Bob Dorr And The Blue Band Update

I spent quite a lot of time driving last week (about a 1000 miles in four days) and the one thing I can honestly attest to is the fact that I have NEVER, EVAH, seen a man using the baby changing table in the men's room...I'm just sayin'...and another PC thing that has gotten out of hand, I have been told that it's no longer correct to use the term freshMAN. We now have "first year in-coming students". In the words of Coach Lombardi, "What the hell's goin' on around here?!!"...
It's been a couple years since our last gig in the land of Chucks, Charles City IA. (how much wood would a woodchuck chuck, Charles?) See ya tonight (Fri) at Party In The Park, Central Park (just off downtown) 5-9pm. I love these outdoor, multi generational, community shows. Need more info: 641-228-2335 or www.charlescitychamber.com...
This weekend is Sparkle City's annual celebration Sturgis Falls Days. I love this event mostly because it's such a celebration and showcase of the people and talents that live in Cedar Falls. A majority of the music acts, of all styles, on all stages, all three days, are from here or have roots here. The sense of pride in our little burg is never greater than "Sturgis Weekend" After 20 some years of playing at this festival, I still get nervous playing for the hometown folks. Our playing time is Sunday, Tourist Park, 5:30p-7:30p. Please help vibe for dry weather because there's all kinds of cool things happening with that show. Long time Blue Band Hammond organ man, Sam Salomone is playing on the jazz stage earlier in the day, so I asked him if he'd want to haul that big organ to the other side of the river and play with us too and by God, he accepted the invitation! Long time Blue Band sound engineer Phil Maass (The Wizard of Wires, the Sultan of Solder, the Knave of Knobs, The Deacon of Decibels) will be on hand to help with sound, and this year, Cedar Falls Cablevision is planning on being on hand to tape the show! (I love to watch reruns of last year's Sturgis Falls Days on the local cable channel at 3am in the middle of a blizzard in the winter) My personal thanks to Jay Stoddard and Marcus at the Hub, along with the Sturgis entertainment committee, for the invitation to be part of this hometown festival. It means the world to me. See yas around town all weekend...
There are two "for the public" shows next weekend for the Independence Day weekend celebration. Thursday July 1 we're part of the kick off day for the 5 day celebration in Clear Lake. We play the band shell 7-11pm. And our annual 4th of July show on Sunday, at Colby Park, 69th & School St. (no freshMEN please) in Windsor Heights. (suburban Des Moines) We play right before the fireworks, 7-10pm. Both appearances, free of charge, all ages welcome...
Our latest recording, done at last year's New Year's Eve/Wedding celebration, was released this week. We'll have copies of Blue Moon Honeymoon available at all live shows and thru the website Merchandise page. This year's Tour shirt has Steve Campbell's wedding celebration design on the front and list of dates on the back, available in black, white, or light blue. Any profits derived from sales of shirts this year will be shared equally with the American Cancer Society and the clean up efforts in the Gulf of Mexico from the sickening oil spill. So here's the deal (only for you) Buy that new CD for the regular $15 price. Get the shirt for $5 more. But wait, there's more, get the CD/shirt combo for $20 and get that Iowa Public TV produced 2-DVD set (regularly priced at $25) for just $5 more. AND, add as many other Blue Band CDs as you like for only $5 each! How do we do it??? VOLUME!!!...
We took a couple of STEPS backward this week in the on going saga of house remodeling. Literally an entire day, with a 4 man crew, was taken with moving the brand new stairway six inches to the south so the refrigerator door could swing open. And this morning (at 7:48am but who's counting (sheep)) (baaaaad joke, sorry, but I'm delirious from no sleep) (a no sleep sheep?) a trench was dug all along the foundation in the front of the house in order to plug the holes/crack in the foundation that lets the water in and have it sealed by some kind of rubber waterproofing. We've been waiting for this water proofing for weeks, but there has been too much (rain) water to allow work on the waterproofing. All of this had to happen before we could do any landscaping. (Catch 22?) I just tell people they can find our house because we're the only one with 5 foot mounds of dirt in the front yard and a green rubber coating on our foundation (insert your own joke here) We had hoped that the work would be done by Sturgis Falls Days. Now we're hoping for Labor Day....
A quick shout out and thank you to Laura and Larry who, honest to God, brought Mango CAKE to the Kansas City gig last Saturday! This was dessert after AJ and Carla brought in food for their birthday celebration (happy birthday to both of yas) and it was all topped off with JoMama's TRIPLE chocolate brownies. The sugar high helped with the 5 1/2 hour drive home! (no men changing babies in ANY of the restrooms along the way)...
So remember as you drive down that Blue Highway, there IS such a thing as Mango CAKE, you make it if you try, so bring it with you when you come. And bring yer zydeco tie along too (there's a spot for you to play along on our new CD) See ya on the streets of Sparkle City, and always remember we love you. Bob Dorr & The Blue Band
PS: we're slowly getting a handle on our email delivery problems. Please let us know if this is the first note you've gotten in a while or any other delivery abnormality you might be experiencing (?!)