BLAME IT ON DEL RIO

Hey everybody, here's somethin' --

I gotta talk about DEL RIO. The first time we played there was in 2000, and we were asked back again this year. For those of you that don't know, Del Rio, TX is on the Mexico border, about 5 hours southwest of Austin. The occasion is Superbull, a national bullriding championship now in it's 25th year. It lasts for a weekend, and in that weekend little ol' Del Rio gets swarmed with bullriders and their fans and entourages. Directly across the border from Del Rio (a 5 minute drive) is Acuna, a tourist-driven border town full of bars, restaurants, and merchants of every kind. A fella can get a fine pair of boots for $75, get lightly stalked by a bizarre street-waiter hell-bent on gawking, pointing, and muttering at your girlfriend's tattoos, and get 4 giant margaritas, 6 Negro Modelos (and damned if they don't taste way better down there - Jim says it's a pasteurization thing, but who the hell cares), and 2 full lunch plates for $31. Acuna rocks.

Need I go further? Bullriders + Bullriding fans + Mexico = Dear God what a time! The real reason we were there was to play at an annual post-rodeo party held by the Wardlaws, a family of great folks that has family ties here in Austin and in Del Rio. In 2000 we just played the party on Saturday night (me, Jim, Timmy, and Shaan -- had a blast, came home with some fine hats), but this year we played the party on Saturday night and the intermission between rounds at the rodeo on Sunday. This year it was me, Jim, Brad, and Lisa, and we had as fine a time as ever. And there we were Saturday night, just playin' along, and who pops up but Tracy and Celeste from the Continental Club! Great to see them purty shinin' hometown faces. The Wardlaws always throw a great party, and this year was no exception.

As I said, Sunday was the finals (this rodeo is all bullriding, nothing else), and we were scheduled to play between rounds. In a flurry of panic and hive mentality (we were about 10 minutes late [stupid Mexico!], and they were running about 10 minutes early), we were loaded, Jim's little PA plugged into their big sound system and us still plugging in cords and tuning up, onto the back of a flatbed truck and rolled into the middle of the arena. Keep in mind this is 4:30 on the Mexico border in the middle of a pre-summer heatwave -- 100 degrees in town, about 110 (or 8 million) degrees out in the middle of that arena. We played about 35 minutes to a fairly appreciative crowd (like halftime at a football game), and if it weren't for the river of sweat in my eyeballs and the constant drone in my head of "... c'mon you big wussy.. you just watched Eco-challenge... don't be a big musician pansy... think of our boys overseas in the desert... uh, Noah's Ark... Jaws... cool, clear, water..." I could've really enjoyed it! I haven't even been on a horse in about 7 years -- no way I was going to swoon like a schoolgirl and pass out from heat stroke in front of a few thousand people who've been watching bullriders get the shit kicked out of them for 2 days now. And no help from the band either -- Brad & Lisa are active/athletic types, and looking at them sweltering only made me hotter. Me & Jim are definitely not athletic types ('cept Jim has an excuse, being 50+ and all - I'm just a lazy-ass ), and I could see how he was having to dig in and work through it, knew how pitiful I felt and must have looked, and I knew there would be trouble if we weren't off soon. Well, everybody was fine, the crowd whooped & hollered, and we were all the better for it. As they drove us off, here comes my li'l oasis Krissy Lee with a bagful of ice for everybody which I promptly dumped on my head and shoved down my gullet like a 6-year-old with a maw-ful of jawbreakers. What a freakin' city boy!! All in all.. damn, I love Del Rio!!

Otherwise.... Just waiting on the new record ("The Lowdown") to come out June 4. I'll have several in-store performances (Waterloo, Tower, and Cheapo) in June, as well as an o-fficial CD release party at the Continental Club on June 10. They should all be posted on the June calendar, so keep checking in. Also, y'all come see me with Teri and the Tagalongs at Ginny's on May 25. I think Redd's playing with us, too.....

Y'all take it easy!

Roger