Rennie Neubecker: News & Updates

Man, theres so much to talk about but so little time at the moment. About 1/2 way through the bath remodel & its takin its toll on me, my time & my practice time. Gotta get it done, gotta get it done, gotta get it......

We have 2 big fund raiser concerts coming up for Almira Fawn, who you know, her mom,Umi, was murdered in June.August 3rd at the KY Theater & August 8th at Busters. Go to my calender to learn more about these 2 events that will raise money for Almira's continuing education. As mentioned before I knew Umi personally & this was & remains a heart wrenching ordeal for myself & those who knew her. I enjoyed my time working with Almira on stage as well as some practice & brainstorming sessions.

 The chemo seems to be working for my wifes cancer, but she is not out of the woods just yet.

 I wanna tell you that our July 3rd LexJam II Unplugged was as always a great event & a lot of fun & even saw the return of D.J. Crowe for a few songs. Nice crowd, Diverse crowd. There will be pics posted at the LexJam website as soon as I get them over to Mark.

will soon have a date for that late summer "Jamily Reunion" at Goshins Tavern, so I'll keep you posted on that as soon as the date is etched in stone.

This Monday night, my friend Tony Doolin of the "Americana Carnival" will be at Natashas to celebrate the fact that the Americana Carnival" is now syndicated. Thats just cool stuff & I want to try to help him add a few radio stations to his list. Hankerin for Hank will be playing from 9:00pm til 1:00am. They are (as the name might hint), a Hank Sr. cover band.

 Like I said so much to talk about, thats why I just briefly touched on some of the bigger things going on in the very near future & I'll update as time permits. Pleas wish me luck on gatting this bath project done & hope to see you soon.

Gotta Run,

Rennie

 

  Now to wrap it up. Sometimes it's hard to keep your thinking cap on straight. You might be preoccupied, busy,multitasking,distracted,sidetracked,interrupted, or all of the above. When you are setting up equipment,Tweaking sound, rotating artists,thinking about your next set, taking pictures, greeting people, schmoozing & directing, you might not have said thinking cap on properly. There are a lot of things that are going through my mind when I host LexJam II Unplugged. All those I just mentioned & maybe one or two more I have forgot. So you are likely wondering where I'm going with this. Well, its leading up to an important apology. During all this activity on Saturday I failed epically in recognizing something I was supposed to do. No it's not one of those things I was told to do, rather it was something that should have naturally occurred to me.

 Tammy McKinley handed a paper to me with the thoughts of her husband Mark, on the recent death of Umi Southworth. These were a few kind words on Mark's personal thought's on Umi & Almira & how they tied into this particular LexJam II session. Why did I not read it right then & there is beyond me. I should have read it while I was in front of the microphone but I didn't. Shame on me for sure. So here is where I want to give my heartfelt apology to Tammy & Mark both. I truly am sorry I did not read this to the people assembled in the food court. My being distracted is no excuse. I should have adjusted that thinking cap I mentioned earlier. I will now post Mark's words here & Mark my friend you should post it at the LexJam site too. This is what Mark had to say:

*In Memory*

  "Almira Fawn stole my heart the first time I heard her perform. That was nearly two years ago. I was amazed by this little girl with such an outgoing personality and so much talent. Almira puts so much into her music and songwriting-she's a natural. Almira draws inspiration from everything around her. She can turn an extremely ordinary, everyday event, into a lyrical composition that puts a grin on your face And make you feel good. She can also write a song that will make you think much deeper about a situation. I mention these things because Almira had a great support system behind her that gently guided her and looked out after her best interests. Umi Southworth was that wonderful support system - she loved her daughter and wanted only the best for Almira.

 I never had the opportunity to really know Umi Southworth. I had met Umi at a LexJam session a couple of years ago. She sat quietly on the sidelines while Almira performed - I spoke to her after the show. Several months later, I met Umi Southworth again at a WoodSongs show. A beautiful smile covered Umi's face as she turned toward Almira and said that's the photographer at LexJam! I smiled and thought to myself...no, I'm just another huge fan of Almira!!!

 Umi Southworths daughter immediately stole our hearts, and those who knew Umi considered her a dear friend. Last week out hearts were shattered when we heard the news of Umi Southworth's death. We must now seek comfort for our troubled hearts - one place comfort can be found is in the knowledge that Umi Southworth's spirit will live on through Almira and her friends.

 This is what today's very special LexJam is all about - lifting up Umi' Southworth's spirit and honoring this special person that enriched our lives and our community. We also express our support to Almira by being here to honor her mother. Almira will need her friends now more than ever before.

 Today is a celebration in music...let your music and words soar through the clouds in sweet refrain...may your notes & voices surrond Umi Southworth."

Mark McKinley

 Well said Mark. Kind words from a kind person. So there you have it. Please be sure to check out my photo gallery as I have posted some pics of Saturday her. To see some even better shots of Saturdays performances please visit the LexJam website. Tammy took the pics at this session & I believe Mark did the editing & posting.

 Look around my site and see all the things I have updated.

 The next LexJam II is next Saturday for "Red, White & Boom". Hope to see yo there. Keep checking back to see whats going on with me or the many musicians I work with.

 Till next time keep picking & don't forget to feed & water your banjo player.

 

