Poor Man's Whiskey - With all the leaks in the news...

One of the greatest things that occurred in 2005 was getting to meet other great bands and musicians behind the scenes. This was particularly true with festivals, where you could, for example, use a neighboring outhouse of a bluegrass legend and later triumphantly relate to friends, “I out-pee’d Tony Rice!”

Outside of these rare achievements the coolest thing is hearing these people warm up or just noodle backstage. The absolute pinnacle for me came the night we opened for the Hot Buttered Rum String Band at the Great American Music Hall in February 2005 (we're @ GAMH again in March).

After our set I grabbed a beer or three and met some friends in the crowd to watch the show. As usual they were playing great and had the sold out theater grooving. But then they brought out there special guests, Mike Marshall and Chris Thile, people who play the mandolin so well that I don’t think I even know how well they play.

When the second set started I learned that Mike and Chris were still jamming downstairs. “What?!” I exclaimed. My good friend Matt still busts my balls for ditching him that night at that moment. Downstairs, which is “backstage”, it was true. I have never seen two people play like that before, both supporting each other rhythmically and harmonically while making each other laugh with little musical jokes. I must have had a big goofy smile on my face as I stood a few feet from them with my head bouncing back and forth between them as if I was watching tennis. I feel like it will be the closest I ever get to experiencing what it must have been like to be in the presence of Django and Stephan back in the day.

And when this was done and my brain was still trying to process what just happened, I was pleased to discover they were super nice guys. As PMW and these “special” guests waited on the staircase to join Hot Buttered Rum for their sing-along encore, we discussed wine and other fine topics, and all I could think was, “I bet I can out-pee you.”