After Chip left the band we just stayed as a trio for a while. The money was better for us and way easier to manage. So it was Vern, Romeo and myself. We rolled like that for a while and then another harp player showed up. DC Black I met when I was playing with Yo and DeCats. Raised in Oxford Miss. he hung out with some old local blues guys until he bought land in N. Idaho and moved out here. He played in the Yo band for a while and then parted ways and I didn't see him for a few years. He had a way of moving in and out of the spotlight. After a while Vern parted ways with the band and in came Steve Nelson. He was a rock drummer from the scene and just got done with a band called OK Fine. Heavy groove and full of rhythm he was a push that I needed to go a little further. We started to write songs and performed them in our shows. He let me know I was a good player and to not be so hard on myself. I needed that after Chip leaving the band. Chip didn't crush my ego but there was a hole there I was having a hard time filling. There's only one Jellyman. I had a bit of self doubt for a while and Steve helped me get over that. I still appreciate that vote of confidence. Then I got ahold of Eddie White to run the sound for us and we always sounded real good. He wasn't a party animal like me so he made sure I made it home after the gig safe and sound. I remember when we would go on a road trip usually Steve would sit in the front seat whlie Eddie was driving. He would gently rock the van back and forth causing a sleeping Steve to bob form side to side and every now and then when Steve was rocking toward the passenger window Ed would give the van a little harder turn and Steve would bump his head on the window and wake up. Eddie and I would be laughing like school kids and Steve would raise a hand like he was going to smack him. We played lots of pranks on each other laughing the whole way. One night in the hotel after a gig Eric decided to pester the big guy (Steve). After a while he got annoyed with it and grabbed me by my ankles, lifted me upside down and threatend  to throw me off the balcony. Whiskey can be fun at times but I don't remember most of what happened. I was always reminded though!!!! My attitude was "where is the whiskey, roll me joint Eddie and get me to the next gig". All else was heresay. Funk the dumb stuff as Tower of Power would say! Eddie and I would gauge how far we traveled by how many reefers it took to burn on the way. Seattle was 4 reefers. From Spokane and Sandpoint Idaho was 3 and so on. Which brings me to DC and his gracefull exit from the band. We were at the Fort Spokane Brewry rockin' the night away. Packed house! Two nights earlier I was burnin' a bowl with the band at rehearsal I think. I had a cold at the time and I got DC sick apperently. No one else did. So at the gig DC was complaining about not being able to sing. I told him I have had to sing sick before and to toughin' up. The show must go on! He didn't like that response. I had some sympathy and sang more tunes than usual and let him know how childish he was acting. So before the very next song he told the audience of his plight. Steve and I looked at each other in amazement and before he got done wineing we kicked off the next tune and Eddie muted his mic. That pissed him off and I told him if he's goin' to act that way then he can pack his shit and go home. Then I walked off the stage with my guitar (I had a wireless system for it) and went to the bar still playing and DC started off the stage after me. Before he got there Eddie jumped him and tackled him to the ground and the bouncers escorted him and his stuff out the door. I still love him as a brother but what a jack-ass move that was. I didn't shove the pipe in his mouth. That was the last I saw of him. Too bad too because we were in the studio recording an album and had a few cool songs he sang. I finshed it anyway but never released it. We ran out of money and I was heading to Seattle so what was the point. I'm rearranging some of the tunes and putting them on my next endevour.  So it wasn't a total waste. I Got Trouble the acoustic version that you hear on the Jukebox page was done in that session but that was the only thing I released from it. We continued to have a good following as a trio for a year or so until I made the move to Seattle. When I moved here I got to play with the best of the best  in Seattle. I filled in for the fabulous Fat James when he needed time off and played with Tracy Arrington (now in Curtis Salgado's band) and Chip Hart. Those guys were badass. I also played for Ron Ussery of Sweet Talkin' Jones for a while. Mark Whitman and I did some gigs together and I gained the respect of the Seattle players. The recording I did over hear was done In Rolf Larson's Studio with Pete the Beat from the Charles White Band(RIP BRO) and Laurie Miller. That was a good solid recording that I am very proud of. The coolest thing I did in Seattle is a band called Barfly. It was Pete the Beat, Bill Gurdis and my good friend Scott Lind from the CWB. WE WERE PLAIN BADASS! That band was incredible and we never rehearsed. It was a side thing for the CWB rhythm section and we played Old Timers on Tuesday nights and Larry's Greenfront on Mondays in Pioneer Square for 4+ years!. Scott and I worked incrediblly well together and Pete knew what we were going to do long before we did. The most solid groove I ever had. Those guys made me the player I am today. Pete showed me how to own a room when I walk in and not give it back until I leave the stage. He and Laurie Miller were in the JR Boogie band for a good while until Pete moved south. Then I took a leave of absense from music and started working union construction until the George Bush administration trashed the economy and I am collecting unemployment checks. There is no better time to start a band than now before work picks up. So this chapter of the story comes to an end and now we start a new adventure. The Dirty Rice phase begins now and it will be grand when it all works out. I'm a little older and wiser now and the music has matured. I have been working on my chops, learning and writing all kinds of new songs. I'm jacked!! Come along on the ride it will be fun!

JR Boogie (The Nelson and DC era)