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Well we got 2008 started right with 2 weeks of gigs that took us from KC to Vegas and back through Mississippi. The last 2 days of the tour, we were the guests of SHB family member Kempf Poole and his family. This is an amazing family! They opened their home to me and the guys as well as to my Uncle Wayne (the legendary Uncle Wayne!) and Bobby Inman. When I say they opened their home to us, I mean they made us feel absolutely warm and welcome. Kempf's wife Sandra is an incredible cook and, for a guitar player that usually eats about one meal a day on the road, it was like a weekend of Thanksgiving dinners every 3 hours! Not only were we served a multi-course breakfast and an amazing dinner that even had Richard loving cheese grits for the first time in his life, but Kempf also had to hip me to some ribs from a local joint that are now in my top 5 (pending a thorough and stringent consistency test). On top of all of that, we played two nights at Schimmels, the best restaurant in Jackson. The owner Jay, a truly class act, made the best shrimp and grits I've had and the bread pudding was to good to even talk about (I'm drooling on the keyboard as I type this!) All this and sweet potato pie lets me know that trips to Jackson will have to be limited to once a year or else I'll be buying all my clothes in the real fat guitar player section of Sears!
The show Saturday night at the Subway Lounge as awesome! We had a lot of fun and I hope the audience did too. One thing I need to address, for those in attendance, was a derogatory comment I made about Kenny Chesney. Often times when I'm onstage, I'll say something completely outrageous just to get a laugh from the audience. I mean no harm when I say these things, it's just jokes...however...I meant what I said about Kenny Chesney. I do not like him Sam I am! I will not like him on a train, I will not like him on a plane. I do not like the way he sings, I do not like him...anything! Listen to Jimmy Buffet, he first and better! Listen to George Jones, he's way better! Listen to a dentist's drill, it's better! My favorite Kenny Chesney CD is any one that's still in the wrapper, That way it can't hurt anyone! If Satan has a jukebox, I bet it's full of Kenny Chesney. Not that Satan likes him either, it's just good to torture souls with! I shouldn't be so hard on really short people, but as my daughter used to say, "me no yiking him!" I actually hope that Kenny makes tons of money this year...and retires to an island far away. Like maybe where Lost is supposed to take place! Not Hawaii, where they actually film, but somewhere in Micronesia where he can play his ukulele in peace and torment only the cannibals that inhabit the island! Sure, someday I might change my mind and learn to like him, then again, I might learn to like skin rashes and the sound of fingernails on chalkboards.

2008 / Tour Leg Numero Uno!

The holidays behind us and a new years worth of work in front of us. It all started in Kansas City on the 10th and we haven't slowed down or looked back since! I haven't had a lot of Internet so this is the first blog of the new year! Like I said, we started in KC with our traditional trip to Arthur Bryant's (Official SHB Top 10 BBQ). Had a great time at Knuckleheads and can't wait to get back there soon. KC was followed by 2 nights in Topeka hanging out with our friends Jeff and Trina. We were glad to see them as always and here's a shout out to Richard another friend of ours from Topeka and owner of a killer Les Paul! Jake's Roadhouse in Arvada CO was next and we watched some really painful playoff games on the set breaks. 2 nights at another favorite spot of ours followed at the Tugboat in Steamboat Springs CO. Here we found enough snow and cold to last us for the rest of the year! Our old friend JaBeaux was next up in Grand Junction CO where we had an absolute ball playing for the great crowd at the Blue Moon. Then it was on to my favorite city in the universe (top 5 anyway) VEGAS BABY! We had a great time at the Railhead in the Boulder Station Casino. After the gig, Tyler and I headed down to the strip where we spent the night at the crap tables in The Luxor, The Excalibur and The Mandalay Bay before I had probably the best BLT ever at 4:00 am and we made our way back to the guys. A venti Starbucks and I was good to drive for the next 5 1/2 hours, (I did sleep for a couple of hours in the van before we pulled out of Vegas). We made our way to Tucson and the great folks at the Nimbus Brewing Co. makers of some really good micro-brew beer (SHB favors Old Monkeyshines!) get on line and order a case! Next it was on to Prescott AZ and The Bird Cage. We always have a great time here. It such a great town and even though we're coming through"out of season" it still good place to hang and regroup. Tonight we leave for Lubbock TX, then Gruene TX and finally 2 nights with SHB family members Kempf Poole and the legendary duo of Uncle Wayne and Bobby! If you don't have a good road trip planned for this coming weekend, I highly recommend a trip to Jackson MS where we will be blowing it up real good!

