Hóla Peacemakers,
OK. Uncle.
It’s hotter than Hades here in Houston. The sweltering combination of high humidity and 100+ degree heat makes my beloved Sonoran desert look like an ice box. I haven’t felt heat like this since I spent a summer in Taipei. Until this moment, I’d been proud to gloat that I was a desert-denizen, one who could endure the planet’s hottest summer with nothing other than a popsicle (or margarita) and a sombrero. No more. Gotta give it up. Those of you who reside here and in the Midwest and who have endured summers like this before get the blue ribbon for heat-hardiness. I’ll take AZ’s dry heat any day. This is madness. Y’all are tough! Or crazy. Probably both. At least that’s what we’re counting on. We’ll be taking the stage at the Firehouse Saloon in Houston around 10:30. The club owner tells me the A/C works and the beer will be ice-cold. Come, brave the heat and we hope to see you here and sweat it out together on a Texas Saturday night!
We have two more shows remaining on this tour. We’ll rock Houston tonight and San Antonio mañana. This, our third 2011 tour, almost ground to a halt before it really began, and I want to again extend our gratitude for your kind words of support and to all who threw a peso or two into our online tour-support kitty. RCPM operates without sponsorship subsidies or record label funding. We’re a proud, DIY, ma-and-pa, American independent rock and roll band. However, without your help, the weight of the past two tours’ succession of extra costs in parts and repairs and hotels and show cancellations would have sunk this tour. We came perilously close. In our time of need, you became our sponsors, our tour support, our “santos invisibles” (invisible saints). Thanks for keeping the rock rolling. Yes, and though we oft declare ourselves an “independent” rock and roll band, I’m humbly happy to declare that, with you, we are also an “inter-dependent” rock and roll band. Everywhere we play feels like a home coming and we can’t do it without you. Gracias, familia.
Our next show in the comparative coolness of Phoenix will be a week from today (Sat., July 30th) at a groovy new venue, The Foundry. It will be our second show in our hometown since we released Unida Cantina in April. I am looking very forward to the familiar, fiery feel of our legendary dry heat! It’s been a long time since we’ve been home, so we’re going to play a long time. We’re going to begin with an all-acoustic set. Here, on this site, is a way to tell us which 12 or so tunes you’d like to hear as acoustic versions. Let us know, (cast your votes) and we’ll work ‘em up acoustically. Post your song requests as a "reply" or "comment" to this letter. Send us your selections by this Friday so we’ll have a day to work on ‘em. For our second set, we’re gonna kick over the barstools and turn up the volume. Come to rock! (And pace yourself….)
Vegas!
Somehow the House of Blues already leaked that we’re going to play “Fizzy Fuzzy Big and Buzzy” in order and in it’s entirety. True. I was planning on announcing it at the Foundry show, but might as well fess up now; that rumor is true. The Labor Day show in Vegas will be another long show; another “evening with” Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. We’ve never played our seminal album top-to-bottom, even in The Refreshments. It’s going to be a fun trip. We hope you’ll come along. I’ll don a loud Hawaiian shirt and my red Converse on for the first set, and will pull on my trusty, dusty Mexican cowboy boots for the rest of the show.
Just a few days after the Vegas show, we’ll be back in the saddle again, back on the bus, back on tour, to complete our string of US dates. It’s our 4th US run, our longest-ranging tour of the year. We’ll be starting in Colorado, getting all the way to the East Coast, and then heading back to Arizona through the Midwest.
It’ll be about 8,000 miles round trip, but our trusty Stallion is chomping at the bit. I’ll keep my fingers crossed our steed doesn’t throw a shoe, y’all keep sending positive vibes, and RCPM will be hitchin’ up at a saloon near you soon. I hope you’ll be at the Homecoming.
Muchas gracias and peace be with you,
Roger