Rennie

Ok I left off yesterday talking about UMI SOUTHWORTH & I believe I have covered that subject enough 'cept to say, There are other (somewhat)disturbing facets to this story that I won't go into here and if anything, Umi's death has brought change to the way our police & first responders handle these type of cases in the future. They now have to call Fire and/or EMT immediately in such cases.
on to some lighter news (sorta) The June edition of LexJam II Unplugged, was held in memory of Umi Southworth & we had a lot of fine musicians come out to play & half of these were Almira's friends & lesson mates. Tammy McKinley took an incredible bunch of nice pictures & Her & hubby Mark worked hard getting them posted to the LexJam website in short fashion. We also made the news Saturday evening & I want to personally extend a thank you to Janice Park of WLEX18 for covering this event in honor of Umi & bringing a little bit of awareness to LexJam II Unplugged.We had a nice turn out of musicians for this special edition of LexJam II, including a lot of Almira's lesson mates. I just really gotta say that David McLean & Paul Felice know how to bring out the talent in the young people & with teachers like these two, the future of music is safe & sound. As always, thanks guys for sending your students my way. Having said that, I think this is a good opportunity to tell you all who came out to play:
Serena Hutchens
Julia Knight
Slade Warnken
Stephen Weller
Dick & Shirley Hudson
Brian Powers
John Forgy
David Harrod
Steve "Fuzzy" Knopka
Kellett Babb & her friend Joyce
Oh, and of course yours truly.
A dozen musicians makes for a fine afternoon of great music. I thank each & every one of you for you part in continuing to make LexJam II a successful endeavor. Something that was really cool that afternoon was having Serena play violin to back up Joyce & Kellett on their version of Amazing Grace. Priceless! Also, to see the looks on the faces of the unwary folks making their way through the food court area, when they see kids like Julia & Slade just totally rockin it. Especially when ther doing their original material. Again, priceless stuff.
I also want to thank Steve Kelly & Central Bank for allowing us to be an official drop off point for the "Umi Southworth Memorial Educational Fund". With a late donation on Monday in the name of LexJam II, we collected just shy of $300.00 for this cause. PLEASE remember that ANY location of CENTRAL BANK, will accept donations to this fund. Please give generously.
Also a shout out to the following for supporting LexJam II Unplugged & Live music in general:
Goshins Tavern 1801 Alexandria Dr. Best cheeseburger on the west side of Lexington.
WUKY 93.1 FM Catch the Americana Carnival on Saturdays @ 4:00 pm.
Michael Jonathan of Woodsongs Old Time Radio Hour for his support of this special edition of LexJam II Unplugged.
The Lexington Center for having us & the great crew that do so much to help us.
The Doo Wop shop, for letting us put up posters & otherwise supporting us.
The Meadowthorp Neighborhood Asso. For the Candle light vigil for Umi.
WRFL 88.1 FM for the plugs and all the awesome programming. And! DID you hear/ WRFL is now broadcasting at a full 7900 watts up from 250 watts. Now all you good folks in surrounding towns can pick it up "all the way to the left on your radio dial. Of course of your out of range you can still get it via the web. www.wrfl.fm.
And last, but in no way least, Graddy Johnson & HillBilly Graphics for the awesome poster to use as a backdrop for the occasion.Someday this poster will go to Almira.
So there it was. A great afternoon, great music & a great tribute to Umi Southworth. But wait....Theres more & that will come tomorrow as I apologize to someone about something I overlooked on Saturday & other morsels in 'part 3" tomorrow.

Peace out for now,

(to be cont.)

Well its been just a lil while since I last updated the news page and after my last post, you know why. So I'll start off by saying that The chemo I talked about in the last update seems to be working. That's the news we received from the Dr. last week & this was very welcome news indeed.
A lot of things have been going on this spring as you know. I am still in a holding pattern on my record and will probably wait til early fall to get back into the studio. Of course this depends on how my wife continues with cancer treatment, but should be able to sneak some recording in here & there. This has given me opportunity to write new stuff & really tweak some of the older stuff that is going on this record. So maybe that thing about silver linings & clouds, is right after all.
The MAY 22nd session was a nice comfy session held outside in really nice weather. We heralded the return of Dick Hudson, one of our charter members, who with his wife Shirley helped get this whole Acoustic version of LexJam of the ground some three odd years ago. We almost lost Grover's attendance that day due to a parking snafu up in the main lot. The guard didn't know that LexJammers park free. We were able to fix it in time to have Grover come back & join us. Of course not until he went home & mowed his yard. See there is that silver lining thing again. This time it worked in Grovers favor. Grover has his new racord out now called WALLS & DOORS, and I think you will really like it. I do. You can sample (then) buy this Cd at his website www.groversmusic.com. You can find the Just Me CD there too. And Grover has put some of his Live unedited recordings up for your enjoyment. Stop by and say Hi to Grover on his guest book.
The pics from the May session are posted at the LexJam website. www.lexjam.com. Be sure to tell the site administrators at the LexJam site you LOVE their work.
Between the May & June LexJam II Unplugged sessions, we had a very unfortunate turn of events in the accelerating career of Almira Fawn.
Almiras mother UMI was found in the fence row behind their apartment badly beaten & given up for dead. To add insult to injury the local police just figured she was dead & left her lay there for 5 hours. The coroner wasn't called for several hours, then even HE didn't decide to check her for another 2 hours. When he DID check her he determined she was still alive! Now who knows maybe she would have made it, maybe not. BUT! The first thing you would think a first responder would do would be to check for vitals, or call in the EMT's & let them decide. The thing that really pi**ed me off over the whole thing was when the officer said on the news camera that (and I quote), "Its not our job to determine if some one is dead or alive". What a bunch of B.S. Seems like they DID make that determination by assuming she was dead & leaving her there for 5 hours.
Now I know there are some who say,"well she was already probably brain dead, so it wouldn't have made a difference anyway.BUT, whose to say. You hear all the time about people who should have been way past dead, but some how made a miraculous recovery & lived on to tell their story.
Anyway this was a painful ordeal for a lot of people who knew Umi, and she will be missed. There was a candle light vigil held the following week in the feild behind where she was found & 250-300 people attended. Its was a sad occasion, but I'm glad I was able to address the crowd for a few minutes & share some of my memories of this young lady & her daughter. Rest In Peace Umi, "We barely knew ye".
(to be continued)

Ok. I know people have been wondering besides LexJam II Unplugged, where I have been hiding. Did I start my next record, etc. Well yes I did start my next record did some recording in November & again in January,BUT. My wife was having some problems & not feeling well throughout the fall & winter, and began losing a lot of weight. After many tests & a lot of Dr. visits, we found out in April that she has cancer. A rare form of gastric cancer called Linitis Plastica. This is an aggressive cancer & it sux!
she will start chemo very soon & we have vowed to beat this thing. These events of course have changed my recording schedule & I will record & track the other musicians as I can schedule it all depending on how the chemotherapy pans out. So this will once again delay the release of the upcoming CD, but it WILL happen at some point. I will try to keep you informed & updated as things progress throughout the spring & summer.
I have all intentions of running LexJam II Unplugged on a normal schedule & hope to get as much support & attendance as possible to further enhance the live music opportunity & experience in Lexington. My live gigs may be scarce for the time being but I believe you will all understand. All thoughts & prayers are welcomed & encouraged.

Tammy & Mark McKinley have posted the pics from the April session of LJ II Unp, and I wanna thank Tammy for the awesome job getting quality pictures. I have requested curtains for the sides of the stage & our good friend Caroline Puterbaugh has obliged us. I think this has definitely helped with sound (transient highs are a bear in Lexington Center), & I know by looking at the pics from April they help with a more professional look as far as the photos are concerned. So please go to www.lexjam.com & check out the latest pics & other news.
Coming up this Saturday May 8th, is LexJam I at Natashas. Go down & check it out.

Please remember That our good friend Mylinda Dockery is implementing a new program at The Music Institute of Lexington known as the Garage Band Course. Both forms of LexJam will be used for live performance locations for musicians enrolled in this course. The live performance parts of this course will place you in the proper LexJam session, depending on your style of music. This is a mentoring program as well as channel for those in bands that want to take their craft to the next level. Both LexJam's are also an excellent place to hook up with other musicians. So if you have your band partially started but need something to round it out (Guitarists, percussionists, bassplayers, keyboards, etc., then this is a good place to look. Enrollment forms will also be available at each form of LexJam and can be found at the LexJam website & all the information for this and other music courses can be found at www.musicforlexington.org.

