txbluesguy : Message: *ON THE ROAD WITH BUCK JONES**REPORT FROM THE FIELD:Guy & Roger on the New Mexico border*WEEKEND MUSIC CALENDAR

*REPORT FROM THE FIELD:Guy & Roger on the New Mexico border

*ON THE ROAD WITH BUCK JONES

*THANKS TO JP HOPS HOUSE! Show rescheduled!

REPORT FROM THE FIELD:Guy & Roger on the New Mexico border

Are you Ready For Some Country Music, Mr. Nashville Star?

I’ve never seen far west Texas look like this! It’s rained so much out here that the desert is green and gold from all of the grasses and wildflowers. It’s like springtime.

Roger and I are on the road with Buck Jones. Buck is gifted vocalist who’s first CD, ‘LUCKY STAR’, has been picked up for distribution, and whose first single, ‘YOU ONLY CALL ME WHEN YOU’RE DRUNK, has been added to almost 200 radio stations in the past few weeks. He’s been working with Billy Block in Nashville for several years, as they’ve attempted to develop Buck’s career as a country singer. As a result, Buck has spent years playing and performing with some of Nashville’s finest studio musicians as his band when he performed around that town. Those are the type of musicians who seldom actually go out on the road. As radio airplay has grown, Buck has begun traveling to support that effort, and we’ve joined Buck for a quick swing through Texas… ALL the way through Texas.

Last night we played with Buck at the Texas/New Mexico border. The other night we headlined a special 'Billy Block's Western Beat Houston show that featured regional talent trying out for Nashville Star 5 (More about that when we have time to edit some video). Blanco's turned out to be a great place to hold a Western Beat show, so I hope we'll do that some more. Saturday night, we’ll be in Bandera.

We would not have been able to do these shows with Buck Jones if it weren’t for the support & cooperation of Pam & Jim at JP Hops House. The New Jack Hippies were originally scheduled at JP Hops House this Saturday, but we found out that there had been a mistake on our date for Buck Jones in Bandera, Texas. We found ourselves booked twice on the same night without knowing it. Jim Fowler’s a musician, too, and understood the opportunity that Roger and I had with Buck, and gave us permission to reschedule the show at JP Hops House. Please help us make it up to them by stopping by and having one of their great selections of beers on draught.

If you’ve ever driven through far west Texas, you know that there are mountains, ravines, rolling hills and stacked boulders in all shades of brown, from the lightest tan of the soil, to the reddest dark crimsons and siennas of the rocks and boulders. When we drove out this way on Tuesday, it was dark by the time we hit Kerrville area, so we didn’t see the desert and mountains at all. Today, it’s brilliantly colored in all shades of green, punctuated with yellows, blues, grays and greens of the various flowers, cactus and shadows.

Last night we stayed in El Paso, and played in New Mexico.

At The State Line BBQ, the venue we played, the parking lot is in Texas, but the restaurant and outdoor stage sits in New Mexico, with old Mexico just a hundred yards and a very narrow Rio Grande River away.

We’ve played with Buck Jones twice before, so we rehearsed acoustically in the hotel room. Billy had found a local drummer, Mack Shaffer (also the owner of another local venue called The Longhorn Saloon & Dance Emporium). Mack found us a great fiddle player (Geno DeSantis) and solid steel man (Phil Telford), so we were a six-piece band – and sounded good! The folks at The State Line were very nice to us, and sent us back to the hotel with at least 10 pounds of beef ribs, sausage, and some of the best sliced brisket ever. As we unpacked this box of food at the Comfort Suites, we uncovered a couple pints each of potato salad, beans and BBQ sauce.

Many of the folks we spoke to in El Paso have never seen this type of daily rain. They haven’t seen this type of torrential rain, either. The rain stopped just in time for us to play, and began pouring as we played through Buck’s album. Thunder and rain came down during Steven Fromholz’ ‘LATE NIGHT NEON SHADOWS’, which turned out to be our second-to-last song. The the lightning began, so we played Shawn Jones’ ‘LIGHTNING STRIKE ME DOWN’ and covered the gear as Buck said goodnight. As we talked to the people who came to the stage area to speak with us, I met a woman named Angel, who told about the old days when she used to go hear lots of local El Paso music, including a story about Long John Hunter – which prompted me to ask if she had ever heard of Little Joe Washington. She was thrilled to hear that name again. She had regularly gone to hear Little Joe and Long John in Juarez when she was younger. I was really wishing I had more time to hear whatever stories she had from those days. I love collecting old Little Joe Washington stories. I love telling you about it, too, but I've gotta go. More later…

Thanks for being my friend – here, at www.hippies.tv and on myspace.com/newjackhippies

-Guy Schwartz

Texaans muzikant, songwriter, bandleader, producer, filmmaker, auteur

HIPPIES TV - Gratis webvideo's op http://www.hippies.tv/

"A mover and shaker, 100 proof P.T. Barnum and Houston's answer to the Brill building"

-Opie Hendrix, Maximum C&W Artist

"Guy Schwartz & los New Jack Hippies son, realamente muy buenos. Casi como los Rolling Stones, minimo. Suenan claro & preciso!" -David Durantes, Canamo Magazine, Madrid

"The Hippies were the surprise of the show. Everyone grooved!"

-Darren Fisher, WonderJam, Amsterdam

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