April 21, 2007

FINALLY we have uploaded the newest photos from the Gin Palace Jesters two week west coast run and the webmaster has to say the number of photos given was overwhelming. They have been pared down to a barely managable volume of 66 photos in conjunction with the great American highway Route 66 from which the band began and ended upon and crossed over numerous times. We encourage you to check them out by going here.

Thanks to Nico Druyf of Long Distance - Radio Hoorn - Netherlands - for giving us some radio spins.

Long Distance is a weekly roots radio show for Radio Hoorn.

Every Friday between 20.00 – 21.00 (2.00-3.00 p.m US central time

A mighty big THANKS to all the folks who came out to see us on our trip out to the west coast and south west. We had a great time driving like maniacs and stumbling bleary eyed from one gig to the next. We thank all the promoters, bands, club owners and gracious people we met along the way and we sure do hope to do it again real soon. We took a lot of photographs and promise to get some posted here real soon. The Gin Palace Jesters also thank Jake Erwin for filling in on bass for us. Jake was great, drove more than his share of highway, was involved in every pack and helped with coordinating everything. Go see Jake gig with Wayne Hancock folks because Jake is the real deal. We also thank Perry LaFine in Phoenix, Arizona for playing some drums as a Jester again. It was only one gig but what a gig it was! Great job Perry! We miss you.

We are home again in Chicago resting and we hope to finish mixing our CD real soon. See ya around the bend folks.

We have some BIG news that we have been "lacksidaisy" in posting here for a few weeks as things have been hectic as we prepare to embark on our big trip out of the frozen Chicago cold ( -7 F with a -40 F windchill factor last week folks! BRRR....) and head west towards California and down into warmer places like Arizona and Texas (click here for tour dates). Back in December when we decided to go on our tour, everybody was gung ho and ready for the most part. Unfortunately for the Gin Palace Jesters, fate had OTHER ideas! Upright Bassist Casey Stockdon's day time employers business was bought outright by some other EVIL CORPORATE OVERLORDS and they threated to fire the Ol' Barefoot Boy if he left with us for two weeks of music/ sun/ driving and sleeping in seedy motels. Being a Gin Palace Jester doesn't pay the rent so much so he had to succumb to their selfish demands to have money to keep a place to sleep that wasn't in the -7 winter's cold. Unfortunately Casey will not be joining us on this two week tour. We were naturally DEVASTATED at this horrible news.

Things were scary for a few days and the tour was in DANGER of being CANCELLED! Lucky for the Gin Palace Jesters, Dave remembered a conversation he had with his old friend Jake Erwin 7 years earlier. Jake told Dave, "If you EVER need a bass player give me a call. Here's my number."

7 years later Dave used that number to track down Jake in Dallas, Texas and his number was STILL GOOD! So without further delay, we are happy to report that Jake Erwin, celebrated upright bassist for the remarkable Western Swing trio HOT CLUB OF COWTOWN and currently playing upright bull fiddle for Master of Hillbilly Swing-WAYNE HANCOCK will be jumping in the van with us to spend two weeks on the road as a Gin Palace Jester. Those in the know will come out just to see such a great bassist in action. We are really looking forward to gigging with Jake and we thank him for consenting to go. We also publicly thank Wayne "The Train" Hancock for finding a sub for Jake in his one conflicting gig so Jake could go. It is mighty right to have friends in this world ain't it?!!! We will pick up with Casey Stockdon upon our return from the road.

Here's some pictures of Jake Erwin and him playing a hot jazz number with Whit and Elana in Hot Club of Cowtown below

See you on the road folks. Be sure to check the tour schedule and listen to a brand new recording by the Gin Palace Jesters at our myspace page. This is an early teaser track entitled "Roadhouse Riot" which will be released on our new full lenght CD when we have it all done. We just thought since it's been so long since we've released any new music you all might want to hear something new and rest assured we'll be playing this one out on the road.

We have posted some new photos of the group at work and at play as we promised we would. Click HERE to go there.

Doggone that death wearing nothing but a sithe and a cape on the billboard in the field near the big ol highway! Damn...lost another one! Bye Del Reeves. R.I.P.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-reeves3jan03,1,1760489.story?coll=la-news-obituaries&ctrack=1&cset=true

We have posted new show dates that include a fun gig here in our homebase of Chicago with the amusing hillbilly stylings of the Hackensaw Boys at the House of Blues Chicago and there are TOUR DATES for an adventurous west coast run that will take us through Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, California, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri. Don't miss us in your town, who knows when we'll be back? Click HERE for show dates.

In other news getting 6 people to take to the road in a tour van is no small task but we are up for the challenge. Unfortunately our drummer Rick Murawski cannot make this trip but we have secured the talents of former Gin Palace Jester Mike Medina to come with us. Mike Medina started in as a Jester back in 2002 on rhythm guitar and moved to the drum kit and appears on our debut CD playing both and also adding many a fine harmony vocal. Mike has been drumming with Chris "Sugarballs" Sprague in his 18 Wheelers band and also plays in numerous other eclectic projects including playing vibes in a Cuban Jazz combo. We'll continue to gig with Rick until we leave and pick up with him upon our return.

