Been a While

Hey so wow it's been like a month since I updated and the Bixbys/Byxbe's/Bix-something..gig. So I will try to summarize a month..ha. The Shaw Brothers played about 3 and a half songs at the Columbus Arts Festival and then a torrential downpour happened. Tip Top was enjoyed by all who came with us after packing up our stuff and running through the rain. ASB played at a rugby tourney in Crew Stadium..my back gave out that day and Theo played drums on the fly..go Theo! A great guy named Roy Davis played at Rumba in Columbus and we some how connected through Facebook I think and we ended up busking together out on High Street. Great guy and great musician check him out, he's from Portland Maine. Sam Corbin and Jen Sygit came to town from Michigan..great bunch of people and amazing songwriters. I sat in with them at a happy hour set at Woodlands tavern along with Eric Nassau who I just love more and more..such a great songwriter peoples, get hip to the Nassau! Played North Market with Shaw Bros., Park Street Festival (so did Smash Mouth..yeah that's right), played Athens with LES Crew, watched Theo get reallly drunk, heard about an after party with a stripper pole (damn I missed it) where all the LES Crew guys danced on....(second though, glad I missed it)...stayed in the world's crappiest motel, phew that was bad right out of a 70's porno or horror film, you choose...oh and those last three gigs were all in one day! Made a video with Theo passing out ASB cds for the "Give Back Show"..hilarious! LES Crew MC's (some of them) hopped on stage with ASB during our set and spit a couple verses within "Indiscretion". I loved it, oh and G. Finesse some how popped up and did one too, he also performed with us at Comfest (more of that later). Sold a ton of CD's at Creekside Blues/Jazz Fest and had a great crowd, good to see some Gahanna people we never see anymore!

Ok new paragraph for some reason. So Comfest was fun this year but it was a little weird for me. The crowds were thinner, the police were obvious but not mean or anything, and the schedule was all over the place. They seemed to spread out all the good bands so as not to have really heavy crowds at night..oh and that was weird everything ended before dark almost..a bit odd for me. I did not get to see Mojoflo which I heard was reallly good. I loved the Phantods, Floorwalkers had a great set, Paper Airplane, Stucco Jones (gonna miss u guys!), Old Hundreds were cool..never saw them before..I feel like I missed a bunch of people I wanted to see. The rain forced us into the Offramp stage right before Stucco and that was kinda fun. We played an after show at Woodlands with $1 PBR fill ups in Comfest mugs, that was crazy! A great time had by all and Josh Krajcik Band also played and blew the people away.

I finished recording the DUETS album..finally! Matt Monta and I finally got together to do a track and now we have 10 tracks! I have been mixing with Jay in the past weeks so that is great great news. I need to find a venue/date for the CD Release.

ASB played at the Trolley Stop in Dayton last Friday and Park Street Tavern on Saturday. Dayton was fun and our good friend Mellissa is helping us a tooon with merchandise and working the crowd getting those mailing list sign ups so thanks soo much to her!

I have decided to start a project with Genean Grantham of Greenleif fame and Justin Campbell who plays drums all over including Descendre, Bum Wealthy, Max Power Trio and more..I hope he is not too busy for me! We are trying to find a bass player right now that can groove. We are starting with a framework of just solid groove drums, guitar, fiddle, possibly a banjo, and some soulful lyrics/melodies. That is what I want atleast..I talked it over with J and G and they both were vibing on what I had brought in on cd so let's hope it works out. I am really excited about it and have been writing a bunch!

Oh I went to Taj Mahal open mic the other night, wow it was packed. I was glad to see the inside stage was still intimate though and people gathered around to truly listen to most of the bands. There was an outside "stage" when I came because of the number of people but it was more like kids busking out in front of the restaurant/bar. No amplification and people were just kind of hanging out and not listening, that was a shame. I really enjoyed some songwriters I have never heard before. Josh Montgomery was one of them..good lyrics and he was doing some crazy stuff with his falsetto. Craig James is a musician I have run into a few times and have only seen him once, he played at Taj on Tuesday and he was great! Backed by Sharon on piano and Mike on guitar (sorry no last names at this time)...Craig finger picked his way into my heart with his lyrics on love and pain. I just feel like Craig just wants a good woman and maybe a beer and seeks for the simple life, his raspy vocals bring it all home. I really enjoyed the night at Taj with all the musicians seeming very passionate about what they were doing...ok maybe not ALL but most of them especially as the night went on.

A lot has happened in a month, the Columbus scene is vibrant and I keep hearing new bands that I had never heard before. I want to explore the even more sides of the scene I don't even know...man it's amazing to think how much more there is out there...till next time!