"Bands I Know" Series - Part Two - Matt Vrba

I have played off and on the last few months with singer songwriter Matt Vrba, whose brand of 'high octane Americana' has caught the ear of Nashville Star, a countrified version of American Idol.

Matt is in the running to be one of the primary competitors on the upcoming season and has made is so far that he'll likely at least be in the first episode. He's beaten out something like 10,000 competitors so far to get where he's at. Rockin!

Coincidentally, Matt was planning on moving to Nashville even before he found out about the show. So the stars seen to be aligning - no pun intended. He hit the road in a moving truck Monday but will be back in town to play May 9 at Ponderosa Lounge.

Last Saturday, we played a 'going away' gig at the Dublin Pub in Portland, and I posted some of the highlights on YouTube. Here are a couple of clips:

Danville Train


Trucker Song

Shameless Self Promotion Part Three

A couple of personal vids to post. One is from a loose, acoustic appearance at Macadam's in Portland with my pal Bruce Kracke. I met Bruce this year at a Matt Vrba show and we found a mutual appreciation for all things Neil Young. Our first one of these Macadam's Thursday gigs was to do 30 minutes of Neil tunes. Great if you like Neil. Not so great if not. We had a blast!

Anyway, we've played a few times since then, usually trading off taking the lead vocal on a song we both know. For this one, our bass buddy Chris Chard joined for his first ever run through of Won't Get Fooled Again. It's loose but fun, and I commend Bruce's playful pseudo-windmills at the start of the song!

The other video is from one of last years' Floydian Slips shows. Once you get past the first minute or so of the Blair Witch shaky camera, you get a sense for how our show rolls out.

We have four Slips appearances coming up in the next two weeks. New Years Eve at the McDonald Theater in Eugene, two shows (same night) at the Triple Door in Seattle and one performance at the Aladdin Theater in Portland. We've never done a string like this, so I am looking forward to eating, sleeping and breathing Floyd for the next two weeks. Enjoy!

Won't Get Fooled Again


Run Like Hell

Shameless Self Promotion Part Two

I have been sitting in with Portland singer-songwriter Matt Vrba lately. He is a great songwriter with really good energy onstage. I guess you could call him 'alt-rock' or 'country rock' or one of those BS hybrid titles. To me it's good old rock and roll, baby!

His stuff is a blast to play to. Reminds me of cutting my teeth back in the day on Exile on Main Street when I was learning how to 'augment' a song. Pick a key, and work it...

Matt has a brand new CD out, called Go. I opted to not make the trip to Chicago for the CD release gig there this Friday (Matt's home town), but will be playing at the December 8 show at the Dublin Pub in Portland.

Anyway, we played the night before Thanksgiving last week and I brought down the camera. Here are a couple of cool tunes: