On A Roll

Greetings fellow T. Scot Halpin Memorial Blogites. I cannot begin to express in words the profound happiness it gives me to check in and know that you are there. Today’s drawing was not found in the same place as yesterdays, but it is clearly cut from the same bolt. Same background blue, same midnight blue accents, same very warm orange. That said yesterday’s details will do.

Today’s musical track is another live recording of Scot’s kick-ass Rockabilly outfit, “Funhouse.” As I have said earlier, “Funhouse” was the stripped down citified version of the material he put together for “T. Scot Bottom & the Rockabilly Funhouse” in 1981 and 2 in Iowa City.

We were back in The City (San Francisco). Scot immediately hooked up with our friends Judy Tampa (rhythm guitar and vocals) and Edward Bachmann (bass), along with our friend Leland Monagle who brought his own pomp to the drums. “Funhouse” was actually a working band. I recently found tape of a private party “Funhouse” played at the San Francisco Yacht Club. Glad to have found the footage.

The particular gig happened on the Fourth of July 1983. This too was a private party—for some fisherman who had their own private pier. When we got there it turned out that the ‘party’ was about twelve guys, who didn’t look like fisherman. There was a real spread though, everything… Part of the deal is that some of these guys got to ‘sit in’ with the band and sometimes that is momentarily stinky; buy Scot’s grace and the KAness of the band shine through.

Sitting in with them that night was a guy my friend Peter Smith was playing with on Grant Avenue in New Beach. For what it matters, the guy was totally blind, and boy was he connected with those keyboards. I always hoped he could play with the band again, but for some reason, it didn’t happen. Perhaps I can get more info from Peter. The tune, once again, is “Let It Roll,” by Jimmy Reeves.