Sunday finds us providing Music In The Park in the little town of Colfax, just a few miles east of Des Moines. The directions I've been given say: The address of the park is 13 East Division Street. Take the IA Hwy-117 exit, EXIT 155 off I-80, toward COLFAX/MINGO. Turn south, toward Colfax, onto IA-117/N WALNUT ST. Turn LEFT onto E DIVISION ST. (Highway 117 or N Walnut is the "main street" going through Colfax. Go over the river, go over the rail road tracks. Park is on your left hand side, three blocks after the rail road tracks.) We start playing at 7pm, fireworks happen after we're finished, as part of the county fair. Al has been using this week off to record his first ever solo record/cd. He needs to be back in the studio on Sunday. We are fortunate that our guitar playing friend Joe Cuttell, from California, is back in the state this weekend and has agreed to be the 6th player! (wow, after 30 years we go back to the original sound of two guitars and one saxophone) (as much as things change, they stay the same)...
Here's next week's gig junkie driven, tough, but dumb tour: Fri. July 22 Up In Smoke BBQ Bash, East Park, Mason City, IA , 7-11 p.m. Sat. July 23 Liberty Centre Blues And BBQ Redux! North Liberty, IA. We're the first of many acts noon-2 p.m. Sat. July 23 Smith-Maass Anniversary Party (open to the public) The Hub, 4th & Main Cedar Falls IA, 7-10:30 p.m. Sun. July 24 Private Party for the Beers To You auction winners, LaPorte City, IA Mon. July 25 The Wayne Mc Cracken Memorial Evening of The Blues, outside of Grace Methodist Church, 37th & Cottage Grove, Des Moines, 7-8:30 p.m. (open to the public, free of charge) Whoa, I'm worn out just looking at that run! I'll have more on all those gigs next week, but I wanted you to know, so you could make plans to be there, that part of The Blue Band's contract for the Smith/Maass Anniversary party (along with NO BROWN M & Ms) is that our long-time friend/soundman/technical advisor, Phil Maass is mandated by the band to play a couple of songs ON DRUMS! This, along with the party being an effort to raise funds and food stock for the NE Iowa Food Bank, should make your social priority list for early Sat. evening July 23. BRING CAKE!...
I was tickled to hear that Iowa Public Radio has tweaked some of the program offerings on some of their frequencies around the state, resulting in the shows that I produce now being broadcast on their Fort Dodge, Carroll, and Lamoni frequencies! You can find out more about IPR's Studio One offerings at: http://iowapublicradio.org/studio-one.html The Fort Dodge frequency easily carries to Storm Lake and Okoboji and the Lamoni frequency covers a good deal of ground along the IA/MO border, and I think the Carroll frequency carries into Cherokee and Jefferson, Backtracks, the rock'n'roll history show, runs Sat. 7-10pm, (this week the 8 o'clock hour is all listener requests that I could not get to on last week's live show) Blue Avenue, the blues show, runs Sunday 5-6:30p, followed by The Beatles Medley 6:30-7p. (this week, the Fabs as a live performance band) Please help spread the word of this new distribution for the shows...
Just in the last week or 10 days, I've slowly gotten some of my sense of taste back. It left the second week of April, so it's really great to actually (kinda) taste an ice cream sandwich again. I like the taste of the ice cream sandwich so much that I have gained back 4 of the 12 pounds I lost (not necessarily a good thing) I still seem to be fighting some kind of fatigue (or is that gig addiction just wearing me out?) But this week, I added another new first EVAH in my life. I had an ingrown toenail on my big toe cut out. You can call me Chester. If you don't get that joke, YOU'RE TOO DAMN YOUNG to be on this list!! (Sorry Dolores) (editor's note: there have been quite a few recent additions to the email list, Dolores is my mother's last living sister and my moral compass) Anyway, so just as I was beginning to feel ever so sorry for myself because of these minor on-going health issues, I read on Facebook that guitarman Jeff Petersen had passed out/fainted and was going thru two days of tests to try and find out why. When I talked to him this afternoon, he said he felt fine, all the tests say he's the picture of health and he was heading to the golf course! Jeff does everything from drive the extra sound equipment to the festivals to finding and stringing the electricity to setting up the lights, then actually musically leading the band while I'm doing the front man thing, to physically being the truck packer when we're done. Frankly, it scares the Jimminy Christmas out of me (Dolores approved exclamation) to have to do a gig without that guy. Hopefully it's just the toe nail that I'll have to deal with this weekend!...
Lots of cool stuff going on in the Sparkle City metro area for the last day of vacation (Fri) College Hill Arts Fest with The Ramblers headlining the evening, Matt Woods & The Thunderbolts at BBQ-loo, and Checker & The Bluetones at Jamison's. If you see me hobbling along, say HEY CHESTER!! (speaking of Matt Woods & The T-Bolts, they're on the New Year's Eve bill again this year. A full NYE line up will be announced next week)...
See ya on the Blue Highway, remember, in the heat, WATERMELON is the perfect substitute for CAKE, rub yer washboard tie to the tune of On The Road Again, help me with my gig addiction by booking your Christmas Holiday party today, and always know that we love you. Bob Dorr & The Blue Band
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