Here it is Wednesday the 13th and we’re leaving a day early to start this May East coast tour. I’ve been looking forward to this tour cuz’ we go almost as far as one could go up the East coast. Maine being the most northern point then we come back down and do another taping for Don O’Dells Legends show. It’s a full complement of playing. So first up is Johnathan’s Landing in Magnolia, DE. A little community located just a tad south of Dover. Craig Coffield, the owner and proprietor, has helped bring in music to this part of Delaware for a while now and the locals are glad for it. It’s actually on a Golf course and it doubles as the Pro shop/club house/event center. It’s in the event center that we play in. There is a large room with an upper section that lines 3 sides of the room’s square configuration. If I’ve written the descriptions of the building in a previous blog then I apologize. The people that frequent the events here at Johnathan’s Landing are enthusiastic and loyal and the Central Delaware Blues Society has a large part in keeping the locals informed and exposed to new artists coming through. We set up and we get ready to do our thing. So, I know I’ve written about before, I’m not the best at first gigs on the tour cuz’ I fall out of ‘playing shape’ when I have time off. While on the road I do toughen up in a lot but when I’m at home not in my ‘road routine’ I become soft so to speak. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to leave a day early so I can get some kind of rest and practice in.

We start off good and things are feeling OK so far. We’re all listening to each other and I’m feeling it’s going to be alright, plus having the Marshall there to bolster me really rounds out the spectrum of my guitar tone. It just seems like the Chicago Blues Box will be a bit dark and some stuff isn’t cutting enough out there but the Marshall is taking care of all the high end frequencies with a touch of the sublime Marshall bottom end and it wasn’t very hard not to have a good time with that kind of tone. It just seems like everything was jumping out and I could hear great. I know every venue on this run cannot accommodate my two amp set-up but I’ll enjoy the times I can play them. Wow that was fun!
We finish up and take care of the fans at the end. We pack up and head back to the hotel. It’s been a good beginning for us. Let’s try to keep it rolling.

After getting to our hotel in Colorado Springs I checked my itinerary in my phone to see how far we are from the club to determine our time to leave for load in. The Sick Puppy is a new venue for me in Co. Springs and we’re staying out by the airport, another new area I never get out to in this town. My phone is an iPhone and although I’m completely sold on their superiority in the industry, the Maps app is always just a bit behind in updating its information. The club comes up as ‘Appaloosa Gentleman’s Club’. Hmm, OKaaay….this should be interesting.

Tucked away near the airport as well and on some back streets off the main road it does at least have a sign of permanent fixture out front and it’s a free standing building as well. A bit large and yes I must admit it does bear the resemblance to a strip club; large box building adorned with cosmetic embellishments to the outside and with a grand gesture towards the entrance with large double wood doors and rather exotic oversized handles to give the impression you’re entering into a lavish opulent environment. An ostensible pretentious display is the thought that comes to my mind.

Upon going inside to see how we load in and where the stage is located it’s obviously a former strip club. Hard shiny surfaces all around with lots of couch-like seats combined with the same upholstered chairs coupled along with tables for your drinks and this is all along the periphery of the large dance floor that dominates the middle of this rectangular structure. The dance floor is a ‘step-down’ affair after you’ve entered the club. There’s even ‘private’ glassed rooms that give the appearance of ‘stadium boxes’ lined against the wall on the entrance level, each one with couch and chairs inside that have reclined angles to the furniture as opposed to the 90’angle of the dance floor chairs and couches. I suppose to allow the occupant to recline, so to speak, and give access to someone who might be sitting on them or even hovering near them?,.. Maybe? Yes this place has all the other things, fog machines to accentuate the huge rotating light extravaganza machine located high above the dance floor and a large bar dominating one long side of the rectangle and another bar placed off in a slightly segregated area on the opposite side from where we’re to play. Our stage is but just a corner of this club. There are couches behind where my amp is to go but only the hardiest of guitar nerds would sit there. It’s a clumsy set up but not the first awkward club transition I’ve played in. Not sure who took over this place when they decided to make it a dance/live music venue but it still has some tweaking to do,…a lot of tweaking. There’s been a considerable investment put into the transition because the entire place has the ‘Sick Puppy’ mascot in the carpeting where there is carpet. It’s the picture of what looks like a Bulldog puppy and its tongue is hanging out and I guess it looks a bit queasy like it ate something bad. Like I said we’re in the corner and even though the area is demarked by the monitors and light trees and cables on the ground, the wait staff continues to just come on through as we’re setting up. The traffic does stop during our performance, thankfully, but it was just weird having drinks and attractive girls coming through while I was laying down my pedals and such. Plus the DJ booth was to my almost immediate right and we were to coordinate with the DJ to announce us with each set we were to begin; 3 of them are on the schedule tonight. We’ve done pretty well here in the Colorado Springs area these past several years but location does make a difference and I’m not feeling confident about our usual clientele showing up at this venue. Just a bit off the beaten path and the club is still in its growing phase. Given its large size, unless you’ve got at least 100 people here, the crowd is going to be sucked up and made to appear rather small. I was right. We did have our usual stalwarts and fans that showed up but not the usual size crowd which we enjoyed up in the mountains at Crystola in Woodland Park. The venue changed due to the recent fires in the forests up there that had burned away most of the ground vegetation that held the soil in. So now with this covering being depleted, horrible flooding is the result and the highway department has started closing down US 24 for safety reasons but in turn that also shuts down access to the club.

