Playing covers has always been a big, and fun, part of this band. I've written a little blurb about every cover that we've attempted over the last couple of years, and what I hope will happen is that you'll read along, relive some of these moments with us, and then share some of your own memories of nights you've seen a particular cover played by us. I know, I know, every entry will say "Hey guys, remember that night you played War Pigs? That was awesome!", but even if it is, that's alright, I'm just happy that people still enjoy the covers that we have so much fun playing.

American Girl
Steve was goofing off on the little intro guitar part in practice one night, we kinda fooled with the chords a little, and decided to learn it for the next practice. When we came back after having learned it, we were excited that it sounded like a keeper, and pulled it out at our next gig. It became one of our most requested songs, and we were always glad to oblige, as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were an influence that we wore on our sleeves.

Listen To Her Heart
At the very beginning of putting the band together, I had made a tape of songs by other artists and groups that I thought, when all taken together, embodied what I had envisioned for the band to sound like. This Tom Petty hit was probably the first song on that tape, and I think, certainly in the beginning of the band, that this song was definitive of our sound. Listen To Her Heart is a great song for a young band to play; easy chords, simple melody, and an infectious harmony throughout the song; it's one of the retired covers that I still miss playing.

Fast As You
We were gearing up for our first gig, a bill that we had been added to thanks to Baby Grand pulling strings to have us open a show for them and Daycare. Steve made a tape with a couple of songs that he thought would be a good fit for us. Fast As You was a perfect, if not a bit obvious, fit to our sound, and was always one of my favorites to play. I always felt a bit weird doing the song because, even though we definitely made it a Red Star Memorial song, I worried that people would think we were trying too hard to ride some kind of new California Country thing by covering Dwight Yoakam, as opposed to setting out on our own course. In the end, my weird little fears didn't mean all that much; we liked playing the song, people liked hearing it, and that was really all that needed to be looked into it. Oh yeah, the other song on that tape that Steve made was Under The God by one time David Bowie project Tin Machine. That song never made it into the set, but it is a great song anyway.

I'm Down
I had heard Steve sing this a few times, and thought it would be a good addition to our live set to have him sing it with Red Star Memorial. Plus, any excuse to do a Beatles song is a good excuse to me. This was always a high point of a set, and was always fun to see Steve in the 'Front-Man' role. We had to take it out of the set to keep Steve in his place. Just kidding, we replaced it with another Beatles song that I'll get to later. On August 15th, 2003, we had to play two sets after the opening band cancelled, so towards the end of our set, we started taking requests, and as you can probably guess, people were yelling out for songs, both originals and covers, that we hadn't played in ages. Most all of these songs were from the first wave of 'retired' cover songs which happened at the end of 2001. Someone yelled out for I'm Down, we all looked at each other, and figured "what the hell, let's do it". It was fun, and we pulled it off fairly well too.

I Want You To Want Me
I'm a pretty big and devoted Cheap Trick fan. There were about a half dozen of their songs that were in serious contention to try and work up. The first of which was Southern Girls, a song from the Cheap Trick album In Color. Trying to sing and play it at the same time was near impossible, and after trying a few key changes, it was decided that I would try to find a key suitable for me on my own first(I was always able to sing along to the record, but without Robin Zander there to help, I just couldn't reach the notes). Steve played the intro solo to I Want You To Want Me, and we all laughed and messed with it a bit. I realized from the get-go that the song had potential to sound really great, but just thought that doing that song in particular was too obvious, and a bit over done. While those views may certainly be valid, even I had to admit that we were on to something pretty special the next time we played it at practice. Steve absolutely nailed all of the 'live version' solos, which just put it over the top. I'm not sure if we played a show after doing that song the first time that someone didn't passionately yell out for us to play the song.
"I'll shine up my old brown shoes
Put on a brand new shirt
I'll get home early from work
If you'll say
That you love me
Oh, didn't I, didn't I, didn't I see you cryin'?"

