Matt & the Barnburners

Friday night..late..late...late

2009-02-07T03:45:00.003-05:00

We went on about 11:00pm and closed the show at Alfred's. It was an upbeat high energy set. Matt got down in the audience and did his thing.....good crowd response....

It was a long day but well worth it. We didn't win the venue but the experience was worth the trip. The quality of musicians is pro level and everyone was friendly. Some friends of ours, Jennifer Marriot and Odd Sheep Out didn't win their venue either but that was a rip-off. I watched both sets and they smoked....interesting...

Tomorrow is the finals....should be interesting....right now I'm downloading the video of us on Friday night into the computer. Hopefully will have some more uploads on YouTube sometime in the next couple of days. It is 2:50am on Sat. and I have to be up in couple of hours to take people to the airport...later..

Friday day report...

2009-02-06T21:07:00.003-05:00

The entire band went to Sun Studios today for pics and a tour. Sun Studios first recorded stars like BB King, Howlin' Wolf, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc. Great to see some more history of Memphis. Tom had fun sitting behind the drum kit. We couldn't take pics in the display area but the studio was a treat. Had some nice gear in there, especially old amps and guitars.....collector items....

Spent the afternoon chilling out.....our gig is at 11:15pm which is 12:15 eastern time. The bars and restaurants are open til 3:00am......I know I won't make it but we need to see who makes the finals.

I will try to upload some more video tomorrow. Had some issues with taping at last night's performance. later.

Thursday night late.....

2009-02-06T17:54:00.003-05:00

Did manage to get one video on YouTube....look for "Born In Maine" under barnburnersband. The gig went well. Had a few monitor issues and the bass didn't make the FOH but we still did a good job........Friday night we close at 11:15.....our kind of spot....later.

We all got in later last night. After we got done with out gig, we went out and checked out some of the other bands. Caught Jennifer Marriott and Odd Sheep Out...friends we met last year. They had a smokin' set....hope they make the finals......good people and great blues. We must have hit five or six other clubs, had some fried chicken at Miss Polly's on Beale Street...it was delicious.

Wed continued...

2009-02-05T07:33:00.003-05:00

Picked up Matt, Dave and Kim from the airport and got back to the hotel. They all pretty much crashed since they had to get up at 1:00am to make the flight. Went to the Doubletree and got a schedule of events. We are scheduled to play at Alfred's 7:15 on Thursday and 11:10 on Friday. I took a walk to Beale Street and checked the club place out. Wow! great stage and lightning...large dance floor...located next to the Fedex Forum.

Had to go to the airport again to pick up Kyle. He called and was already at the airport....seems like he had messed up the arrival time. Right at we started to pull out of the pickup area, we see Steve Bailey...waiting for a taxi....no way...told Steve to hop in and save a few bucks. Kyle managed to program the GPS for his hotel...after we took a side trip and a couple of 300 degree turns.....yes I said 300....tale for another time..

After enjoying the hotels free dinner, the guys and their spouses headed to Beale Street for some music....first stop.....Alfred's of course...had to check out the place again.....great band (Darryl Raines) with Pat Pepin sitting in with them. Matt & Dave went back to crash again. My wife and myself hit Ground Zero Blues Club and BB King's before calling it a night.

Next up: the semi finals on Thursday...will try to get some more pics up.....later.

Early morning walk on Beale Street.

2009-02-04T13:23:00.002-05:00

We did a quick walk on Beale Street this morning. Went to a real nice shop in Peabody Place and looked at a beautiful short sleeve shirt that would be great to gig in...it had guitars embroidered on both front sides ...until I saw the price - $175....not for me...bg Did see a shop on lower Beale Street that I'll have to check out later when it is open. Great looking stuff in the windows.

Went to the Gibson factory store and actually got my hands on a Gibson ES-339 in curly maple (special edition) with a price tag of $4300....don't think it will be coming home with me. The temp is 35 degrees and the wind chill makes it more like 15. Temps are supposed to raise into the 60's by Friday....more later...got to got to the airport to pick up the other guys.

more pics of Clarksdale

2009-02-03T19:20:00.008-05:00

it should be easy to figure out which is the museum and which is the blues club.....bg...

went down to the crossroads...

2009-02-03T18:35:00.002-05:00

Went to Clarksdale, MS and visited the Delta Blues Museum and Ground Zero Blues Club. Saw a ton of exhibits on most of the old blues players. Pictures don't do it justice and they have plans to add a $3M addition. Yes!!!! It gives one a true appreciation of the area and it's historic meaning to blues music. Had a great audio and video presentation on Muddy Waters. Included is the cabin where he was born. The list of musicians is too long to list. We'll have to consider making the trip again when the addition is added.

