Try the Fries!
Dave, Lisa, Karen and I went out to the South Lyon Hotel tonight to catch the Hummingbirds. We settled in to a large group of friends and ordered some grub (try the fries!).
Steve and Rachel were great. Moving easily between old time country like Merle Haggard’s Mama Tried and I Wanna Rock & Roll All Night by Kiss. Steve was playing his Tele and Rachel was holding down the groove on her acoustic. You can just tell that these two play a LOT of music together and really enjoy it!
Later in the evening they sprung a huge surprise on us by asking us to play! Initially, I/we declined (they didn’t have a bass player with them and we didn’t feel right leaving Dave out of the picture). After having a few minutes to think it over, I thought that Lisa would really like to sing for the audience. I suggested we do What Can I Say so Lisa and Dave could sing while I play guitar. This seemed to be good with everyone, so we got up there and had a blast. Our first night playing with our heroes, Detroit Country Music Award winners – the Hummingbirds!
Hopefully we’ll get to share a stage with Steve and Rachel more in the future. Very cool and gracious people. Thanks you two!
And seriously… try the fries. You’ll only need one order for your whole table.
John
Arlington Station
Toto, I Don’t Think We’re in Kansas Anymore
Reason 278 Why It’s Good to be a Musician – Rita handing me a delicious plate of Brownie Ice Cream cake after our first set last night. Thank you!!!
Yes, we were at Solid Grounds again last night, the site of our first full Arlington Station show just two months ago. Some things have changed, some have stayed the same. There were so many people there, just like last time. Some of the names and faces were different, but what a great crowd! Thanks to all of you for sharing a part of your evening with us and our music!
Last evening produced a few “firsts” for the band. First off, if we sounded a bit better it may have been (in part) due to our new sound system. We started getting this system piece by piece a number of weeks ago. This was the first time we broke it out for a show. Seemed to perform wonderfully! As big fans of music, ourselves, we hope you enjoyed the sound as well as the music.
Many of you hopefully noticed the guy behind Lisa playing the funny guitar (mandolin) or the fiddle (violin) last evening. We were pleased to introduce a very talented musician and performer, Ron Ellman. The new sonic layer that he provides with his intrumentation is a welcome addition to our troop. And, as I’ve mentioned in the newsletter, he’s not a bad guy to just hang out with as well. We hope you will take a few minutes to meet Ron at future gigs and make him feel welcome in the Arlington Station family.
Unfortunately, there were a number of very talented musicians in our audience last night as well. I say “unfortunately” because there was supposed to be a great show nearby in town last evening at the Relay for Life event. The weather had other ideas. Jenni and Rachel were among others who got shut out. Kathy Neiman and Rise again were also seen milling around the coffee shop trying to recover from the Wizard of Oz experience. We heard some troubling things about a few guitars. Hope all your instruments are ok folks! And thanks for wandering our way to listen for a bit. Hope to see you back on stage playing soon! We also hope that Relay for Life finds a way to recoup any financial losses it may have incurred due to the weather shortened event.
Speaking of talented musicians… Darwin Mamassian played a wonderful opening set for us to start out the evening. Darwin has a great combination of cover songs and originals that will keep you listening as long as he’ll play. Thanks for coming out Dar. Looking forward to sharing a stage with you again soon!
Rita and the crew did a great job last night keeping everyone full of java and snacks. Thanks for having us back to your shop. And thanks for letting us hang out past 10pm last night. We hope to play at Solid Grounds again soon.
And, finally, thanks to all of you for coming out last night. We are consistently blown away and grateful that you all will take time out of your busy schedules to come and be with us while we have fun playing music. We played a bit longer last night, so thanks to many of you for staying to the “bitter end”! Our e-mail list got a bit longer yesterday. Our May 1st newsletter reached 156 fans. Looks like the June edition will reach almost 250 fans! We hope to send out the next Arlington Station Newsletter via e-mail in a week or two. Look for it in your “inbox” soon!
Hope to see you soon,
John
Arlington Station
Up With Downriver!
Although Dave and Lisa were otherwise engaged yesterday, Ron and I carried on and met at the house a few hours before the East River Folk Society open mic to try out a few songs. After fumbling our way through a few selections, we loaded up the vehicle and headed southeast! Downriver here we come!
We did three songs: Paul Thorn’s Even Heroes Die, a little instrumental that I wrote a couple years ago (but didn’t really come into it’s own until Ron put a rockin’ fiddle part to it) and Nothin’ All Day. I had been struggling to remember the lyrics to that last one all day. We rehearsed a bit at the house before we left and, again, when we got to the location. Each time I stumbled at the second verse. Ironically, I sang the verses completely out of order last night, but remembered each one. Go figure!
In any event, we received some very kind comments from the folks there. One of my co-workers, Nichole and her husband Jason, came out for the show and it seemed as if they had a good time. It always blows me away that people will use their much deserved time away from work and responsibilities to come out and hear our music (although I’m sure they didn’t come out just for us).
After the show, we chatted a bit with many of our fellow musicians. One of the best things about doing open mics and coffee houses is the network of friends and performers that we’re able to fellowship with.
Anyway, it’s back to work for us this week. We hope to see you at our Solid Grounds show this coming Saturday evening.
John
Arlington Station
p.s. Did you get our e-newsletter last week? If not, please contact us at: arlingtonstation@gmail.com and request a copy and to be added to the list!
