The Night Shift

[Billy Mac]

I believe it is Cat........least it was here last night....not sure WHAT you see in Texas (LOL)

[WildcatOne]

I just talked to Randolph, he's back home...what the cops had on him was a check that got cashed at a Cash America in 2003 for $300...Rand kept his checkbook in the back of his truck, and one of the guys he hired on a daily basis ripped a check outta there and cashed it...Randolph has never set foot in a Cash America...but that's what he had to deal with on top of just having his truck totaled by an illegal alien who walked away Scot-free. The back seat area was crushed. Rand sent me home before he made that trip and Jose took my seat in front. If I had gone with them, Jose would have been in the back seat and he would have been killed. Someobdy's life got saved by everything happening like it did. Randolph told me that. I agree...you look back at how things happen...I sure am glad he's OK. On with the show. Cheers, WC1

[Mike-Casella]

Just like I always say, "Things happen for a reason". I employ that same way of thinking every time we hit the road. If we make it home without an incident, we obviously made the right decision on that trip.

[WildcatOne]

We crammed in a month's worth of activity into one day yesterday, and I got home 2 hours earlier than I usually do (2am instead of close to 4). It was like

Let me put it this way. I talked to Willie about this on the way home early this morning. You carry out 2 full gigs in one day. When it's late, and you're soaking wet with sweat and there is no light other than yellow, blue, green and red, a crowd of folks are out in front partying, you've been giving every ounce of energy you have for 10 hours, you're into the 60th song you've played, things start changing in your reality. A kind of barrier appears, like a clear bubble of your life. You can see it. Your whole life up to that point is visible. The next chord change comes up. It's like you are standing on the edge of a precipice. If you go forward, there is no turning back. If you fall back, you fail. You're holding it all right there. The band is roaring away. I stepped up and plowed straight through it. Then I felt a release of that image. It evaporated. I broke into the next wave of energy. Second Wind, I think that fits it. That's what happened to me last night. I had more energy in the last set I played than I did in the first one I'd played 9 1/2 hours earlier. I'm 56 years old. The youngest guy in any of the bands I played with yesterday is 40...Scott, the drummer...he was sick yesterday and he showed up at 7 for a 7 o'clock gig...we had Willie set his drums up and he was playing with us when Scott came up to the stage...that's the only time in 16 years that Scott has done that, but he was like pale and weak and really sick with some food poisoning...he stepped up onto the stage, Willie handed him his sticks, and Scott sat down at Willie's kit and played his butt off the whole night...Willie didn't mind at all, because he met a beautiful lady who liked him and he fell in love...so it was all good. I have to do something to fix my sound. The effects pedal I'm using is overriding my tone and I have to find the balance somewhere to sound good but maintain my signature tone. Lynn showed up, plugged into Bill's spare amp (a Mesa/Boogie half-stack...Bill's a gear slut and he'll be the first to let you know about that) and played lead guitar with the Citykings for the 3rd set last night. He just lets it rip when I turn around and give him the nod. He's incredible. The crowd loved the Citykings. We do 99% original material. They whooped and yelled and clapped and dug the whole show. Some cowboys and their girlfriends were there and we hung out with them for a while and they bought our CD and had us autograph it...a group of sailboat folks also bought a CD and I sat with them at their table for one of our breaks, but they got drunk and had to leave because one of their girlfriends was becoming belligerent and they got her out of there before she started something with the rest of the crowd. No problemo. Anyway, it was a successful night for us...and it went to show us, that people are going to like good music, whether it's something they've heard a hundred times on the radio or if it's an original song that they've never heard before. They demanded 4 encores after we finished, and we did original songs for them and they howled their approval. The CKs have an extensive backlog of psychedelic blues/rock that has the big beat, in-your-face blues lyrics and a rock 'n roll sound...we did 5 of 'em in a row for the show in the last set and the crowd stomped the place up with it. I felt good about the whole thing. The Shakedown gig earlier in the day was met with indifference from most of the sunbathers we were playing for at the Crawfish Boil down at Signature Point. We played fine, but it was nothing they were interested in...our view was great from where we were set up, looking across the pool...there were dozens of bikinis and thongs all over the place, like a James Bond movie with updated swimsuits or something. But it was the night gig for the Citykings at 5th Street that was the best one that went down yesterday. I just found my phone book! It's been missing for 4 months! Life is good. WC1

[jim sanders]

Great story WC !!! man i miss thongs

[WildcatOne]

