Volume 17 – #7 – July 2014

Over the years, Brave Combo has traveled a lot, often spending hours, day-after-day, rolling and flying and rolling and flying from wherever to wherever. If you choose to do what we do, it’s obviously, unavoidable. And we’ve stayed at many a motel and hotel. Only on rare occasions have we decided, after pulling up to check in, that we might not make it through the night, like the over-the-top funky place in Gainesville, Florida. The club we played had a deal with that motel. We’d never seen anything like it. It was extremely lively, with bright fluorescent lights everywhere, fully illuminating a multitude of dealers, hookers, pimps and general characters from the dark side. I think our presence screamed, “Please, rob us!” I remember telling the faint image of a desk clerk ghostly hovering on the other side of a thick, totally scratched piece of Plexiglas, that we would not be staying, unsure if he or she could hear me. Then we drove around forever, on the edge of town, hoping to find something decent with five available rooms before the first hint of early morning blue started to spread across the sky. And, for those times we should have left, but didn’t, nothing stands out like the Hotel Bryant, right off Times Square in New York City; thousands of roaches, flooded bathrooms, a burned out fourth floor, the nightly sounds of someone beating up someone else, no phones in the rooms, not much heat and it was winter. Plus, since it was a hotel in a busy downtown city, such as New York, we had to park a van full of musical gear either on the street or in an outdoor lot. This “van full of stuff” thing is a serious issue for every band on the road. Always has been, but experience, it seems, continues to teach you lessons and help you figure out how to get, safely and efficiently, from point A to point B. Consequently, we are now experts at what’s out there and it’s my job to book the rooms when we tour. I use the site, Kayak, to locate acceptable destinations and rely heavily on the reviews to find the perfect spot. My first rule is “if possible, no hotels, especially city center hotels.” It takes forever to check in and out and, as I mentioned, vans are a problem. So I usually look for motels that get decent reviews in between large metropolitan areas. Recently, we played a festival in Lincoln, Nebraska and had an early evening show in Eureka Springs, Arkansas the next day. We needed to go about five hours after the festival, which would have us spending the night about two hours south of Kansas City, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, which was perfect, if there was any place to stay. I focused on Lamar, Missouri. There was a Super 8 there. I checked the reviews. They were beyond glowing. Across the board, everyone was giving the property and the employees scores of 8, 9 and 10. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. In fact, I didn’t, at first. I figured this had to be orchestrated by the motel, but, if so, they were doing a great job. I had to call. The woman that answered, Patti, was very pleasant. She had enough rooms for us and when I asked if we could get a late check-out, she said no problem. When I asked how late we could stay she said 1:00 was okay. This is so not normal. Their regular check-out time was 11:00 and Patti was letting us stay two hours beyond that. The photos of the motel and the grounds looked good, so I went for it. After playing a spectacular set in Lincoln we got out of town by 10:00 and headed toward Lamar, Missouri, where we arrived at 3:00. We were greeted by a very friendly desk clerk, Barbara, who was expecting us and already had our keys ready because she “knew how tired we would be.” Then, before we could even get our luggage inside, she announced that she was going to go on and put all of the breakfast food out two hours early, just for us. So she started scurrying around, pulling cereal, fruit, bagels, sweet rolls, etc. out of cabinets and coolers. Within ten minutes of checking in we were all chowing down. Needless to say, the rooms were all immaculate, newly remodeled, tastefully decorated, perfect and, by this time, it was no shock. At 1:00 PM the next afternoon, as we were reluctantly leaving our wonderful little oasis, a new desk clerk, Barb (not Barbara) stopped us at the door and gave us care package full of more food, because they were all worried we wouldn’t have time to stop and eat. That took the whole experience to the “astounding” level. Who does this? I ‘ll tell you who. Barbara, Barb and Patti at the Super 8 in Lamar, Missouri. They weren’t fans of Brave Combo. They’d never heard of us. This is how they treat everyone. If you have a vacation coming up and don’t know where to go. I have a suggestion. Lamar, Missouri. Stay at the Super 8 and tell ’em we sent you. And, if you are a Brave Combo trivia buff, it’s not far from Humansville, Missouri, the inspiration for our third album on Rounder Records. See, not all surprises are bad. This is proof.

Speaking of good surprises, Brave Combo is having a reunion spectacular at The Kessler Theatre, in Dallas, on Friday night, August 22. This performance is part of our year-long 35th Anniversary celebration and will feature a set by the original four members of Brave Combo, the founding group, the ones who started it all 3 1/2 decades ago. Lyle Atkinson will return on bass, Lisa (formerly, Dave) Cameron will return on drums, Tim Walsh will return on woodwinds and I will just still be me doing what I do. In 1979, Tim hired me to play for ballet classes at NTSU (North Texas State University, now University of North Texas, UNT). While I watched girls in tights and made up waltzes for their plies, Tim was next door improvising on a bunch of instruments for the modern dancers. Between classes, he and I would play music together, specifically, polkas. The next thing I knew, the four musicians of Brave Combo were buying a broken-down van so we could get to NYC to open a show for Joe King Carrasco. Everything was crazy in those days and there was no model to follow; no formula. We didn’t know what we were doing and there was a growing community of alternative bands, radio shows and venues that didn’t know what they were doing, either. So many unexpected things happened, it’s hard to remember them all. Anyway, the four of us have only played a handful of times since 1983, so this will be a must-see/must-hear event. As if that weren’t enough, the regulard fantastic current Brave Combo will also be there, performing some new songs from a forthcoming album. Party favors will be provided.

Speaking of forthcoming albums, we plan to release two new ones before 2014 poops out. I just finished mixing LIVE FROM BLOB’S, which was recorded in March at our final show at the legendary polka dance hall, halfway between Baltimore and Washington, DC. It closed, forever, two weeks after our appearance and, has since, been torn down. There are 26 rocking tracks from which to choose. Plus, we go back to the studio in early September to record an album of all new material. Studios are fun, dark, cool environments and peacefully quiet when music isn’t being heard. Tune in and zone out.

Polka season officially begins, for Brave Combo, at Westfest this coming Labor Day weekend and goes all the way through October. You owe it to yourself to memorize our itinerary for those nine weeks and follow your heart to one of our parties. We’re a fun bunch!