JOE & VICKI PRICE         

April 2008

Joe and I are driving down the interstate from St. Louis to Nashville as I am writing this.  We are heading back to the recording studio, hopefully to finish tracking my album and do some more work on Joes.  We played last night at BB's Jazz Blues and Soups in St. Louis.  What a wonderful time, we made some new friends and danced all night.  We played from 7 to 9:30 and then an East Louey band called The Ground Floor took the stage.  They were so fine.  Great Soul music all night.  Joe and I spent all morning reliving this music with each other.  BB's just never disappoints, I cannot recommend this place enough.  It is located on Broadway in downtown St. Louis and is just a few blocks from the new stadium.  In fact they had a Cardinal/Cubs game going on.  The food is really good, great selection of beer and it has been voted best music in St. Louis in 2006 and 2007. From what I heard last night they are well on the way to winning in 2008!!!!  John May and his partner have made this into an elegant, fun, music place. 

JOE AND JOHN MAY BB'S ST. LOUIS

April was a hopping month.  We did a lot of concert shows in April.  We started in Fort Dodge IA.  We played for the Folk Society at a little down town coffee shop call Bloomers.  Father Tim, the local parish priest, got this music series going.  They will be having a folk fest later in the summer so look for that.  Our good friend Bajae Flemming came by and also Byron from Pomeroy.  After the concert we were invited to go over to a local pub and take part in the jam.  It's always fun to hear the local music.

Next we hopped over to Oak Center General Store in Oak Center Minnesota.  Steve has been doing a concert series there for years.  In fact Greg Brown used to play the Store before the audience got to large.  Wish Joe and I could have that problem.  Lynn Oldre-Mortenson who works so hard to put on the Hambone Blues Festival in Albert Lee, Minnesota was there with her husband and son.  Bill Waldron and friends showed up from Rochester.  Danny, Linda and Charlie came from Red Wing.  Steve not only puts on concerts, there is a health food store downstairs and he farms organic.  His home is always full of children and pets and good company.

Lynn & Bill at Oak Center

We headed from Oak Center to Spooner Wisconsin to do the first Blues Bash at the Northwinds Resort.  Scott and his wife were originally from Waterloo, Iowa.  They purchased the lake resort and have been calling Wisconsin home.  Our old friend Howard Luedtke also performed.  He kicked it off with a solo set on his National, then Joe & I played, then Howards band and then it was jam time.  Howard is a ball of fire on the guitar and there is no way you can miss his passion for his music. An old friend of Joe's, Toad, came all the way up from Waterloo with some friends.  They have been making the trip to the resort for years and it was Toad that talked Scott into doing this show.  Thanks Toad it was fun.  We just got word from Scott and he is working on putting together another event with us and Howard.  If you are looking for a get away weekend this might be it.  Rent a cabin along the lake, eat some fried fish and listen to some blues.  Don't get no better.

                        Our cabin by the lake.                            Joe and Howard and the blues

Our next stop was Sturgeon Bay Wisconsin to do the Ladder House Concert Series put on by Terry Lundahl.  They have a beautiful venue in the Ladder House bar which is an old fire station that has been restored.  The pole is even still here.  Terry host a winter concert series, giving folks and excuse to get out of the house and a chance to hear some music.  Thank goodness we have folks like Terry to keep this rolling for us musicians.  We went over and stayed with our buddy Andrew and his fiancé'. We sure had a great party at their house. 

On our way home we did a show with Kelly Pardekooper and Josh Harty at the Mother Fools Coffee House in Madison.  We didn't have a real good crowd but we sure had a real good time.  My best friend Bonnies son Dan and his wife Gayle came over from Plateville for their date night.  Glad they chose to spend it with us.  After the show Kelly and his wife Karen and the rest of us headed next door for a beer and conversation.

