So, Vinny had a tough choice to make last nite. Go see Jason Boland/No Justice/Micky & The Motorcars at Frontier City, or go see Bleu Edmondson again at the Wormy Dog. Well, it wasn't really that tough. Saw Boland at the Eufaula show 2 weeks ago and No Justice at Spring Jam, so Vinny decided to go down to Bricktown, get some wings and beer at the canal Hooters and then go to the Wormy Dog. Gotta say first that the wings were overcooked, but the beer and fries were damn good and so was the company of Becki and Butterball. So, we head on over to the WD, get a couple stools by the back bar and right around 9:30, the Keegan Reed Band takes the stage. At that point there wasn't many people there yet, so it was kinda hard to guage how the crowd was gonna respond. But, wow, did Keegan ever put on a blazing hot show. Y'all may know him from his Full Throttle and Adam Hood days, and no disrespect to them, but Keegan showed why he's way too talented to NOT be a frontman for his own band.Guitar. Bad ass. Vocals. Bad ass. Music. Bad ass. Even threw in Goddamn Lonely Love by the Drive By Truckers. What a refreshing young talent. Texas Blues/Rock the way it is meant to be played. The guy is a friggin bad ass on guitar and by the end of the set, the crowd (floor was full by then) was left wanting more. Got to talk to Keegan after the show. Said it was their 5th show as a band and that he was pretty nervous. Hmm. Vinny couldn't tell that at all. Looking forward to watching his progress the next few years. Go check him out. Soon.
After a 30 minute intermission, the Bleu Edmondson Band hit the stage. Opened up with American Saint. Ahh yes..... talk about a 180 from the show in March. This was the high energy Bleu Edmondson show Vinny had grown accustomed to in the past. And the crowd was a completely different crowd than the one in March too. Sang along to pretty much every song played. Busted out most of Lost Boy, which is fine with Vinny because ever since that CD got released, there hasn't been anyone who's put a better one out, beginning to end, yet. Threw in a Bruce Springsteen cover song, Southland, Band Plays On, 50 Dollars and a slew of others. And yes, they played "Back To You" this time around. lol. Thanks Bleu, that was bad ass!!! They encored with Dallas, Keegan Reed joined them onstage for another one of his scorching solos. What a great way to end the nite. The band came out after the show for autographs and complimentary cocktails. This was just what Vinny needed last nite. Thank you Wormy Doggers for making it a great evening. For those of you in the DFW area, or here in OKC, go to Billy Bob's this Friday. Bleu's recording a live CD. Should be bad ass!!!

Let Vinny start off by saying that it was a great show by Bleu on Saturday nite and that you must go out and buy Lost Boy if you don't have it already. Album of 2007. Easily... but back to the show, from the opening song of Jesus is Crying to the closing song of Dallas, it was a great set in Vinny's opinion. However, as far as the crowd goes, it was more like being at a Honeybrowne or Jackson Taylor Band show than a typical Bleu Edmondson show....... Vinny was hanging by the back bar as usual and it just looked like the crowd wasn't really in to the show for some reason as opposed to the nite before for Jason Boland which was one huge party. There were spots where the crowd didn't even really cheer much after particular songs. 50 Dollars got a good response as did Finger on The Trigger, but alot of the Lost Boy songs... just didn't get the reaction that Vinny had expected. The band didn't even come out for an encore, and Vinny wasn't really surprised by that since the crowd really didn't participate much the entire time. "Back To You" wasn't even played. Nothing against the band or anything..... just seemed like the crowd was not in a very responsive mood Saturday nite. Lots of talking and text messaging going on and even a couple of girls sitting on stools ON THE DANCE FLOOR. Vinny's not sure why, maybe it was because the opening acoustic set by the Wayne Hubbard Band put the crowd in to a slumber they never woke up from, but this was not your typical Wormy Dog crowd, at all.

Finally, the Randy Rogers Band comes back to the Wormy Dog, if you smell what Vinny's cookin!!! Yes, yes ya'll. You know the deal when it comes to the RRB. Full house by 9pm. Unusual on a regular weekend, but this wasn't your regular weekend. Wade Bowen played the nite before and Vinny's #1A band rolled in to the Wormy the very next nite. As usual, the RRB (freshly tattooed from the nite before in Little Rock) put it all out there for about 2 hours. Playing everything from "Like It Used To Be", to "Rollercoaster" and to their newest album "Just A Matter of Time". The crowd responded to every lyric Randy sang. It's amazing how far this band has come in less than 2 years. A special surprise was Randy covering Chris Knight's "It Ain't Easy Being Me". Vinny almost sharted his pants when he heard that. The best voice in the business singing one of the best songs in the business? Are you serious? That was awesome. It was a great nite. Lots of Vinny's friends showed up. It was like old times. Vinny doesn't need to say it again, but will anyways, The Randy Rogers Band kicks ass. One of the best bands out there, bar none. Go see them. Soon!!!

