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April 15, 2005 - Washington, DC When I woke up we were just passing the ‘new’ main toll for the Jersey turnpike. That meant that we were still a couple of hours away from DC. I was excited about getting there although I was still trying not to show it. A couple of years ago I would have the ‘runs’ by now. I useta’ get so nervous about touring with Victor that I would be a wreck 2 weeks before I left for the tour. I’ve only gotten better with this in the last year and a half. Fortunately, I haven’t been losing any sleep or having any anxiety attacks about the gig. Unfortunately,…I haven’t been able to rehearse my band because I’m on the road. But these guys are seasoned veterans. But I’m getting ahead of myself,… I jumped back into my bunk to get some more sleep before we got to the DC area. Just north of DC, Todd (the bus driver) sent Ted back to wake me up to get him to the venue from the beltway. We rode pass BET, my old job at the Post Office in Brentwood and Sirius Satellite Radio all on New York Avenue. Victor ended up doing a interview at Sirius. He was gonna’ do a bass clinic at Hot Licks Guitar Shop where I teach but the radio interviews conflicted with the clinic time. Oh well,…I wouldn’t been able to go anyway. And I’d like to be a part of that. We’ll tryta’ reschedule one for later in the year. Anyways,…the 9:30 club is a great venue. Chuck Brown filmed as great concert here. Mint Condition just recently filmed a concert here. I think you can get it with the purchase of their new CD. Derico and I watched it on the bus one night. Mint Condition is ‘BAD’! I love playing the 9:30. But it’s kind of a weird feeling to come to your home town as a visitor. Even though I live in the DC area I’m here just on a temporary stop. It’s almost like riding by the house you grew up in. It’s familiar and distant at the same time. It’s weird being in your home town and not being able to go home. We got to the venue and set up. The plan was to have the VWB set up and sound check Man,…I couldn’t believe how relaxed I was. Normally,…I would be sick to my stomach by now. The VWB set and sound checked. Of course,…we did our usual ‘goofing around’ too. Let me tell you about the guys,… Dwayne Taylor is one of my favorite drummers. He’s from the same ‘school’ of drumming as JD Blair. The ‘pocket’ comes first. I love drummers like that. I mean,…he has ‘chops’ but he doesn’t put them 1st. Mike Stacey is da’ bomb on guitar. He’s a chameleon! He not only learns the licks but he ‘cops’ the tone perfectly too. I don’t know many guitarists like that. He’ll go from Bob Marley’s sound to Jimmy Page’s sound to an authentic R&B sound. He’s very crafty and seasoned. We teach together at Hot Licks Guitar Shop. He was my ‘in’ to the whole ‘southern Maryland’ music scene. I initially met the guys from His Boy Elroy through him. John Luskey,…. He’s my ‘brother from another mother’! We’re very close. We’ll always be bandmates. He’s gonna’ be a star soon. He won Billboards songwriting contest last year. He’s been commuting to Nashville to write tunes for a writing house. His wife, Beth, is my wife’s good friend too. Beth is Toné’s ‘sister from another mister’! When John is on stage he is definitely the life of the party. Anyways,…we sound checked. We purposely played songs during soundcheck that we weren’t gonna’ play that night. No one in the VWB had seen us play before so I wanted the gig to be fresh to them too. As we approached show time I could see many of my friends and students were here. I had to go outside to the bus a couple of times. Everytime I went out I got stopped by a whole lotta’ people. That made me feel really good. I gave one of my young students and his friend a tour of the tour bus. My family showed up. There was my Mom and stepdad and all 3 of my sisters. Man,…I usually don’t see all of them at one time unless it’s Thanksgiving or Christmas (I’m not exaggerating). I introduced all of them to the VWB backstage. I mingled with various people until it was time to get ready. I won’t even begin to call names because that list would go on forever. But I’ll just say that it seemed like most of my 100 students was in the house. We started our set by playing a bass and vocal version of ‘Just The Way You Are’ by Billy Joel. I played the chords on bass and John sang. I dedicated it to my wife. Our 3rd anniversary was the previous day. I didn’t think that starting with a slow song was a good idea but I was gonna’ do it anyway. (…and it was incredibly sweet of you to do that…thanks, Ant) The rest of our set,….FUNK!!! Thirty five minutes of ‘old skool’ Funk tunes. Man,…we played Brick House, Love Rollercoaster, Play that Funk Music White Boy, etc,… Dwayne was holdin’ it down on the drums. Mike played his ass off. Most of the people had never heard him ‘cut loose’ before. Well,…he did tonight. John is the best ‘frontman’ in the business. He can get any party started. I felt that I was the ‘weak’ link this night. We close our set with ‘What’s Going On?’ by Marvin Gaye. I love playing that song! I took a bass solo on that tune. I was feeling it too. Kurt Storey, the soundman from the VWB, did sound for us and Ted Atwell, the VWB’s lighting guy, ran lights for us. The both did excellent jobs. Kurt even recorded our set. After our set I was on cloud nine. But my night was just beginning. I had to break down our gear and get the stage ready for the VWB. I had to tune about 10 basses and set up some pedals. The VWB started on time. We had a ‘killer’ set. I could see many of my friends in the audience. During my set I was too nervous to look out into the audience. My Mom loved the show. She hadn’t known what to expect. She pretty much just listens to Gospel music. She hasn’t seen me play many times as an adult. She was so proud of me afterwards. That was the best feeling in the world. There was a stretch of time in the 80’s and 90’s where she didn’t have a lot of reasons to be proud of me. Now I finally think that she’s convinced that I’m living ‘right’. Man,…we had to pack up very fast. Tomorrow we’re playing in,….Colorado!!!! Yes,…you heard me right,…Colorado. We had a 6am flight. We had just enough time to pack up and go straight to BWI airport. I don’t think I got a ‘wink’ of sleep at all. I was juiced!!! Ok,…we hafta’ travel 1764 miles. Then come right back the following day. Whew!!!! peace&blessings, “Smells Like Funk”
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