Slick 57 round-up

Last Friday, we played at the Doublewide in Dallas, TX with our old buds, Slick 57. I had my old school original band with me (minus Drew Fleming, sadly) : Steve Visneau on drums and Todd Pertll on bass. It was fun to get a chance to play with the guys that I originally recorded my first record with seven years ago. So much has changed since then! Steve has two beautiful daughters, Amelie and Miet, and Todd P is now an accomplished carpenter and multi-instrumentalist.
Slick 57 sounded awesome! Since they broke up 2 1/2 years ago, I never got a chance to see them play in Dallas. People were singing along to every word! I felt pretty happy for them. Ward, John, and Rob really put on a great show. I was hoping to post some pics from the night, but like always I forgot to bring my camera. Well, it's really Megan's camera, but the sentiment is still the same.
Anyway, talk soon

Todd

Austin-tatious

We're finally moved into our little bungalow in South Austin. Wow, what a trip! We drove over 1200 miles and sold most of our furniture to come here. Our apartment is a little barren at the moment, but hopefully we'll acquire some good furnishings soon to make this place feel a little more like "home."
On our way down, we visited with my brother, Jonathan, and his wife, Erin in Dallas. She is 21 weeks pregnant and they are expecting their first child, Cara Alice. It's pretty exciting to think about how I'm going to be an uncle! Man, I'm getting old....
I've also been catching up with some old friends that have moved down here and trying to soak up the music scene. I've got to say, from a newcomers point of view, this city is pretty great musically. There are so many venues and bands! And the Tex Mex food is of course great as always. Megan is finally understanding what I meant about the difference between northeast Mexican food and the real thing.

We visited the State Capitol yesterday and it's pretty amazing. I know all Texans are supposed to inherently proud, but I started to see some of the reasons for the over-inflated ego. Here are a few pics from our visit:

Talk soon!

Keeping up with the Jetsons....

Wow, I'm quickly learning that I can't keep up with blogging. My last entry was May 31st! A lot has happened since that date, though. My girlfriend and I found a place in South Austin last week. It's pretty sweet, and I can't wait to get down there! I'm playing my last official gig in the Detroit area at Campus Martius tomorrow during the day. It should be fun. I'll be sad to leave behind my Michigan band, they've been great friends and musicians!
Last Thursday and Friday, the band and I went into the studio to work on the next record. We recorded at Backseat Studios, the home of the very talented musician/engineer/Ann Arbor guru Jim Roll. Stuart Tucker(drums) and Jef Reynolds(bass) laid down some phat tracks! I'll be finishing the record in Austin, which is a little weird to start something in one place and attempt to finish it in other. Hopefully, it won't be a long arduous process.
Anyway, we're leaving A2 on Thursday and we still have too much packing to do.
Talk soon!

Tip of the Hat to Ken, my gramps

So I thought I'd join the ranks of other ramblers and create a blog. I decided to name this blog after my grandfather who passed away on May 21st, 2008 from Alzheimer's. He was a member of an organization in Texas called the Odd Fellows, which works to do good deeds in the community. One of my grandfather's many catch phrases was "wake up and grow!," a mantra meant to rally his other members into recruiting new ones. As an appreciation for their achievement, my grandfather wanted to present them with a trophy with this phrase engraved on it. However, the engraver misread the exclamation mark in the quote and wrote "Wake up and growl" on all the awards. My grandfather was always one for pranks, so I'm sure he had a good laugh. Then he probably made the engraver give him the trophies for free (he was quite the shrewd business man)!
Let the ramblings begin......