Mike Medina returns!

Happy NEW Year! OK ok ok...now that the bugs are getting worked out in computer land, we promise to have some new photos up here in the next few days, an updated gig page along with tour dates for a late February and early March run out through the United States west and southwest hitting Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, California, Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri. We will also be reporting on the progress of our newest CD project and all that business. Sorry for all the trouble but a little ol' hillbilly band like ours doesn't have millions of dollars to throw at a problem, we gotta roll up our sleeves and do the dirty work ourselves. Most of you folks know what we are talking about. Check back in a few days.

Say hi to us over at http://www.myspace.com/ginpalacejesters which is the only message board we have since the spammers killed our old message board.

It's been a LONG while since any news has made it to this webpage. We apologize but due to a fatal computer hard drive death, all access to this web page was LOST and the webmaster had no way of connecting to update. A new computer was purchased and new software, etc. Anyway...WE ARE BACK ON THE AIR!

Meet our drummer Rick Murawski as there is a nice writeup on him concerning his Environmental Protection Agency activities in Wisconsin and a nice Gin Palace Jesters' mention as well. You have to scroll down to page 6 to find Rick. Click HERE or copy paste the address below into your address bar.

http://www.epa.gov/Region5/sites/foxriver/pdf/foxrivercurrent_final_novdec2005.pdf

We've finally posted some NEW PICS of the band at Cantigney park bandshell.

We've been informed of a video of the Gin Palace Jesters performing the original western swingin' "Lover Not A Fighter" from their Green Bay Festival appearance in 2005 at You Tube. Click here to go check it out.

Maybe we can imbed?

Dang...where HAS this summer gone to? It's nearly half over and we haven't posted any news in a while. For that we apologize. We have been gigging like crazy (with many members of the organization being in multiple bands to pay the bills) and writing new tunes and working on arrangements for our upcoming CD. As you know we did the old shuffle-roo with the steel man Gabe joining up and the addition of the lovely red head gal Fiddlin' Katie and they have endured trial by fire in a Gin Palace Jesters' uniform. We recently got back into the studio to continue working on our second CD and the only real "news" to report is we have been doing all the unglamorous hard work necessary to ensure our live shows and recordings are as top notch as we can make them. We are just keepin' on keepin' on.

New pictures are on their way we promise. We have to wade through alot of stuff and the webmasters' scanner died and a replacement wasn't free! They are on their way.

Say hi to us over at http://www.myspace.com/ginpalacejesters which is the only message board we have since the spammers killed our old message board.

We lost another one: Listen you people...be careful on the highways! We will miss you Billy but you will live on forever in Country Carnival re-runs.

FT. DEPOSIT, Ala. - Billy Walker, the Grand Ole Opry legend whose hits included "Charlie's Shoes" and "Cross the Brazos at Waco," died in a wreck along an Alabama interstate on Sunday. He was 77. Killed in the wreck were Bettie Walker, 61; and Charles Lilly Jr. 44, both of Hendersonville, Tenn., and Daniel Patton Sr., 40, of Hermitage, Tenn. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060522/ap_en_mu/obit_walker_9

My space is taking OVER THE WORLD. But hey...it's a great place to meet folks without getting 10 zillion spam emails (like our old message board) and WE have joined the party. Visit us at My Space by going to the following: http://www.myspace.com/ginpalacejesters

Lot's of news to report, the good, the bad and the ugly.

First...Bad News. Sometimes playing music is a bit like running a baseball team with trades, contract negotiations and waivers and a triple AAA farm system and this is no exception. So here it is...Our loveable cuddly huggable pedal steel man of 3 years and writer of sad songs Buddy Carter is leaving the Gin Palace Jesters. Buddy is a heck of a score and is an in demand player and has been so busy gigging with other acts including Tin Horse that we've had to amicably part ways. Buddy has been a Cousin to everybody and we are going to miss Cousin Buddy and wish him the best of luck in his endeavors. Thanks for the memories Buddy especially seeing you eat Indian food in Germany...priceless!

Second...Good News. Never to leave a band he likes in want for a steel man, the very capable, talented and musical possessor of a twin neck Sho-Bud pedal steel guitar, MISTER Gabriel Stutz has stepped out of the dugout and picked up a bat to hit a homerun! ( note: this is baseball lingo for our overseas friends) Gabriel has been making hearts break with his instrument in Chicago based Fulton County Line and has gigged as a Gin Palace Jester before so we leave the steel duties to him with complete confidence. Gabriel is going to play the next long string of shows and we hope he likes it enough to stick around for a while. Either way he'll have stories to tell his Grandkids.

Gabriel Stutz on his double 8 Sho-Bud.

