January 20th

I was going to tell you about the last True Love show (Dec. 26th)
But then I thought it would be better on this page 
What do you think? 

Okay here we go 
A few months ago (maybe more) 
I went to see Adrian Bourgeois play at Luna's 
When I got there it was backed 
But his dad Brent made some room for me 
While Adrian was setting up 
I told that my mother had said to say hello 
And wanted to know if he was still playing 
He smiled and laughed 
Then he leaned over and said he would like to do a show with me sometime 
So.....
I thought it would be cool if it could be one that Larry did too 
Don't you? 
Anyway back to the show 
Brent, Larry and Matt McCord 
No, I didn't get any pictures of that night (bummer) 
It was not at all what I thought it be like 
Of course it was way better 
Larry surprised me (us) and brought an acoustic bass instead of the P-bass 
Matt just brought a kick, snare and hi hat 
And played with brushes
Oh, wait 
I think he also had a cymbal 
It was a real cool vibe 
When Brent and I had talked about doing this 
We both used the same word atmosphere
The Way Of Love, Demon In The Closet and Love Let Me Be
Really stood out for me
Kevin has a live journal kind of thing 
And while we were playing he posted something about it

Just a little background info. On"No Bongos Tonight"

" Cara", "Singer" and "Shadows"

Were recorded for the first SacPop CD

Does anybody know when that was?

I didn't really know what they were looking for

So I asked them to choose

They chose "Cara"

"Evie", "What The World Needs" and "Looking for the Buddha"

Were all recorded for the second SacPop comp. CD

Once again I gave them all three

Because I couldn't decide which one to use

They chose "Evie"

I have since learned that they almost used "Buddha"

But Ben thought it was to long

"Never Give Up" and "Hopeless Romantics"

Were done for International Pop Overthrow

I only gave them two this time

They chose the first one

"The Hunger" was for SacPop Three

And "Trouble" was done while I was recording "Lonely Girl and "Break Your Heart"

But they didn't seem to go together

Tuesday, June 5th, 2001

Last Thursday there was some filming going on at Luna's Cafe

For local cable access to promote the arts (poetry, painting and music)

I was one of the musical guest and I asked Heather I do the interview part of it.

Well as you can imagine it was a little unorganized

So Heather (Robinson) jumped in and help do the interviews for almost everyone

And of course she did a great job

By the time it got around to doing my slot which was at the end

There was no P.A. set up

So I just sat down with Heather holding a mic

And sang "My Own Personal Goddess" to her

Then she actually started singing along

Like no one was there

Just me and Heather

It was like everyone else just disappeared

It was definitely one of those magical moments

Sunday, October 1st, 2000

I played at Luna's again last night

Kev is on tour so Popgun shared the bill

Have you heard them?

They are really great

And last night was no exception

Ginny La Roe opened

She is new to the area and if you get a chance go check her out

Well the last time I wrote about the two bass player thing

And since then we have do it a few more times

Intentionally

But last night we freaked out

Erik said "Do you think three bass players would be over the top?"

I laughed and said what do you mean?

Well our friend Gabe Nelson was there with Matt McCord

So we sent Gabe home to get his bass

It was wild and crazy and I never would have thought of it

This was also kind of a surprise CD release party

And it was way to much fun

We actually got off to a ruff start at least for me

I think it took the whole first song for me to settle down

Mark sang on the second song "Waiting For Lorraine"

Then we played a couple of more then had Gabe come up

We had thought "Her Favorite Poem" would be a good one to try

It was so cool

I could barely remember the lyric's to the song

That's all we where going to have him do

But we had him stay and play more

It was so weird Larry would play something really cool

Then it would be Gabe or Erik

I don't know how they did it

All three of the are so great

All I could do was hang on

But it's not over

We hand Matt come up and play "A Minor Medley" and "Tambourine Girl"

And of course had Mark come back up to sing on it as well

I don't think I mentioned that Allyson had said she wasn't going to be able to make it

That's the trouble with surprises people tend to make other plans

But somewhere in the middle of the set I saw her head pick around the corner

So we finish our last song and being the hams that we are

Or I am I ask if anyone has a request

And Allyson has the perfect one

She thought we should do "Silly Moon" for Kevin so we did

I was thinking okay one more

One of Allyson's favorites is "Cara"

So I asked her if we could play a song for her this time

Opps curve ball

She ask for "My Own Personal Goddess" which I don't think we've played before

Together that is but hey let's try it

Someone else asked for "Scream In Vain" it was Chris Uhlich so we did that

I will not be denied

I ask one more time with a lot of hinting

And I even have to tell the out of breath story

So we end with "Cara"

Anyway

Thank you Erik, Larry, Garin, Gabe, Mark and Matt

And everyone who was there

You all rock my world

Sunday, March 26th, 2000

We played at Luna's Cafe last night with Kevin Seconds

It was a really great show

We had an informal birthday party for Kev

And tried to imbarres him as much as possible (of course)

Becky even made a cake

Kev's first set was just with Mark I mean Hunnert

And of course Al sang a few tunes

It's so magical when they are on the satge together

Isn't it?

They played everyone of my favorite songs

And they sounded just Great!

Kev played his new guitar and Mark played Garin's drum kit

Which sort of seqways to something else I wanted to tell you about

I made a mistake that night

Because while I was setting up the PA Erik walked in

I had acetently booked both Erik Kleven and Larry Tagg for the same gig

Oops!

So we put Erik on the right side of the stage and Larry on the left

Garin Casaleggio (a new drummer in town) and myself in the middle

Wow!

I don't think I can really describe it

It was just one of the most outstanding musical moments I have ever had

There's lots more to tell you

Like I played bass with Kev and Mark and Al in there second set

We had some cake

And had just way too much fun

Sunday, March 12th, 2000

The Press Club gig

Let's see how can I make this long story short

During the week I thought my amp was having problems

It was just tubes

So I re-tubed it on Saturday afternoon (the day of the gig)

We get to the club do our sound check

And..