After our sound check I was a bit worried because the drums had horrible rings and low frequencies standing out and I knew all the hard surfaces inside is going to just wreak havoc with any sort of quality mix. Once more into the breach dear friends, once more….

Well to my pleasant surprise I was having fun at this club. The crowd was small, the light show a bit distracting at times, and the DJ putting on an exaggerated ‘It’s-a-full-ass-party-going-on-in-this-place!’ voice, my amp was sounding pretty good and I could hear everything. When I can hear everything and the tone is good I start to have fun. We blow through our 3 sets and I was just taking more and more musical chances as the night went on. A fitting end to this run, albeit an unusual venue, a fitting end nonetheless.

Before I forget I’ve got to mention it, when we did our load in, since this was Saturday and it was the ‘Run for the Roses’ or the day of the Kentucky Derby, there was horse racing up on the their multi-screen TV’s lined up on the long side behind the main bar that was by the dance floor. These were BIG screens like you see in big casinos in their sports betting sections in Vegas. What was showing was the calling of the races and interviews with the trainers and owners in between the races, as well as the post play-by-play race analysis, all at an almost intolerable volume. But the most ludicrous thing I heard that will stick with me for a long time was this. It came during one of the pre-race interviews where the ‘Horse Racing channel’s lovely interviewer’ was doing an interview down near the track. Yes they appeared live at this track somewhere in America, you know this goes on almost every day in this country, so during the interviewing of these two guys that were the owners of the heavily favored horse for the upcoming race, (it was mentioned that these guys own a lot of horses in the biz), the interviewer asked how they came up their latest name for the horse, something like ‘Solomon’s Mandible’ and the most vocal of the two said – “ We’re always sitting around trying to come up with names and titles and I gotta’ tell you, I’m tired of naming horses!…” Wow, did I hear that right? – I’m tired of naming horses’?, of course he said it in a jocular kind of way like it was a combination of a humorous gripe along with the drudgery in his life of naming horses. I had to stop and think about that statement and how it so stuck out in the lexicon and variety of small complaints in life; – I’m tired of that dripping faucet, I’m tired of that dog barking, I’m tired of telling you kids to pipe down, I’m tired of naming horses. – A bit incongruous I know but wait maybe this, – I’m tired of my driver opening my door late, I’m tired of the SEC regulators barging in unannounced, I’m tired of my marina rents going up, I’m tired of naming horses.’ – Ah that’s all it needed; to be put in the correct context. Much better… *sigh*

Till then – chris duarte

Golden of course is known as the home of Coors beer. It’s also quite the quaint little town with its downtown area done up and beautified the past recent years. I don’t know what the town looked like before but judging by its appearance now it bears all the hallmarks of recent urban beautification. When you’ve been in as many cities as I have and you see this happen again and again with new sidewalks being put in, the parking scheme and layout changed, trees planted and at times the street signs switched out to a more retro look, it’s all pretty much out of the same ‘Urban Renewal Changes’ playbook. One thing it definitely has going for it that is not in the playbook options is the mountains. A gorgeous attribute that plays well here in Golden.

Our gig is at the Buffalo Rose. I just tried a search of the title to the venue seeing if it has meanings or origins and nothing comes up to lead me in that direction. Like I’ve written before, I’m terrible with search terms and I don’t have a whole lot of patience when doing research for my blogs. I want this info quick and accessible cuz’ when I’m writing I need to stay focused and assiduous so I can get these blogs out to reflect them as me in a extemporaneous elocution cadence style. I have worked on some but the majority of them are done when I first get up in the morning. I lay fingertips to keyboard and work till they are done without a break. It seems I do this best in the morning. My morning coffee so to speak, even though I don’t drink coffee in the morning and I never have. We load in and what I like about the ‘Rose’ is its size. Nice big stage and monitor guy right by me on my side of the stage and a good PA too. My friend Mike Tomoskovic is coming in to run sound for us. I’ve known Mike since my popular days back in Chicago when I used to have good size crowds come out to see me. Mike would run sound for me on occasion as he was just starting out doing the engineer thing. Over the years he’s moved up the ladder and has had some impressive resume tenures; AC/DC, Metallica, Guns n’ Roses, Dark Star Orchestra, and now he’s got the Buddy Guy gig. We saw him in Laughlin when Buddy played on a Saturday night out there and he got us in to the show. Buddy and I had the same start times so I ran over to check Buddy out after our show and he was in his ‘medley’ part of the show, which is usually the last 20 – 30 minutes. I was hoping to say ‘hey’ to him when he came off stage, but I didn’t know the road manager and Buddy was promptly escorted out of the venue upon completion of his show, his road manager at his side running interference with anyone who dared to step in their sphere. That’s just how it is people. Nothing personal; just business. I knew this was a possibility and prepared for that outcome. At least I got to see him play a little and he sounded great as usual. I’m sure if I had been able to be there before Buddy went on he would’ve greeted me warmly. Buddy has always been nice to me. Anyway back to the ‘Rose’, we set up and then we’ve got a couple of bands on before us. Both people I’ve met in my preceding years of my career. Scotty Bratcher is out of Ohio and he told me he started listening to me since he was 4. Wow, 4! Then there was Mike Hornbuckle, a local Denver artist that’s been on the scene for a while and he just won some regional critics accolades and awards for his recent self-produced album. I did listen to a bit and he does have some good songs. He also met me when he was young. It freaks me out at times when I meet young up and coming artists at my shows who sight me as a small influence to their playing. It’s what I’ve always dreamed of, besides World Domination and a fat bank account, to leave a mark on music and players and here I am seeing and meeting this accomplishment. I wasn’t able to get back in time to see Scotty’s show but I did get to listen to half of Mike’s set and he’s a really good player. Nice full band with keyboards and good songs too. I enjoyed all that he played.