Merry Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas Eve and all through the house, Olivia was in bed, I'm at the computer and Buff's asleep on the couch! The guitars are scattered all over the house and no one's stirring or creeping about! Jeff Beck's on my iTunes playing with care and I can't wait until St. Nick gets here!...oh hell, I could go on for ever with my poetic ramblings!...lost cousin of Dr. Seuss! This has been a weird Christmas for me. I'm usually the biggest kid in the room, but for some reason this year has been all about just getting through it...until tonight. I've decided, at the 11 hour, I know, to remember that this is a time for giving and gratitude...for family and friends. Buff, Olivia and I visited with our best friends tonight and then drove around looking at Christmas Lights. We came home and chilled out until everybody fell asleep and I put Olivia to bed and came in the office to write. If you read this, I'm praying for you tonight. I pray that God blesses you and protects you, that he fills your life with love and joy and that you are able to then express that love and joy in turn to others. Tomorrow's Christmas Eve. '07's only got a week or so left. Let's all be good to each other. Better than we have been. As good as our intentions are when we start the day. Love the people around you and then love the one's just outside that circle and try to keep going, one circle at a time. Forgive the person that cut you off on the road today, then forgive the person that flipped you off today when you did the same thing...and the next one that cuts you off, remember the person that you cut off before you respond!!! We don't have to be perfect, or even close, just better. Better than we were yesterday. Better to the people that we share this world with and better to ourselves. When ever I leave a place, somebody always says "take care", we should do just that; take care of each other and take care of ourselves. It sounds so simple and kind of "tree-huggy", but if we all did just that much, that simple thing, think about how different the world we live in would be. When I was in the first grade, I gave my favorite teacher, Mrs. May, a marble with the Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you) inscribed on it. I can't lie and say that I've always followed that philosophy, I'm real, real human! I've made the kinds of mistakes that they write movies about, but when I think of how simple that idea is and how hard it is for us to put it into practice, I realize that we're our own wall...our own roadblock. We decide whether we'll be better or worse. No one else gets to make that call for us. We make it for ourselves everyday. Sometimes, it's easier for me to lash out at someone who's wronged me than to forgive them and move on. For a split second, when that person cuts me off in traffic, I think I'll feel better if I get on their tail and give them the finger...every single time I've actually done it, I've haven't felt any better afterwards. In fact, I just feel like the universe was giving me a test and I failed again! Every time I write one of these "preachy" blogs, I feel like I should apologise! I don't mean to be heavy, I'm just feeling the season and the end of the year and a chance to, at least psychologically start fresh in '08 with a clean slate, and I, for one, am tired of war, strife, hunger, hatred, bigotry, disrespect, deceit, greed, terrorism and violence in the name of God ( my God, your God, their God). I'm tired of this politician telling me why I shouldn't vote for that politician, etc...If you know me personally, you know that I'm far from some kind of "holier-than-thou" type person, the sacred and the profane show up in me all too often in equal measures. I pray every night and read my bible everyday, then again, I also use the term M**********r as my symbol of supreme affection, but I also love God and pray to him every night for my family and all of you. Not just those of you that I know, but for the entire world. For the peace that most of us desire. For the love that all of us have within us. My bible tells me that we're all created in the image of God. So I take that mean all of us. Whether you believe in God or not. So if I insult you, I'm insulting the image of God. Now, before you get all hot, I know we live in excruciatingly politically correct times that generally preclude someone from invoking the name of any deity, lest you offend someone!...but then again, I'm not telling you to believe what I believe, all I'm saying is that I'm going to try and love you more and that I wish you would try to love others more. My philosophy is based on this simple principle; " I love you because I see you and I as fellow creations of God. If you don't agree with that, go f**k yourself, I love you anyway!" (see I told you, sacred and profane!)
This is the time of year when many religions have special times. The time when most of us have some sort of celebration that involves gift giving or reflection or something. I wish this time of year to be a time of peace and happiness for you and your love ones. My family says "Merry Christmas". If you're Jewish, just read it as Happy Hanukkah. If you celebrate Kwanzaa, read it as Happy Kwanzaa. Whatever you follow or believe, all I'm giving out is love...can you dig it?

Have A Blues Christmas - Episode III / Return of the Christmas Jedi

Well, the 3rd annual Christmas Benefit is in the books and the level of generosity displayed by everyone in the community and by the SHB friends-at-large never ceases to amaze me! First of all the event was a sellout. We had all 300 tickets sold by Thanksgiving and had the extremely unpleasant task of telling people who wanted to come, "no". As usual, my partner in crime, MF Mafia consigliere, Un-official mayor of Columbia and DJ emeritus of the SHB, Keith MF Throneberry had to say no more than me. He is the work horse of the event every year. He spends more time and energy working on, worrying about and just general doing more than anybody else involved. It's not enough for me to say that I couldn't do this without him, it's more like the event wouldn't exist without him. So much props to KMFT!! Every year, Natalie Stovall and her great band have donated their performance for free and this year was no exception. In this business you sometimes see musicians playing based on the "pay scale" in other words, if there's little or no money, they don't break a sweat. This is never the case with Natalie and her group. They bring it every year and it's an honor and a pleasure to share the stage with them. The Xtreme 4X4 club is the engine of the event. They not only donate their time and energy, but they bring a heavy dose of joy and good will into the room. They move every table, chair, (and person if necessary) and they do it in a flawlessly classy way that always amazes me. Describing them as "just" a 4X4 club sells them very short. They are an example of what we should all be; a group of friends who help each other and work together for a common good without any reservations. I'm lucky to know each and every one of them and can't thank them enough for the amazing job they do every year. This list of gratitude isn't in any order, but I have to shout about my boys, cause they flat brung it again this year! Richard and Tyler have been amazing all along and this night was no exception. They played with the same intensity and passion that they display every night and it's an honor and a privilege to be a member of their band. This year, however, we ramped it up some! The SHB was augmented by a mass of doppelgangers! We had 2 bassists, 2 drummers, 2 guitarists, 2 vocalists! It was the year of 2's!! I enlisted my dear friend Davis Mitchell, an extremely talented singer/songwriter/guitarist/entertainer, to play guitar in the SHB Big Banging Band. This was a real dream come true for me and something that we've needed to do for a long time but this was the right time. He played and sang great as always and gave his own individual energy and flair to the show. He is definitely someone who deserves more attention, and we will definitely be doing more stuff in the future. The next person was bassist/producer Keith Kenyon. Keith played bass for a number of years in the SHB and recorded Angels In Exile with me. After retiring from the road, (yeah riiiiight...), he has gone on to co-produce and engineer Revelator, From Lettsworth To Legend and our next record tentatively titled Sex & Violets! I've never been in a band with 2 bassists, but Keith's ability and style made it sound like the best freakin' idea in the world! He is a truly amazing musician and friend and I'm proud to know him. His beautiful and talented wife Janet lent her amazing voice to the proceedings as did Kellie Wolford. Having these 2 amazing women singing behind me for part of the show was daunting to say the least! Kind of like having Tiger Woods for your caddy! Until of course like Tiger, they both in turn stepped to the front of the stage and reminded me that I'm now and forever a singing guitar player, not a guitar playing singer! On percussion and drums was Derrick Wolford. Derrick has been involved in plenty of SHB shenanigans. In the studio, he played all drums and percussion on Revelator. Live, he's been the go to guy on several occasions early on when our drum chair was "revolving" to say the least! He's an amazing drummer as well as a kind and gracious person. I'm grateful to him for continuing to share his talent with me. Of course, what show would be complete without the madness of Bobby? His cowbell solos are now so legendary that people rarely ask what we're going to play, they just want to know if Bobby's coming (right Kempf??) No only did Bobby donate his cowbell expertise, he also donated 5!!! of his original paintings for our silent auction. Which brings me to the auction. Every year we try and add something new to the proceedings so that this years crowd gets something that they didn't get last year. This year we added a silent auction and once again the generosity flowed! Our MF Mafia Don, Chuck MF Lanza, went into his memorabilia vault and sent a care package of stuff to put in the auction. This included not one, but 2 signed guitars, various signed CDs, posters and handbills. He was still getting stuff signed by some of his legendary friends well into November!If you ever get to meet Chuck, you'll understand why when he says' "here man, sign this" you just do it. Just ask Mitch Mitchell!! We also had a jersey from Major League Baseball star Dan Uggla, and a winch that actually sold TWICE!! the same night!As I mentioned before, Bobby Inman is a very talented artist. His paintings of which I'm lucky enough to have 3! Sold for big money despite the fact that the artist was onstage banging a cowbell! Not only did people spend money at the event, but we had some of our longtime SHB friends send money from Canada (Thanks Denis & Lucy Burns!), Iowa (Thanks Duane and Audora Smith!!) and elsewhere! Because of all of you, this event as the best ever and all the encouragement we needed to begin planning next year's event. So the totals go like this; we had approximately 400 people, played music for 5 hours, served 6 kegs of beer, 700 chicken wings, enough ham and small hot dogs to make an entire village of pigs, and raised a total of $15,000.00 for the children of our community. Thanks to all of you.God bless you and I hope that your holidays are as warm as the one you've given me by your continued friendship and support. Peace,Scott

