I'm helping with a family garage sale in the morning (ok, the crack of noon, but that's morning for me) so this is likely to be just the facts, mammals, just the facts...
Saturday evening, 7-10pm, we have been invited back to the Cedar Trails Festival pre-Night Ride Concert. Literally HUNDREDS of people from small tykes on trikes to veteran X-game wanna bees riding on unicycles make this annual event that starts in Gateway Park, right here in Sparkle City USA (Cedar Falls) just as the sun goes down and winds around some of the fantastic trails that we have here in the Cedar Valley. The Blue Band is the entertainment as people begin to gather in the park for the ride. The Trails Festival started Wednesday and runs/walks/bikes thru Sunday. A complete schedule of events for this festival can be found at http://www.cedartrailspartnership.org/festival.html The Blue Band itself is probably going to sound as much like the old days as it has in awhile. The "original" sound of the band was two guitars, harp, and one sax player, plus the featured violin player. Well, we'll have that same old sound again this week (except for the violin player) (it'd be fun to have Molly Nova join us for a show or two this 30th anniversary year, wouldn't it?) Bob Guthart, who often sits in with us at The Hub, will be the second guitar player for the night (no, I don't know if he's bringing the GREEN guitar. He owns Bob's Guitars, he has 400 guitars!) and, believe it or not, Bobby Thompson will be the sax player. Bobby T. was our third sax player starting in 1984 and going until 1987 (or '88, for some reason, the memory is kinda foggy about those days!) He played on our last three vinyl LPs and has done a date or two with us almost every year since, sandwiched around his regular gigs with The Salsa Band and with Dennis McMurrin's Demolition Band. I really enjoy it when Blue alums join us for gigs, especially during these landmark anniversary years. Perhaps you could bring CAKE to celebrate this reunion of sorts...
I am a HUGE Iowa State Fair fan. Carolyn and I are going Sunday and Monday. We have our own little tradition that has us search out all the foods on a stick. It takes us two days to hunt down all the stuff on the official Fair list of food on a stick. We have to actually see it in order to be crossed off the list (no we don't actually EAT all the stuff on a stick. We leave that to our friend Rockin' Russell who says that he's been at The Fair everyday it's been open for the last 25 years. I believe him. This year, we're going to be joining other UNI alums, staffing the UNI booth at the Varied Industries Bldg. We'll be there Sunday evening 6-9pm. Stop by, I know you really want that temporary Panther tattoo on your forehead...
And then, it's the BIG one. The Blue Band's weekend at the Fair. Four generations of Blue People reuniting on the hill at the AE/TV8 Stage. This is our 26th year (or 27. There's that memory thing again) It is truly a celebration of growing up together in Iowa. We play two shows nightly, 7 & 9pm, Fri/Sat Aug. 19 & 20. Bring the kids, bring the grandkids, bring funnelCAKES! I'll have lots more on this next week. The stage sound guys, Dan & Nate, made some really great recordings of our 2009 appearance. I'm hoping to have some of those recordings posted in the next few days, just to put us in the right frame of mind! Check http://www.theblueband.com/bluemusic.htm in the next few days (there's some takes from last New Year's Eve up there right now)...
I drove to Cedar Rapids on Tuesday to do a taped interview with Dennis Green, the station manager at KCCK, as a promotion for the Blue Band's show at KCCK's Jazz Under The Stars series on Aug. 25. That interview airs on KCCK, Friday morning Aug. 19 at 10:10pm. It was fun being the interviewed rather than the interviewer. Dennis brought out a lot of old Blue history stories. Once the interview airs, I think it's archived and can be heard on line. More info can be found at http://www.kcck.org/
And speaking of radio shows. The 34th anniversary of Elvis Presley's passing is next Tuesday, Aug. 16. This Saturday's Backtracks show is my annual Elvis special. Hits, movie songs, live performances, interviews. The King is dead. LONG LIVE THE KING!! The show airs 7-10pm Saturday night. Find the frequency in your area (remember, the show is now distributed on Iowa Public Radio's Ft. Dodge, Carroll, and Lamoni frequencies as well as it's regular frequencies) or listen on line anywhere on the planet at www.iowapublicradio.org. And, please note that a rerun of the hour spotlight on Bobby Whitlock (co-lead singer, along with Eric Clapton, on the Layla record by Derek & The Dominos) that I produced last spring, will happen on NEXT week's show (Aug. 20) from 8-9pm. Find out more about Backtracks shows at http://iowapublicradio.org/studio-one/backtracks/ or my Sunday blues show, Blue Avenue at http://iowapublicradio.org/studio-one/blue-avenue/
In an effort to impair every extremity I have (remember, I dropped a tabletop on the opposite foot that is recovering from an ingrown toe nail problem) I did something to my thumb that caused it to sell up to about 3 times it's size and be extremely painful to the touch. Grabbing something with that hand was impossible (remember, the wheel, fire, and opposable thumbs are what civilized the world) (and duct tape) Problem is, I have no clue what I did! It looked so bad that my wife insisted I go to a doctor (I'm a MAN, I fought her on this. She won) Three X-rays proved inconclusive. The doc says if it hurts when you do that, DON'T DO THAT. Charged me $100 for the visit (I have no idea what the X-rays cost) and gave me $4 worth of pills. She said take two of these everyday for a week. And now my thumb is only twice as big as normal and I'm almost back to being able to use the space bar on the typing keyboard with my thumb. The miracles of modern medical science...
I'm selling a pair of Gon Bop congas with a stand and (only) one case at the garage sale. I've had these drums since 1977. I've been holding on to them only because they were once played by Cedar Falls music legend Murray Romine, but they gotta go to make way for the snowblower that my in-laws have handed down to the Dorr household. I've got some pretty good blues CDs for sale and I'm giving away lots of discs by Iowa artists. It's a two family sale at 400 and 401 Ardmore St. in Waterloo, I'll be there noon-4pm, come by and get some inexpensive music and take those conga drums so you can play along!...
See yas on the Blue Highway, rub yer zydeco tie to the tune of Happy Trails To You, bring coffee CAKE to the garage sale, it's never too early to book holiday parties (we need the work) and don't forget that we love you. Bob Dorr & The Blue Band
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