Then went to Ground Zero Blues Club for lunch. Signed the table where we ate and also the stage.....What a dream place to perform in....This is the place shown on the PBS blues special a while back. Morgan Freeman (the actor) and his partner bought it and have restored it to the juke joint it once was. Unfortunately we won't be able to get back when they have live music. the vibe is unreal.

Finally in Memphis..

2009-02-02T18:36:00.002-05:00

Up at 3:10 am......on the road at 4:00...in the airport at 5:00...met Jess & Tom.....off the ground by 6:00. It is now 8:40 and I’m in the airport at Detroit...flight to Memphis is not for another 3 hours. Time to get some breakfast and maybe a nap....didn’t get a lot of sleep last night...

Got into Memphis around 1:20 local time (Central time). We all went down to Beale Street and checked out some of the clubs. Had some real good ribs at Blues City Cafe. Will check out the dinner at the hotel later.

Plan on heading to Clarksdale, MS tomorrow to check out the "crossroads". Hopefully will post some pics....we're all a little tired by now....later.

wilbur

The countdown starts...

2009-01-28T13:02:00.005-05:00

Five days and we're headed off to Memphis.....can't wait. The band's last practice is Sunday... trying to clean up a few loose ends and finalize the song selection. Looks like we'll be doing four originals, "Barn Boogie", "Born In Maine", "Back To Livermore" and "Crusin' 27" .

You can view our Maine Blues Society performance of "Crusin' 27" on YouTube. Search for "Crusin' 27" and check it out. I hope to upload the band's performances for both Thursday and Friday nights in Memphis.

Updates and info will start on Monday, Feb. 2...... later

wilbur

Video's on Youtube and MySpace....

2009-01-18T09:53:00.002-05:00

The band now has "Crusin' 27" on YouTube....look under "barnburnersband" and at www.myspace.com/mattandthebarnburners . We plan to add more videos and music in the future. The goal is to record some video's from the upcoming trip to the 2009 IBC in Memphis. If the quality is good, they will be added ASAP.

Two weeks and we'll be in Memphis.....great food and music.....the place to be.....more updates and pics to come. later.

New web site !!!!!

2008-11-28T08:06:00.002-05:00

We finally have a new and improved web site up and running!!!! ....check it out at www.mattandthebarnburners.com. Let me know what you think. later.

wilbur

Updates on the band, etc.

2008-11-15T09:58:00.004-05:00

Great news......our new DVD, "On Stage at Spruce" , is now available for sale. It contains seven songs (including the original "Crusin 27") from the set that the band performed at the 2008 Spruce Mt. Music Festival. Videography was done by The Smooth. He's the man !!

We now also have a band t-shirt available. I took a picture of Matt performing in Memphis last year (the same pic used at the top of the blog) and used computer graphics to make it in cartoon style. Then I had a friend do a line drawing from it, inverted the lines to white and had All-Star Screen Printing put it on a black t-shirt. I will post a pic soon.

The band already has their plane tickets and room reservations in Memphis for Feb 4-7, 2009. It should be another great time. Nothing like Beale Street with 170+ acts performing. The atmosphere along is a blues lovers dream...good music, ribs, and cold liquid refreshments....hard to beat.

More to come soon.....later.

Spruce Mt. Music Festival

2008-09-09T05:29:00.005-04:00

On August 20 we played the Spruce Mt. Music Festival in Jay, Maine. This was a fundraiser for Spruce Mountain. Our set was the next to the last act for the day and man was it hot! The sweat was dripping off my hat! Everyone in the band was soaked through. Maybe it was that hot August sun shining directly into our faces. August hasn't been too good in terms of heat but nothing was lacking that day. This is a great little music festival and needs better support. It really gives the kids a place to go for winter activities.

The good news is that our set was videotaped and we're looking to put out another DVD of the band live and in action at the festival. Even with some lack of sound quality (this taping was off the 'board' and should be pretty good ) and the occasional musical error or adlib, we all feel that "live" has the true energy of the band. We've never been accused of being low keyed and our live performances back that up. We should be in the studio to do some editing and have the DVD available soon. I will post when it is done.

News from the Schooner Landing in Damariscotta...