Third...More Good News. Our quest for a permanent fiddle player may have come to an end. Recently Gin Palace Jesters' Ken Mottet and Pennsylvania Dave went to see the legendary Ray Price and his Cherokee Cowboys play music here in Chicago. Afterwords a bunch of folks gathered at a local tavern for a malted beverage and Dave was talking to a nice young couple, Drew and Katie, who also enjoyed the show when the topic turned to Ray's triple fiddles and how good they sounded. At this point Katie offered that she has played for 15 years. No sooner said than done, Katie Schadegg was auditioned and passed with flying colors. She's still getting up to speed on all the tunes but expect her debut sooner than later at a Honkytonk near you! Ken for one is very relieved he no longer will have to shoulder the sole burden of being known as "the sexy one"!

Self described "Hard Headed Gal" - Fiddlin' Katie Schadegg

The Gin Palace Jesters are so very sad to report the news of the death of a HUGE country legend Mr. Buck Owens died at age 76. The inventor of the Bakersfield sound and inspiration to so many musicians including us. You will be missed Buck. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060325/ap_en_tv/obit_owens

For those of you Gin Palace Jesters' fans in the know, you are hep to the fact we have built a silly on stage gag known as the "Honkytonk Legend Go Round," the purpose of which is to add some fun into our shows in an effort to control the rowdy drunken country music fans (of which we so PROUDLY serve!) by making a random game out of shouts of "HEY....PLAY SOME HANK WILLIAMS!!!! ROOOTIE TOOTIE!" and so forth. We break out the Honkytonk Legend Go Round, an audience member spins it and possibly wins beautiful prizes and we play a song by a country music legend. Well....This past weekend, Ken and Dave ran into Ray Price and the Cherokee Cowboys and we got Ray to autograph the Honkytonk Legend Go Round right under his picture and next to Hank Thompson's autograph. Look out Carl Smith, Buck Owens and George Jones...we're a gunnin' for you next! Thanks Drew and Katie for the photo. Thanks Ken and Mary for taking some snap shots. Here they are, Ken and Dave with Ray Price.

Ken and Dave approach Ray in the autograph line... Dave gives Ray the the 15 second explanation of what the hell he is about to sign.

Ray goes at it with out hesitation

Thanks for being a good sport Ray and thanks for all the GREAT music. www.raypricefanclub.net

We will miss Don Knotts so MUCH!

There is an interview posted on this website that Gin Palace Jesters' long legged guitar pickin' man and singer Dave Sisson conducted with Southern and Rocking Magazine mastermind Marc Fenech. Click here to read it.

Happy New Year to you all except the Serbs and the Chinese, your's New Year happens later doesn't it? It's been a while since we've posted any news and you know what??? We never did post any new photos because the webmaster's scanner had a serious malfunction! We hope to have that corrected but this means tossing money at the problem.

The members of the Gin Palace Jesters are all busy musicians but lately not very busy as the Gin Palace Jesters. The fellas have been gigging with other acts on occasion and the band is continuing to work on tracks for a new cd recording which is coming along rather nicely. We are also going through a period of "woodshedding" as it's called in the business. Practice makes perfect and perfection is the goal.

We are working on adding some new photos of the past few shows. It's been a while since we've posted anything new but we are working on it. Check back in a few days.

Welcome our website to all who have arrived to our site from Gapersblock. Howdy! http://www.gapersblock.com/transmission/archives/the_gin_palace_jesters/index.php Thanks ks.

The Gin Palace Jesters have begun recording tracks for a new (our 2nd) CD release. Things are well under way and sounding good. We'd like to publicly thank Mr. Mike Sharp, engineer extraordinaire for his talents, and also send a thank you out to Steve Koch, guitar collecter and disciple of Doc Watson for lending us some fancy guitars to use. Thanks fellas.

The Gin Palace Jesters also need to thank Jimmy Sutton and Deke Dickerson for picking up the uniform shirts Buddy left southern Germany. Thanks for returning those to us and thanks to the promoters for holding on to them for us. Unbelievable!

The Gin Palace Jesters are gearing up to head back into the studio in October to record 8 or so songs for our second release. We have some real fine original tunes we have been playing at our live dances and shows and may dig into the hillbilly hit parade and dig out a classic nugget as well.

There is a new cd release by some Chicago based country talent the Long Gone Lonesome Boys worth checking out. The Gin Palace Jesters' own Casey Stockdon played upright bass on every track and "Pennsylvania" Dave Sisson made a brief guitar appearance on one track along with the Hoyle Brothers' Brian Wilke on pedal steel and Lance Helgeson on drums and some fine playing by long time Chicago talent John Rice. We congratulate the Long Gone Lonesome Boys and wish them the best of luck!

Speaking of the Hoyle Brothers, we will be playing a few shows with them in Wisconsin so check the shows page for more info.

Due to excessive spamming on our guestbook, we are thinking of shutting the damn thing down unless someone out there knows how to stop this madness! Email us if you know what we can do, this is beyond our capabilities. We are musicians not technocrats damnit!

We have set up an official Gin Palace Jesters email system to inform folks about what we are doing and when we are doing it. If you want us to send you emails containing news, upcoming show information and amusing tales of our strange activities sign up here.

