---

TricksBlog Early 2019

Blog - July 2019
<sup>July 6 - Third Annual Jam N The Cove, Lake Allegan



Might as well keep a good thing going. The first two years were a roaring success; let's try it again. To go over the basic story; Back in the summer of 2015, Keith Dawson did some drywall and tile work for Rick & Krys. Keith charged a very unreasonbly low price for the work, so Rick insisted on doing some bartering. "How about if Krys & I play a party for you, for free"? Since Keith is a construction contractor, he loved the idea of throwing a Christmas party for his employees and sub-contractors in early December. After Keith committed to the idea of a December party in his basement, Rick suggested making it a Tricks Lite party, with Steve on Edrums and Ozzy on bass. The party was an awesome get-together with lots of drinking and dancing and socializing. The day after that party, Rick came over to pack it all up, and Keith had an inspiration. "We should do this two or three times a year, every year. We could do one in the summer outdoors and one in the winter in the basement, and maybe one more in between". The following year and Christmas came and went, with no more parties planned by Keith. It was early 2017 when Keith was working on Tim and Sandy Miller's house at Indian Shores. When Rick happened to bump into Tim at a little neighborhood party, Rick said to Tim, "when you see Keith, tell him he's all talk". When Tim asked what that was about, Rick explained the story about Keith saying "we should do this ... every year". Tim texted Keith right then and there. The next day Rick's phone rang and it was Keith. Keith had the idea to do a "Jam N The Cove" at the little cove by his house, where all the cool boaters congregate regularly. He thought we could have a free-for-all afternoon jam session out on the sandbar near the entrance to the cove. Then later in the evening we would have grills set up onshore at the cove and the Tricks band would be ready to go after dinnertime. We've been lucky all three years, with great hot weather for an outdoor party. Thanks to Tim and Keith, and property owner Joe, and various helpers. Thanks to all the party people who came out to hang and bang with Tricks. This year we spiced up our show with an appearance by our guest vocalist, Don Welsh. Don sang a few Bob Seger songs, as well as some Bryan Adams, Kenny Wayne Sheppard, and Ted Nugent. Grrreat job, Don! See Don's video below (and last but not least; Steve's In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida drum solo).</sup>

---

Blog - June 2019
<sup>June 2 - Taylor's Grad Party, Steve's Backyard, Dorr

We call Dorr "The Heart of Tricks Country". We also call Steve's house in Dorr "Tricks International Headquarters". The reason for that is that Tricks has been rehearsing in Steve's basement for decades. That means we have come home to roost when we play a party in Steve's backyard. We have lots of family and friends in the Dorr area. So, why not play a grad party for Steve's grand-daughter Taylor? Tricks played grad parties for all three of Steve's daughters, why not play for his grandkids as well. It's a Family Tradition. Steve plays the electronic drums for a couple reasons - to keep the noise down for the neighbors and to make his set-up and tear-down a lot easier. Steve has a lot of jobs going all at once with a yard full of people to feed and entertain. Anyway, I've mentioned before that we prefer playing for family and friends milestones like birthdays, graduations, weddings, and anniversaries. It's an honor to be part of these "Celebrate Life" festivities. Thanks to Steve and Tammy for having us. Best of luck to Taylor in her post high-school adventures.</sup>

---

Blog - April 2019
<sup>April 19 - Dorr Moose Lodge

This was our first Tricks show at the Dorr Moose in several years. Good Friday seemed like a risky day to ask a crowd to come out, and sure enough, the room was not very full. It doesn't help that the Moose enforces a pretty strict "Members Only " policy. We were happy with the sound of the room and the members who hung out with us. A small handful of Tricks regular fans showed up to give us some dancing action - Thank You The biggest and best surprise was seeing Tom & Fran there, since Fran has been in and out of the hospital for the past year or so. They have been Tricks' top "regulars" - Since we met them just five years ago, I doubt if they missed more than five or six Tricks shows - that is, until Fran started having serious health problems last year. Besides the moral support and love, we always like to talk Tom into taking some pictures for us. Tom often has his good camera in his car, but he also uses our cheapy camera like we talked him into doing tonight. Thanks for the pics, Tom. So good to see you there. Also, thanks to Rocking Rhonda and Todd, who drove out to Dorr to hang with us. Thanks to the Moose for having Tricks. Hopefully we can book some more shows at our new home in Dorr.</sup>

