Updated 2/7/1010
Friends and Fellow Campers, This Sunday, September 6, “Holy Water and Whiskey” will be back at O'Niell's Pub on Central at Washington from 4 – 7 for our every six weeks appearance there. As you may have noticed (Sept 6, every 6 weeks), this Sunday will be a special convergence for the number 6. Not to belabor the obvious, but, as you may recall, s ix is the second smallest composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 2 and 3. Since six equals the sum of these proper divisors, six is the smallest perfect number. As a perfect number, 6 is related to the Mersenne prime3, since 2 1 (2 2 - 1) = 6. And speaking of prime 3, it is also 3 days before the special date of 9/9/09, which sounds like a German stuttering in the negative but which, to our knowledge, has no other special meaning beyond the mystical 9 – 3 = 6. As this analysis clearly demonstrates, we have proven mathematically that you need to be at O'Niell's this Sunday, and bring 6 friends. Or 9. Hope to see you and your friends there.
Bruce, Maggie, Scott HWW |
In another peek into the private lives of members of the HWW band, we will this week be featuring activities to let you get to know Scott a little better. He is, of course, our guitar player and singer extraordinaire. As some of you may already know, Scott is, among many other interesting things, a licensed steam locomotive fireman. Drawing upon that unique skill set on Sunday, Scott will again be attempting to use his steam powered electric generator to power our sound system based on a slight modification of the boiler in the 26,000 pound steam tractor from his back yard. This will be a repeat of his original 1997 attempt to accomplish this feat. As you may recall, that first attempt fell slightly short of the mark when the boiler exploded in what came to be known and “The Blast of ‘97”. Scott was fortunately spared serious injury, but all of the seismographs at UNM and NM Tech had to be recalibrated and local hearing aid sales tripled in the following months. The community ultimately benefited, however, when the crater was later donated to the city to become a 4 level underground parking structure. Scott assures us that the pesky technical problems that foiled that original attempt have been corrected and we look forward to a history-making demonstration. As an added service for the squeamish this Sunday, life insurance policies will be offered for sale at a table near the back of the room.
Greetings Fellow Travelers, This Sunday November 1 “Holy Water and Whiskey will be playing from 4 - 7 at O'Niell's Pub our favorite local venue and Albuquerque 's own Cheers equivalent. It is located at the corner of Central and Washington . All tips this Sunday will go to the Roadrunner Food Bank. Remember that Sunday morning at 2 a.m. daylight savings time ends so you have to put your clocks back 1 hour. Some good, long-term, musician friends of Bruce and Maggie's, “KG and the Ranger”, a very talented and entertaining western music duo from Wisconsin , will be in town and we hope to have them sing a few songs in the first set. “Ranger Rick” played bass with Bruce and Maggie for 5 years when we all lived in Wisconsin . If they are able to make it, I promise that it will be worthwhile to see and hear them. They will also be appearing later that evening at the Covenant Presbyterian church for a great concert. We've included the information on that concert at the end of this message. As some of our more astute followers are no doubt already aware, this Sunday also immediately follows Halloween, which is on Saturday. In order to continue the momentum of this fun-filled holiday, we invite those of you with costumes to don them again on Sunday when you come to O'Niell's so that we can all enjoy them. For those of you who are still in continuous celebration mode from the previous night and have not paused in your revelry long enough to notice that it is no longer Saturday, you are also, of course, welcome. For those of you have been involuntarily detained by city or state officials due to the exceptional exuberance of your festivities, we will, as always, try to assist our followers with bail money as our finances permit. However, since CD sales have slackened somewhat during the current economic downturn, the availability of this service will be somewhat more limited this year. To compensate we have done some initial negotiations with the Metro Court judges, and if you are charged with disturbing the peace and/or public intoxication AND you are gaily dressed in a credible Halloween costume, AND you tell the judge that you are friends of Holy Water and Whiskey, you may qualify for a special group rate on your bail. Please be advised that this special rate only applies to revelers who are bailed out prior to our performance and who are able to join us at O'Niell's on Sunday. Hope to see you there. Take care, Bruce, Maggie, Scott HWW |
Howdy Folks, We'll be playing this Sunday morning, October 11 th from 9 A.M. to 12:00 P.M, at the Corrales Grower's market, next to the Post Office in Corrales. It's supposed to be a beautiful day, and they have lots of great veggies, plants and other fine things there. For those of you who don't make it to church that day, remember that you get partial credit for church attendance by listening attentively to some of our Gospel tunes. For those of you who were able to make it to church, you get extra credit. It is also a big day for the Balloon Fiesta with a mass ascension happening that morning and likely making the scene even more picturesque with balloons gently drifting over the market and pilots and passengers waving happily to the people below and playfully trying to drop fruits and vegetables (organic only) on the band in the final competition events of the festival - the “Band Salad”. We just hope that the pumpkins haven't been picked yet. Hope you can make it, Bruce, Maggie, Scott HWW