This was another very busy weekend. Friday night, Shakedown at Katie's in Bacliff. I think Bacliff is supposed to resemble "Bay Cliff" but they just let it slide like that...Katie's is a prestige gig. It's on the map as one of the hot spots. We shook it down. Brandi never did a better show. She was fantastic. I could tell we were doing great because the waitresses got out on the dancefloor in front of us and danced...they loved Shakedown. We'll be back there as soon as they can fit us back in. The next morning I went to Galveston and presented the special drama award at my high school's graduation ceremony to the outstanding graduating senior drama student. The award is in my Mother's name. She wrote plays and her poetry, plays, skits and charity work in Galveston were legendary. It is an honor to be a part of this presentation. Went by to visit my Dad for a few minutes, but I had to get going. I went to pick Willie up for the gig at 6, but Willie was a no-show. At 6:45, I finally split, and of course, at 6:47, Lynn's cell phone rang. "Hey, where's Johnny? I just got here!" The gig was at 8 in Bacliff again, this time at Splash 3 as Freedom River. Colorado's back in town...it's a good 45-50 minutes from Willie's place, so I stayed as long as I could and then I left to make the gig on time. We moved Mikey from bass to drums, and called Tom to come in on bass for the gig. We pulled it off. Thing is, all these bikers rode down from Baytown to catch the show, and to be honest, although Mikey carried us through the gig on drums, he ain't nothing like Willie is...he plays about half-speed compared to Willie. Anyway, the bikers had fun and they are looking forward to us coming back to Baytown. An early morning disk jockey with KACC, The Gulf Coast Rocker, showed up and partied with Lynn and Brandi. Her name is Paula Guidry and I listen to her every day. She is beautiful. They introduced me to her and she said "Johnny Keys! I've been looking forward to meeting you!" and she kissed me on the cheek...I was like..."Ah-Hyuck!" Then it dawned on me. I sent a Citykings CD to KACC, to the program director. It never got played. I asked Lynn, do you think I'd be a crashing boor if I were to lay a CD on her? Lynn said hell no, how many times is THIS gonna come up, baby? Do it! I went and got a CD and went over to her and gave it to her...she said yeah, Mark throws all the CDs in a pile...I'll listen to this and tell him to play my favorite song off of it...thanks! She was very nice about it. I thanked her and told her I appreciated that...so I got another kiss. We played, and she got up onstage with Brandi and they were dancing and singing and partying and we were blasting out the boogie for 'em...I sure missed Willie...he came out to my songwriting class last Wednesday night and delivered a manifesto to the class of all he knows and all he's been through, and it is an inspiring story. He was extremely entertaining. He went from hilarious to tragic. He did a PG-13 set for them..."Baby, I'm not going to blow smoke up your ass and tell you that you should get a publishing company to cover you if you've only written one song. But you're cute enough for me to give it a try if you want me to..." Then he told of how his career went way up and way down inside of a few years, and how the music business is run at the higher levels. He's been there. Willie's the real deal. I wasn't pissed that he missed the gig. He did me a great favor by coming out to the class and doing what he did. Also, I got to meet Paula Guidry and get kissed by her a few times and I gave her a CKs CD. Life is good. It rained here last Sunday so today I gave Miss Debby her Mother's Day present...a WC1 car wash supreme...the fun never stops! Cheers, WC1

[draglist]

Just need to get one song played a few times and you're on your way... bp

[Rapid Randy Baker]

WC, man I enjoy your stuff!!! I feel like I am sitting on your shoulder living everything you tell us about!!!

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, BP...when nothing happens with stuff like this, it affects your confidence after a while, but you've been positive that this is a great CD from the first time you heard it. I sure have appreciated your support and words of encouragement. I hope Paula agrees with you <g>. On another front, I heard from Bill that thecitykings.com has gotten close to a thousand hits in the last week. Apparently from Europe. We're getting airplay over there. Folks must like what they're hearing. It's funny, it was easier to get our CD played on the radio in Belgium than it was in Houston. Well, NPR played it here and they loved it. But commercial radio is strictly payola, baby. KACC is college radio. They don't do commercials nor are they owned by Sony. They're school-funded...Oh yeah, I also read where "A Heart On" by Shakedown is right now #3 on the Texas Top 40 website...Lynn sent 'em an MP-3 and it took off. He is telling the Citykings to make MP-3s and put 'em on our website and send one to the Texas Top 40...Lynn has been great to the Citykings. He plays our stuff whenever we ask him to and he gets us gigs and exposure and he always tells everybody he introduces me to that I play guitar for the Citykings, who have a CD out called "Four Lifetimes", etc. Lynn and Brandi are coming in to the songwriting class Wednesday night to do a set of their songs...it's going to be Lynn's birthday, too, so we're gonna throw a little party for him. Cheers, WC1
PS: Rapid, just saw your reply. Thanks, man. I love having a place to talk about all this...Cat

[jim sanders]

Iallways sit on the edge of the stage near the lead amps looking for thongs