We get up there now and although the crowd isn’t as big as it was back in December, it’s still respectable. It wasn’t very long ago that we were here so I’m thankful for the people who showed up. My friend has got the front house sounding good and the monitors are doing fine by me. We rip through our set and then Scotty sits in with us at the end of the night. Scotty does an admirable job on both rhythm and lead with mature phrasing and complimentary comping behind me. You don’t often see players of his age with rounded stage skills. It’s usually a sign of better things to come for his future.

The night being over we pack up and return to our hotel. The night has a bit of coolness to it and the stars are out dotting the black cloudless heavens. We’ve just got one more gig on this west run. Colorado Springs here we come.

– chris duarte

Now traveling on the road isn’t all just about the music and gigs, although a large portion of it is, I so regularly comment about the sights and things I view from my driver-side window, sometimes it’s a bit more than the quotidian events that come into our tours that I feel I must share. Let’s start with the horn of my van.

Now let me preface this that I am just relating and telling a story. I know there’s a lot of ‘how-to’ and ‘you know you should try…’ suggestions that the following story can pull out of some of my empathetic and ‘just want to help out’ fans and I get it. But I’m not looking for these and I just want to entertain and inform you. So here goes,

A couple of years back I was not paying attention to where I was casually idle-driving in a supermarket parking lot and when my eyes were averted for a short duration of time, I plowed into a light in the parking lot. You know the kind that’s over 25’ tall and mounted on a large concrete cylindrical base. I must’ve been going between 5 and 10 mph and it really buckled in the front bumper almost a foot right in the middle. The accident did not affect the radiator nor did it affect the front end and my air bag did not engage. Thank goodness, that would’ve been a wake-up. Since I wasn’t in the best of mental capacity, during one of ‘those’ times, I could not call the police to report it and the damage to the light was more than negligible so I looked around and no one seemed to notice so I surreptitiously slinked out of there. I had lost that battle. Also, fortunately the concrete base wasn’t too high as to smash into the radiator so the damage was largely cosmetic. So I ingloriously and with great humility drove the short distance home. A feeling akin to walking around with a big shiner on my face, with all the people around you and their imaginations running wild about what might’ve happened. Yes a bit shameful it was. Really.

The next day I took the van up to the closest body shop and told them just to put a new front bumper on. I didn’t even replace one of the front valences or panels that run along the front because it’s just a thin strip and the pushed in part does not interfere with the van’s functions. Bumper replaced and the van looks fine, but I notice my horn is sounding a bit ‘constricted’ and I assumed it was obviously altered by the accident. It still kind of worked but on a drastically reduced volume level, kind of kills the purpose of the horn, I know, and I left it as is if only for humorous reasons and besides it still worked at red lights to alert drivers in front of me when the lights would turn green. So as far as I was concerned the horn still was fulfilling its purpose. It didn’t take long for the horn to stop working altogether. When your horn stops working on your car it seems like for some weird karmic unexplained reasons, you start to happenstance into situations, with repeated frequency, where a horn would be most helpful. Cars veering into your lane on the highway, people texting in front while waiting at a red light ect. It just starts up and there’s nothing you can do about it, and the kicker is, events such as these don’t seem to hold your attention very long and the next one comes just after you’ve forgotten the last event and you’ve then once again settled into a state of complacency about not having a horn and the impetus and conviction to replace the horn has passed. This cycle went on for about 2 years and finally after the said events piled up one after another in that recess of my mind where they are stored, until finally the events started to occupy more and more space in your everyday thinking. Besides my horn was also an extension of my emotional outbursts. Whether it was for an enthusiastic approval of a comment or agreed upon action, or just me playing along with the music on the radio. I liked this added outlet and it was quite some time before I stopped pressing the middle of the steering wheel to display my outburst. These feelings combined with the hazardous and annoying events were starting to win the day and I had made up my mind that I was to replace the horns. Right.

