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March 26, 2005 - Winston Salem, NC Last night we at the Amerisuites hotel. I think every room in the building is a suite. That’s great but we usually don’t spend enough time in our rooms to really take advantage of it. I was in my room about 6 hours. And most of that was spent sleeping. But it was nice to know that I had a separate living room and small kitchen area just in case I wanted to cook something. There was also a little office area. That was cool. I set up my computer as soon as I got into the room last night but I couldn’t get on line. Most of the places we stayed had wireless internet access. And most of them were free but this place charged a fee for getting on line. I can’t believe that hotels are charging people to get on. I heard that inexpensive places don’t charge to get on and expensive places do charge to get on. The reasoning is,…if someone is already paying $350 for a room another $15 dollars is no big deal to them. But,…if someone is only paying $60 dollars for a room another $15 raises the price of that room considerably. Our bus call wasn’t until 10am which gave me plenty of time to just lay around. I always wake up early,…I can’t help it. No matter how late I get to bed I always wake up pretty early,….for a musician anyway. Noon is early for a musician. I usually get up around 7am. The ride to Winston Salem was very quick. I like when we go to North Carolina because my family roots are in Carolina. So are the Wooten’s. As a matter a fact, we played at the Birchmere one year and some of Victor’s DC area relatives (who were originally from North Carolina) knew some of my relatives from North Carolina. My family is from the Wilson area. My dad went to school at Charles Aycock in Fremont. I have relatives in Rocky Mount, Goldsboro and Kinston too. But I always forget to get in touch with my relatives so they can see the show. I haven’t seen most of them for years. I think that we’ll be back in Carolina before the summer is out. I hafta’ be sure to invite them to the show. We arrived at Ziggy’s in time for load in. Ziggy’s kinda’ looks like a barn. We usually end up playing there when it’s cold outside,…which means it’s cold inside of Ziggy’s too. The weather wasn’t too bad because it’s almost April but it’s still chilly. I have mixed emotions about Ziggy’s. It’s not a pretty or fancy venue but the people are very warm and they’d do anything for you. Even the security force remembered me and gave me big hugs. Once when we played here we got the owner to tape a big fight at his house while we were playing so we could watch it on the bus later. A girl named Mandy useta’ work here. She is very sweet. We played here on her birthday a couple of years ago. I hear she’s on the road with Yanni now as his production assistant. She hasta’ be making ‘big money’. We have a lot of friends in North Carolina. Sifu Brian Edwards is here. He’s Victor’s Kung Fu instructor. That dude is BAD! I usually poke fun at him and roughs me up. Not enough to really hurt me but enough to let me know that he could if he didn’t like me. Victor’s biographer, Paul Hargett, came out with his son Zach. Paul is like family too. Zach is starting to play bass. I hafta’ try to get together with him to give some lessons. Later on, Paul’s girlfriend, Jeanne came out. Victor’s cousin, Johnny Woodard, came out. He’s a bass/nature camper. Another bas camper, Ricky Brooks came out too. I got to hang out a couple of hours with James Mock. He’s also a bass/nature camper. We went and had a great seafood dinner. We also went of his apartment so he could show me his bass rig. We watched a little bit of an old Earth, Wind & Fire DVD. He gave me the DVD when we were done. The show was great but we had some technical difficulties in the beginning. We show a short movie in the beginning and we had some problems getting it going. But once the show got going,…it was hot. Victor was playing his butt off. Steve Bailey drove in from Myrtle beach. Victor introduced Steve and he came out and proceeded to ‘rip it up’. That duded can just ‘flat out’ play! Victor joined him late on and they played some material from the Bass Extremes CD. We finished the show in grand fashion. We came out for an encore and played a medley of Victor’s ‘greatest hits’. The crowd just loved it. Victor was in such a frenzy that he handed his bass to the crowd a couple of times. He would go crazy playing some licks then he would just hold the bass out over the audience and let it go. Then he would run over to the side of the stage. The crowd would just hold the bass up in the air, waiting for Victor to come back and get it. He did this a couple of times. The crowd went absolutely crazy. Of course, I was nervous as