Day 24 Sunday at the Red Bar

Today was to be the last day Sam Bush would be in town as he was heading back home to Nashville. Dread Clampitt was playing at the Red Bar from noon to three so we kind of expected him to show up for a last gig. Not wanting to get trashed too early, we waited until almost two o'clock to walk up there. We couldn't believe it, the place was nuts. I got us a couple of drinks and Sylvia wormed her way up front to get a better view of the best music session we had ever witnessed;better even than the week before. The band was totally into it and the crowd knew it. They played off each other non-stop for over an hour and a half. Sylvia didn't move except to sip her drink and wipe tears from her eyes. I don't know how to describe the music except that it was bluesy-country-jazz with a little reggae thrown in and it rocked. The bar was full of other musicians (they obviously knew this would be a great day) and several of them would sit in for a song or two. Donnie Sundal was one of them and he was really good. Also, an old local legend named Duke Bardwell, who played bass for Elvis in '74 and '75. When it was all over people just milled around and shook their heads. Word was passed that one of the locals was having a birthday party up the street at Pandora's and it would be a party. I didn't think we would make it so around five o'clock we went across the street to Shorty's and listened to a small group called The Steeno's with Smilling Fritz. Smiling Fritz was a pretty good guitar picker, but after the Red Bar it was hard to get into. After talking to some people there, we thought dinner might be a good idea and headed up the street to Pandora's for a bite. Walking in from the parking lot we met up with Donnie Sundal and his wife Jennifer. They suggested we have dinner with them and we accepted. It was a totally enjoyable meal all the while listening to them talk about his music career and their 18 years of traveling around the country looking for gigs. After dinner we went into the bar where the party was going on and listened to a band that came down from Alabama to play for this guys birthday. They were a geared up big sounding Alabama country group that I suppose were good (I really couldn't tell) . After a listening to a couple of songs we headed home all music'd out.