2008-08-04T17:25:00.002-04:00

The band had a great night in Damariscotta at the Schooner Landing. This was a Maine Blues Society fundraiser for those of us going to Memphis...Six other solo/duo's played at other venues from 6:00 - 8:45 and then everything moved to the Schooner Landing. Outside of Matt's harp amp dying on the first song, the night went well. We went on about 11:15 and played until 12:45..give or take a couple of minutes. It was an interesting setup with the band being in a small lower level room between the bar and an enclosed desk. It gave people an are to dance in and they did... Once Matt got the harp amp thing straightened out (thanks to Steve Baily), he proceeded to crank it up and our set got into high gear. It was extremely humid...and hot and everyone was sweating up a storm. Not only did my shirt get soaked but even my guitar strap was wet! Same for everyone else in the band. Even Kyle broke a sweat...bg. I will try to post some pictures as soon as I get them....

Special thanks to Paul Sidelinger for putting this entire event together and to Steve Baily for bailing us out of the harp amp problem. Both are great guys. Next couple of gigs are private parties......more fun ahead..later..

Finally some updates...

2008-07-28T12:02:00.004-04:00

The band did a couple of private parties last weekend....what a blast!!! The first one was on Friday night for a management group. It wouldn't be cool to give out names....bg but I can tell you that we got the host of the party to play drums on a song. It had been twenty plus years since he sat behind a "trap". We did "Help Me" by Sonny Boy Williamson and it was obvious that he had done some serious playing in his time. He got in the groove and didn't speed up the song, which is real easy to do. Matt was in typical form, telling some old stories about a few of the people that were there. You had to be there to appreciate it....bg.

Saturday night was a 50th birthday party and party it was. We were supposed to shut down at 10:00pm but Matt kept everyone going until 10:30....hope he wasn't late for work. This was a dancing, fun loving group that would have partied until the wee hours of the morning..maybe they did. Matt and Rich did their rendition of "Mustard Sally". Rich covered the vocals and Matt had about fifteen ladies around him dancing, and having way too much fun. This is Matt at his finest. It has to be seen to be appreciated. We had trouble getting some of the gear tuned in but it still was what we like to do best.....entertain.

This Saturday night the band will be at the Schooner Landing Restaurant in Damariscotta for a "2009 Road To Memphis" fundraiser. There will be six bands playing at various venues from 6:15 ish to 8:30. Then everything moves to the SL restaurant. We are scheduled to go on from 11:15 to 12:30....or more. See you there. later.

The band is in shock..........

2008-04-20T19:13:00.002-04:00

We won the "Road to Memphis '09" competition again...This time is was at the Timeout Pub in Rockland and featured six bands. We were again lucky to draw the last performance slot and be able to put ourselves into 'high gear'. As soon as we hit the stage, the energy started to flow... kinda hard to explain....

I've got to say the the other bands were outstanding......we figured that there was no way we'd be headed back to Memphis again.....way too much good talent to compete against and what's the chances of going two years in a row.....well, we were wrong......

I'll try to post some pics and keep everybody informed with updates. The web page is finished but I now have to make some more changes....bg... check it out.

www.mattandthebarnburners.com

Final pics and thoughts on Memphis..

2008-02-04T19:22:00.000-05:00

It's now late Monday and I've finally gotten around to some finals thoughts....All of the band is safely back in Maine..... and bummed that the Pats lost last night.....however some random thoughts on being in Memphis... to be in the home of the blues...with tons of fellow musicians..... all supporting each other and enjoying the moment is a lifetime experience. Most of the bands were happy to just be there.....some of the bands already had 5-7 CD's for sale, some had personal booking and management agencies, professional web pages and one band even came in a tour bus. One band in the club that were performed at flew in from Australia to perform. Talk about a mixture of varied talents and styles of blues. The entire spectrum was represented. Listening to everyone still makes you realize that the blues is based on a passion and love of the music. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.....hopefully will. later....

Beale Street at night...

2008-02-03T00:03:00.000-05:00

Beale Street at nightime..where else could you find ten clubs with blues bands and six more with duo/solo acts from 5 - 11pm for two nights in a row. These were taken as they were blocking off Beale Street to traffic.....a couple hours later and the street were full with people. The place to go for blues lovers. More pics and stories to follow....provided we can get home on time and not spend another twelve hours at O'Hare. The fellow performers were great.. ....most everyone was enjoying the moment.later...time to get some decent sleep for the first time in days...

Finally...Friday nights pics...