Yule log! Not that I have a log...in the way you think I meant it...

Here we are in the midst of the holiday season. The season of giving.When the air's filled with a little more love and brotherhood. Except of course at the mall on the day after Thanksgiving when the ravenous packs of glazed eyed bargain hunting shoppers attack the displays with their sharpened credit cards and reinforced shopping carts. Driving through the parking lot like Jeff Gordon so that they can get that great parking spot before you do! The same Playstation that has been on that shelf for the last year is now worth slashing the throat of the person in front of you to get at! Even the mall Santa looks a little worried as he sits paitienly waiting for the youngsters to reveal their Christmas wishes to him. "Did that mother have a sharpened candy cane in her purse? Why's this kid looking at me like I'm a giant turkey leg? Did he just pee on me?" Ah, Christmas! Whatever this season means to you, do you think that our ancestors had this in mind? "Let's create a holiday to celebrate a season of giving and thanks, but let's really make it an orgy of consumption!" Well...maybe the ancient Romans would've come up with that idea, but they probably would have tied sex into it more somehow. The herd of humanity that storm through the Best Buy's and Circuit City's grabbing that flat screen television as though it were the cure for cancer. You can almost hear them muttering, "must have this...must have this now..." as they paw through the aisles searching for that combination video game/food processor that they saw on 60 minutes that simply everyone's getting this year. If you feel this fever overtaking you this holiday season, just remember, on December 26, while you're taking all the boxes and wrappers to the dump, all sated on turkey and dressing, that the person you cut off in line to get that Disco Elmo, still lives in your town and you'll probably cross paths with them again at the returns counter while taking back the corduroy gaucho pants that your Aunt Eloise got you.

Krazy Glue

I love Krazy Glue. It's one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. Yes kiddies, I come from the 20th century. Before the internet and iPods. Before Guitar Hero and Global warming. For video games we had Pong! Pong! the most boring and lame of all video games, but when it was all you had as a child, you played that motherfucker like there was no tomorrow! We bought our music on an "album", made of vinyl, or at least a "cassette". When digital refered to your fingers. When David Lee Roth singing with Van Halen was just the way life was. VCR's were giant things that only really rich families had. I heard about them, but never actually saw one! The first time I heard of "Home Box Office" I thought the people who had it really had a movie theatre and they were just calling it their "Home Box Office"! My first vehicle (1969 GMC pickup truck, yeah!!!) had an 8-track tape player in it! On 8-track, if you wanted to hear "Hold On Loosely" by .38 Special, you had to wait until the end of track 1 and then hit it again! We were poor. We didn't even have MTV, we had Nighttracks on TBS! I saw Elton John's video for "I'm Still Standing" about 1,000 times! I used to like the video of that guy Taco doing "Putting On The Ritz", although it kind of scared me! I've seen Flock Of Seagulls, Dexy's Midnight Runners and Madness videos way too many times to count! I always liked Adam and The Ants doing "Goody Two Shoes". I had a friend who was really into punk. His name is Will and he doesn't read my blogs so I can talk freely about him. He turned me on to Billy Idol, The Go-Go's, and even Prince! He had The J. Geils Band's Love Stinks album. I thought Will was crazy to like the Dead Kennedys and The Sex Pistols, but I was intrigued by his passion for music even if we didn't have the same taste. I was listening to Elvis, Willie Nelson and Hank Willimas Jr. but we met at AC/DC. Back in Black was a favorite of both of ours. When I found the blues, Will was into hip-hop and rap. He liked Whodini and Run-Dmc. I liked Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, but we always managed to meet at Jimi Hendrix and the Doors. That's the cool thing about friends; no matter what you're in to, with a friend, you can always find some common ground. I don't have a lot of friends,maybe I'm not easy to be friends with. Or maybe I have too many expectations of my friends, but I know that the people I call friends are there for me no matter what. My test is to show up at their house at 3:00am with blood on my hands and ask to borrow a shovel. If they ask any questions, we're just aquaintences, but if they just go to the garage, we're friends forever! That's a joke, by the way, I'd never use a shovel. I'm also old enough to have buried friends and that's one of the hardest things I've ever done. I don't keep track of age. I really believe that you're as old as you feel...or something like that, but I know that when you lose a friend, it wakes you up to the fact that we're not guaranteed the next 5 minutes, much less the next 50 years. Somehow, that's made life and friendship more precious and important to me. I really love my friends...even though I don't tell them...I think they know. Friends are like Krazy Glue. I've used Krazy Glue for years. I fix my guitars with it. I repair my finger nails with it. I fix my daughter's toys with it. It's wonderful stuff.

