Friday, February 29, 2008

Leap Day Celebration!

Well, The Tim and Bob Show have played at the Colonnade location of OrderUp several times now, but we've never had as full a house as we had last night. From the first notes of Let's Get Together to the last chords of Bye-bye Love, we had most of the tables full of people enjoying OrderUp's great food and friendly service throughout the evening.

In addition to introducing our gig opener -- Let's Get Together, an old Canned Heat rock standard -- we debuted a new four-parter, Steve's arrangement of the Poco classic, Crazy Love and Kathy's stunning version of Through the Eyes of Love. The audience seemed to enjoy them all.

Swelling the audience were some veteran Tim and Bob Nationals -- Karen and Sam, Rodney, Jan and teenager daughter and friend, Jack and Laura and friends, and Jim and Mary as well as some first timers Benji and friends, and Rose. After two full weekends without a gig, we were more than ready to entertain all these folks. And, we had a chance to help one of OrderUp employees celebrate his "7th" birthday on this night.

How did we sound? The girls continue to be the highlight of our gigs. Steve and Don have their hands full trying to convince them not to strike out on their own!

March is going to be a very, very busy month for us, so there'll be plenty of chances to see us at venues new and old. Check out our upcoming GIGS section and watch your email in-box for gig alert emails. Not on our mailing list? Check out our GUESTBOOK and sign up.

Oh, and with all the other elections coming up, don't forget that you can vote for The Tim and Bob Show as San Antonio's best "cover band" in The Current's annual "Best of San Antonio" election. Here's the LINK to get you to the ballot, and thanks for your vote.

We're Steve, Don, Kathy, and Mary Lou, and we approve this blog!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Tim and Bob, Who Are on the Road ....

This is kind of an unusual blog entry. We create these blogs to document the cool places we play in South Texas and the fun we have entertaining new and veteran Tim and Bob Nationals as they enjoy the great food and drink to be had at the many venues who hire us. We list names of the cool folks who come out, talk about individual performances, and try to convey how much fun we have contributing to y'all's evening out. This blog, however, is about an hour or so of music with none of our loyal fans listening, as we played a late morning "engagement" two entire time zones away from home.

If you noticed that it's a rare weekend without a Tim and Bob gig, it's because all four of us are in California's beautiful Bay Area taking a mid-winter vacation and visiting Steve and Kathy's daughter, Hillary. This morning we drove from Oakland over the mountains to Santa Cruz. Why? Well, when Don was in Monterrey in the Spring of 2006, he dropped into a guitar store and was first introduced to the fantastic instruments created by the Santa Cruz Guitar Company. Since then, Don has driven Steve so crazy with his lyrical descriptions of how the guitars felt, played, and sounded, that when we realized we'd all be back here this winter, we decided to visit the factory, and, maybe get a chance to play these wonderful instruments.

Well, we did tour the factory, and it was an impressive place, but all the guitars that SCGC make are already pre-consigned to stores, so there is no "show-room" where we could sample the finished products. Well, the great folks at the Acoustic Guitar Forum tipped us off to what we think is the best guitar store we've ever seen -- Sylvan Music. It's in the city of Santa Cruz, probably no more than a mile from the factory as the crow flies, and we decided to give ourselves an hour there before we did the factory tour.

We got there about 10 minutes before they opened, but one of the guys who worked there let us in early. Well, we started playing -- and we're pleased to report that Steve can still cook after his trigger-finger surgery -- and, by the time Mary Lou and Kathy showed up, the boys had played about a dozen instruments and had sung a good half-dozen songs. At this point, some of the employees of the store had begun to play attention. As a matter of fact, we were just into our 3-parter Teach Your Children when we realized that someone had picked up a third guitar and, on the last chorus, we had a fourth voice. Al, who owns the joint, supplied the voice, and then encouraged the four of us to come out with Monday, Monday.

Once we finished, we did a tour of Al's store, and departed good friends. We look forward to going back there again some day, but -- until we do -- we'd encourage all of you who may visit the area to check out this fabulous store.

By the way, of the dozens of guitars that Steve and Don played, the two that stood out over all the rest were the two Santa Cruz guitars you can see in the pictures taken by Mary Lou, Kathy, and Hillary. I guess Steve knows now what Don found out a couple of years ago.

View the pics here HERE

And you guys? Well, we'll be playing again real soon, so look for us, come out, and have some fun.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Steve's Itchy Trigger Finger!

Last night was a wonderful night at Fralo's Art of Pizza. We never know what we're going to get when we schedule an outdoor gig on a mid-February evening, but what we DID get was the very best that South Texas can offer -- no rain, no Mountain Cedar attacks, no high winds, and temperatures that ranged from the low 80s when we began to the high 60s by the time we finished. And a lot of folks were out to enjoy the food, the fellowship, and the music. When you get a day like this in the middle of "winter," who wants to stay at home? And how many northerners get to spend a February 9th evening in cutoffs and sandals?

While we saw a familiar face or two, veteran Tim and Bob Nationals were a little thin on the ground. This gave us the opportunity to make some new friends. We enjoyed meeting Trey and Laura who enjoyed our music so much they invited us to have a glass of wine when we finished. We also met Sylvia -- who, like Trey is from Houston -- and her family, and enjoyed playing a request for her.

And, like most of our nights at Fralo's, there was one good-natured but very rowdy table who had a good time all night long, especially when we favored them with The Rocking Pneumonia and the Boogie-woogie Flu and Mustang Sally. Thanks to Cristina, Kristy, Amy, Kathy, and their significant others.

And, also like most of our nights, we captured the attention of some very young people. There were at least a half-dozen budding percussionists who accompanied us on mini-sized pizza takeaway boxes filled with pebbles. All in all, a night we enjoyed every bit as much as anyone sitting and listening did.

How did we sound? Well, at times we were about as good as we've ever been. At other times, we were comforted by the fact that we can always get better. Hey, folks. It's live music!

Finally, about this blog's headline. It was one year ago that we played at Fralo's and "said good-bye to Don's knees" just before his double knee replacement surgery on February 12. This year, also on February 12, Steve will be getting some surgery on the naughty tendon that is the source of his "trigger finger" -- a debilitating situation that makes all his great guitar work very painful for him. We're hoping that, by the time of our next gig, Steve's strength and dexterity has returned, but the pain and constriction is gone for good. Until then, Rock On Tim and Bob Nation!

Tell us what YOU think!