Volume 3 – #1 – January 2000
News flash: Here we go again. Our latest album, “Polkasonic,” has been nominated for a Grammy. More on this as details emerge. Thank you all for your support.
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Uh oh. Nothing significant happened, I guess. Suddenly, it’s 2000 and the ultimate end-of-the-world cleansing stood us up. So, alas, we’re probably finding ourselves dragging all our old worn out baggage right into the sparkling new millennium. I’ll bet there are quite a few depressed people on the planet right now, unhappy that their lives didn’t change enough, if at all. Even a change for the worse would be better than nothing. World-wide calamity and chaos could have given us plenty of good excuses to drop out of our normal lives and look at each new day as an opportunity to figure out how to survive. Real-life kid’s games. Whatever, I am glad that we still have electricity and water (although I did stockpile enough to get me well into the new year) and telephones and postal service and guitar strings and air and non-leather shoes and potato chips and dogs and cats.
Speaking of cats and millennium madness, our newest cat, Biscuits, freaked out recently and ran under the house. He’s normally fascinated with the great outdoors, but pretty scared of it as well. As it turns out, under the house, in his mind, was the perfect place; outside and inside at the same time. I even crawled under myself and saw him sitting about 20 feet away, but he wouldn’t acknowledge me. He seemed thoroughly hypnotized by the experience. Every couple of hours I would slither in and call his name. Finally, about midnight, I coaxed him close enough to me to grab him. Our other cat, Patty, is the indoor/outdoor variety, but Biscuits has been so reluctant to go out, we’re trying to ease him into it. The really good part of this story is that I figured I could store my millennium water under the house. Cool, huh?
Our New Year’s Eve was a blast. The band performed at a swanky party for some nice people in Dallas and everything was rolling smoothly as midnight approached. We finished the countdown and ripped into a snappy twist version of “Auld Lang Syne.” The crowd was going nuts. Suddenly, there were fireworks exploding outside. They were so loud, we could barely hear ourselves and by the end of our big “happy new year” song only a handful of dancers remained on the floor. Everyone else was outside enjoying the pyrotechnics. If it hadn’t been so funny, it would have been sad. But this is the world of Brave Combo. We derive great strength from humbling moments.
I’ve heard a rumor that we’re mentioned in a novel called “Tex And Molly In The Afterlife,” by Richard Grant. I have ordered the book, but I know nothing about it. Every now and then we pop up in unexpected places. I know of Brave Combo sightings in nine or ten novels, a Windows instruction manual, a psychology handbook and a vegetarian barbecue cookbook. I wonder if it would be possible to compile a list of all the Brave Combo literary references?
Speaking of cooking, Jeffrey makes black-eyed peas for all of us band members every new year and he makes a special vegetarian batch just for me. Of course, they’re very delicious. He’s a good cook. Our friend, Bonnie, who’s been playing violin with us is also a good cook. She is a cookie specialist. I’m not kidding!
The title of our new album, which will be released in March or April, is “The Process.” It may wig out some people. It’s basically a pop album. All but one of the songs are original and most of the them are not particularly style-specific, although we were certainly influenced by our Latin and polka roots. The songs are personal, yet, I think, universal as well. I’ll keep you posted on the actual birth date as the months fly by.
Just in case “The Process” is not kid-friendly enough, we finally start recording the children’s album in February. Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer are flying down from Washington DC to join us in studio bliss for a few days.
Summer 2000 could be Brave Combo’s weirdest touring season ever. If you live in the continental United States or Europe, there’s a chance we’ll be performing near you. I’m always amazed that some people will travel great distances to catch our shows. It’s not uncommon at all to find that a fan drove three or four hours to see us do whatever it is we do. And a few die-hards may fly across the country or even to another country to catch a weekend of Brave Combo. We appreciate this so much, but sometimes I wonder what the appeal is. We see every nut and bolt of this ridiculous organization and I’m thankful that we’re somehow able to pull it all together and perform.
On that introspective note, I’ll close another newsletter. Okay? Thanks for liking our music. Happy 2000!