So while on our downtime in Laughlin, NV, I was determined to replace the horn. I had gone to an auto parts store the same day I replaced that starter in Omaha, NE and purchased a single horn to mount on there but I would wait till I got home because I would have access to my tools there, but the normal activities of the day took over and the horn faded once again out of my priorities and we left heading west without even so much as an attempt to mount it. Now in Laughlin it was to the parking lot I ventured and I got to work. After mounting the horn I went to test it and no-go. It was not responding. Frustrated, I just figured I had gotten the wrong kind at the parts store because the original was a double horn set-up; one high and one low frequency. The plastic parts of the horns had been smashed in the original accident with the light post and all that remained were just two flat looking discs. No wonder the sound was diminished. So I thought I’d just go to the Ford dealership on the other side of the Colorado River and buy a new horn and put it on. Besides, how much could it cost? The auto parts store was a $19 job so even with a dealership I’d be safe in assuming a 300% increase was in order. $60 bucks, I can deal with it if it’s an official Ford part. Right? Well I was partly right about the markup, it was about $67 for the horn, but don’t forget, there’s two of them so that’s going to be about $150 with tax and all. Me and the person helping look the part up , we kind of both shook our heads because this information was both new to us; the high price that is, so I thanked him for his assistance and left. Since the Laughlin/Bullhead City isn’t that big I had then figured to look through a salvage yard once we got to Salt Lake cuz’ after all , the bigger the city, the better chance of finding a horn and for a much more reasonable price. I would have to wait another week or so.

The day after we arrived in Salt Lake, I was looking through the phone book, yes one of those things remember?, a dying anachronism but totally suitable for this cause. Sometimes the internet just can’t be specific enough for you when you’re as lousy as I am with search terms and I’m just concentrating in a local area. I find one really close to us and since Dustin had to get something from the pharmacy he tagged along to offer assistance in my endeavor.

People that run and work at salvage yards are a whole different sub-species in themselves. I don’t use the term ‘sub’ to describe them as inferior or lacking intelligence, to the contrary, they are extremely knowledgeable in their field and quite deft with what can be salvaged off each vehicle and quick to separate the part from it. It’s impressive. Dustin and I are told to peruse around the junkyard and see if we find anything. I’ve brought along a 10mm open-ended crescent wrench cuz’ I know that’s all it takes to get a Ford horn off its mounting. The cars are stacked one on top of each other and they’re separated by coupes, trucks, vans ect. It’s like we’re in a maze but fortunately it’s not that big of a spread. There’s a big forklift running around in the paths and when we duck into a row you’ve got that constant sound from the forklift coming hither and going thither creating the Doppler Effect with its sound. The vision from the Terminator movies come to mind when those rag-tag soldiers are fighting the machines in that pseudo-industrial wasteland running for cover and taking shots at the machines when the opportunity arises. Dustin and I are going in between these narrow rows of stacked up cars and we can see the evil forklift through the gaps of twisted and stacked metal coming towards us in ominous advance but then going away because the thing didn’t see us; we live to fight on. At times I’m still such a kid at heart. We find a horn on a truck and I get to work. In 5 minutes the horn is in my hand and we go to the office to report our success and to pay. I ask if I can test it first before we pay and they mark it and tell me go ahead. We work at getting the horn on and when it’s connected up there is no response. We start checking things off the list in a diagnostically fashion; check the fuses, check the relay, hook up the horn to a power source. Even the one from the auto parts store works but the old one off the Ford truck that was resting on top of two other vehicles is not. I have to admit that it’s funny how horns make us jump even when we know the honk is coming. I was watching Dustin connect wires from the horn to the battery poles to check out if it’s working and upon the report of the horn he still jumps as if he’s been suddenly startled even when it’s Dustin who’s making the connection knowing its coming. Too funny. I take the pulled horn back in and tell them it doesn’t work. The staff at the salvage yard is undeterred and I’m assigned the crustiest but savviest person on the lot to assist me in finding one that does work. This man is of about my height but an inch or two taller, all silver hair and clean shaven with a dirty baseball style cap on and dressed in oily grease stained coveralls. With a bandana sticking out his back pocket and a man who exhibits confidence and self-assuredness I dutifully fall in line behind him and only call him by ‘Yes Sir’ every time he speaks to me. We find a horn as he’s helped by an enthusiastic subordinate there doing most of the dirty work in acquiring the part. Something tells me this Salvage Yard Master invokes this type of earnestness out of the people under him. Tough but fair. After the part is quickly obtained, on our short walk back to the office I keep using the word ‘Y’all’ and he dryly ask me ‘What in the hell is a ‘Y’all”? Then he relates that his son lives in North Carolina and he says the same thing to him when on visits to see him. He also informs me that his son is a 3-star general in the Armed forces. I’m impressed for his son but not surprised he turned out that way. His dad strikes me as a leader too. We test the horn out, (by the way even this stoic man did a little ‘startle’ jump when he tested out the horn which I observed and smiled at his humanness), everything worked so back out to the parking lot to put it on and again there’s no response after I’ve mounted it. Dustin then suggests the connector from the wire on my van going to the horn is bad and says I should use the one on the horn that I’ve gotten because we know it works. So I snip off the connector from my van with some wire cutters and strip a bit to enable me to tie the wires together and ‘voila’ it works now. Mission accomplished. Took a little bit of time and got my hands slightly dirty but you can’t argue with results. Best of all; it only cost me $25.

And now for the Pronghorns….