Mother
It was our first 'acoustic' gig, opening for Kevin Seconds at Capitol Garage. Chris played guitar instead of drums for this John Lennon great, and I just sang. My friend Mikey, who is a big Lennon fan, later told me how blown away he was by our version of the song. One of my roommates at the time, Erika, walked around the house for weeks afterwards singing/screaming the refrain from the song; "Mama don't go. Daddy come home". I think we may have played this one other time, but it's a very emotionally charged song, and not an easy one to sing gig after gig.

Is Anybody Goin' To San Antone
A Doug Sahm/Texas Tornados classic. This was an easy choice for us to cover, and one that all four of us still miss playing. We nearly pulled it out for that 8/15/03 gig, but I just couldn't remember all of he words, and with no time to prepare (we were on stage, all trying to remember the verses), we decided against it. Some of my fondest memories are of us being a new band, doing this song, and having our friend Grub Dog, from the legendary Sacramento band, the Amazing Sweethearts, make an impromptu entrance on stage to sing harmony throughout the song with me. One night in particular, Grub, having put back a few during the course of the night, jumped on stage, running over Steve, and losing his shoe on his way to the microphone. While I normally find drunks a bit on the annoying side, Grub just made me smile, and still flattered that he'd come sing with us, inebriated and shoeless or not.

Who Were You Thinkin'’Of
Another Doug Sahm/Texas Tornado masterpiece, this was the first cover we ever pulled off live, playing at that first gig with Baby Grand and Daycare. Our friend GB, who was with longtime Sacramento hard rock act Magnolia Thunderfinger, told me that he liked us that first gig, but after we pulled this one out, he loved us. A big compliment was given to be sure.

Truck Drivin' Man
This was a constant that made it's way into every set for awhile, then I wrote a song called Christine, and they were just a little too similar to play in the same set without clueing everyone in to just how big of a rip-off artist of a songwriter that I actually am. Well, not really, but when I showed Christine to the band for the first time, I said "think Truck Drivin' Man, and you'll get the feel".

Photograph
The True Love Coffeehouse put on a 24 hour event called the Antonathon, celebrating the music of Sacramento singer/songwriter Anton Barbeau. 24 hours of bands, solo artists, vidoes, and even a wrestling event, all to honor and celebrate Anton's contribution to Sacramento music. At the time, Anton had, and often wore, the coolest Ringo Starr t-shirt that had the word Ringo written in stars. We played the climax of the Antonathon near the end of the 24 hours, and we decided to end our set with an Anton song, and two specifically chosen covers. Of course, it would be a little inside joke when I said "This one is for Anton's favorite shirt", before launching into this Ringo hit. What started out as a little in-joke, turned into another cover that stayed in normal rotation for some time.

He Had You
If the Bevis Frond ever had a hit in America, this would probably be it. This was the second cover we dedicated to Anton during the Antonathon. He had played a show with the Bevis Frond here in Sacramento, the band loved him, and subsequently invited him to their home in England to play shows and record a record with them as his back-up band; finally affording him some of the international fame he deserves.

Emanuel Blanket
An Anton Barbeau original that appears on his first c.d., The Horses Tongue. He released several tapes before putting the c.d. out, this appeared on one of those tapes, and was a bit of a departure for him at that time. It still remains one of my favorites that he's written, although it must be said, that he's really hit his stride over the last couple of albums, writing the best and most consistent stuff of his career.

Carmelita
Dennis and Anita Amaral (that's Steve and Chris' parents, y'all) have a band that Bryce's dad is also a member of. In fact, all four of us in Red Star Memorial have also played with the band at one time or another, learning some of the best rock-n-roll and country songs the world has known along the way. Carmelita was a Linda Ronstadt song that Anita used to sing, and it was always my favorite song in the set. Red Star Memorial started playing it along the way, but my favorite time playing it was the night Anita showed up at a show, so we invited her on stage to sing it with us. The crowd went absolutely nuts when this woman Anita, a mother, got on stage and brought the house down with her voice. It really was a spontaneous and almost magical moment that couldn't be recreated no matter how hard someone tried.

