Summer Vacation!
Sunday, August 17, 2008

Butch is in Cape Cod, Domenick is in Chicago and Brandy (I think) is in New York and I'm in Montana, minutes from charging into the wilderness in search of trout.

The New Heathens will play at Banjo Jim's, one of our favorite real good music clubs, on Sept. 20. First hometown gig in a while, so it should be a damn fun one.

Sucker curse, you ask? On Monday paid $75 to the city of Newark for the parking ticket plus $100 to the state Motor Vehicle Commission to get my license reinstated. On Tuesday the New York City Marshall towed my car for failure to pay tickets in Manhattan. I won't even TELL you how much that was (suffice to say it was many times the amount I owed in New Jersey). Then on Thursday when I drove way-the-hell out to see a judge about the initial ticket I got on Saturday, he fined me another $140.

All this for a car that if melted down and sold for scrap wouldn't net me enough money to buy a new set of guitar strings.

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Rehearsals, Stooges, Fourteen Feet, Sucker Curse Pt. 2
Monday, August 11, 2008

Butch and I went to Domenick's house last night and worked on some cool music stuff. Stay tuned everybody...

Friday nite saw one of the best shows I ever saw. IGGY & THE STOOGES. Excitement! Weirdness! Energy!


No Fun? No! BIG FUN!

Later that night Dug the CD release party at the Lakeside Lounge of one of our good friends' bands, Fourteen Feet.

They got a mighty fine sounding new record.

On a personal note, despite thinking I'd shaken it, my SUCKER CURSE continues. After a day of work on Saturday I returned to the NJ fishing hole where upon my last visit I became cursed by catching a big, ugly sucker. A curse that initially manifested itself in the dunking of my cell phone when I bent down to unhook the wretched beast.

Immediately upon pulling into the parking area at the stream's edge I was pulled over by the lone town policeman, who was doing random license plate checks on a Saturday night. Turns out mine was suspended for failure to pay a parking ticket in Newark, NJ several months ago. I had to pay $175 in fines to get my license restored and I have to go to court tomorrow morning to fight my ticket for driving while suspended.

Worst of all the officer made me call a buddy to drive my car away (as I was prohibited from operating any vehicles) and he waited with me the whole time. SO I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO WET A LINE.

How will the curse of the sucker play out? Stay tuned and find out.

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For Pete's Sake
Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Played solo at a Brooklyn Country guitar pull at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn last night along with Andy Mullen, Jon Itkin and Emory Joseph. Thanks to Jon, who sat in with the Heathens down in Baltimore recently, for hooking me up with the gig.


That's Andy Mullen , me, Jon Itkin, and Mr. Emory Joseph.

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NYC accessible trout
Sunday, August 3, 2008

Friends, it's August and with the Heathens gearing up to go back into the studio in September, I thought I'd just share with you photos of some trout I caught on a recent expedition that I made entirely via public transportation.

From a stream somewhere in Westchester County today...


Brown trout #1


Brown trout #2


Rainbow trout!

And my weirdest catch...

Crayfish on a fly!

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Dan Debauchery!
Monday, July 28, 2008

Went to Chicago last week for a couple days of family business and had the good fortune of timing my stay along with a gig by one of my favorite dudes and one of the New Heathens' staunchest supporters, Dan McGuinness.

"Danimal," as he's affectionately known, hosts an internet radio show called Daytime Debauchery. When the Heathens descended on Chicago in April '07, the Danimal welcomed us into his studio with Chicago pizza, Miller Genuine Draft, and open microphones for us to sing and strum on. I wrote a blog about it here.

Dan's got his own band, Blue Diamond Revival , and last Wednesday I took my mom as my date and we went to check him out at Fitzgerald's, a rockin' little roots-rock joint in Berwyn, IL, a suburb on the southwest side of Chicago.


Danimal at Fitzgeralds in Berwyn, IL

Dan the Man kicked out some killer original tunes and a heap of tasty Creedence covers.


Me with Dan and his radio co-host Mike.

Dan's gonna' be in NYC in September, so we're looking forward to doing a show with him around that third Saturday in the month. Dig it, check it, stay tuned.

In the meantime, Butch, Domenick and I roughed out about eight new tunes in a smoky Hell's Kitchen studio yesterday...

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All Together Now!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008

New Heathens played at the 11th Street Bar last night and look who came out...everybody!


Singing the Backsliders' "Abe Lincoln," with Brandy. Out of frame is the song's author, Chip Robinson, flipping Butch the bird. Also note my Monty Warren t-shirt, he'll be at the Lakeside Lounge on Sept. 27, check it.


Heathens!

And from Brandy and Bart's wedding on the 4th of July...


On the left, in the cast, is Eric Jayk the charismatic frontman of the band Wildstreet. On the right is groom and Wildstreet collaborator Bart (who also came out to 11th Street last night, clad in slightly less white).


Steve Wynn jumped onstage to play the ever-romantic song "Money (That's What I Want)"


Brandy's mom, Sue Wood, fiddled the more apropos, "It Had To Be You." (In case you wondered if Brandy's musical talent had a genetic link).


Brandy, serenading her beloved Bart (foreground) with the tune, "Inagaddadavida." Dig!


Happily ever after...

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I Knew The Bride When She Used To Rock 'N' Roll?
Tuesday, July 15, 2008

She still does!

That's Brandy, clad in an American flag wedding dress, rockin' the bass to "Sweet Little Sixteen" at her own wedding reception in Richmond, VA, July 4, 2008.

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