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11th, 2004 |
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12th, 2004 |
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May
11th, 2004 - Cowbop plays the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame
Woke up, got out of Joplin and crossed the state line of Kansas
at Galena. On a four lane (rare divided part of 66) I swerved to
avoid a turtle crossing the road...(I can hear you now, is this
a joke?). When I told Pammy the reason for the maneuver, she demanded
I go back to save the thing. Well, by the time we U-ed across the
median, it had made it to the inner shoulder headed for the tall
grass in the median. Dan got out to pick him up and return him to
the pond on the right side of the road upon Pammy's insistence that
was where he wanted to go, Her reasoning: that's where she'd want
to be if she were a turtle. For the record, I'm glad she ain't a
turtle. I'll bet the turtle was thinking: "great, now I gotta
cross another four lanes to get where I was going, and what are
the odds now?" You be the judge. Crossed an old concrete arch
bridge, the last one on the old route, I think it was called the
Spring River Bridge, built in the 20s, and met an interesting artisan,
Duane Lee. He makes peach pit figurines, mostly animals, hens with
little eggs under the nest, cats, of course: turtles, sells him
off the back fo his truck. He's also a banjo picker with an unusual
invention: the pan-jo. He's taken an aluminum pan, set a 2 x2 for
a neck with primitive frets, and adorned the back with peach pit
decor in a sunflower pattern. It sounded good too. We jammed a few
tunes, I tried my hand at it then Cow Bop headed our way to Tulsa.
Checked into a really funky hotel with our very last dough, I
mean this hotel is so bad the bugs clip coupons of bug spray and
leave them in the mail slot. Naturally we were in a hurry to get
to the gig, and as I write this we are stalling at some new friends'
houses, Rick and Terry Bentley, also great musicians (this town
is filthy with em)delaying the inevitable. These beers ought to
cushion the blow. I am being unsociable here writing away on their
computer, but hell, want to get this down before the beers do
their job and I forget everything.
Back to the gig, Tulsa is one musical town. They had a huge article
about us, written by John Wooley, (the authority on western swing)
it's probably online at: www.tulsaworld.com Headline: "Spontaneous
Cow Bop 'Hubbing It' down to Tulsa" We held a JazzMasters
Workshop and had some talented kids and a few interested adults.
It is a great place for the program, let's hope we can hook this
up. We went by Cain's Ballroom, home of Bob Wills Band for a long
time, it has been restored, would love to get a crack at the Carnegie
Hall of Western Swing. As it was, we played a gig at the OK Jazz
Hall of Fame, a great venue and had an enthusiatic crowd. We were
lucky to have Shelby Eicher sit in, an incredible fiddle player,
man he swung us into bad health, then Earl Clark played alto,
another swinger in the first degree. Man, I tried to talk them
into coming along for the rest of the trip, I'm sure Clementine
could handle it, but alas, some people just ain't into starving
and hardship. They just want everything pre-programmed and predictable,
actually, don't sound half-bad.
We're glad to have been here, hoping to make it to OK City tomorrow,
the jazz lab at OCU said we could play if we did, wish us luck...and
don't let the bedbugs bite...ouch!
Quote of day: "If they ain't got it yet, they ain't goin
get it." Rick Bentley, about the stuff we left in our room
at the no-tell motel, we decided to stay at his house...Pammy
insisted...so did the beer.
Click here
to check out pictures from May 11th |
