Legends In The Balcony

February 1, 1959, Laramar Ballroom, Fort Dodge, Iowa featuring Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens & the Big Bopper.

http://www.iowarocknroll.com/inductee-details.php?id=65



April 28, 2007, Laramar Ballroom, Fort Dodge, Iowa featuring Rick K. & The Allnighters.



How cool is that? Thanks to a reunion of the Derrig family, former owners of the Laramar, called the Twilight during their 12 year tenure, we walked the same halls, and performed on the same stage as the famous music trio of the 1950's.



Buddy, Ritchie, the Bopper and a young Waylon Jennings (in Buddy's back up band) played this ballroom 3 days, yes only 3 days, prior to the trio's untimely demise in a plane crash.



Erie, cool and humbling all at the same time. I have always appreciated history in all forms but obviously music history has a special place in my heart second only to my family. Sadly, few people live life with a true passion and sense of purpose.



Although Buddy, Ritchie and the Bopper were true legends (where I am only one in my own mind LOL) I do believe we shared a passion and drive knowing that this is what we were destined to do. That is what made them play a string of dates in dead of winter. That is what took me 918 miles from home.



Halfway home and I've seen hundreds of miles of corn fields just like the one where their lives ended that snowy night. I'll think of them and their families when I hug my wife and kids tonight.



3 days doing my favorite "day job" - husband and Dad that is, then headed to the O.C., Ocean City, MD, on Thursday. Sun & fun. Passion & purpose.

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MADE IT!

After two hours of the tranny sounding like a raccoon in the kitchen pan cabinet the sound....stopped?! No reason and we didn't stop to look, listen or ask LOL!

Made it into Marquette, IA around 8 AM Central on Saturday morning. We got some sleep and had one of our best Isle of Capri shows EVER! SRO packed houses for both shows and we got to see some old friends we hadn't seen in months. This was one of the first casinos we started playing 6 or 7 years ago and still one of my favorites.

Nice people make life easy. Life is easy here on the Mississippi. Headed to Fort Dodge, IA today to play in a ballroom once played in by Buddy Holly. To say the least, I am NOT flying home.

Iowa Bound....we hope....

Iowa Bound....we hope....

Trying another new feature which allows me to post via email. Even cooler I can do it while traveling thanks to my cool Blackberry phone.

We are between Dayton, OH and Indy, IN right now and the new transmission is making really loud clanging sounds. To late in the evening to stop for repairs or we mihgt miss the show. We have turned the radio up and started driving faster and it has seemed to help LOL! We will make it...I hope.

On a happier note, i just got an email, again while traveling - 8lackberry rocks, from my horn section leader, Bobby Menear, who said he located some hot horn players for the Ocean City shows. If you haven't seen the show with our 3 piece horn section you have a big surprise coming. We will be using horns on about 25 select dates this year. Email me at the website for a list of our dates featuring horns. I'll maybe add them to this site too later.

My turn to drive soon so headed for a nap.

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Profiles and Stuff

I had some time before we depart for Isle of Capri Casino in Marquette, IA - we're waiting on a transmission repair to our conversion van. I've been told you need to do that every half million miles or so LOL! Updated the Profile page today and put some FYI stuff in there. Nothing too exciting, but stuff I like none the less. Maybe you do too?

I am working on the Comment section of the blog next so you can leave messages. I'm going to use the spam setting to help reduce junk mail, so, that means you'll need to take a second to create a Google sign in to be able to comment. I want this to be a site that all ages can come to as I love interacting with the kids at the shows and will encourage families to stay up to date on the latest backstage information.

Soooo, spammers, pervs, haters and generally unhappy people need not apply (comment) because nothing will get posted prior to review. I'm not sure that's the way Mr. Rogers would have put it but you get the point. I'm sure he's in the "neighborhood" but it's too hot today to pull that button down sweater out of the closet and my Scooby Doo house slippers are much more comfortable than lacing up those tennis shoes.

Is that transmission done yet? 804 miles to go today...

Start Up By Trial And Error

Well, I had a few minutes before heading to bed and have been anxious to check out the possibilities of adding a blog to the website. So, thanks to reading a PC World mag while traveling home from Florida on Sunday I ran across an article telling me how easy it was to get started. PCW recommended blogger.com which is run by Google and is free to boot, yeah! I've liked Google's other programs and thought this might be the best place to start. So far it's been one step easier than where I figured I would need to start...by reading a "Bloggers for Dummies" book! So, at least this far I can say thanks to Google for saving me some heavy reading and the cost of the book LOL! Good night.