TRAVELING TEXAS

After a day or two of traveling around Dallas/Fort Worth relaxing, I headed south to pick up my wife in West, TX. Her mom brought her halfway. We met at (where else) the Czech Stop in West. Now, I must preface this story by saying that I spent two and half years in the employment of Phil Pritchett. In those 25-30 months, we probably stopped at the Czech stop no les than 100 times. And if you’ve ever been in the Czech stop, then you know that the walls of the aforementioned home of edible goodness are adorned with hundreds of 8x10’s of passing musicians. You can find everyone from Shakira (far left next to the Dr. Pepper cooler) to Ed Burleson (over the smoked sausage freezer next to the fountain drinks). Bands that I don’t even think were ever actually together for anything more than the 8x10 photo shoot have pictures on the wall. Now, after stopping there 30 or 40 times, I told Phil and the boys that we needed to leave our calling card and slip then an autographed 8x10. Phil was hesitant, thinking it was a little presumptious, but I assured him they’d appreciate it. So we gave them the picture and they seemed very pleased with their new famous customers. When we traveled in a couple days later, the oicture wasn’t displayed. When we came back the next week, no picture. A few weeks passed and we stopped in for some Kolaches…no picture on the wall. We started to think maybe we gave it to the wrong person. So I made Phil and the boys sign another one and this time, I made damn certain we had the right lady to give it to. She assured me that she didn’t know what happened last time, but this time it would make the wall.

Same story for the next couple months. We’d stop, we’d walk the gas station staring at the shots with our breath held and hopes high…and we’d leave with our heads hung low. Finally, we gave up on the idea of ever having our picture in the Czech stop. I moved on from my job with Phil a few months later.

Flash forward to Dec 17. I call my wife and tell her that I’ve arrived 10 minutes early at the Czech stop. She told me to meet her on the bakery side of the Czech Stop. I walk in and what hits me in the face???
There it is. Just like the Red Ryder in the window (A Christmas Story), or the Camaro on the lawn (Better Off Dead), I looked at that picture on the wall like it was the greatest present anyone could have ever given me. Pritchett, Stolly and Lynch sandwiched in between promo shots some girl with a large stuffed dog and a guy in a tux. The angels sang and the drums rolled. And I realized quickly that the picture had probably been hanging here for months- hell, years – since we brought it into the store that windy day so many moons before. The as station was so full of 8x10’s, the girl explained to me, that they had to start hanging them in the bakery. As a show of devotion to my former employer and as a sign of defiance to the Czech Stop, I almost scaled the cash register to pull down the picture and walk it into the gas station side and switch it out with The Stringbenders or Matt The Cat or somebody who doesn’t give a damn that their picture hangs on the wall. I thought better, being the holiday season I didn’t want to go to jail. Much less jail in West. But goddammit, that picture finally made it.

HOMEWARD BOUND

So I awoke around 8:30 am the morning after my Oklahoma adventure. I got my stuff together and was ready to hit the road. I’d heard tale of a nasty cold front moving in, but I guess I underestimated the strength. Mike Shackleford, the caretaker of ML’s place, came in right as I woke suited up in a blizzard jumpsuit ready for his day’s chores. When I asked him if it was cold outside, he gave me the look that I was the dumbest man on earth. Apparenty, the temperature had dropped from a balmy 68 degrees the day before to 20 degrees the following morning. With a wind chill of 12 degrees. Basically it was colder than a witches tit.

I jumped in the car and headed southbound toward Texas. I found the Peanut Shoppe somewhere around Sherman and stopped for some last minute Christmas shopping for my grandfather and wife…peanut brittle, jalapeno peanut brittle and wasabi peas. Cute place. From there I navigated into the metroplex and headed to my buffy Jake’s place in Forney. Jake and I had a good Mexican lunch, battled a couple games of XBOX and then dined on Ghengis Grill for dinner. I headed out the next morning into some icy conditions around DFW. My first stop was Bobo China, one my favorite haunts in Dallas for Chinese food. I had the chicken corn soup (my favorite) which was out of this world. Here’s a picture of the ginormous bowl.
I got steamed dumplings with it, which are very good, but I should have opted for my old standby of the twice cooked pork (with cabbage). God it’s good and I regretted not ordering a couple hours later. It started REALLY snowing while I was at Bobo. I finished my soup and dumplings and grabbed my fortune cookie before heading out. Thought you can’t quite make out the words below, my fortune definitely says “Traveling to the south will bring you wealth and happiness.” See below:
I felt this somewhat appropriate. I thought I’d hang on to that one. Anyway, I took my good fortune and full belly and headed on my way. Since I as in the neighborhood I ran by my old house. The place still looks good, but it was covered in ice and snow. I kind of miss the little place.