Mr. Larry Lee - Mar. 7, 1943 - Oct. 30, 2007

I was saddened to learn of the death of Mr. Larry Lee tonight. Mr. Lee was a guitarist. As a backing musician, he worked with The Impressions, as well as being a part of the Gypsy, Sun & Rainbows at Woodstock. A group led by none other than Jimi Hendrix. I learned a very valuable lesson from Mr. Lee and never had an opportunity to tell him about it, so I’ll tell it here publicly. When I played with Buddy Guy, we did a New Year’s Eve concert one year with Al Green and Santana. I was thrilled to be on the show, because I’ve always loved and been influenced by Carlos Santana, and I was excited to be seeing Al Green for the first time. We played first, and after we finished, an older gentleman approached me and said he was with Al Green, but didn’t have a guitar, and could he borrow mine. I had had some bad experiences with people using and abusing my guitars in the past (Mr. Adrian Belew!) and I was very gun-shy about putting my guitar into a strangers hands. I was young and inexperienced, and this man’s story didn’t make sense to me. “You play with Al Green and you don’t have a guitar?!” I told him no and said we were leaving before the end of the gig which was just barely true and left him to borrow someone else’s guitar, (I think he actually ended up with one of Carlos’ guitars, but that doesn’t make it better for me.) I learned the next day that the man was Larry Lee and, being the Hendrix fanatic that I am, I was stunned and wished that I’d loaned him my guitar. Then I stopped and studied my reaction and realized that it wasn’t that I regretted not loaning my guitar so much as I regretted not rubbing elbows with someone who knew Jimi Hendrix. Even a young idiot like me realized what a selfish idea this was! This realization made me rethink my entire approach to life. This one event made me realize that regardless of our particular station or situation, at the end of the day, we are all human beings, riding he same big rock through the universe and not only do we need each other, we are intrinsically connected. I have held a regret ever since that I never had the chance to apologize to Mr. Lee and explain the valuable lesson that I learned from him. I don’t know that he would remember or care, but it was a significant event in my life and if I’m a better person for it now, (I’m not saying that I am, I’m just saying if I am.), he is to thank for teaching me that when your brother asks for help, you help. You don’t turn your back and justify your refusal with a bunch of rationalizations. Now, am I perfect now? No! Do I still make the wrong decisions when it comes to my fellow man? All the time! What I do, however, is what I hope we all do; I try harder, to be better. That’s really the mandate that we have to follow. Just try harder to be better. Thank you Mr. Larry Lee and God Bless You. My heart and prayers go to your family.

A Transformative Measurement of Dynamic Change in the 22nd Century

Well it's starting to get cold here. Not cold like Minnesota or Canada, which is the coldest places I've ever been, but cold like Tennesee. Which, if you've never been here, is cold enough for me! We are rehearsing some new material and working on some new sounds for 2008 (you know this year is almost gone!). I'm looking forward to playing out soon. It's funny to play almost everynight for 6 weeks and then just stop for 2 weeks. I mean, I don't stop playing, I play all the time at home,it's just different when you're sitting on your own couch or when you don't even have to finish the song, or when you just play Van Halen covers all night to try and make your wife laugh! Of course, I also dress a little differently when I'm playing "concerts" for my wife..."Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love...I'm trying to get her to hold a lighter up while I play, but she's not even having any of that. It's also kind of strange having internet so close! No Panera Bread! Not even a Starbucks! My wife's coffee is a thousand times better! Plus I get to sleep with the Barista!

September tour in tha' books!

