Well hello people, I hope your weekend was half as good as ours. We had a priceless one for sure. But, business first - Friday Night we were up to Davy's. Even after a long hard week that took KW halfway around the country and back as well as the incredible stressful weeks that both DD and myself experienced, we came - we rocked and we boogied. It was another great show that was well appreciated by our Biker friends up to Davy's.
Saturday Night we were back up to the Central Hotel to begin setup up for the Sunday Food Run and Jamboree. Even after setting up and getting all of our stuff together for the big Junction Function the next day, we just had to jam! We fired it all up and played the better part of 90 minutes, just for the hell of it I guess - call it a stress reliever.
Then, Sunday morning at 9am it was SHOWTIME back up to the Central Hotel for the final setup and arrangements. By noon we were all plugged in and ready to go. Everything was set. First up the fabulous "Blue J's. This was the first time I got to witness the entire five piece band complete with Keys. You will not meet a finer group of performers and when they started the show off at noon, you could feel the magic of music in the air. Let the Mojo begin. They had a fantastic first set that literally put everybody into a party mood. And for just a moment you could forget about the pouring rain that was going on just outside the door. Thank god we went with our first instinct and set everybody up indoors that day. April can be funny with weather - 80 and sunny one day and snow the next.
On to Act No.2 - The infamous "Cardboard Cutouts". I gotta tell ya, I loved these guys! They are all young kids playing new music, their way. The way they signaturize their tunes and make them their own is commendable. They did some new stuff as well as some classic rock. Look for these guys as a truly new musical force in the very near future. A bit of break ensued and then on to the 20-Year reunion of the C.O.D. band. What a great group of guys even if I say so myself. There are not many bands anymore around town playing Hotel California and Free bird (8 minute versions of each). And As Tom said that day "We never really broke up, we just completed our world tour". I couldn't have said it better myself. Nice job guys! On to the 4th act - "Ring of Fire". Wally Jo and the boys with their pleasant brand of Americana style music was fantastic. Another band that were into their Mojo that day as well. Not many bands would ever try to play "16 Tons", and play it very convincingly to boot. It Reminded me of that old "Stray Cat Strut" tune. So by now the place is packed, with the better part of 300 people stopped to witness and listen to some of Binghamton's finest musicians, all gathered to help raise money for the food needy citizens in our area. Act 5 was "Chops". Many people know these guys but never realized that they play as a drummer & guitarist duo. Interestingly enough though, I had another plan in the back of my feeble mind. How about a Gator Stu reunion? Yeah, you heard it "Gator Stu" like it was in the beginning with Gene, Donnie & Jake. Well let me tell you here friends, this was the show of the day for sure. Now Jake is the lead player for the Blue J's these days and hadn't picked up a Bass guitar in about 5 years. When these guys played, 300 people watched, some danced, some sang - All i can say was Wow! Now how do you follow an act like that? Smoke was coming off the stage - these guys were so hot. Jake, nice job on the memory bank. It never left ya brother. Act number 6, the host Band "Short Change" with a guest musician and friend who stopped by and sat in with the band too. Dean Goble brought with him his arsenal of fiddle and Tele Guitar to the stage. Now we thought because we have so much of own own material now and then having our producer and sound engineer all on one stage, we're doing our own stuff for this show. When we opened up with our first single "Jack Daniels Whiskey" and Dean played that fiddle the crowd went wild and the rest was was all child's play from then on. We pulled off five of our own songs and at the end we had a bit of time left to include a copy tune of "Mustang Sally". Now most people would think nothing of us doing this, but when you have a 3-year old sitting on your lap playing drums along with you, it becomes priceless. Little Sean played the show of his life and the crowd goes crazy. How do you top all this?
We then began to pick and choose from the hat, that's how you do it. And for the better part of the next 2 hours we all played the "mix and match up" game.
All I can say is, we should have recorded this day either on video or tape, but it just didn't happen. The only thing you have here are your memories and Robin's fantastic pictures for this recollection.
So just as it all started, it finally came to a close 7 hours later. And as the dust settles one can just sit back and say "wow" we did our best. Special thanks to all of our BANDS - thank you all! Our staff, Robin, Tammy and Chris, Donna Thank you all! Tim and his crew for some awesome sound work - Thank you guys! Bobby, Chopper and all your fine staff! Donnie - Thank you for the "behind the scenes" and all the vendors for their fine donations. Ty, Dom, Johnny "nice pipes" - love you guys! Andrea, Cindy, and to my brothers KW and Darrell - We did it! And thank you to all of our guests for making this event the true success it was.
When the final numbers come in I will be sure to include them in our upcoming Blogs and for informational purposes we just about passed last years donation by 3 times the previous amount. Sweet!
In closing we all decided a gig this strong needs to take place on a Saturday (not a Sunday) So look for that next April when we head into 2011 to take place on a Saturday instead of the traditional Sunday.
Don't forget this Saturday's Show - we're back up to the magical hotel - The Central. The show begins at 7:00 p.m. (Don't be late)
We even have a few event shirts from the Jamboree left to sell. We hope to see you all again, and we'll pick up where we left off (so to speak)
Peace and Be well,
Mikee^^Dee And Good night...........
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