Lucky Number 7.  And Number 1.

We moved to Number 11 on the Americana Charts after several weeks in the top 10 but our numbers are still strong and hoping we break back in next week.  We’re honored to have been on this chart at all and can’t believe the record is doing so well on so many fronts.  Our internet numbers on Twitter and Facebook are at an all time high, not to mention website hits and whatnot.  Shows are pouring it at an incredible rate and chances are we’ll be in your neck of the woods sooner than you think.

This weekend we’re playing the Mule Barn in Justin Texas on Friday 3/09 at 11:00pm and then heading to the TMR Festival in Parker, Texas on Saturday 3/10 at the South Fork Ranch at 8pm with a whole slew of awesome bands.  TMR is put on by KHYI 95.3 The Range and features Hayes Carll, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Charlie Robison, Whiskey Myers, John David Kent, and Somebody’s Darling, plus a whole bunch more.

We’re doing two showcases in Austin during SXSW, one at Friends on 3/14 for the Oklahoma Film and Music Office’s “Buffalo Lounge” at 12:40pm with lots of our okie friends playing throughout the day.  On Thursday 3/15 we’ll be at Threadgills for the Music Fog showcase at 7:30pm.  Then Friday 3/16 we’re heading to Concan for the Randy Rogers “For the Sake of the Song” Festival, Hitting up Greune Hall for the daytime St. Patrick’s Day show on Saturday 3/17 and then Sunday at the Levee in Longview opening for Shooter Jennings on 3/18.  Check the Shows page for all relevant info and we’ll see you out and about.  Thanks again for all your support, we couldn’t be doing this without all of you out there telling your friends and family about this band.   We appreciate the shit out of it…

Day 1 involved our usual rendezvous at the Quail house, but this time we had an extra special member rolling along to keep our production running smooth.  Our good buddy Jared (who used to run our monitors and front of house sound at the Deli) was kind enough to bring his Ford E-350 and his expertise along for the run, which made it a much more comfortable trip than Dan the Van would have provided…plus we didn’t break down and get stranded anywhere, which probably would have happened had we decided to take Dan anyway.  He’s getting a little shaky and worn out in his high-mileage days but still going strong for the time being.  Not exactly extended-up-north-road-trip strong though.

The driver...man.

This brings me to the members that went on this particular run, which brings me to another point that I’m going to elaborate on first.  As much as I hate it, we’ve been paring down the group when it comes to the long-haul traveling gigs as of late, which consists of stripping down the Quail Philharmonic to a more manageable size while we’re on the road.  It’s not something we’re necessarily happy about, but it’s also something that we can’t do anything about at this point for numerous reasons that I’m not going into here.  Suffice it to say that Biggie, Steve, and Blake are most definitely still a part of this band and will be back on the road with us again as soon as humanly possible.  Until then, our current touring lineup is consisting of Gabriel and myself, Thomas Young on drums, Luke Mullenix on Bass, and Jon Knudson on fiddle, mandolin, keyboards, and dobro.   So if you’re wondering what’s going on, that’s essentially the gist of it.

We headed north for our first show of the run on Wednesday to play what was supposed to be the Last Chance Saloon (a.k.a. Rusty’s…a.k.a. several other names in the previous year for reasons that will soon be clear) in Manhattan, KS.  We rolled into town right on time for load in and soundcheck and were astonished to find that the venue we were playing was “under construction” and “closed til Thursday”.  Hmmm.  That suited us about as fine as a ten dollar suit with no alterations, so Tom went to work getting with CTK (our ever-lovin’ booking agents) to straighten out the sitch.  It turns out there was some mass confusion and we were going to have to find another venue.  Mike and Carrie Krug landed us a gig at a smaller place across the street called “Pat’s Blue Ribbon” (see what they did there?) where we got setup and waited around for some microphones to arrive before we could start soundcheck.  We were all a little shaken up over the events of the previous few hours when something magical happened…via twitter.

