Thursday, September 29, 2011

Denver.... and then a new stop!

Good day... good day indeed.  I have been traveling with my crew for a week and a half and it has been great.  The weather here in the mountains has been perfect!  I realized I've never been in Colorado in the fall when the leaves start changing.  In fact, since our first drive up through Rabbit Ears Pass en route to Steamboat, the leaves of the Aspen trees have burst into an intense spray of yellow across the mountains.  Add the pure beauty of the Rocky Mountains and the views are striking to say the least!!

The shows have been great.  Mostly I've played House Concerts and Backyard Concerts!  Starting last week I played a cozy living room of a house tucked up in the mountains above Evergreen.  The view was stunning and the folks were tremendously nice.  Thank you Tom and Monica for a great evening or laughs and music!  I had an opener that night- a couple of young fellers- Jake and John- played and sang some songs they wrote.  Still in high school and writing killer songs!!  It was a tough act to follow but I did my best and then invited them up to sing a song with me at the end!



From Evergreen it was through the tunnel (the long tunnel on I-70 when you really get into the mountains) to Dillon, CO for a House Party... Backyard Bash... at the Kaskey's house.  They just moved in so it was kind of a House Warming Party.  We went late into the night- it got chilly out there but I had a ginormous heater keeping me nice and toasty.  I had a few more guest stars including a kid from the Lake Geneva area.  His father was actually Nicole's (that's Fairchild to you and me) Math teacher at Walworth Middle School- a few years back! Mr. Schroeder!  What a small world... they chatted it up for quite a while!  Being from the Chuck's neighborhood he requested the song by the same name!
I had to plead... just a little... to get the host of the party, Curt, to come up and join me on Summer in Chicago-
What a fun night it was until I woke up to the sounds of a fight... a fight that sounded like it was between a dude and his car?!?!  I'm not sure what happened and I think it's better left un-investigated!


In Steamboat Springs I played the Ghost Ranch- a great club and a Backyard Party that was the after party of the Steamboat Springs Cornhole Association Tailgate Classic!  It's the final tournament of the Association season... with a great Crystal Cup trophy.  Fairchild and I were invited to be a part of the tourney and we were set on taking the Cup home... to let JJ have as her new home!  JJ... if you don't know is the Fish (aka - Merch Man) that is along on this tour!  Alas, we got smoked.  We lost our first match and were sent to the losers bracket where we promptly lost again.  It worked out just fine because then I was able to watch the Lions beat the Vikings!  I am still... after many many many hard years... a Lions Fan!  :)

Our hosts- Brian and Nikki Smith won the tournament and took the Cup home... after a little Stanley Cup like celebration!  I, on the other hand, had to taste the bitter taste of DEFEAT!

After a glorious day in Steamboat Springs we spent a night way up in the mountains- very near THE Rabbit Ears that the pass gets it's name from.  It was so peaceful and dark and quiet and cold.  The stars were beautiful.


We stopped for another House Concert in Silverthorne, CO- thanks Joanne!!  Joanne is the Coroner in the county and has many great stories to tell- I'm not sure if I was the show or if she was!! :)

Now we're in Denver- at the Flying Saucer RV Park- an interesting place.  I have a show on the roof of the Denver Athletic Club this evening.  It should be another great time with old friends and new!  Then the RV Madison pulls out of Denver ... next stop Oklahoma!

Take 'er Easy!
HIMEBAUGH

Thursday, September 22, 2011

It's a regular Menagerie around here....

Howdy folks- it's Thursday and I'm in Denver- heading up to Evergreen, CO for a House Concert later today. First I gotta go find some guitar strings- I need some new ones.

It's been quite a drive- I have a whole crew along on this tour. But yet I'm still not sure who's gonna carry my guitar and set up the Wall of Sound!!! I mean seriously do I have to have laminates for all of them??  You know.. those cool badges on a string all the dudes wear back stage.. a laminate.
Of course there is Daisy- she's kind of the Road Manager but she may have to be demoted this time.  Maybe she can be Front of House Sound Guy- since Art isn't here and lord knows she can probably do just about as good as Dave did!  :)  Hello... Daaaave!!!!  She always loves to sit up front too- so it makes perfect sense!
Okay- laminate for Daisy- FOH! (Front of House Engineer).


