What a blast that show was last night. We had a lively crowd of friends and family and the band was wicked. We dusted off some gems from the Animal Planet days and played four or five brand new songs that we're recording at GCR studios in Buffalo this weekend. And it wouldn't have happened at all if not for Percy Jones saying he'd fly in from Japan on the sole condition that we make a record if these guys are all getting together. Rodney drove up from Atlanta, Randy flew in from points west in between tour dates with Rita Wilson, and the Jims (Runfola and Bohm) were their always reliable selves holding up the horn section. Nick Blagona, who is going to record the new record for us with Justin Rose at GCR drove down from Hamilton, Ontario. So big thanks to Percy, Rodney, Randy, and the Jims for all their hard work and for playing so damn well. It takes a village, of course, so additional thanks to Jay Hall at Sportsmens for being a great host as always and for recording the audio, to Pete Molnar for looking after my guitars and our gear, Jeff Schaller for so generously helping out Randy with the drums, Brian Wantuch for so graciously letting us be the first to 'baptize' his new rehearsal facility facility in a Beautiful old church in Buffalo and for sorting the PA, to Frank Grizanti for the amazing work on my guitars, and to all of you who made the effort to come out last night on a holiday eve when everyone has a thousand other things to do.
This was more like Animal Planet v3 on steroids with Randy behind the drums and Percy and Rodney together on stage, which never happened in the AP days. And today, after a 3000 mile drive or so, and ten straight days of rehearsals will be a day of rest, family, friends and laughter. Tomorrow we'll fire up the thunder once again with Reggie Evans on drums.
We had video and audio recorded of the show, so after the dust settles and I get a chance to mix the audio, etc..., I'll get some of that posted.
For now, here are some pics my father, Bruce Jackson, took at last night's show. I'll supplement this gallery later with more pics of the guys.
Cheers for now, MLJ