Coming soon more pics of artist i have worked with and some cool festival shots!

 

Another awesome week on the road from Alabama to Chapel Hill,  North Carolina and back! This weeks artist , 14 Karat Gold Band and Blind Boys of Alabama!

 

 It all started last week in Birmingham on Wednesday as I told my friend Justin  goodbye for his Florida move!  The next day I traveled to Anniston, Alabama  and began to prep for my show on Friday! We then set out to set up the rig for our Friday show at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind for their 150 year anniversary show featuring the Blind Boys of Alabama!

It was the first time in 60 years that the Blind Boys of Alabama played at the school which they came from! It is was spiritual experience for me and shall be remembered as one of my favorite gigs! They only played 3 songs that were uplifting and inspiring and well worth the hard work. It was my second time to do sound for them and was an awesome experience.

 

The show was over at a decent hour and we loaded out and I drove back to Anniston and unloaded the trucked the truck! It took us about 20 minutes before I was back on the road again!

 

I stopped at the gas station in Oxford, Alabama got some coffee and hit the road to Atlanta! It was now 1:20Am as I hit 20 driving toward Atlanta, Georgia! I was waiting for the time change to hit me as I drove down the lonely highway toward the big town!

The only things keeping me awake was the nasty cup of coffee that was getting colder with each passing minute! I looked at my phone and it said 4am as I started to see the bright lights of the metro. Then before long I started to see the huge awkward lights of the six-flags inviting me to Atlanta!

 

My eye were busy as I looked down the lonely streets with concrete painted graffiti. I felt like I was driving into a concrete jungle as the lights got taller and brighter. Then I started to see signs and more signs as I approached downtown. I kept telling myself "stay on 20, stay on 20; you will be ok in about 30!”  I knew I had 30 minutes from downtown on 20 before I got off on Panola Road in east Atlanta!

 

I was about crash at OC’s house before we left in 3 hours to head to Chapel Hill North Carolina. I was heading to a gig with the 14karet Gold band to do a gig at the Governors club. Once again it was a swanky club that we had to get dressed up and looks our best; you could imagine how we all looked after a 7 hour van trip into the deep country.

 

Chapel Hill is neat town nestled in the hills in North Carolina and is referred to as a zoo, because of its liberal political views. It is home to many famous folk including, squirrel nut Zippers, James Taylor, George Hamilton and Superchunk, Ben folds Five, and Southern Culture on the skids.

 

The country side driving in North Carilina was awesome and all the 14 Karet Gold guys were talking about how life would be great living out in the woods.  The Carolina’s do have a great charm to them and every town it’s special scene.

 

After 7 hours and nearly 400 miles we arrive and start unloaded gear! We get set up in about an hour and start sound checking. Then we get done and they feed us some awesome blackened chicken!

 

Before long it we show time and 14 Karet kicked it off with some smooth jazz  getting the tipsy ready to hit the floor. In no time they had had the floor full and they were getting down in chapel Hills! The gig lasted 4 hours and we loaded the gear and I once again hit the road around 1:20am on my way back to Atlanta. I managed to wake at every refuel stop and then I would pass out again sitting up in awkward position.

 

When I got back to Atlanta Georgia I jumped in my car and headed back on my 3 hour trip to northeast Alabama! I passed through Marietta, Rome, Cartersville, Georgia,  to Center, Leesburg, and then Collinsville, Alabama! I soon stopped for another cup of coffee!

 

I could not believe how much Atlanta
and grown as well as the country throughout Northwest Georgia! There was a house on every mountain top and many farms. I could not tell you how many cows I saw eating  and grazing in the country pastures. I bet it must be an awesome feeling living out in the Georgia hills!

 

The lakes were still low and the sun was shining bright as I trucked on down through the coutry side. It wasn’t long before I was back in Northeast Alabama and crashing for a day straight.

 

Well until next time! More Road Trip Tales coming soon!

