Shut UP! Lady!

I’ve spent the last couple of days working for this old lady that lives outside of Bunn. The house is hot inside like most old folks like to have it and she spends most of her days laying on the couch bitchin’ about her back. I went in today, fairly chipper in spirit and looking forward to getting my job done (properly, of course) and getting the hell outta there ASAP. I was also looking forward to hearing my coach, Roy Williams discuss this year’s team on the radio. I had missed the first run of the interview and knew it would be re-run in the 9am hour. Sure enough, as soon as ‘ol Roy comes on here comes the mouth of the South, N-word this and N-word that, “Betty’s coming Thursday to take me to get my hair done..blah blah blah…”, all this shit about people I don’t know or want to know. “Dorothy’s coming tomorrow”. “Well good!! Let her fat ass come on! I’m tryin’ to listen to my damn coach!”, I’m thinkin’. She starts going off about white girls “getting with” them (insert N-word, plural) and all this other racist bullshit and I told her that she was being “ugly”. “Naw, hell it ain’t ugly neither!”, she says. So finally she's talking so much that I give up trying to listen to the radio and just turn it off. And of course, as soon as I do that she lays there and gets quiet and starts watching "Regis" or "The View" or some other shitty morning show.
It’s time for lunch and I welcome the fresh air outside driving home with the windows down in my van and not really looking forward to going back in the afternoon to the blabber and cigarette smoke. But I eventually do and thankfully she’s asleep for while when I get back.
Three o’clock rolls around and another radio show comes on and guess who their special guest is today? Roy Williams! Hell yeah!
So, ‘ol Roy gets introduced and as soon as the host asks him the first damn question here her ass comes in again..”I ONLY buy these paper towels right here when they are on sale…”
AAaaaahhhhh! SHUT THE HELL UP LADY!!
Needless to say, I never got to hear a damn thing the coach said ALL DAY.

Stacie

After a successful attempt at staying sober all of last week, I jumped head first off the wagon on Sunday. And it felt like it on Monday. You know how you don’t drink for a while and when you finally do you wake up the next day and feel like you’ve been poisoned? That was me yesterday, I didn’t know if I was coming or going. Anyway, I survived somehow and woke up this morning feeling almost human. So now I’m almost able to put one word behind another and tell you about the Stacie Collins show I went to Saturday night. Well, I might have missed the first song or two but I was there for the whole hour and a half, maybe even two hour, show. Stacie sang and blew (harp) her ass off while Allen and Sweet Pea held the beat and Warner Hodges’ blistering guitar licks stunned the crowd of about 50 or so. The Hideaway BBQ is a new joint in Raleigh so I guess word hadn’t gotten out that there was a real Rock and Roll outfit in town. Most of the night they had the pedal to the metal and Stacie and Warner played off of each other like they had been together for years. Warner said that this was his 10th or 12th gig with her but ya couldn’t tell it. He was killin’ me with the flippin’ the guitar around his neck thing, a la Steve Vie (thankfully, I have no clue how to spell that guy’s name! It may be right, Hell..I don’t know or care!..but you know who I’m talkin’ about!) So anyway, check her out at her website below. She rocks! And go see her if she’s in your town. Shit! Ya might even git up and dance!





http://www.staciecollins.com/

let's git it on!!

  

Jesus, God and All American Christ! I was looking for an NRBQ Cd when I found this thing that I sent out to fans back a few years ago, it was called “Pure T”. My guess would be that I sent it out in the of Winter ’03. Among the Chuck covers, I sprinkled in a few of my most recent writings. Some sucked, some were brilliant and need another look. We’re startin’ on the new OakTeam soon..so look out! Ya might hear an oldie but a goodie..OR..something completely different!

jap maples

 

I LOVE my maples!!! 

yeeeaaaH! Fall!

 

My favorite time of year! This is when most of my songwritin' takes off...it better..we're startin' the new record soon...

T 

gospel sangin'!