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Greetings Fellow Travelers, Holy Water and Whiskey will be playing at O'Niell's Pub this Sunday, December 27 th from 4 – 7. O'Niell's is located at the corner of Central and Washington . It is always a lot of fun, and we hope that you can join us. Band tips from this Sunday will be donated to Cuidando los Niños. We will also be having a special post-Christmas activity. We are referring, of course, to the Holy Water and Whiskey Annual Unwanted Gift Exchange. Feel free to bring any useless, unwanted, ugly, tasteless, pointless or “What were they thinking?!” gifts that you may have received this Christmas and we will place them in the lottery exchange of other unwanted gifts and, who knows, maybe the Karmic wheels will turn in such a way as to unite your castoff gift with a person who has been waiting all their life for this special gift. And maybe not. One caveat however: the Department of Health has ordered that last year was the last year to include the infamous O'Hara Fruit Cake in the exchange. They have decreed that 5 years is enough, so whoever ended up with it last year will have to find another way to dispose of it. We would like to remind last year's “winner” that the Albuquerque Toxic Waste Disposal site is located on 4 th Street . We hope that you are having and will continue to have a happy, healthy and joyous holiday season. In celebrating this special season, however, it is important to remember that there are certain guidelines to follow in calibrating your celebrations. Not everyone may be as enthusiastic about the season as you are, and remember that the timing and intensity of your enthusiasm are critical elements in successfully communicating your enthusiasm to others. I'm sure that you understand what we mean by this, but we have included a photograph illustrating an example of poor timing and intensity of holiday enthusiasm, and we hope that it may help to guide you in your efforts: Take care, and have a great holiday, Bruce, Scott, Maggie HWW |
Greetings Friends, This weekend, Friday thru Sunday, August 28-30, is the Southwest Traditional and Bluegrass Music Association annual Festival held at the Santa Fe County Fair Grounds on Rodeo Road . You can see the schedule and lineup of events at the official website at http://www.southwestpickers.org/festivals-4a.html#sound . Holy Water and Whiskey will be performing Saturday morning from 9:30 – 10:30 A.M. on the showcase sound stage. We'll be the first group playing on that stage, so if you get up there to see us, you'll be there in time to enjoy an entire day of great bands, workshops, contests, etc. It's a great New Mexico event for lovers of all kinds of acoustic folk and bluegrass music. We would like to thank all of those who expressed concern about the Great Adventure that we told you about in our last announcement. If you recall, it related the dramatic rescue of Jack, the Wonder Dog, involving Bruce and Maggie's coffee fueled nonstop 1800 mile round trip to Nodamnwhere , WY . We are pleased to report that all is well among the participants: Jack and our son are safely back home, and Bruce and Maggie have finally stopped shaking after their mega caffeine doses. A few brain cells seem to have been misplaced somewhere along the line, but they will hopefully show up later. The HBO series on the adventure is due out this fall. Take care, Bruce, Scott, Maggie HWW |
Sorry for the late notice, but Holy Water and Whiskey will be playing from 4:30 to 6:30 this Sunday 8/9/09 at the gazebo on the Plaza at Albuquerque’s Old Town. I would have let you know sooner, but we’ve been busy. I won’t bore you with the whole story, but one of our sons, the 22 year old, is on a month long wilderness survival training course in Nodamnwhere, Wyoming. He wanted to bring his dog ‘Jack’ along, so, against our advice (I’ll bet that some of you know what that is like) he brought Jack. Then one thing led to another and blah blah blah, I won’t go into the whole thing…Well OK, so on Thursday afternoon we get a call from the veterinarian in Nodamnwhere Wyoming advising that a “lost dog” (you guessed it – Jack) was delivered to the him by someone who found him wandering in the mountains, he traced Jack to our phone number from the tags. Jack had apparently had enough wilderness survival training, decided that what he didn’t know already he could figure out on his own, decided to head home. Our son was well out of communication range in the mountains, so somebody (guess who) had to go get Jack. Well, no need to bore you with the rest because…yeah, well, OK… so Maggie and I jump in the car at dinner time, drive straight thru, get there at 8 A,M. Friday, slam dunk a quick breakfast, see all of the tourist sights in Nodamnwhere (total time: 5 minutes: the pine cone collection at the Western Wear store), pick up a bewildered Jack and head home. Didn’t get any sleep, had IV poles with coffee running wide open hanging from the car antenna all the way home, got back Saturday morning. Let me just say that there is something about the combination of an aging brain and sleep deprivation that gives me a much deeper understanding of the cognitive processes of some of the lower life forms.
