I recently drove up to Virginia to have practice with the guys in anticipation of our upcoming wedding gig.  I thought I would give an update, since some things have obviously changed.

First, there’s this whole COVID-19 pandemic.  We haven’t gotten together for practice since February.  I wrote about that last one here.  Stay at home orders prevented that for the most part and the schedule with my campaign and other obstacles have prevented us from getting together.

Second, we’ve added a new member to the lineup – Pierre.  He gives us some sax, trumpet and fills in with keyboards.  I think he’s a friend of the wedding family and, since they wanted us to do some songs with horns, we brought him into the group.  He’s clearly a great musician.  We just have to work on fitting him in to our list of songs in time for the gig.

Third, speaking of the gig, it was moved from June 20 to August 15 because of the stay at home orders in Virginia.  They’re more serious about their shutdown in Virginia than we are here in Tennessee, so it’s not even certain that we’ll be able to go in August.  We’ll hear more about that in a couple of weeks.

I decided to drive rather than fly.  I’m a little hesitant to fly anyway and now with Pierre in the group, our practice day needs to be on Sunday.  Because of my schedule and the flying schedules from Knoxville to DC, I’m limited to doing a turn and burn drive up and back.  So I got up at 4 am on Sunday morning, drove to Herndon Virginia for practice.  We went about 4 hours.  I had a quick sub with my college age kiddo, who’s quarantining with his mom in Alexandria, and then I headed back to Knoxville.  I slept about 5 hours in the van and got home in time to wake up the MadDoc for work Monday morning.  Yesterday I did my usual Monday morning tennis match and then attended the County Commission meeting last night.  That went from about 5 to 930.  I crashed at 1030 and now I think I’m caught up, more or less.  It’s harder when you’re in your 50s to keep up that kind of schedule.  The next one of these days is tentatively scheduled for July 12, although if the wedding gets pushed back again, I’ll stay down here to keep campaigning.  It’s gonna be hard to lose 2 days that close to the election, but we’re far from tight and we want to make sure we put on a good show for the new couple and their family.

I think I’ve thrown out the list of songs we’re doing in past editions, so I’ll do that here as well.  The sets have changed, as you’ll see.

Til next time.

Set 1

  • American Band – Grand Funk Railroad
  • What You Need – INXS
  • What I Like About You – The Romantics
  • Heart of Rock and Roll – Huey Lewis and the News
  • Rock This Town – Stray Cats
  • Saturday Night’s Alright for Fightin’ – Elton John
  • Play That Funky Music – Wild Cherry
  • Celebration – Kool and the Gang
  • Drive by – Train
  • Bad Case of Loving You – Robert Palmer
  • Synchronicity II – The Police
  • China Grove – Doobie Brothers
  • Jet – Paul McCartney
  • Can’t Take My Eyes off of You – Muse cover of Frankie Valli tune
  • My Love – Paul McCartney

Set 2

  • Hard Day’s Night – Beatles
  • Back in the USSR – Beatles
  • I Saw Her Standing There – Beatles
  • Drive My Car – Beatles
  • Birthday – Beatles
  • I Want You To Want Me – Cheap Trick
  • If You’re Wondering If I Want You To – Weezer
  • Kiss Me – New Found Glory cover of Sixpence None the Richer tune
  • Semi Charmed Life – Third Eye Blind
  • That Thing You Do – The Wonders
  • Hold On Loosely – .38 Special
  • Still The One – Orleans
  • Maybe I’m Amazed – Paul McCartney
  • Live And Let Die – Paul McCartney
  • Long Train Runnin’ – Doobie Brothers
  • Jumpin Jack Flash – Rolling Stones

Set 3

  • Lido Shuffle – Boz Scaggs
  • Hard to Handle – Black Crowes
  • I’m a Believer – Monkees/Smashmouth/Neil Diamond
  • Happy Together – The Turtles
  • Sweet Caroline – Neil Diamond
  • Walking on Sunshine – Katrina and the Waves
  • Takin’ Care of Business – BTO
  • Rock and Roll All Night – Kiss
  • Don’t Gotta Work It Out – Fitz and the Tantrums
  • Get Ready – Rare Earth
  • Stacy’s Mom – Fountains of Wayne
  • After Midnight – Eric Clapton
  • Freebird – Lynyrd Skynyrd (not necessarily played here, but you know someone will call out Freebird)