That's right Mofo's. 2 Blogs in one month!

what a GREAT gig at Jake's Saturday. New faces, old faces and the band was HOT I tell ya...HOT. Setlist :

Set 1
Tangled up in blue

Candyman
Mama Tried >>>
Big River

West LA Fade Away

St. Stephen >>>
Truckin'

 

 

Set 2
Terrapin
Hey Pockey Way

NFA >>>
Goin down the road feelin bad >>>
Eyes of the World  >>>

Don't Ease Me In >>>
Lovelight
casey Jones

Many props to new BRW and CFZ keys player John Stevens, if your into Cape cod nightlife you might recognize that name as the lead guit/singer for Highly Suspect. Well that is the extremely talented spawn of our new keyboardist. Talent runs in the family!

Which brings me to something I neglected to touch on in my last post. We have had some loss in the cfz/brw family since November. Dave Harris, and no one can blame him, decided to futhur his education in the arts at a college in florida. But I have to tell ya, honestly, there was some depression involved with losing Dave after such a short time. not only is he brilliant musically he became a really close friend......and some may say how close can a 40 yr old and a 20 yr old be? how much could they have in commo? Well from the first email I got from Dave and he told me he was a Little Feat junky I knew we were similiar souls. And gettin to hang out with him all summer and gettin to know him it was def true. great kid and is my brother for life..... and he is missed by everyone involved, I'm sure he will play with us again..def in July for sure.

Then just recently Colin decided to move for various reasons (none being us!). It came rather sudden and is a bummer as Colin is a first rate drummer and friend. A real team guy like I have never known. He will be missed quite a bit, especially in Maine. But here is my dilemma....well not dilemma...I dunno...emotional quandry maybe.....Colin leaving brings us Crazy Dave Barrett back. Now this is no way a knock on Colin but the only reason Dave left CFZ was he had visions of grandeur with another band. where we didn't want to share drummers, as we had colin chomping at the bit, Dave chose the other band.......and it did NOT work out. So while I'm very sad to see Colin go, having Dave back makes it easier as I've always loved playing with the crazy bastard.

And then, to make everything in the universe seem normal, Doc J is back doing sound in a trio of new soundguys....I need a name for these 3....a catchphrase....doc, our good friend Jared Greenleaf and Joe Bryan are the new soundmen for all 3 bands. So you will see 1 of em if not more at the gigs. Psyched to have Doc back and the other guys fit in great and will do wonderful I'm sure.

that's it for the other one, headed to see the Bruins with one of my boys and Jasonand his boy, Go B's!

 

Maaaaarcus

This blog has been a classic FAIL for awhile. No excuses. I did get publicly chastised by Kevin in Boston this weekend, desevedly so tho. I have slacked on all things band/web related....I do have a double album of original music arranged tho. Things are good.

So anyway, since Aug and we last checked in, we have done Hempstock, Harvest Fest I and then Harvest II.  Pokey, Dave's Harris and Barrett and I went up, played as CFZ and drove right back. Epic trip.

We have done 3 acoustic gigs at Sweetwater Tavern in Boston. Sweet gig. Cool place. We have done a bunch of fun Rooney's gigs. Halloween where we all dressed like our respective dead members. Pino showed up as Pigga to sing Good Love among others.

We are looking forward to Rooney's once a month, March 26, April 23, Freedom Fest June 17th plus tons more, check out the site for more........

Played with Uncle Ginter and others in Boston and caught sunday night at the Orpheum with Furthur. Mind blowing show.They are the shit for sure. Check em out.

In Sept  I had the honor of playing with In The Dark and Tom Constanten, formerly of the Dead. It seems I'm going to be playing with Tom Constanten and friends this summer. Tammany Hall on April 1st, New Britain, CT on April 2nd. May 22 at a festival in NY. rumors of a Fest in GA in July and this years Harvest Fest in Maine.

This is it for now. I'm sending blogging invites to all band members tho!!!!!!

.....see if we all can get back on the blog hoss!! That means you Kev!!!!

 

Marrrcus

Howdy,
Blog slackin' as usual. Lots of stuff going on with us. Some good, some bad, some indifferent.

The good is the shows coming up, wed in Inset and sat at Jake's. Very much looking forward to getting onstage with the boys. We get Pino on bass on wed and Kev on sat so that'll be fun. 20th annual Hempstock is right around the corner. Get to see Buddy Cage from NRPS play with Gent Treadly right before us. Gonna be sweet.

CFZ is still rockin the beach every tues. And I am doing solo acoustic shows at Jake Rooneys every Thurs. CFZ is there this Fri as well.