After having a chance to sleep in my own bed for a couple of nights, I'm ready to sum up the last leg of the tour. What a great time we had! It's been a while since we did a 5 week tour in one stretch and in the past, you usually hit the brick wall of despair/anger/frustration/loneliness about 3 weeks into it. This time was different though for a lot of reasons. For one thing we've been going around the country making friends for the last 7 years and now when we go to Des Moines, we look for Duane. When we go to Steamboat Springs, we know we'll see Arnie. When it's Topeka, it's time to see Jeff and Trina. It's so great to have friends in all these areas that come out and support us and welcome us into their towns with open arms. We are truly blessed to have such great friends across the country. Another big big reason for the tour going so comfortable, is the fact that we had several chances to hang with my MF brothers and even JAM!! NYC was Chuck MF Lanza territory and a great sushi dinner with my old friend Arnie G. When we hit Chicago (as usual) all bets are off! Keith MF and Jen Throneberry made the trip with Tyler's mom, Chuck MF a.k.a. Smoke-on-the-MF'n-water! and Lori flew in from NY for his B'day, Randy Z fed us and made the trip up, Superfan was there, and best of all Buddy was there and hanging out with him is something I never get enough of. Keith and I discovered (well he re-discovered) the hottest hot sauce in the universe. This stuff is what hell tastes like <http://www.insanechicken.com/da-bomb-final-answer-hot-sauce.php> You like hot stuff? I mean really hot stuff? Do you like it when tiny men with torches leap on your tounge wearing spiked shoes? Then you'll love The Final Answer! When we got to Minneapolis, it's time to hang with Tim and Susie Obrien and Pappy and the gang. What a beautiful group of people. I am blessed to know them all. We had an amazing oasis in Wisconsin when our man Dino not only put us up at his house, but his supercool mom cooked us an amazing Italian dinner! Dino's friendship is another blessing in my life that I am so grateful for. He's done so much for us as a band with his inspiration and enthusiasm, but it's his friendship that means the most to me. God blessed me with one wonderful brother, Shane, but he's blessed me again with a bigger family of spiritual brothers than I ever dreamed of. And of course, there's my band family. If it wasn't for Richard and Tyler, I'm sure I would have lost my mind many times on this trip. Richard and I have done this for a lot of years, and we're still loving it as much as we did the first time we went out. Watching Tyler grow into this gig has been one of the really fun things about this trip. For 5 weeks, he's gotten better every night. On many occasions, people have been coming up to us telling us how great it is to see us smiling on stage and having fun! I thought we were always having fun, but I'm glad it's showing! It would have been fun to go back to the first nights gig at the end of the tour and see the change. One thing you can't plan for is how people will respond to adversity. You just have to go through it and see what happens. These guys have met every challenge with a positive attitude and a smile. That allowed me to keep my perspective and stay cool when we lost all my cables and my tool box on the interstate in the middle of the night (if anybody in KC finds my roadcase, I'd appreciate it if you could send it back to me!). Every challenge was just an opportunity to get after it and they made it fun for me. We ended up in Louisville at one of our favorite joints Stevie Ray's. My voice, for the first time in 5 weeks, was completely gone the first night thanks to a nasty cold. I'm not a great singer anyway, but when you open your mouth and don't know what's going to come out, it's a scary thing indeed! We got through it with a lot of guitar playing and Richard stepping up with his "Badboy" self! Second night was a little better vocally, but I didn't really get it back until I got home. And that brings me to the best part of any trip, HOME!! My girls are the most important things in my life and I haven't gotten enough hugs and kisses yet, nor have we played enough games of "Princess Monopoly" or Hi Ho Cherrio. My guitars are all put back together and my amps didn't flinch at all this trip. I've got Keith MF lined up to rebuild the trailer, and tonight he and I will take the two most beautiful women in the world to Papa Boudreaux's where we will eat and drink too much and howl at the moon! Man it's good to be home!

3rd Annual Blues Christmas Benefit

It's hard to believe that it's almost Thanksgiving, but this year has flown by! It's time to start planning the 3rd Annual Blues Christmas Benefit. This is our homecoming show and a chance to help our hometown community. The last two years have raised over $13,000.00 for this charity and we're hoping to double that amount this year. As always, the heavy lifting of the planning and prep work goes to Keith MF Throneberry and Xtreme 4X4. In addition to the devastatingly talented Ms. Natale Stovall and her great band, as well as food and drink, we're planning to have a silent auction with memorabilia from various entertainers, sports figures and celebrities. As always, the SHB will be there and we're planning a special show just for this event, with some friends from the extended SHB family. This is our chance to give back to the community that has been so supportive of me throughout my career and the place that will always be my home. If you're coming in from out of town and want info on tickets and accomidations, or If you can't make it to town, but want to contribute (or get a really cool t-shirt or poster), email us at: scottholtband@gmail.com