It is that time of year and the music business is starting to pick up and look like no sleep for the wary! I am in Auburn, Alabama working with the Benji Davis Project! They are from the great state of La and it is second time I have done for them! There sound was awesome and loud and it is around 30 minutes from sound check.We are at frat house in Auburn and right now a really awesome band is playing in the parking lot. As soon as they get done they will walk out to the party barn and act like drunk apes. This will last a few hours and we will pack up the gear and load it into a trailer and hit the road back to Oxford Alabama, right at a two hour trip. By this time it be around 5ish and we will drive for 30 more minutes crawl in bed and maybe if I lucky get 5-6 hours before I get up and do it again.Tomorrow’s gig is in Birmingham, Alabama with the Tyntymes. They are awesome band from around the Gadsden, Alabama area! Well more coming tomorrow!Well I have made to the gig in Birmingham, Alabama at the Mountain Brook Country club. Load in wasn’t too bad and come to find out it is a wedding party! The room could hold a couple hundred people and it was packed when the band started. I had to dress up and it wasn’t long before I hit the killer food.The band started and they kicked into a loud tune with wide-open trumpets! The people thinned for a while and after a few drinks and bunch of chatting they came in and started dancing to groovy horn tunes the band were jamming to. Before long they were dancing hard and getting down. There was even a woman in a wheelchair spinning around enjoying the tunes. It was your typical wedding after party and they started thinning out after about an hour of intense dancing. The room was filled as the band rolled out of their last tune.I was so glad to see the people dance and have a good and didn’t even worry about the 1 and half hour load out and hour and half drive back home! I ended up getting home around 4 and slept a good part of the next day.The Auburn gig ended around 2 and we got on the road around 3:30 and I got home 6:30 and was back up at 12 to get ready and hit the road to Birmingham, Alabama!Just got done today-loaded three trucks for the weekend! I am heading to Opp , Alabama to do lighting for the Rattlesnake festival! It is strange gig for me to do lighting and at a rattlesnake festival. This should prove to be an interesting week! So yall bookmark me and come see what I write about this gig! On the Road from Alabama! Thanks JohnnyI am back again and this week I am in OPP Alabama doing lighting for the Rattlesnake Rodeo! That is right rattlesnakes racing and shaking them tails, you better watch out!I left this morning from Jacksonville, Alabama at 8:30 and jumped in the company truck. Most days I work as Audio tech and get to tweak knobs all day and today I flew lights. It took me around an hour and half to fly them and get them working. After patching 6 lights and an hour worth of focusing I had them working right.It was a fresh breath of air to not have to tweak out a speaker and wait for the band. I could go without saying “check” I promise; now I just make this clicking noise. When I arrived I was under the impression that my show was tomorrow but I ended having a band tonight. They were The JB Roberts band they were cool and played a bunch of classic tunes and had a few kids and a mom or two scooting to the Sweet Home Alabama. Check these guys out I can see a deal coming their way!Tomorrow nights Feature artist is craigmorgan.com! I really don’t much about Craig except he was raised near Nashville! I read reviews and he gets high ranking as being a real inspiring and he writes about the every day things around us. He looks familiar and I wonder if I know him from when I lived in Nashville.My life is starting to come around in circles and I am starting to run into old friends from the past. It is awesome how life is like that! I got a chilled out day tomorrow until later when the sun goes down and I hit the stage with the Energy!Well more to come when I make it back home from the Opp , Alabama Rattlesnake rodeo!Well it is now Sunday and I made it back from Opp Alabama’s Rattlesnake Rodeo! I woke up yesterday with the rain pouring and the thunder rolling for a good 4 hours. It was the wettest day I had at seen at a gig ever. As soon as the rained slacked Craig Morgan gear was trucked to the stage where the band and crew sat for 2 and half hours with a dripping roof and a rain blowing in from stage right.The event staff was out front teaching the kids about snakes as they asked questions. They were holding the rattlesnakes up so everyone could get a good look at them. A few minutes before they opened trashcans and let all the rattlesnakes out to race. They joked as the snakes just sat there in the rain. Soon a few decided to make a run for