Nashville, and JD's voice was "on the edge" from the night before. He figured there was a good chance that he wouldn't be able to perform for us, and mentioned that he brought some rough mixes of an upcoming project for us to listen to. After a bit of getting comfy in the Celebrity Coach, and catching up with Jessie, he decided a couple of "soft vocal" tunes might work out. He bellied up nice and close to the Neumann mic and just floored everybody on the bus with this rare little standard. I believe he does "Bye Bye Blackbird" in concert on occasion---all the more reason for you to catch a JD Souther showsometime soon.
Oh, by the way, we never did get to hear those rough mixes!
We hadn't planned on filming Ragweed again until MusicFest in Steamboat, but with the boys playing a show in our backyard last week, it only seemed right to catch up with them again for at least one tune before we head up the hill. Half of the Music Fog crew met up at the Recher Theatre and were quickly introduced to the house staff (good guys!) and a fish that eats other fish. The band was running late, so we took the opportunity to witness the evening's hamburger patty preparations. They were tasty looking morsels (voted Maryland's Best 1/2 lb. burger) and you know we wouldn't kid around about something like that. While we were waiting, Jim also made it a point to show me the Alan Parsons Project signed 8x10 black and white glossy in the hallway. I quickly trumped that by breaking out an 8x10 color picture of me and Alan in the studio, which I always carry with me---in case of audio emergency.
The band rolled in a little late, and thoughts of us recording in the green room quickly changed once we all realized how behind schedule things were from their bus issues earlier in the day, getting out of New York City. So, in the course of fifteen minutes we were all set up to film them on stage. This was recorded just after soundcheck, with thanks to Ragweed's monitor engineer Brian Kinzie for the audio mix. See you in Steamboat!