 

My Dad (on right w/ guitar) and his band were entertaining the folks down at the Rocky Cross block party today. I couldn't find anyone with any liquor or anything like that so you can imagine how much of a "party" it was. Still, it ws a beautiful day and gave me an excuse to drive my new car some more.
"Glory, glory, glory..somebody touched me....!" 

series songs

Somebody named Carina called me and said she heard "Battleship Chains" being played at the World Series. Did anyone else hear it? I had flipped over to check an ACC football score at the time and wasn't tuned in when she called. Speaking of songs on the Series, that damn John Cougar song (This is our Country) is in my head and driving me CRAZY!!!!..and I hate it with a purple passion!!
Out! Out! Damn song! Eeerrrr!!!

line flyer

Oh My God! This is the most insanely addicting thing that I have found on the web.
Nathan and I were fighting over it last night, "It's my turn!" "No! it's not! It's my turn!" Equally hilarious and stupid, it will keep you occupied for hours. Don't show your kids or you'll never get your computer back!
All you do is draw this line and you push play and this motorcycle dude drops in and drives along that line. Send him up a hill, down a hill, over a cliff, down some steps, loopdy loop...I swear you won't get another damn this done this weekend...

http://www.addictinggames.com/lineflyer.html

sorry...NOT!

Sorry if I ruffled feathers over the Troika blog..NOT!..and to those who clearly wouldn't know sarcasm if they slipped and busted their asses in it, I was NOT mad.
I, as a creative writer, was merely making observations about the events surrounding the event. That's usually what I do with this blog, I try to find humor in even the most dire and stupid situations.. of which this was definitly one...so eat me. Here's what Jack had to say about it...

http://web.mac.com/jackcornell/iWeb/Site/JackBlog/6436370F-D7BE-4A0D-A7CE-1E67016BC24F.html

Copeland live

 
I took (my son) Will and his girlfriend, Ashley out to see one of their favorite bands last night at the Lincoln Theater in Raleigh. This gave me yet another excuse to drive my new car so I was hip to the idea, plus there's a song or two of Copeland's that I really like. This guy, Aaron Marsh is the singer-songwriter dude and he has got the purest voice of anyone I've heard in a long time..even live. I don't think he wavered from perfect pitch but maybe once or twice all night and effortlessly went from his natural singing voice to falsetto like a trained opera singer. I'd love to hear him do a Todd Rundgren song or two 'cause that's who he reminds me of.
But his songs are great too. There are a couple with some wacky time signatures which makes it hard for a 1-4-5 old schooler like me to figger out but it keeps it interesting. That song, "Amanda" has a really badass guitar riff in it that I could easily hear Keef whip out. Overall, it's not the kind of music that most people would expect me to like but what the hell do they know. Anyway, like I told you before..I'm a sucker for teeny bopper music, but Copeland is better than that. 

  

Foika Troika

  

Sometimes playing Rock N’ Roll can be a humbling experience. You can be exalted as Kings (as were at our last gig at Wapakoneta, OH) one minute and stripped of your dignity and never given a chance as we were Friday night at the Troika Festival in Durham.
I arrived rather early in accordance with our show time of midnight at 305 Dillard St. I pulled up and introduced myself and received my wristband about 9:30pm. It seemed to me at the time that everything was running smoothly and on time. I watched a few bands stare at their shoes and mumble about the pains of growing up rich for 45 minutes and then promptly make way for the next sad sack ensemble. But once The Mountain Goats (I guess that was their names, that’s what somebody told me and the singer, was his name Billy per chance? Billy…Goat? did have a goat-like quiver to his voice!) took the stage for their whinefest the schedule went a little askew. The crowd of 2 or 300 went a little overboard in their appreciation of this poop group (the guy spent twice as much time talking as actually playing music!) so they came back out to bore us for ANOTHER 15 minutes. They had played too long anyway, so by the time they actually started clearing the stage it was about 11:20pm. This cut waaaay into the next “band’s” set.
As the next group of fellows began setting up I was confused as to whether they were gonna play music or have a yard sale. Cans, pie plates, trash can lids were set up on stands and miked. There were a couple of crappy keyboards and some horns up there too so that convinced me that I could be privy to a hummable tune. OH NO MY BRUTHA!!
  
