Tons of Fun with Bobby and the Blue Band:-)
Quick, I've got a KABBILLION things to do before it all goes KABLOOOWIE on the 4th of July! I sure had fun with so many of you who came back to Sparkle City for Sturgis Falls Days and our show at The Hub on Sunday evening. It's exhilarating to see people who have been part of The Blue Family for so many years all coming together once a year. There were people from Wisconsin, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Colorado, Minneapolis and all over Iowa. Thanks to Jay Stoddard and the Sturgis Falls Committee and Marcus and The Hub Staff for making that gathering happen after the nasty flood canceled our regular Tourist Park show. For some reason, being part of that hometown celebration means the world to me. Let's do it again NEXT year!...
But that was last week and here we are getting ready for the 4th of July! Time flies when we're havin' fun! (fruit flies like a banana) TONIGHT-Wednesday July 2, kick off the Holiday week early at Porky's Patio Party, 44th & Douglas in Des Moines, 6:15-9:15p. We have been playing Porky's Thursday night Bike Nights, this will be our first time for the Wednesday Night Car Nights. If the cars are as cool as the bikes, this could be somethin'! We'll be a 5 piece with Nathan blowin' sax...
Thursday's Independence Day Eve (7/3) show will be part of the Grinnell Party In The Park series, where we play the GAZZZEEEEEEBO in Central Park 5-8pm (or longer!) We're bringing the bigger sound system and the full 7 piece band with Heath and Nathan on sax and Al blowin' trumpet. I've played music in Grinnell for 30 years (no snide jokes about my "skyrocketing career" please) I've never had a bad time there. We're being sponsored again by the Grinnell Medical Center, who gives out free ice cream during the show. Are you kiddin' me? A free party in the park with free ice cream and a 7 piece Rockin' Soul Revue for 4th of July weekend?!! Be there...BRING CAKE...
As you heard, our annual 4th of July show in Windsor Heights was flooded out (postponed to Aug. 2). Thanks to i-wireless, Ace Insurance, Skott & Anderson Architects of Mason City, The local Budweiser distributor, and most of all Colleen Devine and Paradise Parties Events Center, 1025 N. 8th St., in Clear Lake, IA (www.paradisepartieseventscenter.com) we've got a place to play on the 4th of July. Al & Nathan will be the horn section (Nate's last gig with us before heading back home to Austin TX) (damn, I'm gonna miss that kid) (but he's already promised to come back for the New Year's Eve Reunion!) we play 5-8pm, right before the annual fireworks over Clear Lake (KABLOOOWIE!!)...
Saturday 7/5 is by invitation only...
We've got a couple of cool shows next week too. Fri. 7/11 finds us at the two-day festival called Camp Euphoria outside of Iowa City (www.campeuforia.com/) Iowa Blues Hall of Famer and Blue Band alumni Ron DeWitte will join us that evening, we play 7:30-8:30p. I am scheduled to be the Main Stage host/announcer for the day and Phil Maass is planning on providing live and taped coverage for Iowa Public Radio. Saturday July 12 marks our return to Okoboji for the ReMax Greenspace Concert, 7-10 p.m. I'll have more details on both of these dates next week...
I'm actually getting to this a little earlier in the night this week. I needed a break from making radio shows for the weekend. (The Saturday Backtracks show, 7-10pm will be a "best of" Summer/Independence Day Special culled from shows that originally aired in 2003-2007, plus an hour special on the late Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson) (there's some kind of law or something that says you HAVE to include some reference to The Beach Boys during ANY 4th of July special, isn't there?) And speaking of the radio shows, today's "first ever" hosting of a talk show on Iowa Public Radio was a ton of fun! The guest was NY Times Bestseller List author David Shields and the conversation revolved around his latest book The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead. Death is something we all have to do. Realizing, and trying to come to grips with, your own mortality is a very difficult process. I enjoyed meeting David and if you're interested, you can hear that interview right here: http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kuni/local-kuni-726085.mp3 Iowa Public Radio also provides podcasts thru their website at www.iowapublicradio.org Next Tuesday, I'm planning on interviewing a local educator/musician who is using music as a teaching tool in the classroom with the second half of the show talking to an author of a fictional story about an Elvis Impersonator! (thankyou, thankyouverymuch) Maybe I can dig out Blue Tattoo's 2006 Xmas gift of the Elvis impersonator kit and I can get a studio cam (or not)...
Well, coffee break's over, back on my head (and it's difficult making radio shows while standing on your head!) See ya on the (red, white and) Blue Highway, rub yer zydeco tie to the beat of Yankee Doodle, Bring Red, White & Blue CAKE for the 4th of July, (it is, afterall, our nation's birthday) live the spirit of freedom and independence that our country was built on and we celebrate this weekend, DON'T DRIVE DRUNK (we're going to be doing alot of driving this weekend and I do not want to "run into you" on the road) call yourself a cab (YOU'RE A CAB!) I hope all yer sparklers burn bright and none of your fireworks are duds. We love you, Bob Dorr & The Blue Band (KABLOOOWIE!!)
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