Archive for March, 2007

Rock the Shamrock

Sunday, March 18th, 2007

We played the Shamrock last night for their St. Patrick’s Day debauch. It was amazing.

The place was packed — 100 squillion people were jammed in, with more hanging out in the outdoor beergarden.

The Huddlers were excellent. A new round of originals (mostly by Wayne Gottstine) and some great old AM country songs (Saginaw, Michigan) were rolled out expertly by the boys after only a handful of practices. I made sure to procure my first-ever Huddlers tee-shirt.

The Buddha boys were treated very well. The crowd was loud and rowdy, but still listened and remained engaged through the whole set. We introduced our duet version of the Abbey Road Suite, which delighted the graybeards and confused the youths. In all, our reception was fantastic, and I believe we made some friends. (For anyone following the Saga of Dennis’ New Pickup: It sounded really good.)

It was great to play for such a large and enthusiastic audience. Thanks to The Huddlers for putting us in front of their folks, and thanks to their folks for treating us so well. Hope to see you all again soon.

Posted in Bryan, Dennis, Music, Wichita | No Comments »

Back Porch Buddha, Volume 1

Monday, March 12th, 2007

It’s on. Last night was the first official rehearsal of the first edition of Back Porch Buddha, the shape-shifting musical obsession of Bryan and Dennis.

We’re talking about Steve Hatfield, the drummer who brought the rock for Bryan’s “Thundar the Boy Giant” CD (not to mention his own critically acclaimed CD “Just Be Wally“) and badass bassist John Probst, who appears to have every paying gig in Wichita. We worked for a couple of hours and accomplished more than the clock might allow.

It was only a first rehearsal, but I’m ready to buy a bus. I mean, these guys just plain rock.

Details of our show with them are sketchy, but we think it will be at the Road House, and we think it will be a Sunday within the next couple months. Stay tuned for better info.

Back Porch Buddha vol. 1
That’s mad John Probst on bass and Hatdaddy on drums.
The Buddha regulars are on the back row.

Posted in Bryan, Dennis, Music | No Comments »

New toys

Sunday, March 11th, 2007

Papa’s got a brand-new pickup.

Dennis got a new pickup

Dennis is kinda fussy about his 1932 National resonator guitar, you know. While he loves the bite of a good acoustic-guitar pickup, he’s never been very interested in chopping holes in his axe just to accomodate spiffy electronics.

That’s why he waited patiently for the release of the National/Lace Resophonic pickup. It is designed especially for this type of guitar, and he was able to install it without drilling any holes. And yes, it barks like a whipped mule.

You can hear this little slice of heaven at our next show: St. Patrick’s Day at the Shamrock.

Dennis adds:Yeah…so far, so good with the pickup.

The pickup outputs a lot of signal from a small package. It sticks onto the face of the guitar with double-sided tape. I need to do a better job of securing the wire to the guitar. Currently, the wire is flopping around between the pickup and the jack, which has been zip-tied to the tailpiece.

I’m pretty sure that the variations in volume from string-to-string would even out if I replaced the phosphor bronze strings with nickel wrapped.

More later…I think I’m gonna like it, though.

Posted in Dennis, Music, The Metal Guitar | 1 Comment »