My exit from South Central Pennsylvania

So this is what's up. For the last couple of months, I've been making music in a chunk of South Central Pennsylvania, within about a 35-mile radius from Harrisburg, where singer and guitarist Bobby Schell discovered me and invited me to play with his band.

They're called Fatback. I just played as their member on keyboards twice this weekend; these were my third and fourth gigs with them, respectively.

Saturday's gig (Aug. 13) was a backyard party, a surprise party thrown by a husband to his wife who'd newly earned an M.B.A. from Penn State. This outdoor surprise party would have been a complete disaster if not for "the little tent that could"!

This is on the way to Saturday's backyard party gig under the protection of only a tent underneath a roaring downpour. Only in a place like South Central Pennsylvania would a devoted husband still see fit to withstand two torrents so as to pay appropriate tribute to his wife on the occasion of her M.B.A.!

I pulled into the home's driveway toward the onslaught of an out-and-out storm. Bobby Schell was trying to set up underneath the tent while it's the hardest rain you've felt only once earlier this year.

It let up as the party started, but then it stormed a second time while we were playing. My keyboard was dripped upon. One key hasn't been working ever since.

We were a blues band, not a rock band; otherwise, I am preconditioned to launch immediately into "Riders on the Storm," whether that crucial F# is working or not.

Darn the luck, there just had to be a torrential downpour on the day of our only outdoor gig. But if all I am missing as a result is one note, I'm glad that's all: Drummer J.J. Dugan quipped the next day he was surprised none of us was electrocuted! He said we'd really tempted fate, and you can do only so much of stuff like that.

By Sunday evening (Aug. 14), the rain had subsided to a drizzle with a gentle breeze. A brizzle, if you will (a drizzle and breeze if you won't).

Photo credit: T.L.

About 50 passengers spent a few hours aboard a historical two-deck riverboat cruising on the Susquehanna River out of some Harrisburg docks at $25 a ticket.

Fatback with special guest aboard the riverboat. Photo credit: T.L.

It was a Blues Cruise, and Fatback was the entertainment. And I was entertained too; bassist Dave Harris and I keep each other in stitches the whole time.

Bobby Schell. Photo credit: T.L.

My dad really loved Bobby's soulful singing. My sister loved J.J.'s singing voice while he plays drums. Her husband loved Bobby's guitar. And only a mother could love my keyboard playing!

Steve Sauer. Photo Credit: T.L.

But thanks to my family and their good friends who showed up, there was a great vibe toward the front of the room while we were playing.

There's a lot of video my mom and others shot aboard the riverboat. I'll be uploading that to YouTube eventually.

Fatback really played some amazing stuff -- not just at those four shows I played with them, but also at our weekly rehearsals, which I taped and are really rockin'. We always had a good time.

However, I'm afraid they were all along hoping I'd be somebody a little more permanent than I seemed to be. For one thing, I'd already given them a sheet of dates I wouldn't be available because I was playing other gigs -- all the way over in the Philadelphia suburbs and points eastward.

For whatever reason, they took one of the dates I wouldn't be available and booked themselves a gig with another keyboardist sitting in. I found out about their date when it was publicized along with the name of their special guest keyboardist.

Then, shortly after my riverboat gig with Fatback, I asked off for one of the next two gigs so that I could go take another job north of Philadelphia instead.

I guess they were offended by the notion that they'd be the lower-profile and lower-importance of the two keyboard-playing offers I had on the same night.

So, now, Fatback has issued a Craigslist ad looking for a permanent keyboardist in the Harrisburg area.

These guys are seriously good musicians! Anybody would be lucky to play with them!

Am I surprised at this? No, I realize why anyone in the band saw my other gigs as competition. That's because they were competing for me against an unknown quantity, and Fatback seemed to be losing to the draw of dangling money or promising exposure, or something -- just anything but them.

Update: I've just spoken with Bobby Schell, who'd read the above, and we agreed that I'll still be available to Fatback for whatever other dates we've already booked and will commit to other dates until they acquire a permanent keyboardist. I am currently unable to commit as their permanent keyboardist, which disappoints me. However, I am happy Bobby understands my situation and is willing to keep me on in the meantime.