The DejaBlue Grass Band’s hearts and minds are with John Bowers, Joey’s brother, and his family. John was badly injured in a bicycle accident several days ago. We are sending our prayers and good vibes John’s way, and hope you’ll do the same. Send your positive energy John’s way by visiting “Rock on John Bowers” on Facebook.
Get well, John!
“Hierba que se usa como forraje”. (that’s spanish for “Bluegrass”…or at least that’s what the spanish-english website told me. Technically, it means “Herb that can be used as fodder”. Befitting, in so many ways. Much more interesting than “pasto azul”, which was what I was thinking, but what do I know). Been kickin’ around Spanish words and phrases since recently CD Baby informed me that we sold a CD to a person in Biscay, Spain. And not your regular boring touristy catch phrases like “¿Dónde está el baño?“, I wanted to know phrases that I might use if we were to pack up and do a gig over there…like “Reckon they’ll let us pick over yonder?” (“¿Te supongo que vamos a arrancar por allá?”), “Where can a fella get a cold’beer?” (“¿donde un hombre puede conseguir una cerveza fría?”) and “Damn, son! That is one fine lookin’ fiddle you got there” (“Maldita sea, hijo! Esta es una multa buscando violín que tiene allí.”)
I clicked around picture of this place, and I am now standing for the possibility that The DejaBlue Grass Band will book a gig there. Looks like a pretty cool place! Couldn’t you see us out there pickin’ and grinnin’ (“punteo y sonreír”) right there on that veranda?
By the way, Banjoboy pointed out to me that it was exactly one year ago that we released our CD “Cubo lleno de lluvia”
![AstronautScottKellyDjBGB[1]](http://dejablueramblings.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/astronautscottkellydjbgb11.jpg?w=243&h=300 "AstronautScottKellyDjBGB[1]")
Astronaut Scott Kelly thinks the DejaBlue Grass Band is outta site!
You never know who’s “out there” listening. The DjBGB was honored to have NASA’s own Scott Kelly in the audience at Chop’s on Derby Day May 2nd. (His business card actually says “Scott Kelly, Astronaut” on it. How cool is that?!?) We stand for the possibility that Scott will take his “Bucket Full of Rain” into outerspace, and we will have the distinction of being the first bluegrass band ever played in outerspace.
If you play in a bluegrass band, you’re gonna eat A LOT of barbecue. Just google “Bluegrass & Barbecue” and you’ll find over 110,000 entries. A southern thing for sure, (though the damn yankees have caught on…) but I was curious to know where the marriage began. A journalist, Jonathan Daniels, one wrote back in the 50’s that “Barbecue is the dish which binds together the taste of both the people of the big house and the poorest occupants of the back end of the broken-down barn”. It’s all that’s good about the south. For all our region’s checkered past, Barbecue has emerged as the universally celebrated enduring icon of the south that transcends race, culture, creed, social status. As far as the tie with bluegrass,..probably something of an Appalacia-based reason why we get served more “Carolina” style ‘cue than “Alabama” style ‘cue at the Bluegrass gigs.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s a reason that the Lord put us in a bluegrass band. You could say that we dig the pig, in any style. Just in the past two weeks we’ve played some swanky Buckhead parties, including the Derby Day throwdown at chops, and all three served barbecue.
Speaking of Barbecue and Bluegrass, we just accepted a position in a talented line-up of groups at the Decatur Blues & Bluegrass festival on August 19th. Check it out at www.decaturbbqfestival.com
Here\’s a little Derby Day Dish for ya: Mint. Bourbon. Sugar. Water. Stir in 20 horses, and 5-parts bluegrass. Chill at a swanky Buckhead steak joint. Serve on May 2, 2009. That is a recipe for a gooooooood time, m\’friend!
Join the DejaBlue Grass Band on May 2nd for Kentucky Derby Day at Chops in Buckhead! We\’ll get started about 2pm and play till 6pm. Race starts shortly there after. We need a big crowd, and you can bet on damn good time. Saddle up and c\’mon!
Three smiling guys on Telluride...seewhadamean?
As the DejaBlue Grass Band was playing to a rowdy raucous Serenbe wedding crowd full of fun, drinkin’ and dancin’ folks on Saturday night, it occurred to me why I love snow-skiing so much… Yes, there’s a connection, stay with me. When you are at such a beautiful place like Telluride (or any ski resort), everyone is in a good mood. Stop off the slopes, slip off the skis for a sarsaparilla, and I defy you to find a frown. Won’t happen. And when you’re surrounded by smiles, it’s absolutely impossible to have a bad time.
Case-in-point: Frazzling into our Friday gig I was fit to be tied when I arrived. I jettisoned my 6-cylinder sarcophagus, numb from nearly two hours of Atlanta traffic, and bugged my way to the stage. First thing I did was set my stuff down (10 minutes before we were “on”). Second thing I did was beg the bartender for a double scotch on the rocks. I mean I was frrrrried. My ill temper found my fingers, too. I couldn’t pick a lick. All thumbs. I pulled my hat down low and tried not to poison anyone. But as the night progressed, the girls in the back began buck dancing, the guys followed suit, and the party soon sashayed toward band, front and center. This gaggling group was having a big time. Circling up, clapping, do-se-doin’, Honky-tonkin’ like they didn’t have a care in the world. Some of the girls and guys joined us behind the mic for some sing-alongs (one lovely young lady named Stuart could really sing, too. She was fabulous.) I couldn’t help it. The band was having a blast, and I was right there with’em, smiling ear-to-ear. Like I said, it’s absolutely impossible to be in an ill mood when you are in a beautful place (and Serenbe is spectacular) and there are that many people having a good time. …besides, people who’d hire a bluegrass band for a wedding are our kinda tribe anyway! 
