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Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota all in a matter of hours and we made it back in one piece! We had a really good time, met some great people and made lots of new friends!

 

We left Tulsa around midnight, drove all night and arrived in Watertown, South Dakota about noon the next day. Loaded in and set up in a great room! As a matter of fact, Merle Haggard is playing that same stage very soon! We got checked into the hotel and finally got a little sleep before our gig. We played and stayed there for two days and I have to say, it was super nice to be able to finish playing and just walk off the stage and grab a drink on the way to my own private hotel room and not have to tear anything down. I think I could get used to that real quick!

 

Next we headed to Fargo, North Dakota to stay at a friends house, find a fill-in bass player and hopefully book some more gigs while we were waiting for our next scheduled dates. It was a good week, we saw the sights, went out on the town, ate at some of the locally owned restaurants, and did our best to book some gigs.

 

We picked up a local entertainment newspaper and looked for the local "open jams" and decided we would go look for a bass player. The first jam we hit was in downtown Fargo and the players there were really good! T.J. and I sat in with them for a while and later found out the bass player was previously Martina McBride's bass player! He was great, but unfortunately he was already booked or we would have snagged him up.

 

 So we headed off to the next jam and stayed there quite a while. We really cut loose at this one and had some fun! We ended up playing quite a bit that night with lots of different musicians, we played some Doors, Stones and even some Zeppelin! Honestly it probably looked more like a circus than a jam night toward the end! We were really cuttin' it up. The locals sure got a kick out of my stick tricks, and I was putting it on thick that night!

 

 

We found a bass player, switched numbers and headed off to The Hub, 6 bars in one! And man was it fun! We actually hit The Hub two nights in a row! Guess we couldn't get enough of it. The country bar, Cadillac Ranch is a lot like Coyote Ugly but somehow cooler. The girls dance on the bar and throw out free hot dogs across the room to everyone. Another one of my favorites at The Hub was The Monkey Bar it's a metal music bar complete with headbanging-on-the-bar dominatrices fully equipped with whips, chains and Jagermeister! Crazy! And all while listening to Pantera! Heaven? No,... but it was upstairs!

 

 Next we were off to play our last two gigs in Hankinson, North Dakota at another casino. The place we played was not nearly as nice as the other casino's venue but the casino/hotel itself was way bigger and there were a lot more people so it turned out to be quite a bit of fun as well. I don't think I went outside the whole time I was there, it was a pretty big place and lots to do.

 

We left for home on Sunday about 1pm and drove what seemed like forever till we decided we were going to stop in Kansas City for some grub. We were starving and all craving Chinese food so we went out of our way to hit PF Changs! Where I confiscated some chop sticks so I can practice my technique. I just feel that a drummer should be able to 'be one with the sticks...grasshopper', and I'm just not. We didn't get to Tulsa and get unloaded till about 2:30am and I still had to drive another hour home in my own car, so needless to say I was ready for bed when I got here! Anyway, I'm rested up and anxious to see everyone, and there's a ton of stuff going on, so you should all just follow me around all week and join in the fun! ;-)> 

 

 

Dustin Pittsley and his band will be recording live this Thursday night at Snockers and they have asked me to come out and play. Hopefully I'll make the cut and be on the next cd! Come make some noise!

 

 

I will be playing drums for T.J. at the Bartlesville Million Dollar Elm Casino this Friday October 3rd.  It was kind of a last-minute booking, we hope you will plan to be there!

 

 

Down For Five and Bartlesville's very own Fist of Rage will be ripping the roof off The Backyard Bar this Saturday night! You don't want to miss this!!! The BYB is located at 1229 S Memorial in Tulsa. 9 to 1, No Cover, 21 & up.

 

 

Down For Five just finished recording the new theme song for the Tulsa Oilers hockey team(you can hear "Let's Go!" at www.myspace.com/downforfive ). The Oilers have scheduled us to do a video shoot for the song this Sunday. We are pretty excited about it, the video will be used at all the home games in the brand new BOK center arena in downtown Tulsa!

 

 

 

 

Those of you that have been on this list for a while might remember the story of me getting a phone call from someone quite some time ago, whom I had never met, that wanted me to go into the studio and record a few tunes with them. He was wanting to put together a decent demo before he headed off to Nashville to try his luck in the music biz. Well, that was Christian Parks.

 

 I went to Oklahoma City on a whim, having no idea what to expect. Up to that point I hadn't actually met Chris, I only talked to him on the phone a little and had heard some acoustic demo versions of the songs he had sent me via e-mail.

 

All in all, it was a pretty quick process. As I sat up my drums while Chris was laying down what we call "trash tracks" so I would have something in the headphones to play along with. After that, Chris basically sat down in the drum booth with me, played a little acoustic guitar and wrote down where the changes were and we knocked it out.

 

Chris took that demo to Nashville as planned, and to my surprise he cut a video to one of the tracks I recorded with him! I was just stopping by his myspace the other day to say hi and ran into it so I thought I'd share. You can find the video at http://www.myspace.com/parkschristian  it's the one on the top. It's called "California Dreams"