Day 31 or How to correctly determine the sex of your new sea monkey

Day 31 of the current tour, and here's the kind of day that you're glad you can make it through; We get up on Sunday morning grab a Starbucks and travel 3 hours through a snow storm and over the Rocky Mtns to an afternoon gig in Arvada, just outside of Denver. We load in and play at 2:00 pm to maybe 10 people who are nonetheless appreciative and make it worth it for us. We load out, then we get in the van and drive to a Chipotle for the first meal of the day at 8:00 pm. We then get back in the van and drive 4 hours to a Wal-Mart parking lot where we sleep for about 5 hours wake up in a freezing wind storm and then grab a cup of Starbucks and travel the remaining 5 hours to Kansas City for our gig tomorrow and Wednesday. We resist the urge to get a picture of Tyler sitting on a gorilla (it's just too freakin' cold!) We checked in to our Hotel and then left immediately for a 2:30 pm lunch, (Arthur Bryant's BBQ!! KC's best)returned to find that the hotel we're staying in for 3 days has a broken TV in our room (there's also 2 extremely large Bull Mastiffs inexplicably chained to a small tree just outside our room and no other cars in the parking lot!). We change rooms (far from the deadly canine guardians of hell), get showers (yes we are clean)and head for Panera Bread to get the first Internet we've seen in about 5 days. The connection's too slow to catch up on The Office or any other TV show that we haven't seen in about 4 weeks. I can't even find the Clapton interview from Larry King! (I did just finish his biography a couple of days ago, great book!) I try to respond to some my space messages, but there's a ton of them and I'm always afraid I won't go back far enough! I do appreciate all the messages though and I will get them answered eventually. I did check out footage of the current Van Halen tour (seems to be the exact same show every night which is kind of a bummer, of course that might be the only way they can keep Eddie and Dave from killing each other! they also are keeping Wolfgang in the shadows).Now the goal is get back to room in time to see Curb Your Enthusiasm, do some laundry (we're clean I told ya!) and change some strings on my guitar before hitting the first bed I've seen in 35 hours! Now you want to hear the really crazy part? I wouldn't trade jobs with anybody on the planet! And now for some random thoughts and observations; As I said earlier, I've been keeping up with the current Van Halen tour and listening to a lot of the shows via the Internet. They are sounding better every night, but you just can't go home again. Actually Wolfgang often sounds the best of the lot! It's sad to see how far Eddie has fallen from where he was at his peak.Just found out about this guy Kimbo Slice on You Tube. Holy crap!! this is like the scariest guy I've ever seen! He looks like Mr.T if he'd done real time. He's some kind of backyard fighter that just beats the crap out of people (except for this one fight where the guy uses a choke hold on him). Went and saw 3:10 to Yuma (great film) We Own The Night (...you also own my $10.00 and I want it back for sitting through that slow moving piece of crap that even a nude Eva Mendez couldn't save!) Now I want to see Into The Wild, Eastern Promises and American Gangster. I started an audio diet of nothing but Eric Clapton last Monday, other than Sunday mornings, which I always reserve for Gospel (this past Sunday was Aretha Franklin!!) I haven't really dug into Clapton for a long time and it's really great to revisit some of the old stuff as well as a bunch of "Internet acquired" live stuff that reaffirms my belief in Clapton's greatness. The tree goes like this;
1.Jimi Hendrix

2.Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck

3.Clapton, Earl Hooker, BB King

4.everybody else from here down is constantly fighting it out for position.

Makes me wish I had my Clapton guitar on the road, of course after 5 weeks, at one time or another, I've wished I had every guitar on the road...except in the mornings when I'm loading the van, then I always think I have too many guitars out here already. Especially since I've been playing #1 almost exclusively for the last several shows. I don't know what it is about that guitar, but it just does whatever I ask of it and never complains. I started reading Where God Was Born this morning, great book. Check it out but have your Bible handy to cross reference. Tomorrow should be good, Einstein Bros. Bagels is a block away, we're playing a gig, I'm one day closer to being home with my girls!!!!, Road Food says there's a place that has great fried chicken (gotta love that yardbird) & I get to make music with two of my dear friends. Life's good.

Don't taze me bro!

Today is the start of the countdown to the end of this tour. What a trip we’ve been on so far! Today is day 2 in Topeka KS and we’re looking forward to playing a new club here. We had a blast in the Minneapolis area and saw a bunch of our old friends. It was great to see everybody and hang out and jam with our buddy, amp building genius, Tim Obrien. So what’s an average day on the road like? Well, today is the 3 “L’s”; load-in, laundry & lunch! We also have to find Tyler some new drum sticks. The first night he was with us, I kidded him that there wasn’t any wood chips under his drums at the end of the night, since then he’s been breaking about 4 sticks per night. That’s much more like the SHB! Beat stuff until it breaks!

Sweet Home Chicago

The SHB's gig Sunday night at Buddy Guy's Legends was maybe the best yet. At least it was the most fun we've had there so far! The only thing missing was Buffy, but the MF Mafia was all present and accounted for and the crowd was awesome. Buddy and I got hang out for a little bit before the show and between sets (in fact it almost got me in trouble because we kept starting late because we were having such a good time hanging out and laughing!) The band played great, Tyler's really making big strides an with his mom in the audience, he broke 7 sticks (Vic Firth my ass!)!!! We all play better when our mom's are in the house! Richard won the prize for coolest shirt, and Keith MF Throneberry and Chuck MF Lanza (who both had their beautiful wives with them) tied for best cover song. Chuck jammed on Smoke On The Water and Keith jammed on a medley of Purple Rain / I Just Want To make Love To You. (We all play better when our wives are there!) Randy Z was invaluable in getting the party started with a great bottle of wine and taking care of the guitars that seemed to be breaking all over the place. Rich made sure it was loud enough and Harvey made sure that one really "joyful" gentleman only danced with ladies who wanted to dance with him! Superfan Mike was in the house, and it was great to see him. We had new friends from the UK and France (thanks to Scott Brittingham for giving them a ride!) Like I said, the only two things that would have made it perfect would have been having my beautiful wife there and if Buddy would have jammed with us, but that's just an excuse for us to do it again! Thanks to the Staff at BG's for making every visit feel like coming home. A big thanks to my MF brothers for keeping the show going! Ya'll make me sound so GoooooD!

Cleveland Rocks!

Well it’s been an interesting couple of days! We played at the R&B Grill in Bethel NY on Friday night and had a ball! What a great bunch of people and a tremendously cool environment. Thanks to the great folks at the bed & breakfast that put us up for the night. What a great place to visit. We got up the next morning and went to the site of the Woodstock festival. I stood in the spot where Jimi Hendrix played the Star Spangled Banner! I think I could still hear the notes ringing around the field. On to New London CT where we discovered that the club forgot we were coming and booked another band! (We are freakin’ huge in New London CT!!) They were kind enough to pay us not to play and Richard and I headed for Cleveland early. (Tyler had to go home for his sister’s wedding so Andy Began played with us in NY and we put him on a train in CT and rolled away- thanks again Andy!) Last night was Cleveland where Richard and I played an acoustic show as a duo (first time!) It was a lot of fun and hopefully the people dug it. Tonight’s off so its laundry, internet, etc. tomorrow starts an uninterrupted run for 6 days. Looking forward to getting Tyler back with us, and getting to Chicago on Sunday to see some of our home folks. The MF mafia will be in the house!
By the way, recently I wrote a blog that has garnered some unfortunate attention and led to some misunderstanding, so I want clear it up now, once and for all; I don’t care for Dockers, but if you wear them while cooking barbecue, you instantly leap to the front of the cool line in my book (especially when the ribs are as good as the ones I’m referring to). I think that barbecuing in Dockers makes them okay by default and you overcome the negative ness of their very existence by the spiritual art of cooking. So if you wear Dockers, grab some tongs and fire up the grill! You’ll feel better about yourself, I promise!

