October 26th--Private
Party at the UARK Bowl--Fayetteville, Arkansas--The newly renovated
UARK Bowl events room is awesome. And so are Dr. and Mrs, Johnson
from Springfield, Missouri, who invited Oreo Blue to help them celebrate
the Razorback victory over Ole Miss (48-28 Go
Hogs!). The party crowd was pleasantly diverse which
allowed Oreo to show off its sundry abilities. Spirits were high
as was the energy of the band and all had a great time.
October 12th--King Biscuit
Blues Festival--Helena, Arkansas--
What an honor to be invited back for our second
year in a row to perform at the 2002 King Biscuit Festival. Last years show reaped many connections and benefits for the
band including a feature in a French film documentary “Route 61 Blues/
The Legend of the Crossroads”. The
Biscuit as it is referred to by festival veterans is considered the
granddaddy of Blues Festivals and the biggest in the US.
Needless to say we are looking forward to next year already.
We performed on
the Frank Frost Blues Stage and had a great show.
Even though our guitarist was very ill he sucked it up for a
stealer performance. The
energy with the crowd was electrifying. We would like to thank all those who made it a point to come
to our stage as well as the passers by who became new fans.
We also want to thank all of our Fayetteville friends along with
the Chi Omega’s and Sigma Chi’s that joined us.
I hope you all didn’t lose all your money at the Casino later
that night. Until next year...keep
the blues alive.--Brian Crowne
October
11th--The Rib Room--Ft. Smith, Arkansas--Saxsky & Hutch, the
famed acoustic duo...alias, Brian and Gary, were invited to perform for
the fund-raising auction for the Ft. Smith Riverfront Blues and
American Music Festival put on by the Ft. Smith Blues Society.
They were kind enough to invite me along to play a little percussion
(more likely that Brian knows I cannot resist the barbeque at the Rib
Room...yummy!). The crowd was great as the society recruited an
additional 80 members! We like to think that we had a little to do
with the recruiting effort.
October 5th--The Elephant
Run--Tulsa, Oklahoma--Four shows in 72 hours might not seem like
much, but three different cities makes it tough. We love
performing at the Elephant Run as the staff is great and the crowds are
always a hoot. Tonight, our beloved Razorbacks were battling 10th
ranked Tennessee and took those suckers to 6 overtimes before dropping
the heartbreaker 35-41. The band was on fire, though. Hot
sax solos from Brian on his new Cannonball horn. You can find out
all about the new, beautiful tenor sax at www.cannonballmusic.com.
Then the red-eye flight home...
The new horn from
Cannonball
October 5th--Atlantis
Plastics Party--Ft. Smith, Arkansas--For the third year in a row,
the wonderful folks at Atlantis invited the band out to perform for
them. The band had to be up early this morning and were dragging a
bit, but Gary had us all giddy with his antics.
October 4th--Georges
Majestic Lounge--Fayetteville, Arkansas--Oreo Blue gave the TJ
Scarlett Band the nod to perform the happy hour set and the opening set
for this big night in the Nam. With the Bikes Blues BBQ on Dickson
Street and B. B. King, Kenny Wayne Shepard, and the Thunderbirds
performing out at Drake Field, the crowd could have been mighty thin,
but the loyals ventured out to support the local blues stalwarts, Oreo
Blue, and the up-and-coming gunslinger, TJ Scarlett. The night
started out a little lukewarm, but then began to simmer. By the
time both bands were on the stage for the closer, the heat was
white-hot. Gary and TJ traded fours like Godzilla versus Rodan.
Del Blake joined the foray on stage again this night and added some nice
colors to both bands.
October 3rd--Powerhouse
Party on the Patio--Fayetteville, Arkansas--Day one of the Bikes
Blues BBQ was uneventful west of the railroad tracks, but the band
rocked on with our good buddy Del Blake sitting in on percussion.
The weather was nearly perfect and the shrimp and chicken baskets were
delightful.