I ran errands around town before heading out to my grandparents to relax for the night. It felt like home to be back on Texas soil. Oh yeah, I went to Luby’s that night and had liver and onions. It’s a grandparent thing…both Luby’s and liver and onions. I’m an old soul.

SWEET HOME OKLAHOMA

We had a couple good shows in Oklahoma (Shawnee and Miami) to wrap up the year. We've played Miami two or three other times and I really like that little place. We brought Jeremy Elliot out on the road to guitar tech for the weekend, he was my first Tour Manager when I was out on with Jack Ingram. Jeremy did a great job working with us and it was great to get to spend time with him. We had a couple drinks each night and caught up.

When we were done in Miami, we had a great iPod party with me, Jeremy, ML and Mike Vandivier (a local legend around Tishomingo...he's kind of the honorary mayor of the town). We spanned everything from Brandi Carlisle to Otis Redding with a short foray into 80's country with Dan Seals, T.G. Shepherd and Keith Whitley. All in all, a good wrap to the evening and end of the year.

We got back to ML's place early Sunday morning. We woke up and went to look at a new bus we're thinking of leasing next year. Good looking ride. After going through the bus, we headed over to the Western Inn for breakfast. The Western Inn is the only motel in Tishomingo and has a great greasy spoon diner up front. I did the buffet. I had chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, fried okra, corn and a little peach cobbler for desert. It was greatness and I'm sure I have gravy running through my bloodstream now. When we went up front to check out, they had a little display case with crafts, etc. ML picked up a pair of black socks with cute little Christmas charm. However, when we examined closer we realized that the creator goofed and instead of saying "HO HO HO" the socks read "OH OH OH". We got a good laugh, see the socks below...





We headed back to the ranch to start the great bus cleanout of 2008. ML has lived on the bus for the last two years, therefore it was chock full of clothes, knick knacks and just general crap. She wasn't the only guilty party, I had a ton of stuff on the bus as well. It took us about four hours to get through everything. We finally finished up around 4:30 pm. Mike Vandivier (the local legend himself) asked me if I wanted to go "feed hay" when I was done with the bus. After reminding Mike that I was from a populated area, he explained that "feeding hay" just meant you drive around pastures and put bales of hay out for the cattle to eat. And that you took a cooler. It sounded like fun to me, so I said I was in. We jumped in the truck and headed towards town. We fed the first pasture with two bales. We were feeding Black Angus and they're broken down to about 60 head per pasture. Here's a picture of us pulling into the pasture.



Here's one of the cows we fed...he kinda looks a little like Alex around the mouth. But I'm sure he's much cleaner and probably smells a little better...the cow, that is.

After making some animals happy for a while (and sucking down a couple beers in the cab) Mike and I headed back to ML's. She had people to see and things to do, so I had the run of the place. Master of my domain. King of the hill.

Luckily, the Cowboys were playing on ESPN so the boredom of being on the plains of Oklahoma had no chance of setting in. I watched the Cowboys handily defeat the Giants. I got a little hungry around halftime, but there is one problem with the whole :living in solidtude" thing, and that's that nothing it near you nor open at 9 pm on a Sunday night in Tishomingo or surrounding areas. So, being the handicook that I am, I whipped up a little omelette made with fresh chicken eggs, cheese and thick cut bologna. Now, the omelette ingredients weren't nearly impressive as the flip I got on the omelette during cooking. Check out this baby...

