The Night Shift

[WildcatOne]

A few weeks have gone by since, and I have been silent about what happened as well as what is happening now. I said what it was but I have insisted on taking the high road and moving on with class and integrity as that has been my code of conduct all the way throughout my musical career. I played last Saturday night with a flimsy version of the Wildcats but only did 4 or 5 songs from our old set list, at a benefit at Park Grocery for a lady who has had some medical problems. The overall quality of the music was not up to my standards and I saw it as a throwdown set with a pickup group that didn't merit any mention in here other than to say that the benefit raised a few grand for Roberta, and that's what it was all about anyway. Mikey was there to play drums for me and he also had his group, Blue Agave there and I played keyboards with them on their set, which was the highlight of the night in my opinion. They added an accordionist-percussionist to their group and he is excellent. The mix was way loud and soupy but the strength of their material carried 'em over. My hat's off to that group for putting together a full set of strong tunes and playing them at their best...not long before their set began, some guy punched Mikey out (apparently the chick he commented on was that guy's old lady) and he had blood on his shirt and a swollen lip, but he played great and kept it together all the way. Mikey was moved to guitar from having played bass in Shakedown, he told me. I told him that's great, and I wished him the best in the future. At the end of the night, I helped Kim load up his stuff and followed him home and loaded it all into his house. He was going to have to go back the next day and get his big stuff but me and Ronnie said no, we'll take it over to your place tonight. Kim donated all of his stuff for that and gave the bucket full of money the band got for tips to Roberta. He's a tough hombre but deep down he's got a good heart. We resolved to hook up in the future once we get a stable rhythym section together that can play all our tunes. I got home that night and there's an email from Pee Wee Bowen to play 2 gigs this weekend down in San Leon. After Friday night's gig at the Portside Pub (it sits on the shore of Galveston Bay, I played there 2 years ago wtih Shakedown when it was called Wrecker's...it was the night Steve locked my keys in Ludwig and I was up all night getting it done)...the Phantoms from Alvin (home of Nolan Ryan) were there with their hot rods both nights...a 32 Vicky with a blown Chevy 350 in it, a chopped, channeled and lowered '50 Merc with a BBC in it, a '36 Chevy with a stock 350 under the hood, and Pee Wee's '56 Chevy Belair. By this time, I've become acclimated to the band's style and Pee Wee's unpredictable stage routine (He will surprize everybody several times a night with sudden changes and songs, so you have to know your stuff, watch him every second and be prepared to play anything that pops into his head when it comes out of him...interesting deal but not for rigidly-structured musicians who don't know how to make up stuff on the spot...it's a challenge to flow smoothly but I've caught on to the system) so Pee Wee pulled me aside and we had a pow-wow. He gave me a black band shirt with my name on it. I made the grade. He told me he knows I play all the instruments, and he has me in mind for the future as a utility player. If he needs a guitar player, he's calling me. If he needs a bass player, he's calling me. If he needs a keyboard player, he's calling me. His regular keyboard player is returning next week after having surgery on his hands to fix corpal tunnel, and apparently although he is schooled and good, what the guys in the band told me is that I bring a rock 'n roll attitude to the band...I play standing up, I do wild solos inspired by Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard, Fats Domino and some Animals thown in for good measure, which they love. I bop around, smile, laugh at Pee Wee's jokes, and hang out with everybody...it's an older crowd, they do songs that fit the demographic, and it's sophisticated material but like I say, everybody in that band is on their toes every second of every gig and they're ready for anything. I love it. I told Pee Wee I'm receptive to a long-term involvement but my loyalty to the Whiskey Saints (He has sponsored us to play some gigs as he and Lanis grew up together) and the Citykings (he first saw me play with them last year) will take priority, and he completely understood and agreed. Anyway, I'm on Pee Wee's A-list now and in the future and it's good. There are absolutely no issues whatsoever in that band. It's professional all the way. If there is a problem and Pee Wee checks it out and it's the slightest tincture of BS involved, that guy is fired right there. See, the idea is to deliver Pee Wee Bowen's 4-octave voice, stage presence and the whole package to his very large following, every song, every time, in full, with no hangups at all. That's the deal. If that ain't happening, then you ain't the right guy to play in that band. Sounds simple enough. Once I got a taste of this, it changed the way I see the whole scene, ya know. I feel like I'm playing in a league where I belong. The Whiskey Saints are coming along and the Citykings are also sounding great right now. Life is good. It's great to be playing with these folks. Cheers, WC1

[jim sanders]

great reading !!

