Posted on by Phil Strawn

Ain’t Dead Just Quite Yet!


American Classics playing our acoustic set at The Georgetown Winery, Georgetown, Texas 2012. L to R: John Payne, Jordan Welch on drums in the window, Danny Goode, and myself.

My back is killing me, and my left hand and fingers may never be the same, but damn, it was fun. Last Saturday, my friends Jordan, our drummer, and his wife, Jonelta, hosted a Mardi Gras party in their home. Jordan is a certified Coon-Ass from Louisiana, so he always makes two types of gumbo, shrimp and sausage, which I love both. Add homemade bread, cajun cake with a baby inside, pralines, wine, and a good group of friends, and you have the perfect setting for an impromptu reunion of the American Classics Band. We haven’t played together since April of 2019, and since then, our good friend and lead guitar and fiddle player, John, has passed away, so now we are three old guys wondering what happened and who’s next. We had a good run of it, the same four pickers playing together since 2001.

After eating ourselves into a Gumbo-induced coma, the three surviving members of the band took the stage in our old practice room. This is not a cheesy garage band setup; it’s a large room in Jordan’s home with a stage, a kick-ass recording studio sound system with a board, and speakers mounted on aluminum trusses suspended from the ceiling. My pal, Jordan, didn’t hold back in giving the band a good practice room.

Not me, but very close….

After a mic and instrument check, we kicked off some of our old tunes that we could play without a lead guitar. Our vocals were always the strongest part of our music, and we missed John’s third harmony voice and his guitar and fiddle. It was a bit of a sad shock at how different our songs sounded, with a large part missing, but we made the best of it and played for two hours without a break. After that, we collapsed in a heap. Voices shot, fingers on the verge of falling off and Jordan, behind his drum kit, was huffing and puffing. We all agreed that for us, men in our middle and upper 70s, any gig outside of this practice room would not happen.

We hope for a repeat performance soon because we ” Ain’t dead just quite yet.”

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13 Replies to “Ain’t Dead Just Quite Yet!”

    1. From recent memory: Peaceful Easy Feeling, Pancho and Lefty, The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, The Weight, Take It Easy, Gentle On My Mind, Little Sister, Wagon Wheel, Devil With The Blue Dress, My Maria, The Perfect Country and Western Song, Neon Moon, The Last Time, Satisfaction, Jesus Is Just Alright With Me, Feel A Whole Lot Better, Mr. Tamborine Man, I Fought The Law, Lying Eyes, Mustang Sally, and a bunch more.

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  4. I saw your playlist Phil…awesome. I know you all had a good time…with just the food alone.

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    1. Max, it was a good time, but bittersweet. With John missing, we sounded different, and we felt it. We may get back together again, but no gigs for these old guys. Back when we were playing every week, our play list had enough good tunes to cover four sets, but most of the time we only played three. Thanks for chiming in.

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