Here is a link to pictures of the Gin Palace Jesters playing De Kroeg in Geldrop, Holland. http://www.prutten.photosite.com/geldrop/

On this day we remember.

Dear friends...the world we live in is nothing but a big family and we are saddened to hear of the passing of one of our family members and true country music legend, Vassar Clements. His tools were a fiddle and a bow and he can be heard on more legendary recordings than you can imagine. He was unique and talented and a tale of his wacky exploits coincidentally came up in one of our band practice conversations on the very day of his passing. We offer our condolences to the family of Vassar yet rejoice in the music he left behind.

http://vassarclements.com/

Casey Stockdon, upright bassist has made a travel log of the recent tour in Europe which has been published in an online magazine The Week Behind. You may read what he wrote (some conspiracy theorists claim it is a sanitized version!) which is quite humorous and pulls no punches. We hope noone is offended as it was written to ENTERTAIN and not offend. Click here.

Here is a web link to pictures of the Gin Palace Jesters in Spain. http://home.zonnet.nl/johnlucy . We will soon have our photos up on this site. SOON, we promise. Like...one more day maybe.

We welcome any new visitors who have stumbled to this corner of the World Wide Web from our new affiliation with Soundclick We are glad to meet you.

We have begun packing our bags for our trip to Europe. The important news about this is our drummer Rick Murawski has WISELY decided his place is at home right now helping out with them three kiddos including that new born baby and will not be joining us this time. For those of you who have children you understand how rough life can get with babies waking up at all times of the night. We naturally respect this decision and Rick will pick up with us upon our return home. Rick sends his regrets along.

To fill the drumming void while in Europe we have procured the talents of multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, band leader, label mate and friend: Randy Rich. Randy is originally from East Germany (when there was an East Germany) and he will not only be drumming for us while we are in Europe but will also handily act as our translator, driver and tour coordinator while we explore the continent like babes in the woods. We are confident Randy will literally do a bang up job for us.

Dave wants any GPJ fans to know he is packing his football boots (ah that's soccer shoes for you Americans) and hopes to get in a friendly match somewhere for an exercise break from all that sedentary traveling in mechanized contraptions. Click Here for our two week European tour schedule.

There are some new photos of the Gin Palace Jesters at the week long Rockin 50's music festival in Green Bay, Wisconsin including a few of some of the boys meeting Western Swing and Honkytonk legend Hank Thompson. Click Here

The Gin Palace Jesters have been working on a few brand new original songs and will attempt to record a few new tunes while they are in Europe in June.

There are over 40 new photos from the winter of 2005 up on this site including the first glimpses of the "Honkytonk Legend Go Round"

We will soon have an MP3 sound file of Dave and Casey on WLUW.

Thanks to Country Music in Britain for mentioning our little CD contribution to country music history.

Thanks to Ctrl Alt Country for putting us in your top 40 albums in heavy rotation. We are humbled to be recieving airplay among such great artists.

We just got word that Goldie Hill (The Golden Hillbilly) passed away February 24. Our condolences go out to Carl Smith and family. Goldie sure was a beautiful lady.

Thanks to XM Satellite Radio-Channel 12 country music X program for playing some Gin Palace Jesters' music.

There's a slew of last minute changes to our shedule for March around our home base of Chicago. Don't forget to check the upcoming show's page and come see us play.

There is a very nice new review of our cd by the folks at Take Country Back. Thanks!

Our disc was also picked as one of the top 30 new discs by the folks at Milwaukee's WMSE (23rd to be exact). Thanks.

Thanks to Country Baer radio in Germany for giving us some spins.

Oooof! Our first really bad review...OUCH! Damn...that's it..We quit! We are gonna take our ball and GO HOME...boo hoo hoo...<sniff>

Translation we requested from below...
http://www.altcountry.nl
Gin Palace Jesters (2 1/2 stars out of 5)
You can reward almost every cd a with four stars, but the spoiled listener will not be convinced any longer. It´s getting even worse when the reviewer wants to make good friend with the record industry and bands. Or a reviewer who takes the easy way and write a dull review without any critical note. I read such kind of review somewhere on the net about Gin Palace Jesters, een sympathic combo from Chicago around singer/guitarplayer Dave Sisson, who plays original honkytonk and hillbilly music. They mix that style with some western swing. Honkytonk Fools is the appropriate title of their cd. About the music I told you already, the word Fool we can translate into love sorrow, like the old days of Hank Williams it´s still the best inspiration for a catching country song. The problem a bit with Honkytonk Fools is that after a sparkling start, the band starts sounding quite ordinary and you can count the crackling highlights on the fingers of one hand. Irritating is that the pedal steel plays not in key all the time. These minus points make that in the end Gin Palace Jesters can not prove their expectations. (Bart Ebisch)

Thanks to Cuzin' Dave of Cleveland's WRUW-FM 91.1 for keeping on the sunnyside and playing some Gin Palace Jesters music.

