Brakeman’s Post
Intro Entry
Donegal X-Press BLOG
16 November 2009
-Jason Tinney
Definition: brakeman
Pronunciation: \brāk-mən\
Function: noun
Date: 1833
1 : a freight or passenger train crew member who inspects the train and assists the conductor
2 : the member of a bobsled team who operates the brake
From Merriam-Webster
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First things first…Before all the jaw-jacking let’s tend to business…
DXP rolls into the home court—Mick O’Shea’s, 328 N. Charles St., Baltimore (410.539.7504 www.mickosheas.com), Saturday November 21. Gig time is 9:30 pm.
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Greetings DXP Nation,
Come on in. No need to wipe your feet. The inaugural “Brakeman’s Post,” a semi-regular BLOG dedicated to all things DXP, is being written under the glow of a headlamp inside an abandoned farmhouse on the edge of an undisclosed cornfield—a cornfield recently cleared, the stalks resembling the stubble on a soldier’s head—somewhere in Central Maryland.
“Why, in God’s name, is he writing from an abandoned farmhouse on the edge of a cornfield that looks like a soldier’s head?” Well, I’ll tell you. Sometimes that’s the only place a man can get some peace and quiet.
And just across the field, beyond the silhouettes of white oaks and tulip poplars, the CSX freight train rumbles along the old B & O line loaded down with coal and chemicals and John Deere tractors, heading east to Baltimore. It’s a fitting locale to launch our new on-line log book. These ramblings will come from similar random outposts throughout the “Old Line State” of Maryland but don’t be surprised to discover entries posted from the “redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters” as this BLOG was made for you and me.
Yes, “The Brakeman’s Post” will offer journal entries and musings (no haikus) on shows, recordings, and tid-bits of personal interest, those deemed permissible for publication by band-mates. (No, I won’t go into the details of Laura Hein, the bag of beer, and the male stripper she met at the Kentucky Derby. Some things that happen on the road stay on the road.)
In the next few weeks, as we pound down the path toward the end of 2009, we’ll recount the highlights and lowlights of the past year, as well as what’s happening currently. Don’t confuse this BLOG with one of those end-of-the-year family letters you receive in the mail from an aunt you haven’t seen since 1983—the one detailing “brother Frank’s retirement party and how his younger brother, Corey, got drunk and tripped in the parking lot of the Moose Lodge and now has to have a hip-replacement, and Jane’s third marriage (We told them there wouldn’t be enough crab cakes), and Leonard’s release from prison—we knew it was coming but didn’t know it was going to be this soon. And…we’re all so happy that Timothy cut a three track demo of Scotch-Irish-Later-Ariving-to-America-Catholic-Irish-Southern-Mid-Atlantic-New England-Native-American Folk Music. He sent it to a producer in San Francisco and says the people in California seem ‘intrigued.’”
OK, well maybe it is like one of those letters.
This year has been a year of rain, gigs, rain, gigs canceled by rain, more gigs, shootings, gigs canceled by shootings, marriages, rain, births, and news of impending births. Did I mention the rain? And this summer, we gave our soft touring legs a shake and hit the road for two days of shows in Up-State New York and Pennsylvania—in the rain.
To be continued…
Look for new postings in the days to come and hope to see you Saturday down at O’Shea’s.
