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Gig Updates Friday, September 29-2006 Moondogs: Blanox, Pa. Ole friend & sax man, Ed Jonnet joined us for a good portion of this show. Highlights were, "Git By", "Somethins Cookin", and "Burnin Up". It was pretty cool having another instrument playing with our standard three piece set up. Ed used to play with "The Rythm Kings" back in the seventies, he played great back then and sounded strong with us on this Moondog friday night. Saturday, September 23-2006 Shining Stone: Uniontown, Pa. "Bulldog" grooved hard. That was all it took. We was smokin. Local polka icon, Dave Dombrosky was banging some serious squeezebox to help us close out the first set. Double D ripped the "Just Because Polka" and brought new romance to "Help Me Make It Thru The Night". Set two opened up with "That Ain't Gonna Happen", "I Seen Too Much" and "Mr. Right Now", which by the way, is not the same song as the Povertyneck Hillbilly's song. Both songs just have the same title. "Easy Money" was on fire. "Bow Legged Woman" came across real strong. "Son Of A Gun" held it's own. It was great to see ole friend Bobby Moore with a big smile on his face. Da Breedwells was in da house. Chicks from da sticks...........? Tuesday, September 19-2006 Club Cafe: Southside-Pittsburgh, Pa. On this beautiful evening I was the opening act for Jill Simmons. I played solo acoustic and really enjoyed the experi-ence. "I Tried" gave way to "Nightriders" followed by "Playin In A Rockin' Roll Band", "The Morning After" and "Pennsylvania Rain". I tried to be on good behavior but somehow the conversation went south and I think I scared some of the nice white folks( the kind that probably have jobs with benefits) but, that's the rockin side of this life.......... Did "Sick n Tired" for Terrible Tom, then closed out the set with "This Is Where You Kiss Me". Sure is a gas to play solo.... it's almost like being naked............almost. Jill Simmons, backed by John Da Junkman on piano, did tunes from blues to broadway and really let the house know that she's growing up. Jill's husband, Joffo Simmons and I joined the party about six songs into the very well received show. Bonny Raitt's "Gnawin On It" came off real well. Andrea Pearle sang background vocals on "Chain Of Fools". Jill sounded great singing "Down To My Last Million Tears". Andrea and I sang harmonies on an ole Etta James tune "Somethins Got A Hold Of Me". "I'd Rather Go Blind" gave me a chance to rip some guitar while Jill and Andrea did some rippin of their own. All the while John Da Junkman worked his thang in a very dignified manner, Mr. Simmons stired the soup........ The show ended with Jill doing a great job on "Three Times Your Fool". House sound man, Peter got the room sounding real sweet............ Saturday, September 16-2006 Excuses: Southside-Pittsburgh, Pa. I could tell it was gonna be nuts the moment I walked in the door. "Bulldog", "Boilermaker", "Somethins Cookin", "We Come A Long Way". At that point we dipped back into the old days and pulled out "Easy Money" and "Loverboy" which raised the stakes cause we was flat out rockin strong..............Jill Simmons got on stage with us and sang "Look What You Done" and an up tempo shuffle to the delight of the good rocking locals. Jill is starting to kick some tail.......... just to try and keep some disorder to the universe we did walk thru versions of "This Is Where You Kiss Me" and "Pennsylvania Rain" but that couldn't settle this crowd. Set one ended with a Chuck Berry classic, "Round n' Round". Set two opened up with "Here Comes The Weekend"and "Sidewalk Romeo". Long time Excuses legend Captain Nate led the dancing and carrying on as he sang harmony on "Rock You". Whitey stood out tonight singing "Sick n' Tired", much clapin and shoutin...............Harry reached these people singign his hillbilly heart out on "Pots n' Pans".......... This was a true Pittsburgh rock n' roll night. Some ole tunes from the seventies, some of dat trash from da eighties, a couple ninties nuggets, and a buncha baloney from these times in which we now almost live.........do ya feel me.......woof..... Saturday, September 16-2006 Houndapalooza: Monroeville, Pa. In the parking lot of the new Petco pet store, I played a 45 minute solo acoustic show. Lots of very noble looking greyhounds gliding around. It's almost like they look down on humans, as well they should.......Closed out the show with a smoking version of "I Was Blind". Then Bob, the show's organizer, gave me this really cool tie-dyed t-shirt. Dogs.......are people too.........got a couple at home, man dog nama Jack McGhee, bitch nama Weezer Mae Murray Friday, September 15-2006 P.D.'s Pub: Pittsburgh, Pa. Lots of new young faces in the house, I luv that. Strong first set, we brought Chuck Koehler up to close it out singing "Can't Help Falling In Love", "Teddy Bear" and "Secret Agent Man". Something in the air made me try to satisfy a request for "Drift Away". This made me realize that a new generation of folks get with that tune, thanks to Uncle Kracker, cool huh? A mess of very cool locals got up and sang with us. One young buck tried to sing "Great Balls Of Fire" without much luck. So I asked him to have a seat and watch Whitey Clyde Cooper rip dat song a new a new hind end. Although we played a few cover tunes tonight the ole Pittsburgh rock n' roll carried the night. "Poor Little Rich Kid" went out to Frankie as always...........I been thinking, I sure miss ole man Frankie, he was a good one......... Thursday, September 14-2006 Moondogs: Blawnox, Pa. I was supposed to play solo acoustic this nite but, a traveling road band needed a gig for routing purposes, so Jason Ricci played instead. I got to see the show and was thoroughly blown away by this act. Great rythm section, hot guitar player, and Jason-this bad ass harp man. If you ever have a chance to see this band don't miss them. An extremly unique and powerful band. I sat in on a couple tunes as did Erin Burkett, Bob McKeag, and Rich Kacin but, I think all would agree that the Jason Ricci band was da show on dis nite. Friday, September 8-2006 Scottdale Firemans Club Very few people in this evening's crowd had never seen us before. We just did what we do and won some over and scared some away. Nothings changed over the years and that's a good thang. It's alright to weed out the weak, let them go back to their own trivial affairs, we've got some rockin to do. You hear me talkin don't cha! "Nothin To Lose" let the locals know that Neil Young don't need no mountain boy hangin around any how............da dork boy brought da plow..... ya, hear me talkin now........."Smoke Two Joints" was well received by these reefer tokin country folks .......yes, I guess we're all on the same page after all ..........and da locals laughed and cried out his name "Dorkboy Dorkboy" Saturday, September 19-2006 Excuses: Southside-Pittsburgh, Pa. The Steeler game wasn't over till 11:15 so we didn't start till 11:25. We then played a 2 hour 35 minute set. The first 2 hours were smokin. "Nothin To Lose" was very up lifting on this good rockin nite. "Loverboy" and "Bow Legged Woman" also stood out. We got a request for "Just Like A Woman" and did a pretty good version considering we haden't played that tune in quite a while. After warning the crowd that I should know better than to try and sing this type of song I went ahead and sang Roy Oribison's "In Dreams", a song that has fascinated me for years. It wasn't pretty but it sure was fun.
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