You Ain't No Earl Monroe

That's what I'd say if I heard me playing mandolin.

You're Movin' Up In The World

That's what a bassist friend of mine said when he found out I'd taken up playing bass.

A Hot Cuban

If you've ever been to Key West, Miami or Tampa you may have had that sabrosa combo of ham, pork loin, swiss cheese, pickles, yellow mustard on cuban bread known as a hot cuban.

The last time I was in Miami I ordered one from a very attractive street vendorette of Cuban descent who replied without missing a beat, "How about me?" Sure knows how to make a guy my age feel good!

On that note, I guess the ultimate hot cuban has got to be Lis Vega who plays the money hungry, but impossibly sexy Lisette Guerrero on the Telemundo telenovela Santa Diabla. She is so hot that my awesome girlfriend says if I can pull it off, then I get a pass. So Lis joins the ranks of Katy, the pretty young bartender at Sonsie who bought me an iced tequila, and Andrea Lawrence who played wenchy Ziza in the Hammer classic Countess Dracula of those my girlfriend deems passworthy for me.

So if you're reading this, Lis, it's OK - I've got a pass. Te estoy esperando :)

All That Flannel

We had a cool evening for a change last December where I was sittin' in with some guys for an upcoming gig at a boat club that was somewhere between redneck and uptown. We got to talking about Led Zeppelin, and specifically about putting together a medley including Ramble On. The other guitarist wasn't sure about the chord background for the pre-chorus, so here's my usual awkward take on it. He started playing toward the end when I was running down the verse, but was a little out of tune which was probably why my girlfriend hit dislike when she found it on youtube. She swears she was trying to hit like - maybe she was messin' with me that day.

For all you guitar geeks out there I was using a homemade faux telecaster with Barden pickups. The body, neck and hardware were from some guitar parts place out of Lee County FLA. I went straight into a Matamp Legend 120 amp through a 4-12 Marshall cab with Celestion 75 watt speakers.

Won't You Take Me To?

So I'm going through some of the usual clutter around here, and I find a box of cassette tapes which amused my girlfriend to no end since she's all smart phone with her music. Some of the tapes are labeled with stuff I recorded from LPs i borrowed from the library back in the Paleolithic Era, but there's one with a whole lotta nothin' written on it, so of course she wants to hear it (good thing I still have a cassette deck).

Turns out it was me messing around on about a minute and a half of the disco classic Funkytown with a drum machine, a cheap keyboard and my trusty telecaster recorded direct into an old Fostex 250 which no longer works. The stereo recording is panned hard right and left like the old Beatles records were, but you don't get that effect here since my girlfriend recorded it with her smart phone where it is at the top of the rotation - she is indeed an awesome girlfriend.

And here it would be for your amusement and derision, but I can't seem to get blogger to recognize it. Maybe just as well.

Farms In Berkeley?

Sorta like palm trees in Boston.

Your Mind Is On Vacation But Your Mouth Is Workin' Overtime

What a great line by Mose Allison. The bluesy melody has some nice Mississippi caesuras. Like Albert Collins always said, take your time, son.