I did 21 shows in July. That may be a new record. I have 21 booked in Aug too. Every other Thuers I play the beach with JBZ and then rush over to Jake's and play solo. Woot, Rock and Roll!

Bad news is we lost Ray again. An unfortunate part of band life is that sometimes people get off the bus even if it's not there stop. Sad to see him go but such is life. We are looking for a soundman for all 3 bands if anyone knows anyone interested.

I'm keeping this one short, it's been a long week. We are going to get some frustrations out this week thru music. Join us!

Maaarrrrcuuus.

Maine.

More fun than a bunch of late 30's - early 40's - late 40's and 1 20 year old should be allowed to have. We laughed, we ate good food,  we jammed with some terrific friends, made some new ones again and had incredibly perfect weather. Really couldn't ask for anything else....except having my wife with me...that would have been nice.

We left about 10:30AM, Pokey driving the RV, Blunt Force 1, I on my trusty steed the Tundra (a new one I got in Feb cuz Falmouth Toyota took mine in for a simple repair and managed to destroy my engine, my front differential ect. And it only took them 28 days to break it and return it. After much screaming and stomping my feet they delivered a new 2010 with no money out of my pocket.) So I picked up the Dava's (Barrett and Harris, Dava's, a play on Diva's, so named because they demanded candy bars included in their contracts.) as Pokey went onward with a perfectly running BF1.

We met up at the NH liquor store rest area where I handed my keys to DB and went in to be Poke's co-pilot and co-songwriter. You see, there is no radio in the RV. I am known to play a little guitar while we drive but that's it. So Adam texts us that he is writing a song based on a little game we have when we travel ; coming up with fake porn star names such as Dick Hardigan, Ophelia Hardigan ect ect. (i wish i could think of more while I type this but I am unable, I'm sure the boys will chime in on the blog comments) .  So Adam texts to say Ophelia Hardigan is the subject of his new song he is writing. I am still not sure if that was a joke on his part but it didn't matter. On hearing this Poke says "of course! The Hooker with the heart of gold! A Classic tale!". Such began what would become 4 hours of me trying to top him in raunchy verse's. I even came up with a catchy melody for the tagline "cuz she's a hooker with a heart of gold!". The only time we were quiet was when one guy would say "what rhymes with (insert raunchy word here.....say Salad...you get the picture)" and eventually we would blurt out something that would make even me blush. So we literally did it for 4 hours straight and then sang it for the band when we arrived and it became the running joke all weekend and still today. We have decide it will be part of our "No Concept" album we are working on. Some verses were good, but not as nifty as Poke's very first one.

Pink hot pants and a low cut cardigan,
Her Pimp calls her Ophelia Hardigan,
The Hooker with the Heart of Gold........

yes infantile. Yes immature. Yes probably politically incorrect and sexist. But man did we laugh. Still are.

Anyway, Maine was really fun. We had Walt and Kat from In The Dark sit in with BRW on Friday. Kat and Scott from ITD on Sat. and Adam, The Dava's and I played with ITD on Sat right after CFZ played. Lots of great music was played and heard. Everyone enjoyed both sets by Mondo Gecko, a great new band up there. Can't wait for Freedom Fest. MG inspired another funk song writing binge between Dave H, Pokey and I on the ride home. While less raunchy, it was equally obnoxious as we said everything in "funk" from about Braintree home. Good times!

Next show is June 5th at Jake Rooney's in Harwichport.............

Hope to see you all there,
Marcuuuuusssss.

we did a private party in Plymouth on Saturday afternoon. It was to celebrate the life of Larry Pober, a local deadhead who had seen us play but we had never met. We had a really nice time with some really great people and it was very nice to be a part of something that meant so much to a lot to people. Also, making it special was we had 2  guests along for the gig. Brett Ginter, or as he is known out here mostly LOTK,  returned to us on keys and due to a double booking on Adam's part I took the plunge and offered the Jerry seat to probably our biggest competitor ( if you think of things like that, which I don't really) Playing Dead's Vic DeRobertis. Vic came exactly as people who know him and have heard him said he would. A true student of Garcia and the Dead, great player...monster player even and a very nice guy to boot. It was great having my old friend along and meeting a new one all the while jamming some dead tunes. good time.  We had been intructed to keep it upbeat, so we did, but one guy came up and insisted we "I Shall Be Released". So when I assured him that I couldn't do it unless the person who hired me, Roz, Asked me. So she seemed reluctant but agreed and after thanked us for it. We couldnt have done it that well without Vic. Great job.

