I promised a month ago to tell you about the reunion of the original Darrell Elmer Rodgers Trio. Well let me reconstruct some memories…
Back in September I got calls from both Michael Parker (drums) and Rick Heyman (bass) about doing a reunion show in Tucson. I guess the two of them had been reminiscing about our 10 years together and they were missing the fun. I was too. It had been over 2 years since I performed with a trio and over 3 years since I had played with Rick (who had to take a break back in 2018).
The idea was that they’d book a show for Mid-November and we would have a couple rehearsals before hand to knock the rust and dust off our performance. Well, things happen, and among them was my road trip back East, Michael’s schedule, and the rise of more covid cases. So it boiled down to a marathon rehearsal over Halloween weekend and a limited attendance house party at Michaels on the following Saturday – basically just family.
We had a blast. The rehearsals started rusty and quickly rev’d up to full speed. Well, better than half speed anyway. We played so many of our older songs (like Sailin’ and Second Chance) that we had to cut down the party play list to keep it at a reasonable two 45-minute sets.
The party was a gathering of about 20 people, all vaccinated, all masked, and a pot luck lunch. We played two sets and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Sometime next year, we’ll do it again. Before then, there will be Trio rehearsals with Matt Bruner on bass and hopefully a performance at the Tucson Folk Festival during the first weekend in April.
Here are some photos:
Darrell Elmer Rodgers' Weblog 