Last Updated July 29th., Y2K

SYD EDWARDS ON THE ROAD IN Y2K!

ENTRY 73: (06-02-00) Noticed that the last update page was getting a bit crowded, so I went ahead and made a new one. Not alot to mention tonight though...

I guess we are going back on our normal rehearsal schedule Sunday, haven't heard anything to the contrary. Two weeks to go before the Log Jam Festival!!!!!!

ENTRY 74: (06-08-00) Had a productive rehearsal on the 4th., decided upon the 20 songs we'll be playing at the festival and ran through the bulk of them. Going to weed them out on the 11th.and get the set all tweaked. Still no positive word about the exact time we'll be playing but it'll either be 7:30 or 9:30pm in the Entertainment Tent.

ENTRY75: (06-10-00) Nothing new to say, but here are some killer video stills Buck took with his new camera at rehearsal last week...

And keep your Willie Nelson jokes to yourself!

(Photo by Jon O'Dell)

ENTRY 76: (06-17-00) Just got in from the Log Jam Festival and all went really well considering the stage on my side was ancient plywood (i.e. quite trampoline like,) and there seemed to be an almost constant barrage of problems with the sound system. Drank my way through a tub of Gatorade and kept Jon busy as he** running back and forth for more bottles of the stuff.I even managed to catch him on the digital camera tonight...see for yourself...

Our opening act, Parkersburg WV's The Janes were a rare treat, three young girls who could very well have been straight off the local stage at Lillith Faire. They had some amazing harmonies, and on some tough tunes to harmonize on as well.

Again, I gotta thank Jon for running around like a chicken without it's head for me all night, grabbing me some Tylenol when I needed it and taking some more cool shots of us doing our thang live. Basically he lives up to the title of "World's Greatest Roadie" every time we go out.

And now the obligatory shot of me...dig the killer shirt Nancy bought me a few weeks back. I wrung the sweat out of it when we were through on stage, LOL!!!!!

(Photo by Jon O'Dell)

ENTRY 77: (06-27-00) After taking Father's Day off to be with our families the band got back to work on the 25th. and things went failry well. Fleshing out a few songs and getting ready to work up a few more new ones. Syd brought along a Buddy Guy CD that he just picked up so odds are we'll be working some of his stuff up in the near future. Next rehearsal is on the 2nd. and then comes our next gig!

ENTRY 78: (07-05-00) Rehearsals wound up being rescheduled to the 3rd. and went fairly well, even managed to work up a new tune. The Rutland Fire Dept. Annual Picnic was a blast (OK, I couldn't resist just one pun!) despite sweltering heat and mud up to your wazoo.

It downpoured on the area just prior to the show, but for once the band managed to play a show without rain splashing down on our heads. (One of the seven signs of the coming end of the world, or Larry did an anti-rain dance, LOL!)

OK, so I like the damn shirt so much I wore it again...

Usual Suspects on stage in Rutland, Ohio
(l to r.: Syd, Ron, Buck, Tonto and Roger)

Learned a new lesson though, eat something a little closer to showtime, halfway through set two my side began to cramp up and with the added fun of being soaked to the bone things got a smidgen miserable for a little while. Thanks to everyone for showing up and a special thanks to Holly for taking over the drum-throne for one tune.

The band's site is going to be undergoing some reconstruction for the next few weeks, so if there are any updates I'll be making them here. Keep checking in!

Oh and check THIS out if you want a good laugh!

A married couple is driving down the interstate doing 55 mph. The husband is behind the wheel. His wife looks over at him and says, "Honey, I know we've been married for 15 years, but, I want a divorce." The husband says nothing but slowly increases speed to 60 mph.
She then says, "I don't want you to try to talk me out of it, because I've been having an affair with your best friend, and he's a better lover than you." Again the husband stays quiet and just speeds up as he clenches his hands on the wheels.
She says, "I want the house." Again the husband speeds up, and now is doing 70 mph. She says, "I want the kids too." The husband just keeps driving faster, and faster, until he's up to 80 mph.
She says, "I want the car, the checking account, and all the credit cards too." The husband slowly starts to veer toward a bridge overpass piling, as she says, "Is there anything you want?"
The husband says, "No, I've got everything I need right here."
She asks, "What's that?"
The husband replies just before they hit the wall at 90 mph, "I've got the airbag!"

ENTRY 79: (07-29-00)OK, it would appear that I've been a little lazy with the updates, but the fact is things have been a little hectic here. As many of you may well know by now there has been a line-up change in Usual Suspects, but just to keep you all in suspense I'm not going to fill you in until every "i" has been dotted and every "t" has been crossed. At this point we're hoping to be out playing live by mid-fall. I am also hoping to have a demo ready by then as well. In any account I'm looking forward to getting back to work.

In the meantime, since the July 4th. show I've been working on a few of the cuts I didn't get to record for the Fragments EP. No, that whole project hasn't been shelved completely, just set aside whil everything else is being put together.

Keep checking back often, as soon as everything is ready I'll be checking back in!

ENTRY 80: (10-13-00) Did 'ya miss me? Thought I'd let you in on the goings on with Usual Suspects and with boring old me...

First of all the core of the band (Larry, Roger and yours truly,) have been regularly rehearsing together and working on a mixture of new material and old stuff. At this point in time we are holding auditions to fill the remaining slots in the line-up and we're hoping to have things back on the road sometime soon.

In the little extra spare time I've had I've been spending alot of time working on Bettie, catching up on some reading and spending time with the family. It seems that my recording date with Dark Fantasy has been put on hold for a little while longer as they are currently in the process of putting songs together for their debut release and getting a solid line-up together. JC and Jim came up a little while back and it was cool to see them again!

I'm still working on a cut for the EP, hoping to do a rough demo sometime before this winter. Probably will just do it with Larry and a drum machine until I can find time to head into the studio again...

Stay tuned folks, I'll be back soon!

Updates Numbers 63 through 72