Refreshments Grab Bag

First of all, this will be my last blog for a few weeks. My wife and I are moving across the country to the Chicagoland area, and getting a blog down once a week becomes impractical during a move. You can bet I’ll chime in sometime in December to tell you about all the cool stuff coming down the chute relating to Ghost Notes and Songs from Memory. Again, both book and CD have instore release dates of March 4, 2008, but you can count on pre-release sales to start at my Web site, www.artedwards.com, a month earlier, on February 4, 2008.

To continue from last week, here's the Refreshments' one and only appearance in Rolling Stone. Click on it to see a bigger version.



This appearance was the result of the band inexplicably coming in at number two on the Rolling Stone Readers' Poll conducted the month previous. (You can see that current month's readers' poll on the left of the image.) This surprise showing happened because the poll that month was conducted only in the Rocky Mountain states, and Denver and Phoenix were our two biggest markets. (Thanks again, Phoenix and Denver.) Anyway, Rolling Stone felt it was big enough news to send a photographer out, and we spent an entire day in Santa Barbara taking pictures. I've always liked this shot.

Here's a bigger version of the content from the scan above.




For the record, I never rode nude on the bus, but I was and continue to be a free-spirit.

Here's a shot from later in our careers, 1997, is my guess.



This is taken at the Cajun House (I remembered, Brian) in Scottsdale, and seems to be a typical Scottsdale show--a lot of people looking at you and you looking back. From this, you get a good idea of the characters we played onstage: Brian in his Vegas lounge jacket, Roger in Hawaiian get-up, and Bud ready to work on your car. Absolutely no thought went into these concepts. We were all hams and wanted to be noticed; the rest developed naturally.

And finally:



This was one of the many extras put together by Doug and Kathleen Kramer for our mailing list. Even though the Internet was up and running, our only direct communication with our fans was through these mailings. Kathleen sent out other things, too, like cards announcing tour dates and reminders of new records coming out. It was one of the best aspects of being a fan of the band, I think, getting these things in your mailbox here and there. Doug and Kathleen handled all of it. Thanks Doug and Kathleen!

Again, many thanks to Brian J. Henderson for the photos.

And thanks, everyone else, for reading. Fun, huh? We’ll chat more in December!


Art