Dirty Santa
The times of whiskey-soaked Ned from Accounts Receivable holding an elf hat over his zipper at the office Christmas party and slurring “Hhhhey! Lookhh!! Santa’s lil hhhhelper!! … Prob’ly gone for good. YouTube and insurance policies put a final fork in the good ol’ days. Alas, Generation Y may never know the devilish delight of sniggering at Ned’s Monday morning walk of shame…
Now, (if you even still have an office party) it’s a cocktail or two, gravitate to the “cool section” for some “this is lame” talk, exchange some stories, make the obligatory kiss-the-ring fly-by to the boss, and you’re outta there. Well, fear not! The dirty days ain’t done! The DejaBlue Grass Band wants YOU for a Down and Dirty Holiday Throw Down!!
Saturday December 20th, The DjBGB teams up with the saucy sounds of Heidi Pollyea for a Down and Dirty night of RawGrass and Rock-n-Roll, at the Moon Shadow Tavern in Tucker. Show starts at 9PM. This ain’t no coat and tie joint! We’ve written a few new tunes and distorted some holiday, um, favorites and we promise a raucous good time. It’s your last chance to blow it out before having to go back to being a good little boy or girl.
Hope to see you there!!
Gettin’ cold outside…and damned if it doesn’t darken up early, too. It seems like we were just enjoying the Telluride summer, too. Like my friend Mary says,… the day after the 4th of July is Christmas. She’s right. I get the Halloween decorations down about the time I’m ’spose to start snipping valentines. Just this Friday night as I enjoyed a years-overdue visit with some pals from highschool, I also realized that the day after you graduate is your 20th reunion. Or 23rd in my case. (Unbeknownst to me they’d already seen the Bucket Full of Rain video. We put this stuff out there and never know who hears or reads it. Pretty cool. )
Speaking of getting colder and holidays and reunions with old friends, the DejaBlue Grass Band will be reuniting with Olde Dog’s John Willingham for a “Cookies with Santa” fundraiser on Sunday afternoon, December 7th at the American Legion building near Chastain Park. It’s a kid-friendly chance to see real reigndeer and visit with St. Nick. Come join us! It’s a benefit for Children’s Healthcare. We’ll also be playing a special private party for a friend in Dallas, GA on December 12th. We put on a good holiday show, complete with our roaring rendition of “Mr. Grinch”. If you hire us for a Christmas party and we promise to make your Kringle jingle! ‘Specially if its cold!
DjBGB's "Facebook Photo"
A few months ago, Joey sent me an email to join the DejaBlue Grass Band on Facebook. All that I knew about Facebook at the time, you could squeeze between the margins of a marketing trade magazine article. I flippantly dismissed it as “mostly for college kids”, but I’m inclined to have a cursory knowledge of such phenomena as “Social Networking” due to my vocation, so I willfully “clicked in” , and made a page for myself, mostly as a nice, novel way to market the band and that would be that. I am now totally present to it’s “it”.
The other day I was explaining Facebook to someone equally bemused by it’s popularity…someone about 3 months behind me. I asked them to consider the possibility of a big party complete with everyone you’ve ever cared to keep up with, at all phases of your life. Sort of like your 40th surprise party only no one ever leaves. Third-grade mudpie pals comingling seamlessly with fellow sales staffers. A Tralfamadorian digital dormitory with everyone sharing the common ground, remembering people as they were yet completely understanding and juxtaposing everyone’s own growth personally, intellectually, spiritually, physically, meta-physically. It’s really a strange phenomenon…and it makes for some weird dreams. Perhaps it strikes you the same way.
Setting up our gig on Saturday night at the LCP Club, The DejaBlue Grass Band ran into a little technical issue. It reminded me of the time years ago when I was the defacto manager of a little country store called Story’s Gulf and Grocery, simply known as “The Bottle” that stood on the site of a bye-gone iconic Alabama landmark outside Opelika, AL on Hwy 280. (Old timers still refer to “The Bottle” as such even though the original “Bottle” burned several decades back and Story’s store took a bullet for road expansion in the early ’90’s.)
About sunrise one nippy Sunday morning, a Chambers County pulpwood trucker hunched himself inside for a cup of coffee…an authentic “chain-sawin’, log-skinnin’, ‘tree-climbin’, limb-dodgin’, truck-drivin, rough-ol’-loggin man”. We served the kinda institutional coffee only a pulpwooder could stomach in a small styrofoam cup mixed with that godawful powdery poison creamer stuff. It was dreadful. I oughta know. I made it. He gnarled his fingers around the cup, fished his pocket for a couple of quarters, and as he reached the counter, peeked out from under his once deer-hunter-orange cap and mumbled, “I nee a stanky coh. “Ya’ll gotta stanky coh?”.
“I’m sorry,….what?”, I replied.
“A stanky coh. I nee a stanky coh dis mawnin’. Bout fihtty fee”
“Pardon? You need a… what?…a stinky coat?”
“Naw. A stanky coh. I nee bout fihtty fee”
“I’m sorry, sir. Stinky corn?? A sticky cone??”
“Naw!….A stanky coh! Y’know. I gotta plug in sump’m cross da room, and I need a fihtty foot stanky coh”
“Ahhhhh! An extension cord! Of course!”
Well, Saturday night 100 feet separated us from the nearest power outlet, and Keith saved the day on his way over, stopping by the Home Depot. We are now the proud owners of a 100 foot stanky coh.