Seeing as I am the twitter guy, I served up a couple of tweets about what was going on with the change of venue and where the kind folks that came out to see us could actually get to see us instead of wandering around a bar that was under construction.  As it turns out, the kickass guys in the Josh Abbott Band were playing at Longhorns right up the street, the bar we played at last time we were in Manhattan and also had an eye on the old twitter account.  They saw our conundrum and sent me a direct message on twitter that I actually didn’t end up getting until way after the fact.  Luckily,  @texas_at_heart ran into Josh at the chinese buffet up the way and sauntered herself down to Pat’s Blue Ribbon to inform us that Josh and the fellas had invited us down to Longhorns to play a surprise opening spot to a sold out crowd.  I set Tom about the business of figuring out logistics, packed up my stuff, and hauled it (physically) down the block with the rest of the Quails to prepare for a romp ‘em stomp ‘em short set to a huge room full of folks.  We had no monitors, few mics, and a strong urge towards rock and roll excellence as we ripped through the set.  The crowd dug it and the experience gave us a little taste of what lay in wait for the Chicago and Columbia gigs.

Gabriel and WhiskyDan from the Josh Abbott Band Crew at Longhorns

After our opening set at Longhorns, we packed up (again) and hauled our gear (via trailer, thanks to Jared and his infinite knowledge of planning ahead) back up the street to Pat’s where we caught up with another group of twitter fans and a fairly full bar of folks ready to hear some Damn Quails songs.  It was a great feeling when the best crowd responses came from songs on “Down the Hatch” and we proceeded to give it our all on a system with limited capabilities on a stage that was roughly a third the size of the Deli.  We packed up the trailer (literally packed…we had so much stuff that it was like working a fairly complex Tetris puzzle every time we loaded out…luckily, Jared is the tetris master) and headed off to our place of residence for the night to rest up for the 10 hour drive to Minneapolis the next day.

If it weren’t for Tom and Jared, I would have been a less than happy camper to wake up a mere 4 hours after I closed my lids and have to drive ten hours to Minneapolis.  Luckily, Jared and Tom split driving duties and the rest of us had the luxury of sleeping and/or screwing around all the way to Lee’s Liquor Lounge.   The kind folks at Lee’s were extremely warm and friendly, despite the fairly extreme drop in temperature from the previous night’s gig in Manhattan.  Most of the concert goers were adorned in light sweaters and jackets while those of us in the band were bundled up tighter than that younger brother from that Christmas movie with the Red Rider BB gun and the leg lamp.  Evidently, we lucked out in a supreme fashion as this time last year there was about 4 feet of snow on the ground in Minneapolis.  I got made fun of heartily for my constant “Jesus it’s cold” exclamation by the weather-hardened Minnesotans, not to mention the crew that drove all the way down from Fargo to catch the show.  I’ve determined that @Al_Winmill is our @Amy_Stillwell of the north country…super loyal and a huge fan of the tweet machine.  We played another kick-ass set for a bunch of incredibly attentive show goers and were really impressed with how many folks in Minneapolis and beyond showed up for a band that plays a genre of music that’s almost unheard of up in those parts.  They were ecstatic about the show and the energy showed through in the set.  We’re looking forward to getting back up there as soon as possible, though hopefully it’ll be a little closer to the warmer months next time.

In front of the historic Lee's Liquor Loung in Minneapolis

The crew headed back to our fairly swanky Holiday Inn Express highrise rooms and ended up hanging out until 5am or so, which gave us another night of 3-4 hours of actual bed sleep and made for another day of 4-6 hours of van sleep.  All the gear and suitcases were loaded up and we headed off for the gig we were probably the most excited about to that point…the infamous Joe’s Bar on Weed Street in Chicago, IL.  This marked my first time to see and step foot in the Windy City, which is a place I’ve been wanting to get to every since I first saw the Blues Brothers as a kid.  It was every bit at breathtaking and large as I’d ever imagined it would be, and we all got a sense of childlike wonder as we drove through the fog toward downtown Chicago.  After making our way to our fancy dancy digs at the Hotel Indigo, we enjoyed a cup of coffee, got settled in, and headed down to Joe’s.