Vinny had been waiting for this show for quite some time after he heard Chris Knight and Micky & The Motorcars were playing on the same nite at the Wormy Dog. Personally, in Vinny's opinion, Chris Knight stole the show at Red Dirt Roundup 2 in early September down in Fort Worth. This guy is the real deal. Powerful songs from all of his albums. So, about 6 hours before showtime, Vinny finds out that the Motorcars had to cancel. This didn't make Vinny very happy since MMC is one of Vinny's top 3 Red Dirt bands. Was looking forward to seeing them again, but... apparently there was a scheduling snafu with another artist in Texas, and MMC was called upon to rescue the day down there. Nonetheless, disappointing for us who live up here in OKC. Oh well, hopefully, they will be back soon. Chris Knight didn't disappoint. Had the crowd (which was wall to wall) singing along to all of his song. The dude has a great voice to go along with his writing and musicianship. He's not Randy Rogers, but he's close. "It Ain't Easy Being Me" has to be one of the best songs ever written and performed. Vinny was glad to hear Chris play it. He also played "Cry Lonely", "Hammer Down", and "Love and a .45", as well as a slew of others that kept the crowd engaged in the show. Chris Knight has definitely moved up Vinny's list. Go check him out whenever you can. He kicks ass.

First week of October. Cross Canadian Ragweed came back to the Wormy Dog for their Mission California CD release party. As was expected, the place was packed. Show started around 9ish. They played the entire album from front to back. As usual, the guys played to perfection, giving the fans what they came for, opening with Record Exec, and grooving in to Dead Man, which is a personal song to Cody. Excellent stuff. Next up was The Deal and Lawrence. Lawrence has quickly become a fave of alot of people Vinny has talked to. After Lawrence came a few songs that got the crowd going "In Oklahoma", which should be the state song by the way, "Cry Lonely", a Chris Knight cover song. Excellent stuff. And then "Smoke Another", which is reminiscent of "Late Last Nite" from Garage. Next up was "Soul Agent" which Jeremy Plato sings. It's a nice little changeup from the norm. Jeremy does a great job on it. "Walls To Climb" and "The Years" followed Jeremy's solo. Personally, "The Years" is Vinny's favorite off the new CD. The harmonica does it everytime.The guys closed the show out with "Jenny", "I Believe You" and "New York City Girl", which is another of Vinny's faves from the disc. Squeezed in between all of this was "Leaving Tennessee", which didn't make the new album but is a fan favorite. That was a special treat to hear that one. Overall, another great show by Ragweed and another great crowd on hand.

What's up everyone. Vinny hopes everyone's getting ready for a great Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Let's see here, shows, shows, shows, ahh yes... early September, Vinny went and saw one of his favorite bands that comes to the Wormy Dog. Macon Greyson. Once again, they put on a great show. Buddy's a poet on the mic. The band is tight as ever. This was their CD release "tour" stop in OKC, so they played alot off the new album, but also reverted back to the hits off the first two outputs. Like Buddy said before the show "We're gonna put on a rock show". . Go get the new CD 2oth Century Accidents. In Vinny's opinion, this is their best stuff right here. John Q Blues is Vinny's fave off the album. Just an upbeat, high energy song. But, the rest of the CD is just as good. Son Volt influences all over the place. Get it now. Tell your neighbors, wake the kids, let people know about this band. Like Vinny said earlier, Buddy Huffman is one of the better lead men in the game. But, unfortunately once again, OKC just doesn't seem to get it. This band is one of the best that graces the Wormy Dog stage, so come on Oklahoma, get out there next time and witness what Vinny's said numerous times before. You won't be disappointed. The opening band, Brian Wright and The Waco Tragedies kicked ass too. Vinny was very pleasantly surprised by the energy this band put out. Brian Wright is one hell of a performer. Vinny expects a larger crowd next time for Macon Greyson. Give this band their damn due people!!