Next we did a tour of Minnesota.  We start on Wed. doing our friend Harold Tremblay's radio show on KFAI in Minneapolis and then heading down to the 331 to do his Jackson Juke Joint show.  We shared the evening with the Alex Wilson band out of Milwaukee.  They were good.  The crowd stayed till the wee hours and so did we. Thanks to Joshua for doing the sound. In the morning we had a home cooked breakfast at Harold and Terri's house and head to St. Cloud.  We did the happy hour at the Tav from 5 to 7.  Then we went next door to The Rox.  Leon Laudenbach opened with his fun trio; harp, drum and Leon on guitar.  They were just full of energy and doing some good original stuff.  They were alternate alternative.  The Rox has a younger crowd but our good friends Mark Voight and Fudd came on out.  Mark is a school teacher, in his shop class the kids actually build a house.  He also has taken them down to New Orleans to help rebuild there.  Wish I had had a teacher like that!  Joe got to play his custom built twin and crank it up.  A young kid came up and told him he was PUNK!  We met Ivan who volunteer to let us stay at his place and to be our Designated Driver.  Thanks Ivan and thanks to Dan Ganske for booking us.  We will definitely be back.

                        Leon and his band                               Mark and  Fudd

Know we were heading back south about 4 hours to Wykoff, MN.  We play there for Judy and Joe that operate the St. Killians Art Center.  This is the old catholic church which had been abondoned.  They fell in love with the building and purchased it.  It is one of the best sounding rooms we performing in.  The acoustics are so good that you can hear the people in the audience eat their popcorn from the stage.  Acoustics like that make your performance so easy that you just have to have a good time.  We will be playing for Judy's son Cole's graduation next month, can wait.  Our final concert was back north in Cambridge, MN at the Hardy Performing Arts Center at the High School. We had done a show there, opening for Greg Brown last year and they invited us back to do their smaller winter concert series.  Once again we had a lot of fun.  I had left my purse in the dressing room while we performed, thinking it was safe.  During break I went to get it and it was gone!!!!  I looked everywhere and finally went out to the truck to tell Joe it was gone.  "Oh", he said, "I was worried about it there so I locked it in the van.  Quess I should have told you."  He almost didn't live to play the second set.  After the show we went down town for a drink with friends Mark and Rose Voight and their boy Hans.  Also,  Roger and his wife along with some of their friends came down.  It was karaoke night at the bar.  I have not heard much karaoke, but that night reminded me why I don't usually seek it out.  It's hard to believe that bars won't pay musicians to play music, but will pay some guy with a mic to sing along with records and it doesn't matter if anyone can sing or not.  Strange world.

We heading home on Sunday and had to be up bright and early Monday morning to get down to Catamount Studios in Cedar Falls to do some recording for our new CD's.  We picked up our son Keni at his house, he was playing drums for us.  When we got to Waterloo we had to eat lunch at Joe's favorite, The Maide Rite.  We got to Catamount and Tom got us set up.  We worked on some stuff with the 3 of us.  Then trumpet player Al Naylor came in and we did a couple of songs with him. You may have seen all with Bob Dorr's Blue Band.  He and Joe instantly clicked musically and the result is some really good songs.  Keni is a great blues drummer, our favorite.  He makes it so easy to play and he creates interesting rhythms.  The session was a definate success thanks to these two guys.

We headed home for a week off and boy were we feeling like we needed it.  The only thing we did was go down to The Main Entrance on our 21st wedding anniversary to hear John Burlingame play guitar.  He is just wonderful and made our night special.  thanks to Tim and Caroline and Cowey for helping us celebrate.

March 2008

On the 8th of March we did a show at the Starlite in LaCrosse, WI.  It's always a good time there, but this time we had the pleasure of meeting 3 artists from the Chicago and Milwaukee area.  Gabe, Mark and Frank - all visual artists - had gotten a-hold of Joe's CD's through a friend who had purchased them at an "Iron Pour" we had played for.  An iron pour is an artist event involving melting scrap metals and creating art.  Anyway they loved the music and decided to come all that way to LaCrosse to hear Joe play.  Thanks much guys, you made our night.

