The Night Shift

[jim sanders]

hi John.. here is a pic we got on the 4th of july gig from one of JTP'S family members our the band in the summer of 1989.. left to right is me , John the Plumber, my cousins Dan,Bruce and Bob Stevens not seen is John's brother Leon on drums. the name of the band at the time was BOURGEOIS STEVENS & SANDERS kind of like Emerson Lake and Palmer or Crosby Stills Nash and Young but not quite as good anyway if can fix it up for me (i think the band lights were on red and yellow )

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, Doc...hopefully these adjustments I made are more like what you want this to look like...I did about a dozen changes to the color, levels, hue, saturation and contrast...hope it's good...Cheers, WC1

[jim sanders]

thanks John.... it was a scan of a printed scan... the little girl in front is now a mother of 3 kids !!! jeeez.....by the way we played this church carnival/ fund raiers for like 3 years in a row... normally outside the main entrance on the parking lot.. in this shot a protected stage was built by all of us because the weather was predicted to be bad.... hence the framing and plastic sheathing

[WildcatOne]

I came back to a musical career here that was somewhat in disarray and question...after having my van broken into a couple of weeks ago and missing 2 Shakedown gigs in a row, and from having pulled out of the Thursday night open-mic jams at the Cock-Eyed Seagull because it hit me full-force that I had for all intents and purposes, walked out on the Citykings, the best band I ever played in or will play in, helped build, etc., I really didn't know what to expect when I got back. Turns out it's all good. The Citykings welcomed me back with open arms. We got together and played Thursday night and it was excellent. Bill's got new material, Randolph brought in some soul/funk music, and I recently re-acquired my Jimi Hendrix pedal from Lynn, who'd had it for 9 months; after all my stuff got stolen, he gave it back to me. I gave both of my electric guitars to my boys. Kyle has the Les Paul and Nick has the Strat. I brought my '78 Guild D-40 acoustic with a Dean Markley Pro-Mag pickup in it to CKs practice, ran it through my Hendrix pedal (I have it set between "The Wind Cries Mary" and "Voodoo Chile" with flat-EQ) and my little Roland practice amp that Bill gave me 4 years ago...and it sings. Band rocks. I had no idea how much I missed the CKs. Great band and they are good people. They felt like I had abandoned them, and finally, so did I. I let them know I'm not going to be leaving again...what was I thinking?...It is great to be back where I belong. Shakedown is a business and a band; it's a different kind of thing. Lynn hasn't been extremely pleased with my activities, but he didn't give me any ultimatums or anything. He understood why I left the Thursday night jams and also why I went to Eddyville, and he told me he's going to pull out of the open-mic circuit (he does 3 of them every week) as soon as he can, as well. Some of the jammers are just not very good. They also can be a royal pain. You have to put up with them and play their stuff, often at the expense of compromising your musical integrity and figure out how to play their Beatle songs in the wrong key, doing their half-learned arrangements, etc., and these guys follow Shakedown around everywhere we play...they plant themselves right in front of us wherever we are. Looks to me like they are just trying to get a peek inside Brandi's shirt as much as they are trying to make an impression on the guys in Shakedown, for what reason I don't know. I do like some of those people. The bikers from Baytown are good people. The cowboy and his wife from the Highlands are great folks. The Chicanos are friendly and funny jokers from the East side and they have a system of fun and games that I can hang with. But a couple of the jammers from the Cock-Eyed Seagull try to stay right in front of our faces all the time, and it does become a chore to maintain a happy face all the time with them. Y'all know how I am. Sometimes I go off by myself. It ain't that I'm not enjoying it, I'm just kind of a lone wolf. I'll be playing my first gig with Shakedown in 2 weeks tonight. I'm looking forward to it. Gonna pick Mikey up and Willie, do the PA swap with Mikey, and drive over to Beamer's and Shake it down. Mikey made my day yesterday when I asked him how Derek did filling in for me. He said "He's good, but he ain't you." I did what I had to do to narrow down my priorities and not worry about this offer and that opportunity. Life is good. WC1

[draglist]

It's hard to figure out what's important to you when ten million folks are pulling you from different directions. But that means you're GOOD... It also means that you can pick and choose what's important to YOU and do it. It's not like you are making huge coin at any of these activities, so you need to do what YOU want to do... other folks are great at getting you to do what works out best for THEM. It sounds like you've got it all on track, John. bp

[WildcatOne]

