John-Boy Victory Tour!

After more weeks that any of us would care to count, John-Boy Dickison is (by the grace of God and a great many of His helpers) on the road again, leaving the good folks at Geisinger Medical Center and headed for a spot much closer to home. Here's an excerpt from John's email:

"Good news, I’ve been traded to the State College team, and you’re invited to a potluck gathering this Saturday. As of 2pm today (Weds, Dec 19), I’ll be moving from Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, PA, back to Hearthside nursing home in State College. It will be lots easier for local folks to visit, but more importantly, it marks another step of progress toward recovery. I still need to keep my leg elevated, and avoid prolonged dangling, but eventually (a week or two) I can begin some 'non-weight-bearing crutch-walking.' Doesn’t that have a wonderful ring to it?

"The skin graft took very well, and they’re waiting for the exposed, drilled bone (top of my tibia, about two inches below my knee) to granulate and form some growth media that will support coverage. Skin needs to be fed with circulation from directly beneath, like grass, so a skin graft bridging the bone will just die if there’s no subsoil or topsoil (flesh or circulation) from below to feed it. Hence, we’re waiting to see what the bone grows, or else revisit some kind of muscle flap surgery down the road. But in the meantime, I will be AT LARGE! (bed-resting in a nursing home).

"Friends from church had the foresight to think I’d be at Hearthside by Christmas, and weeks ago reserved the community room at the nursing home for a PARTY—thanks, Ruby! So, please join us between 4 and 7pm at the Nittany Dining Room at Hearthside, address below.

"I will have a semi-private room for the first week or so, with a roommate, and without a phone. So, I won’t have internet much, and I’ll have the cell phone (email or contact Tracey to get the number). So, locals, come on down to the wrinkle ranch if you’re not doing anything Saturday. Bring a covered dish (with something in it) and enjoy the potluck. Tell any other friends who might not know.

"Mainly it’s a big thank-you to all of you who have kept me in your thoughts and prayers. Still workin’ on recovery process, but boy am I grateful for your support !!!

"Take care all, see some of you real soon! Love, John-Boy"

Robert "Steady" Casler, Rhythm King (Band Profiles, Part III)

Robert Casler's first drums were empty ricotta cheese containers that he played as a pre-teen, lip-synching to the Beach Boys and the Beatles with friends in a garage while the moms sold juice and cookies to neighborhood kids. He obviously had the right kind of parents: after that performance, his folks offered to pay for lessons. (Years later, it was deja vu when he debuted with the X-Tension Chords at Lake Tahoe. His drum kit consisted of the bottom of a hotel trash can, and yet again, shaking their heads, his parents offered to pay for lessons.)

Casler’s first public performance was similarly inauspicious. Sister Margaret had convinced his band to perform “The Alley Cat” at the 8th grade graduation assembly, while the other band in school threw caution to the wind and played rock and roll to an enthusiastic audience.

And it's just kept getting better. Casler has played lead snare, cymbals, and a mean triangle in a symphony orchestra. His high school marching band endured four years of losing football teams, and continued the scatological theme with a march behind the horses in the Macy’s St. Patrick’s Day parade – all the more challenging since the drummers never stop playing and they can’t see directly ahead of them. In high school he and his (non-marching) band made good money playing weddings, where he caught an occasional glimpse into the dark side of family celebrations: you can always count on a person requesting "Dixie," one asking for "The Stripper" (usually a middle-aged male), and one person who insists on playing your drums. He also learned the value of a strong family life: his dad was always there to pick him and his drums up, no matter where the gig was or how many extra sets he had to play. The list of his bands reads like a pantheon of middle school rock: The Continentals, Nadine and the Mophonics, The Lincoln Street Bullies.

Then things started to quiet down as Casler took on the father's role himself and sat back to watch his sons’ progress as musicians. A stint in a campus community orchestra showed him that little had changed over the years: the trumpet section was still preppy, the trombones still unruly, the clarinets very proper, . . . and the drummers never seemed to have any sheet music. In terms of musical performance, he thought his best days were behind him.