On Monday it was time to leave for our east coast tour.   Getting Joe going isn't always easy and he insisted if we left Tues. late afternoon, we would arrive in plenty of time for our Thursday show.  I wanted to leave earlier, but there was just no moving him.  It was cold and snowy, the river was frozen as we took off for Vermont.  Joe and I enjoy the long drives, we have a little travel Martin Guitar we can play in the van, I like to read books and we both like to see how many birds of prey we can spot.  The bird spotting can get very competitive.  We were driving steady, but we were going to be pushing it to get to the Bob Cat Cafe, our first show, on time.  I sat next to Joe with my "I told you so attitude", chomping at the bit to get there.  Joe admitted I had been right about leaving earlier, little comfort if we were late.  We pulled into Bristol Vermont one hour before the show.  Joe looks at me and says, "Hey, we're early!".

We had a full house at the Bob Cat and a fun night.  We had opened for Greg Brown at several Vermont shows in October and most of the people we met on this tour came up to tell us they had heard us with Greg and came to see us again.  We want to give Greg our thanks for the opportunity to make new fans in Vermont.  Thanks to all of you who came to the show, it was very exciting for Joe and I to see you all there.

Next we played the Langdon Street Cafe in Vermont's lovely capitol, Montpelier.  This is the smallest of all the state capitols, but certainly big on charm.  We got to the cafe early and got to hear an all girl group called "The Babes".  The help at the cafe were fun and very hospitable.  Good wine too.

Our last day in Vermont took us to the Sugar Bush Ski Resort.  The resort was featured on the Today Show, in February. It is a beautiful resort with wonderful Vermont vistas.  Joe and I decided we are falling in love with Vermont.  It looks remarkably like our home in Lansing.  Beautiful mountains (ours are smaller) and lot of woods.  They were making maple sugar at the time of our visit.  Spring was in the air, but the snow was still on the ground for the skiers.  Almost everyone we met was down to earth and friendly.  We spent the night at Hardy and Laura's home.  A little cottage in the woods, a lot like our house.  We ate pizza, shared stories and laughs.  We snuck out in the morning, not to wake them and headed south.  The roads were slippery so we took our time and enjoyed the landscape, including a beautiful waterfall beside the highway.  We have now been to Vermont in the summer, fall and winter and we love it all.  Thank you Vermont!!

And now we began what would be the longest 12 hour drive of our life.  We were heading south to Florida with no clue that the first leg of the journey would keep us in bumper to bumper traffic for half of a day.    We left the Boston area and headed to Hartford, CT the beginning of a megalopolis that consists of Hartford, New Haven, Bridgeport, Stanford, New York City, Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Annapolis, Washington D.C. and Richmond, VA.  You never leave an urban environment as you travel from one city to the next.  It is housing and shopping centers as far as you can see in any direction, the encroachment stopped only by the Atlantic.  As you get closer to New York city things crowd in closer and closer and grow taller and taller, higher and higher, until you feel completely surrounded by humanity.  It is indeed a concrete jungle covering much of the eastern sea board.  All of this looks remarkably the same.  A continual repeating of the  same stores, shopping centers, gas stations and amusement parks, over and over again.  Unfortunately, that can be said of every urban area coast to coast and I have the sneaking suspicion it may true of the world.

I know that millions of people thrive in this environment; the excitement, the noise, the wealth to be made, but for Joe and I both it was just hard to imagine living there, growing up there.  While most people will extol the virtues of their cities museums, theatres, athletic teams and restaurants, the fact is you put up with a lot to have those things.  In the country we extol the virtues of peace and quite, knowing your neighbors, small schools, our restaurants and outdoor life.  The fact is we do without something's to have those benefits.  Life is always a trade off.

Joe did all the driving this first day.  I wouldn't take the wheel again until rural Virginia, too much stimulus is not good for me.  I have a tendency to miss things like red lights when there is too much to look at.  We did have to go through the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, I didn't tell Joe we were going under the water of the harbor.  He is claustrophobic and would not have enjoyed the trip had he known.  We stopped outside Roanoke for the night and parked our van beside a couple of crab trees that were blooming, thankful for spring and our GPS, "Miss America", that got us through that mess!!!