War Pigs
I was screwing around at practice, and played a little melody-lead on the guitar. Chris yelled "Is that Public Enemy Number One by Motley Crue!?!" I admitted it was, and made a half-joking comment that we should cover it sometime. Chris said "How about War Pigs instead?", I said "Maybe", Steve launched into the opening riff, and before we knew it, we were butchering our way through one of the quintessential Black Sabbath songs. I learned the words, the boys learned the music, and we all had a laugh that we'd pull it out our upcoming gig at the Distillery here in Sacramento. Now, at the time, we were primarily known as kind of a country-pop band, and although I was writing decidedly less country more and more, we still were regarded of that ilk. It's the end of the set, the crowd is liquored up and feeling no pain, so I put down my guitar, and Chris hits the first drums and the signature high-hat fill. I assume that there might be a couple of people in the crowd that will be slightly amused, but when I sang "Generals gathered in their masses" I was not prepared for the entire crowd to answer back with "Just like witches at black masses". The whole song went back and forth, with the call and response of me and and the crowd. It was a great moment, but soon after, we really questioned doing it in the first place. It was months before we would make it through a set without someone yelling "WAR PIGS!".

No Other Baby
We were playing acoustic at the True Love Coffeehouse, and Steve and Chris were both going to sing lead on songs. Chris decided he wasn't ready to sing (even though he was the singer in a band called Magnet Head years earlier, and yes, he can sing pretty well too), but Steve pulled out a relatively new Paul McCartney song, coming from the album Run Devil Run. It's a sweet and rather heart-wrenching song, considering Sir Paul's then-recent loss of his wife, Linda. We only did this song once, and people who saw Steve sing it that night really got something special.

Gloria
This is on the list of songs that don't ever need to be covered by another band. So how did we come to add our good name to that list? Well, we were playing a long set (two hours plus) at the Blue Lamp in Sacramento, and some lady (yes, drunk) yelled out "play Gloria", to which I asked "Why?", "Because my name's Gloria, and tonight's my birthday." We're nice guys, and hey if it's someone's special day, why not? We just faked our way through it, but it wasn't that hard; it's only three chords, and we grew up with it being born into us, and if I do say so myself, we did a pretty damned good job.

Nadine
It was another fun night that turned into a family affair when Chris and Steve's dad Dennis bailed me out and helped with the lyrics to Truck Drivin' Man. We launched into the song, and, as happens more often than I'd like to admit, I completely forgot the words. I looked at the crowd in a panic, saw Dennis, and motioned for him to finish the song. He did, and it was great. We couldn't let Dennis off stage that easy, so we huddled, and decided to have Dennis sing and play Nadine, the Chuck Berry classic. Another song we'd never played as a band, but heard since birth, the crowd ate it up, and had just as much fun as the rest of us on stage.

Devil Doll
I would love to do about two dozen songs by the legendary L.A. punk band X, and the first one that we attempted was a song from their More Fun In The Real World album. We asked Keri Carr to sing the harmony with me, and it was a highlight of the set that night. We've discussed playing other songs for Kari to sing with us, but it's hard to live up to the night we did Devil Doll.

Slip It In
Back in all of our mullet headed glory, except Bryce who was learning long division at the time, Steve, Chris, and I played in a punk rock band with our friends Todd and Paul called Joe Hardcore. One of the highlights of our sets was this Black Flag classic. For some reason, we got it in our heads that before going on a bit of a hiatus, Red Star Memorial should cover it. Our friend Candice form the bands the Riff Randalls and Sunshine Smile, sang the little back-up part that runs through the song. I'm not sure if it was one of our finer moments, but I'd take playing that to Gloria any night of the week.

I've Got A Feeling
Steve suggested this Beatles gem, and he gets to do his best McCartney impression to my best Lennon impression. We've tried retiring this song from our list of covers for months now, but it's just so good, and such a great fit to our set, that it's just been too hard to give up.

Be My Lover
I love Alice Cooper, and thought that this early 70's glam rocker would be a good fit in one of our sets. We only played it a few times, but all I had to do was close my eyes to get visions of Alice while we played it. It's one of my very favorite songs of all time.

In Your Arms Tonight
Appearing on the soundtrack but not in the film, this Hedwig and the Angry Inch track is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. We only played this once; I was just too overcome with emotion to ever try it again, as it was the closest I've ever been to actually crying on stage.

