I won something like $80 last night playing poker on an evening I was expecting to be working. I guess I’ve been on a lucky streak the last few days.

Mason and I played at Bobby T’s on Thursday to a fair crowd. Getting to play with Mason was certainly worth halving the pay. We had a bunch of compliments to the sound. I never believed that drums and an acoustic guitar would work at T’s. Sometimes it’s good to be wrong.

Friday found me westbound for Hays and one of the more interesting Rail shows I’ve had in a while. After resigning to the fact that lack of advertising on my part led to the empty bar to which I started playing, the place lit up. There were several groups of people who came in, not to mention the several girls from different groups trying to get me naked on stage, even though I explained that wanting was often times much more enjoyable than having. I signed more autographs in various places on various things Friday night than I have all year. After hours lasted until like 5:00am. Thanks to Hillary for the floor, Trey for coming out, J-Will for coming back to town for the show, the Rail for booking me through September even with their staff changes, and to Blaine and Mike for giving me such a damn hard time all weekend. Paybacks are hell, gentlemen.

Saturday was the third show in as many days. I’m starting to rescind all those thoughts I had about Trevor being a Nancy when he was complaining to me about blowing out his voice. I got through the show, but I’m glad it was my last one for a while. I actually was really, really happy with the show. It was the first time I played all of my originals. It was the first time I sat down for a solo Buster’s show. I played most of the songs, for lack of a better descriptor, more acoustically than I normally do — slower, with more feeling, taking more liberties with the melodies. The only hard part was being sore and tired from the three hours sleep on the aforementioned floor, and the fact that from 10:00pm to midnight my throat felt like I swallowed a bunch of broken glass. I got through it and was darned happy with the final she-bang before my vacation.

Vacation my ass. I’m sitting here at 8:40am getting ready to go clean out our drills, service both combines and the wheat truck, change the front walker shaft on my combine, convert both machines from milo to wheat, and fix all the problems I will discover when doing all of this. But you know what? I really don’t care. For the first time in over a year, I have a date on Wednesday.

Getting ready to head to Russell tonight
Had 56 hours last week at the Wave
My CSS team is ranked 22 out of 276
I got my guitar partially re-fretted
Plays like a dream

Massive amout of stuff to do
Before I get to go on harvest vacation
Not enough time
Not enough time

Right.

Trail Ride was tough. We sounded great, but they were heckling us for pop country and, for some reason, couldn’t understand the differentiation between alt-country and pop-country. The way the light rig was set up, all I could see was a blinding light and blackness, so I couldn’t tell if people were dancing or booing.

Mason and I played Harbour Lights. It wasn’t as empty as the last show; in fact, there were 300% more people there. For those of you keeping score at home, there were 4 people listening. It worked well, though, and I’m now confident that we can play a duo show anywhere. It looks like Mason will be playing with me at Bobby T’s on 2 June.

I just pulled the injectors out of my diesel pickup. I’ve been wanting to do it for months, but it took those months to get Snap-On to get me the $46 special socket with which to do it. Anyone want to buy a slightly used, 30mm Bosch injector socket?

Had a magnificant time at Dave’s
He wants us back as soon as we can
Back in July
Might be playing in Alava, too
Sooner than you think

Long time, no log, and all that stuff.

Last Thursday Josh Quillan proposed to his girlfriend in the middle of the Wade Bowen show and we got it on audio, video, and stills. Thanks to Josh for demonstrating that the comments module is working on the site.

In other news, check out the new Power9 website.

Looking forward to the Trial Ride this weekend. It’s a show that my father used to play. We’ve played it several times, with Emotional Feedback, Pavement Ends, Trevor Burgess Band, and now we’re playing it with the Aaron Traffas Band. Time for a scrimmage.

I’ll be playing at Bobby T’s tomorrow night and in Hays at the Rail on Friday. Both shows will be acoustic, loud, solo, rock shows.

There’s a new Internet radio station that everyone should check out. They’re running over six hours of music and they just put me in rotation.

reddirtradio.net

For anyone looking for something to do tonight, Wade Bowen is playing at Longhorn’s tonight. Don’t drink too much; you’ll need your energy for Bobby T’s tomorrow.

The look of the download page has been modified and I’ve added the demos from the Pfeifer recording sessions. I’ll hopefully be adding some more stuff soon so check back soon.

You’ll hear from me.

I’ve been wanting to get into the Kansas City area again for quite sometime. There’s this cool bar on a hill in Tonganoxie that finally called me yesterday. They wanted June and I had to tell them no. The one month I take off is the one in which they want me to play. Sounds like we’ll work something out for July, though.

Wade Bowen is playing at Longhorn’s on Wednesday, and Blaine Younger and I both have the night off. Better look out.

Have you ever had one of those days?

I played in Lawrence last night. I put my ducks in a row ahead of time and left crazy-early so I could listen to an audio lecture on the way. I set my cruise at 55 mph, even though Highway 24 has a 65 mph limit. I was going rather slowly anyway, so I disengaged the cruise without breaking in Rossville and puttered through town at what I believed to be a prudent speed. Paying more attention to the audio lecture that to the observance of posted speed limits, when I looked over and saw the Shawnee County police cruiser that we'll probably sell someday at the Purple Wave, he was already turning to shut me down.

I was set up by 7:30p for a show that would start at 10:30p. I killed time at Gumby's and by driving around and stopping multiple times at the same gas station for more of that new Budweiser energy drink.

I love Lawrence. Just driving around and I found a protest in progress; about 50 people were protesting one of the hundreds of protestable things our fearless leader has done. I think this was about war or some trivial matter.

Dusty Feighner and Mason Powell showed up shortly before I began playing. They were part of a packed house. Actually, I think I remember everyone who was there.

Dusty Feighner
Mason Powell
Mason's friend
Carl the singer
Heather the manager
Heather's boyfriend the bartender
Four other people whose names I can't remember

I looked over at one point and saw Dusty and Heather. That was the point at which I decided that, even though I was having a great show vocally and instrumentally, I was playing to the wall. No offense, Dusty and Heather.

That's about it. We shut down before midnight a show that was supposed to last until 2:00am. Dusty and I just sat around and drank with the staff. Great people at Harbour Lights. While I was playing, someone invited me to what Dusty tells me is a rave. I guess it's at the drive-in, though I don't know when. Perhaps someone can help me.

On my way out of town, I had one thought to relish. I had been dreaming of my traditional Lawrence Burger King fat-burger all day. I've been to Lawrence quite a bit, lately, and each time, on my way out of town, I drive through BK and get their new double-fat, double bacon, double-fat, double cheese, double-fat, double whopper. It is quite truly one of the modern marvels of the world; the greatest sandwich God (and Burger King) ever made. Burger King was closed.