My goodness. My apologies. I've fallen down on the job. Again. Seems life gets in the way and I don't make the time to sit down and gather my thoughts and squeeze them through the word grinder so I can bake you a blogloaf often enough (wha?). In my last dispatch I left you with updates on our Island-of-Misfit-Toys Band Van and all the radiator problems we were having. That was only back in March but it seems like ages ago to me now. The van was fixed and now she's purring like a kitten as we bounce happily down the road. Since that time we've logged thousands more miles and tonight our show at the dancehall in Luckenbach will be roughly the 44th show since I last updated this journal. We spent almost 2 weeks travelling north up into the Midwest and met many kind folks and played some awesome shows, saw some neat rooms, and had a fantastic time! We also took part in Reckless Kelly's Celebrity Softball Jam at the Dell Diamond in Roundrock and it seems we've been everywhere in between.
We're gearing up now for Two Ton Tuesdays at Gruene Hall which will start next week on Tuesday night, June 1st, and will run every Tuesday night in the summer through August 17th. This will be the 15th year we've done this summer run and I love playing them every week. We play to thousands of folks from all over the world who come out to see us and there's nothing more fun than watching all the great dancing in such a neat old hall. I love the water. I love the river running below. I swim after the Tuesday night shows with my kids – sometimes til 3:00am. Be sure you put it on your calendars and come join us on Tuesday nights in Gruene throughout the summer.
Gruene Hall and the 15th annual Two Ton Tuesdays are only part of the reason I'm writing today. I also want to take a minute to talk to you about a friend of mine. His name is Chris Rhoades and night after night he stands by me onstage and hammers out the bass lines you hear in our music. Together we are a rhythm section dynamo (Chris - you complete me), but as he drove away from the venue last night, something dawned on me. He must like ice cream. Maybe it was from his early upbringing in Indiana. He claims that those cold winters throughout the Midwest taught him that he hated the cold weather and along with his love of music, that's why he moved to Texas. Fair enough. I say there was something about the cold that became a part of his inner fabric. Consider this. His Fender bass 8x10 cabinet is nearly the size of a full household upright refrigerator.
It feels like we're a moving company on some nights trying to haul that thing around, too. There are also nights more recently where even he decides that the "fridge" is not necessary and he has begun to bring a smaller cabinet with him that is lighter and much easier to move around, but none the less - this thing looks like a collegiate mini-fridge.
As he drove away last night, I realized that even the Scion that he drives looks like a fridge. For somebody with such disdain for the cold, the guy sure seems to long for low temperatures. Maybe these serve as daily reminders of happy times in his home as a child growing up with his family.
William "Refrigerator" Perry
Christopher "Rally 'Stache" Rhoades
They both have moustaches - and now we know why he's so "cool"...
Hot summer nights are fast approaching us. Ice cream sure sounds good about now. See you in Gruene.
- Doddsy
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