California Stars
This is a song that comes from the Billy Bragg and Wilco record, Mermaid Avenue. A record where all of the songs were written to Woodie Guthrie lyrics. We played outdoors at the Gazebo in Winters, and thought that playing this song as the sun was going down would be a sweet gesture to our friends outside with us. Well, Mother Nature had different plans, and decided to send a dark cloud over and sprinkle our late-July party with just a little rain to remind us she was watching. We played the song anyway of course, because the song is about longing for our California Stars.

Castanets
I could sing Alejandro Escovedo songs for the rest of my little music career and probably be just as happy as singing the songs that I've written myself. This, like so many of his songs probably could, fit right into a Red Star Memorial set. Do you think I'm flattered when someone says "Hey, I like that new song you wrote"? You bet yer ass I am.
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Good Golly Miss Molly
Keep A Knockin’
Long Tall Sally
Tutti Fruitty
Lucille
Old Ironsides puts on a big shindig every year for their anniversary, and always invites tons of bands to perform during a 'theme' night. For their 67th anniversary show, the theme was Glam. The Knockoffs (another band I'm in) were discussing what to do, someone suggested a Poison song, I said "no way, if we're gonna do glam, we're doing early 70's", to which Danny of the Knockoffs replied "If we're gonna go back that far, let's do songs by the original glam-rocker, Little Richard". Long story short, Danny couldn't end up doing the gig, so I asked if I could take his idea. Up until then, Red Star Memorial had never played a show. I called Kim, the booker of the club, explained that I had a new band, and asked if we could be a part of the show. She booked us sight unseen, strictly because I had a good working relationship with her from all of the bands that I'd been in that passed through her club, and gave us the opening slot. We had our show down, and I did my best Little Richard impression, clueing everyone in on what Danny had observed earlier, that Little Richard was, in fact, the original glam-rocker. Kim came up to me later and said "If I would've known you would be that good, I would have put you later in the show", and that was a huge compliment coming from someone that sees literally hundreds of bands every year. Good Golly Miss Molly came in and out of our set for a long time after, and became a bit of a novelty due to a 'speech' that I would sometimes give to all of the girls in the audience right in the middle of the song. It seems a little silly now I suppose, but it was a lot of fun at the time, and I still get people that will ask about it, and even hear the occasional "Speech!" from the audience.
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Roadhouse Blues
L.A. Woman
Crystal Ship
The Old Ironsides Halloween show is a bunch of bands doing songs by artists that have since left us; otherwise known as the Dead Rockstars Show. We were confirmed for this show, but as it got closer, Chris realized that unless he planned on living on one of our couches, that he had better spend Halloween with his family. Luckily, the drummer of the Knockoffs, and my roommate at the time, Tom Amberson, was able to fill in, with Chris' blessing of course. We decided to channel the spirit of Jim Morrison, and do a mini Doors set, complete with an all leather outfit, shaman like moves, and our friend Ben Morse providing the dead on Ray Manzerick keyboard parts.
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Night Train
I Got You (I Feel Good)
Papa's Got A Brand New Bag
Try Me
Say It Loud (I’m Black And I’m Proud)
Get On Up (I Feel Like Bein’ A) Sex Machine
The Old Ironsides 68th Anniversary show's theme was Soul, Funk, and R&B. There was no other choice for us but James Brown. Complete with a horn section, affectionately dubbed the Downtown Horns, Kevin Harrod of Popgun playing piano on Get On Up, and a mangled introduction from a stage-frightened friend "Ladies and Gentlemen, the hardest man working in show business..." made for a night still talked about around these parts. Letting the Godfather of soul move through me as I sing I Got You, moving my feet to Papa's Got a Brand New Bag, picking girls out of the crowd to sing Try Me to, getting a crowd that was 99% white to scream "I'm black and I'm proud"(much to Lare the sound-man's delight; yes, he's black), telling everyone that I'm a Sex Machine before the cape is thrown over my shoulders, only to come back again, fall to my knees, throw off the cape, and signal the band to stop on a dime for the triumphant end. The band absolutely nailed everything, and it was hard work preparing, but if I do say so myself, well worth it.