Blues uniform as we roll into Chicago

Josh Abbott and the boys were just finishing up soundcheck when we unloaded the trailer into the venue.  Joe’s is a great bar and food destination that also features one of the coolest live performance stages I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing on, not to mention the fact that they had an incredible sound rig.  As musicians, there’s no better way to top off a gig than by having a high-quality and high-octane sound system with a competent engineer to run it.  We had both for this show and we took full advantage of that fact when showtime came around.  Our set was particularly rockin’ that Friday night, due in large part to the sheer amount of people in the crowd and all the energy that was coming back at us throughout the night.  Chicago folks turned out in droves and I even got the chance to hang with a couple of buddies from my college days: Preston Williams and Jonathan Freeman.  Preston was my original live sound engineer and the co-founder of “Using Ellison”, the rock and roll project we worked on together for a few years.  He’s been living in Chicago and begging me to come up for a visit since he moved and it was truly a pleasure to get to hang out with a friend from back home so far away from it.  Joe’s on Weed is one of those places that really takes care of their performing artists and we soaked up the VIP treatment like it was going out of style.  We had a driver and a bunch of free drink tickets, both of which were used for maximum effectiveness.  After Josh Abbott Band rocked the hell out of the crowd, we all retired to the bus for a mandolin/dobro/banjo jam (as all the acoustics had long since been packed) with Austin Davis and Whisky Dan, not to mention most of the other guys in the band.  Once again we stayed up way past our bedtimes and eventually made our way back to the Hotel Indigo for another 3 hours of sleep.

Josh Abbott band on stage at Joe's in Chicago

The last stop of the trip was Columbia, Missouri, home of the Tigers and a whole bunch of red dirt/whatever the hell you want to call us type fans.  The venue was the Blue Note, a remodeled theater that had a huge stage, huge sound rig, and plenty of space for a rabid crowd.  It was a beautiful venue and a really fitting way to wrap up such an awesome run for us.  We even met some more twitter fans out back of the venue as we were loading in and were more than happy to hang out with them as they had driven a pretty substantial way to see us.  I’m forever sold on Twitter and it’s ability to bring folks together in the real world after this run.  It’s nice to know that people actually give a damn about the random ass stuff that I end up putting on there.  Thanks for following and for making it out to see us, you guys are the best.

@trainwreckbeck and @dirt_rd_dreamer behind the Blue Note in Columbia

The Blue Note was about as sold out as it gets and the crowd was intensely interested in the Missouri/Kansas basketball game that they were projecting onto a huge screen that hung directly in front of the stage.  It was an extremely close game that teetered on the verge of Missouri losing to Kansas, one of their biggest rivals.  Had they not come back to win it in the final seconds of the game, the crowd might not have been in such a good mood.  As it happened, the crowd was in an extremely good mood when the final score was posted, a fact that we took full advantage of by kicking into one of the most rockin’ versions of “Midnight Swagger” to date.  The crowd came alive when we all ripped into the tune and we ended up playing our best show of the run for a raucous crowd of Missouri folks that couldn’t have been any happier to be where they were.  We wrapped up with a huge version of “Iceman” and left them wanting more…just like the vaudevillians used to do it.  Josh Abbott Band took the stage and had the crowd eating from the palms of their proverbial hands.  They put on an energy packed show that really got the crowd going and we proceeded to the bar to talk to folks about the band and nab a couple of Jager bombs in celebration of a really good run.

On stage at the Blue Note in Columbia, MO

We can’t thank Josh Abbott Band enough for letting us tag along for a few shows, they truly are some of the nicest guys in the biz that we’ve had the pleasure of hanging out and laughing our asses of with. Keep an eye peeled for some future pairings, we’re looking forward to playing with them again.  Heading back up to Kansas this weekend…make sure and tell your homies.  We’re also up for 3 nominations on the Lonestar Music Awards.  Help us out and click on over to vote for your favorite fowl.

This week has marked yet another milestone in the hopefully long and successful history of our first release.  “Down the Hatch” has finally eeked its way into the Top Ten of the Americana Music Association’s National Chart at Number 9.  When we started our Americana radio promotion, we knew it was going to be a tough market to make waves in due to its size and the sheer amount of talent that lives within it.  If you take a gander at some of the names around us, you start to get a sense of just how big a deal this is as a brand new band as far as the rest of the country is concerned.  Some of our heroes and influences are on this chart and we couldn’t be happier with the way things are moving.  We’ve also seen some substantial increases in the various Texas charts and we’ve made it to the final round in the Texas Regional Radio Awards.  As the Reverend Luke Mullenix would certainly say…”That doesn’t suck”.