There is a push on by the family of the late Redd Stewart to get him admitted to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Redd penned many songs in his country music career but the most notable is his co-write of "Tennessee Waltz" with Pee Wee King. That alone ought to be enough but in case it isn't, click here to sign an email petition for Redd. DO IT!

Happy friggin New YEAR!!! There is a new cd review courtesy of Americana-UK online music magazine which we have posted on our cd reviews page.

Since the sad demise of the Ray Price clock we as an organization will soon be revealing a brand new stage gag. That is all we can say for now as it is very top secret-hush-hush and on the QT.

Our sympathies go to the families of two Gin Palace Jesters' influences who have recently passed on to the land beyond the sunset: Hank "Sugarfoot" Garland and Mack Vickery. RIP

Attention Springfield, IL...The Gin Palace Jesters show has been cancelled. We will not be there and are rescheduling for March some time. Kenneth Brian will still be playing on January 15 but we will not. Rest assured we will be back soon however.

Thanks to Kam Loops Radio in British Columbia, Canada for spinning our music!

There are some NEW photos from our December gig at the Big C Jamboree up to view on our photos page.

Thanks to Oscar Hox for broadcasting Gin Palace Jesters' music from the KFJC 500 watt transmitter located on Black Mountain, in the Montebello Open Space Preserve, south of Los Altos, California.

Thanks also to Third Coast Music Network for declaring our music fit for public consumption and giving it some air time in the ether above San Antonio, Texas.

The Gin Palace Jesters had some new publicity photos taken and we promise to put the non-embarrassing ones up in our photos section soon including a higher resolution file that will be of printable quality. We also thank all who came out to see us play with Wayne Hancock this past Thursday evening. We will soon have some photos to post of that event as well.

The Gin Palace Jesters' are NOW providing several COMPLETE tracks on sound wave files from our debut CD "Honkytonk Fools" for you to hear free of charge! Thasssright! We're GIVING THEM AWAY...Well, not giving them away exactly. In a shrewd and risky business move, we are allowing you to hear them on this website only, right now, for free on our Music Page. Just like Kenny Rogers , from top to bottom, the Gin Palace Jesters' corporate machine are gamblers right to the end!!!

The Gin Palace Jesters have invaded the airwaves of the Italian "boot" thanks to Massimo Ferro and his Highway 61 radio program playing Americana Roots music. Thank you Massimo!

Gin Palace Jesters-Album of the week in Ireland

Sounds from the New West
Joe Vincent
E-Mail JR_Radio@HotMail.com
Post Box 39,
Waterford. IRELAND.

JRRI is a free radio station.
Sounds from the New West features C&W, Folk, Gospel,blues, rock, Irish
Album of the week
GIN PALACE JESTERS
Honkytonk Fools
Rhythm Bomb Records

Thanks to Radio Faroe Islands - Petur Rouch for giving us some spins as well as James Pearson from Scotland's BBC Radio Shetland for the same. We sure do appreciate it. Also to whom ever is broadcasting our music in Iceland. Yeah...that's right. Iceland!

Gin Palace Jesters-GONE (Dave Sisson-Keystone Cowboy Songs-BMI) listed at #376 most played country song by European Country Music Association playlist for July 17, 2004. That's only 10 spots behind the Cherokee Cowboy, Ray Price! How cool is that? What...not impressed? HEY it's a list of TWO THOUSAND songs people...Jeez.

Thanks to the DJ's who are playing the music they WANT to play not the music they HAVE to play especially when it happens to be the Gin Palace Jesters! We say THANKS to:

-Sean Burns-Sangamon Valley Roots Revival-WQNA in Springfield, IL
-Lucien Knapen (Prof. Silvester) Radio Ariane-Belgium
-Gerd Stassen in the "Hillbilly Rockhouse" RADIO "EMS-VECHTE-WELLE", GERMANY
-Radio Winschoten- The Netherlands
-Bert van der Wijst-Peelstar Country Club-Netherlands
-Alain Demers-Frequence Mutine ( Country World )-Brest, France
-Erwin & Diny Schapendonk-(Country Style)-Helmond, The Netherlands
-Rolf Hierath-Radio RheinWelle-Germany
and all the other DJ's we don't know about. Thanks a heap!

We are going to be teaming up with the pride of Milwaukee for a few gigs this summer. Many fans of honkytonk and hillbilly around these parts already know who Hank Thomas is but for those that don't it'll be a special treat for you to find out. He's gonna be helping us out with some of our gigs and we are gonna be helping him out with some of his. You can hear him sing some of the great classics of the Country and Western Hit Parade on June 25th at the California Clipper.

We hear our CD is getting some European Radio Airplay and we thank those Disc Jockeys for giving our songs some spins. We sure do appreciate it. Here are the shows we know about and we are grateful!

Lots of news acruing this spring. First of all, the Gin Palace Jesters' debut CD "Honkytonk Fools" is OUT in Europe. We have been informed of some brisk sales out of the gate (like, not Brittney Spears sales figures big but... THANK GOD for that!!!). Anyway, like 350 in the first 10 days. That seems like a modestly good number for this little hillbilly band. So 350 people can't be wrong can they??? Well...can they? So maybe they can but believe us, this time they AIN'T damnit!

