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Last night we played at Texans Sports Bar & Grill in LaPorte, a shoreside community along the West coast of Galveston Bay. As it turns out, Texans is actually a high-class ice house, much like the Topwater Grill was, further down the road in Bacliff, but that place got wiped off the face of the earth in hurricane Ike. The flyer for the gig talked about COOL AC! Not. They open the big garage-type doors and all the AC swooshed outside. It was a big place, 2 bars, 2 outside patios, 2 cops, a big dining room, a pool hall, and a dance floor with room for a 5-piece band...our 7 pieces were pretty cozy set up in there. The crowd covered all spectrums of the human strata, from sparkly, pretty single women to roughshod thugs hanging out in the shadows spewing non-stop profanities. I told Debby this morning, the thuggery was in speech only, as the 2 cops kept order amid borderline chaos...she asked "What's thuggery?" I said thuggery is nincompoopery with an attitude. Anyway, the band played one of our best shows, ever. We were in top form, from start to finish...we usually start the night with an instrumental, "Blues Walk", then immediately we go into "Brown-Eyed Girl" sung by me, then Pee Wee kicks in with "When The Saints Go Marching In". During "Brown-Eyed Girl", from out of the crowd came up to me an absolutely drop-dead gorgeous young lady. I can't say she was cute...she was unbelievably beautiful from head to foot, like she just stepped off of the cover of Cosmopolitan, no joke, she was real. She pulls me aside and says right into my ear: "Please do me this favor. Sing BLUE-EYED GIRL in there one time..." It hit me that I've been singing this song all along only to Brown-Eyed Girls and here's one with Blue Eyes, swaying, dancing and smiling, right next to me...I said "It will be my pleasure, baby." I sang the third verse of the song using "Blue-Eyed Girl" and a dozen more blue-eyed girls got up and danced, with the brown-eyed girls acting neo-miffed...it was a beautiful counterpoint moment. We had a good dancing crowd for the most part of the night with the younger crowd not responding to us at all, but the middle-to-older folks having a ball with us, but a lot of the audience who are obviously regulars there just sat there and watched us, with looks of shock and awe. This band kicks ass. This band goes for the throat on every single note and we dance in choreographed steps along with the songs while we play them. This one guy pulled me aside and said "You gotta understand, this ain't something that comes in here all the time. You guys are awesome, man. This is a great band and a major treat. Everybody is blown away by this..." That, and an endorsement of me from our sax player Clem to a longtime band fan who also is a friend of Debby's, that I happened to walk up to. I gave Clem a CD of some of my original music last month and he loved it. He was bragging to Jackie about it. I put this in here because a compliment from Clem is like receiving a special award of sorts. He doesn't say a whole lot of nice things all the time, it's just his nature, but he is a world-class saxophone player and he more often than not propels the band's music from OK to fantastic. He's a trouper and he has a good heart, he's just not the easiest-going of all the guys in the band, ya know. We love him, we know him, and we respect him but we try not to p*ss him off...he praised me to her...I think if anything made me feel good about playing at a new place for a new crowd and going over like Genghis Khan and getting 160 bucks in cash each like we did, that moment stood out and gave me warm fuzzies...our stage arrangement has been modified; Pee Wee moved Sylvester to the inside because Clem didn't like being near the monitor, and it brought Sylvester out of his shell, so to speak. He is now "the dancing trombone player"...he is playing with incredible creativity, power and passion and dancing the whole time, pointing at the crowd, getting dance steps going with me and Pee Wee, and making the audience SMILE. MAJOR plus there. So now we have 2 weeks off, unless the gig Pee Wee booked that he couldn't remember and didn't write down comes up at the last minute next weekend...we'll play the show...if not, we don't play again until the Kemah hot rod show on the 17th. Life is good. WC1

I love reading these, John. Great, great stuff. bp

Cool Deal WC

I like reading your exploits also.

Another wild night in the life of our very own WC!

Thanks very much, guys. I am blessed to be doing this. It's an amazing ride.

BP, if you can get down here from Dallas for a night in August, Debby'll take you to a show and you can stay here...this is the August schedule as of now, more dates will probably be added...by the way, Danny, Gena and Tim are also as welcome as family.