We’re leaving tomorrow morning to start our “4 states in 4 days” run that’s going to take us to Kansas, Minnesota, Illinois, and Missouri over the course of the rest of the week.  We’re kicking off the run with a few headline shows, the first at Last Chance Saloon in Manhattan, Kansas on Wednesday night, then heading up to Minneapolis to Lee’s Liquor Lounge to party with the Minnesotans.  I’ve gotten more Twitter activity about the Lee’s show than any other gig on this particular trek and we’re really looking forward to hanging out up there.  Troopers those Minnesotans.

Friday night we’re off to the Windy City itself to play the infamous Joe’s Bar on Weed Street to open up for the Josh Abbott Band.  It’ll be our first time to play Chicago and we can’t wait to experience it, not to mention we’ll get to hang with some of our fellow Okies that have transplanted themselves up north.  Then we’re following Josh and the boys down to Columbia, Missouri to open for them at the Blue Note.  We’ve been looking forward to these two shows in particular and we can’t wait for the chance to make some new fans and friends along the way.

Keep an eye out for some upcoming blog posts and keep an eye on the twitter feed if you want to see what it’s like in the van.  If you follow @thedamnquails then you can select lists and get access to each individual members twitter feed.  We’re kind of nuts…see you at the show!

–Bryon

Bryon

Click the link to vote! http://trrma.texasregionalradio.com/voting.asp

If you’ve been waiting for your chance to catch us live, you should probably scope out the “Shows” section of the website ASAP because it’s highly likely we’ll be coming to your town or somewhere close by in the next few months.  We’ve got a couple of really big shows in Oklahoma this weekend, starting with a headliner spot at Eskimo Joe’s in Stillwater on Friday night.  Joe’s has always been the stuff of red dirt legend ’round these parts and we couldn’t be happier to finally get a chance to take that stage and make our very own scuff marks across it.  Our wickedly talented drummer Thomas Young isn’t going to make it, so we asked our longtime compadre and resident badass Giovanni Carnuccio III (or Nooch as you might know him) to sit in for the night.  Nooch has played the skins for a whole lot of amazing bands including Mama Sweet and the Turnpike Troubadours and was our first official unofficial drummer.  It’s always a pleasure to look back and see Nooch’s smiling face behind the kit and the show promises to be a rockin’ good time.

Saturday night we’ll be heading back to the Wormy Dog in Bricktown, OKC to open up for Cody Canada and the Departed.  “This is Indian Land” has a lot of tunes written by some really good friends of ours, including Tiny Tom Skinner and Greg Jacobs and I can’t wait to watch these guys rock and roll.  We’ll also be filming some of the set, so come get some camera time and make sure you holler extra loud.

In case you missed this little piece of news, we’ve had to shuffle around our Riverton, IL date as we’ve been invited to open two shows for the Josh Abbott Band.  Apologies to you folks in Riverton, we’ll be back around before you know it and we appreciate you being so understanding.  Our first date with Josh Abbott Band is at Joe’s Bar in Chicago, IL on February 3rd and we’re following them on to Columbia, MO on February 4th.  If you’re in the area or have some friends and family around, please spread the word of the Damn Quails gospel of rock and roll.

As far as the record goes, good news continues to pour in from all across the globe on a daily basis and we’re all in a bit of disbelief as to just how fast our album is moving. “Fool’s Gold” is the little song that could and our accolades and chart movement have been turning heads in a “where the hell did these guys come from?” kind of way.  This week marked our debut on the Texas Music Chart at #35.  We also took a massive jump on the Texas Regional Radio Report from #59 to #31 and had a ton of new station adds across the region.  But that’s not all…

The fact that our music isn’t necessarily genre specific has always been one of our greatest strengths as far as I’m concerned.  The red dirt genre is host to some incredibly talented performers and bands,  but we’ve always been a little more rootsy than your typical red dirt band.  Gabriel and I have both been playing in the americana/singer-songwriter circle for years and it’s easy to hear the effects of that influence once you give the record a listen.  That’s one of the reasons that our Americana radio promotion has been doing so well.  As of this past week, “Down the Hatch” has just reached the #12 spot on the National Americana Music Association charts on our second week!  It’s a pretty incredible achievement for us and we couldn’t be more thrilled at all the airplay we’ve been getting across the country.  Thanks to everyone for requesting the songs, making the calls, and spreading the word like wildfire about our music.  We have the greatest job in the world and we couldn’t do it without all of you.