All this "success" is really too much for Mike Medina and he has decided to pursue his FAA/FCC mechanics job full tilt which as many of you know has made his drumming availability pretty scarce for Jestering with us... We really love Mike though we don't understand why he needs the comforts a "real" job will win him such as piles of money, food and lodging not to mention all the free air travel a human could ever want. He has decided to leave the group. Mike Medina had really hoped to play his very last show in Springfield, IL with us (as had the ladies of Springfield) and we wanted to make a big "ta-doo" about it. Unfortunately this was not meant to be as the airlines have switched his schedule on us all AGAIN and Mike won't be able to make it out. We will miss you Mike and we thank you for everything most specifically your sense of humor. Good luck Mike.

Enter drumming sensation Rick Murawski. Many might remember Rick as that low key guy drumming and singing that sweet third harmony in the wheelhouse of the DuValls a few years back though he has done much more than that. He is an old friend and a big fan of Western Swing, Honkytonk and Hillbilly music so he is already fitting right in with us. We are VERY excited to have his enthusiastic positive attitude and talents in our group. He makes his debut with us in Springfield May 22. When we can arrange it we will get his mug up on our website...and hey, don't call him Moose!

Finally, the "Mayor of Springfield" Mister Andon T. Davis will be sitting in with us at the Sangamon Valley Roots Revival in Springfield May 22nd as well. Andon is a GREAT guitar and mandolin picker and singer and his talents played a key role in the recent rising stardom of Anna Fermin's Trigger Gospel as well as The Riptones a few years before that. He also has performed and recorded with a TON of hillbilly and country outfits (Kelly Kessler, Sally Timms, Mars Arizona among others) and has been a behind the scene player in alot of this "insurgent country" stuff we all hear about. We hope some of you Springfielders will be out to see one of your own and a really talented great guy play with us. Ok he's not REALLY the mayor...that's just a phrase that pays.

WE are proud and excited to announce the good news that we have come to an agreement and signed up with the Hamburg, Germany based Rhythm Bomb Records label to release our debut CD!!! We are joining a fine family of talented European, American AND Australian country, rockabilly and hillbilly artists on the Rhythm Bomb label and we honestly do hope to get the opportunity to meet and play with every single one of the fine talents on the Rhythm Bomb label. Whatever happens, it's for sure we just took our first step toward having some more interesting stories to tell our grand-chilluns and we are THAT much closer to having our music get out to the people. It is now all in the hands of Rhythm Bomb. Email them and let 'em know how you feel!

OK, no...we haven't really been hibernating for winter although we wish that was the case. The real story of our inactivity of the fall and winter is actually alot more grim. Dave Sisson's mother Helene F. Sisson recently passed away from Cancer and he spent the fall and winter helping his sisters take care of her. Sorry the truth couldn't be more "fun" and naturally family turmoil takes precedence to music and the CD project had all been put on a holding pattern. Dave thanks everyone who sent their thoughts and prayers to his family during that rough time. The individual members have all kept busy playing for other musical acts around town and further afield with Casey playing with numerous Jazz and Bluegrass bands including the Grassland Quintet, Vernon Tonges, and let's not forget the cute as a bug Nicolle Wood, and Buddy sitting in with the Hushpuppies, Lone Star State and the Hoyle Brothers on occasion. Mike Medina remains a mystery wrapped inside of a riddle inside of an enigma but rumors have placed him on the West Coast playing music with Chris Sprague and Deke Dickerson and then seen in New York City drinking martinis at Les Paul's weekly gig. Dave has also been twanging with his old pals Three Blue Teardrops once in a while and acting as a hired gun for Andre Williams band and spends part of his time as one of Ken Mottet's "Western Casuals." Things are settling down now and the band is gearing up for hopefully a busy spring and summer.

Let's talk CD. The Gin Palace Jester's end of it is all done. It's recorded, mixed, mastered and the artwork is done. Last we knew the Hamburg, Germany based hillbilly label Rhythm Bomb Records still wanted to release it. We await the finalizing of that deal and all that is mostly being held up by the postal system as far as we can tell. It sounds pretty darn good we think and has 15 original songs, 12 penned by Dave Sisson, 2 by steel man Buddy Carter and 1 song by our pal of notoriety Ken Mottet. The disc has many notable guest stars and musicians such as "The Rockabilly Philly" Rosie Flores, Jason Carter from the Del McCoury Band, "Colonol" JD Wilkes from Those Legendary Shackshakers and Sean Mencher among others. When it is finally released we think you fans of Hillbilly and Honkytonk music will all will be pleased and we are very anxious to have it see the light of day.

