At the Silverlake Lounge...

Dusty Roads, Open Skies and Chuck Berry!

These last couple months of tour have been the best yet! We opened for Chuck Berry in St. Louis, 86 years young and Little Red got to pay his respects :) We met some amazing and brilliant people at the Conference on World Affairs in Boulder, including fellow panelists David Crosby and Graham Nash, Jello Biafra, and OKgo video director and mastermind Jeff Leiberman. We have had great runs through CO, OK, KS, TX, MO and NE. Thanks to everyone for making us feel welcome out here in Little America. 

"Back to the Heartland"

Gooding returns to what the band does best with its Motherland Tour and latest CD

BY G.K. HIZER

WHAT WOULD WILLIE DO?

SXSW part 1- The Sky Eats the Land tour rolls on through Austin for SXSW. The Penske and van and trailer are safe and sound. Sat in Live w/ Micky and the motorcars on guitar, we drank some whisky and Jesse danced. You might of seen Billy riverdance, but I bet you didn’t know Jesse could cut a rug :) It is quite impressive.

Couple days later Micky and I worked on a song called “LONG ROAD TO NOWHERE”. I don’t co-write enough, it was a blast. We grew up with Micky’s drummer Shane Vannerson, a near and dear friend. It’s great to see him rocking and rolling across the countryside. Another colorful character from Micky’s band of gypsies, their soundman Logan. A fan of Poodie Locke, (Willie Nelsons soundman), the boys love the phrase ”No Bad Days”. With that kind of positive energy you can get a lot done.

Let me make a quick mention my respect for Willie- with the exception of smoking weed, I believe lock stock and barrel in everything willie wrote in his fabulous book THE TAO OF WILLIE. Go buy this book- it’s simple, fun and filled with cowboy shaman wisdom.

I drove home after the show with Laura Sisul, a wonderful friend of ours who kindly let us crash with her aunt and uncle, Pete and Betty Golde. Pete and Betty live next door to Michael Dell (Dell computers) and as you can imagine, security is tight in this area. Once while walking the neighborhood, Pete and Betty were stopped by Uzipoint (now that's worse than gunpoint). Reminds me how I would like to be very successful in this life, but to be known as uber rich comes with it's own set of problems. Like Russell Simmons says, the goal is to make a TON of money and give about 95 percent of it away :) Within 2 mins of arriving with our lovely busted up van of 270k miles....A sheriff arrives and puts his brights right in our eyes. These LA and NY licenses don't seem to get you very far here in Tejas. My plea of being a KS boy dosen't mean much since in TX even Kansans are considered Yankees. "TX first, America second...".  I am happy to report that the gear in the trailer is quite safe tonight people and all is well. 

VAN HORN, TX

We rolled through the pitch black Texas night to get here. I10E filled with border patrol and red sodium stoplight security checkpoints. New Mexico’s desert landscape still bleeds into the Western side of this relentlessly large state. Texas First, America second baby. Out of cell range, I listened to a book on tape called “Game Change” about the last election. Nothing says Rock n Roll like a good book on tape.

Jim Madden is like Willie and BB, he refuses to fly,  he will only take a bus. We are told that Madden and Willie both make constant stops right here in Van Horn. A much safer place to park your van and trailer for the night than El Paso (which JR has re-coined “El Death”). The Chuy’s in Van Horn has Madden’s favorite meal on the menu (I’m gonna try for Gooding’s favorite Veggie meal here in South Tejas but the odds are thin). We will get to leave an 8x10 here for the wall even though no one has any idea who these Kansas boys traveling with dogs and cats could possibly be.

Van Horn is the town some of the scenes from “NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN” were filmed in. We are very close to Marfa, TX and on the lookout for air powered cattle guns. Beautiful, desolate country. Plenty of space to dream in. We love and miss you all and we are now only 7 hrs away from the mania that is SXSW.

Do me a solid and cross your fingers for our #1 road dog, friend and confidant, Stoney Langley, who is going through a rough spell in OKC. Stone has stuck with us through thick and think and protected us at God only knows how many shows. We are coming to see you soon Stone…..

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