When Man Man (that was their name, it should’a been Can Can or Can Man!) hit the stage in their Indian (feather, not dot) garb and porno mustaches I knew we were in for a bumpy ride through the reservation. Their first song was a German oompah diddy that sent me pining for a bratwurst with sauerkraut and a tall heavy glass mug of German Ale. Their sound got jazzier and polka-ier (that’s a word, damn it!) as things got ugly and they started that screamo thing that them kids are into these days. So you had a jazzy, oompah, polka, screamo mish-mash fuss with tin cans and pie pans played by warpaint wearing porn stars and THAT’S what were subjected to for the next hour. One of their big hits was “blah, blah, blah blah blah blah!” Well, that’s what they were singing so I guess it had a special place in THEIR hearts and I guess it was music because the sixty or so people that were left (after the initial “Run for your life!!!”) deemed it so. But I for one, cared less for them, actually I COULDN’T have cared ANY less for them! Their sounds were not as desirable to me as they were to the artsy bunch that stayed to withstand the pain that they provided as part of the low low cover price of $10.
When they finally were done trying to run everyone off (I was amazed that ANYONE was left to tell you the truth) it was about 1:10 am. Upon the last note stuck I witnessed something I had never seen before in my life, a mass exodus. It was like the Sergeant had arrived and hollered.. “about FACE! Forward march!” Everyone in the crowd turned around and walked straight out. I guess they were confused because those guys went on at midnight and they probably thought that THEY were Terry Anderson and The Olympic Ass-Kickin’ Team! (Hope they thought I was the cute one!) OH Shit!! My worst nightmare!
Anyway, everyone left and we, being the consummate professionals that we are, used the morsel of time thrown to us to play as fuckin’ loud and fast as we could! The six or so people that were there to witness it commenced to dancing and no doubt, rejoicing in the fact that they were finally allowed to have a good time. Man Man even danced as they loaded the new van that one of’m’s Daddy had mistakenly just bought them (has he heard them?). It was 2am and we were done. I was sooo glad that Greg made it to the show. At first it was gonna be a three piece gig, but it really made my night when I saw him there. I wanna thank him and Jack and Big Daddy Dave for showing up and rocking like gentlemen. I wanna thank the Troika “officials” for running such a tight ship! Uhhh…yeah. And I wanna thank Man Man for running everybody off. AND I wanna thank all the people that left and never listened to the first damn note we played.
Don’t let the garage doors hit you in the ass next time!

 
 
  

meet "Cali"

Yesterday's wheels..

  

Today's...

  

chuck turns 80!

chuck it out...

http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/18/music.berry.80.ap/index.html

well shit..

What we fiddin' to do next? After Friday night at the Troika Festival in Durham the OakTeam's got nothing until my (uh..hum..50th) birthday party at The Pour House Christmas night. Is this the 6th year of my parties or the 7th? Oh..whatever..I feel like a TV commercial.."Do you remember the 50's?..I said, "DO YOU REMEMBER THE 50'S, OLD MAN!!"
Anyway, there are a few things in the works. The OakTeam's aforementioned Friday night gig, The Yayhoos Nov. 9 show w/ The Bottle Rockets in NYC at The Mercury Lounge, The OakTeam's next record which we will begin to record in the next week or so, TA w/ Big Al on the Delbert Blues Cruise in Jan., Yayhoos in Spain in Feb.? (May..beee!!)..and I'm sure something else will come up!
Sure would like Europe to see the ass whoopin' that is The OakTeam. But it seems that the promoters I've contacted are scared. Maybe one day...
I sure miss Europe, I was thinkin' about it today as I drank a Blue Moon Belgium Wheat beer..

God Bless Freddie

I've played South By SouthWest in Austin a bunch o' times, I'm sure at least 10. The Woods played there soon after our Twin Tone release and during our show, playing our big hit (a song called "Battleship Chains") the power went down and we had to quit. Anyhoo, to make a long story longer, some version of the TA Band played there around '97 or '98. During that trip Jack, Mike Krause and I went to the guitar shop upstairs from the Continental Club. Mike was kinda in the market for a nice Telecaster. We walked in and it didn't take long for the one of his dreams to call him over. It was a silver sparkle beauty, a bit heavy but he would take care of that later by boring it out. Mike is an awesome guitar player. He played on my last three records and holds his own against anyone. He was trading licks with Big Al in the studio on "Mr. Busdriverman", so there.
So as Mike was checking the guitar out, standing over him and mulling around with only the three of us in the store was one Freddie Fender. I was trying not to gush about how I dug his sound, but it was cool just hanging with him because he was a regular dude. He was jovial and very friendly and eventually encouraged Mike to buy the guitar. He thought it fit him and sounded great in his hands. It does to this day.
We lost Freddie this weekend. He was a great singer, songwriter and a great lover of music. Freddie was cool. Please don't forget him, he was fuckin' Freddie Fender!

what is it?

