BRANDY PASSES THE AUDITION
Monday, December 17, 2007

Brandy Passes the Audition

It was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen. For some reason Domenick, Mr. Miller-Lite-Drinking-Domenick, demanded the hard stuff.

“I need whiskey!” he bellowed out just before the last song of our second of three sets at Baltimore’s hopping Waterfront Hotel.

We careened into “For Crying Out Loud” and a dude appeared with five shots of whiskey in little plastic cups on a tray.

Domenick grabbed his with his right hand and downed it so quickly there was barely a pause in his rhythm playing. Butch did the same. I gulped mine down in between lyrics.

But not Brandy.

When the man brought the tray around to Brandy she bent her body forward and snatched up the shotglass with her teeth. She held it there for a moment, all the while keeping the chugging bassline going with BOTH HANDS ON HER INSTRUMENT. Then she rocked her head back and made the brown liquor dissapear.

She didn’t miss a note. Not a single one, folks.

Amazing.

That was the highlight of the Heathen Holidays tour. We had a hoot at Hank’s saloon in Brooklyn on Thursday and it was great to meet Mick, a dude from the UK who I’d e-mailed with about our mutual love of the Yayhoos. He came to visit the US and we got a chance to hang out.


(Mick, friend, Stonehenge)

I discovered there’s another dude in the world whose two favorite bands are the Yayhoos and Queen. See? It IS possible!

Baltimore rocked ass. We always have great gigs down there.


(Butch and I in Baltimore, I'm sporting one of several scarves that audience members draped over me during the course of the night.)

In the morning we went to our favorite restaurant in Baltimore for breakfast, The Golden West.


Yes, we ordered cake for breakfast.


And Butch loved it.


(Meanwhile, Brandy ordered a fancy looking drink.)

We also had great Barbecue in Richmond that night, at Buz and Ned's Real BBQ. Eric loved it so much he went shopping online today for a Buz and Ned's shirt.

Our set in Richmond was a little rough. We were on a club stage, not a bar stage which is our comfort zone. But we did get to meet Brandy's mom Sue, her dad Frank and fiancee Bart, so it was a real pleasure to be at Alley Katz.

And the two bands we played with, The Atkinsons and Sin City Revival, were just incredible. Best of all Brian from Sin City had both bands back to his place for an after party.


(Singing, dancing, carrying on.)

We busted out acoustic guitars in his living room and jammed until EIGHT IN THE MORNING. We played songs by Whiskeytown, Willie, the Stones, Gram Parsons, the Supersuckers, the Allman Brothers, Paul McCartney, Old Crow Medicine Show and the New Heathens. Jams that good are a beautiful and rare thing.


(Brian, from Sin City Revival, with PBR Jamie from the Atkinsons, Dave, Sin City's drummer,with guitar.)

Just finished up practice with telecaster-master Alan Lee who is going to join us on a few Christmas songs at Brandy’s New York Food Bank charity show at Kenny’s Castaways on Wednesday. The music sounded hot, real hot tonight. We’ve got some choice holiday selections and even a brand new New Heathens holiday song called, “Nobody’s In Love This Christmas.”

Our great friend Richard, host of Baltimore's Roots Rock Radio took this video of us playing "Feelin' Lucky Again," the last time we were down there.



Thanks Richard!

Labels: Baltimore, Brooklyn, Heathen Holidays Tour, Richmond

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