So, yeah, as you can tell..Vinny hasn't posted since the Kevin Fowler/Mark McKinney show way back in early June. Well, it's been a long, tough summer for the Shark. Not much good has happened in Sharkland since, but.. he figured he'd get on here finally and get back to what he loves doing best in OKC. Hanging out with good friends at the Wormy Dog. Even though it's been a cruel summer (Remember that song by Bananarama?, Man, they were hot!!)... Vinny's still managed to make his way down to 311 E. Sheridan for some shows. The Randy Rogers/Wade Bowen acoustic show on Jun. 20th. The Ragweed show out in Clinton on Jun. 22nd, (which turned out to be a joke courtesy of the Clinton Police). The set by Ragweed was great as usual, but the obnoxious pigs from Clinton made it an unenjoyable experience. Let's see, you got 3,000 people coming in to your podunk ass little town and you gotta start harrassing people for no reason? You suck. Bottom line... On to better shows and good times... Charlie Robison, Macon Greyson, Mark McKinney Band again, Jeff Hobbs and The Jacks, Cory Morrow and Jarrod Birmingham were all shows Vinny found himself at and having a great time at each one of them. Another WD sponsored show Vinny went to was the July 4th show at the downtown airpark. Mike McClure, Micky & The Motorcars, Bleu Edmonson, Doug Moreland were all good. Brandon Rhyder was alright and Vinny didn't stick around for Jack Ingram, well... basically because Vinny's not a huge fan of Jack's. Some okay songs, but....... ehhhhh. Mike McClure stole the show in Vinny's opinion and Bleu really impressed as well. Anyways, that's Vinny's summer in a glimpse. So, hopefully things start getting better around here and Vinny will see you all at alot more shows in the Fall. Cold Beer, Great Music, Great Friends= The Wormy Dog. That's what it's all about. Have a nice Ragweed Day.

Kevin Fowler + Mark McKinney Band + Wormy Dog cold beer = What? A guaranteed good party, that's what. And they certainly held up their end to the bargain. By the time MMB got onstage around 9ish, the floor was already full with people. Vinny's not sure if the crowd was ready for what was about to take place. MMB doesn't put on your average WD show. That was evident by brother McKinney getting up on the bar and slinging his axe. Vinny's never seen that one before. Girls mimicking Coyote Ugly girls... yes. Band members playing on it... no. MMB has to be one of the more entertaining band there is in the scene. They put it out there for the full hour. That's why they got a free bucket of beer after the show, courtesy of Vinny and Brian. That doesn't happen often, but these guys deserved it. So, after they ripped thru their set, Kevin Fowler came on around 11 and immediately got the crowd going. Bare with Vinny here since he started early at 7pm, so he can't remember what tune KF started off with, but Butterbean was the second song and that got everyone in the KF mood. As stated above, KF puts on a guaranteed party and some folks think that means they gotta act like a fool and start the shoving, which leads to the fighting, but as always WD security was quick to put a stop to that nonsense and those fools (and even a girl) were promptly kicked out. "Ummm Buh Bye!!" KF even had to stop a song mid way to ask if those clowns were here to fight, or here to party. Thankfully, the other 99.9% were here for the latter. KF played alot of new stuff from the upcoming album as well as all the songs everyone came for. Beer, Bait, Ammo, Hard Man To Love, Don't Touch My Willie, Butterbean, I Ain't Drinkin' Anymore... and many others. As usual... KF = good times. But everyone (besides the .01% probably already knows that by now. Have a nice Ragweed Day.