We are in the process of putting the final touches on our latest recording session for our debut CD. We at first were a bit apprehensive these recordings (done here in our home base of Chicago) might not hold up to the stuff we recorded in Nashville back in April but those fears were quickly put to rest under the capable audio engineering care of Mr. Michael Sharp. Mr. Sharp really IS sharp at the helm of that board and many folks know Mike as the number one blonde soundman at what is generally regarded as possibly the greatest roadhouse for American Music in the entire United States of America, Fitzgerald's.We are very pleased to be working with Mike on our latest studio venture and we are very excited to put a CD of all original music out.

In further news, we originally intended on just self releasing our debut disc but in a surprise twist have been in talks with German based Rhythm Bomb Records to release it. Rhythm Bomb specializes in and has a passion for classic country, hillbilly, honkytonk and rockabilly music and we are pleased as punch to be associated with such a fine, musically passionate and upcoming label such as Rhythm Bomb Records. Things are still in developement but everything is looking pretty darn good from where we are sitting.

Thanks for all you fine folks that came out to our California Clipper gig and helped us pay tribute to some recently gone but not forgotten Country Music heroes. We did many many songs from the Johnny Cash catalog and payed homage to Floyd Tillman by doing a version of "Slippin' Around" that seemed to get the dancers moving pretty good. We also did the somber Tex Ritter tune "High Noon" to acknowlege the surprising loss of his son John Ritter. We didn't see that one coming. Thanks to Perry LaFine for sitting in on drums with us and covering for Mike "the mechanic" Medina and thanks also to Rick Veras for adding some great musical energy and fiddle to the evening. Boy howdy do we like playing with that guy. If anyone took pictures of the evening, email us some photos and we'll post 'em. Dave brought a camera but it just sat on his amp the entire night! Alot of good that does huh?

We are now preparing to go back into the studio to record some more original songs for our debut CD. This will be happening in the next few weeks through the latter part of September. We also have some MP3 samples of our Nashville sessions coming SOON to this website. We think VERY soon. Uh...as SOON as we can figure that out! <fingers crossed>

Word just came to GPJ-HQ about the passing of country music legend Johnny Cash. We mourn his loss to the music world and are grateful for his great songs which will undoubtedly live on. We will dress all in black to pay homage to this man at our show at Chicago's California Clipper tomorrow evening-Saturday September 13th. We hope to see many old and new faces there and will dip into the Man In Black's song catalog more than once. Our condolences go out to surviving Cash family members for the loss of their patriarch.

Not going unnoticed by us was also the recent passing of Honkytonk Pioneer Floyd Tillman. He drove that final nail and we better sing a coupla his tunes too. RIP Mr. Tillman.

To those of you that saw us play at the Abbey Pub with the Legendary Shackshakers, we hope you didn't get any ketchup on your duds! How 'bout them boys huh? If that Colonel J.D. ain't careful he's gonna end up dying on stage like Onie Wheeler.Thanks to Donnie Briggs and his hot guitar rounding out the Jester's sound that night. We were in sort of a pickle there what with Mike's new schedule and all and did what we had to do on short notice. Donnie did a helluva job on Hawkshaw Hawkins' "Ain't Goin' Honkytonkin' Anymore" didn't he? Now if Dave could only remember all 49 verses!

We are slowly but surely plodding toward our goal of finishing our CD. See...things got a bit complicated due to circumstances beyond our control and our sessions in Nashville resulted in 10 good songs for us to release. The tracks are done and they sound great but we just don't think that's enough for a full length CD so are therefore going BACK into the studio here in our home base of Chicago to record some more to add to the Nashville tracks. This time we have the double threat Rick Veras on our team to add some fiddle and mandolin where needed so we are expecting some good results from that. We hope to release it before Armageddon comes!

Speaking of Rick Veras, he will be joining us for our next two shows at Foodlife and the California Clipper so come on out and check out the Gin Palace Jesters. Check the shows page for more info.

Fate has dealt us a cruel blow! As many of you know Mike Medina is a mild mannered FAA and FCC airline mechanic by day and recently started working out at O'Hare Airport which operates "Twenty Four-Seven". Unfortunately for Mike and for the Gin Palace Jesters, he has no seniority and drew a very unlucky shift working for the next 3 months from 2:00pm-12:30am Saturdays-Wednesdays, obviously a schedule that is not very conducive to a musical lifestyle, but hey...a guy's gotta eat! This means he won't be able to play any afternoon or evening gigs with us other than Thursday or Friday for a while (we think) so we will have to find some replacements on a few gigs coming up this fall. He will however remain a member of the band practicing with us, gigging on a limited basis and we'll all keep our fingers crossed his schedule clears up soon. We plan on using this time creatively to learn some new tunes and to do some more recording. We will however continue to play out locally as this here town of Chicago is ripe with some seriously ass kickin' musicians. Original Gin Palace Jester drummer Perry LaFine (1999-2000) will be joining us as Mike's fill in for our California Clipper show on September 13th. You can find out about Perry's credentials on the Riptones website.

