Tennesee tomorrow

Rental pickup at 7:30, hopefully on the road by 8....I75 north. Should be a beautiful day for a drive, weather will be nice in Knoxville, where I will spend the night with good friends, Brooke and Sally. Up early Thursday and what looks to be a very wet day of driving. Nasty front moving through the middle of the country, bring rain and really cold temps in NW Ohio.

What's with the weather

I am not really impressed with the spring like conditions forecast for my Ohio visit next week. I have already been sunburned this year, and the forecast high for March 28 is 50. 50! Got to love this beast called music, sometimes she makes us go to great lengths to share a stage...I can't wait, only a week away!

Get Me to The Strand

Late March, I'll be at the Strand Theater in Fremont Ohio for a pre reunion gig with my musical bros from Ohio and parts unknown. RC from the Wuzz Band, long a midwest Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan favorite party band, has put together a reunion gig for the ages. Many members have shared the stage, and a good number of the survivors of the great band wars will reuinite for a night of hard charging rock and roll, I will be there and I intend to commit it all to teeny tiny bits of information for your enjoyment. Back soon!

Neon Cowboy TODAY

Ah the crossroads, well today, we are at a different crossroads...the one at SR 52 and Bellamy Brothers Blvd in East Pasco County, Florida. Yes those Bellamy Brothers. Howard and David live close by, near where they grew up, just up the road....thats named for them! Today I am doing a show with the Quik Critters Band, Charlie Billings, Andy Singleton, and Chris Kidd. Those that know me, realize this is the original Catch of the Day Band, and it is. After so many different alignments of players, and the fact that we all play in many different outfits, we decided on a name that reflected our two "home" bands...Quick Trigger, and The Conch Critters....or we couldn't think of anything better, we were due to start in five minutes, and its sorta cool! Ok, the truck is loaded, got about an hour and a half til departure time so its time for me to kick back for a spell and rest up from being Papa (grandpa) for Abby this weekend. Keep the Rock Rollin'

The Summer of 11

Hello, thanks for stopping by. I will be posting some random thoughts about what is taking up space in my space.

Sometimes I really see good bands that cant' get decent bookings, and then I see really bad bands that get booked because they bring out a crowd. I think the club owners miss the point. If you continue to book sub-par talent, then your crowd will never develop beyond what they band brings in. And do you really count the pre-teen part of the crowd that is sipping cola, and eating hot dogs as paying crowd. Seems to me a steady flow of paying diners and drinkers would be much better for the bottom line, and they are going to demand music that is of reasonable volume and performed with reasonable talent.

It's been a couple of months since the last post, time for another vacation I think. I have been busy trying to finish up a cd of my originals, doing most of the recording at my home studio. If you check out my pictures http://picasaweb.google.com/jcvitte most of the gps coordinates are there. http://www.erichughesband.com Just today recieved a newletter from The Eric Hughes Band, and it seems that Eric is doing just great, many congratulations to him, and once again a huge thanks to him and Guy for a great night of music at the Superior and a memories I will always have. I sincerly hope to cross paths again with all the fine people of Tenn. and Miss. that we met.
As for now, hopefully it will be a good business year and funds will be available for another quest to the delta, because that my friends is where the true spirit of American music lives. Stay on the lookout for a website from your's truly, links to some of my music, and God willing, a cd. Until the next post, yours in the blues jc vitte

Ahhh, Beale St. It was Sunday night, we had about 12 hours left before we had to head to the airport and board our return flight, but for now, it was party time. So off we headed, in search of that aformentioned party. Unfortunately, we got a pretty late start and Beale was pretty deserted by the time we arrived. Never to be disuaded by a lite crowd, we knew this was just a bonus waiting to be awarded. We checked out a couple of places we had been Thurs, but there were no bands. So after a quick look in the door at Coyote Ugly ( I just don't get it, pretty girls but I just don't get it, maybe its a country thing), we headed back towards BB's place.We never made it that far. First we happened onto the Memphis Jazz Orchestra at Alfreds on Beale....WoW. If you ever get a chance and you like swing jazz, these guys just smoke. But, we only got see the last part of the last set, because they too were done. A couple of doors down we poked our head in the door of The Superior Bar. The duo there was on break, we looked up and down the street, decided it was time for a drink, and bellied up to the bar. First thing was a warm welcome from one of the guys in the band, then the other. Soon we were deep in conversation about Memphis, music, and the crossroads. Little did we know, these guys were the real deal in so many ways. Eric Hughes http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=68115554

is by far the most versatile, talented musician we saw while on the quest, and we saw some very talented players. We helped them close out the night, Eric was kind enough to sell Dave 2 autographed cds (both absolutely killer), drew us a map to Furry Lewis' grave, and provided us with some history about Beale we would not have heard otherwise. It seems back during prohibition, booze would be unloaded off boats at the river and would be brought to the speakeasys on Beale by way of a tunnel under all the bars. This is also how they disposed of any "bodies" of evidence if the need arose. The tunnel still exists and many of the buildings can still be reached by that route.
Well its really late, the only place pumping music is Rum Boogie just accross the street so we walked that way, not really wanting to see Dr Feelgood Potts again at the Blues Hall(next door to Rum Boogie,connected by a door), but there he was, outside calling us over. Since it was his last set too, we knew from Thurs., the set would be mostly a song he likes to call, Tip The Band! We were pleasantly surprised when 2 very attractive young ladies from Nashville made our aquantance, and we closed out the Beale St experience talking with them.

Monday we shipped the guitars, boarded a plane, and returned to where we began. Things were different, things were the same. I found a new drive, and maybe a clarity of vision about music. We spent a bunch of time talking about dreams and hopes, even though I know it sometimes takes to much energy to keep a dream alive. We can only try, because another crossroad awaits tommorrow.

The next post will be a summary of all the GPS settings. Again, thanks for reading, thanks to all the good folks of Memphis and the Mississippi Delta, we had a great time.

Peace jc