September 29th--Home--Anyone
remember last year when we performed at the King Biscuit Blues Festival
in Helena and we mentioned that there were some French Film Producers
there? We remembered, but never dreamed we would see any product
from these folks. Those folks, Pete and Lawrence, generated a
blues documentary film called (something like) Route 61 Blues-the
Legend of Robert Johnson and the Crossroads. We were sent a
preliminary copy of our portion of the DVD and we must say that the work
is tremendous. The film will be released Europe wide soon and we
are looking forward to seeing the whole film.
Brian gets
interviewed by the French Documentary Team at last year's KBBF
September 28th--Gearheads--Neosho,
Missouri--The celebration this evening was for Dave Crocker and two
friends as they all three celebrate their combined 75 years of marriage
to their wives. Gearheads is a cool little best-kept-secret up in
Neosho. The food is great, the service is excellent, and the vibe
is as classic as nearby Route 66 traversing historic Southwest Missouri,
USA.
September 27th--George's
Majestic Lounge--Fayetteville, Arkansas--In anticipation of the
Arkansas-Alabama football game, the spirits were high in
Fayetteville. George's is always THE place to be to root on
the Hogs before and after the big game. Unfortunately, the Hogs
dropped their season opener versus the Tide, but the show was a great
time and the crowd--as always--was tremendous.
NEWS
FLASH!!!--Oreo Blue is featured in this quarter's issue of
Blues Revue magazine's CD Sampler. Blues Thang from
Ten Down--Live at the ByPass garnered the prestigious closing track slot
on the CD which is distributed Internationally to over 50,000
subscribers. To order your copy, log on to www.bluesrevue.com.
photo by © Steve Biehn
September 14th--Private
Party--Eureka Springs, Arkansas-- Congratulations to Matthew and
Tamara on their marriage and thanks for letting us be a part of the
celebration.
photos by ©
Steve Chapman
September 13th--Cajun's
Wharf--Little Rock, Arkansas--One of the nice things about
performing in Little Rock is that it is a central location in the state
and that allows many of our state-wide fans to come to the show.
Our loyal fans came in from Pine Bluff, Conway, Hot Springs and
elsewhere. It was also nice to have Cara Hays and Steve Chapman in
from the band Superflux (www.superflux.cc). Cara joined us on
stage for a rocking-funky version of Superstition. Best of all,
was Gary re-joining us on stage after fighting off his illness.
Read back in this newsletter and you will have no doubt that Gary's
biggest fans are his band mates.
photos by ©
Steve Chapman
September 7th--Greater
Ozarks Blues Festival (Harpo's) --Springfield, MO--With Gary still
under the weather and TJ Scarlett booked with his band, Oreo Blue was
pleased to have an Arkansas native recently returned from an 18-year
hiatus in Los Angeles, Cal Jackson, join us on stage. Amazingly,
Cal pencil-charted a half-dozen or so OB originals on the drive up to
Springfield and pulled them off in astounding fashion. Cal
displayed a heavily salty tone and flair and helped spark the band on to
another great night. Don "Thunderfoot" Orell joined the
band again in his hometown. Don ripped up a drum solo on Brick
House and put us all in stitches with his version of Sugar
Momma. It was a treat for me to get out from behind the kit
and sing a few numbers. I may have to learn the words to a few,
but...what a great time. Thanks to Don and Toni for coming out and
thanks to Cal for a great performance.
September 6th--Maxine's
Tap Room--Fayetteville, AR--Gary fell ill this weekend and TJ
Scarlett stepped in to help Oreo Blue give Maxine a hearty and robust
show filled with some special performances. Highlights were many,
but TJ and Brian's performances on Little Wing was
priceless. Thanks, TJ for a fun night.
September 7th--Home--It's
time for football season and it's time for us to start calling those
Hogs. As most of you know, Oreo Blue is a rabid supporter of
the University of Arkansas Razorback sports programs. We are
tickled to get the new season under way. This Saturday, the Hogs
thumped Boise State in the season opener 41-14. Go HOGS!!!
