Oh boy. We’re driving back home. At the moment we’re about half way there, I guess. Don’t worry; Cindy’s driving while I type this. Our trip to Arkansas was pretty okay. We got into North Little Rock around 8PM on Thursday to crash at J2’s (that’s Jody and Jody’s) house. Much thanks goes out to them for letting Cindy, Loki, and I crash at their place all the freakin’ time. We were there just last month! Thanks guys. They always cook lots of good eats for us while we’re in town. Jody Todd is addicted to watching Food Network, but I think that’s a wonderful thing. The man’s an artist when you put him in front of a grill or in a kitchen. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it. They are so cool for letting us crash out. Oh yeah, this stay I got to teach their daughter, Allison, how to say “I rock” and “I rule”. That child has such a bright future.

Anyway, the main reason we were back in Arkansas was that Cindy had a five year college reunion at Hendrix College in Conway. We did some bumming around the campus…a very beautiful campus I must say. There’s lots of old growth trees, wonderful landscaping, and lots of birds (mainly robins, mocking birds, starlings, and thrushes) yapping to each other. I was along for the ride and playing in town kind of on a whim. The original plan was to have all of our friends from college come hang out at Something Brewing and listen to my music while they were in town for the reunion. Well, things didn’t really work out that way. Due to the wonderful communication that exists between a husband and a wife, I booked my gig the same night as the reunion. Oops…I still swear it’s not my fault. As you will see though, it didn’t matter.

Thanks to the wretched traffic between Little Rock and Conway (and I’m from Atlanta), I got to Something Brewing about forty-five minutes before I was supposed to start playing. That’s a real rush to get my gear set up and sounding good. The owners, Liz and Larry, are good people. They helped me get set up with no worries outside on the decking. The weather was glorious by the way. It was sunny with a slight breeze and 80 degrees, but I couldn’t feel any ill effects of heat under the humongous oaks that enshroud the decking. Perfect weather for my first outside gig since October. I didn’t even mind the pollen spoo coming off the trees.

…Pardon me, my Chihuahua has challenged me to a brawl. He’s a six pound terror….

Okay, I’m back. The brief melee ended with me forcing Loki to dance to a Beatles song, and then he licked me to inform me of his submission. I wonder how much forced dancing has occurred to “All You Need is Love”? The world may never know. Anyway, back to my story.

Yeah, I’m set up without really testing anything out and lots of folks start showing up. None of them are college friends, because the reunion is just now hitting it’s stride across town. Within moments I’m talking to a couple of bass players. I asked them how they heard about me playing. They said something to the effect of, “Dude, there was like a full page article in the paper about it.” My brain suddenly clicked into an “oh yeah” moment. I remembered an email from the Log Cabin Democrat requesting a photo. Duh. So, big thanks to LCD for the write up.

I started off my set with Third Circle and did lots of tweaking…it was my first time to play outdoors with the Bergantino rig (still rawks!). Then I improvised a loop, and after that, since I had to play all originals at this place, I decided to play a new non-looping solo piece. It was going really well and then a freight train came by…the train tracks are a short block from Something Brewing. There I was playing this tricked out inversion of an F# min7 with the pinnacle of all my technique in the attempt to express some deep rooted emotion, and all I could hear was the squeak of train wheels, the dinging of the crossing barrier, and the tritone of the train’s horn. Hahaha. I bet god’s laugh is a tritone. Note to self: be less self-involved and serious. Anyway, the trains came by lots during my set. I took it in stride and even mimicked them a few times. I couldn’t get that cool Doppler effect, though. Well, I guess the train isn’t really getting the effect from it’s standpoint either.

So my way-extended-length show went well. More and more folks showed up. Between tunes, I would hear people on their cell phones telling friends that they needed to come check me out. I never thought I’d enjoy overhearing cell phone conversations. The only college friends that made it out were Jody and Cindy’s Spanish professor, Dr. Jon Arms. Well, best laid plans I guess, but thanks to those folks for showing up; I do appreciate it. After the show while I was tearing down my gear, I got to chat with folks even more. All the bassists seemed to be into the music and even the guitarist liked it, which is cool. I got to chat with a young bassist about the music he’s into and what he wants to do with music. I remember a few years back when I was at a musical crossroad. That was before the boom of the information age. Now there’s so many more options and information. I thought I was confused and paralyzed by indecisiveness. I can only imagine how hard it is now. I also chatted with a young guitarist that’s wanting to get into looping. One of the coolest chats, though, was with a fellow introduced as Cowboy Bob. He talked about mud races, bull riding, and his modified shot guns. I have to say it was pretty refreshing from most conversations I have in Atlanta. Most folks there tell you about their careers, plans of world domination, and other dreary delusions of grandeur. Not Cowboy Bob. He chewed the fat about the huge fight that broke out at the mud race held at the old track, and then as an aside he mentioned that he got laid off last spring. Not to say that the cowboy is better than the city boy or vice versa. I just want to say how cool it is to see how different the same world looks to different folks. Anyway, had a blast in Conway, and I hope to play there again some day. We’re still hours from home. Oh yeah, check me out on the radio with Adam Nitti next Friday (April 23^rd) from 3pm-4pm eastern time.  Here's the link to listen http://www.wutc.org/ .  Go to it. Uh oh, I think Loki is up for round two. Gotta rumble. See you at the next gig.