X-Tension Chords' Hiatus to End at Mile-High Hoedown

After 2010's mournful "Year without the X-Tension Chords" at the ACE Conference in St. Louis, maybe you wondered whether they were gone forever.

Well, wonder no more! A 1-year hiatus just means those plucky pluckers can legitimately kick off their reunion tour--relaxed, reconstituted, rehabbed, and most of all re-committed to bringing you the sort of fun, entertaining dance music that will get your feet tapping, your legs moving, and your blood pumping. It's just what you need after a full day of sitting in chairs listening to stimulating presentations on moodle, memes, and communities of practice.

Practice? We don't need no stinkin' practice!

We just play the music, and you just dance. Got it?

You'll notice a few new faces on stage this year, and you'll miss a few old favorites ("Who're you calling 'old'?!?!" shout Owen and John-Boy) -- Hey, it's a different band every year! -- but you're sure to like what you hear, no matter what.

Look for the X-Tension Chords at the Hospitality Suite and various other venues over the course of this year's ACE/NETC conference, and watch this blog for new Band Profiles.

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 . . .