The road is long and winding...

Day 4 on the road and we’ve got 3 shows under our belt with new drummer Tyler and everything’s going great. Checked out 3:10 To Yuma yesterday, whacking great film! Tomorrow, we get back to work in NYC and then its roll hard until KY. We’ve got a couple of days off sprinkled here and there to do laundry and glue the guitars back together, but the miles start falling hard and fast tomorrow. I hate off days, so I’m glad to get over this hump in the road. Off days are the Wednesdays of the SHB! For those of you in Bethpage and New London, Tyler is flying home to attend the wedding of his sister, so his spot will be filled by the very capable drumming of Mr. Andy Began. Congratulations to the soon to be Mrs. Ashley Johnson (or possibly Mrs. Ashley Crowell – Johnson or maybe even Ms. Ashley Crowell…maybe her new husband will take her name instead…I’m not sure what the current vogue is for newly weds…maybe they take each others name…in which case she’ll be Mrs. Johnson, and he’ll be Mr. Crowell…what a strange thing that would be filling out home loans or job applications…I once knew a woman who not only didn’t take her new husbands name, she made up a new name for the both of them out of a combination of the letters of their respective names. I thought that was pretty cool. They took the first half of her name and the last half of his name. His name was Benson and her’s was Robertson, so they became Mr. & Mrs. Robertson…actually, now that I see that typed, it looks more like they just kept her name…that bitch! She tricked poor old Benson! I guess he should have made her sign some sort of prenuptial agreement concerning the maintenance of his name. Of course, he must be pretty dumb not to see that coming…”Hey honey, let’s just combine our names to make a new name like the ancient Greeks did. Wouldn’t that be fun? You’ll do it for me won’t you?” Oh what a slippery slope! Well, I can’t feel too sorry for him if he’s not any smarter than that. Anyway, congratulations to the happy couple!)
I’m sorry, but I just got distracted by the two guys sitting across from me. (I’m in Panera Bread of course!) They seem to be planning some kind of takeover for the company they both work for. I don’t eavesdrop, but they’re talking really loud. The one guy seems like a real jackass. “You do this, and I’ll do that and we’ll just take over the whole thing…” If I knew what company they worked for, I’d call the CEO right now and alert him that there’s mischief afoot! Then again, as a musician, I am sort of a modern day pirate; so technically, I should be rooting for the mutiny. Still they are wearing Dockers (which always pisses me off!) and they are really annoying. Maybe we should just take their computers and run. I better find Richard. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Tom Larson

We’ve had some big changes in the last few weeks and after getting a lot of questions about it, I decided that I needed to address what’s going on. As many of you have noticed, Tom is no longer with us. This wasn’t an acrimonious split, no invectives were being hurled, and it was simply Tom’s decision to move on his own path. Tom has been the drummer in the SHB for a bunch of years. He was the first drummer after I left Buddy and played on the records Angels in Exile and From Lettsworth to Legend.
Tom and I met through our wives who worked in the same field. Buffy invited Tom and his wife Misty out to see a show and I called him up to jam. I knew from the first note that Tom and I had a tremendous musical connection. He’s that good. We’ve had some amazing musical moments over the past several years and I remember all of them fondly, from opening in Canada for Buddy Guy to opening this past April for Johnny Winter. We played some musically amazing shows and Tom always plays his heart out, never giving less than his all. Tom’s also been with us through some really hard times on the road, just like every band has to endure and he’s always been a great solid friend. As we move on, Tom’s moving on. I know that whatever project he pursues, he’ll be fantastic in it. If you’re in an area where Tom is performing, go out and support him just like you do us, after all he’s still family and we’ve all got to stick together. One thing I’ve learned in this business is that good musicians are easy to find but good people are more rare and precious. Tom is a genuinely good person as well as being a devastatingly good drummer. I thank Tom for all of his help in getting the SHB rolling and helping to push us further down the line. I thank him for his friendship and I look forward to watching him continue to grow, develop and create.

Sail On

So the new chapter starts on Friday. We move forward and keep driving. No matter what. It’s funny, but conviction isn’t something you can just talk about, you have to walk the walk. I’ve been doing this for almost 20 years now. I started with Buddy in 1989. I never stopped. When I left Buddy, the money went to almost nothing, I went from hotels (real nice hotels) to motels (real bad motels), and I went from a tour bus to a van that I drive and pay for and fuel myself. I’ve had dozens of musicians in this band, some for a while, some for a minute. I treated them all with respect and loved them like family. I’ve never thought about giving up, I’ve never let myself get discouraged by some little pieces of trouble that might have been cast in my direction. I never wondered, “is this all there is?”, I understand that I am doing what I was put here to do and if God wants me to move, He’ll move me or make my situation so obvious that I have no choice but to move. I have an amazing support. My wife Buffy is my best friend and has always kept me grounded while simultaneously giving me what I need to fly. She has supported me without fail from the beginning and that makes the difference. She keeps me in check spiritually as well, reminding me that just because we’re in this world, that doesn’t mean that this is all there is. I couldn’t make it without her. She is the love of my life. I’m her biggest fan.
I have amazing friends who are there for me in so many ways that it’s impossible to describe. I have family that supports and loves me and I’m humbled by all of it. I understand when people who don’t have that kind of love and support crack under the stress and strain. My heart goes out to them. There are people around me right now who are floundering and lost and searching. I want to be there for them and I am there for them, but sometimes people don’t see you, they don’t know you’re there no matter how much you shout or how much you do. I hope that the people in my life who are struggling find the peace that they’re looking for and that they can achieve their dreams.

