Cabbages & Kings is the first CD that features Mark Hague on Guitar and Vocals.  While we had known Hague for years and had always loved his playing in whatever band he was in at the time, we didn’t know at the time just how much history we had in common with him.

Here’s a brief History Lesson…
When Paul and I were in High School we had a garage Band which went through a bunch of names, but ended up being called Fred. Paul sang and I played Guitar. The other guitarist was Wayne Healy who, with Marty Lloyd (the drummer) went on to form the Freddy Jones Band.
Initially I was the Lead Guitarist, but Wayne quickly blew past me in technique. One of the reasons he got so good so fast was there was this unnamed guitar whiz up the street from him and they would spend hours daily playing together.  At the time they were into dissecting Metal stuff like Eruption/Van Halen and everything Jimmy Page played on the Led Zepplin records.
Years later, Mr. Blotto is headlining at the Cubby Bear.  The opening band is American Garage, featuring Hague on Lead Guitar.  We get to talking after soundcheck and put it together that the guru up the street was…
…wait for it…
…Mark Hague. So it’s not like we didn’t know him, even though we didn’t.

Hague joined up in 1999. His “Bandiversary” date is  3/25/1999. We rehearsed for a little over a Month and then hopped in the Vans and went to Colorado for our first Shows together. We figured there was a great tradition of getting things tight on the Road and then coming home as a well-oiled machine.
One of my first impressions of what Hague was bringing to the table came from the fact that for some odd reason, “After it Rains” got requested every night. Now, normally, we don’t repeat songs night after night (or even week to week if we think of it) but seeing as we were way out West and the requests were for an Original, we did it as requested.
While this might seem repetitious, those who attended all 3 Shows didn’t think so and the reason was Hague’s solos. It’s not that they were different each night: they were. But it’s not that…
It’s that his approach to the solos each night was so radically different that it made each performance a completely different experience. To me, it was like we were auditioning 3 different guitarists with that song, each with a completely different approach to the solo section. It wasn’t the first time that I knew we were doing something different, but it was the biggest, clearest, and most obvious sign to that effect and it made the long downhill drive to Chicago a lot more enjoyable.

A Brief Digression…
A few years later, someone had the idea that it would be fun to do Van Halen’s Eruption in the set. Hague says Yes, he can do it at the Show, but really wishes he had this MXR Phase 90 pedal that he used to play it thru as that really would give it an authentic Tone.
I say “No problem. I’m a stomp box junkie and I have one that I “borrowed” from Wanye”. Hague says “Wait, those pedals are orange, but does yours have a mismatched yellow back panel?”.
I say “Yes, how did you know that?”
Hague-“That’s MY pedal! I knew Wayne “borrowed” it from me. I put the different back panel so I could prove it was mine if anybody ever “borrowed” it.”
Me-“That’s great, but I “borrowed” it from Wayne fair and square and I’m not giving it back to either of you. It’s mine now…” But I dig it out it and he plays through it and it does sound really good in rehearsal.
So we do the Show and Hague rips through “Eruption” and we go into “Running with the Devil” for good measure. Paul does a David Lee Roth kick that came so close to Mark that it actually moved the hair on the right side of his head. We think he came really close to getting knocked out cold.  That might have sucked at the time but would have given me a really good punchline (no pun intended I suppose) for this here digression thingy.

Jumping forward to about a year after that Show, I’m looking for the Phase Pedal because I want to use it on a demo I’m working on. I can’t find it anywhere. The Crew can’t find it, but they’re sure they didn’t lose it because we only used it that one time. So I ask Hague about it and he says “…maybe it’ll turn up” and gives me a strange laugh that told me that in no way was that pedal ever going to turn up…

While we all agree on a lot of things, artistically speaking, one of the biggest is a dedication to writing original Music. Paul, Mark, and I got together at our Warehouse every Monday night to work on new stuff. Besides coming up with Songs, it was a great way to get to know each other quickly. And it was a lot of fun. That tradition largely continues to this day.
As a result, since Hague joined up, every CD could have been a double CD.  We had to make some hard choices about what songs would be included on Cabbages & Kings and on every CD since. In the interests of time and space, and not wanting to tax the Gentle Reader’s patience, I’ll only mention a couple of specific songs here…

Prologue/Cabbages & Kings-This was a new thing for us. We wanted to write a sort-of Overture that would unify the CD, like the first or last song you hear in a Musical or Opera. However, we didn’t want it to be a musical medley, so we came up with one line referring to each song on the CD and those became the verses. The odd thing here is that by putting in the Overture, we had to eliminate one of the songs.  If you’re ever stuck on a flight or otherwise need to kill some time, feel free to figure out what line that is.  Extra Credit goes to those who have heard the missing song live…

Busman’s Holiday-Not everyone has heard this expression. I know this because a lot op people have asked me “Hey, what’s a Busman’s Holiday”. Being a clever sort of guy, I figured that they didn’t know what it meant. I’ve always been blessed with an acute sense of awareness I guess..
Anyhoo, my Grandmother Marie used to say it all the time. According to her, it’s when you do what your job is on your break, like when a Bus Driver goes on vacation and the first thing he does is get on a Bus to go on vacation.  That sort of thing.
The application here is when the Musician has romantic problems due to the fact that he’s always playing Music somewhere. Breakup ensues. Feeling bad, what does our Musician do? He picks up the very Guitar that got him in this predicament.
The kicker here is that the Musician is playing the guitar…on a Tour Bus.

Southern Woman-Lyle Lovett has always been an Inspiration to us. Partly due to his unique compositions and partly due to the fact that he made it possible for a guy who looks like he does to end up with a girl who looks like Julia Roberts.  This made him the “patron Saint of the traveling Band”. He still is.

Moviestar-Here’s one that really should not have happened. Paul and I had that song for a while but could not get the lyrics right, so we didn’t play it. for literally 3+ years…
One night, on the way to a Show in a van where the radio had been stolen, out of boredom I mention that if we fix 3 or 4 lines, that song could be playable. We have time to kill and argue a bit and by the time we’re at the Show, it’s all good. We don’t have the music arranged, but at least we have lyrics now.
After Set Break, we go on Stage and the soundman is playing a cool Reggae song we hadn’t heard before. Hague starts playing an odd groove on top of it. I go with him and Paddy starts singing the lyrics we just finished arguing about and hour or so ago. And it really works well. This is the kind of thing we’re seeing a lot from this new guy. It’s the highlight of the night and we’re really excited as it’s a great start of a new Song.
The Problem is that a couple days later, when we get together to finalize an arrangement, we can’t recapture what had happened spontaneously.
Luckily, we have always had a great relationship with Tapers. We put out the word that we were looking for a copy of that Show and a Taper-to-remain-nameless came to our rescue. He laid a copy of the night on us and Moviestar entered our songlist.
Somebody once said “if you really love Music, hug a Taper” and we never felt that more than right then…

1977-This was the first Original to really be indicative or Hague’s style. While we all loved playing it right from the start, night after night it went in different directions. Other songs were incorporated. Meandering was encouraged. Melodies were hijacked, spun about and sent home dizzy.  It’s been that way with lot’s of songs ever since with that guy, but this is the first Original to kind of suggest the truly crooked Path we were now setting out upon.

-Chief

PS-Fly Away is the first Mr. Blotto song to be covered in Polish. That’s Polish, not polish…