it and soon were caught and walked around to the wide-eyed crowd.I was a little worried at first, why these guys were playing with the snakes. Soon I learned from Winston they these guys have more going on than this annual event. Apparently they study the snakes to gather more info and also some of the snakes are given to Auburn and some are released back. So these guys are doing a great job for the preservation of a species and are laying a helping hand to the other institutes that study snakes and biology.As the rain fell lightly and they put the snakes up they decided it was time to have a greases pole race. Who could make it up the 20-foot tall greased poll in the rain?We watched about 20 kids try and makes it up the poll and 2 of them almost made it up top to win a little green for the climb. Only in Alabama would I ever expect to see a greased poll climb in the rain, this is a great state!The event decided to cancel all the openers and make a decision around 6pm. So six rolls around the Craig’s management decides it is unsafe to play, well thirty minutes pass then another and another and an hour and half later they come to a decision not to play. Then one of the openers patiently waits to fill the spot, The JP Roberts band. They finally get the ok and tune up and are jamming in no time.A couple hundred gather up front and start moving around as JP belts out an old Lynard Skynard tune. They play for a few hours and the rain quits and the people are having a good time. As soon the show ends Jp has crowd of fans standing to the side stage for his autograph.Once again I start packing up gear and getting ready to hit the road for the 4-hour drive back. My hands (stage hands-county inmates) were lowering the stage roof and getting ready to unhook the cables, secure and then drop the lights to the ground. After we drop the backlights we raise the back up and then we drop the front of the stage and follow the same method. Now it is time to roll the bundles up and throw them in a box, one heavy box!We got the truss on the ground and now it is time to break it apart. 16 bolts later, wait make that 32 bolts later the truss is ready to stack and roll in the truck. Tim
e to move the lighting dimmers and roll them to the truck! Let me tell you this rack has to weight 600-800 lbs easy. It takes at least three people to pick it up and that is with a pretty strong fight. It is muddy and four of us manage to pull it through some mud to the truck and lay it down in truck to block the lights and then ad the bundle boxes and throw the feeder cable on top and I am off to Anniston once again!I made the trip in a little over four hours and had to unload the truck when I got back to the shop. Got the truck unloaded and sat down and caught my breathe for another gig done! Once again I have driven through the great state of Alabama on a spring weekend gig. Driving through Alabama in the spring is a treat with the blooming dogwoods and the beautiful evergreens on the mountainsides. The trees are starting to turn green and many of the pink and blue and red flowers are blooming also the azalea’s are in full color! It is a great time to see some awesome Alabama sites! The contrast of dead leaves and bright greens and white trees is one of the things that makes Alabama a beautiful state this time of year, just wait to fall!Thanks for reading more to come next week!Friday night I was in Auburn, Alabama with the Tyn Tymes. They were playing a show for the college of veterinary medicine! It took a few hours to make it there and there were severe storms through Alabama that day.We were under a big metal pavilion and all I could smell is the cow crap.We got set up in an hour and waited for sound check. Next thing you know it was show time and there were tornado warnings just over in the next county. The people were eating bbq and as soon as the band started most left cause of the weather.I did get to see a Barn Owl (tyto alaba) and an Eastern Screech-owl (otus asio) that were being showed to the guest, they were awesome!It ended up being a short show and we were back in Oxford before midnight. After taken a breath and picking up my car I was back home by 1:30, and let me tell that is an early nigh in the music business for me. Tomorrow I will leave for Atlanta at 12 to work with the Ying Yang twins and do it all over again!I am sitting in Atlanta, Georgia outside of the Phi Delta Theta house. Tonight’s act is the Ying Yang twins and they hit the stage around 11! It was a beautiful sunset as the clouds fade over the Atlanta Skyline.We pulled in town around 3:30 only to face a traffic pile-upon 75/85 just a few miles from the frat house. After a few minutes of slow moving traffic we found our exit and after a few minutes figuring out mapquest directions we finally make it to the frat house.After we got off on our exit