Punxsutawney Phil may have given the likelihood of an early Spring his personal seal of approval this morning, but we had an entirely different Groundhog Day when we saddled up for our East Tennessee run a few weeks back. Identical to a pair of dates we had to cancel due to an ice storm two years ago (same towns, same venues) , we rolled out knowing we might be headed into the muck, and sure as sh#t(if you'll pardon my French), we hit it….well, the start of it at least. Opting to err on the side of caution, we canceled our rooms at the prestigious Econolodge of Morristown, TN, and headed back after our Thursday night Knoxville engagement, through sheets of just-the-right-side-of-freezing rain, to narrowly outrun the blizzard that had most of Nashville snowed-in by later that afternoon. Thankfully, the fine folks at O'Mainnin's in Bristol were understanding; probably because they didn't really want us camping out in their bar for 2-3 days and maybe going all Donner Party on their staff, so we've rescheduled for June, when I'm fairly confident ice and snow will be out of the forecast. Sorry, Bristol…we'll try to make it up to you then.
That little adventure aside, all of our other January gigs came off without a hitch, for the most part. A dead vehicle battery in Paducah, a drunken street skirmish around our trailer requiring multiple police cruisers on the scene(we were mere spectators, not participants) at one stop, and the navigation of that occasional odd, un-doable request were about the worst of it, and all pretty much par for the course anyway.
We DID play a cool joint in Newnan, GA called The Alamo, that was situated in a part of town used by The Walking Dead and Zombieland as a filming location. Turns out our sound guy Eric had actually worked on TWD, so I might've geeked out just a little over some behind the scenes stuff, while Patrick took a quick hike around the square to see what he might recognize. It's the little things, folks.
And speaking of little things, there is a small favor you might be able to do for us, if you're feeling generous or so inclined. Our favorite venue, a stop we make as often as possible, even when we're NOT actually scheduled to play there, but merely passing through and thirsty, experienced a devastating fire last month that will require a complete rebuild. If you've ever experienced something like this, then you know well what a nightmare it is trying to pull everything back together again to start over. With that in mind, some folks have organized a pair of benefit shows to assist in the efforts to help John and his wife Missy rebuild their place John Brown's On The Square in Marion, IL. In addition to the shows, there are a couple of ways you can help these fine folks if, like us, you can't actually be there. There's a GoFundMe page HERE for monetary donations, as well as a really cool logo T-shirt that can be purchased HERE , if you wanna sport some JBOTS swag while contributing to the cause.
Again, these are good people who deserve the leg up, so if you can find it in your heart to pitch in, or maybe you just need a cool t-shirt to add to your collection, please do us a solid and throw 'em a little coin. We thank you kindly in advance.
So, I think that about covers it for now….we've got one last gig for February on Friday, a full-band acoustic performance at our regular Madisonville, KY haunt The Crowded House, before Patrick embarks on some sort of cruise with his wife, Kenny & I take our ladies to Las Vegas for a few days, and Matt moonlights with his other band Once Free at 12th & Porter. When we reconvene, we'll get down to the business of working up band versions of some of the new material that's been getting the demo treatment here at Pastry Park Audio Confectionery, and maybe resurrecting a few older tunes we've had on the bench the past few months…things like The Next Three Minutes, Dyin' To, and some of that stuff from The Die Youngs record that we'd previously threatened to incorporate into our live show. Now that we've settled in some with this revamped lineup, I think it's finally time to see how those stack up in the live setting.
We'll see you when we see you,
Denny
The Great Affairs
UPCOMING DATES:
SATURDAY, MARCH 12TH FAT MOE'S PADUCAH, KY 9PM
SATURDAY, MARCH 19TH TWISTED SPOKE PEKIN, IL NOON
FRIDAY, MARCH 25TH THE CROWDED HOUSE MADISONVILLE, KY 8PM
SATURDAY, APRIL 16TH PRESERVATION PUB KNOXVILLE, TN 10PM
SATURDAY, APRIL 23RD THE HUMMINGBIRD MACON, GA 10PM
FRIDAY, APRIL 29TH THE SPILLWAY BOWLING GREEN, KY 9PM
SATURDAY, APRIL 30TH MVP CINCINNATI, OH 9PM
…….more TBA, so keep an eye out for additional show dates to pop up throughout March and April. We've got a handful of pending May dates as well that will be announced as soon as the contracts are finalized, and they'll be taking us into some new territories a little further to the East, like the Carolinas.