Joe enjoys the fragrance.

It was my first trip to the southeastern U.S. The towns read like a road map to the Civil War; Arlington, Attium, Murphysboro, Savannah and many others.  You couldn't help but think of all the death and destruction that the south suffered.  We had to keep moving - our first show in Florida was on Wednesday in North Miami.  We got to North Miami in time to do some laundry.  It was a Cuban neighborhood and very colorful.  The lady that was owner of the Laundromat was singing as she worked.  Her voice was so beautiful, I was embarrassed to tell her we were musicians for a living.  The Luna Star, were we performed that night is a small folk club.  They have a lot  of music and over 100 beers.  Alexis and her partner Keith run it.  Keith also does video for shows like Miami Vice.  I'll never see that show again and not think of these two.  We had some friends Tom and Shari come on down, it was so nice to see them.  We also met Ayden who is an old friend of Greg Browns.  He said Greg used to call him Nigel.  He and Tom and Joe ended the night with an acoustic jam that was so much fun.

On Thursday we had a day off before our show at Vero Beach, so decided to head north to Vero and hang on the beach for a day.  They had had big winds and the surf was beautiful, some of the best in years I was told.  After the long Iowa winter, one of the longest in years, it was great just to sit in the sand and watch the waves roll in!  On Friday we did our show at the Bodega Blue.  The club features classic cheeses, local beers and great food.  Lynne is also making a name for good music.  We got to meet Laura and her partner Hal.  A very fun couple.  They came down because daughter Pat, who sees us in Pomeroy, Iowa recommended us.  It is a very small world. 

Sunset on Vero Beach with full moon.

So often when we tour there isn't a lot of time to sight see, but we do try to take a day or two for something special.  On this trip we paid a visit to Joe's Older brother Butch and his wife Sandy in St. Petersburg.  We got to meet Butch's granddaughter, Mia and visit with her mom Nicky.  Butch's buddy Eric was there.  He has a dog trained to smell out bed bugs.  He works for an exterminator.  Ain't that wild!!  We had such a nice visit.  Drinking beer and listening to old Jazz and Blues records.

Our last Florida show was at the Beach Shack and did we have some fun.  It was spring break and the bar is right on the beach.  Beautiful young folks crowded the street enjoying themselves. I don't blame them for wanting to come here, I enjoyed myself and I'm a lot older than them.  Needless to say Joe enjoyed the view.  We met so many nice folks; Bob the owner, Bruce Johnson who play music with a friend of ours Ben Prestiage, and a couple Pat & Pat.  The she Pat made me a gift of a crystal ankle bracelet.  Thank you again Pat.  We will definitely be going back to Florida next winter, it's just too much fun to pass up.

                Joe's name in lights at Cocoa Beach                 Cocoa Beach is home to  Jeannie                                         

The tour was not finished yet.  We headed out Monday to Nashville.  We had a recording session scheduled on Tues. with Joe McMahan.  I have to tell you it is the best recording session Joe and I have ever had and we are very excited about our new records.  Joe's studio has 2" tape and lots of old mics and equipment.  It fit our hand made amp sound perfectly.  We are hoping to have my record out by July, and Joe's later this year.  He has a couple of songs to work up yet.  Joe took us out for lunch down the street from were he lives, a soul food place called, Bailey and Zato's.  By far the best food we had on the trip.  This was home cooking heaven.  After the recording session we stopped by a local club, "The Family Wash".  Our old Iowa friend Kevin Gordon came down and had a drink with all of us.  We are hoping to perform at this club on our next trip to Nashville.

Kevin Gordon, Joe, Joe McMahan, and Jennifer Nicely at the Family Wash

Our last stop was Memphis were we met with Betsie Brown, she runs Blind Raccoon Promotions which specializes in Blues musicians.  We will be working with Betsie on promoting Joe's record this fall.  Betsie had given a workshop at the 2006 International Blues Challenge and I had attended that.  I was very impressed with her.   We are really looking forward to working with her.