August 1
Martinis and More, Louetta at FM 249, Northwest Houston 9PM-1AM

August 7
T-Bone Tom's, Kemah, 7PM-11PM (outside)

August 8
Nessler Center Texas City 7:30PM-10:30PM (Private)

August 14, 9 PM - 1 AM
TEXANS SPORTS BAR & GRILL
10003 Spencer - La Porte, Texas 281 471 1300

August 15
Lone Star Ballroom, Pasadena 9PM-1AM

August 22
Texas City Shrimp Boil, Texas City, 6PM-10PM

August 29
Bella Vita, Pearland, 7PM-11PM (Private)

Awesome! I will do my level best... bp

great read John. i bet the "blue eyed girl" is still buzzin'

We played 4 gigs in a row, outside...outside in Houston right now is an oven with steam added. The heat is oppressive and a couple of times I got a little woozy, but we got through it. Last Sunday (3-7), crawfish boil at the Blue Room's back yard in Dickinson, last Wednesday (7-10), the Kemah Street Dance, last Friday, T-Bone Tom's (7-11), last Saturday, Casper's in San Leon (2-4), and finally last Saturday night at Lone Star in Pasadena (9:15-1:15), in an air-conditioned nightclub. My sister, Sylvia was in town, and she, Debby, my cousin Bert from Shreveport and his wife Debbie came to that show and the band played their best, we had good crowds at all those shows but T-Bone's and Lone Star were packed. There was a DJ in the back section with a wedding party going on and we had to work around his deal, but when we played they all came over to where we were and danced...my family loved the Pee Wee Bowen Band. Debby is already in with the band and the crowd, so she introduced my sister and cousins to everybody and they partied and hung out. Mike took Bert outside and showed him "White Lightning", his 36 Chevy, and I introduced our sax player Clem to my sister, they hit it off great and talked about all the good jazz in Kansas City, where she lives. Pee Wee was inspired and he sang a fantastic show. It just felt good to play inside...it's just hell out there right now...next weekend it's 2 nights at Martinis & More in Northwest Houston and Sunday we're playing a twilight concert at the Cinco Ranch Pavilion in Katy (no alcohol...I don't drink, anyway but that's the deal there)...Cheers, WC1

Congrats, John. Life is good. bp

Right now we're in the middle of 5 shows in 7 days. The Martinis & More gigs went well musically, but Friday night, I don't remember there being a drunker, clumsier dance crowd. Me and Sylvester came up with a new dance name...Crash Dancing...I got crashed into 3 times, my mic stand has a drink holder on it (I drink ice water) and each time the mic stand, the drunk lady being whip-danced and my drink all came flying right into me. One of them hit the PA stand and I reached up and grabbed the speaker in time for it to stay upright, otherwise it would have crashed over into Pee Wee. The rest of the band also got smashed into by the dance crowd...it was starting to become a little bothersome, ya know...I was standing in water, hooked up to 685 watts, waiting to get electrocuted. I had to get towels and wipe up the mess. The dancers didn't give it a second thought, not even an "excuse me"...Saturday night was a little better, but an old guy who'd had a few drinks and also has alzheimer's crashed into Clem and Hank early in the night, and his son had to take him home. There was PLENTY of room but he dove into the band. Yesterday we played outside at Lake Pointe Park in Cinco Ranch, Texas, in 100 degree heat. We played 2 hours. Wednesday we're playing outside at the Kemah Street Dance from 7-10, and Saturday we're playing the T-Bone Tom's 4th of July party, outside, from 7-11. We're making good money and the band is popular as all get-out, but right now the outside gigs are brutally hot. Anyway, I love my wife. How better can I say it...I've protected our relationship in situations that were fraught with the opportunity for romance when I go out and play with the band. It's true, as a musician you are usually a target for a lady's interest, especially if she's had a drink or two, maybe 3...but I'm happily married with an anniversary coming up Wednesday that means a lot to me...do I look stupid enough to throw away everything I've worked for and dedicated myself to for the last 26 years? Don't answer that! I'll post an update on the 2 Kemah gigs on July 5th. Have a great evening, everybody! Cheers, WC1
Here's something I did today. The idea popped into my head like a soap bubble. The Summer Of Love! If you can name everybody in the picture, you get a Pee Wee Bowen Band T-shirt, courtesy of me. Enjoy. Cat