Yesterday was filled thoroughly with music. Myself and the Usual Suspects (Bryan Shelby, Mike Gauthier and Kenny Brown) played an afternoon show at Mudbug Madness. After we finished our set at Festival Plaza, we packed up and headed to Muddy Waters where we played an evening show.
Mudbug was nice, if extremely hot. Though I love to blab on and on about the limitations of playing without a dedicated lead guitar player, I have to say that deficiency has felt smaller and smaller over the last year. This is mainly due to Mike's wonderful organ and piano and Kenny's -presence- (Mr. Brown really fills up space and still never overplays). I suppose I've gotten a bit more relaxed in my role as the band's lone guitarist.
Mudbug's audience was great with lots of friends and tons of new faces in attendance. One of the comments I love the most is, "Where are you guys FROM?!?". Almost like we fell to Shreveport on a meteor. What I love mist about it, though, is that it implies that we're a professional touring act. I've long believed my musical coconspirators are top-notch; it's nice to hear it from others too.
One funny Willism from Saturday: I'm leaving Mudbug, hot and dehydrated. I'm happy but tired. A nice young woman comes up to me and says, "Hi Will, how are you? Have you talked to my dad lately?". I recognize this person but my tired brain just can't bring this knowledge to where it needs to be. So I filibuster as best I can: No, I haven't talked to him lately. How are you, etc. What I remembered about an hour later was that this was Charlie Dempsey's (lead guitarist from Retroverb) daughter. The last timeI had seen Robin was three years ago and she was in high school, but nonetheless, I totally managed to misplace her identity. Ugh!
So we roll out to Muddy Waters to sound check. This show was a stretch, not just because we'd already played an earlier show. Kenny's daughter graduated from high school yesterday so he understandably had other things to do. I asked the one and only Wes McKinney to fill in on bass. It has been just at a year since Wes and I have played music together and a mere seven years since he'd played bass (rather than guitar) at a show. So how did it go?
I think we gave one of the best performances we've ever given. Wes dropped in on bass just like he'd been playing it all along (Shelby and Mike played like gold too - there was one really nice guy wanting to get Bryan's autograph all night too. How cool!). Maybe most wonderful of all was that the Gypsy Mountain harmonies were back with a vengeance. Just like the Olson-Louris "one voice" of our beloved Jayhawks, Wes and I locked in tight. I was in heaven. We had a good crowd all night and they liked the sound we were making. I don't know if they realized we were really just playing for each other.
What I got out of May 28th is that I'm literally blessed with great friends who are ridiculously talented (and, yes, even the little aside tipping the hat indirectly to the indispensible help Charles Dempsey gave me a few years ago supports that thought. Don't assume your unwise and folly-prone son misses all your prompts, Lord). We make beautiful music together and all past drama aside, we really should keep doing so. I think that feeling was shared by all. So what might the future hold?
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