How The Blues Dogs Got Started

or.... "Yo, we played Giant Stadium!"

Once upon a time,
about 5 or 6 years ago, Al Frankel started going to the Tap House every Wednesday night for the open mic blues jam, hosted by Gary Schwartz. He met a lot of musicians there of course, and made a lot of new friends. Al later found out that his Temple (Shaaray Tefila) was having a BBQ for new members, and he asked the guy organizing it if perhaps they might like to have a band, thinking he could bring down a few friends he met at The Tap House to play. The guy hesitated, pondering seriously for a moment and said "hmmmm, maybe....".  Al replied "we'll do it for free", to which the guy (looking pleasantly surprised) replied with a big smile "Oh, then definitely!" And so, Al invited a few of his musician friends down to the Temple BBQ. One of them (not being Jewish) asked "do we have to wear those funny little beanies?" (he meant yarmulkes, LOL).  Al told him no, and said that although they wouldn't get paid, they would get free burgers and beer. Word spread quickly through The Tap House, and that was enough of an incentive to get a whole bunch of guys to come to the BBQ to play.
      And so it came to pass that the following week, a bunch of the boys from The Tap House came to the Temple BBQ to play some music. They were: Geoff Hartwell, Eric Haight, Frank Gancci, Scott James, Jerry Glaze and Al Frankel. They played well, in fact they played very well indeed. Al had inadvertantly put together a hellova band by just inviting a few random but very talented musician friends of his. And so at the end of their performance, it chanced that a nice gentleman who attended the BBQ approached Al to ask a question. He said: "I am having a tailgate party next Sunday at Giant Stadium, we do it every year, and we always have a band. I have already hired a band for next week, but if your band is available, I'll fire them and hire you guys". The boys from The Tap House were all very flattered. Then he said, looking more serious and business-like: "Say, what do you fellas charge for your band to play?" Al thought quietly to himself..(we're a band? what do we charge? WE DON'T EVEN HAVE A FREAKIN' NAME!) Trying to think on his feet, Al turned to "his band" and said with an air of tentative confidence, "What do we usually charge fellas? $100/guy, right?" The guys all nodded with an emphatic and enthusiastic reply of "YES!" Then the nice gentleman said "OK great, then if you guys are free next Sunday, you're hired!" Al said to the guys: "Boys, are we free next Sunday?" We were free alright.
      And so it came to pass that the boys from The Tap House all piled into cars and vans the following Sunday to go to Giant Stadium (except Scott who couldn't make, and so Hank DeCora came in his stead). After driving around anxiously trying to find each other amongst the chaos of  pre game stadium parking lots, they finally all met up. The guys set up their stuff, running their amps off of generators provided by the nice gentleman hosting the party. Again, they played well, very well indeed. And they played for the crowd which added up well into the thousands, about 100 at a time, as people stopped by to listen to the band for a while as they wandered on their way to go watch the game. At one point, a woman who was quite drunk approached Al. As she staggered her way over to him she blurted out these slurred words: "You ...(pause) sound like...(longer pause) McJagger! "  She then stumbled away, laughing to herself, almost tripping as she wandered off on wobbly legs like a drunken sailor.
        And that dear friends, is the true story of how The Blues Dogs came to be, and how they landed their very first gig at Giant Stadium of all places. And a good time was had by all... they even got paid, and lived happily ever after!

The End