The Night Shift

[WildcatOne]

Things are really taking off with the Pee Wee Bowen Band...we're getting bigger and bigger crowds and the response to our music, a lot of which is ad-libbed and improvised (although we rehearse regularly) has been fantastic. This new guitar rig I'm using sounds like nothing else. The reason it sounds like nothing else is because I am not using any effects at all. I'm plugging my Fender Telecaster straight into my Fender Twin-Reverb amp, and you oughta hear what comes out of it. Pure guitar tone, twang, sustain and harmonics the likes of which I never dreamed I could produce...people are coming up to me and giving me props that are catching me unprepared to respond except to thank them, tell them what I'm using (that only takes a few words) and let them know our website URL...as it turns out, this was just the ticket with this band. They've all told me it sounds better than it's ever sounded...following Jim Fulton into this band was not a small task. Jimmy left the biggest shoes in town for me to step into. Once I got the Telecaster and this new twangy tone started developing, the trajectory took a dramatic upward curve...It's been a wonderful time. Just wonderful. Business-wise, things are changing almost faster than we can keep up with it...private parties are becoming prevalent over club gigs, and that's fine with us. We're getting more and more calls to do parties and they pay big bucks for us, plus they already know what we do and they want it. We don't get hardly any requests and absolutely no smart-asses at private parties like you get in clubs. But this weekend we did 2 clubs in a row and guys I never met before who had never heard us play were hanging out with me and raving to me about my sound! I honestly don't know what to say to them, except a-hyuck...thank yuh...this is significant to me because after spending damn near a quarter of a million bucks on equipment over the last 39 years trying to find the best sound I could get on a guitar, all I did was get a guitar and an amp, turn it on and play. Now I'm hitting the high spots and heading higher with the Pee Wee Bowen Band. Next Saturday we're packing up our tuxedos and playing a wedding in San Anotnio. We're getting triple-and-a-half scale. I'll be carpooling with the keyboard player. Should be an adventure! I've also been working overtime at work so I haven't been around much...making flyers for Shorttsy's benefits and Nick's band...I'm trying to save up to get some more stuff for the studio coming up. Saving isn't easy. Spending is easy. Pee Wee made me duck-walk last night; we had a big crowd and he wanted to show off this part of our show...I did it, but when I came back up onstage and the song ended...my heart was running like it was on nitrous and I was breathing like I'd just ran a mile. I looked around and the band was giving me applause. I appreciated that, but I realized that I'm almost 58 and that was something I did 30 years ago, but doing it now sure does hurt. I guess I need to work out more. I can carry that 125-pound amp around with me everywhere I go and it's like carrying a briefcase. I'm used to it. But duck-walking takes a lot of concentrated muscle coordination and you can't do it if you're out of shape...and old...so it's time to start taking better care of the 'Cat. Cheers, WC1

[draglist]

I love reading this, John. The only thing better would be to come down and hear you one day. bp

[jim sanders]

another great read WC... yea the duck walk deal.. i tried to do it ONCE and hit my head when i fell over sideways JTP can do it but looks funny.... keep up the good work !!

[WildcatOne]

Thanks, guys. We're riding mighty high these days with this band going great guns...I don't know how much press NASA gets around other parts of the country, but since the headquarters are here and the astronauts live here (sometimes they show up at our gigs), whenever something happens over at NASA it gets front-page headlines in Houston. Lisa Nowak's diapers were a hot item for a few weeks around here...This deal last week that came up about drunk 'nauts flying off in the shuttle was ironic, because the astronaut that came into Club 21 a couple of weeks ago and booked us to play his pre-flight party answered the phone when Pee Wee called him to follow up on the deal and he told him, uh, sorry...I had a little too much to drink...I can't afford you...we played T-Bone Tom's after all that Saturday...hmm...well, I can guarantee you he'll be sober when that things blasts off, after all this came out about partying on the launch pad...Cheers, WC1

[WildcatOne]

Here is the upcoming schedule for the Pee Wee Bowen Band:

August 4 - Saturday - PRIVATE/San Antonio

August 10 - Friday - BOJANGLES
Nasa Rd. 1 & Hwy 146 - Seabrook
9:15PM - 1:15AM

August 11 - Saturday - HRA PUBLIC DANCE
Doyle Conventon Center
6PM - 11PM - Texas City

August 17 & 18 - CLUB 21
Post Office & 21st St. - Galveston
9:30PM - 1:30AM

August 24 - Friday - T-BONE TOM'S
Hwy 146 - Kemah
7 - 11PM

August 25 - Saturday - TEXAS CITY SHRIMP BOIL
Nessler Civic Center Bldg. (21st St. & 5th Ave. North)
6 - 10PM

August 31 - ALVIN/MANVEL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE SOCK HOP
- Alvin K.C. Hall - Hwy. 6
Friday Night: Sock Hop 7 - 11PM
Saturday: Car Show

Sept 1 Lone Star Ballroom / Pasadena
Sept 2 Haak Winery / Santa Fe

Sept 8 Lindsay Lakes / Cypress

Sept 14 Private / Bayou Vista
Sept 15 Private/ Galveston (Happy Birthday, Debby!)

Sept 21 T-Bone Tom's / Kemah (Happy Birthday, BP!)
Sept 22 Private / Alvin

Sept 28 VFW / Santa Fe
Sept 29 Private Party / Houston
Sept 30 Private Party / Houston

I've been working a lot of overtime, too...hardly able to keep up with all of it, but it's been fun. Life is good. WC1

[jim sanders]

wow busy couple of months WC !! still laughing at " Drunk 'Nauts"

[WildcatOne]

I never thought of 'nauts as being anything less than spectacularly gifted role models...and here they are pulling all these stunts. Go figure. They're not all like that, but all it takes is for one or two of 'em to screw up and they all get a black eye...NASA Rd 1 is the new "Sin Alley", as it turns out? I lived over in "Sin Alley" in the late 60s with 3 roomies and our assorted girlfriends. It was aptly named, but NASA? We got F-15s buzzing all over the place out there and what have you. If I wanted to get down, I wouldn't think of going over to NASA to do it. But you never know. The Cock-Eyed Seagull's over there. So is the Seabrook Beach Club, Bojangles, T-Bone Tom's, and so on. Anyway, I'm getting ready to play in San Antone Saturday. The band is getting gigs all over the place now. We got offered a gig on a cruise ship, opening for Delbert McClinton for 4 days this month but we couldn't all make it...there are a lot of gigs that get offered and we turn 'em down. A few months ago, I got an offer to play keyboards for the Pussycat Dolls. They have some kind of big-time media thing going on. I think they're kind of like a performing first-wives' club or something. I was backing up a chick here that joined 'em and she recommended me to them...(she probably said "He's a Cat...really! Sign him up!") by golly, they offered me the gig...I said thanks but I'm staying put and doing this. It's like in any business, you get offers and you consider them but you know what you're best suited to do. All that glitter and glitz looked mighty tempting, though...just not so much my style as it would be a decent gig...I wouldn't have stuck with it...Cheers, WC1

[jim sanders]

YEA , i have an old scrapbook from gradeschool.. always was interested in outerspace.. now i have a pussycat dolls scrapbook

[jim sanders]

hi John, saw you were up.. JTP was here earlier today and we talked about your upcoming gigs....he asked me to ask you if you could post a pic of your favorite gear that you are using with the PeeWee deal... no big rush as i won't see JTP till mid next week thanks... JS