Wild & Wooly Weekend

Hey everyone, yeah I know it's been awhile since the last post but as they say "better late than never" right? Well, this weekend's show at the Firehouse was very interesting to say the least and full of fun, good music and some challenges. First off, we had our original drummer Jimmy-Ben-Jammin' with us for Friday's show and we had a b-l-a-s-t; we played some old songs we haven't done since Lyle started and some of the ones we used to perform when we were just starting out...good times. Saturday was full of chills (I was sicker than a dog: temp of about 100 and spraying Chlrolaseptic Throat Spray before each set and literally shivering the whole damn night), thrills (Dave was attending to some personal business and didn't arrive until later in the night), spills (someone spilled Lyle's beer...how rude) and more. I thought it went well; in fact, I thought it went better than I had expected with our buddy Bergie filling in a guitar and singing a few tunes. We even kept a theme going thru the weekend by having Louie, Jim's replacement, filling in for the night. All in all the weekend was fun, although stressful and challenging at times, and I'm ready for a little break so I can shake the f#@kin' cold and get back to learning some more new tunes. We're still going thru the "list" and weeding out some of the so-so tunes for new ones & some good ol' rock songs that we love to play too. Until next time, keep on keepin on and we'll see ya at the show!

Enough rest...it's time to R-O-C-K!!!!!!!

Well, we're are almost done with our "hiatus" and are getting ready to take the show on the road again this summer...finally, but it's been great...getting some fishing in, a little golfing and spending time with the family. We'll be rehearsing for the Moondance Jammin' Country Fest in two weeks (got your tickets yet?) and we have some great gigs coming up next weekend: Friday the 22nd, Cohasset Fire Dept. "Hook & Ladder" Dance at Portage Park. Always great fun and we are very honored to be a part of it every year and help Dewey and the boys. Saturday night is the "Concert at the Creek" and I'm not sure what is going to happen at that one...but it will be fun & exciting! I've been working on some new covers that are on the radio now...some Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney, and Brad Paisley. I can't for y'all to come out and hear them cuz' it's been awhile since we've learned anything new due to a lot of personal issues with band members and getting a new drummer (although he's not really new anymore, I mean it's been almost 7 months or so since he started with us) and Chris has fit in perfectly and beyond expectation with this band. Well, I should go (and grab myself something domestic, light & cold) but keep checking with the website for new dates, news, gig reviews, and all things ROCK HEAVY!!!!!!

Shallow Thoughts From A Deep Mind

Don't buy too much into the title of this posting...I couldn't think of any titles that were clever.
Well, we have a few gigs left before we start our Summer tour and we are looking forward to it. The reason why is simple: we won't be playing in ANY bars this summer. No indoor shows, weddings; just festivals, street dances and things like that. Speaking of weddings, we have officially played our last one; yep, we won't be doing any more weddings at all...never again...'nuff said.

We go back to the 'Creek this weekend for some fun & games...should be a good one and we won't be back there until mid-June. We have about 7 shows total this summer (give or take) and that leaves us some time to do other things like spending time with family, fishing, golfing, camping and a whole lot more. Speaking of golfing, we will have news very soon on this years' Whiskey Johnson Golf Scramble...we raised quite a few bucks last year, hopefully this year we can beat that and have some more cool things like possibly a "live performance" of good ol' WJ...just need to find a venue that would have us come & play and we'll invite some buddies to jam as well.

I will have a "review" of this weekend's gig at the 'Creek and get some more pics up on the website too. Merchandise pictures are coming this week, no if's, and's or but's about it.
We'll see y'all at the 'Creek this weekend and don't forget: next weekend we're at the Firehouse in Coleraine (might as well be our damn second home) and then we won't be around the Iron Range until mid-September...ROCK HEAVY!!!!!!!!

Partyin' Up in the Frozen Tundra!!!

