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.

The Benefit
This was maybe the most gratifying gig I have ever done. And I have done many benefits, great causes, but this one was obviously close to the heart in many ways. I can't say enough about everyone that was involved. All my bandmates new and old, Colin, George, Jason, Pete was back with us, Adam, Pokey, Nick, Tim Taylor and Ray who joined BRW on bass and did a fantastic job. Sara who got us so many things for the silent auction, from The Squire, The Red Nun oh man, I can't even list them all. The people that brought food are owed thanks. My wife was incredible as usual, Rays's wife Laurie too. I can't even list them all so I'll stop trying but that's a few. We raised almost $2500.  Not bad for a bunch of hippies. Maybe 150 people at the peak. Thank you all for helping us do something nice.

Loved having Nick and Timmy T. on the CFZ stage again. It had been 10 years since the 3 of us and Pokey had shared a stage together. It was like riding a bike of course. We did just as I had said, some BNL, JGB and some Femmes. Which was a blast. Altho I realized I am maybe too old to jump around like that, I'd do it again.

I had picked Brokedown Palace at the end of the 2nd set for one reason. Dick Sage told me he wanted it played at his funeral. Now it may type morbid...but it was in a lively conversation we had about favorite Dead tunes or something. So anyway, I concur with Sage in that regard, in addition, it's my favorite GD tune. American Beauty is the  album that got me turned on to the Dead in 1984-85. I was hooked and still am. Anyway we did it, and it got very emotional in the room, people were singing along and some were crying. It was touching and it was one of those things you live for as a musician. Pulling everyone in so to speak. Great show(s), great people, great cause.


Maine
The Rv is clean. Running good. Tomorrow I get some supplies, cook off what food I can. The usual sandwich stuff for Friday, eggs - potatoes Sat day and then pasta with a red sauce Sat night. A fed army is a happy army. We have 9 guys going this time around. I usually always have either Pete or Jason as my wingman, neither this time. That bums me out a little......

Little weirdness in the line-up but not as much for me as having Colin on drums and Dave Barrett on percussion  (see below on that!) is not weird at all. In fact, with Pete out we have played with both a bunch and they very easily slip into our little mad world easily. On keys we have George for Friday, he can't make Saturday so we have friend Pete Belden, he who is a friend of Steve the pirate of JBZ, plays with him in the Rockaholics. He used to be a member of Freddy and The Maybilenes a classic Cape Cod act. Kevin on bass and me and Adam. Plus a couple friends tagging along. going to be a great time. Very much looking forward to it.

The Beast
Mickey Hart had his beast, we have ours. I made the mistake (well not really) of mentioning to Colin that the percussion set up we used was a little bit too set up for higher end sounds, bongo's ect. Unlike the Dead whom utilize more of a lower end sound. so Colin, the crazy drum freak he is, added some Sonor Toms to his already crazy set up. Here is the break down for the gearheads page:

lp aspire 14" + 15" timbales
lp aspire 11" quinto + 11-3/4" conga
lp aspire bongos
various lp cowbells, agogo bells, jam blocks, guiro blocks, chimes,
bells, tambourines, triangle, guiro, vibra-slap, flex-a-tone & cabasa
3 sonor 12"x10" mounted toms, 1 sonor 13"x11" mounted tom, 1 sonor
16"x16" floor tom
1 6"x10" pacific drums mini snare
1 lp caixa snare

I will get pictures. Unreal.

MY amp is almost done, her name is Stellar Blue (altho Ray, we may have to drop that R buddy). I can't wait to get my rig back.
And rumor has it we are going to outfit an old guitar I have here, an Aria Pro I bought for $100 in 1988 and never touched it,  into a "Jerry" guitar. It looks similar to his customs so it's going to make a nice tribute axe. I will play it in CFZ sometimes and give it to Adam to shred on with BRW. . A shared  group experiment so to speak.
Adam now has a Jerry amp, Ray modded his Fender. Can't wait to hear it this weekend.

