Big Leather Couch

MUSIC ON THE COUCH
MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 2011
10pm Eastern; 9pm Central; 8pm Mountain; 7pm Pacific

Archived on Tuesday morning and forever HERE

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This week:
CHRISSIE O'DELL
from Chrissie O'Dell And One Hot Mess
and
ERIN HARPE
from Erin Harpe And The Delta Swingers
sit on
THE COUCH

Continuing our International Blues Challenge (IBC) preview, Chrissie O'Dell And One Hot Mess will be representing the Long Island Blues Society. Her band smokes and Chrissie's vocals are something you want to hear. Chrissie will sit and talk about their journey to Memphis.

Then one of her competitors in the band category, Erin Harpe from Erin Harpe And The Delta Swingers representing the Boston Blues Society will sit with me and talk about how she has changed her musical style for this band and how she is dealing with the quick success they have garnered.

With my schedule this week, posting here will be slim.

I will be working today and then Tuesday - Thursday, leaving at around 3:30pm to head to Beale. Probably be down there until 11 - 11:30 each of those nights. Friday, I took the day and will be on Beale until the cows come home...but something special might come out of Friday...fingers crossed.

Saturday will be on Beale and at the Orpheum Theater all day for the finals.

BUT...I hope you follow Robert "Nighthawk Tooms, Casey Reagen and myself as we report from the IBC all week at AMERICAN BLUES NEWS

We will all be following the progress of as many bands as possible in words and pictures...check it out!

A new feature is up over at American Blues News entitled "Do You Hear What I Hear". There are four features on musicians under the age of 30. And we are working on another slection of musicians for a couple of weeks from now.

I was lucky enough to get to chat with Greg Gumpel who is the guitarist for the band Victor Wainwright & The Wildroots. I have known Greg for about a year and he gave me a deeper insight into why he does what he does in life. Hope you take the time to read the article on Greg and the others over there.

This evening on Musis On The Couch I get to sit with Mr. Paul Thorn, a great singer songwriting guitarist from Tupelo, MS and Ms. Kelly Richey from Cincinnati, OH who is a powerful rocker on stage, but off has a whole other world she is involved in.


Hope you find the time to come on over and listen live or to check out the archives anytime after the show ends.American

Spent all day Sunday doing holiday fudge. Once again, I set up each batch by measuring out all the ingredients and lining them all up so Nancy only had to make the batches. House smelled so good all day.

At the same time, I did our Christmas Cards. Got the photos printed and inserted into the cards. Got the address labels printed...began signing the cards.

Perfect day for it since it was about 29 degrees out with high high winds making it feel somewhere in the teens...goodness gracious, I moved south to get away from this stuff...we even had some snow flurries ....smoe...nothing that even stayed, but IT SNOWED!

What did you do this weekend?

So, this post was originally set for Tuesday, but dear old Blogger decided to ONCE AGAIN take a scheduled post and reset it to DRAFT!!!!

Then I awoke and had like 4 more comments on my Monday post and decided to let it sit for a second day.

I have always posted 5 days a week (except for those raw times and scheduled hiatuses) but I am wondering, with the reduced traffic, if it makes sense to continue to do so...more on this to come...

And again today, the same thing...is Blogger trying to tell em not to post anymore???

Get ready for the FOX-heads and TeaBaggers to have a ball with this one...President Obama will appear on the TV show "MythBusters"...Discovery says the episode considers this question: Did Greek scientist Archimedes set fire to an invading Roman fleet using only mirrors and the reflected rays of the sun?

But you know how this is going to turn out, don't you?

"Ah he is on to see if they can prove he is an American"

"Maybe they can prove he is a Muslim"

yadda...yadda...yadda...


The episode has already been taped and is part of a White House push to promote math and science education.

Did you know it is only 16 15 days until the next BlogBlast For Peace?

Well it is almost here. Are you going to participate either on your blog or on Facebook where the group is represented HERE.

I am working on my globe and will offer up my services to anyone who needs assistance.

I mean...HUH?????

The NFL could soon start suspending players for dangerous helmet hits, executive vice president of football operations Ray Anderson told The Associated Press on Monday.

A day after several scary collisions in Sunday’s games, Anderson acknowledged the league might need to do more than fining players to prevent such hits—and soon.

OK kiddies..this is freakin stupid, because it is so hard to think about this before it happens. When you begin to ask players to think about the hit before it happens, you will end up with even more injuries.

Maybe it is time to lessen the amount of equipment the players wear...get rid of all the padding that makes them feel 'safe'...

Something needs to be done before we have some really major injuries on the field...

Your thoughts?

To paraphrase Dennis Green "Cliff Lee was who we thought he was"...yup, the guy was masterful on Monday and my Yankees find themselves down 2-1 in the ALCS. Have the country is cheering and whooping it up at the moment (half...heck-a-doodle, it is probably more like 80%...

But this is my Yankee team and they are resilient. If oyu only looked at the score, it is misleading. The score was 2-0 Texas in the top of the 9th and then our normally reliable relief corps took it on the chin (think Yankee 8th inning in game 1)...

So...is it over - HELL NO

AM I nervous - NOT YET

My three-part article on the Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival is now running on American Blues News, along with an interview about the history of the festival and my friend Robert "Nighthawk" Tooms also has an article written from the perspective of a musician/fan at the fest..check them out at AMERICAN BLUES NEWS.

• Friday afternoon - Had my first feature published on AMERICAN BLUES NEWS where they used my review of Barbara Blue's new album "Royal Blue", which you can find HERE. This week my three day review of the Arkansas Heritage and Blues Festival (now the King Biscuit Heritage and Blues Festival). I hope to be a regular contributor there.
• Friday night - big Yankee comeback
• Saturday - big Yankee stumble
• Sunday - NY Giants win
• Doc's Blog and Twitter League - win 2 - 4- 0 (yeah, not so good here)
• Jay's Open Bar League - loss - 3 -3
• ABL Fantasy League - loss - 4 - 2 (thanks Phillip Rivers and your -3 points)
• King Of The Hill Survivor League - win - 1 out of 3 of our "teams" left - 27 out of 126 teams left
• Phone Calls From Church League - TBD, we are up by 9 points. This league is a scoring only league. You score, you get 6 pts. Def gets a point for Ints and sacks. So a running back can get 200yds and not cross the goal line...you get ZIP.  It is also the only money league I play and have played for 9 years. 

• Huge Game Tonight - Pettitte v Lee - The Ballpark in the Bronx

• MNF - The NFL decided to give us Tennessee v Jacksonville - snorrrrrrrrrrrre

• Music On The Couch -  Rob Drabkin a singer-songwriter who is making waves out of Denver with his infectious rock and pop and the band Tin Pan...a very cool swing, jazz, blues band out of New York City.

Yeah, I know I end up losing out on the live audience, but I hope y'all download and listen.   Some big shows coming up over the next few weeks.