LIVESTOCK 2007!!!
Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Friends,

I was doubled over with laughter inside the icy waters of the Little Delaware River with my bandmates when I realized this was an epic weekend.

We hit the stage at Livestock the last of a dozen incredible bands including Philly heroes Marah, legendary Graham Parker, Eric “Roscoe” Ambel, Tandy, the Silos and Future Farmers of America, to name a few. We blazed through our 40 minute set. The band threw a delightful curveball when they spontaneously kicked into the Spanking Charlene song “Pussy is Pussy” while Ms. Charlene was onstage singing with us.

Then the crowd called us back for an encore.

And another.

And another.

And ANOTHER.

They danced like maniacs, wild and uninhibited, their bouncing heads like a pot at full boil.

We tried to stop. And they wouldn’t let us. Dan Ambrico pointed out that we were less called back for encores than threatened with our lives if we dared stop.

I lost track of how many times we said goodnight, only to be battled back to the stage by the screaming, stomping, sweating crowd. By the end we’d played two-and-a-half hours.

Livestock was the kind of gig you dream about when you start playing roots rock. John “Chico” Finn hosted the gig at his land in Bovina and used this year’s party to christen his brand new beautiful barn. Nathan, an expert barbecuist from Virginia, drove a half-ton of meat and a tow-behind-smoker eight full hours to cater the festivities. The weather was perfect and the raging bonfire segued perfectly into the ivory moon above the blue, misty valley.

Check out a video montage I made of the festival here:



We woke up that morning after a cumulative three hours of sleep at the home of some sweet women we met at the bar. God we needed showers. In the hours before Livestock we hung around a river and I tried a little fishing (skunked!) Then as we wound our way to Livestock we decided to stop at a roadside pumpkin stand.



The lady who sold us our gourds asked if we’d like to see her cows. Would we! We ended up feeding them by hand.




Finally ragged and desperate to get clean before a whole day of partying Butch made the fateful suggestion: what about the river?

I hope, dear reader, that these pictures make you laugh as hard as me.







Our gig at the Sol Bar in Delhi, NY was tremendous. We had a great, appreciative crowd for the first two sets and by the third set the joint was packed. The second of two small world moments came when a lovely chick we’d met during our last Delhi gig ran up and asked me if I knew Jake Jaffey.

Jake Jaffey was in a band with Dan Ambrico and I for two years. I hadn’t seen him in at least that long but guess what? He’s living and going to school in Delhi.

Naturally we invited him to the bar and got him onstage for a mini-reunion. And his cousin? She ended up putting us up that night.



The first small world moment happened when we walked into the bar. Five weeks ago I stood in the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone Park and watched a grizzly bear feed on a buffalo it had just killed. I asked the dude standing next to me if he wouldn’t mind e-mailing me some of his photos. When I asked him where he lived he said, “Delhi, NY.”

He showed up at the gig with a disc for me full of amazing photographs of what we saw. Like this one:



You know it was a good weekend when you've rocked twice as many hours as you've slept.

Labels: Bovina, Delhi, Encores, Livestock, Sol Bar

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GREAT WHITE SHARKS!!!

Friends, I hope you'll indulge me in a little non-music related subject. I took the trip of a lifetime in mid-September and went cage diving with great white sharks in Guadalupe Island, Mexico. Check out the short video I made of the trip set to "White Light/White Heat" by the Velvet Underground. Special thanks to Tina.

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Butch's Wedding Party
Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Beauty and the Butch

Butch and Amy tied the knot and they did it right. The New Heathens telecaster master and his bride got hitched in a New York apartment last month, honeymooned in Oregon and Hawaii, then threw a big party for their family and friends last weekend at a banquet hall above the beach near Butch's family's home in Cape Cod.

We had a ball up there, drinking, dancing, eating clam chowder and watching the light fade on the Atlantic Ocean. Butch looked handsome in his tan pinstripe suit and Amy looked beautiful in her long, white dress.

The newlyweds asked some of their friends to make "wedding mixes" on their iPods and then they blasted the tunes over the loudspeakers to see which one could turn the party the wildest. Butch dubbed me "D.J. Hasselhoff" (no explanation) and I spun tunes with "love" and "marriage" themes like Chuck Berry's "Teenage Wedding" and the Drive By Trucker's "Mary Me." And "For Cryin' Out Loud" by the New Heathens for good measure. The one song I forgot? "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" by the Georgia Satellites. Duh. Another one of Butch's friends played that one. Then another one, Josh, danced like a banshee the whole night. He explained later that in the Jewish tradition the more respected a person is in a community, the crazier he or she must dance at weddings to make the bride and groom happy. I dig that idea. I'm betting that's why Josh won first place in the "wedding mix" competition and took home the grass skirt. Me? I got the shotglass with feet and a coconut bra.

I liked that dude Josh. He, Butch and me sat around a pool singing Bob Dylan and Hank Williams Sr. songs until 4 a.m. Then we wound our way back to Butch's family's place, a 200 year-old home that's been in his family for eight generations.

What a great weekend. Congratulations Butch and Amy.

Labels: Wedding

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