Short Change Band - Last week of August, 2011

What a crazy weekend for weather we had back here this week. And in one line - I'm glad that it is over. I went two days without electric and it brings an entirely different perspective to things. But ya know, life goes on. Anyone that was disappointed by the lack of Irene's punch - I guess it's all in where you experienced her. Good, bad or indifferent I'm glad it's over.

We're a bit late this week due to lack of power so let's move on.

Saturday's Show was the Annual Ticket Party at the Afton Sportsmen Club. It was a Great show, great party and we played right up to rain that evening. The attendance was good and actually I think it was up a bit from the past. There were a couple hundred people enjoying a summer afternoon of food, fun and good friends. What more can you say? The Boy's at club put on another winning event for sure.

We also would like to thank our buddies from the “Deuces Wild” Band for coming up and jamming out with us to a set of “Skynyrd” tunes. That's what it all about my friends, sharing the music and nobody does that more than we do - you can count on that. We’ll see you all again next year.

Here are the shows for this Holiday Weekend - Two public and one private:

• Thursday Evening- Hitchin' Post, Belden Hill – Cans and Clams Bike Night - our last Bike Night Show for the 2011 season. The show begins 6pm. C'mon down and help kick off the Labor Day Weekend.


• Sunday - Central Hotel and Tavern, Nineveh - Outside under the Pavilion weather permitting. (if not, we’ll be in the bar) The Show begins 4pm.

Have a great weekend and I hope by the time you all get to read this week’s blog, your lives are somewhat back to normal.

Peace out and be safe this weekend. It's still an 0.8 world out there - don't blow it,

Mikee^^Dee

Short Change Band - August Fun 2011

Hello everyone, a big weekend has just passed for us, so let us get right into it.
First, I needed to give you all an update on the time capsule. {my truck} What a week it had been as I took a step back in time with thirty five years of Rock and Roll of the past.

The old cassette tapes I made while doing college radio at WSCC sounded as good as the day I made them. Some of the titles were awesome - Tea for the Tillerman - Cat Stevens - High Lonesome- Charlie Daniels Band- Long Hard Ride - Marshall Tucker Band - and even some local music of the time- The Barnaby By Band.. If nothing else I can say this - Music is like talk radio - and after a while you become complacent and lose your objectivity. That's what has happened to FM radio as we know it today. We let them supply what you listen to everyday over the air. After a while it just becomes the same ole shit day in day out. It was nice to go back to a time where the listener made the choice as to what was good and what was not and what got air play. When you see bands like Nickelback making country cross-over tunes - "Houston we got troubles". I want my own Sirus radio Show so I can tell everybody how it used to be in the music world.. I know more than 40 songs- really I do! I will continue this week back in the time zone as today I was headed into the winter of 1979 - Joe Jackson, Heart, Eddie Money, and many others too.

Anyway- let us move on. Friday night at Dino's was another outside show - set indoors. We just can't cut a break weather wise this year with the outside shows. Some good music and some great people- What more can one say.

Saturday back up to the Junction. It was an outside show with perfect weather for the entire evening. It was a smoking show that brought out guest musicians such as one of our own past members on drums Joey P and good friend of the band - Tom's son Jason D... Let me tell you this - Jason has a set of pipes on him that are fabulous... He did a version of Mustang Sally better then the Wilson himself...
Anyone looking for a front man for a band - you may want to snag this guy before he's gone... just awesome.

Back to the band - So we put Joey back on drums - me on Bass - DD on Keys and K.W. on the Les Paul... Let me tell you, smoke was coming from the stage area for a while there... {Rudy had to high speed balance his rear wheel on his Softail} Hey smoke happens...

I gotta give this show about a (9+) Everybody got their monies worth that night.
Thanks Joey for stopping in. We see Joey about once every 3 years if we're lucky. His work takes him to all parts of the globe - literally. It was fun! We’ve had two weeks in a row with past family members.. Sweet....

Hey check back on the blog site for one of the first composites of the new album cover... Taken by none other than Pak - Rat himself.. We love that guy...
We're going to pick out the best three pictures and let you the "fan" chose the next album cover. We'll let you know when we pick the three pictures.. very soon...

