Sure gets hot 'round these parts

An obvious statement, yes, but if you are a "Yankee" like myself the heat of the south is warm, wet, and thick......gross. So if you were around any of the member of the Lucas Cates Band within the past two weeks you might recall us making jokes about the Helen Keller festival in tuscumbia, al. We'd say "well, we can't screw up cause they won't see or hear us anyway.". Well we cursed ourselves cause the terential downpour which began during our soundcheck put a two-hour delay on the festival. This delay subsequently bumped us from the show which sucked but we still hot the hotel room and out gaurenteed and all that so it could have been worse. What I was most impressed with, however was the dilligence of this crowd. Most of them stayed on the grounds through downpouring rain and close lightning, huddled in shelters.....AND, some just sat in their chairs like nothing was happening! Check this out!






Where are we? Now you can't see the rain a much from this picture, but it was absolutly pouring! But damn it, this was Saturday and the Helen Keller Festival, and there is nothing else going on in town, and it takes more than a little rain,deathly close lightning, and a flash flood warning to waver these laid back country folk. Maybe that's why it took four years for the North to with the civil war.....maybe they were excited to see the Lucas cates band, or maybe folks down here just take what comes along with humble patience.....yea....maybe.
Well, we are heading west. Tuesday in Madison, Wednesday In LaCrosse, Thursday in Paxton, Friday in Pocatello, Saturday in Medford, and Sunday(4th of July) we headline Everett washington's festival. Keep up if you can.... We love a good caravan.

Oh and your suggested music download is a song called "Brownville(mockingbird medly)". I think is an album only thing but worth the 30 second preview. We heard this on the radio driving through the backwoods of the Alabama- Mississippi boarder......mood music.


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Location:Alabama

Seaside rendezvous

Words won't describe the week we just had.... Really, they won't......i guess we just have the best friends anyone could have, and we are lucky. Thank you friends.... You know who you are. It means the world to us.



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Location:S Serenata Dr,Ponte Vedra Beach,United States

On the rocks

I can't party like I used to...or maybe I am just around better parties these days.....regardless, Salem, Illinois rocked my socks. We always have strange and unique expirences in Salem....I've met cage fighters, rock stars, local heros and county legends.....watched the drama like reality tv. This las time We had the unfortunate expirence of playing candlelight for the widow of a friend. Jeff, was a super fan...the guy who without any bs whatsoever would come to me and ask, "so Nox, you're pretty much the best bass player out there, right," o which I would laugh at his kindness and the genuine nature of that question. Anyway he passed away in November leaving two young ones. His wife, mother-in-law, and a group of friends sat crosslegged on the floor f the bar crying when we played candlelight, a song which was featured at his funeral..... A reality check for what is truley important and how much music means to everyone.
My hangover the next day was as heavy as the subject matter of this blog.....rough :-)
We played in Florence Alabama last night for a packed house at On the Rocks.....it was a chaotic evening with everyone getting as drunk as possible.....I had water! The people in Florence are super kind and very appretiative of live music....the night ended with a rousing chorus of Old Suzanna as performed by a bar stompping, fiddle playing, Kenny. I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee....hey!





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Location:N Court St,Florence,United States

tWas the Week of the Tour

tWas the week of the tour and all through the house,
The laundry was stirring Tide, Bounce, and Shout.
Kenny was sick but I'm sure he'll be better,
Out of Illinois and into good weather.
The Dodge DMC stands prepared in the driveway,
In hopes the new tranny can handle the highway.
With backpacks and blankets and pillows and packs,
We'll most likely crash at your house....you cool with that?
The olympics are over and there's nothing on tv,
Except for that Nascar which seems strange to me,
So gather your friends and go out for a night,
For a spot of live music and cool flashing lights,
We'll dance and we'll sing, we'll drink and be merry,
Cause TLCB is music worth sharing.



See you on the road everyone!



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Back in high school

See, I'm getting better. Some of you remember Ryan Casey...he was tlcb's keyboardist with the dirty mouth and rapist wit.....ring a bell? Sorry, Casey hope ur students don't read this! Anyway he is the choir teacher at stoughton high school and isdoing amazing things over there.....like thenpops concert which is tonight. Beginning at 5:30 a few hundred will show up in the schools cafeteria to see a few dozen student acts perform over dinner....yea, their lunch room has a stage. Then at 7pm, yours truley, Kenny, and Jesse will be serving as the house band for the main show in the auditorium....it's pretty cool. The kids are singing everything from rheannia, to pat bennitar, Ingred michaelson, to Tracy chapman....and they are nailing it. You may even catch a Lucas cates band song in the mix!
So this is my hats off to Ryan Casey and all the amazing things he is doing for that music department. The picture below is us doing I want you back and abc by the Jackson 5 with the whole choir...it the closing number....it's been a blast!





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Location:Stoughton

The Pachyderm Sound

OK, I will get better at blogging on a regular basis! The pictures on my facebook do a fair job of explaining I hope, but the writtian word, especially my rambling streams of thought generally do a better job of bringing you inside my head, for better or worse! The band has nearly finished the recording for the forth album, tentativly titled "four", at Pachyderm Studios in canon falls, Minnesota. We still need to get vocals and guitar leads, but the majority of things are done....it sounds great...this board we got to record with is legendary.