Now aren’t you glad that I didn’t tell you the whole story? Anyway, hope you can make it to the plaza on Sunday. Bruce, Maggie, and Scott
August 27, 2009
Greetings Friends,
This weekend, Friday thru Sunday, August 28-30, is the Southwest Traditional and Bluegrass Music Association annual Festival held at the Santa Fe County Fair Grounds on Rodeo Road. You can see the schedule and lineup of events at the official website at http://www.southwestpickers.org/festivals-4a.html#sound . Holy Water and Whiskey will be performing Saturday morning from 9:30 – 10:30 A.M. on the showcase sound stage. We’ll be the first group playing on that stage, so if you get up there to see us, you’ll be there in time to enjoy an entire day of great bands, workshops, contests, etc. It’s a great New Mexico event for lovers of all kinds of acoustic folk and bluegrass music.
We would like to thank all of those who expressed concern about the Great Adventure that we told you about in our last announcement. If you recall, it related the dramatic rescue of Jack, the Wonder Dog, involving Bruce and Maggie’s coffee fueled nonstop 1800 mile round trip to Nodamnwhere, WY. We are pleased to report that all is well among the participants: Jack and our son are safely back home, and Bruce and Maggie have finally stopped shaking after their mega caffeine doses. A few brain cells seem to have been misplaced somewhere along the line, but they will hopefully show up later. The HBO series on the adventure is due out this fall.
Take care,
Bruce, Scott, Maggie
HWW
July 24, 2009
Hello Fellow Campers,
HWW will be playing twice this coming weekend. On Saturday July 25 at “Wildfest 2009” at Roosevelt Middle School in Tijeras. The event runs from 10 -4, is sponsored by the “Talking Talons” organization, we will be playing from 1:30 – 3:30. Wildfest is a popular east mountain event that features wildlife, music, entertainment, environmental education activities and a health fair. You can get more information about Talking Talons on their website at http://www.talkingtalons.com/. It’s a great event for kids of all ages, hope you can make it.
On Sunday July 26 we’ll be back at O’Niell’s Pub on Central at Washington (voted Albuquerque’s ‘Most Like ‘Cheers’ Pub) playing from 4 - 7. O’Niell’s is always a fun gig for us with great food, friends, music, ale and food items playfully thrown by audience members at the band as likely generous offerings and gestures of appreciation.
This Sunday will also be the coming out party for Maggie’s new boots! As her special gift for her 30th anniversary, Maggie got a great new hand-made pair of Fancy Red Boots – something she has wanted since she was 6 years old. (She’s also wanted to look like Dolly Parton…but one thing at a time. At our age, even one success is worth celebrating.) She wrote a song about the boots and the idea that after 21 years in the job harness, it feels like time to make some changes. One of her favorite verses is “we’ll change our names to Buck and Betty, call the kids and say we’re leaving, toss the cell phones – we don’t need ‘em anymore. Adios to the email – if you want us to go dancin’ leave a message at the general store.” The boots may be viewed for free and may be touched for a small fee.
For those of you who are fans of the band just because of our funny emails that remind you that mental illness strikes one in ten and musicians more often than that – you’ll be happy to know we’ve managed to learn and write some new tunes. Scott wrote a good one called “I am a Miner”, and he’s not talking about being under 21. He writes about men who went to work every morning in a gold mine, got into a double-decker steel cage with 13 other guys in each cage and, when the hoistman was signaled, he dropped the cages (freefall) 3000 feet and then took the last 1000 feet to slow you down so you stopped at the bottom of the shaft. Who needs coffee when you start your day like that? It’s a great song and it makes my drive to work seem pretty tame.