This Months edition of LexJam II Unplugged will be held on MAY 22nd.
1to 5pm @ Lexington Center I'll stop here but try to keep the updates coming in a timely fashion. I wanna give my opinion on the Tascam DR-07 I bought and how good this lil guy works. So I'll save that for the next time.

Rennie

Man Oh man. We now are into our third (can ya believe it) year of LexJam II Unplugged herein after referred to as LJ II Unp.,and it is wonderful to report that we had the best season opener yet. Yea I know its only our Third (did I say that already) season. but the number of musicians was outstanding. Normally The February LJ II Unp. will net 3-5 musicians including your humble host, but this year we had like a dozen or so. I don't know but I think sometimes I might be one of the luckiest people alive. I get to hear a lot of great music every month that most people wont get a chance to hear, unless of course they come down to LJ II Unp. Now, yes, You can hear a lot of these musicians out on the town, which is a good thing because that means you are supporting live music, but I'm talking on a larger scale, a larger audience. I get to hear all these musicians playing their original music, and it just keeps getting better. There are so many indie artists out there and some of the finest make it to LJ II Unp. Unfortunately there are a few people out there that still don’t get it. Fear of the unknown I guess.
For example, I have a buddy that always says ,"hey cant we hear some "Dust in the Wind'? And I say,"yes we can & most likely will, but why"? Yes we'll hear some cover tunes, and I'm in no way bashing Kansas, or any other mainstream artists', I like Kansas, but you can turn on any classic rock radio station & hear "Dust in the Wind', etc. I keep trying to impress on my friend that there is Soooo much good music out there,(that can't be heard on mainstream radio, just yet),just as good as the ol "Dust in the Wind', some even better, that you are cheating yourself by not looking for the indie & singer/songwriter stuff that is out there. And that is one of the main points of LJ II Unp. to bring you really good kickin tunes that you might not hear anywhere else. I say "might not", 'cause we all [as artists] hope to get some air time somewhere. And if you pay attention you just might here it out there somewhere. I know I get a charge when I hear something I've written on the airwaves. So yes, you will hear a balance of mainstream acoustic music but you will also hear some really good original stuff and the only place to get such a variety is at one of the LexJam sessions. Or on WRFL 88.1 FM. But I digress.
SO what do we have to report about on such a neat event?
We will start with the all important kudos to the folks who do so much to help produce LJ II Unplugged. In the order they fell in of course. First off Grover Mollineaux and Steve Knopka, AKA FUZZY. Thanks for the help getting set up & especially your ears in getting the sound tweaked in as we know it a challenge getting the board set in the environs of Lexington Center. Also want to give a big thanks to Steve (again), & Rich Coffield for all the help doing tear down. Its a big job for one person but only takes 'bout a half hour when you have three guys doing it. Good job men.
Ok, now instead of trying to break down every set every musician played, I will let you know who they were & say a few kind words about them. Not to mention the fact that I have been trying to get this update done for 2 1/2 weeks now, 5 or 6 sentences a day!
First we will start off with Grover. Grover always brings a lot of original easy listening music to our stage & has 1 CD out (Just Me)& working on the 2nd. Everybody loves Grover & you can find more @ www.groversmusic.com.
Of course Fuzzy, was there to back EVERYBODY up with his skillful harp playing. We always encourage Fuzzy to join us and look forward to seeing him pop up in various music venues around town.
Ok as has been the pattern Donovan "Big D" Howard showed up for the first LJ II UNP of the year to play some of his original country/folksy/gospely songs, cover a few tunes & back up our next to be mentioned guests. We hope to see more of Big D this year & anticipate his return.
At the urging of Big "D", we also had Mr. Joe Lemay & Sherri Reese Jump on board. Joe & Sherri came all the way from Burnside Ky,armed with guitar & banjo. They treated us to some of their original bluegrass & gospel music as well as some traditional tunes. Joe & Sherri, have a record out called,"Cumberland Rose'. I have been listening to this CD and really get a laugh every time I listen to "Make Them Chickens Fly",and they have a stamp certifying that "No chickens were injured during the recording of this CD". Priceless! We also hope to have Joe & Sherri grace the LexJam II stage again. It was also nice to have some of the bluegrass music back in the line up considering that Bluegrass was a huge part of getting LexJam II off the ground in the beginning & that it has been a bit scarce lately.
Next up we had our young musician of the month in Mr. Slade Warnken. Slade is 12 years old & played 2 songs for us. 2 original songs I might add. Slade absolutely kicked it on the guitar & vocals. This young man has an extraordinary vocal range & his guitar skills are beyond most his age. I facebooked his guitar teacher Paul Felice to thank him & David McLean for sending this type of talent our way & his words were, and I quote "That kid is a MONSTER on stage, and his dad's no slouch, either". I hope to get his dad Travis(I believe), to join us at one of these LJ II UNP's. Travis, Slade, Please come back! Special note to David & Paul: Please keep sending this kind of talent our way.
Also making a reappearance to the LJ II stage was Mr. Sam Wooden. Sam is a killer country singer & can cover just about anyone in country music, but really wows the crowd with his original country music. Sam's songwriting prowess & guitar playing, coupled with his POWERFUL voice commands attention wherever he plays & now has a full band known as the Urbane Gentlemen. ANY chance you get to hear these guys will be an evening well spent. I promise. Really, check them out, you'll thank me. Also want to thank Adam, Sam's lead guitar player for coming out to jump in with Sam & bless my Martin' by virtue of using it.
Ok last but in NO way leastRich Coffield was on board to engage us with a set or two, of his covers and an original or two. Rich is always a welcome guest in any lineup. What, with his guitar playing skills and all. This young man adds a distinguishable element anywhere he plays.
So here it was. The first installment of LexJam II Unplugged, for 2010. And what a grand time it was. I'll wrap up this summery & finally get it posted.
Mark McKinley has the pictures posted at the LexJam website, so be sure to check them out & I will have some posted here soon. I'll also have more news soon. And fill you in on some of the things going on between the forces of dark & light that shape my world. Til then & as always...

TTYS,

Rennie
P.S. As of this posting, we are still searching for a March venue.

Ok I really am almost finished with the Season opener of LexJam II Unplugged report. I will also explain why this one is so late. Please bear with me. I'm still here.

Rennie

We'll get to that, but for now. I'll be shootin some e-mails your way. More importantly we have the start of our 3rd year of LexJam II Unplugged coming up quickly. February 6th, as a matter of fact. So lets all make this one the biggest year yet. Hey, this year should bring opportunities to many local musicians, with the Equestrian Games' coming up. See ya down town if I don't talk to ya sooner.

Rennie,

P.S. Stay tuned here for the next week for updates on LexJam II Unplugged!!!

Ok, so it's about 5:30 sun is going down, 24 deg, snow showers & flurries. Time to get loaded up & set up at GOSHINS TAVERN for the second annual "Holiday" edition of the Jamily Reunion series of musical events. So the Son & me, we git er loaded up & Down to the tavern. Set up takes us about an hour for the main stuff, then it's back to the house for an expertly prepared dinner of leftover Christmas Lasagna & salad. And I will add it was really tasty. 7;00 finds us back at Goshins, and finishing the setup, ya know, mic's, sound check, that kinda thing.
Getting close to 8:00, musicians are showing up, listeners are showing up. This is looking good. & it turns out to be just that & Better.