I have a few stretches of Interstate that are my favorites to drive. One of those stretches is by far the longest distance and it happens to be driving east on I-80 leaving Salt Lake City. Not only does it start in dramatic fashion by leaving the Great Basin Area the Great Salt Lake no doubt had a bit of a hand in creating, I-80 seems to go right into the mountainous ridge which dominates the western side of SLC and its surrounding cities that are bisected by I-15. As you go east you head straight for the mountains and you seem to enter along this narrow pass that goes in between these mighty sentinels of SLC. During the month of September this narrow pass through the mountains comes alive in brilliant colors of varying greens and yellows, reds, oranges and browns all signaling the coming fall season. It’s one of the most beautiful sights I know with all the colors viewed in a vertical perspective canvas. Breathtaking and I love it. But this is not September and I’m still enjoying it but what I’m really doing is waiting for my first sight of a Prong horned Antelope. Yes there are other roads you can see them on but none, from my experience, are a consistent as I-80 is year round. Usually they start to appear when you get close to Laramie but sometimes earlier. Those are the moments I wait for. The Prong horn is the fastest land animal on the North American continent/Western Hemisphere and they resemble an elk in size but you think of a deer because of their color scheme. With their robust white backside, belly and tan markings in the front and along the top of their backs, they’re easy to spot in the non-winter months from far away due to their colors. The white against the sage green or other vegetation is a dead giveaway. The males are sporting their prong horns and the females, although they do have horns but are much smaller and hardly noticeable unless they’re close to the freeway which occasionally they are. When seen up close you get a hint of their power from their hind quarters and front shoulders but how do they manage those staggering speeds on those spindly legs? They get it on but I’ve never seen one in full stride. When I see them out in the wild I makes me think back to the days of yore when this was all untamed Western land when explorers and then cowboys and even before them Indian tribes roamed the lands. I love seeing them. An animal that is specific to just this wide area in the west. Yes there is a couple of sub species in Arizona and one in Mexico but they aren’t seen with so much frequency. After I see the first one I relish every sight until there are no more. Usually it’s when you get out of their known habitat area. We bed down in Laramie and then take US287 south into Ft. Collins, CO then jut east over to I-25 down to Golden. US287 is another gorgeous road that I haven’t been on in a while and it was good to see those sights again. I so enjoy my job on many levels. Yes I don’t make a lot of money doing it, I’m away at times from the people I love, but I have to come to terms with who I am. I am a musician that loves to get out and play to different audiences and towns and cities every day. To receive nature’s sights as inspiration as food for my soul in the day, then to play with emotion and feed my soul at night with musical landscapes I try to create is in my opinion, just about the best job anyone could have.

Through all this misery and heartache I’ve been living with the past 3 months, I have to have gratitude for the things nobody can take away from me; my music and where it brings me.

The day started off with a new road to travel on. Not metaphorically but in reality. I had stated before that I had always gone by Laughlin, NV, but now having been there one of the roads to get to Salt Lake is US 95, of course there is a west leading state road that must be taken to get to 95 but it’s a short jaunt. What I so love about the western United States is the vast vistas and open spaces. Nevada has this in spades. We all know the government thought along these lines too with the state being infamously designated our nuclear weapons testing grounds. You need open spaces to blow those things up so why not? There’s also lots of time to ruminate and work on things of the mind while driving and it’s those moments I look forward to as well while driving out here. Our destination is St. George, Utah to break this drive up. St. George is right across the border of Utah after you cross the extreme NW corner of Arizona as I-15 cuts in a north east direction. This is where the geological landscape changes to reddish mesas and striated mountains that start to become more apparent. It’s gorgeous. We arrive at St. George in a timely manner and quickly settle in at our hotel. St. George is lovely with all the landscape around it being a reddish/orange hue with cedars and other coniferous trees to contrast the setting. The sunset is beautiful too.

Up and away we go to traverse the last 300 or so miles to SLC. I remember Utah being the first state in which I saw speed limits of more than 70 miles an hour when our previous governments were starting to ease up on speed restrictions back in the 90’s. The roads can stretch out to a thin ribbon disappearing in the distance here in the Great Basin area that is Utah. The peaks here are still sporting snowy caps due to the recent weather episode that blew through and it’s a land of more contrasts; green valleys and snowcapped mountains. Salt Lake finally comes into view and we arrive with a few hours to let the travel fade from our bodies and I try to quickly grab an hour of practice cuz’ I’m still having trouble with the end arpeggio of the new Tejano-style song I wrote. Why did I have to write a difficult end? The Bleu Bistro is a new venue for us but the ownership is old friends to us. Carl is the same person that ran the Sun & Moon Café that was here and opened up his new place which is located more in town as opposed to out in the foothills of the mountainous ridge that demarks the eastern side of SLC. We’re set up in a corner but we’ve got ample room here because the Sun & Moon was a compact affair we conformed to, but here I’m free to do coliseum gestures if I’m so inclined. Both nights are well attended and I’m still thrilled to see a lot of people are supporting me way back from the Zephyr club days.

I’ve been playing SLC for many years and I don’t plan on ever stopping if the people here will have me. They love to dance here and it’s the crowd’s energy and enthusiasm that I feed off of. We play two almost completely different shows for our 2-day stand here and I try to work out some of my shortcomings on the less played songs in our sets. Our energy is good and by the end of the second night, the area to my right has been taken over by the dancers and there’s a large contingency swinging and swaying to the music. All is right with me here in Salt Lake. Like all towns and cities I have an affinity for, it’s the people that give these areas their own distinct identity. Architecture can be the dressing and appearance but to serve as the all-important corpuscles that carry life and oxygen to this working body falls to the populace. It’s a lovely vibrant city and one that I happen to be very smitten with.
Thank you Salt Lake City for all the years of happiness you’ve given me and I hope for many more years to come. We’ll see you all next time. – chris duarte

