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Most recent update   - 10/24/10

10/20/10	-	Rick's rap, schedules
10/24/10	-	Rick's rap, schedules

Rick's Rap   - October 2010

      10/02/10

      Rausch 'tober Fest

      This was the 6th in a series of annual parties thrown by a fellow Bob works with, with the theme of "a celebration of makin' it through another year alive and well". It was a truely splended affair with generous libations and a dazzeling array of sumptuous foods. Just to top it off nicely, the people (somewhere in the neighborhood of a hundred of them) were friendly, and the weather was absolutely perfect.

      We were scheduled to play from 2 - 4, when another band would set up and take over for the rest of the party. They never showed up, and nobody could get ahold of them, so we played until 9. We played every song we know (except for Henry and That'll Be The Day), and quite a few we didn't know. It was the best we've ever played (at least so far), and we received quite a few compliments from the crowd. They wanted us to keep playing, but we didn't bring any lights, and it had gotten too dark to see the fretboards on our guitars - which made it just too difficult to keep faking our way through songs we didn't know.

      10/08/10

      Rick and Cowboy , with The Free State House Rockers, at the Bowie Old Town Grill.

      We started at 9:00 instead of 8:00 this time because the Grill was hosting a reception dinner. When we showed up at 8:00 to set up and do a sound check, the upstairs was closed to regular customers. They let us start setting up between 8:30 and 9:00, and they opened for regular business a little after 9:00. I think this was a major factor in the fact that the crowd was less than half of what we usually see here.

      When Cowboy started to tune his bass he broke a string, and he didn't have a spare. I called Fido to see if he had a spare set of strings we could buy, but he was out on a gig. Stephanie, God bless her, got one of Fido's basses and brought it to us in time for us to play. I returned it to Fido the next day with many thanks. I'm thinkin' I should buy a set of bass strings and bring it to gigs in case this happens again.

      Despite the drama, we played well and had a good time. A friend of Paul's sat in on harmonica for a couple of tunes and sounded great. For reasons I don't understand I was getting the best guitar tones I've had in a long time. If I just knew what caused it, I'd do it more often.

      10/23/10

      Saturday 10/23/10
      Applebee's Neighborhood Grill     (directions)
      634 Baltimore Boulevard
      Westminster, MD 21157-6104
      (410) 751-7127
      9:00 PM to 12:45 AM

Set 1		Set 2		Set 3
1     Peaceful Easy Feeling 2     Gomorrah 3     Bring It On Home 4     Cassidy 5     Evangeline 6     Tore Up Over You 7     Trashy Women 8     Natural Born Easement 9     Don't Ease Me In 10     Brown Eyed Girl		1     Uncle John's Band 2     Next Time You See Me 3     Iko Iko / Women Are Smarter 4     Pencil Thin Mustache 5     Promised Land 6     You Win Again 7     Sugar Magnolia 8     A Pirate Looks At Forty 9     Volcano 10     It's All Over Now		1     Deep Elem Blues 2     A Simple Twist Of Fate 3     Kansas City 4     Dire Wolf 5     Tequila Sunrise 6     How Long? 7     Think 8     New Speedway Boogie 9     Honky Tonk 10     Must Have Been The Roses 11     We Bid You Goodnight
Extras:
Beat It On Down The Line   Big Railroad Blues   Casey Jones   Dark Hollow   Deal   Dust My Broom   Fenereo		Glendale Train   Henry   Hesitation Blues   How Blue?   Key To THe Highway   Knockin' On Hvn's Door   Me & My Uncle		Mississippi 1/2 Step   Ripple   Take It Easy   That'll Be The Day   That's All Right Lil' Mama   Truck Drivin' Man

      We had some problems getting the p.a. tweaked. Once we cranked the volume up to our performance level it was booming and had some feedback whenever anyone hit a low B. Intitally the guitars were a bit muddy, and the mix was a little out of balance. I kept adjusting it as we were playing, and by the end of the 1st set it was fine.

      Unfortunately the strain of dealing with the p.a. while we were playing made it hard to keep our concentration focused on the performance, and the 1st set was rocky, but still ok. After that we settled in and managed to catch a groove fairly regularly. We still had a number brain farts scattered throuout the night, but we managed to recover from them all, and what could have been train wreaks morphed into some fairly nice jams.

      Over all not a stellar night, but a solid one none the less, and we got quite a bit of good feedback from both the audience and the management.

      Stay tuned,

Rick