Hard Luck Jollies

Tuesday October 20th, 2009 - Lake Villa, IL

It’s time for a new CD. I recorded a whole week of shows at Zanies in Chicago in 2007 and I tried to do every scrap of material I’d ever done so I’d have variety to choose from. I was hoping to cut it up into two, maybe three separate products but it hasn‘t been done.

At the time I was still working with my business partner and he arranged the recording project by hiring a sound engineer to come in and plug into the system at Zanies. The first couple of shows didn’t thrill anyone as I remember but the weekend shows were all solid.

The last thing I enjoy doing is watching or listening to myself. I never did. I heard it as I did it and that’s enough for me. Rodney Dangerfield said he didn’t like it either because if he made even one little mistake that’s what he’d focus on, not everything that went right.

I can relate to that very much. If I don’t like it I’ll want to do it over and maybe I’ll do it differently and not make it as good as the original take. I like to think I have good instinct and know what I’m doing on stage so I just leave it at that. I heard them laugh. It worked.

This project has been on hold since my business partner pulled his little embezzlement stunt right at the time when we were going to start releasing products every six months or so. That was the plan but the plan got put on hold. Until now. I can use something to sell.

I released my first CD back in 2003. It doesn’t seem like that long ago but it was. It was recorded in Louisville, KY but I sold the rights to it to Laughing Hyena Records, the guys who put out the truck stop comedy recordings where Jeff Foxworthy first got noticed. I’ve been without product to sell because they now hold all the rights to that particular project.

The deal was they hold ownership to the recording, but not the actual material. I am free to record it again so that’s what I did. I switched the order on some of the bits and made a few better and eliminated others. I made significant progress in the years since Louisville.

Now I have to get something out to show for it. Donna Gurda is helping me finish it and she understands the process as she produced Tom Green’s music projects for years. She is very good at details and I’m not but her mother’s been sick and that delayed this project.

Her mom passed away and now she’s ready to get going again. I also have the cover art I hired Pedro Bell to do, who was the artist on many of Funkadelic and George Clinton’s CD projects in the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s. That alone was a thrill and I can’t wait to see it all come together as a finished product. It’ll be better than the last one and that didn’t suck.

The last one was called ‘Lucked, Plucked, and Just Plain…Funny’. I’m going to call the new one ‘Hard Luck Jollies’, as a tribute to Funkadelic’s ‘Hardcore Jollies’. I asked Pedro Bell to model it after the original artwork and he absolutely nailed it. He did a spectacular job and those who know the original will be blown away. I was. For those who don’t have a clue of who Funkadelic is, it’s still very unique and will stand out. It’s time to release it.