Hope to blog again before but it's doubtful. I don't think anyone going has cel or sat internet so unlikely for there either. although I am bringin recording gear to record Adam and I doing some tunes. Thinking of grabbing some gigs as an acoustic duo.

Mike

So many things to talk about.................I've been picking at this for the better part of a week.....

If you go and look at the Bio page you will see I added under percussion both Colin from CFZ and David formerly of CFZ and now of JBZ. We had been talking about adding a 3rd guy into the rotation due to Pete's injury and not wanting to put all the pressure on Jason. Well we decided that we like both Dave and Colin and if Jason or Pete can't make it that it's nice to have someone dropping bombs and filling up space. So they are both in. In fact due to circumstances beyond anyones control, we go to Maine on May 22 with Colin on drums and David on percussion.  I think they will do real well.

Jubilee
Great time at the jubilee. It has to be  the coolest room I have ever played in. With the courtyard set up with vendors and food to the ballroom with chandeliers ect. The String Band were hot. Legion of Jerry was on Fire. I played That's What Love Will Make You Do and Midnight Moonlight with them. Great time. I thought we souded great. Just A Little Light was fun, as was my new favorite tune Saint of Circumstance. Getting Jeff up there was awesome. Jeff is a complete student of the Dead musically so it's fun to hear him and play with him. We changed from Legion to BRW without stopping, slowly changing drums and noodling while colin bashed on the percussion station. Wait'll you see this rig. Unreal, we need pictures. The trip was complete with craziness all the way to Nick's and all the way home the next day. Catchphrase of the weekend? "What did I do?". If you ask that with this crew....we'll tell ya!

Worcester
My lovely wife and I dropped the kids off at Mom's about 20 miles away and caught both Worcester shows. The first night got a little slow after space but picked right back up. The sunday night show was killer. We had a great time , caught Sun with Jason and his wife. He and I had our same first show in Worcester. Come to find out so didn't my wife. 4/3/87. hot China >>> Rider. Check it out.  HERE

NJ shows
I went up for the May 28,29 shows in NJ at the Izod Center. Tuesday I met Nick Muce in CT and he followed me to Manhattan where LOTK had gotten us a room in a hotel right off Wall St.  Branford Marsalis played with the Dead both nights and they had some soaring jams, great shows both. Nick left Wed and I spent the day with one of my oldest friends in the world Justin who lives in NYC. We walked over the Brooklyn Bridge, around Wall St.  Great to see  him.  It was a lot of fun to catch up and laugh and see NYC all the same day. We drove past Ground Zero twice on the way to the Arena. Never walked by it. Looks like a construction site.
Hot shows with Branford, some of my best friends, made some new ones too, all in the big apple. Nice time.

Benefit
The benefit for Nick's Sister is coming up fast. I have both Nick and Tim Taylor sitting in with CFZ and Nick with BRW. we are going to do a mix of CFZ now and CFZ 1999. So basically some JGB and some Violent Femmes with some Stones and a little Sublime thrown in. We also expect an appearance by injured wing Peter " Bubbles" Waters with BrW. Not on a kit but on the percussion station we hope. Ray gets a shot at the bass seat as neither Kev nor Pino can make it. That'll be fun. We are having a silent auction of all sorts of local things. Restaurants, hotels. The Blue Water put up a 2 night stay. Jake Rooneys and some other Harwich and Chatham restaraunts too. It's not too late to donate something. carefactor@comcast.net

Speaking of Chatham. The old Sou'wester....a Dunkin Donuts. Unreal. That makes 3 places I played regularly sucked up by big time commercialism. The Compass Lounge - great rock room, wonder what happened to Murph? - A CVS, Shaws on the Bourne rotary - CVS.  When the last guys who had it were losing i actually tried to make a deal with Doris the owner, it was very close to flying. Would have totally changed my life, probably for the worse! Good times in that joint with Lazy Lightning and Care Factor Zero. Sad that Chatham is selling it's soul and a great piece of local music.

Maaarcus

Have neglected the blog. Lots of computer work lately makes me run away from it when I can. Here is a quicky update.