Keep an eye on the website for new shows as they’re being added at a breakneck pace.  Make sure you follow us on twitter if you’re the kind of guy or gal that likes to know the random ridiculousness that our day usually entails.  The twitlist is as follows…@thedamnquails (Official Twitter Page/Bryon) @gabe_marshall (Gabriel) @jonknutz (Jon Knudson)  @maddrummer1976 (Tom Young) @oujazzman (Steve Baker) @lukemullenix @blakelennon

See you at the show.

-Bryon

That’s right folks. The Damn Quails Philharmonic will be taking over the stage at Wormy Dog this Saturday night for your listening and viewing pleasure. It’s $7 at the door or $5 in advance at http://www.wormydog.com if you want to get a jump on the line. We’ve all been looking forward to this show for a long time and the fact that we’re able to headline at such a badass establishment is truly an accomplishment in our book.

We’ll be back at the Wormy Dog on Jan. 21st to open up for Cody Canada and the Departed, so make sure you mark that date as well. It promises to be a killer time and can’t wait to share a stage with one of the biggest red dirt bands in the nation. Thanks so much for all the love and support for the music we’re making, we couldn’t do it without each and every one of you. See you this weekend!

Red Leader and Blue Leader at the helm

We loaded up the ride with all manner of cables, speakers, instruments, travel bags, laptop, and a cross for good measure and headed towards Tulsa for the kickoff show at the Hunt Club just down from the Cains Ballroom.  It’s been a personal goal of all of ours to take the stage at the Cains and Biggie and I got a little wistful being so close to the house that Bob built and not being able to rock that mother, but the Hunt Club was a really cool spot to kick off this particular run.  There weren’t a whole lot of people there as it was a Wednesday night but we made the most of it and ended up hanging out with Scott Aycock (of the Folk Salad radio show) and Gary Hizer, a reporter from the Urban Tulsa Weekly that recently did a story on us about the time of the Mercury Lounge show a few weeks back.   We ended up unplugging for the last set and posting up at the bar for some true acoustic performances and a couple of Jager bombs for good measure.  We loaded up and proceeded to look for the cheapest hotel that money could buy that was also in some sort of proximity to a Waffle House.  We ended up at the Gateway Inn, which was surprisingly comfortable considering the price tag and the exterior appearance that was oddly reminiscent of the old Bates Motel.  I distinctly remember requesting a 9:30am wakeup call that never came, but luckily I only slept through my phone alarm for an hour before we had to high tail it up to Pittsburg, KS for a couple of in studios with our captain and compatriot Mike McClure.

McClure and Gabriel at KTST in PIttsburg

After fighting Gabriel’s GPS tooth and nail for the next few hours, we pulled up to KTST right about on time and sauntered in looking like hammered shit in front of the dj and the receptionist, both of whom looked pretty straight laced when compared to us…although this is usually the case with anyone.  Mac showed up a few minutes later wearing a long coat and some rubber boots that made me pretty sure his actual father was the Gorton’s fisherman.  After discussing gospel music and the state of the red dirt union, Biggie let fly with a pretty impressive stream of vomit in the parking lot and we proceeded to try and follow Mac to KKOW for the next stop on our press run.  Between there, we ended up going about 3 miles out of the way in the wrong direction before turning around and turning around again.  It was like trying to follow a mental patient to an ice cream shop until we eventually took the point and found a straight shot to the station.   The guys at KKOW were a little rougher around the edges, which fit in perfectly with our hung over asses.  We loaded up and headed on towards Joplin for the gig at Crazy Town later that night.

Pretty much sums it up.

Crazytown reminds me of a slightly road-housier Deli with a genuine dance floor and a couple of pool tables in the back, not to mention one of the kindest and most welcoming staffs we’ve had the pleasure of playing for.  We did a quick soundcheck and retired to the comforts of the Fairfield Inn, a welcome change from our previous nights accommodations at the Gateway Inn.  There was even a hottub which I took full advantage of and had a nice pre show soak with Waldo, who evidently had the same idea I did.  We shot the shit in the whirlpool for a half hour or so and I headed up to the room to shower and get ready for the night.  We had a really great bunch of people show up early enough to catch our set and the place was good and rockin’ by our last few songs.

