The Machine’s Pump Volume 28 – #3 – March 2025

It’s been windy in Denton recently. At times, very windy. Stuff’s flying around. One day in my front yard, worrying about all that needs to be done, to get everything cleaned up and ready for warm weather and I noticed something shiny in the grass. It was a strip of four B&W 35mm negatives and I could tell they were all of the same baby. I almost never find B&W negatives of someone’s baby in my yard. So, of course, I put the special discovery on a table in the house. Okay, hang on. I know you’re freaking out as much as I did. Two days later, again, I was walking around my yard and saw something shiny. It was another strip of four B&W negatives of the same baby. So, I took it inside and put it with the other strip. Now I have two.

TWO FANS. I often hear from people who have supported Brave Combo over the years, if not decades, and I’m always amazed that anyone has been paying attention. I don’t take this for granted because I know how it is to be a human in today’s world. People only have so much time and money. Two particular responses, one to one of my newsletter and one to a post about an upcoming gig, were pointed out to me this week. I’m not the best at seeing everything which comes our way through various social media platforms or from the website, itself, but I try. Luckily, Jane, my wife, and Lori, BC’s longtime social media/website protector, point out most things I should probably see or know. Well, the response to a recent newsletter, was something with which I’ve become pretty familiar. A fan posted that he’s followed us a long time, but because of something I wrote in my newsletter, he’s bailing on us and just wanted me to know. And it’s happened enough that I’m sorta numb to it. There’s nothing I can do, anyway, and I figure no one should be surprised at anything I’ve written, if, indeed, he or she actually listened to us and our obvious points-of-view are. I guess those people never really got us. And that’s cool. One time, a well-known music critic reviewed our live album, NO SAD FACES, and he said my vocals sounded like I had a mouthful of marbles. That was printed in a big-ass fancy magazine. Whatever, I survived that and even got a chance to know the critic and we hung out a bit and actually laughed about it, because he was right! I did have a mouthful of marbles that night, which was pretty stupid. You know, you have to be prepared laugh at yourself and accept some imperfections, especially when recording a live album. The vocals were somewhat compromised. My point is this. I’m pretty tough and have heard a lot of opinions expressed about what I’ve done and I’ve made some tough decisions, based on how I choose to live and how I choose to think. I think I understand why Brave Combo has survived for so long and it must, to some degree, have something to do with the band’s attitude. It is not easy to influence us, unless we want to be influenced. The band has always been populated by extremely stubborn, determined people. Garrison Keillor, if anyone remembers him, introduced us once when we were on A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION, as a band who doesn’t take no for an answer. And I remember thinking, at that moment we were being introduced, “How does he know that?” It rang true then and still does now. So, I am sorry we lost another fan to political division and the actions of an insane egomaniac wannabe leader, but que sera sera. I hate tribalism anyway and everything always boils down to that. Hatfields and McCoys forever, I guess.

Another fan, who lives in California, upon seeing the post about our recent gig in Ft. Worth, expressed disappointment that we don’t travel much anymore and never make it to California. We used to go all the time. This person loves the band and expressed it quite eloquently and also expressed the frustration on having to come to Texas to see us live. This frustrates us, too. It sucks, knowing we could probably do really well at great venues all over the country and we love meeting people who dig our crazy sound. It’s great knowing they’re everywhere and would probably come out if we showed up. But here’s the deal. Things changed during and after the pandemic. Some of the change was because the world had to shut down, but also because travel, in general, is just not much fun anymore. Everything is crowded now and everything has become the same. Airplane travel with instruments is a drag. And the world has become a harder place, especially in the Untied States. We’re scared and suspicious population and more and more like Russia everyday. And now the rest of the world is starting to fear us and back away from us, much as it views Russia, but that’s a different issue. No matter what, the main issue is that traveling takes up a lot of time and Brave Combo has become greedy with it. We love performing a lot and still do it regularly, but we don’t want to use up much time or energy getting to a location where we get to eventually have fun. And we are all, as I’m sure you are, super busy just living. I’m not going to go on and on about rescuing animals, and tending to feral cats, but I’m sorta involved, maybe driven to do it. So, when I leave town for a day or two, it’s tricky. I do miss our days of heavy touring, but a lot of what I loved about getting from place to place is not there anymore. If we could snap our fingers and be on stage, we’d certainly do that. The stage is the groovy part! Anyway, I encourage all of the Brave Combo devotees who do not live within a few hours of us, to make us the destination for your next vacation. Problem solved!

Speaking of fans, a longtime one and, ultimately, good friend (we even played his wedding) from Ft. Worth, Bill Hanna, died unexpectedly, a couple of months ago, while on vacation, with his wife, Laura, in Mexico. I’d just seen him at a gig in Ft. Worth, a few days before he passed away. He was a witty, sweet guy and really believed in Brave Combo and what we stood for and had a chance to promote us, while he was a reporter for the Ft. Worth Star Telegram. We used a photo of his son, Luke, holding a Brave Combo bumper sticker, on one of our albums. This is still hard to believe. I just wanted to honor him with a few words.

Check our itinerary. Gigs are starting to pop in, here and there, and maybe you’ll decide it’s a good idea to come out to one of our wing-dings! You never know. One more thing. Don’t be scared!