Take care and we hope to see you this weekend,
Maggie, Scott, Bruce
HWW
September 2, 2009
Friends and Fellow Campers,
This Sunday, September 6, “Holy Water and Whiskey” will be back at O’Niell’s Pub on Central at Washington from 4 – 7 for our every six weeks appearance there. As you may have noticed (Sept 6, every 6 weeks), this Sunday will be a special convergence for the number 6. Not to belabor the obvious, but, as you may recall, six is the second smallest composite number, its proper divisors being 1, 2 and 3. Since six equals the sum of these proper divisors, six is the smallest perfect number. As a perfect number, 6 is related to the Mersenne prime3, since 21(22 - 1) = 6. And speaking of prime 3, it is also 3 days before the special date of 9/9/09, which sounds like a German stuttering in the negative but which, to our knowledge, has no other special meaning beyond the mystical 9 – 3 = 6.
As this analysis clearly demonstrates, we have proven mathematically that you need to be at O’Niell’s this Sunday, and bring 6 friends. Or 9. Hope to see you and your friends there.
Bruce, Maggie, Scott
HWW
May 13, 2009
Greetings Campers,
Holy Water and Whiskey is playing this Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, May 18 from 5 – 6 HWW will be dressed in our finest and singing a few favorites and some tunes that you have never heard before at the Third Annual Hillsboro Music Festival in Hillsboro, NM. This is a great event, with music all day long and a new group every hour on the hour. All of the fine musical events of the day (Including Bill Barwick, Western Music Association finalist for ‘Musician of the year in 2007 and 2008) can be found on our website http://www.holywaterandwhiskey.com/hillsboro.pdf . The town is charming, there will be lots of good food and the community center is a great venue for what promises to be a day full of LOTS of great music and fun. Just take I-25 south from Albuquerque to highway 152 located south of T or C, turn west for a few miles to Hillsboro. If you are looking for a fun way to spend a whole Saturday, Hillsboro is the place to be.
On Sunday, we will be back in town to play a concert at the Rio Rancho Artist Series from 3:00 – 4:30 at the Rio Rancho United Methodist Church, 1652 Abrazo Road in Rio Rancho. This is the kind of gig that we love – great acoustics and sound in an intimate, comfortable and friendly listening setting. We hope to see many of our Westside friends there.
In our continuing “Know Your Band Member” series, we strive to keep the public accurately informed about the histories of the members of HWW. In order to set the record straight, we would like to clarify one of the vicious rumors that has been lately circulating about some of the members of Holy Water and Whiskey. The ridiculous and outrageous rumor that we have gotten wind of goes something like this: in their youth, Maggie and her sister Maria (our sound lady) allegedly stole a truckload of muskmelons in rural Indiana and then transported them across state lines to Iowa where they tried to commit the fraud of selling them as “organic cleavage enhancement systems”. They were allegedly arrested, convicted of theft and fraud and served time in the Iowa Department of Corrections System. Who knows where these vicious rumors come from or what sort of twisted minds and motives create them? The truth is that they actually served their time in Missouri, not Iowa. We hope that this helps to clear the record of the inaccurate and damaging distortions.
Take care,
Bruce, Maggie, Scott
Now - if you can believe it - here is a response from one of our dedicated albeit completely twisted friends:
Rumor or not, we still hear enhanced stories about them two ladies of the sweaty hot humid nights
and their famously firm yet ripe and beautiful to behold melons. They are still quite a pair. . . The ladies I mean to say.
It is difficult for me to imagine such an awful an twisted mind warped out of control fantasizing about such a pair as you speak, such that would create this picture of vivid imagery in my mind and to listen attentively to these rumors and the retelling in a descriptive story and it's retelling - time after time after time after time after time, only to enhance the bare facts and naked truth for what ever possible tit-illation in revealing tidbits of these memorable picturesque melons and their bearers. They should be revealed for what they are today - no matter the shape they are in at this stage in time - This would give us an idea of how the truth can be stretched over some objects only illustrating how far out of shape some enhancements can become with age and overblown description.
Your most intimate secrets are safe with us.
Hope to See you on Sunday.
Here's from May 5.
Here's a fan response to the last email:
We were thrilled to be able to take $375 in tips to Roadrunner! Thanks to everyone for your wonderful support!
Hello Fellow Travelers,