Yes the 2009 holiday edition of Jamily Reunion was a great success. Without trying to break down the sets & how they played out, I'll give a brief overview & do some name dropping.

When we got back there after dinner Kevin Smith was already there waiting and anticipating a good night of music.Being a well respected musician in the area, Kevin also has a nice studio setup, in which I am doing a good portion of recording for my next record. Kevin will set in with most of the rotations for most of the evening, but still able to get enough breaks to keep his beer cold, an occasional smoke & mingle with some of the people in the audience.
Door swings open, and in, blown in in a rush of cold air its Tom Cool & Peter Griffen, I call him the "Family Guy', or maybe it should be the "Jamily Guy'!
I don't waste much time getting things going. Matter of fact I get the evening started with 2 or 3 songs, then immediately start getting the talent thats mounting up on stage. After all With Tom Cool & Peter Griffen in the house, you have 2/3rds of The Cooligans. So we get Kevin, Tom & Peter up & they start into some awesome jamming with a bluesy rockin overtone that sets the mood for the next few hours. During the early part of this, the next cold breeze blows in Rich Coffield, you know of the Slagsmiths, solo artist/performer/singer/songwriter & also a big supporter of LexJam II Unplugged. With Rich up on stage, we now have 4 awesome musicians putting it through the wires. The crowd is enjoying the sounds & I your humble host, am running around like crazy trying to make sure the sound is good, record the event, schmooze with the crowd & find out what other musicians are here to join the fun.
Sheila Smith owner of Goshins, points out a young lady setting at a table with a gentleman & says, Thats Lady & her husband Tim, and that, Lady wants to get up & sing a few. Thats cool, and speaking of cool, Tom Cool,remember Tom Cool, we spoke of him earlier, Tom points out a young man setting at another table. this turns out to be none other than Dan Hill, an area singer/songwriter, oh and another COOLIGAN! Yup thats right we now have one of the many complete incarnations of the COOLIGANS right here for the Jamily Reunion. Wow...

So yes we get Lady up to do a little Motown & a few other tunes And a bit later her husband Tim. I should mention here that Lady & Tim are part of the local dance scene with their band, a local dance band.I'll get back with the name...

We also had another gentleman whose name eludes me at the moment, come up & sing. I'll get back to you on that too...
The rotations were to numerous to mention, but everyone mentioned here played with everyone else at some point that evening. Weather it was Dan Hill leading an ensemble, or the Cooligans proper, or with the added enhancements that Kevin & Rich added, or Tim jumping in on some of the other songs later, there was quite a variety of music to be had. Matter of fact my only regret is that I was so busy with sound, recording, coordinating & schmoozing, I only got to play (I think), a total of about 5 songs. Really had planned on more but "so much music,so little time'. I was also trying to teach a bit about the boards to my son, who is mildly interested in sound engineering. Hey another aspect to look at on this particular session is, I advertised the gig from 7:30 til about 11:00. Now I knew it would probably go longer, as the holiday jams usually do. However it was a pleasant surprise when we went to almost 12:30. I have lotsa audio to go through & have been so busy the last couple of weeks that I have only listened to about 15 minutes of the 4+ hours. Cant wait til I hear it all & start to put together a CD from this year & last!

So again a HUGE THANKS to all the fine musicians that came out.Tom Cool, Rich Coffield, Dan Hill, Kevin Smith, Peter Griffen, Lady, Tim, that other guy & anybody else I might have forgotten. Hey, we were ALL a little foggy by the end of the night.
A special thanks to Shelia Smith for giving us a place to hone our craft.
Also thanks to Ryan Pennywitt, for the help with setup, tear down & helping run sound. And thanks to my daughter-in-law, Holly, for also helping teardown.

I also wanna thank my good friend Dan French for coming out & bringing some friends. I only wish I would have played a few more songs from my upcoming record for you guy's.

So there you have it in a nutshell. Another great holiday edition of Jamily Reunion. In the books. I'll let you know when the CD's done. It will be awhile though.
Go check out the photo page. I put a few pics up from this kick a** event.

Rennie
P.S. Remember to click on the pics to enlarge, or click the first one & it will do a slideshow. Now Git!

I'm hoping to get that news post up this weekend concerning the Jamily Reunion. The pics also. Sorry its taking so long. A lot has been going on.

TTYS

Ren

The Jamily Reunion @ Goshins was a Huge, Huge HUGE, success. Thanks to all the musicians & listeners alike for making this event the biggest jam ever at Goshins Tavern. Cant wait to get the CDs made. I'll have news & pics, on this event coming soon.

Ok tonights the "Jamily Reunion" at Goshins Tavern come on out to a warm bar, hot food & Ice cold beer... See you at the JAM!

6 days and counting, til "JAMILY REUNION'. C'mon out folks @ Goshins Tavern on the 28th.
I know your wondering where the news & You Tube links have been, but, I lost my whole HVAC system at the beginning of the month, got a funky cold right after that, but mostly Wifey has been pretty sick for the last couple of months. So... taking care of her IS priority ONE. We did get some promising news from her test results, so I'm hoping for a course of treatment that will get her back to aces soon.
Should be back in the studio next week to continue on my project.
I'll have more news to post soon & sneak another retro You Tube link for ya. Hint: A wintry & slightly sad ballad by what was one of my dads favorite singer / songwriters from the 50's & 60's.
I'll also have a recap on how the "JAMILY REUNION' Goes for those who are to far away to make the trek. But hey, If you got frequent flier miles stacked up, then by all means come on down to the Lex. for the event.
Matter of fact since it's Christmas, eve,eve,eve, I'll play Santa & give you that "You Tube' link now...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2fyFumisiU Hope you enjoy it. I'm not gonna tell you this time who it is. You'll just have to follow the link.
Ok hope you got all your Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc. shopping done. Be safe out there & please help anyone you can.
And to the folks on my blast e-mail list, I'll be sending out a few reminders for the 28th.
Ok 'nuff for now It's SLEEPY Time...

Nite,

Rennie

LexJam II Unplugged Rocks. Yup thats what I heard. Heard it on the multitracker. Heard Rich Coffield say it. Must be true. If the response from those who stopped to listen or stop too play has an ounce of weight, then yes LexJam II Unplugged ROCKS. The season finale of LexJam II Unplugged (herein after referred to as LJ II or LJ II UNP), had a great cross section of singer songwriters. The events being held in Lexington Center also contributed to a revolving cross section of listeners throughout the afternoon. I am excited about the future of LexJam II Unplugged in that, at the beginning of the season I was worried how this year would go. Why? Well because if you read my news article In March @ www.lexjam.com (LexJam II Unplugged: 1 YEAR ANNIVERSARY), you noticed I touched on the fact that the last 2 months of LJ II were kind of slow. Now we did have enough Musicians & music to fill the time slot, but it was on the lean side. The audience participation was very lean those last two months. I'm talkin lean as beef jerky. We did have some listeners, but... So it was decided to take the holiday break. So starting the year I had some concerns. However those concerns were quickly abated when the year started falling together. We have had a consistently good turnout this year for every jam. This, I believe, pleases the music gods greatly. So lets talk about the final session of the year.

