The
Ram's Head (Annapolis, MD) is one of my favorite places to play. Great venue.
Great sound. Great acoustic piano for George. And it's close to the Slim Shack.
But, even though I live only 20 minutes away, I get a hotel room. Why? They
give us a great rate. It's a great hotel (Loews). It's close to the Ram's
Head (1block). So I can have a couple (2 or 3 dozen) glasses of vino and stagger
back to my room with my entourage of groupies. I wish!!
The band sounded great that night. Am I saying 'great' too often? George Hazelrigg's Dad, Dr. George Hazelrigg, tuned the grand piano before we went on. And it sounded...really great. Kevin Levi flew in from Californy to do this gig, and his sax playing was excellent. And John E Coale on drums? Is there anyone better, with better sounding drums? And it's always a special treat when Hit Man Howie Z (Howard Zizzi) plays the bongos.
We did our soundcheck around 3:00 PM. It was cold and rainy and windy. December 23, 2004. The Big Slim Man Holiday Extravaganza. Soundcheck went well. We've played the Ram's Head before, and it's a breeze. The people that work there are really...great. So we checked out all our gear, and then went over to do a photo session for the new Bona Fide CD.
Bona Fide has a new CD? Well, it'll be out in April or May. It's called 'Soul Lounge', and it's the best Bona Fide CD by far. For those of you who don 't know, Bona Fide is my instrumental funky jazz band. Slim Man is the vocal jazz band. Same guys, same band, two different sounds. Sometimes we do concerts that feature both bands--as a matter of fact, both bands are playing the Recher Theatre in Baltimore on Valentine's Day, Monday, February 14th.
Well,
we needed a photo for the new Bona Fide publicity shot, and I figured, why
not do it at the Ram's Head? All the guys were in the same place, dressed
and ready to go, so we asked our favorite photographer, David Wilson, to do
some shots. And man, we got some good stuff. I'll post some pics on the Slim
Site as soon as...
As soon as I get the site back up and running. Hang in there, folks!!! I'm on the case. Sorry it's been so long...
So we did our photos, and then I went to the hotel to change and get dressed in my Slim Clothes. I gotta tell ya, I wasn't feeling so hot. I got sick to my stomach the night before, and I was washed out, weak, and not my usual Slim Self. But, all things considered, it wasn't so bad. I was feeling better with each passing minute.
I walked over to the Ram's Head to the dressing room by the side of the stage, and waited there with the Slim Band until the Sound Dude came back to to tell us it was...SHOWTIME!
We started off with "Blue Christmas". Wow. Slim Presley kicks off the show with a bang. From then on, it was pretty wacky. I was sweating like a boxer in the 12th round. Some Slim Fans sent me some photos, and I was soaked--my face was dripping wet.
After a few songs, we brought up Shea Welsh to do some tunes. Shea used to play guitar back when we got our start. About...TEN YEARS AGO! it's been that long? Yes. The first Slim Gig was in B-More in January 1995. Spike and Charlie's. No one was there. Well, about 10 people. My Mom came out, God bless her soul. She was always there. Made it to almost every gig in the area.
Shea Welsh sounded...great. He really did. I put down my bass, and it was just George on piano and Shea on guitar. I sat on a stool and sang Frank Sinatra style. Only thing missing was a cigarette. Remember when guys used to sing and smoke at the same time? Now that took talent! My Uncle Oscar has some old Dean Martin videos, and he was real good at smoking and singing.
I have a tough enough time just singing. Shea closed the set with us. We took a quick break, and went right back onstage after about 15 minutes. I looked out at the crowd, and, even though it was sold-out, there were some vacant seats. My Dad, Slim Poppa, didn't show--he was sick. My Aunt Lorraine didn't show--she was sick, too. I had a couple other relatives get sick at the show and leave--but I'm used to people doing that.
The second set rocked. We brought Shea back up for a few songs. Shea teaches guitar. He's got a degree in guitar from USC. One of his current students? Tom Hanks. No kidding. Shea is also going out with a movie star. He doesn't want anybody to know who it is, but I'm pretty sure it's the girl who used to go out with...Jim Carrey. Alllllrighty, then!
Towards the end of the show, I introduced a friend of mine who was in the audience. Alan Golombek. Alan has been around since our first gigs. We became friends. He used to come down to a little bar called 'The Horse You Came In On' and check out my blues band, The Scrappy Harris Blues Band. Alan is in the armed services. He's been to Bosnia. Kosovo. He used to send me postcards from all these places. I still have them.
Alan was in Afghanistan last year.
His Humvee got hit by a roadside bomb. He was hurt pretty badly. I hadn't
heard from him for a while. He had come into the dressing room before the
show to say hello, and he told me the story. I told that story to the crowd
that night at the Ram's Head, and they gave him a
Standing O.
We closed the night with...what the hell did we close with? Feliz Navidad. BKA The Police Know My Dad. The crowd went...to the bathroom with stomach aches, to throw up? No! The crowd went nuts! Well, they already were nuts, but they went more nuts. It was...great. Really.
I
love my band. They're my best friends. And incredible musicians. I talk to
them all the time. Thanks, Slim Dudes. Thanks to Shea Welsh for sitting in.
Thanks to the Ram's Head Crew. And thanks to all y'all for stoppin' in. Y'all
come back now, hear!
Oh yeah. One more thing. I went back to the Slim Shack the following day, Christmas Eve. The whole family was there. And almost everyone was sick, either with the stomach virus, or the flu, or both. Happy Holidays!!
