Yesterday, I rehearsed with Reagan and Greg Smith sometime around 4. I sort of recall Reagan talking about performing at a benefit, but didn’t know what time. It was around 6 that we found out that we should start playing around 7.30.
The Blue Moon eatery is located on Oakland Avenue in Johnson City and is tucked quietly behind Grand Piano Furniture. I had enough time to shower, change clothes and load my gear and had everything plugged in ready to go about 7.28 pm.
Jeff Malone was working the crowd tonight passing out flyers for next week’s performance at The Down Home . Reagan was dressed in a great looking polka dotted skirt with some wild looking shows and had on a hip Harley Davidson jacket. We were all nestled in the corner of this restaurant with lapis blue wallks and bright orange and red decor and this was their grand opening party with free gourmet foods, Blue Moon wheat beer and plenty of wine.
City Manager Gary Mambry spoke with the introduction of the owners and we started playing somehwhere around 7.40 and had a pretty good set.
During the first break, Dave Carter was there with his wife and we talked about the Studio One show that aired earlier in the day with Blue Mother Tupelo. I saw them last year in Rogersville and wrote a nice article on them for that performance. We also discussed our old radio days and the upcoming Studio Performance next Saturday and the Down Home show that night.
It was a good crowd. Lots of wealthy people…Todd Dossett and his family. I was way surprised to see Caroline Dossett there too. She is charming as ever although I didn’t get a chance to talk to her. There was some scuffle from some young people trying to steal some wine bottles later in the evening and Reagan had a good opportunity to talk with other people who may hire the band in the future.
We left the restaurant around 11.00 and stopped by Cafe One 11 in Johnson City. Moosa was playing there as a three peice and Steve Grindstaff and his new young girlfried were there with their pose….seriously…sunglasses are not cool in a night club. The band was good and had their drummer was a pocket cat that made the band sound tight, despite the fact there was no bass player and played sort of a barefoot acoustic jam music.