Ranger Report- October 4,2005

"You are a rude, mean, nasty, obnoxious man."
-Uncle Ronkle to Ranger Will

Well that may be so, but only when I'm awake. Well, what a difference a month makes…Our last outdoor show of the season at The Fitzwater Station on Sunday, Sept.18th was their largest attendance yet. My birthday was the following day and my mother flew down from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada for the occasion. She surprised me by bringing down my sister Susan from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It was a great week-long reunion that ended with Sue singing with us outdoors at the 8th Annual Asher's Chocolates Fall Fest on Sat. the 24th. The afternoon was beautiful and once again we broke attendance records. Bud "Beefbone" Burroughs sat in on mandolin (Bud plays on the new CD, "Boris Garcia's Family Reunion" www.borisgarcia.com ). The entire Fall Fest show was filmed.

A week later we were playing outdoors again. This time we were at Jeff Daniel's Jeep Customizing in Harleysville, PA. It was some kind of all-day "Jeep-A-Thon". Well, we brought La Banda Grande w/ The Rhino Horns and during the last song of our last set, after the sun went down; they set off a mind-numbing 15-minute fireworks display. They were launching the rockets right up out of the cornfield directly behind the stage. As the red glare erupted above our heads, we played "Fire(works) On The Mountain" which morphed into our own "Desire". At times the explosions were so loud that they drowned out the whole band. We started to use them as percussion. Then we let them take solos. We were actually jamming with the fireworks! We've played during fireworks before but never like this. The whole spectacle was filmed by Manatee camera-man G. Best from Key West. A DVD is being made available (along with footage from the legendary Pete's Barn show from last month) and if you watch it there are moments when it looks like the tenting that were performing under has caught on fire. Somehow we managed to end the song just as the fireworks ended! It was like some kind of pyro ballet. Or as one of the fireworks staff ran up and said, "That was f-ing awesome." Much thanks to Jeff Roberts, Dan the Man, and the whole "Jeep" crew. (Two days later they called me up for the footage to put on their web-site. www.jeffdanielsjeeps.com ).

Upcoming Shows Dept.: This Friday (Oct. 7) we will back at Crazy Carl's with The Rhino Horns (w/newcomer Roger Prieto on trumpet and flugel horn) and Tim "T.C." Campbell on drums (Ras Michael is playing with The Michael Smith band opening for Vince Welnick in Doylestown, PA.) We play Crazy Carl's the first Friday of every month and it's one of the only local venues where use the horn section and get to see Bob R.'s excellent light show. We are also happy to report that we will be headlining Crazy Carl's New Year's Eve Party this year. Carl is having the band "Crazy Viewdew" perform on the floor above us (they don't call him crazy for nothing) and if that's not insane enough, he's only charging $10.00 a ticket (two bands on New Year's Eve for $10.00?!). You can purchase tickets online at www.crazycarls.com We are back at Cloud Nine on Fri., Oct. 14 w/ Cptn. Jenks from The Howard Stern show hosting.

Also in the news: "Si Senorita" is a new local band that has played with us a few times. They have just released their debut CD entitled, "El Demo".

Canadian singer/songwriter Todd Brown, who wrote "Hey Mo", "Pretty Face", "Song For A Sailorman", and "Fast Money" (which are in our repertoire) has a new CD out called, "Todd Brown 6 String Nylon Guitar". Standout tracks include, "Got It Wrong Again", and "Halls Licked".

Manatee keyboardist Karl Frick hit a deer yesterday morning and wiped out his whole front end. It took the cops two and a half hours to get there.

And finally I would just like to remind everyone of our annual Manatee Masquerade at The Sandtrap in Limerick, PA on Fri., Oct. 28. This will be our 20th anniversary (Wow, is that true? Ouch.). So we'll be planning something special. As usual, there will be giveaways, prizes for the best costumes, and an animal sacrifice.
Can I go now?
-Will Done