Two Tons Gear

Two Tons of Steel - Gear...

Dodds's gear:

Ludwig Classic Maple Drums - 10" & 14" toms; 20" kick

Snares: mix of Kirk Scott custom snare drums and assorted Ludwig snare drums

Paiste "Twenty" series cymbals - 15" hi hats, 17" & 18" thin crashes, 20" light ride

DW 9000 series single bass drum pedal & hi hat stand

SilverFox drumsticks and accessories (model SF-MR mainly)

Tama Rhythm Watch metronome

Drumheads - 14" coated G1 w/ power dot underside on batter and Evans 300 hazy on resonant, G2 coated heads on tom batters and Evans clear on tom resonants, Evans EMAD system on kick batter with small foam ring and Aquarian Modern Vintage or Remo Fiber Skyn on resonant with vintage graphic.

Custom light fixture in kick for cool vintage aesthetic

No dampening on any of the drums or cymbals, everything is tuned and played wide open for maximum ring and resonance

Rhoades's Gear:

King Doublebass 3/4 size Tiger King upright in exotic diseased flamed maple with custom pinstriping

Boothill D and G strings, & Oliv Paistro E and A strings

Underwood pickupFender 8x10 ProFender TB 600 bass head

Rane AP/13 pre-amp

Clark Technic 405 parametric EQ

Fallon's Gear:

Guitar 1 - beer battered 1952 reissue Fender Telecaster with Rio Grande pickups

Guitar 2 - 1985 Fender Telecaster in blue floral finish with Rio Grande pickups

Guitar 3 - 1995 Dan Electro Baritone (tuned to A,D,G,C,E,A) with stock pickups

Peterson tuner

Pedals - Full Tone Full Drive II, Vintage Ibanez AD09 analog delay, Full Tone Fat Boost

Amplifier - 1963 Reissue Fender VibroVerb with Weber speakers

SnapJack and George L cables

Strings - D'Addario 10's

Yellow Tortex picks

Kev's Gear:

Laravee Parlor guitar

1974 Guild Dreadnaught guitar

Boss tuner

HomeBrew HBE delay pedal

Line 6 wireless unit

Amplifier - Crate Acoustic

Strings - D'Addario lights

Orange Dunlop picks

Thu 9/10/2009 11:55 PM

Thu 9/10/2009 11:55 PM

Notes from the road...

We played at Cain's tonight (as I mentioned in an earlier post) and had a fantastic time there! Everybody was so cool and treated us really well and the drummer for the opening band even mentioned that we had given him "a new respect for Texans". It felt good to represent in such an historic venue and hopefully we'll be invited back up there really soon! To see how the rich heritage of the place and Bob's legacy has been preserved is really something. This place is a treasure and if you're in the area, be sure to stop in and check it out.

The wall right next to the "small" stage...

Before the show we made the trek out to the cemetery where Bob is buried and looked for his gravestone. Unfortunately we arrived at 7:22 to find out that the cemetery was to close at 7:30. I tried desperately to look up online Bob's resting place and Dennis suggested maybe we ask somebody for help to which Rhoades quickly replied, "Dennis - everybody here is dead!" While we didn't have the time to seek him out, we did stumble onto this grave marker which made the drive well worth the time spent. Hope you find it as funny as we did!

A picture is worth a thousand words...

Be safe. We'll talk again soon.

- Dodds

Sun 9/13/2009 11:57 AM

Sun 9/13/2009 11:57 AM

Notes from the road...

Goshen, Indiana is a happening little town! After 14 hours or so in the van, we finally arrived from Tulsa. We played the night before at Cain's and got little to no sleep before having to be up crazy early for a television appearance on Friday morning. Sleep deprived and feeling loopy, we made the journey northward. While long, the drive wasn't bad and we arrived to check into a nice hotel and we promptly headed downtown to some of Rhoades's favorite haunts. His old pals became our new pals and we spent another long night together laughing and looking at our watches wondering why we even get hotel rooms. Dennis pointed out "It's not like we ever even use them." He has a keen sense of the obvious.

Dennis makes new friends in Goshen

Saturday afternoon found us waking up late and venturing out with Rhoades and his folks and a couple of close friends to Shipshewana, a little Amish town not too far from Goshen. We had a family style homecooked meal that, coupled with the cooler weather up here, reminded me of Thanksgiving in Texas. We enjoyed their company all afternoon long and couldn't help but notice all the horse-and-buggies trotting around town. I've never spent much time near Amish country so there were lots of new sights for me to take in. The flowers everywhere were beautiful but not too fragrant for the smell of horse poop in the air.

Horse buggy

Horse puckey

I'm not too sure what use the Amish have for crossbow pistols either, but I bought one that looked like a toy -- but turns out is quite a powerful little weapon. We fired a couple of bolts in Rhoades's folks' front yard only to all stand back in awe at the power of my cheaply made crossbow. Suddenly it didn't seem as good an idea as it had when I purchased it. Yeah. Good job, Dodds. I'm gonna get myself into some trouble with this one.

Historically, little is known about the origins of the Amish crossbow pistol.