 

My wife's Mom is Japanese, God bless her. She saves EVERYTHING! And what she don't save she gives to me and Grace and her sisters. She's always bringing us free food, paper products and table cloths from where she works, the officers club at Fort Bragg. Well, she visited while Will and I were gone to Ohio and brought stuff..including these things..which we can NOT for the life of us figger out. Are they potatos or are they wieners? I gave'm to the dogs and they looked at me like I had three heads. If you have any ideas Email them to www.whatthehellisit.com 

Bunn Homecoming Parade

  

outside the Bunn

Much like Taco Bell, we're thinking outside the Bunn right now. Contrary to popular belief, I am NOT from Bunn, NC. My wife, older son and I moved here with some "I Love You Period" money mostly out of the frustration with the Raleigh traffic situation. I have now grown tired of the traffic in Bunn and am looking forward to getting out of here by Summer of '07. Of course I'm kidding about the traffic (though belive it or not, it does get more congested than you might think for a town of just 500, especially at the beginning and end of school hours) here but I am frustrated by the distance between me and the rest of the world. I'm ready to move back my REAL home of Raleigh. That's where I spent 30 years of my life and where all of my friends live. After 14 years in Bunn, my neighbors across the street are still the only people here that I can call "friends". Most folks here are stand-offish, old and set in their ways. They just don't know what to think of some dude walkin' around with his hair standin' straight up on his head! Plus, just about all of'm are Republicans. Now, I can get along with that type just fine. I do it everyday. But man! It takes a lot out of me to be nice when I know I'm right. And Bush proves me right every day! So hopefully, next year we'll be able to save some gas money and move back home. Shit! we work there everyday. So between my wife and me both we'll save about 5 or 600 bucks a month just in gas! I love my yard. I love my house. I hate my dogs. But Will graduates this year and Nathan will attend a really sucky Middle School if we don't move. So we owe it to him to get back to civilization.


PS-There's been a noticable drop-off in Emails to me since I admitted to liking a couple of Paris Hilton's songs. Just remember, it takes a REAL man to admit that he likes teeny bopper music! So..get over it!

I'm only sleeping...

 
 
 
 
Wake up Dave! You're driving! 

20% more rock for free!!

  


As a tribute to NASCAR, the guy in front of us (in the left lane no less) kept his left blinker on for miles up the interstate as we headed north and west from the capital city of NC to do a long weekend of Ass-Kickin’ in Charleston, WV, Columbus and Wapakoneta, Ohio. We see each other occasionally when we’re not playin’ that much and there’s usually a lot of catching up to do, as well as some strategizing for future “ignunce”.
An hour or 2 up the road Jack has his earbuds in, Greg is studying to become a licensed electrical engineer, Dave is smoking and listening to the Yankees game on XM and I’m over there sitting shotgun and turning phrases in my head. We stop at a combo KFC/Long John Silver’s and it’s just the beginning of a really bad food day. For late lunch, I had the (imaginatively titled) “2 fish” plate and Jack and Greg got macaroni & cheese-whiz. My son Will, came along to do merch, play drums on a couple of songs and pretty much just to get out of school for his birthday. I loved having him with us.
It started raining off and on once we hit the WV and it was coming down pretty hard at the club, The Empty Glass (empty is right!). We walked in and these people didn’t know what the hell to think of us. They’re sittin’ there watching Ultimate Fighting all cross-eyed and snaggle-toothed, pickin’ their noses and drinkin’ one Schlitz after another and here we come in all happy and shit. We set up in a flash are ready to rock about 2 hours before showtime. We get hungry again and the soundman, “Roadblock” (I shit you NOT!) offers to burn us a couple of pizzas. We accept the offer and he doesn’t disappoint. They come out, black as promised.