---

Blog - March 2019
^{Mar 8 & 9 - Wayland Hotel}

This was basically our "Coming Out" party for 2019. Tricks normally takes a "Winter Break" in Steve's basement, and learns at least a dozen new classic tunes. This year, we had a situation where Steve was seriously thinking of hanging up his sticks for good. The Dick's Market store is going to need a new owner in a few years when Steve retires from that work, and Steve says he needs to concentrate on getting the store's business onto a more upward slant so it will look good to prospective buyers in a few years. So, part of the deal for Steve staying on another year was the offer of "no winter break in Steve's basement". That makes the entire household happy, not having to put up with our big noise two or three times a week for 9 or 10 weeks. The bottom line? No new songs. But, we certainly shifted our setlists around for our pseudo Coming Out. We have plenty of neglected songs that haven't been in the list for many months. We had a decent Friday and Saturday at the Hotel for this first weekend of 2019. By the way, it looks like Josh the owner is thinking seriously of dropping the live music. Seems like a trend, eh? Crurrently, the Wayland Hotel is our last venue where we are playing Friday & Saturday weekends. Everything else is one-nighters. Lots of work to set up and play and tear down all in one day. We don't usually accept a gig if we can't set up the night before. Guess we'll see what happens next year in Wayland. Like I've always said, there will always be live music somewhere. when one or two places stop the live music, there are a couple new places starting up. Plus, we always have said that we'd like to be done with the long hours at the bars, getting home at 2 or 3AM, and replace that with early-hours at clubs and parties. It looks like that's what is happening all by itself.

---

Blog - February 2019
^{Feb 16 - Birthday Party for Mike at Dorr Legion}

Tricks normally has our winter break during January and February. It's not much of a "break" because we spend lots of hours working on some new tunes for our Classic Rock repertoire. We don't want to bore our fans or ourselves by playing the same songs every year, over and over. We usually add between 10 and 20 songs. This winter is different because Steve is looking at hanging up his drum sticks. Part of the agreement to keep Steve onboard with Tricks; we agreed to drop the winter break and give everyone a chance to concentrate on our families, our jobs, and other projects.
In early January, Steve got a request for Tricks to play for a birthday party at the Dorr Legion Hall. Since that hall is only a half mile from Steve's house, it was going to be an easy job. The Feb 16 date was already blocked out in Krystal's calendar, for an up-North weekend with her girlfriends. We ended up doing a "Boys Only" Tricks show. We only know about 140 songs, and we can't do about 60 of those songs without Krys helping out with lead singing and back-up harmony singing. That leaves around 90 songs for Steve and Rick to sing lead on. Lots of ZZ Top, George Thorogood, Stones, Skynyrd, Dire Straits, ... plenty of party tunes for drinking and dancing.
A fun time was had by all. Although we missed Krystal in the vocal department, we still has lots of power in the guitar, bass, and drums department. Lots of good friends and family, young and old. Plenty of food and drinks. Plenty of dancing and rocking with Tricks. Thanks to everyone who helped put on this party for Mike's birthday.
Steve names some names:
Birthday boy Mike & Denise Stebbins sent another deep appreciation text to Tricks yesterday.
Greg Potter ran the 50/50 to help them offset party expenses, no idea who the winners were.
Kitchen help incl. Brenda Dickman, Gail Potter, Joe VanWagner.
Volunteer Bartender Pat Pustay.

---

Blog - December 2018
^{Dec 31 - Allegan Eagles New Year's Eve Party}

Tricks claims Allegan as our "home away from home", after Dorr and Wayland as towns that are close to our heart. Allegan is where we got our "better half" from the Opus band (in the 80s and early 90s), with Alleganites Dale Boysen and Tom Hudson coming directly from the Opus band to the Tricks band's Dutkiewicz brothers, Steve and Rick. Dale and Tom taught Rick and Steve how to do Southern Rock, Country Rock, and Blues Rock. In turn, Steve & Rick taught Dale and Tom a thing or two about British Rock and Progressive Rock. That all blended into our history and you can hear it in today's Tricks sound. Whenever we play in Allegan, that Opus band history comes washing over us, and we can't help but play some Lynyrnd Skynyrd and some ZZ Top, in memory of "what Allegan has taught us". And the Allegan dancers and head-bangers show their rock n roll spirit. This NYE Eagles party was one for the history books. Nothing but fun, fun, and more fun. As soon as Rick & Krys walked in, Steve said, "there's a Great crowd of people here". In a morning-after email to the band, Steve said, "Glad to see that packed house last night who partied until the end. Much better than many bars we've played on NYE. Like you said in your last blog, Tricks has found folks that suit us well at the Clubs. I know it always makes a big difference for me with energy when the crowd is even a little responsive."
Speaking of Tricks sound, we would be remiss if we didn't mention a HUGE milestone for Tricks: this New Year's Eve marks the end of Ozzy's EIGHT YEARS with Tricks. Jan 1, 2019 begins Ozzy's 9th year with Tricks. Only one bass player has been with us longer, the aforementioned Tom Hudson, from Allegan's "Opus" band.

All Hail the great John "Ozzy" Bosscher! Thumping for 8 Years with Tricks. So far...

The Allegan crowd did not disappoint. Nothing but love, love, and more love. Lots of dancing action, lots of hugs, lots of friends and family getting together to ring in 2019.
In a morning-after email to the band, Rick wrote, "Great job. Proud of my band. Glad Steve is staying on for another year or so.
Happy 8 years with Ozzy. Starting year 9. Wow! Thanks for putting up with us for so long.

My neighbors were the last table to leave. They were making plans for the Jam N the Cove party this coming summer.
Joe the property owner was there and gave his okay. Tim Miller texted Keith Dawson, and they are the top 2 who put money into the party planning. That whole table was just raving about what a fun and kick-ass band Tricks is. Let's keep working to live up to that expectation." .