And finally- this SATURDAY- the 27th annual "AFTON SPORTSMEN'S CLUB ANNUAL PARTY". Show starts early so get your tickets soon before they sell out. Last year we played a 9 hour show... We can't wait for this years to begin...

I need to head back to my time capsule and I'll catch you all next week for the big holiday weekend tour....Peace Love and be well,

-Mikee^Dee

Short Change Band - Mid-August, 2011

Greetings Everyone, I hope this week’s installation finds you all well and good. We are entering the high side of summer and before you know it (it will be gone). So get out and get all of the things done you've been putting off until now because changes are not far off. There’s just four more weeks until fall will be here. (Ugh!) Enough already!

Hey I have to share this real quick here. I bought a little 4x4 pickup over the summer and one of the things it had was a kick ass cassette deck (do you remember cassette decks?) Well anyway I had to dig through the garage this week and low and behold I found some tapes I had recorded back from college radio days WSCC. Anyway, the rock and roll we listened to thirty five years ago is much different than the same 40 tunes that the WHALE plays over and over. I'm like a kid under a Christmas tree this week with 90 minutes of real Rock and Roll done the way I WOULD SPIN them back in the mid 70's! (Ahh life is good)

Also this week - Are you ready for some football? Not my favorite choice of teams but the conclusion is so noted. The only true good thing about fall is “FOOTBALL”. Okay, now on to business.

Last week we took a truck load out to Tioga Downs to see Wynonna Judd. Let me say this, I’ve always been a fan (not a huge one but I had to wonder why an artist with two gold greatest hits albums and five single CD’s released to her credit would dwell on covers by Stevie Ray Vaughn, Elvis and Foreigner. But it was what it was... enough said. Oh and she loves to talk (my goodness the poor band) they would begin a song and play the same notes for ten minutes! (wow)

Saturday's show: Butch and Cindy Ahner’s Pig Roast was an awesome party with heavy attendance this year. It was good to see a lot of old friends once again. We even had a special guest that evening – “Violet” a cute little girl that had written her own song about raining candy and performed it live over the microphone with no music. Taylor Swift move over you got competition very soon here girl.
And on the grown up side we also had “Cliffy” sit in for the night and played some hot smokin leads right alongside K.W. We rocked Saturday night as it was an evening of "making music" with my friends. (Thanks Cliffy for helping out)

On to this weekend: We have two shows:

Friday 8/19 - Dino's Bar & Grill in Conklin - outside under the stars – the show begins 8:30 pm

Saturday 8/20 – The Central Hotel & Tavern - outside under the pavilion – the show begins 4:00 pm.
Well that wraps up this week, oh and as we close, I would like to thank all of the vendors and staff peoples that came out last Saturday for little Andy's benefit in Endwell. I’d like to give special thanks to “Rise” and “Pawn Shop” and HT for supplying music and food, and to you - the people who supported the cause.

As always – peace,

Mikee^Dee

Short Change Band - 2nd Week of August, 2011

I want to take you through another week’s adventures as seen through the eyes of the Short Change Band. (It’s short and sweet)

Friday was an exceptional day for weather. The temperature was in the 80's and sunny. Little did I know that later that day we would be heading out on an adventure that would take us to see The Money Man himself - Eddie Money. But let me back up. So momma and I fire up the hogs and headed west to take in the 27th annual Spiedie Fest and Balloon Rally. I think it has to be at least twenty years since I went to the last one. In those days you could park your scoot right in the park, which is a thing of the past. So we had to drive over to Broome Community College to park. We paid $5 to park and we were shuttled over by bus instead. Not a bad deal, as they really do have it organized with little wait time in either direction. (Let the show begin)

The concert began at about 8pm and for the next 75 minutes we got to "shake with the money man" He played all of hits as he has many and he even introduced a new song he wrote special for our troops overseas. As he performed it, four National Guardsmen came up on stage and took a bow with the band. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. (Nice)

The night finished out with "Two Tickets to paradise" and "Shakin’" and by 9:30 the place looked like a ghost town. I know D.D. as well as Jeffery A. both enjoyed the show as we continually got heads up signs from both of them through the evening as they stood up ahead of us counting down the hits being played. Eddie’s lead guitar player was awesome as he had been with Eddie all the way back into the late 70's . That's a lot of shows logged there my friends, for sure.

