Photo by Stephen Boudreaux
October 29th--Home--Ozark Music Awards 2004--Oreo Blue was
honored with the 2004 OMA Award for Musicianship. This award
category is presented to the group with the best overall musicianship
collectively amongst its members. Brian Crowne was awarded best
Horn Player. But at the pinnacle of the evening was the award for
Lifetime Achievement presented to our own Gary Hutchison.
Gary was honored with this award deservedly so, by his friend (and
ex-wife) Jody and Brian Crowne. A slide show was run on the video
screen while Oreo Blue performed a blistering set of three songs.
There will be a photo page dedicated to the night in gallery # 41.
Look for it.
photo by Melissa Boudreaux
October 13th--Home--Once again, Oreo Blue has been honored to be
nominated in SIX categories for the 5th Annual
Ozark Music Awards.
Nominations include: Blues Band of the Year, Musicianship Award,
Best Guitar Player, Best Horn Player, Best Bass Guitarist, and Porky
Hill Memorial Drummer of the Year Awards. Wish us luck in the
voting. We will post the results after October 27th. We all
feel fortunate to live and work in a region that is so talent laden.
Nowhere else in America can you find so many great musicians per capita.
So go out and support our friends who perform live music and thanks to
the OMAs for giving recognition to those performers.
October 12th--Home--This photo is Stephen performing in
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada with a 60's cover band.
photo by Dan Yarbrough
October 9th--Blues For Brains--Cains Ballroom--Tulsa, Oklahoma--Our
good friend, Mary, from Tulsa invited the band to perform for the Brain
Injury Association of Oklahoma's fundraiser along with Bugs Henderson.
A worthy cause indeed. This was actually Oreo Blue's first
performance in the historic Cains Ballroom. This room is fabulous
and full of legendary vibe. Home of Bob Wills, everyone who is
anyone has adorned this great hall. U2, the Police, Roy Acuff,
Metallica, Sex Pistols, Van Halen (who reportedly played for $500 there
before they were known), and of course, Bob Wills and his Texas
Playboys. You can feel the ghosts of the old crooners oozing from
the walls and you can almost hear the music seeping from the original
stage below the new one. The acoustics are magical without the PA.
Hopes are that we can return to the Cains on our own bill and be a part
of such a powerful legacy.
http://www.cainsballroom.com/
October 1-2nd--Bikes, Blues, BBQ--Fayetteville, Arkansas--Over
the past three years, the BBBBQ has grown to be at least the third
largest bike rally in the world. Reports as large as 250,000
attendees surfaced before the event and most say that number was
achieved after it was over. Oreo Blue performed at Georges
Majestic on Friday night where we had a killer set. But this night
was our first taste of a band we have grown to appreciate over the past
six months by way of CD. The Groove Hogs from Wisconsin sound
great on CD and we have been spinning their record loyally for months.
However, when we saw these boys live, we were blown away by their sheer
power and groove sensibility. On Saturday, Oreo Blue took the main
stage to double-digit thousands just prior to the Discovery Channels
Biker Build Off Finals. Then it was the Arkmo Rock, Blues, and
Soul Revue with the Nace Brothers, Cate Brothers, and Oreo Blue all
mixed together to once again form a super group whose groove is bigger
than the two states it represents. Earlier, it was back over to
Georges Majestic for more of the Groove Hogs who lit up the night like a
MOAB on a firework factory. Check them out:
http://www.groovehogs.com
Bil and Jed Clampit
September 17th--Smoke on the Water BBQ Festival--Pine Bluff,
Arkansas--A quaint little festival. New this year, I think.
We took the long drive over not knowing what to expect. Our old
buddy and Brian's former bandleader, Jed Clampit, opened the show for us
tonight with his brother Bil. When we took the stage (and a huge
stage it was), the sound crew had the tremendous PA system ruling.
It was probably one of the nicest sounding rigs we had performed on.
It was set up for us to headline tonight and for .38 Special the next
night. Top notch. We invited Jed to come sit in with us
later in our set and he tore it up with his signature Williesqe electric
blues. Got a new camera this week and will have some new
photos up soon from this event and others.
Gary Lee leaves his
silhouette
photo by
Boudreaux
September 12th--Party on
the Patio, Powerhouse Seafood--Fayetteville, Arkansas--After about
three hours' sleep, I played a double-header baseball game (see below)
and headed straight to Powerhouse. Brian had the trailer unloaded
(what a trooper), and we anticipated a slow crowd due to the
aforementioned football game from the previous day. No matter.
We had a great show as usual and picked up a few new fans.
Rod and Gary at Traffic
photo by
Boudreaux
September 11th--Ozark
Blues Festival--Traffic--Springfield, Missouri--September 11th means
so many things these days. The overwhelming recall of the WTC
tragedy in 2001 is most prevelant. Beyond that, it is my son's
birthday, and today, it was also the Texas/Arkansas football game in our
hometown of Fayetteville. Sadly, we had to leave town. As a
part of the Pub Crawl for the Blues Fest, we were located at Traffic.
This is a very cool venue. Huge. Great staff. We did
this show as a three-piece and rocked the crowd. Mean time, the
Arkansas football team was working on upsetting the heavily favored
Texas Longhorns. Despite a late fumble, the Hogs should have won.
I think the whole state of Arkansas is mourning.
September 3rd--Georges
Majestic Lounge--Fayetteville, Arkansas--Tonight, Oreo Blue was to
play the happy hour set in anticipation of Steady Rollin Bob Margolin's
show later that evening. The band was at its best as it fed off
the early crowd. Later that evening, as a testament to NWArkansas
talent pool, new band, the Soul Servants led by former Oreo Blue
vocalist Chris Payton, put on a strong, well-rehearsed show.
Keep your ears open for this band full of seasoned musicians and one of
the best female vocalists you will ever hear on any stage.
Boudreaux on deck
Home--If
anyone out there is looking for an inexpensive (FREE) sporting event on
a Sunday afternoon, come out and watch a baseball-playing drummer.
I am the president of the Northwest Arkansas chapter of the Men's
Senior/Adult Baseball League (NWAMSBL) and we are looking for a few good
fans. We play Major League style baseball on weekends at parks
throughout Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley. Check our
schedules and get more information at
www.nwamsbl.com.
You can see my team and me at
www.nwasox.com.