2008-02-02T22:20:00.001-05:00

The band played the last set at Club 152 at 10:15 pm on Friday, closing the semi-finals of the 2008 IBC. The crowd was ready and we were ready. We opened with "Born In Maine", our version of "Born In Chicago"), went into a aggressive version of "Tore Up", slowed down with Matt's "Back To Livermore", and ended with "Crusin 27". Unlike Thursday night (we were flat) with PA issues all night...no monitors, mike's shorting out, etc....tonight's gig was dead on...the soundguy, Steve, had rewired most of the house system....showtime... The crowd was into it and so were we....in the zone for the entire set....both Matt and Kyle stepped to the front and let it rip....Rich and Dave were like a sledgehammer....ringing all night...only stumble was when I almost went down trying to cross behind Dave to do some backup vocals with Matt on Rich's song. Our guitar chords got tangled and I almost unplugged myself, along with almost falling... we just laughed it off and didn't miss a beat. Nothing could be better than playing the final set on Beale Street dead on....we pretty much knew we weren't going to the finals but wanted to end our time on a positive note....we did!!!!

This post would have been done sooner but we stayed out much later and enjoyed Beale Street. Some members of the band didn't get in until 3:00am. Today was short as we all went to the Finals at the Orpheum Theater...just 10 killer bands but that and more pics will have to wait...

Nothing like a great performance to end the trip!!!!

more Beale Street pics...

2008-02-01T14:12:00.001-05:00

the band on Beale Street.....

2008-02-01T12:24:00.001-05:00

The band performed their first set at Club 152 on Thursday night at 6:35....some pics. We will be performing on Friday night at 10:35. Will post more pics later.

Thursday in Memphis..Part I....

2008-02-01T09:31:00.000-05:00

This was the day...started with registration for the IBC....we all walked a couple of blocks to the Doubletree Hotel to register. Tons of people picking up tickets, etc. We were actually in the wrong line for a few minutes....I figured it out when I noticed that everyone had boxes of CD's except for us...this was a topic of converstation later.....finally got into the correct line and got check in....got a chance to talk to Paul Benjamin (promoter of the North Atlantic Blues Festival) and meet some of the other acts.

In the afternoon, Tyson, my son and myself went to the Gibson store. I had a chance to play some of the 335's and Les Paul's...went looking for a ES-339 but they didn't have any. Check out the pics of the store......didn't dare look at the prices...everything is $1500 - $4000.

Then Tyson, my son, and myself took the Gibson factory tour...interesting education of how the hollow body guitars are built. We spent about 45 minutes having a guided tour of the production line. It was a step by step course on how to build a guitar.....

Part II...the band on Beale Street to follow....

Wednesday in Memphis

2008-01-31T08:41:00.000-05:00

After arriving at 4:30 am and getting about four hours sleep, we (Wilbur and family) started to explore Memphis. Had lunch at "Huey's" that was recommended by the desk. Great burger and fries place with a pub atmosphere. Then walked down Second Street til we came to Beale Street, where most of the events will be happening over the next three days. Right off Beale we checked out the FedEx Forum (had a Grizzlies game that night-the scalpers were already out), set up a tour of the Gibson factory for Thursday, and went to the Rock n' Soul Museum. Spent about an hour and a half doing a visual and audio history of the development of music in the Memphis area. ...interesting.
Kyle and family spent the entire day at Graceland. Not only did they tour the mansion but also got aboard the "Little Marie", Elvis's private 747 Boeing jet....complete with gold fixtures. The number of gold records and awards that Elvis received is unbelievable. Kyle and myself had quite a talk on that....plus seeing a mansion still with the 70's decore is like a trip back in time. As I reminded Kyle, that is was before he was born..bg
At 5:00, Matt, rich and Dave arrived.....unfortunately I missed picking them up at the airport.. my wife and others were still 'shopping' and forgot about the time....they grabbed a taxis to the hotel and arrived fine.....Matt even had a few stories to tell about the trip.....Matt usually does..bg.
The band met for the 6-7:30 social hour at the hotel. We planned out tomorrow's registration, et.c and spent most of the time talking with a couple of other bands who are also in the IBC competition...it was shop talk at it's finest...let about twelve musicians get together and you'll see what I mean........pics are coming but I need to get ahold of the camera's....later.
wilbur

finally in Memphis

2008-01-30T09:41:00.000-05:00

arrived at the hotel 4:30 Wednesday morning......long story..now for a nap and figure out how to get back to the airport for the car..later.

Sitting in O'Hare....waiting...

2008-01-29T16:07:00.000-05:00

got to O'Hare in Chicago at 2:30pm local time and had flight canceled to Memphis.......sitting here hoping that the 8:00pm flight will still be a go.....not looking good....maybe I should pull out my guitar (at least I have it with me..could've ended up in Dallas for all I know....luggage????), open up case and see if I can make some money...bg...actually will try to get some sleep....let you know when I get to Memphis....hope the rest of the band is OK for tomorrow. later.
wilbur