Maine this weekend. Psyched. Missing my 2 drummies. Jason is hurt and Pete is locked into work. But Colin comes along more prepared and schooled in the Dead than he ever has. CFZ plays early Saturday. BRW headlines both Fri and Saturday nights. We bring new guy Dave for his first fest......he is psyched. He is going to fit in better than we do for sure. I'm guessing he won't be thought of as a "cop" as LOTK was one year.  In CFZ we get to throw some new stuff out with Dave, Warren Haynes "Soulshine" which Dave sings lead on and nails, Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" (or Tony Danza to some of you) and "On Your Way Down" an Allen Toussaint song made popular by Little Feat and recently other jam bands like Govt' Mule. Should be a fun time, hopefully its not cold and/or raining.

I have some great DVD and CD's sent to me from the Maine folks. Mostly 2008 stuff with the oldest a Sunday 2007 Harvest Fest CD with J5. All if it high quality and really good.

And if I may be cryptic, and I may. I figured something out last week. And to me it's funny and this is the only place I know for sure it will get read by whom it needs to. So to my former friend:  I realize what sets you off out here now. It's when I praise new band members that I all of a sudden receive every email I ever sent you, all 500 or so at once. I had to go back and cross reference dates and that has to be it. And I think we are getting into double digits now with this and it's kinda silly. I will admit early on I took a couple veiled shots at you out here, and I apologize. I am certainly not doing it anymore.  I am over it. Not interested.  I don't think about you when  writing the blog,  nor will I stop talking about new guys to spare your feelings. I wish you well and I hope that you don't do it again. I get the point, you don't like me, okely dokely neighbor. Enough of that bad vibe..... please.


marcuuuuuussss

Boy did I slag off on the ole blog. It just got boring I guess. But I'm back. Other BRW members should blog too. YES. Who's it gunna be?

where to start?

I guess where we are at now.

Things are GOOD. Maine Fests are coming fast. Regular gig at Jake Rooney's for both electric and acoustic BRW are doing good. Beach gigs for CFZ aren't far around the corner as are two gigs each for BRW and CFZ in Onset in July and Aug.

New original disc is in pre-production. Recording sessions soon to follow. It's going to be a double disc, 1 electric, 1 acoustic. A concept album if you will. We dunno what concept yet but something along the fire/water  ying/yang motif. If you have seen us at Rooney's lately or plan too, we have been doing Adam's "When Can I See You Again?"  and mine and Ray's "Hai Buddy".....a little ditty about the Maine Vocals festivals.  The others will get worked in soon too.

We have a new keys player in both CFZ and BRW, Dave Harris. Dave is awesome. Plays his ass off, fits in easily with everyone, mellow guy. Soundman wiz, brings new equipment to gigs.....and then leaves it with us. Straight up dude and we are psyched to have him aboard. Did I mention he is about on average 20 years younger than everyone in both bands?  But you wouldn't know it. either he is mature or we are still a bunch of kids......maybe Bo'fem.

(here is where I go back and see where I left off on this blog, NOV 13!, yikes)

Since then we have done 7 electric gigs.
2 radio shows, one being just me and Walt from In The Dark...
2 Acoustic Wine shows

All I remember of Harvest 2 was that it was brutally cold, we only did Fri night so we came home Saturday. And my license had expired so I got to ride shotgun in the RV with Pokey driving. The first time I have ever been a passenger on a Maine trip. It was awesome. I need a freakin driver. I do. Shotgun in the RV , playing my guitar. Not having to think as we barrell down the road.
The first Jake's was before the year ended and was a rousing success as have been the others since. Nice to have a place on Cape to play that can fit us and is only 2 miles from home.

We did a great gig in CT with our friends The String Band and In The Dark. Pete and I played with ITD.

did a coupel radio shows, WOMR and WEBU CT. We also did a benefits for OMR and also one in Oneset for the Summer of Love people. Both were well attended and a great time.

Well thats it for now, glad to be back on the hoss. Acoustic Wine this Saturday at Jake's. Full band on May 1st. PEace Jam is May 21-23, can't wait. time to clean out the RV!

Maaaarcus - Mike

I'm back with a quick one. Someone actually emailed me and asked that I get back on it so here i am.

This one is quick for now though.