It was with no little shock and surprise, then, that he saw his hotel suite at the ACE 2004 conference at Lake Tahoe fill one night with singers, players, and newly minted fans for an informal jam session that turned into a launching pad for the X-Tension Chords phenomenon, with Robert and his sons filling out the band and sharing in the magic. (The boys also got to see how intoxicated people behave – a good primer for college life.) And the beat goes on.

More News on John D.

ACE and X-Tension Chords have begun to receive updates on John's condition by email. If you're interested but are not on one of those lists, drop me a note at wjcoats@ucdavis.edu and I'll fill you in with the latest I've got. Send him a card if you can. Feels like there's some angel watching over him and Tracey right now.

Thoughts and Prayers

I've just had word that band member John-Boy Dickison was in a motorcycle accident on Tuesday morning, October 9. He survived the wreck (praise God), but is laid up in the hospital and faces surgery and a fairly long recovery. Be sure to keep John in your thoughts and prayers. I'll post further news as I get it.

That's Hino as in "Hi!" - "No!," Dude!(Band Profiles, Part II)

Slide guitarist Jeff Hino's early musical experiences included run-ins with piano and 'cello, but he was fortunate enough to come away from both without serious injury. Not long after that, though, he encountered an electric guitar. The effects were life-altering. Early blues influences came from Michael Bloomfield, Eric Clapton, and Dicky Betts. Eventually, the country-rock scene in Tucson, Arizona sent Hino searching for new inspiration, and he found it in the high and lonesome Bluegrass sound.

By the mid-1970s, Jeff had migrated to the Pacific Northwest where he experimented with country and city swing on dobro and lap steel. He appeared in a mouthful of Mid-Willamette Valley incarnations of Bluegrass, country-western, Cajun, and hillbilly jazz groups with names like The Highwater String Band, Spontaneous Combustion, The Sophisticado Swing Band, Cow Patty & Pals, and Waterbound. It's not uncommon to see Jeff performing with five instruments on hand at once, including National steel guitar, Dobro, acoustic guitar, lap steel, and 5-string banjo.

Jeff met up with harmonica-player and singer/songwriter Dave Plaehn in the late '80s, and something clicked. They played their first gig as a duo in 1990. Seventeen years later, the Plaehn & Hino duo is still going strong. They have two CDs in release: On Your Bond, a mix of rural and urban blues plus a George Jones classic, Buddy Holly's Not Fade Away, and one of Plaehn's original songs, and Can't Get My Rest, a collection of tunes that ranges from bare bones country blues to pop blues and R&B.

And capping it off, of course, Jeff has a once-a-year gig with the X-Tension Chords. Since the Chords' first sessions at Lake Tahoe, Jeff's easy, fluid slide guitar backup, hot breaks, and tasteful interstitial licks -- not to mention his outstanding professional communication skills -- have made him an indispensible part of the Chords trademark sound.

The Legend of Rongo (Band Profiles, Part I)

Born in Davenport, Iowa, within shouting distance of the banks of the Mississippi River and then moving to within a few hundred miles of the fabled Suwannee River in Florida as a baby, Ron "Rongo" Thomas grew up with music in his blood. After costly medical treatments, doctors were able to control but not eliminate this condition.

His grandfather played drums throughout the Midwest with a group called the Whiz Bang Orchestra, and in fact jammed with the legendary Bix Beiderbecke on several occasions.

Ron started playing electric bass at age 13 while under the influence of a heavy dose of Paul McCartney and the Beatles. Unable to shake the compulsion to pluck on four strings, he bounced around a series of bands in multiple genres, including a performance of Led Zeppelin tunes that scandalized his high school talent show. In college he acquired his first top-quality bass, a Gibson Les Paul, and any thought of leading a normal life was abandoned.