Jack, Will and my very own self personally take one look and we’re out the door to a nearby Wendy’s, where every employee in there is in a crouched position ready to run out the door as soon as the clock hits 10pm. It’s 9:55 when we get there and there’s one baked potato left that Jack and I decide to split. The last 2 Caesar salads come out and there’s bacon all over’m so scratch that. Oh well, what do ya expect? We walked back in the rain, still hungry.
The show was like clockwork, an ass kickin’ of biblical proportions. It was Bip! Bamm! Boom! It was a left jab, a right to the jaw and then a roundhouse blow that put the crowd DOWN!... both of’m! Our audience, besides the inbreds at the bar, was the 2 guys that called themselves Holy Cow, who were to play next. Fortunately, we missed their set as we packed up faster than we loaded in and headed on up the highway to our rooms in Columbus. But the way we looked at the show was that it was a paid practice (2 six packs and 2 burnt pizzas) and it helped us shake off the cobwebs before the REAL shows of the next 2 nights.
The six packs were gone in a hurry as we listened to Big Star and ELO almost all the way to Ohio. Dave found the soul station on XM and it was decided that Harold Melvin and The Blue Notes’ “If You Don’t Know Me by Now” was from that moment on gonna be used as our “outro” music, as we left the stage. The next day Jack downloaded it and made a CD for that express purpose.
We got to the rooms at 3:30 am and the alarm on Friday morning came mighty early. We had to be at the radio station ready to rock by 11:06 am. Dan and those guys were cool.
  
Jack crying over spilt merch!

We did three songs acoustically (You Know Me, Raindrops and Feel a Drunk) and chatted a bit about the show that evening.
  



We left there, had lunch and then it was back to bed. After naptime we had some shopping to do. I had left a bag including three baseball gloves and Will’s shoes laying in Jack’s yard to get rained on all weekend so we had to go find Will another pair. When we got back to the rooms we felt like a game of Wiffleball was in order. Dave and I beat Greg and Will (who crushed a couple of our pitches!) by the score of 11-5 in about 7 innings. It was a blast. The weather was perfect.
We unloaded the gear at Little Brothers at 8 pm and Watershed was still getting their thing together so we walked up the street to a restaurant called North Star which was voted by some food mag to be the best place to eat in Columbus…at any price.
I recommend the Buddha Bowl, Tofu and vegetables on brown rice with a satay sauce.
We played the gig about 10:30 or so and the soundman had the intro as the outro and vice versa but what the hey…so we had to come on to Harold Melvin and them boys..oh well.
The show rocked and we had fans there, as usual, that we didn’t know we had, many from outta town. Most everybody dug the shit out of it and a few even left after we were done (realizing that “nothing was gonna kick any more ass than that!”). I had one lady (and I love when this happens) come up and thank me for keeping rock and roll alive. “Uhhh..OK , you’re welcome. (whatever!)” I mean I AM trying to keep it alive..but hell it IS alive! So you’re keeping it alive by listening to it and wanting to hear it! Anyway, we sold a good amount of merch and we hung around till the end to see our friends Watershed rock the house. They had their crowd singing along to songs and shit. They got me up on “Battleship Chains” to play drums. I played it Mauro style.
On a beautiful “Chamber of Commerce” Saturday afternoon we drove to Wapakoneta and got to Rhythm and Brews about 4. There were technical things we had to work on but we finally gave up and ate some really great pizza (that wasn’t burnt!!) as we watched the Yankees get eliminated.
We decided to give the crowd that evening “20% more rock for free!” and they got all that and more. The first hour was the “hits”, or what we call the hits…..”Killin’”, “Weather or Not”, “Boyfriend 2”, “Feel a Drunk”, “Thunderbird”, “Check Please” and all that bunch. We stopped and took a break and signed a few things before I grabbed the guitar and started into “Church Folks” and then “37 Miles”. The second set usually consists of “B sides”, “I Love You Period”, “Purple GTO”, “Man That Rocks”, “Yesterday’s You” and such, ending with “S.L.U.T”. Three encores later and I was drunk, even though I hadn’t touched a drop until the very end. Dave was given the bottle of Jagermeister from the bargirl which he promptly proceeded to pour it down our throats. Then he went into the crowd to share. At some point I looked out and Dave was standing on one of them fancy eatin’ tables and playing the shit outta that guitar, good God a’ Mighty it was rockin’!! Next thing I knew Greg was on the floor with his Nord keyboard beating the shit out of it and Will was playing drums. I was out there screaming at people and taking their pictures while Jack is over there spinning like a top!
  