Well, Vinny wasn't planning on doing anything on the eve of Ragweed's Eufaula show, but when he heard Jeff Hobbs and The Jacks were playing there on Saturday evening, he had to make an exception. So, Vinny and the Mrs. decided to head on over to old faithful (Hooters), and grab some crab legs and wings and then head on down to the Wormy. Got there around 9 and it was kinda dead. Vinny was thinking "Well, this kinda sucks" cuz this was JH&TJ's first Saturday nite headliner and damn... it was about as busy as Long John Silver's on Good Friday. (Catholic joke there folks). So, anyways, Vinny went back and talked to Lucas and Jeff before they went on and had a little brain fart. Sorry bout that Matt, Vinny forgot you can't take beer out on the back porch (won't happen again). So, after the visit, Vinny went back to the Shark table, and a few friends started trickling in. Then a bridal party made their way in and things started to pick up. Another bridal party came in as did a bunch of Big 12 baseball tournament fans. By around 1030, Vinny's gonna guesstimate close to 200 were in the house by then. Not bad considering the big party with Ragweed at the Lake the next day. For those of you who didn't make it, you missed a great show by these guys. They played alot of songs off their latest CD release called "Road To Nowhere", including Twins, Road To Nowhere, and Red River Anthem as well as a host of others. Vinny's gonna say they played for nearly 2 hours and you could tell the guys were having a blast onstage. Jeff is helluva guitar player and if you've never seen Lucas on the bass, you are definitely missing out. They had a harmonica player with them too. Jeff said something about him, but at that time the Shark ears were kinda popped out. He was a good addition though. Would be cool if he was a permanent fixture. Anyways, get out and support this band. They've got band members from both sides of the Red River (Edmond, Ardmore and Ft. Worth) and work their butts off. Vinny heard Jeff and Lucas are heading out on a radio station tour across Texas in the near future to do interviews and play a few songs in studio at various towns across the state, so listen out for these guys. Show them some love. And next time they are here at the Wormy Dog, let's get double what we had a couple weeks ago. Thanks to both the bridal parties for dancing all nite long to JH&TJ!! Bridal parties are not only welcome, but encouraged!!!

Well, Vinny made two unexpected visits to the Wormy Dog this past weekend. After watching Jr. Shark's band play down the street at a tiny hole in the wall club across the street from the County Jail, Vinny decided to scoot on over to the WD to check out Full Throttle. Butterball, Sean, Ally and Jay, and Sunny and Ali showed up to make it a nice little party. As most of you know, Vinny loves this trio from his hometown San Antonio. Once again, they didn't disappoint. These three are great musicians and put on a helluva energetic show. The one thing that was disappointing was the turnout. Come on people. It's a Friday nite. Your Blazers are no longer in the minor minor league hockey playoffs, the Redhawks were out of town and OU just got swept by OSU in baseball (for the second year in a row) the weekend before. No excuses!! Oh well, your loss. Once again Belz ripped it up for those that did show up. His version of Red House was phenomenal.Vinny's proud to say these guys are his homeboys, even though they went to Madison HS, a big rival of Vinny's HS. Wayne Hubbard Band opened. Vinny kinda dug them, and hopes they come back to a better crowd than they played for Friday.
Saturday, after a morning round trip to/from Tulsa, Vinny, Mrs. Shark and the Jacksons chowed down some eats at Buffalo Wild Wings and decided to drive down to see Johnny Cooper. This was the first time Mrs. Shark has seen JC live. She dug him. JC is getting better and better each time. He's definitely way ahead of his time. The vocals are definitely there, and so is his playing. Good things are definitely in store for him. Vinny's just got a few words of advice though, LET JOHNNY DO THE SINGING. That one guitar player may be cool and all, but damn, that rendition of She Talks To Angels was hard to get thru..... just leave the singing to Johnny and it's all good. Check JC and his band out this weekend at the Wormy Dog Spring Jam at the Zoo. Oh, and another thing..... JC brings in the talent, if you know what Vinny's talking about. Had a bird's eye view of it Saturday nite. Props go out to the gratuitious 30 second boob shot from the one girl in the red and white tank top. Thanks again WD, especially Big Cody, Big Jonathan, Natalie and Travis for another great weekend. Vinny will see ya'll this Saturday.

Vinny's been to the Wormy Dog probably near 150 times in the past 3 years or so. Every once in awhile there comes along a band that he's never heard of before that catches his ear and attention once they start playing. Randy Rogers Band was one of them a few years ago. You know the rest of the story with them. The Gourds were another one. And although Vinny was familiar with some South Austin Jug Band tunes before he heard them, Vinny was awed by their show. Micky & The Motorcars is another one. Well, add the Mark McKinney Band to this list. Wow. Vinny was totally impressed. It was a great surprise to get a band in here that didn't sound like every other band. The Mark McKinney Band had Vinny's attention from the very moment they hit the stage. Talk about performers. They are. Mark is a great front man. Full of energy and has rock star written all over him. The rest of the band was just as energetic as he was. It was a shot in the arm, and much needed in Vinny's opinion. During most of the set, there wasn't anyone in front of them on the floor, but by the end of the set, a group of folks gathered around. They got "it" too. Stumbling upon these guys was refreshing to be honest with you. And by the looks of all the people that made their way over to the merch area after the show, it looks like ALOT of people appreciated the show as much as Vinny did. Hopefully the word will get out about these guys. Vinny hopes they come back often. Check em out. Trust Vinny on this one.