Aside from backing up some of the original Drifters, Ron's musical career has been spent playing with brilliant-but-unrecognized-by-the-hoi-polloi fellow musicians (e.g., the X-Tension Chords). He currently plays a Rickenbacker and a heavily modified Fender Precision bass through Trace Elliott or Hartke amps with a Beatles tribute band called the Impostors and several other rock and jazz groups.

Asked to comment on his yearly stint with the X-Tension Chords, Ron said, "Genius is pain, but love is all you need. What was the question?"

Puttin' the "Quirky" Back in Albuquerque

The Land of Enchantment was just that much more enchanting Sunday through Tuesday nights, June 17 through 19, as the ACE X-Tension Chords alternately rocked and rolled from 9 to midnight each night.

Sunday night was a rock-out dance as lead singer Owen Roberts gave it his all, eventually (and temporarily) blowing out his voice in the dry, high-desert air. Guitarists Owen and John-Boy, bassist Ron Thomas, and drummer Robert Casler were complemented by Bruce Schultz on harp and Jeff Hino's amazing lap steel, Chris Dicus's magic fingers on the keyboard, and the subtle, under-mic'd stylings of the mando twins and newcomer fiddler Amy Smith. A special nostalgia set brought back a reunion of the Hot Flashes, a vocal combo first heard at ACE 1997, just blocks away from Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It was like a scene out of Never-Neverland, with the stage and dance floor filled with communications professionals who were discovering that, no, they never really did grow up after all.

Monday and Tuesday nights were mild by comparison, but terrific fun all the same. Mandolins, guitars, a fiddle, and even a hammered dulcimer were heard with solo and group vocals from the back room of the hospitality suite. We had folk, Cajun, Irish, and old-timey tunes, a little bit of blues, and some familiar songs from O Brother Where Art Thou ("I'm a Dapper Dan man, myself," John-Boy reminds us).

Photos, videos, and who knows (MP3s?) to come!

Thanks to everyone for dancing, listening, and buying all of those cool T-shirts and posters!

Underground Video Sees Shadow, Goes Back Underground

Early documentary footage of one of the X-Tension Chords' first performances has surfaced, and you can surf over and take a look: http://www.blindtoaster.com/MuSigVideo.htm. Thanks to Dennis Hinkamp for uncovering this gem from the very beginnings of Chordmania.

Now take a moment and open your ears - if you listen really hard, you can hear it rustling to life again. All across this great continent (and maybe beyond), from Canada in the north to the tip of the Florida Keys, from the foggy vales of Pennsylvania to the sunny climes of California, once-a-year musicians are preparing for their annual moment of glory: guitarists are drumming their fingers incessantly as they try to re-create calluses on their fingertips, drummers are tapping their pencils annoyingly in weekly management meetings, and everyone is searching though closets, under beds, and in garages and storage lockers, trying to find that precious instrument that they last saw just 11 months ago. "Where did I put that thing?," their weary spouses hear again and again.

And then the music begins. At first it's just a jumble, a cacauphony of thumps, bangs, twangs, and wheezy voices, but soon it starts to take shape, becoming gradually more recognizable as, Yes!, the unmistakeable, trademark sound of the legendary X-Tension Chords! Whether it's blues, rock, funk, or folk, ACE fans rely on them for one thing every year (and NETC fans every two years): a live band that you can dance to, but you don't have to pay them. And it's happening again in just a week and a half in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

So get out there, X-Chordians! Change those strings! Dust off those drums! De-grease those harmonicas! Warm up those chops!

And X-Tensionheads, get out your dancing shoes! Do a few stretches so you won't hurt yourselves! Put some rock classics on the ipod so you can practice your signature moves when you're alone between floors on the elevator! Hey -- You're gonna turn some heads this year!

The Legend Continues: Quebec City

(Elton John-Boy's account, loosely based on actual events): We had a sweet setup in Quebec in 2006, playing in an actual club room, and added some real international flair with Chris “Hugh’s Kid” Maynard on blistering electric guitar, a few cameos from the CaslerJammer Kids, and an astounding discovery in Bruce Schultz, who brandished a fiddle and harp with the best of ’em. And a thoroughly amazing federal-level walk-on by USDA chanteuse Janet Allen, whose pipes could compete with Aretha, or Koko, or Whitney, or even the self-proclaimed “greatest singer who ever lived,” Celine Dion.

