This was a trade off weekend so we went down to chattanooga the next night to open for The Distribution at Rhythm and Brews,  another awesome venue.  Jonathan Sexton and the Big Love Choir were there as well which made it even more awesome.  So there you have it folks,  a lineup of awesomness.  Yes i realize i have written the word awesome several times.  JS and the BLC's got us pumped up with an incredible set of rock and reggae tunes that send positive vibes straight to your dome piece.  These guys, and girl, rock my face.  So now its time for DWB's set.  By this time the place is packed with people that are in the mood to dance including this dude that looked like an insurance salesman who was by far the weirdest dancer i have ever seen in my life.  We are hype at this point because it sounds amazing in the room due to the sammy hagar look alike behind the sound board.  If you saw this dude on the street you would automatically assume he was a sound guy,  he really looks like hagar who in my opinion was the better frontman for van halen.  We are rockin so hard through our set that it approaches the last note of the last song so that means its time for a big ending.  

If you all have seen us before you know that Davis (our fearless leader)  likes to do stage acrobatics especially at the end of the show.  We are swimming on the last note and Davis decides he's gonna Jackie Chan Kick Flip off of my amp which was up against the back wall or so he thought.  In reality the amp was up against a curtain that was three feet off of the back wall which could not be seen with the naked eye.  Davis jumps up on the front side of my amp and pushes forward to get even more lift and i hear a very loud thud.  The amp falls back out from under davis and he crashes to the ground in the most unsmooth manner you could possibly fall.  He briefly knocks himself out but wakes up and we play it off like it was part of the show.  Once i figure out Davis is ok i decide to turn and look at my amp.  IT WAS NOT OK.  The guts of the amp were laying all over the stage and I was about to cry.  Luckily we know an amp guru who is working on it as we speak.  The only advice I can give you folks out there is to rock at your own risk.  Sometimes when your in the midst of rocking,  things may get outta hand and you or somebody you love may feel compelled to break something of monetary value.  ROCK AND ROLL LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!!!  

Love,  

Cozmo

It’s April 2005. I’m in a meadow. Music is playing in the distance. A very eclectic group of  people are standing toward the back of the crowd.

Ok, so it was more like a small field in the middle of a bunch of frat houses and my BFF and I were watching Ingram Hill open for Robert Randolph. Still, the group was eclectic.

I had recently read the description of Dishwater Blonde in the Metropulse. Now, you can call this what you want (fate, destiny, divine intervention, coincidence…), but I just knew in my gut that this group of people was Dishwater Blonde. I can’t explain why or how… I had never seen them before… I just knew. True story. I have a witness, I don’t need to get one.

Fast forward: 4+ years later and I’m proud to call DWB my friends. Robalicious even married one of my best friends (he also moonlights as my dog’s BFF, but that’s another story). I think I’ve been to about 40-ish shows in the last 4-ish years (including road trips to St. Louis, Cincinnati and Atlanta) but I’ve never actually traveled with the band. If you know me, you know I LOVE road trips as much as I love live music… so a road trip with the band is like a big ice cream sundae with some caramel and whipped cream on top. Ya feel me? Well, it happened this past Friday.

We arrive at the not-so-secret meeting point, load the van and take off. Scratch that. We arrive at the meeting point, load the van… and wait for 30 minutes. Apparently the Diva earns her name via fashionably late arrivals. :) The Diva knows I love her, which is why I’m allowed to pick on her. The ride begins and I’m learning the seating arrangement. Davis drives, Coz rides shotgun… I’m hangin’ in the back with Robby and Diva. 3 hours, lots of music and at least 1 lap-percussion jam session later, we arrive in quaint Murfreesboro, TN. By quaint I mean Mayberry meets the town from Back to the Future with just a touch of that town from A Time To Kill… really cute with a smidge of scary.

I’m a HUGE music fan but this whole load-in deal is new to me. I’m excited about seeing the process but, at the same time, it’s kind of like losing my music fan virginity. Seeing the ‘behind the scenes’ stuff makes watching live music just a little less sexy. It’s all good, though. It’s been a long-lived innocence. It’s time I see the reality. The reality is: it’s kinda boring!