Finally, it was time to head up the Mississippi to home.  As we headed north the temperature got colder.  When we reached Davenport it began to snow.  Those big fluffy flakes that don't stick to the ground.  The kind of snow they have in Taos, NM.  Joe looked at me and said, "Man, is that snow pretty."  Funny what a couple of weeks in sunshine can do for your attitude.  When we reach our home 3 hours later the snow had stopped.  You could see green grass peaking through what was left of dirty snow.  The river had thawed and was running high.  It was spring in Iowa and it don't get any better than that.

It was about 3 in the afternoon of Thursday when we returned home.  We had been gone 18 days.  On Friday morning we had to be up early to do a show at the Waukon High School.  We did a short event in the band room.  We played for the band and choir students and took questions then we played for them in the lunch room.  It is so much fun talking with young people interested in music.  Saturday night we were back down at JR's in Farmersburg.  Our buddy Jerry came up from Iowa City and the regulars were all there.  Fun, fun, fun.

February 2008

We had a fun time down at the Root River Saloon in Lanesboro, MN.  Met a new friend Flo, she is a great gal.  Her boy is in the Special Forces so I think about her a lot.  It is a hard thing to have someone over seas at this time.  Our friend and photographer Swingin' Dick and his wife stopped in.  They were out celebrating his birthday. As you can see from the picture Dick took that Joe was helping him celebrate!!!

We helped another friend Byron to celebrate his birthday.  Byon is the owner of "Byron's" down in Pomeroy, IA.  This a very magical music venue.  Byron loves music and brings in some great bands to his club.  There is always a good crowd and a good time.  Joe's brother John and his friend Tim Verdon, "The Typical Males" opened for us.  Before the show Byrons buddy Roger took us over to his gallery to see his art work, he is really good, but it is his tie-dye that is his crowning achievement.  This is a picture of "the Typical Males" performing in front of one of Rogers works.  The next photo is Byron wearing his birthday shirt also made by Roger.

All in all it was one hell of a birthday, a little 25 Below zero weather didn't slow down the residents of Pomeroy.

We did find it necessary to escape the winter and we headed to Arizonia.  We did a show for an old friend Dustin Bush.  He shares a workshop with several other very cool people and they host an occasional concert.  It was good food, good company and some music.  Dusty sat in with us and that was a ball.  He plays a mean slide guitar on his hand-made guitar and amp.  Tone to the Bone!!!!  Our good friends Jean and John Combo hosted a concert for us at their home in Phoenix.  They are so good to us!! They host concerts throughout the winter months, and really work hard to make them a very special event.  Jean made us green chile, tortias scrambled eggs for breakfast, I made them for my brother-in-law a few weeks later, good stuff Jean.  We made lots of new friends and hopefully fans.  Ralph and Sheryl Hume were two of them.  They even made the trip down to Tucson the next day to see us play.  It's always a pleasure to meet such nice people when we are so far from home.

Our last show in Arizonia was at the Boondocks in Tucson.  The Southern Arizonia Blues and Heritage Foundation sponsored the show for us.  This is one hard working group of volunteers.  The blues societys across the country are really a big help in getting the music out there, we just couldn't do it without them!  We had so much fun.  Dusty showed up and jammed with us.  Cathy the owner is a sweet heart and her bartender should be a stand-up comic.  It was a great last night in the warm south.

Joe and I came to a rudd awakening in Arizonia regarding the trouble with people crossing the border.  Everywhere we went there was border patrol and border check points.  It resemble an armed state.  Thousands are arrested and thousands more make it.  I am not sure the answer, but it did give Joe and I an understanding of the magnitude of the problem that we did not have before.