That's not Waldo...It's McClure

Crazy Town is the kind of place that fits square in between the Deli and the Wormy Dog:  Big enough to fit a rock and rollin’ crowd and smokey enough to remind us of home.  This was our first chance to really witness the “well oiled machine” (as Skinner calls it) of the Mike McClure Band in action.   Let me do the tangent thing here for a moment…

Lower Middle Class from Gilmores Barefoot Bar and Grill in El Reno...home base.

A few years back (about the time of the Fools Gold incident/fiasco) I was playing music with a pretty rockin’ Red Dirt group called Lower Middle Class.  And we were.  LMC was composed of a rotating number and cast of players that made gigs when they could and included some of the coolest guys and musicians I’ve had the pleasure of taking the stage with.  Among said members were Travis and Nick Lyon (of the Dead Armadillos), JD Casteel (my brother), Terry Floyd (my other brother), Zac Wiederstein, and Joel Mosman, all really standup guys that still play music in one capacity or another.  They saw me at my highest and lowest and didn’t hold it against me when things went bad, even though they had a right to.  We played a whole bunch of honky tonks and smokey bars from here to Goodland, Kansas and back and always had a helluva time.  Between Terry and Zach, they had a pretty good number of original tunes written over the span of a decade or more in a tiny house in Nowhere, Texas and a few other stops along the way.  We practiced at a roller skating rink in Alva, OK once a month or so and had amassed a pretty impressive list of tunes by the time I started playing with them regularly.  My favorite thing about LMC and my role within the group was the fact that I 1) was not the lead vocalist 2) was not the main writer, and 3) was allowed to play some pretty blistering lead guitar and sing harmonies.  I love being a frontman or co-frontman or whatever the hell I am, but sometimes it’s nice not having any real responsibility for the direction of a tune in a live setting.  It was like getting to ride a wave for 3 hours and play furiously and fast over the top of it, all the while throwing my guitar around like an idiot while simultaneously perfecting my not-quite-infamous right hand swoop move.  It’s nice to be able to lose yourself in music without feeling like you have to be on point and keep the song flowing, which also happens to be one of the things I love most about the Damn Quails setup.  I spend half the night as a lead guitar player/harmony singer and half the night as a front man…totally the best of both worlds.  But I digress.

Zac and Terry were both huge fans of The Great Divide in general and Mike McClure specifically.  I remember learning several Mac tunes when I joined the band and they were always highlights of the gigs as we tried to rock them just as hard as he would have had he been in a band that covered his own material.  We were fast and furious, and way better than any of those movies.  Needless to say, it’s been an odd and incredible experience getting to hang out with the real deal, and this trip was the first time we’ve actually spent on the road with Mac and the boys.  It was every bit as wacky and zany as you might expect from the Boohatcher.  We were using our typical acoustic setup of Gabriel, Biggie, and myself this night as we had a few acoustic shows (the first in Tulsa at the Hunt Club, the first show of this run, the second being Hooligans Icehouse in Nixa, MO, the last show of the run) and didn’t have the resources to bring the full band out.  So what do we do with these lemons?  We made Arnold Palmers with some ice tea we found.  We called Mac up for a cool rendition of Graceful Swan Dive (the tune we co-wrote with McClure during the mastering of “Down the Hatch”) to rave review and then something magical happened…McClure sat down on Waldo’s drum throne and proceeded to sit in on 3 tunes with us.  Our role model and personal hero Tom Skinner hopped up on bass and we closed off the set with a bang.  Skinner actually swapped McClure on the last song, which marked the first time Tiny had ever played drums in front of anyone.  He rocked it.  They both did.  It was odd, but cool as shit.

Skinner on Drums...Mac on Bass

MMB kicked off the set with a bang (as per usual) and made it about 4 songs before we couldn’t take it anymore and hopped up on stage to play some guitar, sing some harmony, and let Biggie go to town on some harp solos.  My time in LMC came in real handy and we proceeded to rock and roll all night long…with partying everyday to follow.  “Wild Child” was always a personal favorite of mine to play and it also happens to be right in the top of my harmony range, which makes it real fun to belt.  There’s a vid you can watch here…I still can’t embed video for some damn reason.  So click it.  It’s definitely not a link to spam or a free penis pump offer or anything like that.  Trust me.  Do it.  Go ahead…click on there.  Click that little link right there and make daddy some cash.  Acai Berry cash.