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Trouble
Heartbreak Hotel
Hound Dog
All Shook Up
Can’t Help Falling In Love
Jailhouse Rock
Don't Be Cruel
Blue Suede Shoes
That’s All Right
If I Can Dream
After the James Brown show, we felt we really needed to turn it up a notch if we were going to attempt that year's Dead Rockstars show. We decided to go for the jugular, and do a tribute to the King himself. But not just a sampling of some of his greatest songs, but to condense a one hour t.v. special into 15 minutes. That's right, Elvis in his '68 Comeback Special! We ran through the songs, and the medleys from the t.v. program, hell, we even did some of the same onstage banter. It was a great night, and people went out of their way saying how good it was, but I think that after the James Brown show a half-year earlier, people sort of expected us to pull out all of the stops and do something extra special. I even went back stage, left the band vamping on stage, and changed from the all-leather tough guy look, into the all-white suit to close with the pro-peace anthem If I Can Dream, just as Elvis had done on his special 30 some years earlier. Again, this was a lot of hard work, but the band once again rose to the occasion, and put on an absolutely flawless show. I can't say enough about how great Chris, Bryce, and Steve are at pulling off some pretty incredible stuff, on very short notice.
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Act Naturally
I Don't Care
Above & Beyond
Tiger By The Tail
Sam's Place
Buckaroo
Close Up The Honky Tonks
Streets Of Laredo
Buck's Polka
Together Again
Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass
Sally Was A Good Ol’ Girl
Streets Of Bakersfield
In 2002, Old Ironsides put on a series of 'Bands As Other Bands' shows, and asked us to participate. It wasn't hard for us to decide that we wanted to do Buck Owens. What was hard, however, was learning all of those songs. We asked our friend GB to play lap-steel on a few songs, and a Telecaster on the rest. What I didn't know when I asked him, was just how instrumental he would be in bringing us all together. Now, he had only even *thought* about playing lap-steel since I had asked him, and it was in the repair shop until two weeks prior to the show. An instrument maker from Winters named Keith Cary fixed up GB's little guitar, and on the day we went to pick it up, sat down with him for about a half hour and showed him the basics of the instrument. I remember when GB first placed the slide to the strings, I thought to myself that there is no way in hell that he has enough time to get used to this new instrument. Now, believe me, GB is an incredible player, and along with Steve one of my favorite and versatile guitar players, but to hear that out of tune screeching when he first tried making a sound, I would've bet the farm that it would be years before he'd even make it through one song, let alone a whole set. Ok, truth be told, I did have more faith in his ability than that, but you get the picture. Well, as I'm sure you're aware of how the story is coming around, by the time we were ready to leave Keith's hot little barn of a work area, Keith said "I've never had anyone pick up on this that quickly before, you're going to do great" He did of course, and after GB got done whipping the rest of the band into shape, we pulled off a pretty good rendition of Buck Owens and the Buckaroos.
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Crystal Ball
Head
Dirty Mind
Cream
I Wanna Be Your Lover
P. Control
How You Wanna Be Done
Darling Nikki
Gett Off
The theme for the 69th annual Old Ironsides Anniversary was of course, sex. We had decided to lay off of the specialty shoes for awhile and concentrate more on our own music; the preparation for these shows is tremendous. We felt that we couldn't pass up this show though, and felt honored to be able to do a whole set of songs from His Royal Badness, Prince. We tried assembling something close to the Revolution era look-wise, and recruited two of our gorgeous friends, Casey Mar and Kari Carr. Casey played guitar, and Kari was a featured vocalist, turning in an exceptionally sexually charged lead vocal on How You Wanna Be Done. Casey also sang, and I think I saw her father, who's been coming to Red Star Memorial shows from nearly the beginning, heading for the door as she said "23 positions in a one night stand". Falsetto singing, Bryce's hypnotizing bass, Steve's dead on Prince licks, Chris' funky beats and the double bass thunder for Darling Nikki, made the Prince set one of the standouts of the night. The girls showing all of that skin probably didn't hurt either. Ha!

Thanks for listening.
-Bobby J 8/19/03