Leaning over the rail out back of the hotel and casino on the river walk, you can’t help but notice how swift the river current is. The mighty Colorado, or at least the most famous of all the rivers with the same name Colorado, (there are several in the US, one being right near Austin, TX), but this is the Colorado that carved out the Grand Canyon, feeds the lawns and car washes to Southern California and not to mention the millions it helps feed in the world for the crops that are irrigated by it, this is a mighty river indeed. Our stage is on the river walk and the river is to our backs while we play. A small concrete permanent fixture with ample room for bands of our level it’s not a bad set-up for this festival. My only complaint is since you have the stage being on the walk, you have the main thoroughfare of pedestrian traffic bisecting the dancing floor area that’s right in front of the stage. So you’re going to get a lot of insouciant people lumbering past you while you play and some you can see the painful endurance they’re experiencing while walking in front because they don’t want to be in the aural crossfire. As an artist that feeds off crowd energy you have to just tune this out, it can be a bit of a buzzkill at times.

We’re here for the next 11 days to play two consecutive running blues/biker fests that are annually held here in the little casino town known as Laughlin, Nevada. With a diminutive strip that barely makes up two miles in length, it’s bookended with the Riverside casino on the north end and down to Harrah’s on the south. Several are in between and we’re one of them; The Colorado Belle. So our first show is a bit of getting used to the stage and its sound. We have just a few minutes to dial in as best as we can before we’re to play and then that’s pretty much it, – it’s one, two, three go. Also there’s only a 15 minute change over between bands but this turns out to be fine since most bands are playing the equipment provided by the hotel and I’m the only one playing my own amp. Dustin and John didn’t need to use anything beside their own sticks, cords or bass. As I stated in the previous blog, I did make it through the Blues and Brews fest only repeating one song – ‘My Way Down’. The next fest I continued to mix it up but stuck with a few songs that were repeated on several occasions. Although it took me a while to warm up to the scheduling and crowd’s overwhelming unenthusiastic attention at times, we slowly started to win over some in the audience and in the end people were coming out specifically to see us cuz’ they knew we were there to play. We were the odd band out on this line-up. All the other bands were actually just fine as far as entertaining the crowd and getting them to dance to familiar and popular tunes of the past and present and all of them were veterans of this event, with Preston a regular for the past 13 years and Chris Hiatt 8 years respectively, but we were the only one there with a robust original format. As much as I wanted them to dance and sway to my music, I was mainly concerned with how we got our message out there. At times I know I was a bit demanding on some ears and attentions, especially in the early afternoon shows but I tried to go easy on them, but what can I say; I am what I am.

As the days progressed so did we. We got more and more used to the sound on the stage and my fingers and voice started to acclimate as well. There was one performance rained out due to a rare band of showers that blew through but fortunately it was only one because I was starting to have fun at this gig. I liked being the intense band that threw caution to the wind when we played. We definitely started to convert some people. With the festival over now and our tolerance to the buffet food at our very limit, we’re glad to be pushing on to Salt Lake City today. This was a nice break and maybe we’ll be here next year cuz’ I don’t mind breaking up the routine once in a while. The hotel rooms were fine and the people were most enjoyable as were the other bands too, Preston Shannon, Chris Hiatt and John Earl and the Boogeymen. See y’all next year guys, and I’ll see y’all with my next blog.

Cheers = chris duarte

Of all the times I’ve been on US 93 on the way to Vegas, I’ve never taken the road towards Bullhead City, AZ and Laughlin, NV. This was that time. We’re going to be staying there for two festivals like I wrote in the last blog and I’m writing this after we’ve completed 2 of the 3 days for the Brews & Blues Festival at the Colorado Belle Casino and Hotel. The main structure of the casino is an old paddle boat, like from the days of Mark Twain in the mid to late 19^th century. It’s rather large and you just wonder if something like this could’ve been possible to be sailing up and down the Missisip’. Really don’t think so because the engines or steam boilers would have to be huge plus I don’t think there was a bridge high enough to allow passage underneath. That’s some of the silly stuff I think of. We’re playing in the back of the boat structure on this small concrete stage with a little roof over head to give us some relief from the sun but the direction and heading of the stage is in a more Northwesterly facing and the sun really hits you from the early afternoon till it goes behind the building at around 6 pm. The sets we have to play are mercifully short or if you’re in the mood to play, a bit truncated. Never you mind, we’re adjusting fine and now with only 2 sets to play on Sunday, my goal is to not repeat any songs. So far we’ve only played ‘My Way Down’ twice but you got to play the hit song. All the other bands on the bill are doing a good job, Chris Hiatt, Preston Shannon, John Earl. We’re just the freewheeling high energy band. We did the 12 noon shift today but it wasn’t that bad. I haven’t done a noon gig in a long time.

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I have to back up and talk about the drive to Laughlin, NV. On US 93 you go through the Joshua Tree Forest, the only Joshua tree forest in America. It’s quite a sight when you come over a hill and you see this valley teaming with them. One Joshua tree alone strikes a unique figure so seeing a valley of them or a forest of them is something special.