Getting there early, I had to navigate the crowd waiting to board busses, going to the UK football game. They stage the busses there & take hoards of folks to the stadium for these home games. it's always funny the looks I get when I pull up on to the sidewalk. I'm sure at first that the people must think, "'who the heck is he? He needs to wait in line like everyone else". "S'cuse me folks,not here to cut in line. Here to unload the nucleus of my universe, the PA system for the loveliness that is LexJam II Unplugged! ."When you guys all get back from the game, we'll still be here just inside. Come in and make the perfect end to you day downtown". Enough digressing.

So, I get unloaded & the first person to show up & help with setup Is Grover Mollineaux. Now, Grover is becoming a regular at LexJam II Unplugged & thats a good thing. Anyhoo, Grover is helping me with mic. placement & running cables, I look up "oooh goody". Here comes more help. Rich Coffield of The Slagsmiths is also here to help. I always like when Rich shows up to play & even more when he gets there early to help. Rich has a really great ear & knows the sound system inside out, so he gets the sound check job when there. So first of all I want to give a big THANKS to these to fine gentlemen for all the help. I mean this particular LJ II UNP has another dimension to it. We are recording today. Trying to capture some more of these sessions for an eventual CD release of LJ II's, greatest moments. We are hoping to do the same with regular LexJam also. So as you can see, it's almost like setting up two different sound systems. Hmmm, actually it IS setting up two different sound systems.

So with everything tweeked & ready to go,I kick ff the show with "Sun Up 2 Sun Down", the instrumental fingerstyle tune I wrote for my first CD. This is the theme tune for LJ II Unp. Then I do my announcement speil, giving props to WRFL 88.1 FM, Doo Wop Shop, etc. Do a few more tunes then its time to get Grover up on stage. Grover, as always, entertains us with his killer originals from his first CD Just Me. Like, Kentucky Quarter Moon,and others.Grover also did a cover or two, like, Arlo Guthries, City of New Orleans. And this was just Grovers FIRST set. Next it was Richs' turn. Rich is also a songwriter & cover artist. Rich gave us several tunes including a cover of John Prines' Paradise. I came up & backed rich on the chours. Hey, it's Prine, I'm gonna get involved if I can.Rich has this unique gravelly voice that’s cool to listen to & draws you into his world. Which may or may not be a Big-Ol-Goofy-World. (Prine, I mean pun intended)!

Next up all the way from Corydon, In. we have Katie & Matt. That is Katie Toupin & Matt Myers. A folk duet That is hitting the coffee shop circuit pretty heavy in the Southern Indiana / Louisville area. They came on strong with some covers of Gillian Welch, The Beatles, Jack Johnson as well as some of their originals. They have a wide variety of music, mixing blues, classic rock, folk & jazz style. Their music includes original material by both Katie and Matt. One of their originals in the first set was Norma Jean. You can find this cut at their MySpace website: http://www.myspace.com/katietoupin. This again shows that LJ II Unplugged is growing. They came to Lexington Just to do the LexJam sessions, & again, a feather in the LexJam cap.

Then it is time to welcome the return of John Forgey. John Blazes the acoustic guitar & has absolutely put his own footprint on his style. John treated us to some great instrumental stuff & did a cool Zepplin medley as well. It was time for Grover to come back up & do a few more originals from his next record, (yet to be named). No thats not the name of his next record, he just hasn’t named it yet silly! Anyway he did “Going Up” & “Going Gone”,
Rich came up to back him on “Going Gone”, and for someone who never heard or rehearsed this song before, he did a KILLER job of throwing some backing leads into this song. It is an instant classic for me. Of course this is my humble opinion & yes there is such a thing as “backing leads”,for those of you in Athens. I know it sounds kinda oxymoronic.

The next hour or so saw us all rotating in various incarnations on stage except that when Katie & Matt came back up they were joined By Adam A.W.O.L.. Now Adam is the front man for Slackjaw, and the sound man for Scott Said & Backroads. So he joins in with Katie & Matt on”Steal My Kisses’, then leads them on some of his own bluesy tunes he wrote like: “Gotta Do what I gotta do’ amongst others. So their up there doing their thing and I see this young lady dancing her way through the Food Court, heading our direction. So of course I, the humble host have to engage her in conversation, as see is obviously into what shes hearing. So after quick introductions, she tells me that she just called her boyfriend Spencer. She says “Spencer’, is on his way to the pawnshop to get his guitar & come down & play. Hey, don’t say nothing, I remember my old Epiphone PR 250, used to be in & out of the pawnshop so much, It didn’t know where to call home. Doesn’t seem like that long ago really.

So after Katie & Matt do some more covers & some more of their own originals, I see a young man coming through the door with a guitar. This must be Spencer. It is. We got Spencer up there the next break. After lengthy tune up, Spencer treated us to about 15 minutes of cool instrumental stuff and I think he was improving most of it on the fly. So wow what an afternoon so far eh? Where’d the time go. So with about half an hour remaining I set out to do a few more songs that I just knew I had to get in there. “Lord Wont’Ch Guide Me’, (from my upcoming record), “Like A Rock’, a song I learned after I carried a close friend to his grave. It was his favorite song of all, and I get awesome response with my version, which is true to the original with my folksy flair added. Now its time to get Katie, Matt & Spencer to help me close out the afternoon with,”Wagon Wheel’ & ”Knockin on Heavens Door’, both Dylan tunes, the former being best known as one of Old Crow Medicine Shows biggest hit covers. So yes Its been a great year for LexJam II Unplugged, and I cant wait til next year. Matter of fact, I just got off the phone a little while ago, with Caroline Puterbaugh, And I should have the February & March dates, by the middle of next week. Yeaaa..

So this leads me to where I want to give the thank yous to all of the following people.

First of all Lexington Center & Caroline Puterbaugh, for with out Caroline & Lexington Center we would have no place to play. I want to thank The other folks who work for Lexington Center, James,Jerry, etc. for always having tables, chairs & everything they need to do, ready to go when I get there. You guys don’t know what this means to me in regards to me getting my stuff unpacked & set up as quickly as possible.
Next up I want to thank two people doing a lot behind the scenes. Though they have not been upon stage,yet. I expect we’ll see them on stage at some point next year. Eric Hutchens & Mylinda Dockery, Mylinda has been coming to LJ II UNP, as of late & supports what we are trying to do for the area. You can find her link on my link page & I have talked about the Music Institute of Lexington here before. Mylinda is the founder & executive director of the Music Institute. Eric has done so much to support us including helping me with setup / teardown on many occasions. Erics daughter, Serena plays fiddle & has played LexJam II on several occasions. Eric is also a luthier & did a nice job fixing up my Martin DM.
As always Mark & Tammy McKinley, For piloting the LexJam website, & all the photography, and their help with setup / teardown.