It all becomes a blur after that. All I can say is, “Man, what a ride.” I was lucky to be a part of it. Who knows what these dudes will come up with next?

(Hint: You can see for yourself what happens next! Just hit the Hospitality Suite at ACE/NETC Albuquerque after about 9:00 pm on Sunday, June 17, 2007. )

San Antonio: The Saga Continues . . .

(further hazy recollections of Elton John-Boy): By the time the next ACE/NETC meeting rolled around in San Antonio (2005), lots of changes had taken place. Larry Jackson from Kansas State was rounding up instruments ahead of time. People brought stuff. They even had a room set aside for playing at night. And we knew how to work the hotels by this time, so we grabbed their white baby grand piano and wheeled it into the room with us, hoping they wouldn’t bill us for using it. They didn’t care. And it was cool. Lots of people coming in and out of the group, playing different instruments, all kinds of stuff. That’s when they let me start hangin’ around with ’em.

What a line-up – Owen “Big Money” Roberts, the Guelphian Troubadour; the Mandolin Twins (“Ammond Brother Jim” Coats and “Reno Robert” Moore); Kyla Kruse, fresh out of the coffee club circuit in Central Illinois; Robert “Steady” Casler on tubs; Ron “Wildside” Thomas on a borrowed fretless bass; Larry “Action” Jackson on electric guitar; Chris “Fingers” Dicus on electric keyboard; Tom “Walk the Line” Knecht doin’ some side man vocals; and Jeff “the Lap” Hino throwin’ down some brilliant National steel guitar stuff.



From there it just mushroomed. There was the “X-tension Chords Unplugged” at the Don Strange Ranch (Coats, Moore, Kruse, Hino, Dickison, Sams) and a whole bevy of musicians accompanying the Development Fund auction and playing after hours.

To be continued (will this madness never end?) . . .

The Early Days

(recollections of Elton John-Boy Dickison): I first met the X-Tension Chords at Caesar’s in Tahoe back in the summer of 2004. I had AV duty at the ACE convention there so they’d put me up in one of the smaller suites as part of the room block. But on the same floor, there were the High Roller suites, you know, and that’s where the ACE hospitality suite was.



One time I was heading to my room, and across the hall from the hospitality suite were these guys sittin’ around playing musical instruments. I recognized a few of them from around, you know, and now I know that one of ’em was Jim Coats from California, and Robert Casler from Arizona was also there. There were others. I think Robert’s kids were somehow involved. Later that day I learned that somebody had complained about the music – which was weird – this was a Casino, and they were basically playin’ bluegrass instruments, you know, quiet-like. So somebody must have lost big at the tables, or they were just wound too tight to begin with . . . complaining about acoustic music on the hospitality floor of a big casino hotel. Ah well, I guess it takes all kinds.

So later that night, I’m lockin’ up the projectors and stuff, ready to get a jump on the next morning, and there’s some ACE people millin’ around where the breakout rooms are. Normally that’s all locked off, but I had a key. So I went to see what was what, and they said they’d gotten in trouble with the hotel for too much noise the night before. I remember it like it was yesterday.

That crazy guy from Ohio State – the auctioneer – Randy Nemitz. He’d conned the security chief in the hotel into letting them get together in the breakout rooms. “We’re the one’s rentin’ ’em,” he said. “We might as well use ’em.” I looked in one of the smaller meeting rooms, and it was packed! Well, the next night, they’d gone big-time. They had sound gear, and they’d moved into the back of one of the big 200-seater rooms, instead ofcrammed into those little quarter-sized Easy-Bake Oven type meeting rooms. I was busy enough pushin’ the AV cart down the halls that I didn’t pay much more attention, but lots of people were talkin’ about these guys. Who’d a thought it was the start of something that would turn into anything.

To be continued . . .