What a sweet night for riding motorcycle home that evening in nothing more than a Tee-Shirt for a coat. (Rare for our little neck of the woods)

On to Saturday, we met at 9am up to Frumpy’s in Greene, NY to begin shooting still photos for the new album cover. We thought it would be much nicer to use real stills rather than computer generated graphics for a cover. We had our good buddy Pak Rat come up and for the next hour or so and shot some two dozens photo's around everything from a ‘52 Ford to a ‘46 Chevy chopped pickup.

We are hoping to pick the best three out of the entire shoot and take it to you guys and help pick our new album sleeve via a vote.

So with that we finished up the photo shoot and had to kill a bit of time so we headed up to the cottage when we realized it was show time at Frumpy’s open house. What a sweet party Chris had right there at the shop. There were a good group of people that did finally show up even in the pouring rain. The food was great and the atmosphere was warm.

It was smart for us to locate ourselves in the shop area with all of the rain. We've had our share of "wet shows" this year both outside and inside if you can believe that one. I’d like to give special thanks all of you that made the day a success it turned out to be.

This weekend we play another private party as we head out once more to Ahner’s Pig Roast. The Short Change Band has been playing this party for over 25 years and still running. It’s another great band outing for sure!

Oh well time to beat feet, so be good, be well, see you all again soon!

p.s. In closing we are losing a couple of our great fans this next week as they load up the truck along with the other 7.2 million people that have moved from New York in the last decade... Robin and Chris best of luck in your new adventures in Wisconsin... Salute to our Cheese heads!

-Mikee^^Dee

Short Change Band - Beginning of August, 2011

Hello all, just finishing up another fantastic weekend of musical events. As we now enter into the month of August the rest of the summer is sure to fly by us much like the first half.

Right to the show reviews:

Friday night was our only public show for last week. We played once again at the VFW in Endicott. There was a nice crowd as many of our good friends came out to support us. The music we played was good and we even got a visit from our Aunt Flow again. It's always a plus to know when your Aunt Flow comes to town, adds that special little touch. (Priceless)

Saturday evening we played another award winning show outdoors up to Harry and Melissa's . It was a weather perfect day for an outdoor show. And once again we had some of our local friends stop by and show their support.

Outdoor shows with a farm yard full of goats running around is truly a rush. Vanilla is always so happy to greet us each year when we return. She really shows affection to Double D. But then again most of the barn animals do like Darrell anyway, as he is our modern day Dr. Doolittle. They even come up on stage while we play! What a great audience they make.
Special thanks to Harry and Melissa for having us back three years running now and always supplying a bottle of Jack for each and every show. Again, the band thanks you guys and we hope to do it again next year too. It’s one great party!

Sunday we actually split ways just a bit. Darrell had a prior commitment to address so we incorporated the services of "magic fingers Herb" to come help us out on the bass guitar for yet another outdoor party.

And once again we had to muster up as much stamina as we had to keep our volume down to a low roar, and in typical Short Change Fashion - we were fine. Even the older people commented on how well we performed and they could still carry on a conversation between each other. Hey we aim to please.

Anymore you almost need to carry two entire systems around in the truck to meet the needs of the events in question. But we're doing a good job so far with it anyway. Special thanks to Herb for filling in – as it’s almost like the boy never left. What a great utility guy, as he can do it all.
And this weekend we will be playing a local event at a buddy of ours business - an open house and customer appreciation party.

If you’re out and about this Saturday afternoon swing past "Frumpys Chop Shop" on Rt.12 in lower Greene. I'm sure he would love to meet you. Bring your Street Rods- Hot Rods- Harley's we love ‘em all..

And finally this weekend as well we will be shooting pictures for the new album cover for the Back to Basics CC with thanks to our photographer Packrat. You remember the Back to Basic's album right? Yeah we will be back in the studio shortly to finish. We are aiming for a release date sometime this fall. (Patience is a virtue)

Well that about wraps up another week in the jungle.

Keep it real, Keep it fun, and stay well ... Peace,

Mikee^^Dee....