Ok so now I’ll give thanks to all the musicians who came out this year to play at LexJam II Unplugged:
as I mentioned:
Serena Hutchens
Blakeley Berger
Almira Fawn
Tom Cool
Mark Taylor
Donavan “Big D” Howard
David Price
Tom Grafton
Tony Jasper
Steve “Fuzzy” Knopka
Sam Wooden
Madalyn Boy
Jerry Belsak
Matthew Connery
Rich Coffield
Brett Higgins
Grover Mollineaux
Michael Anderson
John Forgy
Jennifer Forgy
Katherine Peppiatt
The guys from Transy University (Who left before I could get their names)
Katie & Matt (Katie Toupin, Matt Myers)
Adam A.W.O.L.
Spencer (last name unknown)
A few guys from the Hope Center And maybe a few others that drifted through.

Wow. Pretty impressive huh? So we have had quite a few folks come down & play. Most of these people show up time & again, and for that your humble host is most appreciative. Please, please, if I left anyone out, LET ME KNOW, so I can get you posted here. Also If you find any inaccuracies in my reporting, please bring them to my attention ASAP, so I can get them corrected.
A lot of these fine musicians have their own websites & MySpace pages. You will find them sprinkled through out my news updates & some on my LINKS page.

One last time, THANK YOU, to everyone for making our second year of LexJam II Unplugged a huge success. See you in February LexJam II wise.
Keep checking here for news of what I’m doing & how my record is coming along & who I’m out there bringing music to the masses with. See you out & about.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I think you just found out one of the big things I’m thankful for.

TTYS,

RENNIE
P.S. I have a handful of pics posted here, but go to lexjam.com to see a large gallery of pics from the Season Finale.

Ok It's here. The season finale of LexJam II Unplugged. We have a large lineup of talent headed our way tomorrow. Katie & Matt. A folk duet from Corydon In. Headed our way to promote their New Music, the return of Grover Mollineaux, singer/ songwriter from Lexington, Ky. John Forgy of Languid Blue & acoustic guitar blazer. Rich Coffield Yet another killer singer/songwriter/band leader, & the backbone of the SlagSmiths,
also the possible return of killer singer /songwriter Sam Wooden. Steve "Fuzzy' Knopka on Harmonica. Eric Hutchens, Luthier, and playing guitar with us next year. Man! I just cant wait. I say that & before I know it it'l be over & all I'll have are, GREAT MEMORIES TO SHARE with all of you through my up dates here , pic's, My Facebook & A nice round up post @ lexjam.com. I just hope to get all the songs in I want to play??1!!
See you tomorrow and beyond that...Stay tuned...

Your Humble Host,

Rennie

Another great LexJam II Unplugged has passed. What a great time.
The October session was held inside of Lexington Center, because of course we had damp chilly weather. Now as much as I like to play outside, I didn't mind setting up inside. I think this helped with a few extra spectators.

We had the return of Grover Mollineaux. Grover brought his songlist combining his own original material with a tasty variety of covers & was the first guest. Grover also returned at various points throughout the afternoon. You can learn more about Grover at his website, www.groversmusic.com
Were were also once again treated by music from John Forgy, who along with his (cousin I believe) Blakely. John plays several styles & teamed up with Blakely on fiddle, to give us several sets of awesome music. John can be seen with his band Lanquid Blue at Common Ground's on November 10th at 10:00pm. Blakeley's mom Jennifer Forgy also came up and sang a song with John & Blakely.

Eric & Serena Hutchens, were also in the crowd. I wanna thank Eric for all his help with teardown, as this is always appreciated. Serena is also coming along nicely on the fiddle. Eric also took the ol Martin with him to do a tune up & brought it back to me at Goshins on Monday night. I'm impressed with his growing skills as a luthier. My guitar played great for the Goshins jam & it feels better in my hands.

Fuzzy (Steve Knopka), was in house as well. As always, Fuzzy puts his "harp" & soul into backing us up on many different tunes with his harmonicas. Always a treat to have him help us out.

I was glad to see Mylinda Dockery back at LexJam II. As I mentioned in last months LexJam II update that Mylinda is the executive director & founder of the Music Institute of Lexington. So when you have the talented ear of this young lady in house, you know you want to play your best. We hope Mylinda can encourage some of the various students from some of her programs to participate In Both incarnations of LexJam. With the resources & talent of Mylinda & her crew, I look forward to what they will continue to bring & foster in & around the Lexington area. So once again I will put the web address right here>>> http://www.musicinstituteoflexington.org/.
I want to thank all the great people & kind comments I hear about LexJam II Unplugged & what we are trying to achieve.
The next LexJam II Unplugged will be November 14th.
This will wind down the end of the second year & we will take a break. Already looking forward to The start of our third year in February & our second anniversary session in April.

On then to, GOSHINS, Jamily Reunion. Ok, so I,m sitting at the bar getting ready to eat some dinner, and I,m thinking, three people have bailed on me. People of which due to their musical prowess, I wish would be there. So I says to my self "Self", we'll give this thing til nine & see what happens. If no one shows, we know at least we will get to bed at our normal bedtime. So as I,m sitting there pondering that thought & trying to convince myself that would be good, lo & behold someone comes through the door. It is Patty Butcher, of "Patty Butcher Blues Band", fame. She comes up to the bar & I have to tell her I'm not sure that we're gonna get anything off the ground tonight. She says she talked to M.A. (Full name left out to protect the semi-innocent) and I tell her I left Him a message. I no sooner get that out of my mouth when off goes the door dinger, & here come John Forgy & Mylinda Dockery. before I could even sort my thought process, here comes Fuzzy. OK thought process now sorted for me. I jump up, I'm sure grinning ear to ear & proclaim "lets do it". I believe it took us only 20 minutes to set up the PA system complete with extra preamps. It helps when you have 5 people helping. and while getting setup, who walks in & starts helping, non other than our good friend David Harrod. So we ended up having a whole lot of fun in an abbreviated Jamily Reunion, but fun none the less. Thanks once again to Mylinda, we have some pictures of this event & I'll have them posted with the LexJam II pic's, soon. So stay tuned & give me another day or two to get them sorted, then I'll blast everyone with an e-mail.
I have more news to report on progress of upcoming release & other stuff, but I think I'll end this update here & give you more later this week.