Just kidding.  It really was the link to the Youtube vid.  Hope you enjoyed it.  After we wrapped up the show and loaded out, mine and Biggie’s night was really just beginning.  If you’ve never heard of the Hornet Spook Light, check out the Wiki page and prepare to be thoroughly creeped out.  Biggie hit up the dude at the Fairfield Inn front desk and asked him if he’d heard of it.  His response, like a few of the others we got at the bar to the same question, was “Yep.  Saw it when I was a kid.”  He was kind enough to print us off directions and we were pleasantly surprised to learn it was only about a 20 minute drive from the hotel.  We hit up the gas station just in time to buy Biggie a fifth of Popov’s (which was incredible news for Biggie as we can’t get liquor in Oklahoma past 9pm and only at liquor stores.  It was 1:ooam and we were in a gas station) and followed the directions way the hell outside of town and almost to the Oklahoma border.  We made our way to the Devil’s Promenade, a four mile stretch of only recently paved road that is home to trees, rodents, some cows, and the Hornet Spooklight.  Friends, I can tell you that I keep an open mind when it comes to the unexplained but have never actually witnessed anything that couldn’t be explained by my own paranoia or my mind playing tricks on me.  I was prepared to spend about 30 minutes driving around in the dark and leaving disappointed because I’d just wasted 30 minutes of my life I would never get back.  When we topped the hill about a mile into the Devil’s Promenade, we saw a dancing amber-colored light about a quarter of a mile down the road that looked oddly similar to someone walking through the dark with an oil lantern.  It got bright, then blinked out, then appeared on the other side of the road, then blinked out, and hovered around the roadway while Biggie and I tried to contain a frenzy of “that’s totally real!!! what the hell is that??? Do you still see it???” It was insane.  We drove up on it and it vanished, but would always re-appear over the next hill until we got within 200 feet or so of it.  About the second drive through the promenade,  we got a call from Skinner saying that he’d been hearing about said spooklight since he was a kid and wouldn’t mind taking a gander with his own two eyes.  We rolled back to the hotel and picked up he and Gabriel and drove back out to watch the spooklight.  It came back.  It actually chased us down the road.  This adventure prompted Skinner to propose a new hit reality TV show idea (ahem…networks…ahem….) Red Dirt Rockin’ Ghost Hunters, a show in which we travel around, play gigs, and go root up ghosts afterward.  I’d watch it…

Well…2400 words is a bit much, so I’m going to break this one up into two parts.  Sheesh.  A lot happened on this trip, and for some reason I feel the need to tell you every damn detail about this trip.  It was a helluva time and we’re lucky as hell to be out and doing what we love to do.  We met a whole bunch of new fans from internet land, especially Twitter (GET ONE) and are really thankful to all the venues, fans, bartenders, hotel front desk Spooklight direction givers, Mac, Skinner, Waldo, and everyone else that made it such a blast in Missouri.  Stay tuned for nights 3 and 4…both were doozies.

Breakfast on the go from Jimmy and Sarah. Thanks guys!

We headed on to Mansfield for Justin Frazell’s Red Dirt Country Roads, a live show syndicated to stations all over the country.  The gig was set up as a songswap, our own personal favorite and exactly the kind of shows we got our start playing.  Joining us on the show was Bo Phillips, Jake Grider, and Wade Bowen.  We got a chance to hang out with all of these guys and there wasn’t a sour apple among them.  Bo and I got to swap some “i used to be the fat kid” jokes, not to mention wolf down some of the most fantastic pecan brittle/toffee conglomeration that I’ve ever put in my mouth.  Everyone was extremely kind to us new kids on the block and we felt right at home on the show.  Special thanks to everyone that made it out, caught us on the radio, or streamed it via the web.  It was an incredible feeling getting to share a stage with some other artists that have been working the scene for a while and we were honored and excited to be in such good company.