After eating that big beast I crawled under a blanket on the couch and slumbered for quite a while. Tomorrow would hold another chapter, I needed my beauty rest. I was, however, excited about the past few days of eye opening experiences. I've missed these during the downtime.

THE VEGAS COMEBACK

No, it wasn't Elvis' return to the City of Sin, but we made our return for the opening weekend of National Finals Rodeo for a two night stand at the Golden Nugget. I made it in on Thursday, Dec 4th and everyone else was arriving early a.m. of the 5th. I took the opportunity to go try my hand at the Vegas poker scene. I played 1-2 No Limit and had a good table with a cast of characters. I played about 3 hours or so and was back and forth. The guy I was sitting next to was from Austin and an Eco major at UT. That should have been my first clue that things wouldn't end up well. Through the course of the 3 hours, the kid had pocket aces three different times and was just cleaning everyone out. I was dwindling down on chips, I had about $80 left. I drew A-10 offsuit. I raised before the flop and everyone folded but the kid. He called my raise and the flop came. It was A, 10, 6. He bet and I pushed all my chips in, raising to all in. My thinking was "I've already got two pair, the only thing that could beat me was if he had pocket Aces (which he'd already had three other times) or pocket 10's, which I didn't think he did. Well, he called my all in. We flipped and, sure enough, he had pocket aces for the FOURTH time in three hours. I was cleaned out, dejected and hungry...I headed up to my room.

The Nugget was an OK place. The hotel was actually very nice and the gaming was good, but the showroom was a little weird. It's on the third floor of the casino, was a terrible load in and the place only held about 600 people. Apparently the showroom has been in the same place for over 50 years and they don't want to move it, so they just keep renovating it. The green room was pretty cool. It had old retro shag carpet and old 8x10 shots of all the famous Vegas acts that had played there...Sinatra, Sammy Davis, etc. Ron, the head of entertainment for the last 90 years (or so), made sure to point out the crapper in the green room. "Boy, that's the same throne Frank sat on when he was here. If it was good enough for Frank..."

We had a fill in guitar tech that weekend. He ate the buffet (which was passable, but definitely not the MGM or Mandalay Bay) for dinner and about five songs in started feeling bad. He hurled himself towards the trash can and then began hurling his buffet into the trash can. He then made it back to the bathroom of the green room where he tossed his cookies into the same throne Frank sat on. If it was good enough for Frank...

HIGH RISE LIVIN' IN CHI-TOWN

So we set up camp in Chicago for a few days to play our annual "ML Birthday Weekend" at Joe's Bar. We checked in on Halloween and the nice folks at the Westin on Michigan Ave upgraded me to a corner deluxe suite overlooking Watertower Place and adjacent to the John Hancock building (where Chris Farley died). The room, including the King bedroom not shown, was about 1200 SF and amazing. It came complete with a Murphy King Bed built into the wall of the den, but I opted for the "Heavenly Bed" in the bedroom. The room had to 40' flatscreen TV's, perfect for watching weekend football.

Travis Howard and I steered away from any Halloween activities, opting instead to shop early in the day and then later that night catch his buddy Levi portray Jerry Lee Lewis in "Million Dollar Quartet", a play about the one day that Elvis, JLL, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash all met up at Sun Records in Memphis. Levi stole the show with his amazing piano skills and brash portrayal of Jerry Lee's infamous ego. After the show, we hung around for the cast party for little while before I retired to my aforementioned accommodations in the Windy City.

After an early load in at Joe's, I ran over for a quick lunch at Uncle Julio's with my buddy Troy Johnson who popped in for the weekend. It was GREAT to have a return to yellow cheese. The show that night was sold out and when we were done I headed back for some much needed rest. I awoke Sunday morning to the church bells across the street. Since it was a light day at the office (we didn't have to load in again), I rallied the troops for some morning coffee and then a jaunt into WaterTower mall for some soup at Food Life. I had the shrimp and crab bisque, a bowl of the butternut squash soup and a bowl of the lentil. Yes, I do realize I'm a fatass. I headed over to the venue shortly after lunch and got the day underway. Sunday night's show was not quite sold out, but was even more fun than Saturday. We had a bunch of special guests like Travis, John Eddie, Blake, Adam Hood and Matt Powell get up and play. We did a two hour, 45 minute show of nothing but cover songs. A good time was had by all. I capped the night off with a Blue Moon (and allegedly, possibly, a shot) with Ed (the greatest club owner in the world), Troy and a couple of the guys. I woke up this morning very sad to have to leave my suite and Chicago behind. Travis and I hopped a cab to Midway, enjoyed a breakfast sandwich from Potbelly and made it home at lunchtime. I feel a nap coming on.