Now we’re in Laughlin at the Casino and on a day off so we get to survey the lay-of-the-land, so to speak. A bit of a labyrinth to get to our rooms but I’m sure we’ll know this place better than Algernon by the end of our stay. The stage in the back of the structure is right up against the Colorado River. It’s actually a pretty little casino town this Laughlin is. When you go down the main street in Bullhead City on the Arizona side, both cities Bullhead and Laughlin are bisected by the Colorado river which also serves as the respective states borders so their main streets run parallel with the river, when you view Laughlin from the aforementioned point you see this city scape skyline with the tall hotel buildings and all running consecutively in a neat row. When the sun goes down it only becomes more brilliant as all the lights in the varied colors and motions come alive. It beckons you to come and see what’s over there. Bullhead City sits there on the Arizona side in stark contrast at night with nary a building more than two stories high. Not to feel bad for ‘life-less’ Bullhead City, to me it seems like some kind of economic agreement was made between the cities; Nevada can build the Casinos and such, but Bullhead gets to be the supply hub for the populace that runs the machine. All the grocery stores and laundromats and building supplies and car dealerships, in other words everything but casinos is on the Arizona side, including the airport with incidentally does have 727’s fly in. It’s a bit of a startle when you see one of those jets fly out for the first time from the Laughlin side, cuz’ the airport’s strip is also parallel with the river and the Arizona side has a slight acclivity to it so the airport is above the main road so when the jet is accelerating down the runway it looks like it’s flying about 50 feet off the ground and you think, ‘My God that plane is flying low!’, then you think it’s been hi-jacked and it’s aiming for that Home Depot store but then it lifts off. Bit of an eye-opener at first but you can’t help but chuckle about it afterward. Upon going inside the casino you’re awakened by the cacophonous noise that is the hundreds of slot machines playing their ‘Siren songs.’ Then you smell the cigarette smoke cuz’ big casinos are some of the last privately owned public going smoking areas allowed the US. Takes me back to the old days it does. We’re going to be here a while but the casino part is the one place I don’t go to very much. Gambling is just not my thing. I do like the roulette table but I have to be in the mood and it so rarely comes to me.

Our first gig is all about us getting used to the aural properties of the outside stage and the small PA that the venue has hired for the occasion. Funny cuz’ every time I do a casino sponsored gig it’s always a ‘spare-no-expense’ on the PA. Sometimes overkill but this one is just about right. The monitors aren’t EQ’d very good but like I said, we’re just getting used to the stage. I think I played horribly on the first day and maybe I was just trying too hard. I really didn’t warm up to the stage till the second day. We have to play 3 shows a day with 3 hours off in between each show. Yep, we’re running on a Vegas schedule we are. I’ve got this wild hair to not repeat any of my songs the entire weekend. Each set is only 45 minutes and with some of our songs that can stretch into the 10 minutes plus range, it’s not a far off goal to achieve. It turned out we only repeated one song twice; My Way Down. That was it and we still had plenty of songs left by the end of this gig. Whether this was a good or bad strategy to go with, I think it really set us apart from the other bands on the bill and it gave the people there more variety to see and hear in the line-up. Another mention, there were a lot of bugs, mainly this one little type of moth that looked like pantry moths to me but at least they didn’t bite and they only came out early in the morning and when the sun went down. They didn’t bother me too much. All in all it was a fun little run and now as I type this out we’re done with the Brews & Blues Festival and off for the next two days then we start up the ‘Laughlin River Run Bike Fest’ for this week. So rest up and get prepared for the sound of motorcycles. And lots of em’, really. Till then….

The thoughts and reflections that come up as you drive in the vast openness of the West has always fascinated me. Sometimes good, sometimes bad, the landscape always gives me time for pause. Today on our two-day jump to Phoenix we go from the Texas Hill country, just about the most beautiful part of Texas in my opinion, to the gentle shrubbery carpet plateaus and then finally to the rugged bare rock and desert appearance that is the far reaches around El Paso and beyond. This is a most fortuitous time to travel in the Hill Country because it’s the month of April and that means wildflowers will be in bloom and lining the rural highways and county roads. Especially the Bluebonnets; the state flower. Oft you will see a field of bluebonnets and it gives the impression that a bluebonnet comforter or duvet has been laid out there in a grand size fashion. Throw in a variety of other wildflowers of yellow, purple, pink, white and red and it’s just hypnotizing as you drive by. Primroses and Indian Blankets, Mexican Hats, Buffalo Bur, Silver-leaf Nightshade, Plateau Skullcap, Antelope Horns, Yellow Flax and Drummond’s Phlox to name but a few. The sky is open and wide too and today it is showing off. A rich blue above our heads and in the distance on the horizon the colors of land and sky meet in a dazzling eye-pleasing canvas. We get a good display of nature at the onset because we take US 290 West out of Austin that will eventually hook up with I-10 and then the race is on with the now high speed limits that Texas has. I will admit there was one stretch of I-10, probably in an economically deprived county, where the road was a bit unsafe to travel on at such a high rate of speed. Both lanes were showing wear and tear with pock-mocks and fair size depressions that sent even the stiffest shocks to react like a boat on rough seas. If the state wants high speed rates to further commerce and be pragmatic about traversing these large swaths of miles between cities and towns, then the roads have to be made safe for such allowances. Thus is the responsibility of government no matter how small and unobtrusive some factions of groups advocate for. This is for everybody’s safety. Personally I get burned out after traveling at such high speeds so much, also it makes that gas just evaporate away at a rapid pace. Maybe if I had a nice comfy coupe or sporty little ‘mean machine’ to cruise in I might think otherwise but the scenery is so gorgeous and I’m in no exceptional hurry to get where I need to be. Deming, New Mexico is our first stop to rest and recharge and after spending a quiet night there we continue on to Phoenix. Arriving in my former hometown from way-back, it’s the usual; check into our hotel, chill and practice a bit then get down to the club for load-in and stay for the duration. We have us another good crowd in Phoenix for a Tuesday night and we’re not sounding too bad for having so many miles under us the past two days. Phoenix has and is still very good to me and for that I am so grateful. Like I’ve said before – No matter how big or small I get, I’ll always come back to Phoenix. Our next stop is Laughlin, NV. I’ve passed by it many times on the way up to Las Vegas, but this time we make that right turn off US 93 and we go there. We’ll be there for 11 days playing two festivals that run consecutive weeks. This should be an interesting time.

