Blue Band Update

By Bob Dorr


Pretty much just the facts, mammals...

TONIGHT! (it can't possibly be Friday already, can it?) Jackie and Tim Trpkosh's anniversary party, open to the public, free of charge, at The Dry Dock in Shueyville (suburban Cedar Rapids) 8-midnight. Bunky Marlow makes a rare road appearance with us on saxophone! If you remember The Blue Band at The Showboat or McGlinn's in Cedar Rapids in the early 80s, then you remember Bunky! (I'm not sure Bunky or I remember any details from those dates!) Tim says the best way to get there is to take I-380 to the Swisher exit (just a little south of Cedar Rapids) go east to the first stop sign, which is old Hwy 218, take a left, and the Dry Dock is on that road. BRING CAKE!...

Saturday night (5/10), The Sundown in Williamsburg, 8:30p-12:30a. The food's great, get there early, dance late. The full horn section with Heath and Al will be along for that one! I've played this place about 30 years (no snide remarks about how my career "sure has taken off"!) Children of people that were following The Little Red Rooster Band back when I first played in that place, now have children...

Next Saturday (5/17) I'm really looking forward to playing a brand new place in Waterloo-The Screaming Eagle, at Fourth and Lafayette Streets. We'll be the second band ever to play there! A state of the art sound system and smoke free atmosphere is promised. Bunky & Al will make up the full horn section that night. It should be lots of fun, in what appears to be the new, growing, entertainment district in Waterloo...

The music part of our soon to be released New Year's Eve Reunion 2007 cd is completely finished. The Wizard of Wires/Sultan of Solder/Deacon of Decibels/Knave of Knobs, audio engineer Phil Maass really has outdone himself this time, especially having a 10 piece band on the band stand and saddled with my usual tight fisted (frugal) budget. The BIG band version of some of these old tunes really sounds great. Thanks Phil! This will be a Homemade Hot Fudge release (there's that frugal budget again) We'll have 'em for sale as soon as we can come up with some kind of cover art! We're hoping to have two or three songs posted on the website by early next week and two or three different songs posted on the My Space page as well...

Speaking of frugal...the state of the small-time band business like ours is precarious at best. The summer festival season is usually the only time we can actually make a living at this. This summer's dates were booked 6-8 months ago when gas was selling for about $2.70 a gallon. Couple that with the fact that the equipment truck gets 10 MPG, the festivals are cutting back on what they can pay, and gas likely to be $4 a gallon by Memorial Day, and all of a sudden the summertime profit is sure to evaporate by the 4th of July. Thanks for your generosity at the tip jar, as always, we promise to spend that money only on gas, nothing frivolous like food or rent or clothes...

I finally got all the musty, mildew carpeting out of my basement living quarters this week, and moved my bedroom above ground (did you know that there is a bright ball of fire that burns in the eastern sky between 6-11am?) (I never knew that until this week) My house now looks like some small disaster hit it. It only adds to my recluse mystique. WHAT??...

See ya on the Blue Highway (save gas-DRIVE 55!) (uh, no, I can't drive 55) (if we could just figure out a way to power trucks with CAKE!) Keep rubbin' yer washboard/zydeco tie (there are 3 good tie rubbin' songs on that new cd) and always remember we love you, Bob Dorr & The Blue Band