As Musicians, our general mode of travel is the Bus, and we love ours.  “Blue” is a 40 foot long Eagle 15.  She’s almost a member of the Band, and if she could speak we’d likely be buying her silence on the regular.

That said, any way you can get yourself to New Orleans this weekend is highly recommended.  Personally, I would advise you to go if only to catch Jon Cleary for his Friday Night Residency at the Maple Leaf.  He’s a true monster player with a great Band and has just put out a new album.
And then there’s Mr. Blotto going on after…and then again on Saturday…
And then there’s a Gumbo Fest in Louis Armstrong Park on Saturday…

Finally, for all of you travelers, we can’t wait to see you.
I saw a bunch of people chatting about how they are taking the Train down. Here’s a link to a song that I think sums up a lot for me personally.
There’s a line in it about how
“All along the south bound Odyssey/ the train pulls out of Kankakee”.

Paul and I lived in Kankakee for 10 years and that’s where we learned to play Music and joined our first Bands. Not to put too fine a point on it, but our trip to New Orleans started in Kankakee too.

For those flying, here’s something you need to see, especially if you’ve booked cheap flights…

We have been loving the enthusiasm we’ve been getting from everyone about these Shows. We will try to Stream them, so stay tuned to this Blog and to both Facebook and Instagram for details.  The plan is to record a CD from these Shows and if it turns out well, we hope to have it out by Hotel Blotto in February, if not sooner.

That’s it for now. See you there…

-Chief

For a lot of us here in the Fly Over, Alpine Valley in East Troy, Wisconsin,  was the best place to see the Dead.

The Venue was great.  It was just close enough to be convenient, but far away enough for the trip to be Epic, and you could camp out on the Golf Course if you worked it out right. It wasn’t Madison Square Gardens, and it was neither Fillmore East nor West, but it was our Ground Zero and that’s where we heard our first Phil Bombs.

It’s where I got acquainted with the fact that Anything could happen at a Dead Show. Literally, anything…

One example. I met Henry Rollins of Black Flag under the tree at Center Field. For those who may not know Henry, he was at the time Lead Singer of Black Flag. For those who may not know, Black Flag was a Hardcore Punk Rock Band from the West Coast. For those who…ah, fuck it… He was also growing as a spoken word Artist and had published a number of books of his stuff, which I had discovered in school and really liked. I sat down and we talked for a little bit and then split because you don’t want to be that person who talks too much when you’re talking to someone you look up to (See Barlow, John Perry). As I got back to our spot I mentioned to one of my Deadhead friends that I never would have predicted that.

“That’s why we’re here, dumb ass” he replied, “If you want something obvious, watch TV.  This is where we go for the other stuff…”

Most of all though, I remember being on the Hill with my close friends. It occurred to us that if Aliens happened to come down to Earth on that particular Saturday night, maybe around mid-2nd Set, and asked the people in Washington or the Hague or wherever they landed,..

“Hey, we don’t have this “Music” thing in our World. It seems cool.  Where should we go to             hear it at it’s most Exciting and Alive?

We knew that the only legit answer was to send those Music-Starved Green Beings to Alpine Valley, where musical Alchemy was taking place, fearlessly in by 6 guys in front of Thousands.

Plus, a couple more weirdos wouldn’t hurt anything, and they might just help…

-Chief