Having finally gotten the hang of daylight savings time, I arrived at Hopper's at 8:20 p.m.--plenty of time to set up the PA and the drumkit. But, lo and behold, not only was J.R. and Fred's gear all set up, but they had brought their PA, and everything was ready to go. "Didn't have anything else to do today, so I came down early," said J.R. The magnanomous Texan is a 40-something charmer with a deep baritone voice, wearing nice alligator boots and a denim ensemble. I had to bring in my PA anyway, since the back window in my truck is broken out, but, hey, it's good exercise. J.R. had a very neat and organized setup, with four effects pedals, a big-sized Marshall amp, and standing proudly beside one of the mains were THREE Fender Strats on a special stand, each a different color. Plus, J.R. had brought his slide guitar. We were ready to rock.

J.R. likes to start out laid back, and we moseyed into a mid-tempo lumpty-dump, followed by a jazzy rhumba. Sims is a very direct player, which plays well in a power trio. No frills, git down, git to the heart of the song, which I really appreciate. After about four easygoing numbers, we opened it up a bit with a dynamic version of "Little Wing"--a real crowd pleaser. Then SRV's "Mary Had A Little Lamb" rocked out. A high point of the first set was J.R.'s original instrumental medium-fast shuffle with a pedaling bass line. I had no idea where he was going with it at first, but by the end of the song, we realized we had really created something pretty cool. A quick moving funky number got folks on the dancefloor, and we funked it up--my specialty.

By break time there were about 25-30 people, some of which were J.R.'s fans. I had three friends who had committed to come, and they were enjoying seeing me handle the stuff J.R. was throwing at me. Tammy was running the bar, and we chatted about the 200+ people who had mobbed the club Saturday for the Aaron Black Band and Kenny "Blue" Ray. It was a madhouse in there, and as Al said later, it was good it happened that way since now they know the weak points in getting everyone served and comfortable when it gets that busy.

Aaron and Johnny Black dropped in toward the end of the first set. They had some business with Tammy and Al, but also wanted to check out what I was doing. Their turn is June 13th.

The second set blasted off from the start, and pretty much everyone was dancing. Notably, a couple of strippers who were friends of J.R.'s gyrated and boogied like professionals, gathering an audience around the dancefloor as we burned through "Mustang Sally." J.R. played about 16 bars with his teeth at one point, and had his guitar swingin' and arms flailin'...definitely an entertainer.

By the third set, several people had left during break, but as we rocked out, a few more came in, with the net effect being a nice, consistent crowd until about 12:30 a.m., when everyone started to go home. It was then J.R. pulled out his slide guitar and blazed for five minutes on an instrumental rockabilly thang. The closer we got to the end of the set, the louder and faster we played, so people had a hard time leaving. I actually approached tired by the last song (rare for me)--a very fast rocker--so sweat and fulfillment were gloriously achieved.

Hope to see you down at Hopper's next Tuesday night, as I boogie down with Lloyd Jones!

Boyd