The Wiley House Band
The other night ( after the Wallabies game ) we went over to Wiley’s again to gorge ourselves silly on gen-u-ine Texan food such as baked beans, pork brisket, beef butt, beef / pork / veal sausage and bread rolls – possibly with meat in it, I can’t remember for sure. Of course all of this is done Wiley style, that is to say, from scratch and in Texas proportions. Needless to say I was again uncomfortably full for a few hours and not much good for anything, apart from hydrating myself in true Texas style.
Tonight was the night I was going to meet a bass player named Randy who used to play for Willy Nelson’s band a while back. My plan was to pick his brain about where to buy a bass in Texas since I am currently in the market and I can save thousands by buying it over here and then lugging it around with me. Unfortunately for me, Randy called in sick tonight!! And tonight is jam night!!!
Word got around pretty fast that I am a bass player ( thanks to Uncle Bob ) and despite mustering up all my weaseling powers, they madly phoned around and got a replacement bass delivered for me. No escape.
The guitarist, Ron led me over to the jam room to warm up and I have to say, this jam room is probably one of the nicest I’ve been in. Plenty of space, a nice P.A , 5 foot tall amps and pornographic artwork tell me that this jam room is home to one style of music – Rock! Sadly Chuck Berry is not in my repitoire but I soon noticed that most of the old time songs are standard 12 bar blues patterns so I was able to wing it enough, that and Ron likes his guitar ‘beyond loud’ so I don’t think anyone could really hear me anyway.
Me and Rockin' Ron
Ron and his can of liquid rock
Ron is quite the showman and loves a good solo or two during a song and the lighting in the room makes for some interesting photos…
Rock on!
Rockin' so hard you can see the blues
Wiley suppied the tambourine for most of the songs and lended very authentic vocals for ‘Old Time Rock and Roll’Â – complete with ciggy in hand.
sharing a laugh with Wiley (left)
The Wiley House Band.... and Duff's head
Steve, the drummer
All in all It was actually a really enjoyable jam and well worth the ear damage and second hand smoke. The only real blemish on the night was that the Wallabies lost in a game laden with reffing errors making it really unbearable to watch and not the most ideal game for Uncle Bob’s introduction to world of rugby… ah well, there is always next weekend!
Rob