So I normally don’t post very often, but some significant things are going on with my music life that I thought I would go ahead and post something.
So first off my classic rock trio, The Kaw Tunes, is playing it’s last show this Saturday (7/29) at The Brass Rail in Topeka. Our bassist, Paul Gibson, who I began playing with back in the 1990’s in St Louis, is moving back to St. Louis. This saddens me, but I certainly understand his motivation to do so. He was the main vocalist and bassist in the group and honestly, trying to replace him would be way more work that it is really worth. So we’re are calling it a day.
The other part of that is Paul is also the bassist with my main group, The Hoodoo Brothers. We can replace him (we are holding auditions) on bass but he was integral in getting the band to where we are today. He was the right piece of the puzzle at the right moment in time. He was truly like a brother to the whole band and it’s gonna be some big shoes to fill for whoever comes in after him.
This presents a problem for the International Blues Challenge (IBC) coming up in September, but we have a few bass players lined up that are auditioning and one that can cover the IBC if we cannot find someone very soon.
This means I am one band down… ahhh… but I’m like Hydra in the Marvel Universe! Cut one head off and another takes its place! (Yeah, stupid analogy, I know, but it is apropos).
The Counterpoint Project is chugging along with myself and Harry Muldrow on sax and we have some shows lined up in a couple different configurations of the group. I can see an exciting future for this group.
The next thing is that I have revived The Hot Toe Pickers and restructured the personnel and goals of the group. I will be playing acoustic and covering vocals, Jim West will be playing pedal steel guitar instead of guitar in the group and we are bringing in fellow Hoodoo Brother Mickey Munoz on drums and bassist Andrew Balden. The plan is to only play once in a while (maybe once a month, maybe less). This is truly a side project that will be fun, but allows the rest of us to pursue other projects.
That other project for me is The Vibe Combo.
I love playing bass guitar. Always have. I played recently at a jam session The Hoodoo Brothers hosted at Score Bar & Grill in KC and forgot how enjoyable it was. The Vibe Project is going to fill that void for me. It will also only be a once a month gig, but the group is gonna have a great song list and some equally great musicians. I think we will be a pretty big hit.
The band will be playing strictly instrumental songs and instrumental versions of songs that have lyrics. It’ll be a lot of jazz/blues/fusion/funk (think of groups like Fattburger, Larry Carlton, New Mastersounds, Herbie Hancock, The Crusaders, David Sanborn, etc.) and will feature some off the hook musicians.
Like I said, I will be on bass, Casey Artzer will be on saxophone, Kenny Retzlaff will be on guitar, Marcell Stewart will be on keys and Colby Earlywine on drums. All these guys are top-shelf musicians and I am excited to see where this all leads!
So, that’s a lot. Even though The Kaw Tunes is folding, I have more than enough to replace it and feed my musical needs. I’ll miss Paul immensely and hope I get a chance to jam with him in the future.
I have also updated this website with all my projects shows and will really try and keep it current.
Thanks for reading, see you out there!