Yes sir...that's me next to Wade Bowen during the Justin Frazell show

We spent a few days at home and packed up a paired down full band version for the Blue Santa Jam at Peckerheads on 6th in Austin.  We kicked off the show to an enthusiastic group of folks and had a helluva time opening up such a talent-packed bill that included everyone from the Dirty River Boys to Brandon Jenkins to Randy Rogers to Midnight River Choir to Hayes Carll and everyone in between.  Sons of Fathers was a real treat to see as well, been hearing a little about these guys and I must say they put on a great show.  It was also pretty incredible to finally meet the one and only queen of curses, the Rawhide Velveteen herself, Mrs. Rita Ballou and her hubby Ike Turner Ballou (interweb name that is).  Rita has been a doll to us since we started making our way on the Texas scene and I must confess I felt a little giddy getting to actually speak with her in person as opposed to tweets and facebook messages and skype interviews.  She was a real sweetheart and totally undeserving of the folks that call her a cuntbag and twatwaffle all over the net.  She does speak her mind, which pisses of a lot of folks, but definitely not we Damn Quails.  I’m a firm believer that the people that can’t take a joke are the people that should be made fun of the most and it seems like a saying that might be hanging in her kitchen somewhere.  She got up after our set and presented us with our Roadie award for Best Newish Artist that you kind folks helped us out so much in taking home.  We were really glad to be nominated and even happier to have won after being put up against some pretty heavy new artists, any one of which would have been totally deserving of the prize.

Tom, Gabriel, Biggie, and Nino from the Dirty River Boys. Short guys unite...

After the Peckerheads show, I took a much needed break for a few days in South Texas to clear my head and get a temporary reprieve from my Twitter addiction.  I ended up back on stage with Gabriel and John Knudson (@jonknutz for all you twitter patterers) for a live webcast from Threadgills in Austin on Jessie Scott’s Schoolnight Sessions.  Jessie has been a dear to us since we played Threadgills the first time a few months back.  She’s a sassy gal with a ton of stories and it’s always a pleasure to get to hang out with her.  The performance that night was very solid and an interesting change up from our various incarnations of the band.  It was the first time we’ve done a 3 piece with Knuts filling out the third part as Biggie was working off a pretty good hangover from the night before.  The man is a beast of a multi-instrumentalist and he delivered one of the most killer performances I’ve witnessed from him to date.  Tasty, solid, and totally in the groove.  The webcast went out world wide in HD and ended up being one of the coolest shows we’ve played so far.

Knuts at Threadgills...complete with faux glasses

I’m working on the blog from this past weekend, which promises to be a doozie after all the insanity that we got ourselves into with the Mike McClure Band.  There was rock and roll, hotel fiasco’s, some ghost hunting, and debauchery by the handful.  Thanks for reading and keeping up with us, and especially thanks for making us one of the most talked about bands around right now.   We’ve had so much great news pouring in that I can barely keep up with posting it.  One of the most notable accomplishments to date was our debut on the National Americana Music Association chart at #26, one spot above the new Willie Nelson album.  We’ve also confirmed that we’ll be opening for Robert Earl Keen in April at Stubb’s in Austin for the Lonestar Crawfish Boil benefit concert.  More details to come, so keep and eye out and we’ll see you at the show.

Wednesday Night at the Hunt Club in Tulsa, OK at 9:30pm (No McClure at this gig)

Thursday Night at Crazy Town in Joplin, MO at 8pm

Friday Night at Otis Campbell’s in Washington, MO at 8pm

Saturday Night at Nixa, MO at Hooligan’s Icehouse at 7pm (No McClure here either, he’s off to the Red Dirt Rangers Christmas show at the Cains)

So, if you know some folks in and around these parts, feel free to let them know where we’ll be or come on out yourself.  We’ve had an intense amount of really good news coming our way this week.  There’s links to a few new reviews and articles on our facebook page, so be sure and check ‘em out if you get the urge.  On our way into Missouri, we’ll be stopping in Pittsburgh, KS for a few in-studio performances at KHST 101.7FM at 1:30pm and another at KKOW the Cow 96.9FM at 2:15pm.  Listen in if you’re able, hope to see you guys at the show.  I know we’ve got some new twitter fans that are coming out, so make sure you introduce yourselves and have a drink or two with us.  Looking forward to it, you guys keep an eye on the social networks and we’ll see you at the show.

–Bryon