Rennie

It's time for the October Installment of LexJam II Unplugged Yes that monthly extravaganza of Acoustic Music for the masses. Our mission to promote live music in the Lexington Ky area & beyond! We support ALL musicians of ALL skill levels & ALL styles in the acoustic arena. Having said that if you show up with something electric, we wont show you the door. We just like to emphasize our little corner of the world with Folk, Bluegrass, Blues, etc. We have had keyboards before & will NEVER turn down electric bass. We are always on the lookout for bass players to come & help fill out the sound. Of course we love standup & acoustic bass, but as I just said 'We'll take ANY bass we can get.

Looks like we will set up inside this month, as it is supposed to be a bit chilly & damp. We'll be in the "foodcourt" area of the Civic Center Shops.

OK I haven't given you your "blast from the past" music links in a few weeks, so today I'll treat you to 2 of them. First up we have The Little River Band IT'S A LONG WAY THERE. My favorite LRB song & Probably in My top 20 fav's of all time. This is the FULL 8 1/2 min version, but it's killer awesome. Enjoy.
Here's your link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDZyG0KJqik
Next up Kate Bush WUTHERING HEIGHTS. Whats that ? Gasp you say, "Ren you like that? We just don't see that in you". Yup. I like it, always have. The piercing voice of this English beauty get's me every time.
Heres your link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv0azq9GF_g BTW. She wrote this song based on an English novel of the same name. It's supposed to be a good read if your into that kind of reading.


Had a great time in North Carolina. 8 days on the beach & a new song or two. Putting the tweakings on "Seashore Dreamer". I wanna thank my brother Ed for his help in penning about 85% of the lyrics for this song. It will be available for your listening pleasure before too long.

Work IS finally moving forward on my new record & hope to have it out in time for Christmas. Would hate to miss the sales opportunity& jip you out of thrill you can have finding it in your stocking. Ok,ok, I know I'm being a bit

MONDAYnight, 10/26/09. It's time for a Goshins Jamily Reunion. Come on out. Cold Beer, good food & Hot tunes. Look's like the majority of the old Goshins Jam gang are planning to attend, so YOU should too. Lotsa good music & you can jump in with us. Actually, we encourage it. Hey once in a while it's a healthy thing to break the Monday night routine & blah's. Don't you agree?

As you can see we lost Brutimus B. Puss,(that's Kitty to my wife Marsh), the day we got back from Topsail Beach. Its been pretty hard & especially hard on her. He was one "cool cat'. He and our Jack Russell, Oscar, would wrestle together. It was never one sided either. It was pretty even on who would start it, and the would roll around on the floor in bear hugs. No really. It was fun to watch. Like Oscar say's (yes he talks to Me), some days you get the cat. Some days the cat get's you. I remember one Saturday morning, Oscar was lying on the corner of the bed & bam. The cat comes running, jumps, get's Oscar in a bear hug & rolls him off right on to the floor. He then takes off, fast as he can with the big "O", hot on his tail. Funny stuff. And! If the cat ran outside when he wasn't supposed too, Oscar would grab him in a bear hug & hold him till me or wifey got there. Again, funny stuff. Anyway like I have on my home page, I sure miss him. God forbid the day when Oscars time is up. Don't even wanna think about it. Hope I'll be able to find a good therapist cheap. 'k... 'nuff about the pets, after all this is a music site.

I think I'll wrap up about here. I should have the LexJam II up date up within a week of the session tomorrow. Who knows I might surprise you & do it after the jam. But don't hold your breath. You know me. Hope you like this weeks musical selections. So on that note:
Tomorrow LexJam II Unplugged 1 to 5 PM!
Monday Night Goshins Jamily Reunion 8 - 11 PM.

see you tomorrow
"Hey everybody yeaa aa, don't you feel that there's somethinnnnn...."
"and I feel like I've been here for the whole of my life, never knowin..."

Rennie

Back from North Carolina, back to work & lost our Kitty cat. He was one cool cat that loved to wrestle with our Jack Russell "Oscar". You can tell lil Oscar misses him too. Ill have some kind of update after my mourning period.
Thanks for understanding.

Rennie

Me Thinks...
Me thinks I should try to find some way to get the updates up faster from LexJam II Unplugged. We'll work on that, but of course, don't hold your breath.
Pictures are posted. Don't forget the new format for pics. Click on the thumbnail photo & it opens up complete with captions.
Ok then... On to the update.
Another beautiful day down at Lexington Center. Set up went smoothly & Jerry & the fine folks down at Lexington Center, once again, had the tables & chairs set for us. This helps a lot & is very much appreciated.
The week before I was at LexJam, and I got a chance to hear & meet John Forgy, Katherine Peppiatt, and Blakeley B. These fine folks put on a set of really god acoustic music & even as Tom Martin noted, we needed these guys (and girls) at LexJam II Unplugged. So after listening to them, I introduced myself & had a chance to talk to them about the acoustic version of LexJam. John is a great guitar player and working with the young lady on the fiddle known as Blakeley B. Also singing with them was Katherine Peppiatt. Young Blakeley is a very good violin player for her age & complimented everyone she played with. Fast forward to LexJam II Unplugged. I was just about done setting up when they arrived with some friends. I got the show started as usual, then they came up & played several numbers to everyones delight. Let me say that John is one of the founding members of Languid Blue, an acoustic folk group the can be found playing around the area. I have not had the chance to check out this band yet, but hearing John on guitar I cant wait to see Them play as Lanquid Blue. You can check them out @ www.myspace.com/languidblue and the can also be found at Facebook. Check them out & support them at a venue near you. We also had several students from Transylvania University, show up & one of their group pulls me aside and asks me "whats going on here"? So i explain what LexJam II Is about and ask them if any of them play. Sure enough two of them play together. So of course me doing my "hostly" duties, encourage them to give us a set. They played a good half hour, and although I cant remember a single song name, I know they rocked us & the crowd was very much liking what they were hearing. Dont forget to check them out in the photo gallery.
It was then time for me to do several more songs from my list, then give up the stage so we could get John & company back up there. John treated us to more of his guitar magic with some awesome instrumentals. I was able to get some half way decent video of his set & hope to get some snippets of that embedded here as soon as I get that "process" figured out. (soon).
We were fortunate enough get Blakeley back up & her & John did a really cool cover of KT Tunstall's Black Horse & the Cherry Tree.
We cant forget to mention that Steve "Fuzzy" Knopka came with "harps a blazing", to jump in where ever he pleased, and WE were pleased to have him do so. I always have to thank Fuzzy for backing me on several numbers & for being such a huge supporter of LexJam II Unplugged & live music in general. I look forward to getting Fuzzy involved on my current CD project.
I have to also give a special shout out to Mylinda Dockery. A few years back this young lady, founded The Music Institute here in Lexington. She & her staff work diligently with various age levels of musicians. They offer instruction in more areas & instruments, than I can mention here, so I am going to drop another website on you.
www.musicforlexington.org Go look around this site and see the multitude of different areas of music instruction, including instruments, vocals, music therapy, early childhood development in music & their new endeavor the Garage Band Program. The Garage Band Program, is an aid to help existing Performers & bands hone & refine their skills, so they can up their stage presence, teach the band how to work as a "team", increase their marketing skills, etc. I expanded a bit on this particular area of what The Music Institute does because two2 of the coaches for this program are none other then the founding fathers of LexJam, Tom Martin & Mike Thompson. I personally think that's just cool. I really hope to see Mylinda back at the next LexJam II Unplugged, bringing some of the talent that passes through the doors of The Music Institute. We hope to see Blakeley, John, Katherine, Fuzzy, The guys from Transy & anyone else at the next installment Of LexJam II Unplugged. Please check out the web addresses I gave you and help us to bring music, especially "Live" music back to the forefront here in Lexington.
Thanks Mylinda for covering for me & getting some pictures when I was up playing.
Ok I know this update is slightly shorter than usual, but I have to get ready for North Carolina & some recording work for my CD. I'll be in touch. Until then, behave yourselves, have fun & make music.
Your Humble Host
Rennie

A BIG Happy Birthday to my Daughter Candy As Neil Young said "24 and there's so much more"...

