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Gig Updates Tuesday, February 28-2006 The Shining Stone: Uniontown, Pa. "Lazy Bones", "Boilermaker", "Somethins Cookin", and "White Trash Tragedy" let da locals know we didn't show just to pussyfoot around, we came to play. Local hero-middle aged, sex symbol, accordian wizard-Dave Dombroski played the second half of the first set with us. I love da happy sound of da squeezebox. We did "Wasted Days And Wasted Nights", "Who Were You Thinking Of", "Just Because", "Help Me Make It Thru The Night", "Wolly Bully", "Steeler Nation", and a couple other tunes togather. We got a request for "Till the Cows Come Home", cool. Send out a song for "da chicks from da sticks", cool. My ole buddy "Red" jumped on stage to sing background vocals on "Rock You", it wasn't pretty but it was beautiful. Encore "Shake Your Moneymaker" sealed da deal. Saturday, February 25-2006 Excuses: South Side, Pittsburgh, Pa. "Bulldog", "Somthins Cookin", and "Easy Money" set da table. Some nights it's just so darn easy, and some nights it's hard as a woodpeckers lips. Tonight I couldn't seem to find da sweet spot. I struggled thru da whole two hour, first set. Everybody seemed to have a good time, I just didn't feel magic. I socialized quite a bit on da break, and I guess it loosened me up. With the strong musical support of Whitey Cooper and Harry Bottoms I made a comeback in da second set. Now ya gotta deal with me. Thursday, February 23-2006 Moondogs: Blanox, Pa. Harry Bottoms and I played as a duo tonight, and it turned out to be quite a nite. "Nightriders" was our first tune, we followed it with "Playin In A Rockin' Roll Band". We also did a new tune "Hells Highway" and "Son Of A Gun", for the first time. Harry played banjo for the first time, it was wild. I love da happy sound of da manjo, sorry I mean banjo. We did "Pettycoat Junction" to satisfy a request for a Flatt and Scruggs song. Small but fun crowd tonight. We played one, two hour set. Thursday, February 16-2006 Club Cafe: South Side, Pittsburgh, Pa. When I arrived at the gig tonight, Sarah Lee Guthrie was on stage.That's right, Woody's grand daughter, Arlo's daughter. I saw her and her husband preform their last couple tunes. They sounded very musical. After their show the club emptied out and started to fill up again for the late show. Kevin and Jean-Marc of local Pittsburgh band Grapevine opened the show and really kicked butt. These two rockers are really gettin it together, singing, playing, and writing. They did an original tune named "Small" that was very powerful. Next up, duo, Coming up for Air. Bob and Mark both played and sang well, although they did no original material, they sounded great. Enter, da Dork Boy, dat's me. Cool, huh? I got a chance to play for a mess of folks that had never seen me before, so I was just rollin. "Graceland" and "Two Story House" warmed up the room, so I took a chance and played a tune I wrote last week, "Hells Highway". Time for home town pride, "Steeler Nation", rocked the house. "Sick n' Tired", You Go Your Way", and "Today I Stepped In Something", all hit their mark, so I closed out my set with "I Was Blind". Kevin and Jean-Marc got back up on stage with me and we did a couple of tunes together. Tonight I brought white trash to town and everybody got it. I guess there is a little trash in us all. Saturday, February 11-2006 Wilbert's: Cleveland, Ohio, (by da Jake!) When we walked on stage tonight I had no idea how much fun we was gonna have. I think we was all a little nervous because we were all playin in a different format. Once again our drummer, Whitey, could not make this date so we rocked on with Stutso playin drums. "Bulldog", gave way to me doin "Somethin's Cookin". Enter Stutso rippin into "Million Tears", "Just Like A Woman", "Breakfast", "Victoria", "3 Times", "Heart Break", and "You Go Your Way". Everybody really seemed to enjoy da music, I think dat helped us to play well. I think I might have scared a few folks with my goofy bull crap, but that's half da fun of it. We were all delighted that everybody stuck around for da second set. We brought up a couple local buddies to close out da night, Dave on drums and Johnny on guitar. I must say, we all had a ball. We wanna come back to Cleve with Whitey on tubs, n' throw yins a beatin!
Friday, February10-2006 Moondogs: Blanox, Pa. Whitey Cooper could not make this show so Mark Stutso sang lead and played drums.We kicked off with "T-Bird" and got a good feel goin. The rest of the set ran somthin' like dis "Million Tears", "Just Like A Woman", "Lets Burn Breakfast", "Victoria's Secret", "3 Times Your Fool", "Heart Break Shake", "You Go Your Way", all songs from the Mark Stutso record we've been workin on. I sang "Somthin's Cookin" then Stutso crooned da Eddy Hinton classic "Running Back". We called up ole buddy Chuck Koehler to sing da Elvis classic "Teddy Bear". We then closed out da set with Stutso shoutin' "Bull Frog Blues". We featured young guitarist, Zak Weisinger the whole second set. Zak recently won the "Albert King" award at the national blues competition in Memphis. "Walkin To My Baby" got Zak goin. We then did a couple tunes from a project we've been workin on, "If I Had A Child" and "I Hate A Nickel ", both came off real well. Both Stutso's lead vocal and Zak's lead guitar came on strong on B.B. King's "It's My Own Fault". "Not Fade Away" and "Round And Round" rocked da house. To everyone's surprise, Zak then sang "Red House". Folks went nuts! Local guitarist Joe B got up on stage to help with da jammin. And da music went on and on and on............. Saturday, February 4-2006 Starlite Lounge: Blanox, Pa. Harry Bottoms and I did this show as an acoustic duo. We did "Steeler Nation" four times tonight. Yea, we got a little goofy talkin bout da "Stillers" of today and yesterday. Robert Wagner played solo acoustic in between our sets and did a good job, singin his original music. "I seen too much" came off real well acoustically for Harry and I, as did "You go your way". Robert Wagner came up with us for the last couple tunes. "Take these chains from my heart" kicked butt! GO STILLERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Friday, February 3- 2006 Moondogs: Blanox, Pa. I booked this show to play solo acoustic, as the opening act for John Eddy. I saw old friend, P.K. Lavengood, John's guitar player, when I arrived. P.K. volunteered to join me, on guitar, for my set. We had a blast, even though P.K. had never even heard some of the tunes until we got on stage. What a great muscian and guitar player he is. The set list ran something like this "Nightriders", "I tried", "Graceland", "Steeler Nation", Sick and tired","The horse your ridin", Two story house", Playin in a rockn' roll band", "Beyond the point of carin", "I was blind". We did "Steeler Nation" twice, cause we're nuts! Right? "Beyond the point of carin" is a song I wrote with P.K., about 15ears ago. P.K. did a nice job on the lead vocal tonight. It's fun playin acoustic, but it's also a little like walking around naked. I wanna thank P.K. for playin wit me and John for havin me open the show. The Pittsburgh -New Jersey connection lives on.
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