Things are good, we had an incredible summer and fall doing the Maine Vocals fest. I will share some stories at a later time. We had many memorable shows, played with some great musicians like Gerald Brann of Yellow Brick Rd and Jon "The Snake Charmer" Altman. Ray played a bunch of shows with us. The Summer of Love in Onset shows were amazing as anyone who was there knows.   I was honored to jam with In The Dark from CT a few times. Once at the Monsters of Woodstock show in Maine opening up for the likes of Big Brother and the Holding Company, Tom Constantin, Ten Years After, Big Brother and The Holding Company. The Beach shows for both JBZ and CFZ were a rousing success as always. Harvest Fest did not disappoint and I have never laughed as hard in my life as we did at We Be Jammin. (PK, we will always have Barcelona!)

Couple of gig coming up :
Nov 27th is a post Thanksgiving bash on our home turf in Harwichport at Jake Rooney's. I can say I am very excited to play in Harwich. Not often that this gets to happen. I was just hired to help book their new Friday Live entertainment calendar so we will def be back there in the future. In all 3 bands.
The 2nd is a gig booked by Walt of In The Dark at the Stonewall Tavern in Storrs/Mansfield CT by UCONN on Saturday Jan 23rd. This is going to be fun. A BRW set, an ITD set, and then we are going to all jam together for the 3rd set. Also Walt and I are playing live on WESU 88.1 's "Dead Air with Uncle John" on the Sunday before. Details to come.......

New original CD is brewing. Going to really try to pump it out this time as opposed as do the 'take my time" route like last time. I'd like to think I have a couple aces i up my sleeve and Adam has already thrown several into the mix that are killer.

More soon, I promise!
Maaaarcus

wow, did I let this thing go. Had to take a break from the blog, it was feeling like work. I have so many things to cover it's making my head spin.

JUNE :
On a personal note I saw my first Phish show on June 6th. Fantastic. I've always been a bit of a Phan but not a Phanatic. If I gave you a top ten albums of all time Picture of Nectar would be on there tho. Killer album from start to end. But until seeing them I wasn't overly crazy about them. I am now. Unbelievable show. Great time. Not only that but my bro scored me a 20th row seat for $60. Mind bowing to say the least.
Then a couple weeks later I was comped some DSO tickets at The Melody Tent. Another fantastic show by the DSO boys. An acoustic first set which led me to do the same thing in Maine in July. Great SHOW with my 2 drummies and my lovely wife. And we saw tons of peeps we knew plus half a dozen BRW fans stopped to say  hello. always a nice feeling.

Big Rhythm Wine - Freedom Fest in June was uneventful for the most part. Great playing, tons of rain and mud. Ray came to play on bass and did a great job. The only crap sandwich was our fill in keys player cancelling a half hour before we left. Luckily for us we have Gerald Brann of Yellow Brick Road up there and he graciously came and played both nights. Gerald is a true pro and a great guy and he fits into our little thing perfectly. We played without a keys player in CFZ but had Adam and Dave Barret join us. Seemless and a lot of fun. CFZ doesn't get much fanfare but we have really gotten some nice compliments from the Maine folks.

JULY : CFZ started up the Blue Water beach series on June 27th. Since then we have done 5 total. all a great time. June 3rd we had Nick Muce and Adam Douglass play with us. Monsterous show that was taped and will be posted soon . On July 4th we did a Big Winey  Zero show in my backyard to 80 or so friends and family for my wifes 40th b-day. This show was incredible too. Maybe one of the most gratifying I have ever done. Daryl Sabine got up and did some with us. We did Fire on the Mountain with 3 guitarist and 2 bass players (Pokey and Ray). LOTK returned to us for the first time in a long time and made everyone happy. A special show it was with some of my oldest and best friends, agreed all around.  Here is the breakdown of who played what  http://www.bigrhythmwine.com/setlists/lists/7-4-09.htm . The best comment was from my 91 year old grandfather in law. Who said " I LOVE your orchestra!"
On July 15th CFZ played a killer gig in Onset, center of town in the band shell. Killer gig and BRW is there on Aug 5th.

2 days later we were off to Maine for Somerset county Jam. We had Bubbles back on drums which was awesome. Jon Altman came to play keys and just nailed it both nights and with CFZ.  Less rain this time but still wet. Great crowds. We did an acoustic set Friday night after EOTO (with members from String Cheese Incident that was incredible. Saturday night rocked too. CFZ once again with Adam and Jon was a great time. 

On the 25th we did a surprise bday party for an old Friend Barry. Barry and I  went to Harwich our whole school careers and it was nice to be included in the festivities. LOTK joined us again as did Jason on percussion. Ray got up a few times so it was another Big Winey Zero show. Another great gig in what has been a very nice summer of music playing so far.

up until this piont I have done exactly 20 gigs since the last blog with BRW, CFZ and JBZ. All successful, all fun.  Many more to come this summer. Can't wait for Hempstock with Strangefolk, Twiddle, Roots Down Below and many more.

