Our opening act was a hypnotist. Sorry to all his victims, er, I mean subjects. Unfortunately he didn’t install a command to buy all of Sway’s cds! We played two shows.

I almost bought a hat at the fair. Now I’m not really a hat wearin’ guy but I’ve always wanted to be. I think maybe it’s my extra large head. I’m not saying that I have a big ego or a large brain. No, I have an extra large hatband. So hats usually look kind of stupid on me. I found that a sombrero would be good shade but looked a little too much like we should be playing ranchera music. And this jaunty little alpine number was kind of nice but I had an urge to wear Lederhosen with it. I got a mental picture of me showing up at the gig and the look on Gina’s face as I sauntered up humming Climb Every Mountain. OK, nix the Alpine number. Cowboy hats look great on George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Garth Brooks and I think one of the Village People but I just can’t pull it off. Then I saw something…. a black straw fedora with the brim turned up at the back. It looked cool. I put it on. I looked in the mirror. I looked cool!. The sales girl looked at me. I asked her “Does this look cool?” “Absolutely” she said. I looked to the two ladies I was with whom I knew were going to say “You look cool. You should buy it!” They weren’t saying that. They both had identical looks on their faces. Heads turned slightly, eyes squinting, teeth clenched like they had some unidentifiable pain troubling them. I was so close. I should have gone with it. I knew the Carny hat girl was right. Maybe I’ll find her again next year but for now it was back to the stage for show two. Note to self: don’t ask a Carny who’s trying to sell you something if you look good in it… duh!

Show Two is the show when a heckler is most likely to show up. There is a lot of beer available at the Fair. Gina thought maybe he had some entertainment value and invited him up on stage to perform with the band!?…………. Our next gig is at the farmers market in Khagailek chiang a little village near the border of Mongolia and Russia. Come on out, check word of mouth in the village for directions

Oh yeah, and Scott cooked! Not just onstage. I thought I saw him between shows cooking those giant turkey legs at the barbeque booth yelling “step right up!”

Don’t miss our upcoming show at the Coach House, August 19th opening for Jason “The Party’s Not Over” Boland and the Stragglers. (buy the $15 tickets from any band member) And of course our regular gigs at Metro Pointe, Tiajuanas etc. Check the website. www.swaymusic.com

So back to the search. This was not just a search but more an epic
battle of the batterers so to speak. There were several rounds and
each group of prospectives had interesting aspects. Most of the guys were
very pro and guys that we would love to be around. The tricky part was
getting someone who was extremely versatile and had the right feel.
The “sway feel”. Yeah it sounds like a maneuver but I’m talkin’ about a nuance of style here.

It doesn’t seem like it would be hard to find the right person when you
are here in southern California surrounded by millions, quite a
few of whom are musicians. We relied on every communication line available; from Musicians Contact Service to “a friend of my cousin’s dentist who said he knows a good bass player who knows a really good drummer who you guys should check out”. (the last being the winning method)

We had some interesting applicants. A few no- shows. And then there was the accident prone guy that had the skate punk appearance. He finally did arrive and spoke some English. It felt like a deleted scene from Spinal Tap. (We decided we would have to take out liability insurance if we brought him
on board) All in all the hardest part was having to pass on some really
great guys that none of us would have minded spending time with. This writer
could tell within two songs whether we were auditioning a contender. Besides the aforementioned “feel thing” one had to just glance at Gina. If she looked bored, or worse stopped playing guitar and listened, it was pretty sure a no go. We even had the “drummer killer song”. If the prospect got that far and passed that song, he was definitely a contender.

We ultimately landed Trevor Monks (“a great drummer who my cousin’s dentist’s Labrador says…..etc) He was the last guy we auditioned! You know, like you found your keys in the last place you looked! So like finding the keys you were looking for, we stopped looking. Trevor is a great guy and a great drummer. Those were the two main qualifications. There were other minor ones like “primate” (we’re talkin’ drummers here. You know, the butt of endless musician jokes!) but those were the two biggies. Oh, and he has a girlfriend so we were pretty sure he wasn’t homeless… ba dum dum ching! Now, Trevor lives in Riverside but it turns out that the girlfriend lives on the same street as our studio, yep Sway Central. Go figure. So the drive is no big deal if he’s already in town. But fearing that he might have a falling out with the girlfriend, then get tired of the drive to rehearse, we keep checking “everything OK with the girlfriend Trevor?” Ah if we didn’t have something to keep us paranoid about drummers, we wouldn’t be SWAY. For now all is well on the drum riser!

So we welcome Trevor and look forward to many rockin’ gigs!

Now, when I agreed to write this blog I had two conditions. There would be no math and I didn’t have to dress funny. Those were readily stipulated and here I am, your humble blogger. I may even drop some occasional clues as to my identity. That is, only if this column doesn’t completely suck; in which case the author will remain simply a mystery.

So here we are! This is the Inaugural Sway Blog and like some more famous inaugurations, I feel that we must place our hands upon a dead man’s bible and do some swearing……….I mean some swearin’ in. But this bible didn’t belong to a politician in a stovepipe hat. Probably a cowboy hat or even a porkpie, fedora, or some stingy brim affair. And this bible more likely belonged to Hank Williams, Huddie Ledbetter or Woody Guthrie, inherited by Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson or Willie then perhaps later still handed off to Rodney Crowell, John Hiatt or Steve Earle(each one dog-earing pages of helpful reference points.) This is not the King James but the Americana version. Americana, as in Classic American Roots based music from bluegrass to alt-country to blues, gospel, zydeco……. (we may not be yodeling at any upcoming gigs but don’t be surprised if you hear it!)

So now we place our hands upon the hallowed book(this is the swearin’ in part) okay Sway, repeat after me:

We in Sway promise to:

1. Entertain listeners with finely crafted songs about life delivered with passion, harmony and rhythm. (and chips and salsa depending on the venue)

2. Repeat step 1……entertain!

Ok that’s our mission guys. We strive to remove you from your regular routine for a couple hours at a gig or for just a few minutes of song on your iPod. ‘Till then I command thee to sway!

March 7^th we opened for country music legend Hal Ketchum at the famous Coach House. We had a great time and appreciated our fan turnout. Thanks guys! Oh yea and Larry Bagby’s birthday cake was really good!

On the 15th we were at Tijuana’s Long Bar and Grill in Irvine. This is a monthly gig for us. If you like to country dance, this is the show for you. It’s early; 5:30 to 8:30. See calendar for upcoming shows.

OC Music Awards

Sway was honored by being nominated to the Best Country/Americana Band category for 2009!

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