Till then. – chris duarte

It’s not a long drive for us today as we leave San Antonio. The long drive will be tomorrow so we’ll enjoy this short transit today. Nothing unusual on the drive, I-35 is always busy no matter what day it is and it seems only ‘In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning’ does the road seem carefree and able to travel easy. I drop the guys off at their hotel and I head back down south to my daughter’s house where I’ll be staying tonight in an effort to minimize expenses. I do make a stop off at Luby’s to grab a bite to eat. When I was young my family would always go to Luby’s in San Antonio after we attended church service down at St. Joseph’s church in downtown San Antonio. Luby’s is a cafeteria style restaurant with the reputation of being ‘old people’ food. Soft and easy to chew entrees but it doesn’t dissuade me in the least. I grew up on this fare, I have very fond memories with Luby’s menu. I would always get Fried fish patty, macaroni and cheese, and fried okra with a desert of green Jell-o squares, my fave color, which comes stacked in a small clear glass sundae dish. The Jell-o would give a beguiling jiggle when you grabbed it from its shelf and continue to entertain you as you carried your tray to the table. Lovely. To this day I get just about the same thing; the fish and macaroni is still there and I supplement some greens now with spinach and a fresh salad with no dressing. Then I search out a table that is unoccupied and hoping there’s one near the window so I can stare out while I eat and ponder and ruminate.

I pick up my guys and we proceed on to the Roost. This club has been garnering some awards in the Chronicle for being the best music venue for the last two years. The Cotton Bros. really put a lot of thought in this venue in how it was set up and the acoustics and stage layout and it really does work. The club is in the North side of town which 20 to 30 years ago that would’ve never worked but since Austin is so booming now the close proximity populace is starting to sit up and take notice of such a fine venue for live music. I hope it stays open for a long time because they certainly deserve it. David Spann opens the show and David can really play. I’ve admired David since I first saw him play at the Yngwie Malmsteen ‘Rising Force’ tour in 81’ when it was a 4 band bill; Watchtower, David Spann, Talus w/Billy Sheehan and Yngwie. What a night. So here was David sounding better than ever and I was thinking about sabotaging his gear while he played for fear he was going to bury me this night. But that’s the opening band’s job; raise the bar and prod the main act to bring it.

We had a good show and I opened the night with quoting my favorite lines from ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and carried on with the same easy-going loose state I found myself in for this night. Austin will always be my home too. Even now since I’m coming out of my recent hard emotional times, I find myself missing it more and more. Having my little girl there is always a big plus in my book too. It’s the big drive tomorrow but not too bad, a bit less than 700 miles. I look forward to the changing landscape that will unfold before us as the hours pass on our westward journey. Plus it’s April and the wild flowers are in bloom on the sides of the highways and in the fields too so there will be bluebonnets to see tomorrow. Thank you Lady Bird. I can’t wait.

We leave the confines of our snug little hotel off I-45 and we jump on I-10 towards our engagement in San Antonio. There is something that we have to do though that has become somewhat of a tradition now when we go through Texas; Stop at Buc-ee’s! Buc-ee’s is this incredible Texas-sized truck stop/shopping/food /AWESOME place! With gas pumps at some in what can only be considered ‘acres of’ it’s an amazing big-box-store business and the prices at the pumps are just about the cheapest in the state. They got their business model set up right, pull em’ in with low gas prices and dazzle em’ when they step inside. Works every time. I’m a bit on the stringent side today and I just get gas and a big unsweet ice tea. The guys buy some sandwiches and its back on the road for us. I’m actually holding out for the hamburgers at Sam’s Burger Joint.

They are really awesome. We get to our hotel, check in and chill for a few moments then we head down to the club. Really like this place. Nice stage and good system. All my old friends come out and my big Sis’ makes an appearance and I make the official debut of my new song that’s a Tejano inspired number. Called ‘Wasting Away’ I’ve also worked in a pass through the form where I sing in Spanish but even though I’m a bit familiar with the language and have a rudimentary grasp of ‘restaurant’ Spanish, I’m still gaffing some of the lines but it’s going to get better. I also try to mimic the accordion sound with some of the lines I wrote. This too is proving a bit of a challenge but I’m up for it. Practice practice practice. We put on a good show and I was in my usual ‘anecdotal’ form and it was a good time for us. Texas will always be home to me.