AT LEAST THEY'RE ARENAS...

So I've longed for the days of arenas for some time now. We're finally headlining some, and I like to think that I advance these shows pretty thoroughly. I guess i should be more clear in my shower advance, like "do your showers have floors or running water." Above is a shot from the backstage facilities at McElroy Auditorium in Waterloo, IA. The shower room was so dilapidated (you can't see the ceiling that fell in, nor the big hole in the floor from the busted water mane) it looked like the scene from the movie "SAW". Aden had a big idea, in the spirit of Halloween, to really freak people out. So after he raided a janitor closet nearby, we ended up with this. Curiosity would kill the cat every time, so anyone who walked by would inevitably open the door labeled "As Seen in the Hollywood Blockbuster 'SAW'". Needless to say, there were a few men screaming like 10 year old girls. Also needless to say, the showers were inoperable and I will forever double check with venues so that this occurrence is a one time deal.

Today we're in La Crosse, WI. We've presold about 3200 tix and will have about 4000 here tonight. La Crosse is how I remember it from last tour...cold, rainy. There is a rumor of some light snow later tonight. Odd to see that in October for a boy from Texas. At least Scotty is ready for the weather.

HARD TICKETS, BABY...

After a few days of rest, I headed to Dallas on Wednesday. I had the whole day off and ate as much Texas food as I could get. Since I don't have good Thai in Nashville, I had some Panang Beef and Tom Kha soup for lunch. Not quite as good as Mango's on Lovers at the Tollway, but a good second. I shopped at NorthPark mall all day and revamped the fall wardrobe. To quote the infamous (that means "more than famous") Alex Weeden, "I'm going big." I bought a new fedora, a vest, a new shirt (black, of course), some socks and a windbreaker. I also snuck in some Taco Cabana while in town. On the way back to the bus lot, I grabbed some mini-chimis, an enchilada platter and some chips and queso. Cut me a break, I'm yellow cheese deprived up here in Tennessee.

We headed to Tulsa, OK for a radio promo show with Scotty, Aden and ML. We played 5-6 songs in the high school gym. While it may sound a little hokey, it really wasn't. They let folks come down to the stage and stand, and it as set so we played to only one side of the gym. Really a neat thing. For the last song, Kerosene, we brought out the Bixby Pride Drum Line to play with us. There is a killer video of it somewhere on the internet I'm sure. Aden was a college band director and he worked with them for about an hour or so to get the on the right track.

When we were done, we grabbed some rooftop mexican food and a couple margaritas and headed to Cape Girardeau, MO. We played there with Dierks a few years ago, ML threw out the first pitch at the College baseball game. We had a good show, almost 3000 in attendance. It was the first hard ticket date the two have ever done, so we had all the important people there. Like, more important than Al even.

The following day we had a sold out show in Pikeville, KY. Not bad, a sellout on your first weekend. Pikeville was where they filmed "Deliverance" so I didn't venture out of the building. At all. Other than walking to the bus, but I looked both ways several times before doing so. Frank Liddell, ML's producer, came out for the weekend and he swears he saw a bridge used in the movie while he was out on a jog.

Here's a good shot from the sold out crowd that night...

We've got a few more of these left on the calendar. We head to Phoenix tonight for a show tomorrow, then Primm, NV (Vegas). I'm sure I'll have more fodder after those two stops.

HEY, go buy Wade Bowen's new record "If We Ever Make It Home." I just got it and have only listened to one song, but i can tell it "has it" and the whole record will be worth it. It's on iTunes.