The Night Shift

[WildcatOne]

Long, tough day, but it was good, y'all. Thanks for the good vibes. Here's the Focus...it's a 2000, it turned 24,000 miles today while I was driving it. It's like a brand-new car. My Dad told me today he's getting ready to quit driving...he's stooped over all the way now, like the Pope was. He also told me he's seeing double. He doesn't have any equilibrium...he stumbles all the time...I told him, I am not going to ride your ass about it, but I am concerned about you, and I agree that you need to stop driving. I just don't want to hear that you got in a wreck and somebody got hurt. He retaliated immediately..."THAT's not going to happen! If I thought it would, I'd stop now!" I shut up. Then he said he's going to give the Focus to my sister if she wants it and I said cool. She'll do great with it. I'm calling my sister tomorrow and telling her to take the car whether she wants it or not...then she can do with it whatever she wants. I went on to the songwriting class. 14 people are in it...wow...they're a mixed bag of people...a couple of righteously fine babes, some young dudes, a few senior citizens, a couple of guys from my Blues Guitar class, some country folks, a Christian lady minister, and some heavy metal guys. The youngest lady kept me there a half-hour late because she wanted me to hear her song and read her lyrics...I gave her words of encouragement for what she has written. Her song is unbelievably strong for a first attempt. It gets down to the nitty-gritty and keeps it there...This is going to be a challenging class. Thanks again for the backup, y'all. WC1
http://community.webshots.com/myphotos? ... ity=tAIlni

[draglist]

Thanks for the update, Cat. No matter what their respective levels of talent, they'll all do better for having met you. bp

[Gator]

Thanks for the update, Cat. No matter what their respective levels of talent, they'll all do better for having met you. bp

I'll second that

[jim sanders]

here's a 3 on that

[wheelzman]

Cat being a teacher involves more than the music huh? I feel that those students originally came for the music but will learn far more than they ever expected too in the long run. My they are some lucky people. Now they will know what we know. YOU IS GOOD.

[WildcatOne]

Gosh-dawg it...thanks...I think a good goal for the class would be for us all to write a song. We have a cross-section of people...country, heavy metal, punk, swing, and lyricists...and me...the Whiskey Saints practice there, so next week they said let's set up and play some stuff for the class...I said cool! James wrote these awesome country blues jazz songs and I have some that I could do, too...it needs to be a fun class...last night was an intense discussion...life is good. WC1

[jim sanders]

You are a better man than I WC .... cheerleading practice in the astroturf dining room on fridays is tough on me

[Gator]

Gosh-dawg it...thanks...I have to say I was shocked when that girl did her thing...but I kept it professional. No touchie...just a handshake when she left...I got my guitar and played along with her vocal line...but what she was singing would have made Courtney Love blush...I think a good goal for the class would be for us all to write a song. We have a cross-section of people...country, heavy metal, punk, swing, and lyricists...and me...the Whiskey Saints practice there, so next week they said let's set up and play some stuff for the class...I said cool! James wrote these awesome country blues jazz songs and I have some that I could do, too...it needs to be a fun class...last night was an intense discussion...life is good. WC1

it is a great goal John
writing a song
sounds like this is a good job.....heck, you may influence a career or 2.

[WildcatOne]

It's hard to truly analyze how last night went. It happened, that's for sure. The situation was very confusing. Freedom River at Big Dawg's sounds simple enough, but it was completely different from that. Ludwig is fixed but not running tip-top. Kinda chugs a little whereas before this setback (it got a new distributor assembly...$413 after towing...broke down on me on the way to the car-fix place)...Anyway, I picked Willie up and we went on down to Big Dawg's of the Wal-Mart jewelry girls lore. They were having a weekend-long cookoff and there was a big crowd. But the deal had been swung that since Lynn and Brandi were playing an early gig in Seabrook for the festival kickoff party and Colorado was in Florida (that sounds weird...Colorado is in Florida) working, then Mikey's group, the infamous Blue Agave, would play the first set at 9 and when Lynn and Brandi showed up at 9:45 with Tom, then Shakedown'd play the remaining 3 sets till 1AM. Blue Agave was HORRIBLE. Absolutely stunk to high heaven. I didn't know I was sitting with the club owner, Tony and his friends. They were just some cool people I had just met and was hanging out with. They had seen me helping get Grady set up with his keyboards and putting the PA together, so when they started playing, it was me who caught hell. I had to go up to Mikey 4 times and tell him and the band to turn it DOWN because they were past pain threshhold volume-wise, not to mention that every song they did sounded like 2 different bands playing 2 different songs at the same time in 2 different keys. Did I say it was horrible? The place emptied out. Mikey told me to go F**K myself the 4th time I went up and had to say something. I said OK, let me see what I can do about that. I sat politely through their 50 minutes of agonizing torture with Tony and his people, who were asking me if Shakedown was as bad as these guys were, and I said oh no, you're gonna love Shakedown. They looked at me like I was blowing smoke up their you-know-what's...by the time Blue Agave finished, there were 3 people left in there. Me, Tony and Grady's girlfriend. I went up and hugged 'em and slapped five and told them they are excellent. No problem. Lynn and Brandi had shown up by then, and we were set up and ready to go in about 10 minutes. With Mikey and Tom alternating on bass, Shakedown played and completely knocked everybody's socks off...the place was full again by the time we played the 3rd song...we started the 3rd set with a capacity crowd that danced and partied like there was no tomorrow...at 1AM, we went into the last song and when we finished, they threw a riot against us to keep playing. We went another few songs, but we had to stop because the cops showed up and said if we played another note, they were gonna take us to jail...Tony and his friends were smiling ear-to-ear...shaking our hands, slapping us on the back, raving...Brandi was awesome. She put her heart and soul into the show...sometimes Brandi'll dance and last night she danced and it is a thing of beauty to behold. On top of that, her voice was as powerful and soulful as it has ever been. She was glowing. I got paid $60 plus $6 in tips. Willie snapped after we dropped Mikey off at his house that he had lost his gig bag. His gig bag is a pink plastic New York Dolls purse with Syl Sylvain's (he was an original Doll) autograph on it from when he toured with Sylvain's band in the early 90s. In it are his keys, his money, his phone book, a bag of stimulants, and his driver's license...we went back to Big Dawg's at 2:20 AM with Willie as miserable as if he'd just lost his best friend...I know the feeling, but when we got in the parking lot, I saw the bag on the ground next to where I had parked the van when we loaded up at the end of the night. Willie was overcome with unspeakable relief and gratitude. There is only one Willie D...We drove home laughing and singing X-rated porn lyrics to Charlie Rich songs and talked about Blue Agave's problems (no music theory background in a couple of them's lives), but how it worked to Shakedown's advantage that they were as bad as they were...Shakedown now has 4 gigs lined up there through August...last week, on the way home, I drove through a Jack-In-The-Box and got me a breakfast bag...I automatically went there again at 3:15 this morning...and I realized that this is how I gained all that weight last time and I turned around and drove straight home instead. I got here and Kyle was on the PC surfing the net on some tattoo site. I heard my cat, Sabbath, outside duking it out with the grey tabby that lives a few doors down. Sabbath won this one. He wasn't bleeding or scarred when I checked on him this morning. Last week he had 2 puncture marks on his left ear. It was a strange but fun night. This city never sleeps. I could probably still be out there if I hadn't just decided to come home, ya know...Cheers, WC1

[draglist]

Wow.... great story as always. Reminds me that I need to get that BLOG set up! bp