There plenty of women dancing in front of the band Saturday night at Halo in Johnson City. Slow Motion Trio was finishing our first set and it’s always a compliment for us to see so many people enjoying our music, especially on a cold winter night.
When we took a break, our guitarist Lance Williams looked at me straight in the eye and said, “David, now if I wasn’t playing music, you know I’d be out here dancing.”
It’s true, the first time I met Lance, he was dancing at O’mainan’s in Bristol, but what amused me even more was how focused he was on his next question. “You know what the hardest question for most everyone in this bar is tonight?”
I had no idea what he was talking about and said, “I can’t imagine…what’s the question?”
Without hesitation, he replied, “Would you like to dance?”
Lance is my shaman when it comes to courage and women. He may write a book some day about it, but it’s comments like this and the one he mentioned at our last gig in Bristol that makes me think he may have something to share.
That night, he looked out at some guy at the bar and held his hands out like a picture frame and said, “Look, if you aren’t in the picture, you don’t have a chance.” He was right too. The couple he was framing across the room wouldn’t fit in his palm size picture and it wasn’t long before the lady that was of interest was moving on somewhere else because the guy wasn’t close enough.
Lance Williams is one of the reasons I like playing so much with this new band. We’re too old to be rock stars and too much in debt to quit the day job, but we love it all the same. We don’t practice that much and we complain about the cigarettes, low pay and the late hours of our weekend profession, but honestly, life wouldn’t be the same without it.
It was cold last Saturday night and Leah Jobe and a few other “bar angels” at Halo were preparing for the night. There was a college football game on two televisions and a several were warming up with a few beers.
Vanessa Bentley was already in the club tonight and I’m always excited to see her. Her natural beauty and tall stature are paralyzing to most men, but it’s her voice that has intrigued me for years ever since I first heard her sing for the popular Blue Rapture. She’s married to Jared and we always look forward to her coming out and picking up the microphone to join us on a song or two. She’s a great roadie too – with no hesitation to load in speakers and roll up mike cables – a lesson she learned at a young age singing with her father’s band.
Jared and Vanessa had arrived early and it wasn’t long before we had all our gear set up in the tiny room and decided to relax with a few beers and a glass of Glenfiddich.
Mike arrived with his drum-kit while I was looking in the window of the new Blue Moon Dinner Theatre on Main Street. Formerly Pharaoh’s – this place has new owners and is right next to Halo and they plan to open this Christmas with a production of Greater Tuna.
Lance McCloud, our bassist arrived a bit later and was happy to know that Leah and the folks at Halo had stocked the bar with one of his favorite wines, Ménage à Trois. Lance doesn’t drink any beer or hard liquor but always enjoys a “glass of vino” before we play.
We hadn’t advertised this gig that much and since we played last week at Stir Fry, we had already tempted most of our friends to come out earlier and weren’t that eager to twist their arm again. Truth is – we always love playing the Halo and we never really trouble ourselves with the crowd, but once again, we were surprised at the folks who came out to see us.
It’s always a treat to see Andy Russell come out and together with his wife, they seemed to enjoy the night once again. Andy is a great supporter of local music and he is not playing with his brother Rob right now following Rob’s run for Congress. Instead, he’s been sitting in with the “Swinging Pachyderms” which will soon become “South Mouth” according to their guitarist “House” who was drinking pitcher sized glasses of beer at Halo tonight.
Just before we started to play around 10.30, I was talking with Leah at the door and I asked her about the remodeling plans she told me about the last time we played Halo.
She was frustrated and described how The Johnson City Commission is refusing to let her remodel unless she maintains a 1950s downtown decorum. Her dissatisfaction has her locked into a situation where she has a successful venue, and even though she works as a wine salesperson by day, it has to be discouraging to be in a situation where you can’t improve your business without adhering to some silly business ordinance that obviously hasn’t been very successful for downtown Johnson City.
We started the first set with many of the original songs that Jared has been writing and Lance got to play his steel guitar with his name etched on the side. I asked him if that was his own customization, but it just so happens he plays a red “Williams Steel Guitar.”
I’ve kidded him about how a steel guitar makes me cry, but he’s an excellent performer on this difficult instrument and it’s tone adds a unique dimension to our music which combines acoustic Americana with groovy soul music.
Our set list is about 60/40 split of original music penned by Jared and several cover tunes. The songs we reproduce by other artists are for the most part obscure other than the few songs by Stevie Wonder and Cake that seem to go over very well.
We took a break about midnight and were delighted to hear some people calling out some of the original songs including my favorite ‘Breathe.”
One of the reasons why I love playing this bar is the great crowd of 20/30 something bohemians that hang out here. There are beautiful girls like Rachel Dobbs and her friends who work with Lance McCloud and several others who seem to enjoy dancing in front of the stage, regardless of whether or not any of the men ask them otherwise.
Halo is for smokers and if you find that uncomfortable, you might want to plan for that. Otherwise, it’s a great hangout and there is rarely any trouble and that may be because the ladies behind the bar. They have great prices on drinks too and plenty of posters and graffiti that point to many celebrated nights from days gone by.
One of my favorite posters in this room is behind the bar that reads, “Support Your Local Bartender – Helping Ugly People Get Laid.”
Halo was still grooving around 1.30 when we played the final set and it didn’t take long to get our gear packed.
Outside the bar, Jared was a bit timid about our pay for the night. He looked at me and said, “We’ve only got $170 tonight.” Most of that because the door person never collected the cover from most of the patrons that night. She arrived extremely late and by the time she started collecting the $3.00 cover, most everyone was already in the bar. He passed each of us $30 and we drew numbers for the $20 bump before going home.
It was my lucky night and fresh with a ringing in my ears and a smile on my face, I joined the other night owls at Perkins for another late morning wrap-up.
That’s a lot of work for $30 and in the future, we’ll certainly work out a guarantee, but right before we split up, the streets of Johnson City were silent. Most everyone was in bed and the only reassurance in my mind was the fact that most of the old men my age had been put to bed. Although I did see the old man Ed Snodderly dive into the bar a bit earlier, I guess I take a little pride in the notion that I’m still hanging with my buds, laughing and creating music into the wee hours of the morning – like a pirate, a mystic and a wayward troubadour.
The next several weeks will be interesting for Slow Motion Trio. This was our last gig of the year and we’ll hopefully begin to record some new songs before we get back on the streets in January. We’ve already got Bristol Rhythm and Roots booked next year and working on several other outdoor gigs and possible performances around the region, so stay tuned.