Not to worry friend's. I will have the update up soon from LexJam II Unplugged. I am working with the photos & working on the text update as well. Next day or two. Promise.

Rennie

K', It's been a crazy week, but Ill have the September LJ II Unplugged update & photos soon.
A Very Special shout out to JOHN FORGY, and the amazing talent of BLAKELEY on "fiddle" & "vocals".

Oh good times to tell you about...!

IDTTYS

RENNIE

Yes folks. it time for another exciting edition of LexJam II Unplugged Tomorrow at Lexington Center. Hope to see you there.

Ok Your video challenge for this week. Another of my favs from the past. Kinda 'splains where I want to build my cabin someday. follow the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1ILFZAR1vg Jesse Colin Young-Ridgetop

Catch Tom Cool every Wednesday at Rumors bike night. He usually starts about 6:00.

And Almira Fawn has been spending a lot of time in Nashville lately. I,ll have more on that later...

I have you September LexJam II review for you in a few days.
Tomorrow Taterz

Rennie

Ok the Pictures from August 22nd, are posted both here & at the LexJam website. Have a look. When you get a chance @ the LexJam site let Mark McKinley, know that you appreciate his work keeping that site fresh & up to date.
I'll Have some misc. news rambling's soon.

Later Taterz
Rennie

All the news that's fit to print...
First your August 22nd LexJam II Unplugged Update...
What a beautiful day for music. We usually do not see this kind of weather in August "'round these parts". 78°. Very comfortable for this time of year. And to think I almost had to bail. This would've broke my heart, but you see, my Pop In Law broke his ankle a few weeks back and the wifey needed the car to travel to WV. That being the SUV that fits all the PA system for LJ II Unp. SO I say to myself "Self, no big deal". I figure out of the two trucks at work, surely one will be available right? Nope. not gonna happen. The boss was going racing that weekend. He needed both trucks to haul race car, pit crew, and all that goes with racing, tools, tires, spare parts, etc. You get the drift. Let me digress here for just a minute to say that my boss Wes, is an accomplished race driver. They had a 3 driver team & were racing in the 12 Hours of Nelson Ledges, an endurance race. Their team won. I grew up close to Nelson Ledges & spent a lot of time there in my misspent youth. Oh Wes has also raced in several 24hrs of Daytona, so that just shows you at what level he races. OK. Enough digressing.
so you see I was running out of options to get the sound equipment downtown for the big jam.
Enter my good friend Mike Anderson. A core member of LexJam II, close friend and as mentioned many times in the past here, the Bass man for Velveeta Jones and a part time Cooligan. He also does a host of other events. Mike & his lady Deb came through big time for me/us/the people of Lexington. They were able to make it & pick me up including all my S***. Thanks guys, you don't know how much it means to me. It was good to have Mike back in the line up as he's been MIA for a few months as far as LJ II goes. When Mike shows up you know its gonna be a party for your ears, as Mike not only is a Bass player, but an accomplished acoustic player as well. The music was even more special when he pulls out the slide & throws slide guitar in the mix.
So with some of my material plus a few new songs, plus Mikes material we had quite a nice selection of music to get the afternoon rolling. The crowd, which is some what typical for Aug, was come & go, but thats ok. Most people stuck around for at least 4-5 songs so it was slow but steady.
Next up came Grover Mollineaux . Grover, both, rotated with us & played with us. He brought a lot of his original material from his CD JUST ME, some new material from an upcoming Cd yet to be named & a plethora of cover tunes. Grover's style is laid back folk. And he can play a bluesy folk type lick as well. Grover has been to LexJam II before & we always welcome him back. To quote Grover on LexJam II he said:"Rennie this is a wonderful thing you do for the community here & it would be nice to see this thing grow further for all musicians". Those were kind words & I agree, I wanna see this thing grow into what I believe it has the potential to be, and the outlet it can be for the amazing amount of talent we have in the area. We look forward to the return of Grover at a future LexJam II, And you folks will want to be sure to see him as well. You can learn more about the man & his music at www.groversmusic.com. Swing by, check him out & leave a comment.

One other thing. Grover's comment got me to thinking. I know from time to time a lot of the area musicians have other obligation's, like paying gig's to do, and I for one encourage them to go for the pay. BUT. It has also come to my attention that there are some who believe they are above doing an occasional gig like LexJam II Unplugged, because it's not a "paying" gig. How sad. I find it hard to believe that anyone that has the gift of music, has the ability to even think that way. After all why not (once in a while), give back to the community that supports your music & give's you the very foundation enabling you to get paid for what you do. The "Rock Star" mentality of "you can't touch me", is a thing of the past, is B.S. & has no place in the music community. Please, those of you that think this way, I ask you to reconsider. With your broad talent, you can inspire young musicians & help pull Lexington out of it's present level and bring it more in line with other cities, that have a more vibrant music scene. A much BETTER paying music scene. It is this mentality that has helped to thwart our effort's of being taken seriously, as a city known for it's music reputation. And club owners, the money is here, you can pay better. There are better paying gig's in cities, both close & far, that do not have the money & resources that we have here. Take care of our musicians!
Thank you for this opportunity to rant & blow off a lil steam. Some of you might not think it's "politically correct" to rant like this once in a while. Let me let you in on something, political correctness is only warranted 10% of the time. "The over saturation and over use of political correctness, is the bane of modern American society". This is fact,not opinion! Say what you mean, mean what you say.

OK, nuff of that for now. Don't forget the next LexJam II Unplugged is September 19Th. Hope to see you there. Encourage your fellow musician to come out to either LexJam session.
The next regular LexJam is September 12th, at Natasha's Bistro.
Also don,t forget to tune into WRFL 88.1. For the best music programming the area has to offer. Check them out @ www.wrfl.fm.
That'll do it for now, gotta go finish writing a song I started.
Oh the pics from the August LJ II Unp. should be posted here & at the LexJam website pretty soon. www.lexjam.com.
If music be the food of love, play on er on er on. (Shakespeare)
Over & Out

Rennie