Hot August Nights 2001

Here I am about to attend another Hot August Nights event in Reno, Nevada in early August 2001. I've regrown my beard since the 1998 show. Instead of going as a punk, I'm going as, umm, hum. Let me get back to you on that.

I'm playing a "gut bucket", which is a single stringed bass you play by plucking the string (made of clothesline) and adjusting the tension of the upright (made of a broom handle). This particular beauty was made by those Cremonese artisans, Cyril C. Armstrong and Robert Sampson and with the technical advice of the master gutbuckista Susie Sampson. They tell me that choosing the right varnish (not to mention the right Rustoleum (TM)) is the key to getting that distinctive sound.

That's a 1959 'vette in the background, by the way.