Should we load in? How much should we load in? There are 3 bands… what will we need? When should we load in? When is sound check? Who is sound checking first? Which band is playing first? How much time do we get? Who is headlining? Good night, Irene! It’s a heap of slow-motion chaos for hours before and after our yummy dinner at the Mayberry Café. (DWB: Keeping reading… it gets better, I promise…) :)

10:00 (rock star time) rolls around (finally!!) and DWB is on stage and ready to melt my face. Mission accomplished. The show has begun! They sound freaking phenomenal. They ended up with the best crowd of the night, too. Sadly, the set only lasts about 45 minutes, maybe an hour. Then, the 2nd and 3rd band then play, I have a little soft spot in my musical heart for the third band. We watch most of their spot and then get back on the road.

Random questions: Why does the very small town of Murfreesboro employ at least 10 police cars at 2am? And why are they all congregated within a 2-block radius at that hour?

Davis starts the drive but, understandably, he’s exhausted. He gets us to the hole-in-the-wall Pilot in Cookeville where I offer to drive the rest of the way. He accepts. Little did I realize, Mr. Shotgun likes to co-pilot. What some of you may not realize is Cozmo likes to drive about 25mph. The 65mph I was doing through the fog on the plateau was pretty much making his life flash before his eyes, or at least that’s what it sounded like via his verbal cues. I will give him this… I did try to offer him a different perspective on life as the road went left and I headed right. That said, I must remind him (again) that it was ONE TIME. I got nuttin’ but love for ya, Coz. I’d never try to kill you on purpose, I promise. J

Seriously, though, I have a newfound respect for my friends. They drive for hours and hours, they treat the venue and other bands with respect and manage the pre-show chaos like champs… all for the love of playing music for 45 minutes. THAT is passion! And, cheesy as it might sound, I was inspired by it.

I love you guys! Thanks for letting me tag along!!

Your #1 Fan J

DWB writes music in a variety of ways. A song can come from a concept, lyric, riff of full blown, completed demo. Whatever the form of the initial inspiration is, DWB will always rehearse and jam on something until everyone gets comfy with it and it slowly melts into this beautiful cosmic conglomerate that sounds like no one but DWB. The song we are featuring this week is "We ‘Bout to Do Dis Thang" and we thought we’d give U a little insight into what we were thinking as we wrote it.

We were jamming in Robby’s basement and Cozmo just started on this riff in Aminor. It was BAD from the funky downbeat. I remember I had just bought this really cheap megaphone from Radio Shack and I kept on saying "We Bout To Do Dis Thang" over and over again. Ok, maybe there needs to be a little background story as to why I would even say something like that in the 1^st place, so here goes.

We had just gotten back from playing a gig in Cincinatti called "Funkdown for Food" It was kind of a showcase and community benefit concert all wrapped up into one event. The evenings host was none other than funk legend Bootsy Collins. We were all star struck by Bootsy and his entourage. It wasn’t like this was some MTV awards show or anything but Bootsy showed up in his FULL funky garb. His leopard print leather outfit complete with cowboy hat and trademark star shaped glasses matched the colors of the Cincinnati Bengals football team. He looked like the head some interplanetary biker gang, a funky biker gang.

DWB played an adrenalin filled show that nite and Bootsy seemed to dig it. He sent his protege "Freekbass" to get up and jam with us on a Sly and the Family Stone medley. As the evenings festivities came to a close there I was face to face with one of my funk heros. Bootsy was working with an independent label/promoter who had said they wanted to sign us and have Bootsy produce us. I was so pumped! Dishwater Blonde produced by Bootsy Collins, I had stars in my eyes. I said my goodbyes to Bootsy and we exchanged numbers and his last words to me were "Hey Davis, We ‘Bout to Do Dis Thang"...I was like woah(best Joey voice)

Ok, so back to my story. We left Cincy and were creatively inspired. We were about to hit the big time, so we thought. I began to dream of a DWB album that featured Bootsy Collins on a track. Well, long story short it never happened, or at least hasn’t happened yet BUT it lit a creative spark. While we were putting together "One Tribe" and rehearsing tunes for what was soon to be DWB’s 3^rd CD we stumbled upon this riff that Cozmo came up with that just sound like an album intro. As we planned for the album my intention was to have Bootsy saying "We ‘Bout to do Dis Thang" with his cartoonishly funky voice. So as U listen to that track U might here me slightly imitating Bootsy as we weren’t able to get him in the studio.