For those of you that came out and saw us at our Navy Pier show you might have noticed a bit of a "different" looking and sounding Gin Palace Jesters. Mike Medina was a beatin' on the skins at that show and really did a bang up job (pun intended) as drums are an instrument Mike is noted for playing. What happened to James Ventrella you ask? James is doing fine but in the interest of pursuing other passions has parted ways with the Gin Palace Jesters. It is our sincere hope he will restart his Ventrella record label and somehow find time to get the Leslie Smith Combo back together as we all miss seeing that group together and hearing that gal belt out a few numbers.

Also of note was the addition of fiddle and mandolin player Rick Veras at the Navy Pier show. We invited Rick to sit in with us and Rick did a fantastic job playing all them Tommy Jackson fiddle parts on the shuffles and then turned around and did some killer Western Swing fiddle that had people stopped in their tracks at the Pier. As if that weren't enough he added some hot mandolin pickin' when Dave decided to sing the somewhat obscure Johnny Horton historical saga "Jim Bridger" and then Rick made the folks listening get all misty eyed adding some nice moods on the old heartbreaking Ernest Tubb waltz "Warm Red Wine."

Who was beatin' on acoustic guitar then you ask? Well...Dave was jumping back and forth from acoustic to electric at that show and for the most part it worked pretty well. I guess all this change really reinforces the fact that change is a certainty and this band is no exeption. What hasn't changed however is the Gin Palace Jester's commitment to provide high quality hard hitting hillbilly honkytonk music no matter who is up there wearing that Jester plaid. Come on out and see us at the Abbey Pub when we play with the Legendary Shackshakers and the Hoyle Brothers on Saturday August 23. We have invited original Gin Palace Jester (1999-2000) Donnie Briggs and his hot guitar to sit in on that one so it should be interesting.

First off, let's start with what you've all been waiting for...the record. You all will be as thrilled as we are to hear that Dave and Buddy will be heading back down to Nashville for a trip to Roswell East Studios to put some finishing touches on our record. They'll be down there over the weekend of July 25th, so if you're in Nashville and feel like drinking with some Chicago honky-tonk fools, let 'em know!

The Jesters just got back from our state's capitol, Springfield, IL where we played for Sean and Jamie Burns' Rooftop RootsFestival. Man, what a gas! The Burnses, who are just about the nicest folks you'd ever want to meet, put on this show of their own accord way up on the rooftop of the Springfield Hilton's parking garage! We rubbed elbows and guitars with the likes of the Tarbox Ramblers , RogerWallace, Big Al Downing and Junior Brown. A show like this had our collective honky-tonk hearts a-beating like crazy. There was music, barbeque, beer, honky-tonk angels and a warm star-lit night...what more could we ask for?

Well, after the rooftop portion of the evening ended (11:30pm), the Gin Palace Jesters were called upon to regale the still-partying crowd to even more honky-tonk hillbilly good times until 3:00am in the Underground Lounge, the lower-level hotel tavern. It sure looked like a packed house to us, so we tried our darndest and we think it worked out pretty well. Our good friend, the incredibly talented Bradley Scott Ber, played upright bass with us that night and it went off without a hitch. He even played the bass upside down, and after the set was over in the wee hours, treated the crowd to his freestyle rap skillz under his infamous alter ego M.C. Bootyslappa, with Dave thumping the old-school bass and Mike laying down the phat beatbox sounds. Roger Wallace and his band got up to do a couple of numbers and damn near blew us back to Chicago. Thanks, Roger, for showing us how to do it right! We had way too much fun and would love to do it again!

After the 3-hour ride home on Sunday, Dave and Mike filled in for Torturing Elvis (which features our old singer Remi Gits) over at their weekly SmokeDaddy gig, beating their heads together to come up with three hours of music, unrehearsed! Two guitars, two mics, one mic stand, two high and lonesome voices, three hours of sleep and absolutely no set list...we hope it wasn't TOO bad, folks! Our local friends were there along with an old pal of ours, Mr. Stuart Sanders, in from Nashville. If you were down in Indianapolis for the Rockabilly Rebel Weekender , you'll know Stu as "The Sound Man." We got him up to do a few numbers and he brought the house down! Legendary Chicago musician and luthier Rockin' Billy Harndin was also in attendence and he sure helped out a lot singin' and pickin' while Dave and Mike tried to remember words, chords, and what the hell the next song was supposed to be.

By the way, it's quite hard to take photos of yourself while you're on stage playing, so if you have any photos and want to share, e-mail them to us. Thanks a million to everyone who's done so thus far!

So we all drove back to Chicago just in time to soundcheck and tune for our appearance at the Chicago Country Music Fest in Grant Park. The weather couldn't have been nicer, and the crowd there was big and appreciative, too. Thanks to the two steppers for entertaining us. Add to that the smell of food drifting over from the Taste Of Chicago and you've got the makings of one good day in the park.

Thanks to David Loehr for having us play in Indy, and thanks to the Mayors Office of Special Events and Rank Entertainment for arranging for us play in Grant Park. We had a great time.

By the way, if you've got photos from this weekend you want to share with us on the
website, you can e-mail them to us and we'd love to put them up. We forgot our dang camera! Drop by and say hello on our guestbook too.