Twenty-one years ago today we check out the scene in Newport News, VA, performing at the current home of The Alley. Back then it was known as Heartbreak Alley. Upon entering, one could make a left into the country bar packed with line dancers, or turn right to find us in the Happy Days-inspired rock room, with its stage modeled after a giant jukebox (my memory may have switched left and right). At the time we frequently began our sets with Georgia by herself making a racket on a guitar, eventually joined by me, and finally by James before finding its way into a song. But first, the promoter wanted to introduce us. Though never our preference, I must admit he knocked it out of the park. Describing us as “MTV recording artists,” he kept up the play by play even after Georgia’s entrance: “It’s the drummer! Playing guitar!” We provided our own absurdity seven years later in Schondorf, Germany, encoring for some reason lost to time with “Ca Plane Pour Moi,” and then playing it again when we returned for a second encore.