Hello everyone, sorry I haven't been to good with posting our gig coverage. I'm tryin' though so cut me some f#@kin' slack (LOL). This past weekend up in Roseau was so awesome I can hardly write about it because I'm still coming down from all of the excitement. We had a blast on Friday and we had more of a listening crowd for the first few sets, which was just fine, and then we tore it up 'til they had us shut 'er down. Saturday we didn't get to practice so we spent half of the day playing that PS2 game "Guitar Hero II" at our friend's house. They were nice enough to put us up for the weekend and feed us...brave folks to have a band like ours stay at their house. Back to game, we all tried it and after a few times we got the hang of it. Dave, Chris and I were playing the game (when AJ & Lyle were nappin') and seeing all of the different tunes that they have on there. After a good nap (important before each show, ask any musician) we had an awesome Walleye dinner and got ready for the evening. When we got to the bar @ 8:45 pm, it was already packed and full of people ready to have a good time. We tried some new songs for them and they went over pretty good. We finally got some damn law & order on the stage with the help of a "set-list" written by AJ & Dave on their 4 hour quest to get to the show Friday night. I think it really focuses on our performance, sound and talent (you know, before all of the Jager & beer starts to take affect...ha,ha,ha). We are sounding better than we have in awhile and Chris continues to impress folks wherever we go and the band too. This weekend is back at the Firehouse (I don't have to tell you how much fun we have there, so if you never been there, come and check it out. After that is a little break, a wedding and then back to the 'Creek.
See y'all out on the road somewhere...

Cold Enough For Ya??

This weekend's show at the Firehouse was another kick-ass event!! The cold, frigid temperatures didn't stop anyone from coming on out and rockin' heavy...some more than others and you know who you are {tee-hee}. We even got Chad {aka Mr. Vegas} up again to do his rendition of "Fight For Your Right" by the Beastie Boys and had alot of "guest stars" come up on stage too. Our buddy Dan came up and entertained the ladies with a little "Keep Your Hands To Yourself" and band favorite, mentor, Lyle's dad "Uncle Lyle" came up and tore it up with a little Keb 'Mo...we debuted a few new tunes that we had recently learned for the crowd: TNT by AC/DC and Are You Gonna Be My Girl by Jet sung by yours truly. They went good and I think we'll keep them in the mix. We are kicking around some more ideas and ARE going to revamp our song list a bit. Freshen it up and get rid of the some of the same ol' tired, boring sh*t we've been playing ever since we got guitars in our hands...we always welcome song ideas from our friends & fans so go ahead and submit your suggestions. On a lighter note, did you watch the half-time show at the Super Bowl on Sunday?? Was it just me or did Prince just completely kick-ass & take names on that stage? He made me absoulutely proud to be a Minnesotan and he rocked the house. I'm a huge Prince fan and if I could, I'd love to bring some of his tunes into our show...Let's Go Crazy and/or Purple Rain for sure...ROCK HEAVY!!!!!

New Bar, New Attitude

We had a kick-ass time at Sabin's in Chisholm this past weekend and we I believe we sounded better than we have in awhile...except for maybe New Years weekend. I'm reviewing the performance "highlights" on a DVD we got {courteousy of Tom & Bert}. It sounds pretty good and actually turned out decent. We have a lot of footage to pour through before we can get any up on the website but I promise you won't be disappointed...we're off this weekend and go back the Firehouse in Downtown Coleraine...should be great cuz' the last time sure as hell was and we can't wait to go back to the 'Creek {Turtle River, MN}. Yes, we're playing there the last full weekend in Feb. {the 23-24}. I'll keep posting the schedule as the dates get filled up (they're going fast, we are pretty much booked up 'til Summer). We'll have some more t-shirts for sale at our shows and hopefully online very soon, along with thongs, window stickers, and whatever else we can think: maybe even SHOTGLASSES with the sheep logo on them...check the website often.
See ya next time...ROCK HEAVY!!!!!!!!!!

Happy ROCK HEAVY New YEAR !!!!!