It is the mid 70s Neve 8068 counsal which recorded the likes of John Lennon, ACDC, Live, Mudvayne, chris klewe's band, Nirvana, and the legendary Hall & Oates.....some artists like nirvana, live, soul assylum, and chris klewe we done at the pachyderm facility, the others, and many many more were done at the neve's previous homes at sound floor( I think) in NYC and electric ladyland studios, so it is dipped in the dust of legends.



Our engieneer is Zack hollindar......no effort went into the spelling of his name, but don't think he isn't one hell of a guy who was the fifth member of the band......and he really got the most out of our instruments. With out any studio magic the tracks sound boss.


Chet and I took a day and a half to lay down our tracks for the 11 songs, there may be 12 or 13 on the album, but we only needed to do 11 at the derm.



Lucas was next and finished on the third day, and Kenny did his rhythms on the forth.....including one solo on epic which was screaming through a mid 70s Marshall head......turned up to 10 bitches!


I can see why that was acceptable back in the day cause it sounded absolutly amazing!


Pachyderm studio is both the studio and the house, located about 200 yards from the studio. They sit on 40 acres of land in some good old fashioned minnesota old growth forest.


In the summer you can fish the trout stream or wander the hills the Kurt Cobain wandered, or sleep in the hammoks which are spread around the property......you can hang in the house which was designed by a student of frank Lloyd wright, or, when there is water, swim in th pool or sit in the sauna, or if the pool is empty and there is an two inches of water in a small hole and you are Kenny standing in the empty pool texting on his phone, you might just deposit you phone in the two inches of water.....which turned out to be a blessing in disguise.



Cd release? Looks like June 18th, but this is a TENTATiVE date. Be sure that once it hits www.lucascates.com it will be official and will be the beginning of many hope to see you there's!
Peas and Carrots.

The Van Story

This story will be told in the style of William Thomas Mansfield IV....because he is the greatest story tell who ever lived.....and continues to live...i can prove it, I just saw him last night, so I guess barring any unforeseen "indecent" he's still kicking.

So there I was behind the wheel of the greatest vehicle ever made prior to 1997.....the '97 Dodge DMC, the Dream Machine(pronounced with a hard ch...as in chicken), the Cheese Wheel, the buttratfarttub(its a pallendrome...like........noxon).

We stopped for a snack, actually we stopped because kenny's bladder decided to turn 65 years old on this tour and he has to pee every 100 miles or so....regardless, as we merged onto I-90 we heard a grinding sound come from somewhere under the car.....kenny and chet got out and listened and determined our back right was completely fucked and upon further investigation decided to change the tire. Turns out that son-of-a-bitch(willie style, remember) was worn down to the metal grid beneath the rubber itself making the tire damn near explosion. we unloaded the van, jacked her up, and changed the tire. Although we continued to hear the grinding sound, we decided to continue at a reduced speed to Spokane, our original destination and venue.

Everything was going smoothly. We ascended Lookout Pass which took us from Idaho to Washington, and began our decent passing the mountain town of Mullen and into the darkness of the Washington Rockies. About three miles down the road from Mullen I rounded a corner, following the river as it bent to the right. Midway around the corner the back of our van slammed into the pavement; the right rear tire and fallen off.....son of a bitch. At 65 miles an hour we began to swerve and fishtail toward the concrete divider in the center of the interstate, then back toward the edge of the road and the river, then the concrete, the river.....my breaks are slammed and the van is making a god awful sound....imagine nails on a chalk board....but the bottom of a 2,000 pound van against concrete-Kenny's is fist pumping shouting "you got this, you got this, you got this, you got this", and I'm trying to maneuver to the side of the road.

All completely instinct, all a flash of chaos....but it wasn't done yet. Like a pricey valet I parked the son of a bitch between the white line of the shoulder and the guard rail on a corner of I-90.........the dust settled.....i was amazed at the cleanliness of my pants.

"We're on fire!" is probably the last thing you want to hear, probably ever, but that's the first thing lucas said when he got out of the car. The rear right wheel well was completely on fire...mostly likely caused by metal scraping the pavement and a busted axle, break components and grease.

I never felt an ounce of fear during the ordeal of loosing a wheel until i knew we were on fire....i mean...we were on fucking fire!!! Chet in the panic threw a bottle of water on the well, which only made the fire bigger cause it was a grease fire.....I'm unlocking the back door with hopes of unloading my bass (and everyone else's shit too, but in moments of panic you get selfish)....Lucas, in his moment of brilliance and heroism sacrificed his pillow and smothered the fire, while we threw sand on the burning grease.

Fire out.....all that remained was the red glowing end of an axle which had melted and snapped. Ironically the wheel had rolled with us and landed next to the van.

Highway safety worker Scott(the silent three hundred pound type, no jacked....he never wears a jacket), Officer Louie Ochoa...the best cop name ever, and Darrell, the bands first ever driver, were on the scene. Police reports, road flares, sirens, flashing lights, a celebratory cigar(for not dying) were all out in force. Darrell the tow truck driver(which was more like a big flatbed with lights and our van drove us to the front door of Mootsy's in Spokane and helped us unload our gear. We played, rocked, and thanked the powers that be.....i guess it's just another story from the road....the crazy crazy road.

Thanks to my family Kirk, Renee, Jared, and Rickki and their friends for helping us out big time....giving us a place to stay and staying up way past your bed times to make sure we got where we needed to be. You are all so awesome. Officer Ochoa, Scott, and Darrell for keeping us safe on the interstate, and the guys at Bell Automotive for making our Dream Machine bigger, better, and stronger for future travels. Woo Hoo, the cheese wheel rides again.......................................................bye!