Right at the end of it my little amp starts acting up

Like half the volume and all distorted

So I jiggle the tubes around and it comes back

But....

During the set it keeps freaking out

So needless to say I was struggling

But Larry and Pat came to the rescue

They were so incredible

It was really amazing to be on stage with them

Okay that's all for now

See you at the Sammie's maybe

Sunday, February 27th, 2000

I played with Rusty Miller last night at Luna's

He was so good

Great voice great guitar playing and great songs

The three "G's"

Larry Tagg and Larry Schiavone ("The Larry's") played with me

And Hiedi (H6D) showed up just in time to sing "French Incense" with us

Then I went over to Old I

Just in time to catch "Go National" and "The Knockoffs"

Then we went to IHOP

Sunday, June 6th, 1999

Last night was my first annual Anti-Festival

I had my friends Matt McCord (drums) and Ralph Stover (bass)

Join me for event

It was so much fun for me

Anyway it started off at the Fox & Goose

Roadside was having their CD release party

And I was invited to open up the show

It was very well attended by Family, Friends and Fans

But then they decided to do any early set

So we went on second and did kind of a dark set (are you surprised?)

The highlights for me were

"Incense To Excess"

This is usually a bongo song

But Matt played this sort of hip-hop beat

It was very cool

And Ralph who just got a new six string bass

Was putting them all to good use

And then on "Tambourine Girl"

Joe Xeno (Xenophilia) got up and sang with us

Then

We went over to The Capitol Garage for our second gig

With Mojo Filter and ADKloset

We got there right after Mojo started

We got our Mocha's,water,beer,apple and I'm not sure what Ralph got

But it looked good

Anyway Mojo was a rockin' and Warren was just on fire

There wasn't a lot of people

But those who were their were good friends

When Mojo finished and we started setting up

Something very strange happened

You know how the air changes right before it starts to rain

Well it was something like that

I don't think anyone else noticed

So anyway we began our set

First song "The Way Of Love" (also known as "the come on give it to me song")

Emil and Tara from The Grotto jumped up and started sing the chorus with us

Then the next song "Cara"

I turnaround and Kev and Al are singing

Then Warren picks up one of the tambourine's that I always bring

And he starts singing

It's like totally great

We did a really cool version of "Legends" I thought

Matt and Ralph were exceptional

"It's a Wendy World" and Hiedi from H6D is playing tambourine

And before you know it she is on the mic. singing away

I thought it was all over

But when we got to "What Am I Gonna Do"

Here come the Grotto kids (as I call them) racing to the stage

And right be hind them are Warren and Hiedi

Last song is "I'll Never See Wendy Again"

And Warren and Hiedi just won't set down (it's great)

Wow what a night

Oh no they want one more

Early that evening Matt had said he would like to do "Incense" again

And Hiedi has been wanting to sing Karen's party (Karen Stevens/Invertigo)

That's the french part for those of you who haven't heard "French Incense"

So we did and it was very cool

And that's how we ended the night

Sunday, December 20th, 1998

Last night Wally had asked myself, Erik and Hannah

If we would like to play in Placerville with him at the Placerville Coffee Shop

Yep!

Here I am your Dark Lord In the middle of snow

Wally played first tonight and played some very cool new songs

Then Hannah played you could have heard a pin drop

Then Brandon a good friend of Wally's played

He plugged into Wally's pedal board and went to you guessed it The Twilight Zone

It was fun to watch him (as he was play a song) think about which one he would hit next

Then The Kleven (one of my nicknames for Erik) went up

We played "Cruel Love", "Avalanche", and then "Scream In Vain"

Wally came up for the solo it was totally incredible

Then we did one of Wally's favorites "Demon In The Closet"

We were going to stop after but they wanted one more

So we did "The Way Of Love" just to see what would happen

I mentioned what had happened the night before

And sure enough by the end of the song

We were back in our old stomping grounds

Yep!

The Twilight Zone

Saturday,December 19th, 1998

Luna's Cafe "The Return Of Wally "

This was truly very special

Even at sound check I could barely contain myself

9:00 and it was packed already

Erik Kleven and I play first ( about 30 min. )

Hannah joined us for that song "Legends"

Then Wally played it was so great to hear him play again

He could have played the rest of the night as far as I was concerned

But he wouldn't so we ask Hannah if she would play a few songs

Yep!

She sounded very good

Then Erik and I went back up and decided to throw the set list out the window

We passed out the percussion stuff and then opened the door to the Twilight Zone

Everybody was banging away

And at the end of every song if someone didn't have an instrument we would give them one

It was getting crazy

So I went with it

The last song "The Way Of Love" I said I would give a CD to anyone who would get on stage

And sing the chorus with me (look out)

I thought maybe Shea or Ruby or Wally or one of my friends would do it

Nope!!!!!

The first person up out of his chair

Before we even start to play

Who hasn't even heard the song before

A stranger who has gone into his own Twilight Zone ( It was great )

By the end of the song almost everyone was on stage

Mike, Shea, Ruby and the Stranger almost knocking me off the stage (not really)

It was much fun

Friday, December 18th, 1998

I went to the forbidden zone ( Paris Cafe )

But for a good cause to see Starry Eyes ( Jackson Griffith ) and Elena Powell

I called Hannah to see if she wanted to go

Yep!

We got there as Elena started her second song "Avalanche" she sounded great

Jackson was at the table behind us head down

His band wasn't coming he was bummed

But was going to go on alone... after Elena

Hannah said she would sing some backups

I said I would play tambourine ( surprise )

And pretty soon every one was singing and playing along