Right before Beth & her friend Holly departed on the big road trip back to Texas, Beth made a solo appearance at the Fat Cat Coffee House in New Glarus, WI. Holly & Beth decided that their big road trip needed a theme song. Paul Simon's "Call me Al" seemed like the perfect song! Holly was my body guard & I was her long last pal. She called me Betty, I called her Al! Get it? Aw, I kill me! Just wait till you see our music video!!!

Well, for a "solo" show, I sure had a lot of fabulous friends join me on the stage. Holly sang "Gravity" with me & provided a little egg shaker action on "I Still Believe." Jim joined me on guitar & harp. We even had an unexpected guest appearance by my new friend Tony, playing a ROCKIN' harp solo on "The News" with me. He brought down the coffee house!

It was a beautiful day & a wonderful way to say goodbye to WI again. Making music for & with the people I love! Can't wait to get back to y'all:)

Once again, I have to give Lynelle props for the GREAT photos! Dang it, she knows how to take a picture!!

Half of CBB played an early show for the Mount Horeb Relay for Life (American Cancer Society fundraiser) on July 26th. Jim, Doug & I had WAY too much fun for 9:30 a.m.!! Despite the early hour (yeah, I know 9:30 is not early to most of the world, but by rockstar standards, that's obscene!) we still had a blast. For the most part, we were playing to the relay crowd, but several CBB faithfuls showed up.

We debut the "Sarah" song that I wrote for Aaron Williams and the Hoodoo to play. The song was inspired by our favorite fan Hotdog (yeah, her real name is Sarah!). I think she got a little choked up when I played it, but then she & her sister Kris returned the favor when they presented me with an amazing scrap book of CBB pics that they made. Thanks so much gals!

We even had a surprise visit from the woman that I was named after! My mom's childhood friend, Beth, greeted me on the stage (see pic below). It was kind of surreal to meet her after hearing so much about her from my mom. Like I said, it should be illegal to have so much fun before noon!

Thanks again to Lynelle for the pictures!

Beth made a trip back from Houston to Wisconsin to play a few shows and got a rockstar welcome at the airport by Dan-dan the merch-man disguised as a chauffer! It was quite the welcome (even though they walked 3 miles to get to the car, it was still cool!). The Monroe Concert on the Courthouse Square was fantastic by all accounts. It was beautiful night of great music and Beth got to reconnect with the band, her family, friends & fans. Sadly, Tony wasn't able to make the trip back, but he was there in spirit. Thanks to Dan, Lynelle & Jon for taking the pics!! And of course thanks to all of you who came out to the show!

Beth & John "rocked the boat" on the Betty Lou cruise on Friday the thirteenth.  Fortunately for us, the waters were calm (especially for Mr. Dramamine himself- John Masino!) and we played to a great crowd on a great ship!  Special thanks to HD for lending Beth her jacket when the breeze kicked up!  And we have to give props to Captain Terri & the wonderful crew for making it such a fun night.

 

Tofflers:
CBB played their final gig before Beth & Tony's departure in a "stripped down" format at Toffler's in New Glarus.  We had another close call with thunderstorms early in the day but when it came to set up & show time, the clouds parted & the weather couldn't have been better.
 
Due to space & sound requirements, we didn't have Rob or John with us - but we still played for 3 hours without a break & rocked the house.  Tony provided a few "guitar solos" for us (imagine the worse wah-wah guitar you can coming from a man's mouth, yeah, I know) & a wonderful version of Feliz Navidad by request for a little Xmas in June.
 
In addition to the weather being perfect, the fans couldn't have been better.  It was a night to remember!  Thanks to all who joined us.  Special thanks to Dan & Lynelle for snapping the great pics below!

 

We had a blast at our last show together at Arthur's in Spring Green.  We even had Clownboy do a special guest appearance on the drums.  Thanks again to all the fantastic fans who showed up to support us.  We will miss you all so much!

 

We lucked out on Thursday night & played a rockin' set between the thunderstorms on the beautiful Monona Terrace rooftop as part of their summer concert series.  This was CBB's last full-band Madison show!  We had a fantastic turn out even with the threat of storms.  It was great to share our last Madison show with so many of our favorite fans. Thanks to all for the support!  We will miss you Madison!.

It doesn't get much better than Saturday night at the Club Tavern - unfortunately, Beth's voice hadn't quite recovered from the Led Zeppelin incident Friday night (or maybe it was from doing the worm)- but the boys in the band pulled through and we played on.  We only had to quit 15 minutes early despite Beth completely losing her voice for the 3rd set.  It was still a great night with a fun & forgiving crowd.
 
Special thanks to Jeff for filling in on merch & photographer duties.  And of course the lovely Lynelle came through with some pics for us too!

 

Friday was a beautiful day for the Bratfest Kick-off.  Many of our favorite local bands were playing (Aaron Williams & the Hoodoo, Sharp & Harkins, Sunspot, MSB, Bob Rocks, Sand) and then we got to headline on the Onion Stage.  We had a great crowd -so many friendly, brat-eating faces! 
 
The crowd was gracious enough to buy so much CBB merchandise that they met the "$100-challenge"  ---meaning, when we hit the $100 mark, Beth is obligated to do the worm (yes, the breakdancing move).  She even did it again later to impress some 9 year old boys.   She's got the bruises to prove it! (Look for the video in a future blog!)
 
Beth & John got to close out the night with the All-Star Band - we had Mike Massey ..s, Mike Ripp on guitar, Hit Man on bass & the infamous Clownboy on the drums-- a moment of pure musical madness!  It was a quite a thrill to perform with these guys, but unfortunately, trying to sing Led Zeppelin's "Rock n' Roll" was kinda rough on Beth's vocal chords (see Club Tavern blog!) after a full day of music & brat eating.  It was all worth it though!
 
Special thanks to Dan-dan the merch man, his handler Lisa, & our photographer-extraordinaire Lynelle for these awesome pics!

 

We had a busy Saturday!

Started off with an early afternoon fund raiser for Beth's good friend Jennifer. She is en-route to raising $15,000 for the Elizabeth Glasser foundation which helps provide medication to pregnant women with AIDS in Africa to prevent the transmission of AIDS to their unborn child. It was an honor to be a part of such a great event for a wonderful cause.

Later that evening it was the infamous Madison Area Music Awards! We were lucky enough to win 2 of them this year - Jazz Song of the Year for Say My Name and Rock Artist of the Year! It was fun to see so many of our good friends take home prizes as well (you can go to themamas.org for all the details). Thanks to all who voted for us to help make this possible!