We began the journey home but we still had a couple of shows.  Steve and Carla Scott, who had just moved from Decorah to Kansas, got us a gig at the Swedish Crown and Vasa in Lindsborg, KS.  Mason and Bob are the new owners and have just been in business a few months, with their hospitable spirit, I'm sure they will do well.  Bob was telling us about taking off and going to Nashville to be a song writer, quite an adventure.  They have a great venue for concerts and are hoping to book a show every month, we are sure looking forward to going back.  Our last stop in Kansas was at Uncle Bo's in Topeka.  This is a beautiful club in the Ramada Inn.  Suki the manager is one of those characters born to run a night club.  She also did stand-up comedy for a group of male strippers.  Not sure I'd want to warm those boys up!!!!  If you get to Topeka check this place out good music all the time.  Our friend Francis Voss and her Aunt Betty came all the way from Kansas City to see us.  It was sure good to catch up with her it had been over a year since we saw Francis.  She is one of the sweetest people we have ever met.

We closed out the month a Luther College, always fun to play there.  We missed Dave Lester joining us, he broke his foot.

On March 1st we did a show at The Main Entrance in Prairie du Chien.  I wanted to write about it now so I could hopefully transmit the feeling this place gives me before my middle-aged brain files it in the delete basket.

Back in 1972 or 73, I was in high school and on Sunday we would drive over to Prairie to hit the bars.  Iowa was closed on Sunday back then.  This was a time when people young and old were not afraid to let their hair down.  It wasn't called "binge drinking" then it was "having a beer".  It was as natural a part of life has going to work on Monday.  Back then we socialized with each other, not our TV sets.  People seemed to understand the idea of having fun and believe it or not we did not all end up drunkin' bumbs. 

Prairie was a hopping town on Sunday afternoon.  The Main strip was one bar after another and all of them had live music.  At that time rock and country-rock was all you heard, kind of like today.  I have never liked that music, so one day I ditched my friends and was walking down Main Street by myself.  I went by a doorway and I could hear this great Flaminco Guitar music.  I step into the little club, and at the back was a small man hunched over a classical guitar making the most beautiful music I had heard.  I was home.   I have been going to the Main for music for  over 25 years now.

When Joe moved to Northeast Iowa he asked me if I knew anyplace he could play.  I took him down to the Main about 4:00 one afternoon to meet John Burlingame, the man with the beautiful music.  I told John that Joe was a friend and wanted to play the Main.  John scrutinized Joe and said, "Do you play anything I hear on the radio?"  Joe said, "No."  John said, "You can work for me."  Joe has been playing there ever since.

The atmosphere in the club is all music.  There is no TV, no juke box.  If someone isn't performing there is a CD player and you can bring in something if you like.  Otherwise they have a great collection.  The walls are full of photos of performers famous and infamous.  It is dark, intimate, smoky and when you go to the Main you go to hear music. 

A few years ago John retired and the club is now own by Fokel and Teak.  You can still catch Johnny there, he hosts the open mic on Thursday nights.  Fokel and Teak are a generous couple constantly doing fund raisers for those in need.  Fokel is a fine musician himself and so the club remains a music room.  They have added their own personality, with trumpets, trumbones and french horns for light fixtures.  Sculpture by a friend and lots of foreign beer, Fokel moved here from Germany.

We pulled up in front of the Main and loaded in.  It is easy to miss, since there are not lights on the outside, but inside it is lighted with folks that love music.  Everyone is glad to see Joe.  Fokel and Teak have painted and done the spring house cleaning since our last show there. Things are looking good. On the wall beside the stage is a water color picture someone has painted of Joe.  We had never seen it.  The bartender said a guy about 60, with a tall cane, railroad hat, and a couple of dogs brought it in and asked them to hang it. 

The people come and go throughout the night.  Most of them are familiar faces.  They say hi and stop to talk as they enter and leave.  Big Joe Mama, falls off his bar stool, unhurt he rights himself and decides to have someone take him home.  Someone at the back of the bar hollers, "We love you Joe Price."  We play our hearts out, they hear a lot of music at the Main and they expect you to deliver. 

