Volume 9 – #2 – February 2006

Just call us Brave Combo – Project Band. January and February are traditionally good months for us to make no money and play gigs we probably couldn’t afford to do at another time of year. Here’s a tip. If you want us cheap, plan your event in January or February. The earliest part of the year is great for fixing up the house, rehearsing, watching TV, recording and shopping for new black T-shirts. We’ll take anything we can get and, in fact, we’ll even do free gigs that may lead to bigger and better free gigs. So far this year we’ve played an international buyers convention accompanied by Tim Walsh’s outrageously outrageous laser light show and flanked by Cirque du Soliel-style acrobats (one 30-minute set for free), the Folk Alliance Convention in Austin (one 30-minute set for free) and three shows with the Las Colinas (Texas) Symphony, featuring 13 original Brave Combo songs, scored for full symphony orchestra. And, although we made money for the symphony shows, we also paid for the music scores to be written and arranged. We’re talking about boxes of sheet music; parts for everybody, including piccolo, oboe, bassoon and timpani, not to mention the normal stuff, like first violins, second violins, third violins and french horns. This is project DELUXE with expenses in the thousands of dollars! It makes perfect sense, yet is also completely illogical (as is BC in general). It was both a way to fund the creation of symphony charts and an opportunity to try the charts out with great musicians. Armed with these professionally prepared scores, we can now approach any “pops” symphony in the country with a show proposal and, hopefully, a glowing report from the Las Colinas staff about how it enriched their lives to work with us. But, financially, it was a gamble. And, of course, in my low-expectations world, I will be shocked if anything more comes from it or the international festival show or the Folk Alliance show. But, you know what? We did all of these “slim chance” shows in January and February. So, it doesn’t matter. Damn it! We’re better for having made the effort, right? It was either Folk Alliance or DOG, THE BOUNTY HUNTER for me. Symphony week could just as easily have been re-arrange or throw away the furniture week. I will say, it does feel a little like we’ve been going to work and mingling with some very serious and particular people. That’s really okay with me. I’m usually pretty serious and probably in the top one millionth of one percent in particular ness. So, I’m always happy to be part of a smoothly running machine, especially if I’m risking looking like a fool. With that said, I’m pleased to report that it appears that Brave Combo with the Las Colinas Symphony was a rousing success. It was tricky at times, but never less than exciting fun, and mostly thrilling, at least for us. Thanks and congratulations to everyone. Okay, predictable Brave Combo stuff is just around the corner. Shows are being added daily all over the USA and I feel the next “normal” Brave Combo album starting to bubble up. I thought it was the stomach flu, but then I realized the fever was just a reaction to too much information processing and the churning was probably just something I got from the dogs. Sometimes they’re not very clean and they’ll take vile over bland any day when it comes to what they put in their mouths.

Speaking of projects, it almost feels like the last two years have been dominated by two major “projects.” 1. Recording a bunch of original holiday songs for a radio service company in Dallas, which would eventually become our last album with Bubba. And, although it appears some BC standards will emerge from it (“Vampire Twist,” “Postcard From New Orleans,” “Hey, Little Dreidel”) it will always be a project album to me. And 2. Reinventing Brave Combo sans Bubba. Both of these things feel like myriad blocks of wood that we shaped and glued together, after giving each piece a lot of thought. We didn’t jump willy-nilly into anything. If there is a man among us, let him come in and do the popcorn. James Brown told me something like that one time while I was watching him on TV in the Finch family den late one night during the 1960s. He was scary funky, but I couldn’t take my eyes off him. When he was at his prime, he sure lived up to his ego. He was so good; almost otherworldly. I copped all his moves and continue to use them today. That’s why I’m compared to him so often, in case you were wondering.

Speaking of Texarkana, I never knew just how famous the old burg is. Check this out. The Food Network’s popular series, THE SECRET LIFE OF …, did a feature on my hometown’s best eatery, Bryce’s Cafeteria and basically said that Bryce’s is, arguably, the best cafeteria food in the USA. Hey, I’ve known the Lawrence boys, Richard and Bryce, Jr. (who own and run Bryce’s) forever. Richard and I graduated together. He was the star quarterback for the Texas High Tigers and married head cheerleader, Lindy King. Anyway, the show’s host, Mr. Enthusiastic, talked about the cafeteria’s unbelievable peach pie, which is available only about two months of the year. Listen. No matter where you live, it’s worth a trip. And after you’ve had your pie and chatted with Richard or Bryce, Jr. you can drive around Texarkana. First, head downtown. Stop and walk around a little. Drive back up Stateline Avenue and get your picture taken at the post office. It straddles Arkansas and Texas, so you can stand in both states at once. Get back in your car and head east on either Texas Highway 67 or 82. Eventually, turn around and head back to town. Then drive around some more, stopping occasionally to eat or drink. The Arkansas side of town is wet. When you get tired, go back to your motel, watch the news from Shreveport and go to sleep. Wake up the next day, have some motel coffee and head back to Bryce’s for lunch. Partytime with a capital “PARTY!” By the way, Texarkana’s distinctive smell comes from the areas many paper mills.

The title of Marcel Duchamp’s last work of art, a commissioned painting, is, “This Bores Me.”

Well, the year is really starting to heat up. Brave Combo’s gotta get out there and play music for the masses before the bird flu (otherwise known as “animal’s revenge”) lands in the United States and makes everyone decide to stay home and wear gas masks for a few years. Maybe that’s what this whole computer/internet thing is all about. Survivors will be forced into isolation for a long time and virtual reality will have to replace actually going outside and doing things. Maybe God will be particularly hard on us for electing a man to our second highest office who thinks it’s fun to drive a car up to a trapped covey of wing-clipped quail and open fire. Is this his definition of having dominion over something? Judgment Day, indeed. What mercy do humans deserve? Sleep on it.