Boy was it ever a happy new year...let's start with talking about Friday night. The Firehouse crowd was alot of fun on and they were ready to party. We had a buddy of ours filling in on bass, Rocky and he did a great job. Some of the boys in the band, including your truly, got our "boogie" on and did a bit of dancing (if you want to call it that). Our drummer Chris led some lovely ladies in the "Chicken Dance"; it's slowly becoming a sort-of halftime performance for him and people seem to want to join him out on the floor. We even got the owner Chad, to get up on stage and sing "Fight For Your Right" by the Beastie Boys and he got the crowd into it even more...it was one of the first times we've had an owner be brave enough to join us on-stage...pretty cool. The weather got real interesting starting the next night but it didn't phase the crowd a bit. They came ready to party and started dancin' right at 9:00 pm and pretty much didn't stop until we HAD to shut 'er down for the night. It was such a cool atmosphere that night and just alot of fun. The band was sounding good and we are totally comfortable with Chris. He's really come into his own in this band and is helping re-shape the way we sound and do things on-stage. His input is very valuable and he is an asset to WJ. New Year's Eve was flippin' awesome and we'll be talkin' about that one for years to come. It was packed at that bar for all 3 nights but New Year's Eve was probably the most people I have ever seen at that bar when we have been there...no bullsh#t. We had alot of fun and thank Chad, Becky and their awesome staff at the Firehouse...mark you calendars kids: Feb 2 & 3, we'll be back there to kick off our 2007 Tour of Duty (we need a cool name for this one). I have no idea what this summer is gonna be like for us (Kick'n Up Kountry? WE-Fest? Country Fest MN? Jammin' Country Fest? Moondance? who knows...but one thing's for sure: we will ROCK HEAVY as long as we're able to do so and can't wait to do some more outdoor shows, meet more new people and drink alot of Jag and Mich Golden Light.

BIG ASS NEW YEAR'S WEEKEND SHOW!!!!

I want to invite everyone out this weekend to the Firehouse in Coleraine for the BIG ASS NEW YEAR'S WEEKEND PARTY!!!!!!! It's gonna be kick-ass and y'all should come come on down. Heck, I know some real die-hards that will be there all 3 days...insanity to follow. This is our 1st time in over 5 years that we've had the opportunity to play close to home and we're looking forward to seeing y'all this weekend. Make damn sure you have a DD for your transportation; partyin' like rock-stars is alot of fun but it's no fun if you end up in the ditch or an accident...you can still ROCK HEAVY and make it home alive!!! We will have t-shirts for sale and maybe some surprises. We are tryin' to get hooked up to shoot some live video of us and you guys too. Hopefully, it won't take too long to get it posted on our site or maybe YouTube or even MySpace. See y'all at the Firehouse!!!!!

Havin' F-U-N at the 'Creek

Hey everybody, how's it goin'? Well we had an excellent time this past weekend at the 'Creek (Turtle Creek Saloon) and if you were there, you saw one hell-of-a show!! The crowd was amazing and also in the mood to do some singing. Friday night was awesome; we got some of our buddies to come on down and help us out.
We had our pal Al from Goodridge, MN playing lead guitar for yours truly Friday night while I was busy with work stuff. He played great and I talked to a bunch of folks that said the band sounded just fine without me...wonder what that was supposed to mean (LOL). I got there just after 11 pm and it was wall-to-wall in the place, parking lot was full and we had our fans from the Twin Cities make the drive up again. The weather left something to be desired but inside it was red-hot. I jumped up on stage at about 11:30 and we kicked right into our fav Keith Urban song; it seemed as though the energy level kept rising and we just let the crowd have it, musically. When we were done on Fri. night everyone was wrecked and ready to just chill out back at our friend's house. We had Norm Dakota fill in on bass and he fit right in with this bunch of drunken barbarians. We've known him since we were too young to play in the bars and had talked to him this summer about if he was ever interested in filling in if we needed somebody. That worked out to our favor because he can sing, play bass, lead guitar and interact with the crowd. Ol' Norm filled in the whole weekend and Sat. night sounded even better. Another great crowd and it got wall-to-wall again after 11:30 pm...couldn't even get a drink at the bar and the crowd wanted more. On one of our set breaks Chris, our drummer, led some lovely ladies in an impromptu session of the "Chicken Dance" to some song I can't really remember but it was FUNNY and really got the crowd going. I've never laughed so hard and had so much fun at a gig in long time and I want to thank Chris for that and thank the crowd for coming on out and ROCK-in HEAVY again. It felt good to be "back home again" and hopefully it won't be too long before the next time. We are on vacation this weekend to spend Christmastime with our family & friends...Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Whiskey Johnson!!!!!! See you guys at the Firehouse New Years' Weekend!!!!!

Hey how's it goin?? Welcome to my blog and feel free to post a reply and/or just say hi. I am Ricky and I play lead guitar for Whiskey Johnson...and STILL having F-U-N doing it. This blog will feature news, notes and etc. about WJ, myself, gig coverage, band news and a whole lot more.
Thanks for stopping by and ROCK HEAVY!!!!