Gig Updates

October 31, 2008-Friday

Excuses: Pittsburgh, PA

I look out and see my people sitting at the tables and realize, I’m home. We kicked wit a new instrument to get it all moving forward, Stutso’s playing drums, his first official gig wit us. So let it be written, so let it be done. I called a mess of older Norman tunes just to start building up a repertoire. “High Times”, “Burn’in Up”, “That Girl”, “Lovedog”  all came off fairly well, considering we’d never played ‘em together before. We hit dis new song I wrote last week called, “When Times Was Good”. I learned a little bit in da process. “I Hate a Nickel” came off OK; I tried playin it with an open G tuned guitar, on slide. “Over Said and Done” worked as did “Hells Highway”. All considered, we got ‘er done wit dignity. I’ll take dat as a win.

October 26, 2008-Saturday

Windsor Hall: Cumberland, Maryland

I don’t think I’ve played an official gig with ole friend Bob (Bubs) McKeag since da 70’s. We got a chance to get some laughs in on the 2 hour ride thru the mountains. It was a little strange to look over to the shotgun seat and not see Whitey Cooper. Whitey is taking some time off, so we had Mark Stutso on drums and Harry Bottoms on the four string catfish. This joint Windsor Hall is pretty slick, a great place to put on a show. Me, Bottoms, and Stutso kicked it off with a crazy version of “Rebel Rouser” that came off OK. We then did a crazy version of “Somethin’s Cookin” that also came off OK. I guess the reason I say those two songs were crazy is cause we never played ‘em wit Stutso before n’ it kinda freaked me out to play ‘em wit someone other than Whitey. Next up was Stutso singing “Three Times Your Fool”. I was starting to relax at this point. We then brought out the evening’s feature entertainer, Bubs McKeag. Then we proceeded to rip thru a couple of McKeag’s bluesy tunes and we got a good feel going through out da joint. The tune “You Worry Me” sticks in my mind, I’d never heard these songs before. We left McKeag alone on stage to sing 3 numbers solo; “How in the World”, “Moma Gonna Tell Me”, “Edna”, folks was diggin it. He then started playing this reggae feeling chord pattern and I just got back onstage and started gittin wit it, then Harry n’ Stutso started gittin wit it, and dis beautiful song emerged, “Sail On”. Then at the end of the tune, we all kinda faded out………..cool. A strong take of “Why I Sing the Blues” closed out the first set. Set 2 opened with me singing “Hoochie Mama,” broke a string, Stutso crooned “You Go Your Way”, and then we got McKeag back for some good ole fashioned, team work, blues rockin. Bubs did some story telling in a slow blues that had me howlin. “I Shall Be Released” led to the encore, “Moneymaker”. We laughed da whole 2 hour ride home…………….

October 4, 2008- Saturday

Bedford Fall Foliage Festival: Bedford, PA

Here’s us, in a gazebo, in the center of a small Pennsyltucky town, locals sitting on some bales of hay, know what I like about it? EVERYTHING. I’m still running on last nights steam, dis thang came off at 3 o’clock sharp. Woof.  “Lazybones” was extra lazy, but also greezy as I eva been. “Boilermaker” got da locals lookin at us a lil’ funny. I was checking out Denny the clown and the balloons he was makin fo’ da young folk, ya, I was lookin at him a lil’ funny. Why-tay was wrestling with a wild bee that was stockin him down. Before we went on stage I was walking around snooping and I saw something I’d never seen before, a glob. I think it’s like some white trash after dinner gut packer. Shows like this are a great opportunity for us to bring our own somewhat tainted brand of entertainment to folks that we just don’t run into very often. Dat bee dat was stockin Why-tay, well now its stalkin da sugar man, yours truly. I was hambone n’ it up n’ I saw a kid imitating my powerful stage moves, so I got him up onstage to rock proud for the people, folks was feelin it. Got a chance to talk to some of the townies and I got a strong feelin dat we hit em’ hard wit what we bring…….how you doin…?..... thought I saw ole bud Jim Price standing by a cornstalk…………………………………footnote…. I changed the spelling of Whitey Cooper’s name in this update to Why- tay, which is the urban pronunciation. I did this, to amuse myself.

October 3, 2008- Friday

Mike’s Place: Leetsdale, PA

We’ve been to Mike’s a couple, two, three times before, always a good hang. Glitter, Artie, Amber, Mary…..what about no show Ro? Someone from the class of ’78 said, “Just say Leelee”, so I started yellin “Leelee” into the mike, and folks came running to the dance floor, think I’ll try that every night. Didn’t seem to matter what we played, the house was alive. “That Girl”, squeezed a lil’ extra out da peoples. Feels Good. Don’t know why, but I started jamming the ole Ray Ray tune , “What I Say”, I don’t really know it. When it was over, Whitey said, “I don’t really know that song”, cool, huh? Played another tune I don’t know, “Blowin in the Wind”. Luv dem Dylan tunes. “T-Bird” went out to the fifth guy that told me that he used to sneak into The Decade to see the Tigers. We sent “Weekend” out to Mary. “King of the Road” was sung by Harry, da sound we made was scary. Right from da git, we was smoking, at da end of da night , we was smoking.

Stay tuned for the latest updates! Better yet, come to one of the shows and experience "The Manful Handful" himself, first hand!

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