So the night goes, people dance, visit, have a few drinks.  They are comfortable enough to yell up at Joe and I, either with a smart remark or a request.  Joes Brother John had come up to visit us for the weekend and him and his buddy Tim are along for the evening.   Tim says, "I sure hope these folk know how lucky they are to have a place like this."  I am taking a break sitting on the bar stool watching Joe play.  Laughing with my friends from the Main and thinking how much I love this place.  The night is over to quickly and we  pack it up to head home.  People hug us and kiss us goodbye.  I just can't wait for the next time. I think we all know how lucky we are to still have the Main.

JANUARY 2008

I saw a show on Einstein's theory of time.  A fly can escape the fly-swatter because his metabolism is much faster than ours and we appear to him to be moving in slow motion.  Apparently, time appears to pass faster as we age because our metabolism slows.  Remember when you were young and mom said, "We'll leave for Grandma's in an hour."  Man - that just seemed an eternity.  Our young, fast metabolisms made time appear to pass slowly.  Know entire years fly by like minutes and 2007 was one of those.  I think my met is really slowing down because time appears to fly!!  We had a great year and lot's of fun.  Joe and I want to thank all of you for making it so enjoyable!!!!!

I'm sorry to say I don't have any photos from January.  It was too cold to bring the camera along.  We started the month with Scott at the Sunset Tavern in Black River Falls, WI.  It was a busy night with lots of dancers and drinkers.  This is a Wisconsin roadhouse in the best sense.  Good really cold beer, live music and a deck out front for the summer. 

We did a show at the Musser Library in Muscatine.  The library hosts music one Tuesday night a month during the winter.  It is a great encouragement to get out of the house.  This is a very intimate show and we love it.  Made some new friends Mike and Kris and John.  We had a couple of drinks after the show and Mike told us some colorful stories about his childhood and the local junk yard.  What a great time.

Next we were in Des Moines at The Vaudeville Muse.  Joe's brother John and his buddy Tim opened for us.  They call themselves the "Typical Males".  They did a great job.  Tim's original songs had people in stitches.  John takes after his brother when it comes to backing someone up on guitar.  They are just starting to do some shows in the Des Moines area so if you get a chance go hear them.  You won't regret it!  Thanks again to the Muse for hosting us.

The next weekend we did the Horse Shoe in Calmar.  This is another bar we've been playing at for years.  Pat took over the bar a while back and has turned it into a real music venue.  He is also running for mayor of the town.  I hope this means we'll have a "Get out of jail free card."  Fawn and Craig brought down some old friends and Chris Hackman even got off the farm and came to see us.  Dave Huck stopped by. Always quiz him about politics.    He worked on the Richardson campaign in Iowa.  He also brought a very pretty lady along, good taste Dave.

The next night we were off to LaCrosse, WI to play at the new Train Station BBQ.  What a night!!! Standing room only and people were being turned away.  Lisa and her husband have the personalities to really make this place happen.  So keep your ears open!!!  I think it's going to be one of the best music venues in town as well as serving great BBQ!!!!!  Our friend Mike and Laura brought down a bunch of people.  They just moved to LaCrosse and we sure do miss them in Lansing.  There were lot's of other old friends including Lisa Blue, John and Oakley among others.  Thank you all for making the night so much fun.  For those of you who live in the warmer world it was -26 degrees below zero when we drove home!  It's been many years since we had a real Iowa winter, I forgot how long they can be.

Last but not least we ended the month at the Saxon Hall.  My sisters came out for pizza and to hear their sister.  Needless to say I had a ball, my sisters are crazy.  My brother-in-law Craig was the DD (Designated Driver) and I want to thank him for that, they needed it.  Chris and her gang came down, they sure can dance.  Pete Engen and his family showed up too.  Pete has a new baby girl, that makes two.  He has been such a big encouragement to Joe and I to take our music to new places.  It is always good to see him.  Thanks for the pizza Steve and see you next time.

For Bookings contact Joe Price

563-586-2654  or jpblues@acegroup.cc

1957 Doehler Drive   Lansing, IA  52151