[pro70z28]

Cool deal WC. I don't know how you keep up the pace.

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, Wheelz, Doc and ProZ...For a few weeks I really didn't have anything to say about what was going on other than so-and-so said this and you-know-who did that and as far as I was concerned it was gossip and worthless as material to write about my musical adventures with. It can die down out there and I'm fine with that. I'm pretty sure it will die down quick unless folks want to perpetuate negativity. I have pretty much kept my mouth shut to folks on the grapevine around here other than to say good things about everybody and to accept accountability for my own actions without saying whether I agree with the decisions of other people or not. Whatever comes out of it in the future will be pure Karma. Last night there was a moment at the Topwater Grill...this place is sitting on a pier over Galveston Bay next to a slip in which sit a fleet of Shrimp boats that the guy who owns the Grill built and runs. His restaurant features food he caught in his own nets with those boats. Great place, big open room with a mural on the wall that the same guy painted that painted the Cock-Eyed Seagull did. Lots of friendly, relaxed, dancing babes and they really appreciated us being there. Anyway, after the second set, I was out in the parking lot where the wind was kicking up pretty good, enjoying the fresh air, and this big red Blazer comes roaring in full of crazy thugs. They get out where the hot rods were lined up...the 50 Merc, the 36 Chevy, the 40 Ford, and the 29 Model A street rod (the 32 Vicky wasn't there that night)...what it looked like from where everybody was across the slip from where the hot rods were parked and these guys were acting up was that they were throwing rocks at the parked hot rods. The Topwater Grill emptied out and the crowd ran through the parking lot to the gang who were misbehaving around the cars. They saw them coming, jumped in the Blazer, spun out and split. As it turns out, those idiots were throwing donuts at each other and one of them hit the 40 Ford...how stupid people can act is often displayed on a Saturday night, and in the small town of San Leon, it is often the featured attraction to a crowd that otherwise was minding their own business with the Pee Wee Bowen band and a hot rod club. If you're not there, you're looking for trouble, and those guys found it because somebody called 911 and the cops caught 'em up the street, brought them back and got the explanation given to the owners of those priceless relics that they drive around in. The guy with the 29 Model A that ran a 9.63/140+ at HRP told me last week he drove up to Dallas to a rally they had up there at the Texas Motor Speedway. He got on the track and ran it flat-out (it's a BBC with a Weiand manifold, 2 4-barrels built by a guy in Galveston, (Eddie Estevez) side-exit headers and the guts of the engine are all high-performance crank, cam, pistons, valves, etc...so the track guys flagged him down for going too fast, the speed limit is 150 on the track for rally participants and he was zooming around it like it had an electric wire in it...he's a cool guy and he was not BSing me, he was laughing about it...getting pulled over for speeding on a NASCAR track...he said to tell everybody on Draglist howdy from Alvin, Texas, home of Nolan Ryan and the Phantoms Car Club. Cheers, WC1

[Rapid Randy Baker]

Thanks for all the updates.

[draglist]

Thanks for the adventures, John. It's great to hear all the good news from you. bp

[WildcatOne]

Thanks...here is the flyer for our upcoming gig at the CES...we unanimously agreed that we're not going to get stuck in a rut there. Every few months cool, but not every week...Cheers, WC1

[Rapid Randy Baker]

[WildcatOne]

Well, shoot, that wasn't the one I ended up sending out...this one was. No special effects other than combinig 5 pictures to make one on a background I made up. The Saints have asked me to keep it sane; we already have a wild image because of the name and all of the shows we've played have ended up in orgiastic spectacles, with Lanis leading the crowd in a snake-dance around the place...something about the music brings out the jungle in folks...so I obeyed and took the halos off and took Richard's horns off...he should have them, though...Cheers, WC1