the first thing we saw was a homeless man holding a sign up asking for donations. Then across the street another washes windows as the car sits at the red light.A few hours of setting up gear and tweaking everything out we are set and waiting for the show to be begin. The temp drops slowly as we wait for the show to begin.During the drive into Atlanta it was your typical Atlanta afternoon with loads of speeding traffic and high metal walls beside the interstate. Six Flags was still high in the air and it seemed to be much the same as it was many years ago. I noticed many new buildings just sitting empty all over the area. I also saw graffiti on many of the old buildings and just could not believe how much concrete is Atlanta!Getting caught in traffic really lets you see the city in such a deeper way. Not only do you get to see many people fighting the traffic but also you get to see the buildings and get a minute to have some deeper thought waiting the journey to the Ga Tech campus. Looking at the broken concrete and construction going on made me wonder what it would be like in 30 years.Now it is well into the show and the Ying Yang twins are playing to a full crowd of about 1,200 people stuffed in and around the courtyard of the frat house. They just through playing Black Betty and crowd is going wild!The cops have been riding through the Ga tech alley trying to clear the streets of the drunken frat guys making out with chics in the street. It really is amazing how rap gets these girls going. It is almost like a cult, I swear!I was impressed with the Ying Yang twin’s song selection and the DJ was this awesome white dude. They incorporated some really cool covers into the set. They have been on stage for an hour and a half and I am starting to wonder what time they will end.One of the brothers just left not sure if it is Ying or Yang! Maybe Ying or could be Yang, he is shorter brother with the beard! Anyway he kept the crowd busy for awhile and then handed it over to the dj to drop some beats!The openers were throwing down and had the crowd singing along. An awesome white dude with this tall black dude that had dreads! Here is a link I found for the white dude! He is really an awesome rapper and writer!http://www.kosherbeets.comThey ended at 1:30 and we were on the road in over an hour and made it back to my car near Heflin and back home for 4 Alabama time! That hour change can be sweet sometimes! Well until next week from Livingston, Alabama from there Folk Festival!Times have been busy in last few weeks! I have been to Atlanta a few times and also Dothan Alabama! A few weeks ago I was Atlanta at a frat house on the Georgia Tech Campus working with Bone Crusher!When we pulled up all the frat guys were trying to make a tent out of a tarp. There was a huge storm on the way and we decided to wait awhile to set up. Well the rain come and went just in time to set-up for the eight o’clock show. The SGA decided to start the show later and Bone crusher hit the stage at 9:30 for an hour show! There were maybe 75 people at the party and I was back in Alabama right after midnight!Well the next week I was back In Georgia doing sound for a Relay For Life event on Friday. The event lasted from 5pm-7am. After the load out it was almost nine and we were in the hotel. By the time I got to sleep I got to sleep 3 hours and get up and headed to downtown Atlanta for a Street Party ate the Twisted Taco. The event was produced by the Wednesday night Drink Club and was a St. Patty’s day party.The band was El scorcho, a Weezer Tribute band and they rocked! People started coming in around 5 and before ten it was pretty crowded and by midnight the blocked off street was almost full. They blocked the street off beside the Twisted Taco and parked a Porta Party. It was a trailer that opened up and had Flat screens all around the bar! I went inside around 12:30 and it was packed full on all levels. Wow what a great party Mary Heatherly threw! The band stopped at 11 and it took us a little over an hour to get things packed up and on the road back to bama!It is a new week and I just got back in town form working in Dothan, Alabama! The artist this time is Earl Thomas Conley and we were out setting up at 6a.m and the program started around 10a.m. and Conley hit the stage at 12 and played an hour and half set. WE then broke down and hit the road heading the 5-hour drive back to Oxford, Alabama! It is now late Wednesday night and I have just got back from Dothan and every bone in my body aches. It was 2-day journey into lower Alabama that I will never forget.It is now Friday and I am about to head to my Oxford Relay for Life gig. I got to be there from 6pm till 1am and back out there at 7a.m. to load the rig and then set it up in Birmingham at Sloss Furnace for a Saturday festival. More to come soon! Wish me Luck!/strong>