Always look forward to hitting it with The Billy Batts Ensemble, a great jazz, blues, and dare I say soft rock quartet, complete with 4-part vocal harmonies. As the weather was near perfect, we were ensconced out on the patio. Even the tables to our left were filled up. Good to be out there playing the fine mellow music for the distinguished dining guests. Thanks to Walt, we brought out a couple of new-to-us tunes: The Beatles' Come Together. I like how we play just a few Beatles tunes and that they are all John songs; the others being Dear Prudence (we stuck that one in as well) and Norwegian Wood (we haven't played that in a while). Everybody was in the zone. Young Mark Letalien, drummer & percussionist extraordinaire, kept the groove simmering and percolating while helping to keep our stage levels low for the nearby chatting crowd. He has a bottomless supply of energy and verve that makes gigs like this an easy task. I love the double time stanzas we romp though on the Latin-tinged standards. Other cool tunes we tried: All the Things You Are; Black Orpheus; Unchain My Heart; for our closing number (drum roll please)... In Memory of Elisabeth Reed by Dickey Betts and The Allman Brothers Band. Well, I thought it was a surprising choice, as we did that one as a Latin groove. A bit on the quick side for the opening slow vamp, but all in all it was nice. Always great to play with this group, and we are treated better at this club than any where else, i can safely say!
All was well and good, but i had to scramble out of there to get up to Padriac's in Vinings. It was oncea gain our bi-monthly night of mayhem for Martay & The Partay. This night we had Sam Owens pounding the skins, as Brent had another gig. We played a nice long set, I think about 1:45 long! Hey, it's rock - how's watching the clock? We started late, so we had to make up for it one way or another. It was more of the usual for us as well: Sitting Waiting Wishing; Hurts So Good; you know, how many times do people need to hear the same songs they play all day on the radio anyway? Brent actually did show up, just for fun. He sang lead and we ran through Your Love; Anyway You Want It; nothing shocking there. Hey, guess what - Bill made it out as well. Another lead vocalist to get us in the groove! With Bill we did Fire Woman; Sweet Child o' Mine; lots of rawk! But wait, there's more! David Geer (aka Drunk Dave) was in the house. Sam was generous to let Dave sit in and pound the living daylights out of his drums and cymbals on Girls Girls Girls and something else that almost destroyed my hearing... We missed Cliff - hey, Cliff you're not allowed to miss out on our little rock show when it only comes up every other month! Hope we see you next time and then you WILL get up and sing Bad Co.'s Ready For Love (it was originally a Mott the Hoople tune, yeah, when Mick Ralphs was in a young buck). We'll be waiting...
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| Using Drunk Dave's iPhone flash to illuminate my shots! |
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| Brent without the flash help... sounded great Mr. Frontman! |
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