The lyrics were written to be like the forward of a book. They were supposed to portray an intentionality in our music, a mission statement of sorts. I wanted to let the audience know that we weren’t just playing cool riffs with meaningless words, no, we wanted the lyrics to be loaded with good stuff, encouraging stuff that helped make lives better. With the addition of TurntablWrecka’s samples I think we achieved something really cool. Even if Bootsy didn’t produce it:)

It was a pretty rough time in my life and I was probably not in the best condition. Coz says we met that night, I honestly can't remember. He was friends with the drummer from "Gravy", JP. He had not acutally started playing guitar yet, he said back then everyone thought he could play but he didn't really know how, can u even imagine? 

Fast forward a few years and I'm watching "The Spades" band open up for Arrested Development in 2003 or '04. Coz is up there rockin' it out and seemed to be a bit nervous. I couldn't quite figure out at the time if he was white or black or what. It didn't really matter, but me being a guitar player, I just wondered who this dude with an Afro and headband was, wearing it out! He played with authority especially considering he'd only played a couple of years at that point. He was among seasoned musicians and didn't seem at all out of place. 

One evening in the same year DWB was playing at The Downtown Grill and Brewery in downtown Knoxville. It was sonic chaos, 12 people crammed in the corner of this restaraunt playing at ear damaging volume and as I looked out over the crowd I see Cozmo right in front of us groovin' and head bobbin' to the funk. I don't remember what song it was because I was so distracted by a guy in velvet pants grinding on the stairwell! 

Anywayz, I remember thinking to myself, u should ask this guy to sit in.(Coz, not velvet pants) So mid-song I called CoZ to come down and he seemed a bit surprised when I took my strat off and gave it to him. Nevertheless he jumped right in and started killing it. I honestly didn't want to take the guitar back when he as finished. He had "the fire"! We asked him to come out and practice and later join DWB, He had something we lacked at the time too, a youthful, infectious optimism. Later that year we went on to open up for Victor Wooten and even play Bonnaroo. Cozmo came in and added a much needed element for DWB, he had "The Fire". The rest is history in the making. CoZ has grown as a person and musician over the past few years and he has never lost his fire! Coz now leads his own band when he's not hittin' the stage with DWB or The Dirty Guvs or any number of local artists! He is also one of Robert Randolphs "go to" guys when he does Knoxville concerts. Anywayz, Happy Birthday Coz, DWB loves ya and we are honored to have U in the band! Keep bringing "The Fire" wherever U go.

Mark and the crew do an amazing job. It's a difficult feat to overpower the roar of 15 Harley Motorcycles reving their engines but they do it well! It was kinda, well really, rainy all day on Saturday but we had a faithful crew of DWB fans and new faces that made the journey to Maryville. Some fans driving in from as far as Atlanta! (much love 2 them). Thanks to them, I learned a new dance called "the stanky leg" which I did attempt later in the evening! 

This was also an interesting gig cuz it was 1 of only 2 gigs in our 6+ years that bassist Robby Mathis couldn't make it! But Tyler "Big Noise" Boldin stepped in and learned the ENTIRE DWB repetior in 1 week, well at least 16 songs:) Big Noise did an amazing job! We were also joined by long time friend and saxaphonist Jason Thompson, whom if known since the Gran Torino days. Jason stepped in and played like he'd played the songs his whole life! Look for more appearences from Jason in the near future. 

Our friends from Jescoe warmed everyone up with a blend of raw Southern Rock that held everyones attention. DWB hit the stage around 9. The stage shrouded in fog, the applause roared, the 1st notes of "we bout 2 do dis thang" hit with a funky fury and to quote the lady to the right as she threw her hands up "I can't listen to this sh$*, Im outta here!" Oh well, different strokes for different folks, I guess:)