Psyched! for Rick's tonight. We have new keys player George coming with Jason and I and Colin from CFZ in the truck. Colin is playing percussion filling in for Bubbles who is doing much better and should be back with us soon.  George is both CFZ and BRW now and is a fantastic keyboard player and really cool dude. We are very lucky in both these bands.

i've been jonesin for some BRW action and it's finally here.

Adam and I got together to start writing a new original CD. I am amped about that. Adam has soem really great songs and put some kewl spins on some of mine. It's going to be fun. A little more country-fied than Uncorked.

May 2nd's GD Jubilee is shaping up to be a really great gig. We may try to blend Legion of Jerry's set end with BRW;s set beginning by rotating guys off and on the stage mid jam. More details soon.

Psyched to see the Dead in Worcester, then 10 days later I'm going to NJ as a guest of a friend for both of those shows.

The May 17th benefit is shaping up. I get to play with both my fav bands and we have Nick Muce and Tim Taylor, both founding members, joining us in CFZ. That is a big bright spot for me on the horizon.

Then the week after it;s Peace Jam in Maine. WOOOO.

Off to CT. More soon....

Maaaarcuus.

Lots of things happening around here. Many different gigs popping up.

This 27th we  in BRW were going to play a private party in Millis Mass. Ended up being an internet scam. Yeah, unreal. The scam being they send you a rubber check for 2 gigs, then cancel one, you send the money back and once the rubber check bounces....band fucked. Luckily I am not (quite) that stupid.

May 2nd we are putting on our own little festival in one of the coolest rooms EVER. We will be at Avon Old farms Inn in Hartford CT. Avon Old Farms Inn is one of the Twentiest oldest restaurants in the good ole USA. an absolute beautiful place.  We are both privledged and honored to get to play in such a cool spot. We will have good friend Jeff Martinsons band Legion of Jerry and a band called The String band opening up. We are making it quite the affair. Besides playing in the Bell Terrace ball room, the outside courtyard will be filled with hippie vendors and food. May 20th. 5pm - 1pm. You do not want to miss this one.

May 17th, a Sunday, we are doing a benefit for Nick's nephew who lost his mom in the car accident I mentioned last blog. We will have a silent auction of various cool things including a package from The Blue Water Resorts. It's going to be from noon to 5pm.

Also in May....MAINE! Peace Jam 2009. I can hardly wait for May. It's going to be a great month!

In Jukebox Zero news we did our first Rick's billiard's in Putnam CT and it went really well. Bunch of great singers including Nick Muce who sang 9 or 10 tunes with us. We got to re- live the early CFZ days by tapping into a couple of Violent Femmes tunes. Kiss Off and one I can't quite recall the name of. Great night.  Friday the 13th we were back at Boagart's to a packed house and many good singers. This Friday we are hired to back up Stonehill colleges American Idol competition final. That should be a hoot.

More another time,

Mike

Whew. Long ass weekend. Long ass week.

Rick's was awesome on Feb 21st. Great crowd. Great club. We sounded really tight.  My brother Nick Muce came and got up and sang Good Lovin and Lovelight >>> What I Got with us. It was great to get him up on the big stage with us again. I wish I had blogged about it last week but I was sick and never got around to it and now after this weekend it seems mute to talk to much about it now.

