Billy Batts Ensemble is on my_____ in 2014: Grateful Dead at the Country Club

The Billy Batts Ensemble
Walt Austin, Brian Molin, Mark Letalien, John Hancotte

We take requests!  At a private club nestled in downtown Atlanta, that can be a dangerous proposition.  For The Billy Batts Ensemble, it's really no sweat.  If a member wishes to hear some Grateful Dead, they've come to the right place at the right time.  After all, our keyboard wizard and vocalist Walt Austin was found sent out running and taking his time in the ongoing Dead tribute band Cosmic Charlie.  Even my old band Jellyroll Blue was noted as being a Jerry-fied experience.  So many great songs.  We played Friend of the Devil, not the slow version and not as peppy as American Beauty either.  The patrons ate it up.  We also did Wild Horses by the Stones, which I ended up singing with help from the boys.  Loved how we went from All Blues, certainly a favorite jam tune to call, into a later Miles staple Tutu, with the riff and melody from the War classic Low Rider tossed into the mix.  That's the kind of stuff we can get away with on this gig.  We closed the night with an impromtu take on Bob Marley's Jamming, although we had discussed playing Natural Mystic.  I have vowed to work on that one.  Here's the intro, tabbed out with rhythms:

It was good to see these buds of mine once again.  I missed out on the December date as I had another job that night.  I am plagued with conflicts that overlap, followed by weekends with nothing.  Why is this gigster's calendar so uncooperative?  I corralled the lads into having our picture taken, just for the sake of having one.  I also used it as a the basis for our new myspace (my_____) page, found here: Billy Batts Ensemble on myspace.  We are the Atlanta division, as drummer/vocalist/businessman extraordinaire Seth Hendershot still maintains an older version of the band from his Athens standpoint.  You know you're big time when you have to be concerned with multiple acts licensing the same name!  Check out our new web presence and look for more "Batty" activity happening this year!

Thanks for reading!