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Here's the 2002 recap: ... the SPOT ODYSSEY!

This year could not be blamed on the millenium or the schizophrenium or any number of ghosts waiting in the shadows ready to throw banana peels at the feet of the masses. Though the year was not quite as prolific as the previous one, it was still significant. Yeah, debt was still raging but the Toyota was still running and managed to carry me effortlessly through a 7500 mile trek of a tour. Unfortunately, on the night of June 15, poor Irma was hit by an unknown driver and left crippled with a crunched fender, hood and underbody metal. No damage to the frame or suspension, though. She was still drivable but wouldn't be street legal for a month til I managed to find a new fender.

January 12, Sat— Flipnotics Coffeespace
The whole year started off with this show where I opened for Kevin Russell of the Gourds.
It was a pretty fun show at one of my fave places for acoustic music. Add to that the fact that I've always gotten along with Kevin and now he's got himself an octave mandolin as well!

March 1-3, Fri-Sun— North Texas Irish Festival • State Fair Grounds, Fair Park • Dallas, TX
It was damn cold at this NTIF but I guess that's what makes it so authentic to the music! Naturally, saturday night I had to play on an outside stage freezing my butt and hands off, but it was good. Turned out that fiddler Chris Buckley (who, along with Charles Branch, shared the hotel room with me) had been of member of 180 and the Letter G, a band whom I had seen and whose members I had sessioned with many times in Milwaukee. Wow! So that meant we knew some tunes and he sat in with me that cold night in that cold tent.
Sunday's afternoon set was inside and a lot warmer. Somewhere between these performances I don't remember a whole, whole lot. These weeks later, stories keep surfacing about "things" I did in the hotel saturday night.
Apparently it was that good of a festival. OUCH!

March 17, Sun— St. Paddy's Day Festival • Dog & Duck Pub
Yep, the yearly bash found me once again acting as stage manager and Harp swiller (nothing against guinness here; i just prefer lagers and pilsners, etc.). It turned out, however, that Tom Topkoff was gonna be in town for some music festival thing that no one's ever heard of but, of course, that meant DeLorean Mechanics were available to join the fray. YAY!
No, it wasn't a reunion, just an opportunity.
This year a white-haired gentleman (of the plastic green derby and green "kiss me i'm irish" t-shirt variety) strolled up to me immediately after we finished a set of four reels (Cottage in the Grove/House of Hamill/Silver Spear/Curlew) and demanded, "Can't you guys play anything that's Irish?"
Stunned, I retorted, "My god, man! That's all we've been doing!" He walked away in an eye-rolling huff, no doubt wanting to hear something more DannyBoyish. I immediately ordered the band to "TURN UP!" HA!

Then there was the tour (read the tour diary) I did opening for MIKE WATT.
Here was the schedule:

April 16, Tues— Launchpad • Albuquerque, NM
April 17, Wed— The Paramount • Santa Fe, NM
April 18, Thur— Blue Light • Lubbock, TX
April 19, Fri— VZD • Oklahoma City, OK
April 22, Mon— Rudyard's • Houston, TX
April 23, Tues— Shim Sham • New Orleans, LA
April 24, Wed— Splash • Mobile, AL
April 25, Thur— Cow Haus • Tallahassee, FL
April 26, Fri— Orpheum • Tampa, FL
April 27, Sat— Jack Rabbits • Jacksonville, FL
April 28, Sun— Cumberland's • Charleston, SC
April 29, Mon— New Brookland Tavern • Columbia, SC
April 30, Tue— The E.A.R.L. • Atlanta, GA
May 1, Wed— 40 Watt Club • Athens, GA
May 2, Thur— The End • Nashville, TN
May 3, Fri— Blue Cat's • Knoxville, TN
May 4, Sat— Kings • Raleigh, NC
May 5, Sun— Poe's Pub • Richmond, VA
May 6, Mon— Black Cat • Washington, DC
May 7, Tues— Ottobar • Baltimore, MD
May 8, Wed— The Khyber • Philadelphia, PA
May 9, Thur— Buddhist Biker Bar • Charlottesville, VA
May 11, Sat— Engine Room • Athens, GA

June 1, Sat— Club DeVille
I spent a coupla weeks resting up after the Watt tour; after all, it was more than 7000 miles of driving. My first intown show was a benefit for Jeff Walsh, one of the Magnolia Cafe managers, who got banged up in a bicycle accident earlier in the year. Back at work now, I owed him for all the great late night service (and discounted food).

June 15, Sat— Room 710
I was the opener on a bill with four other bands. This was definitely one of the oddest, almost "toss-away" type sets I've ever played. Good Show. Can't explain it. You just hadda be there.

August 24-25— "Get Catherine Sherer Outta Town!" • Tipperary Inn • Dallas, TX
Hoboy! This was a party! Y'see, it was a benefit to put some travel money in Ms. Sherer's pockets. She took off to Ireland for more dance study. It means her band Idle Road will be taking about a year hiatus. So a bunch of us came up from Austin to rai$e $ome hell! Ouch! On friday night Cluan, a great new traditional band including Chris Buckley and Charles Branch, played a regular show, then, on saturday, I played a good, fun set; Cluan played a good, fun set; some other folks played good, fun sets; good, fun(?) hangovers set in; all was well. We're sure that when she gets back we'll have to do it again so she can pay off those debts!

September 6-8— CelticFest • Jackson, MS
As usual, Jackson was a fun weekend. Albert Alfonso—always the "Bodhran Slut"—sat in with me on my three sets and we really got into some damned cool shit. Something tells me we're gonna do more of this. Of course, the saturday night ceili was another huge one with lotsa cute girls and I drank my fair share of beer. It was too bad that Mary Ann Swaim was recovering from serious injuries and was unable to call the dance. But she managed to limp to the shindig and give everyone a big smile. Hope she gets back to 100% soon!

November 2-3— Austin Celtic Festival • Austin, TX
Okay, this was the sixth year for this fest and probably the best wingding ever. Yeah, there was rain but what would you expect? But even with the rain there was a surprisingly good turnout. Albert Alfonso sat in with me—as he did in Jackson, MI—and it was really good. Okay, so my instruments got drenched from a leak in the stage covering on saturday night; what else can you do but keep toweling and playing? Later that night was the Parlor gig which was a perfect wind-down to the more family-oriented festival atmosphere; and, later still, there was the tune session at the hotel and I still went home with a pizza!

Sunday was better weather but when the fest was over there was one of the most KICKASS sessions EVER at B.D Riley's! Not only was there some get down pickin' going on but, for once, some really fun singing erupted (not the usual 500 verses and a key no-one-can-play-along-in stuff) in the midst of which Deanna Smith of Jiggernaut gave forth with the most heart-pulling, goose-bumping acapella version of "Waltzing Matilda" anyone has ever heard. Too bad that moment could not have been recorded.

December 7— Jupiter Records
This was the 4th Anniversary of Jupiter Records, one of the best independent record stores in Austin. Jason, the owner, conceived of the 24-hour live music bash. It started at the crack of midnight on Friday and went til midnight at the end of Saturday. I played at 4:00 am and felt totally in my element with a small but purposeful crowd of people, including a guy in pajamas who literally got out of bed to be there. Now that's an audience! Why can't there be more shows like this?

December 27— Flipnotics Coffeespace
I ended the year the same way I started it—opening for Kevin Russell of the Gourds. I always like playing at Flipnotics. It was a slow night as it usually is at the end of the year. I didn't get to see any of Kevin's set since I had to fly across town and work another job. Yeah, 2002 was a tough year financially and I had just gotten a new job mere days before this.

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