May Showers and Purple Rain

Kathleen has been bugging me to write something, and my burst of enthusiasm happened to coincide with the depressing news of The Purple One, Prince Rogers Nelson (aka dba Logo Boy), shuffling off this mortal coil at the tender age of 57. Brilliant musician and artist, but the one thing I know about him is what a hard worker he was. I was playing Top 40 (ask your parents) in a hotel bar where the tour of Vanity 6, The Time, and Prince and the Revolution were staying. The Man Himself did not mingle with the hoi-polloi at the bar but I did meet Mike Fink, one of the 2 keyboard players (nice guy). He told me the band rehearsed every day on the road, and on nights when he was not happy with the show they would rehearse after the show, sometimes until morning. Our cute blond singer (her name I swear) Mary Kay Lala charmed the road manager into a set of tickets for the band, but we had to play until 10:30. One of the great regrets of my life is that we missed Vanity 6.

Anyway, I'm supposed to talk about influences. Hmm. Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Beatles, Motown, Dean Martin, Henry Mancini, The Blues Magoos, Jethro Tull, Captain Beyond, Professor Longhair, Al Kooper, NIcky Hopkins, Leon Russell, Gladys Knight and the PIPs. Duke, Stevie, Jaco, and The Hardest Working Man In Show Business. You try and make sense out of that.

Oh, and gig-flogging time. The Flying Salvias continue their residency at the San Gregorio General Store Sun May 8 11-1 of course, but Kathleen and I are also backing up the astounding Margaret Belton in "Today, Tomorrow, and Forever: the music of Patsy Cline" at the Freight and Salvage Sat May 7. Although Patsy is no longer with us, her memory lives on in the incredible show Margaret puts on. Seriously, you need to check her out, plus you get characters like David Philips and the disreputable Maurice Tani.  Once we recover from that we're (Kathleen and I)  at the Cannery Cafe on May 28 11-1. Food there alone is well worth crossing the border to <strike>Fremont</strike>Hayward, and there's probably mimosas. More stuff later this summer, but we'll get to that later. Say hi if you get a chance.

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