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Comment by John R. Bockelman on September 27, 2011 at 8:08pm

After much deliberation, I just decided to jump in right where the band is at this moment. We played 2 shows last weekend...Friday night at an upscale club in the Galleria area of Houston. We had a great crowd. By the way, the band plays Soul hits from the 50s and 60s, old-time Rock n' Roll and Blues. We also throw in a little bit of everything; Big-Band Swing, Jazz, Country, Swamp-Pop and a medley of Military themes when appropriate. The Friday night gig went fine and the manager told Pee Wee that he's booking us for 6 gigs there in the first 6 months of 2012. Saturday night we played in Pasadena at a club that has had its ups and downs, but is still a very nice place. They put up a cover charge...it keeps the riff-raff out but at the same time it repels many punters who can go down the street and see bands perform for free...it was a sparse crowd again and we have concerns about the future there, but there have been times when we packed that place to the rafters. Pee Wee Bowen, who is gifted with the voice of an angel, performed with all the passion, power and fury he could put forth and the band rose to the occasion. It was a fine set played to a near-empty hall...we call it a paid rehearsal...coming up Saturday we have a restaurant and cantina in League City that we always fill to capacity...they moved us from Friday to Saturday there for that very reason. The band is popular and rolling, it's a fun evening for anybody who feels like dancing and digging good music. I joined Pee Wee in 2006 as an A-list sub for the keyboard player, who had surgery on his hands. At the time I was playing in 3 other bands on guitar and keyboards. Not long after that, the guitar player decided to move on and form his own band, and I got the call to join full-time as the guitar player. I did that for 4 years and we tripped the lights fantastic. Following a personnel spasm in 2010, I was happy to move back over to keyboards and vocals with the return of our guitar player. It really makes no difference to me what instrument I'm playing.  I wanted to play keyboards again, with the only drawback being that I gave up being a dancing, crowd-walking guitar player, but in my opinion the band sounds better now than it ever has...with the idea being to give Pee Wee the best backup he can have.  I also took over the website and I make monthly updates with graphics and scheduling plus a few items of interest...the car of the month, the updated drive carefully flyer and lately I've started to feature our fans. In the last year I've spent more time hanging out with the crowd and less time off to myself or in conference with the band...not that I don't like those guys, but I found it's great PR to walk up and shake hands with somebody you've never met who just danced to your music...I've made a lot of new and interesting friends from doing that, and I still do my share of band-bonding. Pee Wee Bowen is a magnificent human being who had enriched, enlightened and inspired me to take my show to the next level. I am blessed to have hooked up with him. Thanks for reading...JB