My friend Scott Guinen in Maine, where the RV sat since the summer called and asked if I would help him and his girl rent a trailer to tow her Corvette from the Cape up to Starks. Since they have done so much for me and since I needed to get the RV back to fix it up for Maine 2009 I offered to bring it up to them on Saturday night. Pokey graciously offered to go with me to drive the RV back. So the plan was to leave on Saturday afternoon. We played at Bogart's on Friday night with JBZ, everything went nice and smooth. Packed house, great gig. I had just pulled the trailer up to load out at 1:10am when I got a text message from Nick telling me his younger sister Rosalie had died in car accident that day. By some weird twist of fate she happened to live in Portland Maine and thats where he was. So what was supposed to be a mellow trip to Maine and back to see Scott turned into much more than that. The ride up, on the 3 year anni of my fathers passing,  was a little crazy towing the Vette, even gettign it on the trailer was a bit of a chore. Although we didn't complain much knowing our friend Nick's situation. Very stressful last 50 miles to Starks on the backroads with frost heaves ect, my arms and shoulders are still aching. We arrived at Scotts at 10pm or so. Chatted for awhile, got some sleep, and headed back on the road around noon on Sunday after unloadign the car and trailer. Pokey in the RV and me in my truck. We parted ways in Augusta, Pokey drove the RV all the way back without me (huge! thanks again Poke.)  and I headed to Portland to be with Nick and to attend a memorial service that night. It really is one of the saddest and most heartbreaking situations I have ever encountered. A loving single mom of a 10 year old boy taken way too soon in life.  We can take solace in the fact that Nick, his wife Amanda and his family are incredibly kind, strong and wonderful people and her son will never ever feel not loved and will always have people looking out for him no matter what...... but that certainly does not make it any easier. I love ya Nicky and I am incredibly sad for you and all of your family, the pain never goes away but it will get easier I hope. Rest in peace Rosalie.

in band news (which i know at this time is insignificant but i have to put it out here) : we are out on the last Saturday of every month at Bogarts, not out of the venue itself, he just found someone that fits better the last Saturday's of every month and wants to establish it before spring/summer when we stop doing it. I will try to book one more for this year. Honestly, he told me right after I had talked with Nick that night and I couldn't even see straight much less talk about dates and bands. Insignificant to say the least.

Mike

Psyched for Rick's tonight. Sage mans the keys. Jason on drums as Pete still recovers. Colin from CFZ is coming to do percussion. My brother from another mother Nick Muce is coming to sing a couple with us. Bit of a long ride but thats ok, worth it for a great club.

So we have a new keyboard player. He is not official in BRW until he actually jams with us and everyone gets to meet him. But he played his first time with CFZ last night at Rum Runners and was simply put...fantastic. His name is George Smith and he used to play with reggae band Shango Axe. Really cool down to earth guy, great player who picks his spots, great sound, sings very well too. Just perfect. And he lives in Dennis which is awesome. Plays a Hammond HK-3 for you gear heads. Huge and lucky score on our part to find someone so good and cool..so close. I'd say with the utmost confidence that  it's a mere formality for him getting the 2nd BRW keyboard seat.

Anyway, that's it for today. Gotta get the trailer unhooked and the back of the truck loaded for the trip tonight.

See you at Rick's!

Mike

I have been tending to start these and then leave them for a few days. Makes them longer with more interesting things to say but certainly doesn't feed the blog well.

We had a great time the weekend of Feb 6-7 in both bands.  Friday brought Daryl and I back to Longfellows in Brewster. Very nice 40th b-day party. Lots of nice people. Not many sang with us so we proceeded to pull a bunch of old Borrowed Time and CFZ tunes out of our collective ass. Really a fun gig.

Sat the 7th brought us to our first of hopefully many "Basta's" at Basta Bar in Weymouth. Fun place, really cool room, great owner. Couldn't ask for anything more. Met a bunch of new heads, saw some familiar faces. Pino played bass and brought a crew. Like riding a bike playing with Pino.

Kevin. You were awesome on keys. I can't even imagine picking up such a different instrument and playing a gig of complicated songs. The only thing close I can think of is  I've done gigs before where I have had to play bass. And that was hard as hell so I can't even imagine. Stellar job.

got one video up from Basta, not sure any others were good because of the camera being low. So once people came down front you can't see a thing. I do have a hard drive that may have the 2nd set on it. Going to check it tonight. Could always grab the audio from the video too.

This Feb 28 at Bogarts has been cancelled. He booked a private party so we pick it back up one month later on March 28th.  Great Fri the 13th with JBZ. Packed house.

This Sat we head back to Rick's Billiards in Putnam CT. Jason on the drums with Colin from CFZ on percussion.

Mike