sh-t!!! I was worried about someone running off with the bass,…they wouldn’t get too far. I was more worried about the bass getting damaged. But, when Victor is “feelin’ it” he’s liable to do anything. After the show I got to say hello to some familiar faces and meet some people who I correspond with by email. Darion came out. I met him at a show in Chapel Hill (I think). He was holding up signs asking us to let him play with us. Man,…that was funny. When he emailed me to let me know he was coming I told him to leave the signs at home. We both got a good laugh from that. Chris came out to. He’s been emailing for about a year now. He’ll send some MP3s of his music. He’s writing some pretty good stuff for ‘bass music’. Most ‘bass music’ sounds like,…’bass music’. But he’s actually writing songs. Chris had never seen the VWB before. He was blown away! I finally got to meet Ryan from Victor’s chatroom. He’s always in the chatroom. It’s a cool place to hang out. By the way,…Victor’s website has been totally redone. It’s amazing. Dave Welsch did an excellent job with it. There are all kinds of fun stuff on the website. It’s a lot more interactive than it useta’ be. You can check it out here: http://www.victorwooten.com Be sure to check out the chatroom too. The regulars usually show up between 9pm and 11pm. I try to get on when I get home form work if I’m not too tired. Victor’s on quite a bit too. Once when I was in Nashville we were on at the same time,…sitting right next too each other with our computers. We were on for a couple of hours too. Anyways,…after we said out goodbyes to all of our fans, friends and guest we headed out on the 8 hour trip back to Nashville. We needed to get back to make sure that people would make the early morning flights. I think all 3 of the women on the bus had early flights. And,…being Easter Sunday,…you don’t wanna’ miss your flight. You’d probably have a hard time tryna’ get another one later on. On the ride home we talked about how good the tour was. Things went relatively smooth considering how much more gear we’re bringing out. Everyone has a whole lot more responsibilities. Victor, Regi, Joseph and Derico will be heading to Greece on Tuesday for a couple of days. I don’t think the promoter could afford to bring the whole band. I woulda’ loved to go to Greece but I could use the break too. We’re gonna’ be on the road a lot this year. I was still sleep when we dropped the girls off at the airport. I woke up at SoundCheck. We are gonna’ leave the gear here `til we start up again. We unloaded the gear pretty fast. I had originally planned on going back to Victor’s house because my flight was scheduled `til about 9pm CST but last night I had my wife change it to around 5pm CST. But since we got the gear unloaded so fast I had her change it again to 2pm CST. I didn’t want Victor to have to make the long drive to the airport when he should be spending time with his family. At the airport I got to hang with some very good friends of mine, Stephanie and her mom, Linda. They work for Southwest Airlines. They were good friends with Joe Compito. He was my wife, Toné ’s brother. Joe was a great bass player and he was a great bass builder (Victor’s Compito fretless is still the best sounding fretless I’ve ever heard). Toné and I met Stephanie and Linda at the Nashville airport,...The same airport where I met Toné. I hung with Stephanie and Linda for about 2 hours before my flight. Man,…that was cool. My flight home was very bumpy. My last 3 or 4 flights have been very bumpy. It doesn’t even bother my anymore. My flight landed about 5pm EST. There was a problem with the conveyor belt in baggage claim so I ended up waiting a half hour for my bag. But even that was a blessing in disguise. There was another guy there waiting for his luggage. He inquired about about my basses ( I always take my double gig bag on the plane). I told him that I just got home form tour. He asked who I was out with and I told him. He ended up being the president of the Fender Center in Corona, CA. And,…I mean Fender as in Fender guitars. We’re gonna’ talk about Victor and/or myself doing a clinic there. I knew there was reason why my luggage got held up. The Fender center is dedicated to making sure that kids have access to music education and instruments. That’s right up my ‘alley’. On my way out of the baggage claim another gentleman asked m e how did I get my double gig bag on the plane. I told him that from flying with it for 6 years I know that it will fit into an overhead so I just don’t even ask for permission. Sometimes when you ask for permission for things like that,…you just put someone in a position to tell you ‘NO’. Peace&blessings, “Smells Like Funk”
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