There’s really no way to describe how much fun we had that night but I know one damn thing…they got more than 20% more rock for free!! It was definitely one of the highlight shows for the OakTeam this year. Ron said, “In the 9 years that I’ve owned this club, that was the most fun I’ve EVER had in this place!..and that ain’t no shit!!”
  
Club owner, Ron

We left the stage and I noticed on my cell phone that my wife had called. I called her back and she said that my friend wanted to talk to me..it was Ian McLagan. She had gone to his show in Raleigh and he asked how I was and so she put him on the phone. God bless him, he’s going though a tough time right now. Go see him if you get the chance, he needs your love. That dude is really, really great!!
On the 8 hour trip home Greg was killing us singin’ Michael McDonald hits in the dudes voice. “What do like about Michael, Greg?” “I like his beard”, Greg says.
We were so tired in that van ride home, like we had gone 12 rounds with the heavyweight champ. But at least we knew we had won the fight.

Wapak reviews

Gawd dam, that was a hell of show this past weekend at Rhythm &Brews. My friends & I have never seen anything as great as the show you and the OAK team put on. If you can't make up here to Michigan then I'll just have to bring even more friends down to Wapa Ohio next time.
Great Replacements cover by the way, and thanks a ton for a nod to my friend Rich's pending marriage.
Thank You,

Mike Crimmins


Terry,

I had a blast at Rhythm and Brews on Saturday. You put on the show of shows. I'm glad I made the 300+ mile trek down from Chicago. My wife stayed home with the little ones. I drove three hours and picked up my brother-in-law in eastern Indiana. We then drove another two hours to get to Wapak just in time. It was a blast. I picked up "You Can't Bite Me With a Monkey in Your Mouth" Saturday. That thing's worth it just for "Count On It" alone. It's packed with little gems.

Regards,
Tom Compton


Terry !

Had a great time at your show the other night in Wapakoneta ! I always enjoy seeing you and your bands. Hope you make it back to Ohio soon !! Nice job !

Tom Hendricks

Happy Birthday Will!

 

We took Will with us this weekend to rock Ohio and OH! MY! GOD!! What a weekend!
We had so much fun that it just wasn't fair to the rest of the world, no matter what they were doing. I'll have to fill you in on all the details later but it was put to me like this by Ron, the club owner in Wapak:
"In my 9 years of owning this club, I have NEVER had this much fun!"

That's a lot of fun! 

Paris, WV

Am I crazy? I guess I'm gonna have to buy the Paris Hilton record. Everything I've heard off of it, the reggae thing and the new "Nothing in this World", I REALLY liked! I mean, I can't believe I'm sayin' it out loud but there's melody there and of course...it has a good beat and you can dance to it! What else do you need?
We picked up another gig on the way to Ohio. Tomorrow night we're stopping in Charlseton, WV on the way to Columbus and opening for a band called Holy Cow at the Empty Room...oooops! I mean...Empty Glass. OK? so tell Mommer and 'em to come see us! 'aight?

 

this week

Well it's a short work week as the OakTeam gits in the van and kicks it old school up to Ohio. We'll leave the capital city around 2pm on Thursday and drive straight to Columbus. My son Will is going to do the merch for us. I'm taking him out of school for his birthday..well..he's gettin' more than that, but that's part of it.. a trip to OHIO wif good 'ol Dad!
Friday morning we'll arrive at radio station WCBE at 10:30 am and play 3 songs and chat with DJ Mike Taylor. We go on live at 11:06.That night we open for our friends, Watershed on their home turf at a club called Little Brothers.That's another reason I'm taking Will, he really likes those guys..as do we.
Saturday morning we march our fancy asses up to Wapakoneta, hometown of Neil Armstrong. There's a space museum in his honor up in there. But it's more and more becoming known for Rhthym & Brews on old Rt.33. If you know anyone within 100 miles of that place call them NOW!! We are gonna have the throwdown of all throwdowns! There are folks coming from as far away as Chicago and Lexington, KY just to get they asses kicked by us!!