Also along on the trip is Dusty- she's the yang to Daisy's ying?!?! The salt to her pepper??  The Magoo to her Marty!!!  That's it!  Dusty has been around for about a year- usually she stays home alone but this trip was a little too long for a huge bowl of food and three litter boxes!  :)  Just kidding animal lovers (PITA)!!!
I'm not sure where she'll fit in the crew.  So far on her first MoHo journey she has not been particularly happy.  She's been hiding a lot in the back- under the Back End Studio- I suppose then, she likes the behind the scenes action.  Perhaps she can run the monitors (those little speakers you see on stage that the band listens to)!!  Yes-
Laminate for Dusty-  Monitor Engineer

The reason Dusty is along on this trip is because Fairchild is along too!  She's never been to Colorado before... that coupled with the fact that she was a little freaked out about staying on the farm all alone for two weeks got her a back stage pass at least!!! (more on The Farm later!!!).  But a laminate??!?
Hmm-  She's probably not gonna carry much gear... so she has management written all over her!!!  :)  Definitely Road Manager but she may have to wear more than one laminate... like Personal Chef and Masseuse!  She's whippin up lunch as I type!!
I know she's gonna totally dig the mountains and she keeps the RV Madison smelling fresh... not to mention she puts a SHINE all her own on everything!
Okay-
Laminate for Fairchild- Road Manager, Chef, Masseuse, Sweetheart and Shiney Person!


That leaves just one last spot on this crew.  She's a relative new comer and this is her first tour.  In fact it's her first anything really.  I don't know that she's ever even been out of the house.  She seems to be pretty peaceful on the journey so far... she sat in the sink the whole way across Iowa and Nebraska... but came up front as we entered Colorado.  She probably can't smell the sweet mountain air or feel the cool mountain breeze.  In fact she's probably more of a beach girl.  :)
JJ is what we call her... because we had Lady Fish, Lady Fish Jr and now, well... Lady Fish Junior Junior!  JJ!  She can't really do too much on the tour I guess... BUT she can jump out of the water and grab food out of my fingers!!! Seriously!!  Okay, not Flipper style or anything.  She doesn't really catch any radical air but she does come up out of the water ... like a quarter of an inch... and grab food out of my fingers!  Pretty funny.  So... what the heck can she do... besides being the opening act.... only one thing of course.... MERCH!  (Don't take offense Big Greg... she'll never replace YOU!).

Laminate for JJ-  Merch Man (I guess we can call her Big JJ for now).

Okay... off to Sing some Songs!
Rock On and for gosh sakes...
Take 'er Easy!
HIMEBAUGH

Monday, September 19, 2011

I know I know I know... but COLORADO

It's been a long time since my last post here in the Almost Daily Weekly Blog Thing.... but I've been busy busy busy.  I don't have time right now to get into the whole reason why I've been so busy (I'll save that for next week).  BUT I do have a few moments to let you know... especially you folks in Colorado that I'll be headed your way this week for some house concerts and a benefit that are OPEN to the public!  From Evergreen to Dillon to Steamboat to Denver ... I'll be singing songs!  These house concerts are quite entertaining.. not just me, but the people who open up their homes to the likes of me and guests (most of whom they've never met) can be a whole lot of fun!  After Colorado I stop in Oklahoma for a night and Kansas City for a couple of days- including a Chiefs Football Game!

If you're gonna be in Colorado over the next two weeks or if you know anybody who'll be out that way .. pass it on-  You can find info on all these shows in several places!
My website- www.RadioFreeSunshine.com or the The Hello Dave Site OR
If you're one of those Facebooker Folks (like me) you can find me - LIKE me AND FRIEND me!  We're tight like that yo!  Wait ... did you say Twitter?!  Okay we can do that too- HIMEBAUGH Tweets
That's it!  No more links.

Oh- except this one!  You can also hear a few of my new tunes on the site- RadioFreeSunshine.com
Just go to the music page and click away!

Now then- I'll be back to my Regular Scheduled Postings at their Regularly Scheduled Times... kind of.

Take 'er easy!
HIMEBAUGH out-