Constant Spring is the name of the bar we played last night to a sellout crowd. Dustin says we were only the second event to sell the place out. The last time was a benefit of some sort. (Go Two Tons!) The show was a sort of homecoming and Rhoades was king for a night. (Today he's back to just being a nuisance.) The small bar was packed with people and we had a great time. Thanks to Jason for having us out there, and to all the bartenders who took care of us and everybody who made our stay so hospitable and such a great experience - especially Phil and Cheryl Rhoades who so graciously helped us out with our hotel rooms, fed us lunch on Saturday, made us breakfast this morning and filled up our gas tank on the way out of town. God bless you guys. Your kindness is much appreciated and hopefully we'll be back up there again someday. The weather today is cool and clear and I can't wait for cooler weather back home. Today finds us continuing on northward to Green Bay where we'll stay and perform at the Oneida Casino for 3 nights. Stay tuned. I'll have updates soon...

- Dodds

King for a day; Rhoades-Bomb circa 1993

Thu, 9/10/2009 3:33 PM

Thu, 9/10/2009 3:33 PM

Notes from the road...

We're en route to Tulsa from Burleson where we played the Overtime Sports Bar and Grill last night. Not a huge crowd, but rowdy (as is always the case). We caught up with some of our pals from Switzerland who showed up out there too. Matthias is a friend we met a few years ago at a Harley bar in Zurich. Upon arriving in Zurich we asked a friendly local what we should see and do while we were there. We also asked him what part of the city we should steer clear of. He circled an area on our map and naturally, after the sun had gone down, we made a bee-line for that part of town. Matthias won the green-card lottery and is now living and working in the Ft. Worth area. Super nice guy and it was great to see him again and catch up. Another of our pals, Roger, came out too. He's in town visiting Matthias with his girlfriend Sandra. They've come out several times to see us at the Festival Albisgütli in Zurich that we've had the opportunity to play numerous times in the past several years. He also fronts a band called Roger and the Wild Horses. Hopefully we'll be on the same bill someday. Rumor has it that they do a cover of our cover of "Sedated". Too cool.

Check out the guns on this guy...

We're travelling north heading up to play Cain's Ballroom tonight. This is a thrill for me because I'm such a fan of Bob Wills's music and can't wait to see the place. While I've been up to the old hall, I've never actually been inside it. For those of you familiar, for me this is like a pilgramage to Mecca. For the uninitiated, Google it. It's a big deal. I'll be sure to snap some shots to post along in a later entry. Right now Dennis is driving, Kevin is sleeping, Dustin is up there with Dennis and Rhoades is playing a game on his iPod. I'm not sure what he's playing but I can probably beat him. I'm sitting in the back of this travelling pod we call home for many days every year writing to you.

In other news... I've been told we have an interview when we get to Chicago where we'll talk about the specfic gear we play. Not too sure what that's all about but for all you gear heads out there I'll be sure and post a list of said equipment. Seems somebody's always excited to see Dennis's Tele's or drooling over Rhoades's upright. It's not often too many people ask me about my stuff but hey, I'm not even a musician - I'm just the drummer. Anyhow, that's it for now. Be safe out there and we'll talk again soon.

- SuperDodds

Wed 9/9/2009 4:35 PM

Wed 9/9/2009 4:35 PM

Notes from the road...

So here we are. A new CD. A new website. 3 weeks after the release, "Not That Lucky" sits at number 8 on the Americana Music Chart. Not bad. Not bad at all. It's 4:35 pm and we've just picked Rhoades up from his dwelling in Austin, TX and we're headed up to Burleson to play the first of many shows on a 12 day run that will take us through Rhoades's hometown of Goshen, IN, up to Green Bay, WI, down to Chicago, IL, and back through St. Louis, MO, etcetera, etcetera... We've had several weeks of numerous shows all over our great state and have had the opportunity to play some true Texas treasures such as Gruene Hall, and the Granada Theatre, as well as some great new joints like Willie's Place in Carl's Corner. We've also had the chance to catch up with some good pals on the road like Stoney Larue and his boys and Mark McKinney and his band as well. Our crowds aren't always big, but always rowdy and we always have a really good time. We're looking forward to getting out and seeing some new places and meeting new folks everywhere this adventure takes us. Hopefully if you're reading this you're also looking ahead to see when we'll be coming through your town. Be sure to pick up a copy of our new CD and come say hello to us, it's always great to meet you all, the folks who make this possible for us to do! Be safe out there and we'll talk again soon.

- Doddsy

Fri. 9/5/2009 9:40 PM

Fri. 9/5/2009 9:40 PM

Notes from the road...

Thoughts on Willie's Place in Carl's Corner...

We played with Stoney Larue in Chicago and hung around after the show for an afterparty that lasted well into the wee hours of the morning. After a long night of hanging out at the venue with our friends, we left for our long journey back to San Antonio. We drove straight through and were "rode hard and put up wet" by the time we made it into Carl's Corner. We stopped for a break and discovered Willie's Place for the first time. Truth be told, I was a little jealous of Wade Bowen to be performing that night and heartbroken to see on the list of upcoming shows that we were not on that list. Fortunately it wasn't long before we got that call and -- here we are! Thanks for taking such great care of us and for allowing us to be a part of your great establishment. Here's to many years of good friends, good times, and great Texas music! Hopefully we'll be invited back again real soon!

- Chris Dodds