Snare drum pound of 2 & 4, all the party people get on the floor...

Day 1; we storm through From Lettsworth to Legend from start to finish. Hammering the sword so that sparks are flying off of it. “Rocky” style sit-ups with somebody punching you in the stomach every time you rise up. This is where you find yourself. Are you a “lifer” or you just playing at it? Can you play your hardest with no screaming crowds shouting your name? When your pay for the day is a luke-warm bottle of water, is it enough? The rehearsal space is a metal building with no air-conditioning. It’s loud and hot. There’s only 3 of us in there and the mission is simple; work harder, get better, let the music do what the music’s gonna do! Circle the wagons. Time to empty our cup so that we can get some new tea. Cell phones off. No visitors allowed. We’re playing through all 6 albums top to bottom, working on some new stuff and generally getting geared up to finish kicking 2007’s ass. A 2 hour session ends in you standing in a literal pool of sweat. Your guitar, pedal board and clothes soaking wet. Drums are being bashed so hard, they’re jumping across the floor! The bass growling like the voice of doom. Richard’s right, “You’re mother should know!” This is designed to make the hottest sweatiest gig seem like a vacation. After blasting through this furnace for 2 weeks, any 4 hour gig is going to seem like nothing. Like the song says, “Next time you see me, things won’t be the same…”

Dispatch: Deja Voodoo Chile (slight return)

Van Halen’s getting back together. That’s pretty cool. I wish it was the original four, but one thing I’ve learned is you can never go back. Time is a river that only flows one way, and even if you’re treading water, you’re still being carried down stream. My friend Tim (one of the angels I spoke of in an earlier blog) loaned me his personal amp while mine gets tuned up. There’s a chance that Warren Haynes might play it in a couple of days! That would be too cool. I hope he leaves some notes in it for me to steal!
We had a great time playing in Florida last week, it was great to see all of our friends and make some new ones. I had a chance to visit with some friends from the Koko Taylor band that I haven’t seen in some years. Good to see Vino. A fantastic guitarist and a good spirit. Also got to visit with Damon Fowler and his band. Great bunch of guys. We share the same agent, so we are rarely in the same place.
2007’s been a great year, but it sure has taken some funny turns…to quote Mr. Buddy Miles, “Well my mind is going through them changes…”

Dispatch: Scott's day off and I Spy

Some days, you’re on the road and have nothing to do. So how do you fill your time? Well some musicians do drugs or rob banks or race motorcycles. Some date supermodels, form peace rallies or invent new forms of punctuation. We go to malls. Not just any mall, but we look for the largest most diverse monuments to consumerism that we can find. Malls with more than one Starbucks, a Best Buy, a Victoria’s Secret, etc. Today is such a day at the Coconut Point Mall in Fort Myers, FL. After an evening watching The Bourne Ultimatum (great freaking’ movie! He dies at the end!...no, not really…or does he?...I wouldn’t spoil the movie for you…he dies…just kidding…no really…) We returned here today for lunch at Johnny Rockets (first restaurant opened on Melrose Ave in Los Angeles CA on June 6 1986) another tour around Barnes & Noble, and now were posted up at Panera Bread for the free internet, great atmosphere and friendly people…but mostly for the free internet. A strange bald guy was staring at us earlier, but he’s gone now. He had large glasses that reminded me of those “x-ray specs” that they used to advertise in the back of comic books. I think the couple at table in front of me is having an affair…shame on them! Tom seems to be shopping for yard tools online and Richard is expanding his ever growing legion of Myspace friends. His ultimate plan is to gather as many Myspace friends as possible and then mobilize them into an elite fighting force that will aid him in his quest for control of the free world, all to the dulcet tones of the Beatles…but don’t tell anyone! I am the patient observer, neither judging nor condemning, simply noting the comings and goings of the humans. An older couple to my left appear to be in disguise. You know large hats, dark glasses, etc. They’ve also not spoken a word to each other since they sat down. They may be blind. Maybe they’re not aware that the other person is sitting at the same table. The man looks like he might have killed someone at one point, while his companion looks like she might have commanded him to do it as a test of loyalty…or maybe they’re just old people eating lunch. As I said, I neither judge nor condemn. A woman to my immediate right just took an incredibly large bite of something. I think she should eat smaller bites and chew her food more. She’s looking at me now. I think she knows I’m writing about her…oh wait…no it’s okay; I think she has a lazy eye. 2 guys in front of me are chowing down. They seem to have spent more time on their hair than I do changing the oil in the van. I see a woman drinking beer. I didn’t know they served beer at Panera Bread…at 10:00am…on Sunday…lazy eye’s looking at me again…I think she knows the “hair brothers”…another woman is eating with a spoon, but she’s holding the spoon upside down and just licking the back of it over and over…Geez!...the hit man and his boss are reading the paper…probably about his last hit and how the police can’t solve the crime! Diabolical geniuses! Now a guy in front of me is online and looking up travel websites. Maybe he’s planning that surprise getaway for his wife…or girlfriend…or maybe he’s just planning to escape…into the night…with the money that he embezzled from his job at the Apple Store! Lazy eye’s coming this way…I’d better go.