I'm getting it back where it needs to be...it had all become too much and it was starting to spill over the sides. Getting ripped off started a chain of events that began a downsizing of my musical enterprise...things have a way of working out. The trip to Eddyville not only helped me find out how real and lasting my involvement in Draglist.com has become, I also had a lot of time to think while I was traveling to and from Des Moines. I've got it down to teaching the classes, jamming with the Whiskey Saints on Wednesdays, playing gigs with Shakedown, and working with the Citykings. The jam nights and one-nighters had to go. I didn't belong in that environment. Last night, Shakedown played at Beamer's Place. It's not that great of a joint, but they paid us well. I made a deal with Mikey on my PA and bass rig, ya know. My EVs for his Peavey SP-2s, and my bass amp for him to replace the speakers in my monitors and he throws in a tuner, a reverb/tremelo pedal for my "new" Twin Reverb amp, and some cords. I got the SP-2s last night and one of them had a blown driver in the horn. So far I've gotten nothing else on the deal...but Mikey had the bass amp and the EVs and he played the amp at the gig and he was louder than the rest of the band combined times 2. He was also drunk and stoned out of his mind. It was his birthday, and he played a 2-hour set featuring a dozen of his heavy metal buddies. He stumbled around on stage, broke 2 of Lynn's guitar cords, played sloppily, and he kept backing up into my mic stand and it pushed my mic into my face...I broke my 4 upper front teeth on mics in the 80s, and since I paid 10 grand to have a nice porcealin smile, I keep my distance from my mics now that I'm sober. What I'm getting at, is tomorrow I'm going to get in touch with Mikey and we're going to have a little talkie-poo. He knows me as an easy-going, laid-back guy with no hassles or rush-deadlines, but next week, he's going to discover another side of me that he's never seen. What Mikey is going to do next week is very seriously focus on the deal I made with him, check off the list of items I am due to receive from him and fulfill his end of it or he will be very, very sorry. I don't want to get angry at him. I do everything I can do to avoid that happening, but when it does, there is usually no turning back and only debris to clean up when the dust settles. He blew the gig last night. Lynn was pissed. We all knew it was another don't-give-a-damn night from Mikey. That stuff is starting to wear real thin, with this being such a good band with such a bad bass player...Mikey is one of my best friends. He is a wonderful guy. But he takes the party to levels that I got away from, come to think of it, 22 years ago last night. The day Kyle was born, I quit the party. I don't expect everybody to do that, but it is becoming a chore to put up with it nowadays...Cheers, WC1

[WildcatOne]

I just got the call from my nephew's "buddies" that they've had him at their house all weekend. He overdosed at a party Friday night, and he's recovering without hospital care...I talked to him and his breathing is labored and he's sick. I told him he needs to go to the emergency room and get an IV...he and they all said no...I know these guys and they are doing some very stupid things. Duane is really upset and angry at them but he can't do anything about it right now. They gave him some stuff and said it'd be great, so here's the result. He took the dope. Now he's just out of a coma and struggling to live. I want to cuss, but I am thankful he's alive and hopefully he learned something from this. My God. I would trade places with him in a minute, to have all the opportunities he has in front of him, and he goes off with these fools and practically kills himself to get high on their promise of a good time? I could go on all day, but this is what comes up on a weekend for Duane. Come on, man. Get your dadgum life on track. Just try going straight for a few months and see how incredibly better everything'll get.

It's a good thing Kyle is out of town right now. This weekend was his birthday, and he would have wanted in on the party if he'd have been there. His system is not strong. He has severe clinical asthma, and this stuff would have killed him. WC1

[draglist]

Glad Kyle steered clear (even inadvertently) and I hope your nephew pulls through. Good grief, John, what's fate got in store for you next? Just remember that we are all here... bp

[jim sanders]

yea WC.... thinking about ya... JTP informed me that he has a nephew that has blown 30 large up his nose lately and the money and the lies has caught up to him.... and the whole family is on GO to first save his life, then deal with the rest.... jeeez....

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, BP...far's I'm concerned, I'm fine. I have been looking over my shoulder from time to time, but my space is clean. It seems like everybody and everything around me is crazy from the heat or something, though. I'm going over to Bill and Kathleen's for a nice Catfish dinner in a minute. We have a lot to discuss about the Citykings, and I'm looking forward to a nice evening with some nice folks. Hope your folks like the 4LTs CD. Cheers, WC1