A Gig For The Dead

Hicks With Picks is rehearsing for a gig coming up October 4th for the Historic Oakland Cemetery Festival. We played there last year as the lead-off act, when there weren't many festival-goers around yet. This year they've invited us back as the last act (we like to think of it as the Headliners) just before they do all the stage announcements. We are WAY excited.
Oakland Cemetery is Atlanta's premiere cemetery, resting place to many notables (Margaret Mitchell being the first one usually mentioned). It is gorgeous and huge. It was also hit by a tornado year before last which toppled lots of giant oaks,which in turn creamed some of the graves and markers. The Foundation and Cemetery have done huge work cleaning up the mess, which costs huge money, and we are excited about playing a contributing role in raising the money.
Hicks is reconstituting, since Haddon retired as bass player. We're excited that Beth Stevenson has joined us on bass. She is a terrific musician and just a wonderful person. Last night we had rehearsal at her house on her fabulous screened porch, her sweet, geriatric dog at our feet.
We have a pretty long list of songs that we might perform for "the dead." She knows some of them, like "Will The Circle Be Unbroken," but not others, like "A Monkey Who Can Dance." Go figure! Getting everyone together for rehearsals has proven to be a big challenge, but then it usually is as we approach deadline like gigs and recording sessions. We still need to get Allison to a rehearsal with Beth; Allison had a bad health problem and surgery earlier this year and has been recuperating slowly and painfully and, at times, frustratingly. We can't wait...but have to wait...to get her back with us at full strength. In the meantime, she got to spend some time in Florida where we hope the R&R was good.
While running through songs with Beth, we have a bad habit of jumping into a song and then way into it realizing there's about to be some totally bizarre twist we do that none of us remembered to warn her about. So far, she's been really good-natured about the surprises. We'll say, "Oh, yeah, we forgot to tell you that on that last chorus everyone all of a sudden stops playing," and she'll just smile and say, "uh huh, I noticed that."
Meanwhile we are moving ahead with CD preparations. It's all a process.