“Are we five, maybe ten minutes back in the Red Zone? Brother, this is taking too long.”

That was the first line of the first song that I wrote for my new band Shindig Shop back around 1989.

Actually, I wrote the song while I was painting a house, and after I heard it playing in my head for a few weeks, it became my goal to put together a band to play the song.

So it was that I had one song, one Fender Rhodes electric piano, and one goal; to form a group of musicians who could help me get that song out of my head, and into the ears of the masses.

Shindig Shop

Since I had only been playing piano for a couple of years, I surrounded myself with some of the best musicians in Arkansas to cover my weaknesses, and the band Shindig Shop began playing clubs and festivals around the area.

First Shindig Shop band poster, Dec. 1990

With only a few songs to play in the beginning, we used to stretch the tunes out with improvisation while I was first learning how to play, and soon we became known as a psychedelic jam band. Our fans had to listen to me learning how to play a piano at each performance, but eventually I figured out which keys sounded best, and began using those keys more often.

Shindig Shop eventually became locally famous for whatever it was we were doing, being one of the first ‘jam bands’ in the area.

Some of the marketing phrases that I used to promote the band on the posters and advertisements were vague but descriptive, and I was attempting to control the narrative and language about the band with slogans.

• ’Festival Music’ was one of our slogans, suggesting that Shindig Shop was the type of thing that would be heard at a large music festival, and hopefully drawing pictures of sunshine and huge crowds of happy people. ’Strange but True Rock and Roll’ was another phrase that was used in Shindig Shop promotions, and ’100% Organic’ was our claim as well, even though it made no sense at all.
  

Now, 28 Years Later...

We jammed and we grooved, and in time I ended up writing about 100 songs for the group. Life, families and money soon broke up the band, and after twenty years and a few reunion shows, it looked like we had all outgrown the scene.

I even tried to retire from music recently, but when the word got out that I was done with playing songs, my old bandmates dared me to put together just one more show.

The text said, “We were thinking that we should put the band back together.”

My reply, “Sounds terrifying- I’m in.” This exchange led to a rehearsal at the guitarist’s apartment last week, and it looks like we are scheduled for another meeting this week.

Cameras and Microphones Everywhere

The apartment is tiny. With the drums set up in a back bedroom, the image and sound are piped into the living room/control room where the guitar, bass and piano are. Monitor screens in both rooms allow us to communicate, and the cameras and mics record everything as we go.

we can see Rich on the monitor, and hear him in the headphones

We Are All Older Now!

I’m the oldest one in the group. The guitarist is nearly as old as me, but these other guys are young.

I was about 25 years old when I started playing piano, right in the middle of the ’80s, and then it was about 10 years later when I recruited the band’s new rhythm section. In 1995 I was about 35 years old, but these guys were still teenagers then.

I didn’t get any pictures of myself at the rehearsal, but you all have seen me plenty already. Here's a picture of Ross.

Ross Hurley, guitar

Back in the Red Zone

One of the first songs that we reviewed last week was Red Zone, the tune that started it all for me back in the ‘80s. We remembered how to play it.

If you have 17 minutes to spare, you could listen to this very song Red Zone during a Shindig Shop show on April 16th, 1998, featuring these musicians and me on keyboards and lead vocals. The lyrics to Red Zone are below:

Red Zone

Are we five, maybe ten minutes back in the red zone? Brother, this is taking too long.
If I’m alive when you find me, call me no more.
Well it’s a fine day for profit but it’s sure not a good day to die
and if we fry on the East Side, well this is goodbye
Get lost with your forbidden chance of a lifetime- friends of friends, well, it don’t mean a thing
Get lost with your glorified view of the nighttime, ‘cause your headlights won’t shine when you’re underground
Brother, this is taking too long
Are we five, maybe ten minutes back in the red zone? Brother, this is taking too long
If I’m alive when you find me, just leave me alone
Devil red on my left side has sure got a natural smile
and angel white on my right says, well this is goodbye
Get lost with your forbidden chance of a lifetime- friends of friends, well, it don’t mean a thing
Get lost with your glorified view of the nighttime, ‘cause your headlights won’t shine when you’re underground

We Don’t Know What to Do With Ourselves

So far we don’t have a show booked or a real solid plan, we’re just playing some old Shindig Shop songs to see what happens. We may end up just recording tunes, or maybe set up a show somewhere.

I was about to retire from music, but that makes no sense now that there is Steemit, Dsound and Dtube waiting to hear all of this music, and my songs played by the only people who know how to do it right.

Shindig Shop and Steemit

The next thing to do will be to get the music onto Steemit, and get these Shindig Shop band members signed up here.

Once they see what Steemit is all about, my old friends and bandmates are liable to set up their own accounts. Either way, soon I will do the big release of the Shindig Shop Steemit page, and who knows what we will end up with here musically once we figure out how to distribute it effectively. The potential for musicians to be rewarded for their work exists here like it has never existed before, and we’ll see what happens when my music meets the world of Steemit.

My Band is Right; These Songs Need to be Revived

These young whippersnappers in my band think I’m old. They probably decided that they’d better squeeze a few more tunes out of me before I snuff it, and even though I’m certainly not going anywhere for a long time, I’m glad they decided to change my mind about quitting music for now.

I’m thinking of ways to pay them for their efforts, and I’m even thinking of ways to lure them here so that I can pay them in STEEM or SBD, as a gesture of thanks for motivating me to play these songs again, and so that they can finally see some rewards for their tireless work with my songs over the years.

Be Prepared to Start Hearing Lots of My Music Here

There are liable to be more music posts here in the near future, and if you listened to and/or liked the song linked above, keep in mind that the rest of my songs sound completely different.

That old mushroom soul music on that Utube link above is part of the Shindig Shop sound, but there is as much variety in a set of this music as there is variety on this therealpaul page. It’s always something else, but often with underlying themes.

It's exciting to start putting my old songs on here, maybe new versions of old ones, and maybe some new songs. What, new songs? Yes I have new songs, they might be good, nobody knows for sure yet. We will find out.

The band is getting back together, and it’s not too late for me to save the world with my songs and the music of Shindig Shop. In fact, it’s the perfect time to do it.

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all artwork above is mine, the song Red Zone is mine, composed in 1988. All photos above are mine, 2018

click @therealpaul for more