Hail to the King!

As part of a friend's birthday celebrations, I went along to see Leo LaDell close the 2006 Otago Festival of the Arts. This time he'd recruited a fine couple of horn players. The set included a fair bit of Memphis-style stuff. It was a fantastic show, another testament to Leo's talent and versatility. He also managed to attract a better class of punter than the usual pub crowds.



University exams are here, so Chris and Anders are sequestered away to study. Thereafter they'll be heading out of town for the summer. Mike will have one of his research trawls coming up soon too, so Crosseyed Cat will be going into recess for a few months, dammit. I'll just have to come up with something else to keep the habit satisfied.

Empire Pub

On 29 September we played the Empire Pub. It was tough, since Bob had only been back in the country for a few days after heading home to the states for a month. And Anders had a heavy essay to do for his course, so we weren't all able to practice much together before the gig. That made it pretty heavy going, especially since we wanted to do 2 new songs. Kauia also had to pull out, with a sore throat.

It was also a fairly quiet night in town. Nevertheless, we managed to pull it off and had a small but appreciative audience. My mate Warren Saunders came along and did a great job of mixing sound for us.

I think we still all agreed that we never want to be so underprepared for a gig like that again.

Harmonica Blow Down

On 9 September, I played at the Harmonica Blow Down. Organised by Leo LaDell, it capitalised on the Charlie Musselwhite concert in town that night, so it had a pretty healthy crowd. I played a couple of songs in each of two sets, and had a thoroughly good time. Anders was second guitar, and he had a ball too.

The other harp players - Terry Ebeling, Matt Langley, and Leo were of course fabulous. And there were a few special guests there - nobody from Charlie's band, but ex All Black Josh Kronfeld got up and did a fine stint, and Midge Marsden's offsider Bullfrog Rata played a little guitar and sang. Midge was there at the bar, but looked pretty shagged after the Musselwhite gig, so didn't get onstage.

Another great blues gig, thanks to the catalytic power of Leo LaDell. Good on ya Leo.

Musos Club

On 28 August we played the Dunedin Musicians club. We had a great time. Kauia Moriarty sang with us again, as did Geva Downey, and King Leo Ladell popped along, so we dragged him up to play some of his fantastic chicago-style guitar.