Did I tell you the story about how Sean and I offered our drummer Jim at the crossroads?? Here is the story taken from the liner notes of our CD "Call Johnny Roy!!".... Rolling on into Mississippi from Memphis on Hwy61 at midnight...Driving past the brightly lit casino billboards advertising The Greatest Elvis Impersonator In The World! Driving a little deeper in and as the Delta gets flatter, the mood gets darker along with the road. Not really knowing, and often wondering - Where is that legendary intersection? could this be it up ahead? Wait, I thought I saw a dead bird at that last crossroads!....We keep pushing onward. Settling in at the Hopson Plantation on the following eve. After hearing host Bill Talbot's tales of southern folklore...bottle trees to scare away the haints...conjure balls and frizzly chickens...we settled into our Legends Shack. Following a healthy imbibing of three or four beers (well, perhaps six or eight) midnight approaches. Bass player Sean nudges me and says "Brother, it's time!...Time to go find a crossroads." So Sean gets up with lit candle in hand. I look around and grab the shack's house guitar, a virgin Danelectro, and off we go down the gravel road and into the darkness... The first crossroads we come to is that of Old Hwy61 intersecting with the Hopson entrance road. I was thinking that since this was "Old"61, this just might be the real, true crossroads where Robert Johnson offered his soul to Poppa Legba in order to suddenly be able to play Delta blues guitar like no one else. Sean relit the candle blown out by the wind and I played a few choice Robert Lockwood inspired licks in G, the proper key of choice for delta blues. We both pondered it, but neither Sean nor I were willing to make the serious sacrifice of offering our own souls to Poppa Legba. However, we were more than happy to offer our drummer Jim in hopes of having a great recording session the following day! Awe heck, what the hell !! Jim was back up at the shacks...Nodding off and sucking down his last gasp gulps of a Code Red soda. He wouldn't care...and what he don't know won't hurt him! So...a relit candle, a few incantations followed by grabbing a handful of crossroads dirt and letting it blow freely in the wind. More choice licks on the Danelectro...This time in the gin n'tonic scale of A-minor....and back to the shacks we ambled. The AM comes early and hard... Jim wakes up yawning and exclaims "Boy did I sleep like a baby last night!" Sean and I give each other a quizzical glance...Did our drunken improvised spell work?...Did the sacrifice take hold?? Jim seemed much like his usual self throughout the day. Our session went smoothly as scheduled. Jim never once had to refer to his drummer's bible titled "A Funky Primer"! However, Sean and I couldn't help but notice that everyone...The studio producer, the engineer, the women and kids hanging out at the studio as well as the passers by... All seemed to be totally in awe of Jim! Everyone made it a point to comment on how strong and powerful those drums sounded!! "All in a day's work" Jim says as he downs another slurpy soda, looking content and satisfied..."All in a day's work!"