We did our annual Bob Dylan tribute the other night (5/21). It was the 7th annual such concert. The Thugz have always played a lot of Dylan tunes. I remember looking at our list of songs and thinking that we had enough for a whole show. That was the beginning. We do it in May as that is near Dylan's birthday (5/24). Each year since, the show has evolved into what I feel is a pretty decent tribute to Dylan. We get to do songs from many of his different and always changing song book. He has always been an influence on the band but especially so for me. I was bitten by his music back in high school and have followed him pretty much since then. I have vivid memories of running home from school to listen to my new "Bringing it all Back Home" album (especially Mr. Tambourine Man which I an still obsessed with). A couple of years ago I received a gift from our drummer friend Shawn Britton. It was a remastered copy of that album that he did himself. He works as an engineer at Mobile Fidelity which is a company that produces audiophile super good sounding albums. Wow, it sounds even better than ever. Most everyone is familiar with Dylan's classic material from the 60's. However , many folks drifted away from him because he didn't want to keep sounding the same. After doing a stint with the Grateful Dead in '87 he became reborn "musically" and has since produced some of his best stuff ever. He is unpredictable but always great if you are open to it. I firmly believe that Bob Dylan is one of the greatest artists of the 20th century and the beginning of this one. Anyway, it was a fun show we did, especially the "Like a rolling Stone" harmonica jam. We were doing a multi track recording but the second & best set didn't come out because someone flipped the breakers off for some reason and it stopped the recorder from working properly. Oh well.
Everyone wants to know how Sylvia is doing. She is home and continues to get better each day. She experienced such a horrific event and the recovery has been an ordeal but her spirits are good. We are happy to let people know about her progress but sometimes it is not so easy. We have had people come up on the stage and ask about her while we are in the middle of a song, drunks constantly accost us to tell us bull shit about their own crap and try to make it all about them. People have inferred that we shouldn't be driving around at night and why are we doing these "stupid" gigs. They just don't have a clue. It's who we are and what we do. I say .... ... to them.
part 3 soon