Tonight on the beach with JBZ and tomorrow CFZ.  Hey, someone has to do it!

Mike - aka  Maaaaaarcus

Maine peace Jam
What started out rough ended up GREAT. I gotta tell ya, Friday night before we went on I was reeling. Poke and Dave had taken the RV and I was riding alone up to Maine. I was supposed to pick Adam up but he had to work late so I was solo. No big deal.  Unfortunately I spent all of about 4 hours on my phone. George had to work on Saturday and his co-pilot had fallen thru so i was on the horn trying to find anyone to go with him. Unfortunately this caused a bunch of additional drama that no one was looking for. Then Dave calls and says "should we be in Derry NH?" YIKES. They missed 95 and 495!  Lucky for Pokey I forgot the bass amp I was supposed to bring or he woulda really heard it !   So long story short, George couldn't come for Friday. We found a bass amp. So I was a little bummed out but by the time I arrived at Freedom Field but Colin had set us up with Gerald Brann of Yellow Brick Road - an Elton John tribute that was playing a couple slots before us. SWEET. We get to play with Elton John! ha. Gerald was INCREDIBLE having played with a Dead band called The Deal years before.  So everything was fine for all of about 5 minutes. I literally sat down in the RV for 5 minutes and out of the corner of my eye I see something move under the RV bed.

It was my daughters cat Henry.

Stowed away for a trip to Maine! Needless to say I was stunned. I was told the look on my face was priceless. So Henry was put in the RV bathroom for the weekend. Let out at night to hang with us. Friday I was freaked out........must keep the cat alive and get him home was all that went through my mind. So friday was tense for me but that all washed away Saturday as I got used to the fact Henry was with us. I honestly did not stray from that RV except to play twice with BRW and once with In The Dark .

Kat and Walt from In the Dark are great people and performers. Colin and i had a blast playing with them. Hope to see and jam with them again soon.

Saturday night we had not 1 but 2 special guests. Allison Doherty - Lacasse who has jammed with CFZ numerous times sat in on sax and WAILED. And local Cape player Pete Belden (who looks almost exaclty like Vince Welnick) played keys. Both were awesome and added much to the jams.

adam, Kevin and I are really clicking, especially vocally. Lovin it.

Colin and Dave were a great backbone. nice job guys.

Kudo's to pokey and our new crew member Jeremy. Having a support group around you is needed, welcomed and appreciated. Thanks!

Lots of videos up on youtube. More on this trip to come in a later blog.

Haaaaaavahd
We went to Harvard Uninversitys WHRB on Wed night. Jammed live on the radio. Very cool experience and we got some great audio and video out of it.

Ladies Night....Oh What a Night
Jukebox Zero played at a private function at the Red Jacket Resorts last night. It was "Ladies weekend" a promotion they run inviting ladies to get away from their respective kids and husbands. 92 or so screaming women were our audience! What a crazy night. Good times and great singers. One in particular was incredible, a real pro. But all did great and had a great time...as did we. Kudos to Pokey and Colin filling in on sound and MC respectively. Professional job.

Blogged out, Freedom Fest. A CFZ Rummies and the first Beach gig are all coming up in June.

Marcuuus

 

2 days in a row. I've got blogging fever!

Everything is good. Stressful day getting my shit together but all is well. We are leaving around noon tomorrow for the 6 hour drive north. Colin has a friend in his truck, Pokey will grab Dave in the RV and I will grab Adam in Medford.  Leaving a little earlier than normal hoping to avoid major traffic in Boston. Food is cooked off as much as I can. Chicken and tuna salad for Fri night, homefries and eggs for Sat morning and pasta with red sauce for Sat night. Plus various other stuff, water and soda. I kept our food cost for the weekend under $50 which is nice.

I have been exchanging emails with Walt from a band called In The Dark outta CT. They are playing Fri at 2pm and Sat at  noon this weekend. He sent me a note that their drummer is  now sick and there keyboardist can't make it either. Just so happens they are a 1 guitar band so I offered mine and colin's services on the noon show on sat. And it was Gratefully accepted. Should be cool playing some Dead with different people. Walt told me he was going to give me a big hug when we meet. I think he was happy!

Anyway, have video dvd's so Pokey can do his thing and get some great video. If I can find an internet connection I will blog, if not, next week will be a big Peace Jam special blog.

peace,

Mike aka Maaaarcuuus.